Mitochondria (Summer Repeat)

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth. Inside each cell of every complex organism there are structures known as mitochondria. The 19th century scientists who first observed them thought they were bacteria which had somehow invaded the cells they were studying. We now understand that mitochondria take components from the food we eat and convert them into energy. Mitochondria are essential for complex life, but as the components that run our metabolisms they can also be responsible for a range of diseases – and they probably play a role in how we age. The DNA in mitochondria is only passed down the maternal line. This means it can be used to trace population movements deep into human history, even back to an ancestor we all share: mitochondrial Eve.

With

Mike Murphy Professor of Mitochondrial Redox Biology at the University of Cambridge

Florencia Camus NERC Independent Research Fellow at University College London

Nick Lane Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London

Producer Luke Mulhall

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	Was Amber Lynn really a wicked queen?
0:04.4	People feared women who were smart.
0:06.8	M flay girl.
0:08.0	Exactly.
0:09.0	What about resputing?
0:10.4	A miraculous mystic or a die-hard deviant. I think there's some bad stuff in there. I do weirdly respect him.
0:17.0	On evil genius, we are the judges of that.
0:20.0	Join me, Russell Kane and a host of comedians as we put more historical legends under scrutiny to find out if they're evil or genius.
0:32.0	Evil genius listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds.
0:37.0	BBC Sounds.
0:38.0	Music Radio Podcasts.
0:40.0	In our times on its annual break and we'll be back on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on the 19th of September
0:46.5	Until then each week we're offering an episode chosen from our archive of more than a thousand programs
0:52.2	Which I hope you'll enjoy.
0:54.0	Have a good summer.
0:55.0	Hello, inside each cell of every complex organism there are structures known as mitochondria.
1:01.0	The scientists who first observed them in the 19th century thought there were bacteria
1:05.8	who'd somehow invaded the cells they were studying.
1:08.6	We now understand mitochondria are the power packs of cells. They take components from the food we eat and convert them into energy.
1:17.0	Mitochondria are essential for complex life.
1:20.0	But does the components that run our metabolisms, they can also be responsible for a range of diseases,
	...

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