Category: 7. Science

Weak magnetic fields once exposed humans to radiation. People adapted with shelter, clothing, and mineral protection.

Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field.

When we first got together, we wondered whether our unconventional project, linking space weather and human behavior, could actually bridge such a vast disciplinary divide. Now, two years on, we believe the payoffs – personal, professional and scientific – were well worth the initial discomfort.

Our collaboration, which culminated in a recent paper in the journal Science Advances, began with a single question: What happened to life on Earth when the planet’s magnetic field nearly collapsed roughly 41,000 years ago?

Weirdness when Earth’s magnetic shield falters

The event is known as the Laschamps Excursion, a short but intense geomagnetic disruption named after volcanic deposits in France where it was first discovered. Near the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth’s magnetic poles did not undergo a full reversal, as they typically do every few hundred thousand years. Instead, they shifted erratically across thousands of miles, while the strength of the magnetic field fell to less than 10% of its present level.

Under normal conditions, Earth’s magnetic field behaves like a stable dipole, similar to a bar magnet. During the Laschamps Excursion, however, it broke apart into several weaker poles scattered across the globe. This fragmentation weakened the magnetosphere, Earth’s natural shield that normally blocks much of the solar wind and harmful ultraviolet radiation from reaching the surface.

With the magnetosphere compromised, models suggest that a variety of near-Earth effects would have occurred. Auroras, which today are usually confined to the polar regions, likely appeared much closer to the equator, and the planet was exposed to significantly higher levels of solar radiation than we experience now.

The skies some 41,000 years ago may therefore have been both dazzling and dangerous. Recognizing this, we as geophysicists began to wonder how such conditions might have influenced human populations of the time.

From an archaeological perspective, the answer was clear: they were indeed affected.

Human responses to ancient space weather

For people living during this period, the auroras would likely have been the most visible and dramatic consequence, perhaps provoking awe, fear, ritual practices, or other responses that are difficult to trace. The archaeological record rarely preserves direct evidence of such emotional or cognitive reactions.

The physiological consequences of heightened ultraviolet exposure, however, are easier to assess. With the magnetic field weakened, more harmful radiation reached the surface, increasing the risks of sunburn, vision damage, birth defects, and other health concerns.

In response, people may have adopted practical measures: spending more time in caves, producing tailored clothing for better coverage, or applying mineral pigment “sunscreen” made of ochre to their skin. As we describe in our recent paper, the frequency of these behaviors indeed appears to have increased across parts of Europe, where effects of the Laschamps Excursion were pronounced and prolonged.

During this time, both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens inhabited Europe, though their ranges likely overlapped only in certain regions. Archaeological findings indicate that these populations responded differently to environmental pressures, with some relying more heavily on shelter or material culture as forms of protection.

It is important to emphasize that the research does not claim space weather alone drove these changes in behavior, nor that the Laschamps event was responsible for Neanderthal extinction—a common misinterpretation. Instead, it may have been one of several factors, an unseen but influential force shaping human adaptation and innovation.

Cross-discipline collaboration

Collaborating across such a disciplinary gap was, at first, daunting. But it turned out to be deeply rewarding.

Archaeologists are used to reconstructing now-invisible phenomena like climate. We can’t measure past temperatures or precipitation directly, but they’ve left traces for us to interpret if we know where and how to look.

But even archaeologists who’ve spent years studying the effects of climate on past behaviors and technologies may not have considered the effects of the geomagnetic field and space weather. These effects, too, are invisible, powerful and best understood through indirect evidence and modeling. Archaeologists can treat space weather as a vital component of Earth’s environmental history and future forecasting.

Likewise, geophysicists, who typically work with large datasets, models and simulations, may not always engage with some of the stakes of space weather. Archaeology adds a human dimension to the science. It reminds us that the effects of space weather don’t stop at the ionosphere. They can ripple down into the lived experiences of people on the ground, influencing how they adapt, create and survive.

The Laschamps Excursion wasn’t a fluke or a one-off. Similar disruptions of Earth’s magnetic field have happened before and will happen again. Understanding how ancient humans responded can provide insight into how future events might affect our world – and perhaps even help us prepare.

Our unconventional collaboration has shown us how much we can learn, how our perspective changes, when we cross disciplinary boundaries. Space may be vast, but it connects us all. And sometimes, building a bridge between Earth and space starts with the smallest things, such as ochre, or a coat, or even sunscreen.

