WEBVTT 00:00:00.645 --> 00:00:03.196 A herd of wildebeests, a shoal of fish, 00:00:03.196 --> 00:00:04.825 a flock of birds. 00:00:04.825 --> 00:00:06.893 Many animals gather in large groups 00:00:06.893 --> 00:00:08.879 that are among the most wonderful spectacles 00:00:08.879 --> 00:00:10.597 in the natural world. 00:00:10.597 --> 00:00:13.321 But why do these groups form? 00:00:13.321 --> 00:00:14.958 The common answers include things like 00:00:14.958 --> 00:00:17.924 seeking safety in numbers or hunting in packs 00:00:17.924 --> 00:00:20.420 or gathering to mate or breed, 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:22.088 and all of these explanations, 00:00:22.088 --> 00:00:23.325 while often true, 00:00:23.325 --> 00:00:26.368 make a huge assumption about animal behavior, 00:00:26.368 --> 00:00:29.545 that the animals are in control of their own actions, 00:00:29.545 --> 00:00:31.796 that they are in charge of their bodies. 00:00:31.796 --> 00:00:35.223 And that is often not the case. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.223 --> 00:00:38.147 This is Artemia, a brine shrimp. 00:00:38.147 --> 00:00:40.911 You probably know it better as a sea monkey. 00:00:40.911 --> 00:00:42.906 It's small, and it typically lives alone, 00:00:42.906 --> 00:00:45.983 but it can gather in these large red swarms 00:00:45.983 --> 00:00:48.230 that span for meters, 00:00:48.230 --> 00:00:51.320 and these form because of a parasite. 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.006 These shrimp are infected with a tapeworm. 00:00:54.006 --> 00:00:56.257 A tapeworm is effectively a long, living gut 00:00:56.257 --> 00:00:59.145 with genitals at one end and a hooked mouth at the other. 00:00:59.145 --> 00:01:01.680 As a freelance journalist, I sympathize. 00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:03.835 (Laughter) 00:01:03.835 --> 00:01:06.743 The tapeworm drains nutrients from Artemia's body, 00:01:06.743 --> 00:01:08.820 but it also does other things. 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:10.440 It castrates them, 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:15.158 it changes their color from transparent to bright red, 00:01:15.158 --> 00:01:16.674 it makes them live longer, 00:01:16.674 --> 00:01:19.031 and as biologist Nicolas Rode has found, 00:01:19.031 --> 00:01:22.390 it makes them swim in groups. 00:01:22.390 --> 00:01:25.842 Why? Because the tapeworm, like many other parasites, 00:01:25.842 --> 00:01:27.423 has a complicated life cycle 00:01:27.423 --> 00:01:29.687 involving many different hosts. 00:01:29.687 --> 00:01:32.091 The shrimp are just one step on its journey. 00:01:32.091 --> 00:01:34.703 Its ultimate destination is this, 00:01:34.703 --> 00:01:36.650 the greater flamingo. 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:39.675 Only in a flamingo can the tapeworm reproduce, 00:01:39.675 --> 00:01:42.964 so to get there, it manipulates its shrimp hosts 00:01:42.964 --> 00:01:46.055 into forming these conspicuous colored swarms 00:01:46.055 --> 00:01:48.772 that are easier for a flamingo to spot 00:01:48.772 --> 00:01:50.331 and to devour, 00:01:50.331 --> 00:01:53.263 and that is the secret of the Artemia swarm. 00:01:53.263 --> 00:01:55.426 They aren't sociable through their own volition, 00:01:55.426 --> 00:01:57.502 but because they are being controlled. 00:01:57.502 --> 00:01:59.196 It's not safety in numbers. 00:01:59.196 --> 00:02:01.055 It's actually the exact opposite. 00:02:01.055 --> 00:02:04.096 The tapeworm hijacks their brains and their bodies, 00:02:04.096 --> 00:02:05.492 turning them into vehicles 00:02:05.492 --> 00:02:09.459 for getting itself into a flamingo. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:09.459 --> 00:02:10.889 And here is another example 00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:13.415 of a parasitic manipulation. 