The brightest take on this week’s science
Welcome back to Spark!
This week, we’re diving into the oldest fossilized butthole on Earth… figuratively speaking.
Plus: What if a snip of your hair could help diagnose Parkinson’s?
Also in this issue:
🧠Which of your brain cells are oddly resistant to dementia?
🤯 What the words ‘galaxy’ and ‘lactose’ have in common…
🔬 A microscope mystery
Onward and downward!
LOW-KEY GENIUS
Can Hair Be Used To Diagnose Parkinson’s?
(Boy_Anupong/Getty Images)
A marker of Parkinson’s disease may be hiding in human hair.
A pre-proof paper has now revealed that 60 patients with Parkinson's disease have hair that is remarkably different from that of healthy participants.
Parkinson’s patients have lower levels of iron and copper, and higher levels of manganese and arsenic in their strands.
This pattern has “high diagnostic potential”, argue the study authors.
Unlike blood-based markers of disease, hair can retain a longer record of biological changes, absorbing heavy metals from our diet and surrounding environment.
So why do Parkinson’s patients have such different accumulations?
It may start with dysfunction in the gut…
HEADLINES
What Else We're Watching
🏅This week’s most read: 'Freak of Nature': Scientists Think Greenland's Ice Is Churning Like Molten Rock
LOOK OUT
Check Out The Oldest Fossilized Butthole
The oldest known fossilized amniote cloaca. (Lorenzo Marchetti/Natural History Museum, Berlin)
Nearly 300 million years ago, a little reptile sat down in the mud.
The imprint of its backside is now the oldest known fossilized butthole, roughly 170 million years older than the next oldest example.
The hole, officially known as a cloaca, appears at the very base of the reptile’s tail, bordered by special scales.
The cloaca existed not only for pooping but also for peeing, mating, and laying eggs.
The fact that it shows up this early in Earth’s history suggests that buttholes were important even for the earliest reptiles.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
A) Lignin
B) Vinyl record grooves
C) Human hair
D) Xylem vessels
Answer at the bottom.
LOOK IN
The Brain Cells That Can Resist Dementia
(koto_feja/E+/Getty Images)
Not all brain cells are equally affected by dementia.
Scientists have now discovered some neurons that show a surprising resistance to Alzheimer’s disease.
A systematic screening of "nearly every gene in the human genome" has revealed a protein complex, called CRL5SOCS4, that helps neurons resist toxic tau accumulation.
Misfolding tau proteins are a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease.
In human brain tissue, some cells have higher CRL5SOCS4 expression, and it appears these neurons are more likely to survive and thrive, even in patients with dementia.
The findings could help scientists better protect our neurons from degeneration.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
The words ‘galaxy’ and ‘lactose’ have more in common than you think.
They are both derived from the Greek root ‘galakt’, which means milk.
According to ancient Greek legend, when the god Heracles was but a baby, he was forcibly removed from the breast of a mortal woman, spilling her milk across the sky.
That’s why we call it the ‘Milky Way’ galaxy.
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Just a little perspective…
Microscope answer: Vinyl record grooves
The two grooves that wrap around either side of a vinyl record are physical representations of sound waves. The wider and deeper a segment is, the richer and more robust the sound.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
