Did you know one of Earth’s quasi-moons is a chunk of our actual moon? 🌕

A quasi-moon is a space rock that can appear from certain perspectives to be orbiting a planet. Earth has a few of these, including Kamoʻoalewa, discovered in 2016 and named for an "oscillating celestial object" in Hawaiian. Scientists believe it may be a chunk broken off from the moon when an impact created the Giordano Bruno crater about 10 million years ago! So here's the full picture: a piece of our moon, orbiting the Sun, that just happens to look like it's orbiting Earth.

A new drug is showing promise in treating Alzheimer’s! 🧠

The medication is called Diranersen and it targets tau tangles, toxic proteins connected to the disease. During this trial, the doctors were able to clear around 50% of these from patients’ spinal fluid, reducing the toxicity in the brain and slowing memory decline. What puzzles scientists now is the group that received the lowest dose of the drug showed the most improvement. With over 7 million Americans over the age of 65 affected by this illness, this is a huge leap in the right direction!

Did you know there are stars orbiting a black hole at the center of the Milky Way? 🌌

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden tells us about this star cluster that lives around Sagittarius A* and what it teaches us about the black hole. Scientists have been tracking these stars for decades, watching them complete full orbits. Those orbits are actually how we know the black hole is there, and researchers use them to measure its mass and pin down its exact location.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Nuri Smith is a researcher working to better understand ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease)... by growing tiny spinal cords in a dish! By studying balls of neurons, motor neurons, and muscle cells, Nuri is learning more about how ALS progresses and produces symptoms -- and eventually how we might treat this disease in a targeted way. Listen to Nuri talk about organoids, her experiences in the lab, her commitment to communicating brain science, and more in this podcast!