**Oral cancer pain predicts likelihood of cancer spreading

 Oral cancer is more likely to spread in patients experiencing high levels of pain, according to a team of researchers at New York University College of Dentistry that found genetic and cellular clues as to why metastatic oral cancers are so painful.

The findings—which appear in Scientific Reports, a journal published by Nature—may ultimately be used to alleviate oral cancer pain and refine surgical decision making when treating oral cancer.

Oral cancer can cause severe pain during everyday activities, including talking and eating. Previous research by Brian L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, director of the NYU Oral Cancer Center and one of the study’s authors, suggests that patients with metastatic oral cancer—cancer that spreads beyond the mouth—experience more pain than those whose cancer has not spread. The new study helps researchers understand why.

https://researchnews.cc/news/3000/Oral-cancer-pain-predicts-likelih...

New Type of Immunotherapy Helps Mice with Hard-to-Treat Breast Cancer Survive Longer

Where You Sit in a Room Can Influence Your Risk of Catching COVID-19

https://www.sciencealert.com/where-you-sit-in-a-classroom-might-inf...

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Non-Concussive Head Hits Influence the Brain’s Microstructure

Comparing the brain scans of high-impact rugby players with those of athletes in noncontact sports, such as rowing and swimming, revealed tiny, yet significant, differences in the brain’s white matter.

https://www.the-scientist.com/the-literature/non-concussive-head-hi...

Binge drinking may cause Alzheimer's disease—and it might strike younger and in a severe form

Binge drinking may be linked to both the onset and severity of Alzheimer's disease, but scientists have only now embarked on a path to decipher each molecular step involved in how excessive alcohol consumption leads to the most common form of dementia.

Excessive alcohol consumption is toxic to the brain. Binge drinking likely plays an insidious role in the alteration of a normal brain protein  into a biological rogue that is highly prevalent in Alzheimer's disease. The protein is identified by a simplistic monosyllabic name—tau.

In its normal conformation, tau is found in neurons modulating the stability of axonal microtubules. But in its abnormal conformation, tau has long been considered one of the leading hallmarks of Alzheimer's, and makes up the tangles in the notorious "plaques and tangles" pathology. The plaques are deposits of the protein beta amyloid. 

 The main aim of this study is how tau transforms from a normal protein into a neuron-annihilating cause of Alzheimer's under the influence of excessive alcohol. 

The scientists are delving into how tau can become phosphorylated, which means its structural conformation changes and its role in the brain becomes chemically altered under the influence of binge drinking. Studies have shown that frequent and heavy alcohol drinking is linked to earlier onset and increased severity of Alzheimer's disease.

It has been reported that alcohol consumption correlates with Alzheimer's-like cortical atrophy in individuals at high risk of developing the disease as well as younger age of onset.

In addition, chronic alcohol exposure caused neural tau phosphorylation in the hippocampus and memory-impairment in Alzheimer's-predisposed mice.

Archna Sharma et al. Potential Role of Extracellular CIRP in Alcohol-Induced Alzheimer's Disease, Molecular Neurobiology (2020). DOI: 10.1007/s12035-020-02075-1

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-binge-alzheimer-diseaseand-y...

Covid-19 reinfection casts doubt on virus immunity: study

COVID-19 patients may experience more severe symptoms the second time they are infected, according to research released this week confirming it is possible to catch the potentially deadly disease more than once.

The study charts the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in the United States. 

The patient, a 25-year-old man, was infected with two distinct variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, within a 48-day time frame.

The second infection was more severe than the first, resulting in the patient being hospitalised with oxygen support.

The study also reminded us the four other cases of reinfection confirmed globally, with one patient each in Belgium, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Ecuador. Experts say the prospect of reinfection could have a profound impact on how the world battles through the pandemic. In particular, it could influence the hunt for a vaccine.

Vaccines work by triggering the body's natural immune response to a certain pathogen, arming it with antibodies it to fight off future waves of infection.

But it is not at all clear how long COVID-19 antibodies last.

For some diseases, such as measles, infection confers lifelong immunity. For other pathogens, immunity may be fleeting at best.

The authors said the US patient could have been exposed to a very high dose of the virus the second time around, triggering a more acute reaction.

Alternatively, it may have been a more virulent strain of the virus.

Another hypothesis is a mechanism known as antibody dependent enhancement—that is, when antibodies actually make subsequent infections worse, such as with dengue fever.

The researchers pointed out that reinfection of any kind remains rare, with only a handful of confirmed cases out of tens of millions of COVID-19 infections globally.

However, since many cases are asymptomatic and therefore unlikely to have tested positive initially, it may be impossible to know if a given COVID-19 case is the first or second infection.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30764-7/fulltext

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-covid-reinfection-virus-immu...

Damaged muscles don't just die, they regenerate themselves

Researchers have found that components leaking from broken muscle fibers activate "satellite" muscle stem cells. While attempting to identify the proteins that activate satellite cells, they found that metabolic enzymes, such as GAPDH, rapidly activated dormant satellite cells and accelerated muscle injury regeneration. This is a highly rational and efficient regeneration mechanism in which the damaged muscle itself activates the satellite cells that begin the regeneration process.

Skeletal muscle is made up of bundles of contracting muscle fibers and each muscle fiber is surrounded by satellite cells—muscle stem cells that can produce new muscle fibers. Thanks to the work of these satellite cells, muscle fibers can be regenerated even after being bruised or torn during intense exercise. Satellite cells also play essential roles in muscle growth during developmental stages and muscle hypertrophy during strength training. However, in refractory muscle diseases like muscular dystrophy and age-related muscular fragility (sarcopenia), the number and function of satellite cells decreases. It is therefore important to understand the regulatory mechanism of satellite cells in muscle regeneration therapy.

In mature skeletal muscle, satellite cells are usually present in a dormant state. Upon stimulation after muscle injury, satellite cells are rapidly activated and proliferate repeatedly. During the subsequent myogenesis, they differentiate and regenerate muscle fibers by fusing with existing muscle fibers or with together. Of these three steps (satellite cell activation, proliferation, and muscle differentiation), little is known about how the first step, activation, is induced.

Since satellite cells are activated when muscle fibers are damaged, researchers hypothesized that muscle damage itself could trigger activation

Yoshifumi Tsuchiya et al, Damaged Myofiber-Derived Metabolic Enzymes Act as Activators of Muscle Satellite Cells, Stem Cell Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.08.002

Skeletal muscle development and regeneration mechanisms vary by gender

Researchers at Kumamoto University, Japan, have generated mice lacking the estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) gene, both fiber-specific and muscle stem cell-specific, which resulted in abnormalities in the growth and regeneration of skeletal muscle in female mice. This was not observed in male mice that lacked the ERβ gene, suggesting that estrogen and its downstream signals may be a female-specific mechanism for muscle growth and regeneration.

In humans, skeletal muscle mass generally peaks in the 20s with a gradual decline beginning in the 30s, but it is possible to maintain muscle mass through strength training and a healthy lifestyle. Skeletal muscle can be damaged through excessive exercise or bruising, but it has the ability to regenerate. The muscle stem cells that surround muscle fibers are essential for this regeneration; they also play a part in increasing muscle size (hypertrophy). Muscle stem cell dysfunction is thought to be associated with various muscle weakness, such as age-related sarcopenia and muscular dystrophy. Although basic research on skeletal muscle has progressed rapidly in recent years, most studies were conducted on male animals and gender differences were given much consideration.

Estrogen is a female hormone that maintains the homeostasis of various tissues and organs. A decrease in estrogen levels due to amenorrhea, menopause, or other factors can lead to a disturbance in biological homeostasis. When estrogen binds to estrogen receptors (ERs) in cells, it is transferred into the nucleus and binds to genomic DNA to induce the expression of specific genes as transcription factors. There are two types of ERs, ERα and ERβ. While both ERα and ERβ have high binding capacity to estrogen, their tissue distribution is different, they do not have a common DNA-binding domain, and they may act as antagonists to each other, suggesting that they have different roles. Furthermore, estrogen's effects on cells can be both ER-mediated and non-ER-mediated.

An epidemiological study of pre- and postmenopausal women in their 50s indicated an association between decreased blood estrogen levels and muscle weakness. A research group at Kumamoto University previously showed that estrogen is important for skeletal muscle development and regeneration using an ovariectomized estrogen deficiency mouse model. They also examined the effectiveness of nutritional interventions in estrogen-deficient conditions. However, whether estrogen acts directly on the ER of muscle fibers and muscle stem cells to regulate skeletal muscle growth and regeneration, or whether it acts indirectly through other tissues and organs was unclear. In this study, the researchers generated mice with either myofiber-specific or muscle stem cell-specific ERβ gene deletion and analyzed the function of ERβ in skeletal muscle.

Daiki Seko et al, Estrogen Receptor β Controls Muscle Growth and Regeneration in Young Female Mice, Stem Cell Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.07.017

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-skeletal-muscle-regeneration...

Physicists successfully carry out controlled transport of stored light

A team of physicists has successfully transported light stored in a quantum memory over a distance of 1.2 millimeters. They have demonstrated that the controlled transport process and its dynamics has only little impact on the properties of the stored light. The researchers used ultra-cold rubidium-87 atoms as a storage medium for the light as to achieve a high level of storage efficiency and a long lifetime.

They stored the light by putting it in a 'suitcase' so to speak, only that in their case the suitcase was made of a cloud of cold atoms. They then moved this suitcase over a short distance and then took the light out again. This is very interesting not only for physics in general, but also for quantum communication, because light is not very easy to 'capture', and if you want to transport it elsewhere in a controlled manner, it usually ends up being lost.

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The controlled manipulation and storage of quantum information as well as the ability to retrieve it are essential prerequisites for achieving advances in quantum communication and for performing corresponding computer operations in the quantum world. Optical quantum memories, which allow for the storage and on-demand retrieval of quantum information carried by light, are essential for scalable quantum communication networks. For instance, they can represent important building blocks of quantum repeaters or tools in linear quantum computing. In recent years, ensembles of atoms have proven to be media well suited for storing and retrieving optical quantum information. Using a technique known as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), incident light pulses can be trapped and coherently mapped to create a collective excitation of the storage atoms. Since the process is largely reversible, the light can then be retrieved again with high efficiency.

Wei Li et al, Controlled Transport of Stored Light, Physical Review Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.150501

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-physicists-successfully.html?utm_sour...

How to see what's on the other side of a wormhole without actually traveling through it

Wormholes are incredibly fascinating objects, but also completely hypothetical. We simply don't know if they can truly exist in our universe. But new theoretical insights are showing how we may be able to detect a wormhole—from a spray of high-energy particles emitted at the moment of its formation.

The problem with wormholes - Ask a Spaceman!

O. B. Zaslavskii, New scenario of high-energy particle collisions near wormholes. arXiv:2009.11894 [gr-qc]. arxiv.org/abs/2009.11894

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-side-wormhole.html?utm_source=nwlette...

 it might be possible to find wormholes, and a new paper appearing on the preprint journal arXiv outlines one possible technique.

Here's how it works. Let's say a particle falls into a newly forming wormhole. It can, if it has high enough energy, spontaneously decay into two new particles. One of these particles can escape through the wormhole, while the other can get reflected back through the opening, due to the strange physics operating inside these tunnels.

Then, a new particle enters the wormhole and collides with the reflected particle. The author of the paper found that this collision can reach arbitrarily high energies. This means that what we see on our end of the wormhole could be a shower of high-energy radiation—an unmistakable burst of energy.

Now that we know these kinds of particle showers are possible from opening wormholes, we can look around the universe to see if anything fits the bill… and if we can travel to them.

C-Face: Continuously Reconstructing Facial Expressions by Deep Learning Contours ,UIST 20, SciFi Lab

Multivitamins Don't Necessarily Make You Healthier. Here's Why

Do multivitamins make you healthier?

https://metafact.io/factcheck_answers/2064

https://www.sciencealert.com/multivitamins-don-t-necessarily-make-y...

Pufferfish may be carving mysterious ‘crop circles’ near Australia

The only other known rings are fish nests found 5,500 kilometers away, in Japan

Japan’s white-spotted pufferfish are renowned for producing complex, ringed patterns in the sand. Now, 5,500 kilometers away in Australia, scientists have discovered what appear to be dozens more of these creations.

While conducting a marine life survey out on Australia’s North West Shelf near subsea gas infrastructure with an autonomous underwater vehicle, marine ecologist Todd Bond spotted a striking pattern on the seafloor, more than 100 meters deep.  “Immediately, I knew what it was,” recounts Bond, of the University of Western Australia in Perth. Bond and his colleagues continued the survey, ultimately finding nearly two dozen more.

Until now, these undersea “crop circles” were found only off the coast of Japan. First spotted in the 1990s, it took two decades to solve the mystery of what created them. In 2011, scientists found the sculptors — the diminutive males of what was then a new species of Torquigener pufferfish. The patterns are nests, meticulously plowed over the course of days and decorated with shells to entice females to lay their eggs in the center. 

‘Great Adaptations’ unravels mysteries of amazing animal abilities

Tales of unusual animals — and unusual science — make for an entertaining read

the mystery behind the mole’s wiggly star-shaped appendage (it helps the subterranean animal sense prey without using sight)

how “hangry” water shrews execute the fastest documented predatory attack by a mammal and how cockroaches resist becoming zombies during parasitoid wasp attacks (SN: 10/31/18).

the notion that a tentacled snake (Erpeton tentaculatum) might use the short appendages close to itsmouth to lure in nearby fish, just like snapping turtles dowith their tongues, turned out to be wrong. Instead, the tentacleshelp a snake sense a fish’s position in the water andknow when to attack. What’s more, the snakes have hackedtheir prey’s natural escape reflexes. In a fatal mistake, fishflee in the wrong direction — straight toward a snake’smouth — when duped by a twitch of the snake’s neck rightbefore the predator strikes.

 Tentacled snakes are born knowing how to strike at prey rather than learning through failure you can’t “find enough superlatives to sum up these results.” A fight between a parasitoid wasp and a cockroach is like an “insect rodeo.” The wasp attacks a cockroach’s head in an attempt to lay an egg, but in defense the roach “bucks, jumps, and flails with all its might.”

