This week, fat cell “memory” could help explain why weight loss can be difficult to maintain, researchers might have figured out what made the Earth’s inner core go from molten to “frozen”, and first-of-its-kind footage zooms in on the life cycle of a giant virus. Finally, meet the shark-hunting dog that spent nearly a year stranded on one of the world’s most remote islands.
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See The First Ever Close-Up Picture Of A Star Outside The Milky Way
Astronomers have been studying star WOH G64 for a while. It’s a red supergiant in the galaxy next door, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it is believed to be in the last stages before going supernova. Researchers have now broken a record by actually photographing it in detail – this had never been done before. Read the full story here
Weight Loss Yo-Yo Effect Could Be Explained By Fat Cell “Memories”
Fat cell “memory” could help explain why weight loss can be difficult to maintain, according to new research. In experiments using mice and samples of human fat tissue, the scientists found that epigenetic changes persist even after weight loss, in effect meaning that the cells “remember” what it was like to be at a higher weight. Read the full story here
What Caused The Earth’s Inner Core To Freeze?
As much as we have explored and modeled our planet, there are a number of mysteries that surround the Earth’s inner core. One mystery we haven’t solved yet is how the core has “frozen” solid from a molten liquid state in its past. Read the full story here
Watch First-Of-Its-Kind Footage Of “Giant” Virus Infecting Cell
We know that viruses infect cells, but what does that process actually look like? Sure, diagrams can be helpful, but there’s nothing quite like seeing the real thing. Trouble is, doing so with the kind of microscopes you get in a classroom can be pretty difficult – but in some first-of-its-kind footage, researchers have successfully risen to the challenge. Read the full story here
World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Is 200 Times Narrower Than A Hair
Chemists from University College London (UCL) have created the world’s thinnest spaghetti using regular flour, liquid, and an electrically charged device that can create a strand that is just 372 nanometers across – narrower than the wavelength of blue light. It is so thin, it can only be seen with an electron microscope. Read the full story here
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Feature of the week:
Meet Dadu: The Shark-Hunting Dog And Beloved Former Resident Of This Remote Pacific Island
One thousand miles south of the Hawaiian Islands in one of the most isolated places in the world – where sharks outnumber humans – Palmyra Atoll was an unassuming home for a four-legged canine. For nearly two decades, the short-haired Dadu spent his days living alongside the island’s variable population, scientists, and short-term visitors. Read the full story here
More content:
Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 28 November 2024 is available now. This month we asked, “Will We All Be Eating Insects In The Future?” – check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.
PLUS, the We Have Questions podcast – an audio version of our coveted CURIOUS e-magazine column – has begun. In episode 3, we ask “The Biggest Wild Goose Is… Poisonous?”
Season 4 of IFLScience’s The Big Questions podcast has concluded. This season we’ve asked:
