James' World 2

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Say you accidentally cut the tip of your finger off. Especially if this happened to you as a child, there’s a good chance it would regrow—skin, nail, and all. The same is true for other mammals such as monkeys and mice. Unfortunately, however, our regenerative abilities stop there. While some other creatures, most notably salamanders and starfish, can regenerate entire limbs, mammals don’t have this evolutionary superpower.

“The big question is: Why are mammals limited?” says Jessica Whited, an associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University.

Part of the reason why our cells only have a limited ability to regenerate may have to do with our genes. But according to new research, two key environmental mechanisms may be at play, too.

How rich a tissue is in hyaluronic acid and how well it can sense oxygen may affect its ability to regrow and heal, a pair of new studies published in Science on Thursday suggest. The results could lead to better wound treatments and possibly the ability to one day regrow larger pieces of human tissue—even limbs.

In one study, researchers investigated what might makes the mammalian fingertip special: Why can only the tip of the finger regrow, whereas the rest of it can’t? “Same finger, two entirely different outcomes,” says Byron Mui, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The researchers found that mice with a partial finger amputation could regrow part of their finger more easily and with less scarring when there were higher levels of hyaluronic acid in the animals’ “extracellular matrix”—the material between cells. Hyaluronic acid may be familiar to some readers: it is a common ingredient in face creams and moisturizers that claim to reduce wrinkles.

The study “elegantly challenges” the idea that scarring is a given in mammals that have lost a limb or digit, according to a related commentary in Science that was co-authored by Whited, who was not involved with either study.

In the other study, researchers compared two species: African clawed frog tadpoles and embryonic mice. Tadpoles can regenerate their limbs; embryonic mice can’t.

The researchers subjected amputated tissues from tadpoles and embryonic mice to various laboratory tests, explains molecular biologist Georgios Tsissios, the study’s lead author. In a low-oxygen environment—similar to that of tadpoles’ usual aquatic habitat—mice tissue healed better than when it was exposed to more oxygen.

“These experiments showed that lowering oxygen in embryonic mouse limbs can make them mimic frog tadpole limbs, enabling them to activate the very early regenerative responses,” Tsissios says.

Tsissios and his colleagues found, however, that tadpole cells appear to be worse at sensing oxygen than embryonic mice cells do—suggesting that tissue regeneration may be influenced by both levels of oxygen and the animals’ ability to sense it.

The results are preliminary: in neither study did the researchers regrow entire mammalian limbs. And any kind of tissue regeneration therapy for humans based on these findings is a long way off, Whited says. But the studies do offer hope for human research because they offer clues to what factors—both in the animals’ biology and their environment—may determine their tissue’s regenerative powers.

“As a field, the way that we piece all of these puzzle pieces together will eventually lead to human limb regeneration,” Whited predicts.

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Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we explore China’s massive Goupitan shiplift, one of the world’s tallest ship elevators, and the advanced elevator operations onboard US Aircraft Carriers. Fluctus is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to sea geeks. Whenever you are curious or an incorrigible lover of this mysterious world, our videos are made for you ! We publish 3 videos a week on our YouTube channel and many more articles on our website. Feel free to subscribe to not miss any of our updates and visit our website to discover additional content. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter: Please keep the comments section respectful. Any spam, insults, or troll will be deleted. To contact us, make sure to use our email in the about section of this channel.

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Here’s what happened in the war in the Middle East on Thursday.

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NASA’s Artemis II moon mission began the return leg of its historic voyage on Monday night, completing the first half of an elegant figure eight “free return” trajectory from the Earth to the moon and back again.

“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back,” said astronaut Jeremy Hansen, one of Artemis II’s missions specialists, as the team broke a distance record from Earth for space travel on Monday. “We most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.” In marking the record, the Artemis II astronauts proposed that one crater be named Integrity, after their Orion spacecraft, and that another be named Carroll, for mission commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who died in 2020.

The spacecraft has performed as expected, despite some minor computer glitches and toilet trouble, according to NASA.

Launched on April 1, Artemis II is now in the seventh day of its mission to demonstrate a successful crewed trip around the moon—the first in more than a half-century. Around 7:02 P.M. EDT on Monday, the Orion capsule and its crew of four astronauts set a distance record for human spaceflight, reaching 252,756 miles from Earth as it arced around the moon before falling back home.

That’s right: falling. Artemis II’s homecoming is already baked into the voyage, courtesy of the moon’s gravity bending the Orion spacecraft’s trajectory to wing the capsule home without much, if any, help from Orion’s rocket engines. That’s the “free” part of the free return trajectory, says Samantha Kenyon, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech.

