10 times science made a sucky year suck less

Clapping seals, Great conjunction, COVID-19 vaccines, stink flirting...here's the amazing science of 2020.

https://www.livescience.com/10-times-science-made-sucky-year-suck-l...

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Top science and technology achievements of India in 2020

New SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody enters clinical phase

Cologne University Hospital (UKK), University of Marburg (UMR), the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and Boehringer Ingelheim announced the initiation of Phase 1/2a clinical investigation of BI 767551, a new SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody. By combining UKK, UMR and DZIFs expertise in virology, immunology and clinical investigation with Boehringer Ingelheims expertise in developing and manufacturing therapeutic antibodies, the partners developed BI 767551 as a potential new therapeutic and preventive/prophylactic option for fighting COVID-19. Virus neutralizing antibodies are expected to become an important line of defense against SARS-CoV-2, complementing vaccines and nonpharmaceutical interventions. They are being investigated as a therapy option for individuals with mild or severe infections, but also as prevention or prophylaxis in non-infected people with a high risk of infection or at risk .

Anti-diarrhea drug drives cancer cells to cell death

Scientists two years ago found evidence indicating that the anti-diarrhea drug loperamide could be used to induce cell death in glioblastoma cell lines. They have now deciphered its mechanism of action and, in doing so, are opening new avenues for the development of novel treatment strategies.

In certain types of tumor cells, administration of loperamide leads to a stress response in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the cell organelle responsible for key steps in protein synthesis in the body. The stress in the ER triggers its degradation, followed by self-destruction of the cells. This mechanism, known as autophagy-dependent cell death occurs when cells undergo hyperactivated autophagy. Normally, autophagy regulates normal metabolic processes and breaks down and recycles the valuable parts of damaged or superfluous cell components thus ensuring the cell's survival, for example in the case of nutrient deficiency. In certain tumor cells, however, hyperactivation of autophagy destroys so much cell material that they are no longer capable of surviving.

The loperamide-induced death of glioblastoma cells could help in the development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this severe form of cancer.

Svenja Zielke et al, ATF4 links ER stress with reticulophagy in glioblastoma cells, Autophagy (2020). DOI: 10.1080/15548627.2020.1827780

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-anti-diarrhea-drug-cancer-ce...

Gut cells sound the alarm when parasites invade

To effectively combat an infection, the body first has to sense it's been invaded, then the affected tissue must send out signals to corral resources to fight the intruder. Knowing more about these early stages of pathogen recognition and response may provide scientists with crucial clues when it comes to preventing infections or treating inflammatory diseases resulting from overactive immunity.

When scientists looked for the very first "danger" signals emitted by a host infected with the parasite, they traced them not to an immune cell, as might have been expected, but to epithelial cells lining the intestines, where Cryptosporidium sets up shop during an infection. Known as enterocytes, these cells take up nutrients from the gut, and here they were shown to alert the body to danger via the molecular receptor NLRP6, which is a component of what's known as the inflammasome.

You can think about the inflammasome as an alarm system in a house.

Earlier researchers have focused on immune cells, like macrophages and dendritic cells, as being the first to detect foreign invaders, but this new finding underscores that cells not normally thought of as part of the immune system—in this case intestinal epithelial cells—are playing key roles in how how an immune response gets launched.

There is a growing body of literature that is really appreciating what epithelial cells are doing to help the immune system sense pathogens. They seem to be a first line of defense against infection.

Adam Sateriale el al., "The intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium is controlled by an enterocyte intrinsic inflammasome that depends on NLRP6," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2007807118

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-gut-cells-alarm-parasites-in...

German care home workers accidentally given five times covid vaccine dose

Eight care home workers in Germany were accidentally injected with five doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, local authorities said Monday—but are suffering no serious ill effects so far.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-german-home-workers-vaccine-...

https://www.thelocal.de/20201228/german-care-home-workers-accidenta...

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The triumph of science

Number of americans willing to get COVID-19 vaccine continues to rise

When queried in polls conducted earlier this year, only about half of American adults said they planned to get any vaccine against the new coronavirus. But after a largely successful rollout this month of two safe and effective shots, many of those initial doubters now say they'll line up to get their vaccine doses when their turn comes.

Vaccine  polls earlier showed vaccine  acceptance rates rising from about 50% this summer to more than 60% and, in one poll, 73%. Resistance is fading slowly among most groups.

That last number approaches the threshold scientists have deemed necessary for herd immunity, where enough of a population is immune and the spread of the coronavirus begins to recede.

This change is due to the fantastic stats associated with the vaccines, according to skeptics. Media campaigns, including on-camera moments with politicians and scientists—such as Vice President Mike Pence, President-Elect Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci—all rolling up their sleeves for the shots may have also helped boost acceptance.

People say ... "the news that it was 95% effective sold me". The side effects sound like what you get after a bad night of drinking and you hurt the next day. Well, we've had many of those and can deal with that to get rid of the face masks and covid infection nightmare.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-americans-covid-vaccine-1.ht...

Anti-counterfeiting tech by NUS researchers does reliable AI authentication under extreme conditions

Albert Einstein's brain was removed within seven and a half hours of his death. His brain has attracted attention because of his supposed reputation as one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century.
Einstein's autopsy was conducted in the lab of Thomas Stoltz Harvey. The story is interesting. Einstein did not want his brain or body to be studied. Harvey took the brain anyway, without permission from Einstein or his family, dissected and studied it.
Although several things were attributed to his brain structure, experts say these studies are flawed. Because all human brains are unique and different from others in some ways. Therefore, assuming unique features in Einstein's brain were connected with his genius goes beyond the evidence. Moreover, correlating unusual brain features with any characteristic requires studying many brains with those features, and scanning the brains of many very capable scientists would be better research than investigating the brains of just one or two geniuses.

