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...

https://researchnews.cc/news/3114/Scientists-discover-the-unique-si...

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

Researchers at Yale University and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard screened hundreds of millions of cells exposed to the COVID-19 and MERS viruses and identified dozens of genes that both enable the viruses to replicate in cells and also those that seem to slam the door on the virus.

The pro-viral and anti-viral role of these genes will help guide scientists in development of new therapies to combat COVID-19, the researchers say.

The findings were reported Oct. 26 in the journal Cell.

Scientists have previously identified how the SARS-CoV-2 coronovirus, which causes COVID-19, attaches to and invades cells, but less is known about why some cells are more susceptible to infection. Understanding the genetics behind the host cells’ susceptibility to infection may help explain why some people exposed to the virus experience few or no symptoms and others become extremely ill or die.

https://news.yale.edu/2020/10/26/new-covid-19-related-genes-helpful...

Get the latest information from the MoHFW about COVID-19.

Neuropilin-1 drives SARS-CoV-2 infectivity

Scientists develop genetic 'monitors' that detect when genes are active
Genetic sensors that can detect the activity from genes, rather than just the genes themselves, have been developed by a team of scientists.

Based on the CRISPR gene editing system, the scientists have developed microscopic machines that use these sensors to detect when genes are ‘on’ or ‘off’ inside a cell, and react to those changes dynamically - making them a potentially ideal monitoring system.

These genetic sensors are detailed in a new paper published in The CRISPR Journal, where the scientists demonstrate a genetic device based on the CRISPR system inside a bacterial cell. The work is the first step in scientists developing genetic devices that can make changes to gene expression after sensing the existing gene activity within a cell.

Cells contain a number of genes that are expressed to perform numerous functions, from sensing their environment and processing food. By having a sensor that can detect when those genes are active, scientists could program a machine to react to a specific process, such as when the cell digests its food.

To generate these novel genetic devices, the scientists used as a scaffold the programmable part of CRISPR which is also responsible for sequence recognition and binding, called guide RNA sequence (gRNA). They were able to redesign the gRNA sequence by introducing in it a sensor so that the CRISPR complex would be able to bind the DNA target only after being activated by a trigger signal, such as short segments of viral RNA sequences. The sensor can be triggered by any chosen RNA sequence and in this way it activates a CRISPR system at any point of the life cycle of a cell or virus.

https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/scientists_develo...

The experimental demonstration of entanglement between mechanical and spin systems

Quantum entanglement is the basic phenomenon underlying the functioning of a variety of quantum systems, including quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum computing tools. This phenomenon results from an interaction (i.e., entanglement) between particles. Attaining entanglement between distant and very different objects has  proved highly challenging till now.

Researchers  have recently generated entanglement between a mechanical oscillator and a collective atomic spin oscillator. Their work introduces a strategy for generating entanglement between these two distinct systems.

To generate entanglement between a mechanical and a spin system, Polzik and his colleagues leveraged a key feature of spin oscillators, namely that they can have an effective negative mass. When it is excited, a spin oscillator's energy is reduced, which allows it to become entangled with a more conventional mechanical oscillator that has a positive mass. The researchers experimentally generated this entanglement by performing a joint measurement on both oscillators.

Entanglement between distant macroscopic mechanical and spin systems. Nature Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-1031-5.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-experimental-entanglement-mechanical....

Vampire bats social distance when they get sick

 Wild vampire bats that are sick spend less time near others from their community, which slows how quickly a disease will spread.

As a pathogen spreads across a population, changes in social behaviour can alter how the disease spreads. Transmission rates can increase when parasites change host behaviour or decrease when healthy individuals avoid sick ones. In certain social insects, sick ones might self-isolate voluntarily or be excluded by their colony mates. A simpler mechanism causing reduced transmission is that infected animals often show sickness behaviour, which includes increased lethargy and sleep, and reduced movement and sociality. This sickness-induced social distancing does not require cooperation from others and is probably common across species.

 "Tracking sickness effects on social encounters via continuous proximity-sensing in wild vampire bats" Behavioral Ecology (2020). DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa111

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-vampire-social-distance-sick.html?utm...

Why do certain chemotherapies increase the likelihood of blood cancer?

One rare complication of cancer treatment is the development of a secondary blood cancer—therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. These blood cancers are very aggressive and do not respond well to treatment. Historically, doctors thought that cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation caused an accumulation of mutations in the blood that led to these therapy-related cancers.

