Loading summary
Transcript42 lines
- [00:00]
LinkedIn Advertiser
Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? Well, with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company seniority, skills. Wait, did I say job title yet? Get started today and see how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply.
- [00:34]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
The ocean connects us all, fuels life, and holds our future. But without representation in the voices who shape marine science, honestly, that future is at risk. Black and marine science is making waves by uplifting black scientists, educators, and ocean advocates, ensuring the ocean's future for everyone on the planet. I'm Dr. Samantha Yamin, and this is Curiosity Weekly from Discovery.
- [01:02]
Dr. Tierra Moore
There's not a lot of folks that look like me that you can imagine in the PhD level who are doing this research. But on the other end of that, when you look at who is impacted by climate change, environmental disasters, it is the folks that look like me.
- [01:17]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
That was Dr. Tierra Moore. We'll talk with her about the work she's doing in marine ecology and her work to create more equitable systems in the science community. And then later, we're going to get into a recent study where a mouse was born with the genes from just sperm. It has some really interesting implications on research tools and human health. But first, let's talk about biomimicry. It turns out scientists are imitating nature to help protect our planet. Researchers and scientists are constantly creating new and innovative technologies inspired by nature. It's called biomimicry, and we've used it to invent a ton of stuff, everything from Velcro to airplanes and even cement, which also happens to be carbon sequestering cement. Fun fact. Recently, scientists in China are using an interesting form of biomimicry that could actually help us when it comes to cleaning up our oceans. They created a new type of oil filter based on the anatomy of a deep sea sponge found in the Pacific Ocean called E. Asperagillum, or more cutely, the Venus's flower basket. But let's get into why there's a need for this tech in the first place. Oil spills can produce environmental catastrophes because oil and water, of course, don't mix. But there are only a few ways to address the damage they cause. There's skimming, which, like it sounds, involves skimming the layer of oil off the surface of the water. There's Burning the oil directly on the water where it was spilled. And then there's chemical dispersants, which help break the oil down into smaller droplets, but the oil's not entirely removed. In that case, it's just dispersed into the water column rather than remaining on the surface. That allows microbes to eat them and break them down even further. Not always ideal, these methods all make sense, right? But there are some problems when it comes to using them in practice. I want you to think about it like this. Say you have a bowl of water and you mix in some olive oil. The olive oil eventually gathers together and stays at the surface, making it easier to remove. Through the methods I explained, you can filter it out, you can burn it, or add chemicals to break it up. Now, I want you to imagine trying to remove that same amount of olive oil, but from your washing machine while it's on. There's a ton of turbulent fluid in there, making the oil less likely to stick together and less likely for you to even see where it is. That's the biggest issue when it comes to cleaning oil spills in the actual ocean currents, tides, waves, make it extremely difficult to make sure that oil stays static. When it comes to separating oil from seawater effectively, there needs to be what's called hydrodynamic stability, basically a way to keep things steady so the oil doesn't just get churned up with the water. That brings us back to our friend, E. Asperigillum. These little sponges live deep down, up to 1,000 meters deep in the Pacific. They've adapted to having a very robust skeletal structure that can withstand all the water above it flowing at different speeds in different directions, even with scarce nutrients down in the depths. That makes them very efficient filter feeders. So the researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology figured that if they were to mimic the skeletal system of these sponges, they could create a new type of filter that can better handle the constant movement of the ocean while separating the spilled oil from clean seawater. E. Asperagillum are tube like shaped, kind of like that tall vase your friend, who's new to pottery, tried to make for you. Their surfaces aren't smooth. There are tiny holes throughout the skeletal structure with ridges that kind of look like a spiral staircase with a checkerboard lattice filling in the gaps. Fluid enters, and all these bumps in the structure make water swirl around like a mini whirlpool inside. This system is referred to as a vortex anchored filter, and it's what the research team ended up recreating in the lab in nature. This internal whirlpool allows for the sponge to collect plankton and the nutrients while filtering out the water. But in this case, it allows the researchers to filter the oil. And the results of this technology were incredible. According to the study published in Nature Communications, their Nature Inspired filter was able to Capture more than 90% of the underwater floating or even emulsified oil. It was adaptable, strong and easy to handle, and even scale under complex conditions. It's wild to see a problem that we inflict on nature have a solution inspired by the very same environment we're deteriorating. Hopefully this encourages more use of biomimicry to protect our planet and create healthier ocean ecosystems moving forward.
