For the record, I hate headlines that include sharks and the word "lurking," but given the fact that this species has been extinct for two and a half million years and we can't go out and kill them I hope it will forgive me for the transgression. Thanks to the recent surprising box office hit this prehistoric creature has been grabbing headlines and seemed like a good segue into sharing some of my recent thoughts.
Photo credit: Mary Parrish, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History via Wikimedia Commons
As an aspiring shark scientist, I have had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Shark Week, but when they screened their Mockumentary about the purportedly still existing megalodon, well that was the last time I can remember actually sitting down to watch shark week. I was featured on the Canadian version of Shark Week a couple years back for some of my research (perhaps a story for another day) and following some of this year's programming on Twitter has helped to restore some of my childhood interest in the event, but along with it comes a lot of media attention about sharks everywhere, which isn't always showing them in good light. Anyway, that mockumentary, along with the one about mermaids that wasn't related to Shark Week, caused me a lot of pain as a Science teacher a few years back. As an educator you learn that once a misconception takes root, it is often much harder for students to "un-learn" that information, particularly if it is integrated within other knowledge they have acquired. All of this to say that I didn't think much good could come of this movie.
I actually got invited to a screening where a colleague was giving a talk to the public following the movie and that was my first sign that perhaps something good was coming of it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to attend due to it being 3 hours from where I live. Then, I saw that there was a news article from Peru (my country of birth and where I hope to start my career as a scientist), also using the movie as a segue to announce that sitting in a museum there was perhaps the only complete fossilized jaw of a megalodon that exists and trying to recruit paleontologists of the world to help the experts down there uncover it. I tweeted this out in hope that it might catch the attention of experts abroad. So, I guess some good can come of these things.
As I started to consider the more troubling aspect of the movie, namely the possibility of spreading the misconception that it is possible "The Meg" is out there, it dawned on me that I too have fallen victim to conspiracy theories. Some of these I have gotten into passionate arguments to try to defend, such as the ancient astronaut hypothesis (I was a huge fan of Ancient Aliens). I listened to a podcast episode this week called Science vs. UFOs, which interviewed physicists and astronomers about the possibility that extraterrestrials exist and whether they have visited Earth. It was difficult and I know this may invite some blowback, but I had to come to terms with the fact that while it can't be ruled out, there simply is no definitive evidence we've been visited by extraterrestrials.
I heard another podcast done by a health professional about the benefits of CBD oil, which is something I have been using to soften the blow as I attempt to recover from my cannabis addiction. While the evidence here is not entirely lacking (anecdotal evidence suggests it could be a treatment and clinical trials have started in the UK), it helped me to realize that there is still a lot of research to be done and some of the hype surrounding its use as a "cure all" is simply buzz, no pun intended (okay, maybe it was intended). I am learning in my recovery that my mind can create an illusory reality and some of my thoughts simply aren't real, which is a scary thought. While it is completely inaccurate from a scientific perspective to think that megalodons lived in the deep ocean as they likely couldn't have survived in the cold waters down there, I think the premise of the movie can serve as a metaphor for the misconceptions we all carry with us, some of which we are terrified to face.
Now, I guess I should go watch the movie...