Cori Bargmann on the Genetics of Transparent Worms, Supertasters and Cancer | Quanta Magazine
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Cori Bargmann on the Genetics of Transparent Worms, Supertasters and Cancer
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The Joy of x
Cori Bargmann on the Genetics of Transparent Worms, Supertasters and Cancer
By
Steven Strogatz
March 17, 2020
The neurogenetics pioneer Cori Bargmann speaks with host Steven Strogatz about why a transparent worm became her favorite animal and how a genetic discovery she made inspired a revolutionary cancer treatment.
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By Steven Strogatz
Podcast Host
March 17, 2020
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The Joy of x
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Cori Bargmann is a professor of genetics and genomics, neurosciences and behavior at Rockefeller University. But to host Steven Strogatz, Bargmann’s work is really all about the line between life and nonlife, and what makes it possible for something to sense its surroundings, think and respond. In this episode, Bargmann talks about being won over by a transparent worm, doing calculations at the family dinner table, and identifying a mutated gene that later inspired a revolutionary cancer treatment. This episode was produced by Camille Petersen. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Production and original music by Story Mechanics.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcasting app, or you can stream it from Quanta.
Transcript
Cori Bargmann: Science is an adventure, and it has all the suspense of a mystery story and the solution has all of the satisfaction of solving a murder mystery.
Steven Strogatz [narration]: From Quanta Magazine, this is “The Joy of x.” I’m Steve Strogatz. In this episode, Cori Bargmann.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Bargmann: And that sense of adventure and discovery, not just of learning things that other people know, is the thing that I think is most wonderful about being a scientist. The idea that one day you could wake up and know something that no one had ever known before and it might even be useful.
Strogatz: Cori Bargmann is a biologist but of a very particular type. I think she would call herself a “geneticist.” I mean, the traditional way to say what she’s doing is she’s interested in the interplay of genes, molecules, neurons and behavior. That sounds like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, what she’s really interested in is what’s the line between life and nonlife? We’re all made of atoms, we’re all made of molecules, but some of us are tables and microphones and some of us are living things that have feelings and care and live and die. And you might think there’s a big line between them, but there really isn’t.
I mean, she is looking at a worm that is so simple, it’s only got 302 neurons in its whole nervous system. And those neurons are made of molecules and this thing is really not much more than a big heaping pile of molecules, none of which is individually alive. But collectively, it’s a worm that is trying to take care of itself.
So I see her work as addressing a really profound question about this thin line between life and nonlife, and how it is that one heap of molecules can develop something that we call a “sense of smell” to detect other molecules that are essential to it.
Strogatz: How about if we do your origin story? I mean, can we rewind and take you back to your childhood place in your — it sounds like you grew up in an academic household.
Bargmann: I did. My father was a professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Georgia. I grew up having to calculate at the dinner table how many times the glasses would clink when we drank champagne, six time five divided by two.
Strogatz: Wait a second, you did a nifty little math problem there. I want to make sure that I got that. I think I got it: You’re saying there’s six people sitting around the table and so each person clinks with each of the five others, then we’re going to divide by two.
Bargmann: Mm-hmm.
Strogatz: We don’t double count the clink.
Bargmann: Mm-hmm.
Strogatz: So six times five divided by two, it’s — okay, I’m sorry I’m just catching up to you here. [LAUGHTER] That’s great.
Bargmann: That’s what we did.
Strogatz: How much champagne? Like any occasion where you’re drinking champagne, was that a regular —
Bargmann: Well, I have to say my parents were immigrants from Europe and so champagne was drunk...