The Peculiar Dispatch #002

Black hole stars,

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have identified an object in the early universe that appears to be something we've never seen before: essentially a gigantic star-like cloud wrapped around a feeding black hole.

The suspected black hole is around 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, while the surrounding hydrogen cocoon could be roughly the size of our entire Solar System. Even crazier, the object pumps out around 100 billion times more energy than a normal star. Researchers think these objects might finally explain the mysterious “little red dots” JWST keeps finding in the early universe.

During an ROV expedition near the Cook Islands, researchers were cruising across the seabed at approximately 3,600 metres — 2.2 miles — underwater.

Then the cameras spotted something sticking out of the sediment. It turned out to be a fossilised whale beak/jaw. The specimen could give researchers clues about ancient whales and the marine ecosystems that existed when it lived.

Imagine an animal dying millions of years ago, sinking into the abyss, fossilising and eventually being rediscovered by a robot travelling across the bottom of the Pacific.

After more than 100 years of attempts to make therapeutic cancer vaccines work, Moderna and Merck's personalised mRNA cancer vaccine has delivered successful late-stage trial results in melanoma.

And the way it works is wild.

Doctors analyse mutations in an individual patient's tumour and create a personalised vaccine designed to train that person's immune system to recognise cancer cells carrying those mutations.

More than 1,000 melanoma patients were involved in the late-stage trial, with the vaccine used alongside Keytruda reducing the risk of recurrence or spread compared with Keytruda alone.

Researchers are also investigating similar approaches for other cancers.

Nature remains absolutely horrifying. Researchers in western Mexico have documented six species of parasitic fungi associated with ants.

These fungi belong to the wonderfully sinister world of “zombie-ant” fungi — parasites specialised around infecting insects and ultimately using their bodies as part of their reproductive cycle.

The discoveries were made in Jalisco and add to the growing diversity scientists are uncovering among these extraordinarily specialised parasites.

What is the largest living structure on Earth?

A) The Amazon rainforest
B) The Great Barrier Reef
C) A giant fungus
D) A sequoia forest

Answer: B — The Great Barrier Reef.
It stretches for more than 2,300 kilometres along Australia's coast and consists of thousands of individual reefs.

QUESTION 2 — Which planet has a day longer than its year?

A) Mercury
B) Jupiter
C) Venus
D) Neptune

Answer: C — Venus.

Venus takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once, while completing an orbit around the Sun in roughly 225 Earth days.

Meaning you could technically celebrate a Venusian birthday before the planet had finished one rotation.

QUESTION 4 — Where is most of Earth's freshwater located?

A) Underground
B) Lakes
C) Antarctica and Greenland
D) Rivers

Answer: C — Antarctica and Greenland.

Most of Earth's freshwater isn't flowing through rivers or sitting in lakes — it's locked away as ice, principally in Earth's giant ice sheets and glaciers.

Thank you for reading!