Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 10:20am

Many markets

If the virus did jump between animals and people on several occasions, the fact that lineages A and B are linked to people who visited different markets in Wuhan suggests that multiple individual animals, of one or more species, that were carrying a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 could have been transported across Wuhan, infecting people in at least two locations.

A study published in June¹ found that live animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, such as raccoon dogs and mink, were sold in numerous markets in Wuhan. Previous studies² of the virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have concluded that it, too, probably jumped multiple times from animals to people.

The latest study, if verified, would mean that the scenario of a researcher accidentally being infected in a lab, and then spreading the virus to the population at large, would have had to happen twice, says Garry. It’s much more likely that the pandemic has its origins in the wildlife trade, he says.

To gather more evidence, the team behind the new analysis now plans to run computer simulations to test how well multiple spillovers would fit with the diversity of known SARS-CoV-2 genomes.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02519-1

part 3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 10:19am

Fine-tooth comb

They analysed 1,716 SARS-CoV-2 genomes in a popular online genome repository called GISAID that were collected before 28 February 2020, and identified 38 such ‘intermediate’ genomes.

But when they looked at the sequences more closely, they found that many of these also contained mutations in other regions of their genomes. And they say that these mutations are definitively associated with either lineage A or lineage B — which discredits the idea that the corresponding viral genomes date to an intermediate stage of evolution between the two lineages.

The authors suggest that a laboratory or computer error probably occurred in sequencing one of the two mutations in these ‘intermediate’ genomes. “The more we dug, the more it looked like, maybe we can’t trust any of the ‘transitional’ genomes,” says study co-author Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Such sequencing errors are not unusual, say researchers. Software can sometimes fill in gaps in the raw data with incorrect sequences, and viral samples can become contaminated, notes Richard Neher, a computational biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. “Such mishaps are not surprising,” he says. “Especially early in the pandemic, when protocols weren’t very established and people tried to generate data as fast as they could.”

Several researchers contacted by Nature, who sequenced some of the samples included in the study, say it is unlikely that their sequences include errors in the two key nucleotides.

But the study authors counter that even if some of the genomes were sequenced correctly, other parts of the same genomes, or the locations from which the samples were collected, still clearly indicate that they belong to only one or the other lineage.

“It is very unlikely” that any of the so-called intermediate genomes are actually transitional genomes, says study co-author

part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 10:18am

Did the coronavirus jump from animals to people twice?

A preliminary analysis of viral genomes suggests the COVID-19 pandemic might have multiple animal origins — but the findings still have to be peer reviewed.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could have spilled from animals to people multiple times, according to a preliminary analysis of viral genomes sampled from people infected in China and elsewhere early in the pandemic.

If confirmed by further analyses, the findings would add weight to the hypothesis that the pandemic originated in multiple markets in Wuhan, and make the hypothesis that SARS-COV-2 escaped from a laboratory less likely, say some researchers. But the data need to be verified, and the analysis has not yet been peer reviewed.

The earliest viral sequences, taken from people infected in late 2019 and early 2020, are split into two broad lineages, known as A and B, which have key genetic differences.

Lineage B has become the dominant lineage globally and includes samples taken from people who visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, which also sold wild animals. Lineage A spread within China, and includes samples from people linked to other markets in Wuhan.

A crucial question is how the two viral lineages are related. If viruses in lineage A evolved from those in lineage B, or vice versa, that would suggest that the progenitor of the virus jumped just once from animals to people. But if the two lineages have separate origins, then there might have been multiple spillover events.

The latest analysis — posted on the virological.org discussion forum — adds weight to the second possibility by questioning the existence of genomes linking the lineages.

The finding could be the “dagger into the heart” of the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab, rather than originating from the wildlife trade. If you can show that A and B are two separate lineages and there were two spillovers, it all but eliminates the idea that it came from a lab.

The findings are “consistent with there being at least two introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population.

Lineages A and B are defined by two key nucleotide differences. But some of the earliest genomes have a combination of these differences. Researchers previously thought that these genomes could be those of viruses at intermediate stages of evolution linking the two lineages.

