WEBVTT - Listener Questions #19 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:06.720 Hey everyone, Daniel here with a quick note that my 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.560 new book, Do Aliens Speak Physics? Is coming out soon 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.479 November fourth, and I'd love if you considered pre ordering it. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.040 The book imagines the arrival of aliens and what it 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.159 would be like to try to make mental contact and 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.280 download their understanding of the universe. Do we have Physics 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.680 in common with the Aliens? If you like how the 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.320 podcast asks deep physics questions and dabbles in philosophy, you'll 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.520 enjoy the book, which also features cute cartoons of aliens 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.559 from my friend Andy Warner. Find it anywhere or check 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:38.200 out the book website www dot Alienspeakphysics dot com. Okay, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:46.839 on to today's episode. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.080 How do the pinworms know that it's night when they 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.320 lurk in a place with so little light? 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.920 If I upgraded my quirks to top quark class, what 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.639 I automatically get we had a bigger mass. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.040 If you eat certain foods, your skin will change you. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.320 Why does that happen? Do we have any clue? 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.640 Whatever questions keep you up at night, and Daniel and 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:13.800 Kelly's answer will make it all right. 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.920 Welcome to Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.400 Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I've never 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:34.360 had pinworms. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.200 Hi. I'm Kelly, I'm a biologist, and I'm not sure 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.319 Daniel can be sure that he's never had pinworms. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.640 Welcome to the episode where we dig deep into Daniel's condition. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:50.720 All right, So, Daniel, my question for you today is 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.680 what was the most surprising thing about parenting? 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.080 Wow? Great question. I think one of the most surprising 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.840 things about parenting for me was how the gross quickly 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.960 becomes monotonous and every day you like wiping somebody else's 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.440 feces off of your hands or face, it's just like, 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.000 you know, it's just another Tuesday. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.560 Yep. Oh, I totally agree. The first time my daughter, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.639 like projectile pooped and it was on the wall and 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.200 on me, I was like, oh my gosh, this is 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:23.280 so gross. And then by like the fifth time, I 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.040 was like, I got some more laundry to do today, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.600 and it was like it was like nothing whatever. 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.080 Yeah, And when you have visitors and they see the 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.680 inside of your actual day to day routine and they're like, whoa, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.799 it gives you a taste for like how far you've 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.040 drifted from societal norms. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.480 But you pretty quickly get back to normal expectations. You know, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:47.160 when your kids get past the age where you have 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.120 to wipe your butt, you very quickly return to I 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.120 would prefer to not wipe people's butts if I could 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.160 avoid it, Although I think taking care of each other 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:55.760 is one of the best things that humans can do. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.680 I agree, But if my sixteen year old pooped on me, 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.000 it would be a pretty big memory, and I can't 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.320 remember all the time she did it when she was young. 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.320 Right, yeah, things change, things change exactly. 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.639 It would stand out now, that's right, that's right. How 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.040 about you? What is one of your most surprising discoveries 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:13.680 about parenting? 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.079 So it also has to do with hygiene, and it's 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.600 how far our species has come with hygiene, because there's 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.920 so many things that kids don't do naturally that you 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.360 would expect they would want to do naturally, like wash 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.880 their hands, like wash their hands or take a shower. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.480 But doctors weren't washing their hands until like one hundred 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:30.280 and fifty years ago. 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.840 I know. No culture has played such a huge role 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.480 in keeping us healthy, and it's amazing and it really 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.240 hit home for me when I was a parent. But 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:41.880 I think that one of the things that surprised me 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.200 in particular is the number of times I've had to 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.120 say the phrase get your hand out of your butt, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:54.520 and which leads us into question one, because kids sticking 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.720 their hands in their butts is how they transmit pinworms 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.680 and why this is probably the most common worm infection 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:03.600 in the United States. 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.200 All right, so get ready to get itchy everyone. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.720 That's right. So we have an amazing Discord community, and 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.880 you can join us by going to Danielandkelly dot org 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.400 and clicking on the link to our Discord channel. And 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.400 Julian on Discord had this question that he wanted to 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:19.480 share with us, and let. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.880 Me add another shout out to our Discord community. If 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.360 you want to reach us, you can write us questions 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.200 at questions at Daniel and Kelly dot org. But the 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.440 Discord community is also a lot of fun. You can 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.280 ask your questions there. There's lots of folks chatting and discussing, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:37.000 sharing recent articles, talking about science. If you can't get 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.359 enough Daniel and Kelly and science, come join us on 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.360 Discord and be part of the inner synctum. 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:43.560 And I'd just like to shout out to our moderators, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.320 who are the best moderators on the whole entire internet. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.200 I'm sure, Oh, yes, absolutely, they win all the awards 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:49.600 they do. 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.200 Hey, Daniel and Kelly, this is Julian in Houston. As 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.560 the parent of a small child. I've had pinworms on 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.640 my mind a bit in the past couple of years, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.080 and I think I heard on a previous episode you 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.440 mentioned the pinworms tend to come out at night to 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.760 lay their eggs and cause itchymut. So my question is, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.360 how do pinworms know it's nighttime to come out and 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.840 cause ITCHI mut Thanks so much and I look forward 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:13.640 to hearing the answer. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.520 So Kelly, tell us what is a pinworm? 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.320 A pinworm is a little worm. When it's an adult, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.920 it's about the size of a staple, so they're tiny. 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.000 About forty million people in the United States probably have 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.480 pinworm right now, and a billion people worldwide. I think 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:32.320 I said a moment ago that pinworms are the most 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.040 common worm infection that's in the US, where we don't 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.640 have a lot of other kinds of worm infections. They're 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.320 very common in children, and they're also kind of common 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.240 in people in long term care facilities. 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.280 All right, so let's estimate what fraction of our audience 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.080 have pinworms right now as they're listening to this. We're 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.520 talking forty million people. That's like fifteen percent of the US. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.479 Is it not evenly distributed because you're saying it's like 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.440 children and old folks homes. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.440 Yeah, So if you have children and they are let's 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.680 say preschool or elementary school age, there's a pretty good 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.839 chance they have or have had pinworms, and there's a 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.120 decent chance they gave it to you, although it does 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.160 seem like adults become more resistant, and so even if 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.200 your kids have it, you're not definitely going to get it. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.279 But doctors will often prescribe medication to an entire family 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.200 if anyone in it gets the parasites, because it is 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:25.760 pretty pretty easy to transmit. 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.560 So maybe like one in ten of our listeners right 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.680 now have pinworms. Maybe the pinworms are listening to this episode. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.560 So if I have to remember our demographics from the 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.799 last time we did a survey, we have a lot 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:42.200 of men over fifty or sixty and they are highly 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.920 unlikely to have pinworms, And so I don't know about 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:46.560 one in ten. It depends on how many of our 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.840 current listeners have young kids. But there's a good chance 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:50.479 that you have either had it at some point in 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.000 your life or if you have kids, you have it now. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:54.960 All right, So tell us what do these guys look like. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.120 So they're in kind of nematodes. So these are cylindrical worms. 0:06:58.200 --> 0:06:59.960 They have no segments, so don't think about an earth work. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:02.400 Think about just kind of like a hard outer case 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.000 and a very tiny worm. They kind of come to 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.520 an end, which is why they're called pinworms. As I 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.640 mentioned before, they're like the size of a staple when 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.680 they're adults. Oh, I see, and you might remember that 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.760 a few months ago we talked about geo helmets, or 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.680 we call them the dirt worms. These are nematods that 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.880 you find in the dirt. This is another kind of nematode, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.200 so they're kind of related to the dirt worms we 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:25.120 were talking about earlier. 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.840 So you're using this phrase nematod, and it sounds like 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.520 it describes a category of worm. What is a nematod. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.040 Nematoda is a whole phylum of worms that have this 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.560 like hard outer cuticle. Some of them live in the soil, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.960 some of them are commensal with plants, and some of 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:43.000 them are parasitic. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.560 Yeah, if I had to guess, if somebody just asked 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.960 me what a nematoad was, it sounds to me like 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:54.440 some sort of miniature Japanese frog. That's great, like it 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.000 might be served in a weird sushi or something very 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:58.040 high end sushi. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.280 I mean, that's completely wrong. That is very cute, very cute. 