00:02:13.415 --> 00:02:16.391 This is a suicidal cricket. 00:02:16.391 --> 00:02:19.695 This cricket swallowed the larvae of a Gordian worm, 00:02:19.695 --> 00:02:21.588 or horsehair worm. 00:02:21.588 --> 00:02:23.744 The worm grew to adult size within it, 00:02:23.744 --> 00:02:26.782 but it needs to get into water in order to mate, 00:02:26.782 --> 00:02:29.000 and it does that by releasing proteins 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.188 that addle the cricket's brain, 00:02:31.188 --> 00:02:33.352 causing it to behave erratically. 00:02:33.352 --> 00:02:35.307 When the cricket nears a body of water, 00:02:35.307 --> 00:02:36.926 such as this swimming pool, 00:02:36.926 --> 00:02:39.183 it jumps in and drowns, 00:02:39.183 --> 00:02:40.908 and the worm wriggles out 00:02:40.908 --> 00:02:44.764 of its suicidal corpse. 00:02:44.764 --> 00:02:48.367 Crickets are really roomy. Who knew? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:48.367 --> 00:02:51.582 The tapeworm and the Gordian worm are not alone. 00:02:51.582 --> 00:02:53.302 They are part of an entire cavalcade 00:02:53.302 --> 00:02:55.379 of mind-controlling parasites, 00:02:55.379 --> 00:02:59.328 of fungi, viruses, and worms and insects and more 00:02:59.328 --> 00:03:01.901 that all specialize in subverting and overriding 00:03:01.901 --> 00:03:04.110 the wills of their hosts. 00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:05.847 Now, I first learned about this way of life 00:03:05.847 --> 00:03:08.340 through David Attenborough's "Trials of Life" 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:10.062 about 20 years ago, 00:03:10.062 --> 00:03:11.764 and then later through a wonderful book called 00:03:11.764 --> 00:03:14.438 "Parasite Rex" by my friend Carl Zimmer. 00:03:14.438 --> 00:03:16.581 And I've been writing about these creatures ever since. 00:03:16.581 --> 00:03:19.392 Few topics in biology enthrall me more. 00:03:19.392 --> 00:03:23.098 It's like the parasites have subverted my own brain. 00:03:23.098 --> 00:03:25.709 Because after all, they are always compelling 00:03:25.709 --> 00:03:26.997 and they are delightfully macabre. 00:03:26.997 --> 00:03:28.389 When you write about parasites, 00:03:28.389 --> 00:03:30.473 your lexicon swells with phrases like 00:03:30.473 --> 00:03:33.519 "devoured alive" and "bursts out of its body." 00:03:33.519 --> 00:03:34.756 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:34.756 --> 00:03:36.296 But there's more to it than that. 00:03:36.296 --> 00:03:38.398 I'm a writer, and fellow writers in the audience 00:03:38.398 --> 00:03:41.107 will know that we love stories. 00:03:41.107 --> 00:03:43.500 Parasites invite us to resist the allure 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:45.350 of obvious stories. 00:03:45.350 --> 00:03:47.660 Their world is one of plot twists 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:51.267 and unexpected explanations. 00:03:51.267 --> 00:03:52.763 Why, for example, 00:03:52.763 --> 00:03:54.941 does this caterpillar 00:03:54.941 --> 00:03:56.915 start violently thrashing about 00:03:56.915 --> 00:03:58.583 when another insect gets close to it 00:03:58.583 --> 00:04:00.840 and those white cocoons that it seems 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:02.278 to be standing guard over? 00:04:02.278 --> 00:04:05.374 Is it maybe protecting its siblings? 