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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 31, 2021 at 8:43am

Female octopuses observed throwing stuff at males harassing them

A team of researchers has found that female octopuses sometimes throw silt at males who are attempting to mate with them. The group has written a paper describing their observations and has posted it on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Earlier researchers recorded instances of octopuses throwing things at other octopuses. At the time, it was not clear if the other octopuses were being intentionally targeted or if it was accidental.

In making more recordings and studying them carefully, the researchers were able to see that the female octopuses engaged in multiple types of object-throwing. In most instances, throwing material such as silt or even shells was simply a means of moving material that was in the way or when building a nest. Less often, they saw what were clearly attempts by females to hurl material at a nearby male—usually, one trying to mate with her.

The researchers found that the hurling was done by grabbing material such as rocks, silt or shells and holding them under the body. Then the material was placed over a siphon that the creature uses for pushing out a jet of water very quickly. Doing so propelled the material ahead of a jet of water, sometimes as far as several body lengths.

In studying the tape, the researchers found multiple instances of females targeting males. And the males duck half of the time!

Peter Godfrey-Smith et al, In the Line of Fire: Debris Throwing by Wild Octopuses, biorxiv (2021). DOI: 10.1101/2021.08.18.456805

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-female-octopuses-males.html?utm_sourc...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 31, 2021 at 8:38am

Synthetic biology enables microbes to build muscle

Would you wear clothing made of muscle fibers? Use them to tie your shoes or even wear them as a belt? It may sound a bit odd, but if those fibers could endure more energy before breaking than cotton, silk, nylon, or even Kevlar, then why not? And this muscle could be produced without harming a single animal.

Researchers have developed a synthetic chemistry approach to polymerize proteins inside of engineered microbes. This enabled the microbes to produce the high molecular weight muscle protein, titin, which was then spun into fibers.

Their research was published Monday, August 30 in the journal Nature Communications.

Microbial production of megadalton titin yields fibers with advantageous mechanical properties, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25360-6

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-synthetic-biology-enables-microbes-mu...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 31, 2021 at 8:33am

'Charging room' system powers lights, phones, laptops without wires

In a move that could one day free the world's countertops from their snarl of charging cords, researchers have developed a system to safely deliver electricity over the air, potentially turning entire buildings into wireless charging zones.

Detailed in a new study published in Nature Electronics, the technology can deliver 50 watts of power using magnetic fields. In addition to untethering phones and laptops, the technology could also power implanted medical devices and open new possibilities for mobile robotics in homes and manufacturing facilities. The team is also working on implementing the system in spaces that are smaller than room-size, for example a toolbox that charges tools placed inside it.

You could put a computer in anything without ever having to worry about charging or plugging in. There are a lot of clinical applications as well; today's heart implants, for example, require a wire that runs from the pump through the body to an external power supply. This could eliminate that, reducing the risk of infection and improving patients' quality of life.

The system is a major improvement over previous attempts at wireless charging systems, which used potentially harmful microwave radiation or required devices to be placed on dedicated charging pads, the researchers say. Instead, it uses a conductive surface on room walls and a conductive pole to generate magnetic fields.

Devices harness the magnetic field with wire coils, which can be integrated into electronics like cell phones. The researchers say the system could easily be scaled up to larger structures like factories or warehouses while still meeting existing safety guidelines for exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Sasatani, T. et al, Room-scale magnetoquasistatic wireless power transfer using a cavity-based multimode resonator. Nat Electron (2021). doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00636-3

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-08-room-powers-laptops-wires.html?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 30, 2021 at 9:39am

Faster and Cheaper Ethanol-to-Jet-Fuel

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 30, 2021 at 9:05am

Combo therapy cuts risk of heart attacks and strokes in half

A combination therapy of aspirin, statins and at least two blood pressure medications given in fixed doses can slash the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) by more than half, says an international study.

The fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapies were examined both with and without aspirin versus control groups in a combined analysis of more than 18,000 patients without prior CVD from three large clinical trials. FDCs including aspirin cut the risk of heart attacks by 53 percent, stroke by 51 percent, and deaths from cardiovascular causes by 49 percent.

This combination, either given separately or combined as a polypill, substantially reduces fatal and non-fatal CVD events.

The largest effects are seen with treatments that include blood pressure lowering agents, a statin and aspirin together, which can reduce fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events by about half.

The benefits are consistent at different blood pressure levels, cholesterol levels and with or without diabetes, but larger benefits may occur in older people.

 Philip Joseph et al, Fixed-dose combination therapies with and without aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: an individual participant data meta-analysis, The Lancet (2021). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01827-4

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08-combo-therapy-heart.html?utm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 29, 2021 at 12:37pm

Protecting gardens and crops from insects using the ‘smell of fear’

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 29, 2021 at 12:36pm

So insect ecologists Jessica Kansman and Sara Hermann are looking into ways of tweaking the use of pest species' natural enemies to make it more practical. They presented results of their progress at this week's meeting of the American Chemical Society.

In a series of trials the researchers let collard-snacking aphids (Myzus persicae) choose between the scent of leaves with predatory ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis) on them or the smell of leaves with no ladybug.

They found exposure to the ladybug scent impacted the aphids' plant choices and even reduced their reproductive rate.

"Our early work has shown that these fear-based responses can change insect behaviors in ways that reduce their damage on these crop plants.

Preliminary field tests using three methoxypyrazine compounds (which we humans would recognize as the smell of ladybugs) isolated from ladybug stink have produced promising results - with aphids avoiding the sprayed collard crops as if ladybugs were present.

"The beauty of these compounds being specific to these insects is that it's an honest cue. The use of natural enemy odor cues is a promising future direction for applied chemical ecology in sustainable pest management

https://scitechdaily.com/using-the-smell-of-fear-to-protect-gardens...

https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-propose-harnessing-the-ste...

part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 29, 2021 at 12:33pm

We Can Make Powerful Nature-Inspired 'Pesticides' Without Poison, Scientists Say

While no one enjoys seeing carefully nurtured crops destroyed by hordes of hungry insects, the most common way to prevent it – the use of insecticides – is causing massive ecological problems.

Some are wreaking havoc on bee populations globally, killing birds and piling onto the challenges already faced by endangered species. Thankfully, insecticides are generally only in our food at low levels, but they do harm humans who are highly exposed to them too, like the workers growing our crops. 

They also destroy predatory insect populations, which just makes the problem of crop pests worse in the long term - with fewer pest enemies around to keep their numbers in check.

One alternative that researchers and farmers have been putting to the test is the use of predatory insects to control the problematic plant eaters. However, this approach, known as biological control, has its own challenges.

While insecticides can target multiple pest species, this is a lot harder to achieve when relying on natural predators. Releasing multiple predators could just lead to them preying on each other, or competing with each other for the same pest, as predators may not always target their intended species.

The predators are also very reliant on environmental conditions – temperature and day length can alter their behavior so they may only be effective during certain seasons. This, along with the fact that some pests are invasive and have no native predators means some pesticides may still need to be used, which can then also impact the predators.

part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 29, 2021 at 11:20am

If You See Square Waves, Get Out of the Water!

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 28, 2021 at 9:33am

One IC element assesses with moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These analysts give weight to the inherently risky nature of work on coronaviruses, it said.

Analysts at three IC elements remain unable to coalesce around either explanation without additional information, with some analysts favouring natural origin, others a laboratory origin, and some seeing the hypotheses as equally likely. Variations in analytic views largely stem from differences in how agencies weigh intelligence reporting and scientific publications, and intelligence and scientific gaps, the report said.

Press Trust of India

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/covid-19-...

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02366-0

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