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.

Part 1

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

Part 2

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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

Like sunrise, colours rest circadian rhythms

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.

part1 

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

part 2

Over 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies

More than 3,600 chemicals used in food packaging or preparation have been detected in human bodies, some of which are hazardous to health, while little is known about others, a study said this week.

Around 100 of these chemicals are considered to be of "high concern" to human health.

Some of these chemicals are relatively well-studied and have already been found in human bodies, such as PFAS "forever chemicals" and bisphenol A—both of which are the target of bans.

But little is known about the health effects of others.

The researchers had previously catalogued around 14,000 food contact chemicals (FCCs), which are capable of "migrating" into food from packaging made of plastic, paper, glass, metal or other materials.

They can also come from other parts of the food-making process, such as from conveyer belts or kitchen utensils.

The researchers then searched for these chemicals in existing biomonitoring databases, which track chemicals in human samples.

The team was expecting to find a few hundred FCCs. Instead, they were surprised to find 3,601—a quarter of all the known FCCs.

However, this study could not show that all these chemicals necessarily ended up in bodies from food packaging, as "other exposure sources are possible".

Among the "high concern" chemicals were numerous PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, which have been detected in many parts of the human body in recent years and linked to a range of health problems.

Also detected was bisphenol A, a hormone-disrupting chemical used to make plastics that has already been banned from baby bottles in many countries.

Another hormone-disrupting chemical was phthalates, which has been linked to infertility.

Less is known about oligomers, which are also byproducts of plastic production.

When it comes to toxicology, an old saying is that "the dose makes the poison".

A limitation of the study was that it could not say whether there were particularly high concentrations of any of the chemicals.

Experts warned that  these chemicals can interact with each other, pointing to a single sample that had up to 30 different PFAS.

They recommended that people reduce their contact time with packaging—and to avoid heating up food in the packaging it came in.

This work is to raise awareness that the way we package our food is... going in a direction which is not good for the environment and human health.

Evidence for widespread human exposure to food contact chemicals, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41370-024-00718-2

How bacteria age

Any organism that lives, grows and reproduces must also age. People often think of aging in the physical sense—gray hair, slowed movements and wrinkles—but aging fundamentally occurs on a molecular level, inside of cells.

As organisms age, their cells accumulate damage that impairs functioning. Molecular damage is implicated in many age-related conditions in humans and is equally relevant for single-celled organisms. While they may not "look" their age, bacteria feel the passage of time too.

Bacteria differ from us in many ways, including in their modes of growth and reproduction. Unlike humans and other animals, single-celled organisms, such as bacteria and some fungi, can undergo a process called binary fission to reproduce, meaning that they duplicate their DNA and then split in two. Replication via binary fission can be very fast—the fastest-growing bacterium we know of can divide in less than 10 minutes.

Considering our very different ways of life, it might seem difficult to apply the concept of aging to bacteria. Indeed, it was long thought that bacteria and other organisms that reproduce via binary fission do not age at all. This was because binary fission was thought to be a symmetrical division, producing a parent and offspring identical in age, thus leading to what scientists call 'functional immortality' for the population.

On the other hand, asymmetric division, whereby the parent is older than the offspring, was thought to be required for an organism to be able to age at all.

Evidence against the accepted immortality paradigm first came in 2005, when scientists showed that Escherichia coli actually exhibits differences between "old" and "new" in parent and offspring cells, respectively. By following dividing cells with a microscope, the researchers could show that the older cells' growth rate and offspring production decline over time, and that they die more frequently than their younger offspring cells. Thus, despite looking the same, the cells undergo divisions that leave them functionally asymmetric, causing cells to age over time.

Part 1

Asymmetric division does damage control
Using mathematical models and data from the 2005 study, other scientists later showed that asymmetry is important for the whole population, as it elevates the population's fitness by maintaining variance. Variance is what natural selection acts upon, and more variation in a population generally equates with a better chance of survival in changeable conditions.

This study was important for reconciling previously conflicting views about bacterial aging and showing how important aging can be on an evolutionary level.

But how does asymmetric division help to keep populations fit? Part of the answer lies in protein aggregation, a contributor to aging in both bacteria and eukaryotic cells. Protein aggregation is implicated in many age-related diseases in humans, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as these aggregates can be toxic and cause cells to die.
Proteins also aggregate in E. coli, as researchers showed using fluorescent molecules that attach to aggregates, but are cleverly dealt with to minimize damage. As a feature of asymmetric division, older cells accumulate proteins to segregate the age-related damage, keeping their offspring looking "younger," molecularly speaking.
Stress ages bacteria and humans alike
Stress is another factor that is thought to contribute to aging in humans, and a 2024 paper suggests that the same is true for our bacterial companion, E. coli. Like any kind of cells, E. coli cells accumulate mutations throughout their lifetimes.
Some of these mutations may be nonlethal but still negatively impact the cell's fitness, for example, causing an important protein to lose its function. Such deleterious loss-of-function mutations can kickstart a stress state inside the cell that ultimately helps it to survive the mutation.

