Author Bill Sullivan discusses the surprising ways your genes can influence aggressive and violent tendencies. Then, learn about how it’s possible that anglerfish can fuse to their mates; and box breathing, a Navy SEAL technique for reducing stress and staying calm.
Author Bill Sullivan discusses the surprising ways your genes can influence aggressive and violent tendencies. Then, learn about how it’s possible that anglerfish can fuse to their mates; and box breathing, a Navy SEAL technique for reducing stress and staying calm.
Additional resources from Bill Sullivan:
How do anglerfish fuse to their mates without immune rejection? by Cameron Duke
Box Breathing Is the Navy SEAL Technique for Reducing Stress and Staying Calm by Joanie Faletto
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/aggression-and-epigenetics-w-bill-sullivan-calm-down-with-box-breathing-and-how-anglerfish-fuse-without-immune-rejection
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, author Bill Sullivan is back to talk about the surprising ways a person’s genes can influence aggressive and violent tendencies; how it’s possible that anglerfish can fuse to their mates; and a Navy SEAL technique for reducing stress and staying calm .
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
There are a ton of invisible factors that influence your behavior. You don’t really have much control over your DNA or the germs you come into contact with — and they're helping to shape who you are and what you do. If you don’t believe me, then you really need to hear this conversation we had with Bill Sullivan. He’s a Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology at Indiana University School of Medicine, and author of the new book “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.” In the book, he explains how genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, and psychology work together to influence our personality and actions. So we asked him: out of all the unseen forces that can affect someone's behavior, what do you think is the most surprising?
[CLIP 3:15]
So even though invisible factors affect most of the things you do, you still do have some control. And if you want to learn more about these influences and how to deal with them, you can pick up Bill Sullivan’s new book “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.” We’ll put a link in today’s show notes.
Anglerfish are weird. The females are massive, with angry-looking mouths full of pointy teeth and a long, glowing “lure” between their eyes that attracts prey in the dark of the deep sea. The males though...they’re nothing to write home about. They’re small and plain and have one goal in life: to find and mate with a female. They do that with one of nature’s most bizarre modes of reproduction. It shouldn’t be able to happen. But it does, and scientists only recently found out how.
When a tiny male anglerfish mates with a giant female anglerfish, two fish become one, but not in the figurative “what’s-mine-is-yours” wedding vow kind of way. Instead, they actually fuse. Some species do this temporarily, others will do it with several males at a time, but in the most extreme case? One male latches on and begins to dissolve as his tissues and circulatory system meld with the female’s. Eventually, most of his organs and body parts disintegrate, leaving his girl with only a pair of reproductive organs to remember him by.
This is called sexual parasitism [PARE-uh-sit-izz-um], and it’s totally unique to the anglerfish. By that, I mean no other vertebrate species on the planet can tolerate fusing with another being. Their adaptive immune system would put a stop to it. The adaptive immune system is the one that “learns” how to fight new pathogens by forming special antibodies and T-cells so it’s ready the next time that pathogen invades. Adaptive immunity is what makes vaccines work, but it’s also why people need to take immunity-suppressing drugs after an organ transplant. Their immune system would attack the new organ otherwise.
This means that anglerfish males should be attacked by the female’s adaptive immune system. To learn why that doesn’t happen, researchers analyzed the genomes of several anglerfish species. Specifically, they were looking for genes that encode for major histocompatibility antigens, which are molecules that sound the alarm when foreign tissue invades the body. They found that while all other vertebrate species have a wide variety of these genes, anglerfish were lacking. The species that attach to their partners temporarily were missing a lot of them. And the species that attach permanently had no adaptive immunity genes at all. They were just gone.
This...should be fatal. Losing adaptive immunity would cripple us humans, but these fish seem to get along just fine without it. In fact, scientists think that getting rid of the adaptive immune system was a key step in the evolution of sexual parasitism. To keep from getting sick, anglerfish probably compensate by being born with supercharged innate immunity instead.
At least their evolutionary energy went into something, because it didn’t go into their looks.
CODY: Alright Ashley, I’m kinda stressed right now. I’ve got a baby coming this week. Are there any tricks from the Curiosity archives that you can teach me to calm down?
ASHLEY: Why actually, yes — I have a tried and true trick from Navy SEALs. For them, it’s absolutely critical to keep calm in pretty much every setting. And to keep that level head, they turn to box breathing.
CODY: Okay cool, I’m sold. I’ll be the guinea pig. Lay it on me.
ASHLEY: OK. Box breathing is a tactic can slow your heartbeat and stabilize your blood pressure. That’s because this type of deep breathing helps to overcome your fight-or-flight response and put your nervous system into a more relaxed state. Ready to give box breathing try?
CODY: My BODY IS READY
ASHLEY: Okay, so box breathing has four steps, and each one is done for four seconds. You can imagine each step as one side of a box. It will only take you 16 seconds to cycle through the method one time, but you can repeat the cycle as long as it takes you to feel relaxed.
First, breathe in for four seconds. Make sure all the air has been expelled from your lungs before you start to inhale. Once you start sucking up your air, make sure to really fill those lungs.
Next, hold your breath for four seconds. Don't let any air escape yet.
Then, exhale for four seconds. Let the air out of your lungs at a nice even rate the whole time, and make sure to get it all out.
Finally, hold your lungs empty for four seconds. Then you can repeat step one and complete the cycle again.
Whether you're in combat or reading a political tweet, box breathing can keep you frosty in the most heated situations. Give it a try! [ad libs to the moon]
CODY: [is zen] Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Cameron Duke and Joanie Faletto, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!