22 | New Scientist | 20 November 2021AgeingROCKFISH are among the longest-
lived animals we know of, and by
studying the natural variation in
their lifespans, researchers have
discovered key insights into the
genetic basis of longevity.
Studies into ageing have
traditionally focused on laboratory
mice because they are easy to work
with. However, Peter Sudmant
at the University of California,
Berkeley, and his colleagues
adopted a different approach,
studying longevity in creatures
with longer lifespans.
They performed a genomic
analysis of 88 species of Pacific
Ocean rockfish from the genus
Sebastes – deep-sea creatures
that can live for 200 years – to map
out the genetic underpinnings of
their lifespans. They accounted for
factors such as body size and theirenvironment, which are variables
known to affect ageing in many
organisms (Science, doi.org/g5nh).
“We found genes associated with
many different pathways — genes
involved in DNA repair, metabolism
and immune response,” says
Sudmant. It is possible that a
set of genes called butyrophilins,
which are known to influence many
human diseases of inflammation,
contribute to the extreme lifespan
of certain species of rockfish.
Looking into the lives of these
animals is critical to learning how
to enhance and prolong human
health, says Steven Austad at
the University of Alabama at
Birmingham. “I don’t believe we will
make much headway in extending
human health if we only study
short-lived organisms like fruit
flies and mice.” Aimee GabayLong-lived fish has genetic
clues to extended lifespan
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News In brief
A SMALL piece of the moon may
be orbiting the sun alongside
Earth. This object, called
Kamo‘oalewa, has an unexpected
composition that hints it may
have been chipped off the moon
and tossed into orbit.
Quasi-satellites like
Kamo‘oalewa – of which Earth has
five – travel with a planet in similar
orbits around the sun. Benjamin
Sharkey and Vishnu Reddy at the
University of Arizona led a team
that used the Large Binocular
Telescope and the Lowell
Discovery Telescope, both in
Arizona, to examine the spectrum
of light bouncing off the object.
Their observations showed that
it was unexpectedly red.
They compared their
observations with details of
several other types of asteroids
that can sometimes be red,
including those with a high metalSolar system^content and those covered
in small grains of dust, but
none of them tallied. The only
close match was with a sample of
moon rock brought back by the
Apollo missions, hinting that
Kamo‘oalewa may have been
thrown from the moon in an
impact (Communications Earth
& Environment, doi.org/g5nt).
“It’s a kind of missing piece of
the puzzle,” says Reddy. “We have
meteorites on the Earth, we have
holes on the moon where some of
those rocks came from, and this
might be the piece in between.”
Determining how long it has
been travelling with Earth is a
more difficult question. “We
think it came off the moon. The
composition seems to match, but
finding out when it came off the
moon or where on the moon it
came off of is a tall order,” says
Reddy. “The only way to do that
would be to get a sample back.”
The Chinese space agency is
developing such a mission.
Leah CraneMoon chunk may be
Earth’s space buddyPET cats can mentally map their
owner’s location simply from
the sound of their voice.
Previous studies of domestic
cats (Felis catus) have revealed
they can track objects that move
out of sight. However, Saho Takagi
at Kyoto University in Japan and
her team wanted to see how
cats track people.
They studied 50 cats, placing
each alone in a test room withAnimal behaviourcameras and with two doors and
a window. They placed a speaker
outside near one door and a
second outside near the second
door or window. The two speakers
were at least 4 metres apart.
During each test, the team used
the speakers to play recordings of
the cat’s owner or a stranger. The
voice was played twice, 2.5 seconds
apart, and could come from either
the same speaker both times or
once from each speaker.
Video analysis suggests that cats
show little surprise when their
owner’s voice was played twice
from the same speaker, or any
time when the stranger’s voice was
played. But if the owner’s voice
was played from first one and
then the second speaker 4 metres
away just a few seconds later, the
cats did show signs of surprise.
The authors suggest cats can
mentally track their owner’s
location via their voice, and show
surprise when owners suddenly
seem to “teleport” to a new place
TIM (PLoS One, doi.org/g5nr). Chen LyBODDYOur cats can track us
just from our voices