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Hubble’s Dazzling Portrait of Baby Stars Lighting Up a Cosmic Cloud

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September 8, 2025

Cloudy Cluster Large Magellanic Cloud — Hubble’s striking image of the Large Magellanic Cloud reveals N11’s glowing stars and dusty clouds, blending data from two generations of its cameras. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, J. Maíz Apellániz

Hubble’s latest view of the Large Magellanic Cloud unveils a dazzling star cluster filled with glowing gas and newborn stars.

A Cosmic Portrait in the Large Magellanic Cloud

This week’s Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week showcases a misty panorama of stars within a striking cluster. The view comes from the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy positioned about 160,000 light-years from Earth in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. Containing a mass estimated at 10-20% that of the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the many smaller galaxies that orbit our own.

Stellar Nurseries and Star-Birth in N11

Within the Large Magellanic Cloud lie several vast star-forming regions, where giant clouds of gas gather and collapse to create new stars. The image highlights part of N11, the galaxy’s second-largest stellar nursery. (The Tarantula Nebula, which holds the title as the most extensive and active star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is another well-known Hubble target.) Here, brilliant young stars illuminate the surrounding gas and reshape nearby dust clouds with intense ultraviolet light.

Hubble’s Longevity and Stellar Cataloging

This image marries observations made roughly 20 years apart, a testament to Hubble’s longevity. The first set of observations, which were carried out in 2002–2003, capitalized on the exquisite sensitivity and resolution of the then-newly-installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Astronomers turned Hubble toward the N11 star cluster to do something that had never been done before at the time: catalogue all the stars in a young cluster with masses between 10% of the Sun’s mass and 100 times the Sun’s mass.

The second set of observations came from Hubble’s newest camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). These images focus on the dusty clouds that permeate the cluster, offering a new perspective on cosmic dust.

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Rare 2,600-year-old house urn found in Poland – The History Blog

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September 8, 2025

A rare clay cinerary urn shaped like a house discovered in 2023 was presented to the public last month for the first time. The rare artifact is only the fourth house urn discovered in Poland since World War II, and this one is unique in design. It is a rectangular model house on nine legs with a round door on one of the long sides. It dates to the Early Iron Age (780-640 B.C.).

The house urn was discovered in Bożepole Wielkie during a rescue excavation at a site slated for construction of a new distribution center. The excavation ran from March until the end of the September, and several archaeological teams were employed by the Lidl company to survey dozens of hectares of land. In May, archaeologists came across a cist grave made of carefully arranged multi-colored stone slabs. Encased inside of it was the urn.

The urn was transferred to the Archaeological Museum in Gdańsk for specialized conservation and research. To get a more accurate understanding of its contents, researchers conducted a CT scan. The imaging showed that the urn had several cracks and fissures, and was only holding its walls, floor and roof together thanks to the soil that filled it. The scans confirmed that there were a great many osteological remains, much more than one person would have left.

Analyses have so far confirmed that the house urn contains a multiple burial. The remains of an adult man, a child over ten years old and at least two other people, one of them a woman, have been identified. In total, almost seven pounds of bones were excavated from the urn.

Cremation funerals were the norm in Eastern Pomerania in the 7th century B.C. The bodies of the deceased were burned on a pyre and once the burning was complete, all of the bone fragments were removed and placed in an urn along with small items, usually bronze pieces, belonging to the deceased.

Archaeologists had to reconstruct the urn from the ground up, creating custom molded replicas of the feet to replace the missing ones. They were finally able to reattach every element using plaster and adhesives to make it possible for the urn to go on public display.

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New Research Shows Birth Control May Do More Than Just Prevent Pregnancy

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September 8, 2025

Contraceptive Birth Control Pills — A new Rice University study reveals that hormonal birth control influences more than reproductive health, it also affects how women process and remember emotions. Credit: Stock

Research indicates that hormonal birth control can influence emotions and memory, shaping the daily reality of women worldwide.

Hormonal birth control is a fact of life for millions of women. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 60 million women of reproductive age have used some form of contraception. While the primary reason is to prevent pregnancy, many also rely on it to help manage health conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and irregular menstrual cycles.

Beyond its physical effects, many women say that birth control influences their emotional well-being. Shifts in mood, changes in weight, and periods of emotional turbulence are commonly shared experiences. Now, new research from Rice University suggests the impact may reach further, affecting both emotions and memory in unexpected ways.

