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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 9, 2021 at 10:46am

Climate changed the size of our bodies 

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has gathered measurements of body and brain size for over 300 fossils from the genus Homo found across the globe. By combining this data with a reconstruction of the world's regional climates over the last million years, they have pinpointed the specific climate experienced by each fossil when it was a living human.

The study reveals that the average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years, with larger bodies evolving in colder regions. Larger size is thought to act as a buffer against colder temperatures: less heat is lost from a body when its mass is large relative to its surface area.

Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24290-7

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Our species, Homo sapiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago in Africa. The genus Homo has existed for much longer, and includes the Neanderthals and other extinct, related species such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus.

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-climate-size-bodies-extent-brains.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 9, 2021 at 8:27am

Certain fish skin can be grafted onto burns and diabetic wounds. The material recruits the body's own cells and is converted eventually into living tissue.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 8, 2021 at 11:21am

The shape of nanoparticles in body fluids may reveal the type of ca...

A recent study by scientists from Japanese universities has shown that the shape of cell-derived nanoparticles, known as "extracellular vesicles" (EVs), in body fluids could be a biomarker for identifying types of cancer. In the study, the scientists successfully measured the shape distributions of EVs derived from liver, breast, and colorectal cancer cells, showing that the shape distributions differ from one another. The findings were recently published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2021 at 11:41am

New species of ‘fairy lantern’ from Malaysian rainforests

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 4, 2021 at 9:29am

Antimicrobial Resistance, HAIs and the Environment!

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 4, 2021 at 9:17am

Proving The Impossible

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 3, 2021 at 10:20am

Microbes in cow stomachs can break down plastic

Plastic is notoriously hard to break down, but researchers  have found that bacteria from a cow's rumen—one of the four compartments of its stomach—can digest certain types of the ubiquitous material, representing a sustainable way to reduce plastic litter.

The scientists suspected such bacteria might be useful since cow diets already contain natural plant polyesters.

Thye  looked at three kinds of polyesters. One, polyethylene terephthalate, commonly known as PET, is a synthetic polymer commonly used in textiles and packaging. The other two consisted of a biodegradable plastic often used in compostable plastic bags (polybutylene adipate terephthalate, PBAT), and a biobased material (Polyethylene furanoate, PEF) made from renewable resources.

They obtained rumen liquid from a slaughterhouse in Austria to get the microorganisms they were testing. They then incubated that liquid with the three types of plastics they were testing (which were tested in both powder and film form) in order to understand how effectively the plastic would break down.

According to their results, which were recently published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, all three plastics could be broken down by the microorganisms from cow stomachs, with the plastic powders breaking down quicker than plastic film. 

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.684459a , www.frontiersin.org/articles/1 … ioe.2021.684459/full

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-microbes-cow-stomachs-plastic.html?ut...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 3, 2021 at 9:54am

Groundbreaking methane synthesis discovery

An interdisciplinary team of scientists recently published research casting new light on a previously unknown element of the carbon cycle, thanks to data collected from Yellowstone National Park over more than a decade.

The study is the subject of a new paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science titled "Aerobic Bacterial Methane Synthesis."

They began studying the microbiology of Yellowstone Lake in 2007. While collecting data to analyze the lake's chemistry and the interaction of various microbes in the lake with the park's underlying thermal features, they noticed something seemed off. They came across some lake water gas chemistries that didn't make  sense.

That discrepancy illustrated what has been termed the "methane paradox." For years, scientists have understood that when microorganisms produce methane, they do it anaerobically, meaning they don't use oxygen. But in the surface waters of the lake where the team was seeing methane, none of those organisms were found.

Methane is a naturally occurring gas made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It is the byproduct of a number of biological processes, though human activities like mining coal and refining natural gas also produce methane. It is a greenhouse gas known to be much more potent when trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, which is why many researchers are interested in identifying where in the biosphere it is created and where it goes.

When they did the DNA extraction from the lake water, they couldn't find the anaerobic organisms that are usually responsible for the presence of methane. Instead, they discovered aerobic bacteria were involved, isolating a bacterium called Acidovorax, which then allowed them to begin understanding this process.

Thye used analytical equipment to identify the presence of methylamine and glycine betaine in the lake water, biochemicals the team hypothesized to be key in the process of methane production. To test the theory, they narrowed down which gene the Acidovorax bacteria needed to convert methylamine or glycine betaine into methane.

They could break this down to a basic discovery about methylamine conversion to methane under aerobic conditions

Through a series of microbial experiments and extensive analysis of the wider biological community present in the lake samples, scientists identified a known gene that encodes aspartate aminotransferase, or AAT, that seemed to be catalyzing the methane synthesis.

This is a fundamentally different process from anaerobic methane synthesis

Qian Wang et al, Aerobic bacterial methane synthesis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2019229118

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-team-publishes-groundbreaking-methane...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 2, 2021 at 6:59am

Scientists identify long-sought marker for COVID vaccine success

Knowing which signatures in the blood predict protection against COVID-19 could speed the development of new vaccines.

Researchers developing the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have identified biomarkers that can help to predict whether someone will be protected by the jab they receive.

The team at the University of Oxford, UK, identified a ‘correlate of protection’ from the immune responses of trial participants — the first found by any COVID-19 vaccine developer. Identifying such blood markers, scientists say, will improve existing vaccines and speed the development of new ones by reducing the need for costly large-scale efficacy trials.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01778-2?utm_source=Natur...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 2, 2021 at 6:55am

Russia races Tom Cruise and Musk for first movie in space

Six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, earning Moscow a key win in the Cold War, Russia is again in a space race with Washington.

This time though the stakes are somewhat glitzier.

On October 5, one of Russia's most celebrated actresses, 36-year-old Yulia Peresild is blasting off to the International Space Station (ISS) with film director Klim Shipenko, 38.

Their mission? Shoot the first film in orbit before the Americans do.

If their plan falls into place, the Russians are expected to beat Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and Hollywood director Doug Liman, who were first to announce their project together with NASA and Space X, the company of billionaire Elon Musk.

Its plot, which has been kept under wraps by the crew and Russia's space agency, has been revealed by Russian media outlets to feature a doctor dispatched urgently to the ISS to save a cosmonaut.

In preparation for this 21st-century space race, Peresild has since late May been undergoing intensive training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside Moscow.

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-russia-tom-cruise-musk-movie.html?utm...

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