This story was originally published in our November/December 2021 issue as "Thoughts from a Brain Collector." Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.
On a typical day at the beach, you might see surfers rushing out into the waves or retirees strolling through the sand with metal detectors. Then there’s Kara Yopak. She’s on the hunt for brains — shark brains, to be exact.
To date, she’s collected over 400 brains from shark species all over the world. But it’s not just a hobby; Yopak, a biology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington who leads the aptly-named ZoMBIE lab, is examining these complex organs to better understand how sharks behave.