- [06:00]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Race the rudders. Race the sails. Race the sails.
- [06:04]
LinkedIn Advertiser
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.
- [06:06]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Over. Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [06:11]
LinkedIn Advertiser
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply.
- [06:32]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
We're exploring a topic that affects every single one of us, whether we realize it or not. Yes, even you. The Ocean. Covering over 70% of our planet, the ocean's not just this vast blue expanse. It's a critical force that regulates our climate, supports countless ecosystems, and provides resources that billions of people rely on. Well, luckily, we have marine scientist Dr. Tierra Moore here. She's done research all around the world on biodiversity and the effects of climate change on different aquatic species. And on top of all that, she wants to remove barriers so others have opportunities to be involved in research, too. Done a lot towards this, including founding Black and Marine Science. So what an honor to chat with someone playing such a key role in Black Futures. Welcome, Dr. Tiara Moore, to Curiosity Weekly. Now, you've accomplished so much over the years, both in terms of research and advocacy. Could I hear more from you? Like, how did you get started in marine ecology? What made you want to study things in the ocean?
- [07:37]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So thanks so much for having me on. Excited to chat with you. Yeah. I'm Dr. Tiara Moore, Marine ecologist. And I thought I was going to be pre med, then I realized I actually didn't, like, enjoy, you know, working with that, doing those things. And so I started taking other elective classes in the field of biology still. And one of them was like a tropical ecology course or something like that. I remember signing up for it because they were going to Costa Rica for. I was like, Ooh, let me jump on this. Yeah, but then we get there, we're collecting water samples, we're doing these little experiments, there's senior scientists there, and I'm like, oh, wow. Like, is this a real job? Like, what are y'all? What are y'all doing? And that's really where I found out about marine science as a career. And really ultimately what I wanted to do with my life.
- [08:24]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
What's cool about your area of research, you got to go all over the world in order to collect samples for your work, which is in of itself, I mean, so cool and makes sense. That's what got you interested in marine science, was getting to go to Costa Rica and do all that. What does this type of field research look like?
- [08:43]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Yeah, no, so for field work, it definitely can look like a lot of things. So for that first trip I mentioned, you know, we were out on the boat, we were collecting water samples, you know, we had our little equipment in. A lot of the research that I now do and have done over my career was underwater works. Yeah, you get really comfortable scuba diving, so you don't even think about it. And then you get really trained on how to utilize equipment underwater. So that survey equipment, that's bags, that's lifting things up, that's rescuing people. And then there's also field research. You know, I did work in estuaries and so they're easier to access just from the shore, from the land. But then to your point, there's a whole process like getting demudied and cleaning up and taking out back to the lab to then process the samples and.
- [09:31]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
Do all of that scuba gear off, lab coat off.
- [09:34]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Right.
- [09:35]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
I'm sure you've collected all types of samples, but a lot of your work was collecting soil samples too. So I mean, what do you, from what I understand, if you're trying to understand like seaweed changes and how microbial communities change from. Because of climate change, for example, how do you get all that from a soil sample is.
- [09:53]
Dr. Tierra Moore
So the beauty about dirt, right, no one cares about it, but everything that happens in the water column eventually gets into the soil. And so specifically for my reach and my samples, we took water quality nutrient samples, but we also collected environmental DNA samples. DNA is shed. And so that happens with the fish who are swimming. All the corals that are there, they releasing DNA as well. And so we can collect a water sample or soil sample, sediment sample, to your point, and then still do an analysis, extract the DNA and get an understanding of what was going on in the water column with Water quality, health and all those other things that you mentioned.
- [10:33]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
It's so cool. It's what I love about biology is, I mean, we step in dirt all the time, we wipe it off our shoe, we, you know, dig it away to plant or whatever you do with dirt. But we don't think about all of the science that's hiding out in there and that it can tell you about the things no longer there. Another part of your research that I find really interesting is you advocate for involving the communities in the proximity to your research. Can you tell us more about that so called citizen science and why it's important to include people from the neighboring communities in your research?
