BioTime artwork

BioTime

28 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 12 ratings

Welcome to BioTime, a place for you to discover how our complex world works. From biology and chemistry crash courses to interviews with scientific researchers at the forefront of their field, this podcast hopes to help you not only learn more about the complexities of life but also gain an appreciation for the sciences. This podcast is hosted by Christopher Jang.

Life Sciences Science
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Episodes

Community Structure

March 19, 2023 17:47 - 14 minutes - 33.4 MB

In society, we have many different people with different roles and ecological communities are no different. All organisms are interconnected through a complex web of interactions and a way we can describe the composition of species in a certain geographic location is to look at community structure. Today we will be exploring community structures, species diversity, species richness, species evenness, keystone species, and foundational species.

Mitochondria

March 04, 2023 08:00 - 13 minutes - 31.3 MB

As humans, we walk, talk, run, and do an endless list of tasks a day, all of which require energy. Where is all of this power generated from? In this podcast, we will be discussing the structure of a mitochondrion, the function of a mitochondrion, and how cellular respiration takes place within the mitochondrion. 

Origins of Life

February 22, 2023 08:00 - 17 minutes - 39.1 MB

13.8 billion years ago, our universe exploded into existence. But from that point on, how did life form? Today, we are going to be talking about the origins of life on Earth and hypotheses about how life came to inhabit this planet. 

Endosymbiotic Theory

February 06, 2023 08:00 - 14 minutes - 33.5 MB

The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. Over the past billions of years, evolution has greatly changed life as we see it today. If we transport ourselves back in time and look at cells, we will notice that they are extremely simple. But, in the present day, we notice that cells have become much more complicated beings with very complex processes that require many entities in order to function. The process of how this occurred is known as the endosymbiotic theory. This podcast will dis...

Active and Passive Transport

January 20, 2023 06:23 - 18 minutes - 41.4 MB

Our cells are very complicated and require and require many different enzymes, proteins, ions, and more in order to function properly. They need all of these different biological necessities to be at the right place and at the right time. How do our cells have so much control over all of these necessities? The answer lies in active and passive transport. This podcast dives into how active and passive transport work along with examples. 

Multiple Alleles, Incomplete Dominance, and Codominance

January 06, 2023 08:00 - 7 minutes - 16.5 MB

Mendelian principles have served as a gateway into the functions of how our genetic information is passed on. Over time, we have discovered principles beyond mendelian genetics. In this episode, we review multiple alleles, incomplete dominance, and codominance. We discuss how they function and the examples of each form on inheritance. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Cell Communication

December 28, 2022 19:53 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MB

Our cells are constantly sending messages to each other through a complex network of signaling molecules. In today's podcast, we will explore paracrine signaling, autocrine signaling, endocrine signaling, and direct contact in depth along with examples of each. 

Law of Segregation

December 11, 2022 22:31 - 8 minutes - 18.8 MB

In the 1860s, famous scientist Gregor Mendel explored the laws that governed genetics and devised the Law of Segregation. This law is crucial to our understanding of genetics today. In this episode, we dive into the details of how Mendel made this revolutionary discovery and go into depth on the Law of Segregation. 

Mendel's Experiment

November 24, 2022 04:14 - 8 minutes - 18.7 MB

In 1865, Gregor Mendel conducted an experiment on pea plants that transformed our understanding of genetics. In this podcast, we will explore how he conducted his experiment and what he discovered. 

Endoplasmic Reticulum

November 02, 2022 07:00 - 18 minutes - 42.1 MB

In this podcast, a major organelle of the Endomembrane system is discussed, the Endoplasmic Reticulum. The episode opens with a discussion on the ER as a whole and then goes into detail on the structure and function of the ER's two counterparts, the smooth and rough ER.  If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Preserving Variation in a Population

October 24, 2022 06:00 - 16 minutes - 37.9 MB

When we look at a species, oftentimes we notice that they do not all look exactly the same. Perhaps the color of their fur differs or the length of their legs varies. This variation is natural and is essential for survival. In this episode, we explore how this variation can be preserved in order to maintain a healthy population. The six mechanisms we discuss are balanced polymorphism, sexual reproduction, outbreeding, diploidy, heterozygote advantage, and frequency dependant selection.

Cell Cycle Regulation

October 09, 2022 06:40 - 17 minutes - 39.5 MB

Cell cycle regulation helps our cells control when they want to divide and when they do not. In this episode, we dive into cyclins, cyclin-dependant kinases, mautration-promoting factors, platelet-derived growth factors, and p53. 

Mutations

September 25, 2022 01:07 - 15 minutes - 34.7 MB

Mutations are essential to the survival of organisms. It drives evolution, creating diversity. But, it also has its consequences. In this episode, we explore the benefits of mutations but also their pitfalls. We discuss gene mutations, chromosomal mutations, insertions, deletions, point mutations, and diseases caused by mutations. 

The 3-Domain Classification System

September 11, 2022 01:59 - 12 minutes - 28.9 MB

With countless organisms roaming the Earth, it is important to have a system to classify them all. The 3-Domain Classification System is a way to sort organisms into 3 categories: bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. In this episode, we explore each of these classfications and the criteria each requires. 

