Today you’ll learn about how climate change research benefits from studying populations instead of species, how sometimes it’s better not to take any medication for your fever, and how worm saliva might solve the world’s plastic problem. Stream the Lazarus Project on June 4th at 9pm on TNT!
Today you’ll learn about how climate change research benefits from studying populations instead of species, how sometimes it’s better not to take any medication for your fever, and how worm saliva might solve the world’s plastic problem. Watch the premiere of The Lazarus Project on Sunday, June 4, at 9:00pm on TNT!
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/hope-for-mass-extinction-mild-fever-wax-worm-saliva
Hope for Mass Extinction
“Study: To save nature, focus on populations, not species” by University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Greater evolutionary divergence of thermal limits within marine than terrestrial species” by Matthew Sasaki et al.
Mild Fever
Wax Worm Saliva
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[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today you’ll learn about how climate change research benefits from studying populations instead of species, how sometimes it’s better to not take any medication for your fever, and how worm saliva might solve the world’s plastic problem.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: So we’ve talked about a lot of climate change stories before, but we almost never get to talk about one that leaves us with a little hope: new research shows that by studying the INDIVIDUAL risk of climate change in each population, we might be able to adapt to a warming world - for good!
NATE: Ugh, more doom and gloom climate change stories… I wish I could just travel back in time to a point where climate change wasn’t always on my mind.
CALLI: Well I have some good news for you. If you wanna cozy up this weekend and “watch the premiere of The Lazarus Project on Sunday June 4th,” that’s literally the premise of the entire show. The Lazarus Project is a show about how we can “take charge of [what’s] beyond our control,” regain hope, and adapt to a BETTER future instead of a worse one - which is a lot like today’s climate change story!
NATE: Hang on… did you use the word “hope” in reference to a CLIMATE CHANGE story?
CALLI: I sure did. For those of you who don’t know, climate change is the result of human-created and released greenhouse gasses that are causing the world to get warmer at an unsustainable rate for plants and animals everywhere. To get the grimmest part out of the way, many scientists believe we’re in the middle of the “sixth extinction” event, because entire species are disappearing 10,000 times faster than ever. But there’s a new solution: studying individual populations of different species, as opposed to one single population.
NATE: Let me see if I understand you clearly: instead of studying, say, ALL Golden Retrievers, scientists are breaking them down even further by region or climate?
CALLI: Exactly. There’s a wide variability for all creatures in temperature tolerance, even in the same species, and this variability is even bigger for marine species compared to terrestrial ones. Over the last century, it was discovered that evolution can happen much more quickly than previously thought, which means that different populations of the exact same species can adapt to their environments more easily than previously believed. And THAT - is how survival can be ensured.
NATE: Okay, this is becoming a little more clear to me now. How does it work?
CALLI: A team of researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 90 previously published studies, mining data from 61 species, and constructed a set of "upper thermal limits,” which are specific temperatures each species could not survive. They looked a little further, though, at 305 distinct POPULATIONS drawn from that pool, and found that different populations of similar marine species often had way different thermal limits. The verdict? Some populations have evolved different abilities to tolerate high temperatures.
NATE: Wow! That’s pretty cool. But um… how does that help us with climate change?
CALLI: It lets us know we need to keep different populations of the same species connected so that the adapted populations can pass this advantage on to populations with lower thermal limits. To put it simply, think of some wide-ranging marine species. A good example is the Atlantic killifish, which can be found from the warm Florida coast all the way to the much colder waters of Newfoundland, Canada. These populations may be better able to withstand warming waters if some of their southern spawn are able to naturally shift to the north.
NATE: Interesting. So the creatures that can survive these temperatures more often need to find ways to co-mingle with those that can’t?
