1
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff

2
00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: Works dot com The Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My

3
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,439
Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas and I

4
00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,960
Speaker 1: hate you. I should ask you before we actually started recording,

5
00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: But do you have any indo parasites signed? Because I'm

6
00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: all out No, No, I can't get them from the

7
00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:25,800
Speaker 1: website that I used to get them from anymore because

8
00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:27,639
Speaker 1: I'm feeling a little chunky and I would really like

9
00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:30,800
Speaker 1: to drop a few pounds. Well yeah, I mean, um,

10
00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:33,879
Speaker 1: a parasite diet is really the way to go if

11
00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:36,400
Speaker 1: you want to drop a couple and then I mean

12
00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,080
Speaker 1: the only problem though, is that, um, you kind of

13
00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:42,680
Speaker 1: get these little weird side effects like abdominal pain and

14
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:49,400
Speaker 1: distension and vomiting and diarrhea and malnutrition and itchy enus. Yeah, yeah,

15
00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:51,559
Speaker 1: that those that'll stack out throwing a little psychosis on

16
00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:53,760
Speaker 1: top of that, and it'll uh, it really takes a toll.

17
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 1: But you look fabulous, So I really don't see what

18
00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:57,720
Speaker 1: the big deal is. Thanks. Thanks, I know, and that's

19
00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,960
Speaker 1: what I thought when when a fish holes in Hong Kong.

20
00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:07,280
Speaker 1: We're shutting down websites selling the scarce roundworm, which people

21
00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:12,000
Speaker 1: were using as a weight loss diet. Yeah, the story

22
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:13,880
Speaker 1: was picked up by a lot of people because the

23
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,319
Speaker 1: idea is great because it's like a parasite, the thing

24
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,520
Speaker 1: that we don't want. The parasite is like, yeah, it's

25
00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,000
Speaker 1: like the vire Saw the Mosquito Coast. There's like this

26
00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,600
Speaker 1: great scene where Harrison Ford's crazy character like kills a

27
00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,039
Speaker 1: mosquito and he's like he's making a ployant about some

28
00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,959
Speaker 1: thugs that are living off there, crazy compat of easily.

29
00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:32,480
Speaker 1: He's like he points to the blood. He's like, that's

30
00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,920
Speaker 1: that's your blood, not the mosquitoes blood. You know. It's

31
00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,440
Speaker 1: like that the parasite is just leaching something off of

32
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:42,040
Speaker 1: us and we're getting nothing in return. Um. But the

33
00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,640
Speaker 1: closer you look at at at parasitic relationships, the more

34
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:48,880
Speaker 1: you realize that a lot of what we think of

35
00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:53,200
Speaker 1: as parasitic relationships are actually symbiotic relationships. There's a lot

36
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,760
Speaker 1: more give and take. Um, there's back scratching going there's

37
00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:00,560
Speaker 1: backscratching going on. And and so the idea of benefiting

38
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,480
Speaker 1: from a parasite is not that crazy an idea at all.

39
00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:07,320
Speaker 1: And uh And likewise, this will explore some of some

40
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,600
Speaker 1: examples of symbiosis. When you look closer, they look a

41
00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:15,400
Speaker 1: little more parasitic. Uh. And it just really it blew

42
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 1: my mind the more I looked into this, because it

43
00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:20,880
Speaker 1: really changes the way you look at all interactions between

44
00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,360
Speaker 1: all organisms. Yeah, the entire planet actually, when you start

45
00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,600
Speaker 1: to look at um, just like the basic ecosystems on

46
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,880
Speaker 1: our bodies, inside of our guts, outside of our bodies,

47
00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:35,840
Speaker 1: you know, in the ocean, so on and so forth.

48
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:38,240
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just even the way you look at

49
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,200
Speaker 1: a tree these days now and you're like, oh my god,

50
00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,560
Speaker 1: and there's so much more going on than we ever imagined.

51
00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,880
Speaker 1: But I jump ahead of myself there with tree. Well,

52
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,000
Speaker 1: let me just break it down real quick then for

53
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,840
Speaker 1: for anybody that's that's new to this, what is symbiosis?

54
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,280
Speaker 1: All right? Symbiosis? This is an example where we have

55
00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: a situation where we have two organisms of different species

56
00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:01,880
Speaker 1: existing in close physical contact to the benefit of both organisms.

57
00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:07,120
Speaker 1: That's the blanket symbiosis. Yeah, But then you have different types.

58
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,040
Speaker 1: For instance, there's um commence all is um and this

59
00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,160
Speaker 1: is when one organism benefits and the other isn't affected

60
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,960
Speaker 1: much at all. Um. Then there's mutually beneficial where both

61
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,080
Speaker 1: sides make out okay. Then there's a parasitism of course,

62
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,679
Speaker 1: where one organism benefits and the other one uh suffers

63
00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:30,119
Speaker 1: or even dies. And then there's obligate symbiosis. And this

64
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,679
Speaker 1: is where the situation where the symbiosis is necessary to survival.

65
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,839
Speaker 1: So it's like, there are these two things in this relationship,

66
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,720
Speaker 1: two species intertwined, and they need each other to survive.

