Link Between Math & Genes

Researchers have discovered an unexpected link between number theory in mathematics and genetics, providing critical insight into the nature of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms. The team found the maximal robustness of mutations—mutations that can occur without changing an organism’s characteristics—is proportional to the logarithm of all possible sequences that map to a phenotype, with a correction provided by the sums-of-digits function from number theory.


An interdisciplinary team of mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and medical scientists has discovered a surprising connection between pure mathematics and genetics. ThAnd yet, again and again, number theory finds unexpected applications in science and engineering, from leaf angles that (almost) universally follow the Fibonacci sequence, to modern encryption techniques based on factoring prime numbers. Now, researchers have demonstrated an unexpected link between number theory and evolutionary genetics.

Specifically, the team of researchers (from Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, GUST, MIT, Imperial, and the Alan Turing Institute) have discovered a deep connection between the sums-of-digits function from number theory and a key quantity in genetics, the phenotype mutational robustness. This quality is defined as the average probability that a point mutation does not change a phenotype (a characteristic of an organism).

The discovery may have important implications for evolutionary genetics. Many genetic mutations are neutral, meaning that they can slowly accumulate over time without affecting the viability of the phenotype. These neutral mutations cause genome sequences to change at a steady rate over time. Because this rate is known, scientists can compare the percentage difference in the sequence between two organisms and infer when their latest common ancestor lived.is connection sheds light on the structure of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms.

Number theory, the study of the properties of positive integers, is perhaps the purest form of mathematics. At first sight, it may seem far too abstract to apply to the natural world. In fact, the influential American number theorist Leonard Dickson wrote “Thank God that number theory is unsullied by any application.”     READ MORE...

Alien Fragments

In 2014, an interstellar object – thought to be from another star system – streaked across Earth’s skies as a meteor, then crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea. 

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is now leading a sea-going search, combing the ocean floor with what’s essentially a large magnet, hoping to pick up fragments of that object. He’s found bits of wire, tiny aluminum shards and volcanic ash. 

And this week (June 21, 2023), Loeb reported that his team has found tiny metallic spherules whose composition suggests an unearthly origin.

Loeb posted the news in his onboard diary, which is published at Medium. He included a photo of a few of the odd objects, which are minuscule, only about 0.3 mm (about one-hundredth of an inch) in size. And he added a couple of more photos in his latest post on June 22.

Becky Ferreira also wrote about the discovery for Vice on the same day.

Loeb likens the search to “finding a needle in the ocean.”   READ MORE...

PENTAGON: Alien Mothership Could be Lurking

Department of Defense official floats the idea that an alien mothership is cruising our solar system.

 (Image credit: Marc Ward/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

A draft paper by a Harvard scientist and the head of the Pentagon's UFO office has raised the idea an alien mothership could be in the solar system, sending out tiny probes dubbed "dandelion seeds" to explore the planets within.

Could an alien mothership be hovering around the solar system, sending out tiny probes to explore planets? According to a Harvard scientist and a Pentagon official, it's possible.

In a draft paper, the pair said it is feasible an extraterrestrial spaceship could be in our galactic neighborhood, exploring the region by the means of "dandelion seeds" — small spacecraft that can gather and send back information, similar to the way humans send out spacecraft to explore planets.

Avi Loeb(opens in new tab), an astronomer at Harvard University, and Sean M. Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) — established in July 2022 by the Department of Defense (DoD) to detect and study "objects of interest" — released the draft, Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena(opens in new tab), on March 7. It is not an official Pentagon document but was carried out in partnership with the DoD. It has not been peer-reviewed.  READ MORE...

Red Star Betelgeuse Had Explosion

NASA Says Restless Red Giant Star Betelgeuse Had an Unprecedented Explosion

Its famous dimming event from a few years ago turns out to be evidence of a recent explosion rather than an imminent supernova.