The choice, Kenyon says, was to either fire Orion’s engines as the spacecraft swooped over the far side of the moon and out of radio contact with Earth—or to fire them much earlier in the mission and closer to Earth. Choosing the latter course “means less risk for the astronauts in the capsule” if something were wrong with the rockets, she says. The free return trajectory also set up the spaceflight distance record that the crew set yesterday.

Last Thursday, the Orion capsule—officially named Integrity—fired its rockets for nearly six minutes in a “translunar injection burn” that consumed roughly 1,000 pounds of fuel, just enough to loosen Earth’s gravitational grip and set a course for looping around the lunar far side and free return. The maneuver went so well that the space agency skipped two out of three smaller corrective burns built into the mission’s schedule.

Aerospace engineers can plot such trajectories by thinking of the respective pulls of Earth and the moon as gravity “wells,” Kenyon says. Imagine these gravity wells as topographic maps of sorts, where Earth and the moon are two gravitational holes rotating around each other, surrounded by curving hills. The free return trajectory is essentially a marble trick of sending Integrity scooting along the curves mapped around the moon’s moving gravity well on a path that gets captured again by Earth’s gravity well. “Once you get to a certain height on that hill’s topographic map and get on that path, you stay on for free,” she says. “All the spacecraft is doing is just following the path that’s associated with the energy that it’s been given.”

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Every year, the Met Gala is where celebrities ascend to style icon status.

On the first Monday in May, celebrities don’t just walk the red carpet: They climb the steps of the Metropolitan Museum in custom gowns and statement couture, presenting their interpretation of the exhibition’s theme to the entire world. Unlike an awards show or a premiere, the goal isn’t to shine for a moment—it’s to create a look that resonates for decades. Despite the wealth of designer gowns and bespoke suits, few accomplish that feat, but those who do earn themselves a place in fashion history.

The greatest hits—Rihanna’s papal chic, Kate Moss’s golden turban, Sarah Jessica Parker’s tartan Alexander McQueen, Erykah Badu’s glittering top hat, Madonna in a hippie caftan—rank among the best outfits ever to be worn. And their charms wouldn’t have been as compelling on another night. After all, the gala encourages the kind of innovation rarely seen elsewhere.

The Costume Institute’s trove of landmark runway creations serves as an inspiration for guests, allowing them to take on fashion at its most avant-garde. Where else will you see Cardi B. and a small army of assistants move a mountainous red Thom Browne train across a pink carpet? Or watch awestruck as Lady Gaga and Brandon Maxwell take their magenta nesting doll ballgown to the streets, much to the delight of New Yorkers. A standout Met look can be performative (Amber Valletta going full baroque in 2004), subversive (Daphne Guinness in a plume of McQueen feathers in 2011), witty (Karolina Kurkova’s playful Viktor and Rolf in 2015, or referential (the Olsen twins and their yearly vintage surprise)—it just can’t be boring.

With this year’s exhibition theme, Costume Art, and a “Fashion is art” red-carpet dress code, what looks can we expect to see? Those fashions will be kept under wraps until the first Monday in May, but considering the co-chairs are Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams, you can rest assured they’ll be worth the wait.

In honor of the 2026 Met Gala, see 118 of the most memorable, daring, and over-the-top Met outfits of all time below.

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Photos: Getty Images

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Even as the status of the Strait of Hormuz remained unclear and U.S. and Iranian officials issued dueling threats to resume attacks if the cease-fire fell apart, both countries had reason to hope it held together.

Here’s the latest.

The day-old cease-fire between the United States and Iran was being tested on Wednesday by uncertainty over the status of the economically vital Strait of Hormuz and disagreement over whether the truce applied to Lebanon, where Israel continued to carry out punishing attacks.

Iran, which said Lebanon was included in the cease-fire, accused the United States of not upholding its end of the deal. And Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Washington had to choose between a cease-fire or continued war via Israel, and “cannot have both.” Pakistan, which mediated the truce, said the deal covered Lebanon, a claim disputed by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.

Disagreement over Lebanon’s inclusion in the cease-fire threatens to unravel it.

Less than twenty-four hours after Iran and the United States agreed to a cease-fire, a disagreement surfaced over whether or not the terms applied to Lebanon, where Israel is bombarding Hezbollah.

Iran said the deal included Lebanon. The U.S. said it did not.

Attacks reported after cease-fire took effect

Attacks continued in the Middle East on Wednesday after a U.S.-Israeli cease-fire with Iran. Israel said that Lebanon was excluded from the truce.

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As the cease-fire deal among the U.S., Israel and Iran took hold, residents of Tehran expressed mixed reactions. CreditCredit…Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

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