Hey it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day.
There are two things in this world that bother me: number one, the fact that the Tasmanian devil
is about to go extinct because of a rapidly spreading face cancer, and you didn't know that,
and number two, the fact that the dude in charge of the immunization effort to save the Tasmanian devil
has never watched the Warner Brothers cartoon.
We've gotta fix these things! So today on Smarter Every Day, we're going to Tasmania
and I want the record to show that within two hours of an Alabama boy being on the ground,
we had a Tasmanian Devil in a sack.
Let's go get Smarter Every Day.
- This is Jocelyn, - Hi!
- And this is Alex. - Hello.
- Okay, so this facility is run by the University of Tasmania, correct?
- That's right, yeah.
- And the purpose of it is to study a disease that has been killing the Tasmanian Devil all over the island, right?
- That's right.
(Destin) Welcome to ground zero in the fight against the extinction of a species.
These guys deploy clever little pipe traps all over the island to monitor devils in order to understand why they're dying.
(Destin) So the devil would come in, grab the bait... (Alex) And then this would pull,
(Destin) Pull the string. (Alex) Pull the string and the pin,
(Alex) And then this pin locks it so it can't open.
(Destin) And at that point you've caught the devil. (Alex) That's right.
(Destin) Once you catch a devil in a pipe, you've got to look at its mouth, so Alex agreed to show me
how they look at their mouths on one of the more docile devils that they keep in captivity.
(Destin) So we're going to put a tasmanian devil in a burlap sack, or, as you call it, a hessian sack, (Alex) Yeah, that's right.
(Destin) And we're gonna check him for the... (Alex) Well, he had this tumor,
(Alex) This DFTD tumor in the gum, on the gum, that was removed...
(Destin) DFTD. (Alex) That's right. Devil Facial Tumor Disease.
(Destin) Devil Facial Tumor Disease. Okay, so we're gonna check
this tasmanian devil for the tumor.
(Alex) Yeah, so the tumor was removed two or three years ago,
so we are going just to check if the tumor hasn't grown back. (Destin) Okay.
(Alex) So we'll put him in the sack and see if he cooperates.
I can open his mouth, and have a good look in his mouth to see if there is no tumor.
(Destin) Great. So I'm going to help you catch a tasmanian devil? (Alex) Yes, yes.
(Alex chuckles)
(Destin) Where do you want me? (Alex) Well, if you can just hold the lid for me.
(Alex) And if we can just...
(Box creaking)
(Destin) Woah.
(Box creaking)
(Destin) So you're just going to hold his head?
Oh, you're going to grab his tail?
(Destin) Okay, so we've got to get to his mouth now. (Alex) Yep. Well, we'll try.
(Destin) So we have a Tasmanian devil in a sack.
(Destin) Is it transmissible to humans? (Alex) No.
(Destin) How do you know that? (Alex) A few people got stabbed with needles,
and tumors never grew, so...
(Destin) Wow.
(Alex) So I sort of am covering his eyes, so he can't see,
but I have access to his mouth.
(Destin) Where would the tumors be? (Alex) I think this tumor originally
was on this side here, but he doesn't have any sign of a tumor there now.
(Destin) You really love them, don't you? (Alex) Yeah.
(Alex) We don't have any sign of devils becoming immune to the disease,
so it seems that, where the disease arrives, the population just declines, by that extent,
and whenever a devil gets DFTD, that devil, it doesn't survive.
(Destin) Why have I not heard about this? A cancer with a 100% mortality rate.
That's a huge deal! In order to understand it more thoroughly, let's go to the University of Tasmania
and speak with Professor Greg Woods, who's working on a vaccine to beat it.
(Prof. Woods) It's a tumor, that occurs in Tasmanian devils, and it starts in the face,
so it's called Devil Facial Tumor Disease.
(Destin) And why is this a threat? (Prof. Woods) It is a threat because
it is a really rare cancer, it's a contagious cancer, and, so far, it's wiped out about eighty to ninety percent
of the remaining Tasmanian devil population.
(Destin) Are you serious? In how long? (Prof. Woods) In less than 20 years.
