Roni Essex
Freediver, Spearo, Creator
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Roni Essex
Freediver, Spearo, Creator
Biologists have described over 400 different species of sharks and for many people, the word "shark" evokes images of great white sharks, scenes from the movie "Jaws", "Shark Attack" and "Fear". Compared to the probability of death by a shark, you're 7000 times more likely to die or to be injured in the bath of the shower. In a recent TEDx talk, Dr. Glenn Parsons (Professor of Biology and Director of the University of Mississippi Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) shared some cool characteristics that sharks possess. Curious?
Sharks are able to detect electric fields. This is a sensory modality that we as humans really have no appreciation for whatsoever. Sharks can detect the electric field that emanates from the beating heart of their prey. Obviously, they detect prey and they use that sensory system to locate prey. So that's mind-blowing to me. Even more so is the sensitivity of this system. Sharks can detect electric fields as low as five nano volts per centimeter. That's a five with eight zeros in front of it! To give you a better appreciation for what that represents, if we take a regular flashlight battery, one and a half volts, and we connect the poles, and we allow current to flow, that will produce an electric field. You can reduce the strength of this electric field by separating the poles and increasing the distance over which that current is flowing. To attain a five nano volt per centimeter electric field strength, you would have to stretch the poles of this battery from Oxford to Biloxi Mississippi - over 300 miles. That's the sensitivity that these animals have.
Biomimicry refers to the idea that we as biologists go out into nature and we observe characteristics, we come back to the laboratory and we copy it in the lab, to try to solve some human problem or treat some human condition. The Speedo corporation produced a swimsuit called LZR, "shark skin", some of you may be aware of this. They produced it after observing that sharks have really rough textured skin. I've been slapped by sharks many times, one slap and you have a big raspberry on your leg. That rough texture makes sharks better swimmers, it improves the hydrodynamics of the swimming. Speedo produced these suits, they sold them for big money I'm told, and the swimmers that had those suits in the 2008 Olympics brought home significantly more medals than those that did not. My understanding is that those suits have actually been banned from competition now. So we can observe characteristics in nature. sharks included bringing them into the lab and solving problems that humans are saddled with.
It has recently been discovered that sharks have a much smaller antibody than the normal-sized antibody, and these things are cleverly called small antibodies. So what is an antibody? Antibodies are the molecular defenders of your body. If you have a disease-causing organism or cell in your body, antibodies come in and bind to it and they improve the body's ability to get rid of these disease-causing agents. The beauty of these small antibodies is that we can attach a drug to these things, and this is already being done by the way, and that small antibody, because it's small, actually can enter the cell of the disease-causing organism and it can infiltrate further into the tissues to more specifically target diseased areas. As we speak there are some forty different drug therapies that are being developed and using small antibodies.