Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 3, 2024 at 6:53am

Study Suggests Young Children Trust Robots Over Humans!

Many of us will be familiar with tales of kids befriending robots, which suggest generations of young children are more trusting of advice from machines than their own flesh and blood. An international research team has now found it's not just in fiction. In a study involving 111 kids aged between 3 and 6 years old, the youngsters showed a preference for believing robots more and being more accepting when robots made mistakes.
Where both humans and robots were shown to be equally reliable in the experiments, the youngsters were more likely to want to ask robots the names of new objects and accept their labels as accurate. What's more, the children were more likely to favor robots when asked about who they would share secrets with, who they would want to be friends with, and who they would want to have as teachers.
Children's conceptualizations of the agents making a mistake also differed, such that an unreliable human was selected as doing things on purpose, but not an unreliable robot.
These findings suggest that children's perceptions of a robot's reliability are separate from their evaluation of its desirability as a social interaction partner and its perceived agency."

There were individual differences in the responses: older kids were more trusting of humans than younger kids, but only when the robot was shown to be unreliable compared to the human. Taken as a whole though, the results showed these children thought reliable robots were more trustworthy than reliable humans.

One area where this research might be useful is in education, especially in a world where kids are increasingly surrounded by technology.

The researchers didn't ask anything about why these children felt that the robots they met could be trusted more than people.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563224000979

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 2, 2024 at 1:05pm

From a purely technical point of view, sound in the air cannot be more intense than 194 dB. At this intensity, the individual sound waves interfere with each other and create a vacuum. Of course, it is possible to go beyond this limit, but we should talk more about a shock wave instead of a sound wave then.

Earthquakes are hardly ever associated with a loud noise, but the opposite is true. The most intense is submarine earthquakes. Even those registered 5.0 on the Richter scale reach a noise intensity of 235 dB in water.

Tunguska Meteorite Explosion

What happened on this otherwise peaceful 1908 morning in Russia? In addition to the explosion of a space asteroid high above Earth, we could probably also experience the second-noisiest one-off show on Earth. The power of the noise was estimated at 300 dB. If we wanted to create a similar sound wave with an atomic bomb, we would need a bomb about 50 times stronger than the largest we have ever made and detonated.

 Krakatoa Volcano Eruption

The intensity of a shock wave at the top of our list can only be estimated by calculation. Although the Tunguska meteorite explosion later came as a strong opponent, the winner was the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883. It was clearly heard even at a distance of 5,000 km, and the sound waves the blast had caused circled the Earth four times in all directions. At a distance of 160 km, noise intensities as loud as 172 dB were recorded, so it could be calculated that the noise in the epicentre must have been as high as hard-to-be-imagined 310 dB.

How loud can something be?

Once you get to a certain level (194 decibels, to be precise), there comes a point where the low-pressure regions are completely empty – there are no molecules in there at all. The sound can’t get ‘louder’ than that, technically. If there is more energy in the noise source, the air molecules are just pushed along wholesale, rather than moving back and forth, and the soundwave has turned into a shockwave.

The shockwave from Krakatoa was so strong it circled the Earth four times.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 12:21pm

But the question was: Can you add yet another proton to the hydronium ion to fill in the missing piece? Such a configuration at normal conditions is energetically very unfavorable, but scientists' calculations show there are two things that can make it happen.
First, very high pressure compels matter to reduce its volume, and sharing a previously unused electron pair of oxygen with a hydrogen ion (proton) is a neat way of doing that: like a covalent bond with hydrogen, except both electrons in the pair come from oxygen. Second, you need lots of available protons, and that means an acidic environment, because that's what acids do—they donate protons.
The team used advanced computational tools to predict what happens to hydrofluoric acid and water under extreme conditions. The result: Given a pressure of about 1.5 million atmospheres and a temperature around 3,000 degrees Celsius, well-separated aquodiium H4O2+ ions turn up in the simulation.

The scientists think that their newly discovered ion should play an important role in the behavior and properties of water-based media, specifically those under pressure and containing acid.

This roughly corresponds to conditions on Uranus and Neptune, where an immensely deep liquid water ocean produces extremely high pressures and some amount of acid might be expected, too. If so, aquodiium ions will form and by participating in the ocean's circulation, will contribute to these planets' magnetic fields and other properties in ways distinct from other ions.
Perhaps, aquodiium might even form as yet unknown minerals under those extreme conditions.

ingyu Hou et al, H₄O²⁺ ion stabilized by pressure, Physical Review B (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.109.174102

Part 3

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 12:18pm

In chemistry, there's the notion of sp3 hybridization, which refers to the way electron orbitals combine with each other and amounts to something like a natural template for making plausible molecules and ions. Under sp3 hybridization, the nucleus of an atom—e.g., carbon, nitrogen, or oxygen—occupies the center point of an imaginary tetrahedron.