67
00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:44,000
Speaker 1: Without each other, they're doomed. And you've got a really

68
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,920
Speaker 1: good example of that, right, yes, I do. There's um

69
00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,560
Speaker 1: a particular creature that's just really bizarre. Um. One of

70
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,120
Speaker 1: the strangest case of the symbiosis you'll run across called

71
00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,400
Speaker 1: the a soil that's a c O E l a

72
00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:01,920
Speaker 1: so l um flat worm uh. And these tiny worms

73
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,840
Speaker 1: live along shorelines and they look like mass as a seaweed.

74
00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,120
Speaker 1: The worms themselves are transparent, but if if you were

75
00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:13,160
Speaker 1: looking inside them, you'd find this type of algae, this

76
00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,400
Speaker 1: uh uh platymnus algae, which contains chlorophyll and is capable

77
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,320
Speaker 1: of photosynthesis, and they give this worms is green color. Right,

78
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,520
Speaker 1: So the algae absorbed sunlight through the worm's clear skin

79
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,400
Speaker 1: and they photosynthesized food, enough food that the worms have

80
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:34,040
Speaker 1: no functioning digestive track or even working mouths, and the

81
00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,560
Speaker 1: algae even recycle the worms waste products. So you've got

82
00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,680
Speaker 1: this this crazy situation where it's like like you can

83
00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,920
Speaker 1: live rent free. Yeah, flat worm algae. And they've they've

84
00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,960
Speaker 1: lived together so long that they're they're one thing. They're like,

85
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 1: you can't. It's really hard to separate where one ends

86
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:54,960
Speaker 1: and the other begins, right, Yeah, especially with the coloring.

87
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:56,960
Speaker 1: And you know what I'm saying that the actual physical

88
00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:01,480
Speaker 1: representation is created by the the parasite. I suppose you

89
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:03,880
Speaker 1: would call them this instance that the algae. Yeah, it's

90
00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:05,800
Speaker 1: like a sweet old couple. You know that they have

91
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,200
Speaker 1: lived together so long that they're just this one, one thing,

92
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,080
Speaker 1: and that the idea of one living without the other

93
00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,280
Speaker 1: is just ridiculous. Oh that's sweet. I just started thinking

94
00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:15,000
Speaker 1: like old couples that look like each other walking down

95
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,520
Speaker 1: the street with hands in each other's pockets. Yeah. Now,

96
00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,760
Speaker 1: the other type is a faculty of symbiosis. And this

97
00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:25,040
Speaker 1: is where the symbiosis is is great but not necessary

98
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,920
Speaker 1: to survival, which is a lot of symbiosis. Uh. And

99
00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:32,719
Speaker 1: then you have endosymbia symbias which live inside another organism,

100
00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,560
Speaker 1: and ectosymbias, which live on the body of another. But

101
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,400
Speaker 1: an endo doesn't include the digestive system, by the way,

102
00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:41,279
Speaker 1: so that could you could have a parasite in your

103
00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 1: digestive system and it would still be considered exo. And

104
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,880
Speaker 1: I'm assuming because eventually it gets purged, right, kind of

105
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 1: think of the human bodies of doughnut, and it's like,

106
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,560
Speaker 1: even if it's in the whole, it's it's it's XO,

107
00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:56,560
Speaker 1: right right, It's a good way to put it. Um.

108
00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,719
Speaker 1: I think it gets more complicated if you get into

109
00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 1: cruelers and jelly. So so that's why we don't use

110
00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,760
Speaker 1: a lot of donut analogies on the show. But but

111
00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,840
Speaker 1: I do find the roommates analogy really interesting because when

112
00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:09,719
Speaker 1: you look at this, because it's like, take any two

113
00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:12,279
Speaker 1: roommates or any two people that live together in the

114
00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,919
Speaker 1: same environment, and you'll encounter different give and take. Um.

115
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,440
Speaker 1: I think we've talked about before. We've used also like

116
00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:21,839
Speaker 1: couples as an example, Like sometimes you'll have a situation

117
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,400
Speaker 1: where where like they say, the wife has a job

118
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,520
Speaker 1: and the husband definitely does not, and it is sitting

119
00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:32,000
Speaker 1: on the couch all day. Um, he's he's really not

120
00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:36,200
Speaker 1: contributing a lot to this situation. But he may be

121
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:39,160
Speaker 1: hurting to one degree another, but he's he's benefiting. Okay.

122
00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:41,800
Speaker 1: And I think about that as like the commence alism, right. So,

123
00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,080
Speaker 1: and then when I think about commencealism, always think about barnacles,

124
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,760
Speaker 1: like they just attached to anything. Yeah, I'm not saying

125
00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:50,120
Speaker 1: that the guy is a barnacle. Might be a barnacle,

126
00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,920
Speaker 1: I've I've I've met a few barnacles in my time. Yeah, well,

127
00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,320
Speaker 1: but in nature, I specifically thought, of course that's the barnacle.

