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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 3, 2021 at 12:46pm

People Are Accidentally Poisoning Themselves Trying to Treat COVID With a Horse Drug

People are trying to treat and prevent COVID-19 by taking ivermectin, a medication commonly used to de-worm horses – and they are poisoning themselves in the process.

The buzz around ivermectin has been generated by the FLCCC, the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which formed at the start of the pandemic. It comprises critical care workers who previously bonded over the controversial use of vitamin C for sepsis, MedPage Today reported.

US regulators say there is not enough robust evidence or safety data to recommend ivermectin as a cure, treatment, or preventative medicine for COVID-19.

While the FLCCC has held press conferences saying studies show the drug could fight against the novel coronavirus, public health agencies and many experts say the research is lacking. 

Ivermectin can be tolerated in small doses but can poison an adult in large quantities 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-people-are-accidenta...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 3, 2021 at 12:36pm

The Oldest Known Mummification 'Recipe' Has Been Unearthed, And It's Intense

In an exciting discovery, researchers have discovered an original 'how to' manual, hidden inside an ancient text, which explains the crucial steps to embalming and creating a mummy.

The guide to mummification has been found on a 3,500-year-old piece of papyrus called the Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg manuscript, so called because half of it, primarily containing medical information.

Among the details that Schiødt has teased out of the document is a list of instructions for embalming the face of the deceased person, which was done with a piece of red linen coated in a special plant-based solution.

The solution included aromatic substances as well as binders for holding the mixture together, and the saturated cloth was intended to keep the face protected from insects and bacteria while also smelling sweet. This process hasn't been documented before, but does match up with some of the mummified remains that have been found.

This manuscript also lays out the full 70-day schedule for embalming, split into two halves: a 35-day drying period and a 35-day wrapping period, which were themselves divided into four-day intervals. Common treatments to the body included applying a mixture called natron, after the removal of the organs and the brain. 

https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2021/02/ancient-egyptian-manual-reveals...

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-oldest-known-mummification-recipe-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 3, 2021 at 12:02pm

Biomass-based plastics

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 2, 2021 at 12:34pm

Huge, Global Study of Plastic Toys Finds Over 100 Substances That May Harm Children

The potential health risks of chemicals used in plastic toys have had scientists concerned for years, but new research reveals just how widespread the risk of harm to children remains.

In an international study, researchers assessed the chemical compositions of toys and estimated levels of human exposure to the substances, ultimately finding over 100 "Chemicals of Concern" in plastic toy materials that could pose a non-negligible health risk to children.

Out of 419 chemicals found in hard, soft, and foam plastic materials used in children toys, researchers identified 126 substances that can potentially harm children's health either via cancer or non-cancer effects, including 31 plasticisers, 18 flame retardants, and 8 fragrances.

According to the researchers, while laws in many countries regulate the use of certain potentially toxic chemicals in plastic toys, there is no consistent approach internationally, and current protections don't adequately prohibit the vast extent of potentially harmful substances that toys are made from

In addition, some toxic and banned additives are still found in plastic toys also on regulated markets, for example in case of recycling contaminated plastics, unawareness by producers, or absence of regulations in the producing country.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020321498

https://www.sciencealert.com/plastic-toy-study-finds-over-100-subst...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 2, 2021 at 12:30pm

Carbon Capture Research 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 2, 2021 at 11:37am

Coronavirus transmission through the placenta: Baby infected with coronavirus in the womb

A pregnant woman with suspected COVID-19 was rushed by ambulance to Skåne University Hospital, in Malmo, Sweden, suffering from sudden severe abdominal pain. The doctors noticed that the unborn infant had an abnormally low heart rate, which can be a sign that the baby is not getting enough oxygen.

The doctors performed an emergency caesarean section and delivered the baby within minutes. Blood tests from the baby confirmed it had severely low oxygen, and throat swabs showed that both mother and baby were suffering from COVID.

Using throat swabs from the mother and the newborn, the genome of the virus was sequenced to confirm the possibility that the infant had been infected with COVID while still in the womb.

 a few days later, new genetic sequencing showed that the baby’s virus population had changed and contained a mutated version of the virus along with the original virus strain from the mother. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of a genetic change of the coronavirus in the unique setting of mother-to-foetus transmission before birth.

Although it is common for viruses to mutate, this mutation (called A107G) happened just five days after the baby was delivered. The genetic changes may have been stimulated by the baby coming in contact with the external environment outside the mother’s womb. However, it was surprising how quickly this single mutation occurred.

