YSM Issue 97.1

NEWS
Astronomy / Social Medicine
LIFE OUT OF
BALANCE
THE TILTED PLANET
PHENOMENON
BY ESTELLA WITTSTRUCK
THE RIPPLE
EFFECT
HOW SOCIAL STRESSORS
IMPACT FETAL BRAIN
DEVELOPMENT
BY JIYA MODY
IMAGE COURTESY OF TONYNETONE VIA FLICKR
IMAGE COURTESY OF ANDRE FURTADO VIA PEXELS
Scientists believe that when planetary systems first form,
they are in a pristine, near-resonant state. Near-resonance
describes when the orbits of multiple planets meet in set
ratios and the planets regularly line up during their orbits. Nearresonant
planets are expected to orbit in the same direction
as their star’s rotation—an orientation known as alignment.
However, orbits often aren’t perfectly aligned. Malena Rice
GSAS ’22, an assistant professor of astronomy at Yale, researched
a group of near-resonant planets to better understand why so
many planetary systems have misaligned, sideways, or backward
orbits. “The fact that we have all these weird, wacky planets
means we can study other kinds of systems as we’re working
toward understanding how our solar system fits into a broader
picture,” Rice said.
Rice examined the tilts of orbits in near-resonant systems
through the Stellar Obliquities in Long-period Exoplanet Systems
survey, founded by Rice as a PhD student. With telescopes,
Rice and an international team of collaborators recorded the
properties of large planet TOI-2202 b. Despite TOI-2202 b being
in a near-resonant system, its orbit was still tilted by twenty
degrees, likely from interacting with other celestial bodies. The
reason for this dramatic tilt is unknown, but discoveries like this
help scientists get closer to the answer. While TOI-2202 b is the
most tilted example to date, several other near-resonant systems
demonstrate a similar slant. “A lot of planetary systems are being
tilted a little bit; there’s this low-level dynamical disturbance
that is regularly occurring,” Rice said. “Understanding their
properties helps us to engage with how amazing the laws of the
universe are on a broad scale.” ■
A
groundbreaking study conducted by a team of researchers
from Yale and Columbia University found that a pregnant
woman’s experience of discrimination and acculturation,
or assimilation to a new culture, can leave a lasting imprint on their
infant’s brain, altering key emotional processing centers.
The collaboration between Yale’s Multi-modal Imaging,
Neuroinformatics, & Data Science Laboratory and Columbia’s Early
Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune, and Neuropsychology Lab examined
the experiences of Latina women in New York City’s Washington
Heights neighborhood. By measuring brain activity with a technique
known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, the study examined
changes in functional connectivity—how parts of the brain interact with
each other—in infants. The study found that negative experiences during
pregnancy, including discrimination, acculturation, stress, anxiety, and
depression, have distinct effects. Infants from mothers facing higher
discrimination levels exhibited weaker connectivity in the amygdala (the
brain’s emotional processing center) and stronger connectivity in the
fusiform cortex (the facial processing site). Acculturation was associated
with weaker connectivity in both areas among infants.
The findings have important implications for healthcare
professionals, particularly in prenatal care. Dustin Scheinost GSAS
’13, an associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at
Yale and the senior author of the study, emphasized the importance
of screening for acculturation to improve maternal and newborn
outcomes. The results, he explained, underscore the need for
broader societal awareness of the long-lasting physical impacts of
discriminatory experiences. “How we treat each other is pretty
important,” Schienost said. This study adds to the mountain of
evidence showing that discrimination harms not only the person
experiencing it, but also future generations—a powerful argument
for working toward a more just and inclusive world. ■
6 Yale Scientific Magazine March 2024 www.yalescientific.org