Bits of Bennu have building blocks of life

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission took six years to travel to the asteroid Bennu and return samples to Earth. Now, the first results from the analysis of these rocks are being released. Researchers found evidence of salty water, as well as the elements necessary for life, such as amino acids and the building blocks for RNA and DNA. We spoke with Kim Tait, senior curator of mineralogy at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and co-author of one of the recent studies, published in the journal Nature.

Unlocking the secret of Polar bear de-icing

Polar bears spend so much time going in and out of the water that they are considered marine mammals. So when they do this in the frozen Arctic, why are they not covered in ice? A new study reveals the secret turns out to lie in the unique oils they produce that covers their white fur. Julian Carolan, a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, worked with scientists in Norway, Denmark and the U.K. on this paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Truffle-hunting dog finds fabulous new fungus

A chance discovery has turned out to reveal a new species of North American truffle. These fungi can be desirable and valuable delicacies. An American truffle hunter, Lois Martin, and her  trained dog Monza found a distinctive truffle in a city park that turned out to be a fungus new to science. Although native to North America, it was more similar to European truffles than any found in the Americas. Dr. Greg Bonito at Michigan State University named this new truffle Tuber canirevelatum,  meaning the ‘dog-found’ truffle in honour of Monza and other dogs who look for truffles. The work was published in the journal Mycologia.  

Voiding your bowels can improve cognitive performance

To maximize your cognitive function, it might be a good idea to make sure you have a poo first. That’s according to a recent study in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science. In it, scientists found that 9 out of 13 individuals improved how well they did in a mentally taxing cognitive test if they defecated first, whereas all 13 of them improved in their performance when they took a mild laxative the night before. Chia-Hua Kuo, a professor of sports medicine and nutrition at the University of Taipei, said they also saw an increase in oxygen consumption in the test subjects’ subnavel regions as they were doing the test, suggesting a previously unsuspected link between the rectum and the brain. 

Saving species on Earth, preserving them on the moon

The world is in a biodiversity crisis. We’re losing species at an unprecedented rate, thanks to climate change, habitat loss, overexploitation and more. We look at some of the more out-of-the-box solutions that are currently in the works – from creating an internet of animals to monitor biodiversity, to saving samples of Earth’s biological resources on the moon.

We spoke with:

Martin Wikelski, the director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, honorary professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz, and the scientific head of the ICARUS project.

Mary Hagedorn, a senior research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and senior author of a recent paper published in the journal Bioscience proposing a passive biorepository on the moon.

Reintroducing Hawaii’s sacred crow to the wild

The world’s most endangered crow, the Hawaiian crow or or ʻalalā, is making tentative steps towards a comeback. After going extinct in the wild, only 120 birds remain in captivity, in two facilities operated by the San Diego Zoo. Over the years, researchers have attempted reintroductions in the bird's native habitat on the Big Island of Hawaii, but those efforts have all been unsuccessful. Recently, the team tried something different - reintroducing the birds to a different island than their native home. The initial release happened in October and so far, the team, including Bryce Masuda, has high hopes and positive signs from their latest attempt.

Lasers tell us about the pterosaur’s unique tail

The great flying reptiles of the dawn of the age of dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, took flight with delicate but flexible internal tail structure that allowed it to work like a kite. Scientists used recently developed technology to enable them to see a lattice-like structure in the soft tissue in the early pterosaur soft tissue that was otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Natalia Jagielska, a paleontologist at the Lyme Regis Museum in Dorset, England, said their kite-like tail vane would have stood upright and could have functioned as a display and to help them in flight. The study was published in the eLife journal, Evolutionary Biology. 

How gophers help re-seed volcanic landscape with life

After Mt. St. Helens exploded in 1980 it left a shattered, ash-covered, barren landscape behind. But the one-time reintroduction of gophers to one area led to a remarkably fast recovery of plants and other fauna. Forty-years later, changes to the environment are still being documented by  Dr. Mia Maltz, assistant professor of Microbial Ecology and Soil Earth at the University of Connecticut, and her team. They published their research in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.

Desert ants’ magnetic navigation

Desert ants that navigate the endless sands of the Sahara use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way, which is not unusual. But unlike other animals like birds and turtles they don’t appear to have an internal compass that aligns north and south. Instead they are unique in that they  use a more subtle cue – the polarity of the magnetic field. A study looking at this led by Dr. Pauline Fleischmann, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oldenburg in Germany  was published in the journal Current Biology. 