Massive red supergiant star Betelgeuse is at the end of its life span, at least on cosmic timescales, but the gargantuan fireball is going out kicking and screaming.

Astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories to determine that the senior star actually blew off part of its surface in 2019.

"We've never before seen a huge mass ejection of the surface of a star. We are left with something going on that we don't completely understand," Andrea Dupree, from the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement.

"It's a totally new phenomenon that we can observe directly and resolve surface details with Hubble. We're watching stellar evolution in real time."  READ MORE...

Gas Stoves Leak Toxins

What's happening
A new study shows natural gas to contain more carcinogens than previously thought. The same study found that about 5% of stoves leak small amounts of gas when not in use.

Why it matters
While more research is needed to nail down the dangers, these findings could mean your gas stove is emitting harmful amounts of airborne toxins into your home.

What's next
We've provided some easy ways to mitigate risk while we wait for more conclusive results on exposure levels and health risks associated with the study's findings.

A new study from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that natural gas used in homes contains more toxins than previously thought. It also shows that gas-powered kitchen stoves often leak low levels of potentially harmful gas, even when they're not on.

The 16-month study published on June 28 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology took samples from 69 stoves in homes serviced by three different natural gas companies across the Boston area. Testing of the precombustion (unburned) methane gas found over 300 chemicals, including 21 airborne toxins. Those toxins notably included low levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, which was discovered in 95% of the natural gas tested.  READ MORE...

Fixing Shoulder Pain

After the use of their tissue platform, the researchers observed regeneration of tissues 

and shoulder function recovery.

The new complex tissue platform can restore damaged rotator cuffs

The typical office worker often has soreness throughout their body as a result of their sedentary desk jobs. Even young individuals may develop shoulder pain, which was previously primarily an issue for elderly people. 

Once shoulder pain creeps in, it is difficult to dress oneself, let alone move one’s body freely. It is also difficult to fall asleep. While the rotator cuffs are often naturally harmed as we age, repairing them has shown to be difficult.

Through a collaboration with Professor Hak Soo Choi at the Harvard Medical School, a Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) research team made up of Professor Dong-Woo Cho, Dr. Suhun Chae, and Jinah Jang, as well as Professor Jinah Jang and Ph.D. candidate Uijung Yong, has developed a complex tissue platform that can repair damaged rotator cuffs. 

This platform, which can precisely replicate the intricate structure of rotator cuffs, is 3D-bioprinted using tissue-specific extracellular matrix bioink.

The international journal Bioactive Materials recently published the findings of this study, which could potentially provide patients with chronic shoulder pain renewed hope.


The study team transplanted this platform in rats that had full-thickness rotator cuff injuries. The researchers observed tissue regeneration and recovery in shoulder function. 

The results proved that the platform, which includes stem cells, can actually regenerate rotator cuffs.  READ MORE...

Shortest Path to Human Happiness

The researchers created a digital model of psychology aimed to improve mental health. The system offers superior personalization and identifies the shortest path toward a cluster of mental stability for any individual.

Deep Longevity, in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, presents a deep learning approach to mental health.

Deep Longevity has published a paper in Aging-US outlining a machine learning approach to human psychology in collaboration with Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, an authority on happiness and beauty.

The authors created two digital models of human psychology based on data from the Midlife in the United States study.


The first model is an ensemble of deep neural networks that predicts respondents’ chronological age and psychological well-being in 10 years using information from a psychological survey. This model depicts the trajectories of the human mind as it ages. 

It also demonstrates that the capacity to form meaningful connections, as well as mental autonomy and environmental mastery, develops with age. It also suggests that the emphasis on personal progress is constantly declining, but the sense of having a purpose in life only fades after 40-50 years. 

These results add to the growing body of knowledge on socioemotional selectivity and hedonic adaptation in the context of adult personality development.  READ MORE...

Protein in Beans

Protein: it's not just for bodybuilders. Dietician Nancy Waldek explains that the human body doesn't naturally store protein, so folks need to consume protein regularly through their daily diets to create, maintain, and fuel cells, via Piedmont Healthcare.

