NSP Faculty in the News: Gene Robinson, Director, IGB, Professor, Entomology
March 17, 2023

The UIUC Talkshow #31 with Juan David Campolargo and Aaryaman Patel - interviewing Dr. Gene Robinson

Gene Robinson is the Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and Entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research uses bees to understand the mechanisms governing social behavior.

In this episode, we dive into the exciting world of genomics and discuss the Earth BioGenome Project, which aims to sequence and catalog every genome on the planet. We also talk about the potential privacy implications of personal genome sequencing.

We explore how efficiently bee colonies are organized and the insights Dr. Robinson's research group has gained over the years with regard to the division of labor and intrinsic motives. Along the way, we explore why humans see a duality in everything and touch upon the nature vs. nurture debate.

Watch this buzzing episode to learn more about social behavior, bees, and the future of biology.

EPISODE LINKS:

Gene Robinson's UIUC Website: https://mcb.illinois.edu/directory/pr...

Gene Robinson's Lab: https://lab.igb.illinois.edu/robinson/

OUTLINE:

0:00 - Introduction
0:34 - Aligning incentives to change the world
8:52 - Division of Labor in Civilizations
15:12 - Can chemicals affect human behavior?
17:01 - Steady State in Evolution
20:08 - Is there a Golden Number for Dysfunctional Colonies?
21:40 - Earth BioGenome Project - The Ultimate Genome Library
29:33 - Climate Change and an accelerated adaptation
31:58 - Sequencing genomes: The answer to all problems?
36:43 - The Duality of Man
40:14 - Machine Learning to understand Biology
42:19 - Personal Genome and Privacy
44:51 - "Gene" and his childhood
47:22 - Nature or Nurture? Both
52:43 - Creating a Deterministic society using Sociogenomics
58:52 - Singularity of Knowledge
1:00:54 - Advice for Young People
🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥
1:03:22 - 🧫 Monetary cost of Sequencing Genomes
1:05:53 - ⚪ Cocaine for research
1:14:23 - 🧬 23andMe
1:16:20 - 🐝 The Bee Movie
1:18:53 - Closing Words

 

 

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What is the UIUC Talkshow?

Our goal with this show is to introduce you to the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas from the UIUC campus.