Study results indicate that pitavastatin inhibits interleukin-33 to suppress skin and pancreatic cancers

A new study led by investigators from Mass General Cancer Center reveals that statins—commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs—may block a particular pathway involved in the development of cancer that results from chronic inflammation. The findings are published in Nature Communications.

Chronic inflammation is a major cause of cancer worldwide.

Researchers investigated the mechanism by which environmental toxins drive the initiation of cancer-prone chronic inflammation in the skin and pancreas.

They also examined safe and effective therapies to block this pathway in order to suppress chronic inflammation and its cancer aftermath.

The researchers study relied on cell lines, animal models, human tissue samples and epidemiological data. The group's cell-based experiments demonstrated that environmental toxins (such as exposure to allergens and chemical irritants) activate two connected signaling pathways called the TLR3/4 and TBK1-IRF3 pathways. This activation leads to the production of the interleukin-33 (IL-33) protein, which stimulates inflammation in the skin and pancreas that can contribute to the development of cancer.

When they screened a library of U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs, the researchers found that a statin, pitavastatin, effectively suppresses IL-33 expression by blocking the activation of the TBK1-IRF3 signaling pathway. In mice, pitavastatin suppressed environmentally-induced inflammation in the skin and the pancreas and prevented the development of inflammation-related pancreatic cancers.

In human pancreas tissue samples, IL-33 was over-expressed in samples from patients with chronic pancreatitis (inflammation) and pancreatic cancer compared with normal pancreatic tissue. Also, in analyses of electronic health records data on more than 200 million people across North America and Europe, use of pitavastatin was linked to a significantly reduced risk of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

The findings demonstrate that blocking IL-33 production with pitavastatin may be a safe and effective preventive strategy to suppress chronic inflammation and the subsequent development of certain cancers.

Park JH et al. Statin prevents cancer development in chronic inflammation by blocking interleukin 33 expression, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48441-8

Antibiotic pollution disrupts the gut microbiome and blocks memory in aquatic snails, study finds

Antibiotics prevent snails from forming new memories by disrupting their gut microbiome—the community of beneficial bacteria found in their guts.

The new research highlights the damaging effects that human pollution could be having on aquatic wildlife.

In the study published in The ISME Journal, pond snails were given a favorite food—carrot juice—but had to quickly learn and remember that it was no longer safe to eat.

Snails in clean water did well, avoiding feeding on the carrot juice when it had been paired with a chemical they dislike. However, snails that had been exposed to high concentrations of antibiotics in the water failed to learn and form a memory, and continued to show normal feeding behavior even after training.

It's well known that a healthy gut microbiome is important to human health, and this  study is the first to show this is also the case in snails and other animals.

The researchers found the antibiotics altered the gut microbiome substantially and changed the abundance of bacteria that have been found to relate to healthy memory formation in other animals, including humans. This relationship between the bacteria found in the gut and brain function is called the microbiome-gut-brain axis. Chemicals produced by good gut bacteria when breaking down food can improve brain health and cognitive function.

Reducing the abundance of these healthy bacteria in the gut blocks the gut microbiome's otherwise beneficial effects on the brain.

Previous studies on the link between the gut microbiome and brain function have focused on terrestrial species. However, aquatic wildlife is more likely to be directly affected by antibiotic exposure in the environment.

Antibiotics are not removed effectively by waste treatment, and so they enter the freshwater environment. The antibiotic concentrations snails were exposed to in this new experiment were detected at similar levels in freshwater in the UK, Europe and globally.

Gabrielle Davidson et al, Antibiotic-altered gut microbiota explain host memory plasticity and disrupt pace-of-life trait covariation for an aquatic snail, The ISME Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae078

Reduced sulfur content in shipping fuel associated with increased maritime atmospheric warming

An 80% reduction in sulfur dioxide shipping emissions observed in early 2020 could be associated with substantial atmospheric warming over some ocean regions, according to a modeling study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The sudden decline in emissions was a result of the introduction of the International Maritime Organization's 2020 regulation (IMO 2020), which reduced the maximum sulfur content allowed in shipping fuel from 3.5% to 0.5% to help reduce air pollution.

Fuel oil used for large ships has a significantly higher percentage content of sulfur than fuels used in other vehicles. Burning this fuel produces sulfur dioxide, which reacts with water vapor in the atmosphere to produce sulfate aerosols. These aerosols cool the Earth's surface in two ways: by directly reflecting sunlight back to space; and by affecting cloud cover.

Increasing the number of aerosols increases the number of water droplets that form while reducing their size, both increasing the cloud coverage and forming brighter clouds which reflect more sunlight back to space. Marine cloud brightening is a form of geoengineering where marine clouds are deliberately seeded with aerosols to achieve this effect.

Researchers  calculated the effect of IMO 2020 on the atmospheric levels of sulfate aerosols over the ocean and how this affected cloud composition. They found substantial reductions in both the levels of atmospheric aerosols and the cloud droplet number density.

The greatest modeled aerosol reductions were in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, and the South China Sea—the regions with the busiest shipping lanes. The authors then estimated the effect of IMO 2020 on Earth's energy budget (the difference between the energy received from the sun and the energy radiated from the Earth) since 2020. They calculated that the estimated effect is equivalent to 80% of the observed increase in the heat energy retained on Earth over that period.

The authors suggest that the substantial modeled effect of IMO 2020 on Earth's energy budget demonstrates the potential effectiveness of marine cloud brightening as a strategy to temporarily cool the climate. However, they also warn that the intended reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions due to IMO 2020 potentially causing an inadvertent increase in marine atmospheric temperature is an example of a geoengineering termination shock, which could affect regional weather patterns.

Tianle Yuan, Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming, Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01442-3. www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01442-3

How does the word 'not' affect what we understand? Scientists find negation mitigates our interpretation of phrases

When we're told "This coffee is hot" upon being served a familiar caffeinated beverage at our local diner or cafe, the message is clear. But what about when we're told "This coffee is not hot"? Does that mean we think it's cold? Or room temperature? Or just warm?

A team of scientists has now identified how our brains work to process phrases that include negation (i.e., "not"), revealing that it mitigates rather than inverts meaning—in other words, in our minds, negation merely reduces the temperature of our coffee and does not make it "cold."

We now have a firmer sense of how negation operates as we try to make sense of the phrases we process.

In identifying that negation serves as a mitigator of adjectives—bad or good, sad or happy, and cold or hot—we also have a better understanding of how the brain functions to interpret subtle changes in meaning.

In an array of communications, ranging from advertising to legal filings, negation is often used intentionally to mask a clear understanding of a phrase. In addition, large language models in AI tools have difficulty interpreting passages containing negation. The researchers say that their results show how humans process such phrases while also potentially pointing to ways to understand and improve AI functionality.

This research spotlights the complexity that goes into language comprehension, showing that this cognitive process goes above and beyond the sum of the processing of individual word meanings.

Find the full details of the experimental work here: Zuanazzi A, Ripollés P, Lin WM, Gwilliams L, King J-R, Poeppel D, Negation mitigates rather than inverts the neural representations of adjectives. PLoS Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002622

Scientists create the thinnest lens on Earth, enabled by excitons

Lenses are used to bend and focus light. Normal lenses rely on their curved shape to achieve this effect, but physicists have made a flat lens of only three atoms thick that relies on quantum effects. This type of lens could be used in future augmented reality glasses.

Curved-glass lenses work because light is refracted (bent) when it enters the glass, and again when it exits, making things appear larger or closer than they actually are.

Using a single layer of a unique material called tungsten disulfide (WS₂ for short), researchers constructed a flat lens that is half a millimeter wide, but just 0.0000006 millimeters, or 0.6 nanometers, thick. This makes it the thinnest lens on Earth.

