Quality of parent-child relationships predicts adulthood well-being

The link between early life experiences and mental health has been widely explored by psychology researchers. One key aspect of human early life experiences is the relationship that people develop with their parental figures, which is at the center of attachment theory and various other psychological models.

Past studies suggest that the quality of relationships between parents and their children plays a role in the subjective well-being of these children when they reach adulthood. While this finding is well-documented, many past studies were conducted on relatively small samples of participants residing in a single country.

The countries included in this study were selected carefully, to maximize religious and ethnic diversity in the sample. The objective was to include people living in all the broader geographical regions on Earth.

Now two researchers at Gallup, recently carried out a study aimed at exploring the link between parent-child relationships and an adult's self-reported well-being in a larger and more varied sample that spanned across 21 countries.

Their paper, published in Communications Psychology, suggests that the quality of parent-child relationships predicts the well-being of adults residing in all of the countries they studied.

The researchers  found a substantial effect of parent-child relationships on both flourishing and mental health. The effect was larger than any other variable they tested, including parental socio-economic status, current education level, current household income, gender, and financial security.

The relationship was positive in every country, and it reached conventional levels of significance in all but one. Even that exception seemed to be explained by the relatively young population in the survey. When the researchers re-weighted the data to make the ages similar across countries, they found a significant effect in every country.

Overall, the findings of this research study suggest that there is a universal link between parent-child relationships and lifelong well-being, which applies to all people, irrespective of where they were raised.

 Jonathan T. Rothwell et al, Parent-child relationship quality predicts higher subjective well-being in adulthood across a diverse group of countries, Communications Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00161-x.

Meta-analysis of current global warming impacts suggests a third of all species could be extinct by 2100

Biologists found evidence that up to a third of all species alive today could go extinct by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not slowed or stopped. In his study published in the journal Science, they conducted an analysis of 485 studies carried out over the past 30 years on the ability of species to adapt to climate change.

Manmade greenhouse gas emissions are causing atmospheric and seawater warming, and these temperature increases will lead to unpredictable weather changes—besides growing warmer, it is expected that some places will grow wetter and others drier. It is also likely that the world will see more extreme weather, such as droughts, hurricanes and typhoons, in addition to thunderstorms or snow storms. Such changes will put pressure on species that are not able to control their environment the way humans do, putting many at risk.

Part 1

In this new effort, researchers found 485 papers that involved the study of a species and its ability to survive changes to its environment. They then compared this data with estimates of future warming and determined what sort of changes might occur and in which areas. They then made estimates about the likely survivability of a given species based on where it lives and its ability to migrate or to adapt.

The researchers found that if global temperatures rise approximately 5.4°C by the end of this century (the worst-case scenario), it would likely lead to the extinction of approximately one-third of all species alive today. They note that some cases of chain-reaction extinctions could occur, in which a small animal goes extinct and then a larger animal that feeds on it consequently goes extinct. They also note that some species groups or types are at much higher risk than others, such as amphibians.

Mark C. Urban, Climate change extinctions, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp4461

Part 2

Scientists make cooking oil biofuel as efficient as diesel

A new way to produce fuels made from leftover fat can create biofuel as effective as diesel and 1000-times more efficiently than current methods, a new study has suggested.

Published in Green Chemistry, researchers  used enzymes to break down fatty acids in cooking oil into alkenes, the building block of fuels like petrol and diesel.  The scientists hope that the new renewable fuel, which can be made using leftover food waste, can cut fossil fuel usage.

Biofuels are a wide variety of energy sources made from renewable organic material that comes from plants or animals, like vegetable oil. Those that can directly replace petrol or diesel in conventional combustion engines have been touted as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, with fuels derived from food waste cutting greenhouse gases by up to 94%.

Typically, these fuels contain a lot of oxygen molecules which burn inefficiently. This low fuel efficiency has previously prevented widespread usage with the energy produced by burning fatty acid derived biofuels being 90% of that produced by diesel. To compensate and create diesel equivalents more raw materials are needed, pushing up costs to two times that of fossil fuels.

To create a more efficient fuel with more active alkene in, the researchers modified an enzyme called P450 decarboxylase to break down fatty acids found in food waste and extract the oxygen found within.
The enzyme typically requires water to work, meaning that it produces a low yield of alkene. To overcome this, the modified enzyme was placed in a liquid salt while a UV light was shone on it as it mixed with fatty acids to activate the reaction. This resulted in a yield of alkenes that was far greater than what is possible in water. The improved efficiency means that the production of the fuel requires less energy and lower amounts of raw materials, dramatically improving sustainability.

Moreover, as the enzyme is a biological catalyst, the process removes the need for conventional catalysts like platinum, which avoids any environmental damage caused by mining. The use of UV light also prevents the use of toxic chemicals like hydrogen peroxide to push the reaction forward.

Jake H. Nicholson et al, Enhancing the reactivity of a P450 decarboxylase with ionic liquids, Green Chemistry (2024). DOI: 10.1039/D4GC05292G

AI infiltrates the rat world: New robot can interact socially with real lab rats

When police make 500 arrests using facial recognition tech, can we say "our privacy and freedom are being infringed upon"?

London's Metropolitan Police force said this week that it had used facial recognition technology to make more than 500 arrests in 2024 for offenses ranging from shoplifting to rape.

The force uses live facial recognition in specific areas of the UK capital, positioning a van equipped with cameras in a pre-agreed location.

The cameras capture live footage of passers-by and compare their faces against a pre-approved watchlist, generating an alert if a match is detected.

Civil liberties campaigners have criticized the use of such technology, and advocacy group Big Brother Watch has launched legal action to stop its expansion.

"The technology works by creating a 'faceprint' of everyone who passes in front of camera—processing biometric data as sensitive as a fingerprint, often without our knowledge or consent," the group says on its website.

"This dangerously authoritarian surveillance is a threat to our privacy and freedoms—it has no place on the streets of Britain," it adds.

The Met says it is a "forerunner" in using the technology, adding that it helps "make London safer" by helping detect "offenders who pose significant risks to our communities".

Of the 540 arrests, more then 50 were for serious offenses involving violence against women and girls, including offenses such as strangulation, stalking, domestic abuse and rape

( My questions : don't these crimes severely  infringe upon our freedom and privacy? Don't they put all the women in dangerous situations?).

More than 400 of those arrested have already been charged or cautioned.

"This technology is helping us protect our communities from harm", say the police. Can you argue against it?

This tech is a powerful tool that supports officers to identify and focus on people who present the highest risk that may otherwise have gone undetected. 

Responding to privacy fears, police said that the biometric data of any passer-by not on a watchlist is "immediately and permanently deleted".

Can you get an assurance better than that?

I am okay with this tech. Because I am not a criminal and don't do anything against the law, ever. Then why should I be afraid of it?

It is much better than 500 criminals roaming around the streets.

Police, keep it coming. I am all game for it.

Source: News agencies 

Molecular 'ZIP code' draws killer T cells to brain tumors

Scientists have developed a "molecular GPS" to guide immune cells into the brain and kill tumors without harming healthy tissue.

It is the first living cell therapy that can navigate through the body to a specific organ, addressing what has been a major limitation of CAR-T cancer therapies until now. The technology worked in mice and the researchers expect it to be tested in a clinical trial next year.

Working in mice, the scientists showed how the immune cells could eliminate a deadly brain tumor called glioblastoma—and prevent recurrences. They also used the cells to tamp down inflammation in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Because of their location, brain cancers are among the hardest cancers to treat. Surgery and chemotherapy are risky, and drugs can't always get into the brain.

To get around these problems, the scientists developed a "molecular GPS" for immune cells that guided them with a "zip code" for the brain and a "street address" for the tumor.

Part 1

They found the ideal molecular zip code in a protein called brevican, which helps to form the jelly-like structure of the brain, and only appears there. For the street address, they used two proteins that are found in most brain cancers.

The scientists programmed the immune cells to attack only if they first detected brevican and then detected one or the other of the brain cancer proteins.

When the scientists put the immune cells into the bloodstream, they easily navigated to the mouse's brain and eliminated a growing tumor. Any immune cells that remain in the bloodstream stay dormant, sparing any tissues outside the brain that happen to have the same protein "address" from being attacked.

One hundred days later, the scientists introduced new tumor cells into the brain, and enough immune cells were left to find and kill them, a good indication that they may be able to prevent any remaining cancer cells from growing back.

"The brain-primed CAR-T cells were very, very effective at clearing glioblastoma in our mouse models, the most effective intervention we've seen yet in the lab", say the scientists.
In another experiment, the researchers used the brain GPS system to engineer cells that deliver anti-inflammatory molecules to the brain in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. The engineered cells once again reached their target and made their delivery, and the inflammation faded.