Inhibition of Enzymatic Reactions

August 21, 2022 21:50 - 6 minutes - 14.8 MB

Enzymes play a large role in enzymatic reactions so being able to control them is essential. In this podcast, we explore competitive inhibition, noncompetitive inhibition, and cofactors and how they affect enzymes. 

Eukaryotes vs. Prokaryotes

August 05, 2022 07:00 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MB

What are the differences between Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes? This episode begins by discussing the essential components that all cells need and then transitions into in-depth explanations on Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. The episode closes with a comparison between the two cell types.  If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Community Ecology

July 26, 2022 00:10 - 12 minutes - 27.8 MB

Community Ecology is the discussion of all of the interactions between organisms in a community. Today, we will be going into depth on the 5 categories of community ecology: competition, predation, herbivory, symbiosis, and facilitation. 

Biotechnology's Tools and Techniques

June 23, 2022 01:45 - 16 minutes - 38.3 MB

The world of science is advancing faster than ever, especially in biotechnology. With scientists pushing through the frontier, many innovations are being made and it is important to keep up. In today's episode, we will be discussing CRISPR, Polymerase Chain Reactions, Restriction Enzymes, Gel Electrophoresis, and DNA probes. Additionally, we will also be discussing the ethics involved in the biotech industry.

Atomic Structure and Properties of Water

June 03, 2022 23:14 - 15 minutes - 35.1 MB

Water is essential to life on Earth. Without it, no life as we know it would exist today. Water has many essential properties that allow for it to sustain life on this Earth and this podcast goes into detail on the 5 major properties: high specific heat, high heat of vaporization, universal solvent, strong cohesion tension, and ice is less dense than water. We will also be discussing atomic structure and types of bonds in order to better understand the properties of water. 

Environmental Impacts on Enzymes

January 08, 2022 00:36 - 10 minutes - 23.2 MB

This podcast reviews environmental impacts on enzymes topic 3.3. Enzymes are incredibly important as they are what allow our bodies to complete the required reactions and keep us alive! We will be discussing denaturation and the three major environmental impacts on enzymes which are temperature, pH, and concentration of substrates and inhibitors. 

Macromolecules

September 17, 2021 06:06 - 17 minutes - 39.2 MB

One of the basic components that support life are macromolecules with the four being carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. This podcast dives into the structure, function, and application of all of these macromolecules. In addition, we will also be discussing dehydration synthesis, hydrolysis, monomers, and polymers in order to have essential background information to understand macromolecules. 

Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection

July 31, 2021 08:00 - 6 minutes - 15.3 MB

Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection has served as a basis to this day for the reasoning behind evolution. It has assisted us to answer our largest questions concerning how and why species look the way they do. In this episode, we explore Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle, the five major points on his theory of natural selection, and Lamarck's views on evolution and why they are incorrect.

Causes of Evolution

June 09, 2021 21:29 - 10 minutes - 23.6 MB

Every living organism you have ever seen has been the result of evolution. If we were to look back on humans millions of years ago, we would have looked drastically different compared to how we look today. In this episode, we discuss the five main factors that contribute to evolution: Genetic drift, gene flow, mutations, non-random mating, and natural selection. We explore the effects each factor and examples of how they allow a population to undergo evolution. 

Griffith, Avery, and Hershey Chase Experiments

February 22, 2021 21:45 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MB

The road to discovering the genetic material of cells, DNA, was a long journey. In this episode, we explore the three experiments that led to this discovery: The Griffith experiment, The Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment, and the Hershey Chase experiment. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Cell Signaling: Reception

February 09, 2021 04:59 - 18 minutes - 42.6 MB

Cells live in an ever-changing environment, always needing to be aware of their surroundings and reacting to an organism's needs. In order to understand when to take action, cells must receive a message from the outside world in a process called reception. Reception is the first of three steps in cell signaling. In this episode, we review how signaling molecules bind to receptors inside and outside of the cell, along with covering specific cell surface receptors like the G protein-coupled re...

Vacuole

January 20, 2021 23:19 - 7 minutes - 17.1 MB

Vacuoles are an essential part of our endomembrane system. They deal with a variety of tasks like storage and getting rid of toxic waste! In this episode, we will explore the vacuole's structure and function.  If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Lysosome

December 31, 2020 23:15 - 8 minutes - 20.4 MB

Lysosomes, an essential part of the endomembrane system, are reviewed in this episode. The podcast opens by discussing the structure and then transitions into a thorough explanation of the functions of a lysosome. Finally, the episode quickly gives a short review on Tay-Sachs disease. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions

Golgi Apparatus

December 13, 2020 05:09 - 12 minutes - 28.8 MB

In this episode, we review a major organelle of the endomembrane system, the Golgi Apparatus. The podcast explores the structure, function, and how the cisternal maturation model works in complete detail. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to https://anchor.fm/christopher-jang/message or https://2255christopher.wixsite.com/biotime/questions