Laura: Hello and welcome to another episode of Lexx Education, the comedy science podcast, where comedian me, Laura Lexx, tries to learn science from her younger brother, Ron.
Laura: Hi, Ron.
Ron: It's your boy, Ron.
Laura: Ron.
Laura: Now, we can't lie, Ron.
Laura: We've just spent an hour together discussing royal gossip.
Ron: Oh, yeah.
Ron: I feel like, you know, like when you've been wearing a heavy backpack all day and then you just get to take it off or, like shoes that were too tight or.
Ron: It's great.
Laura: I feel better now.
Ron: So relieved.
Ron: Yeah, I'm glad, Ron.
Laura: Hey, I just wanted to say right up top, please, could you join our Patreon?
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Laura: Obviously, it's still our one.
Laura: But if you could join, that would help us to put the show out.
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Ron: We are not far off 105 star reviews on Spotify, and I'd love to see trippy Digis there, to be honest.
Ron: And yeah, on the apple ones, not only do you give us a review, it also gives us nice spit of content because we can share that online and then people can hear about us.
Ron: That way we don't have a marketing budget.
Ron: We're not media savvy.
Ron: We didn't go to Oxbridge.
Ron: This is hard.
Laura: Yeah, and I'm a woman.
Laura: And podcasts with women on them, unless they're about true crime, never seem to take off.
Laura: So listen, just do it.
Ron: Or parenting.
Laura: Yeah, that's true.
Laura: I don't want to talk about parenting, though I'm not very good at it.
Laura: I'm worse at that than science.
Laura: Can you imagine?
Laura: Hey, Ron, though you haven't listened back to this episode yet, you're going to listen to it this week.
Laura: But I think this might be our most actually science episode we've ever done.
Ron: We're in a spate of good episodes at the.
Laura: No, but not even entertainment purposes.
Laura: Right.
Laura: Which I personally, I think we're always putting out what the listener wants, but this episode, we actually just really both get into the science.
Ron: Yeah, I remember this one being a lot of fun.
Ron: It's almost as if when you make it, we're going into genetics and stuff in this one, and partially what we've covered in some of the live shows.
Ron: It really goes to show that when the content driving host cares and the other host, the one that's kind of the listener, insert cares, God, you can make some good content.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Which probably means that the listeners will hate this one and be like, when's physics coming back?
Laura: Where you both just call each other idiots for an hour?
Laura: But I loved this one.
Laura: I had a great time.
Laura: We won't blather on because it's a long episode.
Laura: I did want to say content warning at the top.
Laura: We are discussing genetics and.
Laura: What's the matter?
Ron: I know why you're doing a content warning.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Laura: I'm very pro eugenics by eugenics.
Laura: Call hollyoaks.
Laura: No, we discuss inherited genetics and diseases.
Laura: And part of the syllabus is to talk about the moral and ethical weight of embryo screening and of having children that you know are going to inherit genetic diseases.
Laura: Ron and I are obviously discussing that from an able bodied position.
Laura: And if you know that that's going to affect you, just be aware that that discussion is in there.
Laura: I think we handle it pretty sensitively, but then you never know that you've been insensitive until you tread on somebody's feelings by being an absolute idiot.
Laura: So know that we came at this from obviously a very nice perspective, but do be aware that that content is in there.
Laura: And enjoy some punnett squares, everybody.
Laura: Oloran Aya, biology.
Ron: I really have to just squint.
Laura: You've got sunglasses on.
Ron: There we go.
Ron: That's better.
Laura: He hasn't got real sunglasses on.
Laura: He's just got joke sunglasses on.
Laura: On a filter.
Ron: Where are my biology notes?
Ron: All righty, Rue.
Laura: What are we doing today, Ron?
Ron: Well, what did we do last time, Laura?
Laura: Epigenetics and eugenics and stuff?
Laura: I think actually not epigenetics I just think it's one of those words that's got stuck in my answer pool.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: It's a classic just saying stuff.
Laura: DNA in the genome and we definitely covered eugenics.
Ron: No, you always just try and veer things towards eugenics because you're.
Laura: I do not.
Ron: A bit of a Francis Golton type.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Frankie.
Ron: Frankie G.
Ron: Frankie G went to UCL.
Ron: He was a professor there.
Ron: They love eugenics at UCL.
Ron: Well, they did.
Ron: I should caveat.
Ron: And he famously once went around the country and just rated all the women in town squares to find the sexiest place in the country.
Laura: Where was it?
Ron: I can't remember.
Ron: Somewhere boring in Oxfordshire or something.
Ron: Francis criteria was hot ladies.
Laura: Ron, this feels like a dangerous thing to ask Jeeves.
Ron: Rating women.
Laura: I bet he was one of the most unfuckable creatures on God's green earth, too.
Ron: Yeah, Francis gotten the man who drew the ugly map of.
Ron: I'll send you a picture of Francis Golton.
Ron: I don't know, he might kind of be your type, to be fair.
Ron: Oh, I can see you being weirdly attracted to him, whereas you're sending it to you on the web.
Laura: Oh, it's a bit stern for me.
Laura: No, Ron, Ron.
Laura: Are you serious?
Laura: He might be my type.
Laura: He looks like a vulture.
Laura: Human vulture.
Laura: He has got no lips at all.
Laura: He looks like if you crossed a vulture with Dar Obrion and then made it evil, he should not be in a town square judging anybody except other vultures.
Laura: Yuck, Frankie.
Laura: Yuck.
Laura: Frankie G.
Laura: I wonder where the ugliest place in the Britain was.
Ron: Yeah, I've got an article about it.
Ron: He was the first person to use fingerprints in detective, what are you going.
Laura: To say for, like, art or something?
Laura: It worked in a kindergarten.
Ron: He made statistical inquiries into the efficacy of prayer.
Ron: Why will nowhere tell me this?
Ron: Someone else tell us?
Ron: So, Laura, today let's do a Patreon.
Laura: Episode on Francis Golton.
Ron: Frankie G.
Ron: Sure.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, that's a good.
Laura: Put a detentron down as Frankie G.
Ron: Does that mean you have to do it?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Lovely.
Laura: And I'll tell you all about it.
Ron: Nice.
Laura: After epigenetic Steve Jobs magnets and the bayou.
Ron: And the staff room with Max.
Laura: Yeah, I've put that on the list, Ron.
Laura: It's there on the spreadsheet on tab two.
Ron: Nice.
Ron: Right, so today we're going to carry on with all of that bobbish.
Ron: We're going to start off, Laura, with 4.6.1 .5 inherited disorders.
Ron: Now, we've talked a bit about inherited disorders before.
Laura: Can you name any blue eyes?
Ron: That's not a disorder really, is it?
Laura: Oh, eczema.
Ron: I don't know, that's not one that we've.
Laura: Well, I went to see a dermatologist this week and she asked me if eczema and skin complaints were in the family.
Ron: Well said.
Ron: No, there's one.
Ron: Okay.