Celestial body mysteries: dark comets and meteorites from young asteroid families 

The thousands of small celestial bodies in our solar system are now a bit less mysterious, thanks to several recent discoveries. 

One group of astronomers have traced back the origins of 84 per cent of all known meteorites that have pummeled Earth to just a few young asteroid families in the asteroid belt. Michaël Marsset, from the European Southern Observatory in Chile, said collisions in the asteroid belt create a collisional cascade that produces fragments, some of which end up raining down on Earth as meteorites. Two of their papers were published in the journal Nature and a third in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 

Another group of astronomers have identified two populations of stealthy dark comets that are something in between a comet and an asteroid. They’ve found fourteen of these objects whose orbital motion is comet-like, but which lack a visible tail like regular comets. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, said they’ve found two types of these unusual solar system bodies: larger ones in an elliptical orbit out to Jupiter and smaller ones in orbit around Earth. Their study was published in the journal PNAS.

Ancient human ancestors didn’t eat meat, and so couldn’t build big brains

One of the main reasons scientists think we became so smart is because at some point in our evolutionary past, our ancestors started eating energy-dense meat to fuel the growth of large brains. However it hasn’t been clear when this started. Using a new technology, scientists were able to analyze the tooth enamel of seven 3.5 million year old Australopithecines to directly measure their meat consumption. Tina Lüdecke, from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, said it revealed they were primarily herbivores so meat eating would have had to come later in our evolutionary history. Their study was published in the journal Science. 

Building a robot bee that could one day pollinate crops

Bees do an incredibly important job pollinating crops and wild plants. Now scientists in the US are trying to emulate their skills with a tiny robot bee that has all the agility and ability of the real insect. They hope eventually they can be used in indoor factory farms where real bees can’t survive.  Kevin Chen, associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at M.I.T and PhD candidate Suhan Kim were a part of this project. Their research was published in the journal Science Robotics.

We are made of star stuff – but how did it get here?

Elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen that are essential to life were forged in supernovae billions of years ago. Now new research is helping to explain how these elements – especially essential carbon – were concentrated in such a way as to be plentifully available for the chemistry of life. The study, led in part by astronomer Trystyn Berg, discovered a cosmic conveyer belt funneling carbon in and out of our galaxy over billions of years. The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Australia’s vanishingly rare marsupial mole gets a genetic checkup

In the southern desert of Australia, there lives an elusive and unique animal - the marsupial mole. It lives under the sand and is so rare that very few people have ever seen it. Scientists have now published the very first genetic research on this animal in the journal Science Advances, thanks to tissue samples donated by a local museum. Sarah Lucas is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Münster, Germany, and was part of the team. 

A climate researcher makes the case for scientist-activists

The stereotype of a scientist is a dispassionate, objective and neutral seeker of nature’s truths, and many think that this makes a career in science incompatible with political activism. Canadian climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe thinks that this is a mistake. She sees her role more like that of a physician for the planet – diagnosing its ills and advocating for the health of her patient, and her patient’s inhabitants. She recently co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Climate Action arguing her case.

Was Rome’s fall due to heavy metal poisoning making Romans dumber?

Ice cores that preserve traces of atmospheric pollutants through history have revealed that industrial activity by Romans – particularly the use and production of lead – meant the air the Romans breathed was heavily contaminated. The levels were high enough to cause neurological problems, including a drop in cognitive function across the population. Joe McConnell and his team at the Desert Research Institute published their findings in the journal PNAS.

Bats are surfing storms to make migration easier

Migrating bats in Europe have to fly up to 2000km while pregnant, but they’ve figured out how to get a lift from the weather. The bats have been observed waiting for storm fronts, and then surfing the strong winds in front of the storm to save energy during their migration. Dina Dechmann from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, and colleagues, were able to tag bats with tiny specialized sensors to track their nocturnal movements during migration. Their paper was published in the journal Science.

Squirrels have developed a taste for vole flesh

Squirrels in California have been taking advantage of a boom in the population of tiny rodents called voles – by hunting and eating them. This widespread carnivorous behaviour was captured for the first time on videos and photos by a team led by behavioural ecologist Jennifer Smith, as a part of a long-term study of the squirrels. The researchers found dozens of instances of the squirrels killing the voles, which they say changes our fundamental understanding of ground squirrels. Their paper was published in the Journal of Ethology.

EEG tattoos could outperform standard electrodes 

EEG is a valuable technology that allows researchers to monitor the electrical activity of the brain, but standard EEG electrodes are cumbersome and are hampered by the difficulty of attaching them. A new temporary EEG tattoo, made by printing conductive ink on the scalp, could be a step ahead. Luize Vasconcelos, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin helped create this ink. The research is published in the Cell Press journal Cell Biomaterials.