According to the study, which appears in the journal Hormones and Behavior, hormonal contraceptives seem to influence how women process emotions in the moment as well as how they recall emotional experiences later on.

“For women, the findings highlight what many have long suspected: Birth control can affect more than reproductive health,” said Beatriz Brandao, a graduate student in Rice’s Department of Psychological Sciences and lead author of the study. “Hormonal birth control does more than prevent pregnancy — it also influences brain areas involved in emotions and memory, which are central to mental health.”

How the Study Worked

Researchers compared women using hormonal contraceptives with women who were naturally cycling. Participants viewed positive, negative, and neutral images while applying different emotion regulation strategies, such as distancing, reinterpretatio,n or immersion, and later completed a memory test.

Women on hormonal contraceptives showed stronger emotional reactions compared to naturally cycling women. When they used strategies like distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered fewer details of negative events, though their general memory remained intact. In other words, they could recall the overall event but not all of the specifics. That gap may actually be helpful, allowing women to move on instead of replaying unpleasant details. Strategies like immersion boosted memory for positive images in both groups, making happy moments stick more clearly.

The findings add weight to a question many women have had but few studies have answered: How does birth control affect not just the body but the mind? Emotion regulation and memory are tied to mental health outcomes such as depression, and this research suggests hormonal contraceptives may influence those processes in subtle but meaningful ways.

Researchers’ Perspectives

“We were surprised to find that when women on hormonal birth control used strategies like distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered fewer details of negative events,” Brandao said. “That reduced memory for unpleasant experiences may actually be protective.”

“These results are novel and shed light on how hormonal contraceptives may influence emotion and memory processes in important ways,” said Bryan Denny, associate professor of psychological sciences at Rice and co-author of the study. “Beatriz’s work is ongoing and programmatic, allowing for continued investigation of these processes in women taking hormonal contraceptives as well as in naturally cycling women.”

“These findings are very exciting,” said Stephanie Leal, adjunct assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice, assistant professor at UCLA and senior author of the study. “They suggest that hormonal birth control has the ability to modulate both how women can regulate their emotions as well as how that regulation may influence memory, especially toward negative experiences.”

Brandao and her collaborators plan to expand the work by studying naturally cycling women across different menstrual phases and by comparing types of hormonal contraceptives, such as pills versus IUDs.

“Ultimately, our goal is to understand how reproductive hormones — whether natural or synthetic — shape emotional health so that women can make more informed choices about their reproductive and mental health,” Brandao said.

Reference: “Emotion regulation strategies differentially impact memory in hormonal contraceptive users” by Beatriz M. Brandao, Madelyn Castro, Jacob B. Buergler, Kayla R. Clark, Bryan T. Denny and Stephanie L. Leal, 14 August 2025, Hormones and Behavior.
DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105805

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Binge-Watching Might Actually Be Good for You, Study Finds

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September 7, 2025

Woman Watching TV — Binge-watching might not be as mindless as it seems. A new study reveals it can deepen memory, spark imagination, and keep stories alive long after the credits roll. Credit: Stock

Binging a good show or book can spark your imagination and help you get through tough times.

If you enjoy binge-watching, chances are you have told yourself, “Just one more episode,” more times than you can count.

While it is often criticized as an unhealthy habit, new research from the University of Georgia suggests that extended viewing sessions might also carry some unexpected benefits.

According to the researchers, people who watch multiple episodes in a row often find that stories linger in their minds long after the screen goes dark. This tendency to keep thinking about what they watched is not necessarily negative.

The study revealed that those who consume movies, shows, or even books in long stretches are more likely to remember the narratives and continue engaging with them through imagination, daydreaming, and fantasy.

“Humans are storytelling creatures,” said Joshua Baldwin, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia. “One of the functions of narratives is the ability to satisfy motivations for things like connecting with other people, feeling autonomous and confident, and even security and safety.

“Stories have characters that fulfill these roles, and we can satisfy those needs through them.”

Binge-watching may help viewers build mental worlds where stories continue even after finishing the series. And these tales may help them cope in times of stress.

People who binge-watch more likely to engage with stories through imagination

Binge-watching may help make stories more memorable by helping viewers connect plot threads and come away with a bigger picture of the story. This is especially true for longer series, with lots of different plotlines and characters to follow.

