Learn about “brain fog” in menopause; NASA’s patent prevalence; and a plant gene found in an insect for the first time. Additional resources from Dr. Jen Gunter: Pick up "The Menopause Manifesto" from Amazon: https://amzn.to/33dlIYy Website: https://drjengunter.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrJenGunter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJGunter/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjengunter/ People Working On NASA Projects Rack Up Every One In 1,000 Patents by Joanie Faletto NASA - NASA Engineers and Scientists-Transforming Dreams Into Reality. (2014). Nasa.gov. https://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/scientists.html Home | NASA Spinoff. (2021). Nasa.gov. https://spinoff.nasa.gov/ 40 Years of NASA Spinoff. (2011). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/40-years-of-nasa-spinoff Memory Foam Supports and Shapes in Women’s Apparel | NASA Spinoff. (2019). Nasa.gov. https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2019/cg_4.html A plant gene was found in an insect for the first time by Cameron Duke Plant gene found in insect, shields it from leaf toxins. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/cp-pg031721.php Xia, J., Guo, Z., Yang, Z., Han, H., Wang, S., Xu, H., Yang, X., Yang, F., Wu, Q., Xie, W., Zhou, X., Dermauw, W., Turlings, T. C. J., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Whitefly hijacks a plant detoxification gene that neutralizes plant toxins. Cell, 184(7), 1693-1705.e17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.014 Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!
Learn about “brain fog” in menopause; NASA’s patent prevalence; and a plant gene found in an insect for the first time.
Additional resources from Dr. Jen Gunter:
People Working On NASA Projects Rack Up Every One In 1,000 Patents by Joanie Faletto
A plant gene was found in an insect for the first time by Cameron Duke
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-a-plant-gene-ended-up-in-an-insects-dna
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, you’ll learn about how menopause affects the brain, with Dr. Jen Gunter. Then, you’ll learn about the surprising number of patents racked up by people working on NASA projects; and how researchers found a plant gene in an insect for the first time.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Yesterday, Dr. Jen Gunter told us about the biology behind some of the most common symptoms of menopause. Today, she's going to tell us about some of the lesser-known symptoms — symptoms that happen in the brain. Dr. Jen Gunter is an OB/GYN and pain medicine specialist who's been called the world’s most famous and outspoken gynecologist. In her new book, "The Menopause Manifesto," Dr. Jen counters stubborn myths and misunderstandings about menopause with hard facts, real science, fascinating historical perspective, and expert advice. And I asked her: what are the most surprising symptoms of menopause?
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Again, that was Dr. Jen Gunter is an OB/GYN and pain medicine specialist who's been called the world’s most famous and outspoken gynecologist. Her new book, "The Menopause Manifesto," just came out this week, and you can find a link to pick it up in the show notes.
You’ve probably heard about at least a couple of now-familiar inventions that got their start in space. Stuff like freeze-dried food and space blankets. But that’s just scratching the surface. One in every 1,000 patents issued by the United States Patent and Trade Organization has gone to scientists or engineers working on NASA projects. And this matters, because it means the funding we put towards space projects pays for a lot more than just going to space.
Astronauts face a lot of unique dilemmas that NASA is constantly working to solve. Space is mysterious, after all. But, as it turns out, once NASA engineers churn out a cool solution to whatever otherworldly problem arises, there are often ways to incorporate the new technology into everyday life down on Earth. For example, we wouldn’t have memory foam if NASA hadn’t come up with it. That’s right, you can thank a couple of NASA engineers for that memory foam mattress topper giving you comfortably deep sleeps every night. Those engineers were Charles Kubokawa and Charles Yost.
In the late 1960s, the two engineers were working at NASA's Ames Research Center to develop airplane seating that could increase passengers' chances of survival in a crash by absorbing energy from the impact. They created a special type of plastic foam that had the ability to deform and absorb tremendous pressure, then return to its original shape. Ta-da! Memory foam was born. Funny enough, as widespread as it is today, the invention was never patented. When Yost went on vacation, a coworker let a reporter take pictures of the memory foam for an article. Patent law requires that you file your patent within a year of your invention being written about publicly, and Yost didn’t know about the article, so he missed his chance.
But like I said, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This podcast isn’t long enough to give you a full list of the familiar things NASA engineers came up with, but I’ll do what I can. Here’s a collection of things that were either invented or improved upon at NASA.
Who wants to start an argument about NASA funding being a waste of money? I didn’t think so.
I would like to report a theft! The perpetrator? A small insect called the whitefly. This little bug pulled off a major heist that was previously thought impossible. It stole... a gene from a plant. And hid it in its own DNA!
Whiteflies are tiny flying insects that love to munch on plants. They’re often found on the undersides of leaves, and they’re considered agricultural pests. And they’ve been at this for a while: Tomato plants have been fighting against whiteflies since before farmers even existed.
In an effort to discourage pests like the whitefly, plants have evolved a set of chemical defenses. These chemicals can be hazardous, so the genes that create the chemical are often accompanied by other genes that protect the plant itself from those weapons. They disarm them, basically. In this case, tomatoes evolved a gene called BtPMaT1, which produces a protein that neutralizes the compounds the plant makes for defense so it doesn’t poison itself.
But whiteflies? They can eat tomato leaves with no trouble at all. Recently, a team of Chinese scientists was studying how the whitefly thwarts these chemical defenses when they spotted something incredible. The whitefly didn’t just develop its own defenses to counteract plant toxins — its genome literally contains BtPMaT1, the gene the tomato uses to protect itself from its own toxins.
To scientists’ knowledge, this gene is found in no other insect besides whiteflies. They know it’s an identical gene because when researchers altered tomato plant genes to produce an RNA molecule that specifically silences the gene in question, the whiteflies that ate these plants died. But the other insects tested weren’t affected one bit.
Basically, whiteflies can eat tomato leaves freely because they have a stolen tomato gene that protects them from the tomato plant’s toxins. Wild, isn’t it?
Genetic evidence suggests that the theft occurred roughly 35 million years ago. As for how the gene was stolen, well that’s something the scientists plan to explore. They think that a virus infected a tomato plant, the gene was accidentally copied into the virus, and then a whitefly might have ingested the virus. It’s a series of unlikely events, for sure, but once it did, natural selection would have easily taken over from there.
However it happened, the whitefly is one impressive little thief. But don’t judge them too harshly. If all is fair in love and war, then stealing your enemy’s weapons during the arm’s race of evolution totally counts as fair game.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Joanie Faletto and Cameron Duke.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Go drink some filtered water on your memory foam mattress while you’re doing something with LED lights to help you see. And think about how much NASA helped you do it! Then, join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!