Rather than relying on a curved shape, the lens is made of concentric rings of WS₂ with gaps in between. This is called a "Fresnel lens" or "zone plate lens," and it focuses light using diffraction rather than refraction. The size of, and distance between the rings (compared to the wavelength of the light hitting it) determines the lens's focal length. The design used here focuses red light 1 mm from the lens.

A unique feature of this lens is that its focusing efficiency relies on quantum effects within WS2. These effects allow the material to efficiently absorb and re-emit light at specific wavelengths, giving the lens the built-in ability to work better for these wavelengths.
This quantum enhancement works as follows. First, WS2 absorbs light by sending an electron to a higher energy level. Due to the ultra-thin structure of the material, the negatively charged electron and the positively charged "hole" it leaves behind in the atomic lattice stay bound together by the electrostatic attraction between them, forming what is known as an "exciton."
These excitons quickly disappear again by the electron and hole merging together and sending out light. This re-emitted light contributes to the lens's efficiency.
The scientists detected a clear peak in lens efficiency for the specific wavelengths of light sent out by the excitons. While the effect is already observed at room temperature, the lenses are even more efficient when cooled down. This is because excitons do their work better at lower temperatures.

Ludovica Guarneri et al, Temperature-Dependent Excitonic Light Manipulation with Atomically Thin Optical Elements, Nano Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00694

New method advances cancer detection by counting tiny blood-circulating particles

Researcher are reporting a new method to detect cancer which could make cancer detection as simple as taking a blood test. With a 98.7% accuracy rate, the method—which combines PANORAMA imaging with fluorescent imaging—has the potential to detect cancer at the earliest stage and improve treatment efficacy.

The remarkably precise method allows researchers to peer into nanometer-sized membrane sacs, called extracellular vesicles or EVs, that can carry different types of cargos, like proteins, nucleic acids and metabolites, in the bloodstream.

The researchers  observed differences in small EV numbers and cargo in samples taken from healthy people versus people with cancer and are able to differentiate these two populations based on their analysis of the small EVs. The findings came from combining two imaging methods—their previously developed method PANORAMA and imaging of fluorescence emitted by small EVs—to visualize and count small EVs, determine their size and analyze their cargo.

For this research it was a matter of counting the number of small EVs to detect cancer.

Using a cutoff of 70 normalized small EV counts, all cancer samples from 205 patients were above this threshold except for one sample, and for healthy samples, from 106 healthy individuals, all but three were above this cutoff, giving a cancer detection sensitivity of 99.5% and specificity of 97.3%.

To further test the performance of the detection threshold of 70 normalized small EV counts in plasma, the team analyzed two independent sets of samples from stage I-IV or recurrent leiomyosarcoma/gastrointestinal stromal tumors and early-and-late-stage cholangiocarcinoma that were anonymously labeled and mixed in with healthy samples and achieved 100% accuracy.

Nareg Ohannesian et al, Plasmonic nano-aperture label-free imaging of single small extracellular vesicles for cancer detection, Communications Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43856-024-00514-x

‘Smart’ antibiotic can kill deadly bacteria while sparing the microbiome

We need our microbiome. But if we take antibiotics, they will disrupt it. 

Scientists have developed an antibiotic that kills pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria — even those resistant to many other drugs — without impairing the gut microbiome. So far, it has been studied only in mice, but if the compound works in humans, “it could help us dramatically".
However, there is a caveat: the compound’s usefulness “depends on whether bacteria will develop resistance to it in the long run”.
To find a way around the bacteria’s defences, the study’s authors started with compounds that don’t kill the bacteria but are known to inhibit the ‘Lol system’, a group of proteins that is exclusive to Gram-negative bacteria. Tinkering with those compounds produced one that the researchers called lolamicin, which “selectively kills pathogenic bacteria over non-pathogenic bacteria based on differences in Lol proteins between these bacteria.
Lolamicin had anti-microbial effects against more than 130 multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria growing in laboratory dishes.
Mice that developed blood stream infections after exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria all survived after being given lolamicin, whereas 87% of those that didn’t receive the compound died within three days.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01566-8?utm_source=Live+...

This tiny fern has the largest genome of any organism on Earth

In a new study published in the journal iScience, researchers  presented a new record-holder for the largest amount of DNA stored in the nucleus of any living organism on the planet.

Coming in at more than 100 meters of unraveled DNA, the New Caledonian fork fern species Tmesipteris oblanceolata was found to contain more than 50 times more DNA than humans and has dethroned the Japanese flowering plant species Paris japonica, which has held this record since 2010.

In addition, the plant has achieved three Guinness World Records titles for Largest plant genome, Largest Genome, and Largest fern genome for the amount of DNA in the nucleus.

T. oblanceolata is a rare species of fern found on the island nation of New Caledonia, an overseas French territory situated in the Southwest Pacific, about 750 miles east of Australia, and some of the neighboring islands such as Vanuatu. The genus Tmesipteris is an understudied group of plants consisting of about 15 species, most of which occur across a range of Pacific Islands and Oceania.

Until now, scientists have only estimated the size of the genomes for two species of Tmesipteris—T. tannensis and T. obliqua—both of which were found to contain gigantic genomes, at 73.19 and 147.29 gigabase pairs (Gbp) respectively.

The analysis revealed the species T. oblanceolata to have a record-breaking genome size of 160.45 Gbp, which is about 7% larger than that of P. japonica (148.89 Gbp).

Tmesipteris is a unique and fascinating small genus of ferns, whose ancestors evolved about 350 million years ago—well before dinosaurs set foot on Earth—and it is distinguished by its mainly epiphytic habit [it grows mainly on the trunks and branches of trees] and restricted distribution in Oceania and several Pacific Islands.

 Oriane Hidalgo and Jaume Pellicer et al, A 160 Gbp fork fern genome shatters size record for eukaryotes. iScience (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109889

Dark matter could make our galaxy's innermost stars immortal

Stars near the center of our galaxy are acting kind of weird. Dark matter may be the explanation.

A team of scientists have discovered a potential new class of stars that could exist within a light-year of the Milky Way's center that could be operating according to an unusual mechanism: dark matter annihilation. This process would produce an outward pressure on the stars other than hydrogen fusion, keeping them from gravitationally collapsing—and making them essentially immortal, their youth being refreshed constantly. The findings are published  on the arXiv preprint server.

Collectively, the dark matter–powered stars would inhabit a new region of a long-established diagram that classifies stars by their temperature and luminosity, placing them away from the so-called main sequence where the vast majority of stars exist.

Observing our Galactic Center, around which the galaxy's stars rotate, is quite difficult, as the region is extremely bright. A supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, sits at the center, with a mass four million times that of the sun. It is a bright source of radio waves, and was imaged in 2022. Stars near Sgr A* orbit it at speeds of several thousands of kilometers per second (compared to the sun's orbital speed of 240 km/s).
These close inner stars, called S-cluster stars, are very puzzling, with properties unlike any others in the Milky Way. Their provenance is unknown, since the environment within about three light-years of the center is considered hostile to star formation. They appear to be much younger than would be expected if they had moved inward from someplace else. Most mysterious of all, they look unusually young, with fewer older stars in the neighborhood than expected, and also unexpectedly, there seem to be many heavy stars.
Part 1

Stars are nuclear ovens, generating heat burning hydrogen via nuclear fusion. The thermal radiation from this reaction, as well as thermodynamic convection of the stellar plasma, exerts an outward force on a star's constituents—mostly hydrogen and helium. That force is balanced by the inward force of self-gravity.

The Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram classifies stars by plotting their luminosity against the effective temperature of their surface. Excluding white dwarfs and red giants, the "main sequence" of this diagram curves from its upper left to lower right, and most stars fall on this curve. (The sun falls near the middle, as their luminosities are plotted as their ratio with the sun's). Stars in different locations on the sequence correspond to stars of different masses and ages.

However, dark matter also exists in the galaxy. Its presence has been inferred by observations that find insufficient ordinary matter to account for the higher-than-expected rotational speeds of stars around the Galactic Center.

