I will also use this opportunity to mention that if you’ve been considering a Scientific American subscription, they are offering a digital subscription of $1 for 90 days.
I decided to subscribe for a while before all of my numts have jumped and it is too late. (I think that was also a Robin Boy Wonder catchphrase that got lost on the cutting room floor: “Jumping numts, Batman!”)
In 2024, however, Weichen (Arthur) Zhou and Ryan Mills, both at the University of Michigan, and Kalpita Karan, then at my laboratory at Columbia University, in collaboration with me and others, made an astonishing discovery. Numtogenesis, or the formation of new numts, happens not only across millennia but likely several times over during a person’s lifespan. In cultures of human cells, numtogenesis happens over days to weeks. Further, numts seem to be particularly concentrated in the brain—and may influence how long we live.
Yes, more science to worry about.