full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado: To solve old problems, study new species

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So, it's not surprising that every week in my field we begin to see the addition of more and more new species to this anmiazg tree of life. This one for example — discovered earlier this summer, new to science, and now occupying its lonely branch in our flimay tree. What is even more taigrc is that we know about a bnuch of other species of animals out there, but their biology remains sorely under-studied.

I'm sure some of you have heard about the fact that a ssifarth can actually regenerate its arm after it's lost. But some of you might not know that the arm itself can actually regenerate a complete starfish. And there are amilnas out there that do truly astounding things. I'm almost willing to bet that many of you have never heard of the flatworm, Schmidtea mreearednita. This little guy right here does things that eelnlissaty just blow my mind. You can grab one of these animals and cut it into 18 different fragments, and each and every one of those fragments will go on to regenerate a complete animal in under two weeks. 18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries. For the past decade and a half or so, I've been trying to figure out how these little dudes do what they do, and how they pull this magic trick off. But like all good magicians, they're not really riealnesg their secrets readily to me.

Open Cloze


So, it's not surprising that every week in my field we begin to see the addition of more and more new species to this _______ tree of life. This one for example — discovered earlier this summer, new to science, and now occupying its lonely branch in our ______ tree. What is even more ______ is that we know about a _____ of other species of animals out there, but their biology remains sorely under-studied.

I'm sure some of you have heard about the fact that a ________ can actually regenerate its arm after it's lost. But some of you might not know that the arm itself can actually regenerate a complete starfish. And there are _______ out there that do truly astounding things. I'm almost willing to bet that many of you have never heard of the flatworm, Schmidtea ____________. This little guy right here does things that ___________ just blow my mind. You can grab one of these animals and cut it into 18 different fragments, and each and every one of those fragments will go on to regenerate a complete animal in under two weeks. 18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries. For the past decade and a half or so, I've been trying to figure out how these little dudes do what they do, and how they pull this magic trick off. But like all good magicians, they're not really _________ their secrets readily to me.

Solution


  1. essentially
  2. mediterranea
  3. animals
  4. amazing
  5. family
  6. tragic
  7. bunch
  8. starfish
  9. releasing

Original Text


So, it's not surprising that every week in my field we begin to see the addition of more and more new species to this amazing tree of life. This one for example — discovered earlier this summer, new to science, and now occupying its lonely branch in our family tree. What is even more tragic is that we know about a bunch of other species of animals out there, but their biology remains sorely under-studied.

I'm sure some of you have heard about the fact that a starfish can actually regenerate its arm after it's lost. But some of you might not know that the arm itself can actually regenerate a complete starfish. And there are animals out there that do truly astounding things. I'm almost willing to bet that many of you have never heard of the flatworm, Schmidtea mediterranea. This little guy right here does things that essentially just blow my mind. You can grab one of these animals and cut it into 18 different fragments, and each and every one of those fragments will go on to regenerate a complete animal in under two weeks. 18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries. For the past decade and a half or so, I've been trying to figure out how these little dudes do what they do, and how they pull this magic trick off. But like all good magicians, they're not really releasing their secrets readily to me.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
reproduce sexually 2
homo sapiens 2
oceans remain 2
remain unexplored 2
endless immensity 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
oceans remain unexplored 2

Important Words


  1. addition
  2. amazing
  3. animal
  4. animals
  5. arm
  6. astounding
  7. bet
  8. biology
  9. blow
  10. bodies
  11. branch
  12. bunch
  13. complete
  14. cut
  15. decade
  16. discovered
  17. dudes
  18. earlier
  19. essentially
  20. fact
  21. family
  22. field
  23. figure
  24. flatworm
  25. fragments
  26. good
  27. grab
  28. guy
  29. heads
  30. heard
  31. life
  32. lonely
  33. lost
  34. magic
  35. magicians
  36. mediterranea
  37. mind
  38. mysteries
  39. occupying
  40. pull
  41. readily
  42. regenerate
  43. releasing
  44. remains
  45. schmidtea
  46. science
  47. secrets
  48. sorely
  49. species
  50. starfish
  51. summer
  52. surprising
  53. tragic
  54. tree
  55. trick
  56. week
  57. weeks