In this episode, Ruby and Laura spoke to Bianca De Sanctis, a PhD student in Professor Eske Willerslev’s research group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Bianca's research focuses on genome reconstruction using ancient DNA samples to gain a snapshot of what ancient ecosystems looked like. Bianca fills us in on a recently published study where she and her colleagues reconstructed the genomes of a Stone Age American black bear and an extinct short-faced bear using environmental DNA samples from a remote cave in Mexico. She also discusses the difficulty of working with ancient DNA samples, and how the use of ancient environmental DNA samples has provided a huge leap forward in the world of ancient genomics. You can find out more about Bianca's latest paper here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/stone-age-bear-genome-reconstructed-from-dna-in-mexican-cave The BlueSci Podcast is run by the Cambridge University Science Magazine. This episode was hosted by Ruby Coates, Simone Eizagirre and Laura Chilver and sponsored by Greiner Bio-One and Nature Careers. Visit www.bluesci.co.uk to access our free magazine, and find out how to get involved. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review or rating! We welcome your feedback and suggestions via email: podcast(at)bluesci.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter on @bluescipod.

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