Episdoe 123: The Borgs in Your Backyard

Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

Guest: Basem Al-Shayeb Special Co-Host: Elise Cutts Scientists recently announced the discovery of Borgs (yes, Borgs), which they describe as giant genetic elements that assimilate DNA from their archaeal hosts. We speak to the lead author of the Borg paper—UC Berkeley graduate student Basem Al-Shayeb—about finding the Borgs, their global implications, and, of course, the story behind their naming. Basem's paper, "Borgs are giant extrachromosomal elements with the potential to augment methane oxidation": https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.10.451761v1 Two recent science news articles by Elise: "Desert Life Conjures Organic Carbon from Thin Air" in EOS: https://eos.org/articles/desert-life-conjures-organic-carbon-from-thin-air "Missing Antarctic microbes raise thorny questions about the search for aliens" in Science News: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/antarctica-microbes-habitability-aliens-extraterrestrial Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Basem: https://twitter.com/themicrobeguy Elise: https://twitter.com/elisecutts