So we don't give much importance to any of the things mentioned about Einstein's brain. Flawed research doesn't need our attention.

The strange afterlife of Einstein's brain

Did you know that in 1110, the Moon Vanished from our view. Here are the answers to the Q why:

We know this event happened because researchers have drilled and analysed ice cores - samples taken from deep within ice sheets or glaciers, which have trapped sulphur aerosols produced by volcanic eruptions reaching the stratosphere and settling back on the surface.

Ice can thus preserve evidence of volcanism over incredibly long timescales, but pinpointing the precise date of an event that shows up in the layers of an ice core is still tricky business.

In this case, scientists had assumed the sulphurous deposit was left by a major eruption unleashed in 1104 by Iceland's Hekla, a volcano sometimes called the 'Gateway to Hell'. Since the thin strip of ice ranks among the largest sulfate deposition signals of the last millennium, it sounds plausible.

All the evidence, taken together, suggests a 'forgotten' cluster of volcanic eruptions in 1108 to 1110 unleashed terrible consequences on humanity. We're only rediscovering them now.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63339-3

https://www.sciencealert.com/in-1110-the-moon-vanished-from-the-sky...

**Using wood to build satellites

Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry has announced a joint development project with Kyoto University to test the idea of using wood as a component in satellite construction. As part of the announcement, officials with Sumitomo Forestry told reporters that work on the project will begin with experiments designed to test different types of wood in extreme environments.

Some of the major components in most satellites include aluminum, Kevlar and aluminum alloys, which are able to withstand both temperature extremes and constant bombardment by radiation—all in a vacuum. Unfortunately, these characteristics also allow satellites to remain in orbit long after their usefulness has ended, resulting in constant additions to the space junk orbiting the planet.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-japanese-pairing-wood-satellite...

Quadriplegic patient uses brain signals to feed himself with two advanced prosthetic arms

**Switching DNA functions on and off with light

DNA is the basis of life on earth. The function of DNA is to store all the genetic information an organism needs to develop, function and reproduce. It is essentially a biological instruction manual found in every cell. Biochemists at the University of Münster have now developed a strategy for controlling the biological functions of DNA with the aid of light. This enables researchers to better understand and control the processes that take place in the cell—for example, epigenetics, the key chemical change and regulatory lever in DNA.

The cell's functions depend on enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that carry out chemical reactions in the cell. They help to synthesize metabolic products, make copies of the DNA molecules, convert energy for the cell's activities, change DNA epigenetically and break down certain molecules. A team of researchers headed by Prof. Andrea Rentmeister from the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Münster used a so-called enzymatic cascade reaction to understand and track these functions better. This sequence of successive reaction steps involving different enzymes makes it possible to transfer so-called photocaging groups—chemical groups that can be removed by means of irradiation with light—to DNA. Previously, studies had shown that only small residues (small modifications such as methyl groups) could be transferred selectively to DNA, RNA (ribonucleic acid) or proteins.

 Freideriki Michailidou et al, Maßgeschneiderte SAM‐Synthetasen zur enzymatischen Herstellung von AdoMet‐Analoga mit Photoschutzgruppen und zur reversiblen DNA‐Modifizierung in Kaskadenreaktionen, Angewandte Chemie (2020). DOI: 10.1002/ange.202012623

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-dna-functions.html?utm_source=nwlette...

Crops grown in Bangalore high on toxic heavy metals

Scientists in Bangalore, India have found toxic levels of four heavy metals, chromium, nickel, cadmium and lead, in crops and vegetables grown on soil irrigated with water from six lakes in the city, reports a study published December in Current Science.

According to the study, the 17 lakes in and around Bangalore, a bustling city of more than 12 million people, have become part of the city's drainage system, into which flow untreated sewage and industrial effluents from garment factories, electroplating industries, distilleries and other small-scale but polluting units. However, many farmers are now using water from these lakes to irrigate and water vegetable crops.

Researchers analysed the soil and vegetable crops such as spinach, coriander greens, amaranth and kohlrabi, irrigated with water from six of these lakes—Margondanahalli, Yele Mallappa Shetty, Hoskote, Varthur, Byramangala and Jigani.

Soils irrigated by these lakes accumulate heavy metals to varying degrees depending on their concentration in the water and the frequency of irrigation, said the authors of the study. "The heavy metals are absorbed by the crops along with other essential plant nutrients."

Heavy metal contamination in soils and crops irrigated with lakes of Bengaluru, Current Science.
DOI: 10.18520/cs/v119/i11/1845-1849

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-crops-grown-bangalore-high-toxic.html...

Provided by SciDev.Net

Scientists turn toxic pesticide into treatment against antibiotic-r...

N-Aryl-C-nitroazoles are an important class of heterocyclic compounds. They are used as pesticides and fungicides. However, these substances could be toxic to humans and cause mutations. As they are not frequently used, there is little data about them in the medicinal chemistry literature. However, it has been suggested recently that the groups of compounds that are traditionally avoided can help to fight pathogenic bacteria.

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The puzzle of nonhost resistance: why do pathogens harm some plants...

People have puzzled for years why pathogen Phytophthora infestens causes the devastating late blight disease, source of the Irish Potato famine, on potatoes, but has no effect at all on plants like apple or cucumber. How are apple trees and cucumber plants able to completely shake off this devastating pathogen? Agricultural scientists have wondered for years: if this resistance is so complete and persists over so many generations, is there some way we could transfer it to susceptible plants like wheat and thereby stop disease?

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Condition causes loss of vertigo perception and imbalance in TBI patients

A condition that causes loss of vertigo perception and imbalance has been diagnosed in traumatic brain injury patients for the first time.

In a clinical study led by researchers at Imperial College London and clinicians at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, out of 37 patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI), fifteen were diagnosed with a newly characterized neurological diagnosis called vestibular agnosia—a condition in the brain which results in loss of vertigo perception and imbalance.