To monitor cat brain waves, researchers made them cute hats

Aude Castel, a veterinary neurologist from the Université de Montréal, and her team were studying chronic pain in cats — and ways to alleviate it — when she realized that she could crochet hats for the cats and add EEG electrodes to them in order to study their brains. Their research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 

When North America went to the dogs (or vice-versa)

Researchers examining canid bones from Alaska dating to the last ice age have been intrigued by the complex picture it shows of dog domestication at the time. Their findings were published in the journal Science Advances. Signs of the animals’ diet are preserved in the bones, and shows that humans were clearly feeding their dogs, a clear sign of domestication. François Lanoë from the University of Arizona led the work.

Genevieve Willis from London, Ontario asks: Is there any evidence to suggest that “getting cold” by, say, dressing inadequately in cold weather, or sitting in a cold draft, actually increases our susceptibility to illness?

For the frigid answer, we spoke with Michael Kennedy who is an associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta. 

Jim Raso from St. Albert Alberta wrote us: My question has to do with our sense of time passing. As I have gotten older – I am 73 now –  I noticed that time seemed to pass more quickly.  Why does this happen?

For the answer, we asked Dr. Holly K. Andersen, a professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Dan from Chateau-Richer in Quebec writes: Where does moon dust come from?

We reached out to planetary geologist Gordon Osinski, a professor of Earth Sciences at Western University, who has studied samples sent back from the Apollo missions. 

Scott Beach from East York Ontario asks: Why do dogs sniff and lick each other's butts?

To get the answer, we reached out to Simon Gadbois, the principal investigator at the Canine olfaction lab at Dalhousie University.

Robert Smith from Victoria asks: Is there evidence to suggest red-heads are particularly sensitive to pain? 

To find out, we spoke with someone who has studied this in the past: Jeffrey Mogil, the E.P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies at the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain at McGill University.

Stephen Quinn from St. John’s, Newfoundland asks: How can the universe be expanding at the same time as galaxies are colliding?

For the smashing answer, we spoke with Sara Ellison, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria. 

Susan Boyd from Ottawa asks: Since some of the elements in the periodic table do not occur naturally, is there a limit to the new elements that could be created? If so, what is the limiting factor? 

We went to the National Research Council Canada’s element expert, Juris Meija, for this answer. 

Robert LaRoche in Halifax asks: Why is the color of wet clothes always more vivid than when they are dry?

For the answer, we turned to Sarah Purdy, a Physicist at the University of Saskatchewan who uses light to investigate materials. 

Paul Vander Griendt of Newmarket, Ontario asks: If animals wake up at sunrise and go to sleep at sunset, how do they cope with the varying hours of sunlight? How do they do compared to humans who are supposed to get 8 to 9 hours of sleep regardless of the length of sunlight? 

For the answer we turned to Ming Fei Li a Phd candidate at the University of Toronto in Anthropology who is studying the sleep patterns of animals. 

Marie Beaudoin from Salt Spring Island, BC asks: How do birds where the males and females look the same tell each other apart when it comes to mating?” 

We went to Matt Reudinik, a professor of biology at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, for the answer. 

Warren Saylor of London, Ontario asks: Could Neanderthals speak? If they could not, would that contribute to the dominance of Homo Sapiens?

We spoke to paleoanthropologist Dr. Bence Viola, an associate professor in the department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Some optimistic and positive science news to end the year.

For rats, anticipation of a pleasurable event is a pleasure in itself 

One day early in the pandemic, behavioural neuroscientist Kelly Lambert from the University of Richmond went to check on her rats. The rats responded with excitement when they saw her, anticipating the treats they were about to receive. That inspired her to pivot her research to study the effects that anticipating pleasurable experiences could have on the brain. She’s found in research that has yet to be published, that building in anticipation periods before they get to do something they enjoy, increases, which, if her findings extend to humans, could help boost mental resiliency. Their previous work was published in Behavioural Brain Research. 

How Marine Protected Areas are improving tuna fisheries

A comprehensive study of province-sized marine protected areas in the tropical pacific has shown that they not only provide a refuge for fish, but improve tuna fisheries harvests in the areas outside their borders, making a win-win for conservation and industry. John Lynham, a professor of Economics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, led the study which was published in the journal Science.