- [11:07]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Yeah, I've actually, it's funny you mentioned that because I've been an advocate to not call it citizen science because aren't citizens who we work with so really like community or you know, community led or even collaborative science with my work, which really led to a lot of the advocacy that I do, is that there's not a lot of folks that look like me that you can imagine in the PhD level who are making these decisions, who are doing this research. But on the other end of that, when you look at who is impacted by climate change, environmental disasters, my research, it is the focus look like me. So it's a disparity with them not being in the room or included in the conversation to be able to provide any type of resources or help for their own communities. And so that's where we really got the idea of including folks, training them up like you shouldn't need a PhD to understand what's going on in your community. And it's really been a huge failure of scientists for feeling like they can't communicate with the people that they're claiming that they protect. We have a whole campaign literally called Bringing Marine Science for the Streets. You know, like literally going out, making sure that everybody feels like they belong because the ocean is the reason why we're all breathing.
- [12:17]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
I love that so much. And it's not even, I mean, yes, it's the people who are affected most and it's also the people who are closest to it. So they probably have insights that someone who's not living in that reality wouldn't know. Let's talk about BIMS first. You founded Black in Marine Science, AKA bims. Great name for folks who haven't heard there's a Black in blank Black in any kind of field of science. It exists now, which is incredible. So you did that for Black and Marine Science. Can you let people know what made you say this needs to exist for marine science now?
- [12:51]
Dr. Tierra Moore
I mean, this is a question I get asked so many times, I'm trying to figure out the best way to answer it. Because, like, I mentioned the disparity of marine science. What was going on in 2020 was, for me, something that hadn't happened because we had a pandemic. We had the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery. We had the Central park incident with Christian Cooper. And then for the first time in my career, if you will, my colleagues started asking me questions about racism. And they were like, oh, yeah, first time it was because we were in this pandemic. Everybody's watching. And so we all saw. And so, again, the behaviors that I had been yelling from the rooftops that I was experiencing, literally, I was the only black person in my whole science team, you know, so it was like just that. And, like, it was so overlooked always, oh, well, whatever. You must be the only one who was qualified to make it versus, like, all the barriers and BS that goes to even get into these rooms, you know? And so then it was a time where I was given, you know, that loudspeaker, if you will, to answer these questions because folks wanted to lean in. They wanted to do their book clubs. They wanted to do their trainings. And that's ultimately what led to starting black and Marine Science, because I knew we would need something more. Like, we needed a community for the other black marine scientists to just have questions about the things that we were experiencing that had been confirmed. And that's what led to me officially founding nonprofit.
- [14:17]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
And BIMS is still. Is still here and still gaining traction. And honestly, I would just say, like, next time you're looking for speakers, next time you're looking to just learn more about science, like, if you just type black in, and then whatever field you want to learn about, whether it's marine science or anything, it's just a great resource. Speaking of, BIMS started officially in 2020. What's the big and most exciting project you're working on now?
- [14:44]
Dr. Tierra Moore
We have really focused a lot of our energy and attention to the BIMS Institute. The BIMS Institute, now ran by our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Camille Ganis, is really the vision to do science in a safe space. Right now, it's a virtual institute. We're still starting to do science project. Like, we have our whole EDNA project where we're collecting samples all over the world. But if you can imagine, like, this research space where we can go have all the equipment do whatever science we want, can answer any question we want, but without the aggressions, racism, BS that we deal with in the lab space. That is the vision. But then also again, to incorporate the community in the science projects that we're doing so they can really be community driven and community led. You know, the time that we're in now is troubling. You know, it's like we're back in 2020. And I think the only beauty of this moment is that I have bims. You know, like, if I was still working in some of these other organizations, I would have been fired. Like. And I know that wholeheartedly. I feel that because they weren't necessarily believing in the work. And it's like, you know, you gotta do what these executive orders say, if you will. And so to have a place that is carved away from there where we can say, hey, we're still here because we didn't create dei, if you will. Somebody else told us that is what was needed in order for them to not be biased against us. You know what I'm saying? I've always been excellent. I've always been in these rooms. But y'all told me y'all needed a little program to not be racist against me. I never said that. I saw a thread of women in STEM and they were talking about how some of their pictures had been taken off of government websites. It was very sad and there was a lot of tears. And it was like, imagine the privilege of never having to create a list so you were amplified in the first place. So, again, this is the moment that we're in. We have folks who have always had privilege who are now realizing that they were taken away from the DEI efforts that were there. Where we are and where we're trying to go with BIMS is just, again, to do the work. So, again, these are the conversations that we must have in order for things to change. Because if we allow whole little website and this to be allowed, then it's not. The behavior is not going to change. And now we're fighting against each other and not fighting against the huge problem that we have. And that's all I want to get to.
