- Bees pollinate our crops
so anything bad that happens to bees
could affect our food supplies.
Arizona researchers are
trying to build a vaccine
against a disease that devastates hives.
(child wailing)
Stressed out, new mother?
The science of psychology
is learning and teaching new strategies
to stop you from feeling overwhelmed.
And strange new distant planets...
A lab here on earth is working out a way
to know what those new worlds are made of.
(soft music)
Next on Catalyst:
this YouTube edition of
Catalyst is brought to you
by Arizona PBS and
Arizona State University.
Life has problems.
Science turns them into questions
that can lead to solutions
and even innovations.
This is Catalyst.
Shaping the future
through science research
at Arizona State University.
Many scientists enjoy science fiction
but have a hard time believing in UFOs
and aliens visiting earth.
Now that doesn't mean
their minds are closed
and they are not willing to look.
Right now, there's a new space probe
getting in position between
the earth and the moon.
A probe which will
vastly expand the search
for what are called exoplanets;
planets that are circling stars
far away from our solar system.
Planets so far away, in
fact, we'll never be able
to visit them. Yet the pictures
and data coming to us from probes
and cameras in space can be used
to give us a good idea of what
these exoplanets are made of
and even whether they might
be able to support life.
(soft music)
- My name is Cayman Unterborn
and I'm an exploration
postdoc fellow at ASU
and I study planets around other stars
and their potential geology.
- [Vanessa] Dr. Unterborn
and his team of researchers
have been looking at a
small group of planets
in a distant solar
system called TRAPPIST-1.
- [Unterborn] TRAPPIST-1 system
is seven earth-sized planets
that were found around M dwarf star,
which is a star much smaller than our sun,
and they are all close to Earth's size
so that makes them really
interesting candidates
for potentially habitable planets.
- [Vanessa] Scientists
call them exoplanets.
- [Unterborn] A lot of the
things we are doing at ASU
is trying to understand how geology
and chemistries are
different than the earth.
We have a lot of information
about our solar system
but once we start looking to
places that are very different,
we don't know a lot.
So at ASU, we are doing
a lot of experiments
and models and trying to think outside
of our own solar system
to understand what the potential diversity
of planets could be in the universe.
- [Vanessa] The team works here,
inside this lab at
Arizona State University
School of Earth and Space Exploration,
to study the possible
chemical compositions
of those far away planets.
- [Unterborn] For an exoplanet,
the two main measurements I care about
are its mass and its radius
and from those measurements
- which the astronomers,
when they discover a planet,
generally try to get both -
I take that and I use
results from experiments
on materials for the earth.
We can, in a lab, put
a composition together
that's indicative of say the
earth - this much magnesium,
this much silicon, this much oxygen -
and we can squeeze it
down to high pressures
and temperatures that are
indicative of the conditions
inside of these planets,
whether it's light years
away or right below our feet,
and we can begin to
understand the processes
that would be going on there
and simulate it in the lab here.
- [Vanessa] It's not easy.
They must put a tiny speck of a mineral
in between two diamonds;
diamonds they call anvils.
They squeeze the diamonds together
and that mimics the temperature
and pressure that would be inside the core
of one of those distant planets.
- My group studies the minerals
and rocks under very high pressure
to understand planetary interiors.
We use a very special device
called a diamond anvil cell,
where we use natural diamonds,
gemstones, to squeeze rocks and minerals
to very high pressure.
We put this assembly -
two diamonds and a sample -
inside a metal tubing shape,
cylinders and pistons
and then we crank screws to bring pistons
and cylinders together,
pushing the two diamonds
against each other.
That way we can squeeze very small samples
into very high pressure.
The pressure is something relevant
to a very deep part of the planet.
Diamond has the highest strength
that we know among the
materials that we know.
You can find diamonds naturally,
so it's relatively easy
to get those diamonds.
Then we cut it into a shape
that you normally see in a jewelry store,
with a couple of
modifications in the shape.
We actually shape them into
sort of like an anvil shape.
So we have a little
small space which is flat
and we pair them
so that they actually can
face toward each other
and then we put little samples -
in our case, mostly minerals and rocks -
in between those anvil faces.
- We usually use powdered sample
and what we do is we place
the powder on a slide
and then we have to pick
up individual grains.
These are in the order
of 5-10 microns across.
So we are going to try to
pick up this one right here
and there we go.