For chimpanzees, play and the world plays with you

A study of chimpanzees in Zambia has revealed that play and grooming are infectious behaviours. Animals who observe others performing these activities are more likely to groom and play themselves, which the researchers think promotes social cohesion in the troop. Zanna Clay, a professor of Psychology at Durham University, was part of the team, which published their research in the journal PLOS One.

The oceans smallest plants and animals could help suck up excess atmospheric carbon

Researchers may have discovered a new, fairly simple way to stimulate life in the ocean to capture and lock up atmospheric carbon. Phytoplankton absorbs and then releases 150 billion tons of atmospheric carbon every year. The researchers found that by adding just a little bit of clay to a phytoplankton bloom, this glues carbon particles together, creating “carbon snow” that falls down and is eaten by zooplankton, who then deposit it in the deep ocean. Mukul Sharma, a professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College, says that in the lab this method locked up 90 per cent of the carbon that phytoplankton released. His study was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

A seal of approval: Unique elephant seal behaviour observed by a failed experiment

A team of researchers developed a sophisticated deep-water experiment to observe and listen for sounds made by sablefish. They were startled when their study site was repeatedly visited by elephant seals, who would chase and chow down on the sablefish — all at 645 meters below the ocean's surface. This accidental observation was made in the Barkley Canyon Node, part of the Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) cabled video-observatory. It was the first time that elephant seals were studied in the deep ocean, giving unexpected and valuable new insights into seal resting and foraging behaviour. The findings were published in the journal PLOS One.

Producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke with Rodney Rountree, an independent biologist, ichthyologist, and adjunct marine biologist in the Department of Biology at Victoria University.

And Héloïse Frouin-Mouy, an assistant scientist at the University of Miami's Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, and affiliate at the University of Victoria.

How ancient artifacts emerge from melting ice

As Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets melt due to global warming, they are revealing rare archaeological treasures released from a frozen time capsule. These objects are often made of organic material – human and animal remains and wooden tools that only survive in ice. In her book, The Age of Melt: What glaciers, ice mummies, and ancient artifacts teach us about climate, culture, and a future without ice, Lisa Baril tells the story of the archaeologists searching for these valuable artifacts, and what they’re finding. Baril is an ecologist and science communicator based out of Yellowstone National Park.

Easily influenced: Why and how the human mind is built to be suggestible

As a teenager, Amir Raz began to perform as an amateur magician and mentalist, and learned the power of stage hypnosis. It ultimately led him to a career as a neuroscientist studying the science of psychological suggestibility, and how powerful the power of suggestion can be. He explores this science in his new book The Suggestible Brain: The Science and Magic of How We Make Up Our Minds. Dr Raz taught and practiced for many years at McGill University and is the Founding Director of the Brain Institute at Chapman University in Orange, California.

What alien life will really look like

We’re just beginning to have the ability to look for signs of life elsewhere in our solar system or around other stars. But even so, Arizona State University physicist Sara Walker thinks we might be doing it wrong — imagining that life elsewhere will look like life on Earth. She’s advocating a broader perspective to imagine how we’d recognize life as a reflection of different versions of chemical complexity. Her new book about this is Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence. 

Dan Falk, science writer and co-host of the Booklab podcast reviews: 

The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out of the Stone Age by Steven Mithen

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monsó

The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson

A NASA probe is going to touch the Sun for Christmas

The Parker Solar Probe is going to be making its closest approach to our Sun on Dec. 24, diving at 800,000 km/h into the corona of our star and getting within 6.5 million kilometers to the solar surface. It’s the culmination of a successful mission during which the probe has measured the solar wind and flown through solar storms. We speak with C. Alex Young, the Associate Director for Science Communication in the Heliophysics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center about the highlights of the mission and what’s next for the intrepid spacecraft.

Pinning down the how and when Neanderthals interbred with humans

Studies of Neanderthal remains have revealed that many modern humans have around two per cent Neanderthal DNA in our genomes. A study led by Leonardo Iasi, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, shows that the mixture happened over a period of 7,000 years, lasting from about 50,000 years ago until the Neanderthals started to disappear. The Neanderthal genes that persist in our genome are tied to metabolism and immunity, which might be because humans were traveling to new places and eating new foods to which Neanderthals were already adapted. Iasi’s research was published in the journal Science.

What Donner and Blitzen might have been saying to Rudolph

Researchers from Concordia University have released a new study about caribou vocalizations, and what the animals might be signaling to each other. The vocalizations are similar to those of elk and moose, but as herd animals, caribou signaling is less about summoning mates from a distance, and more about males warning competitors to fly off elsewhere. Biologists Robert Weladji and Laura Puch analyzed recordings of these calls to search for information buried in the grunts. They found that the frequencies gave signals as to the age and size of the animal. The research was published in the journal Bioacoustics.

