Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Karen Osborne, and she works at the Smithsonian National Museum
of Natural History.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
She is a marine biologist.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay, I would really like to find her and discuss
with her one of the big.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Findings that she is responsible.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
She's definitely, she's definitely one of the people behind the
like behind this.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Let me give you a little factoid. Oh a lot
of paper.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I printed the whole thing and comments more than ninety
percent of the creatures living in the ocean have yet
to be described.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Because I haven't seen him.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I mean, think about it, think of think of how much,
think how think of how much water there is, and
then think of how deep it is.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So of.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Animals or creatures in the ocean have yet to even
be Now have they seen some of them?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sure? Think how deep you have to go? What was
the creature they just pulled up earlier this week, butt head?
I have what brainhead, meg of mind? But what was it?
Actually was some kind of suck smooth lumpsucker.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
That's right, that's right, yes, because made me think of
Diane So anyway, but this is why, this is why
I need Karen Osbourne. In two thousand and one, experts
from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute piloted a remotely
(01:48):
operated She was part of this piloted a remotely operated submersible.
She went to school at Berkeley. I think she got
her PhD at Berkeley. Karen Osborne is not that stupid.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
In two thousand and one, experts from the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute piloted a remotely operated submersible to depths
between three thousand and seventy five hundred feet off the
coast of California.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hold on line one, Hold on, I'm nervous. Hi elliot
the morning.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Hi Karen, No, not Karen Hry.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Who are you.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
H'm Mary Colleen. I am one of her. I work
with her, so I'm a post doc in her lab.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You're a who.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
A postdoc? I'm the researcher that works with her.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh you might do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I actually wasn't listening. My husband just texted and we're
big time listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So I called he is he is? Sounds like you
that responsibility from time to time. She s at work.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
No, no, no, I just I just left the car
and got into Fine.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Hey, So let me let me ask you this. You
said you work with Karen is Karen is Karen a
pretty nice lady. Of course, any chance she knows who
I am or not, I have.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Talked about you to her, but I don't think she
is a listener.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
That's okay, No, that's okay, she said, I hate that
guy now the the So anyway, I was just talking
about she.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I was reading this story about something that she helped discover.
She's not sitting right next to you, is she.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
No, she's not. I don't think she's in today. Are
you What were you talking about? Can I guess?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah? Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Was it the pig butt worm?
Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, so I was. I was
trying to explain that going back.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But I guess when she was out working in two
thousand and one out out at Monterey that they kind
of sent this submersible down underwater, right like way down,
way down underwater.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh, can I tell you about the part that I
read in.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Here that I thought was really fascinating, and then we'll
get to the pig butt worm. The sure ninety percent
of creatures living in the ocean have yet to be described.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That is fascinating to me.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, it's wild. They go out all the time and
find stuff that they don't know what it is. It
looks like something or it looks like something else and
they have to bring it back and try and figure
out what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So anyway, they go down in two thousand and one,
what was your What was? I got so excited to
thinking give us Karen, what was your name again? My
name is Mary Colleen, Mary Colleen?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
All right, yeah, stick with me, Mary Colleen. You'll be
able to fill in some of the holes. So anyway,
they send this submersible down and you know whatever, it's
finding stuff, like there's no light, there's nothing down there,
and so they're able to kind of pick up on
this thing and they can't really tell what it is,
but they start to describe it and like they're they're
(05:03):
trying to say, like, oh, it's kind of and again
it's not big. So like when when you hear pig butt,
you think like big ass, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
But if you look at.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It small and you look at it, it looks like
a pig butt, right, but it's also part of a worm.
So now this new thing that they have found is
called pig butt worm.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Uh huh uh huh, yeah, No, that's right, isn't that
awesome looks it look like a pig butt.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
With a worm in it, with a worm in it.
You know what it looks like? Yes, No, you know
what it looks like. I know what it looks like.
You know how what were you call it a pig butt?
I call it a human vagina? Pig front? No, what
was the thing? What was the thing that Diane had?
