New technique in which drugs make bacteria glow could help fight antibiotic resistance

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-technique-drugs-bacteria-antibiotic-r...

--

The protein that stands between us and autoimmunity:

Our immune system is supposed to protect us from external microbial invaders, but sometimes it turns its efforts inward, potentially resulting in autoimmune diseases. In a new study, researchers from Osaka University discovered how reversible modifications to our DNA by certain proteins protect us from autoimmune diseases and, conversely, how the absence of these proteins paves the way to autoimmunity. The results that show how Tet proteins suppress autoimmune diseases by inactivating B cells and thus ultimately preventing them from attacking our bodies

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/ou-tpt070220.php

The article, "Tet2 and Tet3 in B cells are required to suppress CD86 and prevent autoimmunity," was published in Nature Immunology at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-020-0700-y

==

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200702113707.htm

New research from The University of Queensland has found that women who have hot flushes and night sweats after menopause are 70 per cent more likely to have heart attacks, angina and strokes. It was also found that the risk of cardiovascular events was more related to the severity of the hot flushes and night sweats rather than the frequency or duration.

Dongshan Zhu, Hsin-Fang Chung, Annette J. Dobson, Nirmala Pandeya, Debra J. Anderson, Diana Kuh, Rebecca Hardy, Eric J. Brunner, Nancy E. Avis, Ellen B. Gold, Samar R. El Khoudary, Sybil L. Crawford, Gita D. Mishra. Vasomotor Menopausal Symptoms and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A pooled analysis of six prospective studies. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.06.039

$$ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-the-phrase-woma...

Why Does the Phrase ‘Woman Scientist’ Even Exist? It’s ungrammatical—plus, it suggests we’re an exotic species. But it can also remind people that STEM isn’t just for men

--

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632881-200-weird-caterpill...

Weird caterpillar uses its old heads to make an elaborate hat

Meet the mad hatterpillar, the invertebrate that keeps its old moulted heads attached to its body to make a beautifully bizarre headpiece

--

This Is How Many People You'd Need to Colonize Mars, According to Science:110

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-the-bare-minimum-number-of-peo...

Hearing loss: early signs of damage in young adults who regularly attend loud clubs and concerts

https://theconversation.com/hearing-loss-early-signs-of-damage-in-y...

--

https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-how-you-sound-when-you-t...

The science of how you sound when you talk through a face mask

--

Biologists report snake-like dental glands in amphibians: the first known evidence of oral venom glands in amphibians. We know a number of amphibians store nasty, poisonous secretions in their skin to deter predators. But to learn at least one can inflict injury from its mouth is extraordinary.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-fangtastic-biologists-snake-like-dent...

--

Biological builders like beavers, elephants, and shipworms re-engineer their environments. How this affects their ecological network is the subject of new research, which finds that increasing the number of "ecosystem engineers" stabilizes the entire network against extinctions.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-ecosystem-stability-extinctions.html?...

--

Figuring out how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way—a discovery reported in the July 3 edition of the journal Science Advances—could yield new clues to the fundamental source of our galaxy's power

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientific-red-flag-reveals-clues.htm...

--

An international team of researchers has demonstrated an innovative technique for increasing the intensity of lasers. This approach, based on the compression of light pulses, would make it possible to reach a threshold intensity for a new type of physics that has never been explored before: quantum electrodynamics phenomena.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-lasers-powerful-kind-physics.html?utm...

--

New group of trapdoor spiders discovered

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-group-trapdoor-spiders-eastern-austra...

--

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-oxygen-brain.html?utm_source...

Researchers determine how much oxygen the brain needs

--

https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/men-more-likely-to-be-s...

$$ 

Men more likely to be seen as 'brilliant' than women: Study

--

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01988-0?utm_source=Natur...

Welcome anyons! Physicists find best evidence yet for long-sought 2D structures

Scientists are recruiting live bacteria to fight deadly infections 

https://massivesci.com/articles/bacteria-resistance-probiotics-stud...

--

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-magnetic-universe-begins-...

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

Explaining science: Stellar Aberration

https://explainingscience.org/2019/05/28/stellar-aberration/

--

https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-bought-most-of-the-worlds-re...

The US has bought most of the world’s remdesivir. Here’s what it means for the rest of the world

--

Declining eyesight improved by looking at deep red light

Declining eyesight can be improved by looking at deep red light: Staring at a deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight, finds a new study, the first of its kind in humans. This finding could signal the dawn of new affordable home-based eye therapies, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision.

As you age your visual system declines significantly, particularly once over 40.

Your retinal sensitivity and your colour vision are both gradually undermined, and with an aging population, this is an increasingly important issue. To try to stem or reverse this decline, we sought to reboot the retina's aging cells with short bursts of longwave light.

In humans around 40 years-old, cells in the eye's retina begin to age, and the pace of this aging is caused, in part, when the cell's mitochondria, whose role is to produce energy (known as ATP) and boost cell function, also start to decline.

Mitochondrial density is greatest in the retina's photoreceptor cells, which have high energy demands. As a result, the retina ages faster than other organs, with a 70% ATP reduction over life, causing a significant decline in photoreceptor function as they lack the energy to perform their normal role.

Researchers built on their previous findings in mice, bumblebees and fruit flies, which all found significant improvements in the function of the retina's photoreceptors when their eyes were exposed to 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light.

Mitochondria have specific light absorbance characteristics influencing their performance: longer wavelengths spanning 650 to 1000nm are absorbed and improve mitochondrial performance to increase energy production.

Researchers found the 670nm light had no impact in younger individuals, but in those around 40 years and over, significant improvements were obtained.

Cone color contrast sensitivity (the ability to detect colors) improved by up to 20% in some people aged around 40 and over. Improvements were more significant in the blue part of the color spectrum that is more vulnerable in aging.

Rod sensitivity (the ability to see in low light) also improved significantly in those aged around 40 and over, though less than color contrast.

Source: Harpreet Shinhmar et al, Optically improved mitochondrial function redeems aged human visual decline, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (2020). DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glaa155

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-declining-eyesight-deep-red....

https://theconversation.com/how-the-brain-builds-a-sense-of-self-fr...

How the brain builds a sense of self from the people around us – new research

Hundreds of elephants are mysteriously dying in Botswana – a conservationist explains what we know

https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-elephants-are-mysteriously-...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-tiny-ancient-relative-dinosaurs-ptero...

A tiny ancient relative of dinosaurs and pterosaurs discovered

Dinosaurs and flying pterosaurs may be known for their remarkable size, but a newly described species from Madagascar that lived around 237 million years ago suggests that they originated from extremely small ancestors. The fossil reptile, named Kongonaphon kely, or "tiny bug slayer," would have stood just 10 centimeters (or about 4 inches) tall.

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-atomic-swiss-army-knife-precisely.htm...

