Science isn't all about examining graphs and charts. In this weekly column, staff writer Andrea Alfano puts together the most striking science images from the past week's news for your viewing pleasure. Scroll down to find phenomenal images and fascinating facts about the science behind them.
Discoveries abounded this week, with new species of nautilus, lizard and crustacean. Rare minerals and an unexpected virus found in seal livers also reminded us of how many surprises are still waiting to be found on our planet.
As dry as California has gotten, it has a long way to go before it reaches Atacama-level aridity. Located in northern Chile, the Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth, apart from the poles. It is the ultimate test of sustainable water resource management, which is why scientists studied the behavior of the region's aquifers and published their findings in the journal Geosphere this week. NASA's Terra satellite snapped this shot of the Atacama desert using its advanced space-borne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) back in 2001.
This is a 3D model of a tumor, with the different types of cells shown in different colors. Aside from looking neat, such 3D models are useful for examining cancerous tumors because they allow scientists to track tiny movements of particular cells and watch how they influence the growth of the tumor. This allowed a group of scientists to figure out that seemingly minuscule movements of cells can have major effects on tumor growth, and that treatments targeting these movements could help halt the progression of the disease. They reported their findings this week in the journal Nature.
Scientists are taking advantage of the mesmerizingly intricate structure of this cryogel to create a cancer vaccine. By packing tumor cells and immune system-stimulating molecules into this material's many pores, researchers were able to create a vaccine that shrank existing tumors and may have even prevented new ones from growing in animal models, according to their report in the journal Nature Communications.
Seals can get hepatitis, too, apparently, or at least a version of it. This week, in the journal mBio, scientists described a virus found in seals that is the closest known relative of human hepatitis A virus. Previously, it was thought that viruses related to hepatitis could only infect primates, but this diseased seal liver proves otherwise.
This ghostly little crustacean was described for the first time in the journal ZooKeys this week. It was discovered in the waters of Raja Ampat, Indonesia, and dubbed Leucothoe eltoni.
"I named the species in honour of Sir Elton John because I have listened to his music in my lab during my entire scientific career," lead researcher James Thomas of Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography explained in a statement. "So, when this unusual crustacean with a greatly enlarged appendage appeared under my microscope after a day of collecting, an image of the shoes Elton John wore as the Pinball Wizard came to mind."
To a nonexpert, this lizard looks like something like a cross between a reptile, a seal, and a chubby baby (or maybe that's only the nonexperts here at Tech Times). But to paleontologists at the University of Alberta, who discovered the new species in southern Brazil, Gueragama sulamericana looks like a missing link. Almost all 1,700 or so iguana species are found in the New World, while the closest reptilian relatives of iguanas – which include chameleons and bearded dragons – are all found in the Old World. This disconnect has puzzled scientists, but the time during which this new lizard lived and the location in which its remains were found are a big clue as to how these reptile populations became so separated, according to a report in the journal Nature Communications.
A new species of nautilus named Allonautilus scrobiculatus also got introduced to the world this week. Nautiluses are in the cephalopod family, and are distant relatives of squid and cuttlefish. Discovered off the coast of Ndrova Island in Papua New Guinea, this "new" species is actually a sort of "living fossil." Nautiluses go back a staggering 500 million years in the fossil record.
Rosasite, the bizarre, bulbous mineral shown above, is just one of Earth's many rare minerals. A new study published this week in the journal American Mineralogist suggests that our planet harbors more than 1,500 minerals still waiting to be discovered.