New Zealand's kākāpō developed different feather colors to evade predatory birds, genome sequencing shows

Evolution: Aotearoa New Zealand's flightless parrot, the kākāpō, evolved two different color types to potentially help them avoid detection by a now-extinct apex predator , researchers report in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

The kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) is a nocturnal, flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. It experienced severe population declines after European settlers introduced new predators. By 1995 there were just 51 individuals left, but intense conservation efforts have helped the species rebound to around 250 birds. Kākāpō come in one of two colors—green or olive—which occur in roughly equal proportions.

To understand how this color variation evolved and why it was maintained despite population declines, researchers analyzed genome sequence data for 168 individuals, representing nearly all living kākāpō at the time of sequencing. They identified two genetic variants that together explain color variation across all the kākāpō they studied.

Scanning electron microscopy showed that green and olive feathers reflect slightly different wavelengths of light because of differences in their microscopic structure. The researchers estimate that olive coloration first appeared around 1.93 million years ago, coinciding with the evolution of two predatory birds: Haast's eagle and Eyles' harrier.

Computer simulations suggest that whichever color was rarer would have been less likely to be detected by predators, explaining why both colors persisted in the kākāpō population over time.

The results suggest that kākāpō coloration evolved due to pressure from apex predators that hunted by sight. This variation has remained even after the predators went extinct, around 600 years ago.

The authors argue that understanding the origins of kākāpō coloration might have relevance to the conservation of this critically endangered species. They show that without intervention, kākāpō color variation could be lost within just 30 generations, but it would be unlikely to negatively impact the species today.

Urban L, Santure AW, Uddstrom L, Digby A, Vercoe D, Eason D, et al. (2024) The genetic basis of the kākāpō structural color polymorphism suggests balancing selection by an extinct apex predator. PLoS Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002755

Paleontologists discover fossil birds with teeth had seeds in their stomachs, indicating that they ate fruit

For paleontologists who study animals that lived long ago, fossilized remains tell only part of the story of an animal's life. While a well-preserved skeleton can provide hints at what an ancient animal ate or how it moved, irrefutable proof of these behaviors is hard to come by. But sometimes, scientists luck out with extraordinary fossils that preserve something beyond the animal's body.

In a study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers found fossilized seeds in the stomachs of one of the earliest birds. This discovery shows that these birds were eating fruits, despite a long-standing hypothesis that this species of bird feasted on fish (and more recent hypotheses it ate insects) with its incredibly strong teeth.

Longipteryx chaoyangensis lived 120 million years ago in what's now northeastern China. It's among the earliest known birds, and one of the strangest.

This bird is weird. It had a  long skull, and teeth only at the tip of its beak. 

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body, and Longipteryx's tooth enamel is 50 microns thick. That's the same thickness of the enamel on enormous predatory dinosaurs like Allosaurus that weighed 4,000 pounds, but Longipteryx is the size of a bluejay. 

Longipteryx was discovered in 2000, and at the time, scientists suggested that its kingfisher-like elongated skull meant that it too hunted fish. However, this hypothesis has been challenged by a number of scientists.

There are other fossil birds, like Yanornis, that ate fish, and scientists know because specimens have been found with preserved stomach contents, and fish tend to preserve well. Plus, these fish-eating birds had lots of teeth, all the way along their beaks, unlike how Longipteryx only has teeth at the very tip of its beak.

However, no specimens of Longipteryx had been found with fossilized food still in their stomachs for scientists to confirm what it ate— until now.

Since Longipteryx lived in a temperate climate, it probably wasn't eating fruits year-round;  scientists suspect that it had a mixed diet which included things like insects when fruits weren't available.

Part 1

Longipteryx is part of a larger group of prehistoric birds called the enantiornithines, and this discovery marks the first time that scientists have found any stomach contents from an enantiornithine in China's Jehol Biota despite thousands of uncovered fossils.

"It's always been weird that we didn't know what they were eating, but this study also hints at a bigger picture problem in paleontology, that physical characteristics of a fossil don't always tell the whole story about what the animal ate or how it lived.
Since Longipteryx apparently wasn't hunting for fish, that leaves a question: what was it using its long, pointy beak and crazy-strong teeth for? The thick enamel is overpowered, it seems to be weaponized.
Weaponized beaks in hummingbirds have evolved at least seven times, allowing them to compete for limited resources. Clark suggested the hypothesis that perhaps Longipteryx's teeth and beak also served as a weapon, perhaps evolving under social or sexual selection.

Direct evidence of frugivory in the Mesozoic bird Longipteryx contradicts morphological proxies for diet, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.012. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(24)01124-2

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Researchers find live fungi, bacteria and viruses high in the Earth's atmosphere

A team of climate, health and atmospheric specialists  has found abundant live fungi, bacteria and viruses high in the Earth's atmosphere. In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group collected air samples from altitudes of 1,000–3,000 meters.

Prior research has shown that dust can travel thousands of miles in the atmosphere—large amounts of dust from Africa are carried to both North and South America, for example. Prior research has also shown that microbes that attach to dust can be carried equally far.

For this new study, the researchers wondered how high in the atmosphere microbes might be found and whether they could survive the trip. To learn more, they chartered a small plane that carried them aloft over parts of Japan, where they collected air samples at altitudes of 1,000–3,000 meters near the planetary boundary. They also gathered weather data related to the air column in areas where they had flown.
In an air-controlled lab, they conducted a DNA analysis on the microbes found in the samples as a way to identify what they were and also which types. They found examples of fungi, bacteria and viruses, many of which, the team noted, are hazardous to human health.

They also found that many of the microbes were still viable—they grew cultures of them in lab dishes. In all, the team found 266 types of fungi and 305 types of bacteria.

The researchers noted that many of both types were of the kind that are often found in soil or plants. They suspect that due to the geographic location of the microbes, the height at which they were found and the speed of the winds carrying them, that the majority of them came from China, which meant they had traveled at least 2,000 kilometers.

The research team suggests that bio-pathogens are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers at high altitudes, possibly representing a way to spread diseases.

Xavier Rodó et al, Microbial richness and air chemistry in aerosols above the PBL confirm 2,000-km long-distance transport of potential human pathogens, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2404191121

Psychologists argue conscientiousness outshines willpower in predicting success

According to some psychologists, the field of psychological science has a problem with the concept of self-control. It has named self-control both a "trait"—a key facet of personality involving attributes like conscientiousness, grit and the ability to tolerate delayed gratification—and a "state," a fleeting condition that can best be described as willpower. These two concepts are at odds with one another and are often confused, the authors report.

Conscientiousness  is the quality of wishing to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly.

Self-control is a cherished quality. People who have lots of it are celebrated and seen as morally righteous. 

Many studies find that people who score highly on various measures of conscientiousness do better than their peers academically and financially and tend to live healthier lives.

This led psychologists to conflate momentary will power with the other characteristics that make conscientious people successful, the researchers said.

People assumed that highly conscientious people simply engage their willpower more often than their less-conscientious peers. But this is not the case. Conscientious people do not control themselves more than others. In fact, studies have shown that they spend less time restraining wayward desires. This was a surprise when it was discovered more than a decade ago.

The misguided emphasis on willpower led to interventions designed to increase it, with the goal of also strengthening conscientiousness. This approach occasionally yielded some positive short-term results, the researchers said. But in the long term, such changes tend to erode.

People usually revert to their baseline levels of willpower and conscientiousness Willpower is generally fragile, unreliable and weak.

The science strongly suggests that other aspects of "trait self-control" are more likely to contribute to the lifelong benefits associated with this trait.

Perhaps it's their industriousness or organizational skills. Or maybe it's their ability to persist in pursuit of a goal.

