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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 11:31am

Microplastics in coral skeletons

Researchers investigating microplastics in coral have found that all three parts of the coral anatomy—surface mucus, tissue, and skeleton—contain microplastics. The findings were made possible thanks to a new microplastic detection technique developed by the team and applied to coral for the first time.

These findings may also explain the "missing plastic problem" that has puzzled scientists, where about 70% of the plastic litter that has entered the oceans cannot be found. The team hypothesizes that coral may be acting as a "sink" for microplastics by absorbing it from the oceans. Their findings were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

 Suppakarn Jandang et al, Possible sink of missing ocean plastic: Accumulation patterns in reef-building corals in the Gulf of Thailand, Science of The Total Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176210

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 11:16am

The first known outbreak of rabies in seals

Scientists in South Africa say they have identified an outbreak of rabies in seals that is thought to be the first time the virus has spread in sea mammals.

At least 24 Cape fur seals that were found dead or euthanized in various locations on South Africa's west and south coast had rabies.

Rabies, which affects mammals and can be passed to people, is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. Rabies spreads via saliva, usually through bites but also sometimes when animals lick and groom each other.

The virus has long been seen in wild animals such as raccoons, coyotes, foxes, jackals and in domestic dogs. But it had never been recorded spreading among marine mammals until now.

The only other known case of rabies in a sea mammal was in a ringed seal in Norway's Svalbard islands in the early 1980s. That seal had likely been infected by a rabid arctic fox, researchers said, and there was no evidence of rabies spreading among seals there.

Authorities in South Africa first discovered rabies in Cape fur seals in June after a dog was bitten by a seal on a Cape Town beach. The dog became infected with rabies, prompting rabies tests on brain samples from 135 seal carcasses that researchers had already collected since 2021. Around 20 new samples also were collected and more positives have come back on subsequent tests.

Scientists are trying to work out how rabies was passed to the seals, whether it is spreading widely among their large colonies and what can be done to contain it.

Source : NEWS agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 11:06am

The molecular events of the cell response to fever temperatures: The researchers found that heat rapidly impaired electron transport chain complex 1 (ETC1), a mitochondrial protein complex that generates energy. ETC1 impairment set off signaling mechanisms that led to DNA damage and activation of the tumor suppressor protein p53, which aids DNA repair or triggers cell death to maintain genome integrity. Th1 cells were more sensitive to impaired ETC1 than other T cell subtypes.

The researchers found Th1 cells with similar changes in sequencing databases for samples from patients with Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, adding support to the molecular signaling pathway they defined.
Scientists think this response is a fundamental way that cells can sense heat and respond to stress.
The findings suggest that heat can be mutagenic—when cells that respond to mitochondrial stress don't properly repair the DNA damage or die.
Chronic inflammation with sustained periods of elevated tissue temperatures could explain how some cells become tumorigenic and that 's why up to 25% of cancers are linked to chronic inflammation.
'Is fever good or bad?'The short answer is: A little bit of fever is good, but a lot of fever is bad. We already knew that, but now we have a mechanism for why it's bad."

Darren Heintzman et al, Subset-specific mitochondrial stress and DNA damage shape T cell responses to fever and inflammation, Science Immunology (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adp3475. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adp3475

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 11:01am

Fever drives enhanced activity and mitochondrial damage in a subset of T cells, study finds

Fever temperatures rev up immune cell metabolism, proliferation and activity, but they also—in a particular subset of T cells—cause mitochondrial stress, DNA damage and cell death,  researchers have discovered.

The findings, published in the journal Science Immunology, offer a mechanistic understanding of how cells respond to heat and could explain how chronic inflammation contributes to the development of cancer.

Researchers' cultured immune system T cells at 39 degrees Celsius (about 102 degrees Fahrenheit). showed  that heat increased helper T cell metabolism, proliferation and inflammatory effector activity and decreased regulatory T cell suppressive capacity.