The researchers analyzed the effects of over 60 different nonlethal loss-of-function mutations in E. coli, focusing on mutants with non-functional ATP synthases, large protein complexes that allow cells to generate energy in the form of ATP.

These mutants were found to increase their metabolic activity to compensate for the mutation, which comes at a cost—they grow slower, and some enter a purgatory-like, "postreplicative" state faster than non-mutants, especially if their surroundings are nutrient-poor.
Part 2

Considering their findings, the researchers suggested that there is an "aging cost" that comes with maintaining resistance to stress on a population level. Besides shedding light on a potentially ancient mechanism of aging, the factors that contribute to bacterial aging could be investigated as new antibiotic targets.

Additionally, some human diseases are also perpetuated through cellular stress states, and understanding how these work on a molecular level could lead to the development of new treatments.

Time waits for no one, not even bacteria—and that's a good thing. Far from immortal beings beyond the reaches of aging, bacteria are an interesting system in which to study the molecular mechanisms that contribute to age-related decline.

Their rapid and robust growth means we can observe many generations in a relatively short experiment and test the effects of all kinds of environmental and genetic factors on the complex process of aging.

Source:  American Society for Microbiology
Part 3
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Why some organs age faster than others: Scientists discover hidden mutations in non-coding DNA

The accumulation of mutations in DNA is often mentioned as an explanation for the aging process, but it remains just one hypothesis among many. A team of researchers has identified a mechanism that explains why certain organs, such as the liver, age more rapidly than others.

The mechanism reveals that damages to non-coding DNA, which are often hidden, accumulate more in slowly proliferating tissues, such as those of the liver or kidneys. Unlike in organs that regenerate frequently, these damages remain undetected for a long time and prevent cell division. These results, published in the journal Cell, open new avenues for understanding cellular aging and potentially slowing it down.

Our organs and tissues do not all age at the same rate. Aging, marked by an increase in senescent cells—cells that are unable to divide and have lost their functions—affects the liver or kidneys more rapidly than the skin or intestine.

The mechanisms that contribute to this process are the subject of much debate within the scientific community. While it is widely accepted that damage to the genetic material (DNA), which accumulates with age, is at the root of aging, the link between the two phenomena remains unclear.

DNA molecules contain coding regions—the genes that code for proteins—and non-coding regions that are involved in the mechanisms that regulate or organize the genome. Constantly damaged by external and internal factors, the cell has DNA repair systems that prevent the accumulation of errors.

Errors located in the coding regions are detected when genes are transcribed, i.e. when they are activated. Errors in non-coding regions are detected during cell renewal, which requires the creation of a new copy of the genome each time, via the process of DNA replication. However, cell renewal does not occur with the same frequency depending on the type of tissue or organ.

Tissues and organs that are in constant contact with the outside environment, such as the skin or intestine, renew their cells (and therefore replicate their DNA) more often—once or twice a week—than internal organs, such as the liver or kidneys, whose cells proliferate only a few times per year.

Part 1

By mapping for the first time the sites at which DNA replication starts in liver cells that regenerate after ablation, the scientists discovered that these are always located in non-coding regions. It was also observed that replication initiation was much more efficient in young mice than in old mice.

"These non-coding regions are not subject to regular error checking and therefore accumulate damage over time. After removal of the liver in young mice there is still little damage and DNA replication is possible. On the contrary, when the experiment is carried out in old mice, the excessive number of errors accumulated over time triggers an alarm system that prevents DNA replication.

This block of DNA replication prevents cells from proliferating, leading to degradation of cell functions and tissue senescence.

These observations could help explain why slowly proliferating tissues, such as the liver, age faster than rapidly proliferating tissues, such as the intestine. In cells that have remained dormant for long periods, too many cryptic DNA lesions have accumulated in the non-coding regions, which contain the origins of replication, and prevent replication from being triggered. In rapidly proliferating tissues, on the other hand, little damage accumulates thanks to frequent cell renewal, and the origins of replication retain their efficiency.

 In vivo DNA replication dynamics unveil aging-dependent replication stress, Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.034. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00963-2

Part 2

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Surprising sounds could cause riskier decision-making

When you make a decision, certain neurons in your brain emit short bursts of the neurotransmitter dopamine. A new  study shows that when other factors wholly unrelated to the decision at hand—such as an unexpected sound—trigger these dopamine bursts it can lead to riskier decision-making.

The findings demonstrate how sounds around us may affect our choices and could also help researchers better understand dopamine systems in the brain and how they contribute to conditions like schizophrenia and depression.