Reference: “Wandering of the auroral oval 41,000 years ago” by Agnit Mukhopadhyay, Sanja Panovska, Raven Garvey, Michael W. Liemohn, Natalia Ganjushkina, Austin Brenner, Ilya Usoskin, Mikhail Balikhin and Daniel T. Welling, 16 April 2025, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq7275

Adapted from an article originally published in The Conversation.

Agnit Mukhopadhyay has received funding from NASA Science Mission Directorate and the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School.

Raven Garvey and Sanja Panovska do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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The body has an intricate system to defend against infections where each type of immune cell plays a distinct role. Now, a study led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine has uncovered a new function of the immune cells that are known for making antibodies. They determined that, in response to flu infection, a specialized set of B cells produce a key signaling molecule that the immune system needs to develop a robust, long-term response to fight off infections.

It’s a function that has not previously been seen in these types of cells. The finding highlights a potential target for improving immunizations, particularly the flu vaccine, and future therapies for conditions like cancer and autoimmune disease. The team published their study in PLOS Pathogens.

It’s paradigm-shifting. The pathway for producing the cytokine called interleukin-1 beta – a messenger that helps coordinate immune response – has almost exclusively been seen in the body’s front-line, innate immune cells. Yet here, we see it in B cells in a specialized area of the lymph node called the germinal center, which is part of the body’s adaptive immune response. We don’t expect them to do that.”

S. Rameeza Allie, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine and senior author on the paper

When a pathogen like the flu virus enters the body, it sets off a cascade of responses, the research team explained. First, the body’s front-line defense, called innate immunity, jumps into action to battle the pathogen and broadly suppress the infection. At the same time, the body gathers information about the pathogen and develops a targeted response using B cells and T cells, two types of white blood cells. This adaptive immunity, while slower to develop, is crucial for survival because it remembers pathogens and provides long-lasting protection. If the immune system encounters the same pathogen again, it mounts a faster, more robust response and protects against re-infection.

Germinal centers are key to developing good adaptive immunity, the researchers explained. These are areas that form in the lymph nodes in response to an infection or immunization and act as a training ground for B cells. Germinal center B cells, or GC B cells, multiply and undergo rapid changes to produce highly specific antibodies and memory B cells.

“The focus of our lab is understanding how we make this germinal center work better so that we can have these very protective memory B cells,” Allie said. “Studies have shown that if you can make the germinal centers persist longer, the production of memory B cells is really good.”

Allie explained that the interleukin-1 beta is necessary for a high-quality germinal center. Germinal centers need T follicular helper (TFH) cells in order to persist, and these TFH cells, in turn, need interleukin-1 beta to function. Without interleukin-1 beta, there are fewer TFH cells and germinal centers are smaller in size.

This study demonstrated that GC B cells produce interleukin-1 beta locally in the germinal center, and supplies it to TFH cells, a relationship that was previously unknown, the researchers said. The findings highlight the two-way relationship between these immune cells and how they work together to promote better quality germinal centers.

“We’ve known about B cells for a long time, and we know that their prominent function is to produce antibodies. But here, we show that they aren’t just antibody-producing cells. They are also helper cells for other immune cells and are essential for TFH cells to do their job and therefore the germinal center, too,” said Juliana Restrepo Munera, doctoral candidate in cell and biological systems at the Penn State College of Medicine and first author of the study.

The research team validated their data in a mouse model of influenza and in human B cells. They found that GC B cells produce interleukin-1 beta through a well-studied mechanism which uses a multi-protein complex called the NLRP3 inflammasome. When activated, this protein complex triggers the release of cytokines like interleukin-1 beta. Prior to this work, this inflammasome wasn’t widely linked to adaptive immunity. The researchers found that the inflammasome and interleukin-1 beta were expressed by GC B cells but not by other B cells. Without the inflammasome or interleukin-1 beta, TFH cells didn’t function effectively and the germinal centers weren’t well formed.

This finding could point to ways to enhance the response and prolong the activity in the germinal center by targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway or GC B cell-derived interleukin-1 beta, Restrepo Munera explained. It could inform future flu vaccine strategies to provide better protection against viruses that constantly evolve. It could also lead to better ways to manage immune response in conditions like autoimmune disease and cancer.

“There’s so much translational potential because this is a cytokine that’s been studied and has been used in clinical settings,” Allie said.

The research team said they plan to continue this line of research to understand what’s required for the formation of optimal germinal centers and how to enhance their interaction between the GC B cells and TFH cells.

