RadioBio
Episodes
Dr. Zackary Graham: Crayfish, Crawfish & Crawdads
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Listen in as we talk to Dr. Zackary Graham about his upcoming book, Crayfish, Crawfish & Crawdads: The Biology and Conservation of North America’s F...
Dr. Anya Brown: Coral, Seaweed, and Bacteria, Oh My!
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we talk to Dr. Anya Brown about her research studying the impacts of microbial communities on seaweeds and corals. Learn about how rich diverse ...
Dr. Jonelle Basso: Rooting for Microbiomes
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, we sat down with Dr. Jonelle Basso, a research scientist at the Joint Genome Institute. She discussed how bacteria and viruses team ...
Dr. Emma Wilson: Brain Parasites, Cats, and Their Relationships With Humans
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today on RadioBio, we talk with Dr. Emma Wilson about Toxoplasma, a microscopic parasite that makes mice love the smell of cat pee, can live in your b...
Dr. Spencer Nyholm: Squids that Light Up the Night and How They Protect Their Eggs
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We chat with Dr. Spencer Nyholm about the symbiotic relationship between the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid and the bioluminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri (n...
Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler: Leaves Like Islands
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We interviewed Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler, a professor of microbial ecology at Cal Poly Humboldt about her work on microbial community ecology on p...
Dr. Shannon Bennett: From the Field to the Museum
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The California academy of sciences is one of California’s oldest operating museums and research institutions. It is an invaluable repository of know...
Dr. Folashade Agusto: The Math Behind Outbreaks
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard of COVID-19, saw its impact on society, and probably even faced the respiratory illness itself. But is there… math behind this dis...
Dr. Ruben Michael Ceballos: The Shocking Truth about Heat Shock Proteins
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you are at a hot springs. The water is boiling and bubbling, there’s the smell of sulfur and other acrid chemicals in the air, and it is unb...
Dr. Chrissy Hernandez: There are plenty of otoliths in the sea
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are plenty of fish in the sea… this week, we take that saying to a whole new level! Fish are incredibly diverse and their life cycle is comple...
Dr. Monica Dus: You are what you eat!
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nature versus nurture, the eternal question. We usually think of our genes as permanent, a part of our nature, something that is passed down to us and...
Dr. Virginia Weis: Panic! At The Coral Reef
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We live in a microbial world. From our own gut to the corals in the ocean, microbes are key players in the existence of so many organisms. Did you kno...
Dr. Diane Campbell: Diversity from Adversity
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Life finds a way. Even in the face of incredible pressure from other organisms, climate change, and pollution, species still find ways of persisting. ...
Dr. Michele Nishiguchi: Ink-redible Squids
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you're a squid, yeah okay its weird but just imagine it, you are a squid swimming at night. It's a dark night except for the light from the mo...
Dr. Kanaka Rajan: Computational Neuroscience
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are still discovering the mysteries of the brain and one way to do that is to use tools such as computers. On this episodes of RadioBio, we speak w...
Dr. Lauren Hale: Life Beneath Your Feet
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought about the soil beneath your feet? Let's take it one step further... have you ever thought about everything that lives in the soi...
Dr. Ehab Abouheif: Ant Antics!
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ants, they are everywhere if you look for them! Ants engage in all the things that we associate with our own society, like farming and policing, and h...
Dr. Mary K Salcedo: Expanding Wings
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week on RadioBio, we explore insect wings. Did you know insect wings are more than just beautiful appendages? They are a part of an amazing circu...
Dr. Amelia Lindsey: The Microbial World (with Wolbachia)
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What if I were to tell you that you had hundreds, if not thousands of microbes living on you hands, you would probably respond with ewwwwww...gross an...
Dr. Alexa Sadier: Fantastic Bats and Where They Live
14 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bats are vital for maintaining balance in the ecosystems they are a part of: Bats keep insect populations in check, pollinate flowers, and disperse se...
Dr. Arun Sethuraman: Population genomics
30 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine the world 430,000 years ago. What were our ancestors like? What if there was a population of people that no one ever knew about? Can we unrave...
Chapter 5: Mental Health w/ Dr. Gonzalez
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout this historic pandemic, there have been many changes to our social and work environments that have been far from our baseline. Work from ho...
Chapter 4: Public Health w/ Dr. Allen
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
All over the news, we hear about drug development and vaccines, masks wearing, and being in a red or purple tier, but have you considered how this i...
Chapter 3: Doctors in the Pandemic w/ Dr. Zweifler
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
COVID 19 has changed so many things about the world we live in, but few things have changed as much as our perceptions of public health and its role i...
Chapter 2: Doctors in the Pandemic w/ Dr. Gaeta
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This past year, we have been in the midst of a historical pandemic that has touched the lives of everyone around us. As part of our interview series o...
Chapter 1: Vaccines & Drug Development w/ Dr. Davey
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vaccines and drugs to mitigate sickness have become a central part of modern life, and they have become a central topic right now as the COVID 19 pand...
Dr. Ashkaan Fahimipour: Ecological networks
22 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Life is complicated. Breaking down the living world into understandable pieces requires good experiments AND good theories. Science thrives on the fee...
