Dec 14: The Human Cell Atlas — 'Google Maps' for our bodies, and more…
Touching the sun, Neanderthals and humans mating, crabs feel pain, and what does the reindeer say?
On this week's episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:
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.
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.
Researchers from Concordia University have released a new study about caribou vocalizations, and what the animals might be signalling to each other. The vocalizations are similar to those of elk and moose, but as herd animals, caribou signalling 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.
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, published 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.
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.
The co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas consortium, Ariv Regev from the Biotech company Genentech, said this is an improvement from our previous understanding of our cells. She compares it to how Google Maps is a significant step up from maps from the 15th century. Their research with contributions from scientists around the world were recently released in a series of papers in Nature.
Scientists behind the prenatal human skin map portion in the atlas were able to use their map as a blueprint to build a miniature tissue replica that's allowed them to investigate some of the unique traits in fetal tissue. Elena Winheim, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said it's provided new insights into things like how hair follicles form, how we may avoid scarring and an unexpected role the immune system plays in it. Their research was also published in Nature.
