The researchers wanted to know if the same was true for humans. To find out, they first conducted animal experiments to find the right ingredients that would stimulate the gut biome and then made a supplement with the best of them. They then gave the supplement they had developed to 64 children suffering from severe malnutrition in several hospitals in Bangladesh.

Another 64 children also suffering from severe malnutrition were given RUFs. All the children in the study were assessed over the following three months. The research team found that those children receiving the biome-enhancing supplements gained weight faster than the children given RUFs.

They also found that those children receiving the new supplements had higher concentrations of the types of proteins in their blood that are needed for the proper growth of bones, muscles, and nerve cells in the brain.
The researchers conclude by suggesting that giving malnourished children biome-enhancing food can not only speed up recovery time but also prevent stunted growth.

Steven J. Hartman et al, A microbiome-directed therapeutic food for children recovering from severe acute malnutrition, Science Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adn2366

Part 2

Scientists find plant-like behaviour in human cells

A team of scientists has solved the structure of a protein known as "LYCHOS," which can detect and regulate cell growth by sensing cholesterol levels in the body.

Human cells need cholesterol for healthy growth, but the way cells and cholesterol interact is a delicate balance. When cell growth becomes abnormal, it can quickly become a driving force behind many types of cancer, neurological disorders and other diseases.

In their article published in Nature, the research team used cryo‐electron microscopy (cryo‐EM) to, for the first time, determine the 3D structure of LYCHOS and show that it is a unique hybrid of a cell transporter commonly found in plants (and not humans), and a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR).

The GPCR and plant-like transporter work together to sense cholesterol and regulate cell growth, thus making LYCHOS an exciting new drug target for diseases perpetuated by abnormal cell growth that can lead to the formation of cancerous tumors and neurological dysfunction.

Their cryo-EM studies have revealed that human LYCHOS is a hybrid of a GPCR and a 'PIN-FORMED' (PIN) transporter, typically associated with the plant kingdom  and not previously thought to exist in humans.

Much like the process whereby plants move their stems and leaves toward light to receive the maximum energy for photosynthesis, the LYCHOS plant-like transporter helps human cells sense when there's enough cholesterol to start growing.

Charles Bayly-Jones et al, LYCHOS is a human hybrid of a plant-like PIN transporter and a GPCR, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08012-9

Some plants have a backup plan to pass down accurate chromosome copies

Plants rely on fine-tuned genetic processes to pass down accurate copies of chromosomes to future generations. These processes sometimes involve billions of moving parts. Even the tiniest disruption can have a cascading effect. So, for plants like Arabidopsis thaliana, it's good to have a backup plan.

Chromosomes have to be accurately partitioned every time a cell divides. 

For that to happen, each chromosome has a centromere. In plants, centromeres control chromosome partitioning with the help of a molecule called DDM1.

When humans lose their version of DDM1, centromeres can't divide evenly. This causes a severe genetic condition called ICF syndrome. But if the molecule is so important, why isn't Arabidopsis affected when DDM1 is lost?

Scientists found that in yeast, centromere function is controlled by small RNAs. That process is called RNAi. Plants actually have both DDM1 and RNAi.

When they isolated these two in Arabidopsis to see what happens , the plants looked really horrible.

When the team looked closer, they found that a single transposon inside chromosome 5 was responsible for the defects. Transposons move around the genome, switching genes on and off. In Arabidopsis, they trigger DDM1 or RNAi to help centromeres divide. But when DDM1 and RNAi are missing, the process is disrupted.

They found very few copies of this transposon anywhere else in the genome.

But the centromere of chromosome 5 was infested with these things.

The scientists developed molecules called short hairpin RNAs that target the transposons.

Those small RNAs make up for the loss of DDM1. They recognized every copy of the transposon in the centromere and, amazingly, restored centromere function. So now the plants were fertile again. They make seeds. They look much better.

Of course, it's not all about plants. In humans, uneven centromere division has been linked to conditions like ICF and early cancer progression. 

Atsushi Shimada et al, Retrotransposon addiction promotes centromere function via epigenetically activated small RNAs, Nature Plants (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-024-01773-1

Science finds link between excessive sweating, sensitive skin

If you sweat excessively, you're likely to have sensitive skin as well, with new research confirming the two go hand-in-hand.

It uncovered a significant link excessive sweating -- a condition known as primary hyperhidrosis -- and sensitive skin.
People with primary hyperhidrosis sweat four times more than needed to cool the body -- even when they're not exposed to high temperatures or exercising. The condition affects specific areas such as the hands, feet, face and armpits.

People with sensitive skin often experience itching, burning and tightness when exposed to heat, sweat, skincare products and stress.

Researchers found that folks with hyperhydrosis are more likely than most people to have sensitive skin. Sensitivity often goes beyond areas that sweat excessively, showing that perspiration isn't the cause of their skin sensitivity.

Someone with primary hyperhidrosis is more likely to have sensitive skin than the general public, even in areas where there is no excessive sweating.

The study also showed that:

• The more severe the hyperhidrosis, the greater the skin sensitivity
• Excessive sweating was most often found in the hands
• Respondents with both issues reported frequent sensitivity to products marketed for sensitive skin

Erika T. McCormick MD et al. Primary Hyperhidrosis and Sensitive Skin: Exploring the Link with Predictive Machine Learning-Based Classification Models. Journal of the Drugs and Dermatology. (2024) DOI: 10.36849/JDD.8461

Researchers create artificial plants that purify indoor air, generate electricity

Most people spend their time indoors and the air we breathe at work, school or home affects our overall health and well-being.

Many sources can generate very toxic materials, like building materials and carpets. We breathe out and breathe in, and that builds up carbon dioxide levels. Also, there are risks from cooking and infiltration from the outdoors.

Most air purification systems, however, are expensive, cumbersome and require frequent cleaning or filter replacement to function at optimum levels.

So researchers are repurposing their research about bacteria-powered biobatteries—ingestible and otherwise—into a new idea for artificial plants that can feed off carbon dioxide, give off oxygen and even generate a little power.

They outline their results in a paper recently published in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems.

Using five biological solar cells and their photosynthetic bacteria, researchers created an artificial leaf "for fun," then realized the concept has wider implications. They built the first plant with five leaves, then tested its carbon dioxide capture rates and oxygen generation capability.

Although power generation of around 140 microwatts is a secondary benefit, they hope to improve the technology to achieve a minimum output of more than 1 milliwatt. They also want to integrate an energy storage system, such as lithium-ion batteries or supercapacitors.

Other upgrades could include using multiple bacteria species to ensure long-term viability and developing ways to minimize maintenance, such as water and nutrient delivery systems.

With some fine-tuning, these air purifying artificial plants could be a part of every household.

 Maryam Rezaie et al, Cyanobacterial Artificial Plants for Enhanced Indoor Carbon Capture and Utilization, Advanced Sustainable Systems (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adsu.202400401

GPS jamming? No problem, low Earth orbit satellites hold the key to resilient, interference-free navigation

Increasingly occurring GPS jamming in some places disrupts daily civilian activities, posing major navigational challenges. A new patented method using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas addresses these location vulnerability issues, presenting means for precise navigation even where traditional global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) fail.

