0:00:11.277,0:00:12.637
Good evening.

0:00:12.814,0:00:16.512
Here you see a little petri dish[br]that we use in the lab

0:00:16.512,0:00:19.543
with a dry leaf, completely dry,

0:00:19.543,0:00:21.805
and on there, there are females.

0:00:22.055,0:00:24.007
Why do I say females?

0:00:24.007,0:00:28.415
Because that's their way of life:[br]They live and evolve without males;

0:00:28.415,0:00:30.525
they got rid of males.

0:00:30.595,0:00:32.476
And also, they are dry.

0:00:32.476,0:00:35.586
They can dry up,[br]and we can wait for years,

0:00:35.586,0:00:38.505
put them in the freezer,[br]and get them back.

0:00:38.505,0:00:42.636
Tonight we will do a live experiment[br]with one of my scientists, Boris,

0:00:42.636,0:00:44.986
to resurrect these animals for you,

0:00:44.986,0:00:46.497
these females.

0:00:48.357,0:00:49.543
Thanks, Boris.

0:00:51.523,0:00:53.395
So look around you.

0:00:53.745,0:00:57.813
There is an amazing diversity[br]of living organisms on this planet,

0:00:57.813,0:01:02.001
from bacteria to fungi to plants[br]to animals to human -

0:01:02.171,0:01:04.213
nothing looks alike.

0:01:04.553,0:01:11.192
But do you know that all this diversity[br]arose once from a universal ancestor

0:01:11.192,0:01:14.182
around 3.5 billion years ago?

0:01:14.182,0:01:18.964
And this ancestor of all living organisms[br]was a single simple cell,

0:01:18.964,0:01:21.103
something like a bacterium.

0:01:21.453,0:01:26.376
But how do we know that all life[br]has evolved from a single cell?

0:01:27.030,0:01:31.137
We know this because we all[br]share the same alphabet;

0:01:31.137,0:01:34.015
we have the same DNA code.

0:01:34.186,0:01:37.507
DNA is a magical molecule of life.

0:01:37.604,0:01:42.870
And DNA is only made up[br]of four chemical building blocks:

0:01:43.683,0:01:46.735
cytosine, guanine, adenine, thymine.

0:01:46.735,0:01:51.465
So only four letters[br]that make the whole alphabet of life.

0:01:52.167,0:01:57.606
So yes, from bacteria to human,[br]we only need four letters,

0:01:58.543,0:02:03.462
but then, what's our DNA[br]instruction book looking like?

0:02:03.853,0:02:08.892
In each of our cells, we have[br]around three billion of those letters,

0:02:08.892,0:02:12.174
organized on 23 pairs of chromosomes.

0:02:12.233,0:02:13.243
So you see here,

0:02:13.243,0:02:15.583
it's a compaction of these four letters.

0:02:15.583,0:02:20.903
But what makes you different from me[br]is that these letters change.

0:02:21.182,0:02:24.855
These letters change[br]between all these individuals.

0:02:25.444,0:02:30.527
So if we all have the same genetic code,[br]it means we are all related.

0:02:30.616,0:02:31.615
Yes, we are.

0:02:31.615,0:02:34.018
We are all cousins from each other.

0:02:34.486,0:02:36.196
But then, you may wonder:

0:02:36.196,0:02:39.601
How did we evolve to so many complex forms

0:02:39.601,0:02:43.006
from such a single cell a long time ago?

0:02:43.435,0:02:48.096
And that's when I want you to remember[br]the card game we have been playing.

0:02:48.266,0:02:52.746
What's essential for evolution[br]is genetic variation,

0:02:52.746,0:02:55.123
its changes in these letters.

0:02:55.123,0:02:58.565
So these letters change randomly.

0:02:58.895,0:03:01.595
And most of these changes are neutral,

0:03:01.595,0:03:05.323
they have no effect[br]on the fitness of the individual,

0:03:05.323,0:03:08.930
but if a change is an advantage,[br]it can be selected.

0:03:08.930,0:03:09.950
Remember?

0:03:09.950,0:03:13.098
We select if a positive mutation appears.

0:03:13.098,0:03:14.269
Why is it selected?

0:03:14.269,0:03:16.761
Because the individual gets an advantage

0:03:16.761,0:03:19.161
and it might reproduce[br]more than the others

0:03:19.161,0:03:21.459
so the mutation is transmitted.