And we would put dust tape?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
No, we would put duct tape on her anus in
case the bugs would come out.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I almost almost threw covid out there. Pinworms, pinworms.
So you see right here?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean I see why Tyler says it looks
a little baggie, But yeah, look at it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Larry Colleen, you're a listener, sir. You can't. You can't
sigh like that. Oh no, I'm following along.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Hey, you want to do something fun? Mary Colleen? You
want to do something fun?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Stay on the phone. Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna push
your line down that locks you in. Don't go anywhere.
But I want you to say hello to your boss,
Karen Osborne.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yay, Karen, Hello.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Hi, how are you? Did you hear the last part? Karen?
I've been looking I've been looking for you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And then Mary Colleen, who was very very hard at work.
It took everything I had to try her away.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Hi, Karen, Hey, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So Karen, my name's Elliott. Nice to meet you. Under Yes, yes,
the uh OAHs.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But I understand you're not a listener, and that's okay,
no problem.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Anyway, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
I have lots of friends who are and alerted me
that I should have a listening. Give you a call.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
But we're talking about your pig butt worm.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
It's always a favorite.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It's a great little animal.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
But how did you But why why is it? Why
is it getting so much press right now? You discovered
this thing years ago?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah? So uh yeah, so pig butt is a perennial favorite.
It was actually the first scientific paper that I published,
and I it calls pretty much every year about it.
It's a it's a mesmizing little animal. One side looks
like Mick Jagger. The other side looks like, you know,
(07:48):
the rump of a pig. Or we were trying to
be polite actually, because it does look a bit more
like you know what you guys mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I say it, say it, say it, say it.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Do you go, well, I just want to know.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I don't know, Karen, do you feel more comfortable just
calling it vagina or would you like to go with bagoon?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
The JJ has always worked for me.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
There you go, doctor, whatever it takes the uh, no,
it does, it does. But the the you know what,
you know what I think throws me off a little bit,
doctor or Karen, whatever the the the because when you
see the pictures, everything is blown up, but it's really small.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Right, It's about the biggest ones they're about the size
of a ping pong ball, and the smallest ones about
the size of a hazel nut.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh okay, it's not huge, no, no, but that's bigger.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That's bigger than I thought it was gonna be.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Yeah, it's much bigger than it should be as far
as what we thought when we found it, because it
looks just like a larvae, and a larva is usually
less than a millimeter, and this thing is ten to
twenty five millimeters, which is, you know, like an inch
inch and a half at the biggest.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Hey, can you, Karen, can you can you explain something?
You'll probably do a better job than I will with it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Is what is the you don't have to laugh there.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
What is the part where you're talking about, like where
it gives off some kind of light or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, so a.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Lot of the animals, So this a pig that lives
in the deep open ocean right nowhere near the bottom,
nowhere near the surface, and most of the animals, seventy
six percent of the animals down there at this depth
and below the surface make their own light. So there
isn't a whole lot of light that seeps down from
the surface. And once you get down to six seven
(09:32):
thousand meters, even in the clearest water, there is no
light left. So most of the animals that live down
there make light, and this one is no exception. It
makes blue light that it puts little particles of in
the mucus feeding balloon that it uses, and it also
glows along one the stripe in its body. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And when you sent that submersible down out in Monterey,
did you were you were you just hoping to find
anything and you found pig butt or were you guys
searching for were you searching for something?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
So when we take the RV out, which is a
remotely operated vehicle, it's basically a big robot that goes
down to four thousand meters. We are looking to see
what we can find, so we usually have specific targets
in mind. But it's a giant ocean out there, with
a lot of space and a lot of volume to
look through, and most of the animals can get away
(10:29):
from the big, bright, light, loud, noisy vehicle. Big Butt
is an exception. It doesn't move very fast, so we
came across it. It lives in a very specific depth
about one thousand meters. Everyone we've found has been very
close to a thousand meters, and so we stumbled upon it,
like we stumble upon many.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
New animals down there.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Most of the stuff we see down there doesn't have
a name yet, so you always excited when we find
something new all the time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Do you love that?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I'm sure you've had a pretty good care or a
great career, but do you does it bother you that
you'll forever be known as the pig butt worm lady?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
No. I found it very amusing that the journal I
published it and decided to put it on the front
of the journal with a pink outline and release it
on Valentine's Day. So what do you It's not my choice,
but I find it hilarious.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
What do you guys do?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Like you and and Mary Colleen? Like, what do you
guys do with the Smithsonian?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
So we I'm a curator of several different natural history collections,
and so I basically take care of the history of
the natural world. We have these collections that scientists from
all over the world use to study different things. It's
really important to compare what we find today with what
they have found in the past and be able to
(11:52):
put names on things so that they can talk about them.
