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April 9, 2025—JWST just spotted a giant galaxy from the early days of the universe, new approaches to treating IBD, and math from the 1600s can break codes. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Arkadiusz Warguła/Getty Images | | - Mathematic theory from the 1600s can break some modern encryption. | 5 min read
- Some people report feeling weirdly wired—and paradoxically more productive—after getting less sleep. But scientists say this is a false sense of energy. | 5 min read
- A team of researchers traced the wild animal source of the mpox virus to the fire-footed rope squirrel, a forest-dwelling rodent found in West and Central Africa. | 4 min read
- Social media before bed is highly disruptive to sleep. Here's why. | 4 min read
| | Weichen Wang/Sebastiano Cantalupo/ESA/NASA | | A newfound object uncovered in the early universe by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is challenging long-held ideas about how galaxies form. Dubbed the "Big Wheel," the galaxy is a humongous, spiraling disk of stars, gas and cosmic dust about 100,000 light-years across. But the strangest thing about Big Wheel is its age: it formed when the universe was only about two billion years old, making it the biggest galaxy discovered so far to have formed in the early years of the universe. Why this is interesting: According to traditional theories of how the universe developed, younger galaxies should be much smaller, given that they haven't had time to slowly accumulate heavy loads of cosmic matter. But Big Wheel lives in a part of the universe that's jam-packed with an overabundance of matter, which the young galaxy may have quickly "gobbled up," leading it to become so massive. Though, it's still unclear how it managed to do all that without simply exploding from the overflow of radioactivity and cosmic accretion. "At the moment, I have to say it's a mystery—a complete mystery," admits Sebastiano Cantalupo, paper co-author and astronomer at University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. What the experts say: The early universe was "far more vigorous and chaotic, driven by frequent galaxy mergers and the rapid accretion of material from intergalactic space," says Vadim Semenov, a researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, who was not involved in the study. Being able to probe that foundational period with instruments like JWST will bring humanity's understanding of the universe to the next level, say astronomers. — Gayoung Lee, news intern | | In a recent study, 214 patients with irritable bowel disease (ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease) were randomly selected to take one of two drugs or both. One drug inhibited proteins involved in gut inflammation, while the other tamped down autoimmune response. Of those who received both drugs, 83 percent achieved remission at 12 weeks versus 61 and 75 percent of those treated with just one drug. Why this matters: Irritable bowel disease (IBD) can be treated in many ways (six mechanisms of action are treated by FDA-approved drugs). Combinations of multiple drugs could be the best treatment for the more than two million American adults and more than 100,000 children and adolescents with colitis or the other major form of IBD. And IBD is growing at an alarming rate in Asia, Latin America and Africa. What the experts say: The condition is spreading as Westernized diets become more common around the world, says Gastroenterologist Alan Moss. Ultraprocessed and sugary foods seem to contribute to the disease. Diets high in fiber, fruits and vegetables, however, often reduce symptoms. | | - A full-size digital scan of the sunken Titanic gives new insight into the ship's final hours. | BBC
- The UK is creating a "murder prediction tool" that uses personal data to indicate individuals most likely to become killers. | The Guardian
- Prehistoric rhinos lived in giant herds, according to these incredible fossils. | UC News
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- Women disproportionately report higher levels of each type of invisible family load (planning, coordinating events, emotional support) than do men. Carrying a higher invisible load than one's partner strains the relationship and decreases satisfaction in it, according to recent research by Julie Holliday Wayne at Wake Forest University and colleagues. Such emotional loads can be frustrating, but there are benefits too: "Our survey research confirms that, on average, people find a sense of meaning and purpose when taking on more of the remembering and deciding work of cognitive load, fostering a sense of enrichment in their family and greater satisfaction with their family lives," she writes. | 6 min read
| | Old math might be able to break some modern cryptography, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't beef up your personal account passwords. Check out one of my favorite articles from the archive on how to devise hack-proof passwords (or at least ones that would take hundreds of years to break). The author includes a list of the 25 most-used passwords. Two at the top? "Password" and "123456." We scientific thinkers can do much better than that. | | I'll never ask for your passwords, only feedback and suggestions for this newsletter: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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