Dr. Orion Weiner
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It can be hard to make decisions, but do you know that your cells makes decisions too? What is even more amazing is that we can actually watch cells d...
Dr. Noah Whiteman: Coevolution and Insects
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered what's the difference between a bug and an insect? Are spiders even an insect? Wait are lobsters and crabs related to bugs? Why...
Dr. Rima McLeod
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered why pregnant women shouldn't change the litter box? How about why your meat should always be well cooked? Well, one of those re...
Dr. Rachel Bay
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humans might be the worlds greatest evolutionary force. From pollution to deforestation, human induced changes have a huge impact on the environment a...
Richard Locksley: Allergies and Immunity
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Achoo! Ah, allergies, the first sign of spring or also a sign that the barista accidentally did make your coffee with whole milk instead of soy. But w...
Dr. Rachel Meyer
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
DNA is all over the place. It sheds from everything, everywhere, throughout time. What if you could just scoop it up and figure out what it is... well...
Dr. Devavani Chatterjea
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Spring and Fall are often accompanied by a chorus of sneezes-- allergies are the bane of this beautiful time! Allergies, our immune system’s respons...
Fire and Fungi: Dr. Sydney Glassman
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wonder what it takes for a forest to regenerate after a devastating wildfire? Turns out microscopic fungi in soils play a big role in that recove...
Dr. Roberto Andresen Eguiluz: Molecular Machines and Mechanisms
16 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From gummy bears to cars we learn the importance of adhesion and lubricants for everyday life. Whether you're a muscle on a rock trying to hold on dur...
Dr. Roberta Pelanda
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The immune system is complex, full of lairs of communication and strict regulation, all to keep us healthy and alive. But what happens when those chec...
Homeostatic Regulation in the Brain: Dr. Dion Dickman
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought about brains? Our brains are seriously important, that's not news, but how do they actually work? There is a delicate balance b...
The Good, The Bad, and The Embryos: CRISPR with Dr. Joe Bondy-Denomy
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
CRISPR. You may have heard about it in the news. It's arguably the biggest discovery of the 21st century, and could possibly be a cure for some of the...
ARC, A Gene to Remember: Dr Jason Shepherd
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever been curious about how our brains "learn" and why only somethings seem to "stick" and others seem to fade away as time goes on? I know I...
Immunity by Community: Dr. Kathryn Milligan-Myhre
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You and I .... are completely different.... Not just because we like different music or have different parents, but because we are more than individua...
Tracking Foodborne Pathogens: Dr. Ruth Timme
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Do you grow your own food or butcher your own meat? Many of us don't. We get our food from a lot of different places in our modern society and we have...
The Genomic Saga Within: Dr. Nitin Phadnis
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought about how weird hybrids actually are? Some hybrids seem to be a contradiction: they can't reproduce! How could nature allow this...
From Molecules to Behavior: Dr. Todd Holmes
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought about how light affects your behavior on a day to day basis? Now think about how light would affect you on a molecular scale? Mo...
The Pulse of Plants: Dr. Sara Baguskas
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's getting warmer and drier, but there may be an untapped natural resource that can offer fresh water: fog! Fog is more than just one way your beach...
Science Abroad and Home: International Education Week Stories
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week is a special edition of RadioBio, put on for UC Merced's International Education Week. In this episode, we hear from five different research...
Dr. Joanne Emerson: Underground Viruses
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What is a virus? Why are they important? Viruses can cause disease and mortality, and they also significantly influence ecosystem ecology and environ...
Dr. Samuel Wasser: Guru of Doodoo
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Here's a riddle for you, what is something that stays behind in an environment after an animal is long gone? The answer is... POOP! What if we could u...
Dr. Ned Wingreen: How Matter Behaves
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matter in a random universe. How does it behave? Can we predict it? When physics meets biology, this intersection between two disciplines can crack so...
RadioBio Dispatches: Drought in California
20 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Water. It is one of the basic requirements of life as we know it, especially in California. The Washoe people of California's Sierra Nevada mountains ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Eric Delwart
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How do you search for a virus? Even worst, how do you search for a virus's DNA? A virus you've never seen before and have no clue what it looks like!...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Deborah Gordon
19 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a world with no leaders. No Presidents. No generals. No bosses. No central control. Ants have successfully occupied every continent on earth a...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Shona Mookerjee
05 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered what powers us? We all consume food for energy, but HOW does that actually turn into energy? You may be familiar with the mol...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Jarrod Dudakov
22 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"The thymus is a really ugly-looking organ, but tastes fantastic. Have you ever had sweet breads?" In case you don't know, sweetbread is the culinary ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Jennifer Martiny
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When you are thinking about how the world works, how often do you think about the tiny forces of nature? Just about never, what do you mean? I mean mi...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Gregory Mutumi
22 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of people don't like bats, even Batman is afraid of them. But maybe people are just afraid of what they don't know. Today Dr. Greg Mutumi talks ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Felipe Zapata
08 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Do you think you can put a number on the amount of species you've seen in your life? Absolutely not. Just stepping out onto the city street, there are...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Allison Hansen
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Symbioses, the interactions between two different species, make the world go ‘round. Everything from our agricultural systems to our own gut depends...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Danielle Grotjahn
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We often imagine a cell as a large balloon filled with jelly, but really it is more like a large city. Packages need to go from one place to the othe...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Jeanne Paz
27 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What if you could prevent something bad from happening? When it comes to epilepsy, you never know when a seizure could happen next. The ability to pre...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Tricia Van Laar
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We are all probably familiar with antibiotics, we have probably even taken them. Resistance to antibiotics have been in the news recently. But what is...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Alison Davis Rabosky
29 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, friend of Jack. Some species use bright colors in different combinations to tell potential predators to ba...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Whendee Silver
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of ways to slow down climate change, what pops into your mind? Reduce, reuse, recycle!! Perhaps to never use fossil fuels again? These ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Sharon Strauss
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Do you ever stop and smell the flowers? Do you feel like you only like certain kinds? Well, a bee would agree. Did you know scents are different becau...