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/book-great-adaptations-unravels...

You can check   Great Adaptations on Amazon.com.

Restoring 30% of the world's ecosystems in priority areas could stave off extinctions and absorb CO2

Returning specific ecosystems that have been replaced by farming to their natural state in all continents worldwide would rescue the majority of land-based species of mammals, amphibians and birds under threat of extinction. Such measures would also soak up more than 465 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to a new report released today. Protecting 30% of the priority areas identified in the study, together with protecting ecosystems still in their natural form, would reduce carbon emissions equivalent to 49% of all the carbon that has built up in our atmosphere over the last two centuries. Some 27 researchers from 12 countries contributed to the report, which assesses forests, grasslands, shrublands, wetlands and arid ecosystems.

By identifying precisely which destroyed ecosystems worldwide should be restored to deliver biodiversity and climate benefits at a low cost without impact on agricultural production, the study is the first of its kind to provide global evidence that where restoration takes place has the most profound impact on the achievement of biodiversity, climate and food security goals. According to the study, restoration can be 13 times more cost-effective when it takes place in the highest priority locations.

Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-world-ecosystems-priority-areas-stave...

Scientists home in on the mechanism that protects cells from premature aging

Molecules that accumulate at the tip of chromosomes are known to play a key role in preventing damage to our DNA. Now, researchers  have unraveled how these molecules home in on specific sections of chromosomes—a finding that could help to better understand the processes that regulate cell survival in aging and cancer.

Much like the aglet of a shoelace prevents the end of the lace from fraying, stretches of DNA called telomeres form protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. But as cells divide, telomeres become shorter, making the protective cap less effective. Once telomeres get too short, the cell stops dividing. Telomere shortening and malfunction have been linked to cell aging and age-related diseases, including cancer.

Scientists have known that RNA species called TERRA help to regulate the length and function of telomeres. Discovered in 2007  TERRA belongs to a class of molecules called noncoding RNAs, which are not translated into proteins but function as structural components of chromosomes. TERRA accumulates at chromosome ends, signaling that telomeres should be elongated or repaired.

However, it was unclear how TERRA got to the tip of chromosomes and remained there. "The telomere  makes up only a tiny bit of the total chromosomal DNA, so the question is 'how does this RNA find its home. By visualizing TERRA molecules under a microscope, the researchers found that a short stretch of the RNA is crucial to bring it to telomeres. Further experiments showed that once TERRA reaches the tip of chromosomes, several proteins regulate its association with telomeres. Among these proteins, one called RAD51 plays a particularly important role. RAD51 is a well-known enzyme that is involved in the repair of broken DNA molecules. The protein also seems to help TERRA stick to telomeric DNA to form a so-called "RNA-DNA hybrid molecule". Scientists thought this type of reaction, which leads to the formation of a three-stranded nucleic acid structure, mainly happened during DNA repair. The new study shows that it can also happen at chromosome ends when TERRA binds to telomeres. The researchers also found that short telomeres recruit TERRA much more efficiently than long telomeres. Although the mechanism behind this phenomenon is unclear, the researchers hypothesize that when telomeres get too short, either due to DNA damage or because the cell has divided too many times, they recruit TERRA molecules. This recruitment is mediated by RAD51, which also promotes the elongation and repair of telomeres. "TERRA and RAD51 help to prevent accidental loss or shortening of telomeres. That's an important function."

Given the role of telomeres in health and disease, it will be important to see how the newly discovered mechanism—which was deduced from observations in living cells and reproduced in test tubes—is regulated in the very complex cellular environment.

RAD51-dependent recruitment of TERRA long noncoding RNA to telomeres through R-loops, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2815-6

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-scientists-home-mechanism-cells-prema...

The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals

A new study of the Great Barrier Reef shows populations of its small, medium and large corals have all declined in the past three decades. Scientists  found the number of small, medium and large corals on the Great Barrier Reef has declined by more than 50 percent since the 1990s.

The decline occurred in both shallow and deeper water, and across virtually all species—but especially in branching and table-shaped corals. These were the worst affected by record-breaking temperatures that triggered mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017.

Climate change is driving an increase in the frequency of reef disturbances such as marine heatwaves. 'There is no time to lose—we must sharply decrease greenhouse gas emissions ASAP if we want to protect them from more degradation and total loss', the researchers conclude.

Andreas Dietzel et al, Long-term shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the Great Barrier Reef, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1432

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-great-barrier-reef-lost-corals.html?u...

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Scientists shed new light on viruses' role in coral bleaching

Scientists  have shown that viral infection is involved in coral bleaching—the breakdown of the symbiotic relationship between corals and the algae they rely on for energy.

After analyzing the viral metagenomes they found that bleached corals had a higher abundance of eukaryotic viral sequences, and non-bleached corals had a higher abundance of bacteriophage sequences. This gave the researchers the first quantitative evidence of a shift in viral assemblages between coral bleaching states.
Bacteriophage viruses infect and replicate within bacteria. Eukaryotic viruses infect non-bacterial organisms like animals.
In addition to having a greater presence of eukaryotic viruses in general, bleached corals displayed an abundance of what are called giant viruses. Known scientifically as nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses, or NCLDV, they are complex, double-stranded DNA viruses that can be parasitic to organisms ranging from the single-celled to large animals, including humans.
Giant viruses have been implicated in coral bleaching. Now scientists were able to generate the first draft genome of a giant virus that might be a factor in bleaching.

Adriana Messyasz et al, Coral Bleaching Phenotypes Associated With Differential Abundances of Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses, Frontiers in Marine Science (2020). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2020.555474

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-scientists-viruses-role-coral.html?ut...

New areas at risk of drinking water arsenic exposure in India

An international team involving researchers based in Manchester (UK), Patna (India) and Zurich (Switzerland) has found new areas of arsenic contamination in drinking water in India. Their country-specific, country-wide model for well water arsenic in India has recently been published in the International Journal for Environmental Research and Public Health.

Their model confirms the known high probability of finding hazardous high arsenic well waters in northern India in the river basins of the Ganges and Brahmaputra. What is new and particularly concerning, is that the model also finds an elevated probability of high arsenic well waters in other Indian areas, where previously arsenic hazard was generally not considered to be a major concern—so much so that in many of these areas well water arsenic is not routinely checked.

These areas include parts of south-west and central India and are mostly areas underlain by sediments and sedimentary rocks.

The study suggests follow up to help better define specific areas in which action is required to reduce adverse public health outcomes from drinking high arsenic well waters. The study also highlights the importance of systematic testing of hazards, not just in known high hazard areas, but also through random sampling of all wells used for drinking water.

Joel Podgorski et al. Groundwater Arsenic Distribution in India by Machine Learning Geospatial Modeling, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2020). DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17197119

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-areas-arsenic-exposure-india.html?utm...

Electric and Magnetic Field Treatments Lower Mouse Blood Sugar

**The effects seem to be mediated by a reactive oxygen species in the animals’ livers.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/electric-and-magnetic-fi...

Science Pinpoints Global Metal Deposit Locations

Miners can find new deposits with less effort

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Decoy Cells Trick SARS-CoV-2, Reduce Cytokines In Vitro

Genetically engineered cells that overproduce ACE2, the receptor the novel coronavirus uses to enter cells, neutralize infection in vitro and mop up inflammatory cytokines in mice.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/decoy-cells-trick-sars-c...

When feeling the pinch, nuclei instigate cells to escape crowded spaces

The threat of serious deformation triggers a rapid escape reflex that enables cells to move away and squeeze out from tight spaces or crowded tissues.

In a new study  researchers reveal that squeezing a cell to the point where its nucleus starts to stretch triggers the activation of motor proteins which in turn transform the cell's cytoskeleton so that it can flee a packed environment.

Each cell has a nucleus, and each nucleus has a membrane that separates the chromosomes from the rest of the cell. At a rest state, the nuclear membrane is saggy, akin to a loose shopping bag. Now researchers have found that when the nuclear membrane  is squeezed, the wrinkles on its surface iron themselves out, instigating a cascade of events that transform the cytoskeleton and eventually aid the cell in escaping its crowded environment.

The nucleus measures shape changes for cellular proprioception to control dynamic cell behavior, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aba2644

Study finds how body cells move within a tissue

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-nuclei-instigate-cells-crowded-spaces...

Symptoms all in your head—or in your gut? Maybe a little of both.

Anyone who has ever experienced "butterflies in the stomach" before giving a big presentation won't be surprised to learn there is an actual physical connection between their gut and their brain. Neuroscientists and medical professionals call this the "gut-brain-axis" (GBA). A better understanding of the GBA could lead to treatments and cures for neurological mood disorders like depression and anxiety, as well as for a range of chronic auto-immune inflammatory diseases like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Scientists suspect the chemical neurotransmitter serotonin is the biomarker for a range of GBA disorders. Serotonin spurs the nervous system into action via the vagus nerve, the physical connector between the brain and the colon. Generated deep within the lining of the gut, serotonin ultimately influences everything from mood and emotions to sleep, digestion and the secretion of hormones. Its production is in some way affected by the bacterial "microbiome" present in this environment. Researchers hope that creating tools to analyze serotonin's production and dysfunction in the gut microbiome will help unlock the mysteries of GBA-related disorders.

Three new published papers detail the progress in detecting serotonin, assessing its neurological effects, and sensing minute changes to the gut epithelium.

 Pradeep Ramiah Rajasekaran et al, 3D-Printed electrochemical sensor-integrated transwell systems, Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41378-020-00208-z

Ashley A. Chapin et al. Electrochemical measurement of serotonin by Au-CNT electrodes fabricated on microporous cell culture membranes, Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41378-020-00184-4 A.

A. Chapin, J. Han, T. -W. Ho, J. Herberholz and R. Ghodssi, "A Hybrid Biomonitoring System for Gut-Neuron Communication," in Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 727-733, Oct. 2020, DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3000392.

Pradeep Ramiah Rajasekaran et al. 3D-Printed electrochemical sensor-integrated transwell systems, Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41378-020-00208-z

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-symptoms-heador-gut.html?utm_source=n...

Scientists discovered hidden colours created by a new mechanism

Scientists have stumbled across an unusual way to observe colour that had previously gone unnoticed.

To create the effect, researchers attached a very thin film of one material to another, larger sample. The electric field (an invisible force created by the attraction and repulsion of electrical charges) is very strong where the two materials are connected.

When combined with 'optical interference' (the interaction of different waves of light), a scattering process occurs from the surface of the material, creating bright colors when viewed under different lighting conditions.

Most materials in the world around us appear a certain color because they only absorb part of solar spectrum. For example, leaves on a tree look green to us because they absorb red and blue light.

However, some objects, animals and materials create color a different way, because of the properties they contain. These are known as structural colors.

Structural colors are usually created by diffraction, which happens when rays of light interfere with each other as they reflect off surfaces. Rainbows and colorful oil slicks on top of water are examples of structural color, and the effect is also responsible for the amazing vivid hues of peacock feathers and butterfly wings.

While those phenomena are well established, an unexpected new mechanism for creating similar effects has been uncovered.

The effect is an example of structural color forming because of frequency-selective scattering of light, in which the strength of the electric field and the type of material used is a key factor.

Scientists using  a light microscope to observe gold nanoparticles  unexpectedly noticed that the entire sample was creating a vivid colour visible to the naked eye from all directions.

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To understand it properly, they created thin films which could scatter light and at the same time create diffraction or interference. The system was made using silicon nitride coatings on larger metallic aluminum samples.

Different colors were visible by changing the lighting conditions. Under normal light, the samples looked like a mirror, reflecting back almost all visible light. But turning the overhead lights off and using only one beam of light to illuminate the sample produces vivid, iridescent colors.

Explaining how to easily observe this phenomenon, Eser said: "If you use a flashlight, while in a dark room, to illuminate the sample, the reflected light beam travels away from you to the other side of the room.

"The reflected light never reaches your eyes, only the scattered light can reach your eyes. Whereas when the room light is on, light comes from everywhere on to the sample and therefore you will always see reflected light traveling into your eyes.

"The effect is a previously completely unrecognized curiosity that results in us seeing color. It's fundamentally something different."

 Eser Metin Akinoglu et al. Concealed Structural Colors Uncovered by Light Scattering, Advanced Optical Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adom.202001307

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-dont-hidden-colours-coincidence.html?...

The Lancet: Herd immunity approaches to COVID-19 control are a 'dangerous fallacy', say authors of open letter

A group of 80 researchers warn that a so-called herd immunity approach to managing COVID-19 by allowing immunity to develop in low-risk populations while protecting the most vulnerable is "a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence".

The open letter, referred to by its authors as the John Snow Memorandum, is published today by The Lancet. It is signed by 80 international researchers (as of publication) with expertise spanning public health, epidemiology, medicine, paediatrics, sociology, virology, infectious disease, health systems, psychology, psychiatry, health policy, and mathematical modelling [1]. The letter will also be launched during the 16th World Congress on Public Health programme 2020.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/tl-pss101420.php

A hydrogel that could help repair damaged nerves
Injuries to peripheral nerves –– tissues that transmit bioelectrical signals from the brain to the rest of the body –– often result in chronic pain, neurologic disorders, paralysis or disability. Now, researchers have developed a stretchable conductive hydrogel that could someday be used to repair these types of nerves when there’s damage.

Injuries in which a peripheral nerve has been completely severed, such as a deep cut from an accident, are difficult to treat. A common strategy, called autologous nerve transplantation, involves removing a section of peripheral nerve from elsewhere in the body and sewing it onto the ends of the severed one. However, the surgery does not always restore function, and multiple follow-up surgeries are sometimes needed. Artificial nerve grafts, in combination with supporting cells, have also been used, but it often takes a long time for nerves to fully recover.

Now researchers prepared a tough but stretchable conductive hydrogel containing polyaniline and polyacrylamide. The crosslinked polymer had a 3D microporous network that, once implanted, allowed nerve cells to enter and adhere, helping restore lost tissue. They showed that the material could conduct bioelectrical signals through a damaged sciatic nerve removed from a toad. Then, they implanted the hydrogel into rats with sciatic nerve injuries. Two weeks later, the rats’ nerves recovered their bioelectrical properties, and their walking improved compared with untreated rats. Because the electricity-conducting properties of the material improve with irradiation by near-infrared light, which can penetrate tissues, it could be possible to further enhance nerve conduction and recovery in this way, the researchers say.

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2020/octo...

https://researchnews.cc/news/3043/A-hydrogel-that-could-help-repair...

Reviving cells after a heart attack

Researchers unravel the healing mechanisms of extracellular vesicles and demonstrate their healing power on a heart-on-a-chip

How the brain quenches the thirst in different ways ....

After eating a bag of salty potato chips, you probably feel thirsty. And after a long period of exercise, you also probably feel thirsty. However, these two types of thirst are not the same.

In the first example, you would likely reach for water. This is because after eating chips, the concentration of salts and minerals in your blood becomes elevated, which induces a state called osmotic thirst. On the other hand, after exercising, you are likely to reach for Gatorade or some other fluid that can both rehydrate you and replenish electrolytes, minerals that are important for the body functions. This thirst, called hypovolemic thirst, occurs when the volume of your blood is reduced due to fluid loss from sweating.

Now researchers have discovered unique populations of neurons in the mouse brain that separately drive osmotic thirst and hypovolemic thirst. The research exploited a high-throughput and robust technique for mapping neurons that are activated by a specific behaviour or stimulus.

Two brain regions are known to be important in drinking behaviors in mammals, the subfornical organ (SFO) and the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis (OVLT). The Oka laboratory previously demonstrated that each of these regions contains two general categories of neurons: some that induce drinking behavior and others that inhibit it.

The mice were then genetically modified so that the team could activate the osmolality- and hypovolemia-sensitive neurons with pulses of light, through a technique called optogenetics. The researchers showed that the activation of the osmolality-sensitive neurons drove the mice to drink pure water and to avoid salty water. In contrast, when hypovolemia-sensitive neurons were activated, the mice showed an appetite for mineral-rich liquids.
The results show that thirst is a multimodal sensation caused by distinct stimuli. This is an exciting finding because it illustrates how our brain senses internal states using a very similar strategy as peripheral sensory systems such as taste and olfaction

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/brain-quenches-thirst-different-...

https://researchnews.cc/news/3054/The-brain-quenches-thirst-in-diff...

** Need to be in two places at once? It may be possible

https://researchnews.cc/news/3052/Need-to-be-in-two-places-at-once-...

Glowing blue helps shield this tardigrade from harmful ultraviolet light

Fluorescence may allow water bears to survive in especially sunny regions

When blasted with ultraviolet radiation, a newly discovered species of tardigrade protects itself by glowing blue.

Tardigrades, microscopic animals also known as water bears or moss piglets, are nature’s ultimate survivor. They’re game for temperatures below –270° Celsius and up to 150° C and can withstand the vacuum of space, and some are especially resistant to harmful UV radiation .   One tardigrade ( belonging to the genus Paramacrobiotus)shields itself from that UV radiation with glowing pigments, a new study suggests. It’s the first experimental evidence of fluorescent molecules protecting animals from radiation

H.R. Suma, S. Prakash and S.M. Eswarappa. Naturally occurring fluorescence protects the eutardigrade Paramacrobiotus sp. from ultraviolet radiation. Biology Letters. Published online October 14, 2020. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0391.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tardigrade-water-bear-glow-blue...

**Groundbreaking discovery finally proves rain really can move mountains

A pioneering technique that captures precisely how mountains bend to the will of raindrops has helped to solve a long-standing scientific enigma.

The dramatic effect rainfall has on the evolution of mountainous landscapes is widely debated among geologists, but new research led by the University of Bristol and published today in Science Advances, clearly calculates its impact, furthering our understanding of how peaks and valleys have developed over millions of years. Its findings, which focused on the mightiest of mountain ranges—the Himalaya—also pave the way for forecasting the possible impact of climate change on landscapes and, in turn, human life.

It may seem intuitive that more rain can shape mountains by making rivers cut down into rocks faster. But scientists have also thought rain can erode a landscape quickly enough to essentially 'suck' the rocks out of the Earth, effectively pulling mountains up very quickly. Both these theories have been debated for decades because the measurements required to prove them are so painstakingly complicated. That's what makes this discovery such an exciting breakthrough, as it strongly supports the notion that atmospheric and solid earth processes are intimately connected.

When a cosmic particle from outer space reaches Earth, it is likely to hit sand grains on hillslopes as they are transported toward rivers. When this happens, some atoms within each grain of sand can transform into a rare element. By counting how many atoms of this element are present in a bag of sand, we can calculate how long the sand has been there, and therefore how quickly the landscape has been eroding. Once we have erosion rates from all over the mountain range, we can compare them with variations in river steepness and rainfall. However, such a comparison is hugely problematic because each data point is very difficult to produce and the statistical interpretation of all the data together is complicated.

The new model  allows us for the first time to quantify how rainfall affects erosion rates in rugged terrain. Their findings  show how critical it is to account for rainfall when assessing patterns of tectonic activity using topography, and also provide an essential step forward in addressing how much the slip rate on tectonic faults may be controlled by climate-driven erosion at the surface. The study findings also carry important implications for land use management, infrastructure maintenance, and hazards in the Himalaya.

Climate controls on erosion in tectonically active landscapes, Science Advances (2020). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.aaz3166

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-groundbreaking-discovery-mountains.ht...

Calcium bursts kill drug-resistant tumour cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR)—a process in which tumors become resistant to multiple medicines—is the main cause of failure of cancer chemotherapy. Tumor cells often acquire MDR by boosting their production of proteins that pump drugs out of the cell, rendering the chemotherapies ineffective. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have developed nanoparticles that release bursts of calcium inside tumor cells, inhibiting drug pumps and reversing MDR.

A pump protein called P-glycoprotein (P-gp) often plays a key role in MDR. P-gp is in the cell membrane, where it uses energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to pump drugs out of tumor cells. Scientists have tried to block P-gp in various ways, such as with small-molecule inhibitors or by depleting ATP. However, the strategies used so far can cause side effects, or they are unstable in the body. Some of the treatments can be difficult to prepare. Kaixiang Zhang, Zhenzhong Zhang, Jinjin Shi and colleagues wanted to block P-gp using a different approach. Previous research suggested that overloading tumor cells with calcium ions could both decrease production of P-gp and reduce ATP levels. But the team needed to find a way to deliver bursts of calcium, along with a chemotherapy drug, inside cancer cells.

The researchers made a "calcium ion nanogenerator" (TCaNG) by loading calcium phosphate nanoparticles with the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin and then coating them with molecules that would allow TCaNG to target and enter cancer cells. Once inside cells, TCaNGs entered an acidic compartment, where the TCaNGs disintegrated, releasing both doxorubicin and bursts of calcium ions. When the team tested TCaNG on cancer cells in a petri dish in the lab, both ATP and P-gp production decreased, which allowed doxorubicin to kill the previously resistant tumor cells. When tested in tumor-bearing mice, TCaNG-treated mice showed significantly smaller tumors after 21 days of treatment than control mice, with no apparent side effects.

Junjie Liu et al, Nanoenabled Intracellular Calcium Bursting for Safe and Efficient Reversal of Drug Resistance in Tumor Cells, Nano Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03042

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-calcium-drug-resistant-tumor-cells.ht...