Do crustaceans feel pain? A new study of their neural activity says yes

By monitoring the neural activity in crabs while delivering painful stimuli, researchers concluded the response they measured is associated with what we would think would be a painful experience. This study, in the journal Biology, adds to the evidence that crustaceans can sense painful stimuli as the kind of negative experience that we tend to associate with pain. Lynne Sneddon, from the University of Gothenburg led the work. 

Scientists are making a map of the human body accurate down to the individual cell

The Human Cell Atlas is a mammoth global project to create a detailed map of all cell types and functions in the human body, from early development to old age. While not yet complete, it’s already revolutionizing how scientists can probe the human body with significant implications for future healthcare — from diagnosing diseases, to developing drugs, to ushering in a new era of personalized medical treatments. 

Early people in North America had mammoth appetites

The people of the Clovis culture, who lived across Ice Age North America 13,000 years ago, left behind many tools and artifacts that suggest they were skilled hunters. And now chemical analysis of the incredibly rare find of bones of a Clovis child has given us the first direct evidence of what they were eating. The research, co-led by James Chatters of McMaster University, revealed they were “super-carnivores” whose diet mostly consisted of mammoth meat, with elk and bison/camel showing up as well. By specializing in hunting megafauna, this would have helped the Clovis people rapidly spread throughout North America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

Now we know the specific molecule that makes the Corpse flower smell like death

Corpse flowers are major botanical attractions because of their unique shape, their rare flowering and their incredible stench. Now researchers have identified the molecule that is the secret behind the stink. Alveena Zulfiqar, a research associate at the University of Minnesota, was a key part of the team led by G. Eric Schaller, a professor of biology at Dartmouth College. They published their research in the journal PNAS Nexus.

The dinosaurs that became birds had distinctive drumsticks

The lineage of dinosaurs that ultimately evolved into birds didn’t just have unique adaptations for wings and feathers. They also evolved unique drumsticks, specifically fibula bones that are detached at the ankle, which gave their knee joints unusual mobility, allowing them to twist by more than 100 degrees. Biomechanist Armita Manafzadeh, from Yale University, says it’s certainly possible that this change in their mobility might have been key to their survival. Their research was published in Nature. 

A plant can spit out its seeds fast enough to take out an eye

In the blink of an eye the squirting cucumber can eject its seeds faster than a greyhound can run, up to twelve meters from the plant. High speed video has enabled researchers to capture the process, which the plant manages without muscles or tendons. Derek Moulton, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Oxford, was part of the team that published their research in the journal PNAS.

Hacking photosynthesis: How we can improve the chemistry that’s the foundation of life

The plants that make up the base of the Earth’s food chain, use the sun’s energy — along with carbon dioxide and water — to build their tissues. But the chemical process they use, photosynthesis, is extremely inefficient. To feed our growing population, scientists are working on ways to improve this very foundational chemical reaction by increasing its efficiency.

One team developed a computer simulation of the entire photosynthetic process to systematically search for and test ways to enhance the process. Plant biologist Steve Long, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says if they combined all the individual gains they’ve discovered, he estimates they could improve efficiency by up to double. One of their latest studies is currently in the preprint bioRxiv. 

Another approach scientists are investigating involves replacing photosynthesis with more efficient chemical reaction to produce acetate as fuel for the plants’ growth. This reaction could be powered by solar energy or any other form of electricity. Robert Jinkerson, a chemical engineer from the University of California in Riverside, said they’re still developing this technology for plants, but they’ve shown that in single-celled photosynthetic algae that they can improve photosynthetic efficiency by at least four-fold. Their research is published in Joule. 

What the dinosaurs left behind tells the story of their rise to dominance

Bones aren’t the only thing we can use to understand the dinosaurs. A new study of a rich trove of fossilized feces and vomit is telling the story of how dinosaurs diversified and came to dominate the planet starting 230 million years ago. Paleontologist Martin Qvarnström from Uppsala University in Sweden said it appears that the secret to dinosaurs’ success is in their ability to adapt to their changing environment. Their research is published in the journal Nature. 

A new kind of ‘walking’ shorts could help with mobility

Scientists have incorporated artificial tendons and electric motors into shorts to provide support and assistance to the hip flexor muscles that are critical for walking. In both young and old people the shorts improved performance and so could make a difference for those whose mobility has been compromised. Enrica Tricomi, a visiting researcher at the Technical University of Munich, co-developed this prototype. The study was published in the journal Nature.