Part 1

Some researchers are working on this problem.

They are exploring advanced positioning technologies to enhance navigation accuracy and reliability. The research covers multiple areas, including the development of a precise ultra-wideband (UWB) system for dense, indoor environments, which is also known as "the indoor GPS," improvements in outdoor vehicular positioning using GNSS, and a novel LEO satellite-based positioning method that addresses many of the limitations of current GNSS systems. Elsanhoury's work involved extensive testing and simulations, demonstrating significant advancements in both indoor and outdoor positioning accuracy.

The research focuses on two distinct technologies: UWB systems for precise indoor positioning and LEO satellites for enhanced outdoor navigation. The UWB technology significantly enhances positioning accuracy within dense indoor settings, while the LEO satellite-based system addresses the limitations of traditional GNSS. 

For outdoor environments, the research work introduces a novel LEO satellite-based positioning method. This approach addresses the impact of GPS jamming and interference, which is a persistent challenge in Finland and other regions. The LEO satellite system employs multiple signal beams to enhance navigation reliability, ensuring accurate positioning even when traditional GNSS systems are compromised. The simulation results conducted were very promising as the new LEO-based method outperformed GNSS amid challenging road conditions, with improved LEO accuracy of 9.15 meters compared to GNSS accuracy of 26.6 meters.

The new, patented method has received international endorsement and recognition.

The development of advanced UWB systems is crucial for navigating complex indoor spaces. The technology has shown resilience in dense industrial environments, also overcoming the common wireless communication impairments. Integrating UWB with other assisting technologies such as inertial motion sensors can lead to more precise location information, and solving challenges posed by traditional systems in confined areas.

 Elsanhoury, Mahmoud. Towards Precision Positioning for Smart Logistics Using Ultra Wide-Band Systems and LEO Satellite-Based Technologies, (2024). Doctoral dissertation. University of Vaasa, urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-395-146-4

Part 2

Scientists inject bacteria into fungi to study endosymbiosis

Endosymbiosis is a fascinating biological phenomenon in which an organism lives inside another. Such an unusual relationship is often beneficial for both parties. Even in our bodies, we find remnants of such cohabitation: mitochondria evolved from an ancient endosymbiosis. Long ago, bacteria entered other cells and stayed. This coexistence laid the foundation for mitochondria and thus the cells of plants, animals, and fungi.

What is still poorly understood, however, is how an endosymbiosis as a lifestyle actually arises. A bacterium that more or less accidentally ends up in a completely different host cell generally has a hard time. It needs to survive, multiply, and be passed on to the next generation. Otherwise, it dies out. And to not harm the host, it must not claim too many nutrients for itself and grow too quickly. In other words, if the host and its resident cannot get along, the relationship ends.

To study the beginnings of such a special relationship between two organisms, a team of researchers initiated such partnerships in the laboratory. The scientists observed what exactly happens at the beginning of a possible endosymbiosis. They have just published their study in the scientific journal Nature.

Researchers first developed a method to inject bacteria into cells of the fungus Rhizopus microsporus without destroying them. They used E. coli bacteria on the one hand and bacteria of the genus Mycetohabitans on the other. The latter are natural endosymbionts of another Rhizopus fungus. For the experiment, however, the researchers used a strain that does not form an endosymbiosis in nature. They then observed what happened to the enforced cohabitation under the microscope.

After the injection of the E. coli bacteria, both the fungus and the bacteria continued to grow, the latter eventually so rapidly that the fungus mounted an immune response against the bacteria. The fungus protected itself from the bacteria by encapsulating them. This prevented the bacteria from being passed on to the next generation of fungi.

This was not the case with the injected Mycetohabitans bacteria: While the fungus was forming spores, some of the bacteria managed to get into them and thus were passed on to the next generation. The fact that the bacteria are actually transmitted to the next generation of fungi via the spores was a breakthrough in this research.

Part 1

When the researchers allowed the spores with the resident bacteria to germinate, they found that they germinated less frequently and that the young fungi grew more slowly than without them. The endosymbiosis initially lowered the general fitness of the affected fungi.
The researchers continued the experiment over several generations of fungi, deliberately selecting those fungi whose spores contained bacteria. This enabled the fungus to recover and produce more inhabited but viable spores. As the researchers were able to show with genetic analyses, the fungus changed during this experiment and adapted to its resident.
The researchers also found that the resident, together with its host, produced biologically active molecules that could help the host obtain nutrients and defend itself against predators such as nematodes or amoebae.

The initial disadvantage can thus become an advantage.

In their study, the researchers show how fragile early endosymbiotic systems are. The fact that the host's fitness initially declines could mean the early demise of such a system under natural conditions.
For new endosymbioses to arise and stabilize, there needs to be an advantage to living together.
The prerequisite for this is that the prospective resident brings with it properties that favor endosymbiosis. For the host, it is an opportunity to acquire new characteristics in one swoop by incorporating another organism, even if it requires adaptations.

In evolution, endosymbioses have shown how successful they ultimately can become.

Julia Vorholt, Inducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08010-x. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08010-x

Part 2

How a bacterium becomes a permanent resident in a fungus

47 tigers dead in Vietnam zoos due to bird flu

Forty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media reported recently.

The deaths occurred in August and September at the private My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

According to test results from the National Center for Animal Health Diagnosis, the animals died "because of H5N1 type A virus", VNA said.

No zoo staff members in close contact with the animals had experienced respiratory symptoms, the VNA report added.

Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), an NGO that focuses on wildlife conservation, said there were a total of 385 tigers living in captivity in Vietnam at the end of 2023.

About 310 are kept at 16 privately owned farms and zoos, while the rest are in state-owned facilities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that since 2022, there have been increasing reports of deadly outbreaks among mammals caused by influenza viruses, including H5N1.

It also says H5N1 infections can range from mild to severe in humans, and in some cases can even be fatal.

Vietnam notified the WHO about a human fatality from the virus in March.

In 2004, dozens of tigers died from bird flu or were culled at the world's largest breeding farm in Thailand.

Source: News agencies

Chemists use light to replace an oxygen atom with a nitrogen atom in a molecule

A team of chemists  has succeeded in pulling an oxygen atom from a molecule and replacing it with a nitrogen atom. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group used photocatalysis to edit a furan in their lab.

Prior research has shown that some complex molecules can be edited using chemical reactions, but they are few and far between. So chemists must synthesize molecules from scratch when they want to change a small part of a molecule, or even just one atom, for testing.

Such work has shown that even minor changes can have a major impact - changing a single atom in a heterocycle can have a profound impact on the efficacy of a drug. Chemists have been looking for more efficient ways to edit molecules—or more specifically, to remove a single atom and replace it with another.