And so I do spend most of my time doing
research and taking care of these collect and making them
available to the world.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's awesome. And do you do you like Mary Colleen?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I do?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
She is a fabulous book stock and person.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, but I mean she's still on the phone. I
mean I thought maybe if you thought maybe she was going.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, well that that's all.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That's awesome, that's great.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I love that both of you ended up that both
of you ended up calling in Karen. I'm sorry to
bother your your day. I'm sure you had a bunch
of stuff going on.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
No, it's fun, it's fun to do this, and it's
I if I can make a plug for science. Sure, uh,
there is so much that we don't know. I know,
the way that we teach science these days makes it
sound like you can go look up anything in a book,
but you cannot. There are so many mysteries out there
still that that we need to find because there's a
(12:49):
lot of useful information. I'm not sure we've figured out
the use of knowing about pig butt yet, but oh
but you know what, that's other things we've studied are
very useful.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But that's actually a good point is does if you
had to guess, does pig butt just exist as part
of a food chain?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It is definitely a nice juicy morsel for something to
slurb up, so it's probably an important part of the
food chain. It certainly is aggregating lots of particles. As
you go into the deep ocean, you get less and
less food. And animals like pig butt that pick up
lots of particles and aggregate them into a nice juicy
(13:32):
morsul for a big fish to eat are really important
pieces of that food chain.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Hey, when you were when you were a kid, were
you just obsessed with the water or the ocean?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I was not. Actually I grew up in Michigan with
only the Great Lakes around, and I loved them, but
there wasn't a whole lot to look at in the lakes.
At the time, I didn't think. But now that I
knew more about what's out there, and that you can
just jump in and look just in the water right
around you and all kinds of interesting little creatures and
know that they're an important part of what makes our
(14:06):
atmosphere and our climate.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Yeah, I have a huge appreciation for them. I was
when I was a kid. I was just interested in everything,
poking around in the dirt and in the streams and
you know, anywhere I could find cool things. And then
I went and spent a year diving on a coral
reef and teaching biology over in Micronesia and fell in
love with the ocean and all the crazy, wild, interesting
(14:30):
animals that were out there that we don't know anything about.
It just seemed like a great opportunity to contribute to
scientific knowledge.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
When when is my fear of the ocean?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Like do you do you do? You do you work
of that?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No? No, I'm being serious, Like do you look at that?
Like my fear is like I don't want to I
don't listen.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I will never get eaten by a shark if I'm
not in the water. But do you do you look
at that into people are ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
No, I don't because I am. I'm afraid of spiders,
which is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
But if it's a sea spighter, it's totally fine, right
because I know that they can't really walk around on
me the way that a trustrial fighter can, and I
know there's not actually much to fear from trustrial fighters,
and yet I'm I still don't want them touching me.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So I think, all right, I'll take that. That makes
me feel better. Hey, I want to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Mary, Colleen and Karen, both of you guys, let me
get your shirts. You should be very proud that that
that you were.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Both on today.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Nice, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
All right, hold on one sake, don't hang up. I'm
not good at using like putting two lines together. Don't
hang up, hold on stilling post doc. Yeah, hold on
one sec all right, she goes Karen. Yeah, okay, I
have to put you on hold.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Hold on, there we go.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
How awesome is that? How awesome. Is that quick? I
talked to the pig Butt founder. Take that, Kylie Kelsey.
