What is ancient smallpox doing in Trinity?
Summary
This episode covers the Nobel Prize for detecting cosmic neutrinos via the IceCube experiment, a study showing sedentary adults gain lean mass from creatine, and research linking shared exercise to better marriages. Hosts also discuss a primate study revealing that mild aggression does not predict lethal violence. The main segment features Bruno Romero-Gonzalez from Trinity College, who analyzes 500-year-old smallpox DNA from Inca mummies to trace viral evolution and historical spread.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: Government of Ireland building campaign
Show intro and preview of ancient smallpox story
Nobel Prize for IceCube neutrino detection in Antarctica
Creatine study: muscle gain without exercise
Exercise together linked to better marriages
Primate aggression: lethal vs non-lethal behaviors
Sponsor: Progressive Insurance
Ancient smallpox: context and interview intro
Extracting and sequencing 500-year-old virus DNA
How smallpox spread to the Americas before colonizers
Viral evolution: gene loss and host specialization
Historical evidence: Viking mummies and pharaohs
Safety of storing deadly virus samples in labs
Outro and sponsor reminder
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