Dark matter's density is highest near the center and falls off with the distance from it. It's reasonable to expect it would be incorporated within stars near the center, where dark matter is densest. If so, dark matter annihilation—dark matter particles and antiparticles that collide and produce photons, electrons, etc.—would exert an additional outward pressure within a star and could even dominate over nuclear fusion.
A research team has found that incorporating dark matter power into the dynamics of the innermost stars—those within about a third of a light-year of the center (equivalent to about 8% of the distance to the sun's nearest star)—solves many of the known paradoxes.
To incorporate dark matter annihilation, the group used relatively standard star formation parameters over the evolutionary course of the Milky Way, and dark matter particles just slightly more massive than the proton. Using a stellar evolution computer model, they assumed that stars migrate on the main sequence towards the Galactic Center, then they began to inject dark matter energy into a star's composition. The star then evolved until it reached the red giant branch on the HR diagram, or until it reached an age of 10 billion years, the lifetime of the Milky Way.
Part 2

They calculated stellar populations without and with the presence of dark matter. With dark matter, more massive stars experienced a lower dark matter density, and hydrogen in their core fused more slowly and their evolution was slowed down. But stars in a higher dark matter density region were changed significantly—they maintained equilibrium through dark matter burning with less fusion or no fusion, which led to a new stellar population in an HR region above the main sequence.
The scientists' simulations show that stars can survive on dark matter as a fuel alone and because there is an extremely large amount of dark matter near the Galactic Center, these stars become immortal staying forever young, occupying a new, distinct, observable region of the HR diagram.
Their dark matter model may be able to explain more of the known mysteries. For lighter stars, scientists saw in their simulations that they become very puffy and might even lose parts of their outer layers something similar to this might be observed at the Galactic Center: the so-called G-objects, which might be star-like, but with a gas cloud around them.
There are a limited number of individual stars known to exist so close to the Galactic Center, as the region is extremely bright. Upcoming 30-meter telescopes will be able to see much better into the region, which will allow scientists to better understand the population of its stars and verify or rule out the dark main sequence.

Isabelle John et al, Dark Branches of Immortal Stars at the Galactic Center, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.12267

Part 3

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Most powerful anti-fungal chemistries cause fungal pathogens to self-destruct

Scientists have discovered that the most widely-used class of antifungals in the world causes pathogens to self-destruct. The  research could help improve ways to protect food security and human lives.

Fungal diseases account for the loss of up to a quarter of the world's crops. They also pose a risk to humans and can be fatal for those with weakened immune systems.

Our strongest weapons against fungal plant diseases are azole fungicides. These chemical products account for up to a quarter of the world agricultural fungicide market, worth more than $3.8 billion per year. Antifungal azoles are also widely used as a treatment against pathogenic fungi which can be fatal to humans, which adds to their importance in our attempt to control fungal disease.

Azoles target enzymes in the pathogen cell that produce cholesterol-like molecules, named ergosterol. Ergosterol is an important component of cellular bio-membranes. Azoles deplete ergosterol, which results in killing of the pathogen cell. However, despite the importance of azoles, scientists know little about the actual cause of pathogen death.

In a new study published in Nature Communications,  scientists have uncovered the cellular mechanism by which azoles kill pathogenic fungi. The paper is titled "Azoles activate type I and type II programmed cell death pathways in crop pathogenic fungi." 

Part 1

The team of researchers combined live-cell imaging approaches and molecular genetics to understand why the inhibition of ergosterol synthesis results in cell death in the crop pathogenic fungus Zymoseptoria tritic (Z. tritici). This fungus causes septoria leaf blotch in wheat, a serious disease in temperate climates.
The team observed living Z. tritici cells, treated them with agricultural azoles and analyzed the cellular response. They showed that the previously-accepted idea that azoles kill the pathogen cell by causing perforation of the outer cell membrane does not apply. Instead, they found that azole-induced reduction of ergosterol increases the activity of cellular mitochondria, the "powerhouse" of the cell, required to produce the cellular fuel that drives all metabolic processes in the pathogen cell.
While producing more "fuel" is not harmful in itself, the process leads to the formation of more toxic by-products. These by-products initiate a "suicide" program in the pathogen cell, named apoptosis. In addition, reduced ergosterol levels also trigger a second "self-destruct" pathway, which causes the cell to eat its own nuclei and other vital organelles—a process known as macroautophagy. The authors show that both cell death pathways underpin the lethal activity of azoles. They conclude that azoles drive the fungal pathogen into "suicide" by initiating self-destruction.

The authors found the same mechanism azoles killing pathogen cells in the rice-blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Azoles activate type I and type II programmed cell death pathways in crop pathogenic fungi, Nature Communications (2024). www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48157-9

Part 2

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A new way of healing wounds in diabetics fast

Wounds that are superficial for some can be life-threatening for others. With diabetic wounds, healing can be slow, particularly in the feet, increasing the tissue's susceptibility to infection. Foot ulcers and other diabetic foot complications have similar mortality rates to some cancers, yet progress toward improved treatments has plateaued. Now, researchers may have found a better way to kickstart the healing process.

B ioengineers have developed a multistep strategy that applies different nanomaterials to wounds at different times to support both early- and late-stage healing. In a study published in the journal Biomaterials, the authors' method outperformed a common wound dressing in a diabetic mouse model, closing wounds faster and producing more robust skin tissue.

Clinically, the standard practice for wounds is to keep them clean and use a dressing to protect them while they heal. This approach gets the job done for most injuries but falls short for patients with conditions that interfere with the healing process, such as diabetes. In addition to causing poor circulation and neuropathy, diabetes can disrupt wound healing by impairing the function of various immune cells.

The researchers' analysis also suggests that their approach unexpectedly activated an immune cell population not normally seen in wounds that can resolve inflammation, which highlights a new potential avenue to accelerate healing.

The researchers devised a strategy to treat wounds like these and compared it to a commonly used dressing in a diabetic mouse model.

For the first step, the team fabricated a silk nanomaterial dressing embedded with gold nanorods. Because gold nanoparticles readily convert light to heat, the team was able to direct a laser at dressings placed over fresh wounds in mice, producing heat that quickly sealed them in place and provided a high level of protection.

The strategy, which the authors previously found success with, creates something akin to an instantaneous scab.

This time around, the authors added histamine to the mix, a natural biochemical produced by the immune system that plays important roles in inflammation, blood vessel development, and allergic reactions.

Inflammation dominates the body's initial response to injuries, but eventually subsides to allow the body to rebuild. However, diabetic wounds can get stuck in first gear, maintaining persistent, low-grade inflammation, which can inhibit the healing process.

Since the wound is stalled, the researchers wanted to co-deliver histamine with the dressing, to give a push and bring the inflammation stage to a resolution.

Part 1

The authors monitored the wounded mice for 11 days and found that animals treated with a combination of the nanomaterial dressing and histamine healed at the fastest rate compared to those treated with the standard dressing with histamine or the nanomaterial dressing alone.

The researchers mechanically tested the healed skin as well, finding that the tissue treated with both the nanomaterial and histamine was strongest and most similar to unwounded skin.
For a better understanding, the team analyzed tissue samples by assessing gene expression and examining cells under the microscope.

They found that a specific immune cell type, N2 neutrophils, were highly prevalent in treated wounds up to seven days post-injury. As the first responders of the immune system, these cells usually clear out within a day or two, making their presence in the wound after a week highly unusual. But since they are known to produce histamine and other reparative molecules, it is also possible that these immune cells are the linchpin of the treatment.
The team injected the nanoparticles at various time points into the nanomaterial-dressed wound bed, finding that delivery on day six had the best outcomes with regards to wound closure and tissue strength. This time point corresponds to a transitionary phase in which cells begin proliferating and remodeling tissue.
With promising results in mice behind them, the authors are now testing their strategy in larger animal models more relevant to human health, such as pigs.