In this new study, the research team developed a technique they describe as a pencil-and-eraser technique in which one atom is erased and another penciled in.
The researchers were inspired by a paper written by chemists Axel Couture and Alain Lablache-Combier in 1971, in which they used ultraviolet light to convert a furan to a N-propylpyrrole as a way of improving yield. They used ultraviolet light to swap an oxygen atom in a furan with a nitrogen atom.
Part 1

Such editing, the team notes, is particularly challenging due to issues with delocalization—prior attempts have involved applying high temperatures or radiation. Neither approach has been found to be suitable.

In this new approach, the team used light as a photocatalyst for activating a furan ring. The technique can be used to carry out single electron oxidation on a furan, resulting in radicalization.

The approach, they note, allows for a facile reaction that is susceptible to the addition of an amine. That leads to a cascade of electron and proton transfer between the product and the photocatalyst, resulting in the creation of a ring aldehyde intermediate.

Donghyeon Kim et al, Photocatalytic furan-to-pyrrole conversion, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adq6245

Ellie F. Plachinski et al, Single-atom editing with light, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.ads2595

End of Jetlag: Scientists discover secret to regulating our body clock

Scientists have discovered a revolutionary way to put an end to jet lag by uncovering the secret at the tail end of Casein Kinase 1 delta (CK1δ), a protein that regulates our body clock. This breakthrough, achieved by researchers  offers a new approach to adjusting our circadian rhythms, the natural 24-hour cycles that influence sleep-wake patterns and overall daily functions.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), their findings could pave the way for new approaches to treating disorders related to the body clock.

CK1δ regulates circadian rhythms by tagging other proteins involved in our biological clock to fine-tune the timing of these rhythms. In addition to modifying other proteins, CK1δ itself can be tagged, thereby altering its own ability to regulate the proteins involved in running the body's internal clock.

Previous research identified two distinct versions of CK1δ, known as isoforms δ1 and δ2, which vary by just 16 building blocks or amino acids right at the end of the protein in a part called the C-terminal tail. Yet these small differences significantly impact CK1δ's function. While it was known that when these proteins are tagged, their ability to regulate the body clock decreases, no one knew exactly how this happened.

Using advanced spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques to zoom in on the tails, the researchers found that how the proteins are tagged is determined by their distinct tail sequences.

The findings pinpoint to three specific sites on CK1δ's tail where phosphate groups can attach, and these sites are crucial for controlling the protein's activity. When these spots get tagged with a phosphate group, CK1δ becomes less active, which means it doesn't influence our circadian rhythms as effectively. Using high-resolution analysis, we were able to pinpoint the exact sites involved .

Part 1

They found that the δ1 tail interacts more extensively with the main part of the protein, leading to greater self-inhibition compared to δ2. This means that δ1 is more tightly regulated by its tail than δ2. When these sites are mutated or removed, δ1 becomes more active, which leads to changes in circadian rhythms. In contrast, δ2 does not have the same regulatory effect from its tail region.
This discovery highlights how a small part of CK1δ can greatly influence its overall activity. This self-regulation is vital for keeping CK1δ activity balanced, which, in turn, helps regulate our circadian rhythms.

The study also addressed the wider implications of these findings. CK1δ plays a role in several important processes beyond circadian rhythms, including cell division, cancer development, and certain neurodegenerative diseases. By better understanding how CK1δ's activity is regulated, scientists could open new avenues for treating not just circadian rhythm disorders but also a range of conditions.

Rachel L. Harold et al, Isoform-specific C-terminal phosphorylation drives autoinhibition of Casein kinase 1, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2415567121

Part 2

**

After injury,  comb jellies can fuse to become one!

Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on October 7 have made the surprising discovery that one species of comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) can fuse, such that two individuals readily turn into one following an injury. Afterwards, they rapidly synchronize their muscle contractions and merge digestive tracts to share food.

These  findings suggest that ctenophores may lack a system for allorecognition, which is the ability to distinguish between self and others.

Additionally, the data imply that two separate individuals can rapidly merge their nervous systems and share action potentials.

Researchers made the observation after keeping a population of the comb jellies in a seawater tank in the lab. They noticed an unusually large individual that seemed to have two backends and two sensory structures known as apical organs instead of one. They wondered if this unusual individual arose from the fusion of two injured jellies.

To find out, they removed partial lobes from other individuals and placed them close together in pairs. It turned out that, nine out of 10 times, it worked. The injured individuals became one, surviving for at least three weeks.

Further study showed that after a single night, the two original individuals seamlessly became one with no apparent separation between them. When the researchers poked at one lobe, the whole fused body reacted with a prominent startle response, suggesting that their nervous systems were also fully fused.

Mechanical stimulation applied to one side of the fused ctenophore resulted in a synchronized muscle contraction on the other side

Part 1

More detailed observations showed that the fused comb jellies had spontaneous movements for the first hour. After that, the timing of contractions on each lobe started to synch up more. After just two hours, 95% of the fused animal's muscle contractions were completely synchronous, they report.

They also looked closely at the digestive tract to find that it also had fused. When one of the mouths ingested fluorescently labeled brine shrimp, the food particles worked their way through the fused canal. Eventually, the comb jelly expelled waste products from both anuses, although not at the same time.
The allorecognition mechanisms are related to the immune system, and the fusion of nervous systems is closely linked to research on regeneration.

Rapid Physiological Integration of Fused Ctenophores, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.084. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(24)01023-6

Part 2

What is microRNA? 

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded on Monday to two US scientists for discovering microRNA, a previously unknown type of genetic switch which is hoped can pave the way for new medical breakthroughs.

But while several treatments and tests are under development using microRNAs against cancer, heart disease, viruses and other illnesses, none have actually yet reached patients.

And the world paid little attention when the new Nobel laureates Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun revealed their discovery decades ago, thinking it was just "something weird about worms".

How exactly these tiny genetic switches work inside our bodies?

Each cell in the human body has the same set of instructions, called DNA. Some turn into brain cells, while others become muscles.

So how do the cells know what to become? The relevant part of the DNA's instructions is pointed to via a process called gene regulation.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) normally serves as a messenger. It delivers the instructions from the DNA to proteins, which are the building blocks of life that turn cells into brains—or muscles.

A good example  is the messenger RNA vaccines rolled out against COVID-19 during the pandemic, which insert a message with new instructions to build proteins that block viruses.

But the two new Nobel winners Ambros and Ruvkun discovered a whole new type of gene regulator that had previously been overlooked by science.

Rather than being the messenger which relays information, microRNA instead acts as a switch to turn other genes off and on.

This was a whole new level of control that we had totally missed.

The discovery of microRNAs brought an additional level of complexity by revealing that regions that were thought to be non-coding play a role in gene regulation.

Part 1

MicroRNAs are particularly promising for fighting cancer because some of these switches act as a tumor suppressor, so they put a brake on cells dividing inappropriately.
Because many viruses use microRNAs, several antiviral drugs are at varying stages of development, including for hepatitis C.

One complicating factor has been that microRNAs can be unstable.

But scientists also hope they can be used as a test called a "biomarker", which could reveal what type of cancer a patient could be suffering from, for example.
It also appears probable that microRNAs could be involved in the evolution of our species.
Part 2

The microbes that transform toxic carbon monoxide into valuable biofuel

Microbes live everywhere, in enormous numbers. We might not see them with the naked eye, but they are in soils, lakes, oceans, hydrothermal vents, our homes, and even in and on our own bodies. And they don't just hang out there. They are always eating. Altogether, they eat so much that they influence the elemental cycles of the entire planet. 

