Nels and Vincent review a collision of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, using a minimal synthetic bacterial cell with only 473 genes, the smallest genome of any known organism that can be grown in lab culture.
Daniel joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his new book on army ants, the wickedest insects ever to roam the planet, and his research on them and clonal raider ants.
Nels and Vincent review the contribution of multiple Denisovan lineages to the modern Papuan genome.
Matt joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the neutral theory of evolution and its rejection in light of genome-scale data.
Maitreya Dunham joins Nels and Vincent to explain how her laboratory uses experimental evolution to study yeast flocculation, the community-building cell aggregation trait.