Funding from the Penn State College of Medicine supported this work.

(Web Desk) – Salt giants and other striking formations in the Dead Sea reveal how evaporation and fluid dynamics shape Earth’s geological past and present.

The Dead Sea represents a unique convergence of conditions: it lies at the lowest point on Earth’s surface and contains one of the planet’s highest salt concentrations. This extreme salinity makes the water unusually dense, and its distinction as the deepest hypersaline lake produces remarkable, often temperature-driven processes beneath the surface that scientists are still working to understand.

Among the most intriguing features are the so-called salt giants — vast accumulations of salt within the Earth’s crust.

“These large deposits in the earth’s crust can be many, many kilometers horizontally, and they can be more than a kilometer thick in the vertical direction,” said UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor Eckart Meiburg, lead author of a paper published in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. “How were they generated? The Dead Sea is really the only place in the world where we can study the mechanism of these things today.”

Although massive salt deposits are also present in places such as the Mediterranean and Red seas, the Dead Sea is the only location where they are actively forming. This makes it an unparalleled site for investigating the physical processes that govern their development, including how their thickness varies across space and time.

“It used to be such that even in the winter when things cooled off, the top layer was still less dense than the bottom layer,” Meiburg explained. “And so as a result, there was a stratification in the salt.”

This balance shifted in the early 1980s when partial diversion of the Jordan River reduced freshwater inflow, allowing evaporation to dominate. At that point, surface salinity reached levels comparable to the deep waters, enabling the two layers to mix. This change transformed the lake from meromictic to holomictic (a lake in which the water column overturns annually). Today, stratification still occurs, but it persists only for roughly eight months during the warmer part of the year.

 

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured astonishing new images of the planetary nebula NGC 1514, unveiling ghostly, infrared-bright rings around a dying star system located approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth. These structures, seen in unprecedented detail, provide astronomers with an extraordinary glimpse into the complex history and evolution of this stellar remnant.The findings, published in The Astronomical Journal under the title “JWST/MIRI Study of the Enigmatic Mid-infrared Rings in the Planetary Nebula NGC 1514,” reveal details never seen before. They allow scientists to study the turbulent 4,000-year history of the nebula and raise intriguing questions about the formation and behaviour of such celestial structures.

Unveiling NGC 1514: James Webb Space Telescope shows infrared rings of dying star

NGC 1514 was first discovered in 1790 by William Herschel, who observed its hazy glow surrounding a single star, a finding that challenged 18th-century ideas about nebulae. Over the centuries, astronomers repeatedly imaged the nebula, each time uncovering new layers of complexity.In 2010, NASA’s WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) detected a pair of infrared rings invisible in optical light. However, their precise structure and composition remained elusive-until the advent of JWST. Using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), astronomers led by Michael Ressler of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory captured unprecedented images of the rings, showing fine-grained clumps, filaments, and turbulent features within the structures.

Inside NGC 1514: How a binary star system shapes ghostly rings

At the core of NGC 1514 lies a binary star system: a white dwarf and a giant companion star. The now-dead star expelled its outer layers as it evolved into a white dwarf, forming the glowing nebula. Its companion orbits closely, likely interacting gravitationally to shape the nebula’s peculiar hourglass structure.JWST’s images reveal a three-dimensional, pinched hourglass envelope, with the rings embedded across its midsection. The rings display asymmetries and unusual dust patterns, hinting at intense past interactions between the stars and complex processes that continue to puzzle astronomers.

JWST reveals unique thermal dust emission in NGC 1514

One of the most surprising discoveries is the nature of the rings’ emission. Unlike other planetary nebulae, which often show signals from molecules like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or molecular hydrogen, over 98% of the light from NGC 1514’s rings comes from thermal radiation emitted by cool dust grains.This discovery suggests that the rings are fragile and structurally unique, and their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood. The striking clarity of JWST’s mid-infrared images emphasises the telescope’s transformative ability to reveal hidden geometries in complex nebulae.

How JWST transforms our understanding of NGC 1514 and dying star

NGC 1514 has evolved from a curious fuzzy patch in 18th-century telescopes to a scientific Rosetta Stone for understanding stellar death. The nebula’s symmetrical, ghostly rings challenge conventional theories about the final stages of stellar evolution and highlight the intricate interactions within binary star systems.These observations underscore JWST’s crucial role in expanding our understanding of planetary nebulae and the dynamic processes shaping them. Even as astronomers uncover more about NGC 1514, the nebula continues to redefine our knowledge of dying stars and cosmic evolution.

