Medical history was made this week as the world’s first arm transplant was
carried out in Malaysia. Two-month-old Chong Lin Ying, who was born with a
severely deformed left arm, received the arm from her twin sister who died
shortly after being born. Six hand transplants have been carried out around the
world in adult patients, but recipients have had to take potentially harmful
anti-rejection drugs. Because Chong’s twin sister was identical, she will not
have to worry about rejecting the new limb.
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from 91av
Explore the latest news, articles and features
![Astronomers have long known that understanding how star clusters come to be is key to unlocking other secrets of galactic evolution. Stars form in clusters, created when clouds of gas collapse under gravity. As more and more stars are born in a collapsing cloud, strong stellar winds, harsh ultraviolet radiation and the supernova explosions of massive stars eventually disperse the cloud, and their light can bear down on other star-forming regions in the galaxy. This process is called stellar feedback, and it means that most of the gas in a galaxy never gets used for star formation. Researching how star clusters develop can answer questions about star formation at a galactic scale. Now, the state of the art has been further developed with both Hubble and Webb working together to provide a broad-spectrum view of thousands of young star clusters. An international team of astronomers has pored over images of four nearby galaxies from the FEAST observing programme (#1783), trying to solve this mystery. Their results show that it is the most massive star clusters that clear away their gaseous shroud the fastest, and begin lighting their galaxy the earliest. The team identified nearly 9000 star clusters in the four galaxies in different evolutionary stages: young clusters just starting to emerge from their natal clouds of gas, clusters that had partially dispersed the gas (both from Webb images), and fully unobstructed clusters visible in optical light (found in Hubble images). With Webb???s ability to peer inside the gas clouds, they were able to then estimate the mass and age of each cluster from its light spectrum. This image shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51), one of the four galaxies studied in this work, as seen by Webb???s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The thick clumps of star-forming gas are shown here in red and orange, representing infrared light emitted by ionised gas, dust grains, and complex molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Within these gas complexes, each tens or hundreds of light years across, Webb reveals the dense, extremely bright clusters of massive stars that have just recently formed. The countless stars strewn across the arm of the galaxy, many of which would be invisible to our eyes behind layers of dust, are also laid bare in infrared light. [Image description: A large, long portion of one of the spiral arms in galaxy M51. Red-orange, clumpy filaments of gas and dust that stretch in a chain from left to right comprise the arm. Shining cyan bubbles light up parts of the gas clouds from within, and gaps expose bright star clusters in these bubbles as glowing white dots. The whole image is dotted with small stars. A faint blue glow around the arm colours the otherwise dark background.]](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/13114322/SEI_296271016.jpg)
Space
Stars in massive clusters are born faster than those in smaller ones
News
Technology
New rules confirm public has a right to see how UK government uses AI
News
Environment
Can cloud seeding save us from water bankruptcy?
Features
Environment
Carbon credits are flawed, but they can still help save forests
Analysis
Popular articles
Trending 91av articles
1
PCOS has been officially renamed PMOS, and it’s a momentous move
2
Where did the laws of physics come from? I think I've found the answer
3
Red-light therapy does have health benefits but not the ones you think
4
There has been a sudden increase in the rate of sea level rise
5
A new tectonic plate boundary could be forming in southern Africa
6
The story of the first human tool: the humble container
7
Huge study of ancient British DNA reveals only minor Roman influence
8
A lost ancient script reveals how writing as we know it really began
9
Can cloud seeding save us from water bankruptcy?
10
Can floating data centres meet AI's huge energy demand?