Laura: I'm fine, by the way, Ron.
Laura: I just have to use a moisturizer as soap.
Ron: For someone that professes to be, know, great skin person, you seem to have a lot of skin issues.
Laura: Yes, all falling off.
Laura: What do I profess to be a great skin person?
Laura: You just cross because I don't have that forehead wrinkle that you and older sister have got.
Ron: No, I started moisturizing and now I've just got spots.
Laura: Maybe you need to drink more water.
Ron: I drink so much water.
Ron: Less now that I don't have my water bottle.
Ron: I can't believe you guys did blame mum.
Laura: She wasn't tall enough either.
Ron: I just don't understand why you guys didn't just climb up and get it.
Laura: Because we thought Tom was coming back.
Ron: But then when that didn't happen.
Laura: Well, I forgot it then.
Ron: So the two disorders that we're going to look at.
Ron: And that wasn't a cut there listener.
Ron: I genuinely did just change subject that quickly.
Ron: We're going to have a look at polydacty.
Laura: I think that's a dinosaur.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: One that's free, loving and open and trusting.
Laura: Oh, I don't get it.
Ron: That's okay.
Laura: Like a polyamory joke.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Do you think you could ever be in a polyamorous relationship?
Ron: I think if I didn't really care for the people that I was in it with.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: I don't really like my friends having other friends.
Laura: No, I know what you mean.
Laura: I don't like it when you and Sarah go for brunch.
Ron: I know that really hurts you.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: You're too weak for polyamory, kissing on someone else.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: I'm not even entirely sure I want to have a daughter that he likes as much as he does.
Ron: He likes the daughter more than you.
Laura: What, more than he likes me or more than I like her?
Ron: Both.
Laura: No, I like her loads at the moment.
Laura: She's very funny this week.
Ron: Yeah, she's a cool kid.
Laura: Yeah, she's been good.
Laura: Crack.
Ron: Anyway, so polydactylly, that is having extra fingers or toes now.
Ron: Oh, this is caused by a dominant allele.
Ron: Laura, what does that mean?
Laura: Oh, an allele is a gene type, a flavor of gene.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: So if it's dominant, it means it's the one that.
Laura: If that's in there, that one rules.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Very nice.
Ron: Okay, so we're going to do what.
Ron: We covered them briefly before, but I don't think we actually got into doing some ourselves.
Ron: We're going to do something called a Punnett square.
Ron: Okay.
Laura: Strawberries.
Ron: So, a Punnett square is basically a way of working out the Ods of basically breeding outcomes.
Ron: So I'm going to send you an example, Punnett Square, as figure A on the WhatsApp web.
Laura: It's been ages since we had a figure.
Ron: I guess it's figure B, actually, because Francis Golden's dead.
Ron: It's there.
Ron: Come on.
Ron: He looks exactly like icky pop in those insurance adverts that, you know.
Laura: He doesn't, Ron.
Laura: He looks like.
Laura: Is it the vulture in Horton?
Laura: Here's a who.
Laura: Yeah, he looks a bit like vlad the vulture from Horton.
Laura: Here's a who.
Ron: This isn't for you, but he looks a lot like a character from a Dark Souls game.
Laura: He is scary.
Laura: Also, Sam the eagle.
Laura: He doesn't like Sam the eagle.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Right.
Laura: Okay, so the Punnett square, then.
Ron: I'm just going to go get some water while you describe that to the listeners.
Laura: You've got water.
Ron: I've drunk it all.
Ron: Because this is only 500 mil.
Ron: I don't have my full liter bottle.
Laura: I drank some water today.
Laura: I waited until Ron had taken his headphones off to say that, though.
Laura: So this Punnett square situation, what we've got at the top is we've got a rectangle with the word mother written in it.
Laura: And then underneath this rectangle, mother, there's two squares making up the length of the mother, and they both have a capital f for father in them.
Laura: Then below this and to the left, there's a big square that says father.
Laura: And then in front of the father box, in two smaller boxes making up the height of the father box.
Laura: In the top one, there's a capital f, and in the bottom one, there's a lowercase f, so it leaves a space underneath the two mother f's and to the right of the two father f's that I assume we're going to do some kind of diagram in.
Ron: Yeah, so, the mother, the capital f, you use a capital to denote a dominant gene, and you use a lowercase letter to denote a recessive.
Laura: Dominant is all caps because they're shouting.
Laura: What's the opposite of dominant?
Laura: Submissive?
Ron: Recessive, recessive.
Laura: Lower case.
Laura: It's like they got on the train first they've got the lower case.
Laura: Don't have to heft your case to the overhead locker storage because there was space on the little suitcase place for yours.
Ron: That was a bit of a weird one, wasn't it?
Laura: That's my job on this podcast.
Laura: And as it's gone on for 92 episodes, now, they've had to get weirder and weirder.
Ron: 92.
Ron: Wow.
Ron: So what you do with a pun?
Laura: We're only listening to one episode a year.
Laura: You'll be very old by now.
Laura: And you wouldn't have understood the first six because you were a baby.
Ron: So, Laura, I want you to draw your own Punnett square.
Laura: I've actually drawn it, Ron.
Ron: Okay.
Ron: But what I want.
Laura: Use a ruler, so it's a bit wobbly.
Ron: I want you to draw a new one.
Laura: Why?
Laura: I just drew that one.
Ron: Yeah, because I don't want you to draw this one.
Ron: I want you to draw a new one.
Laura: I wish you told me that before.
Ron: Didn't ask you to draw that one.
Laura: You left me alone.
Laura: Unsupervised learning.
Ron: Yeah, and you took the initiative.
Ron: I just need you to adjust it.
Ron: So rather than an f, can I.
Laura: Turn it into an A?
Laura: I can do that easily.
Ron: No, just draw a new one.
Laura: What, with the same father and mother?
Ron: Yeah, with father and mother.
Ron: But instead of an F, the mother, she's got six fingers on one hand.
Ron: Okay, so she's got one capital P and one little P.
Ron: The father, he's got normal fingers and toes.
Ron: That's five.
Ron: He's just got two little P's.
Laura: Two little P's.
Laura: P's are very annoying, though, because it's very hard to see with a p whether it's upper or lowercase.
Ron: Well, make it obvious then.
Laura: Poo poo pee.
Laura: I've done it quite bold.
Ron: Okay, now, a Punnett square is a grid, so there should be four boxes in between the mother and the father, if you see what I mean.
Ron: Great.
Laura: And then I'm guessing in the one between the big P and the small p, I do a big P and a little P.
Laura: And then in all the others, I do two small p's.
Laura: So the single letter one in four chance.
Laura: No, you've got a 50 50 chance of getting six fingers.
Ron: And why is that?
Laura: Because the big P is going to go into two of the boxes.
Ron: And what are the boxes?
Laura: Alleles?
Laura: No, genomes.
Ron: Kind of genomes for.
Laura: Fingers.
Ron: Genomes of what is going to have six fingers?
Laura: A child.
Laura: A child, yeah.