Shining a bright light on a new way to discourage shark attacks

Sharks attacks on humans are often a result of mistaken identity, when they mistake a swimming human or a surfboard for a seal or sea lion. Researchers have found that a bright patterns of LED lights can break up the visual pattern of a swimmer so that they look less like a shark’s usual prey. Dr. Lucille Chapuis was part of the team that tested various patterns of lights in Seal Island, South Africa. Their research was published in Current Biology.

Different species of humans walked side-by-side in Africa millions of years ago

Preserved footprints near a lakeshore in Kenya show that two species of early humans, Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, shared the same watering hole 1.5 million years ago. This is the first direct evidence of two species of hominids sharing the same space at the same time.

Dr. Kevin Hatala, professor of Biology at Chatham University, and his team’s findings are in the journal Science. 

We no longer know how to make humans live longer – only better

Human lifespan lengthened amazingly in the 20th century, thanks to reductions in infant mortality, improvements in public health, and successes against infectious disease. But according to a new study by S. Jay Olshansky, those gains have started to flatline in recent years. By looking at the countries with the longest lifespans, Olshansky and his colleagues found that we have traded childhood diseases for age-related diseases like cancers and Alzheimer's, and so we shouldn’t expect to make many more gains in human lifespan using our current methods. Instead, he says, we should focus on improving the quality of the extra years we’ve gained so far. His work was published in the journal Nature Aging.

We also speak with William Mair, a Professor of Molecular Metabolism at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is part of a new field of study called Geroscience, which looks at slowing down the process of aging as a whole. In his lab he has been able to extend the lifespan of simpler creatures like nematode worms and mice, and says while we have no proof we can extend a human’s maximum lifespan at this time, that doesn’t mean it won’t be possible in the future. 

Octopus camouflage is incredibly hard work

Octopuses have the remarkable ability to change their appearance in the blink of an eye – assuming new skin coloration and patterns for camouflage or communication. A new study in the journal PNAS has explored how much energy this takes, and it turns out transforming themselves is a workout harder than you’d ever get at the gym. Dr. Kirt Onthank is a professor of Biology at Walla Walla University and known as The Octopus Guy on social media.

Bigger isn’t better when it comes to dog brains

Dog bodies and brain sizes vary enormously, but a new study comparing dogs’ cognitive abilities and personalities with brain size reveals some surprises. The research, led by evolutionary biologist Ana Balcarcel, found that the biggest brains relative to their body sizes belong to the small, anxious, excitable companion dogs, while the trainable, obedient working breeds are not gifted when it comes to volume of brain tissue. The work was published in the journal Biology Letters.

This universe is too sparse, this one’s too dense, and this one? Well, it’ll do

Our universe might seem like it’s perfectly tuned for life, but when it comes to the role dark energy plays in the emergence of life, it turns out that our universe might not be so special after all. A new study that simulated the development of hypothetical universes with different amounts of dark energy suggests the optimal amount of dark energy to enable the evolution of life is only one-tenth of the density in our universe. Daniele Sorini, a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University and his team published their work in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 

Why a smack on the lips might have come from a snack on a tick

Lip mashing is an oddity in the animal kingdom. Other than humans, few species have adopted the custom of pressing lips together as a signal of affection. A new theory for why humans kiss suggests it emerged from primate grooming practices, and the lip-lock has its roots in us slurping up parasites we’ve combed from a companion's fur. Dr. Adriano Lameira, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Warwick published his new hypothesis in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology. 

Taking out our brains’ trash may be key to maintaining a healthy brain

Some scientists think it's possible that a host of neurological disorders, from Alzheimer's to Parkinson’s, could be connected to problems with the way the brain rids itself of metabolic waste. A couple of recent studies in Nature are helping this longstanding puzzle about how this waste removal system works and what we might be able to do about it when it doesn’t. 

A study published in Nature describes how synchronized electrical waves help flush the waste out when we sleep. Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroimmunologist from Washington University in St. Louis, said our neurons that are driving this waste removal system through what’s known as the glymphatic system. 

A separate study of how gamma frequency stimulation, at 40 cycles per second, can kickstart gamma waves that are compromised in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscientist from MIT, said they found this stimulation flushes out beta-amyloid peptides in the brains of mice that would otherwise build up and form plaques which are the hallmark of diseased Alzheimer’s brains.