Each of the four vertices hosts either a valence electron or two paired electrons that are not available for making bonds with other atoms. The simplest example would be a carbon atom with four unpaired electrons at the four vertices—add four hydrogen atoms and you get a methane molecule: CH4.

For an oxygen atom, which has two electron pairs of its own in the outermost shell, along with two valence electrons, sp3 hybridization would mean only two of the vertices could host a covalent bond with hydrogen, with the remaining two occupied by electron pairs, which yields H2O, water.

If you attach a hydrogen ion (a proton) to one of the electron pairs, you get a hydronium ion H3O+, and this is actually what you get in an acid solution, because acids donate protons H+ into the solution and lone protons are immediately drawn to electron pairs.
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 12:18pm

An outlandish molecule may be lurking inside Uranus and Neptune, affecting their magnetic fields

Scientists  have determined the conditions that enable the existence of a very peculiar ion. Dubbed aquodiium, it can be conceptualized as an ordinary neutral molecule of water with two additional protons stuck to it, resulting in a net double positive charge.

They  suggest that the ion could be stable in the interior of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, and if so, it must play a part in the mechanism that gives rise to these planets' unusual magnetic fields. The study is published in Physical Review B

The magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are not understood quite as well as those of Jupiter and Saturn—or our own planet, for that matter.

In the Earth's interior, circulation of the electronically conductive liquid iron-nickel alloy produces magnetism. Deep inside Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen is thought to be pressed into a metallic state and give rise to magnetic fields in much the same way.

By contrast, the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are hypothesized to stem from the circulation of ionically conductive media, where the constituent ions are themselves charge carriers, rather than merely a support structure enabling the flow of electrons.

If planetary scientists knew exactly what ions and in which proportions are involved, perhaps they could figure out why the ice giants' magnetospheres are so quirky: misaligned with the direction of the planets' rotation and offset from their physical centers.

They explain how ionic and electronic conductivity are different and where the newly predicted ion fits into this: The hydrogen surrounding Jupiter's rocky core at those conditions is a liquid metal: It can flow, the way molten iron in the Earth's interior flows, and its electrical conductivity is due to the free electrons shared by all the hydrogen atoms pressed together.

In Uranus, they think that hydrogen ions themselves—i.e., protons—are the free charge carriers. Not necessarily as standalone H⁺ ions, but perhaps in the form of hydronium H₃O⁺, ammonium NH₄⁺, and a series of other ions. This new study adds one more possibility, the H₄O²⁺ ion, which is extremely interesting from the chemical viewpoint."

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 12:04pm

The authors monitored the wounded mice for 11 days and found that animals treated with a combination of the nanomaterial dressing and histamine healed at the fastest rate compared to those treated with the standard dressing with histamine or the nanomaterial dressing alone.

The researchers mechanically tested the healed skin as well, finding that the tissue treated with both the nanomaterial and histamine was strongest and most similar to unwounded skin.
For a better understanding, the team analyzed tissue samples by assessing gene expression and examining cells under the microscope.

They found that a specific immune cell type, N2 neutrophils, were highly prevalent in treated wounds up to seven days post-injury. As the first responders of the immune system, these cells usually clear out within a day or two, making their presence in the wound after a week highly unusual. But since they are known to produce histamine and other reparative molecules, it is also possible that these immune cells are the linchpin of the treatment.
The team injected the nanoparticles at various time points into the nanomaterial-dressed wound bed, finding that delivery on day six had the best outcomes with regards to wound closure and tissue strength. This time point corresponds to a transitionary phase in which cells begin proliferating and remodeling tissue.
With promising results in mice behind them, the authors are now testing their strategy in larger animal models more relevant to human health, such as pigs.

Deepanjan Ghosh et al, Bioactive nanomaterials kickstart early repair processes and potentiate temporally modulated healing of healthy and diabetic wounds, Biomaterials (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122496

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 12:02pm

A new way of healing wounds in diabetics fast

Wounds that are superficial for some can be life-threatening for others. With diabetic wounds, healing can be slow, particularly in the feet, increasing the tissue's susceptibility to infection. Foot ulcers and other diabetic foot complications have similar mortality rates to some cancers, yet progress toward improved treatments has plateaued. Now, researchers may have found a better way to kickstart the healing process.

B ioengineers have developed a multistep strategy that applies different nanomaterials to wounds at different times to support both early- and late-stage healing. In a study published in the journal Biomaterials, the authors' method outperformed a common wound dressing in a diabetic mouse model, closing wounds faster and producing more robust skin tissue.

Clinically, the standard practice for wounds is to keep them clean and use a dressing to protect them while they heal. This approach gets the job done for most injuries but falls short for patients with conditions that interfere with the healing process, such as diabetes. In addition to causing poor circulation and neuropathy, diabetes can disrupt wound healing by impairing the function of various immune cells.