The most important findings were the changes seen in the placenta. The placenta takes blood and nutrients to the foetus and takes away waste and is critical for the growth and wellbeing of the foetus. Half the tissue was damaged. There was widespread inflammation, and  coronavirus protein was found on both the mother’s and foetus’s side of the placenta. Also found was coronavirus protein in all areas that were damaged by inflammation.

 with thousands of pregnant women infected worldwide, mother-to-baby transmission in the womb seems to be a rare complication of COVID during pregnancy.

Scientists think that this is because of the placental barrier that protects the baby in the womb from most infections. Also, the vital receptor needed for coronavirus entry into cells, called an ACE-2 receptor, only exists in low levels in the placenta.

In rare cases, coronavirus can damage the placenta – leading to a lack of oxygen in the unborn child – even if the mother has a mild case of COVID in late pregnancy. 

we should rethink how we monitor pregnant women who have COVID, and they should be considered a more important risk group than we do today.

https://theconversation.com/baby-infected-with-coronavirus-in-the-w...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 1, 2021 at 12:53pm

https://fb.watch/3Yp8kldIDt/

A single male lyrebird can mimic the sound of an entire flock

The masters of imitation appear to have vocal talents more profound than previously appreciated

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 1, 2021 at 10:49am

Swift Links Neutrino to Star-destroying Black Hole

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 1, 2021 at 10:11am

Caterpillar silences tomato's cry for help, scientists find

"Silencing the alarm."

Scientists found that a caterpillar called the tomato fruit worm not only chomps on tomatoes and their leaves, but also deposits enzyme-laden saliva on the plant, interfering with its ability to cry for help.

 It has been shown time and time again that when under attack, plants can emit chemical distress signals, causing their peers to mount some sort of defense. A classic example is the smell of a freshly mown lawn, which prompts the release of protective compounds in nearby blades of grass that have yet to be cut.

In some cases, plant distress signals can even summon help from other species. That's what happens with the tomato. When caterpillars nibble on the plant's leaves, the leaf pores release volatile chemicals that are detected by a type of parasite: a wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars. 

So can the caterpillars strike back? In a series of experiments, researchers found that the answer was yes, illustrating a previously unknown strategy in nature's age-old contest between predator and prey.

The key is the enzyme in the caterpillar's saliva, which inhibits the opening of pores in tomato-plant leaves. That means the leaves are less able to release the distress signals, and presumably less able to attract wasps that could come to the rescue.

 Po‐An Lin et al. Silencing the alarm: an insect salivary enzyme closes plant stomata and inhibits volatile release, New Phytologist (2021). DOI: 10.1111/nph.17214

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-horror-movie-caterpillar-silences-tom...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 1, 2021 at 9:56am

Researchers find a single-celled slime mold with no nervous system that remembers food locations

Having a memory of past events enables us to take smarter decisions about the future. Researchers now identified the basis for forming memories in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum—despite its lack of a nervous system.

The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments, and has been traditionally linked to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study challenges this view by uncovering the surprising abilities of a highly dynamic,single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment.

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades. Existing at the crossroads between the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, this unique organism provides insight into the early evolutionary history of eukaryotes. Its body is a giant single cell made up of interconnected tubes that form intricate networks. This single amoeba-like cell may stretch several centimeters or even meters, featuring as the largest cell on earth in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The striking abilities of the slime mold to solve complex problems such as finding the shortest path through a maze earned it the attribute "intelligent," intrigued the research community and kindled questions about decision making on the most basic levels of life. The decision-making ability of Physarum is especially fascinating given that its tubular network constantly undergoes fast reorganization—growing and disintegrating its tubes—while completely lacking an organizing center. The researchers discovered that the organism weaves memories of food encounters directly into the architecture of the network-like body and uses the stored information when making future decisions.

Researchers followed the migration and feeding process of the organism and observed a distinct imprint of a food source on the pattern of thicker and thinner tubes of the network long after feeding. Given P. polycephalum's highly dynamic network reorganization, the persistence of this imprint sparked the idea that the network architecture itself could serve as memory of the past.

The researchers combined microscopic observations of the adaption of the tubular network with theoretical modeling. An encounter with food triggers the release of a chemical that travels from the location where food was found throughout the organism and softens the tubes in the network, making the whole organism reorient its migration towards the food.

The gradual softening is where the existing imprints of previous food sources come into play and where information is stored and retrieved. Past feeding events are embedded in the hierarchy of tube diameters, specifically in the arrangement of thick and thin tubes in the network. For the softening chemical that is now transported, the thick tubes in the network act as highways in traffic networks, enabling quick transport across the whole organism. Previous encounters imprinted in the network architecture weigh into the decision about the future direction of migration.

Mirna Kramar et al. Encoding memory in tube diameter hierarchy of living flow network, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007815118

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-single-celled-slime-mold-nervous-food...

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