- [17:06]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
What are actionable tips for listeners?
- [17:09]
Dr. Tierra Moore
I would say, like, the easiest thing, as I mentioned, you know, we have our YouTube channel. We're trying to get more subscribers there, get more monetization there so we can have more passive income so we're not as supported by federal funding. So y'all can subscribe to our BIMS YouTube channel. It's like, go on YouTube, BIMScience. Then there's also the donation. We have a campaign going on right now, our $2 million operating budget, so you can just go to bims.org donate. And then there is also the underlying need for all of us to have, what is it, civic or civil, I don't know, responsibility of voting. And it's like, I had not realized how much as a scientist, I needed to look at that political piece of things. But, like, there are things that we have to take seriously because we can see when we do have changes in power. Now there's an attack on science. There's attack on people, though. All those matter.
- [18:02]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
I think what's. People often try to say, you know, science isn't political, and that doesn't make any sense.
- [18:08]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Well, that's been dispelled. If anybody's saying that, you just need to go ahead and go outside and look around, because it can't be. Changes in power can stop science Grant. Like, the whole NIH and NSF will just pause. Like, yeah, you can't say that anymore. That's a lie.
- [18:26]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
I want to highlight more of, like, just the. The work you've been doing because you've been. You've been doing it. It's not new. You. Even before you created these groups, you were already doing it. So just to give that credit, our team was super, like, excited about the Ocean Justice AI Project. Can you tell us more about it? From what I understand, it uses art intelligence to empower communities to better advocate for their environmental rights. How. How does it do this? Tell us. It's so cool.
- [18:56]
Dr. Tierra Moore
The beauty of being, like, the only black person in the room is right. I've been. I'm in a lot of rooms, and I'm in a lot of rooms with people who don't talk to each other. And that is very, very important. So I get to go to all these rooms, these different meetings, talking to these leaders and realizing, where are those gaps? And what we always see is that we say, oh, black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. It's like, okay, well, then now what. What y'all gonna do about it?
- [19:23]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
You're like, and.
- [19:27]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Y'All are so smart and so foolish. And so I thought, well, what if we can utilize the data that clearly says this? Take it. Match it with funding data. Because then that should be. You know, that should. If you know that the water quality is the poorest over here, then the fund should be over here.
- [19:46]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
That makes sense to me. Right?
- [19:49]
Dr. Tierra Moore
And it's like, oh, there's no way.
- [19:50]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
We can figure that out.
- [19:51]
Dr. Tierra Moore
But then, you know, here comes good old AI. So now we can look at all of these databases and really analyze things really quickly. And that's what you see with Ocean. Just I say it's like it's science. Twitter means like GitHub and your favorite platform with AI. And so again, we're able to analyze and like look at these different things quickly. But then we have that social media platform aspect, the movements feature, where you can actually talk to other scientists and community members who are working on this same project. So, yeah, that is the goal of Ocean, just AI. And of course there's a little bit like baby chatgpt so you can ask questions. It's been trained a lot better. So once you ask the questions, it tries to give you a really, you know, a justice forward answer, if you will, but also provides you with whatever publicly available links that it use. So you can see it right there, you can fact check it for yourself and all of that's available. There is so much potential for this platform, but we don't have the resources to build it. Like, I just had an idea and told my team, hey, can you put this together? And they made. What you're seeing is basically a shell of an idea that if we really had resources, it could be major, but even what it is is great. Like, somebody probably would have spent so much money on that, but we did it on crumbs. And it's like, wow, what if we had the resources we need? Yeah, that's. That's all I'm trying to do is continue again to do the good work like we are here. Wasn't no dei nothing. We all have the merit. And once we are away from racism, look what we can create. Like, wow.
- [21:22]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
Yes. And this is also happening. Like, this is not at an academic institution, is it? Like, this is. This is very grassroots, the streets, working from home.