00:04:05.374 --> 00:04:06.823 No. 00:04:06.823 --> 00:04:08.280 This caterpillar was attacked 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:11.499 by a parasitic wasp which laid eggs inside it. 00:04:11.499 --> 00:04:12.933 The eggs hatched and the young wasps 00:04:12.933 --> 00:04:14.247 devoured the caterpillar alive 00:04:14.247 --> 00:04:15.918 before bursting out of its body. 00:04:15.918 --> 00:04:18.193 See what I mean? 00:04:18.193 --> 00:04:21.031 Now, the caterpillar didn't die. 00:04:21.031 --> 00:04:23.616 Some of the wasps seemed to stay behind 00:04:23.616 --> 00:04:26.953 and controlled it into defending their siblings 00:04:26.953 --> 00:04:28.587 which are metamorphosing 00:04:28.587 --> 00:04:30.607 into adults within those cocoons. 00:04:30.607 --> 00:04:34.146 This caterpillar is a head-banging zombie bodyguard 00:04:34.146 --> 00:04:35.447 defending the offspring 00:04:35.447 --> 00:04:37.669 of the creature that killed it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:37.669 --> 00:04:41.535 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:41.535 --> 00:04:45.830 We have a lot to get through. I only have 13 minutes. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:45.830 --> 00:04:47.641 Now, some of you are probably just 00:04:47.641 --> 00:04:49.859 desperately clawing for some solace 00:04:49.859 --> 00:04:52.119 in the idea that these things are oddities 00:04:52.119 --> 00:04:54.050 of the natural world, that they are outliers, 00:04:54.050 --> 00:04:55.870 and that point of view is understandable, 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:58.248 because by their nature, parasites are quite small 00:04:58.248 --> 00:04:59.588 and they spend a lot of their time 00:04:59.588 --> 00:05:02.542 inside the bodies of other things. 00:05:02.542 --> 00:05:04.313 They're easy to overlook, 00:05:04.313 --> 00:05:06.898 but that doesn't mean that they aren't important. 00:05:06.898 --> 00:05:09.103 A few years back, a man called Kevin Lafferty 00:05:09.103 --> 00:05:12.472 took a group of scientists into three Californian estuaries 00:05:12.472 --> 00:05:14.220 and they pretty much weighed and dissected 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:16.215 and recorded everything they could find, 00:05:16.215 --> 00:05:17.443 and what they found 00:05:17.443 --> 00:05:20.659 were parasites in extreme abundance. 00:05:20.659 --> 00:05:22.703 Especially common were trematodes, 00:05:22.703 --> 00:05:25.353 tiny worms that specialize in castrating their hosts 00:05:25.353 --> 00:05:27.899 like this unfortunate snail. 00:05:27.899 --> 00:05:30.788 Now, a single trematode is tiny, microscopic, 00:05:30.788 --> 00:05:32.587 but collectively they weighed as much 00:05:32.587 --> 00:05:34.773 as all the fish in the estuaries 00:05:34.773 --> 00:05:38.480 and three to nine times more than all the birds. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.474 And remember the Gordian worm that I showed you, 00:05:40.474 --> 00:05:41.862 the cricket thing? 00:05:41.862 --> 00:05:44.415 One Japanese scientist called Takuya Sato 00:05:44.415 --> 00:05:46.111 found that in one stream, 00:05:46.111 --> 00:05:48.082 these things drive so many crickets 00:05:48.082 --> 00:05:49.381 and grasshoppers into the water 00:05:49.381 --> 00:05:50.690 that the drowned insects 00:05:50.690 --> 00:05:54.994 make up some 60 percent of the diet of local trout. 00:05:54.994 --> 00:05:57.928 Manipulation is not an oddity. 00:05:57.928 --> 00:06:00.048 It is a critical and common part 00:06:00.048 --> 00:06:01.939 of the world around us, 00:06:01.939 --> 00:06:03.460 and scientists have now found 00:06:03.460 --> 00:06:05.942 hundreds of examples of such manipulators, 00:06:05.942 --> 00:06:08.379 and more excitingly, they're starting to understand 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:12.437 exactly how these creatures control their hosts. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:12.437 --> 00:06:14.961 And this is one of my favorite examples. 