Short Wave - The Mystery Mollusk Roaming The Midnight Zone

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

This critter lurks in the ocean's midnight zone, has a voluminous hood, is completely see through and is bioluminescent. It's unlike any nudibranchs deep sea experts have ever seen before — and now, the researchers who spent twenty years studying them have finally published their findings. Have another scientific discovery you want us to cover on a future episode? Email us at [e-mail] — we might feature your idea on a future episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here. And Regina Barber. With our biweekly Science News Roundup featuring the hosts of all things considered. Today we have... B'pahra! R.A. Shapiro. Oh, I love that introduction. Welcome back. Welcome back.

The puff of smoke. The cannons. The fireworks. Good to be here. So it has been an exciting week in science news. First, we're going to tell you about a newly identified deep sea creature. And then the benefits of exercise for healing our nervous system. And finally, Science-backed tips for holiday eating. And I will sit back and enjoy it all. All that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Okay, to start us off, let's go deep. What's down there? So much stuff, you don't want to know. No, we're going to talk about this mysterious creature. Yeah, discovered in 2000. And now, for the first time described in detail in the journal Deep Sea Research Part 1 by scientists at Embari. That's the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

I love Monterey Bay. It's an amazing place. Agreed. Yes. And they call this creature off their shores, Batha devious cadactylus. How devious is it? We're going to get into that because for a long time, they called it the mystery mollusk. Mystery moll?

What's so mysterious about it? Yeah, well, one of the researchers, Bruce Robeson, he said that at first he and his colleagues couldn't figure out what it was. It's a pretty funny-looking animal if you get right down to it. It sort of looks like it was made up from spare parts, left over. from making a bunch of other animals. Oh, like a sphinx or a griffin. No, I'm guessing that's not what it actually looks like. Picture a jellyfish cross with a slug,

adorned with this cape-like hood. And the whole thing is transparent, so you can see right through it. And it can glow in the dark, this creature, because it's bioluminescent. I think I'm in love. You want to see a picture? I would love to.

Ooh, cool. It's got like little things in the middle of it. What's going on there? Can you just describe what this looks like? It's kind of see-through. There is these like three pops of color inside of its body. The thing that looks like a dried up orange is its digestive gland. And the bright red stomach looks like a cherry and that white patch. That's its brain. Wow. And researchers had no

idea what it was. But now they do. Through much observation and also DNA sequencing, they were able to confirm that this is a nudibank. Oh, I actually from tide pooling as a kid in Oregon, I am obsessed with nudibranx. They're like the punk rockers of the sea. Sea slugs, basically, right? Yeah, but this creature, like, it didn't look like any other nudibink they'd ever seen. No, it doesn't. This is the only nudibank we know of so far that swims in the deep water of the midnight zone. That's the middle zone of the ocean between the sunlit shallow waters and the sea floor. This creature goes deep.

I'm so glad to learn about this creature. Yeah, I know. Bruce told us it's a testament to how much we don't know about the deep sea, despite it being the largest ecosystem on the planet and why it's so important to do this kind of work. If we're ever to live in harmony with our planet, we'd better understand all that's out there and how it all works. Otherwise, we're blabble to screw it up. All right. From the deep sea, let's pivot to exercise. What is the new discovery about exercise?

It's so good for us. That's the end of the story. That's the end of the story. We can end that we run us over here. But it's good for us in ways we're uncovering even yet. Like, it's good for our brain, our immune system, our bones and muscles, but also our nervous system. So what does that mean, actually? So specifically are, like, motor neurons, the cells in our body that attach to your muscles and control your movement.

