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Since ancient times, the idea of eternal life has captured the human imagination.
All over the world, there are so-called blue zones where people live exceptionally long and healthy lives. Scientists study these “land of immortals” to discover the secrets of longevity.
We may not yet have discovered the healing waters of the fountain of youth, but one of the breakthroughs in this week’s newsletter is shaking up what we know about life and death.
Cutting-edge research in pigs shows that death in cells is not instantaneous.
In fact, it’s a complex biological process – a bit like a cascade of dominoes – that can potentially be stopped.
Scientists at Yale University have revived cells and organs from pigs that have been dead for an hour using synthetic blood treatment.
The results surprised the researchers involved in the project. Check out the pig cells, pictured on the right in the side-by-side comparison above, being revived by the OrganEx system, a new technology they developed.
The goal, however, isn’t to magically bring animals back to life – it’s to widen the window for much-needed human organ transplants.
The massive eruption of an undersea volcano near Tonga in January defied easy explanation, constantly surprising scientists who continue to study it.
It created an unexpected type of tsunami, a sonic boom heard as far away as Alaska, hurricane-force winds in space, and unusual pressure waves.
We now know that thanks to detections from a NASA satellite, the volcano has spewed such a massive amount of water vapor into the atmosphere that it is likely to temporarily heat the Earth’s surface.
The plume of steam that the eruption sent into the stratosphere – which is located between 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface – included enough water to fill 58,000 Olympic swimming pools.
The NASA’s Artemis mission isn’t just about returning to the Moon – it’s part of the preparations for a bolder plan to go to Mars.
How the astronauts will make the years-long journey to the Red Planet is uncertain. One idea is to induce hibernation in space travelers, and a tiny mouse-like creature that lives in the Patagonian forest might hold a key to unlocking this approach.
Once the weather turns cold, the monito del goes up to bug eyes builds a mossy nest in a tree hollow. There, the tiny marsupial enters a physiological state called torpor, and his heart rate drops from 200 beats per minute to two or three beats per minute. During this period of inactivity, the animal conserves its energy by breathing once every three minutes.
Understanding how it nearly shuts down its metabolism and wakes up unscathed weeks later could potentially help scientists develop a plan for human hibernation on long-haul space missions.
Learn more about the monitor during Sunday’s episode of the CNN docuseries “Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World” at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Each new episode of the six-part series will be available on CNNgo the day after it airs on television. You can also access CNNgo through our CNN app.
Walking on Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, would be a bit like wading through a bullet pit, NASA scientists have found.
Images and data from the agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission revealed that the asteroid’s exterior is made up of loose particles that are not bound tightly.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which in 2020 successfully collected a sample from the asteroid, encountered little resistance upon landing – about the same amount someone might feel when pressing down on the piston. a French press coffee maker.
Had the spacecraft not triggered its thruster to roll back after its rapid collection of dust and rocks, it could have sunk directly into the asteroid. This is just the latest unexpected discovery on Bennu as OSIRIS-REx and the precious sample make their way to Earth.
Priceless coins and jewelry that once belonged to sea knights are among the treasures recently discovered on a Spanish shipwreck.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Lady of Wonders) sank in 1656 after colliding with another ship in her fleet and crashing into a coral reef off the Bahamas.
The 891-ton ship was carrying a huge treasure, part of which was reserved as royal tax for King Philip IV, from Cuba to Seville, Spain.
The cache was larger than usual, as the Maravillas had also transported treasure recovered from a ship that had sunk two years previously.
Escape to worlds beyond your own with these stories:
– A paleontologist has found an extremely cool fossil in his garden. This upsets what we know about early Americans.
– Caves provided shelter for the first human inhabitants of Earth. Similar formations on the Moon could provide pioneering astronauts with a safe lunar haven.
– The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a strange, cartwheel-shaped galaxy.
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