Ultrafast camera films 3-D movies at 100 billion frames per second

In his quest to bring ever-faster cameras to the world researchers  have developed technology that can reach blistering speeds of 70 trillion frames per second, fast enough to see light travel. Just like the camera in your cell phone, though, it can only produce flat images.

Now, they have gone a step further to create a camera that not only records video at incredibly fast speeds but does so in three dimensions.

The new camera, which uses the same underlying technology as other compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) cameras, is capable of taking up to 100 billion frames per second. That is fast enough to take 10 billion pictures, more images than the entire human population of the world, in the time it takes you to blink your eye.

Single-shot stereo-polarimetric compressed ultrafast photography for light-speed observation of high-dimensional optical transients with picosecond resolution, Nature Communications (2020).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19065-5

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-ultrafast-camera-d-movies-billion.htm...

Zeptoseconds: New world record in short time measurement

In 1999,  chemist Ahmed Zewail received the Nobel Prize for measuring the speed at which molecules change their shape. He founded femtochemistry using ultrashort laser flashes: the formation and breakup of chemical bonds occurs in the realm of femtoseconds.

Now, atomic physicists have for the first time studied a process that is shorter than femtoseconds by magnitudes. They measured how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule: about 247 zeptoseconds for the average bond length of the molecule. This is the shortest timespan that has been successfully measured to date.

The scientists carried out the time measurement on a hydrogen molecule (H₂) which they irradiated with X-rays from the X-ray laser source PETRA III at the Hamburg accelerator facility DESY. The researchers set the energy of the X-rays so that one photon was sufficient to eject both electrons out of the hydrogen molecule.

Zeptosecond Birth Time Delay in Molecular Photoionization, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9318

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-zeptoseconds-world-short.html?utm_sou...

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Electrons behave like particles and waves simultaneously, and therefore the ejection of the first electron resulted in electron waves launched first in the one, and then in the second hydrogen molecule atom in quick succession, with the waves merging.

The photon behaved here much like a flat pebble that is skimmed twice across the water: when a wave trough meets a wave crest, the waves of the first and second water contact cancel each other, resulting in what is called an interference pattern.

The scientists measured the interference pattern of the first ejected electron using the COLTRIMS reaction microscope, an apparatus that Dörner helped develop and which makes ultrafast reaction processes in atoms and molecules visible. Simultaneously with the interference pattern, the COLTRIMS reactions microscope also allowed the determination of the orientation of the hydrogen molecule. The researchers here took advantage of the fact that the second electron also left the hydrogen molecule, so that the remaining hydrogen nuclei flew apart and were detected.

Slowing light in an optical cavity with mechanical resonators and mirrors

Theoretical physicists  have shown that a position-dependent mass optomechanical system involving a cavity between two mirrors, one attached to a resonator, can enhance induced transparency and reduce the speed of light.

We are all taught at high school that the speed of light through a vacuum is about 300000km/s, which means that a beam from Earth takes about 2.5 seconds to reach the Moon. It naturally moves more slowly through transparent objects, however, and scientists have found ways to slow it dramatically. Optomechanics, or the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with mechanical systems, is a relatively new and effective way of approaching this. Theoretical physicists have now demonstrated how light is slowed in a position-based mass optomechanical system. This work has been published in EPJ D.

They describe cavity optomechanics, which involves optical modes set up in a cavity between mirrors. The cavity mode, which is driven by a strong field and probed by a weak field, provides a 'playground' for investigating phenomena including slow light and optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT). The latter is a quantum effect in which the optical response of atoms and molecules is controlled by an electromagnetic field. In this work, the physicists studied a cavity system comprising a fixed mirror and a movable one. The moving mirror oscillates along the axis of the cavity with a single harmonic frequency. By considering the total mass of the resonator as dependent on its position, and calculating the effective Hamiltonian of the whole system (which describes its total energy), the physicists showed how the system can enhance OMIT and slow light. As the mass is position-dependent, the system is non-linear and the nature and magnitude of the quantum effects observed depend strongly on the value of a non-linear parameter, alpha.

 Kamran Ullah et al. Enhanced optomechanically induced transparency and slow/fast light in a position-dependent mass optomechanics, The European Physical Journal D (2020). DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2020-10286-1

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-optical-cavity-mechanical-resonators-...

New feature found in energy spectrum of universe's most powerful particles

Particles smaller than an atom hurtle through the universe nearly at the speed of light, blasted into space from something, somewhere, in the cosmos.

A scientific collaboration of the Pierre Auger Observatory, including researchers from the University of Delaware, has measured the most powerful of these particles—ultra-high-energy cosmic rays—with unprecedented precision. In doing so, they have found a "kink" in the energy spectrum that is shining more light on the possible origins of these subatomic space travelers.

The team's findings are based on the analysis of 215,030 cosmic ray events with energies above 2.5 quintillion electron volts (eV), recorded over the past decade by the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. It is the largest observatory in the world for studying cosmic rays.

The new spectral feature, a kink in the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at about 13 quintillion electron volts, represents more than points plotted on a graph. It brings humanity a step closer to solving the mysteries of the most energetic particles in nature. Through this latest analysis, we can further corroborate our earlier indications that ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are not just protons of hydrogen, but also a mix of nuclei from heavier elements, and this composition changes with energy.

A. Aab et al. Features of the Energy Spectrum of Cosmic Rays above 2.5×1018 eV Using the Pierre Auger Observatory, Physical Review Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.121106

A. Aab et al. Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 2.5×1018 eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory, Physical Review D (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.102.062005

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-feature-energy-spectrum-universe-powe...

Research shows Krebs cycle possible without metals or enzyme catalysts, offers new clues to life's origins

This is a new study  that may fundamentally alter humanity's understanding of the origin of life.

The study describes how organic chemical reactions could have started inorganically for the first time billions of years ago, according to a research discovery . One of those elemental metabolic processes is called the Krebs cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle. 

This study represents the first time the Krebs cycle has been replicated synthetically.

They started with some small molecules and figured out how to make the Krebs cycle run, and it runs without enzymes in water at mild pH. These discoveries have potential applications in understanding how life started on Earth, and where else in the universe it may emerge.

What's in living cells?" Stubbs asked. "What are some of those core components that must have existed very early on? The answer is the citric acid cycle. This is one of the processes that turns food into energy. It doesn't matter whether you're human, plant, lizard, whatever … So it's likely this cycle existed near the origins of life, and that's what this paper is all about—how could simpler versions of this cycle, which now requires complex biological machinery to operate, have operated from the beginning without any of that evolved hardware?

This discovery also led to novel ways to chemically synthesize biological diagnostic agents used in an emerging cancer and bacterial infection detection diagnostic method called metabolic flux analysis.

 R. Trent Stubbs et al. A plausible metal-free ancestral analogue of the Krebs cycle composed entirely of α-ketoacids, Nature Chemistry (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-020-00560-7

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-krebs-metals-enzyme-catalysts-clues.h...