Ron: So what do the single letters on their own represent in a punnett?
Ron: Square.
Laura: The two genes that are in the allele of the parent.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: And when do the alleles of the parent get separated and are on their own to then be shuffled like this?
Laura: When they're gametes.
Ron: When they're gametes.
Ron: Laura, you're on it today.
Ron: Really well done.
Ron: That's really good.
Ron: So that's a dominant allele.
Ron: And you can see how they would be even though there's only one occurrence of it in the mother and.
Laura: No, there's two occurrence.
Laura: Oh.
Laura: In the mother and father.
Laura: I see.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: It still results in 50% of the offspring being.
Ron: Having six fingers.
Laura: Because it's dominant.
Ron: Because it's dominant, yeah.
Ron: And it's why things like brown eyes are so much more common than blue eyes.
Ron: And that represent.
Ron: Because not only I feel like they're not, though.
Ron: That's just where we live, isn't it?
Laura: Is it?
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: That makes sense.
Ron: And also our family.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: We're a very blue eyed famo.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So the next thing we're going to learn about Laura is cystic fibrosis.
Ron: Do you know of this?
Laura: Yes.
Ron: So cystic fibrosis is a disease of the lungs.
Ron: It's an inherited disorder.
Ron: It's caused by a recessive allele.
Ron: So first scenario that we're going to look at is the one from the original punnett square that I sent over to you.
Ron: So you can use that one now.
Laura: Woohoo.
Ron: So can you please fill that one in, please?
Laura: Okay.
Ron: And could you just recap the f?
Laura: So I'm putting my four boxes in.
Laura: Mother has two caps f's, which means.
Ron: She doesn't have any cystic fibrosis in her.
Ron: Or cystic fibrosis genes, rather.
Laura: Oh, my pen has stopped working while.
Ron: Laura figures this out.
Laura: I'm not figuring out, I'm just trying to get my pen to work.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So do we have to listen to that, or can I tell people about cystic fibrosis?
Laura: What if I want to listen about cystic?
Ron: Well, you can listen while you figure your pen out, can't you?
Laura: Okay, my pen's working again.
Ron: So cystic fibrosis, it's an inherited disorder.
Ron: It affects the cell membranes, mostly in the lungs.
Ron: Well, that's many we hear about.
Ron: It also affects the digestive system.
Ron: Essentially what happens is your lungs get clogged up with a sticky mucus that you struggle to get rid of.
Ron: That then ends up damaging your lungs.
Ron: And it's all not very nice.
Ron: The allele in question is found on chromosome seven.
Ron: And, yeah, it's a recessive thing.
Ron: There are treatments available, but unfortunately, it is associated with shorter lifespans.
Ron: It's not very nice.
Laura: No.
Laura: So I've done this Punnett square.
Laura: It sort of results in a very similar outcome.
Laura: You get two options where you've got the two dominant F's and then two options where you've got the recessive and a dominant n.
Laura: So how many of.
Ron: The offspring in that scenario have cystic fibrosis?
Laura: Well, I would say none of them have cystic fibrosis, but they are carriers of cystic fibrosis.
Laura: So it would take them breeding with another person that carried the recessive gene in order to give the potential for a child that would have cystic fibrosis.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So this is the reverse scenario of the one that we did with the polydactyl thing.
Ron: So there's only one instance of cystic fibrosis in this pairing, and you physically cannot have a child that has cystic fibrosis, which just goes to show you how much a difference that dominant and recessive relationship can make.
Ron: And also, interestingly, can you see from that why inbreeding then makes the chance of inherited disorders coming to the surface more?
Laura: Yeah, well, because then you're way more likely to have two carriers of recessive genes.
Ron: Exactly.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So 50% of your offspring are then going to be carriers, and then if.
Laura: They start banging, what makes a gene recessive or dominant?
Ron: It varies.
Ron: Now, everything I'm about to say is kind of speculation, but illustrative of the question, effectively.
Ron: So if you think about the polydactyl thing, if you have a gene that says, make another finger, having an allele that says, make another finger, the other allele doesn't say only make five fingers, if you see what I mean.
Ron: So that could be dominant just because it tells your body to do something, and there's no mechanism for saying, don't do that.
Ron: Whereas with something like cystic fibrosis, where it's affecting a membrane, it's probably some characteristic or makeup of that membrane.
Ron: So if you just have one allele, one chromosome pumping it out, then it's fine, your membranes are fine.
Ron: But if you lack that gene entirely or you have two faulty versions of that gene, so you then can't make that thing, then you have the problem.
Ron: So it's recessive because your body can transcribe and use the genes from both chromosomes at all times.
Laura: Got you.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Which is another reason why we have this diploid system, because it makes our health quite a lot more so it's almost like in the same way that.
Laura: Having, like, a failsafe.
Ron: Yeah, well, it's like having good biodiversity in a population is really good.
Ron: You have good biodiversity in yourself if you are heterozygous on something.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Hetero is the way to go.
Ron: Let's not back that.
Laura: Let's call the episode that.
Laura: We'll just pivot away from the main message of the podcast thus far, which has been love is love, and everybody's cool, and now no more.
Ron: So, Laura, could you then do, for both mother and father, big f, little F.
Ron: Punnett Square, just so that we can round this little bit off?
Laura: Yes.
Laura: Oh, dear.
Laura: This is going to.
Laura: So basically, they're going to have a one in four chance, aren't they, of having a cystic fibrosis, a child that has cystic fibrosis.
Laura: But then there would be two instances of them being a carrier and then one instance of them not even carrying the gene.
Ron: Exactly.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Cool.
Laura: So this is like one of those examples, isn't it, where you could do the gene, not in a eugenics way, but do the gene analysis on yourself, and then you would know that if you were a carrier but your partner wasn't, you sort of have a good chance of not, like, doing it.
Laura: But if you both carried it as a recessive gene, you might want to think hard about whether or not you had a child, because obviously you can have a lovely life with cystic fibrosis, but it's a different sort of.
Ron: Yeah, it goes a bit further than that sometimes as well, because as you can see from the first one we did, even if only one of you has it, and there's a 0% chance that 0% chance that your child will still 50% of the offspring that you make will be carriers.
Ron: So do you want to necessarily sort of knowingly propagate something like that in a population?
Ron: It's a very tricky ethical subject, I think.
Laura: Yeah, it's a huge subject because also you can't have the conversation like, oh, a child born with cystic fibrosis doesn't have a life and isn't a great person because, no, the more there's stupid things like ramps and talking technology and stuff, the more you have the ability to get to know people with these diseases that before would have been shut away.
Laura: And as technology grows to allow.
Laura: All my words have gone today, but do you know what I mean?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So one of the technical innovations that makes this an even more difficult sort of ethical conversation at the moment is embryo screening.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So when you have IVF or something you can get your fetus, like, the genome sequenced and you could find out whether that child is a carrier of cystic fibrosis or even if in some cases, if you had a bunch of embryos that you'd made for purposes of IVF or something, you could screen them all and then pick the one that wasn't even a carrier or something like that.