00:06:14.961 --> 00:06:17.418 This is Ampulex compressa, 00:06:17.418 --> 00:06:19.642 the emerald cockroach wasp, 00:06:19.642 --> 00:06:21.936 and it is a truth universally acknowledged 00:06:21.936 --> 00:06:23.579 that an emerald cockroach wasp in possession 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:25.375 of some fertilized eggs 00:06:25.375 --> 00:06:27.841 must be in want of a cockroach. 00:06:27.841 --> 00:06:29.041 When she finds one, 00:06:29.041 --> 00:06:31.252 she stabs it with a stinger 00:06:31.252 --> 00:06:32.701 that is also a sense organ. 00:06:32.701 --> 00:06:35.372 This discovery came out three weeks ago. 00:06:35.372 --> 00:06:37.677 She stabs it with a stinger that is a sense organ 00:06:37.677 --> 00:06:39.471 equipped with small sensory bumps 00:06:39.471 --> 00:06:42.026 that allow her to feel the distinctive texture 00:06:42.026 --> 00:06:44.133 of a roach's brain. 00:06:44.133 --> 00:06:47.174 So like a person blindly rooting about in a bag, 00:06:47.174 --> 00:06:49.651 she finds the brain, and she injects it with venom 00:06:49.651 --> 00:06:53.852 into two very specific clusters of neurons. 00:06:53.852 --> 00:06:56.935 Israeli scientists Frederic Libersat and Ram Gal 00:06:56.935 --> 00:07:00.660 found that the venom is a very specific chemical weapon. 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:03.204 It doesn't kill the roach, nor does it sedate it. 00:07:03.204 --> 00:07:05.331 The roach could walk away 00:07:05.331 --> 00:07:08.356 or fly or run if it chose to, 00:07:08.356 --> 00:07:10.231 but it doesn't choose to, 00:07:10.231 --> 00:07:13.611 because the venom nixes its motivation to walk, 00:07:13.611 --> 00:07:14.725 and only that. 00:07:14.725 --> 00:07:18.431 The wasp basically un-checks the escape-from-danger box 00:07:18.431 --> 00:07:20.271 in the roach's operating system, 00:07:20.271 --> 00:07:23.504 allowing her to lead her helpless victim 00:07:23.504 --> 00:07:25.615 back to her lair by its antennae 00:07:25.615 --> 00:07:28.254 like a person walking a dog. 00:07:28.254 --> 00:07:29.931 And once there, she lays an egg on it, 00:07:29.931 --> 00:07:32.207 egg hatches, devoured alive, bursts out of body, 00:07:32.207 --> 00:07:34.396 yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill. 00:07:34.396 --> 00:07:37.626 (Laughter) (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:37.626 --> 00:07:40.506 Now I would argue that, once stung, 00:07:40.506 --> 00:07:42.511 the cockroach isn't a roach anymore. 00:07:42.511 --> 00:07:44.861 It's more of an extension of the wasp, 00:07:44.861 --> 00:07:47.704 just like the cricket was an extension of the Gordian worm. 00:07:47.719 --> 00:07:50.519 These hosts won't get to survive or reproduce. 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:52.318 They have as much control over their own fates 00:07:52.318 --> 00:07:54.102 as my car. 00:07:54.102 --> 00:07:55.602 Once the parasites get in, 00:07:55.602 --> 00:07:58.167 the hosts don't get a say. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:58.167 --> 00:07:59.481 Now humans, of course, 00:07:59.481 --> 00:08:01.513 are no stranger to manipulation. 00:08:01.513 --> 00:08:03.873 We take drugs to shift the chemistries of our brains 00:08:03.873 --> 00:08:05.004 and to change our moods, 00:08:05.004 --> 00:08:09.024 and what are arguments or advertising or big ideas 00:08:09.024 --> 00:08:12.727 if not an attempt to influence someone else's mind? 00:08:12.727 --> 00:08:14.254 But our attempts at doing this 00:08:14.254 --> 00:08:16.032 are crude and blundering compared 00:08:16.032 --> 00:08:19.127 to the fine-grained specificity of the parasites. 00:08:19.127 --> 00:08:21.519 Don Draper only wishes he was as elegant 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:26.479 and precise as the emerald cockroach wasp. 00:08:26.479 --> 00:08:30.219 Now, I think this is part of what makes parasites 00:08:30.219 --> 00:08:33.005 so sinister and so compelling. 