Darwin’s Bulldog

FromEvolution Talk

Start listening View podcast show

Darwin’s Bulldog

FromEvolution Talk

ratings:

Length:

14 minutes

Released:

Jun 8, 2015

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

On June 30, 1860 a great debate took place at the Oxford University Museum. This debate helped to launch Thomas Huxley's career as 'Darwin's Bulldog".

Released:

Jun 8, 2015

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Everything you wanted to know about evolution by natural selection in short, easy to digest, episodes. Hosted, and produced by writer Rick Coste.

Skip carousel

The Beginning: An Arms Race: As predators evolved to better catch their prey, their prey evolved unique and efficient ways to avoid being eaten. It was because of this sudden arms race that we see the proliferation of body forms that mark the Cambrian Era. The real winners were... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Introducing Evolution Talk!: If you've ever wondered what all of the fuss was about, or how evolution works, then you've come to the right place. Over the next few weeks, months, and years, we will look at Darwin's revolutionary theory and what it means to the life we see around us. by Evolution Talk
6 min listen
Only A Theory: Charles Darwin had a hypothesis was that animals evolved due to a process he called natural selection. He strengthened his hypothesis with tests and observation. Evolution by natural selection has held up to every test. It is because of this that it... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Darwin’s Doubts: Throughout his life Charles Darwin suffered bouts of anxiety and often went off alone by himself to think. His work afforded him the perfect escape and he dove into it at every opportunity. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Darwin: The Calm Before the Storm: In the years following his return from his voyage on the Beagle, Charles settled into a life as a naturalist. On all fronts, both personal and professional, things were looking up for Charles. His days were spent pouring over his notes and the... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Alfred Russel Wallace: In 1858, Charles Darwin received a paper authored by a young naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace. In it, Darwin found that the young man had reached the same conclusions about evolution that he had been working to prove for the previous two decades. by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Warm Blooded Dinosaurs: In 1986 Professor Robert Bakker, a paleontologist, published 'The Dinosaur Heresies'. According to Professor Bakker there have been waves of extinction, and these extinction events mainly attacked, or affected, one particular type of animal... warm... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
The Beginning: Sexual Reproduction: One day, millions of years ago, something occurred between two unsuspecting eukaryotes. When they bumped into one another something magical happened. They both left that encounter slightly different than they had been before. What passed from one to... by Evolution Talk
16 min listen
On the Origin of Species: On November 24, 1859, "On the Origin of Species" was published. To say that it made a splash would be an understatement. It changed the world. by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
The Beginning: Life: In the beginning the Earth wasn’t exactly a hospitable place. It was hot, volcanic, and oxygen was a rare commodity. So the question now is how did life emerge from these conditions? We are still asking this 4.6 billion years later. Darwin proposed... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Darwin On The HMS Beagle: Charles Darwin, at 22, had never sailed before. With his notebooks, gear, rifles, and trunks loaded, he stood on the deck of the HMS Beagle to bid England farewell. The date was 12/27/1831. by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Rosalind Franklin: It’s safe to say, and very few would disagree, that without Rosalind Franklin the double helix structure would not have been discovered when it was, nor perhaps by the same team of discoverers. by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
An Interview With Charles Darwin: To mark the occasion of Evolution Talk's 30th episode, Rick Coste steps into the past to interview Charles Darwin. by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Darwin and God: Charles darwin questioned everything when it came to the origin of species and the evolution of life here on earth. That questioning led him into some pretty dark places. As he grew more and more certain that nature was fully capable of producing the... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Darwin Before the Beagle: Charles Darwin will be forever known as the man who came up with the brilliant, and magnificent, idea that life evolved on this planet from a common ancestor and that the driver, or the mechanism behind this, is natural selection. by Evolution Talk
16 min listen
The Beginning: Out of the Sea: The sea was full of life a half a billion years ago. Arthropods fought to survive and there were some interesting things happening on land as well. We have here our first plants - and they spread like wildfire. The quiet life on land enjoyed by the... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Fossil Dating: How do we date fossils? There are a few ways and in this episode we will look at a couple. by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Mistakes Were Made: In the X-Men movies the X-Men are mutants. Mistakes were made during DNA replications that brought out features and abilities which were not present in the population prior to their births. Defects which enhanced their chances of survival. by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
The Beginning: Cyanobacteria: 3.5 billion years ago microbial organisms appeared on the earth. These organisms combined, split, and combined some more, until the formation of microbes and single-celled algae. One of these single-celled algae-like organisms were cyanobacteria. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Genetic Drift: Frog populations remained pretty much the same in Podville until the Great Fire of 2015. After the fire the population of blue frogs increased. Welcome to genetic drift, the subject of this week's episode of 'Evolution Talk'. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Erasmus Darwin: Erasmus was a country physician. He believed that women should have access to the same education that men did, and that slavery should be abolished. He also believed that life evolved from a single filament that wiggled out of the mud in the distant past. by Evolution Talk
17 min listen
Of Mermaids and Men: Benoit de Maillet believed that life, all life, came from the sea. And not only did it come from the sea, but it continued to evolve into different species as it encountered different environments. To present these ideas would be dangerous to him so... by Evolution Talk
20 min listen
The Beginning: Multicellularity Rules: The reason natural selection had such a grand old-time with multicellular organisms is because it gave it something to select for. These organisms increased in size, moved into new areas for food, and protected themselves against the environment. It... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Why Darwin Matters: Over the last 150 plus years there is one subject which has caused its advocates and detractors to butt heads, often with incredulity at their opponents stance, and sometimes with animosity. That subject of course is evolution by natural selection.... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Lucretius – Evolution’s Poet: In the first century BC the Roman poet Lucretius wrote On the Nature of Things. A poem with 7400 lines of verse that covered everything from the tiniest particles of matter and how they move, as well as the nature of time and space, consciousness,... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
The Anthropocene: The Cretaceous period ended 65 million years ago as did the reign of the dinosaurs. According to the International Union of Geological Sciences, we are currently in the Holocene. The Holocene has seen a number of changes. It’s seen us cultivate the... by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
The Neanderthal: in the Neander valley limestone miners had found something which shocked them. They had found bones which they first thought belonged to a bear. Once Professor Schaafhausen had seen the bones he recognized them for what they were. Shortly after that... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Hutton’s Hypothesis: James Hutton saw the power of natural selection, but he didn’t see how it could eventually, over vast spans of time, mold an animal into something completely different. That would have to wait until Charles Darwin entered the scene over 50 years later. by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Mendel and His Peas: In 1865 Gregor Mendel pulled together his work on heredity in peas and produced a paper which he read to a group of his peers. Unfortunately for Mendel, the world would't be ready to listen until decades after his death. by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
Survival of the Fittest?: The term 'Survival of the Fittest' was unleashed on the world in 1864 by Herbert Spencer when he published his work Principles of Biology. It was later picked up by Charles Darwin who used it himself in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species... by Evolution Talk
13 min listen