In recent years, however, researchers have found that these mutations in the blood can also occur spontaneously with increasing age. This phenomenon is called clonal hematopoiesis (CH), and it's found in 10 to 20% of all people over age 70. The presence of CH increases the risk of developing a blood cancer. Using data from MSK-IMPACTTM, Memorial Sloan Kettering's clinical genomic sequencing test, researchers have shown that CH is also frequent in cancer patients.

Focusing on a subset of patients on whom they had more detailed data, the investigators observed increased rates of CH in people who had already received treatment. They made specific connections between cancer therapies such as radiation therapy and particular chemotherapies—for example certain platinum drugs or agents called topoisomerase II inhibitors—and the presence of CH.

Unlike the CH changes found in the general population, the team found that CH mutations after cancer treatment occur most frequently in the genes whose protein products protect the genome from damage. One of these genes is TP53, which is frequently referred to as "the guardian of the genome."

This finding provides a direct link between mutation type, specific therapies, and how these cells progress towards becoming a blood cancer.

 Kelly L. Bolton et al. Cancer therapy shapes the fitness landscape of clonal hematopoiesis, Nature Genetics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-020-00710-0

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-chemotherapies-likelihood-bl...

Asymptomatic virus sufferers lose antibodies sooner: study

Asymptomatic coronavirus sufferers appear to lose detectable antibodies sooner than people who have exhibited COVID-19 symptoms, according to one of the biggest studies of its kind

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-asymptomatic-virus-antibodie...

Random effects key to containing epidemics

To control an epidemic, authorities will often impose varying degrees of lockdown. In a paper in the journal Chaos, scientists have discovered, using mathematics and computer simulations, why dividing a large population into multiple subpopulations that do not intermix can help contain outbreaks without imposing contact restrictions within those local communities.

The key idea is that, at low infection numbers, fluctuations can alter the course of the epidemics significantly, even if you expect an exponential increase in infection numbers on average. 

When infection numbers are high, random effects can be ignored. But subdividing a population can create communities so small that the random effects matter.

When a large population is divided into smaller communities, these random effects completely change the dynamics of the full population. Randomness causes peak infection numbers to be brought way down.

"Stochastic effects on the dynamics of an epidemic due to population subdivision," Chaos (2020). DOI: 10.1063/5.0028972

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-random-effects-key-epidemics.html?utm...

60-year-old limit to lasers overturned by quantum researchers

A team of Australian quantum theorists has shown how to break a bound that had been believed, for 60 years, to fundamentally limit the coherence of lasers.

The coherence of a laser beam can be thought of as the number of photons (particles of light) emitted consecutively into the beam with the same phase (all waving together). It determines how well it can perform a wide variety of precision tasks, such as controlling all the components of a quantum computer.

Now, in a paper published in Nature Physics, the researchers from Griffith University and Macquarie University have shown that new quantum technologies open the possibility of making this coherence vastly larger than was thought possible.

It 's shown now that  the true limit imposed by quantum mechanics is that the coherence cannot be greater than the fourth power of the number of photons stored in the laser.

 Travis J. Baker et al. The Heisenberg limit for laser coherence, Nature Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01049-3

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-year-old-limit-lasers-overturned-quan...

**'Fireball' meteorite contains pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds

O n the night of January 16, 2018, a fireball meteor streaked across the sky over the Midwest and Ontario before landing on a frozen lake in Michigan. Scientists used weather radar to find where the pieces landed and meteorite hunters were able to collect the meteorite quickly, before its chemical makeup got changed by exposure to liquid water. And, as a new paper in Meteoritics & Planetary Science shows, that gave scientists a glimpse of what space rocks are like when they're still in outer space—including a look at pristine organic compounds that could tell us about the origins of life.

This meteorite is special because it fell onto a frozen lake and was recovered quickly. It was very pristine. Researchers could see the minerals weren't much altered and later found that it contained a rich inventory of extraterrestrial organic compounds. These kinds of organic compounds were likely delivered to the early Earth by meteorites and might have contributed to the ingredients of life.

Scientists aren't sure how the organic (carbon-containing) compounds responsible for life on Earth got here; one theory is that they hitched their way here on meteorites. That doesn't mean that the meteorites themselves contain extraterrestrial life; rather, some of the organic compounds that help make up life might have first formed in an asteroid that later fell to Earth.

As soon as the thing lands, it gets covered with microbes and life from Earth. We have meteorites with lichens growing on them. So the fact that this meteorite was collected so quickly after it fell, and that it landed on ice rather than in the dirt, helped keep it cleaner.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-fireball-meteorite-pristine-extraterr...

