In this week's science news, we covered a breakthrough treatment for Huntington's disease, the most powerful tropical storm this year, a black hole that defies theoretical limits, and the link between air pollution and skin diseases. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Weiss (left)/Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images (right).) Jump to:
Medical miracles dominated the science news this week, with the announcement of a revolutionary gene therapy that has cured Huntington's disease for the first time.
Huntington's disease is relatively rare, affecting 1 in 10,000 to 20,000 people in the United States, but it is a brutal and devastating illness. Caused by a single defective gene, it is inherited and manifests between the ages of 30 and 50 with dementia-like symptoms, including loss of cognitive function and motor control. No treatments have yet been able to slow the disease's progression, and patients typically die within 10 to 25 years of onset.
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This week's science news: Black holes galore and blue whales that still sing
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This week's science news: NASA finds compelling evidence of life on Mars, and scientists invent visible time crystals
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This week's science news: a key Atlantic current is nearing its end, the world's largest iceberg has broken apart, and a mouse brain is redefining neuroscience.
Super Typhoon Ragasa has become the strongest storm of the year. “Serious threat”: China is preparing for the approach of Super Typhoon Ragasa, the strongest storm of the year, with winds up to 180 km/h.
The strongest storm of the year has paralyzed China's megacities.
A brief lull in hurricane activity during the apparent peak of the season last week left some experts wondering where all the tropical storms had gone. But the guessing didn't take long: Super Typhoon Ragasa—the strongest storm of the year so far, with winds exceeding 285 km/h—made landfall in the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Vietnam, triggering mass evacuations and shutdowns in major cities across the region.
And this is far from the last storm: another, Buloy, is strengthening into a typhoon and heading toward the Philippines. Meanwhile, three storm systems are forming in the Atlantic next week, drawing additional strength from warmer ocean waters.
Find out more news about planet Earth
—Strange glass in Australia appears to have been formed by a giant asteroid impact, but scientists “haven't found the crater yet.”
— Scientists have discovered 85 “active” lakes buried under the ice of Antarctica.
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This week's science news: Black holes galore and blue whales that still sing
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This week's science news: NASA finds compelling evidence of life on Mars, and scientists invent visible time crystals
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This week's science news: a key Atlantic current is nearing its end, the world's largest iceberg has broken apart, and a mouse brain is redefining neuroscience.
We are only just beginning to learn what the Earth's inner core is really made of.
Little Mysteries of LifeDid the ancient Egyptians really mine the pyramids?
Are Egyptian tombs really littered with death traps?
Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, or Nathan Drake—imagine any of these characters, and you'll likely picture them escaping booby-trapped tombs with priceless treasure in hand. But where did this idea come from? And were Egyptian tombs really designed to kill both thieves and archaeologists? We've found the answer.
— If you liked this, please subscribe to our newsletter, “Little Secrets of Life.”
A giant black hole is shattering cosmology. 'Shock': Astronomers have discovered that a giant black hole is growing 2.4 times faster than the theoretical limit.
A black hole that goes beyond theoretical limits could become a headache for cosmologists.
Black holes are known for breaking all the rules, most notoriously creating insane singularities in Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes the workings of gravity. However, beyond their physics-bending event horizons, these cosmic monsters are typically strictly constrained by the theory, obeying a strict “Eddington limit” on their growth rate, determined by external radiation pressure and gravitational attraction.
That's why the discovery of a gigantic black hole growing at 2.4 times this limit took astrophysicists by surprise. This isn't the first superblack hole to surpass this limit (others have been discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope), but it provides clear evidence that our current cosmological models are missing something crucial in describing these massive devourers, and this could have profound implications for the Universe.
Find out more news about space and physics
“We thought the problem was with the instrument”: Scientists shocked by rare “Einstein cross” with a surprise in the center
— The James Webb telescope may have discovered an entirely new class of cosmic objects: a black hole-star.
A new study warns that if we act quickly, we could nuke the “city killer” asteroid 2024 YR4 before it hits the Moon.