Since everybody has different activity levels and calorie needs, it should come as no surprise that the amount of protein you should eat in a day varies from person to person. According to Harvard, a person's Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of their body weight.

For example, a person weighing 130 pounds would have an RDA of 46.8 grams of protein per day. In order to calculate your personal RDA, Harvard says, you can multiply your own weight in pounds by 0.36. Animal sources might be high in protein, but they're also high in saturated fat, according to Livestrong.

Plant-based protein sources like beans provide an easy and healthy way to bypass unwanted fat content and still fulfill your daily protein quota.  READ MORE...

Living to 150

Humans could live until the ripe old age of 150 years according to recent research – and scientists are racing to work out how.

Harvard geniuses, biohackers and internet billionaires are all looking for ways that humans can crack the code on aging.

WaitButWhy blogger Tim Urban writes “the human body seems programmed to shut itself down somewhere around the century mark, if it hasn’t already”.

And Urban is right! There are no verified cases of a person living to be older than 122, though the oldest living person is on their way at age 119.

Researchers at GERO.AI concluded the “absolute limit” of the human lifespan to be between 100 and 150 – they came to this conclusion by analyzing 70,000 participants up to age 85 based on their ability to fight disease, risk of heart conditions and cognitive impairment.

The Conversation reported that not a single participant showed the biological resiliency to live to 150 – but notes the study is limited by today’s medical standards.

Will improvements in medicine, environment and technology to drastically lengthen the average lifespan and make 150 a reality?

Humans could live until the age of 150, according to a new study.  Shutterstock  Brutal biology

The human body is made up of about 30 trillion cells. Cells are constantly dying and being replaced by replicants.

Within the cell body there are chromosomes – these are DNA strands with the code written for humans within them.

At the end of a DNA strand is a microscopic bundle of non-crucial DNA, so that none of the important stuff gets snipped off when the cell divides.

A cell can divide itself about 50 times before it’s lost its ability to replicate.

As more and more cells become ineffective and die, the signs of aging start to show in gray hair, weaker bones and vision loss.

Some theorize this process can be stopped or reversed.  READ MORE...

The Structure of a Janus Kinase

When a cytokine (green) binds to receptors (teal), two parts of the Janus kinase protein (pink) come together, activating it to send signals inside a cell. In some cancers, mutations in the kinase lock it together, keeping it abnormally active. Credit: Eric Smith/Chris Garcia/Howard Hughes Medical Institute

The breakthrough came on molecular biologist Christopher Garcia’s birthday.

For more than 20 years, his team and others around the world had been chasing an elusive quarry – the 3D structure of a crucial signaling protein in cells. In late 2021, his electron microscope images of the molecule started to come into focus. On December 8, postdoc Naotaka Tsutsumi and graduate student Caleb Glassman sent him an email with a startlingly clear picture of the protein latched on to a key receptor. “I was sitting in a meeting, and I realized we had it,” recalls Garcia, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Stanford University. “I immediately left the meeting and ran back to the lab.”

Glassman, who had just moved to Boston for a Harvard postdoc, canceled his planned backcountry trip, and rushed back to Stanford. “I wanted to finish what Naotaka and I had started,” he explains. Then the three researchers worked around the clock to nail the complete structure of the protein, known as a Janus kinase, and beat competing labs to the discovery. “It was a big horse race between many great groups worldwide, and we were sprinting towards the finish line,” Garcia says. On December 26, they rushed a manuscript to the journal Science, which published the work on March 10, 2022.


