Latest news with #Abell3667
The Print
10-08-2025
- Health
- The Print
Apple snails can regrow their eyes & lithium plays a critical role in our bodies, not just in EVs
By studying human brain tissue and mouse models, the researchers discovered that as Alzheimer's progresses, lithium in the brain gets trapped by amyloid plaques—clumps of protein that are a hallmark of the disease. This prevents lithium from protecting brain cells. The study by researchers from Harvard Medical School found, for the first time ever, that the human body naturally produces lithium and that it plays a role in slowing brain ageing. Natural lithium protects brain cells and its depletion is among the first changes that leads to memory loss, the research showed. New Delhi: The critical mineral lithium, a key component in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, is also present in the human body. And it could hold the cure for Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published Wednesday in peer-reviewed journal Nature. The team, interestingly, also developed a new compound, lithium orotate, that avoids getting trapped by these plaques. In trials on mice, this compound reversed brain damage and restored memory function. The study said that future trials in humans could validate lithium's role as a missing link in understanding and preventing Alzheimer's disease. Snails can regrow the eye. Can it help humans? Small apple snails may hold the key to treatment for human eye injuries, including regeneration of the eye. A new study in Nature journal, published Wednesday, said that freshwater snails can fully regenerate their complex 'camera-type' eyes, which are very similar in structure and genes to the human eye. Led by the University of California, Davis, the research showed how snails regrow their eyes within a month, forming the lens, retina and even reconnecting optic nerves in case of damage. What makes the breakthrough exciting is that apple snail eyes share key developmental genes with humans, including pax6, a master gene for eye formation. Using CRISPR, a gene-editing technology, the team showed that disabling the pax6 gene in snails stops the eye from forming entirely, confirming its crucial role. Now, the scientists are exploring whether the gene also governs eye regeneration in snails. The scientists did point out that while the snails can anatomically form their eyes all over again, they're not sure if they can see the same with the new eyes. Their next experiment would be to test whether regrown eyes and the original ones work similarly. Astronomers find 'bridge of stars' between galaxies Astronomers from Brown University in the US have captured a bridge of stars stretching a million light-years between two galaxies in the Abell 3667 cluster, located 700 million light-years away from Earth. The faint glow that they have captured in high-resolution images is known as intracluster light (ICL). It is made when stars are being ripped from one galaxy and pulled into another—direct evidence that the two brightest galaxies in the cluster are merging. The discovery, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters Tuesday, used over 28 hours of data from the Dark Energy Camera in Chile. It confirms that the two galaxy clusters are merging in Abell 3667, a process that was previously suggested only by X-ray and radio observation. Insight from fossilised bird poop An intriguing study from University of Adelaide published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology has found that over 80 percent of parasite species once found on the kākāpō, a critically endangered New Zealand parrot, have vanished. The researchers' analysis process? Bird poop. The researchers analysed ancient and modern kākāpō droppings, some over 1,500 years old, using DNA and microscopy. They discovered that 9 of 16 parasite species found in the parrot's droppings disappeared before the 1990s, and four more were lost after the 1990s when the bird came under full population management by the New Zealand government. Though often seen as harmful, parasites are very important from an ecological sense, because they boost host immunity and suppress more dangerous infections. Their loss could have unseen impacts on both host species and ecosystems. The study highlights the need for global parasite conservation strategies, as coextinctions may be more common than previously believed. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: A UK health study has collected a whopping 100,000 full-body scans, and Neanderthals had 'family recipes'
Gizmodo
05-08-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Deepest-Ever Field Image of Giant Galaxy Cluster Is a Brutal Reminder of Your Cosmic Insignificance
When it comes to deep space observations, our cosmological insignificance seems to grow with the resolution of our telescopes' cameras. In the latest advance, astronomers constructed the deepest-ever images of Abell 3667, a massive galaxy cluster located 700 million light-years from Earth—and most of the tiny dots you see represent entire galaxies. But the latest images of Abell 3667 also offer 'whispering evidence of past galactic interactions,' which astronomers document in detail in a paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The team, led by astronomers from Brown University, caught Abell 3677 at a particularly lustrous moment in space-time, during a merger of two of the clusters' brightest galaxies. The stellar union, resembling a starry bridge stretching across the cluster, generated powerful gravitational bursts that yanked away the occasional stray star from other galaxies. Together, these lone stars emit a faint glow known as intracluster light (ICL)—and it's this phenomenon that researchers are investigating to explore Abell 3677's past. Specifically, it appears likely that Abell 3667 also formed from the rapid merger of two galaxy clusters, which previous X-ray and radio observations had predicted. This latest observation, however, represents the first ever optical evidence to support this idea. 'This is the first time a feature of this scale and size has been found in a local galaxy cluster,' Anthony Englert, study lead author, said in a statement. 'We knew that it was possible for a bridge like this to form between two galaxies, but it hadn't been documented anywhere before now. It was a huge surprise that we were able to image such a faint feature.' The team had an unusually long observation period for this project, which partly enabled them to construct such a detailed image. In addition to the intracluster light, the researchers captured faint, wispy puffs of cosmic dust called integrated flux nebulae, seen as bluish ribbons of light streaking across the image. 'It was just a happy coincidence that so many people had imaged Abell 3667 over the years, and we were able to stack all of those observations together,' Englert noted. The researchers have some outstanding questions about Abell 3677 and, more importantly, intracluster light. Fortunately, their timing couldn't have been more impeccable; with the Rubin Telescope officially up and running, astronomers are now better equipped to further probe these questions. 'Rubin is going to be able to image ICL in much the same way as we did here, but it's going to do it for every single local galaxy cluster in the southern sky,' Englert said. 'What we did is just a small sliver of what Rubin is going to be able to do. It's really going to blow the study of the ICL wide open.' Essentially, if this new image doesn't make you feel small, you might want to wait for the soon-to-come Rubin versions of this image. In fact, if Englert is right, we'll be seeing multiple versions of this image, and in higher resolution, too. So, for better or worse, we humans will only get smaller from here.
