Today’s The Life Academic looks at whether jokes are a laughing matter. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including how scarlet monkeyflower populations saved themselves and how neuroscientists are reaching the deep brain without surgery.
Cancer | Science
A KRASy idea to prevent pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer, kills around 50,000 people in the United States each year. It’s a tricky cancer to identify and diagnose, since PDAC typically occurs in common, microscopic pancreatic lesions.
Researchers recently created an oral pill that inhibits a gene called KRAS, which, when mutated, sends signals that cause uncontrolled cell growth. A team decided to test the drug on mice genetically engineered to have mutated KRAS genes. After a 10-day regimen, the mice’s precancerous tissue area had shrunk ; instead of growing, the precancerous pancreatic cells were dying. A 28-day treatment delayed PDAC even further. In general, mice that received the treatment before tumor development survived twice as long as those that received the treatment after tumor development. “ This study shows us the power of being proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to cancer,” said lead author Minh Than in a statement.
Unfortunately, the drug had serious side effects, including rashes, fatigue, and gastrointestinal distress (a schedule of one week on, one week off helped). And multiple kinds of KRAS mutations tend to occur in PDAC patients, limiting how effective the drug might be in long-term patients.
Scarlet monkeyflowers are a favorite plant of hummingbirds, sporting bright orange-red blooms along creek beds and springs. While they look delicate, they are not to be underestimated; researchers documented scarlet monkeyflowers making the first full “evolutionary rescue” of a stressed species in the wild.
A team tracked 19 monkeyflower populations in Oregon and California from 2010 to 2018, a time period that coincidentally encompassed a one-in-10,000-year drought in California. The researchers then sequenced monkeyflower genomes from dozens of populations’ seeds collected before the drought, looking for genes associated with differences in climate. They found that the monkeyflower populations that outlasted the California drought were also those that started with the most variation in climate-related genes, which might control traits like how many stomata a plant leaf has or how the plant stores carbon.
Indeed, the genetic diversity of a species could become something of a “crystal ball” for their future survival, lead author Daniel Ansett told The Washington Post. “The fact that certain organisms are able to adapt just because of genetics that are already present is a great source of hope.”
Many neurological and psychiatric diseases involve deep brain structures such as the thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. But non-invasive methods of electrical brain stimulation reach only into the cortex, or outer layer of the brain. Without excessively stimulating the cortex, or using surgically implanted devices, it’s been difficult to get the benefits of brain stimulation to deeper brain regions. An emerging method may change that.
First demonstrated in mice in 2017, temporal interference (TI) stimulation works by sending two high-frequency electrical currents through the skull to create a low-frequency “envelope” where the currents collide. TI, which uses widely available electrodes and portable current generators, is now being tested in humans across a variety of diseases, including epilepsy, where it has been shown to reduce abnormal electrical discharges and help patients sleep. Studies also suggest TI has potential to aid stroke recovery, boost memory in Alzheimer’s disease patients, enhance motor learning, ease depression, and even make it easier to meditate.
TI studies to date have been small, and some of the findings have proven difficult to replicate, say brain stimulation researchers. But TI is generating “imagination and excitement,” said neural engineer Marom Bikson. If ongoing trials confirm its promise, TI could evolve into a safe, widely accessible, even at-home tool for modulating brain activity.
Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology: Call for Entries 2026
This prize is awarded to young scientists for their outstanding contributions to neurobiological research based on experimental methods of molecular, cellular, systems, or organismic biology. Researchers not older than 35 years are invited to apply.
A new analysis of more than 500 scientific talks finds humor isn’t often used in them—and when it is, the jokes usually fall flat or elicit only polite chuckles. Sasa Huzjak/Alamy
Laughing matters
Phie Jacobs, General Assignment Reporter, News from Science
Scientific conferences aren’t typically known for their levity. After all, researchers take their work seriously, and so should we. But do these meetings have to be so boring?
It’s not as though scientists aren’t funny. Some, like molecular biologist Adam Ruben, have even pursued careers in storytelling and comedy. But as Ruben noted in a 2015 column for Science Careers, it can be hard for researchers to escape the notion that humor somehow detracts from their credibility . “The irony,” he added, “is that, from a comedic standpoint, scientific talks are the perfect opportunities for absurdity because it’s so unexpected.”
Presenters were more likely to make jokes about their immediate situation, such as poking fun at technological difficulties or griping about early morning or pre-lunch time slots. Jokes about shared scientific experiences, such as fieldwork mishaps, or references to pop culture were less common. But as lead author Stefano Mammola explained in a Q+A with News from Science, no particular type of joke seemed to elicit more laughter than another.
Timing, by contrast, seemed to have more of an impact. The team found that, while jokes tended to cluster at the beginning and end of talks, there was a bump in especially successful jokes midway through. “When you are speaking to an audience, you realize at some point that you’re starting to lose them,” Mammola explains. “An experienced speaker, about halfway through a presentation, is able to throw in a very nice joke to reengage the mind.”
Beyond just staving off yawns, humor can also improve learning by making content more memorable. It can also help enhance the approachability and likeability of the speaker, potentially making scientists appear more trustworthy . For Mammola, the experience of collecting data on jokes had an additional benefit. “I realized I was focusing way more, even during talks that maybe would have shut down my brain,” he says. “I was paying way more attention to the scientific content itself.”
The study authors also found that male speakers told more jokes overall, while jokes told by men and native English speakers had a 10% higher probability of eliciting laughter, possibly reflecting gendered expectations and linguistic barriers that affect who feels comfortable taking risks in professional scientific spaces. In this way, the team writes, humor “may act as an amplifying mechanism—giving already-privileged speakers yet another tool to increase visibility, likability and memorability in professional spaces, potentially widening existing gaps in scientific communication.”
Grant awards by the U.S. National Institutes of Health will begin again, now that the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee that oversees NIH’s budget has given the agency’s apportionments. “That is good news,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro (D–CT) at a House hearing. “I find it disconcerting that it took a congressional hearing to prompt [the Office of Management and Budget].”
A systematic review of couples’ sleeping habits finds that bed partners wake each other up an average of six times a night—though usually, they only remember one. “Research finds that subjectively, people think they sleep better together than when they sleep apart, but when you objectively measure it, there’s more sleep disruption when they sleep together,” one expert explained.
Platypuses seem to have taken pages from birds, including their ducky bill and egg-laying. Now, researchers have discovered one more avian trait: the pigment pouches called melanosomes that color their fur are hollow. The team even examined fur from 125 other mammals, including platypuses’ closest relatives; all had solid melanosomes. Scientists have “never, ever seen anything like this before,” one expert said.
We look forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.
—Andrew Nixon, HHS spokesperson
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled against the Trump administration this week in a case filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and six other medical groups against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other government agency heads. The claim focused on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent group that is supposed to include vaccine experts and make recommendations about vaccine policy. Kennedy fired the entire 17-member committee last year and hand-selected new members, but the judge concluded that several of Kennedy’s recent appointees likely do not have the requisite experience.
With contributions from Hannah Richter, Jennie Smith, and Phie Jacobs
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