Remdesivir and interferon fall flat in WHO’s megastudy of COVID-19 treatments

One of the world’s biggest trials of COVID-19 therapies released its long-awaited interim results yesterday—and they’re a letdown. None of the four treatments in the Solidarity trial, which enrolled more than 11,000 patients in 400 hospitals around the globe, increased survival—not even the much-touted antiviral drug remdesivir. Scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) released the data as a preprint on medRxiv last night, ahead of its planned publication in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The prospects of two of the four treatments—the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the HIV drug combination ritonavir/lopinavir—had faded after another large study, the United Kingdom’s Recovery trial, showed they did not increase survival in June. After analyzing that study and its own data up until then, WHO decided to drop both from the study.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/remdesivir-and-interferon-f...

Extracting drinkable water from the air

Researchers have developed a solar-powered device that can extract drinkable water directly from the air even in dry regions.

Lipid Droplets Are Intracellular Bacteria-Fighting Machines

The antibacterial function of lipid droplets in cells

Far from being inert fat-storage depots within cells, these lipid-loaded organelles recruit immune proteins and block bacterial growth.

Once thought to be little more than blobs of fat inside eukaryotic cells, lipid droplets may in fact provide a first line of defence against invading pathogens, according to evidence published today . This is the first evidence that there’s a direct [immune] mechanism between lipid droplets and intracellular pathogens

Lipid droplets are a type of organelle that exists in all eukaryotic cells. They are jam-packed full of fats, as the name would suggest, and surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer (as opposed to the classic bilayer membrane surrounding most other organelles). Historically lipid droplets have been thought of as sites for storing excess fats and supplying them when and where needed—for instance, to the mitochondria for energy production. More recently, research has shown that certain cell-invading viruses, bacteria, and parasites exploit these fuel-rich droplets for survival and growth.

But, there’s also evidence that the cell laces lipid droplets with antimicrobial proteins, just as a person might lace cheese with poison to rid their house of invading rodents. Lipid droplets in mouse cells, for example, contain the antiviral compound viperin and a protein involved in activating the immune response against foreign antigens, while those in fruit fly cells contain proteins with antibacterial properties.

The new study, from University of Barcelona cell biologist Albert Pol and colleagues, adds to this evidence, showing definitively that lipid droplets in mammalian cells can contain a wealth of immune proteins and have antibacterial activity against a number of bacterial species.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6514/eaay8085

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/lipid-droplets-are-intra...

What fuels the beating heart? Study reveals nutrients used by normal and failing hearts

 A team led by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has produced a detailed picture of fuel and nutrient use by the human heart. The study, published this week in Science, was the first of its kind, involving the simultaneous sampling of blood from different parts of the circulatory system in dozens of human participants, in order to record the levels of related molecules going into and coming out of the beating heart.

The resulting data have revealed key features of fuel use in the normal heart as well as the failing heart, establishing a new framework for studying the heart in health and disease.

Understanding, at this level of detail, how the heart handles fuel and nutrients should inform the development of future treatments for heart failure and related conditions. Now that we have a clear picture of how the heart fuels itself, we can set our sights on devising ways to improve heart metabolism in heart failure.

For the study, Arany and his team simultaneously sampled blood going into the heart and coming out of the heart in 87 subjects—men and women who were already undergoing a procedure to treat a common condition called atrial fibrillation, but who did not have heart failure. The researchers performed a similar sampling in 23 atrial fibrillation patients who did have heart failure. In all patients, the researchers also sampled blood going into and out of the leg, for comparison.

The team then used state-of-the-art tools to quantify the levels of hundreds of different “metabolites”—molecules involved in fuel use and cell growth—in the blood samples. The main aim was to reveal in detail which metabolites the working heart consumes on balance, and which ones it yields as byproducts.

In all, the researchers detected 277 metabolites reliably in the blood of human participants, and found that for 65 of these, levels going out from the heart were significantly different from levels going in.

The team also made some initial comparisons to highlight what may be unique features of normal heart metabolism. For example, the data indicated that the heart, compared to the legs, relies much more heavily on the uptake, apparently as energy sources, of small organic molecules called fatty acids. At the same time, according to the analysis, the heart releases relatively large amounts of a different class of molecules called amino acids—the building blocks and breakdown products of proteins—hinting that a relatively intense breakdown of protein within the heart is one way the working heart muscle fuels its activity.

A big difference between healthy hearts and failing hearts in the study was that the latter consumed more ketones—molecules the body uses as intermediates in its conversion of stored fats to energy—although the researchers suspect that this disparity may have been due merely to the slower passage of blood through the heart, allowing a greater time for ketone uptake. Compared to normal hearts, the failing hearts also released more amino-acids, suggesting more protein breakdown and turnover.

“Whether this increased protein breakdown in heart failure is adaptive or maladaptive will require further studies

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/what-fuels-beating-heart-zoltan-arany

https://researchnews.cc/news/3087/What-fuels-the-beating-heart--Stu...

Fats fighting back against bacteria

India trusts the scientists the most says a survey

A recent report by the International Science Survey 2019-2020, say more than half of the Indians trust scientists and believe what they’re doing is right. when compared to few other countries around the globe, the degree of trust in India is higher than in many Western countries like the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany.

The Top 10 countries are given below:

1. India

59% of the respondents in India have “a lot” of trust in scientists to do what is right. 26% had “some” trust”, while 5% “not too much” trust.

2. Australia

48% responded with lot of trust, 34% responded with some trust. 

3. Spain

Similar to Australia 48% Spaniards believe in the goodwill of scientists, while 32% show only some trust and 17% claimed that they had no faith in scientists.

4. Netherlands

47% people have “a lot” of trust in scientists, while 38% had “some” degree of trust. 

5. Sweden

46% Swedes put their faith in scientists, while 44% exhibit some trust.

6. Canada

45% Canadians believe “a lot” in scientists, while 37% had “some” degree of faith.

7. Germany

43% exhibited “a lot” of trust in scientists, while 39% only trusted them to some degree.

8. Czech Republic

42% Czech believe in scientists and their goodwill.

9. United Kingdom

42% trust scientists and what they do, while 37% only trust them to some extent.

10. United States

The world’s No: 1 economy comes iat No 10 position, where 38% have a “lot of” faith in scientists, while 39% only had “some” faith.

whether the ancient healing methods or the Indian scientis community in research labs around the globe and the potential there is some factor which makes us to believe in the scientists. 

https://english.newstracklive.com/news/india-trusts-the-scientists-...

Octopus-inspired thin tissue transfer

Climate change likely drove early human species to extinction, mode...

Of the six or more different species of early humans, all belonging to the genus Homo, only we Homo sapiens have managed to survive. Now, a study reported in the journal One Earth on October 15 combining climate modeling and the fossil record in search of clues to what led to all those earlier extinctions of our ancient ancestors suggests that climate change—the inability to adapt to either warming or cooling temperatures—likely played a major role in sealing their fate.

'Classified knots': Researchers create optical framed knots to encode information

In a world first, scientists have been able to create optical framed knots in the laboratory that could potentially be applied in modern technologies. Their work opens the door to new methods of distributing secret cryptographic keys—used to encrypt and decrypt data, ensure secure communication and protect private information.

