Today you’ll learn about what long lost genomes from the last ice age teach us about ancient hunter-gatherers, how a covid-era obsession helped make a resilient new material, and a proposal to create something very controversial: the world’s first octopus farm.
Today you’ll learn about what long lost genomes from the last ice age teach us about ancient hunter-gatherers, how a covid-era obsession helped make a resilient new material, and a proposal to create something very controversial: the world’s first octopus farm.
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/ice-age-survivors-micro-knots-octopus-farm
Ice Age Survivors
Micro Knots
Octopus Farm
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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 what long lost genomes from the last ice age teach us about ancient hunter-gatherers, how a covid-era obsession helped make a resilient new material, and a proposal to create something very controversial: the world’s first octopus farm.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: One of the best parts about studying history is seeing how connected we all are. And sometimes a new discovery comes along that shows our interconnectedness runs even deeper than we thought.
CALLI: For me, that's an interesting thought, because it implies that in some way all of us are related to each other distantly. What kind of discovery we talking about today?
NATE: This is a discovery that researchers say rewrites the and this is a direct, quote, genetic history of our ancestors. It's kind of a lot. So bear with me for a second. But researchers have put together the biggest dataset of prehistoric European hunter gatherer genomes ever created. The study comes from a collaboration of a number of international universities and scientists, and they succeeded in their goal with a whopping 356 hunter gatherer genomes from all over Europe and Central Asia.
CALLI: That is a ton. Okay, so hunter gatherers, how long ago are we talking here?
NATE: Each of them lived somewhere between 5030 5000 years ago, and many of them are the ancestors of modern day Europeans and Asians. To top it all off, this genome set includes people who were alive during the last glacial maximum or LGM for short. And that happened around 25,000 years ago and was the coldest stretch of the last ice age. And that part in particular is pretty wild because we've never done that before.
CALLI: That's nuts. Okay, so what did the data tell us?
NATE: One of the first things they found completely changed everything we know about the gravity in period. And to contextualize this period a bit. So you know what it is. The gravity in period was a point in time somewhere between 24,000 and 32,000 years ago. At this time, a lot of the prehistoric humans shared similar cultural traits, like the weapons they used or the art they created. But genetically they were quite distinct from each other, specifically anybody from Western or Southwestern Europe. So France and Iberia had a different gene pool than anybody from Central or Southern Europe. So the Czech Republic and Italy.
CALLI: What happened to each of these Gravettian people?
NATE: So this is actually new information. Western Grevettian genes can be found continuously for a minimum of 20,000 years in the data set. And this is some pretty big information because there was an older theory that during the LGM people migrated to Southwestern Europe because it had a much less hazardous climate than anywhere else in the area. Now, we know from the dataset that a lot of their descendants stayed in south Western Europe during the last ice Age before heading northeast to other parts of Europe.
CALLI: I mean, it's always nice when you get confirmation on something you believe.
NATE: Sure. Yeah. Which is more than what can be said for the theories scientists once had about Gravettians who lived on the Italian peninsula. Or, I guess I should say, who didn't live there, because it turns out there's no evidence of any Gravettian hunter gatherers from Central or Southern Europe who lived after the LGM. Instead, the data shows that people from a newer, later existing gene pool lived on the Italian peninsula. These people are known as the Epigravettians, who around 14,000 years ago spread throughout the rest of Europe. But where this gets complicated is when the study reveals that the Epigravettians may have replaced another population of people known as the Magdalenians, who themselves may have been an offshoot of the original Gravettian people.
CALLI: So many different cultures and so little time. It sounds like there had to have been a bit of a crossover between at least a few of these gene pools, right? Like, did any of these people live together?
NATE: Honestly, no. At least not until around 8000 years ago. And that means that for about 6000 years, we see gene pools from specifically Western and Eastern Europe that simply aren't mixing together. The researchers have a theory that there may have been a, quote, large scale genetic replacement that could have been inspired by climate change. Basically, after the LGM, the climate recovered, but it may have recovered too quickly. So suddenly, warmer weather, new forests would be popping out of nowhere. And if this happened, it could have inspired Southern people to get a change of scenery.
CALLI: So this is a whole lot of new information. I mean, I guess it like we said before, it's really nice that we have a lot of these beliefs now confirmed.
NATE: It also means that we know a lot more about people from all over Europe and Asia that we didn't know before. If we think of history as a big family tree, this new research suggests that the roots are about a mile deeper and much more spread out than we imagined, even within geographic. Similar parts of Europe. We found that different people simply did not co-exist and may not have even known that each other existed. For me, it makes the tree feel a whole lot bigger. But with more research, this will also be a tree that continues to grow and teach us more about how certain Ice Age populations and maybe even populations before that lived.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Today, we're going to talk about the future of knots. Scientists have created a new kind of substance held together by knots made out of fibers that are smaller than human hair. The substance is so tough it can absorb more energy than any of its unknotted peers.
