The brightest take on this week’s science
I think we can all agree that potatoes are life-changing.
But these delicious starchy vegetables may be genome-changing too.
After millennia of potato farming, humans in the Andes appear to have evolved a strange digestive superpower.
Also in this issue:
🧠 Flying with wings in VR does something strange to the brain
🪞 A beluga whale that recognizes its own reflection
🤯 A mind-blowing fact about immortality
Scroll for the science!
LOOK IN
Humans in The Andes Evolved a Strange Digestive Superpower
(maphke/iStock/Getty Images)
People living high in the Andes of South America may be continuing to evolve.
The catalyst?
Potato.
Populations living in the Peruvian Andes appear to have genetic enhancements related to starch digestion.
In fact, researchers say the Quechua people of highland Indigenous Andean ancestry may be better equipped for starch digestion than nearly any other population worldwide.
Other populations without potato farming in their history don’t seem to have the same adaptation.
The findings suggest that dietary changes can lead to genetic adaptations in a relatively short evolutionary timespan.
Which raises the question: What could our modern diets be doing?
HEADLINES
This Week in Science
LOW-KEY GENIUS
Having Wings in VR Can Change The Brain
(chainatp/iStock/Getty Images)
Virtual reality can change the way our brains see the world... and even our own body parts.
In VR experiments, participants had their real arms replaced with virtual wings.
They then trained to use these new appendages in simulations where they had to fly around obstacles.
Brain scans taken before and after the training revealed signs of brain rewiring in a region known as the occipitotemporal cortex (OTC).
This part of the brain is thought to be involved in recognizing the body’s appendages, like hands or feet.
"Their neural response profiles [of wings] became significantly more similar to those of body parts,” explain the researchers.
The way that human brains can adapt to new realities is truly impressive.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
(John Terlet, University of Adelaide/Microscopy Australia)
A) Dried blood
B) Asbestos
C) Pencil lead
D) Tooth plaque
Answer at the bottom.
LOOK OUT
A Beluga Whale Shows Incredible Intelligence
(Marco De Luca/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
The traits that supposedly make humans ‘special’ keep getting wrenched away from us.
The beluga whale is the latest species to pass the mirror test: a sign of intelligence we once thought was unique to us alone.
Belugas have large, complex brains and use sophisticated communication methods.
In a new study, researchers report how a beluga whale that used to live at the New York Aquarium of the Wildlife Conservation Society appeared to recognize its own reflection.
Marine mammal expert Diana Reiss and her co-author Alexander Mildener told ScienceAlert that this is the first evidence of beluga whales showing high levels of self-awareness.
You can watch ‘Maris’, another beluga involved in the experiments, engaging with a mirror by clicking the link below.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
(Yiming Chen/Moment/Getty Images)
There are two curious creatures bobbing through the world’s oceans that can age in reverse.
When life gets stressful, the immortal jellyfish and the warty comb jelly can revert to a more youthful form.
By creating a ‘baby’ of itself, the same genetic individual can undergo life all over again.
Theoretically, these creatures could live forever.
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Let’s finish with a bang…
(Giphy)
Microscope answer: Pencil lead
The ‘lead’ in pencils is not actually lead at all: it’s graphite. Unlike lead, graphite is soft and brittle, and it leaves a darker mark on the page. The material is so flimsy, however, that it needs to be contained; hence the invention of the wooden pencil around 1560.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
