The brightest take on this week’s science
Hey, curious minds!
Did you know there’s a weird connection between deep sleep and tinnitus: that horrible phantom ringing in your ears? Researchers at Oxford University are on the case…
Also in this issue:
🦠 The mysterious trigger behind lupus
🪨 A rock on Mars that doesn’t belong
🤯 A mind-blowing fact about the world’s largest underwater cave
Let’s dive in 👇
LOOK IN
The Weird Link Between Tinnitus and Sleep
(Nes/E+/Getty Images)
Neuroscientists at the University of Oxford have found a weird overlap between sleep and tinnitus in the brain.
In recent experiments, ferrets that developed stronger tinnitus also showed disrupted sleep.
"We could actually see these sleep problems appear at the same time as tinnitus after noise exposure," neuroscientist Linus Milinski at Oxford's Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute told ScienceAlert.
"This suggested, for the first time, a clear link between developing tinnitus and disrupted sleep."
The findings suggest that deep sleep may temporarily mask the phantom sounds behind tinnitus, possibly pointing toward improved treatments.
HEADLINES
What Else We're Watching
🏅Featured this week: Humans Are Evolving Right in Front of Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau
LOOK UP
A Rock on Mars That Doesn’t Belong
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
NASA scientists are doing a double take at a bizarre rock found on Mars by the Perseverance Rover.
The oddly large lump of material is 80 centimeters wide (about 31 inches), and its strangely sculpted tips and hollows stand out from its neighbors.
Thanks to Percy’s quick work, we now know the rock is made of iron and nickel. But that’s a strange composition for the red planet.
So where did this rock come from?
Scientists think it could be a foreigner, delivered long, long ago, from somewhere out there in the Solar System.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
(Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)
A) Bird feathers
B) Fish scales
C) Crepe paper
D) Insect scales
Answer at the bottom.
LOW-KEY GENIUS
The Mysterious Trigger Behind Lupus
(Kateryna Kon/Sciepro/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)
Scientists at Stanford University think they have at last discovered the mysterious trigger behind lupus.
Immunologist William Robinson claims it is the most impactful finding to emerge from his lab in his entire career.
The culprit?
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the nefarious pathogen behind the ‘kissing disease’ (or mononucleosis).
Patients with lupus have 25 times the number of B cells (a type of immune cell) infected with EBV flowing through their blood.
The virus appears to reprogram these cells, potentially driving the chronic autoimmune condition.
Robinson and colleagues think EBV underlies 100 percent of lupus cases.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
As of the start of this year, the world’s longest explored underwater cave stretches more than 524 kilometers (325.6 miles) – and that’s just what has been mapped by divers so far.
The flooded Ox Bel Ha cave system lies beneath the jungles of Mexico near Tulum.
The only cave in the world that is larger, flooded or dry, is the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky at 686 kilometers long.
Perhaps not for long…
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Time for a weekend glow-up!
Microscope answer: Insect scales.
Silverfish are not, in fact, silver fish. They are wingless insects covered in tiny, glistening scales, which give them a shimmery, metallic appearance, especially when they wriggle about.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
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