Stress and Irritable Bowel Disease
Researchers have identified how stress signals in the brain travel to the gut and cause inflammation, reports Saima Sidik for Nature. The link between inflammation and mental health is strong, and the causation goes both ways. In January, Joanna Thompson wrote for Quanta about how inflammation can cause a loss of synaptic connections in the brain and lead to mood disorders such as depression. Inflammation can cause many problems, but it also protects us from pathogens. In 2022, Steven Strogatz interviewed the immunology researcher Shruti Naik for The Joy of Why podcast about why inflammation is a dangerous necessity.
Two-Armed Milky Way?
Astronomers are rethinking the shape of our galaxy. The Milky Way is often portrayed as having four spiraling arms, but new observations are more consistent with it having only two, reports Robert Lea for Space.com. Titanic collisions can reshape galaxies. In 2018, Ramin Skibba wrote for Quanta about how an ancient collision with a dwarf galaxy could help explain the current appearance of the Milky Way. | |