Gloria W. Feng et al, Surprising sounds influence risky decision making, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51729-4

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Why petting your cat leads to static electricity

Anyone who has ever pet a cat or shuffled their feet across the carpet knows that rubbing objects together generates static electricity. 

Scientists  have  uncovered the mechanics at play now. 

When an object slides, the front and back parts of that object experience different forces, researchers found. This difference in forces causes different electrical charges to build up on the front and back parts of the object. And the difference in electrical charges creates a current, leading to a light zap.

The study was published in the journal Nano Letters.

The  answer is surprisingly simple. Just having different deformations—and therefore different charges—at the front and back of something sliding leads to current.

Karl P. Olson et al, What Puts the "Tribo" in Triboelectricity?, Nano Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c03656

Earth may once have had a ring like Saturn

The rings of Saturn are among the most famous and spectacular features in the solar system. Earth may once have had something similar, say researchers.

The existence of such a ring, forming around 466 million years ago and persisting for a few tens of millions of years, could explain several puzzles in our planet's past.

Around 466 million years ago, a lot of meteorites started hitting Earth. We know this because many impact craters formed in a geologically brief period.
In the same period we also find deposits of limestone across Europe, Russia and China containing very high levels of debris from a certain type of meteorite. The meteorite debris in these sedimentary rocks show signs that they were exposed to space radiation for much less time than we see in meteorites that fall today.

Many tsunamis also occurred at this time, as can be seen from other unusual jumbled up sedimentary rocks.

We think all these features are likely related to one another. But what links them together?
Part 1

Using models of how Earth's tectonic plates moved in the past, researchers mapped out where all these craters were when they first formed. We found all of the craters are on continents that were close to the equator in this period, and none are in places that were closer to the poles.
They measured how much of Earth's land surface suitable for preserving a crater was near the equator at that time. Only about 30% of the suitable land was close to the equator, with 70% at higher latitudes.
Under normal circumstances, asteroids hitting Earth can hit at any latitude, at random, as we see in craters on the moon, Mars and Mercury.

So it's extremely unlikely that all 21 craters from this period would form close to the equator if they were unrelated to one another. We would expect to see many other craters at higher latitudes as well.

The researchers think the best explanation for all this evidence is that a large asteroid broke up during a close encounter with Earth. Over several tens of millions of years, the asteroid's debris rained down onto Earth, creating the pattern of craters, sediments and tsunamis described above.
You may know that Saturn isn't the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus have less obvious rings, too. Some scientists have even suggested that Phobos and Deimos, the small moons of Mars, may be remnants of an ancient ring.

So we know a lot about how rings form. Here's how it works.
Part 2

When a small body (like an asteroid) passes close to a large body (like a planet), it gets stretched by gravity. If it gets close enough (inside a distance called the Roche limit), the small body will break apart into lots of tiny pieces and a small number of bigger pieces.

All those fragments will be jostled around and gradually evolved into a debris ring orbiting the equator of the larger body. Over time, the material in the ring will fall down to the larger body, where the larger pieces will form impact craters. These craters will be located close to the equator.

So if Earth destroyed and captured a passing asteroid around 466 million years ago, it would explain the anomalous locations of the impact craters, the meteorite debris in sedimentary rocks, craters and tsunamis, and the meteorites' relatively brief exposure to space radiation.
Back then, the continents were in different positions due to continental drift. Much of North America, Europe and Australia were close to the equator, whereas Africa and South America were at higher southern latitudes.

The ring would have been around the equator. And since Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbit around the sun, the ring would have shaded parts of Earth's surface.

This shading in turn might have caused global cooling, as less sunlight reached the planet's surface.

This brings us to another interesting puzzle. Around 465 million years ago, our planet began cooling dramatically. By 445 million years ago it was in the Hirnantian Ice Age, the coldest period in the past half a billion years.

Was a ring shading Earth responsible for this extreme cooling? The next step in our scientific sleuthing is to make mathematical models of how asteroids break up and disperse, and how the resulting ring evolves over time. This will set the scene for climate modeling that explores how much cooling could be imposed by such a ring.

 Andrew G. Tomkins et al, Evidence suggesting that earth had a ring in the Ordovician, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118991

Part 3

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Metals in the body from pollutants associated with progression of harmful plaque buildup in the arteries

Metal exposure from environmental pollution is associated with increased buildup of calcium in the coronary arteries at a level that is comparable to traditional risk factors like smoking and diabetes, according to a study.

