Today you’ll learn about how remote work is resulting in people having more children than before the pandemic, how scientists are searching for new treatments for acne, and how indigenous groups in South America have a genetic resistance to Chagas disease.
Today you’ll learn about how remote work is resulting in people having more children than before the pandemic, how scientists are searching for new treatments for acne, and how indigenous groups in South America have a genetic resistance to Chagas disease.
Remote Work Baby Boom
Acne Antibiotics
Chagas Infection
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/remote-work-baby-boom-acne-antibiotics-chagas-infection
[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 remote work is resulting in people having more children than before the pandemic, how scientists are searching for new treatments for acne, and how indigenous groups in South America have a genetic resistance to Chagas disease.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: For nearly half a century, Americans have been having fewer and fewer babies every decade, to the point that in 2020 we saw the lowest official fertility rate ever. But in 2022, that all changed with the biggest baby bump we've seen in many, many years.
NATE: Are you saying what I think you're saying? Because we all know what happened between 2020 and 2022.
CALLI: Oh, you guessed it. We were all just watching House of the Dragon. That was it.
NATE: Exactly.
CALLI: I know. Okay. But jokes aside, the real reason we were all staying inside was because of you probably figured it out. The COVID 19 pandemic.
NATE: Okay. On one hand, it makes sense. Everybody was locked down inside, struggling to find something to do. But if you were locked down with a partner, you were locked down together. So is this just going to be a one off fluke, a one time bump in the fertility graph?
CALLI: Honestly, it might not be. See, over the course of the pandemic, there's been a new development in place that has flourished even long after the end of global lockdowns. That's remote work. And a new study by economist Adam Ozimek and demographer Lyman Stone puts forth the theory that remote work is making it easier for couples to become parents and for parents to have more children.
NATE: Okay, so how did they come to this as their conclusion?
CALLI: They looked at survey data of 3000 American women collected by the Demographic Intelligence Family Survey. And this survey was meant to assess the state of reproductive intentions and fertility outlook in America. Basically, who's having kids or not and why or why not? And the first thing they realized is that unmarried remote workers were significantly more likely to plan on getting married in the next year compared to previous years. Now, they don't know why, since all they have is basic information on the women, but they have a theory that it's because remote workers are now able to relocate a lot easier than other workers, which makes people interested in marriage, able to move closer to a potential spouse.
NATE: Yeah. Okay, that all makes sense. But what about whether those women even want to get pregnant or if they already are?
CALLI: Well, that was the next part of the study. It's a good question to ask when trying to figure out fertility outlooks, because respondents in these studies usually have a clear idea of whether or not they want to get pregnant. And they found that remote workers were indeed more likely to be pregnant or trying. But interestingly, it wasn't by a significant amount.
NATE: Then why would remote work explain the baby bump?
CALLI: Because the picture becomes a lot clearer when we talk about remote work in the context of finances. So to be clear, I'm not saying wealthier women are skewing the data. Wealthy women are more likely to have kids than before. But what is interesting is that if we consider women who stated that remote work managed to make their financial situation better, the numbers begin to skyrocket. Those women are actually over 10% more likely than other women to report being pregnant or trying to be if they work remotely.
NATE: This is really interesting. I thought I had heard somewhere, though, that fertility rates were dropping because people didn't want to have kids.
CALLI: Yeah. Okay. Some studies have made that correlation, but other research is now saying the opposite. American women actually have fewer kids than they want, meaning that if Ozimek and Stone study is correct, then remote work is very subtly changing life in a way that women could start having a family more comfortably if they want. In fact, the biggest connection between remote work and fertility in the study was found in older women who already had at least one child. The authors basically concluded that even if remote work isn't necessarily a trigger for women to have kids, it seems like it helps older moms balance the competing demands of work and family.
NATE: I'm starting to think that we're only now just scratching the surface on how remote work is changing the world.
