This week in science: paleontologists have uncovered evidence that massive octopuses, comparable in size to whales, once inhabited the world’s oceans. Additionally, a personalized cancer vaccine is showing promise in early human trials, the Curiosity rover has discovered ‘dragon scales’ on Mars, and several other scientific developments have emerged!
A new study in mice suggests that the severity of tinnitus might be linked to serotonin levels in a specific brain circuit.
“By turning off that circuit, we significantly alleviated tinnitus. This gives us a clearer understanding of brain functions and opens up new avenues for treatment,” explains neuroscientist Zheng-Quan Tang from Anhui University in China.
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During the era of dinosaurs, giant octopuses measuring up to 19 meters (62 feet) may have been among the top ocean predators.
“These octopuses could be the largest invertebrates ever described, competing with giant marine reptiles of the same period,” notes a team led by paleontologists Shin Ikegami and Yasuhiro Iba from Hokkaido University in Japan.
“Our research indicates that powerful jaws and the loss of superficial skeletons led both cephalopods and marine vertebrates to evolve into massive, intelligent predators.”
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An mRNA vaccine personalized for pancreatic cancer is promising in clinical trials, with seven patients achieving long-term remission.
“We believe we’ve discovered a method to activate the immune system to prevent cancer recurrence,” said Robert Vonderheide, President-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), to CBS8 news in San Diego.
“Should this approach succeed, it could be extended to more patients with pancreatic cancer and potentially to other cancer types. We are very hopeful.”
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The Curiosity rover has identified remarkable ‘dragon scale’ rocks on Mars, potentially indicating cycles of wetting and drying.
“We’ve encountered polygon-patterned rocks like these before, but not in such dramatic abundance, stretching across meters in our Mastcam mosaics,” writes Curiosity project scientist Abigail Fraeman in a blog post.
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A nasal spray has been shown to reduce brain inflammation related to aging and restore lost memory in recent tests on mice.
After two doses, treated mice exceeded control groups in tasks assessing object recognition and spatial memory. Further biochemical analysis of the hippocampus suggested the treatment effectively reduced brain inflammation.
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An enormous colony of about 5.5 million bees has been found living beneath a cemetery in New York.
“There are likely other large bee aggregations worldwide that have yet to be identified, but in terms of documented cases, this is one of the largest,” says Steve Hoge, a biologist at Cornell University.
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