The brightest take on this week’s science

Even in old age, your brain is fighting to stay young.

Tucked away in the hippocampus, a key memory center, scientists in Sweden have found evidence of a neuron ‘nursery’.

Apparently, even as we age, it features newborn brain cells and their stem cell parents.

• Until the 1960s, scientists didn’t even realize adult mammal brains could make new neurons

• Debate continues, but several studies have found evidence of new neurons in the adult human hippocampus

• Now, RNA analysis has identified both newborn neurons and the stem cell progenitors that made them – a missing piece of the puzzle

Neuron birth rates seem to vary from adult to adult, and they slow down after childhood. But even a few fresh brain cells can make a big difference in the long run.

We’ll take what we can get.

Read more.

• 🏅This week’s most read: Your poop schedule says a lot about your overall health

• ☄️ NASA confirms new interstellar object is zooming through Solar System

• 💊 Ozempic alternative ditches the needle and one major side effect

• 🧠 Surprise discovery about sugar in the brain could help fight Alzheimer's

The oldest human DNA from ancient Egypt has revealed a curious character.

The male individual of advanced age lived more than 4,500 years ago, right when the first pyramids were being built, at a cultural crossroads.

About 80 percent of his genome is linked to lineages in North Africa, and 20 percent to lineages further afield in West Asia.

• The ancient man was buried in a large pottery vessel inside a rock-cut tomb

• His heavily worn teeth suggest he grew up in the hot and dry Nile river region, eating animals, plants, wheat, and barley

• He likely had brown hair, brown eyes, and dark skin

The older man’s severe arthritis and general posture point to the life of a potter, and yet his intricate burial indicates an elite social class.

Some secrets are not so easily sequenced.

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A) Snowflake
B) Fern frond
C) Detergent
D) Soy sauce

Answer at the bottom.

Just what you’ve always wanted…

Australian start-up, Cortical Labs, has put the world’s first ‘code-deployable biological computer’ up for sale – a silicon chip dipped in 800,000 moving, growing brain cells.

All yours for the cool price of US$300 per week – or why not buy it outright for $35,000?

“The neuron is self programming, infinitely flexible, and the result of four billion years of evolution. What digital AI models spend tremendous resources trying to emulate, we begin with,” the company claims.

That may be true, but this ‘wetware’ is still no match for your typical hardware.

It might beat you at pong, but it’s not going to become a pocket-sized personal mini brain anytime soon.

Still, disturbingly cool.

Read more.

The deep ocean floor is our planet’s largest ecosystem, and yet we’ve only glimpsed 0.001 percent of it.

That’s a slice of ocean roughly the size of Rhode Island – the smallest US state.

Need a reminder of how little an area that is?👇

… yep, that little box.

Grow forth. Be like the slime mold.

Microscope answer: soy sauce crystals.

Soy sauce ‘diamonds’ are intricate structures that form in mesmerizing moments when salt crystallizes. This delicious sauce is an art form no matter how you serve it – on a microscope plate 🔬 or a dinner plate 🍽️