Garcia’s team has nabbed not just the full structure of a vitally important signaling molecule, but also the mechanism for how these kinases work, which had been “a fundamental question in biology,” says John O’Shea, an immunologist at the National Institutes of Health who helped to develop one of the first drugs to block Janus kinase function and was not involved with the new research. Because the proteins can go awry in disease, the results could lead to new and better drugs against certain cancers. “It’s amazing work,” O’Shea says.
Chipping away

Janus kinases are one of the communication whizzes of the animal kingdom. They take signals that come from outside cells and pass the info along to molecules inside. Scientists have known for years that malfunctioning Janus kinases can cause disease. Some mutations that impair Janus kinases can severely curtail the body’s ability to fight off infection, causing a condition virtually identical to “bubble boy disease.” And when genetic glitches and exaggerated signals rev up the kinases too much, the result can be blood cancers like leukemia, and allergic or autoimmune diseases.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Quantum Spin Liquid

A solid is made of atoms that are, more or less, locked in an ordered structure. A liquid, on the other hand, is made of atoms that can flow freely around and past each other. But imagine atoms that stay unfrozen, like those in a liquid–but which are in a constantly changing magnetic mess.

What you have then is a never-before-seen state of matter, a state of quantum weirdness called a quantum spin liquid. Now, by carefully manipulating atoms, researchers have managed to create this state in the laboratory. The researchers published their work in the journal Science on December 2.

Scientists had discussed theories about spin liquids for years. “But we really got very interested in this when these theorists, here at Harvard, finally found a way to actually generate the quantum spin liquids,” says Giulia Semeghini, a physicist and postdoc at Harvard University, who coordinated the research project and was one of the paper authors.

Under extreme conditions not typically found on Earth, the rules of quantum mechanics can twist atoms into all sorts of exotica. Take, for instance, degenerate matter, found in the hearts of dead stars like white dwarfs or neutron stars, where extreme pressures cook atoms into slurries of subatomic particles. Or, for another, the Bose-Einstein condensate, in which multiple atoms at very low temperatures sort of merge together to act as one (its creation won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics).  READ MORE...

Foods of a Nutritionalist

Francesco Carta Fotografo | Getty


As a dietitian, I always tell people to think of the brain as the mastermind behind almost everything — our thoughts, memory, focus, movements, breathing, heartbeat — and that certain foods can help make it stronger, sharper and smarter.

Our brain and diet also play a key role in longevity. According to the National Institute on Aging, what we eat can directly impact inflammation and oxidative stress in our bodies — both of which can affect our risk of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

I spoke with Dr. Uma Naidoo, a nutritional psychiatrist, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and author of “This Is Your Brain on Food,” about what she eats to sharpen her memory, focus and overall brain health:

1. Extra dark chocolate

Chopped dark chocolate
Julia Malynovska | Twenty20


“Extra dark chocolate is full of antioxidants and cacao flavanols that help preserve the health of brain cells,” Naidoo tells CNBC Make It. “It also contains fiber to help reduce brain inflammation and prevent cognitive decline.”

A 2020 study looked at how dark chocolate and white chocolate can affect the memory of healthy young adults. Participants who were given dark chocolate had better verbal memory performances two hours after consuming the chocolate, compared to the group that received white chocolate.  TO FIND OUT ABOUT HER OTHER FOODS, CLICK HERE...

Harvard's Lost Its Way

Cornel West (left), one of the nation's foremost Black scholars and an outspoken progressive activist, has announced his resignation from Harvard University, accusing the school of "intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths."

West, who earlier this year said he was giving up his drive for tenure at Harvard Divinity School to rejoin the faculty at Union Theological Seminary, posted what he called "my candid letter of resignation" to Twitter late Monday.

In it, he writes that the "disarray of a scattered curriculum, the disenchantment of talented yet deferential faculty, and the disorientation of precious students loom large" at Harvard.

The 68-year-old scholar suggests in the letter that politics were a factor in Harvard's decision not to extend tenure to him, citing his outspoken support for the Palestinian cause.

"We all knew the mendacious reasons given had nothing to do with academic standards. ... I knew my academic achievements and student teaching meant far less than their political prejudices," West says of the Harvard administration.

Letter to Dean below...