In a wide-ranging interview Alan Cooper explains his current project to study ancient micro biomes and mitochondrial DNA from a huge collection of hair samples to create a map of pre-colonial indigenous Australia, and touches on the evolutionary detriment of the development of agriculture, US sugar subsidies, the spread of bacteria from oral infections to other parts of our bodies, food allergies, ancient and modern global climate change, palaeontology and scientific research funding strategies.
Radio New Zealand National (http://www.radionz.co.nz/national)
New Zealand evolutionary biologist Alan Cooper is Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. He has just been awarded a Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council, which will fund his Centre for a five-year project using ancient micro biomes and genomes to study human origins, disease and Aboriginal genetics. Professor Cooper returned to New Zealand briefly late last month, from field work in the permafrost areas of Canada and a trip to Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, for the Queenstown Molecular Biology conference.