128
00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,920
Speaker 1: They're like the hoboes of the sea. Um. And then

129
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 1: with parasitism, another example right off the top of my

130
00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,400
Speaker 1: head is just ticks, right yeah, Like that's that's obvious.

131
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:08,760
Speaker 1: They're just sucking your blood. They drink your blood, maybe

132
00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,000
Speaker 1: give you lime disease, and then fall off right. Um.

133
00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:16,360
Speaker 1: And then again mutually beneficial. You talked about the flatworm.

134
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,800
Speaker 1: There's also cleaner shrimp, and they actually hang out on

135
00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:21,720
Speaker 1: coral reefs and then they hit up passing fish to

136
00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,920
Speaker 1: clean their windshields so to speak. Uh, And they crawl

137
00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:27,000
Speaker 1: onto the fish and sometimes they get into their mouths

138
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,320
Speaker 1: and remove dead skin cells. I thought that was really interesting,

139
00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:32,720
Speaker 1: Like they're just hanging out there. It's like a little

140
00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:35,240
Speaker 1: car wash. Yeah, there are a number of cleaner species.

141
00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:37,920
Speaker 1: I mean in the ocean there, it's like they're just crazy.

142
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,000
Speaker 1: This seems like every every species has some other species

143
00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,560
Speaker 1: that will let come into its mouth and hang out

144
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:47,240
Speaker 1: and eat stuff off their teeth, you know. Um. But

145
00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,280
Speaker 1: and then there there are also some examples outside of

146
00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:54,880
Speaker 1: the oceans. For instance, there's the ox pecker and the

147
00:07:54,960 --> 00:08:00,520
Speaker 1: ox pecker uh. And there these uh you'll typically see

148
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:03,000
Speaker 1: these like on the backs of zebras in uh in

149
00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,400
Speaker 1: Safari films, you know, and they're you know, they're hanging

150
00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,120
Speaker 1: around out there and they're eating lice, ticks and other

151
00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,880
Speaker 1: little annoyances. Um. And and on the surface, it looks

152
00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,160
Speaker 1: like a natural example of a symbiotic relationship, like I'm

153
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:19,320
Speaker 1: gonna eat your parasites. Uh, you're getting rid of your parasites,

154
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:23,080
Speaker 1: and I'm getting a dinner out of it. Right. However, um,

155
00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,040
Speaker 1: their actions are not always completely in the interest of

156
00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,400
Speaker 1: the host. Uh. They are suspected sometimes of nipping open

157
00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,120
Speaker 1: wounds on the zebra's back in order to encourage more parasites,

158
00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:36,360
Speaker 1: or even to to have a little blood, Like they're

159
00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:38,480
Speaker 1: just sort of open a little slit and have have

160
00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,160
Speaker 1: a little to drink a little sauce on their meal. Yeah,

161
00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:43,600
Speaker 1: it's kind of like like you're you're you know, as

162
00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,920
Speaker 1: long as I'm back here, you know, eating your ticks,

163
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:47,560
Speaker 1: Like I think I'm gonna have a little this delicious

164
00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,760
Speaker 1: blood that you've got going on, right, And if you're

165
00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:51,480
Speaker 1: the zebra, you're probably like, what are you doing in

166
00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:53,560
Speaker 1: my what are you doing in my rump back there?

167
00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,560
Speaker 1: Like what's you probably are feeling it, but you're like, Okay,

168
00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,000
Speaker 1: this is probably not beneficial for me anymore, and try

169
00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,559
Speaker 1: to swat it away. It's kind of a like situation

170
00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,480
Speaker 1: where a relationship perhaps changes over time, because it makes

171
00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:05,520
Speaker 1: you wonder like it was there a time in the

172
00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,000
Speaker 1: past when the ox packer's eb relationship was a lot

173
00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:11,600
Speaker 1: more equal. Has it become a little more one sided

174
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:16,040
Speaker 1: overtime over time? It's just it's it's fascinated to think

175
00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,640
Speaker 1: of these things. Well, I mean, as habitats change to that,

176
00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:21,520
Speaker 1: that could certainly change the behavior. Yeah, yeah, like say

177
00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:23,120
Speaker 1: they're less lies to go around, maybe you have to

178
00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:25,840
Speaker 1: dip into the blood a little um economic, you know,

179
00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:27,640
Speaker 1: and then you can make advantage and you can make

180
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,440
Speaker 1: comparisons to workplace. You know, economy turns bad, maybe the

181
00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,640
Speaker 1: guy who's normally a model employee suddenly starts stealing pencils

182
00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,240
Speaker 1: and telling them at the subway station or something. I

183
00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:40,199
Speaker 1: don't know, is there tell us, Yes, they steal pin

184
00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,840
Speaker 1: pencils and sell them at the translation. Yeah, I've got

185
00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 1: to come up with a better way to to to

186
00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,839
Speaker 1: steal from work. It's just not not making in the dough.

