November 19, 2024: An epic gravitational lensing opportunity, anxiety around holiday eating and a proposal for lunar burials. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Boris Zhitkov/Getty Images | | | • The tooth is stranger than fiction: the weird and wonderful study of teeth will astound you. | 7 min read | | | A cluster of galaxies five billion light-years from Earth has lined up precisely such that its intense gravity functions as a lens to magnify the light of seven galaxies located billions of light-years behind the cluster. From the perspective of astronomers on Earth, the gravitational lens can yield an array of images of six of the seven galaxies, with their light reaching us along slightly different paths. The lineup could yield "an unprecedented deep view of the universe," writes freelance journalist Tom Metcalfe.
Why this matters: If a supernova were to explode in one of the background galaxies, astronomers could image it from up to four perspectives, with light arriving at different times. The combination of data would provide "amazing information" on the explosion, says cosmologist Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, who helped discover the lens.
What the experts say: "This is an especially remarkable object. It's the result of outstanding good luck that the lens and the seven background galaxies are almost perfectly lined up along our line of sight," says astronomer Tereasa Brainerd, who was not involved in the new finding. | | | The Carousel Lens (center) bends the light of seven background galaxies. DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA | | | Nearly 40 percent of U.S. respondents to a recent survey reported having worries about the quantity of food they consume on holidays, such as Thanksgiving. In response, Scientific American editor Allison Parshall spoke with a registered dietician to collect some science-informed tips for navigating diet-culture misconceptions and special-occasion eating. Solutions to holiday-food anxieties, says Sara Riehm, include aiming to balance the types of food we eat with holiday enjoyment rather than skipping meals before or after a big feast. Efforts to restrict our calorie intake often results in an ineffective restrict-binge cycle.
The science: The stress that can accompany the hustle-and-bustle and food-anxiety of the holidays contributes to weight gain, Riehm says. When we're harried, levels of the stress-response hormone cortisol are higher and we are exposed to it for longer periods of time. Cortisol then leads to an increase in levels of hunger hormones, such as ghrelin, which can bring about a powerful appetite for high-calorie and high-fat food.
What the experts say: Riehm recommends a rubric of "always" foods, "sometimes" foods and "rarely" foods. The latter treats are high in saturated fat and sugar and not ideal for our health, but OK on holidays and special occasions. The middle category includes foods that are somewhat nourishing, but not the optimal road to nutrients. "Always" foods are nutrient-dense. She advises that we "lean more toward the 'sometimes' and 'always' side of the spectrum." The latter, as you must suspect, includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains and plant-based proteins such as beans. | | | • Debates over human burials and entrepreneurial endeavors on the moon currently are unresolved. Rick N. Tumlinson, founder of the EarthLight Foundation and co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, suggests a compromise going forward. He advocates for confining permanent lunar development that could be seen with the naked eye to the "far side" of the moon. That way, humanity can conserve the view of the familiar craters, ridges and volcanoes of the "near side" for future generations to enjoy as it has been from time immemorial. | 5 min read | | | Here in the Eastern Time Zone, we shifted back to standard time a couple weeks ago. For the purposes of this quick note, I won't get into the health issues linked to daylight saving versus standard time. But I definitely relate to this humorous TikTok, titled "WFD," that is, Work From Darkness. (Let's forgive the "Daylight Savings" label.)
| —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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