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.880 So I'm imagining that the life style with these guys 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.840 is not very cute. So tell us about it, and 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.720 everyone finish that snack you're having before you. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.400 Listen to this, or go wash your hands. So the 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.080 infection route is what's called fecal oral or poop to mouth. 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:23.280 Good start. 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.440 That's an actual phrase people use. 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.920 I've heard it said in my community more than once. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.400 I don't know if it shows up in any textbooks, but. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.920 Poop mouth, all right, So tell us about it. Yeah. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.320 The idea here is that you accidentally eat the eggs. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.280 So you accidentally consume an egg, it hatches in your 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.320 body and when it gets to the intestine, the males 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.360 and the females will find each other and they'll mate, 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.040 and then the males die. 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.120 Inside you instant having a party inside you. Oh my gosh, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:52.559 that's right. 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.080 You might not be dating. But the worms inside you 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.199 might be so someone's find in love in that body 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.760 of you are So. 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:01.040 That's good news. 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:01.679 I guess. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.240 I don't know, all right. So they start out as eggs, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:06.600 you end up in your mouth. We'll get into that 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.280 in a minute, I imagine. Yep, they hatch, they mate 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.920 inside you, and they have little babies. Oh no, eggs, 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:12.319 I guess. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.600 Well, So the female starts producing eggs. The male, after 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.960 reproducing dies and gets digested, and so you'll never see 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:20.280 the male. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:20.880 Wow. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.280 The female her eggs. She starts making eggs. They start 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.800 maturing a little bit inside of her. Then she moves 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.600 down farther into your intestine, and when she is ready 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.079 to lay those eggs at night, she will come out. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.160 She will crawl out of your anis. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.840 One's anis. Excuse me, one's anis? 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.640 Crawl out of one's anis. And on the CDC website 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.600 it cracks me up because it says anis and then 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.280 in parentheses butthole just in case you are sure as 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.199 so crawls out your butthole. And the female needs oxygen 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.600 to stimulate the release of eggs, and apparently in some 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.760 cases she has what's called a prolapsed uterus, which essentially 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.400 just means that her uterus sort of comes out of 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.520 her body and expels the eggs. And I guess in 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.720 some cases they've observed the eggs going airborne. This expulsion 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:11.800 happens so violently. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.600 This is much less cute than miniature Japanese frogs. I 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.280 vote for miniature Japanese frogs. We should have that instead. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:19.960 Well, you know you don't. 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.439 Get to juice, all right, But I have an actual 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.560 sides question. Okay, how do the eggs survive in my 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.720 digestive track, Like you're dropping them in stomach acid and 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:28.559 they're surviving. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.079 So in this case, they're still inside of their mom. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.680 She doesn't expel them until she gets outside of the body. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.720 But the eggs I've consumed, right, The mom herself was 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.199 born from an egg that I swallowed. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.160 Right, yes, And your digestive juices helped it escape from 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:43.920 the egg that it was living in. Oh wow, And 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.880 then it's tough cuticle protects it from your. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.560 Juices, all right. So she comes out the enis does 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:52.040 her little oxygen. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.600 Dance, yes, and she will lay her eggs in the 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.679 perianal region, and then often she will die and we'll 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.120 talk about what happens. If she doesn't die as a symptom, 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.240 that's bad. But most of the time she dies. And 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.040 the eggs are sticky, and so they stick to your butt, 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:11.840 and they also kind of make you itch because now 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.240 there's like some sticky stuff in your butt, and that's 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.800 not great. And kids are likely to stick their hands 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.360 in their butts, which is what I learned as a mom, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.400 is that they're always sticking their hands in their butts. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.719 And so they stick their hands in their butts and 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.319 then they get it underneath their fingernails or on their fingers. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.040 And then because they're scratched, because it's itch that's right, 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:31.480 that's right. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.120 Don't make it sound so weird. They're itchy, so they're scratching. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.480 Yeah, okay, they're itchy. So they're scratching. They're humans. And 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.720 then these grubby little creatures we call children go around 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.920 and touch things, you know. They put their fingers in 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.120 their mouths, they put their fingers in your mouth, they 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.400 put their fingers on the kitchen table, and in that way, 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.240 these sticky eggs get to lots of different places, and 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.160 when they get consumed, then you're back up at the start. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.199 Of the cycle that we talked about, where your stomach 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.199 juices will open up the eggs and the process will 0:11:58.200 --> 0:11:58.680 start again. 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.400 So this is the story I use to convince my 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.319 kids to keep their fingers out of their mouth. So, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.959 you know, kids like to chew on their nails or whatever. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.319 And anytime I see my kids chewing on their nails, 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.280 I just make this wiggly fingers hand gesture and it 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.920 recalls for them the story I told them about pinworms, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.200 and they go, oh, They're immediately grossed out by what 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.960 might be under their fingernails, and they stop. So this 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:22.880 has been an effective parenting technique. 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.120 Fantastic. Now you have your kids ever had pinworms that 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:26.600 you know of? 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.720 I don't think I should be discussing my kids medical 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.679 history on the podcast. Let's keep it abstract. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.800 Okay, have you ever had pinworms? 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:37.920 No? 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.640 I have not personally ever had pinworms to my knowledge. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.440 Right, So that's the thing. Most who No, not to 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:49.240 my knowledge. But I've had periods of itchiness where I 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:54.160 wondered if maybe maybe I had it. Anytime there's a 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:55.520 little itch, I think good worms. 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.600 And now everyone listening to this podcast is suddenly feel 0:12:58.640 --> 0:12:59.080 and itchy. 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.560 That's right right. I mean the females lay like ten 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:02.280 thousand eggs. 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.160 Oh my god, how tiny are these? Can you not 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:04.680 see them? 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:06.680 You can't see them. They're teeny tiny. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.360 You can't even see them when you lay ten thousand 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:11.520 of them, Like, it doesn't look like a little blob 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:12.600 or a smear or something. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:14.680 No, it's teeny tiny. I mean if you put it, 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:16.319 you don't have to put it under a super high 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.040 powered microscope to see it, but you do need a 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:20.800 microscope to see it. You know, they're kind of clear, 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.160 they're not very big. These eggs can survive for two 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.720 to three weeks, like out on a counter or something. 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:26.240 Wow. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.160 But the way that you find out if someone is 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.440 infected is called the Scotch tape test. 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:37.120 No, no, no, no, no, where at the Scotch tape? Kelly, 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.800 where around the black hole? 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:45.920 The physicist that comes in with the black hole joke, Yes, 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.000 around the black hole. Yeah. So, so the females come 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.080 out at night to lay their eggs, which is going 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.400 to get us to the listener's question in just a minute. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.080 But they lay their eggs at night in particular, and 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.360 so in the morning right when they wake up, before 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.800 they've you know, used the restroom or wiped or anything. 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.720 You take a piece of tape and you sort of 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.280 pat it around the perianal region and then you stick 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.360 it on a glass slide and you put it under 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.680 a microscope, so you can see those eggs. Sometimes you 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.360 even catch the mom because she's just sort of died 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.720 and she's still there, and so you'll see a worm 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.760 and those you can see. So sometimes you do know 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.640 that someone's infected because you find one of the mom 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.600 worms and you're like, oh, shoot, well we've got worms. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:28.200 Yikes, yikes. 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:28.760 Yeah. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.680 So then the listener asked, how does the mom know 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.800 that it's nighttime and she should come out and do 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:35.840 her dance? Why doesn't she come out during the day? 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.440 All right, great question. I didn't know the answer, and 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.440 I asked the American Society of Parasitologists Facebook page, which 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:47.440 has like fifteen thousand followers, and I was like, all right, team, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.040 how do we know that pinworms know that it's nighttime? 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.280 Because I looked through a bunch of medical books about 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.880 parasitic diseases and they all said pinworms come out at night. 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.520 Some of them would say that the pinworms were detecting 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.480 our drop in body temperature when we sleep. Oh, and 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.240 then others would say they might be detecting a drop 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.520 in body temperature, but they wouldn't say it definitively, And 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.560 none of them included an inline reference that I could 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.760 check for the study that showed that they're responding to 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.480 body temperature, because they could also be responding to like, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.760 you know, you're not moving for a couple hours. 