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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2024 at 9:41am

These microbes, or extremophiles, were found inside SURF located in the former Black Hills mining town of Lead, SD. The team has spent years hunting for these extremophiles that grow thousands of feet below ground inside water-filled rock fractures with unique properties that enable them to thrive in extreme environments.

Researchers were able to isolate four types of microbes found at SURF and show, through a series of laboratory experiments, that they can turn large quantities of carbon dioxide into rocks that will remain stable and out of atmospheric circulation for thousands of years. 

The findings may lead to new ways to permanently capture CO₂ emissions, reducing the impacts of climate change.

The team has presented this research at multiple scientific conferences in the United States and Europe, including the Dec. 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Chicago and the July 2023, Goldschmidt Conference in Lyon, France.

https://sanfordlab.org/article/university-researchers-discover-micr...

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2024 at 9:40am

Researchers discover microbes that turn CO2 gas into rocks in major advance for carbon sequestration

The microbes, discovered by researchers deep inside SURF, could help reduce carbon emissions.

At room temperature, carbon dioxide, or CO₂, is a gas, which makes it hard to store for long periods of time. One idea to reduce carbon emissions involves pumping this greenhouse gas underground into deep caverns or rock layers in a process called geologic sequestration.

When injected as a gas, CO₂ has the potential to leak back to the atmosphere. For example, if a geologic fault occurs or when there are changes in pressure following the initial pumping on the surface, stored gas will be looking for a way to escape.

To solve this problem, scientists are exploring efforts to bind CO₂ gas underground by pumping it into rock layers with specific geochemical properties that will dissolve the gas and turn it into a carbonate mineral in a process called in-situ mineralization. However, this process takes a long time, between 7 to 10 years, in nature. But an innovation discovered by researchers working at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) could change this.

The team of researchers found a set of naturally occurring microbes inside SURF that eat carbon dioxide gas and turn it into solid rock through a process called carbon mineralization. 

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2024 at 9:36am

Earth Receives First Beams of Solar Power From Space!

For the first time ever, Earth has received a tangible zap of solar energy beamed directly from space, marking a historic moment in our quest for clean, limitless power thanks to the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD).

SSPD's MAPLE experiment has used a satellite called DOLCE and beamed 100 milliwatts of power from space, with 1 milliwatt reaching Earth — a small but mighty first step.

Unlike here on Earth, solar energy in space is unencumbered by factors like day and night, or obstruction by clouds and weather on our planet. This makes space-based solar harvesters ideal as they could potentially yield roughly eight times more power than even the most efficient solar panels on the Earth’s surface.

https://www.space.com/space-solar-power-satellite-beams-energy-1st-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2024 at 9:18am

Why Is It So Hard to Swat a Fly?

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:56am

New study finds little-known toxic crop chemical in four out of five people tested

A new Environmental Working Group study has found chlormequat, a little-known pesticide, in four out of five people tested. Because the chemical is linked to reproductive and developmental problems in animal studies, the findings suggest the potential for similar harm to humans.

EWG's research, published February 15 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, tested the urine of 96 people for the presence of chlormequat, finding it in 77 of them.

The ubiquity of this little-studied pesticide in people raises alarm bells about how it could potentially cause harm without anyone even knowing they've consumed it.

Environmental Protection Agency regulations allow the chemical to be used on ornamental plants only—not food crops. But now some governments have made concessions that have resulted in these alarming consequences!

 A pilot study of chlormequat in food and urine from adults in the United States from 2017 to 2023, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41370-024-00643-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:51am

How do oceans start to close? New study suggests the Atlantic may 'soon' enter its declining phase

A new study, resorting to computational models, predicts that a subduction zone currently below the Gibraltar Strait will propagate further inside the Atlantic and contribute to forming an Atlantic subduction system—an Atlantic ring of fire. This will happen 'soon' in geological terms—in approximately 20 million years.

Oceans seem eternal to our lifespan, but they are not here for long: they are born, grow, and one day close. This process, which takes a few hundred million years, is called Wilson Cycle. The Atlantic, for example, was born when Pangea broke up around 180 million years ago and will one day close. And the Mediterranean is what remains from a big ocean—the Tethys– that once existed between Africa and Eurasia.

For an ocean like the Atlantic to stop growing and start closing, new subduction zones—places where one tectonic plate sinks below another—have to form. But subduction zones are hard to form, as they require plates to break and bend, and plates are very strong. A way out of this "paradox" is to consider that subduction zones can migrate from a dying ocean in which they already exist—the Mediterranean—into pristine oceans—such as the Atlantic. This process was dubbed subduction invasion.