Many of the microbes living on our planet do their utmost to keep these elemental cycles running in perfect balance. The fact of the matter is, though, that human interventions have significantly shifted the balance of more than one of them.
That sounds rather grim—and in part it is. It is time for a change. The key to change might lie in the simple trait that we share with every living organism on Earth. Everything needs food, from the microscopically small to the biggest blue whales. For microbes, food can include pretty much anything. Some microbes feed on apples; others prefer milk sugars (lactose) and help us make yogurt and cheese; and many, many microbes like the taste of waste.

This is extremely handy when it comes to cleaning our sewage water, for example. Billions of microbes in wastewater treatment plants happily gobble up all the nutrients in the water that's flushed down our drains. This reduces our risk of getting sick and helps improve surface water quality. Pretty amazing, right?

Some microbes on our planet can turn their food into our fuels. They, too, feed on waste.

Part 1

Researchers found fuel-producing microbes that eat carbon monoxide—a highly toxic, flammable gas that is generated, among other things, during steel production. Currently, the steel industry produces approximately 2 billion tons of steel per year, and carbon monoxide comprises between 20% and 30% of their waste gases. That waste carbon monoxide is currently burned to produce carbon dioxide. It is less toxic, but still quite harmful. However, carbon monoxide-consuming microbes could turn these vast quantities of waste gas into green fuel.
Some carbon monoxide-consuming microbes can produce ethanol, a biofuel that has already been blended into normal fuels for several decades to make them a bit greener.

https://theconversation.com/meet-the-microbes-that-transform-toxic-...

Part 2

**

Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 2 scientists for discoveries that enabled machine learning

Two pioneers of artificial intelligence—John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton—won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live.

 These two gentlemen were really the pioneers. The artificial neural networks—interconnected computer nodes inspired by neurons in the human brain—the researchers pioneered are used throughout science and medicine and "have also become part of our daily lives.

There are enormous benefits, its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future. Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind, the Nobel committee says.

 www.nobelprize.org/prizes/phys … dvanced-information/

When it comes to emergency care, ChatGPT overprescribes!

If ChatGPT were cut loose in the Emergency Department, it might suggest unneeded X-rays and antibiotics for some patients and admit others who didn't require hospital treatment, a new study from  has found.

The researchers said that, while the model could be prompted in ways that make its responses more accurate, it's still no match for the clinical judgment of a human doctor.

This is a valuable message to clinicians not to blindly trust these models.

ChatGPT can answer medical exam questions and help draft clinical notes, but it's not currently designed for situations that call for multiple considerations, like the situations in an emergency department.

 Chris Williams et al, Nature Communications (2024). www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52415-1

Physics team uncovers a quantum Mpemba effect with a host of 'cool' implications

Initially investigating out of pure curiosity, researchers have made a discovery that bridges the gap between Aristotle's observations two millennia ago and modern-day understanding, while opening the door to a whole host of "cool"—and "cooling"—implications.

The Mpemba effect is best known as a perplexing phenomenon, where hot water freezes faster than cold water. Observations of the counter-intuitive effect date back to Aristotle who, over 2,000 years ago, noted that the Greeks of Pontus were exploiting the effect in their fishing practices.

And now, we can say that this strange effect is much more ubiquitous than we previously expected. Researchers have  just published a research paper in the journal Physical Review Letters  on the subject. The paper outlines their breakthrough in understanding the effect in the very different—and extremely complex—world of quantum physics.

Part 1

The 'Mpemba effect' gets its name from Erasto Mpemba who, as a school kid in 1963, was making ice cream in his home economics class in Tanzania. Mpemba did not wait for his hot ice cream mixture to cool before putting it directly in the fridge and was unsurprisingly puzzled to find that it froze before all the colder samples of his classmates.
He pointed this out to his teacher, who ridiculed him for not knowing his physics—Newton's law of cooling, for example, tells us that the rate at which an object cools is proportional to the temperature difference between the object and its surroundings. However, Mpemba convinced a visiting professor—Denis Osoborne from the University of Dar es Salaam—to test what he had seen and the pair published a paper that indeed evidenced the strange effect.
While the Mpemba effect is still not wholly understood—its presence is hotly debated at the macroscopic scale—it is much more apparent on the microscopic scale, where physicists use the theory of quantum mechanics to describe nature.

The quantum Mpemba effect has recently become a trending topic, but myriad questions hung in the air; for example, how does the quantum effect relate to the original effect? And can we construct a thermodynamic framework to understand the phenomenon better?
The QuSys research group's breakthrough answers some of the key questions.
Part 2

Using the toolkit of non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics, the team has successfully bridged the gap between Aristotle's observations from two millennia ago and our modern understanding of quantum mechanics.

And it now opens the door to many research and applications-related questions.
The question forced the researchers to ask several fundamental questions about the relationship between the laws of thermodynamics that describe cooling, and the quantum mechanics, which describe reality at the fundamental level. We are currently developing a geometrical approach to the problem, which will hopefully allow us to understand different types of Mpemba effect in the same mathematical framework.
What you actually have in this really 'cool' Mpemba effect is a way to speed up cooling—and the cooling of quantum systems is absolutely vital for applications in quantum technologies.
Some of the tools the researchers are developing to investigate this fundamental effect will be of paramount importance for understanding things like heat flows, and how to minimize dissipation in future technologies.

Mattia Moroder et al, Thermodynamics of the Quantum Mpemba Effect, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.140404. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2403.16959

Part 3

**

The other greenhouse gases warming the planet

While carbon dioxide, or CO₂, is the best known greenhouse gas, several others, including methane and nitrous oxide, are also driving global warming and altering the Earth's climate.

CO₂ accounts for about two-thirds of the warming attributed to greenhouse gases.

Methane, or CH4, is the second most important greenhouse gas linked to human activity after CO2.

Around 40 percent of methane comes from natural sources, notably wetlands, but the majority (around 60 percent) is linked to human activities such as agriculture (ruminant breeding and rice cultivation), fossil fuels and waste. Its warming power is more than 80 times greater over 20 years than that of CO2, but its lifespan is shorter, making it an important lever in attempts to limit global warming in the short term.

Reducing methane emissions "would have a strong short-term cooling effect, because atmospheric methane concentrations would drop quickly.

Policies should "focus on capturing the low hanging fruit, so the very low-cost measures such as reducing natural gas leaks", say the experts.

Despite a global commitment to reduce planet-heating emissions signed by many countries, including the European Union and the United States, the trend is not positive.

Methane is rising faster in relative terms than any major greenhouse gas and is now 2.6-fold higher than in pre-industrial times.

Nitrous oxide, or nitrous protoxide (N2O), is the third major greenhouse gas and almost 300 times more potent than CO2.
It is mainly emitted by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and manure used in agriculture.