The team also found that these patients have worse balance problems than TBI patients without vestibular agnosia and are unlikely to experience dizziness—one of the main criteria to assess balance problems in TBI patients. As a result doctors are seven times more likely to miss cases of balance dysfunction in TBI patients with vestibular agnosia than in those without.

Elena Calzolari et al. Vestibular agnosia in traumatic brain injury and its link to imbalance, Brain (2020). DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa386

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-condition-loss-vertigo-perce...

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Fermilab and partners achieve sustained, high-fidelity quantum teleportation

 A viable quantum internet—a network in which information stored in qubits is shared over long distances through entanglement—would transform the fields of data storage, precision sensing and computing, ushering in a new era of communication.

This month, scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory—a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory affiliated with the University of Chicago—along with partners at five institutions took a significant step in the direction of realizing a quantum internet.

In a paper published in PRX Quantum, the team presents for the first time a demonstration of a sustained, long-distance teleportation of qubits made of photons (particles of light) with fidelity greater than 90%.

The qubits were teleported over a fiber-optic network 27 miles (44 kilometers) long using state-of-the-art single-photon detectors, as well as off-the-shelf equipment.

Quantum teleportation is a “disembodied” transfer of quantum states from one location to another. The quantum teleportation of a qubit is achieved using quantum entanglement, in which two or more particles are inextricably linked to each other. If an entangled pair of particles is shared between two separate locations, no matter the distance between them, the encoded information is teleported.

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/chicago-quantum-exchange-ibm-q-netw...

https://researchnews.cc/news/4353/Fermilab-and-partners-achieve-sus...

How T-cells Tip COVID-19 From Mild To Severe

According to scientists from Japan, the difference between mild and severe cases of COVID-19 may lie in the extreme activation of T-cells as they react to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

Using bioinformatics, researchers from Japan have uncovered T-cell abnormalities that may influence the development of mild or severe COVID-19. Their findings were published in Frontiers in Immunology. Why some patients remain only mildly ill—or even asymptomatic—while others quickly deteriorate is perhaps the pandemic’s most enduring mystery. While current evidence suggests that the severity of infection is associated with an overactive immune system, T-cells may also play a role. After all, the number of T-cells has been found to be significantly reduced in the blood of COVID-19 patients. Various types of T-cells exist within our bodies. As suggested by their name, helper T-cells eliminate disease-causing microorganisms by activating cytotoxic T-cells and B-cells. In turn, cytotoxic T-cells attack infected cells, while B-cells produce antibodies. Meanwhile, regulatory T-cells act as cellular brakes that modulate the overall T-cell response. Diving deeper into the role of T-cells in SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers from Japan’s Kumamoto University analyzed the genetic data of T-cells derived from the lung tissue of COVID-19 patients. Using bioinformatics, the team identified a major difference between mild and severe COVID-19 cases, namely the degree of T-cell activation. In mild cases, activated helper T-cells express transcription factors that result in their transformation into regulatory T-cells. Acting as cellular brakes, the regulatory T-cells slow down helper T-cell activation and suppress the other T-cells if needed. In contrast, the researchers found that the transcription factors were not expressed in severe COVID-19 cases. Without the regulatory T-cells, the overall T-cell response effectively went haywire—resulting in an overactive immune response.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.589380/full

The article can be found at: Kalfaoglu et al. (2020) T-Cell Hyperactivation and Paralysis in Severe COVID-19 Infection Revealed by Single-Cell Analysis.

https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/12/in-the-lab/t-cell-abnormalit...

Organic meats found to have approximately the same greenhouse impact as regular meats

Researchers have found that the meat production process for organic meats produces approximately the same amounts of greenhouse gases as does the conventional meat production process.

As the planet continues to warm, researchers continue working to better understand the sources of greenhouse emissions. In this new effort, the researchers looked at greenhouse emissions related to food production.

In looking at food production, the researchers placed food products into three main categories: conventional meat production, organic meat production and plant-based food production. They also took into account the emissions produced during different stages of the production process—emissions produced while growing and processing feed and fertilizer, for example, and methane released by animals and from their manure.

The data revealed little difference in greenhouse gas emissions from conventional meat production and that grown organically. They found that emission reductions by organically grown animals (in which fertilizer is not used to produce feed) were often offset by increases in methane released due to slower growth rates and the need to raise more animals, as organically fed animals tend to produce less meat. More specifically, they found very little difference in emissions between conventionally produced beef and beef grown organically. They also found that organically grown chickens produced slightly more emissions than those grown conventionally, and that organic pork produced fewer emissions than conventional pork.

The researchers suggest the need for meat axes that reflect the environmental cost of their production. 

Maximilian Pieper et al. Calculation of external climate costs for food highlights inadequate pricing of animal products, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19474-6

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-meats-approximately-greenhouse-impact...

Torpor: a neat survival trick once thought rare in animals is actually widespread

Life is hard for small animals in the wild, but they have many solutions to the challenges of their environment. One of the most fascinating of these strategies is torpor. Not, to be confused with sleep or Sunday afternoon lethargy, torpor is a complex response to the costs of living.

To enter torpor, an animal decreases its metabolism, reducing its energy requirements. A torpid animal will often be curled in a tight ball in its nest and look like it's sleeping.

Once thought to occur only in birds and mammals in the Northern Hemisphere where winters are more pronounced, we now know torpor is widespread in small Australian mammals, and has also been observed in many small Australian bird species.

Birds and mammals are endotherms and can maintain a high and constant body temperature independent of the environmental temperature, thanks to their high metabolic rate. This allows them to be active across a wide range of environments.

The downside? This high metabolic rate requires a lot of food to fuel it. By reducing the metabolism in a very controlled manner and entering torpor, an animal can live on less energy.