Deepanjan Ghosh et al, Bioactive nanomaterials kickstart early repair processes and potentiate temporally modulated healing of healthy and diabetic wounds, Biomaterials (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122496

Part 2

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An outlandish molecule may be lurking inside Uranus and Neptune, affecting their magnetic fields

Scientists  have determined the conditions that enable the existence of a very peculiar ion. Dubbed aquodiium, it can be conceptualized as an ordinary neutral molecule of water with two additional protons stuck to it, resulting in a net double positive charge.

They  suggest that the ion could be stable in the interior of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, and if so, it must play a part in the mechanism that gives rise to these planets' unusual magnetic fields. The study is published in Physical Review B

The magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are not understood quite as well as those of Jupiter and Saturn—or our own planet, for that matter.

In the Earth's interior, circulation of the electronically conductive liquid iron-nickel alloy produces magnetism. Deep inside Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen is thought to be pressed into a metallic state and give rise to magnetic fields in much the same way.

By contrast, the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are hypothesized to stem from the circulation of ionically conductive media, where the constituent ions are themselves charge carriers, rather than merely a support structure enabling the flow of electrons.

If planetary scientists knew exactly what ions and in which proportions are involved, perhaps they could figure out why the ice giants' magnetospheres are so quirky: misaligned with the direction of the planets' rotation and offset from their physical centers.

They explain how ionic and electronic conductivity are different and where the newly predicted ion fits into this: The hydrogen surrounding Jupiter's rocky core at those conditions is a liquid metal: It can flow, the way molten iron in the Earth's interior flows, and its electrical conductivity is due to the free electrons shared by all the hydrogen atoms pressed together.

In Uranus, they think that hydrogen ions themselves—i.e., protons—are the free charge carriers. Not necessarily as standalone H⁺ ions, but perhaps in the form of hydronium H₃O⁺, ammonium NH₄⁺, and a series of other ions. This new study adds one more possibility, the H₄O²⁺ ion, which is extremely interesting from the chemical viewpoint."

Part 1

In chemistry, there's the notion of sp3 hybridization, which refers to the way electron orbitals combine with each other and amounts to something like a natural template for making plausible molecules and ions. Under sp3 hybridization, the nucleus of an atom—e.g., carbon, nitrogen, or oxygen—occupies the center point of an imaginary tetrahedron.

Each of the four vertices hosts either a valence electron or two paired electrons that are not available for making bonds with other atoms. The simplest example would be a carbon atom with four unpaired electrons at the four vertices—add four hydrogen atoms and you get a methane molecule: CH4.

For an oxygen atom, which has two electron pairs of its own in the outermost shell, along with two valence electrons, sp3 hybridization would mean only two of the vertices could host a covalent bond with hydrogen, with the remaining two occupied by electron pairs, which yields H2O, water.

If you attach a hydrogen ion (a proton) to one of the electron pairs, you get a hydronium ion H3O+, and this is actually what you get in an acid solution, because acids donate protons H+ into the solution and lone protons are immediately drawn to electron pairs.
Part 2

But the question was: Can you add yet another proton to the hydronium ion to fill in the missing piece? Such a configuration at normal conditions is energetically very unfavorable, but scientists' calculations show there are two things that can make it happen.
First, very high pressure compels matter to reduce its volume, and sharing a previously unused electron pair of oxygen with a hydrogen ion (proton) is a neat way of doing that: like a covalent bond with hydrogen, except both electrons in the pair come from oxygen. Second, you need lots of available protons, and that means an acidic environment, because that's what acids do—they donate protons.
The team used advanced computational tools to predict what happens to hydrofluoric acid and water under extreme conditions. The result: Given a pressure of about 1.5 million atmospheres and a temperature around 3,000 degrees Celsius, well-separated aquodiium H4O2+ ions turn up in the simulation.

The scientists think that their newly discovered ion should play an important role in the behavior and properties of water-based media, specifically those under pressure and containing acid.

This roughly corresponds to conditions on Uranus and Neptune, where an immensely deep liquid water ocean produces extremely high pressures and some amount of acid might be expected, too. If so, aquodiium ions will form and by participating in the ocean's circulation, will contribute to these planets' magnetic fields and other properties in ways distinct from other ions.
Perhaps, aquodiium might even form as yet unknown minerals under those extreme conditions.

ingyu Hou et al, H₄O²⁺ ion stabilized by pressure, Physical Review B (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.109.174102

Part 3

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From a purely technical point of view, sound in the air cannot be more intense than 194 dB. At this intensity, the individual sound waves interfere with each other and create a vacuum. Of course, it is possible to go beyond this limit, but we should talk more about a shock wave instead of a sound wave then.

Earthquakes are hardly ever associated with a loud noise, but the opposite is true. The most intense is submarine earthquakes. Even those registered 5.0 on the Richter scale reach a noise intensity of 235 dB in water.

Study Suggests Young Children Trust Robots Over Humans!

Many of us will be familiar with tales of kids befriending robots, which suggest generations of young children are more trusting of advice from machines than their own flesh and blood. An international research team has now found it's not just in fiction. In a study involving 111 kids aged between 3 and 6 years old, the youngsters showed a preference for believing robots more and being more accepting when robots made mistakes.
Where both humans and robots were shown to be equally reliable in the experiments, the youngsters were more likely to want to ask robots the names of new objects and accept their labels as accurate. What's more, the children were more likely to favor robots when asked about who they would share secrets with, who they would want to be friends with, and who they would want to have as teachers.
Children's conceptualizations of the agents making a mistake also differed, such that an unreliable human was selected as doing things on purpose, but not an unreliable robot.
These findings suggest that children's perceptions of a robot's reliability are separate from their evaluation of its desirability as a social interaction partner and its perceived agency."

There were individual differences in the responses: older kids were more trusting of humans than younger kids, but only when the robot was shown to be unreliable compared to the human. Taken as a whole though, the results showed these children thought reliable robots were more trustworthy than reliable humans.

One area where this research might be useful is in education, especially in a world where kids are increasingly surrounded by technology.

The researchers didn't ask anything about why these children felt that the robots they met could be trusted more than people.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563224000979

Study sheds new light on the contribution of dopamine to reinforcement learning

The neurotransmitter dopamine has often been linked to pleasure-seeking behaviors and making stimuli paired with rewards  valuable. Nonetheless, the processes through which this key chemical messenger contributes to learning have not yet been fully elucidated.

Researchers carried out a study now aimed at better understanding how dopaminergic neurons (i.e., brain cells supporting the production of dopamine) support reward-based learning. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that rather than representing the value attributed to different stimuli, these neurons contribute to the formation of new mental associations between stimuli and reward (or other neutral stimuli), which help us form cognitive maps of our environment.

This recent research has shown that firing of dopamine neurons act as the brain's teaching signal. This occurs whenever something new or salient happens, which helps us learn to associate events together to make a new memory. Critically, this work has shown that dopamine neurons do this without making things 'valuable' or 'good' in and of themselves.

This work is at odds with past studies that have defined dopamine as the neurotransmitter producing "happiness" or "pleasure." However, if dopaminergic neurons do not carry value signals, they should be unable to attribute positive or pleasurable qualities to specific experiences or actions.

The results of their experiment suggest that when dopamine neurons fire in everyday life, they're not making things valuable. Instead, they function to help us form new memories or how things in our environment are related. In a case where dopamine neurons fire more than they are supposed to (e.g., when taking drugs of abuse), this may be encoded in the brain as a rewarding event that makes us more likely to seek out drugs in future.

Overall, this recent study by researchers could greatly contribute to the understanding of dopamine and its role in reward-based (i.e., reinforcement) learning. In particular, their findings suggest that dopamine neurons do not carry value signals that attach pleasure or happiness to stimuli in the environment.

The researchers are now interested in finding how different dopamine circuits contribute to different types of learning and how this helps us to create a complex but unified representation of our environment.