Also in science news this week
— A 5,000-year-old, 43-foot-long stone tomb has been discovered in Spain. It contains numerous prehistoric burials.
— “Completely inexplicable”: The James Webb telescope discovered strange “dark beads” in Saturn's atmosphere.
A scientific breakthrough has led to the creation of a “fluorescent biological qubit” – this could mean turning your cells into quantum sensors.
—A giant dinosaur with “claws like brushcutters” and a crocodile's leg still in its mouth has been found in Argentina.
Science. Long read. Scientists unravel the link between pollution and psoriasis.
Air pollution may be a contributing factor to the rise in psoriasis cases worldwide.
Hundreds of millions of people suffer from psoriasis. However, this condition, an autoimmune reaction that causes itchy scales to appear on the scalp and body, is not fully understood.
While scientists know that certain genes make people more susceptible to psoriasis, new research suggests that the condition may also be triggered by air pollution. Given that 99% of people worldwide are exposed to air that doesn't meet World Health Organization guidelines, Live Science from Maharashtra, India, reported on the role of poor air quality in exacerbating autoimmune diseases.
Something for the weekend
If you're looking for something longer to read this weekend, here are some of the best interviews, surveys, and articles on the history of science published this week.
In Secrets of the Brain, Jim Al-Khalili explores 600 million years of brain evolution to understand what makes us human [Interview]
—Live Science Crossword #11: Giant Cloud at the Edge of the Solar System — 7 Horizontal [Crossword]
— Experts say the danger of declining US birth rates is 'greatly exaggerated' [Owner's article]
Science in motion. A microscopic baby sea urchin, crawling on tube feet, has been named one of the winners of Nikon's Small World in Motion video competition.
A small sea urchin moves along a piece of red seaweed using its tiny legs.
This photograph, which won fifth place in this year's Nikon Small World in Motion competition, was captured entirely by chance: a Brazilian zoologist was examining a piece of red seaweed washed up on the beach. While examining the aquatic plant under a microscope, Álvaro Migotto noticed a baby sea urchin crawling across its surface using tiny tube feet.
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TOPICS Science News This Week
Ben Turner, Social Links, Navigation, Acting News Editor
Ben Turner is a British writer and editor at Live Science magazine. He covers physics and astronomy, technology, and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics and later became a journalist. When not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing guitar, and embarrassing himself at chess.
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This week's science news: Black holes galore and blue whales that still sing
This week's science news: NASA finds compelling evidence of life on Mars, and scientists invent visible time crystals
This week's science news: a key Atlantic current is nearing its end, the world's largest iceberg has broken apart, and a mouse brain is redefining neuroscience.
“Rejuvenating” Magic Mushrooms and Record-Breaking Internet Speeds
This week's science news: A 400-year journey to Alpha Centauri and the evil AI that might make us wonder about it
This week's science news: The world's oldest mummy and an ant mating with clones of a distant species
Latest news in the healthcare sector
Is acetaminophen safe during pregnancy? Here's what the science says.
A groundbreaking gene therapy is the first treatment for Huntington's disease that can slow the disease's progression.
In Secrets of the Brain, Jim Al-Khalili explores 600 million years of brain evolution to understand what makes us human.
Doctors restored a man's vision by removing a tooth and implanting it in his eye.
Why do medicines taste bad?
A study claims that eliminating daylight saving time could prevent more than 300,000 strokes per year in the United States.
Latest news
Scientists say the mysterious cosmic explosion cannot be explained.
This week's science news: A breakthrough drug for Huntington's disease and a fast-growing black hole that defies the laws of physics
Trees in the Amazon rainforest are resisting climate change by growing thicker due to CO2 in the atmosphere.
Scientists have unveiled the world's first quantum computer built on conventional silicon chips.
Scientists asked ChatGPT to solve a math problem that dates back more than 2,000 years, and the program's answer surprised them.
“If there's a space race, China is already winning”: NASA is unlikely to deliver Martian soil samples to Earth before China, experts say.
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