With a lower metabolic rate, the animal's body temperature decreases—sometimes by as much as 30°C. How low it goes can depend on the extent of the metabolic reduction and the temperature of animal's immediate environment. The reduced body temperature further lowers the metabolic rate.

Torpor is an extremely effective survival strategy for small endotherms. Many pregnant and lactating bats and marsupials, and even the echidna, synchronise torpor with reproduction to cope with the energetic costs of mating, pregnancy or lactation.

There are two main types of torpor: daily torpor and hibernation.

Animals that use daily torpor can do so for approximately 3-6 hours a day as needed.

Daily torpor is common in, but not exclusive to, endotherms living in arid areas, such as the fat-tailed dunnart. This species is a carnivorous marsupial and has a diet of insects and other invertebrates, which may be in short supply in winter.

Weighing approximately 12 grams as adults, the fat-tailed dunnart may need to eat its body weight in food each day. When finding enough food is difficult, it uses torpor; foraging in the early part of the night then entering torpor in the early morning. Fat-tailed dunnarts reduce their metabolic rate, and subsequently their body temperature, from 35 °C to approximately 15°C, or the temperature of their underground nest.

Animals that hibernate lower their metabolic rate further and have longer torpor bouts than those that use daily torpor. An example of an Australian hibernator is the eastern pygmy possum, a 40g marsupial found in south eastern Australia that hibernates regularly, decreasing its body temperature from approximately 35 °C to as low as 5°C.

When active, this species can survive for less than half a day on 1g of fat, but when hibernating, it can survive for two weeks.

https://theconversation.com/torpor-a-neat-survival-trick-once-thoug...

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AI-controlled vertical farms promise revolution in food production

With the world population hurtling towards 8 billion, we face a food problem. Human population increases geometrically, while food production increases only arithmetically. That means the more civilization grows and thrives, the more likely it will be unable to keep up with demands for food.

While advances in food technology have helped to cope with the situation to some extent, there remains great concern for the future of food production as the Earth's population soars on a planet with shrinking farming real estate. National Geographic recently predicted that by 2050, there will be more than two billion additional mouths to feed while the Earth's irrigable land remains essentially the same.

An agricultural-technical startup thinks it might just have an answer. 

To do so,they have constructed climate-controlled vertical farms that are very promising.

These upright farms take up only 2 acres yet produce 720 acres worth of fruit and vegetables. Lighting, temperature and watering are controlled by AI-controlled robots. Sunlight is emulated by LED panels, so food is grown in optimal conditions 24/7. And water is recycled and evaporated water recaptured so there is virtually no waste.

The operation is so efficient it uses 99 percent less land and 95 percent less water than normal farming operations.

It is so efficient that these rows of hanging plants produce 400 times more food per acre than a traditional farm.

AI monitors growth patterns and constantly adjusts environmental factors such as temperature, water and light patterns to ensure ever-more efficient and economical output.

https://www.plenty.ag/about-us/

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-ai-controlled-vertical-farms-re...

The Biggest Science News of 2020

Neanderthal DNA surprises in modern humans, the first blood test for Alzheimer’s, a discovery of new human salivary glands, and, oh yeah, a pandemic

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/the-biggest-science-news...

Published data from Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial show 94.1 percent efficacy

A peer-reviewed paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine provides data from the much-anticipated COVE study, which evaluated mRNA-1273, a vaccine candidate against COVID-19 manufactured by Moderna, Inc. Results from the primary analysis of the study, which will continue for two years, provide evidence that the vaccine can prevent symptomatic infection. Among the more than 30,000 participants randomized to receive the vaccine or a placebo, 11 of those in the vaccine group developed symptomatic COVID-19 compared to 185 participants who received the placebo, demonstrating 94.1 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. Cases of severe COVID-19 occurred only in participants who received the placebo.

The study enrolled 30,420 adult participants at 99 U.S. sites, including over 600 participants enrolled at the Brigham. Eligible participants were 18 years old or older with no known history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and whose locations or circumstances put them at appreciable risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or high risk of severe COVID-19. The race and ethnicity proportions of the trial were generally representative of U.S. demographics (79 percent white; 10 percent Black or African American; 20 percent Hispanic or Latino participants).

Participants received their first injection between July 27 and Oct. 23, 2020, followed by a second injection 28 days later. Each injection, given intramuscularly, had a volume of 0.5 mL, containing 100 μg of mRNA-1273 or saline placebo.

In the placebo group, 185 participants developed symptomatic COVID-19 illness; in the vaccine group, 11 participants did. In secondary analyses, the vaccine's efficacy was similar across groups of key interest, including those who already had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at the time of enrollment (indicating previous infection with COVID-19) and among those who were 65 years of age or older. Thirty participants had severe COVID-19—all in the placebo group.

Starting from randomization, cases of COVID-19 and severe COVID-19 were continuously monitored throughout the trial by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, empaneled by the NIAID. Participants were closely monitored for adverse events in the weeks following their injection. Investigators have collected and will continue to collect data on any serious adverse events or adverse events that require medical attention through two years post-injection.

Overall, reactions to the vaccine were mild—about half of recipients experienced fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain and headaches, more so after the second dose. In most cases, these effects started about 15 hours after the vaccine and resolved after two days without sequelae. A similar number of adverse events were reported in the placebo and vaccine groups.

Lindsey R. Baden et al, Efficacy and Safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine, New England Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2035389

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-published-moderna-covid-vacc...

Pfizer vaccine results published in peer-reviewed journal

Pfizer vaccine results published in peer-reviewed journal

The full results of a clinical trial for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were published in the New England Journal of Medicine  re cently

The full trial included almost 44,000 volunteers, several thousand more than the number seen in prior analyses. Around half received the vaccine and the rest a placebo.

The paper confirmed that a two-dose regimen of BNT162b2 was 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection.

The vaccine worked similarly across "age, sex, race, ethnicity, baseline body-mass index, and the presence of coexisting conditions," the paper said.