 The researchers also made an unexpected discovery—that a certain subset of helper T cells, called Th1 cells, developed mitochondrial stress and DNA damage, and some of them died. The finding was confusing, the researchers said, because Th1 cells are involved in settings where there is often fever, like viral infections. Why would the cells that are needed to fight the infection die?

The researchers discovered that only a portion of the Th1 cells die, and that the rest undergo an adaptation, change their mitochondria, and become more resistant to stress.

There's a wave of stress, and some of the cells die, but the ones that adapt and survive are better—they proliferate more and make more cytokine (immune signaling molecules).

Par t1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 10:16am

Oceanic life found to be thriving thanks to Saharan dust blown from thousands of kilometers away

Iron is a micronutrient indispensable for life, enabling processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and DNA synthesis. Iron availability is often a limiting resource in today's oceans, which means that increasing the flow of iron into them can increase the amount of carbon fixed by phytoplankton, with consequences for the global climate.

Iron ends up in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems through rivers, melting glaciers, hydrothermal activity, and especially wind. But not all its chemical forms are "bioreactive," that is, available for organisms to take up from their environment.

Researchers have now shown that iron bound to dust from the Sahara blown westward over the Atlantic has properties that change with the distance traveled: the greater this distance, the more bioreactive the iron.

This relationship suggests that chemical processes in the atmosphere convert less bioreactive iron to more accessible forms.

 The results suggest that during long distance atmospheric transport, the mineral properties of originally non-bioreactive dust-bound iron change, making it more bioreactive. This iron then gets taken up by phytoplankton, before it can reach the bottom of the oceans.

The researchers conclude that dust that reaches regions like the Amazonian basin and the Bahamas may contain iron that is particularly soluble and available to life, thanks to the great distance from North Africa, and thus a longer exposure to atmospheric chemical processes.

The transported iron seems to be stimulating biological processes much in the same way that iron fertilization can impact life in the oceans and on continents. This study is a proof of concept confirming that iron-bound dust can have a major impact on life at vast distances from its source.

 Long-range transport of dust enhances oceanic iron bioavailability, Frontiers in Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1428621. www.frontiersin.org/journals/m … rs.2024.1428621/full

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 10:05am

Anti-vaxxers: Even ants take precautions. Why can't some human beings?

Black garden ants modify the structure of their nests to mitigate fungal infection spread

A small team of biologists  has found that black garden ants modify the physical structure of their nests to mitigate infection spread. The group has written a paper describing the experiments they conducted with black garden ants and fungal infections in their lab and posted it on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that some animals change their behaviour to avoid spreading infections, whether they be viral, bacterial or fungal. Among those, only humans have been found to alter their surroundings as a way to further protect themselves— smart people might close off parts of their house, for example, or establish quarantine zones within hospital areas.

In this new study, the research team found an instance of an insect altering its nest to deter the spread of an infecting fungus.

To learn more about how insects, such as ants, attempt to prevent the spread of an infection among members of a nest, the research team went into the field and collected black garden ants—enough to set up 20 colonies in their lab, each in its own glass enclosure. After giving the ants a single day to acclimate themselves to their new environment, the researchers added 20 more ants to each colony—half of which were infected with a fungus known to spread among the ants. The research team then set up cameras to record the behavior of the ants and micro-CT scanners to study the nature of the nest tunnels that the ants dug beneath the soil.

The team found that in the colonies with the infected ants, new tunnels were dug faster than in those not infected. After six days, the spacing between the tunnels was farther apart in the infected nest as well.

The ants in the exposed colonies also placed their queen, food and brooding area in a less central location. And finally, those ants that were infected tended to spend most of their time on the surface, rather than underground with their nestmates.

The researchers next used disease transmission simulations to speed up the process of disease spread and found that the techniques used by the ants did indeed reduce the fungal load in the colony, helping the nest survive.

Luke Leckie et al, Architectural Immunity: ants alter their nest networks to fight epidemics, bioRxiv (2024). DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.30.610481. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.110 … /2024.08.30.610481v1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 9:40am

Why communication is becoming difficult: 

Harassment and  Intimidation

Intimidation and harassment have become an occupational hazard for scholars studying phenomena linked to politics, including climate change, disinformation and virology. Now, researchers have united to create a defence playbook that offers tactics for dealing with this reality. Their message is clear: scientists can take steps to protect themselves, but their institutions also need to have a support plan in place.