Other emissions come from human activities (the chemical industry, wastewater, fossil fuels) or natural sources (the soil and oceans).
Part 1

"Global human-induced emissions, which are dominated by nitrogen additions to croplands, increased by 30 percent over the past four decades," concluded a major study in the journal Nature in 2020.
The key to the problem lies in more efficient use of fertilizers.

Two-thirds of the climate change mitigation potential of N2O could be realized by reducing fertilizers on just 20 percent of the world's cropland, particularly in humid subtropical agricultural regions.
Fluorinated greenhouse gases (PFCs, HFCs and SF6) are found in fridges and freezers, heat pumps, air conditioners and electrical networks.

Even when in small quantities, they stand out for their extremely high warming capacity.

For example, SF6, which is found in electrical transformers, has a greenhouse effect 24,000 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period.

The Montreal Protocol signed in 1987, and ratified by 195 countries, has already significantly reduced the atmospheric presence of CFCs, another ozone-depleting fluorinated gas.

In 2016 the Kigali agreement also provided for the phasing out of HFCs.
Last year the EU sealed a pact to progressively ban the sale of equipment containing fluorinated gases, in particular HFCs, with the aim of eliminating them completely by 2050.
Source: Environmental Research Letters.
Part 2
**

Asthma and allergies may be caused by changes in the placenta, suggests study

Changes in the placenta may increase the risk of children developing asthma and allergies, as shown in new research. The study is published in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

This study is based on a review of 19 previous studies involving around 13,000 children.

The study shows that children born prematurely have a three times increased risk of suffering from asthma-related problems if there is inflammation in the fetal membranes and placenta. This risk is in addition to the increased risk of lung disease linked to premature birth. 

Researchers also saw a link between unusually heavy placentas and increased asthma medication prescriptions in full-term children during their first year of life.

Although these links are statistically significant, the researchers emphasize that the they do not yet know for sure whether changes in the placenta directly or indirectly cause asthma or allergies in children.

It's almost impossible to conduct the kind of studies needed to prove a causal relation in pregnant women. But given these results, they think pediatricians ought to focus more on the potential significance of the placenta for the child after birth.

It has been known for some time that atopic diseases such as asthma and allergies can begin to develop during the fetal stage. A plausible explanation for the new findings could be that inflammation in the placenta and fetal membranes triggers an inflammation in the fetus that persists and risks damaging the child's lungs or affecting the immune system even after birth.

This new knowledge is something from which health care can already benefit.

The placenta is a temporary organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy. It supplies the fetus with oxygen and nutrients, removes waste products, and acts as a barrier against certain infections. The placenta also produces vital hormones for the pregnancy, the mother, and the fetus.

Zaki Bakoyan et al, Childhood atopic disorders in relation to placental changes—A systematic review and meta‐analysis, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/pai.14141

**

Microbial marvels: Study finds 'untapped biodiversity' in the bathroom, on your toothbrush and showerhead

The latest hotspot to offer awe-inspiring biodiversity lies no further than your bathroom.

In a new study, microbiologists found that showerheads and toothbrushes are teeming with an extremely diverse collection of viruses—most of which have never been seen before.

Although this might sound ominous, the good news is these viruses don't target people. They target bacteria.

The microorganisms collected in the study are bacteriophage, or "phage," a type of virus that infects and replicates inside of bacteria. Although researchers know little about them, phages have recently garnered attention for their potential use in treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. And the previously unknown viruses lurking in our bathrooms could become a treasure trove of materials for exploring those applications.

The study, "Phage communities in household-related biofilms correlate with bacterial hosts but do not associate with other environmental factors," was published recently (Oct. 9) in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.

Researchers  found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before. It's amazing how much untapped biodiversity is all around us. And you don't even have to go far to find it; it's right under our noses.

After characterizing bacteria,the researchers then used DNA sequencing to examine the viruses living on those same samples. Altogether, the samples comprised more than 600 different viruses—and no two samples were alike.

They saw basically no overlap in virus types between showerheads and toothbrushes.  They also saw very little overlap between any two samples at all. Each showerhead and each toothbrush is like its own little island. It just underscores the incredible diversity of viruses out there.

The researchers caution people not to fret about the invisible wildlife living within our bathrooms. Instead of grabbing for bleach, people can soak their showerheads in vinegar to remove calcium buildup or simply wash them with plain soap and water. And people should regularly replace toothbrush heads.

Microbes are everywhere, and the vast majority of them will not make us sick. The more you attack them with disinfectants, the more they are likely to develop resistance or become more difficult to treat. We should all just learn to live with them, the researchers  say.

Phage communities in household-related biofilms correlate with bacterial hosts but do not associate with other environmental factors, Frontiers in Microbiomes (2024). www.frontiersin.org/journals/m … 024.1396560/abstract

Nobel Prize in chemistry honors 3 scientists who used AI to design proteins, life's building blocks

Three scientists who discovered powerful techniques to predict and even design novel proteins—the building blocks of life—were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday. Their work used advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, and holds the potential to transform how new drugs are made.

The prize was awarded to David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, computer scientists at Google DeepMind, a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory based in London.

Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the award honored research that unraveled "a grand challenge in chemistry, and in particular in biochemistry, for decades."

Proteins are complex molecules with thousands of atoms that twist, turn, loop and spiral in a countless array of shapes that determine their biological function. For decades, scientists have dreamed of being able to efficiently design and build new proteins.

Baker, 62, whose work has received funding from the National Institutes of Health since the 1990s, created a computer program called Rosetta that helped analyze information about existing proteins in comprehensive databases to build new proteins that don't exist in nature.

You can almost construct any type of protein now with this technology.

Hassabis, 48, and Jumper, 39, created an artificial intelligence model that has predicted the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the committee added.

They  managed to crack the code. With skillful use of artificial intelligence, they made it possible to predict the complex structure of essentially any known protein in nature.

Part 1

The ability to custom design new proteins—and better understand existing proteins—could enable researchers to create new kinds of medicines and vaccines. It could also allow scientists to design new enzymes to break down plastics or other waste materials, and to design fine-tuned sensors for hazardous materials.

There's fantastic prospects for making better medicines—medicines that are smarter, that only work in the right time and place in the body.

One example is a potential nasal spray that could slow or stop the rapid spread of specific viruses, such as COVID-19. Another is a medicine to disrupt the cascade of symptoms known as cytokine storm.

That was always the holy grail. If you could figure out how protein sequences folded into their particular structures, then it might be possible to design protein sequences to fold into previously never seen structures that might be useful for us.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chem … dvanced-information/

Part 2

Stitches with internally produced electric charge found to speed up wound healing in rats

A team of chemical fiber and polymer material researchers  has found that the use of internally produced, electrically charged sutures can speed up the healing process after surgery in rats. In their study published in Nature Communications, the group developed a type of suture that generates its own electricity while inside the body and tested it in a lab setting and in live rats.

Prior research has shown that the application of electricity to wounds can speed up healing—it attracts fibroblasts, which are a major part of the healing process. Prior research has also shown that applying electrical current to conductive sutures can promote healing. But these sutures require an external power source or a bulky battery. In this new effort, the research team found a way to power sutures using interactions between the sutures and surrounding tissue.

