Kangaroos are pretty peculiar on the outside: They’re the world’s largest marsupials, they hop to get around, and they use their tails as a fifth limb. But they’re also pretty unusual on the inside: Female kangaroos have two vaginas — or three, if they’ve given birth. Why could that be? The most likely explanation is … Read more
You may have heard the myth that humans use only 10% of their brains. That statement is patently untrue — most people use all of their brains, all of the time. But for people who have survived a stroke, traumatic brain injuries or brain resectioning surgeries, things do get less clear. In fact, many of … Read more
We think of oxygen as life, sustenance, a literal breath of fresh air. But it’s actually a very reactive element. Anyone who’s burned a log has witnessed this firsthand. So why do so many life-forms breathe oxygen? There are probably thousands of kinds of metabolisms, or chemical processes that maintain life, said Donald Canfield, a … Read more
Chemical fingerprints of life have been found on a distant exoplanet by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is the “most promising” evidence yet for alien life, scientists say. These chemicals were detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet named K2-18b, which is located 124 light-years away from Earth and orbits its star in … Read more
All over the world, frogs are being wiped out by the chytrid fungus. At least 500 species have declined, including as many as 90 species now presumed extinct. This catastrophic and ongoing biodiversity loss surpasses the devastation wrought by other notorious invasive species such as cats, rats and even cane toads. Short of removing species … Read more
When you look in a mirror, the reflection is fundamentally you, but with a perfect reversal of all your features. This illustrates a phenomenon we also see in the tiny world of molecules. Some molecules exist as mirror images of themselves, known as “enantiomers”, that can’t be superimposed on one another. This concept is known … Read more
Ground squirrels usually eat seeds and nuts, but in a park in California, these cute, furry creatures have turned into carnivorous killers, mercilessly hunting down voles to peel the flesh from their bones. The unusual new behavior, which researchers caught on camera in Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, could be driven by an … Read more
Disease name: Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) Affected populations: The disease affects an estimated 1 to 2 people per million every year, according to the National Organization of Rare Disorders. FFI is passed from parent to child, and between 50 and 70 families worldwide are believed to carry the genetic mutation that causes FFI. Males and … Read more
If you’ve ever seen yourself through a thermal imaging camera, you’ll know that your body produces lots of heat. This is in fact a waste product of our metabolism. Every square foot of the human body gives off heat equivalent to about 19 matches per hour. Unfortunately, much of this heat simply escapes into the … Read more
In an early-stage clinical trial, scientists used designer immune cells to “reboot” the immune systems of patients with various autoimmune diseases. The trial used a form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which has become a mainstay treatment for blood cancers, like leukemia. Only a few patients were included in this initial trial, … Read more