Atomic 'Swiss Army knife' precisely measures materials for quantum computers

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-approach-yet-unconfirmed-rare-nuclear...

Researchers develop novel approach to modeling yet-unconfirmed rare nuclear process

Researchers develop novel approach to modeling yet-unconfirmed rare nuclear process: a theoretical first-principles description of neutrinoless double-beta decay.

Group genomics drive aggression in honey bees

Researchers often study the genomes of individual organisms to try to tease out the relationship between genes and behavior. A new study of Africanized honey bees reveals, however, that the genetic inheritance of individual bees has little influence on their propensity for aggression. Instead, the genomic traits of the hive as a whole are strongly associated with how fiercely its soldiers attack.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-group-genomics-aggression-honey-bees....

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-simulations-magnetic-field-faster-pre...

Simulations show magnetic field can change 10 times faster than previously thought

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-reveals-secret-life-lithium-sun-like....

Study reveals secret life of lithium in Sun-like stars

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-parasite.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

Parasite research heats up

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bacteria-natural-products.html?utm_so...

How do bacteria build up natural products

Dying stars breathe life into Earth: study

As dying stars take their final few breaths of life, they gently sprinkle their ashes into the cosmos through the magnificent planetary nebulae. These ashes, spread via stellar winds, are enriched with many different chemical elements, including carbon.

Findings from a study published today in Nature Astronomy show that the final breaths of these dying stars, called white dwarfs, shed light on carbon's origin in the Milky Way.

"The findings pose new, stringent constraints on how and when carbon was produced by stars of our galaxy, ending up within the raw material from which the Sun and its planetary system were formed 4.6 billion years ago.

The origin of carbon, an element essential to life on Earth, in the Milky Way galaxy is still debated among astrophysicists: some are in favor of low-mass stars that blew off their carbon-rich envelopes by stellar winds became white dwarfs, and others place the major site of carbon's synthesis in the winds of massive stars that eventually exploded as supernovae.

Using data from the Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii collected between August and September 2018, the researchers analyzed white dwarfs belonging to the Milky Way's open star clusters. Open star clusters are groups of up to a few thousand stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction.

From this analysis, the research team measured the white dwarfs' masses, and using the theory of stellar evolution, also calculated their masses at birth.

The connection between the birth masses to the final white dwarf masses is called the initial-final mass relation, a fundamental diagnostic in astrophysics that contains the entire life cycles of stars. Previous research always found an increasing linear relationship: the more massive the star at birth, the more massive the white dwarf left at its death.

But when Cummings and his colleagues calculated the initial-final mass relation, they were shocked to find that the white dwarfs from this group of open clusters had larger masses than astrophysicists previously believed. This discovery, they realized, broke the linear trend other studies always found. In other words, stars born roughly 1 billion years ago in the Milky Way didn't produce white dwarfs of about 0.60-0.65 solar masses, as it was commonly thought, but they died leaving behind more massive remnants of about 0.7—0.75 solar masses.

The researchers say that this kink in the trend explains how carbon from low-mass stars made its way into the Milky Way. In the last phases of their lives, stars twice as massive as the Milky Way's Sun produced new carbon atoms in their hot interiors, transported them to the surface and finally spread them into the surrounding interstellar environment through gentle stellar winds.

Carbon star formation as seen through the non-monotonic initial–final mass relation, Nature Astronomy (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1132-1 , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1132-1

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dying-stars-life-earth.html?utm_sourc...

WOW: a stunningly lifelike fleet of robo-birds that glide through the air with guidance from an ultra-sideband radio system.

Each of the five swallows weighs 42 grams. They each are powered by three tiny motors for direction, lift and descent. Their wingspan extends to 26 inches.

Artificial lamellae and quill are designed to replicate realistic motion. When the BionicSwift models rise, the lamellae bunch up to help provide lift. When they descend, they fan out to allow air to pass through. They can glide gracefully, make sharp turns and fly in loops.

The intelligent interaction of motors and mechanics allows the frequency of the wing beat and the elevator's angle of attack to be precisely adjusted for the various maneuvers," according to a report on the BionicSwift on Festo's web site.

The birds carry a 6 gram battery and they are guided by GPS sensors located throughout the enclosed flying area. The birds follow a preprogrammed flight  path, but if an unexpected factor arises, such as a gust of air, radio communication enables instantaneous flight rerouting.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-german-firm-bionic-birds.html?u...

How to protect people from radiation exposure.

A safe and powerful treatment for the body against deadly radiation

Researchers have reported a highly effective and safe nanocrystal to combat dangerous doses of radiation. By growing manganese oxide (Mn₃O₄) nanocrystals on top of Cerium oxide (CeO₂) nanocrystals, the research team boosted the catalytic activity of the CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ nanocrystals in their ability to stave off side effects of deadly radiation.

Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) are found in a number of major diseases including sepsis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson's disease, just to name a few. A powerful antioxidant that can work at low doses only can ensure sustainable applications of radiation in medical, industrial and military settings and more. These new CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ hetero-structured nanocrystals are five times stronger than when CeO₂ or Mn₃O₄ does the job alone.

When our body is exposed to high levels of radiation, a massive amount of ROS are generated within milliseconds due to the decomposition of water molecules. These ROS severely damage cells, eventually leading to their death. The research team looked to CeO₂ and Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles for their outstanding ROS scavenging abilities. The challenge was how to apply these antioxidant nanomaterials in a safe and economic way. Though effective, CeO₂ and Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles can remove ROS only in high doses. They are also rare materials and difficult to obtain.

The researchers drew on the approach usually taken in the field of catalysis: stacking nanoparticles with different lattice parameters results in surface strain and increases oxygen vacancies on the surface of the nanocrystal. "The synergistic effect of the strain generated on Mn₃O₄ and the increased oxygen vacancy on the CeO₂ surface improved the surface binding affinity of the ROS, boosting the catalytic activity of the nanocrystals.

These CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ nanocrystals prove their powerful antioxidant effects to protect our whole body effectively just in small doses.

Sang Ihn Han et al, Epitaxially Strained CeO₂ /Mn₃ O₄ Nanocrystals as an Enhanced Antioxidant for Radioprotection, Advanced Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202001566

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-safe-powerful-treatment-body-deadly.h...

Expalined:the dead-water phenomenon

What makes ships mysteriously slow down or even stop as they travel, even though their engines are working properly? This was first observed in 1893 and was described experimentally in 1904 without all the secrets of this 'dead water' being understood. An interdisciplinary team from the CNRS and the University of Poitiers has explained this phenomenon for the first time: the speed changes in ships trapped in dead water are due to waves that act like an undulating conveyor belt on which the boats move back and forth. This work was published in PNAS on July 6, 2020.