The study suggests binge-watchers are more likely to think about stories they’ve finished than people who consume media more slowly.

“People who have that habit of binge-watching shows often aren’t doing it passively but are actually actively thinking about it afterwards,” said Baldwin. “They’re very much wanting to engage with stories, even when they’re not around to watch shows.”

Memorable stories are better suited for imagination

To imagine a story, a person needs a good memory of it. Most participants said they tend to remember and fantasize more often about stories they enjoyed or thought to be moving and meaningful.

Overall, the respondents said TV shows were more memorable than books. But that doesn’t mean books are forgettable.

“If you think about people who are avid book readers, like those who might read a whole book from cover to cover, they might have a better memory of that book and have a higher chance of engaging with the story mentally after finishing it,” said Baldwin.

Binge watching is not always a bad thing

Though impacts on well-being need to be explored further, the positives and negatives of binging may come down to the individual, the researchers said.

“There’s a lot of debate over whether or not media is a good or bad thing, but it’s always nuanced argument,” said Baldwin. “It always depends on the content itself, why people are watching it, the psychological background of the individual, and the context.”

Reference: “Watching one more episode and reading one more chapter: What entertainment contexts lead to retrospective imaginative involvement?” by Joshua Baldwin, Ezgi Ulusoy, Morgan Durfee, Rick Busselle and David R. Ewoldsen, 6 June 2025, Acta Psychologica.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105101

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Weight-Loss Drug Mounjaro Shrinks Breast Cancer Tumors in Mice

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September 7, 2025

Happy Woman Breast Cancer Treatment — A new study shows tirzepatide may reduce both body fat and breast cancer growth in obese mice—hinting at powerful double benefits. Credit: Shutterstock

In a revealing preclinical study, the weight-loss drug tirzepatide—already known for fighting obesity and diabetes—unexpectedly slowed the growth of breast cancer tumors in obese mice.

Researchers found that as the mice shed fat, their tumors shrank too, suggesting a direct link between weight loss and reduced cancer progression.

Promising Obesity Drug Curbs Breast Cancer in Mice

A recent study presented at ENDO 2025, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Francisco, Calif., found that tirzepatide, a medication approved for type 2 diabetes under the brand name Mounjaro and for weight loss as Zepbound, slowed the growth of breast cancer linked to obesity in a mouse model.

“Obesity is a significant risk factor for breast cancer, and while it is very preliminary data, our studies in mice suggest that these new anti-obesity drugs may be a way to reduce obesity-associated breast cancer risk or improve outcomes,” said study author Amanda Kucinskas, B.S., a Ph.D. candidate in the labs of Drs. Erin Giles and Kanakadurga Singer at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Challenges of Traditional Weight Loss for Cancer Prevention

Scientists have long known that obesity can lead to worse outcomes for people with breast cancer, while weight loss has been associated with better prognoses. However, achieving and maintaining weight loss through conventional methods remains difficult for many individuals.

To explore alternatives, Kucinskas and her team turned to tirzepatide. This medication belongs to a new class of drugs that activate both GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) and GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) receptors, which are involved in regulating blood sugar and appetite. The researchers aimed to determine whether this drug could also slow the progression of breast cancer tied to obesity.

Inside the Mouse Study Design

This mouse study included 16 mice. The 9-week-old C57BL/6 mice were fed a 40% high-fat diet and housed in a warm environment to induce obesity. At 32 weeks of age, the mice with obesity were randomly assigned injections of tirzepatide or a placebo every other day for 16 weeks. Tumor volumes were measured twice weekly.

The researchers found that the anti-obesity drug reduced body weight and body fat by approximately 20% in mice, similar to the amount of weight loss achieved by women on this drug. They found this was primarily due to a loss of adipose mass, with a reduction in adipose depot weights compared to controls.

Correlating Body Weight With Tumor Growth

The anti-obesity drug also reduced tumor volume compared to the controls. At the end of the study, the researchers found that tumor volume was significantly correlated with body weight, total adipose mass and the amount of fat stored in the liver.

“While these are very preliminary results, they suggest that this new anti-obesity drug may also have a beneficial impact on breast cancer outcomes,” Kucinskas said.

Ongoing studies are underway in collaboration with Dr. Steve Hursting’s lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to separate the weight loss from the tumor-specific effects of tirzepatide.

