Cara Santa Maria

speaker

5,033 appearances 14 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 5d ago

Cara Santa Maria’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.

Appearances

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The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe · The Skeptics Guide #827 - May 15 2021 podcast

And nobody, I think, is arguing that that didn't happen or that it's not a big deal. voice-verified

But the question is, does that actually translate to real human beings? voice-verified

We have no idea. voice-verified

That wasn't studied. voice-verified

So I do think it's important to make that distinction right up at the front. voice-verified

They were able to show, though, that in petri dishes, in cell lines, they could infect these cell lines with SARS-CoV-2, look at the DNA of those cells and say, look at that. voice-verified

There's a piece of SARS-CoV-2 in that DNA. voice-verified

How did it get there? voice-verified

What's going on here? voice-verified

And they believe that it happened through a specific type of transposon. voice-verified

So I don't know if you guys remember transposons. voice-verified

They're like little pieces of the chromosome, in this case, the viral chromosome that can undergo transposition. voice-verified

Transposition is the act by which a little chunk of DNA, it's usually in bacteria. voice-verified

I mean, that's usually where we've learned about these things, can jump. voice-verified

Like it can jump into a phage or it can jump into a plasmid. voice-verified

And even if the, let's say the human DNA doesn't have a corresponding sequence, so it's not like infecting and then sitting in the same spot where that corresponding sequence is, it's able to just find a spot and insert itself into the DNA. voice-verified

There's a specific type of transposon called a line one transposon. voice-verified

So a line one is a long interspersed nuclear element. voice-verified

There are multiple lines. voice-verified

Line one is a specific type. voice-verified

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