(Web Desk) – Giant impact structures, including the potential remains of ancient “protoplanets,” may be lurking deep beneath the surface of Mars, new research hints. The mysterious lumps, which have been perfectly preserved within the Red Planet’s immobile innards for billions of years, may date back to the beginning of the solar system.

In a new study, published Aug. 28 in the journal Science, researchers analyzed “Marsquake” data collected by NASA’s InSight lander, which monitored tremors beneath the Martian surface from 2018 until 2022, when it met an untimely demise from dust blocking its solar panels. By looking at how these Marsquakes vibrated through the Red Planet’s unmoving mantle, the team discovered several never-before-seen blobs that were much denser than the surrounding material.

The researchers have identified dozens of potential structures, measuring up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) across, at various depths within Mars’ mantle, which is made of 960 miles (1,550 km) of solid rock that can reach temperatures as high as 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 degrees Celsius).

“We’ve never seen the inside of a planet in such fine detail and clarity before,” study lead author Constantinos Charalambous, a planetary scientist at Imperial College London, said in a NASA statement. “What we’re seeing is a mantle studded with ancient fragments.”

Based on the hidden objects’ size and depth, the researchers think the structures were made when objects slammed into Mars up to 4.5 billion years ago, during the early days of the solar system. Some of the objects were likely protoplanets — giant rocks that were capable of growing into full-size planets if they had remained undisturbed, the researchers wrote.

The researchers first noticed the buried structures when they found that some of the Marsquake signals took longer to pass through parts of the mantle than others. By tracing back these signals, they identified regions with higher densities than the surrounding rock, suggesting that those sections did not originate there. Mars is a single-plate planet, meaning that its crust remains fully intact, unlike Earth’s, which is divided into tectonic plates. As pieces of Earth’s crust subduct through plate boundaries, they sink into the mantle, which causes the molten rock within our planet to rise and fall via convection. But on Mars, this does not happen, which means its mantle is fixed in place and does not fully melt.

The newly discovered blobs are further proof that Mars’ interior is much less active than Earth’s.

“Their survival to this day tells us Mars’ mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years,” Charalambous said. “On Earth, features like these may well have been largely erased.”

Because Mars has no tectonic activity, Marsquakes are instead triggered by landslides, cracking rocks or meteoroid impacts, which frequently pepper the planet’s surface. These tremors have also been used to detect other hidden objects beneath the Red Planet’s surface, including a giant underground ocean discovered using InSight data last year.

In total, InSight captured data on 1,319 Marsquakes during its roughly four-year-long mission. However, scientists were still surprised that they could map the planet’s insides in such great detail.

“We knew Mars was a time capsule bearing records of its early formation, but we didn’t anticipate just how clearly we’d be able to see with InSight,” study co-author Tom Pike, a space exploration engineer at Imperial College London, said in the statement. 

Durham University scientists have unveiled a major advance in drone swarm technology that could transform the way unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used in real-world missions.

Their newly developed system, known as T-STAR, allows swarms of drones to fly faster, safer, and with unprecedented coordination, even in highly complex and obstacle-filled environments.

Drone swarms have long been seen as the future of applications such as search and rescue operations, disaster response, forest fire monitoring, environmental exploration, and parcel delivery.

Yet until now, drones working in groups have struggled to combine speed with safety.

When navigating unpredictable surroundings, traditional systems often force drones to slow down drastically or risk collisions, limiting their effectiveness in urgent or large-scale missions.

The T-STAR system tackles these challenges by enabling drones to communicate and share information in real time, the system allows each drone to adjust its path instantly in response to changing conditions or the movements of nearby drones.

This prevents collisions, keeps formations intact, and ensures the swarm continues towards its goal with minimal delay.

Importantly, the technology achieves this without compromising speed. Tests have shown that swarms guided by T-STAR complete their missions faster and with smoother, more reliable flight paths than existing methods.

Lead author of the study, Dr Junyan Hu of Durham University, said: “T-STAR allows autonomous aerial vehicles to operate as a truly intelligent swarm, combining speed, safety, and coordination in ways that were previously impossible.

“This opens up new possibilities for using cooperative robotic swarms in complex scenarios, where every second counts.”

In practice, this means drones could one day be deployed more effectively to save lives during emergencies such as earthquakes or floods, to track and contain wildfires, or to deliver supplies in hard-to-reach areas.

