In the first episode of this new season on food security we first look at what lessons we can draw from the history of agriculture and how we might expect it to change as we look into the future.Dr Helen Anne Curry is an Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.

A third of global food is produced by smallholder farms. High tech innovations will always make the big headlines, but if want to truly provide for the future then we must also empower those most at risk with more frugal strategies. Professor Jaideep Prabhu takes us through his views on how we can do more with less in this latest episode of the The Biotech Podcast.

As agriculture scales up it brings a host of problems. Larger tractors lead to soil compaction and lack of precision, more workers are required to ensure harvests come in on time and food waste is reduced, and corners are cut more often with increased use of herbicides and pesticides. Using autonomous vehicles can help solve many of these problems. Kit Franklin, co-creator of Hands Free Hectare and Hands Free Farm, takes us through the automation of agriculture and how we will soon get used to seeing it in our everyday lives.

Many crops currently grown in the developing world are limited by their nitrogen potential rather than their water or light potential. Difficult supply chains and high costs make using nitrogen fertilisers difficult in these regions and the use of these fertilisers brings about its own issues. Professor Giles Oldroyd aims to engineer nitrogen fixation into many crops, allowing them to utilise the abundant source of nitrogen straight from the air and therefore improve yields whilst reducing nitrogen leaching.

As exciting technologies emerge, we need to ensure that policies and regulations are in place to ensure practices remain safe, sustainable and help the transition towards a circular economy.  Dr Ian Hodge, professor of rural economy at Cambridge, describes how we can manage agriculture in the future; from offering subsidies to introducing carbon credits.

Dr Leroy Hood is a world renowned biotechnologist, geneticist and author. From the future of medicine to the human genome project, Lee tells about his fascinating life and his views for the scientific future.Full synopsis:0:00 - Introduction2:24 - P4 medicine - what it is and how it will play a role in the future17:10 - Systems Biology - A new approach for biological research25:15 - Thriving in the future of Biology30:25 - Noise in biology37:04 - Neuroplasticity and coronavirus38:37 - The institute of systems biology42:34 - Future novels43:24 - Developing scientific tools - How they has affected Lee and how to go about developing them01:05:10 - The human genome project 01:12:24 - Book recommendations and advice

4 billion years ago the earth was bombarded with photons, a short while later a Tesla got launched into space. This week I'm speaking to Professor Keith Downing about emergent phenomena; which the above scenario is a prime example of, alongside the formation of a baby from a fertilised egg, economies from individual interactions and for good measure alcohol from respiring yeast! Full synopsis:0:00 - Intro1:20 - Emergence and emergent systems13:20 - Evolution and its algorithms23:40 - Theory of facilitated variation31:30 - Neural Information vs Synthetic Information 41:30 - Evolutionary computation vs Neural networks48:25 - Re-enforcement learning1:02:15 - Building intelligence - neural net architectures1:07:00 - Advice and Book recommendations

From digitising chemistry to looking for inorganic aliens, Lee gives us his fascinating insight into new, revolutionary ideas in Chemistry. Full synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:00 - Defining life13:20 - Testing life with Polyoxometalates16:20 - The Markov model19:48 - Inorganic life and space exploration25:08 - Chemputers and using them to search for inorganic life32:52 - The uses of Chemputers in the future40:00 - Turning Chemistry into an information science47:37 - Using past data in digital chemistry51:09 - Extro

This week we talk to Dr Peter Clark, Peter is the Senior Research Manager for AI2. His work focuses upon natural language processing, machine reasoning, and large knowledge bases, and the interplay between these three areas. He has received several awards including a AAAI Best Paper (1997), Boeing Associate Technical Fellowship (2004), and AAAI Senior Member (2014). Peter received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1991, and has researched these topics for 30 years with more than 80 refereed publications. We talk to peter about what makes a good test for intelligence, the nature of intelligence and his work over the last 20 years on the aristo project, which last year featured in the New York times as well as other new outlets across the world as a breakthrough in AI.

This week we talk to Alison Woollard, a professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford,  about her life's work in Developmental Biology. She offers her thoughts on the new, mutated coronavirus strain, the history of evolution and what GM technology might offer in the future.If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzGFull synopsis below:00:00 - Intro1:25 - Nematode Worms10:33 - Developmental biology 15:54 - Meiosis, Differentiation and Pluripotency22:47 - Cancers and Transcription factors34:10 - Mutations and Coronavirus42:17 - Heredity and Evolution50:20 - Deepmind and Alphafold55:03 - Genetic engineering1:05:39 - Book recommendations1:09:37 - Extro

Having worked with the likes of Freeman Dyson, we hear about the incredible achievements of Dr Bruce Alberts, winner of both the National medal of science in 2014 and the Lasker award in 2016. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzGFull synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:30 - The scientific process09:51 - Scientific thinking and education24:25 - Writing 'Molecular biology of the cell', its intentions and its impacts41:32 - DNA replication - mechanisms, evolution and discovering the biochemistry1:03:54 - Book recommendations and advice1:08.09 - Freeman Dyson, Leroy Hood and the Human Genome project