187
00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:51,880
Speaker 1: I was hoping for good pencils, but what are you

188
00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,719
Speaker 1: an idea? It's not really a pencil society anymore. Yeah,

189
00:09:55,760 --> 00:10:00,959
Speaker 1: But talking about different types of symbiosis also made me

190
00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:05,520
Speaker 1: think about something called the Gaia theory, Yeah, which is

191
00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,120
Speaker 1: really interesting. Guya being Greek for goddess, right, or a

192
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:12,400
Speaker 1: Greek goddess rather um, which is also sometimes called symbiogenesis.

193
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:15,680
Speaker 1: So there's this idea out of sounds a lot less

194
00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:18,320
Speaker 1: hippy dippy it does. Yeah, the guya. You know, I

195
00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:21,120
Speaker 1: just think about my yoga mat and it's it's not

196
00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 1: really feeling like science so much, but there's an idea

197
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:30,040
Speaker 1: out there, and it's called endosymbiosis, which is essentially um

198
00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:35,080
Speaker 1: symbiosis and not chance mutation as we've known about an

199
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:39,280
Speaker 1: evolution that's key to evolution. So what they're basically saying

200
00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:44,840
Speaker 1: is that it's more of a cooperative atmosphere between organisms

201
00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:48,880
Speaker 1: in the environment that are driving natural selection and competition,

202
00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:51,680
Speaker 1: which is really interesting and kind of turned everybody on

203
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,240
Speaker 1: their their butts. Some of them. Was first introduced in

204
00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,720
Speaker 1: the nineties sixties, in particular Richard Todkins, who was like, no, no,

205
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,080
Speaker 1: this is this is crazy talk because it's kind of

206
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:02,920
Speaker 1: a situation where instead of survival of the like the

207
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:06,959
Speaker 1: sneakiest jerk, it's survival of the most cooperative right, right,

208
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,280
Speaker 1: It's not you know, it's it's not hacking off your

209
00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:11,360
Speaker 1: your arrivals just so that you can be the one

210
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,559
Speaker 1: who continues, uh forward. Right. They're actually saying that this

211
00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,800
Speaker 1: is key to complex life. Um So, if you think

212
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:25,120
Speaker 1: of the mitochondria, nuclei, and ribosomes separately, think about them

213
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,880
Speaker 1: coming together in this scenario as part of the cell

214
00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:34,839
Speaker 1: and creating this mutually beneficial organism. It's and that's the

215
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,160
Speaker 1: idea behind this is really interesting. Yeah, So it's like

216
00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,720
Speaker 1: the whole world becomes an example of symbiosis. Yeah, yeah,

217
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:46,319
Speaker 1: and yeah, the planet is is essentially a giant superorganism

218
00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:48,480
Speaker 1: working together. Now, of course, there are people who say,

219
00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,640
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure about this, especially that part about UM,

220
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,520
Speaker 1: about this cooperation versus competition, because we know that you

221
00:11:56,559 --> 00:12:01,560
Speaker 1: know that competition has really shown itself through data, definitely

222
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:03,920
Speaker 1: proving itself. But I think it's just a different way

223
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:11,040
Speaker 1: to look at evolution. It's just kind of interesting. This

224
00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,400
Speaker 1: presentation is brought to you by Intel sponsors of tomorrow.

225
00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,280
Speaker 1: There are here's another really interesting example the symbiosis um.

226
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,160
Speaker 1: There are a certain species of woodpeckers and tree ants,

227
00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,640
Speaker 1: and they're known to call temporary truces all right, the

228
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:33,959
Speaker 1: southern Rufus wood pecker in the black tree ant um. Normally,

229
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,760
Speaker 1: these guys are predator and prey. The ants live in

230
00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,959
Speaker 1: the tree. Woodpeckers eat the little ants, right, But when

231
00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:43,120
Speaker 1: the bird lays its eggs in the nest of the ants, uh,

232
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,920
Speaker 1: they have this non aggression pack that kicks in and

233
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,319
Speaker 1: and that the ants end up protecting the bird's eggs

234
00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:52,360
Speaker 1: from attack and the attack by the nest and the

235
00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:56,280
Speaker 1: ants nest from other birds while the chosen bird is

236
00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,560
Speaker 1: nesting there. So I have found that really interesting. Yeah, okay,

237
00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:01,320
Speaker 1: so I mean that kind of goes into that whole

238
00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:05,000
Speaker 1: idea of the gaia theory. Yeah. Or you have examples too,

239
00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,240
Speaker 1: there's an operation. Yeah, there's a there's a particular species

240
00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:10,480
Speaker 1: of owl that has been known to bring a little

241
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:14,520
Speaker 1: bitty snakes. I believe it's a Texan snake. Um, like

242
00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:16,520
Speaker 1: a little worm type sname, not not like an egg

243
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,840
Speaker 1: gobbling snake, but a very tiny like worm size, kind

244
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:21,800
Speaker 1: of blind little snake. Now bring it in and leave

245
00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:24,480
Speaker 1: it in the in the nest, because then it will

246
00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:28,000
Speaker 1: eat various little creatures that will be a little insects.