RadioBio interviews Dr. Jarmila Pittermann
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Extreme drought is one of many impacts of climate change. Globally, we have seen droughts increase in duration and intensity, with many negative impac...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Anita Sil
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Infections occur when foreign invaders take root in the human body. When most people think of infections, they think of bacteria and viruses. These ho...
Radiobio Dispatches: Vernal Pools
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Presenting Radiobio’s first dispatch episode! This podcast focuses on the UC Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve featuring interviews from sev...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Julie Zikherman
23 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Autoimmune diseases occur when our immune systems start to attack our own cells, rather than foreign invaders. Unfortunately, very little is known abo...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Robert Phillips
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Genetics is a majorly hot topic in biology right now -- everything is genome sequencing this, gene expression that -- but how much do we really know? ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Ellen Rothenberg
25 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever you're sick, your immune system springs into action, but how? T-cells are like the generals of your immune system, and they command your immu...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Heinrich Jasper
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Heinrich Jasper shows us new tools using Stem Cells that can help with both our longevity as well as degenerative disease. The Jasper lab is focus...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Jim McGuire
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two words: Flying Lizards. How'd it happen? Evolution. Evolutionary history is complicated. It can sometimes be helpful to look at funky animals to se...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Pleuni Pennings
14 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Viruses are iconically challenging to define, but they have DNA so they evolve. In the 1980s, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) shook the world a...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Adriana Briscoe
28 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We may not think about it this way, but there is a whole world of colors that we can not perceive or understand that other organisms use on a daily ba...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Joanna Chiu
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Have you or someone you know been affected by sleep disorders, depression, or even drug or alcohol addiction. Believe it or not this may be linked to ...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Bik
31 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever had a pet or known someone with a pet, you probably know what a round worm is, but did you know these are nematodes? 180 years of visua...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. John Stark
17 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
N at work. What is N? N, or nitrogen, is one of the most abundant gases in the atmosphere and is an elemental building block of life. But we can't use...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Otger Campas
03 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How do cells interact with their physical environment? Dr. Otger Campas from the University of California, Santa Barbara joins RadioBio to discuss th...
RadioBio Interviews Dr. Embriette Hyde
20 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard about the human microbiome or even the pro-biotic fad, but how much do you really know about the micro-organisms that live on and i...
RadioBio interviews Dr. Marie-Claire Chelini
06 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered why males and females of a species are different sizes, shapes, and colors? Dr. Marie-Claire Chelini, University of California ...
RadioBio interviews Dr. Zachary Knight
22 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows what hunger feels like and understands the drive to seek food when hungry, but how does it work? Dr. Zachary Knight from UCSF joins Rad...
RadioBio interview Dr. Aaron Gitler
08 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do misfolded proteins cause human neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's? The Gitler lab at Stanford University studie...
RadioBio interviews Dr. Kathleen Ferris
25 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Evolution; no small topic. Biologists can use a diverse array of systems to try to test evolutionary concepts. Some systems, like bacteria, are useful...
RadioBio interviews Dr. Daniel Weinrich
05 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How does antibiotic resistance evolve? In this week's episode, Dr. Dan Weinreich joins RadioBio to discuss gene evolution and how it can lead to antib...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Jack Sites
14 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wonder where species come from? Do species even exist? Why do they matter? RadioBio discusses the speciation process through space and time with ...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Johanna Schmitt
30 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change can cause organisms to experience conditions they are not adapted to. How do these organisms respond and keep up with a changing world?...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Rob Spitale
13 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In many cells, RNA plays an essential role in regulation. Technological innovations are needed to further understand the role of RNA molecules in regu...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Chris Amemiya
29 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What are coelacanths? Why would a marine fish contain chitin, a sugar that makes up the exoskeleton of insects? How do sharks sense fish? Why do we ca...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Emily Jane McTavish
12 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The famous geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky once said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." But how do we study evolutio...
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Nathan Lannning
14 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
QSB RadioBio interviews Dr. Nathan Lanning of CSU-LA.