In earlier times ships wwere slowed by a mysterious force and he could barely maneuver, let alone pick up normal speed. In 1904, the Swedish physicist and oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman showed in a laboratory that waves formed under the surface at the interface between the salt water and freshwater layers that form the upper portion of this area of the Arctic Ocean interact with the ship, generating drag.

This phenomenon, called dead water, is seen in all seas and oceans where waters of different densities (because of salinity or temperature) mix. It denotes two drag phenomena observed by scientists. The first, Nansen wave-making drag, causes a constant, abnormally low speed. The second, Ekman wave-making drag, is characterized by speed oscillations in the trapped boat. The cause of this was unknown. Physicists, fluid mechanics experts, and mathematicians at the CNRS' Institut Prime and the Laboratoire de Mathématiques et Applications (CNRS/Université de Poitiers) have attempted to solve this mystery. They used a mathematical classification of different internal waves and analysis of experimental images at the sub-pixel scale, a first.

This work showed that these speed variations are due to the generation of specific waves that act as an undulating conveyor belt on which the ship moves back and forth. The scientists have also reconciled the observations of both Nansen and Ekman. They have shown that the Ekman oscillating regime is only temporary: the ship ends up escaping and reaches the constant Nansen speed.

Source: Johan Fourdrinoy el al., "The dual nature of the dead-water phenomenology: Nansen versus Ekman wave-making drags," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1922584117

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dead-water-phenomenon.html?utm_source...

Coconut oil production may be more damaging to the environment than palm oil, researchers say.

According to the study, production of coconut oil affects 20 threatened species (including plants and animals) per million tons of oil produced. This is higher than other oil-producing crops, such as palm (3.8 species per million tons), olive (4.1) and soybean (1.3).

The study shows that the main reason for the high number of species affected by coconut is that the crop is mostly grown on tropical islands with rich diversity and many unique species.

Impact on threatened species is usually measured by the number of species affected per square hectare of land used—and by this measure palm's impact is worse than coconut.

Coconut cultivation is thought to have contributed to the extinction of a number of island species, including the Marianne white-eye in the Seychelles and the Solomon Islands' Ontong Java flying fox.

Species not yet extinct but threatened by coconut production include the Balabac mouse-deer, which lives on three Philippine islands, and the Sangihe tarsier, a primate living on the Indonesian island of Sangihe.

Consumers need to realize that all our agricultural commodities, and not just tropical crops, have negative environmental impacts.

 Source: Erik Meijaard et al, Coconut oil, conservation and the conscientious consumer, Current Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.059

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-coconut-reveals-consumer-conundrum.ht...

Scientists synthesize novel artificial molecules that mimic a cell membrane protein

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-artificial-molecules-mimic...

--

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/the-coronavirus-may-not-have-orig...

** The coronavirus may not have originated in China, says Oxford professor

--

https://theconversation.com/marriage-and-money-help-but-dont-lead-t...

Marriage and money help but don’t lead to long-lasting happiness

--

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/flesh-eating-bac...

 Flesh-Eating-Bacteria

--

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53304576

India scientists alarmed over 'unrealistic' Covid vaccine deadline

--

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200706140905.htm

Age-related impairments reversed in animal model: Frailty and immune decline are two main features of old age. Researchers now demonstrate in an animal model that these two age-related impairments can be halted and even partially reversed using a novel cell-based therapeutic approach.

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/fake-accounts-are-constantly-manipulat...

Fake Accounts Are Constantly Manipulating What You See on Social Media. Here's How

A new color-changing ink could aid in health and environment monitoring—for example, allowing clothing that switches hues when exposed to sweat or a tapestry that shifts colors if carbon monoxide enters a room. The formulation could be printed on anything from a T-shirt to a tent.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/color-changing-ink-turns...

SARS-CoV-2-Reactive T Cells Found in Patients with Severe COVID-19

In May, researchers showed that people with mild forms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have circulating T cells that respond to the virus. Now, in a Science Immunology study published last week (June 26), a collaborating research team has determined that people who are sick enough with COVID-19 to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit also make SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells. In both studies, the researchers found that a subset of healthy, unexposed people also had some of these T cells that react to the virus, perhaps due to previous exposures to other coronaviruses that cause symptoms of the common cold.

The latest study provides more solid evidence that there are SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells that are induced by the infection

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/sars-cov-2-reactive-t-ce...

Poisons used to make food more beautiful, last longer

• Some fishermen using highly toxic pesticides to ‘catch’ fish
• Butchers preserving meat with formalin – a product normally applied to dead bodies
• Legal additives misused, putting consumer health at risk

Toxic chemicals are being used by food sellers across Sub-Saharan Africa to improve the look of meat and fish, scientists and food inspectors say, putting the health of millions at risk.

Weak government testing capacities and informal food supply chains means there is little oversight of traders and fishermen, and almost no protection for unwary consumers.

However, veterinary specialists say there are techniques which can help people identify contaminated food before they buy it.

https://www.scidev.net/global/health/feature/poisons-used-to-make-f...

Do cricket balls really spread coronavirus?

https://theconversation.com/do-cricket-balls-really-spread-coronavi...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-mysterious-neutron-star-milky-extreme...

Mysterious spinning neutron star detected in the Milky Way proves to be an extremely rare discovery

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-microplastic-pollution-lobster-larvae...

Microplastic fiber pollution in the ocean impacts larval lobsters at each stage of their development, according to new research. A study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin reports that the fibers affect the animals' feeding and respiration, and they could even prevent some larvae from reaching adulthood.

--

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-older-adults-statin-tied-dec...

Among older adults, statin use tied to decreased risk of death $$

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-nanoparticle-delivered-gen...

Scientists use nanoparticle-delivered gene therapy to inhibit blinding eye disease in rodents

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-stars-born-galaxy-milky.html?utm_sour...

New collection of stars, not born in our galaxy, discovered in Milky Way

Protein linked to cancer acts as a viscous glue in cell division

An over-abundance of the protein PRC1, which is essential to cell division, is a telltale sign in many cancer types, including prostate, ovarian, and breast cancer. New research, published online today in Developmental Cell, shows that PRC1 acts as a "viscous glue" during cell division, precisely controlling the speed at which two sets of DNA are separated as a single cell divides. The finding could explain why too much or too little PRC1 disrupts that process and causes genome errors linked to cancer.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-protein-linked-cancer-viscous-cell.ht...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-molecular-tool-precisely-mitochondria...

How to precisely edit mitochondrial DNA

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-polynesians-native-americans-contact-...

Polynesians, Native Americans made contact before European arrival, genetic study finds

Through deep genetic analyses, Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have found conclusive scientific evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and Native Americans from the region that is now Colombia—something that's been hotly contested in the historic and archaeological world for decades.