Meeting: ENDO 2025

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New Diet Slows Growth of Deadliest Brain Tumors in Mice

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September 7, 2025

Medically Accurate Cancer Cells Rendering — Scientists have uncovered how deadly brain tumors hijack the body’s energy sources, and found that tweaking diet may help slow their growth. Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers have discovered that brain cancer cells reprogram their sugar metabolism, a vulnerability that can be exploited in mice to impede tumor growth and enhance therapeutic outcomes.

Glioblastomas are the most aggressive type of malignant brain tumor, and patients diagnosed with this condition typically survive only one to two years.

Within these tumors, ordinary brain cells change their behavior, multiplying quickly and spreading into nearby tissue. Unlike healthy brain cells, the cancerous cells process nutrients in a fundamentally different way.

In a recent study published in Nature, scientists at the University of Michigan, including experts from the Rogel Cancer Center, the Department of Neurosurgery, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, investigated how glioblastoma cells metabolize glucose.

Their findings revealed that these tumors rely on distinct nutrient pathways compared to normal brain tissue, offering new insight into potential treatment strategies.

“We altered the diet in mouse models and were able significantly slow down and block the growth of these tumors,” said co-senior author Daniel Wahl, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology.

“Our study may help create new treatment opportunities for patients in the near future.”

Conventional treatments consist of surgery followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy. However, the tumors eventually return and become resistant to treatment.

Previously, researchers have shown that resistance is due to metabolic rewiring within cancer cells.

Cancer cells in the brain use sugars differently compared to healthy cells

Metabolism is the process by which our bodies break down molecules like carbohydrates and proteins so that our cells can either use them or build new molecules.

Although both brain and cancer cells depend on sugar, the team wanted to see if they use sugar differently.

They injected small amounts of labelled sugar into mice and, importantly, into patients with brain tumors to follow how it is used.

“To really understand these brain cancers and improve treatments for patients, we needed to do the hard work of studying the tumors in patients themselves, not just in the lab,” said co-senior author Wajd Al-Holou, M.D., a brain tumor neurosurgeon who co-directs the Michigan Multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Clinic.

Although both normal tissues and tumor cells used a lot of sugar, they used it for different purposes.

Brain Cells Sugar Glioblastomas Graphic — Brain cells use sugar (white) to make chemicals (green) that allow the brain to function properly. Glioblastomas, on the other hand, converted sugar into molecules (red) that help them invade the surrounding tissues. Credit: Justine Ross, Michigan Medicine

“It’s a metabolic fork in the road,” said Andrew Scott, Ph.D., a research scholar in Wahl’s lab.

“The brain channels sugar into energy production and neurotransmitters for thinking and health, but tumors redirect sugar to make materials for more cancer cells.”

The team found that healthy tissues used sugars to generate energy and make chemicals that allow the brain to function properly.

Glioblastomas, on the other hand, turned off those processes and instead converted sugar into molecules like nucleotides—the building blocks of DNA and RNA—that helped them grow and invade the surrounding tissues.

Amino-acid restricted diets can improve treatment outcomes in mice

The researchers also noticed other important differences.

The normal brain used sugar to make amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. However, brain cancers seemed to turn this pathway off and instead scavenged these amino acids from the blood.

This finding led the researchers to consider whether lowering the levels of certain amino acids in the blood could affect brain cancer without affecting the normal brain.

They tested whether mice that were fed an amino acid-restricted diet had better treatment outcomes.

“When we got rid of the amino acids serine and glycine in the mice, their response to radiation and chemotherapy was better and the tumors were smaller than the control mice that were fed serine,” said co-senior author Deepak Nagrath, Ph.D. professor of biomedical engineering.

Based on their measurements in mice, the team also built mathematical models that can track how glucose is being used in different pathways, which can help identify other drug targets.

Co-senior author Costas Lyssiotis, Ph.D., professor of molecular and integrative physiology, compared metabolic pathways to roads and drugs to roadblocks.

Dropping a roadblock on a fast highway with a lot of traffic will have a greater effect than blocking a country road with a lower speed limit and only a few cars.

Similarly, in a normal brain, the uptake of the amino acid serine from the blood is like a slow country road.

But brain cancer is like a busy freeway, giving researchers the opportunity to selectively target the cancer.