Samuel J. Millard et al, Cognitive representations of intracranial self-stimulation of midbrain dopamine neurons depend on stimulation frequency, Nature Neuroscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01643-1

Greener, more effective termite control: Natural compound attracts wood eaters

Scientists have discovered a highly effective, nontoxic, and less expensive way to lure hungry termites to their doom.

The method, detailed in the Journal of Economic Entomology, uses a pleasant-smelling chemical released by forest trees called pinene that reminds western drywood termites of their food. They follow the scent to a spot of insecticide injected into wood.

Researchers saw significant differences in the death rates using insecticide alone versus the insecticide plus pinene. Without pinene, they got about 70% mortality. When they added it in, it was over 95%.

Fumigation is one of the most common drywood termite control techniques. Homes are covered with tents and then bombed with gas that kills the insects.

The pest control industry is under pressure to find new methods because the chemical, sulfuryl fluoride, is both a greenhouse gas and is also toxic to humans. Additionally, fumigation is an expensive process that does not provide lasting protection against termites.

Even though it is very thorough, a home can be infested again soon after fumigation is completed. Some people fumigate every three to five years because it doesn't protect structures from future infestations.

Localized injection is an alternative strategy to control drywood termites that does not involve gas. Technicians drill holes into the infested wood to reach the termite "gallery" or lair, then inject poison into the hole to inundate the bugs.

This is a more localized treatment, and in theory, it is a better strategy when you want to control drywood termites with fewer chemicals. It's less expensive, and the treated wood may also stay protected from future infestations.

The challenge with localized injection is figuring out exactly where the bugs are hiding. Typically, this method uses a contact-based insecticide, meaning the insects must touch the poison for it to work.

Using an attractant like pinene eliminates the need to hunt for the termites. Even at low concentrations, pinene is good at attracting termites from a distance.

 Nicholas A Poulos et al, Potential use of pinenes to improve localized insecticide injections targeting the western drywood termite (Blattodea: Kalotermitidae), Journal of Economic Entomology (2024). DOI: 10.1093/jee/toae101

Doctors develop minimally invasive procedure to avoid drilling a 'burr hole' in the skull to treat clot on the brain

In 2018, a New York surgeon-scientist and his team demonstrated in a proof-of-concept study that a minimally invasive procedure could effectively treat one of the world's most common conditions requiring neurosurgical intervention.

The condition is called chronic subdural hematoma, an accumulation of blood and blood breakdown products on the brain's surface just beneath the dura, the brain's protective covering. The mass is caused by damaged vessels that chronically leak blood between the brain and the dura. Risk factors for the abnormality, which can reach significant size, include older age; untreated head trauma; long-term use of blood thinning agents, such as warfarin, or extensive time on anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen.

Now doctors at Stony Brook Medicine report that not only is the new method of alleviating chronic subdural hematoma effective, it's destined to replace the invasive old-school surgery to remove the accumulation of blood.

The new method of treatment is called middle meningeal artery embolization—MMAE—which relies on an injectable fluid to plug the leakage. Studies conducted around the world show that it's safe, effective and eliminates the risks of surgery. Research at Stony Brook led to a global study of the procedure, and doctors have now demonstrated that the new method not only stops the leakage, it forces the hematoma into permanent retreat.

The standard of care for decades has been surgery, which was designed to provide drainage by drilling a burr hole into the skull or performing a craniotomy, the surgical removal of a portion of the skull to release accumulated blood. While these procedures can alleviate the mass, a chronic subdural hematoma can recur despite the highly invasive attempt to eliminate it. The recurrence rate runs as high as 20%, studies have shown.

Worse, surgery is often poorly tolerated by a broad population of patients.

Chronic subdural hematoma as an insidious condition, developing slowly, often over weeks to months. The mass can put pressure on the brain causing a range of symptoms: slurred speech, forgetfulness, impaired motor function, even coma.

The new approach uses a specialized fluid that is injected into the middle meningeal arteries through a micro-catheter. The liquid embolic agent blocks—embolizes—the abnormal blood vessels that are responsible for the chronic leakage of blood onto the brain's surface. The liquid embolic agent solidifies once it enters the vasculature. Doctors view each step of the procedure via imaging technology.

The enormous potential of a minimally invasive procedure that is safe and effective has captured the attention of neurosurgeons around the world.

David Fiorella et al, Middle meningeal artery embolization for the management of chronic subdural hematoma: what a difference a few years make, Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery (2023). DOI: 10.1136/jnis-2023-020498

Arindam Rano Chatterjee, Invited Commentary: A New Era in the Treatment of Chronic Subdural Hematomas, RadioGraphics (2024). DOI: 10.1148/rg.240038

Researchers identify first step in allergic reactions, paving the way for preventative strategies

Scientists  have identified how the first domino falls after a person encounters an allergen, such as peanuts, shellfish, pollen or dust mites. Their discovery, published in the journal Nature Immunology, could herald the development of drugs to prevent these severe reactions.

It is well established that when mast cells, a type of immune cell, mistake a harmless substance, such as peanuts or dust mites, as a threat, they release an immediate first wave of bioactive chemicals against the perceived threat. When mast cells, which reside under the skin, around blood vessels and in the linings of the airways and the gastrointestinal tract, simultaneously release their pre-stored load of bioactive chemicals into the blood, instant and systemic shock can result, which can be lethal without quick intervention.

More than 10% of the global population suffers from food allergies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As allergy rates continue to climb, so does the incidence of food-triggered anaphylaxis and asthma worldwide.

What the researchers have now discovered is that the release of particulate mast cell granules, which contain these bioactive chemicals, is controlled by two members of an intracellular multiprotein complex called inflammasome. Until now, these inflammasome proteins were only known to spontaneously assemble within immune cells to secrete soluble chemicals to alert other parts of the immune system upon detection of an infection.

They discovered that the inflammasome components played a surprisingly crucial role in transporting particulate mast cell granules which are typically packed in the cell center to the cell surface where they are released. This surprising discovery gives us a precise target where we can intervene to prevent the cascade of events initiated in mast cells that leads to anaphylactic shock.

Andrea Mencarelli et al, Anaphylactic degranulation by mast cells requires the mobilization of inflammasome components, Nature Immunology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41590-024-01788-y

Some countries could meet their total electricity needs from floating solar panels, research shows

Floating solar photovoltaic panels could supply all the electricity needs of some countries, new research has shown.

The study 's aimed to calculate the global potential for deploying low-carbon floating solar arrays. The researchers calculated the daily electrical output for floating photovoltaics (FPVs) on nearly 68,000 lakes and reservoirs around the world, using available climate data for each location.

The researchers' calculations included lakes and reservoirs where floating solar technology is most likely to be installed. They were no more than 10km from a population center, not in a protected area, didn't dry up and didn't freeze for more than six months each year. The researchers calculated output based on FPVs covering just 10% of their surface area, up to a maximum of 30 km².

While output fluctuated depending on altitude, latitude and season, the potential annual electricity generation from FPVs on these lakes was 1,302 terawatt hours (TWh), around four times the total annual electricity demand of the UK.

FPVs have a number of additional advantages over land-based solar installations: they free up land for other uses and they keep panels cooler, making them more efficient.

There is some evidence for other environmental benefits, including reducing water loss through evaporation, by sheltering the lake surface from the sun and wind; and reducing algal blooms by limiting light and preventing nutrient circulation.

However, the researchers point out that we still don't know exactly how floating panels might affect the ecosystem within a natural lake, in different conditions and locations. But the potential gain in energy generation from FPVs is clear, so we need to put that research in place so this technology can be safely adopted. 

 Decarbonisation potential of floating solar photovoltaics on lakes worldwide, Nature Water (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00251-4. www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00251-4

Study finds maternal obesity in mice increases microRNA levels in the hypothalamus in offspring, leading to overeating

Maternal obesity impacts the eating behaviours of offspring via long-term overexpression of the microRNA miR-505-5p, according to a study publishing June 4 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

 Previous studies in both humans and animal models have shown that the offspring of obese mothers have a higher risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. While this relationship is likely the result of a complex relationship between genetics and environment, emerging evidence has implicated that maternal obesity can disrupt the hypothalamus—the region of the brain responsible for nutrition sensing and energy homeostasis.