But the researchers behind the new analysis looked at them in detail and noticed some problems.

part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 9:46am

Part of the universe's missing matter found

Galaxies can receive and exchange matter with their external environment thanks to the galactic winds created by stellar explosions. Via the MUSE instrument from the Very Large Telescope at the ESO, an international research team, led on the French side by the CNRS and l'Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, has mapped a galactic wind for the first time. This unique observation, which is detailed in a study published in MNRAS on 16 September 2021, helped to reveal where some of the universe's missing matter is located and to observe the formation of a nebula around a galaxy.

Galaxies are like islands of stars in the universe, and possess ordinary, or baryonic, matter, which consists of elements from the periodic table, as well as dark matter, whose composition remains unknown. One of the major problems in understanding the formation of galaxies is that approximately 80% of the baryons that make up the normal matter of galaxies is missing. According to models, they were expelled from galaxies into inter-galactic space by the galactic winds created by stellar explosions.

An international team led on the French side by researchers from the CNRS and l'Université Claude Bernard Lyon successfully used the MUSE instrument to generate a detailed map of the galactic wind driving exchanges between a young galaxy in formation and a nebula (a cloud of gas and interstellar dust).

The perfect positioning of the galaxy and the quasar, as well as the discovery of gas exchange due to galactic winds, made it possible to draw up a unique map. This enabled the first observation of a nebula in formation that is simultaneously emitting and absorbing magnesium—some of the universe's missing baryons—with the Gal1 galaxy.

This type of normal matter nebula is known in the near universe, but their existence for young galaxies in formation had only been supposed.

Scientists thus discovered some of the universe's missing baryons, thereby confirming that 80–90% of normal matter is located outside of galaxies, an observation that will help expand models for the evolution of galaxies.

 Johannes Zabl et al, MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) VIII. Discovery of a Mgii emission halo probed by a quasar sightline, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab2165

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-universe.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 9:28am

New technology makes it possible to see clearly through murky water

Researchers have developed a new method that can automatically produce clear images through murky water. The new technology could be useful for searching for drowning victims, documenting submerged archaeological artifacts and monitoring underwater farms.

Imaging clearly underwater is extremely challenging because the water and the particles in it tend to scatter light. But, because scattered light is partially polarized, imaging using a camera that is sensitive to polarization can be used to suppress scattered light in underwater images.

A  new method overcomes the limitations of traditional polarimetric underwater imaging, laying the groundwork for taking this method out of the lab and into the field.

Traditional approaches to underwater imaging use either prior knowledge of the imaging area or the background of an image to calculate and remove scattered light. These methods have limited utility in the field because they typically require manual processing, images do not always have visible backgrounds, and prior information is not always available.

To overcome these challenges, the researchers combined a traditional polarized imaging setup with a new algorithm that automatically finds the optimal parameters to suppress the scattering light. This not only significantly improves image contrast to achieve clear imaging but can be used without any prior knowledge of the imaging area and for images with or without background regions.

Hongyuan Wang et al, Automatic underwater polarization imaging without background region or any prior, Optics Express (2021). DOI: 10.1364/OE.434398

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-technology-murky.html?utm_source=nwle...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 8:39am

Researchers infuse bacteria with silver to improve power efficiency in fuel cells

A team of engineers and chemists has taken a major step forward in the development of microbial fuel cells—a technology that utilizes natural bacteria to extract electrons from organic matter in wastewater to generate electrical currents. A study detailing the breakthrough was recently published in Science. 

Living energy-recovery systems utilizing bacteria found in wastewater offer a one-two punch for environmental sustainability efforts. The natural populations of bacteria can help decontaminate groundwater by breaking down harmful chemical compounds. Now, research also shows a practical way to harness renewable energy from this process.

The team focused on the bacteria genus Shewanella, which have been widely studied for their energy-generation capabilities. They can grow and thrive in all types of environments—including soil, wastewater and seawater—regardless of oxygen levels.  

Shewanella species naturally break down organic waste matter into smaller molecules, with electrons being a byproduct of the metabolic process. When the bacteria grow as films on electrodes, some of the electrons can be captured, forming a microbial fuel cell that produces electricity. 

However, microbial fuel cells powered by Shewanella oneidensis have previously not captured enough currents from the bacteria to make the technology practical for industrial use. Few electrons could move quickly enough to escape the bacteria's membranes and enter the electrodes to provide sufficient electrical currents and power.