This new study is the first to show, through conclusive genetic analyses, that the two groups indeed encountered one another, and did so before Europeans arrived in South America. To conduct the study, Ioannidis and a team of international researchers collected genetic data from more than 800 living Indigenous inhabitants of Colombia and French Polynesia, conducting extensive genetic analyses to find signals of common ancestry. Based on trackable, heritable segments of DNA, the team was able to trace common genetic signatures of Native American and Polynesian DNA back hundreds of years.

Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2487-2 , Nature (2020). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2

The Two People We're All Related To

Supergenes play a larger role in evolution than previously thought

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-supergenes-larger-role-evolution-prev...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-robot-scientist-catalyst.html?utm_sou...

Researchers build robot scientist that has already discovered a new catalyst

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-colliding-neutron-stars-universal-mys...

How colliding neutron stars could shed light on universal mysteries

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bystander-effect-exclusive-humans.htm...

Study shows 'Bystander Effect' not exclusive to humans

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-drug-delivering-particles-syringe.htm...

Researchers Helping drug-delivering particles squeeze through a syringe

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-biomaterial-shield.html?utm_source=nw...

New biomaterial could shield against harmful radiation

researchers have synthesized a new form of melanin enriched with selenium. Called selenomelanin, this new biomaterial shows extraordinary promise as a shield for human tissue against harmful radiation.

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-spider-silk-photosynthetic-bacteria.h...

Spider silk made by photosynthetic bacteria

How good gut bacteria help reduce the risk for heart disease

Scientists have discovered that one of the good bacteria found in the human gut has a benefit that has remained unrecognized until now: The potential to reduce the risk for heart disease.

The bacteria's activity in the intestines reduces production of a chemical that has been linked to the development of clogged arteries. After it's manufactured in the gut, the chemical enters the bloodstream and travels to the liver, where it is converted into its most harmful form.

Researchers have traced the bacteria's behaviour to a family of proteins that they suspect could explain other ways that good gut organisms can contribute to human health. In essence, these microbes compete with bad bacteria for access to the same nutrients in the gut—and if the good bacteria win, they may prevent health problems that can result from how the body metabolizes food.

Much more work is ahead, but the scientists see potential for this microbe, Eubacterium limosum, to be used for therapeutic purposes in the future. Previous research has already shown the bacterium is "good" because it calms inflammation in the gut.

Over the last decade, it has become apparent that bacteria in the human gut influence our health in many ways. The organism studied now affects health by preventing a problematic compound from becoming a worse one.

The chemical linked to the clogged arteries that characterize atherosclerosis is called trimethylamine, or TMA. It is produced during metabolism when some intestinal microbes—generally the bacteria considered unhelpful to humans—interact with certain nutrients from food. Among those nutrients is L-carnitine, a chemical compound found in meat and fish that is also used as a nutritional supplement to improve recovery after exercise.

The researchers  discovered that E. limosum interacts with L-carnitine in a different way in the gut, and that interaction eliminates L-carnitine's role in production of TMA (other nutrients also participate in TMA production in the gut).

The researchers attribute the bacteria's beneficial behaviour to a protein called MtcB, an enzyme that cuts specific molecules off of compounds to help bacteria generate energy and survive. The process is called demethylation, and involves the removal of one methyle group—a carbon atom surrounded by three hydrogen atoms—to change a compound's structure or function.

The bacterium does this for its own benefit, but it has the downstream effect of reducing the toxicity of TMA.

Duncan J. Kountz et al, MtcB, a member of the MttB superfamily from the human gut acetogen Eubacterium limosum, is a cobalamin-dependent carnitine demethylase, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2020). DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.012934

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-good-gut-bacteria-heart-disease.html?...

COVID-19 brain complications found across the globe: Cases of brain complications linked to COVID-19 are occurring across the globe, a new review has shown. The research found that strokes, delirium and other neurological complications are reported from most countries where there have been large outbreaks of the disease.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200708150550.htm

https://theconversation.com/from-floating-guts-to-sticky-blood-here...

From floating guts to ‘sticky’ blood – here’s how to do surgery in space

--

https://theconversation.com/how-parasitic-worms-could-lead-to-new-t...

How parasitic worms could lead to new treatments for asthma

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/hiv-patient-has-become-the-first-in-re...

** 

HIV Patient Reportedly Becomes 'First in Remission' Without a Transplant

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/we-finally-know-what-that-gel-like-sub...

Glistening 'Gel-Like' Substance on Far Side of The Moon Finally Identified:

According to analysis of the images, and comparison with Apollo samples here on Earth, it's exactly what you'd expect to find on the Moon: rock.

More specifically, it's rock that was melted together - likely in the heat of a meteorite impact - to form a dark green, glossy, glassy mass.

Science Captures Some Close Encounters Between Great White Sharks and Beachgoers With Drones

A system for swarm robotics applications inspired by pheromone communication in insects

Nature is one of the most valuable sources of inspiration for researchers developing new robots and computational techniques.

A research team at the University of Manchester recently introduced a new technique for swarm robotics applications inspired by the use of pheromones among insect populations. Pheromones are chemical substances that animals and humans release into their surrounding environment, which can elicit a specific set of behaviors in other animals.

The release of pheromones can prompt mating behaviour, alert other animals of a dangerous situation, delineate a territory, or signal the presence of food. In their paper, published in SAGE's Adaptive Behavior journal, the researchers tried to artificially replicate how social insects, such as ants, use pheromones, with the aim of achieving more effective communication among teams of robots.

The main idea was to develop a bio-inspired communication system based on social animals' pheromone communication systems. Researchers wanted to emulate how ants release pheromones and the behaviors that follow. Past studies tried to create artificial pheromone systems using a variety of techniques, for instance, involving the use of alcohol, RFID tags and light as substitutes for the chemicals naturally released by animals. One of the most promising systems developed so far is COSΦ, a system that uses light to emulate pheromone release in humans and animals.

The team designed a system based on COSΦ, which also employs a model describing how pheromones spread across space and over time. This model draws inspiration from how a liquid or fluid flows in nature.

To have a realistic model of the pheromone system, they had to model all the parameters of real pheromones, such as evaporation and diffusion, and consider the environmental impacts such as effects of wind. The model now proposed is a reliable and realistic model that can imitate pheromone communication among insects.

The researchers evaluated their artificial pheromone system in a series of experiments in which a swarm of small mobile robots moved around and adapted to different environmental factors. Their results were highly promising, as their system enabled effective communication and prompted the desired group behaviors among members of the swarm.

They are currently expanding our system in three directions: (1) developing alternative communication systems for use in real-world scenarios, e.g. using light or sound for transferring small data packets within a swarm, (2) expanding the system with additional layers of pheromones, e.g. different colors and bandwidths, and (3) investigating an evolutionary swarm system where individuals improve their interactions with the pheromone over time

Seongin Na et al. Bio-inspired artificial pheromone system for swarm robotics applications, Adaptive Behavior (2020). DOI: 10.1177/1059712320918936

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-swarm-robotics-applications-phe...