00:08:33.005 --> 00:08:35.627 We place such a premium on our free will 00:08:35.627 --> 00:08:36.888 and our independence 00:08:36.888 --> 00:08:38.469 that the prospect of losing those qualities 00:08:38.469 --> 00:08:39.747 to forces unseen 00:08:39.747 --> 00:08:42.915 informs many of our deepest societal fears. 00:08:42.915 --> 00:08:45.368 Orwellian dystopias and shadowy cabals 00:08:45.368 --> 00:08:47.222 and mind-controlling supervillains -- 00:08:47.222 --> 00:08:50.250 these are tropes that fill our darkest fiction, 00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:55.048 but in nature, they happen all the time. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:55.048 --> 00:08:57.680 Which leads me to an obvious 00:08:57.680 --> 00:08:59.980 and disquieting question: 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:01.703 Are there dark, sinister parasites 00:09:01.703 --> 00:09:03.659 that are influencing our behavior 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:05.234 without us knowing about it, 00:09:05.234 --> 00:09:08.053 besides the NSA? 00:09:08.053 --> 00:09:09.360 If there are any — 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:13.326 (Laughter) (Applause) 00:09:13.326 --> 00:09:15.648 I've got a red dot on my forehead now, don't I? 00:09:15.648 --> 00:09:18.175 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:18.175 --> 00:09:21.129 If there are any, this is a good candidate for them. 00:09:21.129 --> 00:09:24.407 This is Toxoplasma gondii, or Toxo, for short, 00:09:24.407 --> 00:09:25.996 because the terrifying creature 00:09:25.996 --> 00:09:28.206 always deserves a cute nickname. 00:09:28.206 --> 00:09:30.488 Toxo infects mammals, 00:09:30.488 --> 00:09:31.966 a wide variety of mammals, 00:09:31.966 --> 00:09:35.047 but it can only sexually reproduce in a cat. 00:09:35.047 --> 00:09:37.808 And scientists like Joanne Webster have shown that 00:09:37.808 --> 00:09:40.001 if Toxo gets into a rat or a mouse, 00:09:40.001 --> 00:09:43.473 it turns the rodent into a cat-seeking missile. 00:09:43.473 --> 00:09:46.549 If the infected rat smells the delightful odor 00:09:46.549 --> 00:09:47.773 of cat piss, 00:09:47.773 --> 00:09:50.493 it runs towards the source of the smell 00:09:50.493 --> 00:09:54.412 rather than the more sensible direction of away. 00:09:54.412 --> 00:09:56.947 The cat eats the rat. Toxo gets to have sex. 00:09:56.947 --> 00:09:59.819 It's a classic tale of Eat, Prey, Love. 00:09:59.819 --> 00:10:04.487 (Laughter) (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:07.512 --> 00:10:10.714 You're very charitable, generous people. 00:10:10.714 --> 00:10:13.299 Hi, Elizabeth, I loved your talk. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:13.299 --> 00:10:16.667 How does the parasite control its host 00:10:16.667 --> 00:10:17.871 in this way? 00:10:17.871 --> 00:10:19.197 We don't really know. 00:10:19.197 --> 00:10:20.885 We know that Toxo releases an enzyme 00:10:20.885 --> 00:10:22.877 that makes dopamine, a substance involved 00:10:22.877 --> 00:10:24.690 in reward and motivation. 00:10:24.690 --> 00:10:27.121 We know it targets certain parts of a rodent's brain, 00:10:27.121 --> 00:10:29.586 including those involved in sexual arousal. 00:10:29.586 --> 00:10:31.787 But how those puzzle pieces fit together 00:10:31.787 --> 00:10:33.631 is not immediately clear. 00:10:33.631 --> 00:10:35.927 What is clear is that this thing 00:10:35.927 --> 00:10:37.319 is a single cell. 00:10:37.319 --> 00:10:38.689 This has no nervous system. 00:10:38.689 --> 00:10:39.821 It has no consciousness. 00:10:39.821 --> 00:10:41.122 It doesn't even have a body. 00:10:41.122 --> 00:10:43.746 But it's manipulating a mammal? 