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May 22, 2025—Today we explore the social lives of mitochondria. Plus, a bird flu vaccine for cows, and how astronomers discovered the many (many) moons of Saturn. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
A collection of mitochondria with generally parallel cristae within. The cristae line up along the edges, between mitochondria. Jennifer N. R. Smith | | Long called the powerhouses of the cell, mitochondria are more like the cells' motherboards, writes Martin Picard, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University. His research team and others examined 3D images of the inner membrane of mitochondria, called the cristae, which is jam-packed with folded proteins. They discovered that mitochondria can communicate with their neighbors and influence each other—particularly in the way their cristae are aligned. Over the years a picture has emerged showing how mitochondria from different parts of the body talk to one another, using hormones as their language. The organelles also have a life cycle: old ones die out, and new ones are born out of existing ones. Communities of these organelles live within each cell, usually clustered around the nucleus. Why this is important: The health of mitochondria directly impacts human health. The organelles receive signals about aspects of the environment in which we live, such as air pollution levels and stress triggers, and then integrate this information and emit signals such as molecules that regulate processes within the cell and throughout the body. Diabetes, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and even mental health illnesses are all emerging as metabolic disorders involving malfunctioning mitochondria. What the experts say: How disorders of the mitochondria lead to disease is not well understood, but there are things you can do to keep your mitos happy, says Picard. Exercise is one. "When you move vigorously, your cells consume energy rapidly, powering up the membrane potential of your mitochondria." And low-carb diets free of refined sugars may help transport fuel to brain mitochondria more efficiently. "The key to life and health may lie in how easily energy flows through your mitochondria with each breath you take," he says. For More: Picard sat down with Science, Quickly host Rachel Feltman to discuss all things mitochondria: what they do for us and how they talk to each other. | | Within the past decade, scientists have discovered more than 200 moons around Saturn—and astronomer Edward Ashton has contributed to many of those detections. He and colleagues announced the newest batch of 128 moons in March. "What's unusual is how many there are. It appears that the planets have more or less equal numbers of the larger moons," he told Scientific American. "But when you get down to the smaller ones that we're discovering, Saturn seems to shoot up in terms of the numbers. So that's quite interesting. This could just be because there was a recent collision within the Saturnian system that produced a large number of fragments." How he did it: Ashton and his colleagues used a technique called shifting and stacking, which compares 44 images of the same patch of sky on the same night, searching for objects moving against background stars at a rate similar to that of Saturn itself. When astronomers see a promising candidate, they repeat the process over many days to confirm that they're seeing a real object with a real orbit around the planet. What can be done: "One of the reasons why this hadn't been done for Saturn is because it's very time-consuming," Ashton says. After contributing to 192 moon discoveries, he's ready to move on, now focusing on mysterious trans-Neptunian objects. —Meghan Bartels, Senior News Writer | | Victor Huertas/Hoey Reef Ecology Lab | | Coral reefs that thrive deep beneath the surface are relatively understudied, says marine ecologist Gemma Galbraith. "An analogy would be a botanist not studying any sections of the plant below the ground." In this photo, Galbraith is surveying reefs in Australia using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with a camera. Her husband and colleague, Ben Cresswell, is holding the tether and skipper Casey Castro is steering the boat. "It's a challenge when you're floating in the middle of nowhere getting sunburnt and dehydrated. Sometimes, seabirds land on Ben's head," she says. "Afterwards, you can reset, shoo away the birds and get some electrolytes. We haven't lost a robot yet." Nature | 3 min | | - For nearly 300 years, people have been debating what type of behavior makes an "ideal man," writes Steven Dashiell, a researcher at American University. But a trend today that's different from historic hand-wringing is the public labeling of men's behavior as good or bad ("toxic"); "by reinforcing the idea that men are behaving badly (more than usual) and need real-time correction, there is a not-too-subtle inference that we need to be "policing" masculinity," he writes. | 4 min read
| | Studies have shown that mitochondria may play a role in virtually every brain disorder, from psychiatric illnesses like depression and schizophrenia, to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, and even in autism. Since mitochondria produce ATP (the energy molecule that our bodies run on) the simple explanation would be that malfunctioning mitochondria lead to less energy for proper brain function. But these organelles do so much more. They can trigger inflammation in cells, and now it appears, communicate system-wide with other mitochondria. The web of interactions controlling health in human bodies is intricate and mysterious. | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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