lithium tagged posts

HIP68468, a twin star to the sun about 300 light-years away, may have swallowed one or more of its planets, based on lithium and refractory elements recently discovered near its surface. Credit: Illustration by Gabi Perez / Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

An international team has made the rare discovery of a planetary system with a host star similar to Earth’s sun. Especially intriguing is the star’s unusual composition, which indicates it ingested some of its planets. “It doesn’t mean that the sun will ‘eat’ the Earth any time soon,” said Jacob Bean, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UChicago. “But our discovery provides an indication that violent histories may be common for planetary systems, including our own.”

Unlike the artificial planet-destroying Death Star...

The response we’ve seen in flies to low doses of lithium is very encouraging and our next step is to look at targeting GSK-3 in more complex animals with the aim of eventually developing a drug regime to test in humans.

Fruit flies live 16% longer than average when given low doses of the mood stabiliser lithium, according to a UCL-led study. How lithium stabilises mood is poorly understood but when the scientists investigated how it prolongs the lives of flies, they discovered a new drug target that could slow aging – a molecule called glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3).

“To improve our quality and length of life we must delay the onset of age-related diseases by extending the healthiest period of our lives...

An artist’s impression of 2MASS J2126. Credit: University of Hertfordshire / Neil Cook

A team of astronomers in the UK, USA and Australia have found a planet, until now thought to be a free floating or lonely planet, in a huge orbit around its star. Incredibly the object, 2MASS J2126, is about 7000 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

In the last 5 years a number of free floating planets have been found. These are gas giant worlds like Jupiter that lack the mass for the nuclear reactions that make stars shine, so cool and fade over time. Measuring the temperatures of these objects is relatively straightforward, but it depends on both mass and age...