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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 9:21am

'New Car Smell' Is The Scent of Carcinogens, And Even Short Trips May Overexpose Us

A new study found commutes of more than 20 minutes put people at risk of unacceptably high levels of two carcinogens used in car manufacturing.

The distinct smell of a new car gives you a whiff of what's happening here. Materials used to fit out cars, from hard and soft plastics to adhesives, textiles and foam, contain some chemicals that can slowly seep into the air (the technical term is 'off-gas') or catch a ride on dust.

These chemicals are very volatile, moving easily from plastics and textiles to the air that you breathe. Volatile compounds can build up in small spaces, such as inside a car (unless you open a window for fresh air).

The researchers predicted that commuters' daily exposure to two out of five chemicals studied - benzene and formaldehyde - would probably exceed levels considered safe . The likelihood continued to rise the longer a person's commute. 

The two chemicals of concern are not huge unknowns, but certainly warrant attention. Benzene is found in rubber and dyes, and formaldehyde is used in carpets and paints. There is a range of exposure that depends on how long you're in the car, and how much of the compounds your car is emitting which can depend on the vehicle's age and surrounding temperatures.

 just because something is listed as a carcinogen doesn't mean it's guaranteed to cause health problems – it depends on the dose that people are exposed to, and how often.

Even known carcinogens are not likely to cause cancer under certain thresholds, and limiting your exposure to harmful substances goes a long way to reducing any associated risk.

Plus, the poor health outcomes observed among commuters – which does include higher rates of cancer – may stem from a combination of inactivity, obesity and shorter sleep that often come with lengthy commutes. These factors were not considered in this study.  

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202100026X...

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-20-minute-commute-puts-you-at-risk-o...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 9:15am

Collective worm and robot "blobs" protect individuals, swarm together

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 8:06am

5G phones may interfere with aircraft: French regulator

The latest generation of smartphones, 5G, can interfere with aircraft altitude instruments, the French Civil Aviation Authority warned Tuesday as it recommended they should be turned off during flight.

The utilisation of 5G devices onboard aircraft could lead to risks of interference that could potentially result in errors in altitude readings," a spokesman for the agency told AFP.

The potential phenomenon is due to "signal interference from a close frequency source of a strength that is similar or even superior to that of altimeters."

This interference can cause errors "in instruments that are extremely critical during landing," said the agency, known by its French acronym DGAC.

It sent a bulletin on the issue to airlines last week, recommending that 5G phones should either be turned off completely or put in "airplane mode" during flight

Most countries have long required that mobile phones be turned off or placed in airplane mode due to concerns that previous generations of mobile telecommunications networks can interfere with a plane's navigation and communication equipment.

The DGAC also recommended that in cases of disruption to an aircraft's equipment that the flight crew immediately notify air traffic controllers who can then alert authorities at the airport.

DGAC also noted that it had laid out conditions for the positioning of 5G base stations in order to limit the risks of interference during landing at French airports.

The strength of signals from 5G base stations placed near France's main airports has been restricted, said the DGAC, which has been conducting additional testing since November when French telecommunications operators were given the green light to begin rolling out 5G services.

It is continuing to monitor 5G base stations around all French airports in cooperation with the agency responsible for radio frequencies.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-5g-aircraft-french.html?utm_sou...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 8:00am

Planetary scientists discover evidence for a reduced atmosphere on ancient Mars

Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidising atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during the oxidation reaction of iron and oxygen. The Earth has had an oxidising atmosphere for approximately 2.5 billion years, but before that, the atmosphere of this planet was reducing—there was no rust.

The transition from a reduced planet to an oxidised planet is referred to as the Great Oxidation Event or GOE. This transition was a central part of our planet's evolution, and fundamentally linked to the evolution of life here—specifically to the prevalence of photosynthesis that produced oxygen. Planetary geologists at HKU have discovered that Mars underwent a great oxygenation event of its own—billions of years ago, the red planet was not so red.

 The researchers used infrared remote sensing and spectroscopy to measure the molecular vibration of the material on the Martian surface from orbit, in order to reveal the mineralogy and geochemistry of ancient rocks on Mars. Through detailed comparisons of infrared remote sensing data and data collected in the laboratory here on Earth, the team showed that ancient rocks on Mars exposed at the surface had been weathered under reducing conditions, indicating a reduced atmosphere did exist.

