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Speaker 1: Welcome to hows To Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vokebam,

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Speaker 1: a researcher and writer. Here at hous to Works. Every week,

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Speaker 1: I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the

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Speaker 1: weird and wonders advances we've seen in science, technology, and culture.

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Speaker 1: This week, a zebra shark underwent a surprising virgin birth,

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Speaker 1: and unrelated white blankets are bringing relief to some people

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Speaker 1: with anxiety. But First Stuff editor Eaves, Jeff Coote and

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Speaker 1: our freelance writer Jescelyn Shields explore an ecological side of

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Speaker 1: a political issue. What would a border wall due to

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Speaker 1: local wildlife? You may have heard President Trump has some

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Speaker 1: plans to build a wall between Mexico and the United States.

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Speaker 1: And it's not just a little wall a bunny could

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Speaker 1: hop over. This wall is going to be tremendous. But

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Speaker 1: regardless of how much geopolitical sense you think, this little

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Speaker 1: construction project makes a giant wall between Mexico and the

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Speaker 1: United States will take his toll on wildlife to humans.

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Speaker 1: The desert borderlands between Mexico and the American Southwest might

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Speaker 1: seem hot, dry and inhospitable, but they support a bumping

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Speaker 1: ecosystem featuring animals like big horn sheep, the American roadrunner,

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Speaker 1: yes of Loney Tunes fame, and the endangered North American jaguar.

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Speaker 1: Building a wall in the middle of all this will

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Speaker 1: undoubtedly pose big problems for wildlife, tremendous problems. We know

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Speaker 1: this because researchers have been studying the effects of the

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Speaker 1: six hundred fifty miles or one thousand, forty six kilometers

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Speaker 1: of security infrastructure that already exists on the border of

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Speaker 1: Mexico and the US, the environmental regulations for which were

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Speaker 1: waived by the Department of Homeland Security. A two thousand

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Speaker 1: eleven study by researchers at the University of Texas at

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Speaker 1: Austin shows that parts of these barriers have cut off

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Speaker 1: some reptiles, amphibians, and mammals from up to seventy of

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Speaker 1: their native ranges. The study concludes that new barriers would

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Speaker 1: put even more species over. So why is it so

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Speaker 1: important that ecosystems remain intact and connected. Basically, animals need

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Speaker 1: to breathe with each other to survive, and desert species

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Speaker 1: in particular must migrate to find food and water. A

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Speaker 1: wall like the one Trump has proposed would very likely

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Speaker 1: isolated populations of all sorts of animals. Small populations are

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Speaker 1: more likely to go extinct without access to very genetic

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Speaker 1: material from individuals of other populations coming and going. This

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Speaker 1: would lead to a loss of overall species variation, which

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Speaker 1: begins to downward spiral into extinction. Prong horn antelope, which

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Speaker 1: have trouble jumping fences and often get caught in them,

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Speaker 1: as well as big horn sheep which migrate through southwest Texas,

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Speaker 1: could be endangered by the wall. Though prong horn and

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Speaker 1: big horn sheep are at the most immediate risk of

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Speaker 1: starvation or thirst if a large physical barrier rises along

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Speaker 1: the border over longer periods of tom the wall would

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Speaker 1: also affect snakes and tortoises, whose populations could become ice late.

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Speaker 1: It the good news at best, a wall might provide

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Speaker 1: a nice sunning spot for lizards, and those guys would

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Speaker 1: be fine climbing right over that thing, But overall is

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Speaker 1: going to be very difficult to mitigate the impacts of

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Speaker 1: constructing a wall, and the ecological ramifications of the wall

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Speaker 1: could extend well beyond the immediate surrounding landscape, affecting nearby

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Speaker 1: rivers and distant bodies of water. Alike. The desert is

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Speaker 1: prone sail rosin, which could push tons of sediment into

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Speaker 1: the real grand so lookout, fish the wall is coming

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Speaker 1: for YouTube. Next Up, managing editor Alison Loudermilk and our

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Speaker 1: freelance writer Kate Kirshner look into the science behind therapeutic hugs.

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Speaker 1: Not all of us want to hug when we're stressed out,

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Speaker 1: and some people, especially those with sensory processing problems, do

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Speaker 1: want to hug. They just might not want to get

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Speaker 1: it from a person. Temple grand and the noted animal

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Speaker 1: scientists and autism activist hot A Solution. Granted invented a

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Speaker 1: squeeze machine that helped relax some children with autism. In

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Speaker 1: a d h D or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Autism

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Speaker 1: can affect a person's ability to interact and communicate. In

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Speaker 1: a d h D can affect impulse control and the

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Speaker 1: ability to focus. Some autistic children seek physical pressure to

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Speaker 1: cope with over stimulation. The idea behind Grandin's invention is

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Speaker 1: that deep touch pressure like cuddling or hugging, can be calming. Now,

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Speaker 1: some industrious folks think adults with anxiety and other conditions

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Speaker 1: like insomnia and stress might benefit from deep touch pressure.