The sutures were made using biodegradable polymers and magnesium, both of which can be absorbed safely by the body over time.
When muscles and other tissue around the site of a surgical procedure move, the middle layer of the sutures rubs against the outer layer, transferring electrons. The resulting electricity moves through the rest of the suture, stimulating the tissue that has been sewn together.

The sutures are just 350 microns, the size needed for closing wounds. Because they are biodegradable, doctors would not have to remove them.

During lab experiments, the sutures were found to be capable of generating 2.3 volts during normal activity. When used with live tissue, the sutures were found to speed up healing by 50% compared to non-electrified sutures. They also resulted in lower bacterial levels, even when standard disinfectants were not used.

The research team next tested their sutures on rats and observed speedier recovery and fewer infections. They plan to test their sutures in larger animals before eventually moving on to trials in humans.

Zhouquan Sun et al, A bioabsorbable mechanoelectric fiber as electrical stimulation suture, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52354-x

Scientists show accelerating CO₂ release from rocks in Arctic Canada with global warming

Researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford have shown that weathering of rocks in the Canadian Arctic will accelerate with rising temperatures, triggering a positive feedback loop that will release more and more CO₂ to the atmosphere. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.

For sensitive regions like the Arctic, where surface air temperatures are warming nearly four times faster than the global average, it is particularly crucial to understand the potential contribution of atmospheric CO2 from weathering.

One pathway happens when certain minerals and rocks react with oxygen in the atmosphere, releasing CO2 via a series of chemical reactions. For instance, the weathering of sulfide minerals (e.g., 'fool's gold') makes acid which causes CO2 to release from other rock minerals that are found nearby.

In Arctic permafrost, these minerals are being exposed as the ground thaws due to rising temperatures, which could act as a positive feedback loop to accelerate climate change.

Part 1

In this new study, researchers used records of sulfate (SO42-) concentration and temperature from 23 sites across the Mackenzie River Basin, the largest river system in Canada, to examine the sensitivity of the weathering process to rising temperatures. Sulfate, like CO2, is a product of sulfide weathering, and can be used to trace how fast this process occurs.

The results demonstrated that across the catchment, sulfate concentrations rose rapidly with temperature. During the past 60 years (from 1960 to 2020), sulfide weathering saw an increase of 45% as temperatures increased by 2.3°C. This highlights that CO2 released by weathering could trigger a positive feedback loop that would accelerate warming in Arctic regions.
Using these past records from rivers, the researchers predicted that CO2 released from the Mackenzie River Basin could double to 3 billion kg/year by 2100 under a moderate emission scenario.
Not all parts of the river catchment responded in the same way. Weathering was much more sensitive to temperature in rocky mountainous areas, and those covered with permafrost. By modeling the process, the researchers revealed that sulfide weathering was accelerated further by processes which break rocks up as they freeze and shatter.

Conversely, areas covered with peatland showed lower increases in sulfide oxidation with warming, because the peat protects the bedrock from this process.

Ella Walsh et al, Temperature sensitivity of the mineral permafrost feedback at the continental scale, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq4893. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq4893

Part 2

Light pollution disturbs moths—even in the dark

Light pollution is more serious than expected: Moths not only lose their orientation directly under street lamps. Their flight behavior is also disturbed outside the cone of light.

The increasing use of artificial light at night is one of the most dramatic man-made changes on earth. Streetlights and illuminated buildings are significantly changing the environment for nocturnal animals.

Scientists have identified light pollution as one of the causes of the sharp decline in insects in recent years: many nocturnal insects fly to artificial light sources and circle around them incessantly. There they become easy prey for bats and other predators or eventually fall to the ground exhausted and die.

Moths are one group of nocturnal insects that are in significant decline. Their disappearance is also problematic because they play a key role in food webs and in the pollination of plants.

A new study now shows that the behavior of moths changes not only in the cone of light from street lamps, but also outside the illuminated area.

The results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This suggests that the effects of light pollution are not limited to direct attraction to light sources, but are much more far-reaching and complex than previously assumed.

What also emerged from the experiments is there is an interaction between the disorientation of the moths caused by artificial light and the moon. This depends on whether the moon is above or below the horizon.

Jacqueline Degen et al, Shedding light with harmonic radar: Unveiling the hidden impacts of streetlights on moth flight behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401215121

Our food system is broken and we only have 60 harvests left for our children, researchers warn

Plant-based diets, compassionate agriculture, Indigenous methods, consumer pressure, new laws, international agreements and even vegan pets—these are the solutions for fixing our broken food and farming systems, say dozens of environmental advocates, researchers, farmers and industry pioneers.

Warning that 'our food system is broken' and radical change is needed to mend it, they say, in our world where one‑third of food is lost or wasted, 780 million people are hungry, and three billion people cannot afford to eat healthily.

We have just sixty harvests left in our soils to save the future for our children. For people, animals and the planet, the clock is ticking. There is no time to lose. What we do now will define the next one thousand years.

In his chapter, scientist Tim Benton illuminates how increased meat consumption has been a major driver of our planetary crisis. "As demand has risen—partly because of a growing global population but mainly owing to increased meat consumption and the associated increase in demand for animal feed—so too has the use of chemical inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides to maximize yields on existing cropland… Nature has suffered as a result. Food production is therefore a central cause of declining biodiversity, deforestation, water and air pollution and land degradation.

But far from simply tolling a klaxon of doom, they elicit hope by offering solutions for feeding the world, while nourishing our soils and protecting our species.

We can bridge the climate change emissions gap through ecological agriculture now, not at some point in the future. Even if only 10% of farms and pastures are managed regeneratively by maximizing photosynthesis and root exudates, we can mitigate emissions by fixing more living carbon in plants and building up carbon in soil.

The solution to hunger extinction and the climate emergency is to return to Earth and regenerate her biodiversity in soils, our farms, forests, our diets and our guts.

Joyce D'Silva et al, Regenerative Farming and Sustainable Diets, Regenerative Farming and Sustainable Diets (2024). DOI: 10.4324/9781032684369

But I think this is too alarmist  although there is some truth in it.

**

Regular fish intake tied to lower risk for tinnitus in women

Regular fish consumption may lower the risk for tinnitus in women, according to a study published online Sept. 28 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers  examined the longitudinal association between seafood intake and tinnitus. The analysis included 73,482 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study II (1991 to 2021).

The researchers found that seafood intake was independently associated with a lower risk for developing persistent tinnitus. Among participants who consumed one serving of fish per week, the risk for tinnitus was 13 percent lower; risk was 23 percent lower for those who consumed two to four servings per week and 21 percent lower for those who consumed five or more servings.
Higher intakes of tuna fish, light-meat fish, and shellfish all were associated with lower risk (e.g., consumption of tuna at least once weekly: adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.84; light-meat fish: aHR, 0.91; shellfish: aHR, 0.82). There was a trend for a higher risk with dark-meat fish intake, while fish oil supplement use was associated with a higher risk (aHRs, 1.09 and 1.12, respectively).

