Maria Paz Gutiérrez
Appearances
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Okay, interesting. I don't quite get how having a billion copies would make you see it better, but...
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
It's just wild. Like, as you're running through this litany, it is wild that it all runs on something that we found in these random little worms, these random little bacteria that happen to live in really hot water. This is wild.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And in such a pure way, like it's like this open-ended question. Could there be life in this extremely hot place?
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Let me do really good samples and like you did good science to find out. Yep. And then all I do is put it in a library. Like, there's something, like, pure on so many levels.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
So as we've been working on this story, you mentioned at the beginning it is this sort of parable of our time.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
So to kind of bring this story, to connect it to the avalanche of cuts coming to publicly funded science, we turn to somebody whose voice you probably recognize.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
He has been watching all the cuts really closely, detailing it in his newsletter called Friday's Elk.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And so we called him up to give us a more granular look at what's been frozen, what's been shut down, what's been lost.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And in one example, Carl told us about a group of scientists who've been working over the last several years.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And, you know, a system of searching for knowledge, there is so much that needs to be ready to go. Equipment, materials, administration, all the gathering up of research subjects, and then the scientists themselves.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And, I mean, Carl says what we are seeing right now is just uncharted territory.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
This episode was reported by Latif Nasser and Maria Paz Gutierrez. It was produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez and Sara Khari, edited by Alex Neeson with help from Sara Khari, music and sound design by Jeremy Bloom. And our fact checker on this one was Emily Krieger. That's it. Thank you so much for listening. See you next week.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
A whole new season of Terrestrials is coming. Radiolab's family-friendly show all about nature. This season, we are back with a new batch of episodes where we come face to snout with some of the wildest, gnarliest creatures on this planet. We discover music, magic, medicine, and a whole lot of fun. Starting April 17th, all on the Radiolab for Kids feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
All right. It's freezing in here, so I have on a winter hat and a blanket.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Oh, I haven't seen that. Wow. So we've got, yeah, we've got, it looks almost like this like unicorn eye of dazzling blue rimmed with yellow, rimmed with oranges and red.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I like it. It's simple. It's clear. Aquaticus. How do they, I mean, how do they do it? How do they live in this temperature that kills so many, so much?
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Which does open up, like, could there be life on Mars? Could there be life in lava? Could there be life in these places we thought were inhospitable? That's right.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Oh, I haven't seen that. Wow. So we've got, yeah, we've got, it looks almost like this, like unicorn eye of dazzling blue rimmed with yellow, rimmed with oranges and reds.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Yeah. Just the sort of gutting, the avalanche of cuts to publicly funded science and basic research that we are witnessing right now.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
The hot worms? But how, I thought they, how did that research change the world? I thought they were sitting, standing on a shelf.