We've grabbed the grain.
It's on the needle tip right here
and now, we want to transfer
to the diamond anvil cell,
so we are going to put it
on the top of the diamond
and the flat area.
(computer beeping)
And onscreen here
you can see the circle,
which is the color of the diamond
where we placed the sample.
(computer beeping)
Alright, now we see the color again.
This is the green
we placed.
- When you are going to
increase the pressure,
it's going to be homogeneously distributed
across the whole surface of each diamond.
Then, turning the screws a little bit,
you can see that I am bringing
the diamonds closer together,
carefully, so that the
diamonds are not going to
come into contact. I'm going
the same amount of dots.
Everything should nicely align together
and then you are ready for
compression and heating.
- [Vanessa] Sometimes to learn even more,
they may then take that
tiny mineral sample
and hit it with a laser to make it hot.
All of the data that comes from this work
can give researchers a
good idea of what's on
and inside those exoplanets.
A big, important question
for them to answer:
could those exoplanets have water?
Water that might support life.
- We found that the TRAPPIST-1
planets probably have
a lot of water, especially
compared to the earth -
hundreds more oceans
worth of water on top -
and we use that information
to say something about
how those planets traveled
to where they are now
and how long they took to form
and other interesting
aspects of their history
that may have led them to be habitable
or not habitable planets.
- [Announcer] Three, two, one, zero.
(spaceship launching)
Lift off. The SpaceX
Falcon 9, carrying tests.
A planet hunting spacecraft
that will search for new worlds
beyond our solar system.
- [Vanessa] NASA recently
launched a new satellite:
the TESS Mission.
This new satellite will look
for even more new planets
and solar systems to study.
- Working with Cayman,
the primary interest there
is that, for the planets
outside of the solar system,
astronomers can measure the
density, size and mass of a
planet. So to model what
those planets are made of,
they want to know what
minerals can be stable
in those planets.
- [Vanessa] Sometimes the
way those materials react
is completely unlike what
would happen on earth.
Understanding what kinds
of materials are stable
on these newly discovered planets
is the essence of Cayman
and Dan's research.
With their findings, we may better know
if these planets are similar to Earth
and perhaps even
whether they might be
able to sustain life;
maybe even human life.
- [Unterborn] It's an open question
as to whether they could be habitable.
They certainly have enough water to do it
but whether that can hurt them,
or help them, is up for debate.
(soft music ends)
- There's a lot of work
that goes into feeding
the more than seven billion
people that live here on earth.
Even before food goes from farm to table,
it takes millions of tiny workers
to turn a field of green into food.
Bees have the big job of landing on plants
and then transferring pollen
from one flower to another.
It may not seem like much,
but this process helps form
the fruits and vegetables
we eat every day.
Keeping bees healthy is
crucial to keeping us fed
and that's why the plight of the honeybee
has attracted researchers
from Arizona State University.
- We are working with the
concept of vaccinating honeybees
and that, in itself, is
a pretty amazing endeavor
because just going a few years back,
you wouldn't think that
it would be possible
to vaccinate bees at all.
- [Vanessa] But bee
vaccination may be possible
thanks to the experimental
work done by researchers
from around the world.
- This is a kind of a collaboration
with The University of Helsinki,
The Norwegian University
of Life Sciences and ASU.
- One third of our food comes
thanks to pollinators, right.
So basically every third bite we take
is thanks to pollination
but right now what has been happening
is increasing declining
pollinator numbers.
What we are working on is a first ever
edible vaccination for honeybees.
- In the past 60 years,
managed honeybee colonies
in the United States
have steadily declined
from six million to
two and a half million.
Many colonies have been
decimated by a phenomenon called
Colony Collapse Disorder,
as well as other diseases.
- The disease that we are focusing on
for this specific experiment
is American foulbrood
and as the name sounds,
it's attacking the brood
and it's turning into something foul.
It will basically turn nice
looking honeybee larvae
into something that looks like snot.
Kind of the go-to solution at this point
is to burn the colony.
So you burn the bees.
You burn the equipment.
Not only is that very sad for the bees
and the beekeeper
but it also results in a large
economic loss for beekeepers
who need to basically set
fire to their livelihood.
- One of the main reason
I am a beekeeper is
because I love honey.
I was eating honey before
I became a beekeeper.