Among 10 cases of severe COVID-19 after the first dose, nine occurred in placebo recipients and one in a person who received the vaccine.

The editorial that accompanied the study did flag certain "minor issues."

"The number of severe cases of COVID-19 (one in the vaccine group and nine in the placebo group) is too small to draw any conclusions about whether the rare cases that occur in vaccinated persons are actually more severe," it said.

Other questions include whether unexpected safety issues may arise when the number of people vaccinated grows to millions and possibly billions of people.

Also unknown is whether more side effects will emerge with longer follow-up, how long the vaccine remains effective, whether it will limit transmission, and how it will work in children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised patients.

 Fernando P. Polack et al. Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine, New England Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-pfizer-vaccine-results-publi...

Brain damage of patients with Covid-19

In an in-depth study of how COVID-19 affects a patient's brain, National Institutes of Health researchers consistently spotted hallmarks of damage caused by thinning and leaky brain blood vessels in tissue samples from patients who died shortly after contracting the disease. In addition, they saw no signs of SARS-CoV-2 in the tissue samples, suggesting the damage was not caused by a direct viral attack on the brain. The results were published as a correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers found that the brains of patients who contract infection from SARS-CoV-2 may be susceptible to microvascular blood vessel damage. The results suggest that this may be caused by the body's inflammatory response to the virus.

Although COVID-19 is primarily a respiratory disease, patients often experience neurological problems including headaches, delirium, cognitive dysfunction, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of the sense of smell. The disease may also cause patients to suffer strokes and other neuropathologies. Several studies have shown that the disease can cause inflammation and blood vessel damage. In one of these studies, the researchers found evidence of small amounts of SARS-CoV-2 in some patients' brains. Nevertheless, scientists are still trying to understand how the disease affects the brain.

In this study, the researchers conducted an in-depth examination of brain tissue samples from 19 patients who had died after experiencing COVID-19 between March and July 2020. The patients died at a wide range of ages, from 5 to 73 years old. They died within a few hours to two months after reporting symptoms. Many patients had one or more risk factors, including diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Eight of the patients were found dead at home or in public settings. Another three patients collapsed and died suddenly.

Researchers  saw multifocal areas of damage that is usually associated with strokes and neuroinflammatory diseases. 

Finally, the researchers saw no signs of infection in the brain tissue samples even though they used several methods for detecting genetic material or proteins from SARS-CoV-2.

The results suggest that the damage we saw may not have been not caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly infecting the brain.

Myoung-Hwa Lee et al, Microvascular Injury in the Brains of Patients with Covid-19, New England Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2033369

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-results-deceased-covid-patie...

Multiple mosquito blood meals accelerate malaria transmission

Multiple bouts of blood feeding by mosquitoes shorten the incubation period for malaria parasites and increase malaria transmission potential, according to a study published recently.  Given that mosquitoes feed on blood multiple times in natural settings, the results suggest that malaria elimination may be substantially more challenging than suggested by previous experiments, which typically involve a single blood meal.

The results show that an additional blood feed three days after infection with P. falciparum accelerates the growth of the malaria parasite, thereby shortening the incubation period required before transmission to humans can occur. Incorporating these data into a mathematical model across sub-Saharan Africa reveals that malaria transmission potential is likely higher than previously thought, making disease elimination more difficult. In addition, parasite growth is accelerated in genetically modified mosquitoes with reduced reproductive capacity, suggesting that control strategies using this approach, with the aim of suppressing Anopheles populations, may inadvertently favor malaria transmission. The data also suggest that parasites can be transmitted by younger mosquitoes, which are less susceptible to insecticide killing, with negative implications for the success of insecticide-based strategies. Taken together, the results suggest that younger mosquitoes and those with reduced reproductive ability may provide a larger contribution to infection than previously thought.

Shaw WR, Holmdahl IE, Itoe MA, Werling K, Marquette M, Paton DG, et al. (2020) Multiple blood feeding in mosquitoes shortens the Plasmodium falciparum incubation period and increases malaria transmission potential. PLoS Pathog 16(12): e1009131. DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009131

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-multiple-mosquito-blood-meal...

Desalination breakthrough could lead to cheaper water filtration

Producing clean water at a lower cost could be on the horizon after researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Penn State solved a complex problem that had baffled scientists for decades, until now. Desalination membranes remove salt and other chemicals from water, a process critical to the health of society, cleaning billions of gallons of water for agriculture, energy production and drinking. The idea seems simple  push salty water through and clean water comes out the other side  but it contains complex intricacies that scientists are still trying to understand. The research team, in partnership with DuPont Water Solutions, solved an important aspect of this mystery, opening the door to reduce costs of clean water production. The researchers determined desalination membranes are inconsistent in density and mass distribution, which can hold back their performance. Uniform density at the nanoscale is the key  to increasing how much clean water these membranes can create.

The paper documents an increase in efficiency in the membranes tested by 30%-40%, meaning they can clean more water while using significantly less energy. That could lead to increased access to clean water and lower water bills for individual homes and large users alike.

Reverse osmosis membranes work by applying pressure to the salty feed solution on one side. The minerals stay there while the water passes through. Although more efficient than non-membrane desalination processes, it still takes a large amount of energy, the researchers said, and improving the efficiency of the membranes could reduce that burden.

https://news.utexas.edu/2020/12/31/desalination-breakthrough-could-...

https://researchnews.cc/news/4396/Desalination-breakthrough-could-l...

How Scientists, unlike people who do their own research on the net, Know The Approved COVID-19 Vaccines Are Safe

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-scientists-know-the-approved-covid...