Laura: It's a very difficult subject, isn't it?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: What do you think about it?
Laura: I think it's really hard because my instinctual brain wants to go, hey, have the healthiest child you can, because from a parent standpoint, it's cheaper to have a child that has the same abilities and disabilities as the rest of the population.
Laura: It's easier to be shallow and frank about it, but I think it's very easy to dismiss a life with disabilities as less than or those people as less than when that's not the case and you meet these incredible people that deal with disabilities.
Laura: So it's so hard to say, oh, I would choose not to continue that pregnancy or something like that based on a disability.
Laura: When you're throwing away a whole amazing person.
Ron: What about on the embryo screening?
Ron: So you're kind of getting in there before.
Laura: Yeah, I guess.
Laura: Then you end up in this whole republican cycle chat, don't you, of where does life begin, but then do you, by knowing that you don't have the but that you both carry the recessive gene and then choosing not to have children at all and to adopt or something, or do something else, is that just as throwing away the lives or like not trying for a baby that month, that egg vanishes, you've given away that person?
Laura: I guess with the embryo screening, it feels like you are choosing the embryo that has the best chance of making it to full term, which feels financially intelligent given that IVF costs a f****** bomb and you have to put your body through a whole heap to even get pregnant?
Laura: I think it's a very complicated conversation.
Laura: I suppose what I'd be interested to hear the opinions of is actually somebody who lived with an inherited disease, talking about their decisions on breeding and what they felt about it as somebody that lived with it and then was going on to have their own children.
Laura: Like, how do they feel?
Ron: Yeah, absolutely.
Ron: We are not the people to be really discussing this in depth, I think, for me, I just would never want to know, I think, if you know what I mean.
Ron: I think as soon as you have to make a decision in there, because even if you're doing the embryo screening, you're like, okay, so got a risk of cystic fibrosis in our family because we're both carriers.
Ron: So, okay, we'll select this one because this is the one that isn't a carrier at all.
Ron: And then they can have kids and not, you know, not even have to worry about these things.
Ron: What if you then selected that embryo and then it had a different issue or something?
Ron: And then, yeah, just by putting in that level of human choice, I think would be too difficult for me.
Laura: These genes then that come out like this.
Laura: So where does cystic fibrosis enter the or polydactylly, where does that enter into genes?
Laura: Can you develop it?
Laura: Does it have to be in the genes of your parents in order to have it in you?
Laura: Or can it suddenly appear in the gene sequence like other.
Ron: It can suddenly appear in a family tree, especially with dominant things.
Ron: You'd have to be so incredibly unlucky for it.
Ron: Well, it's almost impossible to recessive thing.
Ron: But if you took the polybadactly thing, because all of these things arise through random mutation.
Laura: That's what I'm thinking.
Laura: Like, how often can it just mutate?
Ron: But that would never, like, you couldn't just evolve being the wrong word, but you couldn't just mutate cystic fibrosis, because that would require you to have the same mutation across every cell that is in the surface of your lungs, or I guess the exact right cell could when you were an embryo or something.
Ron: But basically no, same with polydacty.
Ron: But it does appear in bloodlines, in family trees, because all you need is for it to happen in one sperm or egg cell, and then that is in the whole child.
Ron: Yeah, it's a very interesting topic.
Ron: The whole designer babies thing is a big topic, or at least it was fairly recently.
Ron: I think the other thing that needs to be addressed in this discussion is that all of these things cost money.
Ron: So if you allow too much of it, then it basically means people that can afford it and can afford to do it well then have super healthy children.
Ron: And that's not a luxury that everyone else gets, making it inherently unfair.
Laura: Yeah, but then that already exists, doesn't it?
Laura: Because if you have money, you have access to better food and faster health care and transport.
Laura: That's less dangerous.
Laura: So you already have, the wealthier you are, generally speaking, the more access to health you.
Ron: Yeah, yeah.
Ron: But that doesn't mean we should be arming them with more.
Laura: No, eat.
Laura: The rich don't breed them.
Ron: Absolutely.
Ron: So, Laura, that might have seemed just like a cool teacher sat on the table, rolled up his sleeves.
Ron: Bit of discussion.
Ron: But actually, students should be able to make informed judgments about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning embryo screening, given appropriate information.
Ron: I think you can do that, mate.
Laura: I hope so.
Laura: My answer is, it's very complicated.
Laura: I'm glad I don't have to do it.
Ron: Yeah, well, the key opportunities for skills development here are.
Ron: Appreciate that embryo screening and gene therapy may alleviate suffering, but consider the ethical issues which arise.
Ron: And you've done that?
Laura: I have done that.
Ron: How long have we been recording?
Laura: Half an hour.
Ron: Okay, we'll do the next bit then.
Ron: Now we're going to do 4.6.1.
Ron: .6 fun to say, fun to say.
Ron: Sex determination.
Laura: One box says has a headache, the other box says, doesn't have a headache.
Laura: Has a headache is dominant.
Laura: So if they both have a headache, they will not have sex.
Laura: If they both don't have a headache, they will have sex.
Laura: But if one has a headache and the other doesn't, they also won't have sex too long.
Laura: You weren't giving me any reaction.
Ron: It's worrying.
Ron: As a stand up comedian, your reaction was to just keep going.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Just keep pushing the joke on, then it becomes anti comedy, doesn't it?
Ron: I saw some nice comedy the other day.
Laura: Yeah, I know.
Laura: You've been seeing all these great f****** comedians and you keep texting me about them.
Ron: Well, yeah, because there's a common interest that we have.
Laura: What, other people that are good at comedy?
Laura: No, Ron, I'm interested in me being good at comedy.
Ron: You're literally performing with the person that I saw the other day.
Laura: Yeah, I'd just never heard of her, so I didn't reply.
Ron: Well, now I can't say you here.
Laura: I look forward to meeting her there, but she's excited to gig with me.
Laura: I had a moment in a gig the other day where this guy must have thought I was such a p**** for a couple of seconds because I was selling books after my slot and I was the first act on and I was talking to somebody about Juergen Klopp and how he had resigned from know, and I said, I genuinely, I'm interested to see what happens now because it's going to be a tough gig to take on.
Laura: I wouldn't want to follow know.
Laura: The guy in the queue behind went like, what?
Laura: And I was know, it's quite tough.
Laura: He thought I was saying, I wouldn't want to be the next act on.
Laura: I wouldn't want to have to follow, like, no.
Ron: Oh, my goodness.
Laura: But, oh, to have that much arrogance and confidence.
Laura: Like, can you imagine trying to follow the absolute blistering set of stand up?
Laura: I just did.
Laura: Good luck.
Laura: Peter Brush.
Laura: He actually did very well.
Laura: He got like four applause breaks.
Laura: He was excellent.
Ron: Nice.
Ron: Never heard of him.
