February 14, 2025: Today we're covering Valentine's Day-themed science, cancers that hijack the nervous system and a nebula that resembles a hamburger. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | HH 30, a complex assemblage of gas and dust surrounding a newborn star some 475 light-years from Earth, as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Tazaki et al. (CC BY 4.0) | | | • A spectacular space object called HH 30, photographed by the James Webb Space Telescope, resembles a giant space hamburger. The nebula features a dusty disk where planets eventually could form, writes Phil Plait. | 5 min read | • A measles outbreak that has hospitalized more than a dozen children in a Texas community with dangerously low vaccination rates has raised containment concerns. Officials are scrambling to track the eruption of cases. | 4 min read | | | Juvenile loggerhead sea turtles don't just dance when they sense nearby food. They also dance when they sense magnetic field signatures of places where they recently dined, even if there's no food currently at the site, scientists have discovered. In a sense, the sea turtles, known for their epic migrations, create a magnetic map for food sources, writes science journalist Jack Tamisiea. Some turtles retain magnetic coordinates for decades, the researchers say. Why this is cool: For the dance, performed because the turtles get excited about food, the turtles tilt their head toward the surface, open their mouths and flap their front flippers. "Sometimes they twirl in place like a top," Tamisiea writes. Who can blame them. Don't miss the adorable gif, mid-way through the story, of one of the dancing juvenile sea turtles.
What the experts say: "It's very important for young sea turtles to outgrow predator mouths as quickly as possible. [The turtles] need to efficiently locate food to sustain their development and increase their chances of survival," says marine biologist Jeanette Wyneken, who studies sea turtles.. | | | Loggerhead turtle hatchling. foryouinf/Getty Images | Tumor cells in a group of deadly brain cancers, and in prostate, stomach and some other cancers, connect and interact with healthy cells in multiple ways that fuel malignant growth, according to a line of biomedical research that has developed in the past decade or so. In an interview with freelance science journalist Ingrid Wickelgren, neuroscientist and neuro-oncologist Michelle Monje describes the tumor growth processes and other neurodevelopmental hijacking that she started to tease apart during her clinical training. In gliomas, cancer cells manage to provoke neurons to release compounds that stimulate malignant growth. The tumors also form synapses with neurons and come to remodel the brain's circuitry, Monje and other teams have discovered.
Why this matters: Therapies interrupting the cancer cells' electrical activity could slow their growth and possibly buy more time for immunotherapies to "outpace the cancer," Monje says. Tests are under way to test the efficacy of already developed drugs that target neurotransmitters and growth factors. Interrupting interactions between cancer cells and the nervous system will be a "major aspect of cancer care in the future," Monje says.
How they did it: Early in her career, Monje noticed that she could predict the location of a patient's primary brain cancer if she knew their age. And it was long known that brain-cancer cells tended to cluster around mature neurons. Both patterns suggested to Monje that the cancer had somehow hijacked neurodevelopment, perhaps by affecting the activity of neurons. | | | If you're enjoying all the science we cover in this newsletter, dive deeper with a subscription to Scientific American. You'll have access to all our articles and will be supporting crucial science journalism. | | | • Compared with women, men typically have fewer friends and fewer people they can lean on for emotional support. Men's relative social isolation adds to the often-hidden emotional work performed by the women in the lives of these men, write Angelica Puzio Ferrara and Dylan Vergara, a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant, respectively, at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. Simply naming this "mankeeping" phenomenon can ease the burden on women, making the work more visible, the researchers write. | 5 min read | | | Do you know the answer to the first question of today's science quiz? Also, don't miss today's Spellements. If you spot any science words missing from Spellements, email them to games@sciam.com. In recent days, readers Paul C. and Louisa K. found tilth. And reader Kaplan found rhabdo, writing that it is "a serious medical condition which occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood. These substances can damage your organs [and can] be fatal." | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • Coffee boosts beneficial gut bacterium. | 2 min read | • Mathematicians solve the infamous 'moving sofa problem.' | 4 min read | • How to avoid outrage fatigue and tune in without burning out. | 8 min listen
| | | Every morning, my beloved boils each of us an egg for breakfast. He likes a 5-minute egg and I prefer one boiled 45 seconds longer. Now, a team of materials scientists has applied research rigor to cooking "the perfect egg," one that is optimized for taste, mouth-feel and nourishment. To achieve this "periodic" cooked egg, you cook the egg in its shell for two-minute intervals each in hot water at 100 degrees C and then tepid water at 30 degrees C, repeating this alternating process for a total of 32 minutes, writes Scientific American editor Arminda Downey-Mavromatis. Are you willing to try this experiment at home? Speaking for my spouse, yes. If you're also game, please write to us and tell us how your periodic egg experiment goes. | Please send your results, as well as any comments and questions about the newsletter: newsletters@sciam.com. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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