Success in life might be the result of engaging less in day-to-day willpower and more in cold calculation before a temptation is ever met, the researchers said. Maybe conscientiousness is explained not by exerting willpower, but by avoiding the need to exert it in the first place.

Michael Inzlicht et al, The fable of state self-control, Current Opinion in Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2024.101848

Researchers bend DNA strands with light, revealing a new way to study the genome

With the flick of a light, researchers have found a way to rearrange life's basic tapestry, bending DNA strands back on themselves to reveal the material nature of the genome.

Scientists have long debated about the physics of chromosomes—structures at the deepest interior of a cell that are made of long DNA strands tightly coiled around millions of proteins. Do they behave more like a liquid, a solid, or something in between?

Much progress in understanding and treating disease depends on the answer.

A research team has now developed a way to probe chromosomes and quantify their mechanical properties: how much force is required to move parts of it around and how well it snaps back to its original position.

The answer to the material question, according to their findings, is that in some ways the chromosome acts like an elastic material and in other ways it acts like a fluid. By leveraging that insight in exacting detail, the team was able to physically manipulate DNA in new and precisely controlled ways.

They published their findings in the journal Cell on August 20.

The key to the new method lies in the researchers' ability to generate tiny liquid-like droplets within a cell's nucleus. The droplets form like oil in water and grow larger when exposed to a specific wavelength of blue light.

Because the droplets are initiated at a programmable protein—a modified version of the protein used in the gene editing tool known as CRISPR—they can also attach the droplet to DNA in precise locations, targeting genes of interest.

With their ability to control this process using light, the team found a way to grow two droplets stuck to different sequences, merge the two droplets together, and finally shrink the resulting droplet, pulling the genes together as the droplet recedes. The entire process takes about 10 minutes.

Physically repositioning DNA in this way represents a completely new direction for engineering cells to improve health and could lead to new treatments for disease, according to the researchers. For example, they showed that they could pull two distant genes toward each other until the genes touch.

Established theory predicts this could lead to greater control over gene expression or gene regulation—life's most fundamental processes.

Amy R. Strom et al, Condensate interfacial forces reposition DNA loci and probe chromatin viscoelasticity, Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.034

Long-term exercisers have 'healthier' belly fat, study reveals

People with obesity who are long-time exercisers have healthier belly fat tissue and can store fat there more effectively than nonexercisers with obesity, according to a new study from a team of researchers.

The study, "Long-term exercise training has positive effects on adipose tissue ...," appears Sept. 10 in Nature Metabolism.

The research team also grew fat tissue in the lab from cells collected from both exercisers and nonexercisers, and cells from the exercisers developed into a tissue that stored fat more effectively.

The findings indicate that in addition to being a means to expend calories, exercising regularly for several months to years seems to modify your fat tissue in ways that allows you to store your body fat more healthfully if or when you do experience some weight gain––as nearly everyone does as we get older.

They found that the exercisers had distinct structural and biological characteristics in their fat tissue that increased the capacity to store fat there. The nonexercisers did not have those characteristics. Specifically, the exercisers had more blood vessels, mitochondria and beneficial proteins, and less of a type of collagen that can interfere with metabolism and fewer cells that cause inflammation.

This matters because the healthiest place to store fat is the fat tissue just under the skin where the samples were taken, called subcutaneous adipose tissue. Increasing the capacity to store fat here through exercise reduces the need to store fat in unhealthy places, like in the fat tissue around the organs or in the organs themselves.

Cheehoon Ahn et al, Years of endurance exercise training remodel abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue in adults with overweight or obesity, Nature Metabolism (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s42255-024-01103-x

Archaeologists discover an ancient Neanderthal lineage that remained isolated for over 50,000 years

A fossilized Neanderthal discovered in a cave system in the Rhône Valley, France, represents an ancient and previously undescribed lineage that diverged from other currently known Neanderthals around 100,000 years ago and remained genetically isolated for more than 50,000 years.

Genomic analysis indicates that the Neanderthal, nicknamed "Thorin" in reference to the Tolkien character, lived between 42,000–50,000 years ago in a small, isolated community.

The discovery, published September 11 in the journal Cell Genomics, could shed light on the still-enigmatic reasons for the species' extinction and suggests that late Neanderthals had more population structure than previously thought.

Until now, the story has been that at the time of the extinction there was just one Neanderthal population that was genetically homogeneous, but now we know that there were at least two populations present at that time.

The Thorin population spent 50,000 years without exchanging genes with other Neanderthal populations.

We thus have 50 millennia during which two Neanderthal populations, living about ten days' walk from each other, coexisted while completely ignoring each other. This would be unimaginable for a Sapiens and reveals that Neanderthals must have biologically conceived our world very differently from us Sapiens.

 Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction, Cell Genomics (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100593. www.cell.com/cell-genomics/ful … 2666-979X(24)00177-0

Scientists cool positronium to near absolute zero for antimatter research

Most atoms are made from positively charged protons, neutral neutrons and negatively charged electrons. Positronium is an exotic atom composed of a single negative electron and a positively charged antimatter positron. It is naturally very short-lived, but researchers  successfully cooled and slowed down samples of positronium using carefully tuned lasers.

The findings are published in the journal Nature. They hope this research will help others explore exotic forms of matter, and that such research might unlock the secrets of antimatter.

Some of our universe is missing. You may have heard such a bizarre statement if you've read much about cosmology in the last few decades. The reason scientists say this is because almost all the stuff we see in the universe is made from matter, including you and the planet you're standing on.

However, for a long time we've known about antimatter, which, as the name suggests, is sort of the opposite of regular matter, in that antimatter particles share the same mass and other properties of their matter counterparts, but have an opposite charge. When matter and antimatter particles collide, they annihilate, and it's widely believed they were created in equal amounts at the dawn of time. But that's not what we see now.

Modern physics only accounts for a part of the total energy of the universe. The study of antimatter might help us account for this discrepancy, and we've just taken a big step in this direction with our latest research.

Researchers have successfully slowed and cooled down exotic atoms of positronium, which is 50% antimatter. This means that, for the first time, it can be explored in ways previously impossible, and that will necessarily include a deeper study of antimatter.

Positronium is one of the few atoms made up entirely of only two elementary particles, which allows for such exact calculations.

Kosuke Yoshioka, Cooling positronium to ultralow velocities with a chirped laser pulse train, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07912-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07912-0

Using this bone in a new way could have helped early humans, like Australopithecus, go from walking on all fours to walking upright, the researchers say.

In the new study, scientists used statistical modeling to examine the presence of three sesamoid bones in the knee—the cyamella, medial fabella and lateral fabella—using research published over the last one hundred years.

The scientists discovered that primates with faballae were 50 times more likely to have ancestors who also had them. The team also found that the medial and lateral fabella almost always develop in pairs, except in rare cases like humans, who only have a lateral fabella.

Further analyses suggest hominoids may have evolved a way to grow fabellae different from other primates, which could explain why humans can grow a lateral fabella without a medial one, but other primates cannot. This could unite over a century of research, where scientists have debated how these bones evolved.

The distinct evolutionary pathway of the fabella 're-emerging' in humans could point to an evolutionary change that helped the ancestors of humans walk upright.

The evolution of the knee sesamoids in Primates: A systematic review and phylogenetic meta-analysis, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0774. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rspb.2024.0774

Cleaner wrasse check their body size in mirror before deciding whether to fight, research demonstrates

Consciousness: Being aware of your body and environment

Self-awareness: Recognizing your consciousness, and understanding your own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

 A research team has demonstrated that bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) check their body size in a mirror before choosing whether to attack fish that are slightly larger or smaller than themselves.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that bluestreak cleaner wrasse possess some mental states (e.g., mental body image, standards, intentions, goals), that are elements of private self-awareness.

