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tv   60 Minutes  CBS  June 4, 2023 8:00pm-9:00pm PDT

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. >> announcer: cbs celebrates pride. even before the pandemic, american kids have been dealing with a crisis. rising rates of suicide, self-harm, anxiety, and depression. >> your generation got hit with this in what's supposed to be kind of a fun, care free time. what was lost? what did you guys lose during the pandemic? >> myself. >> yourself? >> yeah. iceland is known as the land of fire and ice, with good reason.
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since 2021, it has had two major volcanic eruptions. >> the heat is still coming out, and it will be for a number of years. >> but even with this, the temperatures here, it's going to take years for this to cool down? >> yes. >> scientists showed "60 minutes" around the island and what they have been able to study, inching them closer to the day when eruptions will be forecast like rain. tonight, we pay homage to our dogs. take a trip through human and canine evolution. how are wolves and man's best friend alike? [ howling ] >> that was so cool. >> you'll be surprised at what we found out. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whittaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm cecelia vega.
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>> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on a special edition of "60 minutes." '? or what if i can do diabetes differently? (avo) now you can with once-weekly mounjaro. mounjaro helps your body regulate blood sugar, and mounjaro can help decrease how much food you eat. 3 out of 4 people reached an a1c of less than 7%. plus people taking mounjaro lost up to 25 pounds. mounjaro is not for people with type 1 diabetes or children. don't take mounjaro, if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop mounjaro, and call your doctor right away, if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, vision changes, or diabetic retinopathy.
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the u.s. surgeon general has called it an urgent public health crisis. a devastating decline in the mental health of kids across the country. according to the cdc, the rates of suicide, self-harm, anxiety, and depression are up among adolescents, a trend that began before the pandemic. last may, we took you to milwaukee, wisconsin, a community trying to help its
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kids navigate a mental health crisis. wisconsin has the fifth highest increase of adolescent self-harm and attempted suicide in the country with rates nearly doubling since before the pandemic. in the emergency room at children's hospital in milwaukee, doctors like michelle picket are seeing more kids desperate for mental health help. >> we unfortunately see a lot of kids who have attempted suicide. that is something that we see, i would say, at least once a shift. >> once a shift? >> oh, yes. yes, unfortunately. >> dr. pickett has worked in the e.r. for ten years. is there any group that's not being impacted? >> no. we're seeing it all. kids, you know, who come from very well-off families, kids who don't, kids who are suburban, urban, rural. we're seeing it all.
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>> the surge of families needing help for their kids has revealed a deficit of people and places to treat them. across the country, the average wait time to get an appointment with a therapist is 48 days. and for children, it's often longer. what does it say to you that the place they have to come is the emergency room? >> that there's something wrong with our system. the emergency room should not be the place to go and get acute mental health care when you're in a crisis. we are not a nice, calm environment. >> but they're desperate. >> yeah, but we're there, and we see everybody. but i wish there were more places that kids could go to get the help that they need. >> we just have a couple of questions for you to answer on the ipad. >> to manage the mental health crisis and heavy case load, dr. pickett introduced an ipad with a series of questions that screen the mental health of every child 10 and older who comes to the e.r. for any reason. among the questions, have you been having thoughts about
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killing yourself? and have you thought your family would be better off if you were dead? harsh questions that can be life savers to the kids who answer them. >> we have had four kids that i know of personally who came in for a completely unrelated problem, so a broken arm or an earache or whatever it was, and actually were acutely suicidal to the point where we needed to transthem to inpatient facility right there. so we're catching kids, you know, who are in very much crisis like that. but we're also catching the kids that just need help and don't know what to do and haven't really talked about this. >> according to the cdc, hospital admissions data shows the number of teenage girls who have been suicidal has increased 50% nationwide since 2019. >> i thought it was normal. >> sophia gimenez was one of them. >> i remember crying every night, not knowing what was going on, and i felt so alone. >> sophia and her friend were in
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eighth grade, looking forward to high school, when covid turned their worlds upside down. >> i have always been a super smart kid and i have always had really good grades. and then as soon as the pandemic hit, i failed a class. when i was virtual, i had no motivation to do anything. i would just sit in my room, never leave, and it was like obvious signs of depression. >> my mental health got really bad, especially my eating disorder. i was basically home alone all day, and my parents, well, they noticed that i wasn't eating. i would refuse to eat. so then they ended up taking me to the hospital. >> sophia had to stay in the hospital for two weeks before a bed opened up at a psychiatric facility. your generation got hit with this in what's supposed to be kind of a fun, carefree time. what was lost? what did you guys lose during the pandemic? >> myself. >> yourself? >> yeah.