247
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,560
Speaker 1: It would be a danger to the hatchlings. Uh yeah,

248
00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:34,600
Speaker 1: all right, that's interesting. Um. And there's another example that

249
00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,360
Speaker 1: I really like, and that's again going back to trees,

250
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,720
Speaker 1: which we talked about at the top of the world's

251
00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:44,720
Speaker 1: plants have their own fungal partners that allowed them to survive,

252
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:46,520
Speaker 1: which is crazy when you think about it, right, you

253
00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:47,840
Speaker 1: just look at the tree and you think that it's

254
00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:51,600
Speaker 1: it's its own um entity hanging out there. So a

255
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,560
Speaker 1: type of fungus micro corrazal draws in nutrients and supply

256
00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:58,560
Speaker 1: this to the tree, and it basically benefits from the

257
00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:02,120
Speaker 1: tree by taking this sugar from the tree and and

258
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,880
Speaker 1: it and then it gets an energy boost basically from

259
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,440
Speaker 1: the trees photosynthesis of that. So if you look at

260
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:11,760
Speaker 1: those toadstools around the base of trees, those are actually

261
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:16,720
Speaker 1: the reproductive organs of subterranean fungal networks that plants and

262
00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,600
Speaker 1: trees tap into. So, I mean, just think about that

263
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,840
Speaker 1: next time you're you're standing on a mushroom there. It

264
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:27,040
Speaker 1: was a fascinating I was recently in Costa Rica and

265
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:30,320
Speaker 1: my wife and I went on these these walks through

266
00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,200
Speaker 1: the jungle areas there and it was just fascinating to

267
00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:35,120
Speaker 1: just see like all the life around you and it's

268
00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,880
Speaker 1: just like things living on top of each other in

269
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,640
Speaker 1: various states of symbiosis and men parasitis um. It's it's

270
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 1: pretty pretty wild. Yeah, yeah, and particularly in that atmosphere

271
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,760
Speaker 1: where you know, the sun doesn't necessarily hit the forest

272
00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:51,720
Speaker 1: bed right and you see how everything is growing up

273
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:54,040
Speaker 1: towards the sun and trying to get one little speck

274
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,960
Speaker 1: of it, you know, photon. Yeah, and it's really it.

275
00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:59,520
Speaker 1: This is an example to where it really makes it

276
00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:03,200
Speaker 1: hard to my mind to argue that competition isn't a

277
00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,960
Speaker 1: key because you see the competition for sunlight and there's

278
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,360
Speaker 1: not You don't get the sense of it's like, hey, guys,

279
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,280
Speaker 1: let's make sure we share the sun like quid hog

280
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,800
Speaker 1: in it there are or you know, or hey strangler fig,

281
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,320
Speaker 1: stop killing that tree. I know you want sunlight, you

282
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:22,000
Speaker 1: need to share. Yeah, it's not that's not exactly cooperation. Um.

283
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:24,600
Speaker 1: But so we've talked about that in nature. There's definitely

284
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,000
Speaker 1: instances in humans, and of course the best known is

285
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000
Speaker 1: our gut flora. Right, And in fact, if you look

286
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,800
Speaker 1: at Japanese people, here's a really good example. They have

287
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:38,440
Speaker 1: bacteria in their guts that produce enzymes which help digest seaweed. Um.

288
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:43,160
Speaker 1: North Americans lack the same systems. Yeah, so does I

289
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,160
Speaker 1: mean I should not have seaweed salad the next time

290
00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:48,440
Speaker 1: I go for you should? But that doesn't mean that

291
00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:52,080
Speaker 1: the jestive outcome. Don't try and keep up with with

292
00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:56,960
Speaker 1: any Japanese individuals. Thank you for for if you have

293
00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,320
Speaker 1: railing where I's going with that? If you have Japanese

294
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,320
Speaker 1: friends then and you go out to sushi with them,

295
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:03,520
Speaker 1: don't try don't try and keep up because they're gonna

296
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:05,280
Speaker 1: gonna beat you every time. Because they got the gut,

297
00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:08,840
Speaker 1: they may have a more pleasant digestive experience than than

298
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:14,600
Speaker 1: their non Japanese counterpart um. But this also goes again

299
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,160
Speaker 1: into this this idea of bacteria and parasites, and in

300
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:22,680
Speaker 1: particular something called helman ific therapy. Oh, these are the hookworms, right, Yeah,

301
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,680
Speaker 1: it's deliberate infection with Helmans or parasitic worms to treat

302
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,960
Speaker 1: chronic autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis, as

303
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:35,040
Speaker 1: well as ibs and food allergies. Yeah, over thousands and

304
00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,440
Speaker 1: thousands of years, humans and hookworms end up, they've co

305
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,200
Speaker 1: evolved with each other. The presence has become just a

306
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:45,400
Speaker 1: part of the system, and so they've it actually the hookworms.

307
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:49,800
Speaker 1: Some people are you actually stabilized conditions where otherwise the

308
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:53,880
Speaker 1: immune system would turn against its own body. Okay um.

309
00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,680
Speaker 1: And this is the the idea again behind helman ethic

310
00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,640
Speaker 1: therapy is that you you are doing this on purpose.