 Mars is cold and dry now, but ~ 3.5 billion years ago, it was warmer and wetter. It was warm enough to allow the formation of river channels, lakes and minerals that formed by interaction with water. Scientists who have used mathematical models to constrain the conditions of an early Martian atmosphere, have concluded that greenhouse warming occurred, but they also concluded from their models that the greenhouse must have included reduced gases rather than carbon dioxide, implied that a reducing atmosphere might have existed. Yet until now, there has not been any evidence that the reduced atmosphere of early Mars actually occurred. This work indicates that it did exist.

This project involved detailed infrared remote sensing of Mars, using infrared spectroscopy to map minerals in exposed, weathered rock units. The work was built on detailed analysis of weathered volcanic rocks in Hainan Island in southwestern China, where thick sequences of basalt, similar to volcanic rocks on Mars occur.

J. Liu et al. Anoxic chemical weathering under a reducing greenhouse on early Mars, Nature Astronomy (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-021-01303-5

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-planetary-scientists-evidence-atmosph...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 7:50am

How to reduce waste  -2

Here are some affordable and practical tips:

Use less - stop and reflect on your wasteful consumption practices and simply use less (as many have during lockdown). Rethink your lifestyle and only use what you need for your daily living; not everything may be essential.

Buy local - in the early stages of the pandemic, with flights grounded and entry in and out of countries proving problematic, food shortages were abundant. Buying local proved to be the alternative. Buying local is not only better for the environment but it also helps to support your local economy and local producers.

Be resourceful - try your best to reuse, repair or upcycle before you decide to throw away things you think no longer work. Be creative in how you might repurpose products and materials. It may simply be giving a new lease of life to your old furniture with a touch of non-toxic paint instead of getting new pieces.

Think beyond recycling – recycling is good, but we consume more than we recycle. So avoid buying goods that you cannot recycle. This will push businesses to better design products and ultimately, design out wasteful materials.

Rethink ownership - there is a rise in new businesses adopting "rental", "pay per use" and "on-demand" models for products ranging from clothes to furniture. So where possible do not buy things you use only occasionally; instead pay for access to these things when you need them.

https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-reduce-your-household-wast...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 7:49am

Five ways to reduce your household waste – and stop it being shipped to poorer countries -1

The UK is the largest plastic waste producer in Europe and one of the biggest producers of plastic waste in the world, second only to the US. The UK produces 99kg of plastic waste per person per year. And it exports about two-thirds of this waste to poorer countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Shipping unsorted plastic waste from the European Union to non-OECD countries was banned by the EU from January this year. But the UK continues to export plastic waste to developing countries as part of new post-Brexit regulations.

Most of the plastic waste is sold to these countries as the UK currently does not have the means and capacity to process it at home. But these countries also lack the infrastructure and capacity to recycle imported waste. And waste that can't be recycled often ends up dumped in landfill or waterways or even burned—releasing toxic fumes into the environment. Indeed, much of the waste sent to these countries is unsorted and dirty plastics which can hardly be recycled anyway.

This trade of waste and the shifting of one country's problem onto another simply cannot continue. Our behaviour as consumers is central to tackling this huge amount of plastic waste waste—along with the 26 million tonnes of general household waste produced yearly in the UK. We therefore all need to start taking responsible actions and be held accountable for the waste we generate. Of course, changing behaviour is not easy or straightforward.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 7:42am

Microbes could pose health, ecosystem risks when rain brings them to Earth

Human health and ecosystems could be affected by microbes including cyanobacteria and algae that hitch rides in clouds and enter soil, lakes, oceans and other environments when it rains, according to a  study.

Some of the organisms the researchers detected in clouds and rain are known to have possible impacts on human health and could also affect microbial populations at rainfall locations.

Researchers  collected cloud water at the summit of puy de Dôme, a mountain in central France, about 4,800 feet above sea level. They also collected rainwater below the mountain at about 2,230 feet above sea level. They detected blue-green (cyanobacteria), green, red and golden algae, as well as diatoms (another form of algae), and they grew green algae in the Chlorellaceae family in a lab.

Some of the microbes that hitched a ride in clouds may have come from the Atlantic Ocean. Others were likely from other parts of France that clouds passed over. Microbes in rain include those in a cloud and the air below it.

The airborne organisms could have important impacts on atmospheric processes and the ecosystems they enter after falling to Earth, the study says.