0:03:22.141,0:03:23.420
And we know

0:03:23.638,0:03:26.039
that natural selection is cumulative,

0:03:26.039,0:03:28.640
that we can accumulate[br]this positive mutation,

0:03:28.640,0:03:31.860
which is important[br]for adaptation and evolution.

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So as I said, during the card game,

0:03:34.232,0:03:38.602
there is nothing of intelligence[br]or a creator out there

0:03:38.602,0:03:40.373
for evolution.

0:03:40.996,0:03:42.832
And look at cancer development.

0:03:42.842,0:03:45.894
Cancer development[br]is also an evolutionary process;

0:03:45.894,0:03:48.206
it follows this same mechanism.

0:03:48.206,0:03:53.752
Each of our cells accumulate[br]randomly these changes, these mutations,

0:03:53.783,0:03:58.203
but if one of these normal cells[br]suddenly gets a growth advantage -

0:03:58.203,0:04:01.861
a mutation that gives it a growth[br]advantage compared to the other cells -

0:04:01.861,0:04:04.690
it will start to grow quicker -

0:04:04.690,0:04:06.519
an uncontrolled proliferation -

0:04:06.519,0:04:08.621
and cancer can occur.

0:04:08.811,0:04:10.669
And of course, it's a problem to human.

0:04:10.669,0:04:12.010
We know it.

0:04:12.019,0:04:14.720
But you know, animals also get cancer.

0:04:14.949,0:04:17.321
But do all of them get cancer?

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There are a few mysterious species[br]that don't develop cancer.

0:04:22.959,0:04:24.119
What are they?

0:04:24.119,0:04:27.230
The most notorious one[br]is this naked mole rat.

0:04:27.269,0:04:29.070
Very cute animal, no?

0:04:29.070,0:04:30.071
(Laughter)

0:04:30.071,0:04:32.794
For scientists,[br]it's a very interesting animal.

0:04:32.794,0:04:35.182
It's very small. It's like a mouse.

0:04:35.344,0:04:39.314
But it lives for 30 years,[br]and a mouse lives for four years.

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What's also interesting is

0:04:40.972,0:04:43.708
if you inject the cancer cell[br]in this animal,

0:04:43.708,0:04:45.653
it will not develop.

0:04:45.793,0:04:46.932
And why?

0:04:47.165,0:04:49.177
Scientists have searched[br]for this for years

0:04:49.177,0:04:51.429
and found that they[br]have this kind of molecule -

0:04:51.429,0:04:53.813
a high molecular mass, hyaluronan;

0:04:53.813,0:04:56.633
it's a kind of super sugar -

0:04:56.633,0:04:59.903
that is secreted around[br]the cells of these animals,

0:05:00.003,0:05:02.924
and it makes their tissue very elastic.

0:05:02.924,0:05:04.084
And why is it important?

0:05:04.084,0:05:08.366
Because these animals dig into the soil,[br]they make these burrows,

0:05:08.366,0:05:10.658
and so their tissue[br]needs to be very elastic.

0:05:10.658,0:05:12.529
So it's an adaptation to this.

0:05:12.529,0:05:14.109
But what's interesting

0:05:14.109,0:05:17.659
is that this molecule,[br]when it's secreted around the cell,

0:05:17.659,0:05:21.319
prevents the cell from dividing[br]or proliferating further.

0:05:21.599,0:05:22.896
So you immediately see

0:05:22.896,0:05:26.786
the interesting application[br]of the discovery of such a molecule.

0:05:27.073,0:05:30.134
But if you think this is[br]the only interesting animal out there,

0:05:30.134,0:05:31.375
you’re wrong.

0:05:31.435,0:05:36.486
Nature is full of mysterious species,[br]where we can discover so much.

0:05:36.666,0:05:41.444
Nature has been an inspiration[br]to scientists for so many years.

0:05:41.454,0:05:43.523
Like Albert Einstein said,

0:05:43.563,0:05:49.421
"We know less than one thousandth of 1%[br]of what nature has to reveal to us."

0:05:49.461,0:05:51.724
And if we start to destroy our nature,

0:05:51.724,0:05:55.264
we will not even discover[br]everything that's out there.

0:05:55.352,0:05:56.942
Look at this gecko.

0:05:57.163,0:06:02.638
This gecko, we know,[br]can run quickly on vertical glass.

0:06:02.808,0:06:03.819
But how?

