In a few decades, the Titanic might be unrecognisable thanks to hungry bacteria. Halomonas titanicae is one of many species of bacteria that turn iron into rust, but H. titanicae takes it to the next level. Discovered in 1991 on the Titanic but only identified as a previously undiscovered species in 2010, H. titanicae digests rust made by other bacteria, eating large parts of the famous shipwreck. Normally, these rust-loving bacteria live on the seafloor but, when shipwrecks settle on the seafloor, they start to climb onto their new home. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
