Dr. Dino Martins

speaker

168 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 14 Jul

Dr. Dino Martins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Science Friday · Beautiful botflies, luscious leeches, and the wonder of parasites · 14 Jul 2026 podcast

It's a moral question as well as a biological one.

And the answer is, you know, in some ways, yes, we already have eradicated certain pathogens that, you know, have caused...

diseases through history.

Smallpox, for example, rinderpest, which was a viral disease that used to kill animals here.

And, you know, it was transformative for the ecology and the empire and the political outcomes for many countries in terms of these changes.

But I would make the case that the answer is no.

we do not have the right to eradicate any other species, even though, of course, we do it all the time.

But the challenge with parasites is this, is that we need to approach it with a little humility.

Parasites are not as simple as viruses.

They are actually complex organisms that can think and can behave and can adapt and can respond.

they can exploit opportunities that we create for them, whether it's through the increased concentration of animals in feedlots, or it's through fish farming, or it's through transporting animals across the planet.

We're changing the rules of the game all the time.

But parasites are the one group of animals who are one step ahead of us.

They're like, okay, you change the rules, we're going to cheat and we're going to do this and we're going to exploit this opportunity.

And I think

We might think we can eradicate them or we can get rid of them, but I don't think we ever will because they are benefiting from what we're doing.

And so...

I think the better way to approach it is to say, look, here they are.

They are part of this incredible fabric of life, this living system that supports us and all the people and animals we care about.

How do we understand it better?

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