Stem cell treatment for diabetes and dolphin smiles
This week’s news roundup covers the spread of the Marburg virus, stem cell treatments for diabetes, and dolphin smiles.
Anassa Luis Tejada/scientific american
Rachel Feltman:Happy Monday, listeners! Start your week by catching up on the latest science news. for scientific american‘s science fastI’m Rachel Feltman.
As of Friday, when this recording was made, the death toll from Hurricane Helen was still rising. hundreds of people are missing Hundreds of miles away, at least 1 million people are without power. Buncombe County, North Carolina, where Asheville is located; I experienced what the official called me. “The Desolation of the Bible.” Of course, the loss of life is inherently catastrophic, but experts say what happened in Asheville should concern us all on another level. Asheville is over 2,000 feet above sea level and located hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline.along with its temperate climate, was previously dubbed a “climate paradise” by the media. Asheville isn’t the only place to receive such a designation before experiencing unprecedented extreme weather. all We need to prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by Helen. This Wednesday, we’ll talk more about the changing risks of hurricane season.
In a more hopeful story, researchers say they used stem cell therapy to effectively reverse type 1 diabetes in a 25-year-old woman. Her case is outlined in a study published late last month. cell. Scientists in Beijing extracted cells from type 1 diabetic patients and returned them to a pluripotent state using an improved version of an existing technique. This means that cells can be induced to turn into different types of cells. The researchers then used these cells to create islets. Islets are pancreatic cells that produce hormones such as insulin and glucagon and are attacked by the immune system of people with type 1 diabetes. In June 2023, the researchers injected the equivalent of more than 1 million of these islets into women’s abdominal muscles. The procedure reportedly took less than 30 minutes, and within three months, the woman was able to produce enough insulin on her own that she didn’t need injections. These days, she is reportedly able to eat sugar without causing dangerous blood sugar spikes or crashes. Of course, this needs to be replicated in many more patients before it is ready for widespread use, but the results are still very interesting. Additionally, several other research groups are already working on using stem cells to treat diabetes.
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According to public health news, the first outbreak of Marburg virus has been confirmed in Rwanda, which is already one of the largest outbreaks on record. most As of last Thursday, 36 people were confirmed to have been infected. They were medical workers from two facilities in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Marburg disease is transmitted by fruit bats and can spread from person to person, with an average fatality rate of 50% (but can be much higher) If symptoms are not managed early with symptomatic treatment and hydration. There is currently no approved vaccine for this virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever, and the fact that it is widespread in urban and tourist centers is cause for concern. Contact tracing has already identified hundreds of people who may have come into contact with the virus. and one of them recently traveled to Belgiumbut they reportedly completed the surveillance period without showing symptoms. The World Health Organization said it believes the risk of local outbreaks is high, but that the global risk is currently considered low. So protecting broken skin and keeping mucous membranes away from other people’s saliva is still solid advice, especially when flying.
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Here’s something very exciting: scientists say They mapped every neuron and synapse in the adult brain. There’s just one small caveat. That is, the brain belonged to a fruit fly. But you have to start somewhere! In a series of papers published last Wednesday, naturean international team of scientists called the “FlyWire Consortium” published a diagram of all 139,255 neurons. This is not the first whole-brain map of this kind, but previous studies have shown smaller brains, such as Drosophila larvae, which have just over 3,000 neurons, and Caenorhabditis elegans, which has just over 300 neurons. I’ve been working on my noggin. This is the first time that scientists have mapped the entire brain of a creature that can see and walk, and the study authors say that even though the brain they mapped is less than a millimeter in diameter, this He says this is a major step toward taking a closer look at the large and complex brain. The scientists have made their findings available for free online so that other neuroscientists can use them in their research.
Speaking of small brains doing big things, a study published last Thursday delves into the history of agriculture in ants, not humans. Hundreds of species of ants cultivate edible fungi. New research suggests This custom dates back millions of years. Researchers analyzed the DNA of ants and fungi to trace back their respective evolutionary lineages and concluded that they had been progressing smoothly for about 66 million years. If this number sounds familiar, it’s probably because it’s around the same time that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. The study authors found that the same conditions that fostered the mass extinction – when dust and debris blocked the sun and suffocated much of the Earth’s plant life – would have provided fungi with large amounts of dead organic matter to feed on. Deaf, he points out. In other words, it’s a pretty fun time to be a fungus, and if you’re an ant trying to survive, eating mushrooms probably seems like a pretty good thing. About 40 million years later, ants developed what scientists call advanced agriculture, the study authors said.Practices such as protecting fungi crops and find fresh plants to feed them. This probably coincided with environmental changes that led to increased aridity in some areas. Essentially, ants transport fungi from lush, moist tropical forests where crops don’t need much help to grow, and from dry habitats where fungi are completely dependent on agricultural insects for survival. Moved to.
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Here’s another animal story that’s sure to make you smile. If not, I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to help you. new Research shows that bottlenose dolphins behave with their mouths open Facial expressions used to communicate with each other during performance. In layman’s terms, this means that scientists think dolphins smile when they’re having fun with each other. Scientists observed captive bottlenose dolphins playing alone, with humans, and with other dolphins. The so-called “open-mouth play” phenomenon was only caught once when the dolphins were playing alone, but more than 1,200 were recorded when the dolphins were behaving socially. Additionally, almost all of them occurred when the dolphins were playing with other dolphins rather than with humans, and they were most likely to say cheese when their playmates could see their faces. The dolphins returned the gesture about a third of the time. Are they just imitating each other? perhaps. But the truth is, we don’t actually know why humans laugh. It’s a gesture of amusement that crosses cultures, but physiologically it’s very similar to facial expressions. Meaning of fear or submission in other primates. So whatever these marine mammals are up to, it’ll definitely be interesting to see what scientists can discover about their goofy grins.
That’s all for this week’s news summary. We’ll talk more about hurricanes and climate change on Wednesday. And on Friday, we get a whole new fascination with the science of folk music. Will you listen to Rachel Feltman sing a folk song? perhaps. It all depends on the production team saving me from myself.
science fast It is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg, and Jeff DelVisio. Shayna Possess and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. Today’s episode was edited by Anassa Luis Tejada. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe scientific american Check out more latest and in-depth science news.
for scientific american, Rachel Feltman. See you next time!
