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Scientists Find Evidence Earth Is Drifting Through the Ashes of an Exploded Star

Earth is flying through the radioactive ashes of an ancient exploded star, and Antarctic ice preserved the evidence.

Scientists have found new evidence that Earth is moving through a cloud of ancient supernova debris left behind by a long ago stellar explosion. By examining Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old, researchers detected iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope created when massive stars explode. The findings suggest that the Local Interstellar Cloud surrounding our Solar System contains lingering material from an ancient supernova. The study was led by an international team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and published in Physical Review Letters.

Ancient Supernova Material Reaching Earth.

Functional Reorganization of Corticostriatal Connectivity Across the Degree of Nigrostriatal Degeneration in Parkinson Disease

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NASA Curiosity rover finds mysterious life linked molecules on Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover has identified a wide range of organic molecules on Mars, including compounds that scientists consider key ingredients for the origin of life on Earth.

The discovery comes from a chemical experiment carried out on another planet for the first time. Results show that the Martian surface is capable of preserving molecules that could act as potential signs of ancient life. However, the experiment cannot determine whether these organic compounds came from past life on Mars, natural geological processes, or meteorites that struck the planet.

To confirm any true evidence of past life, scientists would need to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth for detailed study.

Scientists recruit red blood cells to deliver genetic cargo with instructions to kill cancer

Scientists have developed a way to turn the body’s own immune cells into cancer-fighting agents—without removing them from the body—by using red blood cells to deliver genetic instructions. Current CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) therapies typically involve collecting a patient’s T cells, genetically modifying them in the laboratory, and then reinfusing them in a process that can take weeks. The new strategy aims to bypass that step.

In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers at Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine in Hangzhou, China, report that they used engineered erythrocytes, or red blood cells, to carry messenger RNA—mRNA—that reprograms myeloid cells into tumor-targeting cells inside the body.

“Engineering myeloid cells with chimeric antigen receptors—CARs—holds great therapeutic promise,” writes Dr. Xiaoqian Nie, lead author of the investigation.

Meet The Axolotl — The Salamander That Can Regrow Its Own Brain

But over evolutionary time, mammals have obviously lost the vast majority of this regenerative capacity. Instead, evolution opted for faster wound sealing, stronger immune responses and more stable neural systems in mammals. This is likely because surviving injury would have mattered more than perfectly reconstructing tissue months later.

Salamanders, on the other hand, have retained far more of this ancestral regenerative toolkit. Their ecology may have reinforced this retention, since small amphibians are especially vulnerable to predation and environmental injury. Limbs, tails and nervous tissue can be damaged surprisingly easily in aquatic habitats filled with predators, debris, and competition. For an animal living close to the edge of survival, the ability to recover from catastrophic injury could dramatically improve reproductive success.

The axolotl’s strange life history has most probably also enabled this unique ability. Unlike many amphibians, axolotls remain in a juvenile-like aquatic state throughout adulthood, a phenomenon known as “neoteny.” Intriguingly, juvenile tissues in many vertebrates tend to be more regenerative than adult tissues. Thus, by retaining aspects of its developmental state for life, the axolotl may preserve cellular programs that would otherwise be “switched off” after maturation.

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