Science
Cause of grey hair may be ‘stuck’ cells, say scientists
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US scientists believe they may have uncovered why hair turns grey as we age, citing pigment-making cells which lose the ability to mature.
The arrested development impacts immature cells which would otherwise have developed into melanocytes which give hair its natural colour or shade.
The team from New York University (NYU) studied the process in mice, which have identical cells for fur colour.
They say the work could provide a basis for reversing the greying process.
According to the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD), work on melanocytes might also help our understanding and treatment of certain cancers and other medical conditions too.
How does hair turn grey?
We grow and shed hair all the time – it’s a normal cycle that happens throughout life.
New hair grows from hair follicles, found in the skin, where the pigment-producing melanocytes also reside.
Melanocytes continuously decay and renew too. New ones are made from stem cells and it’s these cells that the researchers believe become “stuck” in limbo in people whose hair has turned grey.
NYU Langone Health team used special scans and lab techniques to study the cell-ageing process.
As hair ages, sheds and then repeatedly grows back, increasing numbers of the melanocyte stem cells become sluggish at their job.
The stem cells stop roaming around the follicle and become fixed, thereby failing to mature into fully-fledged melanocytes. With no pigment being produced, the hair turns grey, white or silver.
“Our study adds to our basic understanding of how melanocyte stem cells work to colour hair,” study lead investigator Dr Qi Sun, a post-doctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health, told Nature journal.
“The newfound mechanisms raise the possibility that the same fixed-positioning of melanocyte stem cells may exist in humans. If so, it presents a potential pathway for reversing or preventing the greying.”
It is not the first time scientists have suggested that greying hair might be a partially reversible process.
Poor nutrition is one possible, treatable cause of premature greying.
Some researchers claim stress might contribute to human hair turning white, and have suggested removing anxiety might restore the pigmentation process – at least for a while.
Other research suggests genetics, or our DNA, partly determines when we go grey.
Getty Images
While some prefer to hide grey hair with dye, others embrace it. Some even choose to get ahead of nature, and prematurely colour hair silver, white or grey.
According to Glamour Magazine, silver hair is “the spring hair colour trend that the cool girls are rocking”.
“We’ve spotted one shade, in particular, taking off. Oyster grey is the fresh, breezy, pearlescent colour trend that’s cropping up all over Instagram,” the article says.
One hairstylist, Luke Hersheson, recently told British Vogue: “At one point it was a big no-no to have grey hair, but now we don’t equate grey hair with being ‘old’ – so many people are doing it.
“Post-lockdown, there is a feeling of liberty – many got into a grey hair rut because they couldn’t see their colourists, but came out of the other side and actually enjoyed the change.”
Experts advise against plucking out ‘rogue’ grey hairs. It won’t stop the next one that grows from the same follicle from being grey. If you damage the hair follicle, it may be hard for new hair to grow, meaning you could be left with less hair or even bald patches.
Dr Leila Asfour from the British Association of Dermatologists told the BBC work on hair colour was big business: “The global hair colour market is projected to attain a value of $33.7bn by 2030. Clearly there’s a demand.
“The obvious implication of this research, when it comes to the general public, is that it means being one step closer to finding a way to reverse our grey hairs.
“But this study’s results help the medical field understand better other conditions where these stem cells may have a role – for example, understand the underlying nature of the deadliest skin cancer we treat called melanoma.”
It might help with a medical condition called alopecia areata too, where the immune system attacks the hair and causes it to fall out. Sometimes the hair grows back white in these patients, she explained.
And it could give more clues about vitiligo – a skin condition where patients develop white skin patches. Scientists have tried surgically placing hair follicles in the affected areas to help regenerate the colour from the pigment found in the hair follicle.
“More research is needed,” Dr Asfour says.
Dr Yusur Al-Nuaimi from the British Hair and Nail Society said scalp health was important for supporting good head hair growth, especially as we age.
“The recent study in mice adds to our understanding of the hair follicle and how the pigment-producing cells function. We are already discovering more about the potential of stem cell therapies for conditions including hair loss and studies such as this one, with new findings about the colour-producing cells, may lead to an array of future treatment options for our patients.”
Science
New image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows thousands upon thousands of stars in a galaxy 17 million light years away – Yahoo Canada
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The James Webb Space Telescope snapped a new image of a galaxy 17 million light-years away.
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Thousands upon thousands of stars are visible, many of which are concentrated in the galaxy’s heart.
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JWST is peering into the hearts of many galaxies to help scientists better understand star formation.
With the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, we can peer into the mysterious hearts of galaxies. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing here, in this new image from Webb of the galaxy NGC 5068.
NGC 5068 is located about 17 million light-years from Earth. For perspective, the Milky Way’s neighborhood of galaxies called the Local Group, is 5 million light-years away. So, this galaxy is beyond what we might consider close.
Each individual dot of white light you can see is a star, per Mashable. NASA said there are thousands upon thousands of stars in this image. And many of them are hanging out at the galaxy’s center, which you can see in the upper left as a bright bar of white light.
This region appears so bright because that’s where most of the stars are concentrated. That’s also where all the action is.
James Webb peers into the hearts of many galaxies to uncover their secrets
Most galaxies have an ultra-bright center due to warm dust that’s heated by massive bursts of star formation, according to the Harvard Smithsonian. And it’s this star formation that astronomers are interested in studying more with the help of JWST.
In fact, NGC 5068 is just one in a series of other galaxies Webb is observing for a project to help us better understand star formation. Webb has also taken images of the spiral galaxy IC 5332:
And the heart of galaxy M74, aka the “Phantom Galaxy”:
The James Webb Space Telescope has the advantage of seeing in the infrared.