(Destin) Wow. It's almost killed it in 20 years. (Prof. Woods) It's almost wiped out the entire species, yeah.
(Destin) What is this you have on your screen here? (Prof. Woods) So, this is a map of the DFTD distributions.
So, it started in the far northeast corner of Tasmania,
and it's been moving south and west ever since.
(Destin) So this is like the ripple of death. (Prof. Woods) The ripple of death, yeah.
(Destin) You can see it going down the island. (Prof. Woods) You can see it moving down the island.
Every year it moves 10 to 20 kilometers.
(Destin) Can you show me what it does? Do you have a picture or something?
(Destin) So this is a Tasmanian devil head? (Prof. Woods) This is a healthy devil.
(Destin) Okay. (Prof. Woods) Now, the other half of this devil has got a small tumor.
Now, you can just see the tumor there. So, that's a very early tumor.
(Prof. Woods) In one single devil, in fact, it was a female devil,
(Destin) That would be patient zero, right? (Prof. Woods) That would be patient zero.
(Prof. Woods) It's gone from a single cell in a single devil to about, maybe 100,000 devils have now been killed
(Prof. Woods) by this cancer. (Destin) Oh, wow.
(Prof. Woods) So, it's like a clonal proliferation of... (Destin) So it's like the game of Life, only death.
(Prof. Woods) The game of death, yeah.
(Prof. Woods) Any devil that gets it, dies from it. (Destin) Really.
(Prof. Woods) It's 100% kill rate. (Destin) What's the cause of death?
(Prof. Woods) They just can't see, so they won't be able to eat. (Destin) So they starve to death.
(Prof. Woods) So this is the healthy side, (Destin) Okay.
(Prof. Woods) And this is the diseased side. I don't know if you can see straight away,
but you can see there, there's a hole. The cancer cells are producing enzymes which are digesting the bone
and if we open up the jaw... (Destin) The canine tooth is gone.
(Prof. Woods) The canine tooth's gone, so he still can't obviously eat as well.
(Destin) That's amazing. (Prof. Woods) And these canine teeth, they are what
they'll bite each other with. So they'll bite another devil...(Destin) Oh, so that tooth will be infected.
(Prof. Woods) This tooth will be, yeah, this tooth will have tumor cells on it. Alright? (Destin) Wow.
(Prof. Woods) So what will happen is, a few tumor cells there, it will bite the other devil, and inoculate a few tumor cells.
Greg says they transmit the disease by biting each other on the face, which is really bad news for the
Tasmanian devil, because all the locals told me that's how they say hello.
I wanted to verify this for myself, so I went to the local zoo
may or may not have lowered my camera into the pen. Don't tell on me.
(Tasmanian devil sniffing)
(Destin) Well, this explains how you guys transmit DFT...wow!
Okay, so I'm learning. So they transmit DFTD, Devil Facial Tumor Disease, by biting each other.
Watch this, I'm just gonna stick the camera near him.
This is just what they do, they just bite.
All the time.
Why are you biting my camera?
Don't you know you'll get cancer like that?
(plastic chomping sounds) Woah!
(Zookeeper) Just watch those cameras. Bring the cameras up. Yeah, don't - you'll lose the camera,
You'll lose the lens and everything.
(Destin) They'll eat it? (Zookeeper) Nothing over the side. (Destin) Okay, thank you.
(Destin) How are you trying to defeat the cancer? What is the mechanism? What are you doing?
(Prof. Woods) Well the ultimate mechanism is to produce a vaccine. So to understand that, we need to
understand the devil's immune system, we have to understand the tumor,
we need to know how to make the tumor become more visible to the devil's immune system.
(Destin) These guys are not just talking the talk. They're making huge discoveries.
DFTD is a specific type of cancer that affects the cells in the nervous system called Schwann cells.
Prior to their research, human Schwann cell cancers were super rare and often misdiagnosed.
I'll let these guys humbly explain something they did which could easily save the life of someone you love in the future.
(Scientist) The normal cells compared to the cancer cells. (Destin) Wow, so you've actually identified the boundary here. That's interesting.