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i would definitely say there were big pieces of myself that were definitely lost. i lost friends because we wouldn't see each other. we couldn't go to our first homecoming. i couldn't have an eighth grade graduation. i know that doesn't sound like that big of a deal. >> but it's a big deal when you're in eighth grade. >> yeah. i feel like if the pandemic hadn't happened at all, a lot of my, like, sadness and, like, mental problems would not be as bad as they are. it just made everything worse. >> are we in crisis mode right now? >> we are. we are in crisis mode. and it's scary. >> tammy makhlouf has worked as a child therapist throughout wisconsin for the last 26 years. >> i think there was a hope
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that, you know, we're back in school. the kids are able to see their friends again and play sports. that this would all go away. >> has it? >> no. no, i have noticed that the wait lists are longer. kids are struggling with more anxiety, more depression. so we were in a mental health crisis prior to the pandemic. >> did the pandemic accelerate it? >> i believe so. we're coming out of the pandemic, but kids have still lost two years, two years of socialization, two years of education, two years of their world kind of being shaken up. so as we get, quote, unquote, back to normal, i think kids are stru struggling. even when the pandemic's over, this crisis isn't going to be over. >> cdc numbers show that even before the pandemic, the number of adolescents saying they felt persistently sad or hopeless was up 40% since 2009. there are lots of theories on
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why -- social media, increased screen time, and isolation. but the research isn't definitive. last march, tammy was tapped by children's hospital to run an urgent care walk-in clinic specifically open to treat kids' mental health. >> may i help you guys? >> we are here to get some help. >> open seven days a week from 3:00 to 9:30, it's one of the first clinics of its kind in the country. >> what's going to work for you? and what's going to work for you? >> so when they come to our clinic, we assess them, and we provide them with a therapy session. so we give them some interventions. we give them, like, a plan, an action plan. >> the plans are catered to each child's situation. actionable things families and kids can do while they look for a doctor or facility to make room for them. >> how long have the wait lists been to get help? >> normally, you're put on -- you're scheduled an appointment
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within a few months. >> months? yen if w a child psychiatrist, you're looking at, like, months to a year. >> how important is it to get them help when they need it immediately? >> as days go on, the symptoms get worse. if you have a depressed child, maybe they started out where they were feeling depressed. and then as the days go on, they're suicidal. so it really -- you really do need to get that help and that support right away. >> 12-year-old austin bruenger desperately needed that support during the pandemic. he's a sixth grader at longfellow middle school in milwaukee. how old were you when the pandemic hit? >> yeah, i was 9. i was still going to school, but i kept hearing on the news in the car just, like, pandemic, stay put, quarantine, 14 days. >> whether they first said, hey, you don't have to go to school, what was your reaction at that moment? >> heaven. but then i realized it's the
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complete opposite. >> opposite because like millions of school-age kids, austin was forced intory moat learning for more than a year and disconnected from friends. >> it was like this shut-in. like the only way you could see people is through phones or your family that you live with. >> that isolation took a toll on austin, who was already struggling with news that his parents were getting a divorce. >> and that's when i think everything just started to magnify. he was always asking to see his friends. we couldn't. and i remember there was one moment that he was just on the floor, like, kicking and punching the air, but couldn't describe why he was upset. >> unable to vent with friends and without access to in-person therapy, austin's mother melissa says his world began closing in on him. >> i felt like he was interacting less and just kind of withdrawing into himself and spending a lot of time by
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himself. and i went to tuck him in, and he sid mom, i'm having suicidal thoughts. >> and he was how old? >> he was 9. and like, i was kind of like, i didn't know what to say. i didn't know what to do. >> i just imagined myself going through all these things, like jumping from a building and like taking a knife from my kitchen and ending my life. it was -- it was over 50 of them that just flooded my mind. i don't really know if it was from all the, like, just anti-socialness and not being able -- it also felt like with the divorce came a lot of yelling, and it felt like my parents didn't need me anymore. just really hard to think about that moment. >> desperate, melissa called austin's pediatrician who referred her to outpatient therapists and inpatient psychiatric programs, o t be told there were long waiting lists and no beds.