In animal models, offspring exposed to overnutrition during key periods of development eat more, but little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to these changes in eating behaviour.

In this new study, researchers found that mice born from obese mothers had higher levels of the microRNA miR-505-5p in their hypothalamus—from as early as the fetal stage into adulthood. The researchers found that the mice ate more and showed a preference for high-fat foods. Interestingly, the effect of maternal obesity on miR-505-5p and eating behaviours was mitigated if the mothers exercised during pregnancy.

Cell culture experiments showed that miR-505-5p expression could be induced by exposing hypothalamic neurons to long-chain fatty acids and insulin, which are both high in pregnancies complicated by obesity. The researchers identified miR-505-5p as a novel regulator of pathways involved in fatty acid uptake and metabolism, therefore, high levels of the miRNA make the offspring brain unable to sense when eating high fat foods.

Several of the genes that miR-505-5p regulates have been associated with high body mass index in human genetic studies. The study is one of the first to demonstrate the molecular mechanism linking nutritional exposure in utero to eating behaviour.

This research work helps us understand why the children of mothers living with obesity are more likely to become obese themselves, with early life exposures, genetics and current environment all being contributing factors.

Dearden L, Furigo IC, Pantaleão LC, Wong LWP, Fernandez-Twinn DS, de Almeida-Faria J, et al. Maternal obesity increases hypothalamic miR-505-5p expression in mouse offspring leading to altered fatty acid sensing and increased intake of high-fat food. PLoS Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002641

Commonly used alcohol-based mouthwash brand may disrupt the balance of your oral microbiome, scientists say

The oral microbiome is the community of bacteria that live in the mouth. It helps us digest our food and keep our mouth healthy. Changes to the composition of the oral microbiome have been linked to periodontal diseases and some cancers.

New research, published in Journal of Medical Microbiology is a follow-up to a larger study investigating the use of mouthwash as a method to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases in men who have sex with men. Researchers wanted to explore further and investigate whether the mouthwash used had an impact on the oral microbiome of the patients.

Researchers found that two species of opportunistic bacteria were significantly more abundant in the mouth after three months of daily use of the alcohol-based mouthwash, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Streptococcus anginosus. These two bacteria have been previously linked to gum disease, esophageal and colorectal cancers. Researchers also saw a decrease in a group of bacteria called Actinobacteria, which are crucial contributors to the regulation of blood pressure.

Alcohol-based mouthwashes are widely available. The public may use them daily to tackle bad breath or prevent periodontitis, but they should be aware of the potential implications.

The effect of daily usage of Listerine Cool Mint mouthwash on the oropharyngeal microbiome: a substudy of the PReGo trial, Journal of Medical Microbiology (2024). DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.001830

New model suggests partner anti-universe could explain accelerated expansion without the need for dark energy

The accelerated expansion of the present universe, believed to be driven by a mysterious dark energy, is one of the greatest puzzles in our understanding of the cosmos. The standard model of cosmology called Lambda-CDM, explains this expansion as a cosmological constant in Einstein's field equations. However, the cosmological constant itself lacks a complete theoretical understanding, particularly regarding its very small positive value.

To explain the accelerated expansion, physicists have proposed alternative explanations such as quintessence and modified gravity theories, including scalar-tensor-vector gravity. Additionally, explanations beyond four dimensions, like the braneworld scenarios in the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model, modify gravity at large distances due to the effect of a higher-dimensional bulk on our four-dimensional brane, and variable brane tension.

Some researchers are now proposing another model to explain the present accelerated expansion of the universe. Unlike existing models, this does not require any form of dark energy or modified gravity approaches. However, there is a price to pay: we need a partner anti-universe whose time flow is oppositely related to our universe.

There are strong arguments supporting this concept. From a quantum theory perspective, it is natural for the universe to be created in pairs. Recently, Boyle et al proposed that the universe does not spontaneously violate CPT (Charge, Parity, and Time reversal symmetry), but rather, the universe after the Big Bang is the CPT image of the universe before it, pointing towards a partner anti-universe.

In a recent paper published in Gravitation and Cosmology, researchers used key concepts from quantum theory, such as relative entropy, and from general relativity, such as the null energy condition, which corresponds to the positive energy condition. The findings suggest that the universe naturally expands in an accelerated manner.

Part 1

Relative entropy, which requires two states, in this case, corresponds to the universe and its partner anti-universe. Accelerated expansion seems inevitable in a universe created in pairs that respect the null energy condition. This result is quite surprising and readers familiar with Hawking's area theorem may notice some similarities. The area theorem also deals with causal horizons and requires the null energy condition to hold.

In this new model, the causal horizon corresponds to the Big Bang. The results apply equally to the partner anti-universe.

 Naman Kumar, On the Accelerated Expansion of the Universe, Gravitation and Cosmology (2024). DOI: 10.1134/S0202289324010080

Part 2

**

Nocturnal heat exposure and stroke risk

Hot Nights Linked With Increased Risk of Stroke, Scientists Warn

The risk of suffering a stroke is significantly higher with high overnight temperatures, posing a potential health concern around the globe as the world gets warmer.

Mapping night-time temperatures against the number of stroke cases recorded in the German city of Augsburg across the course of 15 years, a research team found a statistically significant increase in stroke risk on days where extremely warm night-time temperatures were recorded, with older people and women particularly vulnerable.

Overall, the risk of stroke increased by 7 percent during nights categorized as "tropical". For the purposes of this research, a tropical night was one where the temperature remained above 14.6 °C (58.3 °F). These nights represented the hottest 5 percent of nights across the course of the study period.

There was evidence of a higher number of stroke incidents over time, too: from 2006 to 2012, hot nights were linked to two additional strokes per year, whereas from 2013 to 2020, hot nights were associated with 33 additional cases per year. That reflects increasing temperatures as the years went by.

The researchers say a variety of factors could be behind the statistics, including a greater chance of dehydration – already known to increase the likelihood of suffering a stroke. Limited access to technology such as air conditioning could also play a part.

https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurh...

"In summary, changes in underlying drivers from climatic factors, stroke risk factors, and socioeconomic conditions may contribute to the increased susceptibility to night-time heat-related stroke over time," write the researchers in their published paper.

'Painting with light' illuminates photo evidence of air pollution

Rate of global warming caused by humans is at an all-time high, say scientists

The second annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report reveals that human-induced warming has risen to 1.19 °C over the past decade (2014-2023)—an increase from the 1.14 °C seen in 2013-2022 (set out in last year's report).

Looking at 2023 in isolation, warming caused by human activity reached 1.3 °C. This is lower than the total amount of warming we experienced in 2023 (1.43 °C), indicating that natural climate variability, in particular El Niño, also played a role in 2023's record temperatures.

The analysis also shows that the remaining carbon budget—how much carbon dioxide can be emitted before committing us to 1.5 °C of global warming—is only around 200 gigatons (billion tons), around five years' worth of current emissions.

In 2020, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated that the remaining carbon budget for 1.5 °C was in the 300–900 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide range, with a central estimate of 500. Since then, CO₂ emissions and global warming have continued. At the start of 2024, the remaining carbon budget for 1.5 °C stood at 100 to 450 gigatons, with a central estimate of 200.

This analysis by scientists shows that the level of global warming caused by human action has continued to increase over the past year, even though climate action has slowed the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Global temperatures are still heading in the wrong direction and faster than ever before.

The latest Indicator report, which is published by more than 50 scientists in the journal Earth System Science Data, also provides new insight into the effects of reductions in sulfur emissions from the global shipping industry. The sulfur has a cooling effect on the climate by directly reflecting sunlight back to space and by helping more reflective clouds to form, but ongoing reductions in those emissions have lessened that effect.

