The brightest take on this week’s science
Hey there curious people,
You might have heard our species is losing its Y chromosome. But do we even need it?
We spoke to evolutionary biologists to find out…
Other highlights this week:
🤯 A mind-blowing fact about naked mole rats
🩸 A blood type that could raise the risk of stroke
🔬 A microscope mystery
Let’s see where the science takes us!
LOOK OUT
Is The Y Chromosome Vanishing?
(Dmitry Bayer/Getty Images)
The Y chromosome has long been rumored to be vanishing. So what does that mean for the future of men?
We spoke to evolutionary biologist Jenny Graves about what’s in store for the human species.
She thinks the Y chromosome is running out of time.
Already, it’s lost 97 percent of its ancestral genes in the last 300 million years.
At that rate, it could disappear in another 6 million years, and a new sex gene may take its place.
Still, not everyone agrees that the Y chromosome is doomed. A potent scientific debate is brewing.
HEADLINES
What Else We're Watching
🏅This week’s most read: A Rare Cancer Is Surging in Young People, And Experts Are Puzzled
LOOK UP
The Universe’s Longest Spinning Structure
An artist's impression of a rotating filament of the cosmic web. (AIP/A. Khalatyan/J. Fohlmeister)
A team of astronomers has discovered the longest spinning structure known in the Universe.
It's at least 49 million light-years in length.
Scientists say the structure is like a vomit-inducing ride in a cosmic theme park.
"Each galaxy is like a spinning teacup, but the whole platform – the cosmic filament – is rotating too,” explains physicist Lyla Jung of the University of Oxford in the UK.
The only reason we know it’s there is because of the curious synchrony.
A huge thread of invisible dark matter seems to be taking each galactic teacup for a truly wild spin.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
(Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)
A) Ham
B) Scab
C) Orange peel
D) Bark
Answer at the bottom.
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Your Blood Type And Stroke Risk
(Douglas Sacha/Getty Images)
Your blood type may impact your risk of stroke.
In 2022, a sweeping data analysis considered the health data of approximately 17,000 adult stroke patients and nearly 600,000 non-stroke control patients.
The findings reveal a clear relationship between the gene responsible for the A1 blood subgroup and early-onset stroke.
Specifically, a 16 percent higher relative risk before age 60.
Those with the gene for another blood group, meanwhile, showed a lower risk of early-onset stroke.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
The naked mole rat is a mammal like no other.
These wrinkly, furless creatures dwell underground in a rare example of mammals living in colonial insect-like societies.
The queen ‘bee’ is the only breeding female, and she rarely dies of old age. Instead, the matriarch is typically ousted in a ‘coup’.
Long may she reign.
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Watch a conservationist weep for joy after a 13-year-long search for one of the world’s rarest flowers.
Microscope answer: Scab.
After a flesh wound, special skin cells that produce high amounts of the protein keratin converge to form protective layers over the injury. When the scab is no longer needed, it falls off.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
