Y. Chen et al. \u201cA cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging.\u201d Science.<\/a><\/p>\n What a whirlwind week it\u2019s been for the naked mole-rat beat, with studies that shed light into the complex social behavior of these burrowing rodents as well as their extreme longevity. Let\u2019s make like a naked mole-rat and dig in!\u00a0<\/p>\n Naked mole-rats didn\u2019t get the memo about being a normal mammal and instead opted for a \u201ceusocial\u201d society similar to insects that is ruled by a colony queen with an entourage of breeder males, which are supported by a caste system of non-breeding workers. It\u2019s super weird, but it seems to be working out for them because they can live to nearly 40 years old\u2014ten times longer than most animals their size\u2014and they are highly resistant to cancer and a host of other deathbringers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scientists took a closer look at the palace intrigue of these rodents by setting up several colonies in laboratory conditions and tracking their movements with microchips. The results revealed that queens are bossy bullies that get so tired from shoving their subjects around that they have to take frequent royal naps.\u00a0<\/p>\n Non-breeding workers, meanwhile, fell into six main \u201cclusters\u201d including cleaners, transport specialists, caretakers, diggers, and a group that just kind of idly loafs around (my spirit mole-rat cluster).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBreeding females patrol burrows and display agonistic dominance toward nonbreeders paralleling queen aggression in primitively eusocial insects,\u201d said Masanori Yamakawa of Kumamoto University. Meanwhile, non-breeding \u201ccluster 1 individuals (high mobility and garbage occupancy) may serve as transport specialists, whereas those in cluster 4 (low mobility and frequent occupancy of nonfunctional chambers) may engage primarily in digging tasks. Cluster 5 individuals, who frequently occupied toilet chambers, may contribute to cleaning-related roles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to this window into mole-rat social behavior, a new genetic analysis identified the critical role of an enzyme called cGAS, a common component in animal immune systems, in extending the lives of these subterranean super-agers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whereas cGAS may hinder DNA repair in most animals, including humans and mice, the naked mole-rat has evolved a version of the enzyme with four modified amino acids that enhances DNA repair . Naturally, the researchers also engineered some fruit flies with this naked mole rat enzyme\u2014you gotta mess with fruit flies or it\u2019s not science\u2014and lo and behold, the juiced flies lived to about 70 days, roughly ten days longer than the control group.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur work provides a molecular basis for how DNA repair is activated to contribute to the exceptional longevity during evolution in naked mole-rats,\u201d said researchers led by Yu Chen of Tongji University in Shanghai. \u201cThese findings support the notion that efficient DNA repair decelerates the aging process and raise the possibility that targeting cGAS to enhance DNA repair could provide an intervention strategy for promoting longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n All those past adventurers were looking for the Fountain of Youth in the wrong places; it wasn\u2019t in some beautiful tropical grove, but rather a stanky underground rodent pit.\u00a0<\/p>\n In non-naked-mole-rat news\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n Sit. Stay. Stage an intervention.<\/p>\n Mazzini, Alja et al \u201cAddictive-like behavioural traits in pet dogs with extreme motivation for toy play.\u201d Scientific Reports.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Dogs can literally get addicted to the game, according to a study that probed \u201c\u2018excessive toy motivation\u201d in domestic dogs as \u201ca potential parallel to behavioral addictions in humans.\u201d What this means in practice is that researchers enlisted 105 dogs to play with a lot of really fun toys and about a third of them got totally hooked.<\/p>\n Thirty-three of the playful pooches \u201cexhibited behaviors consistent with addictive-like tendencies including an excessive fixation on toys, reduced responsiveness to alternative stimuli, and persistent efforts to access toys,\u201d said researchers led by Alja Mazzini of the University of Bern. \u201cDogs [are] the only non-human species so far that appears to develop addictive-like behaviours spontaneously without artificial induction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While this an interesting scientific conclusion, the study is perhaps most notable for producing delightful footage of dogs in the midst of full-on toy benders. Like all of us who struggle with bad habits and fixations, these dogs will just have to take it one play at a time.<\/p>\n The enduring Endurance mystery<\/p>\n Tuhkuri, Jukka. Why did Endurance sink? Polar Record.<\/a><\/p>\n Endurance, the ship crushed by ice in 1915 during Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, was actually not all that endurant, according to Jukka Tukuri of Aalto University who concludes in a new study that \u201cShackleton was well aware of the risks related to the strength of Endurance, but chose to use it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis ship is not as strong as the Nimrod constructionally\u201d wrote Shackleton of Endurance in a letter to his wife in 1914, comparing it to his previous Antarctic ride. \u201cThere is nothing to be scared of as I think she will go through ice all right only I would exchange her for the old Nimrod any day now except for comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n You have to love the phrase \u201cthere is nothing to be scared of\u201d in a letter from a guy on his way to the South Pole in a rickety ship that is definitely going to sink the following year. I\u2019m sure Mrs. Shackleton was totally comforted by this! Tukuri provides many other fascinating diary entries to support his conclusion that \u201cEndurance was not among the strongest ships of its time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That said, Endurance spent more than a century two miles under the Antarctic seas before the wreck was amazingly rediscovered and photographed<\/a> in 2022. It\u2019s still looking pretty good, even if Shackleton\u2019s decision to set sail in it does not hold up as well.<\/p>\n A toast to the 17th century<\/p>\nDifferent chambers in the experiment. Image: Yamakawa, Masanori et al.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n
A bull terrier during tug-of-war play. Image: Alja Mazzini<\/p>\n
The wreck of Endurance. Image: \u00a9 Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust \/ National Geographic<\/p>\n