Control Freaks

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Control Freaks

How much can we control nature for the sake of knowledge?

Uncovering secrets

Nature is untamed. That‘s the beauty of it.

Uncovering secrets

Nature is untamed. That‘s the beauty of it.


Scientists wrack their brains trying to uncover its secrets.

Haeckel (left) with Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai, his assistant,
in the Canaries, 1866 (public domain)

Uncovering secrets

Nature is untamed. That‘s the beauty of it.

Scientists wrack their brains trying to uncover its secrets.


When they first began studying organisms,
they uncovered so much just by describing and illustrating their physical features and behaviours as seen in their natural environments.

Haeckel (left) with Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai, his assistant,
in the Canaries, 1866 (public domain)
Ernst Haeckel. Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 85: Cynthia.
Ernst Haeckel. Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 85: Cynthia.
Ernst Haeckel. Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 85: Cynthia.

Diving deeper

As science progressed, and the knowledge about the organisms increased,
we dove deeper into life processes all the way down to the cellular level.

Diving deeper

As science progressed, and the knowledge about the organisms increased,
we dove deeper into life processes all the way down to the cellular level.


Scientists found incredible complexity in this previously invisible microscopic world.

At this level, small changes in the environment can cause huge differences in the biological processes and structures inside the organism's body.

Temperature, time, place, and many other such variables proved to be a hurdle.

To overcome it, scientists began moving their experiments into their labs, where they have full control of the environment.

Petra and Francesca

Our researchers from the Hejnol Lab in Bergen are trying to better understand two different animals.

To begin their experiments they first need to collect the animals.

Meara

Petra is researching Meara.

It is a wild spirit since the time it was described, which is almost a hundred years ago.

No one managed to sustain it in the lab yet.

Once a year, Petra goes to collect Meara from the muddy ocean bed in the wild fjords around Bergen.

It feels like a kinder surprise egg hunt. Because adult Meara lives inside the gut of a bigger animal - the sea cucumber.

The surprise element of the hunt is that when Petra cuts open the gut, a Meara is never guaranteed.

Real image

Connie

Francesca is studying Convolutriloba, who she fondly calls Connie.

Contrastingly, she just has to walk into another room and take her research animals out of the tank.

© Enrico Volpato

Connie has been an inhabitant of the lab since 2007 and was originally even discovered in an aquarium.

Connie must have been caught by chance
during a collection trip in the tropics.

Nobody therefore really knows where to find Connie in the wild!

While not much is known about Connie in the wild, Francesca knows exactly what Connie needs in the aquarium.

To keep Connie healthy and happy, she maintains the temperature, salinity, water quality, bubbling, light, and also has a strict feeding schedule.

Once Francesca and Petra have their animals, they begin their respective research to understand them better.

Connies have some algae inside their bodies. They cannot live without them, they are in symbiosis.

Francesca thinks this is pretty fascinating and wants to understand it better.

Francesca’s research

Petra is interested in the reproduction of Meara.
‍

More precisely, in how Meara creates reproductive cells and what distinguishes them from other cells in the body.

Petra’s research
© Enrico Volpato

Although Francesca and Petra ask different questions, their research takes place at the cellular level.

Both of them dissolve their animals into single cells.

But due to the stark difference in their collection methods, they need to take into consideration different things when trying to replicate their experiments.

© Enrico Volpato

Francesca always studies the same population - Connies that are from the same family, the one from her tank.

So if an experiment fails, she can just pick up another Connie from the tank and be confident that she can replicate the process.

© Enrico Volpato

Petra's "tank" is the Fjord.

She has little control over which population and life stage she will find there.

If Petra is not able to replicate an experiment,
this could be one of the reasons.

Moreover, Petra can only find Meara once a year in the wild fjords of Norway.

Moreover, Petra can only find Meara once a year in the wild fjords of Norway.


No wonder it is more convenient
to breed and keep the study animals in the lab.

However, this brings its own problems.

However, this brings its own problems.


We get used to the animals existing in the lab,
isolated from the outside, and even forget that they come from very complex environments.

However, this brings its own problems.

We get used to the animals existing in the lab,
isolated from the outside, and even forget that they come from very complex environments.


And the animals get used to the lab too.

However, this brings its own problems.

We get used to the animals existing in the lab,
isolated from the outside, and even forget that they come from very complex environments.

And the animals get used to the lab too.


Some animals have been in culture for so many generations that they have adapted to it.

However, this brings its own problems.

We get used to the animals existing in the lab,
isolated from the outside, and even forget that they come from very complex environments.

And the animals get used to the lab too.

Some animals have been in culture for so many generations that they have adapted to it.


And we wonder if some of their behaviours
are due to their new environment.

Many Connies are stuck to the walls of the aquarium. Which is awesome because we can look at them!

In the wild, however, they can only attach to rocks.

Many Connies are stuck to the walls of the aquarium. Which is awesome because we can look at them!

In the wild, however, they can only attach to rocks.


Were they always able to attach themselves
to glass walls as well, or is this something they have adapted to while living in the aquarium?

Is the controlled lab environment interfering
with the essence of the animals and impacting our research?

Is the controlled lab environment interfering
with the essence of the animals and impacting our research?


And is our natural environment too complex of a system to ever fully understand?

Is the controlled lab environment interfering
with the essence of the animals and impacting our research?

And is our natural environment too complex of a system to ever fully understand?


Or...In the grand timeline of evolution, do the years in captivity and yearly environmental changes really matter?

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