NATE: Sounds like very tiny knots, but some big advantages to material science. Okay, so first question, why not?
CALLI: All right. A former Caltech grad student named Widianto P. Moestopo and his team were doing research on the topic of micro textiles, which are also known as Microfibres. And that's something we've talked about before. As a reminder, those are tiny synthetic fibers smaller than human hair, and they're used to make tough but durable materials out of everything from clothing to wallets to even basketballs. Widianto and his team wanted to find something that taught them about how friction and the transfer of energy could be applied to micro textiles. And during the COVID 19 lockdowns in 2020, Widianto came across an unlikely inspiration knots.
NATE: Well, some of us got into baking soda, some of us got into animal crossing guilt. And so this guy dreamt of making the world better through knots. Wow. Okay. But why would something being made out of knots matter?
CALLI: Widianto discovered some research during lockdown on how and why not hold up under pressure. And he made a connection between what he was reading and what he was already working on. So to put it simply, he thought it was worth pursuing the idea of whether knots could make a difference in micro textures. You see, most micro textiles have a sort of interconnected pattern on a molecular level woven together like a blanket to help keep all of its components together. The problem is each area that crosses over with one another, also known as a junction, puts the material at risk because each connection acts as the main point of contact for any damage.
NATE: Which is where the knots come in to picture, I'm guessing. But what would even be the difference between a normal junction and a knotted junction? Wouldn't they be the target of any potential damage anyway?
CALLI: I mean, they are. But because of a cool combination of engineering and creativity, being the target won't matter. Each knot makes whatever material it's a part of a lot more durable because they absorb energy more efficiently to the tune of 92% better than any unguarded material. And since they absorb the energy, that means they're able to bend much more than micro textures made out of anything else while still being able to get back into shape with no damage whatsoever.
NATE: That does sound interesting, but how.
CALLI: The knots have a height and width of about 70 micrometers and the fibers in each knot have a 1.7 micrometer radius. For perspective, 25,400 micrometers makes up one inch and at 1.7 micrometers. These fibers are roughly 100th the size of a single human hair. So these guys are like really small. And this is actually the first time anybody's ever made a material out of many knots at this small of a scale. Like a very tiny microscopic fishing net.
NATE: Okay, that sounds cool. How do you tie knots that small? Did the team hire Ant-Man to just go in there and manually do all this labor?
CALLI: I mean, if he was real, maybe they'd be great. Sorry to crush your dreams. I never. Yes, I never said that these knots were tied. The truth is actually way cooler. They were created through a form of 3D printing known as Advanced High Resolution 3D Lithography, which is a kind of 3D printing that can create things on a much, much, much smaller scale than a normal 3D printer. For now, the project only seems to be able to create more simplistic knotting techniques like an overhand not that has an additional twist. So in future experiments with Widianto wants to see if they can make something out of more complicated knot patterns. That being said, that simple overhand twist they can make right now is actually why the knot can absorb more energy when it gets stretched out.
NATE: All right, This is pretty cool. What is Widianto wanting to use these knotted materials for?
CALLI: They sort of think the sky's going to be the limit when it comes to this kind of durable material. Think about some basic surgical procedures like suturing, for instance, which is when a wound get stitched up. It could be made way more efficient and much more stable if we use a material out of these knots on the other end of the spectrum. Think about aerospace equipment made out of this kind of material. These things are durable and they can bend without breaking. It's the perfect combination for materials you take into highly pressurized parts of the atmosphere with this kind of knotted material. Anything could be made a whole lot stronger, all because of one man's covid era obsession with knots.
NATE: Some men see things as they are and say, Why I dream of things that never were and say, Why not? Knots.
CALLI: Wow. Really?
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: The octopus is considered one of the smartest creatures on earth. So of course, somebody has decided to build an octopus farm that would raise and kill octopus for food.
CALLI: That is more than a little upsetting. Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but an octopus isn't something people actively farm in the same way they do like cows or chickens right now. Right. Also, just to clarify, the plural for octopus isn't actually octopi. It's actually octopuses.
NATE: Correct. It is contrary to some popular belief. And you're right on your other point, too, this will be the world's very first octopus farm with an aim to turn over 1 million octopuses into food every year. The farm is being proposed by a corporation based out of Spain called Nueva PESCA Nova. And it is notoriously very hard to breed an octopus. Their larvae will only eat living food, and you need to store an octopus in very specific conditions. So usually any octopus is harvested for food or captured throughout the world with various traps. But in a rare twist of this show, Nueva Pescanova announced a scientific breakthrough that many scientists believe will make the world a worse place.
CALLI: Well, I hate that. How how is this going to be worse?