Although this was offset last year by the aerosol emissions from the Canadian wildfires, the report says the longer-term trend nonetheless indicates that the amount of cooling we can expect from aerosol emissions is continuing to decline.

 Indicators of Global Change report, Earth System Science Data (2024).

Scientists sound the alarm on pharmaceutical pollution crisis

Our increasing dependency on pharmaceuticals comes at a major environmental cost, researchers have warned.

In an article published in the journal Nature Sustainability, researchers warn that discharges to the environment during drug production, use, and disposal have resulted in ecosystems around the globe being polluted with mixtures of pharmaceuticals, posing a growing danger to wildlife and human health.

While emphasizing that pharmaceuticals are indispensable in modern health care and will remain crucial in the future, the researchers highlight the need for designing and manufacturing more sustainable drugs to combat this issue at source.

A wide variety of drugs have now been detected in environments spanning all continents on Earth.

Exposure to even trace concentrations of some of these drugs can have severe impacts on the health of wildlife and human populations, and has already led to severe population crashes in vultures throughout India and Pakistan, as well as widespread sex-reversal of fish populations exposed to the human contraceptive pill.

Pharmaceutical pollution is a complex problem that demands a multifaceted solution. So far, environmental protection efforts have mainly been focused on upgrading wastewater treatment infrastructure to remove drugs before release into waterways more effectively.

Part 1

Despite being an important part of an overall solution, wastewater treatment is unable to address this issue in isolation.

In the article, 17 leading international scientists call for an increased focus on designing greener and more sustainable pharmaceuticals to tackle this issue at its source.

Tomas Brodin et al, The urgent need for designing greener drugs, Nature Sustainability (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01374-y

Part 2

Scientists develop electrified charcoal 'sponge' that can soak up CO₂ directly from the air

Researchers have developed a low-cost, energy-efficient method for making materials that can capture carbon dioxide directly from the air.

They used a method similar to charging a battery to instead charge activated charcoal, which is often used in household water filters.

By charging the charcoal 'sponge' with ions that form reversible bonds with CO₂, the researchers found the charged material could successfully capture CO₂ directly from the air.

The charged charcoal sponge is also potentially more energy efficient than current carbon capture approaches, since it requires much lower temperatures to remove the captured CO₂ so it can be stored. The results are reported in the journal Nature.

Alexander Forse et al, Capturing carbon dioxide from air with charged-sorbents, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07449-2. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07449-2

Study shows orexin neurons can track how fast blood glucose changes
The concentration of glucose in the blood of humans continuously changes in response to what they eat and the activities they engage in. While many studies have investigated changes in blood glucose, the role of different neurons in tracking and predicting these changes remains poorly understood.
Researchers recently carried out a study investigating the potential role of a specific type of neuron, called orexin neurons, in tracking blood glucose levels. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that orexin neurons in the mouse brain are responsible for tracking how fast blood glucose levels are changing.

In the 2000s, a lot of scientific effort went into identifying the so-called 'glucose-sensing neurons,' since these cells may alter our brain function based on what is happening minute-to-minute inside our body. With the huge 'diabesity [diabetes + obesity] epidemic' happening in some countries this was also important because sugar was implicated. Between 2005 and 2011, Burdakov's research lab contributed to the identification and characterization of glucose-sensing in orexin neurons. These are specialized neurons that have been found to sense glucose and produce the neurotransmitter orexin/hypocretin.
Orexin/hypocretin is a chemical "messenger" that contributes to the regulation of various physiological processes, including arousal, wakefulness and appetite. Orexin-producing neurons, identified about three decades ago, are only found in the hypothalamus, yet they innervate the entire central nervous system in humans and other mammals.
Orexin neurons are so important for our arousal and consciousness that without this small cluster of cells our normal consciousness is lost (as in narcolepsy—which is a disorder caused by loss of orexin cells or orexin in humans)
Part 1

Earlier experiments indicated that orexin cells are profoundly silenced by glucose, but that was 'in a dish,' in the experiments in isolated orexin cells. It since transpired that, in the living brain of a behaving mammal, orexin cells are profoundly controlled by many other things, including direct neural inputs from much of the brain.
The concentration of glucose in the blood is not only controlled by eating and exercising, it is known to also be regulated by the naturally occurring hormone insulin and the liver, which produce dynamic waves of blood glucose. Researchers used their sensors introduced in arteries to monitor these wave-like changes in glucose concentration over time.
This allowed them to note at what point in the waves (i.e., at their crest, trough, rise, fall) orexin neurons in the mouse brain became excited or fell silent. In addition, the researchers observed the behavior of the mice, particularly their spontaneous running, to determine whether it was influenced by blood glucose in normal mice and in mice that did not have orexin-producing neurons.
They found that the biggest modulation of orexin cell activity happened during the rise and fall of blood glucose waves. Surprisingly, orexin cells appeared almost blind to absolute levels of blood glucose, but mostly tracked the rises and falls, especially the rate-of-change of glucose during these rises and falls.
The findings gathered by the researchers highlight the potential role of orexin cells in tracking blood glucose levels, particularly their temporal features (i.e., their changes over time). They thus shed new light on the complex neurobiology of blood glucose perception in the brain.

Paulius Viskaitis et al, Orexin neurons track temporal features of blood glucose in behaving mice, Nature Neuroscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01648-w

Part 2

The first example of cellular origami discovered in protist

Combining a deep curiosity and "recreational biology,"  researchers have discovered how a simple cell produces remarkably complex behavior, all without a nervous system. It's origami, they say.

It is a  single teardrop-shaped cell that swims in a droplet of pond water. In an instant, a long, thin "neck" projects out from the bulbous lower end. And it keeps going. And going. Then, just as quickly, the neck retracts back, as if nothing had happened.

In seconds, a cell that was just 40 microns tip-to-tail sprouted a neck that extended 1,500 microns or more out into the world. It is the equivalent of a 6-foot human projecting its head more than 200 feet. All from a cell without a nervous system. All this is because of origami!

Eliott Flaum et al, Curved crease origami and topological singularities enable hyperextensibility of L. olor, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adk5511. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk5511

Study links nanoparticles to altered blood vessel formation in embryos

Human life begins with a single egg cell that grows into a human being with trillions of cells. To ensure that the highly complex development of tissues and organs is as protected as possible, the placental barrier keeps pathogens and foreign substances out. Some researchers are investigating how this protective mechanism copes with nanoparticles.

The findings are published in the journal Advanced Science.

Nanoparticles are contained in a large number of products, but they are also produced during wear and tear as well as through combustion processes. We absorb these substances from the environment via our food, cosmetics or the air we breathe.

Some of these nanoparticles are suspected of harming babies in the womb. Low birth weight, autism and respiratory diseases are among the possible consequences for the child.

It is still unclear how the nanoparticles affect the unborn child. We already know that the placental barrier retains many nanoparticles or at least delays their transport to the embryo. However, damage to the fetal tissue occurs, even if no particles have been detected in the fetus. The researchers are now getting to the bottom of this long-range effect of nanoparticles. They are investigating the consequences of common nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide or diesel soot on the function of the placenta and their indirect damage to embryonic development.

For this purpose, the team used fully functional human placentas that were made available after planned cesarean sections. Human placental tissue is the only way to obtain meaningful results on the transport and effect of nanoparticles. The structure, metabolism and interaction of maternal and fetal tissue are unique and species-specific.

Part 1

The experiments showed that nanoparticles in placental tissue disrupt the production of a large number of messenger substances. And it is these messengers that can trigger serious changes in embryonic development, such as disturbed blood vessel formation.
These effects can be visualized in laboratory models using chicken eggs. The blood vessels in the egg actually grow at an enormous speed and density to enable embryonic development. A dense network of fine blood vessels covers the inside of the eggshell.

