Medicine: Charming bowels (Science Slam Berlin)

Giulia Enders, Science Slam Berlin, 5. March 2012

Welcome to our next participant.

Her name is Giulia Enders.

She studies at the Goethe University
in Frankfurt.

Applause to Giulia Enders.

The next 10 minutes are yours!

(Applause)

Okay, I study medicine --

(Cheers)

-- yes, exactly.

And studying medicine
really comes in handy

when i'm having coffee
and tea with my aunties.

Because usually they ask you
what you study.

And whereas my sister needs
half an hour to explain

what Communication Design is,

I can just say:

medicine.

(Laughter)

And my aunties just look at me
all happy and satisfied.

(Laughter) (Applause)

It is nice, but it lasts only 30 seconds,

and then the usual question:

What field of medicine
are you going to specialize in?

And then I must confess:

I have been crazy about the digestive tract
since my first semester.

It began with the anus,
and now I'm hooked to it!

(Laughter) (Applause)

Suddenly all the enthusiasm trickles away,

usually there ensues an awkward silence.

And the next question comes
from the far corner of the room:

And what is Communication Design good for?

(Laughter)

It is a pity, because the bowels
are very charming.

(Laughter)

I'm not sure what my aunties think.

But I suspect they think
it's about tons of poop

(Laughter)

in all shapes and sizes

or about other people's excrements

(Laughter)

or about obscure cleansing methods

that make us walk like this
out of doctor's room

or internet videos that are so graphic

that it's quite enough to watch
other people's reaction to them.

Even science can find reasons

to hate the bowel.

But these are also the very reasons
why the bowel is so fascinating:

It's 100 times larger
then the area of the skin.

Just think of hundred Giulias
standing here on this stage.

Such a thin tube,

with so much immune system inside,

so many hormones produced,

100 trillion gut bacteria,

that's the number of humans
times the number of humans

times two.

The gut has such a completely
independent nervous system

that if I cut out a piece and tap on it

it would just mumble a friendly reply.

(Laughter)

It's very complex
and science is afraid of it,

which is understandable,

but my grandmother says
that if you really like something,

even if it is overwhelming
in the beginning,

you should approach it step by step,

and then even if you step in a puddle,

only one foot gets wet.

(Laughter) (Applause)

Let's begin. Here's the esophagus.

It makes powerful movements
and pushes the food downward.

It falls into the stomach,

which cradles and rocks it a bit,

and feeds it into the small intestine,

where it's sort of magically kneaded,

diminishing in bulk during the process,

then it passes through the colon

and comes out from the anus,
it all sounds so simple.

But if we focus on a single process --

-- I go for the anus --

then we realize it's a bit more complex
than expected.

I actually didn't pick
this subject on my own

rather my roommate asked me:

Giulia, you study medicine:

How does pooping work?

(Laughter)

I have noticed that the anus
is actually very communicative.

It's an intermediate between
two worlds of consciousness.

Here's an internal sphincter

and here's an external anal sphincter.

We know the external one very well.

Let's say: A - O - A - O

Audience: A - O - A - O

I meant with your anus.

(Laughter)

Probably many are doing it right now,
we just don't see it.

So, you see we can do it.

If I say, now do the same --

(Laughter)

If I say, now do the same
with your internal sphincter --

-- it's more difficult.

(Laughter)

Perhaps somebody managed...

But we can see there's a difference.

It's not under our command.

Let's take a look at the process:

when digested food arrives
at the internal sphincter,

it opens up and lets a little morsel
pass through for testing.

(Laughter)

And there are sensor cells
in between the two sphincters.

These cells analyze
whether it is solid or gaseous

and notify the brain.

(Laughter)

And then the brain realizes:

ah, I must poop.

(Laughter)

And the brain does what it's good at:

It informs us of our surroundings.

It might say, for example:

well, I have looked,

(Laughter)

we are at the Science Slam right now,

perhaps some gas is all right,

if you let it pass very silently,

but something solid
would not be so good.

(Laughter)

So they unite their efforts
and push it back in

(Laughter)

it goes back in the queue,

but it has to come out, eventually.

But when we are at home,
with nothing better to do,

then -- free to go!

(Laughter) (Applause)

The anus is just the tip of the iceberg.

Auntie 1: What did she say?

Auntie 2: I think she said that the anus
is just the tip of the iceberg.

The anus is really
just the tip of the iceberg.

There are 2 cm that we perceive
and that we can control

and the whole rest --

-- if we want to know what happens there

we need to look at the border area.

So we chose something which is
both unconscious and conscious.

There are 7 basic emotions
that show on the face,

they are same for all the people worldwide,
in all cultures,

here are 3 of them,

fear,

joy,

sadness.

These basic emotions show in our faces
when we feel them

and in the first split second
we cannot suppress them.

That reminds us a bit
of our internal sphincter,

which we cannot control
consciously either,

and that's not a far fetched comparison.

For when we were little embryological
heaps of cells in the womb

there wasn't much of a face --

- there was just the front opening
of the intestinal tube.

And finally it was decided:
O.K., let's create a face around it,

seems like people like it,

so it was a part of this
unconscious tube of muscle

which is why we don't have perfect control
over our facial expression.

We can control our arm any time,
but not our mimics.

That brings up the question
what the bowel does with all these emotions,

if it feels fear,

if it can laugh

or be sad.

And there we are touching
on the deeper layers of the iceberg

on the subconsciousness,

and people start arguing,

because many people believe that the bowels
have no influence on our emotions,

that they're just a bunch of cells,

and the brain, the DNA and the genes
are the cause of our feelings.

So, there are two basic viewpoints:

One being that the brain
decides on an emotion

and tells all other organs what to do,

and the other being that the gut
is also involved in our emotions,

thoughts, and perhaps even our behavior.

So let's just take something

which has no connection
with our genes and our DNA:

this huge gut flora.

So we have this whole population of bacteria
inside of us,

which can weigh up to 2 kg,
which would be quite normal,

and it's a collection of things,
decisions, what we have eaten

and the environment that surrounds us,

our very own Pokemon collection
of intestinal bacteria.

I'd like to introduce you to all of them,

but 60% of them we don't even know at all

since we cannot cultivate them,

they just like it so much in our gut,

that we can't simply
observe them in a Petri dish.

But since they do have an influence,

scientists began to research them
intensively in the last years.

Some basic things
were already known before:

they train our immune system,

our blood type is determined
by this training and influence,

if we have really bad ones
then we get bad diarrhea.

But what about the discreet ones

quietly doing their job all day long?

So many different types operating
in a huge variety of ways.

What is their influence?

And so we have another Babel,

which is my passion,

and about which we start
asking ourselves many questions:

If I have certain gut bacteria,

will I get fatter than others even though
I eat the same food as them?

Can I become depressed
because of some kinds of gut bacteria?

Do some gut bugs protect me from cancer

while others promote it?

And most of these questions
are getting answered positively.

And this field is so interesting,

it's constantly on my mind.

I have been in neuroscience in Frankfurt
for the last half a year,

and we are doing experiments
with endogenous proteins

trying to find out whether they protect
or harm nerve cells

but I keep thinking, I want to do this
with proteins from gut bacteria!

They did a study with a truly
amazing outcome:

The bowels [of mice] were colonized
with certain bacteria

and then under conditions of stress,

when the gut gets leaky,

they developed memory lapses
of 10 to 30 days.

With simultaneous doses of probiotics --
[no memory loss].

And so I wanted to know:
O.K., how's that?

And other questions
which I keep carrying around.

There is almost no research being done
on this subject in Germany,

and I really want to promote this.

That's why I hope you got something out of this,

for example that the anus is communicative,

if you see a beautiful lady smiling
it's all right to think of her digestive tract,

(Laughter)

the gut is very close to the people,
with a lot of private property,

you all have your own gut population,
take good care of it,

I hope you are more fond of it now,

some politicians might even
start fearing its competition,

I hope the ladies are happier now,

Thank you all for listening
and thanks to my sister,

because she made this possible
with communication design!

(Applause)

Giulia Enders!

(Applause)

-- easy, isn't it?

So let's give today's winner

some more of our time and attention:

a short scientific encore!

So you have the last word!

How nice, how unusual...

I have something to share
which I always forget,

and actually it's quite cool,

I have told you about those sensor cells,

that distinguish between
gaseous and solid,

but there is a state of matter
which is missing -- liquid,

it is always a bit of an awkward topic
for the audience,

but perhaps some of
you are familiar with this:

you have diarrhea, you feel you have to fart,
do you end up with your pants full?

Your gut can't distinguish liquid from gas,
so it just takes its chances!

That was it!

(Laughter) (Applause)

I have forgotten it in Freiburg already,
I always forget it...