A 'regime shift' is happening in the Arctic Ocean, scientists say

Scientists at Stanford University have discovered a surprising shift in the Arctic Ocean. Exploding blooms of phytoplankton, the tiny algae at the base of a food web topped by whales and polar bears, have drastically altered the Arctic's ability to transform atmospheric carbon into living matter. Over the past decade, the surge has replaced sea ice loss as the biggest driver of changes in uptake of carbon dioxide by phytoplankton.

the growing influence of phytoplankton biomass may represent a "significant regime shift" for the Arctic, a region that is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.

The study centers on net primary production (NPP), a measure of how quickly plants and algae convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugars that other creatures can eat. "The rates are really important in terms of how much food there is for the rest of the ecosystem. "It's also important because this is one of the main ways that CO² is pulled out of the atmosphere and into the ocean. The increase in NPP over the past decade is due almost exclusively to a recent increase in phytoplankton biomass.

These microscopic algae were once metabolizing more carbon across the Arctic simply because they were gaining more open water over longer growing seasons, thanks to climate-driven changes in ice cover. Now, they are growing more concentrated, like a thickening algae soup.

In a given volume of water, more phytoplankton were able to grow each year.

K.M. Lewis el al., "Changes in phytoplankton concentration now drive increased Arctic Ocean primary production," Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.aay8380

M. Babin el al., "Climate change tweaks Arctic marine ecosystems," Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abd1231

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-regime-shift-arctic-ocean-scientists....

Brain benefits of exercise can be gained with a single protein

A little-studied liver protein may be responsible for the well-known benefits of exercise on the aging brain, according to a new study in mice by scientists.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-brain-benefits-gained-protei...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-extreme-rainfall-events-top-heavy-aqu...

Extreme rainfall events cause top-heavy aquatic food webs

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-foot-long-skeleton-extinct-dolphin-pa...

15-foot-long skeleton of extinct dolphin suggests parallel evolution among whales

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-safer-crispr-gene-off-target.html?utm...

Safer CRISPR gene editing with fewer off-target hits

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-languages-significantly-interstellar-...

Languages will change significantly on interstellar flights

--

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-team-ways-cool-super-white.html...

Cooling buildings without ACs: A research team of materials scientists has demonstrated ways to make super white paint that reflects as much as 98% of incoming heat from the sun. The advance shows practical pathways for designing paints that, if used on rooftops and other parts of a building, could significantly reduce cooling costs, beyond what standard white 'cool-roof' paints can achieve.

5G networks have few health impacts, study finds

Fifth generation or 5G wireless technology, which began being deployed worldwide in 2019, provides faster connectivity and more bandwidth, meaning higher download speeds. But because 5G technology is so new, little is known about the potential health effects from its radiofrequency radiation, which is higher than the current industry standard 4G. The Oregon State study begins to change that.

Based on their study, the researchers don't think 5G radiation is that harmful.

Researchers conducted the research using embryonic zebrafish, a model organism often used to discover interactions between environmental stressors and biological systems. Zebrafish and humans have similar developmental processes and are similar on a genomic level, meaning zebrafish research can easily be applied to humans.

In the study, published July 9 in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers exposed embryonic zebrafish for two days to 3.5 GHz radiofrequency radiation, the frequency typically used by 5G-enabled cell phones.

They found no significant impacts on mortality, how the embryos formed or the embryos' behavioral response to light. They did find a modest impact on a test that measures the embryos' response to a sudden sound that they will investigate further.

Future research will look at the 5G radiation effects on the same zebrafish used in the study at a gene level and as they develop from embryos to adults, Dasgupta said. The researchers also would like to study the impacts of higher frequencies and higher exposure levels on zebra fish to keep pace with the changing cell phone industry.

The future research will use the same standardized experimental set up used in this study. It involves a box made of copper. The zebra fish embryos are placed on plates, which are put inside the box. The radiation enters the box through an antennae and the copper keeps it inside the box.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-5g-networks-health-impacts.h...

**

The human brain: not just large but finely shaped

Large brains have long differentiated humans and primates from other mammals and there is a clear evidence that brain mass increased through time.

 a new study by the University of New England, in collaboration with Italian and American institutes, has shown that the evolution of higher cognitive capacity is not only due to having a larger brain but also due to the brain having the "right" shape.

While brain size has long been the preferred measured trait for anthropological investigations, the brain is not uniform in shape and displays considerable structural variation.

The researchers were particularly interested in how humans evolved to have the distinct large, globular shaped brains we have today.

To answer the question they conducted a novel large-scale evolutionary analysis using a large samples of 3-D digital reconstructions of primate brains.

The team used 3-D shape analysis to measure the morphological variation between the different primate groups and a novel phylogenetic strategy to reconstruct the main morphological changes occurred through the primate lineage.

Their findings reveal that the brains of great apes such as chimpanzees and humans as well as papionin monkeys—baboons and macaques—are characterized by fast evolution and larger brain size. These characteristics sets them apart from smaller lemurs and New World monkeys which evolve more slowly.

The brains of papionins and great apes also have different structures.

"Humans and, to a minor extent, the great apes display a massive reorganization of the brain areas devoted to complex thinking, articulated language, social behaviour and problem solving such as the frontal lobe and the prefrontal cortex.

The teams' heat maps clearly show the great bulging prefrontal cortex of the human brain, whereas the brains of baboons are characterized by changes in the temporal and occipital regions.

G. Sansalone et al. Variation in the strength of allometry drives rates of evolution in primate brain shape, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0807

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-human-brain-large-finely.html?utm_sou...

Lung cancer in non-smokers likely to respond differently to treatment

Lung cancer in non-smokers is a diverse and distinct disease from that in smokers, and is likely to respond differently to targeted treatments, a major new study shows.

Scientists studied a population in Taiwan with high rates of lung cancer among non-smokers—and found a range of genetic changes which varied depending on a patient's age or sex.

Many non-smokers with lung cancer had signs of DNA damage from environmental carcinogens, with young women in particular having particular genetic changes which are known to drive cancer to evolve aggressively.

The study could lead to new treatments for non-smokers with lung cancer tailored to the newly identified genetic changes.

The researchers conducted a detailed analysis of genetic changes, gene activation, protein activity and cellular 'switches' in lung cancer to develop the most comprehensive overview of the biology of disease in non-smokers to date.

Looking at the genetics and the related proteins produced by cancer cells in the tumour samples, scientists found that some early-stage lung tumours in non-smokers were biologically similar to more advanced disease in smokers.

Tumours in women often had a particular fault in the well-known lung cancer gene EGFR, whereas in men the most common faults were in the KRAS and APC genes. These differences could affect the response to targeted drugs in men and women.

Picking out people with 'late-like' early-stage lung tumours could help guide treatment decisions, and patients could be monitored more closely for signs of their disease progressing.