More Episodes from Evolution Talk

Skip carousel

The Evolution of Consciousness - Part 3: What if consciousness, much like the architectural 'spandrels' we talked about before, isn't actually crucial to our survival? Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin argued that some traits might just be byproducts, not directly selected for their... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
The Evolution of Consciousness - Part 2: Do our thoughts serve a purpose, or are they just a byproduct of something deeper? Consciousness studies bridge the realms of philosophy and science. Are we truly aware, or is it all just an illusion? Please consider becoming a show to help keep new... by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
The Evolution of Consciousness - Part 1: In this episode, we delve into the mysterious world of consciousness, a mystery that resides within the depths of our minds. We'll explore the physical and philosophical theories of consciousness, from the brain's intricate processes to the elusive... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
AI - The Next Step: In this episode, we dive deep into the astounding journey of technological evolution, from the Wright brothers' inaugural flight to humanity's giant leap on the moon, and onto the revolutionary frontiers of AI with ChatGPT. Let's contemplate AI's... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Evolution Talk is Now on YouTube!: I have some exciting news about the show. In addition to this podcast, which will continue with the help of our patrons at Patreon, I am going to produce a YouTube video show. This won’t be the audio from the podcast. Instead, it will be an... by Evolution Talk
2 min listen
Exploring the Depths of Evolutionary Psychiatry Part 2: In this episode, we continue our exploration into the realm of evolutionary psychiatry, a field that seeks to understand the ancient roots of our modern mental health challenges. Are mental disorders "glitches" in our evolutionary programming, where... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
The Foundations of Evolutionary Psychiatry Part 1: Let's dive deep into the fascinating world of Evolutionary Psychiatry, building on our previous exploration of Evolutionary Psychology (from 100 episodes ago!). In that episode we compared the brain to an information processing device shaped by eons... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Evolution Talk Needs Your Help: The "Evolution Talk" podcast needs your help! I have some great ideas for the show and for continuing to bring you free content. The truth is that the expense of keeping the show active and producing new episodes has become prohibitive. I’ve... by Evolution Talk
1 min listen
From A Warm Pond...: Sagan once pondered, "How did the molecules of life arise?" This question, echoing through the annals of scientific history, brings us to today's episode. We've long understood the mechanics of evolution, but the origin of life itself remains a... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
The Case of the Missing Chromosomes: Our story starts with cells. Not our cells but the cells of our closest relatives. The great apes. Within the nucleus of their cells the great apes have 24 chromosome pairs. We have 23 pairs. If we share a common ancestor, what... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Suboptimal Design: Vestigial features and atavistic traits are all evidence of our past. They are glimpses into a species distant past. We have nature and evolution by natural selection to thank for it. But nature’s not perfect. It makes mistakes. ... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
About Those Fingerprints: When it comes to personal IDs, we have many. There’s your driver’s license, passport, online username, among other human-made forms of proving who you are. Then there are those that nature gave you that’s yours and yours alone. ... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
What's Old is New Again: Attics aren’t the only places you’ll find old secrets from the past, begging to be rediscovered or let out. You have them in you as well. I’m not talking about the the type of secrets you keep to yourself and only tell close friends. I’m... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
The Ants Have It: Ants have mastered the art of cooperation. They have highly organized social structures, caste systems, and with everything they do, they do for the colony. They are in a sense, a superorganism with each ant contributing to benefit of... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Reading, Writing, & Evolution: Evolution by natural selection is not perfect, nor does it strive to be. It doesn't strive to be anything at all. An adaptation that is beneficial under one set of circumstances may be a detriment under another. There are also some... by Evolution Talk