Infrared wavelengths are too long for the human eye to detect. But they’re especially important for studying in space because they allow JWST to peer past obstructive visual light that would otherwise block our ability to see into the hearts of galaxies and their bustling environments of star formation.
“By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,” NASA said.
Watch a video of NGC 5068 below:
Read the original article on Business Insider
Science
ESA – Nicolas Bobrinsky on innovation and risk management | ESA Masterclass – European Space Agency
Innovation is triggered by many drivers. One of these is the constant need for ESA to develop innovative solutions, such as unique spacecraft technologies.
In this first video, Nicolas recalls how he and his team had to think outside the box to find a solution for ESA to communicate with Ulysses. The spacecraft was flying around the north pole of the Sun, which is much farther in deep space than satellites had been launched up to that point.
The success of this solution motivated the decision to build ESA’s first deep-space communications antennas in New Norcia, in Australia, thus enabling many ESA scientific firsts in deep-space exploration.
The antennas would, some decades after, be critically important receivers for the messages sent by the very distant Rosetta probe, on its quest to find and land on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, and other ESA science and exploration missions such as Mars Express, Venus Express and Cassini-Huygens.
With 35 years of experience at ESA, Nicolas Bobrinsky is the former Head of Ground Systems Engineering & Innovation Department. He initiated and further managed the Space Situational Awareness and later the ESA Space Safety Programme.
In four episodes of this new series of ESA Masterclass, Nicolas takes us through major events in his career at ESA, covering cornerstone missions, first attempts, overcoming technical challenges, leading diverse teams and solving the unexpected problems that are part of any space endeavour.
Access all episodes of ESA Masterclass with Nicolas Brobinsky.
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This image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068 is a composite from two of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments, MIRI and NIRCam. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
<span class=”glossaryLink” aria-describedby=”tt” data-cmtooltip=”
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”]”>NASA’s <span class=”glossaryLink” aria-describedby=”tt” data-cmtooltip=”
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”]”>James Webb Space Telescope has captured a detailed image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068. Part of a project to record star formation in nearby galaxies, this initiative provides significant insights into various astronomical fields. The telescope’s ability to see through gas and dust, typically hiding star formation processes, offers unique views into this crucial aspect of galactic evolution.
A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image – a composite from two of Webb’s instruments. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed the image on June 2 during an event with students at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw, Poland.
In this image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI instrument, the dusty structure of the spiral galaxy and glowing bubbles of gas containing newly-formed star clusters are particularly prominent. Three asteroid trails intrude into this image, represented as tiny blue-green-red dots. Asteroids appear in astronomical images such as these because they are much closer to the telescope than the distant target. As Webb captures several images of the astronomical object, the asteroid moves, so it shows up in a slightly different place in each frame. They are a little more noticeable in images such as this one from MIRI, because many stars are not as bright in mid-infrared wavelengths as they are in near-infrared or visible light, so asteroids are easier to see next to the stars. One trail lies just below the galaxy’s bar, and two more in the bottom-left corner. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
NGC 5068 lies around 20 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This image of the central, bright star-forming regions of the galaxy is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies. Previous gems from this collection can be seen here (IC 5332) and here (M74). These observations are particularly valuable to astronomers for two reasons. The first is because star formation underpins so many fields in astronomy, from the physics of the tenuous <span class=”glossaryLink” aria-describedby=”tt” data-cmtooltip=”
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”]”>plasma that lies between stars to the evolution of entire galaxies. By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb.
This view of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument, is studded by the galaxy’s massive population of stars, most dense along its bright central bar, along with burning red clouds of gas illuminated by young stars within. This near-infrared image of the galaxy is filled by the enormous gathering of older stars which make up the core of NGC 5068. The keen vision of NIRCam allows astronomers to peer through the galaxy’s gas and dust to closely examine its stars. Dense and bright clouds of dust lie along the path of the spiral arms: These are H II regions, collections of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming. The young, energetic stars ionize the hydrogen around them, creating this glow represented in red. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
The second reason is that Webb’s observations build on other studies using telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories. Webb collected images of 19 nearby star-forming galaxies which astronomers could then combine with Hubble images of 10,000 star clusters, spectroscopic mapping of 20,000 star-forming emission nebulae from the <span class=”glossaryLink” aria-describedby=”tt” data-cmtooltip=”
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”]”>Very Large Telescope (VLT), and observations of 12,000 dark, dense molecular clouds identified by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These observations span the electromagnetic spectrum and give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation.
With its ability to peer through the gas and dust enshrouding newborn stars, Webb is particularly well-suited to explore the processes governing star formation. Stars and planetary systems are born amongst swirling clouds of gas and dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble or the VLT. The keen vision at infrared wavelengths of two of Webb’s instruments — MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) — allowed astronomers to see right through the gargantuan clouds of dust in NGC 5068 and capture the processes of star formation as they happened. This image combines the capabilities of these two instruments, providing a truly unique look at the composition of NGC 5068.
The James Webb Space Telescope stands as the apex of space science observatories worldwide. Tasked with demystifying enigmas within our own solar system, Webb will also extend its gaze beyond, seeking to observe distant worlds orbiting other stars. In addition to this, it aims to delve into the cryptic structures and the origins of our universe, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of our position within the cosmic expanse. The Webb project is an international endeavor spearheaded by NASA, conducted in close partnership with the <span class=”glossaryLink” aria-describedby=”tt” data-cmtooltip=”
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”]”>European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
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