Laura: He had a really great bit that stuck with me, that I really enjoyed where he was like, he's got a very dry sense of humor and it's very deadpan and he just sort of stands there with his hands in his pockets and sort of drones like this.
Laura: He said, you have to be very careful about things that you tell children.
Laura: When I was younger, my aunt told me that if I wanked too much, I'd go blind.
Laura: And I don't think that's a good thing to tell children because it just meant I spent a lot of my childhood judging the actual blind.
Ron: That's a very good joke.
Laura: It's really great.
Laura: Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Laura: He had some real crackers.
Laura: He was very good.
Laura: I think because it was on my mind of that guy thinking I'd said that.
Laura: I was like, he's actually a great act for me to be on a bill with because he's very good.
Laura: But we have the absolute opposite styles, so it's really something for everybody.
Laura: If you like that overanimated, I'm there, but if you like that, sort of just precision, long build up, good, strong, solid punchline.
Laura: He's there.
Laura: It was really good.
Laura: I really enjoyed.
Ron: Just saw, I went to the first thing of a cool queer comedy night in Clifton, called out comedy at the room above, which.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Does Charlie George run it?
Ron: No, maybe, I don't know.
Ron: But, yeah, it was very good.
Ron: Like very beginner stuff.
Ron: Like literally some people still at uni and whatnot, but, yeah, twas impressed.
Laura: Nice.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: What are we doing?
Ron: So, sex determination.
Ron: So, Laura, how many pairs of chromosomes do we have?
Laura: 26, 23.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: And they are all numbered from one to 22 in order of their length.
Ron: And then there is a different one.
Ron: There is one pair that is different, which is that X and Y, because.
Laura: These are sex chromosomes.
Ron: Absolutely.
Laura: And if you have X or Y or Xx, you must dress a certain way and look a certain way or everyone on the Internet will tell you off.
Laura: And you must be exactly the same as society tells you.
Laura: A little song about turfs.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And it really looked like you then bent down to rip a fat liner, Charlie.
Laura: Yeah, well, because I haven't got any brownies to eat, I've just decided to class a drug cocaine this weekend.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: You know me, I've never actually done cocaine ever before.
Laura: And I thought now just before a record would be the perfect time to give it a whirl.
Ron: Yeah, I don't not see that for you.
Laura: We finished chemistry and physics.
Laura: Now we got to blow through biology as fast as possible.
Ron: Now we've got to break bad.
Ron: Let's do it.
Ron: Let's start cooking some meth.
Ron: No, I see that for you.
Ron: You've got a kid now.
Ron: You live out in the suburbs.
Ron: You could take a lot of drugs, do that.
Laura: I think all drugs would do to me is the ones that g you up.
Laura: Everybody around me would hate me because I'm already quite gee'd up.
Laura: And the ones that slow you down, I'd hate me.
Laura: I don't think there's a sweet spot drug where we'd all like me on it.
Ron: I think we should do weed brownies together at some point.
Laura: I just think I'd get paranoid and sad, Ron.
Ron: No, it's different.
Ron: It's nice.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: You have to cook them because if I smash them, I'll be really gross.
Laura: I did look at the batter on the floor for a while and think, I can't feed this to other people, but I could just cook them for me and Tom.
Laura: But then I remembered how much my dog is in our house and how much broken pot there was in them.
Ron: So can we do a Punnett square for xx and Xy?
Ron: Laura?
Laura: Yes.
Laura: Got my hands stuck in my pants.
Ron: Then why are your hands in your pants while we're recording?
Laura: Because I'm wearing a dress with poppers down the front and it's fun to cram my hand through two of the poppers.
Ron: I don't like that.
Laura: Now how does it work?
Laura: Women at xx and males at X Y?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Would you look at that?
Laura: You've got a 50 50 chance of a male and 50 50 chance of a female.
Ron: Indeed you do.
Ron: So what you can do with Punnett Squares is you can double up things.
Ron: So you could, if you wanted to work out what the ODs are of having a boy with cystic fibrosis or a girl with cystic fibrosis or not, is, do you reckon you could work out how to do that?
Ron: So let's go back to the second Punnett square we did for cystic fibrosis.
Ron: Gloria.
Ron: So we've got a big f and a little f for both mother and father.
Laura: Oh, no, I didn't to have that.
Laura: I had a big f for both of them.
Ron: Yes, a big f and a little f for both of them.
Laura: No, I had a big f both for mum and a big f and a little f for father.
Ron: But the second one we did was should have.
Laura: Oh, I didn't draw that one out.
Ron: Right.
Ron: Okay, I'll draw now.
Ron: Lovely.
Laura: Sorry, Ron.
Laura: I just did that one in my head like a clever boop.
Ron: I've been very impressed with you this episode, Laura.
Laura: Thank you.
Laura: I'm an impressive woman, full of charm and wit and grace and ideas about science and biology is just so much better than anything else.
Laura: Okay, I've drawn that.
Ron: You've just done the big f.
Ron: Little f one.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Okay, so now we're going to do, I guess, how do you think a Punnett square would look when you're doing it across two different things?
Ron: So how many different options are there coming from each side, and what are those options if we're considering a man and a woman having a baby?
Laura: So I'm guessing there's going to be four.
Laura: So, like with the mother, you're going to have.
Laura: No, wait.
Laura: Is that right?
Laura: Yeah, you're going to have.
Laura: Right, because with the father, you're going to need x capital F, x small f, and Y capital f.
Laura: Y small f.
Laura: So with the mother, do you have four X's or do you just still have the two x's?
Laura: One capital f, one small f.
Laura: What do you think?
Laura: Just two?
Ron: No, you do actually do the four.
Ron: Because the mother has two X chromosomes.
Ron: Just because she has two X chromosomes doesn't mean that those are identical.
Ron: They are still different alleles of each other.
Ron: There are genes on those X chromosomes.
Ron: But just for our purposes of working out the born sex of that child, it doesn't matter which one's which.
Laura: So then when I start drawing it out, the top row is axx, double capital FXx, two different types of X F's, double X, capital FXx, both types of F.
Laura: Okay, talk amongst yourselves for a.
Laura: It kind of wish I'd done this in different colors now.
Laura: I think it would be much easier to see.
Laura: Okay, Ron, so I've basically got two out of 16.
Laura: So that's a one in eight chance of having a girl that is not a carrier, a one in four chance of having a girl that is a carrier, and a one in eight chance of having a girl with cystic fibrosis and same Z's for boy.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So you see how as soon as you introduce just one more gene, how the probability stuff gets just a little bit more complicated and starts introducing even more variation into a population.
Ron: So that is just sex determination, which is almost a unique case kind of in genetics.
Ron: This is actually a diagram that was used in our cheerful earful show.
Ron: If it lets me send it.
Ron: Come on, behave.
Ron: It's being a booger.
Ron: Well, I'll take a screenshot of it, 2 seconds, because it's very illustrative.
Ron: So we've talked before about how multi gene traits, you don't get this sort of almost kind of binary nature of them, but they fall on a bell curve, things like height and stuff.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So what I'm going to send you now is a Punnett square across three genes, which will show you how that bell curve starts building up, if you want to describe that.