311
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,160
Speaker 1: You are basically giving your body over to a parasite. Yeah,

312
00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:05,280
Speaker 1: there was in the last year, so there's been an

313
00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:08,240
Speaker 1: episode of Radio Lab and this American I think it

314
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,440
Speaker 1: was the radio Labe guys on this American Life and

315
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 1: and it was about this this guy who had all

316
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:15,720
Speaker 1: these allergies and he just decided, Hey, I'm gonna I'm

317
00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 1: just gonna go to Africa. I'm gonna walk around in

318
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:21,480
Speaker 1: the in this latrine field and I'm gonna get hookworms

319
00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:23,119
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna see if they make me better. And

320
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:25,960
Speaker 1: he claims that they did. And and it again it

321
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:29,280
Speaker 1: comes to the idea that in the developed developing world,

322
00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,520
Speaker 1: where hookworms are more of a problem, you have less

323
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:33,600
Speaker 1: of a problem with all these different allergies because you're

324
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,920
Speaker 1: exposed because you're exposed to it. And we've eradicated them

325
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,959
Speaker 1: in in in the developed world and the like Western

326
00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:43,360
Speaker 1: civilization of life. And then but we're but then kind

327
00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:45,679
Speaker 1: of we overlooked exactly what they were doing. It's like

328
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:47,800
Speaker 1: the I think there's an episode of of The Office

329
00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:51,280
Speaker 1: where Dwight is fired and then the plants start dying

330
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,399
Speaker 1: around the office because nobody realized that Dwight, as horrible

331
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:57,239
Speaker 1: as he was, was actually watering all the plants. Right,

332
00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,280
Speaker 1: So it's kind of the that shrewd factor in all

333
00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,160
Speaker 1: in all of this um But then in addition to

334
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,879
Speaker 1: to this this guy who's kind of a rogue the

335
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:11,360
Speaker 1: self experimenting online worm salesman. UM. There there also are

336
00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,359
Speaker 1: people that such as a professor Professor David Pritchard of

337
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,840
Speaker 1: Nottingham University, who are analyzing this in a very scientific

338
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:21,880
Speaker 1: lab minded way. Uh. He also infected himself to find

339
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:23,919
Speaker 1: out just how the hookworms would play out, and he

340
00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:26,920
Speaker 1: his findings were that tin worms, it's a good number

341
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:30,280
Speaker 1: to have, and he he gave himself fifty of them, though,

342
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,440
Speaker 1: and ended up feeling really hard because you get too many,

343
00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:37,439
Speaker 1: you get diarrhea, you get anemic, you lose too much blood.

344
00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,600
Speaker 1: But we felt like ten. Yeah, that's one of those

345
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:42,920
Speaker 1: cases where if I ever feel bad for mice and

346
00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 1: and the all the indignities that they suffer through science,

347
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:47,600
Speaker 1: I look at someone like that and go, wow, thank

348
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 1: you so much for doing that. Um, because there is

349
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:56,640
Speaker 1: more more evidence, um that there can be treatment of

350
00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,240
Speaker 1: specific diseases with us, and I'm thinking about the whip

351
00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:04,160
Speaker 1: worm and use of treatment of Crone's disease. UH. In fact, GUT,

352
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,879
Speaker 1: which is an international journal of gastro Intrology and Hepatology,

353
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,320
Speaker 1: published a study on whipworm in which twenty nine chrone

354
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:17,919
Speaker 1: suffers ingestedd live whip worm over three weeks for twenty

355
00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:20,120
Speaker 1: four weeks, and twenty three of the twenty nine had

356
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:24,560
Speaker 1: decreased in symptoms, like serious decreases and symptoms, which is

357
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:27,720
Speaker 1: pretty huge when you have Cron's disease. From what I understand,

358
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,199
Speaker 1: it can be really debilitating. Um. So I don't know,

359
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:35,560
Speaker 1: We definitely don't recommend that anybody go out and buy

360
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,000
Speaker 1: yourself some hookworms or try to do that on your own,

361
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,000
Speaker 1: but it's it's interesting to know that that's a sort

362
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 1: of therapy that's out there and being at least studied

363
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,000
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, and then we're coming back around and

364
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:51,320
Speaker 1: just re reevaluating parasitic and symbiotic relationships to get a

365
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,440
Speaker 1: deeper understanding of these these relationships between these different species.

366
00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:58,399
Speaker 1: So end up coming around to this idea that we're

367
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:02,800
Speaker 1: actually this mosaic of back here. Um. And and it's

368
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:06,159
Speaker 1: it's understanding how important all these little interactions are to

369
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,760
Speaker 1: be the larger picture. Yeah, and it is, Um, there's

370
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,680
Speaker 1: something there that when you can shift your paradigm a

371
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,280
Speaker 1: little bit and look at the situation better than all

372
00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,919
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're you're understanding and in these sorts

373
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:20,480
Speaker 1: of hormonethic therapies start to make sense on some level. Again,

374
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 1: we're not advocating the use of it, but the fact

375
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,719
Speaker 1: that this stuff is being explored is cool. Here's another

376
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:30,000
Speaker 1: d I Y therapy that you should not try at home. Okay, okay,

377
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:34,359
Speaker 1: fecal transplants. Oh yes, I forgot about this one. Yeah.