Sure he had mummy pig pig butt uh
Karen Osborne, and she works at the Smithsonian National Museum
of Natural History.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
She is a marine biologist.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay, I would really like to find her and discuss
with her one of the big.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Findings that she is responsible.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
She's definitely, she's definitely one of the people behind the
like behind this.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Let me give you a little factoid. Oh a lot
of paper.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I printed the whole thing and comments more than ninety
percent of the creatures living in the ocean have yet
to be described.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Because I haven't seen him.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I mean, think about it, think of think of how much,
think how think of how much water there is, and
then think of how deep it is.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So of.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Animals or creatures in the ocean have yet to even
be Now have they seen some of them?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sure? Think how deep you have to go? What was
the creature they just pulled up earlier this week, butt head?
I have what brainhead, meg of mind? But what was it?
Actually was some kind of suck smooth lumpsucker.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
That's right, that's right, yes, because made me think of
Diane So anyway, but this is why, this is why
I need Karen Osbourne. In two thousand and one, experts
from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute piloted a remotely
(01:48):
operated She was part of this piloted a remotely operated submersible.
She went to school at Berkeley. I think she got
her PhD at Berkeley. Karen Osborne is not that stupid.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
In two thousand and one, experts from the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute piloted a remotely operated submersible to depths
between three thousand and seventy five hundred feet off the
coast of California.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hold on line one, Hold on, I'm nervous. Hi elliot
the morning.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Hi Karen, No, not Karen Hry.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Who are you.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
H'm Mary Colleen. I am one of her. I work
with her, so I'm a post doc in her lab.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You're a who.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
A postdoc? I'm the researcher that works with her.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh you might do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I actually wasn't listening. My husband just texted and we're
big time listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So I called he is he is? Sounds like you
that responsibility from time to time. She s at work.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
No, no, no, I just I just left the car
and got into Fine.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Hey, So let me let me ask you this. You
said you work with Karen is Karen is Karen a
pretty nice lady. Of course, any chance she knows who
I am or not, I have.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Talked about you to her, but I don't think she
is a listener.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
That's okay, No, that's okay, she said, I hate that
guy now the the So anyway, I was just talking
about she.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I was reading this story about something that she helped discover.
She's not sitting right next to you, is she.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
No, she's not. I don't think she's in today. Are
you What were you talking about? Can I guess?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah? Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Was it the pig butt worm?
Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, so I was. I was
trying to explain that going back.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But I guess when she was out working in two
thousand and one out out at Monterey that they kind
of sent this submersible down underwater, right like way down,
way down underwater.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh, can I tell you about the part that I
read in.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Here that I thought was really fascinating, and then we'll
get to the pig butt worm. The sure ninety percent
of creatures living in the ocean have yet to be described.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That is fascinating to me.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, it's wild. They go out all the time and
find stuff that they don't know what it is. It
looks like something or it looks like something else and
they have to bring it back and try and figure
out what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So anyway, they go down in two thousand and one,
what was your What was? I got so excited to
thinking give us Karen, what was your name again? My
name is Mary Colleen, Mary Colleen?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
All right, yeah, stick with me, Mary Colleen. You'll be
able to fill in some of the holes. So anyway,
they send this submersible down and you know whatever, it's
finding stuff, like there's no light, there's nothing down there,
and so they're able to kind of pick up on
this thing and they can't really tell what it is,
but they start to describe it and like they're they're
(05:03):
trying to say, like, oh, it's kind of and again
it's not big. So like when when you hear pig butt,
you think like big ass, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
But if you look at.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It small and you look at it, it looks like
a pig butt, right, but it's also part of a worm.
So now this new thing that they have found is
called pig butt worm.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Uh huh uh huh, yeah, No, that's right, isn't that
awesome looks it look like a pig butt.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
With a worm in it, with a worm in it.
You know what it looks like? Yes, No, you know
what it looks like. I know what it looks like.
You know how what were you call it a pig butt?
I call it a human vagina? Pig front? No, what
was the thing? What was the thing that Diane had?
