Transcript
Samantha Yamin (0:00)
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Jessica Melati Rivera (0:55)
It started in Texas this past January. A single measles case. Then another and before long an outbreak. New Mexico followed soon after. And now as we're publishing this episode, the CDC has reported 301 cases across the U.S. an infectious disease we once had under control is back. You're asking what is happening? I know I sure am. And the answer is simple. And then it gets complicated. Today we talk to Jessica Melati Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist.
Jessica Melati Rivera (1:30)
We don't make decisions based on solely on our outcomes for ourself. That's just not how we exist as a species. So many of the things we do are part of the social contracts that we do to keep each other safe and healthy and protected. And vaccines are part of that. To ignore them is extremely ableist. Nobody needs to be dying, especially from vaccine preventable diseases.
Jessica Melati Rivera (1:50)
Jessica has been on the front lines providing clarity during public health crises. She's going to help us make sense of of it all. And then later we'll talk about something completely different. Lab grown diamonds. There's now an alternative to mined diamonds. And these high tech gems have been shaking up the jewelry industry in recent years. If you've ever wondered how they're made, now's your chance to find out. Definitely a rabbit hole I went down when I was ring shopping. I'm Dr. Samantha Yamin and this is Curiosity Weekly from Discovery. Okay, let's talk about baby sea turtles. Did your ears perk up? I mean, of course they did. Who doesn't love baby sea turtles? They're so cute. We've all seen the videos. You know, the tiny baby sea turtles wriggling out of the sand racing towards the waves. It's adorable, but also a little bittersweet. The ocean is so big and daunting, and their odds of survival seem impossibly small. Scientists have been wondering where these little turtles go during the early years. That time of a sea turtle's life has long been a mystery, Even earning the name the lost years, many assumed young turtles simply drifted with ocean currents. But a new study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B tells a different story. For over a decade from 2011 to 2022, a team from the University of Central Florida captured and tagged 114 juvenile sea turtles before setting them free. It's the largest data set of wild caught last year's sea turtle behav behavior to date. I mean, we've tracked adult sea turtles before, but young turtles make it really tricky. They shed the outer layer of their shells, which means tracking devices tend to fall off. They also had to shrink the detectors down to fit on the smaller turtles bodies. And then they had to make sure each one was tough enough to survive underwater and still be able to send signals to a satellite. Overall, not easy. For this study, researchers used small, lightweight solar powered transmitters. Their solar power allows for extended tracking without relying on the bulky batteries. Since turtles have to breathe, the devices could send data each time they came up for air. The team also tracked some drifting boys to see where they ended up versus the turtles. All this data revealed juvenile sea turtles don't just drift aimlessly in the open ocean like we thought. They actually swim. Like a lot, and they hang out in shallower areas. The team observed directional movement, meaning these little guys are actively choosing where to go go. Sure, it might seem obvious turtles swim, but this discovery has big implications. It shows the Gulf of Mexico is a key habitat. That means conservation efforts can be more targeted and it improves environmental disaster response. Like after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists estimated turtle deaths between 55,000 to 159,000. Better tracking means better population estimates and more effective protection strategies. The research doesn't just solve a mystery. It gives us the tools to protect sea turtles. And it makes those adorable baby turtle videos you love getting served even more incredible.