Ron: So I think this is a simplistic representation of how skin color or coloration could work.
Laura: Okay, so across the sort of two axes of the Punnett square graph, we've got eight columns and eight rows.
Laura: Columns are across, rows are up and downers, and we're using A, B and C to illustrate the three genes, dominant being capital.
Laura: So first is ABC, all caps, then AB, cap, small C, then capital A, small B, capital C, small A, capital BC, capital A, small BC, A, capital B, small C, AB, capital C, ABC, all lowercase and the same going down.
Ron: So what are we learning from this, Laura?
Ron: What can we infer about these three alleles that the Punnett square is for?
Ron: What does the recessive one.
Laura: The recessive one carries the paler skin.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Or probably in this case a lack of pigment rather than.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Because where all caps ones meet, in the top left corner you've got the darkest square.
Laura: And then in the bottom corner, where the two lowercase options meet, you've got the zero in the palest square.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So all of these genes function in the same way if you have the dominant one, if you have one dominant and two recessive, you have a certain coloration.
Ron: But it doesn't actually matter whether it's AB or C.
Laura: Yeah, it doesn't matter which gene it is.
Laura: You will have the coloration.
Ron: So then what's on the right there is just a really simple column graph of these different colorations.
Ron: So the most common thing that you could have is a coloration score of three where it's essentially you've got three.
Laura: Capitals in your genes.
Ron: So it's actually a double doubler crossing with a single, like one with two dominance crossing with one with.
Ron: It's three dominance across your parents.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Out of six possibilities, three are dominant.
Laura: Yeah, sorry, you're breaking up a bit.
Laura: So we missed some of that.
Laura: But I've summarized it beautifully.
Laura: Seem to have lost you.
Laura: I'm going to cut the video and see if that makes it better.
Laura: We seem to have lost Ron and my child's woken up.
Laura: So I guess that's the end and we'll see you for the quiz.
Ron: You're muted still.
Laura: I was still muted, Ron.
Laura: Well spotted.
Laura: It's episode 90 two's quiz.
Laura: It feels like a thousand years since we last recorded.
Laura: Oh, this was a great episode.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Oh, look at all my notes.
Laura: It's going to be difficult to do a quiz, though, because it was lots of drawing.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So we're going to focus mainly on Punnett squares for the quiz.
Laura: Pick your own jeans.
Laura: Pick your own jeans.
Ron: Is that a thing?
Laura: Punnett.
Laura: Like, you pick a punnett of strawberries if you go to a pick your own fruit farm.
Ron: F****** h***.
Ron: That was a leap.
Laura: What else jokes are you going to make on Punnett?
Laura: I can't remember which stand up it was.
Laura: Somebody used to have a really good bit about signs at the side of the road.
Laura: It just said, pick your own strawberries.
Laura: It was a great bit.
Laura: Pick your own strawberries.
Ron: Punnets are the lowest form of wittits.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I feel like you did that in the main episode.
Ron: I don't think so.
Ron: That's off the top of the old dome.
Laura: All right.
Laura: Steve Punnett and Hugh Dennett.
Laura: Is that any good?
Ron: Who's Steve punt.
Laura: Steve punt.
Laura: He does used to do the now show with Hugh Dennis, but obviously canceled.
Laura: Now he's canceled.
Laura: No, the show's canceled.
Laura: It was on for 25 years.
Laura: It's not really a tragedy.
Laura: Punnett who?
Laura: Punnet.
Laura: A classic who Punnett.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: There's something in that one.
Ron: That's fine.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Bach.
Ron: I used to know a guy called Sam.
Ron: Done it.
Ron: So Sam Punnett is the thing.
Laura: Yeah, that works.
Ron: Ah.
Laura: Should we do the quiz?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: It's embarrassing after a while, isn't it?
Laura: That might be the worst time I'll have ever used the thinking music, though.
Ron: Laura.
Ron: Okay, question the first.
Ron: You'll need pen and paper for this because it will require.
Laura: Do you know what?
Laura: I'm not that far off the end of my notepad.
Laura: And then I can move on to my other one that I think Catherine gave me.
Laura: I think it was Catherine.
Laura: It'll be onto my second.
Ron: Wow.
Laura: Isn't that nice and fancy?
Ron: That's lovely stuff.
Ron: And just for the end of GCSe as well.
Laura: That's worked out well.
Laura: There's been a lot of chat in the discord, Ron, about people wanting us to do the non combined syllabus.
Ron: Why, though?
Laura: Because they say that that would be a good step up because it would be a little bit more in depth, but not quite the jump to a level.
Ron: No, they should have piped up before we did the whole GCSE.
Ron: We're not doing gcse with you again.
Laura: They didn't know that we were doing this podcast, Ron.
Laura: We didn't consult the general public.
Ron: No, we're not doing gcse again.
Laura: I think that's not like a council.
Laura: We don't have to stick stuff to the lampposting.
Laura: Can we please get recording permission to do.
Ron: We are a socialist democracy in this podcast.
Laura: We're a fascist dictatorship run by you.
Ron: We're not doing.
Ron: Why would we do gcse again?
Laura: There's more stuff.
Laura: We do all the stuff that wasn't in the combined.
Ron: But why would we just do a bunch of content where it's just kind of like, well, yeah, we did that bit.
Ron: Oh, there's an extra bullet point on this bit.
Ron: A bit more detail on that.
Laura: You could do the prep.
Laura: You could prep for it.
Laura: So rather than reading it from going, oh, we did all this.
Laura: You could go through it and pull.
Ron: Out, yeah, but each episode would just be tidbits.
Ron: We can't have a Tidbits podcast.
Laura: Why?
Laura: We love tidbits.
Ron: I love a tidbit.
Laura: But then tidbits.
Laura: I thought they were tidbits.
Ron: Well, you were always thinking about t***.
Ron: No, it's obviously.
Ron: It's a tidbit.
Laura: What's a tidbit?
Ron: You know what a tidbit is.
Laura: It's a small bit come from.
Ron: Well, like, it's a tiddler.
Laura: It's a tiddly bits at the end of the.
Ron: We could do a Patreon episode of Tidbits till our tid's content.
Ron: But I'm not.
Ron: No, we're not doing the GCSes again.
Ron: That was the only wrong answer.
Laura: All right, well, you tell our loyal army of lab rats, then.
Ron: Loyal army?
Ron: No.
Laura: This is why I'm the favorite.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Because I'm like, yeah, I'll do anything.
Ron: Fine.
Ron: The thing is, I don't know why they're protecting you from going up to a level.
Laura: Because it sounds difficult.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: But you're not.
Ron: Children do this.
Laura: Not children.
Laura: 17 year olds.
Ron: There are children.
Ron: No, they're not allowed to drink.
Ron: Can't have a pint.
Ron: You can't bang them, though.
Laura: Ew.
Ron: You can.
Ron: That's just the law.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Only sober.