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>> all this stuff is racing through my head, and then for them to say there's no beds right now. i'm like, how am i going to keep him safe? >> in an effort to try and keep kids safe, wisconsin is trying another approach that's being adopted in other parts of the country. >> hello. how are you guys? >> 21 pediatric clinics across southeastern wisconsin have incorporated full-time therapists inside their offices. >> look who i got. >> offering mental health screenings and treatment as part of routine care. >> okay. so let's start with our assessment. >> dr. brilliant nimmer was the first pediatrician in milwaukee to create a therapist's office inside her office. >> you're saying we're here together. we're going to work on this together, not, we can't help you. go see somebody else.
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>> exactly, having the therapist in our clinic to really have a team together, discuss that patient and family together, to bounce ideas off each other. because we both know them so well. it's so much better for patient care. >> dr. nimmer's clinic treats an underserved community where families typically struggle to get mental health help. therapists have treated more than 800 kids here since the pandemic started. >> i think as pediatricians and primary care providers, like, we can no longer just solely say, you know, mental health providers, you're the only ones that are going to be taking care of our patients in regards to mental health. this is now something that we need to be doing too. >> austin bruenger's pediatrician now has a therapist in her office too. their family was fortunate to find regular outpatient therapy for his depression. >> how do you feel now? >> i don't know. it's much better than before. everything's going up in my
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life.and knowing that i'm frien with everyone in my class, i'm building a better social life, it's fun to just know there's others that like the same things as me. >> austin, it's not an easy thing to talk about all this stuff. why did you agree to tell us about what you have been through? >> because the world needs to. the world needs to know. mental health and stuff like that needs to be treated, or bad stuff could happen. if you're going through that by yourself, try and contact someone you know, like your friend, your family. >> and talk about it? >> yeah. >> since our story first aired, the walk-in mental health clinic at children's wisconsin has treated more than 1,000 kids and has received funding to open three additional clinics just like it. sophia jimenez, neenah hughes, and austin bruenger are doing well and tell us they're getting the mental health help they need.
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find mental health resources for kids and families in crisis at 60minutesovertime.com. i've become a bit of an expert in suncare... an spf-icionando if you will. my bottle of choice? neutrogena ultra sheer. a lightweight blend that protects 6 layers deep with a smooth dry-touch finish. this round is on me. neutrogena ultra sheer. (tap, tap) listen, your deodorant just has to work. i use secret aluminum free.
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months before the geldingadalir volcano erupted in 2021, iceland's volcanologists knew it was coming. a subterranean serpent of magma
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was coiling through the depths, looking for a way out. as the magma stirred, it triggered tens of thousands of earthquakes. when the volcano finally blew, scientists scrambled for the equipment to record it. many predicted a new seismic era for the land of fire and ice, and last summer, the same volcano exploded again. as we first reported in april, scientists have revealed some startling discoveries from the two eruptions, inching us closer to the day when eruptions will be forecast as we forecast rain. we went back to iceland to see how the work was progressing. during the 2021 eruption, we saw chunks of molten rock the size of cars cartwheel into the air. lava boiled up through nine vents as the earth unzipped, but it was number five, this one, that stole the show. we watched from a hilltop.
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look at that. with seismologist kristen jonsdottir, as waves of lava poured down the valley. in the end, scientists calculated there was enough lava to fill an olympic-sized swimming pool every four seconds. we wanted to see what it looked like now, so we flew back to the same hill. remarkable. >> completely changed. >> completely changed. how much lava is out here? >> so the maximum thickness is about 100 meters, and it is the thickest by the crater. >> that's a little more than 300 feet deep. >> yes. >> that's incredible. lava had filled up the valley like a bathtub. the hills where icelanders came for a closer look were gone. so was its tongue-twisting icelandic name. now we had to learn a new one. >> so the whole mass you see
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behind here is called fagradalsfjall. >> fagradalsfjall. >> very good. excellent. >> that means "beautiful valley mountain," a lot easier to pronounce. a new name for a new landscape. jonsdottir, head of earth sciences at iceland's meteorological office, told us the 2021 eruptions were highly unusual. the quake storms that usually reach a crescendo before an eruption instead went silent. the tremors stopped. only then did the volcano explode. >> so this was something we didn't expect because before most eruptions, we see an escalation in the process. so we see more and bigger earthquakes the closer we come to an eruption. >> and what did you find this time? >> everything got quiet. and we thought, okay, maybe this is it. we're not going to see an eruption this time. but we were wrong. >> the magma bomb lasted six months.