00:10:43.746 --> 00:10:45.172 We are mammals. 00:10:45.172 --> 00:10:47.606 We are more intelligent than a mere rat, to be sure, 00:10:47.606 --> 00:10:50.130 but our brains have the same basic structure, 00:10:50.130 --> 00:10:51.523 the same types of cells, 00:10:51.523 --> 00:10:53.111 the same chemicals running through them, 00:10:53.111 --> 00:10:55.430 and the same parasites. 00:10:55.430 --> 00:10:57.778 Estimates vary a lot, but some figures suggest 00:10:57.778 --> 00:11:00.138 that one in three people around the world 00:11:00.138 --> 00:11:01.851 have Toxo in their brains. 00:11:01.851 --> 00:11:05.339 Now typically, this doesn't lead to any overt illness. 00:11:05.339 --> 00:11:07.217 The parasite holds up in a dormant state 00:11:07.217 --> 00:11:09.400 for a long period of time. 00:11:09.400 --> 00:11:11.439 But there's some evidence that those people 00:11:11.439 --> 00:11:14.473 who are carriers score slightly differently 00:11:14.473 --> 00:11:17.202 on personality questionnaires than other people, 00:11:17.202 --> 00:11:19.686 that they have a slightly higher risk of car accidents, 00:11:19.686 --> 00:11:22.289 and there's some evidence that people with schizophrenia 00:11:22.289 --> 00:11:24.835 are more likely to be infected. 00:11:24.835 --> 00:11:27.018 Now, I think this evidence is still inconclusive, 00:11:27.018 --> 00:11:28.929 and even among Toxo researchers, 00:11:28.929 --> 00:11:31.369 opinion is divided as to whether the parasite 00:11:31.369 --> 00:11:33.754 is truly influencing our behavior. 00:11:33.754 --> 00:11:36.413 But given the widespread nature of such manipulations, 00:11:36.413 --> 00:11:38.258 it would be completely implausible 00:11:38.258 --> 00:11:39.907 for humans to be the only species 00:11:39.907 --> 00:11:42.853 that weren't similarly affected. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:42.853 --> 00:11:47.246 And I think that this capacity to constantly 00:11:47.246 --> 00:11:50.113 subvert our way of thinking about the world 00:11:50.113 --> 00:11:51.660 makes parasites amazing. 00:11:51.660 --> 00:11:54.869 They're constantly inviting us to look at the natural world sideways, 00:11:54.869 --> 00:11:57.040 and to ask if the behaviors we're seeing, 00:11:57.040 --> 00:11:58.527 whether they're simple and obvious 00:11:58.527 --> 00:12:00.060 or baffling and puzzling, 00:12:00.060 --> 00:12:02.146 are not the results of individuals 00:12:02.146 --> 00:12:03.999 acting through their own accord 00:12:03.999 --> 00:12:05.808 but because they are being bent 00:12:05.808 --> 00:12:08.478 to the control of something else. 00:12:08.478 --> 00:12:10.518 And while that idea may be disquieting, 00:12:10.518 --> 00:12:13.441 and while parasites' habits may be very grisly, 00:12:13.441 --> 00:12:15.233 I think that ability to surprise us 00:12:15.233 --> 00:12:18.408 makes them as wonderful and as charismatic 00:12:18.408 --> 00:12:21.772 as any panda or butterfly or dolphin. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:21.772 --> 00:12:23.991 At the end of "On the Origin of Species," 00:12:23.991 --> 00:12:26.980 Charles Darwin writes about the grandeur of life, 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:29.633 and of endless forms most beautiful 00:12:29.633 --> 00:12:31.065 and most wonderful, 00:12:31.065 --> 00:12:33.644 and I like to think he could easily have been talking 00:12:33.644 --> 00:12:36.824 about a tapeworm that makes shrimp sociable 00:12:36.824 --> 00:12:40.073 or a wasp that takes cockroaches for walks. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:40.073 --> 00:12:43.222 But perhaps, that's just a parasite talking. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:43.222 --> 00:12:44.953 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:44.953 --> 00:12:48.953 (Applause)