- [21:33]
Dr. Tierra Moore
We don't have access to all these resources and tools and all these things. No. Like, these are people training themselves on how to build up and doing it because they believe in the mission.
- [21:43]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
I think it's a really good action item for everyone listening is to go look into this great work and see how you can support, even if it's just sharing it, subscribing. Those are really easy actions to do that can make a big, big difference.
- [21:57]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Correct. At the end of the day, if you can't support mems, just be a good person. Like, that's it.
- [22:04]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
That feels like it shouldn't need to be said, but it absolutely does. Thank you Dr. T, for chatting with us today, for teaching us so much and for all the work that you do on top of all the work that you do. We are very helpful and inspired by you and can't wait to keep supporting what you work on next.
- [22:26]
Dr. Tierra Moore
Thank you.
- [22:30]
Dr. Samantha Yamin
Scientists created mice using the DNA from two sperms no female parent Lets talk about the birds and the bees. Well, in this case, the mice. We know that making a baby mouse usually takes genes from the reproductive cells of two parents, a sperm and an egg cell. But scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences set out to challenge that rule. They wanted to see if they could create a baby mouse using genetic material from sperm alone. In a nutshell, oh gee, no pun intended. They used DNA from a sperm cell to create special stem cells in a dish. While growing these stem cells, they made some fancy gene edits. Those are important and we'll get into them in a sec. Then injected the modified stem cells into egg cells. But wait, not any old egg here. The team had already removed the nucleus of that egg. So without the nucleus, this egg was really just a nutrient sac with all the key cellular machinery needed for development. Now, all of that was to ultimately get an egg cell where the genetic material is from sperm alone. Then that got fertilized by a regular sperm cell, as per usual. They published their work in January in the journal Cell Stem Cell. See, it's pretty tricky to cut out an entire reproductive cell when the egg and sperm don't really contribute equally. Now, yes, both the egg and sperm carry about half the genetic material for a viable offspring, but the egg provides a lot of that cellular machinery. So it's pretty hard to bypass the need for an egg cell entirely. Now, clever researchers have gotten around that by yoinking out the nucleus of the egg cell, essentially getting rid of most of its genetic material. Then this time around, the team used this genetically empty egg to insert DNA from two sperm cells. Out of 210 mouse embryos, only 29 survived to birth, and only a handful reached adulthood. It wasn't perfect. Clearly those that did survive had growth defects and shortened lifespans. But even this was an improvement over previous attempts where offspring often don't survive into adulthood. The key this time around were those fancy gene edits I mentioned using CRISPR, the gene editing tool. They used CRISPR to tweak 20 different regions of DNA, specifically parts of DNA where imprinting is known to take place. And I don't mean the Jacob from Twilight kind of imprinting, but genetic imprinting. These are chemical marks on DNA that turn certain genes on or off, depending on which parent it's coming from. In this study, they could only get viable offspring when they took these 20 imprinted regions out of the equation by tweaking and in some cases, even deleting them altogether. One day it might be possible to create human embryos from two donor sperm only. But with advances in gene editing and reproductive biology like this, there's a call from the research community for policies on the technology, particularly when it comes to heritable gene manipulations. Let's recap what we just learned. We learned about how scientists are imitating unique features of a deep sea sponge to clean up potential oil spills. We talked with Dr. Tierra Moore about her groundbreaking research in marine science, plus how she's building new inroads for black researchers and scientists. And finally, we discussed a remarkable scientific breakthrough. Researchers successfully created a mouse embryo using genetic material from just sperm. Science is constantly pushing boundaries, so stay curious and we'll see you next time for Warner Bros. Discovery Curiosity Weekly is produced by the team at Wheelhouse DNA. The senior producer and editorial correspondent is Teresa Carey, our producer is Chiara Noni, our audio engineer is Nick Karisimi, and head of Production for Wheelhouse DNA is Cassie Berman. And I'm Dr. Samantha Yuin. Thanks for listening.
- [26:33]
Monday.com Advertiser
Work Management Platforms ugh. Endless onboarding. IT bottlenecks, admin requests. But what if things were different? Monday.com is different. No lengthy onboarding, beautiful reports in minutes, custom workflows you can build on your own, easy to use prompt, free AI. Turns out you can love a work management platform. Monday. Com the first work platform you'll love to use.