Discovery: How potato beetles beat pesticides

Potato beetles can beat pesticides cleverly. Even small doses of the neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid, can alter how the beetle manages its DNA. To fend off the pesticides, the new research suggests, the beetle may not need to change its underlying genetic code. Instead, the team found that beetles respond by altering the regulation of their DNA, turning certain genes on or off in a process called “DNA methylation." These so-called epigenetic changes allow beetles to quickly ramp up biological defense mechanisms—perhaps putting into overdrive already-existing genes that allow the beetle to tolerate a broad range of toxins found in potato plants.

A flush of enzymes or faster rate of excretion may let the insect stymie each new pesticide with the same ancient biochemical tools that it uses to overcome natural plant defenses—rather than relying on the ponderous evolutionary process of random mutations appearing in key genes, that would slowly cause a pesticide to become less effective.

Most important, the new study shows that these changes—triggered by even small doses of the pesticide—can be passed on to descendants across at least two generations. 

https://researchnews.cc/news/4423/Discovery--How-colorado-potato-be...

The Insane Biology of: The Octopus

Opening a new door into kinder, gentler therapies for chronic inflammation

A naturally occurring antibody capable of stimulating the body's immune-suppressing regulatory T cells has been discovered by a team of Harvard scientists, a finding that may eventually open a new door into kinder, gentler therapies for chronic inflammatory disorders.

Inflammation underlies a wide range of disparate conditions that include Crohn's disease; atopic dermatitis and numerous autoimmune skin disorders, including psoriasis; rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, to name a few.

Biologic treatments that have been developed over the past quarter-century have proved to be game-changers, but the drugs are imperfect and leave some patients vulnerable to opportunistic infections, and in rare instances, cancers of the blood. Clearly, there is room for improvement, immunologists worldwide contend.

The newly identified antibody is noteworthy because of its activity on regulatory T cells. The tiny antibody actually expands the overall number of highly potent regulatory T cells, a cell population that bears the responsibility of switching off inflammation. The antibody was discovered by a team of scientists from the Immunobiology Laboratory of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. They describe the antibody's role as not only unique, but possessing properties that allow it leverage over key components of the immune system.

 Heather Torrey et al. A novel TNFR2 agonist antibody expands highly potent regulatory T cells, Science Signaling (2020). DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aba9600

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-door-kinder-gentler-therapie...

Stopping SARS-CoV-2 in its tracks by blocking its main protease

Inasmuch as therapeutic options against coronavirus have been focused mainly on blocking the interaction between its spike protein and the ACE2 receptor on host cells, SARS-CoV-2 has several additional critical proteins that could potentially be targeted with drugs that have already been approved for use against other viruses. One of these viral proteins is the main protease (Mpro) that is needed to separate newly minted polypeptides into their functional component parts.

Scientists from the Department of Biophysics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have recently put several promising inhibitors of Mpro through the paces to see what sticks. Their findings, appearing in the American Chemical Society's journal ACS Omega, suggest that an HIV drug known as cobicistat is looking pretty good.

Akshita Gupta et al. Structure-Based Virtual Screening and Biochemical Validation to Discover a Potential Inhibitor of the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease, ACS Omega (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04808

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-sars-cov-tracks-blocking-main-proteas...

Brain cancer linked to tissue healing

The healing process that follows a brain injury could spur tumor growth when new cells generated to replace those lost to the injury are derailed by mutations, Toronto scientists have found. A brain injury can be anything from trauma to infection or stroke.

The data suggest that the right mutational change in particular cells in the brain could be modified by injury to give rise to a tumour.

The findings could lead to new therapy for glioblastoma patients who currently have limited treatment options with an average lifespan of 15 months after diagnosis.

The researchers applied the latest single-cell RNA sequencing and machine learning technologies to map the molecular make-up of the glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs), which Dirks' team previously showed are responsible for tumor initiation and recurrence after treatment.

They found new subpopulations of GSCs which bear the molecular hallmarks of inflammation and which are comingled with other cancer stem cells inside patients' tumors. It suggests that some glioblastomas start to form when the normal tissue healing process, which generates new cells to replace those lost to injury, gets derailed by mutations, possibly even many years before patients become symptomatic.

 Gradient of Developmental and Injury Response transcriptional states defines functional vulnerabilities underpinning glioblastoma heterogeneity, Nature Cancer (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43018-020-00154-9 , www.nature.com/articles/s43018-020-00154-9

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-brain-cancer-linked-tissue.h...

Study explains why patients with cancer spread to the liver have worse outcomes

Medical Researchers often noticed that when  patients had cancer that spread to the liver, they fared poorly—more so than when cancer spread to other parts of the body. Not only that, but transformative immunotherapy treatments had little impact for these patients.

Uncovering the reason and a possible solution, a new study, published in Nature Medicine, finds that tumors in the liver siphon off critical immune cells, rendering immunotherapy ineffective. But coupling immunotherapy with radiotherapy to the liver in mice restored the immune cell function and led to better outcomes.

Liver metastasis restrains immunotherapy efficacy via macrophage-mediated T cell elimination, Nature Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-1131-x , www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1131-x

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-patients-cancer-liver-worse-...

Scientists discover how mother-of-pearl self-assembles into a perfect structure

In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers from the B CUBE—Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble describe, for the first time, that structural defects in self-assembling nacre attract and cancel each other out, eventually leading to a perfect periodic structure.

Mollusks build shells to protect their soft tissues from predators. Nacre, also known as the mother of pearl, has an intricate, highly regular structure that makes it an incredibly strong material. Depending on the species, nacres can reach tens of centimeters in length. No matter the size, each nacre is built from materials deposited by a multitude of single cells at multiple different locations at the same time. How exactly this highly periodic and uniform structure emerges from the initial disorder was unknown until now.

Nacre formation starts uncoordinated with the cells depositing the material simultaneously at different locations. Not surprisingly, the early nacre structure is not very regular. At this point, it is full of defects.

Dynamics of topological defects and structural synchronization in a forming periodic tissue, Nature Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01069-z , www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-01069-z

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-mother-of-pearl-self-assem...