Researchers reported the cleaner wrasse could identify photographs of itself as itself, based on its face through mirror self-recognition.
The cleaner wrasse's behaviour of going to look in the mirror installed in a tank when necessary indicated the possibility that the fish were using the mirror to check their own body size against that of other fish and predict the outcome of fights.

The results that fish can use the mirror as a tool can help clarify the similarities between human and non-human animal self-awareness and provide important clues to elucidate how self-awareness has evolved.

 Cleaner fish with mirror self-recognition capacity precisely realize their body size based on their mental image, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-70138-7

Four plants eaten by gorillas, also used in traditional medicine, provide clues for new drug discovery

Four plants consumed by wild gorillas in Gabon and used by local communities in traditional medicine show antibacterial and antioxidant properties, find researchers.

Wild great apes often consume medicinal plants that can treat their ailments. The same plants are often used by local people in traditional medicine.
To investigate, researchers observed the behavior of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in Gabon and recorded the plants they ate. Next, they interviewed 27 people living in the nearby village of Doussala, including traditional healers and herbalists, about the plants that were used in local traditional medicine.

The team identified four native plant species that are both consumed by gorillas and used in traditional medicine: the fromager tree (Ceiba pentandra), giant yellow mulberry (Myrianthus arboreus), African teak (Milicia excelsa) and fig trees (Ficus). They tested bark samples of each plant for antibacterial and antioxidant properties and investigated their chemical composition.

The researchers found that the bark of all four plants had antibacterial activity against at least one multidrug-resistant strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli. The fromager tree showed "remarkable activity" against all tested E.coli strains. All four plants contained compounds that have medicinal effects, including phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins. However, it's not clear if gorillas consume these plants for medicinal or other reasons.

But Zoopharmacognosy* is one of these new approaches, aimed at discovering new drugs.

*  the study of how animals self-medicate by selecting and consuming plants, soils, and insects with medicinal properties.

Here are some examples of animals that self-medicate:

Pregnant lemurs: Nibble on tamarind leaves to help with milk production

Chacma baboons: Eat small amounts of leaves from specific plants that have stimulant properties

Dogs and cats: May eat grass to relieve nausea, even though they can't digest it because they lack the necessary enzymes.

Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of plants consumed by western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Gabon, PLoS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306957

The 'crystal balls' that can predict eruptions of volcanoes: Crystals hold a secret history of volcanoes—and clues about future eruptions

Imagine you had a crystal ball that revealed when a volcano would next erupt. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live near active volcanoes, it would be an extremely useful device. As it turns out, certain crystals really can help us forecast volcanic eruptions. These crystals are produced in molten rock as it travels from deep inside Earth to the surface.

With increasingly sophisticated scientific methods, we can extract a secret history of volcanoes from these crystals—the why, where and when of past eruptions.

These historical records can help us interpret if signs of volcano unrest, such as earthquakes tracking the movement of magma towards the surface, may lead to an eruption. So, as I explain in a new column in Nature Geoscience, we are getting closer to having crystal balls (for volcanoes, at least).

Teresa Ubide, Volcanic crystal balls, Nature Geoscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01509-y

Smart mouthguard allows users to control devices with their tongue and teeth

Recent technological advances have enabled the development of a wide range of electronic devices designed to improve people's quality of life and assist them in completing their everyday activities. Most existing devices are operated via touch screens, keyboards, mouse pads and other hand-based interfaces.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a smart mouthguard that could allow people to operate their devices using their mouth, instead of their fingers. This new device, introduced in a paper in Nature Electronics, could also allow dentists to collect medical data from inside their patients' mouths and help to monitor the recovery of athletes or enhance their performance.

Bo Hou et al, A tactile oral pad based on carbon nanotubes for multimodal haptic interaction, Nature Electronics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-024-01234-9.

Climate change-triggered landslide unleashes a 650-foot mega-tsunami

In September 2023, scientists around the world detected a mysterious seismic signal that lasted for nine straight days. An international team of scientists, including seismologists Alice Gabriel and Carl Ebeling of UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography came together to solve the mystery.

A study published in Science provides the stunning solution: In an East Greenland fjord, a mountaintop collapsed into the sea and triggered a mega-tsunami about 200 meters (650 feet) tall. The giant wave rocked back and forth inside the narrow fjord for nine days, generating the seismic waves that reverberated through Earth's crust, baffling scientists around the world.

This rhythmic sloshing is a phenomenon known as a seiche. Fortunately, no people were hurt, but the waves destroyed some $200,000 in infrastructure at an unoccupied research station on Ella Island.

Climate change set the stage for the landslide by melting the glacier at the base of the mountain, destabilizing the more than 25 million cubic meters (33 million cubic yards) of rock and ice—enough to fill 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools—that ultimately crashed into the sea. As climate change continues to melt Earth's polar regions it could lead to an increase in large, destructive landslides such as this one.

Climate change is shifting what is typical on Earth, and it can set unusual events like this into motion.

When seismic monitoring networks first detected this signal in September 2023, it was puzzling for two main reasons. First, the signal looked nothing like the busy squiggle that earthquakes produce on seismographs. Instead, it oscillated with a 92-second-interval between its peaks, too slow for humans to perceive. Second, the signal stayed strong for days on end, where more common seismic events weaken more rapidly.

Part 1

The global community of Earth scientists started buzzing with online discussion of what could be causing the strange seismic waves. The discussion turned up reports of a huge landslide in a remote Greenland fjord that occurred on Sept. 16, around the time the seismic signal was first detected.

To figure out if and how these two phenomena might be connected, scientists combined seismic recordings from around the world, field measurements, satellite imagery and computer simulations to reconstruct the extraordinary events.

The team, comprised of 68 scientists from 41 research institutions, analyzed satellite and on-the-ground imagery to document the enormous volume of rock and ice in the landslide that triggered the tsunami. They also analyzed the seismic waves to model the dynamics and trajectory of the rock-ice avalanche as it moved down the glacial gully and into the fjord.

To understand the tsunami and resulting seiche, the researchers used supercomputers to create high-resolution simulations of the events.
Ultimately, these simulations were able to closely match the real-world tsunami's height as well as the long-lasting seiche's slow oscillations.

By integrating these diverse data sources, the researchers determined that the nine-day seismic signal was caused by the massive landslide and resulting seiche within Greenland's Dickson Fjord.
The study's findings demonstrate the complex, cascading hazards posed by climate change on Earth.

The essence of science is trying to answer a question we don't know the answer to—that's why this was so exciting to work on, say the scientists who found this.

Kristian Svennevig, A rockslide-generated tsunami in a Greenland fjord rang the Earth for 9 days, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adm9247. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adm9247

Ozone pollution reduces yearly tropical forest growth by 5.1%, study finds

Ozone gas is reducing the growth of tropical forests—leaving an estimated 290 million tonnes of carbon uncaptured each year, new research shows.

The ozone layer in the stratosphere shields our planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation—and protecting it is one of the major successes of environmental action.

But ozone at ground level—formed by the combination of pollutants from human activities in the presence of sunlight—interferes with plants' ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Ozone is also harmful to human health.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calculates that ground-level ozone reduces new yearly growth in tropical forests by 5.1% on average.

The effect is stronger in some regions—with Asia's tropical forests losing 10.9% of new growth.

Tropical forests are vital "carbon sinks"—capturing and storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise stay in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

Tropical forests play a crucial role in mopping up our carbon dioxide emissions.

This study shows that air pollution can jeopardize this critical ecosystem service.

Urbanization, industrialization, burning fossil fuels and fires have led to an increase in "precursor" molecules—such as nitrogen oxides—that form ozone.

Reduced productivity and carbon drawdown of tropical forests from ground-level ozone exposure, Nature Geoscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01530-1

Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated by rich and poor alike, study finds

The personal carbon footprint of the richest people in society is grossly underestimated, both by the rich themselves and by those on middle and lower incomes, no matter which country they come from. At the same time, both the rich and the poor drastically overestimate the carbon footprint of the poorest people.