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then this past august, the volcano exploded again. this time, scientists weren't fooled. when the earthquake stopped, they ran tests that showed the volcano wasn't sleeping. rocks were still moving. gas escaping. scientists called an audible and warned the volcano would likely blow within 24 hours. they were right. today, the crater is still cooling. it's quiet for now. look at that. >> wow. >> remember when we flew around the plume, the fount >> i remember. i didn't feel as safe at that point. >> in 2021, we had to veer away from the crater. it was too dangerous to get any closer. >> this feels much safer. >> do you think the eruption here is completely over? >> right now, we are not seeing anything. but we also know that this can happen quite quickly. the warning time we have is not
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necessarily going to be many weeks but maybe just a couple of days. >> the lava field is like a record of the eruption. so we set off at the crack of dawn. that's an hour before noon when the winter sun rises this far north. soon we ran out of road. then we ran out of steam. our trucks had 42-inch tires, but that was no match for snow that was as fine as sugar. finally, we arrived to find a vast sea of volcanic rock just six months old. geophysicist freysteinn sigmundson from the university of iceland gave us a tour. >> it is freezing out here, but this is warm, huh? >> yeah, feel it. this is the heat of the lava. >> look at that. freysteinn sigmundson told us if we dug just 20 feet below where we were standing, we would find molten rock still at a scorching
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1,800 degrees. >> the heat is still coming out, and it will be for a number of years. >> even with this, the temperatures here, it's going to take years for this to cool down. >> yes, yes. it will. >> it's that hot? >> it's that hot and that thick. >> incredible. sigmundsson told us these eruptions had spewed out the la they cooled in different shapes. some were as smooth as sidewalk, gnarled like roots, or stretched taut like rope. >> i would say this might be one of the best places on planet earth to see this lava. >> sigmundsson told us he now wants to find out if their most recent finding, a seismic decline before an eruption, might apply to similar volcanoes in japan, russia, or the united states. it's urgent to do so, he told us, as warmer temperatures melt
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the glaciers that sit like a pressurized lid on many of the world's most volatile volcanoes. so the retreating glaciers have an effect on volcanoes? >> yes. retreating glaciers can increase the possibility of eruptions. >> how so? >> the glaciers, they are pushing down on the earth. there's a force. so if the glaciers are moving, it is a force. already, the retreat of glaciers in iceland, they're causing a lot more of new magma being formed under iceland than normally. >> with this new magma came new discoveries. in 2021, ed marshall, a texas trained geophysicist, showed us the lava wall when it was a mere 30 feet high. we watched as he scooped the molten lava, flash-cooling it in water. this trip we met marshall in his lab at the university of iceland to see what he had found. >> we have an instrument called an icpoes.
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>> that stands for? >> inductively coupled plasma spectrometer. >> the impossibly named machine is able to measure with pinpoint accuracy the chemical composition of the rock. but marshall wasn't expecting what they found next. crystals. so what did you learn from these? >> we learned that they're coming from nine miles deep below the volcano. >> nine miles down? >> mm-hmm. it's actually coming from a part of the earth that we don't normally get to sample, the boundary between the crust and mantle. >> the magma had come straight up like an express elevator from deep in the mantel, opening a rare window into the earth's deep plumbing. ed marshall showed up samples of the different lavas he's collected. >> so here, we have a different kind of lava.