The scientists hope this approach will soon be ready for patients with other debilitating nervous system diseases.

Milos S. Simic et al, Programming tissue-sensing T cells that deliver therapies to the brain, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl4237

Part 2

Many women with epilepsy unaware of seizure meds' risks to pregnancy

Many women with epilepsy who are of childbearing age might not realize their anti-seizure drugs can raise the risk of birth defects or dampen the effectiveness of their birth control, a new study warns.

Likewise, some birth control methods can cause anti-seizure meds to be less effective, researchers reported this week in a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in Los Angeles.

Many neurologists do not learn about birth control in their training, even though they know that anti-seizure medications may have some risks in pregnancy. 

This study raises awareness for patients and encourages health care providers from neurology and reproductive health care to work together to ensure the best care for these patients.

Part 1

For the study, researchers surveyed 107 women ages 18 to 49 who were taking anti-seizure medications about their reproductive plans.

Six said they were pregnant or planning to become pregnant, and another 69 said they were using some sort of birth control that could interfere with their anti-seizure meds, researchers said.
Survey participants may not have known that their answers were wrong and so did not feel they needed more information," Betstadt noted.

Only about a third of the women were receiving medical care that aligned with their reproductive plans, researchers found.

Anti-seizure medications that increase the risk of birth defects include valproic acid, topiramate, carbamazepine, phenobarbital and phenytoin.

Further, anti-seizure drugs that can make hormonal contraceptives like pills, patches and rings less effective include carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital, and higher doses of topiramate and oxcarbazepine.

Despite that, no anti-seizure drug is as dangerous for an expecting mother or her fetus as uncontrolled seizures, the researchers noted.

Women who want to become pregnant should talk with their doctor about drugs that are less risky but still can control their seizures, researchers said.

The survey quizzed women on their knowledge regarding birth control and anti-seizure meds, and found that:

Two-thirds (67%) of all the women answered at least one question incorrectly regarding the ways birth control can interfere with anti-seizure medications and vice-versa
56% of those who want to become pregnant answered at least one question incorrectly about the birth defect risk posed by anti-seizure drugs
36% of those actively using birth control showed some ignorance of the way it can interact with anti-seizure meds
73% felt they didn't need any more education about these risks
Only 29% of those who displayed any ignorance of the interaction said they wanted more education.
Neurology and reproductive health care providers should collaborate to provide the safest and most effective care for their patients of reproductive age who are taking anti-seizure medications

Source: https://www.epilepsy.com/lifestyle/family-planning/birth-control

A Beneficial Bacterium Helps Wounds Heal

A bacterium found in the wound microbiome can accelerate healing, highlighting the potential for microbiota-based wound therapies.

Skin wounds that fail to heal in a normal timeframe are considered to be chronic, and an estimated two percent of the global population will experience a chronic wound in their lifetime. In addition to severe pain, individuals with chronic wounds can face mental health problems due to the persistent nature of the condition and the risk of recurrence. This significantly affects their quality of life, highlighting the need for effective treatments.

Given this unmet clinical need, researchers have been exploring a new frontier—the wound microbiome. Previously published studies have largely focused on faulty processes in skin cells that contribute to impaired healing. But recently, researchers have appreciated that there is a wound microbiome—an entire ecosystem that colonizes wounds and can influence wound healing.
Highlighting this, researchers have shown that a bacterium found in chronic wounds can aid wound healing in mice. The results, published in Science Advances, uncover a mechanism of bacterial-driven wound repair and provide a foundation to develop microbiome-based therapies.
This study is unique in terms of bringing light on the good part of the chronic wound microbiome.‌

White EK, et al. Alcaligenes faecalis corrects aberrant matrix metalloproteinase expression to promote r.... Sci Adv. 2024;10(26):eadj2020. 

To identify chronic wound-associated microbiota, the researchers swabbed diabetic foot ulcers from 100 participants and sequenced DNA from these samples. Among the bacteria abundantly present in the samples, they identified an environmental, non-pathogenic bacterium called Alcaligenes faecalis. Digging into published datasets, the team found that this bacterium was prevalent in different types of chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers and venous leg ulcers. This prompted them to investigate the role of A. faecalis in chronic wounds.

For their experiments, the team used a diabetic mouse model that exhibits impaired wound healing. They made wounds measuring about eight millimeters in diameter on the back skin of these mice and treated them with A. faecalis culture. They photographed these wounds at different times and observed that wounds colonized with A. faecalis were significantly smaller than wounds treated with a control solution. To better understand how A. faecalis influences wound healing, the researchers used in vitro assays to investigate whether the bacterium promoted cell migration, a crucial process that occurs in the outer skin layer during the early stages of wound healing. They isolated keratinocytes, cells from the outermost layer of the skin, from diabetic mice and cultured them in lab dishes. Once the cells had formed a layer in the dish, the researchers introduced a thin scratch along the middle, disrupting the continuous layer of cells. They treated the system with either A. faecalis or a control solution and took photographs over time to track how quickly cells from the undisturbed side moved toward the scratch to fill the empty space. Compared to control-treated cells, A. faecalis treatment increased the rate at which keratinocytes migrate. They observed similar results when they repeated this experiment with skin cells obtained from people with diabetes, indicating that the bacterium likely influences wound healing in humans via a similar mechanism.

The results show that we need to think about how to retain friendly bacteria while using less aggressive antimicrobial approaches to eliminate pathogens from the chronic wound environment, say the researchers.

Just taking antibiotics blindly could eliminate these useful bacteria that help in the wound healing process. 

Kalan LR, et al. Strain- and species-level variation in the microbiome of diabetic w.... Cell Host Microbe. 2019;25(5):641-655.e5. 

Part 2

Scientists produce world's first carbon-14 diamond battery with potential lifespan of thousands of years

Scientists and engineers have successfully created the world's first carbon-14 diamond battery.

This new type of battery has the potential to power devices for thousands of years, making it an incredibly long-lasting energy source. The battery leverages the radioactive isotope, carbon-14, known for its use in radiocarbon dating, to produce a diamond battery.

Several game-changing applications are possible. Bio-compatible diamond batteries can be used in medical devices such as ocular implants, hearing aids, and pacemakers, minimizing the need for replacements and distress to patients.

Diamond batteries could also be used in extreme environments—both in space and on earth—where it is not practical to replace conventional batteries. The batteries could power active radio frequency (RF) tags where there is a need to identify and track devices either on Earth or in space, such as spacecraft or payloads, for decades at a time, thus reducing costs and extending operational lifespan.

The carbon-14 diamond battery works by using the radioactive decay of carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,700 years, to generate low levels of power. It functions similarly to solar panels, which convert light into electricity, but instead of using light particles (photons), they capture fast-moving electrons from within the diamond structure.

Diamond batteries offer a safe, sustainable way to provide continuous microwatt levels of power. 

I received this from RG centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, (Biotechnology and disease Biology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dept. of Biotechnology, Government of India) requesting me to share it with the general public :

Dr. Jackson James who headed the team from BRIC-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) which came up with the finding that gene mutation can cause autism.

Gene mutation likely cause for developing autism in early childhood: RGCB study

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec. 09: Autism, a developmental disorder that causes functional abnormalities in brain development, is caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors with its symptoms manifesting in childhood as early as the age of two years. Complexities of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) include single gene mutations in early development genes.

A recent RGCB study linked a novel mutation in Tlx3 gene with abnormal development of the cerebellum (a major region of the hind brain that controls balance, motor movement, and other complex functions) and autism.

The study, conducted by Dr. Jackson James and his team from BRIC-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) here, has been published in the prestigious journal iScience.

Deleting Tlx3 gene from the cerebellum of a transgenic mouse (a mouse with its DNA altered through genetic engineering techniques) embryo potentially affects coordination of cerebellum function. When these mice embryos were allowed to grow until adulthood, they developed hallmarks of autistic behavior, including abnormalities in social skills, repetitive behaviour, and motor/movement function.

The RGCB team, in collaboration with CSIR-IGIB (Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research–Institute Of Genomics And Integrative Biology (CSIR–IGIB), New Delhi, also assessed the potential for this mutation to occur in the human population and identified TLX3 mutation variants that are linked to nine ASD cases and other co-morbid neurodevelopmental conditions.

Dr. James, however, stated that a genome-wide global cohort analysis is necessary to assess the frequency of this TLX3 mutation and the extent to which the variation is linked to specific populations, such as Indians and others. Together, these results indicate how erroneous regulation of this early embryonic gene manifests into ASDs during early childhood.

