We take a look at the story of genetic fingerprinting, and some of the very first ways that this game-changing technique was put to work.
All in 100 Ideas
S3.05 - Poop, pus and the Manhattan Project: How we learned to spell the genetic alphabet
The genetic code of DNA is written in just four ‘letters’ - A (adenine), C (cytosine), T (thymine) and G (guanine). But where did those strange-sounding names come from?
S3.03 - Fish, facts and fiction, from Haeckel’s embryos to Tiktaalik
We’re discovering our inner fish: finding out whether we really do go through a fishy phase in the womb, and looking at the legacy of Tiktaalik, the first fish to walk on land.
S3.01 - Investigating the icons of evolution, from Darwin's Finches to the March of Progress
We look at two iconic images of evolution - the March of Progress, portraying the journey from monkey to man, and the famous finches of the Galapagos islands - supposedly the inspiration for Charles Darwin’s theory.
027 - Uprooting the tree of life: Darwin, DNA and de-extinction
Should we believe our eyes or our sequencing machines when it comes to sorting species? Plus, the greatest comeback of all time - we find out whether Jurassic Park could become reality.
025 - When 'Becky' met Bateson: Edith Rebecca Saunders, the mother of British plant genetics
We unearth the story of Edith Rebecca Saunders, co-founder of The Genetics Society and the ‘mother of British plant genetics’.
023 Mergers and Acquisitions
We’re looking at mergers and acquisitions - in a biological rather than a financial sense. We find out what happens when two cells decide to move in together, unpack the history of genetic engineering and bleat on about the story of Dolly the Sheep.
020 Sex and Death
In this episode from our centenary series exploring 100 ideas in genetics, we’re telling tales of sex and death, and exploring the very darkest side of genetics - eugenics.
018 Cut. Paste. Pair. Repeat.
We’re exploring the dark heart of the genome, untying nature’s shoelaces, and looking back at the discovery of RNA splicing.