Photo highlights from T-Rex World Championship Races
The Sunday event started in 2017 as a pest control company's team-building activity.
The actual dinosaur roamed the planet between 65 million and 67 million years ago. A study published four years ago in the journal Science estimated about 2.5 billion of the dinosaurs roamed Earth over the course of a couple million years.
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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Proof That Adult Brains Make New Neurons Settles Scientific Controversy
For at least six decades, neuroscientists have been arguing over a big, foundational question: Do adult brains make new neurons? This process of 'neurogenesis' had been shown in other adult animals, but its evidence in humans was circumstantial—until now. Using a new technique, scientists have found newly formed neurons in the brains of adults as old as age 78—and, for the first time, have identified the other brain cells that birthed them. The results, published on Thursday in Science, are the first signs that cells with the capacity to turn into neurons, called neural precursor cells, exist in adult human brains. 'Now we have very strong evidence that the whole process is there in humans, from the precursor cells to the immature neurons,' says Gerd Kempermann, a neurobiologist at the Dresden University of Technology, who was not involved in the study. Throughout gestation, our brain churns out new neurons until it reaches the 100 billion we start life with, and that count declines as we age. As early as 1962, studies in rats had shown that neurogenesis continued throughout the animals' life. Others found that young neurons existed in adult human brains. But it was unclear whether these 'immature' neurons were truly new—or whether humans just start life with a collection of them, after which they slowly develop during adulthood. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] One thing was clear from these studies: if adult neurogenesis happened anywhere, it was in the hippocampus, a deep-brain structure known for its role in memory processing and storage. But even in the human hippocampus, neuroscientists had not yet found the precursor cells that divide and develop to turn into new neurons. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden had previously found immature neurons in the human brain. Marta Paterlini, a neuroscientist at the institute, and her colleagues, set out to pin down how those neurons came to be. Paterlini and her team took advantage of a new combination of techniques to examine immature neurons and neural precursor cells in the hippocampi of six young children, whose brain had been donated to science upon their death. From more than 100,000 cells, the researchers sequenced RNA—bits of genetic information used to carry out actions within each cell. These markers come together to form a sort of molecular fingerprint that can be used to predict a cell's stage of life. 'It's not a matter of one marker defining active neurogenesis; it's the combination of many markers,' says Paterlini, who is co-lead author of the new study. After identifying these markers in young brains, the team then searched for those same signatures in 19 postmortem brains ranging from 13 to 78 years old. All of the brains contained immature neurons except one. The researchers also found neural precursor cells in each of the child brains and in 12 of the 19 adolescent and adult brains. Two adults stood out for having many more neural precursor cells and immature neurons than the rest. The younger of these two people had lived with epilepsy, which could potentially connect to the apparent abundance of neurogenesis. In mice, higher levels of neurogenesis can cause seizures, though the connection to epilepsy in humans is still unclear. The team suspects that neurogenesis happens in other parts of the adult brain, too. In mice, new neurons are regularly made in the olfactory bulb (a structure that processes smells) as well—but the same hasn't been shown in humans. Paterlini plans to investigate whether adult neurogenesis might happen there or elsewhere in the brain. Some research in mice suggests that disrupted neurogenesis is linked to Alzheimer's disease and depression. Learning more about how neurogenesis happens—and whether the process can be altered—could prove helpful for understanding a range of disorders and diseases, says the study's co-lead author Ionut Dumitru, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute. With the question of adult neurogenesis resolved, scientists can begin learning more about what neurogenesis does in the brain and how it affects various disorders. 'This is an important paper because it should finally put this all to rest,' Kempermann says. 'And we can now concentrate on the question: How do these cells in the human contribute to brain function?'
New York Times
7 hours ago
- New York Times
How to Escape a T-Rex in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth'
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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Your Food Packaging Is Shedding Microplastics Into Every Meal, Study Reveals
Simply using your food packaging in the manner it's supposed to be used is enough to contaminate your comestibles with a sprinkling of microplastics. A painstaking review of 103 scientific studies on microplastic food contamination found actions as simple as opening a plastic drink bottle or using a plastic chopping board can shave off tiny particles of common polymers. Even glass bottles that use a plastic gasket, plastic-lined pizza boxes, plastic-lined disposable coffee cups, plastic tea bags, plastic wrappings, and microwaveable plastic containers shed microplastic like a Persian cat sheds fur in spring. The problem, a team led by biologist Lisa Zimmermann of the non-profit Food Packaging Forum in Switzerland says, is ubiquitous. Related: Microplastics Could Accumulate in Our Brains More Than in Kidneys And Livers "This is the first systematic evidence of how normal and intended use of foodstuffs packaged in plastics can be contaminated with micro- and nanoplastics," Zimmermann told CNN. "We found food packaging is actually a direct source of the micro- and nanoplastics measured in food." The more scientists look into micro- and nanoplastics, or MNPs, the more we see just how widespread they have become. These are tiny pieces of material, too small to see, released by a variety of polymers as they're used or break up in the environment. Plastic is ubiquitous in our modern society, providing a cheap, easily manufactured solution to everything from storage to clothing to furnishings. In recent decades it has become clear its resistance to degrading doesn't mean it is impervious to crumbling into smaller fragments, which easily filter through ecosystems. Studies have found microplastics throughout the human body, including placentas. It's been found in every major organ in mice, including their fetuses. What makes this even more worrying is that we just have very little idea about the health impacts, although it's not looking promising: A study last year found that cardiac and stroke patients with a high concentration of microplastics in their carotid artery plaque had a significantly elevated risk of death. Zimmermann and her colleagues examined 103 studies that have investigated the presence of plastic particles in food and food simulants. From these studies, they extracted 600 entries about food contact articles, of which 96 percent reported the presence of MNPs. Those entries were also compiled into a searchable and filterable dashboard that anyone can access, allowing users to home in on different types of food contact articles, from packaging to baby bottles, as well as different types of plastic. Related: Glass Bottles Actually Contain More Microplastics, Scientists Find Of particular note, the researchers found, is that multiple studies found that for some reusable plastic items, such as melamine bowls, the amount of microplastics shed increased with each wash. This suggests that repeated heating and abrasion increases the rate at which these items degrade. The researchers also note that ultra-processed food contains more microplastic than minimally processed food. The reason for this is simple: more processing steps mean greater exposure to plastic food-processing equipment, resulting in more MNPs in the final product. Their findings, the researchers say, strongly indicate that not only is a lot more research warranted, but also that more needs to be done to minimize the use of plastics in food packaging and preparation. "Our study shows that under intended or foreseeable conditions of use, plastic food contact articles can release MNPs into foodstuffs," they write in their paper. "The contribution of plastic food contact articles to human MNP exposure is currently unclear and warrants further investigation. Further research is also necessary to establish human health impacts associated with MNP exposures, but a precautionary approach aimed at limiting human exposure to MNPs, including from food contact articles, is prudent." You can access the interactive dashboard here, and the paper has been published in npj Science of Food. Your Brain on Speed: Is Watching Video in Fast-Forward Bad For Your Memory? 'Curse of Tutankhamun' Could Hide a Secret Cancer-Fighting Compound Common Vitamin Could Be The Secret to Younger-Looking Skin