Josh Starmer is the founder and CEO of StatQuest, a channel which breaks down complex mathematics into easy, visual, bitesize content. Today we talk about his success with StatQuest, his career in music and tips on how to effectively explain complex topics. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzGFull Synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:40 - Beautiful statistics05:51 - Bootstrapping08:39 - Struggles of learning statistics17:43 - Knowing your data20:03 - Bioinformatics21:41 - Machine learning as a microscope24:25 - The exciting futures of statistics29:38 - StatQuest and what makes a good explanation39:22 - Music and Maths48:06 - Education changing in the future52:12 - Lies, damned lies and statistics55:14 - What lies ahead1:00:07 - Extro Episode Links:Neural Networks or Big Fancy Squiggle Fitting Machines (BFSFM) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOfi41LfDwStatQuest Website - https://statquest.org/about/StatQuest Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtYLUTtgS3k1Fg4y5tAhLbw

A professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Greg has theorised interesting genetic ideas such as the 'Kerplunk Model'  and more recently has been influential in coordinating effective Covid testing strategies. Today we talk about the heredity of traits, the importance of robustness in evolution and the current state of scientific publication. Greg also writes a monthly blog called The Genome's Take, which I highly recommend reading.If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzGFull Synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:53 - Heritability, and twin studies11:28 - The 'Kerplunk model'19:31 - Environmental effects on genetics22:88 - Model organisms and working with Walter Gehring29:25 - Canalisation and robustness38:38 - Career choices and the future of genetics43:17 - Covid testing regimes51:34 - The problems with scientific publication and publishing preprints 1:02:06 - The Genome's take blog and book recommendations1:05:11 - Extro

From the delivery of the mRNA vaccines into cells to the delivery of chemotherapy directly to tumours, it is fair to say Professor Bob Langer has revolutionised modern medicine. Bob is the 4th most cited individual of all time and having founded over 40 biotechnology companies including Moderna, Bob is, without doubt, one of the most influential scientists alive today.Full Synopsis:00:00 - Introductions2:12 - Angiogenesis inhibitors and drug-delivery systems5:50 - Conventional wisdom and challenging sceptics 13:52 - How to go about solving a problem20:20 - Changing the world22:14 - Pursuing your passions and academia28:54 - Setting up a company and using impact as a metric35:28 - The Moderna vaccine and nanoparticles42:08 - Advice for young scientists and the exciting areas of research today

Soil is one of the most powerful carbon sequestering tools known to man, and protecting it will lead to greater food security with higher nutritional content, better water quality and of course can also play a huge part in reducing global warming. This week Dr Ratan Lal, winner of the 2020 world food prize, talks passionately about his life's work with soil and how we need to harness this incredible ecosystem for good.Episode synopsis:00:00 - Soil and its qualities6:32 - Soil is alive11:01 - Giving back to our soils14:59 - Measuring soil health16:20 - Soil degradation in impoverished areas19:35 - What drew you to soil science24:20 - Regulating soil erosion25:01 - Soil and its role in carbon sequestration36:17 - Biogeochemical cycling41:35 - Advice44:40 - Extro

The founder of CCm technologies, Peter Hammond, talks to us this week on carbon capture machines, along with their use in producing organic fertilisers to improve soil health.If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Episode synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:14 - Developing ideas14:37 - The components of a healthy soil21:51 - Traditional fertilisers24:44 - Measuring soil health25:47 - Organic fertilisers30:47 - Carbon sources 35:12 - Targeting climate change50:30 - Extro

By striving to produce burgers which taste, look and smell the same as farmed beef from cultured stem cells in a lab, Mosa meat aims to change the way we look at agriculture. This week we talk to Dr Laura Jackisch from Mosa meat about the techniques used and the impacts that this technology can have on our future.Full synopsis:00.00 - Intro01:40 - Cellular agriculture7:10 - The components of a lab-grown burger14:00 - Combining muscle and fat effectively22:15 - Reinventing what we can eat23:08 - The barriers holding back cellular agriculture26:17 - Scaling up30:25 - Social challenges42:51 - Doubts and career advice48:11 - Extro

This week Dr Jason Moore tells us about the exciting strides forward that AI is taking; might everyone one day have their own machine learning 'toolbox' at home? Jason is the creator of PennAI, an accessible, user-friendly artificial intelligence system and he explains how machine learning will change the future of medicine and many other fields of science.If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Jason LinksBMI Podcast http://bmipodcast.orgEpistasis Lab http://epistasis.org/ PennAI http://pennai.org/   Episode synopsis:00:00 - Intro01:28 - Machine learning in biology08:04 - The history of computation in medicine13:33 - AI's role in diagnostics20:13 - Issues of bringing AI into medicine27:04 - Understanding AI algorithms28:45 - The PennAI system44:38 - Exciting areas of AI in biology48:40 - Advice51:54 - Extro

One of the biggest challenges to medicine is non-adherence. From micro-needle injectors to once-a-month oral pills; Dr Giovanni Traverso tells us about some exiting prospects coming out of MIT which challenge this issue.If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG

AI is often described as a hugely exciting and media-friendly field in computer science, however, parts of it often forget the goals we are trying to achieve. Intelligence Amplification, or IA, is a more realistic goal, where computers are used for augmenting intelligence rather than replacing it. Dr Yoav Freund takes us through this fascinating field and outlines its possible applications in medicine specifically.Photo courtesy of the Simons Institute for the Theory of ComputingSimons Institute future of ML panel: https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/agenda/3751/panelopen-problemspotlight-talksYoav Freund  link: https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~yfreund/