0:06:03.819,0:06:07.970
How can these animals[br]adhere so strongly to glass

0:06:07.970,0:06:09.910
and then just run on it?

0:06:09.920,0:06:10.919
And so, for long,

0:06:10.919,0:06:12.700
scientists looked at the molecule:

0:06:12.700,0:06:16.813
What kind of molecule is secreted[br]that makes them like a glue,

0:06:16.813,0:06:18.790
like a strong adhesion?

0:06:18.950,0:06:21.209
And in fact, by looking at these fingers,

0:06:21.209,0:06:24.223
they found there's nothing[br]of a molecule that is secreted,

0:06:24.223,0:06:25.833
but it's a structure.

0:06:25.833,0:06:27.384
What they discovered

0:06:27.384,0:06:31.925
is that underneath these fingers,[br]there are these hair-like structures,

0:06:31.925,0:06:33.354
millions of them.

0:06:33.354,0:06:36.134
And if you look even[br]at the nanoscopic level,

0:06:36.134,0:06:38.273
you see that at the end[br]of all of these hairs,

0:06:38.273,0:06:42.512
you have hundreds of these[br]spatula-likes structures.

0:06:42.633,0:06:45.013
And when these are[br]in strong contact with glass,

0:06:45.013,0:06:49.449
it creates a strong adhesion[br]just through simple Van der Waals forces,

0:06:49.449,0:06:52.672
the simple forces[br]that make this strong adhesion.

0:06:52.672,0:06:55.734
And when they rotate their fingers,

0:06:55.734,0:07:00.270
this force releases immediately[br]and they can run further.

0:07:00.270,0:07:01.251
And of course,

0:07:01.271,0:07:05.430
laboratories have now been interested[br]to reconstruct these nano-structures

0:07:05.430,0:07:08.130
to make strong adhesives.

0:07:08.590,0:07:10.481
And that's what I want to show you:

0:07:10.481,0:07:14.528
It's so interesting to study biology[br]because there's so much to discover,

0:07:14.528,0:07:17.060
because there has been[br]such a long evolution

0:07:17.060,0:07:21.659
of all kinds of specimens[br]with all kinds of different adaptations.

0:07:22.179,0:07:24.803
And what has puzzled me is reproduction.

0:07:24.803,0:07:27.853
You know that for life,[br]it's essential to reproduce;

0:07:28.183,0:07:31.443
we need to reproduce[br]or the species will go extinct.

0:07:31.443,0:07:34.213
But do you know that sexual reproduction,

0:07:34.213,0:07:35.873
the one we all know,

0:07:35.873,0:07:38.764
is the queen of problems[br]in evolutionary biology?

0:07:38.764,0:07:41.304
For us scientists, it's really a puzzle.

0:07:41.643,0:07:43.022
And why?

0:07:43.142,0:07:47.104
Think about all the energy you need[br]to spend to find a partner,

0:07:47.104,0:07:49.864
all the strategies the male's developed

0:07:49.864,0:07:53.654
to try to attract a female,[br]to try to fertilize her,

0:07:54.074,0:07:57.160
to the point that there is[br]a battle of sexes.

0:07:57.160,0:07:58.556
Believe me -

0:07:58.929,0:08:02.740
a man penis is boring[br]compared to this insect penis.

0:08:02.740,0:08:05.010
This is a penis of a bean weevil,

0:08:05.010,0:08:06.720
full of spines,

0:08:06.753,0:08:11.891
and the males with the longest spines[br]are those that fertilize most of the eggs.

0:08:12.102,0:08:14.960
Of course, the female cannot[br]reproduce anymore afterwards,

0:08:14.960,0:08:18.770
but at least, the male is sure[br]he has transmitted his genes.

0:08:19.170,0:08:20.744
A look at this fruit fly.

0:08:20.744,0:08:24.613
You might have many fruit flies[br]in summer around your trash bin.

0:08:24.963,0:08:27.618
This fruit fly, Drosophila bifurca,

0:08:27.618,0:08:32.033
produces giant sperm,[br]20 times its body size.

0:08:32.033,0:08:33.035
It's like, you men,

0:08:33.035,0:08:36.753
you would have a sperm[br]that is twenty times your body size,

0:08:36.753,0:08:38.648
like a building of 12 stories.

0:08:38.648,0:08:39.684
(Laughter)

0:08:39.684,0:08:40.873
Wow!