Soon you might have to pay for your emails ….

No I am not kidding.

The world's most popular email program Gmail, is owned by Google, which has decided to follow in Apple's footsteps by getting more people hooked on monthly subscriptions (1).

As of June 1, Google will no longer allow users to upload their photos and videos to Google Photos for free. Google offers 15 GBs of free storage for photos, but that also includes Gmail and Google Drive backup. The ask is that you pay for storage, which starts at $1.99 monthly—but for just 100 GB of storage.

Microsoft and Yahoo still offer free email, but they're littered with ads, and you're encouraged to step up to the "premium" versions, which starts at $5 and $3.49 a month, respectively, to go ad-free. Yahoo is eliminating the ability to automatically forward emails from Yahoo Mail, beginning next week, unless you spend $34.99 yearly for the service.

Google's rates sound competitive for online storage, but it's not just photos and videos here. All those Gmail emails with attachments that you forgot to delete also count, as does anything else you do on Google. Google charges $9.99 monthly for 2 TBs, or $50 monthly for 10 TBs (2).

Footnotes:

1.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-email-podcasts-tech.html?utm_so...

2.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-google-photos-free-unlimited-st...

Transparent creatures

Wood-inspired cement with high strength and multifunctionality

Scientists in advanced materials, engineering and science in China developed bio-inspired new cement materials based on unidirectionally porous architectures to replicate the designs of natural wood. The resulting wood-like cement material showed higher strength at equal densities, alongside multifunctional properties for effective thermal insulation, water permeability and easy adjustment for water repulsion. The team simultaneously achieved high strength and multifunctionality to make the wood-like cement a promising new building material for wood-mimetic designs with high performance. They presented a simple fabrication procedure to promote better efficiency during mass production with applications suited across other material systems.

Porous cement-based materials possess low thermal conductivity for heat insulation, high sound-absorbing efficiency, outstanding permeability for air and water, while maintaining light weight and fire resistance. However, it still remains a key challenge to achieve the simultaneous enhancement of both mechanical and multifunctional properties including mechanical support, effective transport and good thermal insulation. It is therefore highly desirable to generate materials with enhanced mechanical and multifunctional properties to actively implement the design principles of natural wood. During the experiments, Wang et al. developed wood-like cement with unidirectionally porous architectures formed via a bidirectional freezing treatment method. The process allowed bridges to form between the constituents of the structure, the team then thawed the fully frozen bodies until the ice gradually melted and the cement hardened. The subsequent hydration process produced new minerals and gels within the cement, including hexagon-shaped calcium hydroxide, needle‐like ettringite and calcium-silicate-hydrate gels. The phases mainly originated at the cement lamellae and grew into their spacing during the thawing and curing process for better structural integrity with enhanced lamellae interconnections during porous cement formation. Using X-ray tomography (XRT), the team then revealed the formation of unidirectional micropores in the ice-templated cement.

Wang F. et al. Wood‐Inspired Cement with High Strength and Multifunctionality, Advanced Science, doi: doi.org/10.1002/advs.202000096

Monteiro P. et al. Towards sustainable concrete, Nature Materials, doi.org/10.1038/nmat4930

Roy D. M. New Strong Cement Materials: Chemically Bonded Ceramics, Science, 10.1126/science.235.4789.651

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-wood-inspired-cement-high-strength-mu...

**Researchers uncover unequal effects of human activity on mammals

Silvia Pineda-Munoz et al. Mammal species occupy different climates following the expansion of human impacts, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922859118

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-uncover-unequal-effects-human-mammals...

--

Uncovering how grasslands changed our climate

Grasslands are managed worldwide to support livestock production, while remaining natural or semi-natural ones provide critical services that contribute to the wellbeing of both people and the planet. Human activities are, however, causing grasslands to become a source of greenhouse gas emissions rather than a carbon sink. A new study published in Nature Communications reports how grasslands used by humans have changed our climate in recent centuries.

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Heat treatment may make chemotherapy more effective

Heating up cancer cells while targeting them with chemotherapy is a highly effective way of killing them, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.

SETI: new signal excites alien hunters – here’s how we could find out if it’s real

https://theconversation.com/seti-new-signal-excites-alien-hunters-h...

Removing Two Pollutants With One Bacteria A new strain of bacteria that can remove both nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage could reduce the electricity consumption of treatment plants by over 60 percent. 

A newly identified strain of bacteria that can simultaneously remove both nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage could make wastewater treatment simpler, cheaper and greener. 

Called SND5, the bacteria also circumvents the problem of nitrous oxide gas release by converting ammonia into harmless nitrogen gas instead. The unique strain was discovered in a wastewater treatment plant in Singapore. When the NUS research team was carrying out routine monitoring, they observed an unexpected removal of nitrogen in the aerobic tanks, as well as better-than-expected phosphate removal despite the absence of known phosphorus-removing bacteria. The researchers then took wastewater samples from a tank, isolated various strains of bacteria and tested each of them for their ability to remove nitrogen and phosphorus. One of the strains, which appeared as sticky, creamy, light yellow blobs on the agar medium, surprised the researchers by its ability to remove both nitrogen and phosphorous from water. In fact, it did the job faster than the other microbes that were tested. The team sequenced its genes and compared them to related bacteria in a global database, establishing it to be a new strain. Compared to conventional nitrogen removal processes of nitrification and denitrification, the lower oxygen demand of the newly identified microbe could help reduce electricity consumption at wastewater treatment plants by about 62 percent.

 Wang & He (2020) Complete Nitrogen Removal via Simultaneous Nitrification and Denitrification by a Novel Phosphate Accumulating Thauera sp. Strain SND5.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004313542030...

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0043135420308368

https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/12/in-the-lab/thauera-snd5-nitr...

