TWiEVO 78: The virus daily double

Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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  • ECDC monkeypox risk assessment (pdf) 8:44
  • Monkeypox virus genomes (Nextstrain) 17:30
  • Discussion of monkeypox virus genome sequencing (virological.org) 25:18
  • Balancing positive and negative selection in spike protein (Biochem) 47:11
  • Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:11:11

Nels – Science on the Side podcast by Morgan Nelson and Ty Chiaro 
Vincent – Richard Ernst Lecture 2022

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TWiEVO 77: The mutations of our lives

Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Alex Cagan

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Science Picks 1:12:34

Alex – Paper.app
Nels – Fifty years since Lewontin’s apportionment of human diversity
Vincent – An Exceptional Village

Listener Pick

Martha – Plagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

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TWiEVO 76: One-step symbiosis

Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks 1:13:41

Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda
Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Listener Pick

Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

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TWiEVO 75: Even the BANAL coronaviruses are interesting

Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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  • SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature) 13:37
  • Vampire vax (TWiV 809) 14:51
  • Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:30:30

Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement
Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa

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TWiEVO 74: On racism, not race with Joe Graves

Joe Graves joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his career in evolutionary biology and his recent book that answers questions about race and racism.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Joe Graves

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Science Picks 1:14:43

Nels – Where is Webb?
Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association
Joe – Biology versus bias

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TWiEVO 73: With a little help from your hosts

Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks 1:23:33

Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect
Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates

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TWiEVO 72: Echoes of evolution both shallow and deep

Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks 1:01:50

Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science
Vincent – Virology Live

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TWiEVO 71: Faster than a speeding coronavirus

Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks 1:13:51

Nels – Leading Edge Symposium
Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Listener Pick

Thomas – The gene’s-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren

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TWiEVO 70: On Life’s Edge with Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life’s Edge.

Host: Nels Elde

Guest: Carl Zimmer

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Science Picks 1:11:10

Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin
Carl – From telomere to telomere: the transcriptional and epigenetic state of human repeat elements

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TWiEVO 69: Swimming in SARS-CoV-2 sequences

Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks 1:14:03

Nels – The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out
Vincent – Human Behavior During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Any Covid Variant

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