130- Photosynthesis

How do you quantify how big a civilisation is? In the 1960s, Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev came up with a scale based on how much energy hypothetical civilisations can exploit- which has been modified by others to stretch all the way from multiverse levels of energy usage down to the fabric of spacetime itself. Let's return to astrobiology!Sources for this episode:Byrne, P. (2007), The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett. Scientific American 297(6): 98-105.Cirkovic, M. M. (2016), Kardashev's Classification at 50+: A Fine Vehicle with Room for Improvement. Serbian Astronomical Journal 1(15): 10.2298.Gray, R. H. (2020), The Extended Kardashev Scale. The Astronomical Journal 159: 228.Hooper, R., New Scientist (2009), Hugh Everett: The man who gave us the multiverse (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).Raikar, S. P., Encyclopedia Britannica (2025), Kardashev scale (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).Smith, J. (2022), Review and viability of a Dyson Swarm as a form of Dyson Sphere. Physica Script 97(12): 122001.Vidal, C., Fields, B. L., Sowinski, D. R., Elowitz, M., Bartlett, S., Terrile, R. J., Ellery, A., Bibas, D., Mastrogiovanni, A. M., Dobler, N., Singla, M., DeMarines, J., Fisher, T., Uno, Y., Turner, J. D., Sneed, E. L., Huggahalli, A., Li, M. G., Li, Z. (C.), Huston, M. and Saide, R. (2026), The Search for Technosignatures: A Review of Possibilities. arXiv: 2605.21093.Wright, J. T. (2020), Dyson Spheres. Serbian Astronomical Journal 200: 1-18.Zhang, A., Yang, J., Luo, Y. and Fen, S. (2023), Forecasting the progression of human civilization on the Kardashev Scale through 2060 with a machine learning approach. Nature Scientific Reports 13: 11305.Author unknown, Homo Deus Lab (date unknown), Galaxy Colonization: How Long Would It Take? (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).

It's long overdue, but we're finally tackling photosynthesis on the podcast! In a process which divides into the light-dependent and light-independent reactions, autotrophs convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose, oxygen and energy.Sources for this episode:TBA

What is the record for the most generations that have been alive at the same time in a family? Let's introduce Augusta Pagel (1879-1989) to the stage. Before she died, she managed to become a great-great-great-great-grandmother!Sources for this episode:TBA

Following another request, today we examine whether it is possible for dolphins- using their ultrasonic communication- to detect human pregnancy. The answer might be more ambiguous than you think...Sources for this episode:TBA

Vince here- I've written a historical fiction book set in Constantinople in 1081! Well, kind of. The first draft of the manuscript is complete at about 59,000 words across 34 chapters. I am planning to to do a reading of the prologue as it currently stands on this feed, and after that prepare the book for publication as an eBook. So, what I am here to ask you is- is this something you would be interested in? Please let me know at the show's email address. I would love to hear your feedback.

A bit of a silly topic today. What is the average life expectancy of hobbits in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium? Along the way, we will learn something about current and historic human life expectancy.Sources for this episode:TBASound Effect by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/freesound_community-46691455/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=84943">freesound_community</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/sound-effects//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=84943">Pixabay</a>

As requested by listener GT, we are going to talk all about moles today! Join us for the evolutionary history of the Talpidae family, English prophecies about moles, how much a mole head is worth in 2026 money according to the 1533 Vermin Act, and a lot of Red List data.Sources for this episode:TBA

Last week we introduced some discussion on bee/pollinator declines. This week, we will discuss a perspective by Jaboury Ghazoul- a professor at ETH Zurich- who argued in a 2005 paper that labelling a pollinator decline crisis was, in fact, premature.Sources for this episode:TBA

Once again adapting a blog post into an episode, we are going to be examining a paper from 2016 which gives a potential new perspective on bee/pollinator declines. It argues that the contribution of non-bee pollinators to pollination services might be greater than we think.Sources for this episode:TBA

There is a number we use in genetics to represent how inbred a particular individual- e.g.: Charles II of Spain, Ptolemy XIII or Danaerys Targaryen- is. On today's episode, thanks to guidance from a blog post I found very helpful on the subject, we are going to take you through how this number is calculated for some simpler cases.Sources for this episode:TBA