The brightest take on this week’s science
Growing old is no fun, but it’s not the end.
A new study on mice suggests that after menopause, female sex organs go through a ‘career change’.
Their second role in life may be especially important for health and longevity…
Also in this issue:
🦷 A diet to reduce gum disease
🌑 A chemical mystery on Pluto and Titan
🤯 The longest known sperm in the animal kingdom
Let’s see where the science takes us!
LOW-KEY GENIUS
Ovaries May Develop New Role After Menopause
Producing follicles isn’t the only task for ovaries, new research suggests. (Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)
When ovaries stop pumping out eggs, they don’t necessarily get to retire.
It’s more like a career change, explains our journalist Jess Cockerill in a fascinating new piece.
A recent mouse study has found that the ovaries appear to develop an incredible second role after menopause.
Even after they have completed their reproductive responsibilities, these female gonads show signs of increased infiltration by immune cells.
The findings suggest an immune-like inflammatory role for the ovaries in later life.
Scientists are now keen to follow up in humans. It could have repercussions for longevity.
HEADLINES
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LOOK IN
The Diet Linked to Improved Gum Health
(grubermichael1/500px/Getty Images)
What we put in our mouths likely affects our oral health. So how do our diets impact our teeth and gums?
To find out, an international team of researchers recruited 28 patients with gum disease.
Half were put on a restrictive diet for five days, and half were told to eat and drink as they normally would.
Six months later, the results were in.
The participants who followed the fast-mimicking diet (FMD) had reduced signals of inflammation in their mouths and their bodies as a whole.
"Our study suggests lifestyle modifications could be important alongside proper tooth brushing for patients," says periodontologist Giuseppe Mainas from King's College London.
Find out what FMD entails by clicking the link below.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
A) Water flea
B) Mite
C) Rotifer
D) Hydra
Answer at the bottom.
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LOOK UP
Unknown Chemical Signature on Pluto and Titan
Pluto's frozen landscapes and hazy atmosphere captured by the New Horizons mission in 2015. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
They exist at near opposite ends of the Solar System, and yet they share a mystery.
Scientists have now discovered a curious chemical signature on both Pluto and Saturn’s moon Titan.
It matches no known chemical profile on record.
The discovery is a lesson in complex organic chemistry on a planetary body other than Earth.
Even without signs of life, it seems that Titan and Pluto may be brewing up highly complex carbon-based compounds.
To learn more, NASA's Dragonfly mission is set to arrive at Titan in the mid-2030s.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
(S. Pitnick/Hosken, Current Biology, 2003))
The male fruit fly Drosophila bifurca produces the longest known sperm in the animal kingdom. When the coils are stretched out, they measure roughly 6 centimeters, about 20 times larger than the fly itself.
Talk about efficient packaging!
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Take a turn around two black holes.
(NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)
Microscope answer: Water flea
These tiny crustaceans are a type of zooplankton. Their bodies are enclosed in an uncalcified shell. Within the ‘brood chamber’ of this female, you can see several eggs.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