16 min listen
Playing Dead: If you've ever heard the phrase "play possum", you may know it means to feign death. It's real thing. Possums do it, as do sharks, ants, and a multitude of other animals. It's a defense mechanisms shaped by evolution. Evolution Talk is also a... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
Why Teach Evolution?: With the start of a new season of episodes, I thought it appropriate to revisit why I created this podcast in the first place with the question - "Why Teach Evolution?" Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes &... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Summer Break: It's time for a summer break. There will be some exciting new video content coming up as well. You can keep up to date on all that is happening at ! Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes &... by Evolution Talk
1 min listen
Did the Homo Naledi Bury Their Dead?: The Homo Naledi have been intriguing scientists since their discovery in 2013, challenging our understanding of early human life. In this episode, we explore the burning question: how did they end up in the incredibly difficult-to-reach Dinaledi... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Nature's Halloween Party: Dive into the mysterious world of Batesian mimicry, where harmless creatures masquerade as dangerous ones to survive. Journey with us from Britain’s south coast, where hoverflies fool predators with wasp-like outfits, to the deceptive bands of the... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Gene Flow: The Recipe of Life: When a vibrant caravan of travelers arrives with new foods, traditions, and stories, a sleepy hamlet's culinary landscape is forever altered. We explore how this 'mixing of recipes' changes the DNA menu of a population, much like the newfound dishes... by Evolution Talk
8 min listen
The Bone Wars: Discover "Fossils, Feuds, and Fantastical Creatures: The Cope and Marsh Saga." Journey back to 1863 Berlin, where Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh kickstart a rivalry for the ages. Originally friends, their bond fractures at a New Jersey... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
$The Bone Wars: Discover "Fossils, Feuds, and Fantastical Creatures: The Cope and Marsh Saga." Journey back to 1863 Berlin, where Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh kickstart a rivalry for the ages. Originally friends, their bond fractures at a New Jersey...$
Get 25% off the Evolution Talk Book until June 8!: You can get 25% off the book at Amazon! The discount is good until June 8th. If you buy one let me know what you think! Have a great week! Rick Link to Evolution Talk book: https://amzn.to/3MJTJ9h by Evolution Talk
1 min listen
Our Reptilian Brain?: From the quiet roads of New Hampshire, where snapping turtles are more common than lizards, to the depths of our evolutionary past, we'll grapple with the idea that we may still carry a piece of our reptilian ancestors within us. But don't be too... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
It's All One Song: Using the metaphor of a simple beat evolving into a complex symphony, we explore how small-scale genetic changes within populations give rise to new species. From microevolution to macroevolution. Here, the role of natural selection is handed over to... by Evolution Talk
9 min listen
The Grand Tapestry of Macroevolution: In this episode, the focus is on macroevolution, which deals with larger scale evolutionary changes compared to microevolution. Macroevolutionary changes can give rise to new species, and its results can be seen in the fossil record. By piecing... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
The Dance of the Alleles: The constant dance of microevolution is driven by alleles, different versions of genes that determine traits. Sexual reproduction results in organisms inheriting a unique combination of genetic material from both parents, creating genetic diversity... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
Where There Is No Light: In 2015,a spelunker named Joachim Kreiselmaier discovered a troglobite, a species that lives in underground environments, in the Danube-Aach cave system in South Germany. This small, pale fish had an elongated body, large nostrils, and minuscule,... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen
The Galapagos & Adaptive Radiation: On September 15, 1835, the Galapagos Islands welcomed the arrival of a ship that had traversed South America, offering a strikingly different landscape. The vessel, HMS Beagle, still had just over a year before it would return to England. Aboard the... by Evolution Talk
10 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Darwin’s Bulldog

Darwin’s Bulldog

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Evolution Talk