And we would put dust tape?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
No, we would put duct tape on her anus in
case the bugs would come out.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I almost almost threw covid out there. Pinworms, pinworms.
So you see right here?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean I see why Tyler says it looks
a little baggie, But yeah, look at it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Larry Colleen, you're a listener, sir. You can't. You can't
sigh like that. Oh no, I'm following along.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Hey, you want to do something fun? Mary Colleen? You
want to do something fun?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Stay on the phone. Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna push
your line down that locks you in. Don't go anywhere.
But I want you to say hello to your boss,
Karen Osborne.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yay, Karen, Hello.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Hi, how are you? Did you hear the last part? Karen?
I've been looking I've been looking for you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And then Mary Colleen, who was very very hard at work.
It took everything I had to try her away.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Hi, Karen, Hey, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So Karen, my name's Elliott. Nice to meet you. Under Yes, yes,
the uh OAHs.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But I understand you're not a listener, and that's okay,
no problem.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Anyway, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
I have lots of friends who are and alerted me
that I should have a listening. Give you a call.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
But we're talking about your pig butt worm.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
It's always a favorite.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It's a great little animal.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
But how did you But why why is it? Why
is it getting so much press right now? You discovered
this thing years ago?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah? So uh yeah, so pig butt is a perennial favorite.
It was actually the first scientific paper that I published,
and I it calls pretty much every year about it.
It's a it's a mesmizing little animal. One side looks
like Mick Jagger. The other side looks like, you know,
(07:48):
the rump of a pig. Or we were trying to
be polite actually, because it does look a bit more
like you know what you guys mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I say it, say it, say it, say it.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Do you go, well, I just want to know.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I don't know, Karen, do you feel more comfortable just
calling it vagina or would you like to go with bagoon?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
The JJ has always worked for me.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
There you go, doctor, whatever it takes the uh, no,
it does, it does. But the the you know what,
you know what I think throws me off a little bit,
doctor or Karen, whatever the the the because when you
see the pictures, everything is blown up, but it's really small.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Right, It's about the biggest ones they're about the size
of a ping pong ball, and the smallest ones about
the size of a hazel nut.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh okay, it's not huge, no, no, but that's bigger.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That's bigger than I thought it was gonna be.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Yeah, it's much bigger than it should be as far
as what we thought when we found it, because it
looks just like a larvae, and a larva is usually
less than a millimeter, and this thing is ten to
twenty five millimeters, which is, you know, like an inch
inch and a half at the biggest.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Hey, can you, Karen, can you can you explain something?
You'll probably do a better job than I will with it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Is what is the you don't have to laugh there.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
What is the part where you're talking about, like where
it gives off some kind of light or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, so a.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Lot of the animals, So this a pig that lives
in the deep open ocean right nowhere near the bottom,
nowhere near the surface, and most of the animals, seventy
six percent of the animals down there at this depth
and below the surface make their own light. So there
isn't a whole lot of light that seeps down from
the surface. And once you get down to six seven
(09:32):
thousand meters, even in the clearest water, there is no
light left. So most of the animals that live down
there make light, and this one is no exception. It
makes blue light that it puts little particles of in
the mucus feeding balloon that it uses, and it also
glows along one the stripe in its body. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And when you sent that submersible down out in Monterey,
did you were you were you just hoping to find
anything and you found pig butt or were you guys
searching for were you searching for something?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
So when we take the RV out, which is a
remotely operated vehicle, it's basically a big robot that goes
down to four thousand meters. We are looking to see
what we can find, so we usually have specific targets
in mind. But it's a giant ocean out there, with
a lot of space and a lot of volume to
look through, and most of the animals can get away
(10:29):
from the big, bright, light, loud, noisy vehicle. Big Butt
is an exception. It doesn't move very fast, so we
came across it. It lives in a very specific depth
about one thousand meters. Everyone we've found has been very
close to a thousand meters, and so we stumbled upon it,
like we stumble upon many.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
New animals down there.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Most of the stuff we see down there doesn't have
a name yet, so you always excited when we find
something new all the time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Do you love that?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I'm sure you've had a pretty good care or a
great career, but do you does it bother you that
you'll forever be known as the pig butt worm lady?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
No. I found it very amusing that the journal I
published it and decided to put it on the front
of the journal with a pink outline and release it
on Valentine's Day. So what do you It's not my choice,
but I find it hilarious.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
What do you guys do?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Like you and and Mary Colleen? Like, what do you
guys do with the Smithsonian?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
So we I'm a curator of several different natural history collections,
and so I basically take care of the history of
the natural world. We have these collections that scientists from
all over the world use to study different things. It's
really important to compare what we find today with what
they have found in the past and be able to
(11:52):
put names on things so that they can talk about them.