CALLI: I would absolutely agree with that. And other countries are seeing return to office rates climb to 75% or more. But in parts of the U.S., we're seeing office occupancy rates below 50%. This is having huge effects on everything from less of a need for public transport to lower demand for real estate, all while Americans are trending towards buying bigger homes to make home offices and gyms and maybe even nurseries. Because if you combine this with a more comfortable ability to work wherever you want and sometimes whenever you want, that's the perfect recipe for another baby boom.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: I don't mean to alarm you, but there is a brutal, potentially disfiguring condition sweeping the globe. And the worst part is at some point it could affect the majority of the Earth's population.
CALLI: I thought you said you didn't want to alarm me because you failed horribly.
NATE: I'm talking about acne.
CALLI: Oh, my gosh. Okay, so despite the trauma of my teenage years kind of rushing back right now, I actually feel a little better. Why is acne in the news?
NATE: Because a research team from Yale. Led by Dr. Christopher Bunick, an associate professor of dermatology. We're faced with a burning question Why do some antibiotics work better to treat acne than others? And it seems like a small question, but believe it or not, it has massive implications that could affect how we treat other conditions as well.
CALLI: Okay. Okay. Consider my curiosity picked.
NATE: I think you mean peaked.
CALLI: Okay. It was supposed to be an acne pun.
NATE: Oh, my gosh. Okay, well, moving on.
CALLI: Fair enough.
NATE: Before I tell you about the study, let's have a quick little crash course in acne itself. With more than 3 million new cases a year, acne is the most common skin condition in the United States and probably the world. That's according to the American Academy of Dermatology. To really understand how acne is caused, you need a degree in biology, to be honest. But to boil it all down.
CALLI: Boil.
NATE: Behave. So to put it simply, a buildup of bacteria causes inflammation, which causes acne. Spot on.
CALLI: Why do you get to make the puns? And I don't.
NATE: Sorry. Sorry. Anyway, the lesions you might know them as zits your pimples can be painful, and I probably don't need to describe them because just about everybody knows what they feel like. And that's one reason this is such an important field of study. By some estimates, acne will affect nearly 85% of adolescents and young adults, and it causes more than just zits. Outbreaks can cause knock on effects like anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. If you know anyone that suffers from severe acne, you'll know that it deeply affects their day to day life. But these researchers weren't studying the cause of acne. They wanted to know more about the treatment.
CALLI: Okay. But if they don't know about the treatment, how did they invent it?
NATE: That's a good question. I was hoping you'd ask. Because acne is caused by bacteria. The most common and effective treatment consists of antibiotics. But not all antibiotics are created equal. And in fact, overuse of antibiotics can lead to a whole bunch of problems like antibiotic resistance, where the drugs just stop working.
CALLI: Yeah. And they also really hurt your gut health, too, right?
NATE: Yeah, they can. Exactly. So especially what are called broad spectrum antibiotics, which sort of just kill about all the bacteria in your body, including the good bacteria. You need to stay healthy. And that can create a dangerous imbalance called dysbiosis and lead to major chronic health problems.
CALLI: Yeah, it doesn't sound good at all.
NATE: To say the least. So getting back to acne. Since the 1950s, dermatologists have been prescribing tetracyclines, one of those broad range antibiotics to treat acne without understanding exactly how or why it worked on the bacteria that causes acne. Then in 2018, a new drug called seracycline was released that very specifically targeted the acting bacteria. Dr. Bunick, who led the study of the new drug, wondered why this new drug was able to target this specific bacteria. So precisely So he built a model.
CALLI: Way, like a zit model.
NATE: Sort of. He and his team used some pretty incredible tech to build a model of seracycline attaching to a C. acnes ribosome to see what was really going on.
CALLI: You lost me. Those are some pretty big words for such a common problem.
NATE: Well, the story is less about those bigger words and more about what they spell out for other medicines. The fact is, doctors prescribe all sorts of medications for all sorts of conditions without actually understanding exactly how they work. It can be like fixing a hole in your bedroom drywall by rebuilding your neighborhood. But if you can make these models and understand exactly how some drugs find and dispatch their targets, you can fine tune them and eliminate huge problems like drug resistance and chronic side effects.
CALLI: Okay. Actually, awesome. Sounds like it was a breakout success.
NATE: You've been holding on to that one for a while, haven't you?
CALLI: Oh, yeah. I was ready to pop. Okay. So is acne a thing of the past?