RGCB Director Prof. Chandrabhas Narayana said, “Autism is a serious childhood problem across the world. In India also, it has emerged as a significant challenge for researchers and medical fraternity as autism has wide social and medical ramifications. The RGCB study will offer new insights into this behavioural disorder.”

ASDs lead to behavioural deficits, including lack of social cognition and restricted/repetitive behaviours, desires, communication, or actions in individuals.

A technosignature that could detect an extraterrestrial civilization's reliance on nuclear fusion

Extraterrestrial civilizations need a great deal of energy as they advance up the Kardashev scale. Fossil fuels are finite, wind and solar energy are carbon free but not as efficient as fossil fuels, and traditional nuclear fission power depends on a supply of fissionable material and has a waste problem. Thus, any advanced alien species may well turn to nuclear fusion for their ever-increasing energy needs (unless they've discovered even better energy processes we don't yet know about).

Deuterium (D) fusion is one of the simplest forms of nuclear fusion, where D fuses with tritium or another D. As life needs water as far as we know, oceans on an advanced world could supply plenty of it in ocean water.
On Earth, water contains a natural miniscule amount of heavy water, with deuterium replacing one or both hydrogen atoms to exist as HOD or DOH and rarely as D2O. Extracting deuterium from an ocean would decrease its ratio of deuterium-to-hydrogen, D/H, including in atmospheric water vapor, while the helium produced in the nuclear reactions would escape to space. Could low values of D/H in an exoplanet's atmosphere be a technosignature of long-lived, uber-advanced extraterrestrial life?

Measuring the D/H ratio in water vapor on exoplanets is certainly not a piece of cake, though. It is not impossible either. 

One big advantage of looking for low D/H values in an exoplanet's atmosphere is that it would persist even if advanced life died out on their planet or migrated away, increasing the chances of detecting this technosignature.

Part 1

On Earth, where humanity is currently at 0.73 on the Kardashev scale, natural deuterium in the ocean accounts for about one atom in every 6,240 atoms of hydrogen, or 35 grams of deuterium for every ton of seawater. (That's a collective 4.85 × 1013 tons of deuterium.) The D/H ratio is nearly the same in our atmosphere. Deuterium can fuse with itself and, in a chain of nuclear reactions, ultimately produces 335 gigajoules of energy per gram of deuterium.

Using Earth as a model for an exoplanet with advanced life, researchers calculated fusion power of roughly 10 times that projected for humans next century, about 100 TW in 2100 for a population of 10.4 billion (five times more than today). That 1,000 terawatts (TW)—which could be a low amount for an advanced species (or their robotic descendants!)—would deplete an Earth-like ocean's D/H value to a value found in the local interstellar medium, about 16 parts per million, in about 170 million years.

If the D/H ratio in the water of an exoplanet was found to be substantially below [interstellar medium] values...it would be strange and anomalous," the researchers write in their paper.
If, by chance, their exoplanet had an ocean only a few percent of Earth's—a so-called "land planet"—D/H would reach anomalously low values in roughly 1 to 10 million years. That's on the order of the average lifetime of a mammalian species since the Chicxulub impact ended the dinosaurs, about 3 million years.
Other planets have higher D/H values, like Venus and Mars, but processes like Venus's runaway greenhouse effect and physical escape processes on Mars have left both uninhabitable. Thus a higher D/H than Earth's "probably indicates a planet that is problematic for habitability on geologic timescales."

Calculations like these led the group to propose looking for unusually low D/H in planetary water vapor as a potential technosignature, which they call "potentially remotely detectable."
Part 2

Using the Spectral Mapping Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SMART) model, they proposed specific wavelengths to look for among the emission lines for of HDO and H2O. HDO has strong lines in the infrared and near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in 2019 scientists first detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a potentially habitable planet.

Two missions in development, NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) that would follow the James Webb Space Telescope, and the European-led Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE), could possibly measure D/H.

It's up to the engineers and scientists designing [HWO] and [LIFE] to see if measuring D/H on exoplanets might be an achievable goal.
Looking for D/H from LIFE appears to be feasible for exoplanets with plenty of atmospheric water vapor in a region of the spectrum around 8 microns wavelength, say the researchers.

David C. Catling et al, Potential technosignature from anomalously low deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) in planetary water depleted by nuclear fusion technology, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2411.18595

Part 3

Blue-throated macaws have advanced motor imitation capabilities, study shows

Blue-throated macaws, a critically endangered parrot species, have demonstrated automatic imitation of intransitive (goal-less) actions—a phenomenon previously documented only in humans.

In a study conducted by an international team of researchers, scientists reveal that macaws involuntarily copy intransitive movements.

This finding, in addition to the well-known vocal mimicry skills of parrots, highlights their remarkable motor imitation abilities. The research also suggests the possibility of a mirror-neuron system in parrots, akin to that found in humans.

Imitation of goal-less intransitive actions is a cornerstone of human cultural evolution. A large part of human culture comprises the transmission of technical skills, usually involving tools. Another substantial part is the learning of cultural conventions, which encompasses high-fidelity copying of gestures or movements and fosters social bonding and prosocial behaviors.

Previous studies have shown that humans mimic gestures involuntarily—what is known as automatic imitation. Until now, evidence of such automatic imitation in non-human animals was limited to transitive (object-directed) actions, such as grasping objects, as observed in dogs and budgerigars.

In their study, now published in iScience, the researchers trained macaws to perform two distinct actions ("lift leg" and "spread wings") in response to specific hand signals. Birds were then divided into two groups: Macaws in the compatible group received a reward when they mimicked the action of another macaw (demonstrator). Birds in the incompatible group received a reward when they did not imitate the action, but performed exactly the opposite one.

The incompatible group struggled to suppress their automatic tendency to mimic the demonstrator's action. This resulted in more incorrect responses and longer reaction times compared to the compatible group.

The findings are remarkable because they show, for the first time, a non-human animal involuntary imitation of intransitive actions.

In humans, this behavior is linked to neural circuits involving mirror neurons, which activate during both the observation and execution of the same action. While this study does not directly prove the presence of mirror neurons in parrots, it strongly suggests their involvement in motor imitation.

 Esha Haldar et al, Automatic imitation of intransitive actions in macaws, iScience (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111514

Scientists discover more mitochondria-like symbionts with surprising metabolic capacities

In 2021, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, reported an astonishing new form of symbiosis: They found a unique bacterium that lives inside a ciliate—a unicellular eukaryote—and provides it with energy. The symbiont's role is thus strongly reminiscent of mitochondria, with the key difference that the endosymbiont derives energy from the respiration of nitrate, not oxygen.

Now the researchers  set out to learn more about the environmental distribution and diversity of these peculiar symbionts.

The scientists set out to look for molecular signatures of the symbiont in huge public sequencing databases, which contain vast amounts of genetic data from all kinds of environmental samples. And indeed, they detected these symbionts in about 1,000 different datasets.

The scientists were surprised how ubiquitous they are. They could find them on every inhabited continent. They learned  that they can live not only in lakes and other freshwater habitats but also in groundwater and even wastewater.

The scientists discovered not only the original symbiont in these datasets, but also some new close relatives.

The scientists  were in for another surprise—these respiratory symbionts can do new tricks. 

Unlike the original symbiont species, which can only perform anaerobic respiration (i.e., denitrification), all new symbiont species actually encode a terminal oxidase—an enzyme that enables them to also respire oxygen in addition to nitrogen. This can explain why we find these symbionts also in environments that are fully or partially toxic.

Daan R. Speth et al, Genetic potential for aerobic respiration and denitrification in globally distributed respiratory endosymbionts, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54047-x

Particle that only has mass when moving in one direction observed for first time

For the first time, scientists have observed a collection of particles, also known as a quasiparticle, that's massless when moving one direction but has mass in the other direction. The quasiparticle, called a semi-Dirac fermion, was first theorized 16 years ago, but was only recently spotted inside a crystal of semi-metal material called ZrSiS. The observation of the quasiparticle opens the door to future advances in a range of emerging technologies from batteries to sensors, according to the researchers.

The researchers  recently published their discovery in the journal Physical Review X.

A particle can have no mass when its energy is entirely derived from its motion, meaning it is essentially pure energy traveling at the speed of light. For example, a photon or particle of light is considered massless because it moves at light speed. According to Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, anything traveling at the speed of light cannot have mass.

In solid materials, the collective behavior of many particles, also known as quasiparticles, can have different behavior than the individual particles, which in this case gave rise to particles having mass in only one direction.

The team's analysis showed the presence of semi-Dirac fermions at the crossing points. Specifically, they appeared massless when moving in a linear path but switched to having mass when moving in a perpendicular direction.