So I don't want to kill one bee
but sometimes, if it is important,
being able to save the
rest of the other bees -
I don't feel good when I burn
and when I kill the bees -
but sometimes we must do
it. We have to do this
and I say, I'm going to go to hell...
(chuckling)
and other words.
- Honey bees don't have what's
called acquired immunity.
Acquired immunity is
when, exposed to disease
or a pretend disease like a vaccine,
you build an immunological
memory in your body
but honey bees, not having
this adaptive immune system,
you wouldn't think it would
be possible to vaccinate them
because they don't have immune memory.
What we found was that
honeybees have the ability
to have immunity pass from mom to baby.
This is a vaccine that's
going to be given to queens
so they can transfer the
vaccine material to their eggs,
and then subsequently larvae,
and we are going to be
protecting the larvae
against the disease.
Similar to when you vaccinate
children against polio,
it's a liquid that you
can put in just sugar.
We start with colonies
that have newly laid eggs
that have hatched into
very teeny, tiny larvae
and we are going to steal
them away from the colony.
We are going to put them in the queen cup
which is a much larger nursery cell.
We put them into colonies
that don't have a queen
and that are really highly
motivated to grow a queen.
We are placing these queens
in individual small colonies
with workers that can
take care of the queens
and prepare them for their mating flight.
After a successful flight,
she will return to the colony
and she will start laying eggs
and we will monitor the
health of the larvae
as they grow in the lab,
both from vaccinated mothers
and from unvaccinated mothers.
- What we see is that the larvae coming
from vaccinated mothers
have slightly less mortality
than the larvae coming
from control mothers.
We don't have conclusive results yet,
so I can't tell you "Wow, what
happened now after one month"
but at this moment, it
definitely looks promising.
It seems to be that at least
in some concentrations,
on some infection doses, we have
evidence of the protective
feature of a vaccine.
I think since honeybee mortality
and pollinator mortality is a big problem,
and is a rising problem -
we are losing so many
honeybees each year -
even if we could help this
decrease a little bit,
even a 10%, it would be good.
We are one step closer to
creating a real vaccine
for honeybees to be used by beekeepers
to try to prevent diseases.
We have already lined
up several experiments
for next year to be done in Norway
but also possibly here in Arizona.
So we'll keep working
and we've done it now in a
bacterial disease system.
We can develop vaccines
against the fungal infections
in honeybees and see what
we could also possibly do
about viral infections.
I actually feel that I did something good
and my education has been worth something
and yeah, I mean, I helped to
save the world a little bit.
(soft music ends)
- More career doors need
to open to include women
but as we wait for that day,
one job will always fall
to women: motherhood.
Adding a new baby to a
full time job can create
one of the most demanding
times in a woman's life.
It's only in the past decade or so
that science of psychology
has started to ask:
what needs to happen to
keep a new mom supported
and successful?
(child wailing)
(indistinctive chatting)
- Before I was a mom, you
might see that mom at Target
and her kid is having a meltdown
and you are kind of like,
"Okay," (chuckling)
"You're a hot mess, like,
get your child together."
(drawer closing)
- [Vanessa] Whitney
Ford admits starting out
of her early career days
designing and marketing clothing,
she was pretty ignorant about
the demands of motherhood.
(toy car rolling down)
But that was before she
began balancing work
with the needs of one child
and another one on the way.
- Now as a mom, I see another mother
and I really, I feel for them, you know.
- [Vanessa] The US
Bureau of Labor estimates
more than 70% of mothers
in the US with young children work
and more than three
quarter work full-time.
What's more, they work on average
another 30 hours each
week on household chores.
- We both had similar burdens and careers
and, you know, were bringing in
similar financial
contribution to the household.
I was still the primary
caretaker of the children
and the primary caretaker
of the household.
- [Vanessa] Not long ago,
Budinger sought out Dr. Suniya
Luthar, a renowned doctor
in Clinical and Developmental
Behavioral Psychology.
- My research, I guess,
for the last 10 years or so
has been focused rather
intensively on motherhood
and what that feels like.
So we realized in developmental psych,
we ask mothers about what
they do, what they don't do,
what they should do,
what they shouldn't do,
but really no one thought to say,
"Well, what does it
feel like to be a mom?"
and that's a rather strange gap,
given that this is such
a life-transforming role.
I mean, everything
changes when you are a mom
and we really knew nothing about,
or very little about,
what motherhood felt like.