NATE: No, I'm afraid not. As long as there are squeaky voices and teeny little mustaches, there will be acne. But now we know why some treatments work better than others, and that could help make even better treatments in the future.
CALLI: Hmm. Useful. But gross.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: So I'll just dive right into this one. A new study has found that certain indigenous populations in the Amazon have a genetic resistance to infections from Chagas disease.
NATE: That sounds like great news. It would probably be even better if I knew what Chagas was.
CALLI: Okay, that's fair. It's definitely something you should be aware of as it affects up to 10 million people every year by some estimates, and is a leading cause of death in Latin America.
NATE: Okay, so why haven't I heard more about it?
CALLI: Probably because it's not so common in the United States yet, although cases have been on the rise near the southern border, but for thousands of years, it has primarily been confined to Latin America. And it's a pretty terrible disease. In fact, it's been reported that up to 30% of those infected develop congestive heart failure and many more live with chronic Chagas for the rest of their lives. So this new study is an important key to understanding how populations have been able to live in the Amazon, where this disease has been so deadly for so long.
NATE: Okay. Interesting. Tell me about the study.
CALLI: Well, okay, to understand the study, it's important to know more about Chagas. Trust me, it's not pretty, though. It's spread by a parasite called Trypanosoma Cruzi, or just T. Cruzi, which is transmitted to us by an insect called a kissing bug.
NATE: T. cruzi and kissing bug makes it sound kind of sweet.
CALLI: Mm hmm. Yeah. No. It's called the kissing bug because it comes out at night and bites victims face while they sleep. Because if that's nothing, after it's done sucking its victim's blood.
NATE: It poops grosser on your face.
CALLI: Yeah, usually. And it's the poop, but the little T. cruzi parasite lives in just waiting for its chance to enter its victim's body through the bug bite in the mouth, nose or through the eyes.
NATE: Grosser. Even still, I'm glad that I'm not eating right now.
CALLI: You're welcome. This disease can cause acute illness. Some kids who unknowingly rub the poop in their eyes develop dramatically swollen eyelids. But other symptoms might be very similar to other illnesses. Fatigues, aches, pains. And that can be a big problem because left untreated, it can stick with you for a lifetime in the form of chronic disease that can eventually cause heart failure.
NATE: And did you mention that cases were on the rise in the United States?
CALLI: I did. And across Europe as well. That's where this gets interesting. Tabita Hunemeier, one of the leads of the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances. Didn't set out to learn about Chagas infections. Instead, she was trying to better understand how the rugged Amazonian environment shaped the people who live there. As you probably know, it's a real hotspot for vector-driven diseases like Chagas. Vector borne meaning coming from the bite of an insect. So how are indigenous populations able to survive and even thrive in places like this?
NATE: Gotcha. So as the disease is spreading, I can see why it would be an important question.
CALLI: Exactly. Hunemeier is a population geneticist at the University of Sao Paulo and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. So she was looking at genes and by analyzing genomic data from individuals across 19 different indigenous groups throughout the Amazon, she and her team found that mutations in these populations around 7500 years ago made some individuals genetically resistant to infections from Chagas. And then, of course, natural selection set in. And it turns out that this was around the same time that many of these indigenous groups split off from other populations around the Andes, populations that do not have this Chagas resistance.
NATE: So the parasite didn't just cause a disease, it caused natural selection.
CALLI: Yeah. And these findings can help researchers understand the disease and find treatments and maybe one day a cure.
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NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: There’s a good chance we might be entering into another Baby Boom after decades of plummeting fertility rates - and it’s all because of remote work schedules. New research has found a correlation between women’s likeliness to conceive and a remote lifestyle, with some numbers being up to ten percent higher than their in-person peers. It seems that remote work might actually be allowing women who want to have kids the freedom to do so!
NATE: Researchers are trying to figure out how to cure severe acne without over-prescribing antibiotics. And they might be onto something! Through building a… zit model, scientists are able to not only search for a cure for acne, but they’re able to compare their research to other diseases!
CALLI: Chagas disease affects up to 10 million people per year in Latin America BUT research has found that indigenous groups in the Amazon have a genetic immunity to the disease meaning that hopefully Chagas will become something of the past!