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The preserved carcass of the rarely-seen goblin shark. | Credit: George Melin \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Walkers tend to drift leftwards<\/p>\n
Humans instinctively move anticlockwise, a study has found. \u201cIf you simply ask someone to start walking, whether they are wandering around a museum, a supermarket, or even an empty room, it is surprisingly likely that they will drift [in that direction],\u201d said lead author Dr I\u00f1aki Echeverr\u00eda Huarte, of the University of Navarra in Spain.<\/p>\n
The researchers first noticed the bias when investigating social distancing during Covid: in 32 of the 33 experiments, people ambling around enclosed spaces were more likely than not to do so in an anticlockwise direction. Suspecting that it might be a cultural phenomenon, they asked scientists in Japan to repeat the experiments. The results were the same. Further work revealed that humans veer left regardless of whether they are right- or left-handed, alone or with others, male or female, young or old.<\/p>\n
The team can\u2019t explain this but hypothesise that biomechanics play a role. \u201cNone of us is perfectly symmetrical and the way each person\u2019s brain gathers sensory information and coordinates it with the muscles seems to tip them gently to one side,\u201d Dr Echeverr\u00eda Huarte told The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n A step closer to a cure for lupus<\/p>\n An experimental treatment that resets the immune system has offered hope of a cure for lupus \u2013 a condition that affects about 50,000 people in the UK. In patients with the autoimmune condition, faulty B cells attack healthy tissue and organs, leading to symptoms including painful joints, skin rashes, extreme fatigue, and organ damage. Anti-inflammatory drugs can help control these, but they do not work for everyone. Now, though, patients taking part in a small trial of a new therapy have gone into remission.<\/p>\n Doctors at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and UCL removed T cells (white blood cells that destroy infected cells) from six people with severe lupus that wasn\u2019t responding to treatment. The cells were then modified, to make them hunt down the rogue B cells, before being infused back into the patients.<\/p>\n Within three months, all six were in remission, and five were still in remission 12 months later, suggesting their immune system had been reset. One of them, Katie Tinkler, from Surrey, had previously been in such pain, she\u2019d struggled even to pick up a tea cup. Since the trial, she has been skiing, and she now hopes to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. \u201cIf these results are confirmed in larger studies, the prospect of a cure for lupus may no longer be out of reach,\u201d said lead researcher Professor Karl Peggs.<\/p>\n Rare sighting of the ugliest shark<\/p>\n With its soft flabby body, pointy head and retractable jaw that shoots out to snatch prey, the goblin shark is \u201carguably the ugliest shark on the planet\u201d, one ecologist told The Guardian<\/a>. It is also one of the most mysterious: the sharks, which live in the deep oceans, have rarely been seen alive, other than when accidentally hauled in by fishing vessels. Now, though, they have been observed for the first time in their natural habitat.<\/p>\n In 2019, a male thought to be more than 50 years old was spotted in the South Central Pacific at a depth of 1,200m. Five years later, and thousands of miles away, another goblin was filmed at a depth of 2,000 metres in the southwestern Pacific. More than 50 days of filming yielded only about 20 seconds of footage, \u201cwhich is testament to how elusive this species is\u201d, said co-author Professor Alan Jamieson. \u201cIt\u2019s a classic case of a deep-sea animal that has very low abundance, but an absolutely massive geographical range.\u201d<\/p>\n Making sperm magnetic<\/p>\n Scientists have developed magnetic sperm \u2013 a breakthrough that could lead to a less invasive, more natural alternative to IVF. When a man has a low sperm count<\/a>, or sperm that swim poorly, couples often turn to IVF, in which the sperm and egg are combined in a dish in the lab; this involves various invasive procedures, and it is not always successful, partly because of the environment in which the sperm and egg meet, says The New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n To address this, researchers in Spain incubated sperm with nanoparticles made from iron oxide and polystyrene; about 30 stuck to each one, making the sperm magnetic. They also showed that they could steer these sperm with magnets. Their hope is that, in future, they\u2019ll be able to use magnets to draw such sperm through a woman\u2019s body to the fallopian tubes, where they\u2019d fertilise the waiting egg under natural conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 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