An international group of researchers surveyed 4,000 people from Denmark, India, Nigeria and the United States about inequality in personal carbon footprints—the total amount of greenhouse gases produced by a person's activities—within their own country.

Although it is well-known that there is a large gap between the carbon footprint of the richest and poorest in society, it's been unclear whether individuals were aware of this inequality. The four countries chosen for the survey are all different in terms of wealth, lifestyle and culture. Survey participants also differed in their personal income, with half of participants belonging to the top 10% of income in their country.

The vast majority of participants across the four countries overestimated the average personal carbon footprint of the poorest 50% and underestimated those of the richest 10% and 1%.

However, participants from the top 10% were more likely to support certain climate policies, such as increasing the price of electricity during peak periods, taxing red meat consumption or subsidizing carbon dioxide removal technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

The researchers say that this may reflect generally higher education levels among high earners, a greater ability to absorb price-based policies or a stronger preference for technological solutions to the climate crisis. The results are reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Due to their greater financial and political influence, most climate policies reflect the interests of the richest in society and rarely involve fundamental changes to their lifestyles or social status.

Greater awareness and discussion of existing inequality in personal carbon footprints can help build political pressure to address these inequalities and develop climate solutions that work for all, say the researchers. 

Underestimation of personal carbon footprint inequality in four diverse countries, Nature Climate Change (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-024-02130-y

Five key factors that predict response of cancer patients to immunotherapy

A team of researchers  has identified five independent factors that predict cancer patients' response to checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs). The study, which has been published in Nature Genetics, validates these factors in more than 1,400 patients and diverse types of cancer. These findings provide a framework to interpret biomarkers of response to CPIs and suggest a future pathway to improve personalized cancer medicine.

Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment in recent years by enabling the immune system to attack tumor cells. However, only 20–40% of patients respond positively to immunotherapy, and these rates vary across different types of cancer.

Predicting which patients will respond to immunotherapy and which will not is currently a highly active area of research. Numerous studies conducted so far have focused on the specific characteristics of tumors, their microenvironment, or the patient's immune system. As a result, which of the proposed biomarkers represent the same underlying factors or how many independent factors influence the effectiveness of this therapy remains unclear.
Researchers have identified five key, independent factors that determine patients' response and survival after receiving checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs), a type of immunotherapy widely used in cancer treatment. These findings provide a reference framework for current and future biomarkers of immunotherapy response.

They could also, in the future, entail a pathway to a significant advancement in the personalization of cancer treatments, helping to more accurately identify those patients who are likely to benefit from immunotherapy. The results suggest that patients with certain types of tumors who are currently not considered candidates for immunotherapy (such as those with liver or kidney carcinomas) might benefit from this type of treatment.

Part 1

The five factors identified are tumor mutational burden; effective T cell infiltration; the activity of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) in the tumor microenvironment; previous treatment received by the patient; and tumor proliferative potential. These factors in different types of cancer are associated with the response to CPIs and have been validated by the authors in six independent cohorts, covering a total of 1,491 patients.

Tumor mutational burden (TMB): Tumors with a high number of mutations tend to produce more neoantigens, making it easier for the immune system to recognize and attack them. TMB has been one of the most studied biomarkers for predicting response to CPIs.
Effective T-cell infiltration: The presence of cytotoxic T-cells in the tumor is essential for the effectiveness of CPIs. This study has confirmed that a higher infiltration of these cells is directly related to a better response to the therapy.
TGF-β activity in the tumor microenvironment: This factor influences the behavior of some cells in the tumor microenvironment. High TGF-β activity can suppress the immune response, which is reflected in a tendency for patients to have poorer survival after immunotherapy treatment.
Previous treatment: Patients who have received previous treatments tend to show a poorer response to immunotherapy.
Tumor proliferative potential: Patients with tumors that have a high proliferative index, which tend to be more aggressive, generally show poorer survival after treatment.
These five factors provide a framework for organizing the vast current knowledge about biomarkers of immunotherapy response.
Furthermore, the researchers demonstrated that a multivariate model combining these five factors allows for more accurate patient classification than using tumor mutational burden alone ( as is frequently done in clinical practice), predicting the probability of patients to respond to immunotherapy.

Five latent factors underlie response to immunotherapy, Nature Genetics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01899-0

Part 2

 Printing 3D photonic crystals that completely block light

Photonic crystals are materials with repeating internal structures that interact with light in unique ways. We can find natural examples in opals and the vibrant colored shells of some insects. Even though these crystals are made of transparent materials, they exhibit a "photonic bandgap" that blocks light at certain wavelengths and directions.

A special type of this effect is a "complete photonic bandgap," which blocks light from all directions. This complete bandgap allows for precise control of light, opening up possibilities for advancements in telecommunications, sensing, and quantum technologies. As a result, scientists have been working on different methods to create these advanced photonic crystals.

While 1D and 2D photonic crystals have been used in various applications, unlocking the secret to producing 3D photonic crystals with a complete photonic bandgap in the visible range has been fraught with challenges due to the need to achieve nanoscale precise control of all three dimensions in the fabrication process.

This is all set to change. In a study, "Printing of 3D photonic crystals in titania with complete bandgap across the visible spectrum" published in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers across institutions in Singapore and China have achieved an unprecedented feat. Led by Professor Joel Yang from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the team has developed a revolutionary method to print 3D photonic crystals using a customized titanium resin.

Unlike in previous attempts, this new method has resulted in crystals that are of high resolution, possess a high refractive index, and feature a complete bandgap across the range of visible light. The innovation holds immense potential for transforming industries.

Wang Zhang et al, Printing of 3D photonic crystals in titania with complete bandgap across the visible spectrum, Nature Nanotechnology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-024-01780-5

Fluorescent nanomaterial could transform how we visualize fingerprints

Researchers created a fluorescent nanoparticle using a combination of materials (MCM-41, chitosan and dansylglycine) to examine latent fingerprints. These nanoparticles have special properties that make them adhere well to fingerprint residues, even old ones.

The nanoparticles work on various surfaces, including metal, plastic, glass and complex objects such as polymer banknotes. They have the potential to be used directly at crime scenes without lab facilities, which is a significant advantage over some previous reagents. They produce high-quality fingerprint images for successful identification. 

This new method captures the finer details of a fingerprint, making it easier to identify individuals and is expected greatly to aid in forensic investigations. The research was published in a RSC Advances paper, highlighting that the new nanomaterial has proven to be a versatile and effective tool for visualizing fingerprint evidence. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques at Diamond provided useful data to validate these results.

Lais F. A. M. Oliveira et al, Dansyl fluorophore functionalized hierarchically structured mesoporous silica nanoparticles as novel latent fingerprint development agents, RSC Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1039/D4RA03074E

Quantum researchers cause controlled 'wobble' in the nucleus of a single atom

Researchers have been able to initiate a controlled movement in the very heart of an atom. They caused the atomic nucleus to interact with one of the electrons in the outermost shells of the atom. This electron could be manipulated and read out through the needle of a scanning tunneling microscope.

The research, published in Nature Communications, offers prospects for storing quantum information inside the nucleus, where it is safe from external disturbances.

Lukas M. Veldman et al, Coherent spin dynamics between electron and nucleus within a single atom, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52270-0

Geoscientists detect rapid uplift at a volcano in Tanzania

When a volcano is about to erupt, the surrounding land puffs up like a squeezed balloon. The technical term is "transient deformation," and  researchers have detected and tracked this short-lived movement for the first time using satellite observations of Ol Doinyo Lengai, an active Tanzanian volcano.

Their results appeared in a paper published earlier this summer in Geophysical Research Letters.