378
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,880
Speaker 1: Clostridium deficila or se deaf on the streets. Uh. This

379
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,520
Speaker 1: is a virus that affects two hundred and fifty thousand

380
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,840
Speaker 1: people a year. In thirteen out of every one thousand

381
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 1: people admitted to a hospital can pick up this bug

382
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:49,040
Speaker 1: or have picked up this book. So this is something

383
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:51,680
Speaker 1: that you know, one of those super bugs I'm assuming

384
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,960
Speaker 1: that drives in that condition. Um, it can cause years long,

385
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: excruciating diarrhea and extreme weight loss. So people have had

386
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: serious problems with us. Uh. They looked at traditional treatments

387
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,000
Speaker 1: and they really haven't helped because the strain of virus

388
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 1: doesn't you know, since it's a hospital made virus essentially

389
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:14,720
Speaker 1: doesn't respond well to the about it. I'm already grossed

390
00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: out and you haven't even gotten to the actual fecal transplant. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

391
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 1: all right, let's get to the poop um, or rather

392
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:25,440
Speaker 1: the fecal transplant um. What you would want if you

393
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,760
Speaker 1: had this problem, if you had c DIFF and you

394
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 1: and nothing would respond to it, is you would want

395
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 1: a stool sample from a relative, preferably um, and it

396
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,479
Speaker 1: would be mixed with sailing and then pumped into your colon.

397
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: I know this all sounds like why why would idea this? Uh,

398
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 1: the idea or the end result is one quick question

399
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,640
Speaker 1: just to make sure I have this right phrases dally.

400
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 1: It would be administered to the colon through like naturally

401
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 1: like occurring entries to the colon, right, yeah, up to

402
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: your bum okay, yeah, okay, yeah, alright, so um yeah,

403
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 1: just to be okay, I mean, I've just had this

404
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 1: horrible image of a giant poos wringe in my head

405
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 1: and I just really wanted to get rid of that image. Though, No,

406
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:14,120
Speaker 1: no you can. There's no as far as I know, okay, um,

407
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,840
Speaker 1: I haven't personally experienced it, so I can't verify, but

408
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,240
Speaker 1: there is no poosh wringe that I know of. But

409
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: the idea is that you're rebalancing your gut flora because

410
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: if you have seed, if then it's going to just

411
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: completely lay waste. So speak to your gut bacteria. You

412
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:36,119
Speaker 1: cannot get it back online. So the introduction of another

413
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 1: bacteria or someone else's gut bacteria is going to make

414
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,800
Speaker 1: all the difference in helping you, um essentially just get

415
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 1: rid of these symptoms. Okay, Yeah. It's kind of like

416
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,320
Speaker 1: if you have a you have a city where where

417
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 1: suddenly everybody's got a little too much money to take

418
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,640
Speaker 1: out the garbage, You're gonna have to import garbage men.

419
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: Kind of a situation where you have this population and

420
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 1: there's so many different roles involved in making this population

421
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 1: this culture work that that that even I the you

422
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:13,239
Speaker 1: end up eradicating one segment of that population, UM, then

423
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: the whole system is going to suffer. And then you

424
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,919
Speaker 1: might need to bring in some members of another population

425
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:21,720
Speaker 1: that are interested in taking out the garbage. Yes, yeah, yeah,

426
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 1: that garbage analogy is a really good idea. And in fact, uh,

427
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:30,080
Speaker 1: sixty of our stool is bacteria, that's right, Okay, yeah,

428
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: by weight. So again this is what we may think

429
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: of is garbage or this sort of essential maintenance to

430
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,479
Speaker 1: our culture UM is really important. So it would make

431
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,040
Speaker 1: sense that if you had someone else's gut bacteria that

432
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 1: that was good bacteria and healthy, and it was reintroduced

433
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 1: into your system all of a sudden, you wouldn't you know,

434
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: be completely debilitated by diarrhea all the time, and you

435
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: would again be a healthy person. Like to put a

436
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,119
Speaker 1: sci fi spin on, we're all kind of big generation

437
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: ships just full of this generation after generation of bacteria. Yes, yeah,

438
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:12,920
Speaker 1: I mean or or mosaic so much. Yeah, it's totally gaya.

439
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: But this is from a Slate article. It said, do

440
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: not look for this therapy to become a rote procedure

441
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 1: anytime soon. Um. According to Slate, drug or medical device

442
00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: companies usually foot the bill for such research as this,

443
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:28,440
Speaker 1: But in the case of a natural patent free which

444
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 1: is this patent free treatment like this, no company stands

445
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 1: to turn a major trofic profit or trofit some people

446
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: prefer profit. If anything. Fecal transplants would end up costing

447
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: the pharmaceutical company's money because a single pill of van Somison,

448
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: which is one of two introbotics used to treat seed if,

449
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: costs about fifty five Yeah, so there you go. Fecal transplants.