This study shows for the first time how such a direct invasion can happen. The computational, gravity-driven 3D model predicts that a subduction zone currently below the Gibraltar Strait will propagate further inside the Atlantic and contribute to forming an Atlantic subduction system—an Atlantic ring of fire, in an analogy to the already existing structure in the Pacific. This will happen 'soon' in geological terms—but not before approximately 20 million years.

João C. Duarte et al, Gibraltar subduction zone is invading the Atlantic, Geology (2024). DOI: 10.1130/G51654.1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:47am

Scientists report first look at electrons moving in real-time in liquid water

In an experiment akin to stop-motion photography, scientists have isolated the energetic movement of an electron while "freezing" the motion of the much larger atom it orbits in a sample of liquid water.

The findings, reported in the journal Science, provide a new window into the electronic structure of molecules in the liquid phase on a timescale previously unattainable with X-rays. The new technique reveals the immediate electronic response when a target is hit with an X-ray, an important step in understanding the effects of radiation exposure on objects and people.

 Shuai Li et al, Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe x-ray spectroscopy of liquid water, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adn6059. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn6059

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:30am

Ancient retroviruses played a key role in the evolution of vertebrate brains, suggest researchers

Researchers report in the journal Cell that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin—and, by extension, our large, complex brains.

The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element or "retrotransposon" is essential for myelin production in mammals, amphibians, and fish. The gene sequence, which they dubbed "RetroMyelin," is likely a result of ancient viral infection, and comparisons of RetroMyelin in mammals, amphibians, and fish suggest that retroviral infection and genome-invasion events occurred separately in each of these groups.

Retroviruses were required for vertebrate evolution to take off. If we didn't have retroviruses sticking their sequences into the vertebrate genome, then myelination wouldn't have happened, and without myelination, the whole diversity of vertebrates as we know it would never have happened.

Myelin is a complex, fatty tissue that ensheathes vertebrate nerve axons. It enables rapid impulse conduction without needing to increase axonal diameter, which means nerves can be packed closer together. It also provides metabolic support to nerves, which means nerves can be longer.
Myelin first appeared in the tree of life around the same time as jaws, and its importance in vertebrate evolution has long been recognized, but until now, it was unclear what molecular mechanisms triggered its appearance.
The researchers noticed RetroMyelin's role in myelin production when they were examining the gene networks utilized by oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce myelin in the central nervous system.

A retroviral link to vertebrate myelination through retrotransposon RNA-mediated control of myelin gene expression, Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.011. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00013-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:27am

Researchers discover that a rare fat molecule helps drive cell death

Researchers have found that a rare type of lipid is a key driver of ferroptosis, a form of cell death discovered by  professor Brent Stockwell.

Stockwell first discovered ferroptosis in 2012, when he found that certain cells were dying because their lipid layers were collapsing—an unusual form of  cell death that differs from the most common kind, which begins with the cell forming blisters on its outer surface.

Since that discovery, researchers in Stockwell's lab and elsewhere have continued to investigate ferroptosis, discovering that it can occur naturally in aging cells, in pathological contexts, and can be induced to treat disease.

The findings, appearing in Cell, provide new detail on how cells die during ferroptosis and could improve understanding of how to stop ferroptosis in contexts where it is harmfully occurring—in neurodegenerative diseases, for example—or induce it in contexts where it could be useful, such as using it to kill dangerous cancer cells.

The new research found that a rare type of lipid with two polyunsaturated fatty acyl tails, called a diPUFA phospholipid, was present in a range of contexts where ferroptosis was occurring, including in aging brains and Huntington disease-affected brain tissue. The finding indicates that the lipid is efficient at promoting ferroptosis.

Another paper out in February 2024 with several co-authors found that a gene named PHLDA2 can sometimes promote ferroptosis by attacking a different lipid, and that this gene can block some tumors from forming. Together, these papers show that specific lipids promote ferroptosis, so defining the driver lipids in specific cancers is important.

The discovery that these diPUFA lipids are important drivers of ferroptosis deepens our understanding of this form of cell death, and these lipids' role in controlling a cell's homeostasis in general.

Harnessing these lipids may eventually help us identify where ferroptosis has occurred and deliberately manipulate them to either induce cell death or stop it. This can begin to give us both understanding and the power to control cell death.

Phospholipids with two polyunsaturated fatty acyl tails promote ferroptosis, Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.030. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00067-9

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2024 at 8:19am

The researchers suggest that a drug used to treat ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, mesalazine (5-aminosalicylate), may be a treatment for sorbitol intolerance in humans. Mesalazine, also known as mesalamine, functions similarly to the butyrate-producing bacteria, restoring the low oxygen levels in the intestine preferred by Clostridia.

 High fat intake sustains sorbitol intolerance after antibiotic-mediated Clostridia depletion from the gut microbiota, Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.029. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00066-7

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