According to the study, increasing pressure inside a volcano's magma reservoir can cause the land to bulge. When the pressure decreases, the reservoir deflates again and the land falls back.

Researchers have been able to detect transient motion in volcanic activity, and this is a precursor for any kind of eruption.

This research could help  authorities have a better idea of what is happening with the volcano and take precautionary measures. 

Ntambila Daud et al, Detecting Transient Uplift at the Active Volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania With the TZVOLCANO Network, Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL108097

Dams built to prevent coastal flooding can worsen it

The common practice of building dams to prevent flooding can actually contribute to more intense coastal flood events, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, studied the effects of dams built in coastal estuaries, where rivers and ocean tides interact. Those massive infrastructure projects are surging in popularity globally, in part to help offset intensifying storms, salt intrusion and sea-level raise fueled by climate change.

By analyzing data and measurements from Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, dating back more than a century, researchers determined that coastal dams don't necessarily mitigate flooding. Dams can either increase or decrease flood risks, depending on the duration of a surge event and friction from the flow of water.

We usually think about storm surges becoming smaller as you go inland, but the shape of the basin can actually cause it to become larger.

Estuaries are typically shaped like a funnel, narrowing as they go inland. Introducing a dam shortens the estuary with an artificial wall that reflects storm surge waves moving inland. The narrowing channel shape also makes small reflections that change with the surge duration. Researchers  compared those storm-fueled waves to splashes in a bathtub, with certain wave frequencies causing water to slosh over the sides.

After using Charleston Harbor as a case study, researchers used computer modeling to gauge the flood response at 23 other estuaries in diverse geographic areas. Those encompassed both dammed and naturally occurring estuary systems, including Cook Inlet in Alaska.

The models confirmed that the basin shape and alterations that shorten it with a dam are the key component in determining how storm surges and tides move inland. At the right amplitude and duration, waves in dammed environments grow instead of diminishing.

The study also determined that areas far from coastal dams could still be directly influenced by human-created infrastructure.

Steven L. Dykstra et al, Reflection of Storm Surge and Tides in Convergent Estuaries With Dams, the Case of Charleston, USA, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023JC020498

How the immune system fails as cancer arises

Cancer has been described as "a wound that does not heal," implying that the immune system is unable to wipe out invading tumor cells. A new discovery confirms that a key molecule can reprogram immune cells that normally protect against infection and cancer, turning them into bad guys that promote cancer growth.

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How genes shape personality traits: New links discovered

Your DNA has long been known to play a role in shaping your personality. Now, researchers at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have taken another step in determining exactly how by identifying a number of new genetic sites associated with specific personality traits. They published their findings in Nature Human Behaviour.

Social media became a storefront for deadly fake pills

Fentanyl overdoses have become a leading cause of death for minors in the last five years or so, even as overall drug use has dropped slightly. In a 2022 analysis of fentanyl-laced prescription pills, the DEA found that six out of 10 contained a potentially lethal dose of the drug.

And social media, where tainted, fake prescription drugs can be obtained with just a few clicks, is a big part of the problem. Experts, law enforcement and children's advocates say companies like Snap, TikTok, Telegram and Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, are not doing enough to keep children safe.

The stories of these victims often play out similarly: The kids hear you can get pills on social media. A few taps later and then a package arrives. They retreat to the sanctity of their bedroom and take a pill. Fifteen minutes later, they're dead. No one even knows until the next morning.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-dealers-paradise-social-medi...

Flowers use adjustable 'paint by numbers' petal designs to attract pollinators

Flowers like hibiscus use an invisible blueprint established very early in petal formation that dictates the size of their bullseyes—a crucial pre-pattern that can significantly impact their ability to attract pollinating bees.

The study also found that bees prefer larger bullseyes over smaller ones and fly 25% faster between artificial flower disks with larger bullseyes—potentially boosting efficiency for both bees and blossoms. The findings are published in Science Advances.

Patterns on the flowers of plants guide insects, like bees, to the center of the flower, where nectar and pollen await, enhancing the plant's chances of successful pollination. 

Finding out how these petal patterns form and how they have evolved into the vast diversity we see today, including spots, stripes, veins, and bullseyes is an interesting subject. 

: Researchers compared the relative success of the bullseye patterns in attracting pollinators using artificial flower discs that mimicked the three different bullseye dimensions. The bees not only preferred the medium and larger bullseyes over the small bullseye, they were also 25% quicker visiting these larger flower discs. Credit: Lucie Riglet

Using a small hibiscus plant as a model, researchers compared closely related plants with the same flower size but three differently sized bullseye patterns featuring a dark purple center surrounded by white—H. richardsonii (small bullseye covering 4% of the flower disk), H. trionum (medium bullseye covering 16%) and a transgenic line (mutation) of H. trionum (large bullseye covering 36%).

They found that a pre-pattern is set up on the petal surface very early in the flower's formation, long before the petal shows any visible color. The petal acts like a 'paint-by-numbers' canvas, where different regions are predetermined to develop specific colors and textures long before they start looking different from one another.

Part 1

Lucie Riglet et al, Hibiscus bullseyes reveal mechanisms controlling petal pattern proportions that influence plant-pollinator interactions, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp5574. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp5574

Part 2

Potential cause of vascular disease

Researchers have identified a key driver of a blood vessel disorder known as fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) which affects up to 5% of the adult population and can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke.

In a study published September 13 in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the team said changes in the gene UBR4 played an important role as a key driver of FMD. They suggested the discovery could be an important step toward developing a therapeutic approach for the disorder.

Fibromuscular dysplasia involves abnormal cell growth in the walls of the arteries, including the carotid, renal, and coronary arteries. Though anyone can develop the condition, it has a distinct sexual bias, affecting women in about 90% of cases. Unlike other vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, FMD is not caused by a build-up of plaque, and many people are unaware they have the disorder.

Among the serious medical conditions it can lead to—depending on which artery is affected—are aneurysm (bulging and weakening of the artery), dissection (tearing of the arterial wall), stroke, and heart attack. Restricted blood flow from FMD can also result in high blood pressure, pulsatile tinnitus (whooshing sound in the ears that occurs with each heart beat), and migraine headaches.

Researchers used skin biopsies from 83 women with FMD as well as from 71 healthy female controls to obtain and grow fibroblast cells, which then underwent gene sequencing to pinpoint the genetic differences between patients and the matched healthy controls.

Applying advanced statistical methods known as "systems biology" enabled the scientists to create the first-ever mouse models that recapitulated certain aspects of the disease in humans, and to uncover important insights into its causal pathways and disease drivers.

"These insights included the finding that changes in UBR4 levels—which cause significant changes in the expression levels of other genes in the FMD-associated supernetwork—collectively led to major changes in vascular cell function.

These alterations in turn led to a demonstrable widening of the arteries in mice, which is one of the features of FMD in humans.

By identifying a gene and its gene regulatory network that appear to account for a significant portion of FMD heritability, scientists think they have taken a major step toward a therapeutic solution.

 Integrative Gene Regulatory Network Analysis Discloses Key Driver Genes of Fibromuscular Dysplasia, Nature Cardiovascular Research (2024).

Earth to have new mini-moon for two months

A pair of asteroid dynamics researchers  have found that a small asteroid will make one orbit around the Earth starting this month before departing back into other parts of the solar system.

In their paper published in the journal Research Notes of the AAS, the researchers describe how the Earth tends to capture asteroids on a regular basis and outline their calculations showing the path of 2024 PT₅ as it comes close to Earth.

Prior research has shown that many asteroids fall into partial or full elliptical paths around the Earth before eventually being flung away. Back in 2006, for example, a small asteroid circled the Earth for approximately a year—and another one did so for several years before leaving in 2020.
In this new effort, the researchers were looking at a small asteroid that was discovered last month as part of the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System. Prior research had shown that the asteroid was not on a collision course with Earth, and the researchers suspected it might instead become bound by the planet's gravity for a while.

