Hello, hello. Welcome to a red-handed colon show, where it's my turn to pick the topic.

And apparently, I can't stop picking diseases. Can't stop one stop. Such a shame I was so terrible

at science at school because I heard it's so fascinating. Any way, what do humans, pilot whales,

and orcas all have in common? Us and our ocean dwelling friends are very special in the animal

kingdom, because us and the whales are some of the very very few species that continue to live

for significant periods of time after we stop being able to breed. Men, obviously, can sew their

wild oats basically until they day they die, but menopause waits for no woman. And if you've

seen the disturbingly sexual documentary My Octopus teacher, Homeboy wants to flock that octopus,

you will remember the shocking speed with which that sexy octopus died after she offsprung some

offspring. And that lightning speed decline after female stopping able to produce frogs is the

norm and the animal kingdom. We are the anomalous ones. Because us humans and the whales, and I am

aware, orcas adults, they are not whales, it just fit better writing it that way. Us humans and the

whales live for a lot longer after we stop being able to have babies. But why? Well, no one really

knows. Neanderthals didn't live long after menopause, and neither did a whole string of our closest

hominid cousins. So it is a specifically human thing. It is a homosapian thing. But we do have a

theory, even though no one knows exactly right. And it's all to do with the sexually transmitted

infection, gonorrhea, which is impossible to spell. Yes, we have both found and not hated.

A new study published by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine

in July 2022 tells us all about this seemingly bizarre phenomenon. They call it the grandmother

hypothesis. Essentially, it's the theory that a mutated gene that protects us against infections

like gonorrhea, may be the reason we as a species and society are blessed with grandparents

who can help us look after our children and pass on cultural knowledge to the next generation.

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