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Speaker 1: To so, companies like Mosaic Weighted Blankets and cens A

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Speaker 1: Calm have introduced blankets that weigh about three pounds or

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Speaker 1: one and they're designed to pretty much smother the muscles

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Speaker 1: into relaxing. I want to know one adds weight to

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Speaker 1: the blankets. It's not magic beans. Note the manufacturers generally

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Speaker 1: use polypropylene pellets, those hard, little plastic balls that you

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Speaker 1: might find in stuffed animals. Is there any evidence that

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Speaker 1: the blankets alleviate these elements? The short answer, it's word

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Speaker 1: of one. Two fifteen Swedish study found that a weighted

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Speaker 1: blanket improved insomniac sleep time and experience. Important note there

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Speaker 1: the study was supported by a grant from a manufacturer

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Speaker 1: of weighted blankets. Another paper found that adults were calmed

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Speaker 1: by weighted blankets. Six of the thirty two participants reported

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Speaker 1: lower anxiety after using one. Since deep touch pressure is

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Speaker 1: reported to lower heart rates and cortisol levels while increasing serotonin,

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Speaker 1: that neuro transmitter that maintains mood balance, it makes sense

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Speaker 1: that weighted blankets could help moderate the nervous system. Of course,

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Speaker 1: not every intervention works for every person. While some might

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Speaker 1: find a heavy blanket comforting and soothing. Others might find

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Speaker 1: it a three dollar way to feel like they're being smothered. Finally,

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Speaker 1: this week, staff editor Christopher Hasiotas has another piece from

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Speaker 1: Jesselyn Shields. This is the story of a zebra shark who,

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Speaker 1: lacking a mate, went ahead and had babies all on

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Speaker 1: her own. If you're a dog suddenly gave birth to

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Speaker 1: a litter of puppies, you might be surprised, but you'd

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Speaker 1: know one thing for sure. Somehow, some way she managed

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Speaker 1: to rendezvous with a mail dog. Well, that and the

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Speaker 1: next thing on your to do list would be the

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Speaker 1: post on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to adopt

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Speaker 1: an adorable little ball of fur, because you should. Don't

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Speaker 1: need those puppies around your house. This month, a new

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Speaker 1: paper published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports describes the

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Speaker 1: unusual case of a zebra shark known by the scientific

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Speaker 1: name Stegastoma fasciatum and the everyday name Leoni at Queensland,

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Speaker 1: Australia's reef h Q Aquarium. Leone, despite not having had

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Speaker 1: contact with a mail shark for more than three years,

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Speaker 1: laid three eggs that all hatched healthy baby sharks, and

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Speaker 1: though Leonie's handlers were surprised. They didn't assume she somehow

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Speaker 1: magiced her way into the tank of a mail shark. No,

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Speaker 1: the most reasonable explanation is actually even weirder, that she

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Speaker 1: just made some babies without the help of a male.

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Speaker 1: This nifty little trick is called parthenogenesis or virgin birth,

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Speaker 1: in which a few mail reproduces without her eggs having

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Speaker 1: been fertilized. Although it isn't all that uncommon in the

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Speaker 1: natural world among plants and invertebrates, scientists keep stumbling on

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Speaker 1: instances of vertebrate parthener genesis that are total shockers, like

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Speaker 1: the articulated python at the Louisville Zoo, for instance, in Kentucky,

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Speaker 1: that had never been near a mail in her whole life,

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Speaker 1: but hatched out six healthy daughters back in two thousand twelve.

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Speaker 1: But what's really odd about leon these cases that she

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Speaker 1: had reproduced sexually once before, and then a few years

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Speaker 1: later switched it all up to a sexual reproduction. Genetic

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Speaker 1: tests confirmed this second set of babies are now the

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Speaker 1: product of just one parent, not two, So Leonie actually

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Speaker 1: cloned herself and birthed her own clones. This is the

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Speaker 1: first known case of this sexual to a sexual switch

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Speaker 1: happening in sharks that it has been observed in a

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Speaker 1: spotted eagle ray, which is a close shark relative. It's

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Speaker 1: really handy to be able to produce viable embryos without

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Speaker 1: the help of a partner, but scientists aren't sure why

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Speaker 1: animals that usually reproduced sexually will simply clone themselves. Consider

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Speaker 1: it a test him into how serious the business of

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Speaker 1: reproduction really is to all organisms that when cut off

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Speaker 1: from sexual partners, the female of some species will just

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Speaker 1: get the job done herself. So to any mothers out

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Speaker 1: there who feel like they just have to do everything

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Speaker 1: around here, know this. There's at least one zebra shark

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Speaker 1: out there who feels your pay. That's our show for

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Speaker 1: this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. Further

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Speaker 1: thanks to audio producer Dylan Fagin and our editorial liaison

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Speaker 1: Alison Louderknock. Subscribe to now Now for more of the

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Speaker 1: Lave Science news and send us links to anything you'd

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Speaker 1: like to hear us cover, plus the name of your

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Speaker 1: favorite murder ballad. I'm looking for some Valentine's Day listening.

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Speaker 1: Have a happy one, by the way, if you choose

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Speaker 1: to celebrate that kind of thing, you can send us

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Speaker 1: an email at now podcast at how stuff works dot com,

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Speaker 1: and of course, for lots more stories like these, head

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Speaker 1: on over to our home planet Now dot how stuff

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