Hi there. This week, the biggest science-adjacent story has been Charlotte — no not the barn spider, or the U.S. city, or even Rick Flair’s WWE-wrestling daughter. We’re talking about Charlotte the stingray.

Charlotte is a round stingray who lives in an aquarium in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Recently, the aquarium owners discovered that Charlotte was pregnant — but mysteriously, she did so with no male stingrays in the tank…

Was she impregnated by one of her male shark tank-mates? Experts are saying that’s impossible. Instead, they suggest that it’s a rare case of parthenogenesis — a type of asexual reproduction in which offspring develop from unfertilized eggs. It’s a miracle birth, and the whole incident has gone hilariously viral.

But anyways, here’s what’s been going on in the world of science:

BIOLOGY

Animals watch each other to develop their fear response

How do animals learn friend from foe? In the wild, it’s pretty important to know which other creatures are your pals, and which ones are looking at you like lunch. Trial and error is far too risky — so animals often identify dangers by watching others, a process called observational fear learning (OFL). However, the actual brain mechanisms behind OFL have never been fully understood, until now.

What’d we find?

Scientists focused on the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), a brain area known for processing social cues and understanding threats. They found that this area is crucial for OFL in mice and that neurons in this part of the brain create a unique code for observing fear, different from direct experiences. Now, researchers are wondering how this discovery could help us better understand social learning and fear-related behaviors in humans.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-07008-1

ASTRONOMY

Hang on, how old is that galaxy?

After the Big Bang, you could imagine it took a while to get everything… organized. And galaxies, as massive as they are, should take a very long time to form. Therefore, as we look back billions of years in the early universe, there shouldn’t be very many huge galaxies, right? Well, that’s what astrophysicists assumed too — until a recent discovery from the James Webb Telescope.

What did we see?

Researchers studying a distant galaxy, named ZF-UDS-7329, found it contained much older stars than expected. These stars formed around 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought, and at a time when it was believed there wasn’t enough dark matter around to help form massive galaxies.

Why’s this important?

This discovery raises questions about our current understanding of early galaxy formation and suggests that there might be more early galaxies out there yet to be detected…

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07191-9

IMMUNOLOGY

Turns out smoking also has a major impact on your immune system

Everyone’s immune system is different — and there are tons of variables that determine how someone responds to a disease or infection. One major part of immune response is the production of cytokines, small proteins that act as signaling molecules and regulators throughout the immune process. Recently, a team of researchers set out to determine what variables impact cytokine production the most.

What’d they discover?

The scientists found that smoking, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, and body mass index all have a major influence on cytokine production. Additionally, they discovered that smoking affects both innate (immediate) and adaptive (long-term) immune responses. And while the study suggests smoking’s impact on innate response fades quickly after quitting, its effect on adaptive response persists because of changes in gene expression. This doesn’t mean that smoking changes your DNA in any way, but it does affect how your body uses your genes.

“So what?” – Don Draper

These findings show that smoking actually changes the way our bodies respond to infection in both in the short-term and in the long-term. And proper cytokine production is important — an unregulated immune system opens the door for all kinds of health risks, including infections, cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06968-8

ENVIRONMENT

Human land-use makes big changes to ecosystem food webs

In nature, things are eating each other all the time — a while they do that, they’re transferring energy between one another. We track that with what’s called a food chain. And in an entire ecosystem, multiple intertwining food chains form a food web. Recently, scientists wanted to explore how human land-use affects these food webs.

Well, does it?

The researchers conducted an experiment in Indonesia comparing the transfer of energy in rainforests versus oil palm and rubber plantations. They found that in rainforests, energy fluxes happened in both the soil and above ground in the canopy, while on plantations, a majority of energy went to earthworms. Altogether, this study shows that changes in tropical land-use (such as turning a forest into a farm) result in a dramatic restructuring of food webs, both above and below the ground, which ultimately decreases local animal biodiversity.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07083-y

MEDICINE

How loud noises cause hearing loss (and how to prevent it)

Crazy concerts? Bumping nightclubs? Accidentally turn up the volume on your headphones? We’ve all felt the sensation of “ringing ears”, but why does it happen? Or even worse, total hearing loss — how, biologically, can a sound damage our body that much? Now, scientists have an answer.

WHAT IS IT? Sorry. What is it?

Researchers have shown that noise-induced hearing loss comes from cellular damage in the inner ear associated with excess zinc — a mineral that’s essential for cellular function and hearing. Experiments performed in mice showed drugs that work as molecular sponges trapping excess zinc can help restore lost hearing or, if administered before an expected loud sound, can protect from hearing loss. These findings could lead to the development of new therapies to protect and restore hearing in people exposed to loud noise.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310561121

TOP HEADLINES

Science in the News

• Charles Darwin’s complete library has been released online for the first time in history.

• Artificial cartilage has been grown in a lab using 3D printing.

• A recent atmospheric modeling discovery may help identify habitable, Earth-like exoplanets.

• Researchers have developed a new biomanufacturing method using chemically-synthesized sugar.

• A neural prosthetic device has successfully been used to recall certain memories.

• Scientists have created an improved surgical needle holder by studying the jaws of ants.

• New sustainable hydrogel may be the next big green architectural material.

IN THE MICROSCOPE

What’s quantum computing?

Quantum computing is used for solving incredibly complex problems much faster than “regular computers”. It works by using the properties of quantum mechanics, which are the rules that govern tiny particles like electrons and photons.

Regular computers use bits, which are like tiny switches that can either be turned on or off, representing 0s or 1s. But quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time — thanks to a property called superposition. With this, quantum computers can consider lots possible solutions to a problem simultaneously, making them incredibly powerful for certain types of calculations.

Quantum computing is important because it has the potential to revolutionize fields like cryptography (code-breaking), drug discovery, and all other kinds of optimization. For example, it could help us find new medicines faster, improve systems like traffic flow, and even crack codes that would take regular computers millions of years to decipher…

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