(Scientist) Yes, because we have a marker for the tumor, so [it] only strains DFTD tumor cells.
(Destin) You created the marker for the tumor?(Scientist) We discovered the tumor - the marker.
(Destin) You discovered the marker? (Scientist) Yeah, we did.
(Destin) How long ago did you do that? (Scientist) That was, like, three years ago? (Prof. Woods) Three years ago.
(Destin) Other cancers, like human cancers, it wouldn't stain? (Prof. Woods) It would stain human Schwann cell cancers, yeah.
(Prof. Woods) We discovered this in the devil and we actually got it to work on human cancers, so it will help diagnosis.
(Destin) No way. So you discovered this staining method for the Tasmanian devil, and then you've applied that
research to medical research for humans. (Prof. Woods) Yeah. Yeah.
(Prof. Woods) It's just a way to... (Destin) Do you know what this is? Yeah!
(Destin) It's a good thing! That's awesome. (Prof. Woods) It all adds up. It all goes together. (Destin) That's great.
(Destin) I hope you enjoyed this episode of Smarter Every Day. I'm about to do a really honest advertisement
advertisement here. I want to say thank you the sponsor of this video, which is Harrys.com. They make razors,
and I used these razors long before they decided to sponsor Smarter Every Day, but the fact that they're
sponsoring Smarter Every Day is pretty impressive. They could, like, sponsor hot bloggers and stuff, they're
sponsoring a dude going to Tasmania and talking about a disease that's affecting a species. That's cool.
Thank you Harry's. If you're interested in getting a razor, go to harrys.com, use the promo code "smarter", I think
it's worth it. I'm going to use a portion of this sponsorship to make a personal donation to the
Devil Facial Tumor Disease research fund at the University of Tasmania by going to the links in the
video description, so, please consider doing that yourself as well. I want the knowledge of Devil Facial
Tumor Disease to spread faster than the disease itself, so, please consider sharing this video, if this added value
to your life, consider subscribing to Smarter Every Day, or don't, whatever. Thank you so much, I'm Destin,
you're getting Smarter Every Day, have a good one. (beep)
(Prof. Woods) And any philanthropists out there, this is an absolutely perfect project to be involved in.
Actually saving a species. Can you imagine that? (Destin) Yeah.
(Prof. Woods) Saving a species. (Destin) That's cool.
(beep) (Destin) I noticed there's not a single Tasmanian devil cartoon on the wall, anywhere here.
I expected that when I walked in. (Prof. Woods) No, no, in fact I've never seen the cartoon.
(Destin) Have you not? (Prof. Woods) I have not seen it. I've seen a picture of it.
(Destin) Are you serious? (Prof. Woods) I've never watched the cartoon.
(Destin) And you're the man that's trying to save it. (Prof. Woods) I've never watched the cartoon, no.
(Destin) He's never seen the Tasmanian devil cartoon. (Prof. Woods) I'm - I haven't watched the cartoon.
(Prof. Woods) Have you watched... (Jocelyn) Are you serious?
(Prof. Woods) Seriously! What would I watch the cartoon for?
(Destin) I don't want to force you to watch the cartoon.
(Prof. Woods) I'm a nerd you know, I don't watch cartoons. (laughter)
(Destin) Greg is too proud to watch the Tasmanian devil cartoon, even though he's the man in the world that's trying to save it.
This is very interesting.
(faint cartoon sounds - Tasmanian devil spinning up like a tornado)
(Prof. Woods) Is that it?
(Destin) That's it. That's the Tasmanian devil.
(laughs) You've never seen that?
(Prof. Woods) So what's his role in life?
(Tasmanian Devil Cartoon sounds) (Destin) He's just destructive.
(cartoon noises)
(Destin) People like it. That's why your research is getting funded. (laughs)
(Destin) That's it. (Prof. Woods) That's it.
(Destin) Maybe showing you that was a bad idea. (Prof. Woods) Maybe it was a bad idea.
(Destin laughs) I like you. He's a pure academic. I like people like Greg.