And so I do spend most of my time doing
research and taking care of these collect and making them
available to the world.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's awesome. And do you do you like Mary Colleen?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I do?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
She is a fabulous book stock and person.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, but I mean she's still on the phone. I
mean I thought maybe if you thought maybe she was going.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, well that that's all.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That's awesome, that's great.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I love that both of you ended up that both
of you ended up calling in Karen. I'm sorry to
bother your your day. I'm sure you had a bunch
of stuff going on.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
No, it's fun, it's fun to do this, and it's
I if I can make a plug for science. Sure, uh,
there is so much that we don't know. I know,
the way that we teach science these days makes it
sound like you can go look up anything in a book,
but you cannot. There are so many mysteries out there
still that that we need to find because there's a
(12:49):
lot of useful information. I'm not sure we've figured out
the use of knowing about pig butt yet, but oh
but you know what, that's other things we've studied are
very useful.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But that's actually a good point is does if you
had to guess, does pig butt just exist as part
of a food chain?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It is definitely a nice juicy morsel for something to
slurb up, so it's probably an important part of the
food chain. It certainly is aggregating lots of particles. As
you go into the deep ocean, you get less and
less food. And animals like pig butt that pick up
lots of particles and aggregate them into a nice juicy
(13:32):
morsul for a big fish to eat are really important
pieces of that food chain.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Hey, when you were when you were a kid, were
you just obsessed with the water or the ocean?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I was not. Actually I grew up in Michigan with
only the Great Lakes around, and I loved them, but
there wasn't a whole lot to look at in the lakes.
At the time, I didn't think. But now that I
knew more about what's out there, and that you can
just jump in and look just in the water right
around you and all kinds of interesting little creatures and
know that they're an important part of what makes our
(14:06):
atmosphere and our climate.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Yeah, I have a huge appreciation for them. I was
when I was a kid. I was just interested in everything,
poking around in the dirt and in the streams and
you know, anywhere I could find cool things. And then
I went and spent a year diving on a coral
reef and teaching biology over in Micronesia and fell in
love with the ocean and all the crazy, wild, interesting
(14:30):
animals that were out there that we don't know anything about.
It just seemed like a great opportunity to contribute to
scientific knowledge.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
When when is my fear of the ocean?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Like do you do you do? You do you work
of that?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No? No, I'm being serious, Like do you look at that?
Like my fear is like I don't want to I
don't listen.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I will never get eaten by a shark if I'm
not in the water. But do you do you look
at that into people are ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
No, I don't because I am. I'm afraid of spiders,
which is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
But if it's a sea spighter, it's totally fine, right
because I know that they can't really walk around on
me the way that a trustrial fighter can, and I
know there's not actually much to fear from trustrial fighters,
and yet I'm I still don't want them touching me.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So I think, all right, I'll take that. That makes
me feel better. Hey, I want to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Mary, Colleen and Karen, both of you guys, let me
get your shirts. You should be very proud that that
that you were.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Both on today.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Nice, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
All right, hold on one sake, don't hang up. I'm
not good at using like putting two lines together. Don't
hang up, hold on stilling post doc. Yeah, hold on
one sec all right, she goes Karen. Yeah, okay, I
have to put you on hold.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Hold on, there we go.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
How awesome is that? How awesome. Is that quick? I
talked to the pig Butt founder. Take that, Kylie Kelsey.
Sure he had mummy pig pig butt uh
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