The study found a pattern of genetic changes involving the APOBEC gene family in three-quarters of tumours of female patients under the age of 60, and in all women without faults in the EGFR gene.

APOBEC proteins play an important role in the function of the immune system—but they can be hijacked by cancers, speeding up evolution and the emergence of drug resistance, a key area of study in the ICR's new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery.

Patients without EGFR faults tend to do better on immunotherapy, and so testing for APOBEC could help pick out women more likely to respond to this form of treatment.

The team also picked out groups of patients—particularly among older women—whose cancers had mutation patterns linked to cancer-causing substances in their environment such as pollutants.

Finally, the team identified 65 proteins that were overactive in lung tumours that matched with existing candidate drugs. They found that one protein that cuts away at the surrounding tissue, called MMP11, was linked to poorer survival—and could be explored as a marker for early detection.

This new study offers a deep dive into the biology of lung cancer in people who have never smoked. It reveals new ways of telling apart patients with different tumour characteristics that could be exploited with tailored treatment strategies.

Cell (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.012

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-lung-cancer-non-smokers-diff...

CERN: physicists report the discovery of unique new particle

The LHCb collaboration at CERN has announced the discovery of a new exotic particle: a so-called "tetraquark".

Many physicists struggled to accept that so many elementary particles could exist in the universe, in what had become known as the "particle zoo". George Zweig from Caltech and Murray Gell-Mann from CERN had struck upon the same solution. What if all these different particles were really made of smaller, unknown building blocks, in the same way that the hundred-odd elements in the periodic table are made of protons, neutrons and electrons? Zweig called these building blocks "aces", while Gell-Mann chose the term that we still use today: "quarks".

We now know that there are six different kinds of quarks—up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom. These particles also have respective antimatter companions with opposite charge, which can bind together according to simple rules based on symmetries. A particle made of a quark and an antiquark is called a "meson"; while three quarks bound together form "baryons". The familiar protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nucleus are examples of baryons.

This classification scheme beautifully described the particle zoo of the 1960s. However, even in his original paper, Gell-Mann realised that other combinations of quarks might be possible. For example, two quarks and two antiquarks might stick together to form a "tetraquark", while four quarks and an antiquark would make a "pentaquark".

"Exotic" properties are quite different from ordinary mesons. 

All tetraquarks and pentaquarks that have been discovered so far contain two charm quarks, which are relatively heavy, and two or three light quarks—up, down or strange. This particular configuration is indeed the easiest to discover in experiments.

But the latest tetraquark discovered by LHCb, which has been dubbed X(6900), is composed of four charm quarks. Produced in high-energy proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, the new tetraquark was observed via its decay into pairs of well-known particles called J/psi mesons, each made of a charm quark and a charm antiquark. This makes it particularly interesting as it is not only composed entirely of heavy quarks, but also four quarks of the same kind—making it a unique specimen to test our understanding on how quarks bind together.

https://theconversation.com/cern-physicists-report-the-discovery-of...

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-cern-physicists-discovery-unique-part...

Reducing noise transmitted through an open window

A new device that can reduce the intensity of sound passing through open windows is presented in a proof-of-principle study in Scientific Reports. It fits into a two-panel sliding window and can decrease the perceived loudness of urban transportation noises by up to half (10 decibel reduction).

The device, assembled by Bhan Lam and colleagues, consists of 24 loudspeakers (each 4.5 cm in diameter), fixed in a grid pattern to bars attached to the inside of a window and one sensor located outside the window. If the sensor detects noise outside the building, the loudspeakers emit "anti-noise" at the same frequency as the detected noise but with inverted sound waves. This "anti-noise" cancels out the detected noise and reduces the volume of noise pollution entering the room, even when the window is open.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-noise-transmitted-window.html?u...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dark-discovery-microscopic-imaging-co...

Shining light into the dark: New discovery makes microscopic imaging possible in dark conditions

researchers have discovered a new way to more accurately analyze microscopic samples by essentially making them glow in the dark through the use of chemically luminescent molecules.

--

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/researchers-from-all-ove...

Researchers from All Over the World Pitch In to Fight COVID-19

Scientists are lending their expertise—whatever it may be—to help develop tests, medical devices, and other tools to try to save lives during the pandemic.

Astronomers Detect Unexpected Class of Mysterious Circular Objects in Space

https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-unidentified-circles-have-b...

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-years-of-tree-rings-reveal...

Hundreds of Years of Tree Rings Reveal a Grim Anomaly That Began in The 20th Century

--

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/animals-use-social-dista...

Animals Use Social Distancing to Avoid Disease

Lobsters, birds and some primates use quarantine to ward off infections

Sea surface temperature has a big impact on coral outplant survival

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-sea-surface-temperature-big-impact.ht...

--

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-scientists-alzheimer-gene-ra...

Scientists discover protective Alzheimer's gene and develop rapid drug-testing platform

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-planet-primordial-black-ho...

Scientists propose plan to determine if Planet Nine is a primordial black hole

Plant communication:Detection of electrical signaling between tomato plants raises interesting questions

Plants can communicate with other plants using wireless pathways above and underground.  Some examples of these underground communication pathways are: (1) mycorrhizal networks in the soil; (2) the plants’ rhizosphere; (3) acoustic communication; (4) naturally grafting of roots of the same species; (5) signaling chemicals exchange between roots of plants; and (6) electrical signal transmission between plants through the soil. 

Plants have developed complex systems of communication. Electrical, mechanical, and chemical signals induced by above-ground stresses in plants can affect below ground communication between roots of neighboring plants. There are different electrical, chemical and electrochemical pathways for underground signaling between plants. Electrical signal transmission is fast in comparison with chemical signaling which is controlled by a slow diffusion. Electrostimulation of plants induces electrotonic potentials transmission in the electro-stimulated plants as well as the neighboring plants located in different pots regardless if plants are the same or different types.

The soil beneath our feet is alive with electrical signals being sent from one plant to another, according to new research. A paper published recently  used physical experiments and mathematical modeling to study transmission of electrical signals between tomato plants. It was found that electrical signal propagation within a plant and also between plants through a network of Mycorrhizal fungi that's ubiquitous in soil appears to act as circuitry.

Plants generate electric signals that propagate through their parts. When the roots of tomatoes are experimentally isolated from each other with an air gap, the electrical impedance of the gap is very large.

"The electrical signals won't go through this gap. However, when the plants are living in common soil, experiments conducted  found that the ground impedance is not very large and they can communicate by passing electrical signals to each other through the Mycorrhizal network in the soil.

The tomato research, which focused on experimental study and mathematical modeling of electrical signal propagation between plants of the same species, opens new doors to questions about whether plants communicate across species through fungi. The soil plays the role of a conductor.

