by Joshua Shavit – The Brighter Side News –
In the quiet hum of a lab, scientists have found an unexpected ally in the fight to understand aging—a tiny, jewel-toned wasp. With its shimmering metallic body and short life, Nasonia vitripennis, known as the jewel wasp, may seem like just another insect. But recent findings show it might hold powerful clues about how biological aging works—and how it might be slowed.
A team at the University of Leicester, led by PhD student Erin Foley and professors Eamonn Mallon, Charalambos Kyriacou, and Christian Thomas, discovered that jewel wasps can hit pause on their biological clocks during a unique early-life stage. This natural pause, called diapause, delays development without stopping it entirely. The result? Wasps that live longer and age more slowly on a molecular level.
