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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 28, 2020 at 5:56am

Body fat deep below the surface is a toxic risk, especially for your heart

BMI can’t provide information about the shape and size of potentially dangerous internal fat deposits, known as “visceral fat”. Over recent years it’s become apparent visceral fat can lead to disease, and good fat can turn into toxic fat when there is too much.

Various organs seem to accumulate visceral fat. This can be a problem because it can create and release damaging molecules and hormones into the blood. These are transported in the bloodstream, potentially causing health complications in distant parts of the body.

For example, toxic fat can release proteins that blunt the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Blood glucose levels then rise, potentially causing diabetes in the long term. Visceral fat can also stimulate uncontrolled cell growth and replication, potentially triggering some forms of cancer. A fatty liver is associated with metabolic diseases, and excess kidney fat interferes with the body’s fluid balance.

The heart is especially vulnerable

https://theconversation.com/body-fat-deep-below-the-surface-is-a-to...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 27, 2020 at 10:54am

A Man Has Died After Eating Bags of Black Licorice Daily

A man in Massachusetts died after eating too much black licorice, which contains a compound known to be toxic in large doses, according to a new report. The 54-year-old man was in a fast food restaurant when he suddenly gasped, began shaking and lost consciousness, according to the report Emergency medical personnel found that the man was experiencing ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm problem. The man received CPR and briefly regained consciousness before being rushed to the hospital. A discussion with the man's family revealed that he had a poor diet, consuming one to two large packages of soft candy every day, and little else. A few weeks earlier, the man had switched from eating red, fruit-flavored candy to black licorice candy. Black licorice often contains a compound called glycyrrhizin, which is derived from licorice root. Consuming too much licorice root or candies flavored with licorice root can be dangerous because glycyrrhizin lowers the body's potassium levels. This, in turn, can lead to high blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms.

In the man's case, very low potassium levels led to his heart problems. The man received treatment to restore his potassium levels, along with multiple other treatments in the intensive care unit, including being placed on a ventilator. Despite these efforts, the man died 32 hours after arriving at the hospital. 

Although the death is an "extreme case," eating just 2 ounces of black licorice a day for two weeks can cause heart rhythm problems, particularly for people ages 40 and older.

https://www.livescience.com/black-licorice-death.html

https://www.sciencealert.com/man-dies-from-eating-black-licorice-da...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 11:05am

Autopsies Show Varied Forms of Heart Damage in COVID-19 Patients

The multifarious nature of the damage means treatments for cardiac issues during infection will require tailored approaches.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/autopsies-show-varied-fo...

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Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter

It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. It fell out of favor for decades, but a new series of studies has shown how the theory can work.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/black-holes-from-the-big-bang-could-...

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https://theconversation.com/from-psychopaths-to-everyday-sadists-wh...

Some 6% of people are sadists. Brian Goff/Shutterstock

From psychopaths to ‘everyday sadists’: why do humans harm the harmless

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 9:57am

Possible signs of life on Venus

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 8:56am

Bird genes are multitaskers, say scientists

Scientists  have found that although male and female birds have an almost identical set of genes, they function differently in each sex through a mechanism called alternative splicing.

Males and females of the same bird species can be strikingly different. For example, in addition to fundamental differences in reproduction, the sexes can show profound variation in behavior, colouration, metabolism, disease incidence and life history. The team wanted to understand how these remarkable differences develop despite males and females sharing mostly the same DNA.

One notable example of differences between male and female birds is in the peafowl, peacocks have magnificent plumage, whereas the female peahen is relatively dull. The peacock's long tail and bright colours evolved to help them attract mates, but having such eye-catching looks can come with negatives such as making them more noticeable to predators.

Features like this are beneficial to the males but may not be beneficial for females, so birds must find a way to evolve different characteristics. So researchers predicted that the secret to these differences must lie in understanding how the same genes are expressed and function differently in males and females.

The team studied the genomes of multiple bird species to understand how they expressed these different qualities in males and females.

Genes encode proteins, large complex molecules which drive processes in the body and are responsible for the function and structure of the body's tissues. Before genes can be used to make proteins, their DNA sequence is transcribed into RNA, an intermediary molecule that contains the instructions for making proteins.

The scientists found that males and females differ in how bits of RNA are stitched together, meaning that the same gene can produce a large number of distinct proteins and functions depending on which sex the gene is expressed in. This process is called alternative splicing. It is likely that this genetic process is really important for generating biodiversity, not only in birds but across the whole animal kingdom. The study  revealed hundreds of bird genes that use this method to enable the evolution of sex differences. The researchers showed that these genes have evolved remarkably rapidly as a result of the different selection pressures experienced by males and females.

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article/doi/10.1093/molbev/msa...

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-bird-genes-multitaskers-scientists.html

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 8:51am

New measurements show moon has hazardous radiation levels

Future moon explorers will be bombarded with two to three times more radiation than astronauts aboard the International Space Station, a health hazard that will require thick-walled shelters for protection, scientists reported  recently.