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>> much smoother. >> yeah. >> when the lavas were still red hot, they flowed at different speeds. some oozed out of the volcano. others exploded, moving as fast as ten miles per hour. >> it's important to figure it out because they have different hazard potential. you know, if you're worried about your town being covered by lava -- >> you're more worried about this one. >> exactly. >> like so many other volcanologists who rushed to the eruption site in 2021, this self-described lab rat told us he was awed by the sheer power on display. >> you have work to do, but there are times when you just sit there and stare at the volcano. it's just so much grander than you. it's kind of this almost divine kind of presence. >> every volcano, as we learned, has its own personality. if fagradalsfjall had elements of the divine, others were not as beatific. take this one, routinely described as cranky, overdue for
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an eruption, it's hidden beneath a glacier, making it almost impossible to monitor. so seismologist kristin jonsdottir and her european partners tried something new, burying a coil of fiberoptic cables in the icecap. >> so the cable we use was only 4 millimeters thick. and so thin they are actually thinner than a human hair. yeah, it's a bit funny, like you're trenching a very 13 kilometer long hair along a volcano. >> they devised a makeshift trenching sled to bury the cables to try to pick up volcanic tremors. it worked. where regular seismometers barely registered a pulse, the fiberoptic cable showed grimsvotn was grumbling irritably inside its icy tomb. jonsdottir told us it could be a game-changer. and you found how many more
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earthquakes? >> 100 times more. >> found with this fiber? >> yes. >> did you find something in the pattern here that you could say, ah, if we see this, this indicates that an eruption is going to happen? >> so the potential here is really to be able to understand the volcanoes and the plumbing system. you know, just being able to see this high-definition picture that we were not able to see before. >> and this is just standard cable? the cable that we use for bringing television into our homes? >> exactly. >> but iceland is one of the few places in the world to actively watch its volcanoes. the lack of monitoring elsewhere can sometimes spell disaster. like the 2018 bang out of the blue in indonesia that killed 400 people. cornell geophysicist matthew pritchard told us they've got to do a better job. >> so there are about 600 that have erupted in historic times the last 500 years. of those, only about 35% have continuous monitoring at them. >> what's the problem?
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>> well, it's expense. it's maintaining these instruments. again, once a volcano stops erupting, should we continue to monitor it, or has it gone to sleep for another couple hundred years? it's a question of priorities, a question of resources. >> but pritchard told us there's a solution on hand. spying on volcanoes from space. he's spearheading an effort to continuously monitor the world's most restless volcanoes. take mauna loa in hawaii. this past november, it tore open the earth after 38 years of slumber. on the ground, magma forced its way through deep layers of rock until it cracked the earth's surface. from space, it looked like this. >> so each one of these contours here means 25 centimeters of ground motion. on this side of the rift, it moved this way about 25 centimeters. and then this side, in the opposite direction.
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so this is evidence of the magma coming up through the system and pushing the ground to the side as it was coming out to erupt. >> and all of this captured by satellite. >> yes. >> the satellite can detect what level of movement on the surface of the earth? >> best-case scenario, a few millimeters. >> a few millimeters, from space? >> that's right. >> he told us the new gold standard would be to combine ground sensors with satellite images to help detect eruptions earlier. next year, a new satellite will be launched that will use radar waves capable of penetrating dense jungle or snow and seeing deeper underground than ever before. but as technology turbo charges the ability of volcanologists to forecast eruptions, we were reminded the earth has been at this far longer than scientists have been collecting data. and that, one told us, keeps you humble. - the company goes to the firstborn, audrey.
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there's a good chance that many of you watching right now have a dog somewhere nearby. but what do you actually know about where dogs come from? you're probably aware they evolved from wolves, but how and when? it turns out much of that is still a mystery. there are some intriguing clues, however, that have been discovered in the dna of dogs and wolves. clues that just might give us a better understanding of how they and we evolved. you have heard of survival of the fittest, but as we first reported in november, a scientist at duke university says the term that may best describe dogs' evolutionary success is survival of the friendliest. there's no doubt dogs are an evolutionary triumph.
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there's an estimated billion of them on the planet, and they've nosed their way into every corner of our lives. living with us, working with us. >> yes, good boy. >> and loving us. what is it you're trying to understand about dogs? >> i'm really interested in where dogs come from. and i think it teaches us a lot about where humans came from. >> brian hare, an evolutionary university, has spent the last 25 years studying animal evolution. >> puppy, look! >> i think what really summarizes the link between dog and human evolution is survival of the friendliest. >> what about survival of the fittest? >> survival of the fittest is a misconstrual in the public mind of what evolution is. it's like the idea the biggest, the strongest are always the one that win. >> >> might makes right. >> not at all. dogs are exhibit a of this. >> hare says it may be hard to imagine, but that sweet dog you love started out as this. a wild predatory wolf.