Semi-Dirac fermions were first theorized in 2008 and 2009 by several teams of researchers, including scientists from the Université Paris Sud in France and the University of California, Davis. The theorists predicted there could be quasiparticles with mass-shifting properties depending on their direction of movement—that they would appear massless in one direction but have mass when moving in another direction.

Sixteen years later, researchers accidentally observed the hypothetical quasiparticles through a method called magneto-optical spectroscopy. The technique involves shining infrared light on a material while it's subjected to a strong magnetic field and analyzing the light reflected from the material.

Part 1

The team conducted their experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida. The lab's hybrid magnet creates the most powerful sustained magnetic field in the world, roughly 900,000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. The field is so strong it can levitate small objects such as water droplets.

The researchers cooled down a piece of ZrSiS to -452°F—only a few degrees above absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature—and then exposed it to the lab's powerful magnetic field while hitting it with infrared light to see what it revealed about the quantum interactions inside the material.
When a magnetic field is applied to any material, the energy levels of electrons inside that material become quantized into discrete levels called Landau levels.
The levels can only have fixed values, like climbing a set of stairs with no little steps in between. The spacing between these levels depends on the mass of the electrons and the strength of the magnetic field, so as the magnetic field increases, the energy levels of the electrons should increase by set amounts based entirely on their mass—but in this case, they didn't.

Using the high-powered magnet in Florida, the researchers observed that the energy of the Landau level transitions in the ZrSiS crystal followed a completely different pattern of dependence on the magnetic field strength. Years ago, theorists had labeled this pattern the "B2/3 power law," the key signature of semi-Dirac fermions.

Yinming Shao et al, Semi-Dirac Fermions in a Topological Metal, Physical Review X (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.14.041057
Part 2

AI's power demands driving toxic air pollution, study finds

Computer processing demands for artificial intelligence, or AI, are spurring increasing levels of deadly air pollution from power plants and backup diesel generators that continuously supply electricity to the fast-growing number of computer processing centers.

This air pollution is expected to result in thousands of premature deaths a year by 2030.

Total public health costs from cancers, asthma, other diseases, and missed work and school days are getting mind boggling. 

Such are findings of a study by UC Riverside and Caltech scientists published online this week on the arXiv preprint server. Yet, these human and financial costs appear overlooked by the tech industry.

Yuelin Han et al, The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2412.06288

What happens in the ocean when two cyclones collide?

In April 2021, two tropical cyclones, Seroja and Odette, collided in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. Researchers   now studied how this rare phenomenon affected the ocean.

According to their case study, the rendezvous caused an unusual cooling of the surface water and an abrupt change in the direction of the combined storm. Since the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones are increasing as a result of global warming, it is possible that such encounters—and thus more extreme air-sea interactions—will become more frequent in the future, they conclude.

Tropical cyclones (TCs) not only whip up air masses in the atmosphere, they also churn up water masses in the areas of the ocean that are in their path. When two cyclones collide and merge, these interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere can intensify considerably.

Researchers reported this  in a paper published in the journal Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography.

The researchers analyzed the encounter between two relatively weak tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean in 2021, TC Seroja and TC Odette, and found that effects occurred that have otherwise only been observed with much stronger cyclones. Since the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones is increasing as a result of global warming, this type of convergence—and the resulting extreme interactions between air and sea—could become more frequent in the future, the study concludes.

Researchers combined satellite data and measurements obtained from ARGO floats and autonomous drifters with numerical modeling. These sources provided the researchers with information about factors such as salinity and water temperatures between the sea surface and depths of up to 2,000 meters as well as data about upward and downward (vertical) flow velocities. In addition to these data, they analyzed upward and downward (vertical) flow velocities using data from numerical models. 

The encounter between the two cyclones lasted for around a week. On 6 April they came within approximately 1,600 kilometers of one another. Seroja first of all stalled the smaller cyclone Odette and then merged with it three days later.

After the two cyclones merged, TC Seroja abruptly changed course by 90 degrees on 9 April. This chain of events not only influenced weather patterns but also triggered a previously unobserved interaction with the ocean underneath.

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The analysis showed that sea-surface temperatures dropped by 3°C as an after-effect of the merging of the cyclones, and deep, cold water masses were churned upwards towards the surface from a depth of 200 meters in a process known as "upwelling." The cooling effect was "exceptionally high" in relation to the cyclones' intensity, the researchers observed.

The highest wind speeds of around 130 kilometers per hour were reached on 11 April, after the merging of the cyclones, and corresponded to Category 1 on the Hurricane Scale. The observed cooling and the depth of the upwelling, on the other hand, were of a scale observed in Category 4 or 5 hurricanes.
The researchers were particularly surprised by the strength of the upwelling: there were periods when the deep-water masses rose to the sea surface at a speed of up to 30 meters per day. By comparison, the typical upward velocity of the ocean is only between 1 and 5 meters per day.

In this specific case, a downward velocity of the ocean was observed shortly before the cyclones merged. Thanks to satellite technology and autonomous deep-sea ARGO floats, they were able to demonstrate how the rotation of the cyclones transports cold water from the depths of the ocean to the surface.
Although encounters between tropical cyclones during their one to two-week lifespan have been rare to date, according to climate models, the number and intensity of tropical cyclones is likely to increase as a result of global warming—and by extension also the likelihood of full-blown hurricane-force cyclones colliding.
This could result in "the most extreme interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere," the authors of the paper write. The fact that the merging of two cyclones can lead to an abrupt change of course also makes it more difficult to predict how they will behave afterwards.
They also point to another important consequence: "As a result of the interactions of a cyclone with the ocean and the upwelling of cold, deep water, the ocean absorbs additional heat from the air and then transports it to higher latitudes—a crucial process that influences the climate worldwide."
In addition, cyclones also convert thermal energy into mechanical energy which they then transport to higher latitudes as they progress.

Oliver Wurl et al, Intense Cooling of the Upper Ocean with the Merging of Tropical Cyclones: A Case Study in the Southeastern Indian Ocean, Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography (2024). DOI: 10.16993/tellusa.4083

New antidote could save lives from deadly hydrogen sulfide gas

Hydrogen sulfide, a colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs, is produced naturally from decaying matter. This gas is lethal to breathe in, and hydrogen sulfide present in high concentrations can cause death very rapidly.

Its relative density is also greater than air, causing it to accumulate at lower altitudes and posing an enormous threat to workers at sites, such as manholes, sewage systems and mining operations.

Why is hydrogen sulfide so dangerous? It binds strongly to the heme-containing cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) enzyme and blocks the cellular process of aerobic (oxygen-dependent) respiration.
What is even more concerning is that, as of now, there is no identified antidote that can treat hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop therapeutic agents that can be stored for long durations and are effective against hydrogen sulfide poisoning immediately.

A study  published online on December 10, 2024, in Scientific Reports has proposed a novel antidote for hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

Researchers decided to tackle this problem by using artificial heme-model compounds that would have a higher affinity towards hydrogen sulfide than the native hemes present in our bodies.

They  have developed and studied synthetic heme-model compounds (hemoCDs) over the last two decades.

In this study, they decided to test if  two of those complexes had the potential to "scavenge" hydrogen sulfide in an aqueous medium. Interestingly, they found that met-hemoCD-I in particular had a very high affinity for hydrogen sulfide under normal physiological conditions—almost 10 times higher than that of human met-hemoglobin.

Met-hemoCD-I was able to convert toxic hydrogen sulfide into nontoxic sulfite and sulfate ions, indicating that it could be used to treat hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

Part 1

To test this antidote, they injected hydrogen sulfide-treated mice with met-hemoCD-I. The results were very promising—mice injected with met-hemoCD-I showed improved survival rates compared to mice that were not given the antidote. Additionally, CcO activity in the brain and heart tissues (which had decreased because of poisoning) recovered and returned to normal.
Another aspect of met-hemoCD-I that makes it a very promising antidote is its demonstrated safety—it was found that injected met-hemoCD-I was excreted in the urine of the rats without undergoing any chemical decomposition in their body.

The results of this study show that hemoCD-Twins could be used as a powerful antidote to treat carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and now hydrogen sulfide poisoning without the risk of any side effects.
Using hemoCD-Twins, we can provide one powerful solution for multiple gas poisoning, even if the cause of poisoning is unknown.
Clinical trials are about to be started with this antidote.

 Nakagami, A., et al. Detoxification of hydrogen sulfide by synthetic heme model compounds, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-80511-1

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Human disruption is driving 'winner' and 'loser' tree species shifts across Brazilian forests, study shows

An international team of researchers examined a unique dataset of more than 1,200 tropical tree species over more than 270 forest plots across six regions of Brazilian Amazon and Atlantic forests that have been altered by people through activities such as deforestation and local disturbances like logging, hunting and burning.

Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a study shows. This has potential implications for the ecosystem services these forests provide, including the ability of these "disturbed" forests to absorb and store carbon. This is because these "winning" species grow fast but die young, as their stems and branches are far less dense than the slow growing tree species they replace.

Wildlife species adapted to consuming and dispersing the large seeds of tree species that are being lost in human-modified landscapes may also be affected by these shifts.

Authors of the study, "Winner-loser plant trait replacements in human-modified tropical forests" published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, say their findings highlight the urgent need to conserve and restore tropical forests, prevent degradation, and implement measures to protect and boost populations of the large-bodied birds like toucans and mammals such as spider monkeys that disperse the seeds of "losing" slow-growing large-seeded tree species.

The researchers looked at the overall structure of the landscapes surrounding each forest plot and, using multiple statistical models, they were able to identify the causal effects of habitat loss, fragmentation and local degradation on the composition of forests, as well as identifying the attributes of so-called "winners" and "losers" species.

They found that the tree species dominating landscapes with high forest cover tend to have dense wood and large seeds, which are primarily dispersed by medium to large-bodied animals typical of Brazil's rainforests. 

In contrast, in highly deforested landscapes, where remaining forests face additional human disturbances, these tree species are losing out to so-called 'opportunistic' species, which have softer wood and smaller seeds consumed by small, mobile, disturbance-adapted birds and bats. These species typically grow faster and have greater dispersal capacity.

The researchers found this was happening despite differing geography, climate and land-use contexts.

This study highlights the urgent need to strengthen the conservation and restoration of tropical forests to preserve these vital ecosystems.

Tropical forests constitute the most important reservoir of terrestrial biodiversity. They play a major role in absorbing greenhouse gases and provide essential ecosystem services. Yet they are victims of rapid deforestation and fragmentation, with the loss of 3 to 6 million hectares per year over the last two decades.

Winner-loser plant trait replacements in human-modified tropical forests, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02592-5

Toxoplasma gondii parasite uses unconventional method to make proteins for evasion of drug treatment, research reveals

A study by  Medicine researchers sheds new light on how Toxoplasma gondii parasites make the proteins they need to enter a dormant stage that allows them to escape drug treatment. The research is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that people catch from cat feces, unwashed produce or undercooked meat. The parasite has infected up to one-third of the world's population, and after causing mild illness, it persists by entering a dormant phase housed in cysts throughout the body, including the brain.

Toxoplasma cysts have been linked to behavior changes and neurological disorders like schizophrenia. They can also reactivate when the immune system is weakened, causing life-threatening organ damage.

While drugs are available to put toxoplasmosis into remission, there is no way to clear the infection. A better understanding of how the parasite develops into cysts would help scientists find a cure.

 Researchers have shown that Toxoplasma forms cysts by altering which proteins are made. Proteins govern the fate of cells and are encoded by mRNAs.

But mRNAs can be present in cells without being made into protein. Researchers have  shown that Toxoplasma switches which mRNAs are made into protein when converting into cysts.

Researchers examined the so-called leader sequences of genes named BFD1 and BFD2, both of which are necessary for Toxoplasma to form cysts.

mRNAs not only encode for protein, but they begin with a leader sequence that contains information on when that mRNA should be made into protein.

All mRNAs have a structure called a cap at the beginning of their leader sequence. Ribosomes, which convert mRNA into protein, bind to the cap and scan the leader until it finds the right code to begin making the protein.

What the researchers now found is during cyst formation, BFD2 is made into protein after ribosomes bind the cap and scan the leader, as expected. 

But BFD1 does not follow that convention. Its production does not rely on the mRNA cap like most other mRNAs."

The team further showed that BFD1 is made into protein only after BFD2 binds specific sites in the BFD1 mRNA leader sequence. This is a phenomenon called cap-independent translation, which is more commonly seen in viruses.

Finding it in a microbe that has cellular anatomy like our own was surprising.

Vishakha Dey et al, Cap-independent translation directs stress-induced differentiation of the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107979

Brain mechanisms underpinning loss of consciousness identified

The shift from an awake state to unconsciousness is a phenomenon that has long captured the interest of scientists and philosophers alike, but how it happens has remained a mystery—until now. Through studies on rats, a team of researchers at Penn State has pinpointed the exact moment of loss of consciousness due to anesthesia, mapping what happens in different brain regions during that moment.

The study has implications for humans as well as for other types of loss of consciousness, such as sleep, the researchers said. They published their results in Advanced Science.

In this study the researchers combined two different methods: electrophysiology studies and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By measuring electrophysiological signals—or electrical activity—in the brain very quickly over time, the researchers determined the precise moment that the rat transitioned from an awake state to an unconscious one.  

They next overlaid this time-stamped data with the fMRI map of activity in the whole brain to investigate different regions of the brain during that transition.

They  found that there were three regions in the brain that showed transient changes in their activities during the moment of lost consciousness: the medial prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus and the thalamus.

While these regions have been implicated in unconscious states in the existing scientific literature, this new research was the first to indicate how these regions might interact with each other and what kind of role they might play during the moment of loss of consciousness.

The researchers said previous work also did not indicate whether the activity in those three regions was a cause or an effect of loss of consciousness.

The results suggest that loss of consciousness may be triggered by sequential events in these three regions, while activity increases in other cortical regions may be a consequence, rather than a cause, of loss of consciousness.

The results do provide new insights into the roles of these brain regions in loss of consciousness.

Xiaoai Chen et al, Sequential Deactivation Across the Hippocampus‐Thalamus‐mPFC Pathway During Loss of Consciousness, Advanced Science (2024). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202406320

Early life exposure to toxic chemicals may cause behavioral, psychological problems

Early life exposure to a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may lead to behavioral problems in rats, according to a new animal study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals that mimic, block or interfere with hormones in the body's endocrine system and contribute to endocrine diseases such as cancer, reproductive disorders, obesity and neuroendocrine disorders.

PCBs have been banned for decades but are still persistent in the environment. PCBs are found in contaminated soil, sediment and certain types of fish due to environmental contamination. They have been linked to reproductive and anxiety disorders.

People may be more vulnerable to the endocrine-disrupting effects of PCB exposure during the perinatal period, the time from conception until about one year after giving birth.

Researchers found rats exposed to PCBs during the perinatal period may have developmental and hormonal changes. This study emphasizes and supports previous research on how PCB exposure can affect neurobehavioral outcomes.

The researchers fed a human-relevant PCB mixture or the placebo to about 40 pregnant rats and found the EDCs can reprogram their pups' developing neuroendocrine system and lead to neurobehavioral problems in early life.

Andrea C Gore et al, Neuroendocrine and Developmental Impacts of Early Life Exposure to EDCs, Journal of the Endocrine Society (2024). DOI: 10.1210/jendso/bvae195

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Personalized blood count could lead to early intervention for common diseases

A complete blood count (CBC) screening is a routine exam requested by most physicians for healthy adults. This clinical test is a valuable tool for assessing a patient's overall health from one blood sample.

Currently, the results of CBC tests are analyzed using a one-size-fits-all reference interval, but a new study led by researchers from Mass General Brigham suggests that this approach can lead to overlooked deviations in health. In a retrospective analysis, researchers show that these reference intervals, or setpoints, are unique to each patient.

The study revealed that one healthy patient's CBC setpoints can be distinguishable from 98% of other healthy adults. Results are published in Nature.

Complete blood counts are common tests, and this study suggests CBCs vary a lot from person to person even when completely healthy, and a more personalized and precision medicine approach could give more insight into a person's health or disease.

The long-term stability and patient-specificity of setpoints may provide new opportunities for the personalized management of healthy adults envisioned by precision medicine.

CBC indices are known to shift due to genetics, disease history, and age. But the new study suggests that individual patients have a "setpoint"—a stable value around which measures fluctuate.

By considering CBC setpoints tailored to an individual, clinicians may be able to diagnose diseases in their early stages in adults that appear otherwise healthy, including disorders such as diabetes, heart disease, and kidney failure, all of which can benefit from early intervention.

The study found that for multiple diseases, setpoints produce a two- to four-fold relative risk stratification which is comparable to that provided by common disease screening factors.

The researchers note that these setpoints create new opportunities to investigate the mechanisms of varying CBC thresholds and that the information from CBC setpoints could be used to create more specific treatment plans, including determining if additional screening is needed for an accurate diagnosis.

Drug-free pain relief: Solvent molecules offer non-addictive alternative

Researchers have made a discovery regarding the TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid 1) ion channel and its role in pain perception. The study reveals how solvent molecules can modulate pain signals, offering a potential pathway for a safer, non-addictive pain management approach.