A research team at MIT wanted to know how muscles and neurons talk to each other, specifically during exercise. How did they measure that? They created a mini muscle factory. They took a petri dish, and they popped in some muscle fibers from mice, grew them, and generated this small sheet of tissue about the... size of a quarter. The team then stimulated the muscle over and over again, mimicking like what happens during exercise. And when the muscles contracted, they released the soup of biochemicals called myokines. The team led by Ratu Ramin then collected these delicious

myokine and fed them to motor neurons. And what we saw is that the neurons grew four times faster and farther when they had this chemical soup versus when they didn't. So is the away here that exercise helps promote nerve growth? Is that what they found? Yes, in this experiment, that chemical soup created by those muscles helped with these motor neurons. In a separate experiment, Ratu jiggled the motor neurons, like v-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-wrot using magnets, kind of simulating exercise, and just the physical forces help the neurons grow just as well. No chemicals required. I'm picturing like those 80s exercise machines where a strap just kind of wobbles you back and forth and it's supposed to have some positive impact. I totally remember those commercials.

Yeah, they kind of did that to these neurons. Proving that exercise really is medicine, helping to promote nerve growth, which ultimately could improve mobility. Yeah, and that's important to human health. There are so many situations where communication between muscles and motor neurons breaks down from a traumatic muscle injury to a neurodegenerative disease like ALS. So Ratu hopes that this study published in the journal Advanced Health Care Materials this week adds to a growing body of knowledge on how these cells interact and how mobility. and how mobility can be recovered. Okay, we've discussed exercise. Now let's get to feasting.

Tips for getting through the holidays. What do we need to know? Well, first let's start with the findings of a poll that sparked this reporting. Last month, this hospital group in Florida called Orlando Health surveyed over a thousand Americans nationally and found that during the holidays, some people try to counteract eating big meals in unhealthy ways. So tips today that we're going to talk about are about promoting healthy thinking and eating instead. it away. All right. Okay. Ari, like, scooted forward to the table. Ready. Let's do it. All right. Come up to our science-backed holiday eating buffet table. Tip number one,

don't skip meals before the big holiday feast. I actually don't have that problem. Okay. I'm not one to skip meals. Well, Ari, one and four people survey thought that was a good idea. Okay, I'm just going to have coffee or I'm not going to eat until dinner. And that's really counterproductive to what we should be doing. That's Sean and I Spence, a registered her dietitian, not involved in the survey, but she suggests eating small meals with protein and fiber throughout the day and says that that will keep you from overeating like during the big meal. Overeating, I thought was the whole point of the holidays. Okay, what's tip number two? Tip two, ditch those detoxes you see online.

You know the ones I'm talking about because you can be thankful for your kidneys and liver. Those organs for detoxing and filtering out stuff your body doesn't want. Shana and the dietitians at Orlando Health made it clear. you don't need any sort of over-the-counter or home remedy. They don't live up to the true detox promise and they're a waste of money and can sometimes even be harmful. No, binging on celery juice and chili pepper, huh? No, she calls it spicy water.

But Shauna also warns that, like, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, but to be a dietitian in many states, you need credentials. So she advises to, like, be wary of advice from TikTok or Instagram. Noted. Okay, what's your final tip? Tip number three, dig into those holiday foods and, just enjoy yourself, Ari, and everyone else. That one I can take on board.

Shana wants to stress self-compassion. Like, these meals are social, and they bring us joy. Please don't let it overconsume you or make you feel guilty like you're this horrible person or that you have no self-control. Take a deep breath. It's okay. Because in reality, one rich meal is not going to affect your health significantly. Just like one healthy meal isn't going to suddenly make you a Greek god.

Or Greek yogurt, for that matter. Absolutely. I love Greek yogurt. You can have that the morning after. Yeah, with the cranberry sauce stirred in. It's really delicious. Ari, I love your suggestions. It's always really fun to have you here.

I'm so glad you're back. More tips and recipes on all things considered. No, it's always really great to talk to you. Thanks, Ari. Thank you. You can hear more of Ari Shapiro on Consider This, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. This episode was produced by Jessica Young and Gus Cantorres. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Christopher and Taliatta.

Tyler Jones checked the facts. David Greenberg and Patrick Murray were the audio engineers. I'm Emily Kwong. I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Sherwave, the science podcast from NPR.