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and their evolutionary story began at least 20,000 years ago, when humans were hunter/gatherers. >> what we believe happened, and we have science to show some of this, is that wolves chose us. a population of wolves actually became attracted to humans, and they were at an advantage because they were eating garbage, things people were leaving around home. and the wolves that sort of basically gave up on being wolfy and hunting and were attracted and friendliest to humans were at the huge advantage. >> some dogs were able to feed off scraps, they weren't aggressive. over time, they became domesticated. >> that's exactly right. >> to better understand how the two species diverge so drastically, brian came here to the wildlife science center in minnesota. >> you want to guard and i'll drag? >> yeah. >> it's run by director peggy callahan and her 23-year-old daughter, meg. both skilled, we saw, at navigating a cage full of hungry
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wolves. >> back up, mj. >> back up. >> back up. >> no, no, i know you're hungry. this is only going as far as it's going. >> yeah, you might want to hand it over. >> there are 110 gray wolves here. >> hi. >> some were rescued from the wild, but most were hand raised by peggy and meg. they're divided into packs, separated by chain link fences. this pack is named after the '80s horror movie, "children of the corn." so i saw the movie "children of the corn," which is terrifying. why is this pack called children of the corn? >> for terrifying reasons. they attacked and killed their father and then tried to kill their mother. >> this pack? >> this pack. >> why did their kill their father? >> opportunity. >> opportunity? >> yep. >> wow. >> peggy told us the only reason we were able to sit among the children of the corn is because these wolves view her as the dominant member of their pack.
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why is it important that in their mind you're dominant to them? >> the reverse is quite dangerous. i know that they're capable of . their teeth, their jaw pressure is enormous. >> even now with the wolves coming behind you, you're aware they're behind you. >> yes. you have to have eyes on the back of your head. >> they're assessing, who are we, who's dominant, could i take this person? >> absolutely. i don't think they're planning anything. but i think should an opportunity afford, they're incredible opportunists. >> peggy works hard to secure the upper hand. if you have any doubt about her position as the alpha dog, just listen. [ howling ] >> goosebumps every time.
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>> that was so cool. >> wouldn't you learn to howl if that happened? >> what is the significance of the howl? >> they use it to mark territory. they also will howl at intruders to get them to leave. >> becoming dominant over a wolf starts early. if a pup needs to be taken away from its mother for health or research purposes, meg steps in. >> told you i'd bring a wolf puppy to visit. >> when we were there with her last year, she was taking 1-month-old philo everywhere, even the morning coffee run. >> sometimes if he gets really mouthy -- ouch -- like that. enough. good boy. so it's just a little correction. i just pinch and i growl. and then the second he stops growling, i'm like, oh, i whine to him and rub his belly and stuff. >> that's what his mother would do? >> exactly, yeah. >> i'm sorry. some wolf that looked just like
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you was back-talking me there. not you. >> don't be fooled. dominance has its limits. this is mj. this is the dominant female? >> yes. >> she was also hand-raised and likes a belly rub, too, that is until she doesn't. >> she's tolerating this with us. she's -- i mean oh, oh, no, she's not. okay, enough. okay. she just said stop. >> i heard. >> to see just how far dogs have evolved because of domestication, brian hare has set up a puppy kindergarten at duke university. students help raise labrador puppies. they tag along. cruising the quad, going to basketball practice, even the track team's photo shoot. part of the program is aimed at training service dogs for the organization canine companions, but there's research being done
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too. to compare the puppies to hand-raised wolf pups, brian's team runs them through a series of behavioral tests. >> look, look. okay. yes, good job. >> watch again. >> puppy, look. >> notice how this puppy looks back and forth from the researcher to the bowl and then immediately follows her point. >> puppy, look. >> philo the wolf puppy may look like a dog, but watch him taking the same test. >> puppy look, okay. okay, baby. what is it? >> you can see philo didn't follow the point here. >> but a puppy at this age would? >> totally, exactly. it looks like dog puppies come into the world kind of prepared to understand us in a way wolf puppies are not because of domestication and interacting with us. >> you have done testing with dozens of wolves. overall, what have you found? >> you can spend 24 hours a day with, say, a wolf puppy. and even after you have done
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that fev months,y'no peoe. to b th want be with wolves. wt hapt case of dogs. as a species, they're actually what's known as xenophilic. they're attracted to new things and new people. >> how much of that is in their genes? back in 2010, to figure that out, hare's colleague, bridget vonholdt, started to compare the dna of dogs to wolves. you have located some specific genes that lead to friendly behavior. >> that's right. when we sequenced a bunch of dogs and a bunch of wolves, we used that to then search for mutations in the dog genome that only dogs had. and we came out with a really nice hot spot of mutations on chromosome number six in the dog genome. that's what's highlighted here. >> you can actually pinpoint genetic mutations in dogs that make that dog friendly to humans in a way that wolves are not?