Pain management is a critical aspect of health care, directly impacting quality of life and overall well-being. The TRPV1 ion channel, essential for pain sensing, undergoes pore expansion when activated, allowing ions and larger molecules to pass through. However, the ability of water molecules to permeate the TRPV1 channel has remained uncertain.

To address this, the research team developed an upconversion nanoprobe capable of distinguishing between ordinary water (H₂O) and deuterated water (D₂O). This advanced technology enabled real-time tracking of water dynamics at both the single-cell and single-molecule levels. 

The study showed that when D₂O passed through the TRPV1 channel, it suppressed pain signal transmission and achieved effective analgesia.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering on 21 November 2024.

Administering D₂O to pre-clinical models, the team successfully reduced both acute and chronic inflammatory pain transmission without affecting other neurological responses. This solvent-mediated analgesia mechanism provides an effective, biocompatible, and non-addictive alternative to traditional pain medications, circumventing issues related to drug dependency and tolerance.

The solvent-mediated analgesia mechanism represents an innovative breakthrough in pain relief, potentially driving the development of safer, non-addictive pain therapies for clinical use.

Yuxia Liu et al, Solvent-mediated analgesia via the suppression of water permeation through TRPV1 ion channels, Nature Biomedical Engineering (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41551-024-01288-2

Air pollution in India linked to millions of deaths

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that long-term exposure to air pollution contributes to millions of deaths in India. The research, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, emphasizes the need for stricter air quality regulations in the country.

Air pollution consisting of particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, PM_2.5, can enter the lungs and bloodstream and is a major health risk in India. Researchers have now examined the link between these particles and mortality over a 10-year period. The study is based on data from 655 districts in India between 2009 and 2019.

The study  found that every 10 microgram per cubic meter increase in PM_2.5 concentration led to an 8.6% increase in mortality.

The research analyzed the relationship between changes in air pollution levels and mortality. The results show that around 3.8 million deaths over the period can be linked to air pollution levels above India's own air quality guidelines of 40 micrograms per cubic meter.

When compared to the stricter guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)—only 5 micrograms per cubic meter—the figure rises to 16.6 million deaths. That's almost 25% of all mortality during the study period.

The study also highlights that the entire population of India lives in areas where PM_2.5 levels exceed WHO guidelines. This means that almost 1.4 billion people are exposed year after year to air pollution that can negatively affect health. In some regions, levels of up to 119 micrograms per cubic meter were measured, significantly higher than what both the WHO and India consider safe.

The results show that current guidelines in India are not sufficient to protect health. Stricter regulations and measures to reduce emissions are of the utmost importance, say the researchers. 

The Indian government has been running a national air pollution control program since 2017 to improve air quality, but the study shows that PM_2.5 concentrations have continued to increase in many areas. The researchers emphasize the importance of both reducing emissions locally and taking into account the long range of air pollution—PM_2.5 particles can travel hundreds of kilometers.

 Estimating the effect of annual PM2-5 exposure on mortality in India: a difference-in-differences approach, The Lancet Planetary Health (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00248-1. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan … (24)00248-1/fulltext

Astronomers discover magnetic loops around supermassive black hole

NGC 1068 is a well-known, relatively nearby, bright galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. Despite its status as a popular target for astronomers, however, its accretion disk is obscured by thick clouds of dust and gas. A few light-years in diameter, the outer accretion disk is dotted by hundreds of distinct water maser sources that hinted for decades at deeper structures.

Masers are distinct beacons of electromagnetic radiation that shine in microwave or radio wavelengths; in radio astronomy, water masers observed at a frequency of 22 GHz are particularly useful because they can shine through much of the dust and gas that obscures optical wavelengths.

an international team of astronomers and students set out to observe NGC 1068 with twin goals in mind: astrometric mapping of the galaxy's radio continuum and measurements of polarization for its water masers.

NGC 1068 is a bit of a VIP among active galaxies. It is unusually powerful, with a black hole and an edge-on accretion disk.  And because it is so nearby, it has been really, really well-studied in detail.

By measuring the polarization of water masers as well as the continuum of radio emissions from NGC 1068, the team generated a map revealing the compact radio source now known as NGC 1068* as well as mysterious extended structures of more faint emissions.

Mapping the astrometric distribution of NGC 1068 and its water masers revealed that they are spread along filaments of structure. "It really came out in these new observations, that these filaments of maser spots line up like beads on a string.

The team was stunned to see that there's a clear offset—a displacement angle—between the radio continuum showing the structures at the galaxy's core and the locations of the masers themselves. The configuration is unstable, so the researchers  are probably observing the source of a magnetically-launched outflow.

HSA measurements of the polarization of these water masers revealed striking evidence of magnetic fields. No one has ever seen polarization in water masers outside of our galaxy till now. 

Similar to the looping structures seen on our sun's surface as prominences, the polarization pattern of these water masers clearly indicates that magnetic fields are also at the root of these light-year-scale structures as well.

Looking at the filaments, and seeing that the polarization vectors are perpendicular to them, that's the key to confirming that they are magnetically driven structures. 

Jack F. Gallimore et al, The Discovery of Polarized Water Vapor Megamaser Emission in a Molecular Accretion Disk, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2024). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad864f

How bat-origin pathogenic viruses manipulate human cell death and inflammation

A study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) offers insights into cell death regulation by viruses like SARS-CoV-2, and how bats and humans respond differently to tricks that such viruses use to manipulate the host's defense.

The paper is published in the journal iScience.

Zoonotic virus infections pose a serious concern to human health. Bats and birds are among the main reservoirs for several pathogenic viruses that show zoonotic transmission potential. When they reach the human host, these viruses can cause either mild or severe disease.

Host cell death after viral infections is a defense strategy to limit viral spread and mount protective immune responses. However, uncontrolled cell death response can drive excessive tissue damage, leading to disease severity. Scientists have strived to pinpoint how zoonotic viruses that originate from bats manipulate the human host to cause excessive cell death and tissue damage.

The study has uncovered how such viruses mimic components of the host's cell death machinery. They zeroed in on protein motifs called RIP homotypic interaction motifs (RHIMs) that regulate host cell death and inflammation.

Several viruses that originate in bats show mimics of these RHIMs. SARS-CoV-2, for example, contains Nsp13—an enzyme protein critical for virus replication—that has an RHIM similar to those found in humans.

Part 1

The researchers found that Nsp13 promotes robust human cell death activation; mutating the RHIM in Nsp13 therefore enhanced cell survival.

Nsp13 was found to work in synergy with host RHIM proteins called ZBP1 and RIPK3 to promote cell death activation, which might possibly be contributing to the respiratory damage and disease progression seen in COVID-19. The researchers also found that RNA segments in the Z conformation (Z-RNA) in the virus's genome were driving the Nsp13-mediated cell death activation.

Since bats express host RHIM proteins similar to humans, they can serve as the source for RHIM mimics to mutate and evolve, the study suggests. Interestingly, bats show mild clinical symptoms and tissue damage compared to humans despite harboring viruses with RHIM mimics. To understand this conundrum, the authors tested whether and how Nsp13-RHIM regulates bat cell death.
Nsp13 could also activate cell death in bat cells like in human cells. Researchers found the nature of bat cell death to be preferably non-inflammatory and Nsp13-RHIM independent, possibly just enough to clear the viral replication niche but not cause severe inflammation.
These insights on how cell death is regulated differently in bats and humans provide some clues to why some pathogenic viruses are tolerated in bats but cause more severe diseases in humans.
Understanding fundamental differences in cellular responses to viruses in bats and humans is critical to guide pandemic preparedness for such zoonotic virus infections.

Sanchita Mishra et al, Bat RNA viruses employ viral RHIMs orchestrating species-specific cell death programs linked to Z-RNA sensing and ZBP1-RIPK3 signaling, iScience (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111444

Part 2

Scientists transform ubiquitous skin bacterium into a topical vaccine

Imagine a world in which a vaccine is a cream you rub onto your skin instead of a needle a health care worker pushes into one of your muscles. Even better, it's entirely pain-free and not followed by fever, swelling, redness or a sore arm. No standing in a long line to get it. Plus, it's cheap.

Thanks to Stanford University researchers' domestication of a bacterial species that hangs out on the skin of close to everyone on Earth, that vision could become a reality.

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a generally harmless skin-colonizing bacterial species. These bugs reside on every hair follicle of virtually every person on the planet.

In recent years, researchers have discovered that the immune system mounts a much more aggressive response against S. epidermidis than anyone expected.