The researchers also believe the technology has strong potential for everyday applications, from agriculture to logistics, where teams of autonomous flying robots could operate at a scale and efficiency previously thought impossible.

What makes T-STAR especially pioneering is its balance between agility and teamwork.

Each drone operates with a high degree of independence, yet remains part of a coordinated network, much like birds in a flock.

This approach gives the swarm both resilience and flexibility, ensuring it can adapt to challenges on the fly.

Extensive simulations and laboratory experiments have already demonstrated T-STAR’s superiority over existing systems, and the researchers are now looking towards real-world trials in larger outdoor environments.

Media Information

Sept. 3 (UPI) — NASA said Wednesday the “next era” of lunar exploration demands a new kind of wheel as the space agency unveiled its “Rock and Roll” challenge.

The so-called “Rock and Roll with NASA” challenge seeks a clever inventor or team to design and create for NASA a special wheel that can, NASA said: “sprint across razor-sharp regolith, shrug off extremely cold nights and keep a rover rolling day after lunar day.”

“Whether you’re a student team, a garage inventor, or a seasoned aerospace firm, this is your opportunity to rewrite the playbook of planetary mobility and leave tread marks on the future of exploration,” officials at NASA said in a release.

The space agency added that an ultimately successfully idea could possibly “set the pace” for future surface missions.

Ideally, the wheel design would be a “lightweight, compliant wheel that stays tough at higher speeds while carrying lots of cargo,” NASA said.

The three-phase challenge starts by rewarding the best concepts and analyses and funding for prototypes in the second phase.

By phase three, the best wheels will be put through a live NASA obstacle course simulating lunar terrain at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Aside from the engineering glory, NASA’s contest also will award $155,000 in total prizes.

The open date for the phase one enrollment closes November 4, with phase two and three dates extending through next year.

“Follow the challenge, assemble your crew and roll out a solution that takes humanity back to the moon,” NASA officials added on Wednesday.

UPTON, N.Y. — Cell walls don’t just provide support and protection for plants — they’re also packed with energy-rich biomaterials that could open new pathways for additional fuel, chemical, and material sources in the U.S. That’s why biologists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are untangling the complex genetic mechanisms that regulate these useful plant materials, known as biomass.

In a study just published in The Plant Biotechnology Journal, the research team identified a plant protein that plays a key role in three important biological processes in poplar plants — iron deficiency responses, cell wall biosynthesis, and the synthesis of disease-fighting molecules.

“The protein is called PtrbHLH011, and it first caught our attention several years ago when we were identifying genes and proteins that influence how poplar plants respond to nutrition stresses,” said Meng Xie, a Brookhaven biologist and the lead author on the new paper. “We found that expression of the PtrbHLH011 gene was largely reduced in stressed plants growing in an iron-deficient medium.”

During photosynthesis, plants need iron to convert sunlight into chemical energy that powers growth. With a deeper understanding of how plant genes and proteins like PtrbHLH011 work, biologists are working to develop bioenergy crops that can hyperaccumulate this important mineral and thrive even on iron-deficient, marginal land.

Traditionally, researchers have worked to increase cell wall sugars that can be converted into biofuels. But in recent years, a rigid cell wall component called lignin has caught their attention because it can be used to produce valuable bioproducts with industrial applications, like cement and adhesives.

“Different environmental factors can affect not just cell wall biosynthesis but also the ratio of cell wall components, like sugars and lignin,” Xie explained. “We set out to study the molecular mechanism underlying this so-called ‘environmental plasticity.’”

Gene “knock out” with a big payoff

Because some proteins have overlapping roles — or several, seemingly unrelated roles — it can be difficult to untangle the function of one from another. So, biologists often “knock out,” or deactivate, a gene to better understand the function of the protein it codes for.

In this case, collaborators at the University of Maryland developed poplar plants lacking PtrbHLH011.

The knockout plants simultaneously produced twice as much lignin and exhibited enhanced growth for the first time ever. This was especially surprising because prior studies show that increasing lignin content — and consequently, stiffening cell walls — typically diverts energy from growth and limits the overall biomass yield.

The modified plants also accumulated three times more iron in their leaves and increased production of flavonoids, which are compounds that can help plants fight disease.

Consistent with these observations, plants engineered by Brookhaven biologists to overexpress the PtrbHLH011 gene exhibited the opposite traits: stunted growth, weaker cell walls, increased sensitivity to disease, and yellow leaves characteristic of nutrient stress.

