Solar-powered rainstorms, disease-spreading tornadoes, and more stories you may have missed this week

Why are scientists turning neurons blue? Did the ancient Romans get high? And what can mice teach us about erectile dysfunction? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from Science ’s daily newsletter, Science Adviser . Watching neurons die—for science! Bright green. Dim blue. Black. That’s the tragic story of a neuron dying in the spinal cord of a live zebrafish, its inner light flickering off as fluorescent molecules that mirror cell activity fade and blink out. It may seem like a morbid experiment, but research like this—reported last week in a bioRxiv preprint—is helping scientists understand why our own neurons kick the can . The work could help unravel why brain cells sometimes expire too early, contributing to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. ‘Tiny tornadoes’ could spread a deadly crop killer In late spring, before ripening to its characteristic golden color, a wheat field resembles a sea of waving green grass. But infection with the fungus Puccinia triticina can quickly devastate the growing plants, disfiguring their leaves with powdery brown spots that farmers call wheat leaf rust. Each year, the spread of plant pests and pathogens—including various species of rust fungi—destroys more than 20% of wheat crops around the world. A raindrop strikes the leaf of a wheat plant infected with rus...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research