The findings support the fact that metals in the body are associated with the progression of plaque buildup in the arteries and potentially provide a new strategy for managing and preventing atherosclerosis. The results are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

These findings highlight the importance of considering metal exposure as a significant risk factor for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease

Atherosclerosis is a condition where the arteries become narrowed and hardened due to a buildup of plaque, which can restrict blood flow and cause clots to form. It's an underlying cause of heart attacks, strokes and peripheral artery disease (PAD), the most common forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Atherosclerosis causes coronary artery calcium (CAC), which can be measured non-invasively over time to predict future cardiac events.

Widespread cadmium, tungsten, uranium, cobalt, copper, and zinc pollution occurs from agricultural and industrial uses such as fertilizers, batteries, oil production, welding, mining, and nuclear energy production. Tobacco smoke is the main source of cadmium exposure.

Results provided evidence that metal exposure may be associated with atherosclerosis over 10 years by increasing coronary calcification.

Urinary Metal Levels and Coronary Artery Calcification: Longitudinal Evidence in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2024.07.020

Ocean waves grow way beyond known limits, new research finds

Scientists have discovered that ocean waves may become far more extreme and complex than previously imagined.

The new study, published in Nature recently, reveals that under specific conditions, where waves meet each other from different directions, waves can reach heights four times steeper than what was once thought possible.

It has often been assumed that waves are two-dimensional and understanding of wave breaking to-date has been based on these assumptions. Yet in the ocean, waves can travel in many directions and rarely fit this simplified model.

This new research  reveals that three-dimensional waves, which have more complex, multidirectional movements, can be twice as steep before breaking compared to conventional two-dimensional waves, and even more surprisingly, continue to grow even steeper even after breaking has occurred.

The findings could have implications for how offshore structures are designed, weather forecasting and climate modeling, while also affecting our fundamental understanding of several ocean processes.

 Mark McAllister, Three-dimensional wave breaking, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07886-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07886-z

"Scuba-diving'' lizards use bubble to breathe underwater and avoid predators

Presenting the world's smallest (and scrappiest) scuba diver: A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater and avoid predators, according to new research.

Water anoles is a type of semi-aquatic lizard found in the tropical forests of southern Costa Rica.

They can stay underwater for a really long time. We also know that they're pulling oxygen from this bubble of air.

“Scuba diving” lizard can stay underwater for 16 to 20 minutes

Lizard skin is hydrophobic. Typically, that allows air to stick very tightly to the skin and permits this bubble to form. But when you cover the skin with an emollient, air no longer sticks to the skin surface, so the bubbles can't form.

This is really significant because this is the first experiment that truly shows the adaptive significance of bubbles. Rebreathing bubbles allows lizards to stay underwater longer.

Part 1

The study confirmed that the bubble helps lizards stay underwater for longer periods, providing them with a refuge from predators.

So by jumping in the water, they can escape a lot of their predators, and they remain very still underwater. They're pretty well camouflaged underwater as well, and they just stay underwater until that danger passes. We know that they can stay underwater at least about 20 minutes, but probably longer.

Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard, Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0371. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2024.0371

Part 2

Highly-sensitive beaks could help albatrosses and penguins find their food

Researchers have discovered that seabirds, including penguins and albatrosses, have highly-sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. This is the first time this ability has been identified in seabirds.

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, studied over 350 species of modern birds and found that seabirds have a high density of sensory receptors and nerves at the tip of their beaks, which has been previously identified in specialized tactile foragers such as ducks.

The researchers say this touch-sensitive region could have come from a common ancestor, and further work is needed to determine whether it serves a specific function in modern birds. Further study of their beaks and food-gathering behavior could help conserve some of these birds, many of which are at threat of extinction. The results are reported in the journal Biology Letters.

Tactile bill-tip organs in seabirds suggests conservation of a deep avian symplesiomorphy, Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0259. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2024.0259

Discarding the placenta after birth leads to loss of valuable information, pathologists say

In an article published September 18 in Trends in Molecular Medicine, physician-scientists argue that with most placentas discarded after birth, placental pathology is underutilized clinically, should be a routine part of obstetric and neonatal care, and also deserves more research attention.

Placentas should not be considered a waste tissue, they say, because they can teach us a lot about not just what went wrong in a pregnancy, but also inform about subsequent pregnancies for the health of the pregnant person and baby.

The placenta is critical for the exchange of nutrients and waste products between the developing offspring and the pregnant person. If the placenta becomes diseased, it can impact the parent and offspring, both during pregnancy and later in life.

At its most severe, placental pathology can cause stillbirths, and this is the medical scenario in which placentas are most often examined clinically. However, different types of placental pathology are also associated with small birth size and neurological issues in infants, and with hypertension (preeclampsia) and other cardiovascular issues in the parent.

Placental pathology can potentially identify not just the cause of an adverse outcome in the baby, but also insight into why something happened in the mom, and what that means for their health in the future.

Incorporating placental pathology into clinical care and research, Trends in Molecular Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2024.08.002