Researchers break magnetic memory speed record

Spintronic devices are attractive alternatives to conventional computer chips, providing digital information storage that is highly energy efficient and also relatively easy to manufacture on a large scale. However, these devices, which rely on magnetic memory, are still hindered by their relatively slow speeds, compared to conventional electronic chips.

Now an international team of researchers has reported a new technique for magnetization switching—the process used to "write" information into magnetic memory—that is nearly 100 times faster than state-of-the-art spintronic devices. The advance could lead to the development of ultrafast magnetic memory for computer chips that would retain data even when there is no power.

In the study, the researchers report using extremely short, 6-picosecond electrical pulses to switch the magnetization of a thin film in a magnetic device with great energy efficiency. A picosecond is one-trillionth of a second.

 Kaushalya Jhuria et al. Spin–orbit torque switching of a ferromagnet with picosecond electrical pulses, Nature Electronics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-020-00488-3

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-magnetic-memory.html?utm_source...

Researchers link poor memory to attention lapses and media multitasking

Scientists are now able to predict whether an individual will remember or forget something based on their neural activity and pupil size.

As we navigate our lives, we have these periods in which we're frustrated because we're not able to bring knowledge to mind, expressing what we know. Fortunately, science now has tools that allow us to explain why an individual, from moment to moment, might fail to remember something stored in their memory.

To monitor attention lapses in relation to memory, 80 study subjects between the ages of 18 to 26 had their pupils measured and their brain activity monitored via an electroencephalogram (EEG) - specifically, the brain waves referred to as posterior alpha power—while performing tasks like recalling or identifying changes to previously studied items.

Increases in alpha power in the back of your skull have been related to attention lapses, mind wandering, distractibility and so forth. Constrictions in pupil diameter—in particular before you do different tasks—are related to failures of performance like slower reaction times and more mind wandering.

This work demonstrates a correlation, not causation. You can't say that heavier media multitasking causes difficulties with sustained attention and memory failures, though we are increasingly learning more about the directions of the interactions. 

one direction that the field as a whole has been heading in is a focus on what happens before learning or, as in this case, before remembering even occurs. That's because memory heavily depends on goal-directed cognition—we essentially need to be ready to remember, have attention engaged and a memory goal in mind—in order to retrieve our memories.

"While it's logical that attention is important for learning and for remembering, an important point here is that the things that happen even before you begin remembering are going to affect whether or not you can actually reactivate a memory that is relevant to your current goal.

conscious awareness of attentiveness, readiness to remember and limiting potential distractions allow individuals to influence their mindsets and alter their surroundings to improve their memory performance."Hacking" memory. While these relatively straightforward strategies can be applied now, the researchers note that there may eventually be targeted attention-training exercises or interventions that people can employ to help them stay engaged. These are referred to as "closed-loop interventions" and are an active area of research.

 advances in measuring attentional states and their impacts on the use of goals to guide remembering also hold promise for a better understanding of disease or health conditions that affect memory.

More information: Memory failure predicted by attention lapsing and media multitasking, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2870-z , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2870-z

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-link-poor-memory-attention-l...

Researchers examine the decline in average body temperature among healthy adults over the past two decades

Why human body temperatures are decreasing among healthy adults over the past two decades

In the nearly two centuries since German physician Carl Wunderlich established 98.6°F (37 C) as the standard "normal" body temperature, it has been used by parents and doctors alike as the measure by which fevers—and often the severity of illness—have been assessed.

In more recent years, lower body temperatures have been widely reported in healthy adults. A 2017 study among 35,000 adults in the United Kingdom found average body temperature to be lower (97.9°F / 36.6 C), and a 2019 study showed that the normal body temperature in Americansis about 97.5°F (36.4 C). Several similar reports from around the world have been noticed in recent times.

In less than two decades we're seeing about the same level of decline as that observed in the U.S. over approximately two centuries. Researchers’ analysis is based on a large sample of 18,000 observations of almost 5,500 adults, and adjust for multiple other factors that might affect body temperature, such as ambient temperature and body mass.

Declines might be due to the rise of modern health care and lower rates of lingering mild infections now as compared to the past. It could be that people are in better condition, so their bodies might be working less to fight infection. Or greater access to antibiotics and other treatments means the duration of infection is shorter now than in the past. Consistent with that argument, Researchers found that having a respiratory infection in the early period of the study led to having a higher body temperature than having the same respiratory infection more recently.