The researchers noted that the asteroid is small, only 10 meters across. By noting its current size, speed and path, the pair were able to calculate its path over the next few months. They found that it was going to come close enough to the Earth to become bound by its gravity, if only for a couple of months.

Their work shows that it will circle the Earth one time, taking 53 days, starting at the end of this month and then leaving near the middle of November.
The researchers  found that it likely came from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is made up of many asteroids with orbits around the sun similar to Earth's. 

Carlos de la Fuente Marcos et al, A Two-month Mini-moon: 2024 PT₅ Captured by Earth from September to November, Research Notes of the AAS (2024). DOI: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f

Swallowing triggers a release of serotonin, research reveals

Why do you eat and what makes you eat more?

Researchers have identified an important control circuit involved in the eating process. The study has revealed that fly larvae have special sensors, or receptors, in their esophagus that are triggered as soon as the animal swallows something. If the larva has swallowed food, they tell the brain to release serotonin. This messenger substance—which is often also referred to as the feel-good hormone—ensures that the larva continues to eat.

The researchers assume that humans also have a very similar control circuit. The results were published in the journal Current Biology.

 It's the good feeling you have after swallowing that is largely responsible for you continuing to eat.

Researchers  identified a sort of "stretch receptor" in the esophagus. It is wired to a group of six neurons in the larva's brain that are able to produce serotonin. This neuromodulator is also sometimes called the "feel-good hormone." It ensures, for example, that we feel rewarded for certain actions and are encouraged to continue doing them.

The serotonin neurons receive additional information about what the animal has just swallowed. They can detect whether it is food or not and also evaluate its quality.

This mechanism is of such fundamental importance that it probably also exists in humans. If it is defective, it could potentially cause eating disorders such as anorexia or binge eating. It may therefore be possible that the results of this basic research could also have implications for the treatment of such disorders.

Andreas Schoofs et al, Serotonergic modulation of swallowing in a complete fly vagus nerve connectome, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.025

Ingredient in hair dye led to a woman's vision loss

An ingredient in the hair dye a French woman used caused her to develop a vision-robbing retinopathy, researchers report.

When she switched to a dye without these ingredients, called aromatic amines, her vision troubles resolved, according to a team led by Dr. Nicolas Chirpaz, an ophthalmologist at Edouard Herriot Hospital, in Lyon.

Such cases could be rare, the researchers said, but spreading awareness of the danger "may allow prompt consideration to remove exposure to such hair dye" so eyes aren't permanently damaged, Chirpaz and colleagues said.

They published their case report Sept. 12 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.

As the French team noted, this isn't the first time hair dye has been linked to retinopathy: Three prior cases were reported in 2022 among "middle-aged women following exposure to hair dyes containing aromatic amines."

In the latest case, a 61-year-old woman with no prior history of vision trouble came to doctors with progressively blurry vision in both eyes "a few days after dyeing her hair with hair dye containing aromatic amines," Chirpaz' group said. The aromatic amine in the dye used in this case was para-phenylenediamine.

Upon examination, the woman was found to have multiple retinal detachments that resembled the damage that can occur in retinopathies that are tied to certain enzymes found in the eye, called MEK1 or MEK2.

The woman's eyes also displayed an unhealthy "thickening of the neurosensory retina," the French team found.

Tests were conducted to rule out a host of possible causes, including infections and even cancer. In the end, retinal damage caused by the ingredient in hair dye was "diagnosed based on the temporal association between symptoms and hair dye exposure," the team said.

The woman soon switched her brand of hair dye, and her vision returned to 20/20 within a month. "Four years later, the patient reported using aromatic amines–free hair dye and has not experienced any recurrence," the study authors said.

Part 1

Aromatic amine chemicals such as para-phenylenediamine "disrupt" a neurochemical pathway that's essential to the health of what are known as retinal pigment epithelial cells.

Cases of "retinopathy associated with the use of hair dye aromatic amines [RAHDAA]" remain rare, but doctors should be on the alert to the possibility when people show up with any retinopathy that doesn't have an easy explanation, the French team said.

Nicolas Chirpaz et al, Retinopathy Associated With Hair Dye, JAMA Ophthalmology (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2024.3453

Part 2

The perils of space walk

A tech billionaire has become the first layperson to perform a space walk. Hundreds of miles above Earth, Jared Isaacman took part in an intricate performance of science and engineering that often comes with some serious health risks, even for professional astronauts.

At one point during the spacewalk, you're going to be hot, you're going to be cold, your hands are going to hurt.

During a space walk in 2013, Parmitano's ( Italian astronaut) cooling system suffered a major malfunction—his helmet was filling with water, creeping up his skin and over his head because of the capillary pressure at zero G.

"It covered my eyes, it covered my ears, it went inside my nose," he said. Then, his radio stopped working.

"I was on my own, isolated," he continued. "I couldn't see anything, I couldn't hear, I couldn't talk."

Major, potentially dangerous, malfunctions during a spacewalk were not pioneered by Parmitano though. Astronauts have been overcoming similar dangers for years.

Of the nine space walks (EVAs) that took place during project Gemini, three of them actually ended early due to concerns over health and safety.

Gene Cernan found himself nearly unable to move during a venture into the void during Gemini 9. The metallic coating on his suit restricted his movement more than anticipated, and the suit's interior was quickly heating up.

He started to sweat profusely and the moisture in the suit started to fog his visor.

But that was decades ago. How dangerous are spacewalks today?

Roughly 20% of spacewalks encounter problems.

But will laypeople, those with no experience or proper training in space walking, be able to correct major malfunctions as well as tried-and-tested astronauts like Parmitano?

To safely return to his shuttle after his helmet began filling with water, blinding him, he had to retrace his steps back to his airlock from memory!

He doesn't take any specific credit for keeping his cool because he'd been trained his whole adult life to perform in relatively risky situations (he is an Italian Air Force colonel and test pilot)

Could you die during a space walk? It's not likely, according to NASA, because adventures outside the craft are often canceled on a moment's notice over technical malfunctions and health scares.

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Chia (Salvia hispanica) and basil (Ocimum basilicum) seeds have the intrinsic ability to form a hydrogel concomitant with moisture-retention, slow releasing capability and proposed health benefits such as curbing diabetes and obesity by delaying digestion process.

Basil seeds absorb water by expanding into a gum-like substance called basil seed gum (BSG). The seeds' exocarp contains a layer of polysaccharides that quickly expand into BSG when the seeds are soaked in water. BSG is a natural plant-based colloid with strong hydration capabilities.

Basil seeds, also known as Sabja or Tukmaria seeds, swell up when soaked in water and develop a gelatinous outer layer. This gel-like coating helps to keep the body hydrated for longer periods, making it an excellent choice for combating dehydration during hot weather.

Ignore antifungal resistance in fungal disease at your peril, warn scientists

Without immediate action, humanity will potentially face further escalation in resistance in fungal disease, a group of scientists from across the world has warned.

According to scientists, most fungal pathogens identified by the World Health Organization—accounting for around 3.8 million deaths a year—are either already resistant or rapidly acquiring resistance to antifungal drugs. The authors argue that the currently narrow focus on bacteria will not fully combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

September's United Nations meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) must, they demand, include resistance developed in many fungal pathogens.

Resistance is nowadays the rule rather than the exception for the four currently available antifungal classes, making it difficult—if not impossible—to treat many invasive fungal infections. Fungicide resistant infections include Aspergillus, Candida, Nakaseomyces glabratus, and Trichophyton indotineae, all of which can have devastating health impacts on older or immunocompromised people.