Another issue is to study the plants' communications via electric waves through the air.

Alexander G. Volkov et al. Underground electrotonic signal transmission between plants, Communicative & Integrative Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1757207

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-electrical-tomato.html?utm_source=nwl...

Study finds fatty acid that kills cancer cells

Researchers have demonstrated that a fatty acid called dihomogamma-linolenic acid, or DGLA, can kill human cancer cells. The study found that DGLA can induce ferroptosis in an animal model and in actual human cancer cells. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent type of cell death that was discovered in recent years and has become a focal point for disease research as it is closely related to many disease processes.

Implications of this work: If you could deliver DGLA precisely to a cancer cell, it could promote ferroptosis and lead to tumor cell death. Also, just knowing that this fat promotes ferroptosis might also affect how we think about conditions such as kidney disease and neurodegeneration where we want to prevent this type of cell death.

DGLA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid found in small amounts in the human body, though rarely in the human diet. 

It was discovered that feeding nematodes ( Caenorhabditis elegans ) a diet of DGLA-laden bacteria killed all the germ cells in the worms as well as the stem cells that make the germ cells. The way the cells died carried many signs of ferroptosis.

Researchers also showed that DGLA could induce ferroptosis in human cancer cells. They also found an interaction with another fatty acid class, called an ether lipid, that had a protective effect against DGLA. When they took out the ether lipids, the cells died faster in the presence of DGLA. The study also demonstrated that C. elegans can be a useful animal research model in the study of ferroptosis, a field that has had to rely mostly on cell cultures.

Source:  Developmental Cell (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.06.019

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-fatty-acid-cancer-cells.html...

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-fatty-acid-cancer-cells.html...

Rock-breathing bacteria are electron spin doctors, study shows

**Electrons spin. It's a fundamental part of their existence. Some spin "up" while others spin "down." Scientists have known this for about a century, thanks to quantum physics.

They've also known that magnetic fields can affect the direction of an electron's quantum spin, flipping it from up to down and vice versa. And it doesn't take much: Even a bacterial cell can do it.

Researchers  have found that protein "wires" connecting a bacterial cell to a solid surface tend to transmit electrons with a particular spin.

This ability to select an electron's quantum spin could have implications for the use of bacteria in the biotechnology industry and in burgeoning efforts to create bacteria-based energy cells, as well as future electronic technologies.

 Scientists have been studying certain bacteria that can use solid surfaces in the same way animals use oxygen to breathe. Instead of dumping electrons generated during metabolism onto inhaled oxygen molecules, the bacteria send the electrons down specialized proteins that plug into an external surface.

Unlike most organisms that are able to use oxygen as the electron acceptor. These bacteria transfer the electrons to a solid mineral or, as they do in our lab, to electrodes that are outside the cell.

In terms of metabolism, they "breathe" the minerals or electrodes.

To reach the external surface, the electrons are shuttled through various protein molecules that form electrical conduits. These proteins have magnetic fields that can favor a particular spin as the electrons shuttle through.

Scientists found that these magnetic fields are affected by a characteristic of the proteins called "chirality."

Many molecules, especially biological molecules, appear in two versions, each a mirror image of the other. Scientists call this "chirality." It's similar to human hands. Left and right hands have four fingers and a thumb, but they're not exactly the same. They're both hands, but they're mirror images of each other, oriented in opposite directions. Molecules can be the same way, and in fact, scientists refer to chiral molecules as being either left-handed or right-handed.

The left- or right-handedness of a protein may affect the polarity of the magnetic fields experienced by the electrons as they shuttle through the protein. That's what happens to those electrons that travel along a protein wire to get to the outside of a rock-breathing bacterium.

 These "rock-breathing" bacteria one day might be used to produce sustainable energy, for years. Finding that the electron-conducting proteins in these bacteria can select for a particular electron spin based on their chirality could be useful in developing certain electronic devices called "spintronics" . Spintronics use not only the charge of electrons but also their quantum spin and may be especially useful in quantum computing.

This work shows that bacterial cytochromes may be interesting candidates for spintronics."

Suryakant Mishra et al. Spin-Dependent Electron Transport through Bacterial Cell Surface Multiheme Electron Conduits, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2019). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b09262

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-rock-breathing-bacteria-electron-doct...

Radiation can slow corrosion of some materials

Radiation nearly always degrades the materials exposed to it, hastening their deterioration and requiring replacement of key components in high-radiation environments such as nuclear reactors. But for certain alloys that could be used in fission or fusion reactors, the opposite turns out to be true: Researchers have now found that instead of hastening the material's degradation, radiation actually improves its resistance, potentially doubling the material's useful lifetime.

The finding could be a boon for some new, cutting-edge reactor designs, including molten-salt-cooled fission reactors, and new fusion reactors such as the ARC.

Researchers  repeated it dozens of times, with different conditions and every time they got the same results showing delayed corrosion.

The kind of reactor environment the team simulated in their experiments involves the use of molten sodium, lithium, and potassium salt as a coolant for both the nuclear fuel rods in a fission reactor and the vacuum vessel surrounding a superhot, swirling plasma in a future fusion reactor. Where the hot molten salt is in contact with the metal, corrosion can take place rapidly, but with these nickel-chromium alloys they found that the corrosion took twice as long to develop when the material was bathed in radiation from a proton accelerator, producing a radiation environment similar to what would be found in the proposed reactors.

Careful analysis of images of the affected alloy surfaces using transmission electron microscopy, after irradiating the metal in contact with molten salt at 650 degrees Celsius, (a typical operating temperature for salt in such reactors), helped to reveal the mechanism causing the unexpected effect. The radiation tends to create more tiny defects in the structure of the alloy, and these defects allow atoms of the metal to diffuse more easily, flowing in to quickly fill the voids that get created by the corrosive salt. In effect, the radiation damage promotes a sort of self-healing mechanism within the metal.

Weiyue Zhou et al. Proton irradiation-decelerated intergranular corrosion of Ni-Cr alloys in molten salt, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17244-y

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-corrosion-materials.html?utm_source=n...

Scientists discover extraordinary regeneration of neurons

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-extraordinary-regeneration...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-oversized-placentas-cloning-decades.h...

Cause of oversized placentas in cloning found after two decades

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-viral-dark-exposed-metagenome-databas...

Viral dark matter exposed: Metagenome database detects phage-derived antibacterial enzyme

--

How the coronavirus pandemic is changing virtual science communication

AMAZING ROBOTIC ANIMALS

$$The mathematical strategy that could transform coronavirus testing

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02053-6?utm_source=Natur...

--

https://massivesci.com/articles/hydrothermal-vent-reactor-geology-m...

Scientists recreated ancient Earth’s ocean hell to figure out how life began

The experiment also suggests that extraterrestrial life could also emerge on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus

--

https://massivesci.com/articles/gingko-tree-longevity-gene-activity...

