BioPOD is the official podcast of the School of Biological Sciences, produced and presented by enthusiastic student volunteers.
Latest Episodes
Signs of life: detecting biosignals from fossils with Corentin LoronJuly 18th, 2025 In today’s episode, Nitara chats with Dr. Corentin Loron about how to interpret signatures of life, and what they might tell us about the first life forms. |
Cell clocks: the circadian rhythm of the cells with Priya CrosbyJune 18th, 2025 From jet lag to gene expression, your body runs on a schedule — but how? In this episode, Nitara chats with Dr. Priya Crosby about how individual cells keep time, what happens when those clocks fall out of sync, and why understanding circadian rhythms is key to decoding health and disease. |
Fossil detective: piecing together the neurobiology of fossil mammals with Ornella BertrandMay 27th, 2025 In today’s episode, Nitara chats with Dr. Ornella Bertrand about the evolution of the mammalian brain and inner ear, and how fossil evidence helps piece together this deep evolutionary history. |
Science and Policy with Prof. Andrew MillarApril 29th, 2025 Ever wondered about the intersection of policy and science? Tune in as Markella chats with Professor Andrew Millar about his career and work as the Chief Scientific Advisor on the environment, natural resources, and agriculture for the Scottish Government. |
Becoming your own scientist with Dr Matthew SwafferMarch 27th, 2025 Ever wondered what it’s really like to become an independent researcher—calling the shots on what to study and navigating the highs and lows of doing science on your own terms? In this episode, Matthew Swaffer chats with Liz about starting his own lab, diving into all things cell-size related, and what the transition to leading your own research really feels like. |
Entrepreneurship Series: ConceptionX, UK’s leading PhD deep-tech venture programme with Riam KansoFebruary 21st, 2025 In this episode of Biopod's entrepreneurship series, Keshav and Nitara sit down with Dr. Riam Kanso to discuss the journey behind ConceptionX, a deep-tech venture programme to help PhD students fund their entrepreneurial pursuits. |
Conservation genetics with Dr Alex BallJanuary 22nd, 2025 Every person interested in biology knows that population diversity is important for ecosystems. But do we understand what diversity means? In this episode Markella interviews Dr. Alex Ball from The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland about his work on conservation genetics, which is one of the pillars of conservation biology. He goes in depth about different species conservation in Scotland and elswhere around the world. |
Unstable fungal resistance with Robin AllshireNovember 30th 2024 In a world where the human population is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, we urgently need to find ways to increase crop production. However, it is made more difficult by some species of crop-pathogenic fungi, which can decimate crop yields, and also develop mutations that make them resistant to antifungal compounds. Dr Robin Allshire's group is trying to understand a not-so-well-known form of this resistance which could help farmers and governments tackle the current global food production challenge. |
Combining Art & Science: How and Why with Dr Keira TuckerOctober 29th, 2024 |
Entrepreneurship series: E.V.A Biosystems ft. Dr. Alex SpeakmanSeptember 24th, 2024 In this episode of BioPod’s entrepreneurship series, Keshav talks with Dr. Alex Speakman about his entrepreneurial journey of starting E.V.A Biosystems. Alex talks about the help and resources available to aspiring entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into successful startups. He also provides helpful information on navigating through the various stages of a startup including ideation, validation and patenting. |
Aging sheep: long-term population studies in St Kilda with Dr. Dan NusseyJuly 3rd, 2024 Aging, or senescence has been a topic of scientific fascination for a long time. Natural populations like the Soay Sheep in St Kilda, a remote scottish island, are ideal to study aging theories in the wild. In this summer episode, Professor Dan Nussey speaks to us about the long running Soay Sheep project and the insights they provide on the study of senescence. |
AMR through time with Katerina GuschanskiJun 18th, 2024 We have all heard about the importance of the gut microbiome. But how much do you know about the oral microbiome in our mouths? In the second interview with Dr Katerina Guschanski, Alastair Scott finds out all about how you can use the oral microbiome to study how antimicrobial resistance evolved through time. Dr Katerina Guschanski and her team extract ancient DNA from calcified dental calculus, to study their bacterial composition from before the existence of mass-produced antibiotics. |
Primate Evolution with Dr Katerina GuschanskiIn this first episode of a two-parter with Dr Katerina Guschanski, Neelakshi Varma finds out about the intricacies and quirks of primate evolution, specifically around guenon monkeys. We also learn about how Katerina accidentally found her way to working with primates, the difficulties and exciting aspects of field work in Madagascar and why you can’t really define a species. |
Science communication and education with Andrea PaterliniIn this episode Anna and Andrea Paterlini talks about the approach to education of genetics and his experience developing a course for 2nd year bachelor students. They discuss diversity and inclusion in science and what remains to be done to be scientifically accurate when it comes to these sensitive topics in education as well as everyday life. Andrea also mentions what he and other scientists did to address the statements of the secretary of state for science. Open Letter to the Government about EDI in Science We've also linked the website for the author that Andrea mentioned, Adam Rutherford, below. |
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