0:08:41.134,0:08:44.583
But at least, when it[br]transmits this to the female,

0:08:44.703,0:08:47.123
the receptacle of the female is filled,

0:08:47.123,0:08:49.932
there is no space for another sperm,

0:08:49.932,0:08:52.526
so it's sure to transmit its genes.

0:08:53.013,0:08:56.876
But then, why did such a complicated mode[br]of reproduction evolve?

0:08:56.876,0:08:58.790
And why is it so omnipresent?

0:08:58.790,0:09:01.021
Is it not just simpler to clone yourself?

0:09:01.021,0:09:03.729
One individual makes a new individual?

0:09:04.221,0:09:08.940
So why is sexual reproduction[br]so prevalent in nature?

0:09:09.550,0:09:11.690
In fact, for us biologists,

0:09:11.789,0:09:17.049
sex is just about mixing genetic material[br]of one individual with another individual

0:09:17.209,0:09:21.719
to create each generation[br]of offsprings that are all different.

0:09:21.809,0:09:24.374
And that's a force of sexual reproduction:

0:09:24.374,0:09:28.843
It creates every generation[br]this genetic variability

0:09:28.843,0:09:31.203
that is essential for evolution.

0:09:31.350,0:09:35.112
So does it mean that animals[br]that lose sexual reproduction

0:09:35.112,0:09:37.682
or that abandon it[br]or have no sexual reproduction

0:09:37.702,0:09:40.113
cannot evolve, cannot adapt?

0:09:40.190,0:09:42.043
That's what we thought

0:09:42.175,0:09:43.782
until we discovered

0:09:43.782,0:09:46.242
what has been called[br]an evolutionary scandal

0:09:46.242,0:09:48.265
or an ancient sexual scandal:

0:09:48.265,0:09:51.825
It's a microscopic world of animals,[br]the bdelloid rotifers.

0:09:51.825,0:09:57.106
These are females cloning themselves;[br]never has any male been discovered.

0:09:57.106,0:10:02.376
They exist since millions of years[br]and we found them everywhere.

0:10:02.496,0:10:05.060
And they are not only interesting

0:10:05.060,0:10:08.804
because they can reproduce without males[br]and evolve without males,

0:10:08.804,0:10:10.855
we can also dry them out.

0:10:10.855,0:10:11.903
I showed you:

0:10:11.903,0:10:14.305
We can just take them, here in the park,

0:10:14.305,0:10:19.002
a piece of lichen, a dry lichen,[br]bring it back to the lab,

0:10:19.472,0:10:20.738
and what you see -

0:10:20.738,0:10:22.974
that's also what you see[br]on the microscope -

0:10:23.044,0:10:25.298
is this dry lichen[br]and then they are in trance.

0:10:25.398,0:10:28.574
But when we add water,[br]they start to live again.

0:10:28.574,0:10:29.953
So these animals -

0:10:29.953,0:10:33.614
We can dry them out[br]at any stage in their life,

0:10:33.924,0:10:35.635
and we can keep them dry.

0:10:35.635,0:10:37.992
We can put them in the -80 freezer.

0:10:37.992,0:10:40.775
We can send them[br]to collaborators in the US,

0:10:40.775,0:10:43.425
and if they add water, they live again.

0:10:44.315,0:10:46.804
And it's not only one species.

0:10:46.804,0:10:49.465
You could think, "Yeah,[br]but it's just this rare animal."

0:10:49.465,0:10:52.535
No, it's more than 400 species[br]being described

0:10:53.076,0:10:56.635
as having diversified[br]into many morphological forms -

0:10:56.635,0:11:00.276
all females reproducing without males,

0:11:00.476,0:11:03.355
most of them being able to dry out.

0:11:03.355,0:11:05.826
And of course this makes the newspaper:

0:11:05.826,0:11:08.294
["Asexual reproduction is possible."]

0:11:08.294,0:11:10.196
Yes, it's possible.

0:11:11.166,0:11:15.454
But then, of course, you might think,[br]"How did these females evolve?"

0:11:15.454,0:11:17.354
How do they create variability? -

0:11:17.354,0:11:19.454
because we know[br]it's essential for evolution.

0:11:19.454,0:11:23.738
So, if they just cloned themselves,[br]how do they ever evolve and adapt?

0:11:24.568,0:11:25.664
And so, as a scientist,

0:11:25.664,0:11:28.543
it is important to have[br]these hypothesis to think of.

0:11:28.543,0:11:29.885
So our hypothesis is -

0:11:29.885,0:11:31.554
It's easy to work with this animal.

0:11:31.554,0:11:35.143
You take a female in the wild,[br]you start to clone it in the lab,

0:11:35.143,0:11:37.824
you have millions of identical females,

0:11:37.824,0:11:39.444
we dry them up,

0:11:40.694,0:11:42.375
and then, our question was,

0:11:42.375,0:11:44.384
"Do these females -

0:11:44.384,0:11:47.504
What happens to the genetic[br]material of these females

0:11:47.504,0:11:48.776
when we dry them up?"

0:11:48.776,0:11:50.435
We know from bacteria

0:11:50.435,0:11:54.274
that drying up breaks[br]their genetic material into pieces.

0:11:54.464,0:11:57.140
Is this also happening in these animals?

0:11:57.570,0:12:00.715
And then, what if they don't[br]repair perfectly these pieces,

0:12:00.715,0:12:03.294
is this a way to create variability? -

0:12:03.294,0:12:04.287
meaning,

0:12:04.287,0:12:09.157
if you replace males by drying up,[br]you might also evolve.

0:12:09.447,0:12:11.464
And so, that's what we tested.

0:12:11.584,0:12:15.392
So Boris has designed[br]a very nice protocol in the lab

0:12:15.392,0:12:18.701
to dry them up[br]with a high survival rate.

0:12:18.801,0:12:22.101
And what happened to these females[br]when they are dried up?

0:12:22.101,0:12:25.703
You see, the longer they are dried up,[br]the more their DNA is broken.

0:12:25.703,0:12:28.853
The simpler the gel[br]and the DNA migrates through it,

0:12:28.853,0:12:30.672
the smaller the pieces.

0:12:31.122,0:12:36.853
And when we hydrate them,[br]what you see is that they start to repair.

0:12:36.853,0:12:42.624
So they can come out of drying,[br]they have their broken DNA -

0:12:42.624,0:12:45.365
but they can survive[br]with broken DNA apparently -

0:12:45.365,0:12:47.415
and then they start to repair.

0:12:48.195,0:12:49.314
And you know,

0:12:49.314,0:12:50.686
if you have a cancer cell,

0:12:50.686,0:12:55.304
it's known that sometimes[br]during a division some DNA breaks,

0:12:55.304,0:12:58.617
and it repairs this broken DNA[br]but not perfectly,

0:12:58.635,0:13:01.415
and you can have an aggressive[br]cancer that appears.

0:13:01.415,0:13:03.293
What they do in proton therapy is

0:13:03.293,0:13:07.703
use proton radiation to completely destroy[br]the DNA of cancer cells

0:13:07.703,0:13:12.624
so the cells get completely broken DNA,[br]and molecules too.

0:13:13.044,0:13:16.834
So we thought if we do[br]proton radiation to these animals,

0:13:16.834,0:13:18.874
what happens?

0:13:18.874,0:13:21.167
So we took, again, a female,

0:13:23.837,0:13:25.857
we dry it up,

0:13:26.247,0:13:28.287
we add proton radiation,

0:13:28.287,0:13:29.512
and what happens?

0:13:29.512,0:13:31.753
DNA gets completely broken.

0:13:31.753,0:13:35.464
And this 800 grays[br]of proton radiation are huge doses.

0:13:35.464,0:13:38.233
There are no living cells[br]that can survive this.

0:13:39.033,0:13:40.376
But what's amazing here is -

0:13:40.376,0:13:43.143
you really see the DNA[br]is completely broken -

0:13:43.143,0:13:48.985
when we re-hydrate these females,[br]99% of them survive.

0:13:49.135,0:13:54.029
So they come out of drying[br]with a completely broken DNA,

0:13:54.029,0:13:55.594
without a problem,

0:13:55.594,0:13:57.795
and then they start to repair.

0:13:57.985,0:13:59.805
And of course, the question is,

0:13:59.805,0:14:02.994
"Do they really repair perfectly?

0:14:02.994,0:14:07.268
Or do they put all the pieces[br]of DNA back together

0:14:07.268,0:14:08.856
into their 12 chromosomes? -

0:14:08.856,0:14:10.955
because we found they had 12 chromosomes -

0:14:10.955,0:14:14.245
or is that just creating[br]some variability?"

0:14:14.245,0:14:18.375
So we have here preliminary results[br]that I'm just showing you tonight,

0:14:18.575,0:14:20.585
where we did this experiments,

0:14:20.585,0:14:22.131
where we dry them up,

0:14:22.131,0:14:24.061
we irradiate them,

0:14:24.061,0:14:27.041
and then we look at its genomic structure.

0:14:27.041,0:14:28.623
Not going too much into detail,

0:14:28.623,0:14:30.644
but what you see here is, for example,

0:14:30.644,0:14:34.006
pieces of the ridge[br]of the genome from a female

0:14:34.006,0:14:36.962
before she was radiated or dried up.

0:14:36.962,0:14:39.445
Then we dry it up, we irradiate it,

0:14:39.445,0:14:42.036
and we look at whether[br]these pieces come back.

0:14:42.036,0:14:45.794
You see here - everything is destroyed,[br]and whether we get these pieces back -

0:14:45.794,0:14:49.785
showing it's stitching back[br]all these DNA pieces together

0:14:49.785,0:14:51.565
into these 12 chromosomes.

0:14:51.565,0:14:52.586
So they can do this:

0:14:52.586,0:14:56.405
They reconstruct their genome as before,

0:14:56.405,0:14:58.796
or at least, that's what[br]it seems to look like.

0:14:58.796,0:15:03.456
And even the descendants[br]have that same structure

0:15:03.456,0:15:05.621
as a parent’s alignment.

0:15:05.621,0:15:08.725
So is there no genetic[br]scrambling going on?

0:15:08.945,0:15:10.136
That's possible.

0:15:10.136,0:15:14.073
Maybe they don't, indeed,[br]make a completely new genome;

0:15:14.073,0:15:16.103
they keep their genome.

0:15:16.103,0:15:18.763
But what we then ask ourselves is:

0:15:18.763,0:15:22.933
"How can you survive[br]when you are irradiated,

0:15:22.933,0:15:27.973
because not only your DNA is broken,[br]but also your molecules must be broken?"

0:15:27.973,0:15:30.968
But they must keep[br]their molecules somehow intact

0:15:30.968,0:15:34.494
because you need these molecules[br]to repair your DNA.

0:15:34.504,0:15:35.693
So what do they have?

0:15:35.693,0:15:37.374
What's their secret?

0:15:37.374,0:15:40.125
What did we find[br]by sequencing the first genome,

0:15:40.125,0:15:43.953
really sequencing the entire[br]alphabet of this animal?

0:15:43.953,0:15:47.569
We found that they have[br]a huge amount of antioxidants.

0:15:47.569,0:15:50.235
Antioxidants are essential

0:15:50.325,0:15:53.426
to protect yourself[br]from these damaged cells.

0:15:53.426,0:15:55.105
We all have antioxidants.

0:15:55.105,0:15:57.356
That's because our cells[br]accumulate damages,

0:15:57.356,0:16:00.864
a kind of what we call oxidative stress,

0:16:00.864,0:16:03.744
and your proteins, your DNA -[br]everything gets damages.

0:16:03.744,0:16:05.405
That's why we get older.

0:16:05.405,0:16:09.245
And that's why you put all these creams on[br]that are full of antioxidants,

0:16:09.245,0:16:11.776
to try to prevent the aging of your cells,

0:16:11.776,0:16:13.198
but it will not.

0:16:13.198,0:16:17.793
But here, these animals[br]have a huge amount of these antioxidants.

0:16:17.793,0:16:19.672
So next time, think about it,

0:16:19.672,0:16:23.162
don't buy all these expensive creams[br]full of antioxidants,

0:16:23.162,0:16:24.682
just drink some rotifers.

0:16:24.682,0:16:27.432
You find them in the nature[br]and they might help.

0:16:27.452,0:16:28.552
(Laughter)

0:16:28.672,0:16:30.073
But of course,

0:16:30.283,0:16:31.968
these are all things we discovered,

0:16:31.968,0:16:32.975
but as a scientist,

0:16:32.975,0:16:36.511
when you discover things,[br]you have even more questions.

0:16:36.691,0:16:37.709
And so recently,

0:16:37.709,0:16:40.330
I obtained a grant[br]from the European Research Council

0:16:40.330,0:16:44.498
to really try to demystify[br]all these mysteries we found.

0:16:44.498,0:16:47.107
We found they have[br]this huge amount of antioxidants,

0:16:47.107,0:16:49.278
but are they really effective?

0:16:49.288,0:16:51.577
How do they repair this broken genome?

0:16:51.577,0:16:53.767
What are the molecules,[br]the mechanism they have

0:16:53.767,0:16:58.478
to repair such a broken genome[br]to survive drying, freezing?

0:16:58.608,0:17:00.747
Then one last thing we discovered is

0:17:00.747,0:17:05.480
by sequencing their genome,[br]we found, among their genetic material,

0:17:05.480,0:17:09.658
genetic material[br]from bacteria, plants, fungi -

0:17:09.758,0:17:13.848
so they seem to integrate DNA[br]from their environment.

0:17:14.518,0:17:16.496
And that's of course puzzling.

0:17:16.496,0:17:17.509
But we also thought,

0:17:17.509,0:17:19.899
If they can integrate this foreign DNA,

0:17:19.899,0:17:23.587
can they also integrate DNA[br]from other females out there,

0:17:23.587,0:17:26.114
other rotifers that also dry up?

0:17:26.114,0:17:27.845
And the first results we got on this

0:17:27.845,0:17:33.230
is that we found some signatures[br]of DNA exchange between these females,

0:17:33.230,0:17:37.269
and we think it's not conventional sex,[br]because we never found males,

0:17:37.269,0:17:40.167
so they are not using the strategy[br]that all animals do -

0:17:40.167,0:17:43.416
a sperm and an ovocyte[br]to exchange DNA.

0:17:43.596,0:17:46.737
So what is the strategy? We have no idea.

0:17:46.737,0:17:48.948
We call it sapphomixis -

0:17:48.948,0:17:52.698
it's a mixing of genetic[br]material between females.

0:17:52.978,0:17:57.828
And you immediately see here[br]why it's so beautiful to be a scientist -

0:17:57.828,0:18:02.126
you discover a lot,[br]but you have even more questions.

0:18:02.126,0:18:03.316
But what's for sure

0:18:03.316,0:18:07.742
is that we have a very interesting[br]model organism here to understand,

0:18:07.742,0:18:10.932
"How can they evolve without males?

0:18:11.632,0:18:13.508
How does sapphomixis happen?

0:18:13.508,0:18:16.378
And how can they survive[br]such extreme conditions

0:18:16.378,0:18:20.080
as drying up, freezing,[br]and high doses of radiation?"

0:18:20.080,0:18:22.588
There's so much still to discover there.

0:18:22.588,0:18:26.387
And one of our next challenges[br]is to send them to space.

0:18:26.477,0:18:29.569
We got a grant from[br]the European Space Agency

0:18:29.569,0:18:34.759
to send, in 2019, rotifers to space, RISE.

0:18:34.799,0:18:37.582
Why? Because space is also[br]an extreme environment.

0:18:37.582,0:18:39.320
We have no idea at the moment

0:18:39.320,0:18:42.138
what this extreme environment has

0:18:42.138,0:18:45.427
as pressure on astronauts[br]or any living animal.

0:18:45.427,0:18:48.387
This is a very interesting[br]model organism to send out there

0:18:48.387,0:18:52.216
and to understand much better[br]what space is like.

0:18:52.296,0:18:53.608
And of course,

0:18:53.608,0:18:56.830
I cannot end this presentation[br]without thanking all the funding

0:18:56.830,0:19:00.938
but especially all the people[br]in my lab - many are here.

0:19:01.628,0:19:04.408
This work is never done by one person.

0:19:04.618,0:19:07.529
A lab is really a group[br]of persons working,

0:19:07.529,0:19:08.811
tackling these questions.

0:19:08.811,0:19:09.893
A lot of frustrations.

0:19:09.893,0:19:12.233
They know it better than me right now.

0:19:12.663,0:19:16.258
And then, I would like to thank[br]the rotifer and Boris

0:19:16.258,0:19:17.550
with the whole experiment

0:19:17.550,0:19:20.070
because thanks to these rotifers,

0:19:20.070,0:19:25.724
I'm really happy to go every day,[br]or almost every day, to my work.

0:19:25.724,0:19:29.199
At least, when I know I can do science[br]and I can work with rotifers,

0:19:29.199,0:19:30.958
I'm a happy person.

0:19:31.228,0:19:32.549
Thank you.

0:19:32.549,0:19:34.849
(Applause)