In a study published Dec. 11 in Nature, they zeroed in on a key aspect of the immune response—the production of antibodies. These specialized proteins can stick to specific biochemical features of invading microbes, often preventing them from getting inside of cells or traveling unmolested through the bloodstream to places they should not go.

Individual antibodies are extremely picky about what they stick to. Each antibody molecule typically targets a particular biochemical feature belonging to a single microbial species or strain.

But  would the immune system of a mouse, whose skin isn't normally colonized by S. epidermidis, mount an antibody response to that microorganism if it were to turn up there?

Part 1

Researchers conducted experiments to know this. 

The mice's antibody response to S. epidermidis was "a shocker".Those antibodies' levels increased slowly, then some more—and then even more." At six weeks, they'd reached a higher concentration than one would expect from a regular vaccination—and they stayed at those levels.

It's as if the mice had been vaccinated. Their antibody response was just as strong and specific as if it had been reacting to a pathogen.

The same thing appears to be occurring naturally in humans. The researchers got blood from human donors and found that their circulating levels of antibodies directed at S. epidermidis were as high as anything we get routinely vaccinated against.

This is intriguing. Our ferocious immune response to these commensal bacteria loitering on the far side of that all-important anti-microbial barrier we call our skin seems to have no purpose.

It could boil down to a line scrawled by early-20th-century poet Robert Frost: "Good fences make good neighbors." Most people have thought that fence was the skin. But it's far from perfect. Without help from the immune system, it would be breached very quickly.

The best fence is those antibodies. They're the immune system's way of protecting us from the inevitable cuts, scrapes, nicks and scratches we accumulate in our daily existence.

While the antibody response to an infectious pathogen begins only after the pathogen invades the body, the response to S. epidermidis happens preemptively, before there's any problem. That way, the immune system can respond if necessary—say, when there's a skin break and the normally harmless bug climbs in and tries to thumb a ride through our bloodstream.

Part 2

Step by step, the research team turned S. epidermidis into a living, plug-and-play vaccine that can be applied topically. They learned that the part of S. epidermidis most responsible for tripping off a powerful immune response is a protein called Aap. This great, treelike structure, five times the size of an average protein, protrudes from the bacterial cell wall.

They think it might expose some of its outermost chunks to sentinel cells of the immune system that periodically crawl through the skin, sample hair follicles, snatch samples of whatever is flapping in Aap's "foliage," and spirit them back inside to show to other immune cells responsible for cooking up an appropriate antibody response aiming at that item.
This companion study identifies the sentinel immune cells, called Langerhans cells, that alert the rest of the immune system to the presence of S. epidermidis on the skin.

Aap induces a jump in not only blood-borne antibodies known to immunologists as IgG, but also other antibodies, called IgA, that home in on the mucosal linings of our nostrils and lungs.
Having identified Aap as the antibodies' main target, the scientists looked for a way to put it to work.

Respiratory pathogens responsible for the common cold, flu and COVID-19 tend to get inside our bodies through our nostrils. Normal vaccines can't prevent this. They go to work only once the pathogen gets into the blood. It would be much better to stop it from getting in in the first place.

Part 3

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Discovery and engineering of the antibody response to a prominent skin commensal, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08489-4 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08489-4

Skin autonomous antibody production regulates host-microbiota interactions, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08376-y , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08376-y

substituted the gene encoding a piece of tetanus toxin for the gene fragment encoding a component that normally gets displayed in this giant treelike protein's foliage. Now it's this fragment—a harmless chunk of a highly toxic bacterial protein—that's waving in the breeze."

Would the mice's immune systems "see" it and develop a specific antibody response to it?
And it did!
The mice swabbed with bioengineered S. epidermidis, but not the others, developed extremely high levels of antibodies targeting tetanus toxin. When the researchers then injected the mice with lethal doses of tetanus toxin, the mice given natural S. epidermidis all succumbed; the mice that received the modified version remained symptom-free.

A similar experiment, in which the researchers snapped in the gene for diphtheria toxin instead of the one for tetanus toxin into the Aap "cassette player," likewise induced massive antibody concentrations targeting the diphtheria toxin.

The scientists eventually found they could still get life-saving antibody responses in mice after only two or three applications.

They also showed, by colonizing very young mice with S. epidermidis, that the bacteria's prior presence on these mice's skin (as is typical in humans but not mice) didn't interfere with the experimental treatment's ability to spur a potent antibody response. This implies that their species' virtually 100% skin colonization by S. epidermidis should pose no problem to the construct's use in people.
In a change of tactics, the researchers generated the tetanus-toxin fragment in a bioreactor, then chemically stapled it to Aap so it dotted S. epidermidis's surface. To their surprise, this turned out to generate a surprisingly powerful antibody response.
Topical application of this bug generated enough antibodies to protect mice from six times the lethal dose of tetanus toxin.
it works in mice. Now they are trying to experiment with monkeys.
If things go well, they expect to see this vaccination approach enter clinical trials within two or three years.
The researchers think this will work for viruses, bacteria, fungi and one-celled parasites. Most vaccines have ingredients that stimulate an inflammatory response and make you feel a little sick. These bugs don't do that. Scientists expect that you wouldn't experience any inflammation at all.

Discovery and engineering of the antibody response to a prominent skin commensal, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08489-4 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08489-4

Skin autonomous antibody production regulates host-microbiota interactions, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08376-y , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08376-y

Part 4

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Tumors grow larger in female fruit flies than males. Here's what that could mean for humans

A study by  researchers has uncovered new insights into how biological sex differences can influence tumor growth. The findings, published in Science Advances, could lead to a better understanding of cancer development and potentially boost efforts to identify a method to stop tumors in their tracks.

The study found that tumors in female fruit flies grew 2.5 times larger than tumors in male fruit flies over the same time period.

Fruit flies are an often used biological research model due to their genetic similarity to humans. In this study, researchers found that the female fruit flies had a stronger innate immune response to the tumors than the males. This response accelerated the growth of tumors by triggering a signaling pathway between cells.

The question now is, do we see this same difference in humans?

Genetically, many of these signaling pathways are well preserved between mammals and insects so this finding is highly relevant to our knowledge of cancer development.

The study found that once a tumor formed, female fruit flies' immune cells (hemocytes) produced more of an inflammatory response signal than their male counterparts. This signal protein, called Eiger, is comparable to a similar protein in mammals, which also regulates immune system and inflammatory responses.

While inflammation is often effective at combating outside invaders, too much inflammation can create an environment that allows tumors to thrive. "We found that in female fruit flies, their stronger immune response caused a downstream cascade of events, culminating in the release of insulin-like peptides which allowed the tumors to accelerate their growth.

The next step is to determine if the bias in tumor growth is regulated by hormones or sex chromosomes, work that may shed further light on why and how tumors grow.

 Xianfeng Wang et al, Sex-dimorphic tumor growth is regulated by tumor microenvironmental and systemic signals, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads4229

Car height, not just speed, matters when pedestrians are hit

Watch out for tall, fast-moving cars. The height of a vehicle, not only its speed, determines its potential danger to a pedestrian, new research shows.

Multiple factors—in this case speed and vehicle height—converge to create negative outcomes on the road.

Measurements of the vehicles involved were used to examine the moderating effect of hood height.

The report involved an analysis of 202 crashes involving people ages 16 and older in cities across the United States. The accidents occurred between 2015 and 2022.

In general, higher vehicle front ends increased the likelihood of both moderate and serious pedestrian injuries, data showed. At 27 mph, the average speed of the crashes, a median-height car had a 60% chance of causing moderate injuries to a pedestrian and a 30% chance of causing serious injuries.

Risks rose along with hood height, however: A median-height pickup—with a front end 13 inches higher than that of a median car—had an 83% chance of causing moderate injuries and a 62% chance of causing serious injuries.

This tracks with earlier IIHS research that found that vehicles with taller front ends are more likely to kill people when they hit them. Compared to smaller cars, large vehicles  such as sports utility vehicles or SUVs, are more likely to harm internal organs.

The increased risk and severity of injury from these vehicles is related to their tendency to inflict more severe injuries higher on the body: to the head, torso, and hip," the study authors explained.

In addition to impact, car size influences how well a driver can see pedestrians.

"Taller vehicles may be more likely to be involved in certain pedestrian crash configurations than shorter ones, potentially due to limitations in driver visibility," the authors said.

In cases where the pedestrian is at the vehicle's front corner, obstructed driver sight lines could make a collision more likely and may reduce pre-impact braking behavior, leading to greater injuries.

What's more, the findings reinforce the importance of redesigning vehicles and roadways to reduce speed in congested areas, the study authors said.

It will take a combination of actions from different corners of the transportation world to improve pedestrian safety.