The situation is strikingly different in eggs treated with the altered messenger substances from the nanoparticle-treated placenta: In the experiments, the blood vessel system was not as dense but rather coarse-meshed. "Nanoparticles apparently have an indirect effect on the child in the womb by inhibiting the formation of blood vessels via messenger substances.
The researchers are currently investigating the health consequences of this.

Battuja Dugershaw‐Kurzer et al, Nanoparticles Dysregulate the Human Placental Secretome with Consequences on Angiogenesis and Vascularization, Advanced Science (2024). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202401060

Part 2

Dad’s diet affects sons’ health

Epigenetic inheritance of diet-induced and sperm-borne mitochondrial RNAs

A father’s sperm records his diet, which affects his sons’ metabolism — in both mice and in humans. The male offspring of mice that ate high-fat foods were more likely to have problems such as glucose intolerance, a characteristic of diabetes. And the sons of human dads with a high body-mass index had similar problems, according to an analysis of more than 3,000 children. In mice, an unhealthy diet changed certain types of sperm RNA, which could alter the offspring’s epigenome — the collection of chemical tags hanging from DNA and its associated proteins. Why this seems to only affect sons is “a very good question for future studies."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07472-3?utm_source=Live+...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01623-2?utm_source=Live+...

Bird flu in cows could spread through milk
Astonishing amounts of H5N1 virus have been found in the raw milk of cows infected with avian influenza. The virus can survive for hours in splattered milk. This reinforces that the milking process is probably driving transmission among cows and might be spreading the virus to humans. The fact that H5N1 doesn’t seem to spread through airborne particles is good news. It means changes to milking procedures — such as disinfecting equipment between cows and protective equipment to farm workers — could help to bring the outbreak under control.

Nature | 5 min read
Reference: bioRxiv preprint & medRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)

Timing drug administration to endogenous circadian rhythms may enhance treatment efficacy

Taking blood pressure medication at a time that aligns with your personal chronotype – the way your body's circadian rhythm affects when you go to sleep and get up – could help to protect the heart against the risk of heart attack, a new study shows.

It may be beneficial for night owls to take their medication in the evening, and for early birds to take it in the morning. These timings seem to offer some protection against the risks associated with BP (also known as hypertension). The international team of researchers behind the new study looked at records for more than 5,300 individuals, who answered questions about their chronotype, before being randomly split into groups and instructed to take their blood pressure meds at different times. Participants were then monitored over several months. These results are exciting because they could represent a paradigm shift in the treatment of hypertension. This research has now shown for the first time that considering chronotype when deciding [the] dosing time of antihypertensives – [a strategy called] personalized chronotherapy – could reduce the risk of heart attack. Each person's circadian rhythm (24-hour biological cycle) varies slightly, based on genetics and other factors. These rhythms are well known for influencing our sleep patterns, but they also help to dictate body temperature, hormones, metabolism – and, importantly for this study, BP levels. If blood pressure cycles up and down throughout the day, the time that medications are taken might matter, the researchers hypothesized.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(24)...

Microplastics found in every semen sample tested by research team
A team of public health researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China has found microplastics in the semen of every sample they tested. In their study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, the group looked for microplastics in semen samples obtained from 36 healthy adult men.

Prior research has shown that microplastics are nearly everywhere, found on mountaintops, remote islands in the upper atmosphere and the depths of the world's oceans. They have also been found in every organ in the human body.

In a recent discovery, scientists found that the average person consumes plastic in amounts equal to about one credit card every week. The researchers note that plastics can enter the body in multiple ways, such as through drinking from water bottles, breathing air particulates, or eating food heated in plastic containers. They further note that it is now practically impossible for people to avoid ingesting microplastics.

The health impacts remain unknown, but many scientists around the world are looking into it, suspecting microplastic ingestion may be behind many inflammatory diseases.
In this new effort, the research team wondered if ingested microplastics might be behind the global drop in fertility rates. To find out, they recruited 36 healthy adult males living in the city of Jinan, in the eastern part of China, who did not work in the plastics industry—each donated a sample of semen for testing.

Each of the samples was prepared by mixing it with a chemical solution then filtered for analysis by a team member using a microscope. The researchers found microplastics in every sample. They also found eight types of plastics, the most common of which was polystyrene, which is commonly used in packaging foam.
The team also found lower sperm motility in the semen samples containing polyvinyl chloride plastic bits, a finding that may help explain the decline in fertility rates.

Ning Li et al, Prevalence and implications of microplastic contaminants in general human seminal fluid: A Raman spectroscopic study, Science of The Total Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173522

Highlights of the study:

• •An early study to detect microplastics in semen from a general population cohort
• •Eight MP polymer types were identified, with PS, PE, and PVC most prevalent.
• •Raman microspectroscopy enabled sub-micron microplastic characterization.
• •PS and PVC correlated with differential effects on sperm motility.

• As widespread environmental pollution, MPs/NPs raise concerns about reproductive toxicity.

• •

  Infertility affects 15 % couples globally, with environmental factors playing a significant role.

• •

  Limited understanding of MPs/NPs effects on testes and ovaries necessitates further research.

• •

  Contaminants carried by particles may synergistically contribute to reproductive toxicity.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723048830

Part 2

Researcher suggests that gravity can exist without mass, mitigating the need for hypothetical dark matter

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is implied by gravitational effects that can't be explained by general relativity unless more matter is present in the universe than can be seen. It remains virtually as mysterious as it was nearly a century ago when first suggested by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1932 to explain the so-called "missing mass" necessary for things like galaxies to clump together.

Now Dr. Richard Lieu at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has published a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that shows, for the first time, how gravity can exist without mass, providing an alternative theory that could potentially mitigate the need for dark matter.  

The researcher contends the "excess" gravity necessary to bind a galaxy or cluster together could be due instead to concentric sets of shell-like topological defects in structures commonly found throughout the cosmos that were most likely created during the early universe when a phase transition occurred. A cosmological phase transition is a physical process where the overall state of matter changes together across the entire universe.

It is unclear presently what precise form of phase transition in the universe could give rise to topological defects of this sort.

Topological effects are very compact regions of space with a very high density of matter, usually in the form of linear structures known as cosmic strings, although 2D structures such as spherical shells are also possible.

Part 1

The shells in this paper consist of a thin inner layer of positive mass and a thin outer layer of negative mass; the total mass of both layers—which is all one could measure, mass-wise—is exactly zero, but when a star lies on this shell it experiences a large gravitational force pulling it towards the center of the shell.
As gravitational force fundamentally involves the warping of space-time itself, it enables all objects to interact with each other, whether they have mass or not. Massless photons, for example, have been confirmed to experience gravitational effects from astronomical objects.
Gravitational bending of light by a set of concentric singular shells comprising a galaxy or cluster is due to a ray of light being deflected slightly inwards—that is, towards the center of the large-scale structure, or the set of shells—as it passes through one shell.
The sum total effect of passage through many shells is a finite and measurable total deflection which mimics the presence of a large amount of dark matter in much the same way as the velocity of stellar orbits.

Both the deflection of light and stellar orbital velocities is the only means by which one gauges the strength of the gravitational field in a large-scale structure, be it a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. The contention of this paper is that at least the shells it posits are massless. There is then no need to perpetuate this seemingly endless search for dark matter.

Richard Lieu, The binding of cosmological structures by massless topological defects, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1258

Part 2

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Researchers discover Earth and space share the same turbulence

In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers have discovered that the turbulence in the thermosphere exhibits the same physical laws as the wind in the lower atmosphere. Furthermore, wind in the thermosphere predominantly rotates in a cyclonic direction, in that it rotates counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

The findings reveal a new unified principle for the Earth's varied environmental systems and can potentially improve future forecasting of both earth and space weather.

Facundo L. Poblet et al, Third‐Order Structure Functions of Zonal Winds in the Thermosphere Using CHAMP and GOCE Observations, Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024GL108367

When Water Flows Uphill