Ron: I guess you could be drunk.
Laura: I think I'd have to be.
Laura: Horrible idea.
Laura: I've never really understood the appeal of virginity anyway.
Laura: Let's not wander down that.
Ron: Wait, because you've never understood the appeal of it.
Ron: You've never understood the appeal of it, as in having it or losing it.
Laura: Either, like fancying somebody because of their virginity or keeping my own as some kind of thing that was meant to feel different before and after.
Laura: Maybe it's more of a male thing, I don't know.
Laura: The thought of having sex with a virgin man makes me go, oh, Jesus Christ.
Ron: No, I think the only people that care that much about virginity are people that are probably just bad at sex.
Ron: So view it as something that's, like, done to someone and is therefore bad.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Mabes, I feel like I want to get off this subject because it's not long enough between this chat, which is a sort of virginity pedophilia conversation, and your eugenics, and I just want to put some distance between these subjects.
Laura: Coming up on our brother sister science, we said if we went full Rogan, we'd get more listeners, but I don't actually want to.
Ron: That's fine.
Ron: That's fine.
Ron: Should we do the quiz?
Laura: Yeah, let me draw some pond nuts.
Ron: This is always what happens when we haven't.
Ron: We should always make sure we record in intros Outros when we haven't spoken in a we.
Laura: Why aren't we doing an intros outros, though, Ron?
Ron: Because we're recording again on Sunday and we always do it in the closest record to when it goes, not when.
Laura: Necessary, when it's a Sunday.
Laura: Because that means I've got to spend my very first Mother's Day as a mother editing our podcast and recording it to put it out.
Ron: Your child doesn't know what f****** day of the week nor day of the year it is.
Laura: Ron, since our birthday, she's been singing happy birthday.
Ron: That's really cute.
Laura: Happy bird to you.
Laura: Happy bird to you.
Laura: It's so lovely.
Ron: I guess she doesn't really understand what happened.
Ron: So to her, that's, hi, baby.
Laura: Can you say hi to Uncle Ron?
Laura: Can you say hi, Ron?
Laura: No, she hates.
Laura: She points to your water bottle every day, though.
Ron: So cross about that.
Laura: I'm just going to let her have it.
Laura: I'm going to let her fill it with gravel and use it as a Moraca.
Ron: Then you will owe me 27 english pounds.
Laura: Look, if it's you and gravel, Laura.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: I'm a carrier for cystic fibrosis.
Ron: My partner has six fingers and cystic fibrosis.
Ron: I am turgid with life, pregnant with our child.
Ron: What are the chances that our child will have neither six fingers nor cystic fibrosis?
Laura: So wait a minute.
Laura: Say all that information again, please, Ron.
Ron: I am pregnant, turgid with life in a magic womb and also a.
Laura: You're pregnant and in a womb?
Ron: No, my pregnancy is in my womb.
Laura: Got you.
Ron: I'm a carrier for the cystic fibrosis allele.
Ron: I have five things.
Laura: Wait.
Laura: And the cystic fibrosis is.
Laura: Yes.
Laura: Okay, continue.
Ron: And I have five fingers on each hand.
Laura: Are you including a thumb as a finger there.
Ron: Thumbs are fingers.
Laura: Thumbs are fingers.
Ron: All thumbs are fingers.
Ron: But not all fingers are thumbs.
Laura: I love this.
Ron: For us, it's like squares and rectangles.
Ron: Now, my partner has six fingers.
Ron: The one that knocked me up has six fingers.
Ron: He's 17, sober, has six fingers.
Ron: And cystic fibrosis.
Laura: Ron?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: How do I know if the father is going to have two dominant six finger genes or one dominant one recessive?
Ron: Good question, Laura.
Ron: And you can have a mark for asking that question, because it's great that you've asked that.
Ron: I will tell you now, he only has one.
Laura: Thanks, Ron.
Ron: What would the chances that our child had neither be if he had two of those?
Laura: Oh, impossible.
Ron: Yeah, because he'd always have six fingers.
Ron: Our child.
Laura: Okay, talk amongst yourselves.
Laura: I've got to draw this out.
Ron: Ram bum dum da da da da da da da da da da da bum daddy.
Laura: How dapper do you look in your wedding suit?
Laura: Ron?
Ron: I didn't get one in the end.
Laura: What?
Laura: What are you going to wear?
Ron: I need to buy one.
Ron: Basically what happened was I found there was a jacket that I was about to buy, and then Max came over and went, oh, I really like that one, actually.
Ron: And then spent a lot of money getting a new bespoke suit made out of a similar material.
Ron: So then I was a bit like, I can't dress exactly like the.
Laura: So, yes, you can.
Laura: And then we'll write a Shakespeare play based on what happens at the wedding.
Ron: Laura, have I told you that the mother of the bride is wearing a white dress to this wedding?
Ron: No.
Laura: Is the bride wearing a white dress?
Ron: Half white.
Ron: By that, I don't mean gray.
Ron: I mean the top is white.
Laura: It's dirty.
Laura: Hands off the dirt.
Laura: You make it dirty.
Laura: Is she mad at her mum?
Ron: Perpetually.
Ron: But not about this.
Laura: Does our mum have a secret daughter somewhere?
Ron: It's a very nontraditional wedding, and genuinely, bride nor groom cares that mother of the bride is wearing a white dress.
Ron: But that's hilarious.
Laura: Right?
Ron: That's just such a classic faux par.
Laura: If it's non trad, I don't understand why I can't come.
Laura: Anyway, what were the questions from?
Ron: Didn't you say the other day that you hadn't seen staff room Max in, like, ten years or something?
Laura: Yeah, it's been a really long time.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: That's probably why I had a very impactful impact on his teenage years.
Ron: Ask him when we do the staff room with Max, which he's dead keen for and we should do sooner rather than later with the topic that we've chosen.
Laura: And in the next episode, we need to chat about that photo, Ron.
Laura: Right, what was the question?
Ron: What are the chances that our child will have neither six fingers nor cystic fibrosis?
Laura: So that would need the dominant f with the small p.
Laura: I don't think I've done this right, Ron.
Ron: Well, because the child will have two of each, won't they?
Laura: I've not done this right, Ron.
Laura: Hang on, hang on.
Laura: I've done my palette square thing wrong.
Ron: Back to thinking music.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Do you reckon it was Pippa, though?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: I mean, it's obviously Pippa doesn't have the mole.
Ron: Pip.
Ron: What?
Ron: Does Pippa have a mole or Kate?
Laura: Kate.
Ron: Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Ron: Yeah, of course it looks like Kate.
Ron: It's her sister.
Laura: Ron, how many edges will my Punnett Square have?
Laura: Four or two.
Ron: What do you mean by edges?
Laura: Sorry, I'm a bit confused about how to draw my Punnett Square.
Ron: Break it down.
Ron: Into what?
Ron: The possible.
Ron: So when you make a baby, you have to make the gametes first.
Ron: Right.
