Science

Rare blue proteins from cold-adapted microbes can serve as prototypes to design molecular on-off switches for cells.

Scientists at UC Davis discovered a small genetic difference that could explain why humans are more prone to certain cancers than our primate cousins. The change affects a protein used by immune cells to kill tumors—except in humans, it’s vulnerable to being shut down by an enzyme that tumors release. This flaw may be one reason treatments like CAR-T don’t work as well on solid tumors. The surprising twist? That mutation might have helped our brains grow larger over time. Now, researchers are exploring ways to block the enzyme and give our immune system its power back.

Just one month after the treatment, the majority of patients gained some hearing. Six months later, all 10 showed considerable hearing improvement, with the average volume of perceptible sound improving from 106 decibels (very loud) to 52 (much fainter). What’s more, the patients did not report any adverse side effects within the first 12 months post-treatment.

Jared Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology, a research nonprofit based in Alert Bay, British Columbia, was on a boat in waters at the northeastern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when a transient orca offered a freshly-killed harbor seal pup. “I did not have my phone out when T046C2 came over and dropped the seal,” Towers wrote in an email, “But I had time to get it when she left it there sinking before circling around to pick it up again.” He took a photo, showing the orca’s still-open, toothy mouth after just releasing the seal.

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Towers says this demonstrates that killer whales are capable of generalised altruism, or kindness. It also shows that orcas can recognise sentience in others and are curious and bold enough to experiment across species, he says.

This generalised altruism makes sense in social societies where members benefit from cooperation. Killer whales are also some of the few marine predators that occasionally find themselves with excess prey. Sometimes, a pod will kill a larger whale than they can finish, for example. “You can just leave it, you can play with it or you can use it to explore relationships in your environment,” says Towers.

Previous studies on the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) in Poland present a complex and contentious picture, suggesting a chronological overlap of various Aurignacian variants and positing that Homo sapiens did not settle the region until after 35,000 [133–135]. This left the area uninhabited for millennia following Neanderthal extinction. This hypothesis raises a key question of whether the environmental conditions of southern Poland acted as barriers to migrating Homo sapiens, or if the region’s resources were simply too limited and dispersed compared to other parts of Europe. The scarcity of human remains and the limited stratigraphic and chronological detail of most EUP sites in Poland have left these questions unresolved [51]. In this context, interdisciplinary work at Obłazowa Cave, with its well-preserved stratigraphy, adds valuable evidence of sustained Homo sapiens presence in the region from the Early Aurignacian. This aligns with findings from Stajnia Cave [28], suggesting that human groups periodically moved in the tundra environments of southern Poland during the EUP.

Alternatively, „World’s oldest boomerang even older than previously thought”.