- Conservation in a cup with David Lodge

How do you find an invasive species that no net can catch? What happens to the scientist whose research samples end up in federal court?

In this episode, we talk with David Lodge, a freshwater ecologist at Cornell University and past president of the Ecological Society of America. In 2009, David’s lab detected invasive carp from DNA in bottles of Illinois River water, including above the electric barrier meant to keep the carp out of the Great Lakes. That result helped found the field of environmental DNA, and it brought congressional testimony, a Supreme Court filing, and five hours of unfriendly questioning on the witness stand. Drawing on David’s recent retrospective in the journal Environmental DNA, we follow the science from a cup of water to the courtroom, visit the Wisconsin lakes where the invasive crayfish he has watched for more than forty years are now collapsing on their own, perhaps driven by a parasite new to science, and ask what it takes for science to inform policy without pretending to drive it.

Cover art by Brianna Longo.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe