What's up, sunshine? I'm Ky Wire. This
is CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news,
where I simply tell you the what,
letting you decide what to think. We've
got a special guest on the show for you
this your word Wednesday, March 11th.
Listen up to see if the vocabulary word
you submitted helped us write today's
show. We begin in Australia with a story
that shows just how far-reaching the
impact of the conflict in Iran has
become. The Australian government says
members of the Iranian women's national
soccer team have been granted
humanitarian visas following a recent
tournament there. Humanitarian visas
provide temporary or sometimes even
permanent legal protection for people
forced to flee their home country due to
conflict or fears of persecution. The
team known as the Lionesses were in
Australia to compete in the Women's
Asian Cup. They made the collective
decision to not sing the Iranian
national anthem ahead of their opening
match. Some feared Iranian leadership
might consider that an act of treason,
which is the crime of betraying one's
country. Sources tell CNN Sports the
women were forced to sing the anthem
before their second match. This raised
fears that they could face punishment
upon their return home. A crowd of
supporters could be seen flanking the
team's bus, shouting, "Save our girls!"
as it pulled away following their final
game of the tournament. The issue got
the attention of US President Donald
Trump, who discussed it on a phone call
with Australian Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese. The prime minister has
confirmed that five of the women have
been granted visas and have been moved
to a safe location. The same offer was
made to all remaining members of the
team. This is a very delicate situation
and it is up to them. But we say to
them, if you want our help, help is
here. As of this taping, sources tell
CNN a total of seven members of the team
stayed in Australia while the rest have
returned to Iran.
Pop quiz hot shot. What is the main
purpose of hibernation? Escape
predators, prepare for migration,
conserve energy, or catch up on sleep?
If you said conserve energy, you are
wide awake. Animals like bears, bats,
hedgehogs, ground squirrels, some
reptiles, and queen bumblebees utilize
hibernation to survive freezing or
scarce environments. When most people
think of hibernation, they probably
picture animals curling up for a long
winter's nap. But beneath the surface,
we are learning more about all that
their bodies are actually doing.
Hibernating animals can dramatically
slow their metabolism, survive months
without much food, and wake up without
damage to their hearts, brains, or
cells. The ultimate biological power
down and restart. And now, scientists
are cracking the genetic code behind
that process to see if it could be a
paradigm to one day help humans travel
long distances in space. Joining us now,
the good doctor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So
good to see you.
>> Honor to be I heard you visited one of
these labs where they're kind of digging
into this stuff. What what are these
scientists learning?
>> Well, first of all, hibernation or
torper as it's called, good word, to r
that is something that uh is really
unique. It's not deep sleep. It's not
being in a coma. It's not being under
anesthesia. It's basically like you
said, the body shuts down. The brain
disconnects from the spinal cord. Your
heart rate may go to just a beat or two
per minute. There's really nothing else
like it. One of the things they're
learning though, and this is
fascinating, is that we humans also
carry the genes for torper or
hibernation. We could possibly do this.
And the way to think about it, if you
imagine a house, house has light
switches. It has lights. Think of those
light switches as genes. Those genes can
flip on and off. We have those light
switches in the human body. We just
haven't figured out how to turn them on
or off yet. But it can make a huge
difference for all sorts of things. One
of the animals that is sort of a
champion hibernator though, something I
want to introduce you to.
>> Is there a champion hibernator when it
comes to animals?
>> Yeah. I mean, 13 ground squirrels are
really good. We call them the Hussein
bolts of hibernators cuz they're
excellent at it.
>> It's a tiny creature that weighs no more
than 9 o at most. Native to central
North America, found as far north as
Alberta, Canada, and as far south as the
Texas coastline, these squirrels undergo
remarkable changes during hibernation.
>> They go through what's almost like a
mini heart attack or stroke every couple
of weeks, so 25 times over hibernation
period. The neurons in their brain
physically retract during hibernation.
So they have a flat EEG. the retinal the
cone photo receptors in their eye which
see vision physically melt and reform
every couple of weeks. So this is an
animal that's evolved over hundreds of
millions of years to repair damage that
happens during this really dramatic
hibernation course using the same genes
that you and I have but in slightly
different ways.
>> Today I'm seeing them up close in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the university.
Here
>> I'm here in a hibernaculum
which is a place where hibernating
animals hang out.
The squirrels here are part of a bred
colony being studied by researchers from
a biotech company called Fauna Bio. This
hibernaculum, as it is called, is set to
just 4 1/2° C, not that far off from the
body temperatures of the hibernating
squirrels themselves.
>> So, they'll spend about 1 to 3 weeks in
continuous torper. They'll periodically
rear back to uh normal body temperature.
That'll last about 12 hours.
And then they'll go back down into
torper. And then this lasts for months.
They lose most of their fat, but they
still preserve all of their lean mass,
which is quite amazing. They don't lose
their muscle. So when they come out,
they're ready to run around and mate.
>> That is fascinating stuff, Doc.
>> So you were saying we have a lot to
learn from these little in your pocket.
>> Yeah, it's my daughters. I thought I
knew we were going to be talking about
squirrels and their little team mascot
for the day. One thing that I found
fascinating was how they're they lose
fat but not muscle. How are their bodies
able to do that? Maintain their muscle
while hibernating.
>> I thought I thought you might find that
pretty interesting. I mean, can you
imagine like if you as a human basically
were inactive for even a few days,
>> you would lose muscle mass, right? You
probably think about this as an athlete
all the time. They go into the state of
torper, hibernation, sometimes for
months on end. I think what it has to do
with is this idea that somehow that
waste that our body is constantly
creating is somehow recycled into amino
acids and protein and things that help
build muscle. So this is this is like
one of the the biggest questions I think
in all of medicine. And one of the
reasons the big question is because of
space. Think about this. You're going to
send people on monthsl long missions. Uh
if they're in a state of hibernation or
torper, they don't get bored. They don't
have to eat. They don't have to drink.
They're not making waste and they don't
sort of just sort of wither away. They
maintain their muscle mass. This is what
the lab is working on.
>> What are we looking at here?
>> Yeah. So, this is what we call the
Respires unit. Um it's a unit that we
developed uh as part of funding that we
got from NYAK, NASA innovative advanced
concepts. And the reason we're
developing this unit is because we don't
currently have the capability one to
study hibernation in space and two to to
study physiology in space. So we have
designed it to have two uh uh
synchronously hibernating animals in
space transferred to the ISS and we have
it set up so that we can provide air to
the animal. We can provide infrared
camera viewing. Um and this is also
designed as something called a
plismograph which allows us to measure
metabolism and ventilation. Um and we
also anticipate the animals so we can
grab as much physiology as we can
possibly grab to inform us on what their
hibernation phenotype looks like. How
close are scientists to being able to
help humans hibernate?
>> They're getting much closer. In fact,
there's a couple of labs around the
country now that are trying this. Not
not true hibernation, but sort of a
twilight sort of hibernation, if you
will. But in terms of actually using
this for space, you just saw there,
they're going to start sending these 13
line squirrels, these champion
hibernators to space. Big question. Next
question they want to answer, do they
hibernate in space in a microgravity
environment just like they do here on
Earth? The answer is they think that's
the answer. They think it's yes, but
they want to make sure.
>> This is fascinating stuff. I get smarter
every time you join the show. Don't
sleep on Dr. Gupta. Follow his podcast
wherever you get your podcast. Doc,
thanks so much. Thanks for making us
smarter today.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
Two brothers helping others in need
while making the planet a cleaner place.
Ethan and Desmond Hua started a
nonprofit in their parents' garage
called Hope, which stands for Help Our
Planet Earth. The Benevolent Brothers
collect and sort lightly used school
uniforms and deliver them to needy
families in their community at no cost.
The program not only helps those who
can't afford new uniforms, it also keeps
clothing from ending up in a landfill.
So far, it's been a rousing success.
Nine schools across their district have
signed on so far. Ethan says the whole
idea started when he noticed a classmate
wearing shorts on a frigid day.
Everyone's cold, freezing cold outside.
Why was he wearing shorts out of all
things? And what he told me was that he
couldn't afford another pair of pants.
To date, their brothers have kept more
than 13,000 pieces of clothing from
becoming textile waste. Now, that is
what we call revolutionary recycling.
Congrats to our your Word Wednesday
winners, Mrs. Martinez and friends at
the St. Benedict School in Montabelloo,
California, submitted paradigm, a noun
meaning a fundamental model, pattern, or
set of ideas that shapes how we view the
world. Thank you for helping us boost
our vocab today. And we have a shout out
going to Mrs. Carrie and all of our
friends at the Swift River School in New
Salem, Massachusetts. This fuzz is all
the buzz around the newsroom today.
Azour and Abby, they handfelted this
portrait. I must say, uh, it is
phenomenal. Rise up everyone. Go out, be
kind to someone today. You never know
how or when, but you may be the spark of
joy someone needs. I'm Koi Wire and we
are CNN 10.