450
00:24:55,600 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 1: Don't do them at home. Okay, but really interesting the

451
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 1: development I guess you would say, okay, yeah, yeah. About

452
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: the most I ever did was I tried to perform

453
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: surgery on my own toenail once and that was a mistake.

454
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,399
Speaker 1: That sounds like a really bad idea, like like like

455
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: home dentistry, home heart transplant, uh fecal transplants to surgery,

456
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,159
Speaker 1: home pedietry is not not a good idea. Yeah, these

457
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: are all things that I just I'm gonna say, I'm

458
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 1: gonna go on a limb here and say don't do them.

459
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,199
Speaker 1: I would go say so, and this is coming from

460
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:31,679
Speaker 1: someone who's done it. I would go as far as

461
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: to say it's stupid. So yeah, stupid at home, but

462
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 1: very interesting. But you know it's not stupid sending us email,

463
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, because we get the best the email

464
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 1: I think of anyone in the world. Yeah. We recently

465
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:51,439
Speaker 1: did one on auditory and musical hallucinations, and we received

466
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 1: a number of really cool emails, like more than we

467
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 1: can really get into because a lot of the ones

468
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 1: that we received, they're kind of in debt stories because

469
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 1: you have to you describe are really a strange situation,

470
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 1: how you came into it, and in most cases how

471
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: you came out of it, but we have one here

472
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: from Eric. Eric writes him to say, um, back in

473
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:11,959
Speaker 1: two thousand five, I was involved in a bad accident

474
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: and fractured my skull fairly badly. I spent two weeks

475
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: at the i C recovering head brain surgery, and spent

476
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,919
Speaker 1: another two weeks in the hospital recovering from that. Beyond that,

477
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: it took several months to Beyond that, it took several

478
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: months to heal at home. Before I was given all

479
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,440
Speaker 1: the all clear and before I looked like I did

480
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 1: before the accident. Life was pretty much back to normal

481
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 1: until February of two thousands seven. While at work, I

482
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 1: had a seizure and collapsed. I had not had any

483
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: previous seizures, but because of the head trauma, I was

484
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 1: placed on medication. I was put on two medications, one

485
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: to immediately prevent seizures and one that took time to

486
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,400
Speaker 1: build up in my system before it was effective. While

487
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: I was semiit simultaneously on both medications, I had several

488
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 1: strange hallucinations. I would hear someone talking to me, but

489
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:56,640
Speaker 1: I was completely unable to understand them. I would hear

490
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,399
Speaker 1: the noise that they were making, but what I heard

491
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 1: was just noise and in no way resembled language. I

492
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: was worried that there was just something wrong with me

493
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: until I spoke to friend to a friend who was epileptic,

494
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,479
Speaker 1: and he said that he had hallucinations just like I

495
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,239
Speaker 1: had while he was on both medications. I haven't had

496
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: any seizure since the first one, and after I was

497
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 1: weaned off the first medication, I haven't had any hallucinations either.

498
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed my story, and indeed, I

499
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: I always enjoy hearing stories of people who've experienced something

500
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: a little um, you know, out of the ordinary. The

501
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 1: had a hallucination, auditory hallucination um or something that even

502
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 1: at times words resemble of supernatural experience, but is rooted

503
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: in as as they all are, in something that's happening

504
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 1: in the brain. Yeah, and again and again we hear

505
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,440
Speaker 1: these stories about the frontal lobe and about the electromagnetation

506
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: magnetic activity going on. They're just really causing all sorts

507
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: of things in your brain to go haywire. So I

508
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:55,879
Speaker 1: think it's interesting that he was talking about his friend

509
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: and the seizures, because that's the hallmark of of that's

510
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 1: sort of activity going on there in the old frontal lobe. Yeah,

511
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: so thanks for sharing, Eric, and uh, you know, everybody else,

512
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: if you have any cool tidbits like that to share, uh,

513
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 1: feel free to drop by Facebook and Twitter. We're on

514
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: both of those as Blow the Mind. And if you're

515
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: on Twitter, I encourage you to use the hashtag blew

516
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,719
Speaker 1: my mind, which is already in use and has been

517
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: used by a number of people, but it is often

518
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 1: used for very dumb things and I think, uh, we

519
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: can reclaim that listeners week, we've got the campaign for

520
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:30,679
Speaker 1: for blew my mind. Yeah, you read a read a

521
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: cool science article. Here's something cool on on one of

522
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:37,679
Speaker 1: our podcast throughout that hashtag blew my mind at hash

523
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: blew my mind will work, and you know, we'll we'll

524
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: read it and we'll try and retweet it. Yeah, and

525
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:44,960
Speaker 1: oftentimes you guys actually send us things that are very

526
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: mind blowing as well. So something that you might have

527
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: sent us in an email, throw it on Twitter as well. Yeah. Indeed,

528
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: that's not to say you shouldn't email us, because you should.

529
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 1: We always want to hear from you, so please do

530
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 1: send us an email at Blow the Mind at how

531
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. For moral on this and thousands

532
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: of other topics. Visit how stuff works dot com. To

533
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon

534
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,479
Speaker 1: in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how

535
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today

536
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: on iTunes