Monfort, Samuel S., Mueller, Becky C. A modern injury risk curve for pedestrian injury in the United States: the combined effects of impact speed and vehicle front-end height. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2322

Neanderthal-human interbreeding lasted 7,000 years, new study reveals

A new analysis of DNA from ancient modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Europe and Asia has determined, more precisely than ever, the time period during which Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, starting about 50,500 years ago and lasting about 7,000 years—until Neanderthals began to disappear.

That interbreeding left Eurasians with many genes inherited from our Neanderthal ancestors, which in total make up between 1% and 2% of our genomes today.

The genome-based estimate is consistent with archaeological evidence that modern humans and Neanderthals lived side-by-side in Eurasia for between 6,000 and 7,000 years.

The analysis, which involved present-day human genomes as well as 58 ancient genomes sequenced from DNA found in modern human bones from around Eurasia, found an average date for Neanderthal-Homo sapiens interbreeding of about 47,000 years ago. Previous estimates for the time of interbreeding ranged from 54,000 to 41,000 years ago.

The new dates also imply that the initial migration of modern humans from Africa into Eurasia was basically over by 43,500 years ago.

The longer duration of gene flow may help explain, for example, why East Asians have about 20% more Neanderthal genes than Europeans and West Asians. If modern humans moved eastward about 47,000 years ago, as archaeological sites suggest, they would already have had intermixed Neanderthal genes.

The period of mixing was quite complex and may have taken a long time. Different groups could have separated during the 6,000- to 7,000-year period and some groups may have continued mixing for a longer period of time. But a single shared period of gene flow fits the data best.

 Leonardo N. M. Iasi et al, Neandertal ancestry through time: Insights from genomes of ancient and present-day humans, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adq3010. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq3010

Arev Sümer, Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08420-x. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08420-x

As wildfires intensify, prolonged exposure to pollution linked to premature death

Researchers have found evidence that living in areas prone to wildfire smoke may negatively impact an individual's life expectancy.

In many parts of the contiguous United States, wildfires are rapidly growing more intense, endangering the humans and wildlife that live in the region. Even once fires are doused, serious health risks remain because of the many adverse effects caused by wildfire smoke and the airborne pollution that the blaze releases into the atmosphere.

Now, scientists  have found that not only is wildfire smoke linked to a shortened lifespan, it also greatly diminishes the positive health impacts of local greenspaces, like forests or parks.

When considering the environment's effect on human life expectancy, we have to account for all kinds of factors. Forests, for example, provide essential ecosystem services to mitigate the impact of wildfire smoke because they can purify the air.

Generally, greenspaces benefit human health by helping to regulate the local ecosystem and climate through capturing carbon dioxide, oxygen production and air filtration as well as by providing open spaces to foster social and community connection. It's why higher levels of greenspaces are usually correlated with higher life expectancies. But because these lush areas can essentially act as fuel for wildfires, their presence is also tightly correlated with higher wildfire smoke emissions.

 Due to its high toxicity, human exposure to this smoke has been known to cause respiratory issues, cardiovascular disease, and an increase in the risk of dementia and hospitalization.

The research was presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU 2024).

Their findings concluded that for every additional day of smoke exposure, a person's life expectancy could be expected to decrease by about 0.02 years—or about one week.

Conversely, living in a green neighborhood can be beneficial, as even a 1% increase in these spaces can lead to a slight life expectancy increase. While wildfire smoke can negate the benefits of greenspace, the team's results suggest that sociodemographic factors such as income, population density, age and race also significantly impact future life expectancies.

Impacts of Wildfire Smoke PM2.5, Greenspace and Terrain Ruggedness on Life Expectancy in the Contiguous United States. agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/meeti … pp.cgi/Paper/1620628

Polluting shipwrecks

At the bottom of the oceans and seas lie more than 8,500 shipwrecks from two world wars. These wrecks have been estimated to contain as much as 6 billion gallons of oil, as well as munitions, toxic heavy metals and even chemical weapons.

For decades, these wrecks have largely lain out of site and out of mind. But all this time, their structures have been degrading, inexorably increasing the chances of sudden releases of toxic substances into the marine environment.
In parts of the globe, climate change is exacerbating this risk. Rising ocean temperatures, acidification and increasing storminess accelerate the breakdown of these wrecks.

Of course, wrecks from the world wars are far from the only ones to be found at the bottom of the sea, with many others adding to the problem. The cost of addressing this global issue has been estimated at US$340 billion (£261 billion).

How many of these wrecks pose a threat to people's safety, to coastal communities and to the environment? What can be done—and why haven't we done it sooner?

https://theconversation.com/polluting-shipwrecks-are-the-ticking-ti...

Researchers identify amino acid that prevent sporulation in food poisoning

Food poisoning is a common, yet unpleasant, illness caused by eating contaminated items. It is sometimes caused by Clostridium perfringens, a pathogen widely found in soil and the intestinal tracts of animals.

The pathogen multiplies in environments with little oxygen, for example, curry stored in a pot. After ingestion of the pathogen, they form spores in the small intestinal tracts. The toxins produced during spore formation cause diarrhea and abdominal pain, but the underlying mechanism of spore formation has not been fully understood.

Researchers now examined how amino acids are involved in Clostridium perfringens spore formation. The findings were published in Anaerobe.

In this study, they created 21 culture mediums, 20 of which were each deprived of one of the amino acids that make proteins in the human body, to evaluate the pathogen's development.

As a result, the team identified serine as an inhibitor of Clostridium perfringens spore formation. When observed under a microscope, it was found that serine inhibits the pathogen's cell wall from remodeling, which is necessary in the process of becoming a spore.

This is the first reported case where a single amino acid inhibits spore-forming anaerobic bacteria.

Mayo Yasugi et al, Serine affects engulfment during the sporulation process in Clostridium perfringens strain SM101, Anaerobe (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2024.102914

Complex bacterial dynamics of urinary tract infections

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a major widespread health issue that affects millions of patients globally every year. These infections are not only uncomfortable, but also challenging to treat, as they may often reoccur after the first infection.

A new research study leveraging a mathematical model has now provided a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between different bacterial populations within the bladder and their responses to physiological and therapeutic interventions. This study offers promising pathways for new treatment strategies.

Bacteria are not only present in the urine, but exist in various states in the bladder: free-floating in the bladder lumen, attached to the bladder wall, or even within the bladder's epithelial cells. These different bacterial populations are subjected to different selective pressures, such as immune response and micturition, and antibiotic treatments.

When considering persistent, recurrent infections that need to be treated with antibiotics, there is a higher likelihood that bacteria can adapt and develop resistance during treatment.

This study showed that the different bacterial populations increase the risk of a persistent infection, which then may increase the risk of development of antibiotic resistance. These findings highlight the importance of addressing the diverse bacterial populations and their interactions when treating UTIs.

Another key finding from the study concerns the potential of competitive inoculation as a possible treatment. By introducing a fast-growing, non-pathogenic bacterial strain, pathogenic bacteria can be suppressed. This approach may control the pathogenic population and increase the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment when antibiotics are used in moderation.

This study stresses the importance of considering bacterial compartments in understanding UTIs. By considering the various niches bacteria occupy, and their responses to therapies, this model provides a more realistic view of infection dynamics. It offers valuable insights that could guide and improve future UTI treatments.

Michael Raatz et al, Pathogen non-planktonic phases within the urinary tract impact early infection and resistance evolution, The ISME Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae191

Paracetamol may not be as safe as perceived in older people, according to a new study

Research, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, has found that repeated doses of paracetamol in people aged 65 and over, can lead to an increased risk of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and renal complications.

The study, which is published in Arthritis Care and Research, shows that care must be taken when repeated doses are required for chronic painful conditions such as osteoarthritis in older people.

Due to its perceived safety, paracetamol has long been recommended as the first line drug treatment for osteoarthritis by many treatment guidelines, especially in older people who are at higher risk of drug-related complications.

The study analyzed data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink-Gold. Participants were aged 65 and over with an average age of 75.

Researchers looked at the health records of 180,483 people who had been prescribed paracetamol repeatedly (≥2 prescriptions within six months) during the study. Their health outcomes were then compared to 402,478 people of the same age who had never been prescribed paracetamol repeatedly.

The findings showed that prolonged paracetamol use was associated with an increased risk of peptic ulcers, heart failure, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

Given its minimal pain-relief effect, the use of paracetamol as a first line pain killer for long-term conditions such as osteoarthritis in older people needs to be carefully considered, say the researchers.

Jaspreet Kaur et al, Incidence of side effects associated with acetaminophen in people aged 65 years or more: a prospective cohort study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Arthritis Care & Research (2024). DOI: 10.1002/acr.25471