The brightest take on this week’s science
Happy Turkey Day!
It’s time to gobble up some fascinating science.
This week, we’re investigating what your speech might say about your brain health…
Also in this issue:
🤯 A wild fact about turkey wattles
❤️ Good news about coffee and heart health
💥 An explosion bigger than the one at your Thanksgiving table
Get ready for a feast!
LOOK IN
The Speech Trait Tied to Dementia
(Smile/Getty Images)
The way you speak could reveal clues about your cognitive health.
Emerging research suggests that as we age, how we say something may matter more than what we say.
Studies have found:
The pace of everyday speech is a better indicator of cognitive decline than difficulty finding a word.
Longer pauses and slower speech rates are associated with hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
Already, some AI algorithms are using speech patterns to predict who is most at risk of dementia with remarkable accuracy…
HEADLINES
What Else We're Watching
🏅Featured this week: Cheap Daily Supplement Appears to Boost Brain Function in Older People
GOOD NEWS GRAPH
Coffee And Irregular Heartbeats
caption
This graph comes from a study of 200 people in the US, Canada, and Australia with atrial fibrillation (AF) – the most common irregular heartbeat condition.
What does it show?
People with AF are often told to avoid coffee, but participants who kept drinking the caffeinated beverage experienced a significant reduction in AF over six months.
In the details: Among coffee-drinkers, 47 percent had an episode of AF, compared with 64 percent of coffee-abstainers. That equates to a 39 percent lower relative risk.
ZOOM ZONE
Microscope Mystery: What Do You See?
(-Eyafjallajokull-/Reddit)
A) Gut lining
B) Taste buds
C) Cranberry skin
D) Turkey muscle
Answer at the bottom.
LOOK UP
A Supernova Like We’ve Never Seen
(ESO/L. Calçada)
If you think your Thanksgiving gathering is dramatic, try watching a dying star tear itself apart.
It might give you some much-needed perspective.
In a world first, scientists have determined the shape of a supernova's shock front as it bursts through a dying star.
It all started when experts caught Supernova SN 2024ggi losing its cool in 2024.
For a brief moment, as the star exploded, it displayed a curious, olive-like shape.
This was the shockwave, erupting outward and punching through the stellar surface.
If astronomers had looked away for just one day, they would have missed it.
WOW FACTOR
Science Fact of The Week
(Valerie Burtchett)
Turkey wattles are like flesh-y mood rings.
These wrinkly flaps of skin can shift from red to blue to white as the turkey’s blood vessels expand and contract with feelings of excitement or anger.
It’s kind of like human blushing.
In Korea and Japan, these color-shifting creatures are known as the ‘seven-faced birds’.
DOPAMINE HIT
Before You Go…
Happy feasting!
Microscope answer: Cranberry skin.
The peel of a cranberry is filled with red pigments that become more condensed as the fruit ripens. Called anthocyanins, these potent antioxidants have been linked to gut health and potential cancer-fighting properties in mice and cell line experiments.
That’s all for today… see you next week!
- Carly
P.S.
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