NATE: Back in 2019, whenever Nueva Pescanova cracked the code on how you breed an octopus. See, an octopus is a solitary animal that lives in near complete darkness. And to breed them, the company will keep an octopus in a glass tank with many other octopuses under constant surveillance in specialized lighting. This will be done across roughly a thousand tanks before the octopuses are killed in containers of water at a temperature of negative three degrees Celsius or 26.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too cold for the octopuses to survive. So they die, at which time the octopuses will be harvested for their meat and then sold off as food.
CALLI: I have heard of this method of butchering before, and I've got to say, it does sound pretty cruel.
NATE: Nueva Pescanova claims that these conditions actually exceed the welfare requirements for octopus production on Earth, which is technically true. But that's only because octopuses haven't been farmed for commercial purposes in the past, so there are no welfare requirements for them. They also told the BBC that they won't let the octopuses suffer for whatever it's worth, but the data doesn't really support that. A study out of Cambridge says that a very slow, very painful ice bath death is guaranteed for any fish killed through this method, which is known as an ice slurry. Many aquatic protection organizations are in the process of proposing a ban on ice slurries, but as far as I know, they haven't been successful yet.
CALLI: I mean, I feel like I understand maybe for production reasons, but if this is such a painful way for an octopus to die, then why are they doing it this way?
NATE: I'm not really sure. My guess is it's based on two things. Number one, when you know your method is going to work, confining octopuses into one tank means you don't have to watch over them as much. That means less workers are needed to actually harvest the creatures, especially since experts agree the more humane way to do this would be to simply club the octopuses, which ties directly into. Number two on my list: money. The global octopus meat market is worth roughly £2.2 billion or $2.7 billion. Nueva Pescanova wants to be the world's premier octopus supply chain and deliver 3000 tonnes of octopus meat to places all over the globe, including the United States.
CALLI: 3000 tonnes. How many octopuses is that?
NATE: That is about a million, all of them filling up multiple tanks through a 1-2 story building. Right now there are 100 octopuses that the company has already domesticated that they hope to have kick off their farm. But there's also a possibility the farm may never open.
CALLI: Which would be good news. But why not?
NATE: Well, because to nobody's surprise, the pitch to systematically slaughter a million octopuses every year by freezing them to death is a bit controversial. Scientists and organizations all over the world are demanding that the only thing that should freeze is the farm's construction. A group called Compassion in World Farming, or CIWF for short, contacted the local police, demanding a halt on the construction because the farm would, quote, inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures. Even aside from the octopuses, another problem is the waste created by the farm. All waste water would likely just get dumped back into the ocean. Octopus waste consists at least partially of nitrogen. Excess nitrogen can make aquatic plants and algae grow at a much higher rate than they would have, which could lead to all sorts of nasty things like clogged pipes, attracting oxygen away from other plants, or blocking out light into deeper places in the water. Even if the wastewater is filtered as Nueva Pescanova claims. That's a pretty heavy risk of adding even more pollution into the ocean.
CALLI: Holy crap. Is there anything we can do about this.
NATE: At the moment? Nothing, unfortunately. This is a battle between a corporation, activists and a local government with octopuses stuck in the middle. Nueva Pescanova plan to harvest 3000 tons of octopus is just a drop in the bucket compared to the octopus meat market as it stands. Even though we don't farm octopus yet, there are still over 350,000 tonnes of octopus caught at sea annually, according to the BBC. That's ten times what we caught back in the fifties, and that could lead toward the eventual extinction of the octopus. For what it's worth, Nueva Pescanova over claims it's dedicated to responsible and sustainable practices in the octopus trade. That said, if the octopus is being put at risk, then at what cost?
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. The historical family tree that links us all together has just gotten bigger, with a new international study on the genomes of people who lived tens of thousands of years ago. It turns out that for thousands of years, different gene pools mated together… and then for 6,000 years, halted all contact. The reason could potentially be climate change, though more research is necessary to figure that out. Still, knowing more about our ancestors is an exciting development in learning more about time periods we knew nothing about before!
CALLI: Try to slip out of this pretzel of a premise: new research out of Caltech has discovered that stronger, more durable materials and fabrics can be made out of 3d printed synthetic knots that are 92% more capable of absorbing energy than unknotted materials. This holds implications for everything from medicine to airplanes, meaning that the future might be a little more twisted than we ever imagined.
NATE: In a rare twist, we talked about a groundbreaking new method to help octopuses breed… that might actually make the world WORSE. A corporation has announced plans to create the world’s first commercial octopus farm, with plans to breed and harvest over 3,000 tons of octopus every year for food across the world. Many scientists and organizations call shenanigans on the plan, citing everything from worse water conditions to outright cruelty against one of the ocean’s smartest creatures. As of now, the farm is moving full speed ahead, but activists are continuing to fight against forced captivity for octopuses.