CALLI: Yep. Now, this is easier said than done. And there’s not gonna be a one-size-fits-all solution for every creature. The team also discovered that this sort of variability was a feature of animals mainly living in ocean and intertidal areas. And larger populations that live on land or in freshwater are actually MORE sensitive to rising temperatures. This is probably because on land, plants and animals can take advantage of microclimates, like under the shade of a tree, to cool down and avoid extreme temperatures. Adjusting temperature expectations for THOSE creatures would be a bit different than any creatures in the sea.
NATE: Got it. So we need to understand how populations adapt to local conditions, if we want to predict how vulnerable they are to changing conditions?
CALLI: That’s part of it. The researchers think a more effective approach would be to widen a marine species’ range so they could more easily find bigger portions of undamaged habitat in their entire range. That way, different populations of the same species can mate and pass on the adaptations that helped them survive warmer waters. And on land, we need to maintain large patches of cool ecosystems—like forests—so terrestrial species can use them as refuges.
NATE: Well, it’s not a complete end to climate change, but it’s a glimmer of hope for sure.
CALLI: It’s best to think of it like a game: most games are timed, but in certain games, you can do things to freeze time or even gain some time back. This is an effort to prolong the game from ending, and make it the best possible game we can play while we still can!
NATE: You know what, at this point, I’ll take it.
CALLI: Same.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Nate, what do you do when you get a fever?
NATE: Fever? I guess I grab a cold cloth and reach for an ibuprofen or some other fever reducer like that?
CALLI: Well…new research suggests you’re doing it wrong.
NATE: Aha. Is it feed a fever, starve a cold? Or starve a headache, feed a toothache?
CALLI: You’re actually getting more wrong.
NATE: So enlighten me. What’s this new method for treating fevers? What am I supposed to do next time?
CALLI: Nothing.
NATE: Huh?
CALLI: Yeah, really. You’re supposed to do nothing. In a study published in eLife, researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada found that a moderate fever in fish actually helped them get through infections rapidly, helped with inflammation, and even fixed damaged tissue.
NATE: You know I’m not a fish, right?
CALLI: I’ve been lied to?! This is where it gets really interesting. So, it turns out that just about every animal ever studied has had a fever response to infection. In other words, for some 500 million years, when animals get an infection, they get a fever. Researchers wanted to know why.
NATE: That is an intriguing question. Fevers must have some sort of function, right?
CALLI: Totally. In fact, some animals like reptiles, fish - and even insects - will actually move to a spot they know is warmer than other spots to bring on a natural fever EVEN THOUGH they might risk getting eaten by going there.
NATE: Right. But it sure feels good to not have a fever.
CALLI: That’s why our gut instinct is to reach for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - also called NSAIDs…
NATE: …the aspirins, the ibuprofens…
CALLI: …yeah. But in this study, fish were given bacterial infections and then observed over time. Their symptoms were right in line with how we would handle that kind of infection - they were lethargic, they seemed tired, they stopped moving like usual. And…they got a fever.
NATE: So did they give some of them tiny little fish aspirins?
CALLI: Actually - yes. Half of them were treated to get rid of their fevers, and the other half were left alone. Infections in the fish that were given medicine to treat the fever cleared up in about 14 days. But the fish that were allowed to have a fever healed in about 7 days.
NATE: Whoa.
CALLI: Yep. The fever cut the healing time in half.
NATE: So…you don’t usually see studies that recommend doing nothing. How does this help advance medicine or treatment?
CALLI: The lead author of the study, Daniel Barreda, who is an immunologist and a joint professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences and the Faculty of Science…
NATE: …that’s a mouth full…
CALLI: …he says that the goal is to understand how doctors can take advantage of medical advances while still harnessing our body’s natural ability to fight off illness. He compares it to turning off your car after a drive rather than keeping it running - thereby saving energy and preventing any other damage. Not to mention that leaving your fever alone can save time and money for millions of people.
NATE: Absolutely. So, what does this mean big picture?
CALLI: Like I mentioned, it means encouraging the scientific community to strike a balance between treatments and understanding the body’s natural processes. More research into what our bodies can already do is a good thing!
NATE: I agree!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: In the current war between nature vs plastic waste, we may have some new players hitting the front lines.