Ron: So what are the different possible combinations of P and F in the gametes?
Laura: That's the thing.
Laura: So on the mother's side, it's a capital F with a small p twice.
Laura: It's a capital F with a small p twice?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Why is it twice?
Ron: Because she's got two small p's.
Laura: Of the p's?
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I'm remembering now.
Ron: Something to do with punting in, like Oxford punting or Cambridge.
Ron: Oh, Laura, title of your first a.
Ron: It's a bit of a double entendre, isn't it?
Ron: So it's kind of a Punnett ball.
Ron: Is that anything?
Laura: Oh, I can't believe you distracted me from this hefty science I'm doing just for that.
Ron: Is that anything?
Laura: It's not nothing.
Laura: Shut up for a minute.
Ron: Give me a look at your Punnett Square, just so I can make sure you're on the right track.
Ron: Yeah, but I just want to make sure you're on the right track before you waste so much more of all of our time.
Laura: Well, I'll edit it out of the listener's time.
Laura: It's only yours.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: That's my planet square.
Ron: Drawn it like a certified freak.
Ron: Why didn't you just do a grid?
Laura: I did do a grid.
Laura: You've drawn individual square.
Laura: Why is that weird?
Laura: That's what I was doing.
Laura: That's what you showed me in the lesson.
Laura: No.
Laura: Drew it like a tic tac toe.
Laura: That's what I did in the lesson.
Ron: What a weird little brain you've got.
Laura: Why?
Laura: That's really weird.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Sorry I didn't go to science college.
Laura: Okay, now you want the percentage chance that they won't have six fingers or cystic fibrosis?
Ron: Yes.
Ron: You can give it to me as a ratio, a fraction, or a percentage.
Laura: So that means I need a capital f's only in there.
Laura: So there's nothing with only capital F's.
Ron: Think that through again.
Laura: No, it's two small F's make.
Ron: Yeah, because cystic fibrosis is anything with.
Laura: A capital F.
Laura: They won't have Cf.
Laura: Okay, so let's cross out all of those.
Laura: So there's a 25% chance that they will have both.
Ron: No.
Ron: So the question was they'll have neither.
Laura: They will have neither.
Laura: Still 25%.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Well done.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: What are the chances?
Ron: Correct.
Ron: Mark there.
Laura: What are they leading me out there?
Laura: Sorry, I had to say it.
Laura: Tell me what film that's from.
Ron: What are the chances that they'd have the same phenotype as the father?
Laura: He is?
Laura: Big P, small p, two small F's.
Laura: Big p, small p, two small f's.
Laura: Big p, small p, two small F's.
Laura: It's 25% again, Ron.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Well done, Roy.
Ron: What's the other 50%?
Laura: There's a 25% chance that they will carry Cf but not have polydactylly.
Laura: And there's a 25% chance they will carry cf and have polydactylly.
Ron: Correct.
Ron: Another two marks there.
Ron: Last question, Laura.
Ron: This is a long quiz if I wanted to calculate these ODs, but with sex determination in there as well.
Ron: How many different gamete options are there for each parent, including repeats?
Laura: Eight.
Ron: Correct again.
Ron: Very well done, Laura.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Yay.
Ron: A great quiz at the end of a great episode.
Laura: This has been my favorite lesson in ages.
Laura: I can't wait for the Patreon episode on Frankie Golton.
Laura: Now.
Ron: Let'S just make this a spate of good episodes before we dip off again.
Laura: I hate you.
Laura: Boom, boom.
Laura: Oh, my God, I was good in that episode, Ron.
Laura: I was so good.
Ron: I remember you smashing the h*** out of the quiz as well.
Laura: Yeah, I smashed the whole thing even though you laughed at my weird Punnett squares.
Ron: Yeah, your Punnett squares are weird, though.
Laura: Well, you didn't tell me how to draw them.
Laura: No, see what I did?
Laura: I just think, why does it matter?
Laura: Why did you have to laugh at me like that?
Ron: Because it was funny.
Laura: I don't know about that.
Laura: Oh, excuse my little burp there.
Laura: I've drunk so much water.
Laura: I found a thing that I wanted to talk about in this.
Laura: I'm scrolling back through our media and basically it's a lot of photos from your pub crawl night out.
Laura: Yeah, I found a thing from theatlantic.com that somebody had tweeted because we were talking about cystic fibrosis in this episode.
Laura: Here's a thing that I wanted to read from the Atlantic says cystic fibrosis once all but guaranteed an early death.
Laura: When the disease was first identified in the 1930s, most babies born with CF died in infancy.
Laura: The next decades were a grind of incremental medical process.
Laura: A child born with CF in the 50s could expect to live until the age of five.
Laura: In the.
Laura: In the early 2035, with Tricafta, which I assume is a medicine, came a quantum leap.
Laura: Today, those who begin taking the drug in early adolescence, a recent study projected, can expect to live to 82 and a half, an essentially normal lifespan.
Laura: How incredible is that?
Ron: That is amazing.
Ron: It's like when we did our lovely queer episode celebrating all of the LGBTQ plus people in science and there was that bloke that it was TB and just decimated the number of people died from TB.
Ron: It's crazy how quickly these things and things that we learn about in a gcse thing and luckily don't affect people's lives anymore.
Ron: So it almost boils down to sort of a point of interest for most.
Ron: Used to be these really horrible things.
Laura: I've just had an idea, Ron.
Laura: You know how last year for Easter we did the eggathon?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Maybe this year for our Easter special, we could do like a.
Laura: This is going to sound tactless, but like a back from the dead episode on things like that in science, medical research that have basically taken you from having a no lifespan prognosis to nowadays an essentially normal length one.
Laura: We could look at vaccines and medical like medicines.
Ron: Love that.
Ron: Yeah, let's do it.
Laura: Let's do that.
Laura: For an Easter special.
Ron: Where do we eat the eggs, though?
Laura: We'll just eat them while we're doing it.
Laura: Every time a life is saved, we eat an egg.
Ron: All right?
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Okay, so, goodbye, everybody.
Laura: Thanks for listening.
Laura: There's no register today because not enough of you are signing up to patrons that we've got a long enough list.
Laura: So sign up, please.
Laura: Show us you love us.
Laura: Ron hasn't done a new scientist segment, but I had that CF research, so that's okay.
Ron: So no need to really mention that I haven't done it, then.
Ron: Really?
Laura: Well, I just wanted to put it out there that I liked that segment, and now it's gone, and it was my favorite segment.
Ron: The problem is that they get delivered to Noah's house.
Ron: He doesn't give them to me.
Laura: Noah, you're mean.
Laura: He doesn't listen.
Ron: He does listen.
Laura: Do we have a date for cheerful yet, Ron?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I don't know if we're allowed to announce.
Laura: Oh, all right, then.
Laura: Well, we won't.
Laura: What else?
Laura: Buy tickets to my tour.
Laura: Love each other.
Laura: Be kind.
Laura: It's raining.
Laura: Goodbye, Cluster Smith.
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