The team is working on opening clinical trials soon to test whether specialized diets that limit blood serine levels can also help glioblastoma patients.

“This is a multidisciplinary effort from across the university,” Wahl said.

“It is a study that no individual investigator could do on their own and I’m grateful to be part of a team that works together to make important discoveries that can improve treatments for our patients.”

Reference: “Rewiring of cortical glucose metabolism fuels human brain cancer growth” by Andrew J. Scott, Anjali Mittal, Baharan Meghdadi, Alexandra O’Brien, Justine Bailleul, Palavalasa Sravya, Abhinav Achreja, Weihua Zhou, Jie Xu, Angelica Lin, Kari Wilder-Romans, Ningning Liang, Ayesha U. Kothari, Navyateja Korimerla, Donna M. Edwards, Zhe Wu, Jiane Feng, Sophia Su, Li Zhang, Peter Sajjakulnukit, Anthony C. Andren, Junyoung O. Park, Johanna ten Hoeve, Vijay Tarnal, Kimberly A. Redic, Nathan R. Qi, Joshua L. Fischer, Ethan Yang, Michael S. Regan, Sylwia A. Stopka, Gerard Baquer, Krithika Suresh, Jann N. Sarkaria, Theodore S. Lawrence, Sriram Venneti, Nathalie Y. R. Agar, Erina Vlashi, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Wajd N. Al-Holou, Deepak Nagrath and Daniel R. Wahl, 3 September 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09460-7

Funding/disclosures: Scott was supported by the National Cancer Institute (K99CA300923; F32CA260735). Wahl was supported by NCI (K08CA234416; R37CA258346), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS129123), Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation, Sontag Foundation, Ivy Glioblastoma Foundation, Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Chad Tough Defeat DIPG foundation. Wahl and Lawrence were supported by NCI P50CA269022. Nagrath was supported by NCI (R01CA271369). Wu, Feng and Qi were supported by NIDDK MMPC-Live (1U2CDK135066). Zhou was supported by University of Michigan Medical School’s Pandemic Research Recovery grant (U083054). Al-Holou was supported by NINDS (K08NS12827101), American Cancer Society (CSDG-23-1031584-01-MM), and American Brain Tumor Association. Palavalasa was supported by American Cancer Society (PF-23-1077428-01-MM). Venneti was supported by NINDS (R01NS110572 and R01NS127799) and NCI (R01CA261926). Vlashi and Bailleul were supported by NCI (CA251872 and CA251872-S1). Bailleul was supported by a UCLA JCCC Fellowship Award. Park was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM143127). Sarkaria was supported by Mayo Clinic and the William H. Donner Professorship.  Agar was supported by the Daniel E. Ponton Fund, National Brain Tumor Society, Mass Life Sciences Center, and NCI(U54CA283114).

Tech transfer(s)/Conflict(s) of interest: Wahl has consulted for Agios Pharmaceuticals, Admare Pharmaceuticals, Bruker and Innocrin Pharmaceuticals. He is an inventor on patents pertaining to the treatment of patients with brain tumors (U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/416,146, U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/744,342, U.S. Provisional Patent Applicant 62/724,337). Scott, Nagrath, Lyssiotis, Mittal, Achreja and Meghdadi are co-inventors on U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/416,146. In the past three years, Lyssiotis has consulted for Odyssey Therapeutics and Third Rock Ventures. Al-Holou has consulted for Servier Pharmaceuticals. Agar reports the following disclosures: key opinion leader to Bruker Daltonics, collaboration with Thermo Finnigan, service agreement with EMD Serono, service agreement with iTeos Therapeutics, and founder and board member of BondZ.

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A Cosmic Portrait in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Stellar Nurseries and Star-Birth in N11

Hubble’s Longevity and Stellar Cataloging

How the Study Worked

Researchers’ Perspectives

Binging a good show or book can spark your imagination and help you get through tough times.

People who binge-watch more likely to engage with stories through imagination

Memorable stories are better suited for imagination

Binge watching is not always a bad thing

Promising Obesity Drug Curbs Breast Cancer in Mice

Challenges of Traditional Weight Loss for Cancer Prevention

Inside the Mouse Study Design

Correlating Body Weight With Tumor Growth

Cancer cells in the brain use sugars differently compared to healthy cells

Amino-acid restricted diets can improve treatment outcomes in mice

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