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Scents of Science

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myfusimotors

Why is a science blog named after a motor neuron? Fair question. If you landed here expecting car parts or motor repairs, I'm sorry...and also, stay. You might find something more interesting. Fusimotor neurons are a type of nerve cell in your body right now, quietly doing one of the most elegant jobs in neuroscience. They don't move your muscles directly. Instead, they adjust the sensitivity of your muscle spindles — the tiny stretch receptors embedded in your muscle fibers. In plain terms: they set the dial on how aware your nervous system is of its own body. They are the hidden calibrators of human movement, and almost nobody knows they exist. That's exactly why I named this blog after them. The best science isn't always the most famous science. Some of the most fascinating things happening inside the human body — inside your body — are invisible, unnamed, and completely overlooked. This blog exists to change that. I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules, but not a single one of the cells that compose me knows who I am, or cares...So why should you? Maybe because the story of what we are is more interesting than the story of who we are. That's what this blog is about. New posts go up every Tuesday and Friday. No newsletters, no algorithms — just good science writing, when you come looking for it. If you're curious about a topic, feel free to reach out. Some of my best posts have started with a reader's question. Welcome to myfusimotors. The hidden calibrators sent me. Corina.

UC Irvine, NASA JPL researchers discover a cause of rapid ice melting in Greenland

While conducting a study of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory uncovered a previously unseen way in which the ice and ocean interact. The glaciologists said their findings could... Continue Reading →

Webb Looks for Fomalhaut’s Asteroid Belt and Finds Much More

Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise,... Continue Reading →

The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy

If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe containing billions of stars and situated about 40 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), NGC 1566 presents a gorgeous face-on view. Classified as a grand design spiral,... Continue Reading →

The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole

Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the supermassive black hole captured in 2017 by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87... Continue Reading →

The Medulla Nebula Supernova Remnant

What powers this unusual nebula? CTB-1 is the expanding gas shell that was left when a massive star toward the constellation of Cassiopeia exploded about 10,000 years ago. The star likely detonated when it ran out of elements near its core that... Continue Reading →

Starship – flight test

Starship successfully lifted off from the orbital launch pad for the first time, yesterday at 8:33 a.m. CT. The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico –... Continue Reading →

Balloon-Borne SuperBIT Telescope Releases 1st Research Images

The Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) that launched on a scientific super pressure balloon April 16, 2023, local time from Wānaka, New Zealand, captured its first research images from this flight of the Tarantula Nebula and Antennae Galaxies. These images were... Continue Reading →

Study Links ‘Stuck’ Stem Cells to Hair Turning Gray

Certain stem cells have a unique ability to move between growth compartments in hair follicles, but get stuck as people age and so lose their ability to mature and maintain hair color, a new study shows. Led by researchers from... Continue Reading →

The Dark Seahorse in Cepheus

Spanning light-years, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula appears in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, obscuring clouds are part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200... Continue Reading →

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