The researchers' analysis also suggests that their approach unexpectedly activated an immune cell population not normally seen in wounds that can resolve inflammation, which highlights a new potential avenue to accelerate healing.

The researchers devised a strategy to treat wounds like these and compared it to a commonly used dressing in a diabetic mouse model.

For the first step, the team fabricated a silk nanomaterial dressing embedded with gold nanorods. Because gold nanoparticles readily convert light to heat, the team was able to direct a laser at dressings placed over fresh wounds in mice, producing heat that quickly sealed them in place and provided a high level of protection.

The strategy, which the authors previously found success with, creates something akin to an instantaneous scab.

This time around, the authors added histamine to the mix, a natural biochemical produced by the immune system that plays important roles in inflammation, blood vessel development, and allergic reactions.

Inflammation dominates the body's initial response to injuries, but eventually subsides to allow the body to rebuild. However, diabetic wounds can get stuck in first gear, maintaining persistent, low-grade inflammation, which can inhibit the healing process.

Since the wound is stalled, the researchers wanted to co-deliver histamine with the dressing, to give a push and bring the inflammation stage to a resolution.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 10:55am

The team of researchers combined live-cell imaging approaches and molecular genetics to understand why the inhibition of ergosterol synthesis results in cell death in the crop pathogenic fungus Zymoseptoria tritic (Z. tritici). This fungus causes septoria leaf blotch in wheat, a serious disease in temperate climates.
The team observed living Z. tritici cells, treated them with agricultural azoles and analyzed the cellular response. They showed that the previously-accepted idea that azoles kill the pathogen cell by causing perforation of the outer cell membrane does not apply. Instead, they found that azole-induced reduction of ergosterol increases the activity of cellular mitochondria, the "powerhouse" of the cell, required to produce the cellular fuel that drives all metabolic processes in the pathogen cell.
While producing more "fuel" is not harmful in itself, the process leads to the formation of more toxic by-products. These by-products initiate a "suicide" program in the pathogen cell, named apoptosis. In addition, reduced ergosterol levels also trigger a second "self-destruct" pathway, which causes the cell to eat its own nuclei and other vital organelles—a process known as macroautophagy. The authors show that both cell death pathways underpin the lethal activity of azoles. They conclude that azoles drive the fungal pathogen into "suicide" by initiating self-destruction.

The authors found the same mechanism azoles killing pathogen cells in the rice-blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Azoles activate type I and type II programmed cell death pathways in crop pathogenic fungi, Nature Communications (2024). www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48157-9

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 10:53am

Most powerful anti-fungal chemistries cause fungal pathogens to self-destruct

Scientists have discovered that the most widely-used class of antifungals in the world causes pathogens to self-destruct. The  research could help improve ways to protect food security and human lives.

Fungal diseases account for the loss of up to a quarter of the world's crops. They also pose a risk to humans and can be fatal for those with weakened immune systems.

Our strongest weapons against fungal plant diseases are azole fungicides. These chemical products account for up to a quarter of the world agricultural fungicide market, worth more than $3.8 billion per year. Antifungal azoles are also widely used as a treatment against pathogenic fungi which can be fatal to humans, which adds to their importance in our attempt to control fungal disease.

Azoles target enzymes in the pathogen cell that produce cholesterol-like molecules, named ergosterol. Ergosterol is an important component of cellular bio-membranes. Azoles deplete ergosterol, which results in killing of the pathogen cell. However, despite the importance of azoles, scientists know little about the actual cause of pathogen death.

In a new study published in Nature Communications,  scientists have uncovered the cellular mechanism by which azoles kill pathogenic fungi. The paper is titled "Azoles activate type I and type II programmed cell death pathways in crop pathogenic fungi." 

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 1, 2024 at 10:33am

They calculated stellar populations without and with the presence of dark matter. With dark matter, more massive stars experienced a lower dark matter density, and hydrogen in their core fused more slowly and their evolution was slowed down. But stars in a higher dark matter density region were changed significantly—they maintained equilibrium through dark matter burning with less fusion or no fusion, which led to a new stellar population in an HR region above the main sequence.
The scientists' simulations show that stars can survive on dark matter as a fuel alone and because there is an extremely large amount of dark matter near the Galactic Center, these stars become immortal staying forever young, occupying a new, distinct, observable region of the HR diagram.
Their dark matter model may be able to explain more of the known mysteries. For lighter stars, scientists saw in their simulations that they become very puffy and might even lose parts of their outer layers something similar to this might be observed at the Galactic Center: the so-called G-objects, which might be star-like, but with a gas cloud around them.
There are a limited number of individual stars known to exist so close to the Galactic Center, as the region is extremely bright. Upcoming 30-meter telescopes will be able to see much better into the region, which will allow scientists to better understand the population of its stars and verify or rule out the dark main sequence.

Isabelle John et al, Dark Branches of Immortal Stars at the Galactic Center, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.12267

Part 3

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