Nature Podcast

Bone marrow in the skull plays a surprisingly important role in ageing

Nov 13, 2024

Bong Ng Kho, an author focused on skull bone marrow's role in aging, discusses how this area becomes vital for blood-cell production as we age, offering potential insights into neuroinflammation. Guy Leckenby, a researcher studying lead-205 isotopes, illuminates new methods for dating the Solar System, showcasing how stellar conditions influence their decay. Together, they highlight the surprising resilience of skull marrow and innovative cosmic dating techniques, leaving listeners intrigued by aging and the cosmos.

35:10

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Episode guests

Guy Leckenby

Bong Ng Kho

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Quick takeaways

Skull bone marrow expands with age, helping maintain blood-cell production and potentially countering neuroinflammation, unlike other bone marrows which decline.

User behavior significantly influences the spread of misinformation, suggesting that users actively seeking unreliable information are a key factor in the issue.

Deep dives

The Role of Skull Bone Marrow in Aging

Research shows that skull bone marrow may play a significant role in maintaining health as people age. Unlike other bone marrows, which experience deterioration in function due to various factors such as loss of blood vessels and inflammation, skull bone marrow appears to expand and retain its hematopoietic function throughout the lifespan. This finding suggests that the skull's bone marrow may compensate for declining functions in other bone compartments as individuals age. The unique structure of skull bone marrow, with its connection to the brain's protective membranes, further indicates its potential role in countering neuroinflammation that increases with age.

Intro

2min

Skull Bone Marrow: A New Perspective on Aging

8min

Bats' Hearing Preservation and User Responsibility in Online Misinformation

3min

Decoding the Cosmos: The Role of Lead-205

10min

Mapping the Ionosphere with Smartphones

6min

Innovative Healing: Smartphones and Self-Experimentation

6min

The Impact of Self-Experimentation on Cancer Research

2min

00:46 The role of skull bone marrow in ageing

During ageing, bone marrow in the skull becomes an increasingly important site of blood-cell production. This is in stark contrast to most bones where the ability of marrow to make blood and immune cells declines. Studies in mice and humans showed that ageing results in skull bone-marrow expanding, and in mice this marrow was more resistant to inflammation and other hallmarks of ageing. The team behind the work hope by understanding this process better it may be possible to help organs become more resistant to ageing.

Research Article: Koh et al.

08:56 Research Highlights

Elderly big brown bats show remarkable resistance to age-related hearing loss, and why search-engine algorithms may not be the main driver steering people towards misinformation.

Research Highlight: No hearing aids needed: bats’ ears stay keen well into old age

Research Highlight: Don’t blame search engines for sending users to unreliable sites

11:38 How to make lead a useful material to date the Solar System

Researchers have overcome a major hurdle preventing the radioactive isotope lead-205 from being used as a ‘clock’ to date the age of the Solar System. 205Pb is made in some stars and thanks to its half life of around 17 million years has been proposed as a potential way to date ancient astronomical processes. However, exactly how much 205Pb can escape a star were unclear, limiting its dating potential. Now, researchers have mimicked the conditions seen in stars to pin down how much 205Pb can escape into space, paving the way for its use as a clock.

Research Article: Leckenby et al.