“PtrbHLH011 is a special type of protein called a transcription factor, meaning it binds to specific sequences of plant DNA and regulates the expression of several target genes,” explained Yuqiu Dai, a postdoctoral fellow at Brookhaven Lab and a first author on the new paper. “So, we expected that disrupting the PtrbHLH011 gene would affect several biological processes associated with its target genes.”

However, the researchers were surprised to find that knocking out the PtrbHLH011 protein increased several processes that require significant amounts of energy, which would normally impose a significant metabolic burden for the plants.

“We suspect the three-fold increase in leaf iron content boosted photosynthesis in the plants, ultimately generating more energy to support plant growth and the synthesis of lignin and flavonoids,” said Xie.

The surge in flavonoid synthesis is especially compelling as biologists from Brookhaven and beyond ramp up bio-preparedness efforts to protect U.S. bioenergy plants from disease. Through future studies examining how plants respond to infection and disease, researchers aim to uncover underlying mechanisms that could be leveraged to strengthen crops’ resistance to pathogens that reduce biomass yield.

With the identification of a gene regulatory mechanism that is modulated by PtrbHLH011, the Brookhaven researchers are also working to fine tune the expression of its specific target genes.

“If we can modulate the individual ‘downstream’ target genes, rather than a transcription factor that regulates all of them, we’ll be able to more precisely control one biological process at a time,” Dai said.

Xie added, “The foundational understanding we established during this study will enable our biotechnology efforts to advance the production of bioenergy and bioproduct feedstocks.

“These findings were the result of successful integration of multiple DOE Office of Science facilities and capabilities,” said Xie. For example, collaborators at the Joint Genome Institute measured the levels of gene expression in the engineered plants, and a collaborator at the Molecular Foundry provided insights into how the newly discovered regulatory mechanism adapted as land plants, like poplar, evolved. The Brookhaven researchers used confocal microscopy at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) to visualize where PtrbHLH011 was expressed in plant cells. They measured biomass lignin content in Brookhaven’s Biology Department. And with collaborators from the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), the researchers conducted X-ray bio-imaging experiments at the Submicron Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy (SRX) and Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamlines to study iron accumulation and cell wall structure in the poplar plants.

The Joint Genome Institute and the Molecular Foundry are DOE Office of Science user facilities at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. CFN and NSLS-II are DOE Office of Science user facilities at Brookhaven Lab.

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

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Photo Credit: University of Minnesota

3D-Printed Scaffolds to Repair the Spinal Cord

The technique is based on the fabrication of a 3D-printed structure designed to host lab-grown tissues, which researchers call an organoid scaffold. This structure contains tiny microscopic channels into which spinal cord–specific neural progenitor cells are introduced. These cells, derived from human adult stem cells, have the ability to multiply and transform into different types of mature nerve cells. “We use the 3D printed channels of the scaffold to direct the growth of the stem cells, which ensures the new nerve fibers grow in the desired way,” explains Guebum Han, former postdoctoral researcher in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota and first author of the study. “This method creates a relay system that, when placed in the spinal cord, bypasses the damaged area.“

In their experiment, the researchers implanted these scaffolds in rats with severe spinal cord injuries. The cells turned into neurons and developed nerve fibers in both directions, forming new connections with existing neural circuits. Over time, these new cells fully integrated into the spinal cord tissue, enabling the rats to regain certain motor functions. “Regenerative medicine has brought about a new era in spinal cord injury research,” says Ann Parr, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota. While this research is still in its early stages, it represents a new source of hope for people affected by such injuries. The team now plans to scale up production of these structures and continue their development for future medical applications.

What do you think of these recent developments from the University of Minnesota? Let us know in a comment below or on our LinkedIn or Facebook pages! Plus, don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly Newsletter to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our YouTube channel. Interested in more medical and dental 3D printing news? Visit our dedicated page HERE. 

*Cover Photo Credit: Motion Array 

The next astronauts to travel around the moon seem plenty fit to make the trip.

The four astronauts who will fly on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission recently passed the “Bobby and Pete Challenge,” performing 50 pull-ups and 100 pushups in less than 10 minutes.

The quartet — NASA’s Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency — chronicled their achievement in a 50-second video, which NASA posted on X on Aug. 29.

The Bobby and Pete Challenge takes its name from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who popularized the viral fitness test in an Aug. 18 video.