China's lander on the far side of the moon is providing the first full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, vital information for NASA and others aiming to send astronauts to the moon, the study noted.

Astronauts would get 200 to 1,000 times more radiation on the moon than what we experience on Earth—or five to 10 times more than passengers on a trans-Atlantic airline flight.

The difference is, however, that we're not on such a flight for as long as astronauts would be when they're exploring the moon. Cancer is the primary risk.

Humans are not really made for these radiation levels and should protect themselves when on the moon. Radiation levels should be pretty much the same all over the moon, except for near the walls of deep craters.

S. Zhang el al., First measurements of the radiation dose on the lunar surface, Science Advances (2020). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.aaz1334

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-moon.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 7:13am

 Secure nano-carrier delivers medications directly to cells

Medications often have unwanted side-effects. One reason is that they reach not only the unhealthy cells for which they are intended, but also reach and have an impact on healthy cells. Researchers  have now developed a stable nano-carrier for medications. A special mechanism makes sure the drugs are only released in diseased cells.

 Ceren Kimna et al, DNA Strands Trigger the Intracellular Release of Drugs from Mucin-Based Nanocarriers, ACS Nano (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c04035

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-nano-carrier-medications-cells.html?u...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 6:59am

The male Y chromosome does more than we thought

New light is being shed on a little-known role of Y chromosome genes, specific to males, that could explain why men suffer differently than women from various diseases, including COVID-19. This  discovery provides a better understanding of how male genes on the Y chromosome allow male cells to function differently from female cells. These results could help to shed some light on why some diseases occur differently in men and women.

Humans each have 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes. While females carry two X sex chromosomes, males carry one X and one Y chromosome. This male chromosome carries genes that females lack. Although these male genes are expressed in all cells of the body, their only confirmed role to date has been essentially limited to the functions of the sex organs.

In his study, scientists performed a genetic manipulation that inactivated two male genes on the Y chromosome, altering several signalling pathways that play important roles in certain functions of non-sex organ cells. For example, under stress, some of the affected mechanisms could influence the way in which cells in human hearts defend themselves against aggressions such as ischemia (reduced blood supply) or mechanical stress.

In addition, the study showed that these male genes performed their regulatory functions in a way that was unusual compared to the mechanisms generally used by most other genes on the non-sex chromosomes. Thus, instead of specifically activating certain genes by direct action at the genome level, the Y chromosome seems to affect cellular functions by acting on protein production.

The discovery of these differences in function may explain in part why the functions of male Y chromosome genes have so far been poorly understood.

Males differ from females in the manifestation, severity and consequences of most diseases. A recent example of this duality is COVID-19, which has a mortality rate twice as high in men than in women.

Christian F. Deschepper, Regulatory effects of the Uty/Ddx3y locus on neighboring chromosome Y genes and autosomal mRNA transcripts in adult mouse non-reproductive cells, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71447-3

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-male-chromosome-thought.html?utm_sour...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 6:57am

Research challenges conventional wisdom about key autism trait

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-conventional-wisdom-key-auti...

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Scientists capture light in a polymeric quasicrystal

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-capture-polymeric-quasicry...

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/how-neanderthals-lost-their...

How Neanderthals lost their Y chromosome

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Can fitness bands predict COVID-19 infection before you show symptoms? Probably not

WHOOP’s wearables make strong claims — but the science is still weak

https://massivesci.com/articles/whoop-wearable-fitness-tracker-covi...

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How microbes in a mother's intestines affect fetal neurodevelopment

https://researchnews.cc/news/2691/How-microbes-in-a-mother-s-intest...

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Dogs Deployed at Airport Can Detect COVID-19

https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-deployed-at-helsinki-airport-can-...

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 The Massive 'Blob' Anomaly Has Our Fingerprints All Over It, Study Finds

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-foreboding-pacific-blob-anomaly-ha...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 26, 2020 at 6:39am

Materials scientists learn how to make liquid crystal shape-shift

A new 3-D-printing method will make it easier to manufacture and control the shape of soft robots, artificial muscles and wearable devices.  Researchers show that by controlling the printing temperature of liquid crystal elastomer, or LCE, they can control the material's degree of stiffness and ability to contract—also known as degree of actuation. What's more, they are able to change the stiffness of different areas in the same material by exposing it to heat.

As a proof of concept, the researchers 3-D-printed in a single print, with a single ink, structures whose stiffness and actuation varies by orders of magnitude, from zero to 30 percent. For example, one area of the LCE structure can contract like muscles; and another can be flexible, like tendons. The breakthrough was possible because the team studied LCE closely to better understand its material properties.

 "Three-dimensional printing of functionally graded liquid crystal elastomer" Science Advances (2020). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abc0034

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-materials-scientists-liquid-crystal-s...

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