CALLI: Ooh, is it something similar to the microplastic filter that we chatted about a while back?
NATE: Not necessarily. A study published in the journal Nature Communications shows that worms might be our best bet in the battle against plastic waste.
CALLI: I’m gonna need you to explain.
NATE: We’re going to send worms to the front lines. Wax worms, to be precise. Researchers discovered that two enzymes in the saliva of these little guys actually work to degrade polyethylene, which is a plastic used in bags and other packaging materials.
CALLI: That sounds like it could be a game changer.
NATE: Absolutely. Plastic pollution has become a defining feature in all sorts of environmental problems, from habitat destruction to the release of methane and other greenhouse gasses in landfills. I don’t need to tell you that plastic is everywhere. We’ve also talked about it a bunch on this show.
CALLI: It’s only getting worse. And most plastic sticks around for generations.
NATE: Yeah. Its durability is one of things that makes it so useful - but also so damaging to ecosystems. And when it does finally break down, it becomes microplastic, which has been found everywhere from the peak of Mt. Everest to the poop in baby diapers. Some research has found that nearly 80% of humans actually have microplastic coursing through our veins.
CALLI: Yikes. So if these wax worms can get rid of plastic, and plastic is everywhere, why didn’t we know about their superpower before?
NATE: That’s a good question. The answer is…we did know. One of the study’s authors is Federica Bertocchini, who is also an amateur beekeeper. She was having problems with wax worms in her hives - they feed on the wax that bees use to build their honeycombs. So she decided to clean them out of her hives by gathering up the worms, which are actually moth larvae, and putting them in plastic bags. Pretty soon, she noticed holes in the plastic. It turns out she’s also a molecular biologist at the Center for Biological Research in Spain.
CALLI: That’s lucky.
NATE: She was part of the 2017 study that confirmed that wax worms were actually breaking down the plastic - and not just chewing it up. And the most remarkable thing is the quick work they make of it. Normally, to break down plastic like this, you either need years of oxidation in the environment, or you can speed it up with intense heat or ultraviolet light. But the worms could break it down at room temperature in just a couple of hours.
CALLI: So all we have to do is just…release billions of wax worms into the world?
NATE: Yeah. That sounds crazy. And it is crazy. Because not only would releasing that many new creatures into the environment lead to some wild unforeseen problems, but even if we contained them in facilities where they could eat plastic in the privacy of their own little box, billions of wax worms eating millions of pounds of plastic would actually release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air, according to some researchers due to the offset of metabolizing the polyethylene. But that’s where this new study comes in.
CALLI: Gotcha.
NATE: See, they knew that wax worms could process plastic, they just didn’t know how.
CALLI: Ohhh! And if they know how, maybe they could replicate the process without the worms?
NATE: Exactly. The new study found that two enzymes in the saliva of the wax worms break down polyethylene, the world’s most widely used plastic.
CALLI: So now they just need to figure out how to make those enzymes in the lab.
NATE: Good news. They already have. And they are working with industry leaders and other environmental foundations to commercialize the process, bringing us one step closer to unwrapping the crisis of plastic pollution once and for all.
CALLI: I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for wax worms!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: Finally, a climate change story with a glimmer of hope: new research suggests that the easiest way to battle climate change is to study individual populations within a species, and figure out how to get less adaptable populations to gain the survivability skills of other populations! It won’t be easy, and there’s no one way to do it, but if we CAN do it… we’ll add decades, maybe even centuries, of time back to the clock! If this story interests you, stream the Lazarus Project on June 4th at 9pm on TNT!
CALLI: New research found that fish resolve infections faster when their fevers go untreated, which has huge implications for humans with fevers. A possible new treatment for moderate high temps? Do nothing.
NATE: A new study discovered why wax worms are able to get rid of polyethylene - the most widely used plastic in the world. It’s due to two enzymes in their saliva that can be manufactured to help us finally solve our plastic waste crisis.