"These findings indicate that dietary factors may be important in the pathogenesis of tinnitus," the authors write.

Sharon G. Curhan et al, Longitudinal Study of Seafood and Fish Oil Supplement Intake and Risk of Persistent Tinnitus, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.09.028

**

Microbes Found Alive Sealed in Rock For 2 Billion Years

Deep underground, in the darkness far below the bustling activity on the surface, a community of microbes has been living their best lives in isolation.

What makes these organisms incredibly special is that they have been cut off for billions of years – far longer than any other community of subterranean microbes we've ever seen. This find of living microbes in 2 billion-year-old rock absolutely smashes the previous record of 100 million years.

And it's a significant one: microbes in isolated underground pockets like these tend to evolve more slowly, since they're detached from many of the pressures that drive evolution in more populated habitats.

This means that the microbe community can tell us things we might not have known about microbe evolution here on Earth. But it also suggests that there might be underground microbe communities still alive on Mars, surviving long after the water on the surface dried out.

By studying the DNA and genomes of microbes like these, we may be able to understand the evolution of very early life on Earth.

The sample of rock was drilled from 15 meters (50 feet) underground from a formation known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex in northeastern South Africa. This formation is huge, a 66,000 square kilometer (25,500 square mile) intrusion into Earth's crust that formed some 2 billion years ago from molten magma cooling below the surface.

Part 1

First, they had to rule out that any microbes they found were indigenous to the habitat, and not the result of contamination from the extraction process. They used a technique they developed several years ago that involves sterilizing the outside of the sample before cutting it into slices to examine its contents.

Then, they used a cyanine dye to stain the slices. This dye binds to DNA, so if there is any DNA in the sample, it should light up like a Christmas tree when subjected to infrared spectroscopy. And this is exactly what happened.

The sample was also riddled with clay, which packed veins near the pockets in the rock near the microbial colonies.

The result of this clay packing was multifold: it provided a resource for the microbes to live on, with organic and inorganic materials that they could metabolize; and it effectively sealed the rock, both preventing the microbes from escaping, and preventing anything else from entering – including the drilling fluid.

The microbial community in the rock will need to be analyzed in greater detail, including DNA analysis, to determine how it has changed or not changed in the 2 billion years it has been sequestered away from the rest of life on Earth.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-024-02434-8

Part 2

Creating spider-man's world: researchers recreate web-slinging technology

Every person who has read a comic book or watched a Spider-Man movie has tried to imagine what it would be like to shoot a web from their wrist, fly over streets, and pin down villains. Researchers  took those imaginary scenes seriously and created the first web-slinging technology in which a fluid material can shoot from a needle, immediately solidify as a string, and adhere to and lift objects.

The study is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

These sticky fibers, created at the Tufts University Silklab, come from silk moth cocoons, which are boiled in solution and broken down into their building block proteins called fibroin. The silk fibroin solution can be extruded through narrow bore needles to form a stream that, with the right additives, solidifies into a fiber when exposed to air.

Of course, nature is the original inspiration for deploying fibers of silk into tethers, webs, and cocoons. Spiders, ants, wasps, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and even flies can produce silk at some point in their lifecycle.

Nature also inspired the Silklab to pioneer the use of silk fibroin to make powerful glues that can work underwater, printable sensors that can be applied to virtually any surface, edible coatings that can extend the shelf life of produce, a light collecting material that could significantly enhance the efficiency of solar cells, and more sustainable microchip manufacturing methods . However, while they made significant progress with silk-based materials, the researchers had yet to replicate the mastery of spiders, which can control the stiffness, elasticity, and adhesive properties of the threads they spin. 

Silk fibroin solutions can slowly form a semi-solid hydrogel over a period of hours when exposed to organic solvents like ethanol or acetone, but the presence of dopamine, which is used in making the adhesives, allowed the solidification process to occur almost immediately.

Part 1

When the organic solvent wash was mixed in quickly, the silk solution rapidly created fibers with high tensile strength and stickiness. Dopamine and its polymers employ the same chemistry used by barnacles to form fibers that stick tenaciously to surfaces.

The next step was to spin the fibers in air. The researchers added dopamine to the silk fibroin solution, which appears to accelerate the transition from liquid to solid by pulling water away from the silk. When shot through a coaxial needle, a thin stream of the silk solution is surrounded by a layer of acetone which triggers the solidification.

The acetone evaporates in mid-air, leaving a fiber attached to any object it contacts. The researchers enhanced the silk fibroin-dopamine solution with chitosan, a derivative of insect exoskeletons that gave the fibers up to 200 times greater tensile strength, and borate buffer, which increased their adhesiveness about 18-fold.

The diameter of the fibers could be varied between that of a human hair to about half a millimeter, depending on the bore of the needle.
The device can shoot fibers that can pick up objects over 80 times their own weight under various conditions. The researchers demonstrated this by picking up a cocoon, a steel bolt, a laboratory tube floating on water, a scalpel partially buried in sand, and a wood block from a distance of about 12 centimeters.
Who says fiction cannot become fact?
With science everything is possible.

 Marco Lo Presti et al, Dynamic Adhesive Fibers for Remote Capturing of Objects, Advanced Functional Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202414219

Part 2

New nanotherapy targets artery inflammation in cardiovascular disease

Inflammation of the arteries is a primary precursor and driver of cardiovascular disease—the No. 1 killer of people in some countries. This inflammation is associated with the buildup of dangerous plaque inside the arteries. Advanced treatments are needed to target this inflammation in patients. 

Researchers have tested a new nanoparticle nanotherapy infusion that precisely targets inflammation and activates the immune system to help clear out arterial plaque.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

There are two different things that people seem to be scared of when it comes to plaques.

The first example is when your artery becomes blocked (for example, a 95% to 99% blockage). Often, there are symptoms like pain or pressure in the chest or nausea and dizziness beforehand and doctors will put a stent in the artery to increase blood flow.

The second is when the plaque is highly inflammatory. This can make the plaque vulnerable to rupture, which can lead to artery blockages elsewhere in the body. That's the scarier one that leads to most heart attacks. Because such plaques don't necessarily block much of the artery, and because the effects of the rupture can very suddenly completely block blood flow, such a heart attack can seem to appear as if from nowhere.

Researchers now created nanoparticles—materials that are thinner than a human hair—that they used to develop a nanotherapy infusion. The nanotherapy selectively targets a specific immune cell type that moves into and is a part of the plaque. These treated cells "eat" away parts of the plaque core, removing it from the artery wall and decreasing levels of blood vessel inflammation.

In previous studies they tested the infusion on mice and now, pig models, to prove the infusion's effectiveness, and critically, its lack of side effects due to its precision immune targeting.

Using PET [positron-emission tomography] scans, they were able to measure the effects of the therapy on pig arteries. 

They  showed in animal models such as pigs that they can decrease the levels of inflammation in the plaque based not only on this clinically used PET imaging technique but also by molecular assays. Just as importantly, they saw none of the side effects that would have been anticipated had the therapy not been precisely targeted.