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.440 So there's the question of how the worms know it's 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.080 night to come out. But how do we know they 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.480 only come out at night? And why do they only 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:31.720 come out at night? Do they come out at night 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.720 because that's the best time to lay the eggs while 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.040 we're asleep, or do they need the darker environment or what? 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:39.640 Yes, I think the answer at the end of the 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:45.120 day is we don't know. Because the American Society of Parasitologists, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.360 when I asked them, the best answer I got was 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.240 from my friend Brandon, who said they have little watches 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.880 and that's how they know it's nighttime. I thank you, Brandon. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.160 But anyway, as far as I could tell, we haven't 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.720 done studies to figure out one why it's nighttime, or 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.520 two to confirm that they're actually queuing in on temperature. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.720 I think we suspect that that's the cue that they're using, 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.400 but we haven't ruled out other possible cues. And as 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.440 to why they do it at night, it could be 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.360 possible that while people are sleeping is a time when 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.280 you are less likely to have a bellel movement. And 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.040 this parasite doesn't pass in feces, it passes on fingers. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.720 And the reason that we know that it happens at 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:26.960 night is because if you do the Scotch tape test 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.480 in the morning, you get a bunch of eggs. If 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.440 you do it at other times of day, you don't 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.000 get a bunch of eggs. And you would expect if 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.760 they were laying randomly throughout the day, the Scotch tape 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.520 test would give you eggs at just about any time 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:38.840 of day. 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.360 Fascinating. So Julian's question is really at the forefront of science. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.880 Yeah, that's right. I encourage any young people out there 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.240 to search for this answer. I don't know what it 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.680 would take to answer this question. I think pinworms are 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:55.240 pretty host specific, and so like Ancherobius vermicularis, which is 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.160 the species that humans have, I don't know you might 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.480 be able to do it in some other mammalians species 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.520 do the experiments, But I don't know. Maybe you'd have 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:04.680 to heat people up and cool them down and see 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:06.760 what their worms were doing, or ask them to stay still, 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.480 or mess with some hormones that are associated with sleep 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.120 that maybe the pinworms are queuing in on. But anyway, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.199 inquiring minds want to know, but we don't know the 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:16.919 answer as far as I can tell. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.520 Well, if you've always been interested in black holes and 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.320 this podcast has peaked your interest in biology, maybe this 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.440 is the perfect crossover topic for you. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.040 Could be all right, Julian, thank you so much for 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.760 this question and for joining us on discord. Did we 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.479 scratch your itch? Please don't give us worms? 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.160 Hey, y'all, yes, you absolutely scratched my itch. I think 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.200 my favorite part was hearing about the violently explosive egg laying. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.199 Also how small the eggs actually are, as I always 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.199 assume that you'd be able to see them in the 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:52.639 poop or something like that. I'm also glad to hear 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.640 Kelly give a we don't know answer, and I hope 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.720 Daniel Guest to drop on it depends soon. Thank you 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:00.760 so much for your answer, and my kid will one 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:18.280 day figure out the answer, though hopefully not by catching pinworms. 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.320 All right, we're back and we're answering questions from listeners 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.919 because your curiosity literally powers science. If people didn't want 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:33.800 to know the answer to these questions, we would not 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.240 get to do it. So we want to hear what 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.920 you wonder about the universe. Right to us two questions 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:43.080 at Danielankelly dot org. Our next question comes from a 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:47.320 lawyer in the UK. Rebecca wants to know about top quarks. 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.320 If I weigh fifty five kilograms on the basis that 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:56.560 my protons are upquarks and down cork, how much would 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:01.200 I weigh if my protons were made of top quarks? 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.600 And why is there a different if any All. 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.359 Right, this is a really fun question about what it 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:10.560 might be like to have top quarks in your life. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.960 I can imagine there being a new diet fad where 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.119 people say, oh, I've created a thing that turns your 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.159 bottom quarks to top quarks and that's how you're going 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.280 to lose ten pounds. So you better not say this works. 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:26.000 Yeah, I don't recommend no, no, definitely, no particle physics 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.040 inspired diets do not fall for that. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.919 Oh, there's got to be some quantum something, something diet 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:32.800