It's also possible that greater use of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen may reduce inflammation, though the researchers found that the temporal decline in body temperature remained even after their analyses accounted for biomarkers of inflammation.

Another possibility is that our bodies don't have to work as hard to regulate internal temperature because of air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter.

While Tsimane body temperatures do change with time of year and weather patterns, the Tsimane still do not use any advanced technology for helping to regulate their body temperature. They do, however, have more access to clothes and blankets.

The researchers were initially surprised to find no single "magic bullet" that could explain the decline in body temperature. "It's likely a combination of factors—all pointing to improved conditions.

 M. Gurven el al., "Rapidly declining body temperature in a tropical human population," Science Advances (2020). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abc6599

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-decline-average-body-temperature-heal...

Judges' decisions in sport focus more on vigour than skill

Judges' decisions are an integral part of combat sports, from boxing and wrestling to mixed martial arts (MMA). However, a new study suggests the rate at which competitors fight is more likely to result in judges awarding victory than the skill with which they attack their opponents.

They analysed almost 550 men's and women's mixed martial arts contests, taking place between February 2019 and March 2020, using data collated for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

That data included the percentage of significant strikes landed that land firmly on the target (a measure of skill), the number of strikes attempted per second (a measure of vigour), the outcome of the fight and whether it was determined by knockout or judges' decision.

The results showed that in all fights, winners fought more vigorously than losers but this performance trait was more important for fights resolved via judges' decisions compared with those ending as a result of a knockout or technical knockout.

Fighting skilfully (landing more significant strikes) also increased their chance of winning—with skilful fighting even enhancing the effect of vigour on success—but despite this, the rate of attack was consistently the dominant factor determining success in fights evaluated by judges.

Perceived and actual fighting ability: Determinants of success via decision, knockout or submission in human combat sports, Biology Letters (2020). royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2020.0443

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-decisions-sport-focus-vigour-skill.ht...

Researchers develop artificial cell on a chip

Researchers have developed a precisely controllable system for mimicking biochemical reaction cascades in cells. Using microfluidic technology, they produce miniature polymeric reaction containers equipped with the desired properties. This 'cell on a chip' is useful not only for studying processes in cells, but also for the development of new synthetic pathways for chemical applications or for biological active substances in medicine.

In order to survive, grow and divide, cells rely on a multitude of different enzymes that catalyze many successive reactions. Given the complexity of processes in living cells, it is impossible to determine when specific enzymes are present at what concentrations and what their optimum proportions are relative to one another. Instead, researchers use smaller, synthetic systems as models in order to study these processes. These synthetic systems simulate the subdivision of living cells into separate compartments.

developed a new strategy for producing these synthetic systems. Writing in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers describe how they create various synthetic miniature reaction containers, known as vesicles, which—taken as a whole—serve as models of a cell.

"Unlike in the past, this is not based on the self-assembly of vesicles. "Rather, we've developed efficient microfluidic technology in order to produce enzyme-loaded vesicles in a controlled manner." The new method allows the researchers to tweak the size and composition of the different vesicles so that various biochemical reactions can take place inside them without influencing one another—like in the different compartments of a cell.

In order to manufacture the desired vesicles, the scientist feed the various components into tiny channels on a silicon-glass chip. On this chip, all of the microchannels come together at a junction. If the conditions are configured correctly, this arrangement produces an aqueous emulsion of uniformly sized polymer droplets that are formed at the point of intersection.

 Elena C. Santos et al. Combinatorial Strategy for Studying Biochemical Pathways in Double Emulsion Templated Cell‐Sized Compartments, Advanced Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202004804

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-artificial-cell-chip.html?utm_source=...

Physicists circumvent centuries-old theory to cancel magnetic fields

A team of scientists including two physicists has found a way to circumvent a 178-year old theory which means they can effectively cancel magnetic fields at a distance. They are the first to be able to do so in a way which has practical benefits.

The work is hoped to have a wide variety of applications. For example, patients with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's might in future receive a more accurate diagnosis. With the ability to cancel out 'noisy' external magnetic fields, doctors using magnetic field scanners will be able to see more accurately what is happening in the brain.

"Earnshaw's Theorem" from 1842 limits the ability to shape magnetic fields. The team were able to calculate an innovative way to circumvent this theory in order to effectively cancel other magnetic fields which can confuse readings in experiments.

Rosa Mach-Batlle et al, Tailoring Magnetic Fields in Inaccessible Regions, Physical Review Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.177204

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-physicists-circumvent-centuries-old-t...