The genes of 600-year-old ginkgo trees are just as active as their teenage counterparts 

Ancient trees reveal the secret to their virtual immortality

--

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-denial-spreads-o...

Climate Denial Spreads on Facebook as Scientists Face Restrictions

The company recently overruled its scientific fact-checking group, which had flagged information as misleading

--

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stingers-have-achieved-o...

Stingers Have Achieved Optimal Pointiness, Physicists Show

A single equation describes the shapes of stingers, spikes and spines throughout the natural world

--

Neptune's Moons Are Caught in One of The Strangest Orbits Ever Seen

https://www.sciencealert.com/neptune-s-moons-are-caught-in-one-of-t...

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/our-atmosphere-chimes-in-time-with-ast...

Scientists Detect Earth's Atmosphere 'Ringing' Like a Bell

Just as the Moon tugs at our planet's seas, contributing to oceanic tidal waves, it also pulls at our atmosphere along with the Sun, creating waves in the sky.

A new study now demonstrates how some types of 'sky waves' resonate around Earth, much like how sound waves resonate inside a bell.

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-planning-to-make-a-sing...

Scientists Are Planning How to Make a Single Authoritative List of All Species

--

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/saliva-tests-how-they-wo...

Saliva Tests: How They Work and What They Bring to COVID-19

--

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-your-heart-influences-what-you-p...

How Your Heart Influences What You Perceive and Fear

Exaggerated risk of transmission of COVID-19 by fomites

Disinfecting surfaces 'not as necessary as we thought'

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-surfaces-groceries-packa...

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)...

--

https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/pink-climat...

Pink is the shade of climate change with mountains and lakes changing colour across the globe

--

https://theconversation.com/death-by-irony-the-mystery-of-the-mouse...

‘Death by irony’: The mystery of the mouse that died of smoke inhalation, but went nowhere near a fire

--

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/campaign-begins-to-derai...

Campaign begins to derail COVID-19 vaccination before it’s even developed

Thousands of scientists are working around the clock to find a coronavirus vaccine. At the same time, groups are already trying to derail it.

--

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-complications-covid-von-will...

Complications from COVID-19 may depend on von Willebrand factor in the blood

--

** https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-covid-ten-meters.html?utm_so...

Researchers: COVID-19 spreads ten meters or more by breathing

People with high cholesterol should eliminate carbs, not saturated fat

** For decades, people diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia have been instructed to minimize their consumption of saturated fats to lower cholesterol and reduce their risks of heart disease. But a new study published in the prestigious journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine found no evidence to support those claims.

Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that causes people to have cholesterol levels 2-4 times higher than the average person. Organizations, including the American Heart Association, have suggested they avoid eating food from animal sources, such as meat, eggs and cheese, and to avoid coconut oil. An international team of experts on heart disease and diet, including five cardiologists, reviewed dietary guidelines for people with familial hypercholesterolemia. They say they couldn't find any justification for health experts to recommend a low saturated fat diet.

Following a low-carb diet is most effective for people at increased risk of heart disease, such as those who are overweight, hypertensive and diabetic. Their findings are consistent with another paper recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which provided strong evidence that food that raises blood sugar, such as bread, potatoes and sweets, should be minimized, rather than tropical oils and animal-based food.

David M Diamond et al, Dietary Recommendations for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia: an Evidence-Free Zone, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111412

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-people-high-cholesterol-carb...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/04/when-does-your-baby-become-...

When Does Your Baby Become Conscious?

--

Why the h-index is a bogus measure of academic impact

$$ https://theconversation.com/why-the-h-index-is-a-bogus-measure-of-a...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-theorized-neutrinoless-pro...

Scientists demonstrate a new experiment in the search for theorized 'neutrinoless' proc

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-junk-dna-free-stem-cells.html?utm_sou...

Turning off 'junk DNA' may free stem cells to become neurons

For every cell in the body there comes a time when it must decide what it wants to do for the rest of its life. In an article published in the journal PNAS, NIH researchers report for the first time that ancient viral genes that were once considered "junk DNA" may play a role in this process. The article describes a series of preclinical experiments that showed how some human endogenous retrovirus (HERV-K) genes inscribed into chromosomes 12 and 19 may help control the differentiation, or maturation, of human stem cells into the trillions of neurons that are wired into our nervous systems.

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-power-dna.html?utm_source=nwletter&am...

Power of DNA to store information gets an upgrade

Human lungs rejected for transplant recovered using novel technique

 A multidisciplinary team has demonstrated that injured human donor lungs declined for transplant can be recovered by cross-circulation between the human lung and a xenogeneic host (Connecting donated human lungs to pigs).

The new technique, described in a study published recently in Nature Medicine, has the potential to increase the supply of donor lungs available for transpalnt, saving the lives of people who would otherwise die while waiting on the transplant list.

Lungs are the least-used solid organ for transplant because only 20% of donor lungs are considered to be in sufficient condition for transplantation. If we could improve the 20% acceptance rate and increase it to 40% or 50% acceptance rate, we would essentially eliminate our waitlist and we would actually be able to open up transplantation to more people.

The team proved in earlier published research that a cross-circulation technique using an animal model can not only support but rehabilitate animal lungs for up to four days. The current research extends that success to human lungs considered too damaged for transplant, preserving them for 24 hours using the xenogeneic platform.

Lung disease is the third leading cause of death globally, and transplantation is the only definitive cure for patients who are in the end stage of the disease. The current standard of care for donor lungs is ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP), a mechanical support system that can preserve lungs for up to eight hours but has limited means to rehabilitate them. The study demonstrated that a lung that failed to improve on EVLP could be rehabilitated using the xenogeneic platform.

The xenogeneic platform offers scientists two immediate research pathways. First, it offers a new option for transplanting lungs previously considered too damaged for transplant. Secondly, the xenogeneic platform allows lungs to be preserved to test further therapeutic interventions as well as investigations in drug discovery, testing and delivery. Further, the cross-circulation platform may be used to recover other human organs and tissue, including livers, hearts and kidneys as well as limbs.

The cross-species cross-circulation allowed a human lung that failed after its six hours of standard perfusion to heal enough to meet transplant requirements and theoretically help a lung patient, though no transplant was done. 

For the current experiments, they connected pigs and human lungs with common problems found after donation: swelling from excess fluid, traumatic injury, damage from inhaled gastric fluids. All the organs had gone through six hours of perfusion before being declined for transplant. For the experiments, immune suppression drugs were infused into the pigs to prevent rejection of the human lung.

While connected to the pigs, the organs’ cells and function were monitored. After 24 hours, the lungs had improved and would likely continue to get better, according to the researchers. 

Xenogeneic cross-circulation for extracorporeal recovery of injured human lungs , Nature Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0971-8

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-human-lungs-transplant-recov...