Climate scientists have been grappling with harassment and threats over their work for more than a decade. In recent years, however, attacks have spread more widely, to biomedical researchers and social scientists. For instance, in 2021 Nature surveyed 300 scientists who had given media interviews about the COVID-19 pandemic and found that two-thirds of respondents had negative experiences because of their public interactions; 22% had received threats of physical or sexual violence. And within the past two years, researchers who study the spread of election and vaccine misinformation on social media have been at the centre of US congressional investigations and laws....

The consortium’s advice for researchers who think they are at risk starts with simple steps such as removing personal contact information and office locations from publicly available websites. But the organization also points to more sophisticated strategies, such as applying for a ‘Certificate of Confidentiality’.

Now should science communicators use incognito mode?
No, I won’t. Even If I get death threats like it happened before.
Why should we be afraid of these morons?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03104-y

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2024 at 8:29am

Symmetry in nature: 

there is symmetry in nature, especially in Biology, and it's present in many forms:

• Animals: The right and left halves of butterflies and elephants are mirror images of each other.
• Flowers: The petals of flowers repeat in a pattern.
• Starfish: The arms of starfish repeat around a central point.
• Leaves: Plant leaves are considered symmetrical, but they rarely match up exactly when folded in half.
• Proteins and RNA: The structures of these tiny things exhibit symmetry.
• Snowflakes: Snowflakes are symmetrical.
• Sunflowers: Sunflowers are symmetrical.

Some scientists believe that nature prefers symmetry and simplicity. For example, a simulation of 13,079,255 different possible protein cluster shapes found that only five had the symmetry of a square.

Symmetry is important in biology, and is used to define and classify groups of animals. For example, animals with radial symmetry are classified as Radiata, and animals with embryonic bilateral symmetry are classified as Bilateria.

And AI told me this: ( I am not a physicist and therefore, cannot confirm or deny this)

Symmetry is an important concept in physics that helps us understand the universe and matter:

Definition

Symmetry is how particles behave when space, time, or quantum numbers are reversed. It can also refer to changes in the mathematical descriptions of nature.

Types

There are three types of symmetry: charge (C), parity (P), and time (T).

Importance

Symmetry is important for understanding the physical properties of matter and the universe. It also helps derive the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Applications

Symmetry is used in particle physics to derive conservation laws and determine which particle interactions can occur. It's also used to classify crystals and define types of entities.

Symmetry breaking

Symmetry can be exact, approximate, or broken. Exact symmetry is always valid, while approximate symmetry is only valid under certain conditions. Broken symmetry can have different meanings depending on the object and its context.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 20, 2024 at 10:20am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 20, 2024 at 9:41am

Human genome stored on 'everlasting' memory crystal

Scientists have stored the full human genome on a 5D memory crystal—a revolutionary data storage format that can survive for billions of years.

 They hope that the crystal could provide a blueprint to bring humanity back from extinction thousands, millions or even billions of years into the future, should science allow.

The technology could also be used to create an enduring record of the genomes of endangered plant and animal species faced with extinction.

The 5D memory crystal was developed by the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Center (ORC).

Unlike other data storage formats that degrade over time, 5D memory crystals can store up to 360 terabytes of information (in the largest size) without loss for billions of years, even at high temperatures. It holds the Guinness World Record (awarded in 2014) for the most durable data storage material.

The crystal is equivalent to fused quartz, one of the most chemically and thermally durable materials on Earth. It can withstand the high and low extremes of freezing, fire and temperatures of up to 1,000°C. The crystal can also withstand direct impact force of up to 10 tons per cm² and is unchanged by long exposure to cosmic radiation.

The longevity of the crystals means they will outlast humans and other species.

The crystal is stored in the Memory of Mankind archive—a special time capsule within a salt cave in Hallstatt, Austria.

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