To address this issue, the researchers added nanoparticles of silver to electrodes that are composed of a type of graphene oxide. The nanoparticles release silver ions, which bacteria reduce to silver nanoparticles using electrons generated from their metabolic process and then incorporate into their cells. Once inside the bacteria, the silver particles act as microscopic transmission wires, capturing more electrons produced by the bacteria.

With greatly improved electron transport efficiency, the resulting silver-infused Shewanella film outputs more than 80% of the metabolic electrons to external circuit, generating a power of 0.66 milliwatts per square centimeter—more than double the previous best for microbial-based fuel cells.

Silver nanoparticles boost charge extraction efficiency in Shewanella microbial fuel cells, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abf3427

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-infuse-bacteria-silver-power-efficien...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 17, 2021 at 8:30am

Burning space mystery solved as researchers confirm origins of 'empty sky' gamma-rays

Star-forming galaxies are responsible for creating gamma-rays that until now had not been associated with a known origin, researchers have confirmed.

Until now it has been unclear what created gamma-rays—one of the most energetic forms of light in the Universe—that appear in patches of seemingly "empty sky."

The discovery could offer clues to help astronomers solve other mysteries of the Universe, such as what kind of particles make up Dark Matter—one of the holy grails of astrophysics.

"It's a significant milestone to finally discover the origins of this gamma-ray emission, solving a mystery of the Universe astronomers have been trying to decipher since the 1960s.

There are two obvious sources that produce large amounts of gamma-rays seen in the Universe. One when gas falls into the supermassive black holes which are found at the centers of all galaxies—called an active galactic nucleus (AGN)—and the other associated with star formation in the disks of galaxies.

Researchers modeled the gamma-ray emission from all the galaxies in the Universe and compared our results with the predictions for other sources and found that it is star-forming galaxies that produce the majority of this diffuse gamma-ray radiation and not the AGN process.

researchers were able to pinpoint what created these mysterious gamma-rays after obtaining a better understanding of how cosmic rays—particles that travel at speeds very close to the speed of light—move through the gas between the stars. Cosmic rays are important because they create large amounts of gamma-ray emission in star-forming galaxies when they collide with the interstellar gas.

Matt A. Roth et al, The diffuse γ-ray background is dominated by star-forming galaxies, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03802-x Matt A. Roth et al, The diffuse γ-ray background is dominated by star-forming galaxies, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03802-x

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-space-mystery-sky-gamma-rays.html?utm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2021 at 11:48am

Why Nearly 80 Percent of Autoimmune Sufferers Are Female

The effects of sex hormones, X chromosomes and different gut microbes may be parts of the answer.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2021 at 11:40am

For The First Time, Scientists Have Entangled Three Qubits on Silicon

Scientists have got three entangled qubits operating together on a single piece of silicon.

It's the first time that's ever been done, and the silicon material is important: that's what the electronics inside today's computers are based on, so it's another advancement in  bridging the gap between the quantum and classical computing realms.

Qubits are the quantum equivalent of the standard bits inside a conventional computer: they can represent several states at once, not just a 1 or a 0, which – in theory – means an exponential increase in computing power.

The real magic happens when these qubits are entangled, or tightly linked together.

As well as increases in computing power, the addition of more qubits means better error correction – a key part of keeping quantum computers stable enough to use them outside of research laboratories.

Two-qubit operation is good enough to perform fundamental logical calculations. But a three-qubit system is the minimum unit for scaling up and implementing error correction.

The process involved entangling two qubits to begin with, in what's known as a two-qubit gate – a standard building block of quantum computers. That gate was then combined with a third qubit with an impressively high fidelity of 88 percent (a measure of how reliable the system is).

Each of the quantum silicon dots holds a single electron, with its spin-up and spin-down states doing the encoding. The setup also included an integrated magnet, enabling each qubit to be controlled separately using a magnetic field.

The researchers think there's plenty more to come from quantum silicon dots linking together more and more qubits in the same circuit. Full-scale quantum computers could be closer than we think.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-021-00925-0

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-entangled-three-qubits...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2021 at 11:25am

Ancient marsupial ‘junk DNA’ might be useful after all, scientists say

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