- [Vanessa] For Budinger,
it was an awakening.
- You have the priority of children,
and career, and household,
and I didn't realize it then,
but I was really in pain.
I was isolated
and in need of connection,
you know, support.
(child laughing)
- [Vanessa] It is that
connection where Dr. Luthar says
women find resilience.
- Resilience is doing well
in the face of adversity
and with 80, 90 years worth
of research on this topic,
there's one take-home message
that is the most powerful
and that is that resilience
rests fundamentally
on relationships.
You see, so psychotherapy is great.
You and I go to therapy
after trying times.
There's no question that it
helps good therapists help you
but there is nothing that helps
quite like love in your real life.
- [Vanessa] Budinger backed Dr. Luthar,
helping her launch The
Authentic Connections Program
using relational
psychotherapy, support groups,
to help women straddling high stress work
with high demand home life.
- The first thing I wanted
to check in on was...
- [Vanessa] The pilot
workshop started in 2016
at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale,
providing women under high level stress
a safe space to reflect
and enhance supportive relationships.
- So how did that go for everyone?
- It went pretty well.
I reached out to my mom,
who is one of my go-tos.
- We spend so much time studying all the
other things we have to do in our life -
studying how to be a physician,
how to do this, how to be a mom -
but we probably haven't
put focused attention into
how to balance those.
So that was part of the
activities was to create your base
of people, like your connections of people
and so I do, like I purposely
reached out and straight out
told my group of friends who
I wanted to be part of it.
- So as part of the study,
we met weekly with other women
who are physician mothers
and they were all women that I knew of
but I didn't really personally know
and they taught us the importance of
how to build relationships
and spend time to take care of yourself;
caring for the caregiver as a physician
or caring for patients as a mother,
we are caring for our children.
Maybe we are caring for other relatives
and learning how to take
advantage of care for ourselves
or letting others care for us as well.
- It is not just changing the
women's lives individually.
Eventually what happens is you begin
to change the environment.
For example, Mayo is so perfect.
It's so professional
and what women talk about is
that the culture has changed
for them a little bit.
There's a softness and
gentleness that they see
in a comradery, a sisterhood.
They use the word sisterhood.
So this is not just about benefiting you
or I as an individual.
It is also partly about
changing the cultural climate
within which we work as professionals.
What we've done with moms
now, with the physician moms,
we've also done groups with
women graduate students,
or women students in STEM disciplines,
so that it's not just
for moms necessarily,
it's for women in general.
- That well-being is both
in our work relationships
and our personal relationships
and in all of our other
roles that we have.
So I'm going to pass these around.
- It taught me that I'm no
longer in survival mode.
I'm in living my life.
Now I'm done with my training
and I need to prioritize my
friendships with my friends.
- [Vanessa] Dr. Luthar says
those authentic connections
are just as important for
moms who work from home
to stay near their children.
- For kids, the most
important thing to do,
if you want to help them, is
what? To help mom be healthy.
It makes sense, you see,
because your kids spend what,
a few hours at school with
teachers, peers, whatever.
Who's a single constant?
It is the primary caregiver
and that is generally the mothers.
- Just kind of having that
group of women that can,
you can just say like, "Oh man,
my kid had a meltdown in Target today",
or, you know, he refuses to eat vegetables
or he's on a, you know,
milk strike or whatever,
and it seems so trivial,
like, to the outer world,
but just having those other
women that really get it
and kind of can relate to
you is just super helpful.
- [Vanessa] The same principles hold true
when Dr. Luthar combined her
work with other researchers.
Simply put when it comes to
happy moms and their kids...
- The single most important
thing for us to try and do,
is help mom be well, psychologically,
and how to do that is to
help mom feel beloved.
- The wind is making it hard.
Woo! (laughing)
(soft music)
- I'm professor Vanessa Ruiz
and what you've been seeing is Catalyst,
our show about shaping the future.
How research creates real life results.
And because our lives
always have new problems
that science can help to solve,
we'll be back soon with more stories.
- [Narrator] Catalyst is supported by
Knowledge Enterprise Development
at Arizona State University.
Advancing entrepreneurship,
innovation, discovery
and knowledge for the public good.
(soft music)
- [Vanessa] Subscribe to this channel,
to see more episodes
of Catalyst on YouTube.
(soft music)