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>> absolutely. >> wow. >> this wama wovevoed over time.that >> that's right. so we can imagine back in the pre-dog era where there were wolves running around, and some of those wolves were maybe making their dens closer to human settlements. i hypothesize if i could go and sequence those wolves, they would carry maybe two of these mutations. and the rest of the wolves maybe none. >> bridget calls these friendliness mutations. so does my dog really love me or is my dog just acting out on its genetic code? >> she absolutely loves you. she has the genetic predisposition to wholeheartedly love you more than she can probably handle. >> what came next in vonholdt's research stunned her and us. she found the location of the friendliness mutations in dogs corresponds to the same genes
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that when deleted in humans cause a rare condition called williams syndrome. her study established one of the first genetic links in behavior between dogs and human. meet 36-year-old ben monkaba. >> how are, you sir? >> i'm well. how are you, sir? >> ben is no stranger to "60 minutes." when he was 11 in 1997, morley safer spoke with him on a story on williams syndrome. >> how are you? people with williams syndrome like ben are often unusually outgoing and friendly, leading some to call it cocktail party personality. we were with ben at his favorite pub when he jumped up mid-dinner to join the band. ♪ look at this night ♪ ♪ and it don't seem so lonely ♪ >> what is it that makes you unique? >> what makes me unique is my
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way of giving happiness to people. my friendliness, my kindness. >> i have to say, just meeting you, you have made me smile the moment we met. >> when people are happy it makes me feel like i have achieved something. >> williams syndrome is a lifelong condition that often causes serious medical problems and mental disabilities. ben and others like him are so trusting and friendly, they can sometimes be taken advantage of. just explain what is different about ben genetically? >> sure, ben is missing 25 genes on chromosome seven, that all of those genes line up. that's one tenth of 1% of their genetic makeup that is missing. >> that deletion in ben's dna and others with williams syndrome involved the same genes that contain the friendliness mutations discovered in dogs. >> ben, what do you think about that? there might be a link in friendliness in dogs and
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friendliness in humans? >> it just makes me feel so happy and proud that dogs and people have similarities. >> when the discovery was announced in 2017, terry was head of the williams syndrome association. she reached out to some members to see how they felt about it. >> one of the parents that i called said, are you kidding? i'm sure that if a tail was put on my son, it would be wagging all the time. so i think that really put it into perspective. >> understanding why dogs are so friendly, brian hare tells us, is helping unravel the mystery of how homo sapiens came to be the most dominant species on earth. what does our understanding of dog evolution tell us about human evolution? >> i think what dog evolution teaches us is that actually how you get ahead in the game of life isyou evolve a new way to be friendly that leads to a new form of cooperation. humans 100,000 years ago, our species was not alone.
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there were at least four to five other human species. the question then becomes, why are we the only one left? and we think, and what dogs point to, is that we were the friendliest species that ever evolved among humans. and that we survived because we are friendly. >> survival of the friendliest, a successful evolutionary strategy many humans today would be wise to remember. narrator: the man with the troublesome hemorrhoid enters the room. phil: excuse me? hillary: that wasn't me. narrator: said hillary, who's only taken 347 steps today. hillary: i cycled here. narrator: speaking of cycles, mary's period is due to start in three days. mary: how do they know so much about us? narrator: your all sharing health data without realizing it. that's how i know about kevin's rash. who's next? wait... what's that in your hand? no, no, stop! oh you're no fun. [lock clicks shut] good checkup?
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i'm bill whittaker. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." around here, we like to keep things simple and honest. sure do. that's why at progressive, we show you rates from other companies, even if they're lower than ours, so you can choose what's best for your family. comparing rates used to be a hard day's work, but not with autoquote explorer. -need me to help again? -no. so join us and taste why progressive is the name people trust. sorry, are we talking about apples now or insurance? [ laughter ]
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♪ ♪ man: ♪ way, hay and up she rises ♪ ♪ way, hay and up she rises ♪ ♪ way, hay and up she rises ♪ ♪ early in the ♪ ♪ mor... ♪ ♪ orning... ♪ ♪ way, hay and up she rises ♪ ♪ way, hay and up she rises. ♪ (blender stops) oh, what the devil. (sighs)