Most people agree that resistant bacterial infections constitute a significant part of the AMR problem. However, many drug resistance problems over the past decades have also been the result of invasive fungal diseases largely underrecognized by scientists, governments, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies. The threat of fungal pathogens and antifungal resistance, even though it is a growing global issue, is being left out of the debate.

Unlike bacteria, the close similarities between fungal and human cells which, say the experts, means it is hard to find treatments that selectively inhibit fungi with minimal toxicity to patients.

Despite the huge difficulties in developing them, several promising new agents, including entirely new classes of molecules, have entered clinical trials in recent years.

But even before they reach the market after years of development, fungicides with similar modes of action are developed by the agrochemical industry, resulting in cross-resistance. That sets us back to square one again. It is true many essential crops are affected by fungi, so antifungal protection is required for food security. But the question is, at what price?

The scientists recommend:

Worldwide agreement on restricting the use of certain classes of antifungal molecules for specific applications.

Collaboration on solutions and regulations that ensure food security and universal health for animals, plants, and humans.

Adding priority to AMR to fungal infections at the UN's meeting in September.

Norman van Rhijn et al, Beyond bacteria: the growing threat of antifungal resistance, The Lancet (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01695-7

New Blood Cell 'Coats' Could Allow Cross-Species Transfusions

Chronic blood shortages are driving a search for a universal blood system that would allow doctors to save more lives. Researchers may have just brought us a step closer, by creating miniscule silicon coats for donated blood cells to wear. Incredibly, the new nanotechnology allowed biomedical engineers to successfully transfuse blood between species.

Silicified red blood cells not only escape immune activation in different species, but also function perfectly for oxygen transport," the research team writes in their paper.

By building a silicon coating for blood cells, Lei and team were able to cover the surface proteins that our bodies use to recognize blood types. This allows a different blood type to be safely used, including blood from another species.

The team successfully transfused these silicon clothed human blood cells into mice.

The best part: in every test so far, the cloaked cells otherwise act just like naked red blood cells. Their membrane remains intact, they can still float through blood plasma, produce their usual cellular fuel, and carry vital oxygen to where it's needed.

"The silicified blood retains all essential functions of red blood cells, has superior mechanical properties, is resistant to adverse environmental conditions, can be stored for extended periods, and is highly effective in preventing immune system activation," the research team explains.

The authors have identified an opportunity to reduce blood usage by providing an alternative fluid to store donor organs in.

Artificially pumping blood through these organs keeps them alive for long enough to be transplanted, but it uses a lot of blood. With the silicon coat strategy, it might be possible to tap into animal sources instead of using limited human blood supplies.

Part 1

These results highlight the immense potential of silicified erythrocytes [red blood cells] as a safe and efficient transfusion alternative, which effectively meets the growing clinical demand for blood," the researchers conclude.

Of course, this new blood technology is still in its infancy so it has many more challenges to endure before it can be determined safe for humans.

Meanwhile, for those of us in good health, donating blood remains a valuable way to help address current shortages and potentially save lives.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2322418121

Part 2

Astronomers detect black hole 'starving' its host galaxy to death

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The astronomers used Webb to observe a galaxy roughly the size of the Milky Way in the early universe, about two billion years after the Big Bang. Like most large galaxies, it has a supermassive black hole at its center. However, this galaxy is essentially 'dead': it has mostly stopped forming new stars.

This galaxy  is massive for such an early period in the universe: its total mass is about 200 billion times the mass of our sun, and most of its stars formed between 12.5 and 11.5 billion years ago.

In the early universe, most galaxies are forming lots of stars, so it's interesting to see such a massive dead galaxy at this period in time. If it had enough time to get to this massive size, whatever process that stopped star formation likely happened relatively quickly.

Using Webb, the researchers detected that this galaxy is expelling large amounts of gas at speeds of about 1,000 kilometers per second, which is fast enough to escape the galaxy's gravitational pull. These fast-moving winds are being 'pushed' out of the galaxy by the black hole.

Like other galaxies with accreting black holes, "Pablo's Galaxy" has fast outflowing winds of hot gas, but these gas clouds are tenuous and have little mass. Webb detected the presence of a new wind component, which could not be seen with earlier telescopes. This gas is colder, which means it's denser and—crucially—does not emit any light. Webb, with its superior sensitivity, can see these dark gas clouds because they block some of the light from the galaxy behind them.

The mass of gas being ejected from the galaxy is greater than what the galaxy would require to keep forming new stars. In essence, the black hole is starving the galaxy to death.

 A fast-rotator post-starburst galaxy quenched by supermassive black-hole feedback at z=3, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02345-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02345-1

Scientists discover key features of language sites that could help preserve function after brain surgery

When surgeons perform brain surgery on people with brain tumors or epilepsy, they need to remove the tumor or abnormal tissue while preserving parts of the brain that control language and movement.

A new Medicine study may better inform doctors' decisions about which brain areas to preserve, thereby improving patients' language function after brain surgery. The study expands the understanding of how language is encoded in the brain and identifies key features of critical sites in the cerebral cortex that work together to produce language.

If you think of the brain's language network as a social network, scientists have essentially found the person who is the link between lots of subnetworks of people. They wouldn't know each other if not for this single person. In the brain, these "connectors" serve the same function for language. If the connector sites were removed, the patient would make more language errors after surgery—such as difficulty naming objects—because the subnetworks couldn't work together.

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2024/september/vital-language...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51839-zNature Communications (2024).

AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' experts warn

If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warn researchers.

The language models on which the programs are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers.

Then there's the energy used to respond to each individual user's requests.

Instead of simply extracting information, "like a search engine would do to find the capital of a country, for example," AI programs "generate new information," making the whole thing "much more energy-intensive," they explain.

According to the International Energy Agency, the combined AI and the cryptocurrency sectors consumed nearly 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022—two percent of total global production.

Although Microsoft and Google have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, the US tech giants saw their greenhouse gas emissions soar in 2023 because of AI: up 48 percent for Google compared to 2019 and 29 percent for Microsoft compared to 2020.

"We are accelerating the climate crisis," say the experts, calling for more transparency from tech companies.

The solution, they say, could come from governments that, for the moment, are "flying blindly," without knowing what is "in the data sets or how the algorithms are trained."

"Once we have transparency, we can start legislating".

It is also necessary to explain to people what generative AI can and cannot do, and at what cost.

 The researchers demonstrated that producing a high-definition image using artificial intelligence consumes as much energy as fully recharging the battery of your cell phone.

The idea here is not to oppose AI, they emphasize, but rather to choose the right tools—and use them judiciously.

Source: AFP and other news agencies

More than 39 million deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections estimated between now and 2050, suggests analysis

More than 39 million people around the world could die from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, according to a study published in The Lancet.

The new study by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project is the first global analysis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) trends over time.

It reveals that more than one million people died each year as a result of AMR between 1990 and 2021. The study also estimates 1.91 million people could potentially die as a direct result of AMR in 2050, an increase of almost 70% per year compared to 2022. Over the same period, the number of deaths in which AMR bacteria play a role will increase by almost 75% from 4.71 million to 8.22 million per year.

Between 1990 and 2021, AMR deaths among children under five years old declined by 50%, while those among people aged 70 years and older increased by more than 80%. These trends are predicted to continue in the coming decades, with AMR deaths among children under five projected to halve by 2050 globally, as deaths among people 70 years and older more than double.

The findings highlight a vital need for interventions that incorporate infection prevention, vaccination, minimizing inappropriate antibiotic use, and research into new antibiotics to mitigate the number of AMR deaths that are forecasted for 2050.

Antimicrobial medicines are one of the cornerstones of modern health care, and increasing resistance to them is a major cause for concern. These findings highlight that AMR has been a significant global health threat for decades and that this threat is growing. Understanding how trends in AMR deaths have changed over time, and how they are likely to shift in future, is vital to make informed decisions to help save lives, say the authors of the study.

Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050, The Lancet (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1

People think in many dimensions at a time

Until now the dominant view  has been that a central goal of human perception is to recognize objects and assign them to different categories—for example, this observed object is a dog and dogs belong to the category of animals.

But researchers  have now shown that this view is incomplete.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, they demonstrate that brain activity when seeing objects can be much better explained by a variety of behaviorally relevant dimensions.

Until now, it was thought that our brain's visual system breaks down the objects we see into very basic features and then gradually reassembles them with the aim of enabling their recognition.

The research  results have shown that recognition and categorization are important goals of our vision, but by no means the only ones.

In fact, the researchers found behaviorally relevant signals at all processing stages in the visual system. they were able to show this based on the behaviorally relevant dimensions they had previously discovered.

The researchers used a computer model to identify 66 object dimensions from behavioral data of more than 12,000 study participants. These dimensions not only explain categorization, i.e., whether a dog is an animal, but also cover other characteristics, such as colors and shapes, as well as gradual values, for example, how typical a dog is of an animal.

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This allowed them to explain much better how our brain enables us to perceive the objects in our environment and understand their meaning.
The researchers looked at the data of three study participants whose brain activity was measured in the MRI scanner over 15 sessions while they looked at more than 8,000 different images of 720 objects.

When the participants saw a rocket, for example, the researchers were able to measure from the brain activity that their visual system not only recognized that it was a rocket or that a rocket is a vehicle, but also that it is gray and elongated, has to do with fire, can fly, or sparkles.
All processing stages of our perceptual system are therefore involved in capturing a broad spectrum of behaviorally relevant properties that together make up our perception, say the researchers.
This work reveals a multidimensional framework that is consistent with the rich and diverse behavioral relevance of objects. This ultimately explains our broad range of human behaviors better than the categorization-focused approach, and this in turn is crucial for understanding how we perceive and interact with our visual world in a meaningful way.

Oliver Contier et al, Distributed representations of behaviour-derived object dimensions in the human visual system, Nature Human Behaviour (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01980-y

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Researchers discover new blood group system

The discovery of a new blood group, MAL, has solved a 50-year-old mystery. Researchers from NHS Blood and Transplant (Bristol), NHSBT's International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL) and the University of Bristol identified the genetic background of the previously known but mysterious AnWj blood group antigen. The findings allow identification and treatment of rare patients lacking this blood group.

Some people can lack this blood group due to the effect of illness, but the rare inherited form of the AnWj-negative phenotype has only been found in a handful of individuals—though due to this discovery it will now be easier to find others in the future.

The two best known blood group systems are ABO and Rh but blood is more complex, and matching across the other groups can be lifesaving.

If people who are AnWj-negative receive AnWj-positive blood they could have a transfusion reaction, and this research allows development of new genotyping tests for detecting such rare individuals and reducing the risk of transfusion-associated complications.

The AnWj antigen—an antigen is a surface marker—was discovered in 1972 but its genetic background was unknown until now. The new research, published in Blood, establishes a new blood group system (MAL), the 47th ever to be discovered, as home to the AnWj antigen.

The research team established that AnWj is carried on the Mal protein. More than 99.9% of people are AnWj-positive, and such individuals were shown to express full-length Mal protein on their red cells, which was not present on the cells of AnWj-negative individuals. The team identified homozygous deletions in the MAL gene associated with the inherited AnWj-negative phenotype.

The most common reason for being AnWj-negative is due to suffering from a hematological disorder or some types of cancer which suppress antigen expression. Only a very small number of people are AnWj-negative due to a genetic cause. There were five genetically AnWj negative individuals in the study including a family of Arab-Israelis. The blood tested included a sample given by a lady in 2015 who was the first AnWj negative person to be discovered in the 1970s.

The research team used whole exome sequencing—the genetic sequencing of all DNA that encodes proteins—to show that these rare inherited cases were caused by homozygous DNA sequence deletions in the MAL gene, which codes for Mal protein.

Proof that Mal is responsible for binding of AnWj antibodies isolated from these rare patients was provided by experiments showing the appearance of specific reactivity with cells in which researchers introduced the normal MAL gene but not the mutant gene.

Louise A Tilley et al, Deletions in the MAL gene result in loss of Mal protein, defining the rare inherited AnWj-negative blood group phenotype, Blood (2024). DOI: 10.1182/blood.2024025099.

Scientists mix sky's splendid hues to reset circadian clocks

Those mesmerizing blue and orange hues in the sky at the start and end of a sunny day might have an essential role in setting humans' internal clocks.

In new research , a novel LED light that emits alternating wavelengths of orange and blue outpaced two other light devices in advancing melatonin levels in a small group of study participants.

Published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, the finding appears to establish a new benchmark in humans' ability to influence their circadian rhythms, and reflects an effective new approach to counteract seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Alexandra Neitz et al, Toward an Indoor Lighting Solution for Social Jet Lag, Journal of Biological Rhythms (2024). DOI: 10.1177/07487304241262918

Kleptoparasitism is spreading avian flu

Most seabirds take fish, squid, or other prey from the first few metres of seawater. Scavenging is common.

But there are other tactics. Frigatebirds, skuas, and gulls rely on the success of other seabirds. These large, strong birds chase, harry, and attack their targets until they regurgitate or drop the prey they’ve just caught. They’re the pirates of the seabird world, stealing hard-earned meals from other species. This behaviour is known as kleptoparasitism, from the Ancient Greek word kléptēs, thief.

The strategy is brutal, effective, and a core behaviour for these important seabirds. But as new research shows, it comes with major risks for the thieves. The new strain of avian flu is killing birds by their millions – and researchers found that kleptoparasitism could spread the virus very easily.

https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.13052

Quantum tech breakthrough could enable precision sensing at room temperature

A breakthrough in quantum technology research could help realize a new generation of precise quantum sensors that can operate at room temperature.

The research—carried out by an international team of researchers shows how the quantum states of molecules can be controlled and sensitively detected under ambient conditions.

The findings could help unlock a new class of quantum sensors which could be used to probe biological systems, novel materials, or electronic devices by measuring magnetic fields with high sensitivity and spatial resolution.

Enabled by using molecules as the quantum sensor, future devices which build on the team's research could measure magnetic fields down to nanometer-length scales in a way which is convenient to deploy.

In a paper, titled "Room-temperature optically detected coherent control of molecular s..." published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers show how they could manipulate a specific quantum property known as 'spin' in organic molecules and measure it with visible light, all at room temperature.

The team used lasers to align the spins of electrons in the molecules, which can be thought of as tiny quantum-mechanical magnets. Using carefully-directed pulses of microwave radiation, they could control these spin states into desired quantum states. They could then measure the state of the spins using the amount of visible light emitted from the molecules from a second laser pulse, which varies according to the quantum state of the spins.

In their proof-of-principle demonstration, the team used an organic molecule called pentacene incorporated in two forms of a material called para-terphenyl, both in crystals and a thin film, which could open new applications in future devices.

The team showed that they could optically detect the quantum coherence—the timescale over which quantum states live—of the molecules for up to a microsecond at room temperature, much longer than the time needed to manipulate the states.

The longer quantum states can be maintained, the more information future sensors could collect about their interactions with the properties they are measuring.

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Quantum sensing offers an exciting opportunity to probe the world around us in new ways, and holds promise to measure quantities such as magnetic and electric fields or temperature in ways which classical systems could not.
By showing that we can optically detect quantum coherence in molecules at room temperature, this work provides a proof-of-principle that the key properties needed for room-temperature quantum sensing can be achieved in a system which can be chemically synthesized.

Adrian Mena et al, Room-Temperature Optically Detected Coherent Control of Molecular Spins, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.120801

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