January 12, 2024: Filling in the prehistoric color palette, early intervention programs for teen depression and networked incitement. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | A new lab technique broadens the spectrum of detectable colors in fossilized animals. Specifically, the first-of-its-kind test can reliably detect preserved evidence of pheomelanin, a pigment that confers yellow, reddish-orange and other gingery shades. The new approach should help paleontologists fill in a missing chunk of "the prehistoric palette," as science writer Riley Black reports.
How they did it: The team heated various modern-day bird feathers in an oven to mimic the breakdown of biological compounds during fossilization. Then they analyzed the heated remnants to identify which types of melanin were present, thereby determining the distinct and identifiable signatures of biological pigments, including pheomelanin.
The takeaway: The newly identified markers of pheomelanins were found in a 10-million-year-old frog, the Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis and the dinosaur Sinornithosaurus. "These findings will absolutely help us detect evidence of ginger pigments in other fossils," says the study's lead author Tiffany Slater. | | | The bird Confuciusornis, which lived more than 120 million years ago, had warm-colored feathers. Credit: Millard H. Sharp/Science Source | | | Intervention programs that target young people at risk for depression may prevent the condition and reduce its severity, a growing number of programs in multiple countries suggest. Such programs teach small groups of students skills for managing their emotions and stress, reports science writer Elizabeth Svoboda. Prevention programs at sites in Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and parts of Europe have shown promising results. The process often starts by screening for students who report sleep problems, low self-esteem or low interest in daily activities, but their symptoms are not severe enough for a depression diagnosis.
The evidence: A 2018 meta-analysis of four separate trials of a prevention program showed that enrolled students were substantially less likely than control subjects to develop depression within two years. Other programs for at-risk students, in the Netherlands and Spain, also have significantly reduced depressive symptoms. And an analysis of more than 40 studies showed that programs targeting at-risk young people are far more effective than those designed to prevent depression in entire school populations.
Why this matters: Depression is one of the most common disorders and young people are particularly vulnerable to it. The earlier a first episode of depression begins in life, and the more episodes a person suffers, the more serious and disabling the condition is likely to be throughout life. Multiple episodes of depression erode human potential and impose significant costs on health-care systems. | | | Credit: Keren Mevorach; credit: University of Toronto Archives | | | Lost Women of Science: Vera Peters
Canadian radiation oncologist Vera Peters pioneered the use of lumpectomies and postoperative radiation to treat breast cancer patients. Learn more in this episode of Lost Women of Science: From Our Inbox, a series featuring forgotten female scientists that we learned about from listeners. | | | • Thousands of U.S. cities could become virtual ghost towns by 2100 due to population losses. | 4 min read | | | • Simple math can create an infinite and bizarre pattern—numbers whose square ends with the same digit or digits as the number itself. | 6 min read | | | • Networked incitement, spreading via cellphones and social media, powered the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, writes Joan Donovan, adjunct professor at Harvard Kennedy School and research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. This finding and others related to motivations for violence derive from a content analysis by Donovan and colleagues of 469 charging and sentencing documents for 417 defendants. It's now clear that rulers could come to power by manipulating mass social movements via social media. Donovan concludes that "clear regulations to prevent the malicious weaponization of social media by politicians who use disinformation to incite violence is one way to keep that future at bay." | 4 min read | | | Our most popular stories this week | | | • Transparent wood material is stronger than plastic and tougher than glass | 6 min read | • Stop asking if the universe is a computer simulation; ask if we can model the universe as a computer simulation | 4 min read | • How much vitamin D do you need to stay healthy? | 17 min read | • The science of 2024's epic solar eclipse; the last for a generation | 5 min read | | | On the cusp of a long weekend and the federal observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, we can reflect on the remarkable successes of Dr. King, the Civil Rights Movement and many other social justice efforts. In this essay, Aldon Morris, a professor of sociology and African American studies at Northwestern University, explains how movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter succeed, even as decentralized efforts that welcome strangers.
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