Future work would involve identifying specific genes associated with the production of toxins by these organisms and trying to understand what could or would limit the growth of these microorganisms after they're transported into a new ecosystem by rain.

Kevin P. Dillon et al, Cyanobacteria and Algae in Clouds and Rain in the Area of puy de Dôme, Central France, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2020). DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01850-20

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-microbes-pose-health-ecosystem-earth....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2021 at 7:24am

Integrating maths and plant science to explain how plant roots generate a hormone gradient

The research team that developed a biosensor that first recorded that a distinct gradient of the plant growth hormone gibberellin correlated with plant cell size has now revealed how this distribution pattern is created in roots.

Starting when a plant embryo forms within a seed and continuing throughout the plant lifecycle, undifferentiated stem cells undergo radical transformations into specialised root, stem, leaf and reproductive organ cells. This transformation relies on a suite of molecules called phytohormones that, much like human hormones, can move between cells and tissues and trigger distinct biological processes across the body plan. While it was not known at the time, mutations involving the gibberellin class of phytohormones were behind the development of many of the high-yielding semi-dwarf wheat and rice varieties that helped drive the Green Revolution in the 1950s and 60s.

The mutations resulted in shorter stems, enabling the crop plants to redirect energy into growing grain rather than stems and leaves and also prevented lodging caused when tall spindly plants fall over before harvest. We now know through advances in molecular and genetic tools that gibberellins (GA) regulate growth and development throughout the plant lifecycle—from germinating seeds, elongating stems and roots, to the formation of flowers. It is therefore not surprising that GA continues to attract the interest of plant scientists investigating how hormones control plant growth and as a possible target for future crop improvements.

 Differential biosynthesis and cellular permeability explain longitudinal gibberellin gradients in growing roots. PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1921960118

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-maths-science-roots-hormone-gradient....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2021 at 9:27am

Oxygen deficit makes nerve cells grow

Oxygen deficit, also called hypoxia, in the brain is actually an absolute state of emergency and can permanently damage nerve cells. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence that to a certain extent, hypoxia can also be an important signal for growth. Together with scientists from the University Hospitals of Copenhagen and Hamburg-Eppendorf, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have shown in mice that mentally and physically demanding activity triggers not only a local but also a brain-wide functional hypoxia. Although in an attenuated form, the effects are similar to oxygen deprivation. The shortage of oxygen activates, among other things, the growth factor erythropoietin (Epo), which stimulates the formation of new synapses and nerve cells. This mechanism could explain why physical and mental training have a positive effect on mental performance.

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Nanotechnologies reduce friction and improve durability of materials

A team of scientists from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and Immanuel Kant Baltic State Federal University suggested using innovative thin films to considerably reduce friction and thus increase the durability of surfaces in mechanisms. This discovery can be important for many fields, from medicine to space technologies.

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Experimental demonstration of measurement-dependent realities possi...

Shoe shops sell a variety of shoe sizes to accommodate a variety of foot sizes—but what if both the shoe and foot size depended on how it was measured? Recent developments in quantum theory suggest that the available values of a physical quantity, such as a foot size, can depend on the type of measurement used to determine them. If feet were governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, foot size would depend on the markings on a foot measure to find the best fit—at the time of measurement—and even if the markings were changed, the measurement could still be precise.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2021 at 8:59am

Post Covid, patients see rise in rare fungal infection

A rare and serious fungal infection called ‘Mucormycosis’ that can affect the respiratory system, digestive system as well as the brain has been on the rise in recent months, especially among immuno compromised Covid-19 patients who have recovered.

A rare and serious fungal infection called ‘Mucormycosis’ that can affect the respiratory system, digestive system as well as the brain has been on the rise in recent months, especially among immuno compromised Covid-19 patients who have recovered. From barely five to seven cases in a year, the number of cases has jumped to over 60 over the last seven to eight months, say experts. Of these, 10 were seen at the state-run Gandhi hospital alone as several patients who had been treated are returning with post-Covid-19 complications including this infection. The infection, although, rare is a serious one as it can even lead to death if not treated in time. 

This infection is an opportunistic one which is seen in immune-compromised patients, especially patients who had a transplant or are on cancer-related drugs. Now this infection is seen in patients who have recovered from viral diseases and since Covid is also a viral disease, it is being seen in the Covid recovered patients too.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/post-c...

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