This is fundamentally important, in particular from a topology-focused perspective, since framed knots provide a platform for topological quantum computations. In addition, they used these non-trivial optical structures as information carriers and developed a security protocol for classical communication where information is encoded within these framed knots.

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The group tried to achieve the  result  within an optical beam, which presents a high level of difficulty. After a few tries (and knots that looked more like knotted strings), the group came up with what they were looking for: a knotted ribbon structure that is quintessential to framed knots.

In order to add this ribbon, the group relied on beam-shaping techniques manipulating the vectorial nature of light," explained Hugo Larocque. "By modifying the oscillation direction of the light field along an "unframed" optical knot, we were able to assign a frame to the latter by "gluing" together the lines traced out by these oscillating fields.

According to the researchers, structured light beams are being widely exploited for encoding and distributing information.

Hugo Larocque et al, Optical framed knots as information carriers, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18792-z

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-optical-encode.html?utm_source=nwlett...

Coronavirus survives on skin five times longer than flu: study

The coronavirus remains active on human skin for nine hours, researchers have found, in a discovery they said showed the need for frequent hand washing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings ‘re published this month in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

The pathogen that causes the flu survives on human skin for about 1.8 hours by comparison. The nine-hour survival of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus strain that causes COVID-19) on human skin may increase the risk of contact transmission in comparison with IAV (influenza A virus), thus accelerating the pandemic.

The research team tested skin collected from autopsy specimens, about one day after death.

Both the coronavirus and the flu virus are inactivated within 15 seconds by applying ethanol, which is used in hand sanitisers.

"The longer survival of SARS-CoV-2 on the skin increases contact-transmission risk; however, hand hygiene can reduce this risk," the study said.

Clinical Infectious Diseases

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-coronavirus-survives-skin-lo...

Scientists encapsulate quantum dots in salt

It's widely known that submerging a pared apple in saltwater prevents oxidation and browning, but did you know that saltwater can also protect fragile quantum dot (QD) materials? A research team led by Prof. Chen Hsueh-Shih of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan has recently developed the world's first inkjet technique for using saltwater to encapsulate QD materials, which not only resists water and oxygen corrosion, but can also be uniformly printed as a flexible plastic film on a micro LED array for use in high-resolution bendable screens for mobile phones, glasses, etc.

 Shih-Jung Ho et al. Inkjet-Printed Salt-Encapsulated Quantum Dot Film for UV-Based RGB Color-Converted Micro-Light Emitting Diode Displays, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c05646

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Researchers develop magnetically switchable mechano-chemotherapy to...

Prof. Wu Aiguo's team at the Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a novel therapeutic method termed mechano-chemotherapy, which can efficiently overcome tumor drug resistance. The study was published in Nano Today.

High levels of microplastics released from infant feeding bottles during formula prep

New research shows that high levels of microplastics (MPs) are released from infant-feeding bottles (IFBs) during formula preparation. The research also indicates a strong relationship between heat and MP release, such that warmer liquids (formula or water used to sterilise bottles) result in far greater release of MPs.

In response, the researchers involved have developed a set of recommendations for infant formula preparation when using plastic IFBs that minimise MP release.

Key findings

• PP-IFBs can release up to 16 million MPs and trillions of smaller nanoplastics per litre. Sterilisation and exposure to high temperature water significantly increase microplastic release from 0.6 million to 55 million particles/l when temperature increases from 25 to 95 °C
• Other polypropylene plastic-ware products (kettles, lunchboxes) release similar levels of MPs
• The team undertook a global survey and estimated the exposure of 12-month-old infants to microplastics in 48 regions. Following current guidelines for infant-feeding bottle sterilisation and feeding formula preparation the average daily exposure level for infants is in excess of 1 million MPs. Oceania, North America and Europe have the highest levels of potential exposure, at 2,100,000, 2,280,000, and 2,610,000 particles/day, respectively
• The level of microplastics released from PP-IFBs can be significantly reduced by following modified sterilisation and formula preparation procedures

Recommended sterilisation and formula preparation procedures

• Sterilising infant feeding bottles
• Sterilise the bottle following WHO recommended guidelines and allow to cool
• Prepare sterilised water by boiling in a non-plastic kettle/cooker (e.g. glass or stainless steel)
• Rinse the sterilised bottle using room temperature sterilised water at least 3 times

Preparing infant formula

• Prepare hot water using a non-plastic kettle/cooker
• Prepare infant formula in a non-plastic container using at least 70 C water. Cool to room temperature and transfer prepared formula into a high-quality plastic infant feeding bottle

Standard Precautions

• Do not reheat prepared formula in plastic containers and avoid microwave ovens
• Do not vigorously shake the formula in the bottle at any time
• Do not use sonication to clean plastic infant feeding bottles

Microplastic release from the degradation of polypropylene feeding bottles during infant formula preparation, Nature Food (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-020-00171-y , www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-00171-y

Kieran D. Cox et al. Human Consumption of Microplastics, Environmental Science & Technology (2019). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01517

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-high-microplastics-infant-bottles-for...

Tropical cyclones moving faster in recent decades: study

Tropical cyclones, regionally known as hurricanes or typhoons, have been moving across ocean basins faster since 1982, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.

If hurricanes move faster they would pose danger to coastal communities and emergency managers because they would have less time to prepare for evacuation and other measures.

The recent study suggests the reason for the observed changes is a combination of natural variations and human-induced climate change.

Sung-Hun Kim et al, An increase in global trends of tropical cyclone translation speed since 1982 and its physical causes, Environmental Research Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab9e1f

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-tropical-cyclones-faster-decades.html...

Scientists discover the unique signature of a lion's roar using machine learning

The roar of a lion is one of the most thrilling and captivating sounds of the wild. This characteristic call is typically delivered in a bout consisting of one or two soft moans followed by several loud, full-throated roars and a terminating sequence of grunts.

A team of scientists based in WildCRU at the University of Oxford, well-known for their research involving Cecil the Lion, has teamed up with colleagues in the Department of Computer Science to discover the precise ways in which each lion’s roar is distinct, identifiable and trackable.

Harnessing new machine learning techniques, the group designed a device, known as a biologger, which can be attached to an existing lion GPS collar to record audio and movement data. The biologgers allow the scientists to confidently associate each roar with the correct lion by cross-referencing movement and audio data through the large datasets of roar recordings collected.

With the data collected by the biologgers, the scientists trained a pattern recognition algorithm to “learn” each individual’s roars and then tested the algorithm on sequences that it had not seen before to determine whether the shape of the contour as a whole is an important distinguishing feature.

Results, published in Bioacoustics, reveal that it is possible to classify roars according to individual identity with 91.5% accuracy. These findings suggest that the overall shape of the fundamental frequency (f0) of the full-throated roar contour is consistent within each individuals’ roars and sufficiently different from other individuals to allow for accurate classification of individual identity.

Previous research has shown that lions can recognise the calls of other individuals, allowing them to locate distant companions and also to avoid potentially hostile neighbours. These new findings reveal a possible mechanism for individual vocal recognition amongst African lions. They indicate that individual lions may be able to learn the subtle variations in the fundamental frequency of other lions’ roars and thereby associate particular variations with particular identities.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-10-13-scientists-discover-unique-sig...

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Vocal discrimination of African lions and its potential for collar-free tracking