 Sharika Bamezai et al, Pro-efferocytic nanotherapies reduce vascular inflammation without inducing anemia in a large animal model of atherosclerosis, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52005-1

Microscopic marine organisms can create parachute-like mucus structures that stall CO₂ absorption from atmosphere

New research unveils a hidden factor that could change our understanding of how oceans mitigate climate change. The study, published Oct. 11 in Science, reveals never-before seen mucus "parachutes" produced by microscopic marine organisms that significantly slow their sinking, putting the brakes on a process crucial for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The surprising discovery implies that previous estimates of the ocean's carbon sequestration potential may have been overestimated, but also paves the way toward improving climate models and informing policymakers in their efforts to slow climate change.

Rahul Chajwa et al, Hidden comet tails of marine snow impede ocean-based carbon sequestration, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl5767. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl5767

Personal care products affect indoor air quality

The personal care products we use on a daily basis significantly affect indoor air quality, according to new research.

When used indoors, these products release a cocktail of more than 200 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air, and when those VOCs come into contact with ozone, the chemical reactions that follow can produce new compounds and particles that may penetrate deep into our lungs. Scientists are now wondering how inhaling these particles on a daily basis affects our respiratory health.

These products are roll-on deodorant, spray deodorant, hand lotion, perfume and dry shampoo hair spray—all produced by leading brands and available in major stores across the world. 

During their experiments, in one test, the researchers applied the products under typical conditions, while the air quality was carefully monitored. In another test, they did the same thing but also injected ozone, a reactive outdoor gas that occurs in some latitudes during the summer months.

Ozone can infiltrate homes through open windows, but can also come from indoors, for example, when using laser printers and 3D printers. Around five sophisticated measuring instruments were deployed to quantify and identify the gases and particles present in the chamber.

It took the scientists two years to process all the collected data. In the first case without ozone, over 200 VOCs were emitted from the personal care products, which gradually dissipated with ventilation. The most abundant molecules they found were ethanol and monoterpenes, typically used in these products. However, when ozone was introduced into the chamber, not only new VOCs but also new particles were generated, particularly from perfume and sprays, exceeding concentrations found in heavily polluted urban areas.

Some molecules 'nucleate'—in other words, they form new particles that can coagulate into larger ultrafine particles that can effectively deposit into our lungs.

We still don't fully understand the health effects of these pollutants, but they may be more harmful than we think, especially because they are applied close to our breathing zone. This is an area where new toxicological studies are needed, say the researchers.

To limit the effect of personal care products on indoor air air quality, we could consider several alternatives for how buildings are engineered: introducing more ventilation—especially during the products' use—incorporating air-cleaning devices (e.g., activated carbon-based filters combined with media filters), and limiting the concentration of indoor ozone.

The researchers stress that we're going to have to reduce our reliance on these products, or if possible, replace them with more natural alternatives that contain fragrant compounds with low chemical reactivity. Another helpful measure would be to raise awareness of these issues among medical professionals and staff working with vulnerable groups, such as children and the elderly.

Tianren Wu et al, Indoor Emission, Oxidation, and New Particle Formation of Personal Care Product Related Volatile Organic Compounds, Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00353

The new fashion: Clothes that help combat rising temperatures

A team of international researchers has developed a natural fabric that urban residents could wear to counter rising temperatures in cities worldwide, caused by buildings, asphalt, and concrete.

As heat waves become more prominent, cooling textiles that can be incorporated into clothes, hats, shoes and even building surfaces provide a glimpse into a future where greenhouse gas-emitting air conditioners may no longer be needed in our cities.

Engineers  say the wearable fabric is designed to reflect sunlight and allow heat to escape, while blocking the sun's rays and lowering the temperature. They have described the textiles in Science Bulletin.

The fabric promises to bring relief to millions of city dwellers experiencing warmer and more uncomfortable temperatures caused by global climate change and fewer green spaces.

 The fabric leverages the principle of radiative cooling, a natural process where materials emit heat into the atmosphere, and ultimately into space.

Unlike conventional fabrics that retain heat, these textiles are made of three layers that are engineered to optimize cooling. 

The upper layer, made of polymethyl pentene fibers, allows heat to radiate effectively. The middle layer, composed of silver nanowires, enhances the fabric's reflectivity, preventing additional heat from reaching the body. The bottom layer, made of wool, directs heat away from the skin, ensuring that wearers remain cool, even in the hottest urban environments.

In the experiments conducted, when placed vertically, the fabric was found to be 2.3°C cooler than traditional textiles, and up to 6.2°C cooler than the surrounding environment when used as a horizontal surface covering.

The fabric's ability to passively reduce temperatures offers a sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning, providing energy savings and reducing the strain on power grids during heat waves.

It is hoped the technology could be adapted for even broader applications, including construction materials, outdoor furniture and urban planning.

While the fabric holds significant promise, researchers say the current production process is costly, and the long-term durability of the textiles needs further investigation and government support before it can be commercialized.

Xianhu Liu et al, Radiation cooling textiles countering urban heat islands, Science Bulletin (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.008

**

New plant-based glitter shows no harm to soil organisms

Plastic pollution is everywhere. Each year, over 368 million metric tons of plastics are produced with over 13 million metric tons of it ending up in the soil where it can be toxic to wildlife.

Researchers are particularly worried about the environmental impacts of 'microplastics' which are small plastic particles less than 5 mm in size.

Microplastics can be produced from products like glitter or when larger objects, including water bottles, break down into smaller and smaller pieces once they're in the environment.

Due to their small size, animals can eat microplastics, mistaking them for food, which can cause starvation and malnutrition as well as abrasions to the gastrointestinal tract.
A lot of research has shown microplastics are toxic to ocean species but far fewer studies have investigated the impacts of microplastics on land-dwelling species. This is despite annual plastic release onto the land being estimated at over four times the level that enters the oceans.

Glitter is a type of microplastic used in cosmetics, clothing or for decorative purposes.

Most glitter is made of a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate which you probably know as PET. It's the same plastic that is used for bottled water and soft drink containers.

Conventional glitter also often contains aluminum or other metals, which is where the sparkle comes from.

It is not known how much glitter is getting into the environment, but anyone who has ever worn glitter make-up or used glitter in art and craft knows it seems to end up everywhere.

Part 1

In 2023, the European Union officially banned the sale of loose plastic glitter and some other products that contain microbeads, in a bid to cut environmentally harmful microplastic pollution in member nations by 30% by 2030.
One study in New South Wales, Australia, found that 24% of the microplastics in sewage sludge were glitter.
Once glitter gets into the environment, it is difficult to remove because of its tiny size and because it can become transparent over time on losing the metal components.

While biodegradable glitter is already commercially available, previous research indicates these products could be just as harmful or even more toxic to aquatic organisms than conventional PET glitter because most biodegradable varieties on the market need to be coated in a colored aluminum layer and topped with a thin plastic layer.

Part of a research team, based at the University of Cambridge, has been working on making more sustainable glitter. The study is published in the journal Chemosphere.

Part 2