Study explores the effects of immune responses on the aging brain

As human beings age, the functioning of organs gradually deteriorates. While countless past studies have investigated the effects of aging on the human body, brain and on cognition, the neural mechanisms and environmental factors that can accelerate or slow down these effects are not yet fully understood.

The immune system and the nervous system are both known to play a key role in the control of organs in the body. Moreover, past findings suggest that both of these systems change significantly during aging.

Neuroscientific studies have found that as the nervous system ages, the way in which the human body controls immune responses also changes. Nonetheless, how the nervous system's aging process affects immune responses and the consequent impact on the brain's functioning are still poorly understood.

Researchers have recently carried out a study investigating the possible effects of immune responses on the aging brain. Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, shows that the deterioration of neuroblasts (i.e., the embryonic cells  from which nerve fibers originate) in the aging brain can increase the toxicity of natural killer cells (NK), which leads to impairments in neurogenesis and cognition. NK cells are a class of blood cells that are part of the human immune system.

"Systemic inflammation escalates during the aging process, but the potential impact of immune and inflammatory responses on brain aging remains unknown.

Researchers now found that immune cells such as NK cells impair neurogenesis and cognitive function during normal brain aging. Immune modulation targeting immune cells (which accumulate in the aged brain) may thus be useful to improve cognition in the aged population.

The recent study carried out by this team of researchers suggests that the accumulation of NK cells in the aging brain can impair the process through which neurons are formed in the brain, known as neurogenesis. In the future, this important finding could inform the development of more effective treatment strategies for improving cognition in older adults.

Neuroblast senescence in the aged brain augments natural killer cell cytotoxicity leading to impaired neurogenesis and cognition. Nature Neuroscience(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-00745-w

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-explores-effects-immune-resp...

Proteins engineered to form honeycomb structures can block uptake of receptors from the surface of cells

A new class of protein material that interacts with living cells without being absorbed by them can influence cell signaling, a new study shows. The material does this by binding and sequestering cell surface receptors.

The discovery could have far-reaching implications for stem cell research and enable the development of new materials designed to modulate the behavior of living systems.

Cells interact with their environment via receptors at their surface. These receptors can bind to hormones, neurotransmitters, drugs, and toxins. When such molecules bind to a receptor, this triggers a response inside the cell, a process known as signaling.

But for the cell, it is important that this response be transient, to still be responsive to the signal later on. To achieve this, cells will commonly terminate signaling by absorbing both an activated receptor and the molecule that stimulated it, thereby targeting both for destruction inside the cell.

"This tendency of cells to internalize receptors likely lowers the efficiency of immunotherapies. Indeed, when antibody drugs bind their target receptors and then become internalized and degraded, more antibody must always be injected.

To create a way around this, researchers now designed new proteins that assemble into large, flat patches. This molecular scaffolding was then further engineered to contain signaling molecules. They showed that such protein materials could latch onto cells, activate surface receptors, and resist being absorbed by the cell for hours or even days.

This work paves the way towards a synthetic cell biology, where a new generation of multi-protein materials can be designed to control the complex behavior of cells.

Design of biologically active binary protein 2D materials, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03120-8 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03120-8

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-proteins-honeycomb-block-uptake-recep...

How an embryo tells time

It is estimated that the majority of pregnancies that fail do so within the first seven days after fertilization, before the embryo implants into the uterus. In this time period, a complicated cascade of events occurs with precise timing. One particularly important process is called polarization, when the individual cells that make up the embryo become asymmetrical. Polarization occurs at 2.5 days for mouse embryos and 3.5 days for human embryos.

Just as musicians playing together in an orchestra need to play at the right time—not early, not late—the timing of polarization is critical for proper embryonic function. Studies have shown that if polarization occurs too early or too late, the embryo is less likely to develop properly. Embryos obviously cannot look at a clock to know when it is time to polarize, so how do they "know" when it is time?

A new study has uncovered the signals that mouse embryos follow to initiate polarization. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying embryonic development is critical for understanding how life begins.

The first is the zygotic genome activation, or ZGA, which represents the initial "awakening" of the embryonic DNA after it has combined from sperm and egg, with certain genes for development flipped on like a dormant computer booting up. A flood of molecular activity follows ZGA, and during that period, the team found, three specific factors—protein-based structures called Tfap2c, Tead4, and RhoA—work together to initiate polarization.

This research is the first to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions that drive cell polarization. Once the team had identified the three factors that initiate polarization, they turned their focus to the polarization process itself.

 Meng Zhu et al. Developmental clock and mechanism of de novo polarization of the mouse embryo, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abd2703

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-embryo.html?utm_source=nwletter&u...

How Earth's oddest mammal got to be so bizarre

Often considered the world's oddest mammal, Australia's beaver-like, duck-billed platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies, sweats milk, has venomous spurs and is even equipped with 10 sex chromosomes. Now, an international team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen has conducted a unique mapping of the platypus genome and found answers regarding the origins of a few of its stranger features.

--

It lays eggs, but nurses, it is toothless, has a venomous spur, has webbed feet, fur that glows and has 10 sex chromosomes.

The complete genome has provided us with the answers to how a few of the platypus' bizarre features emerged. At the same time, decoding the genome for platypus is important for improving our understanding of how other mammals evolved—including us humans. It holds the key as to why we and other eutheria mammals evolved to become animals that give birth to live young instead of egg-laying animals.

Yang Zhou et al. Platypus and echidna genomes reveal mammalian biology and evolution, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03039-0

Paula Spaeth Anich et al. Biofluorescence in the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), Mammalia (2020). DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2020-0027

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-earth-oddest-mammal-bizarre.html?utm_...

**

Quicksand Science: Why It Traps, How to Escape

The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained

Identical twins are not so identical

Scientists have quantified the small genetic differences between monozygotic twins. Researchers analysed the DNA of 381 identical twin pairs (and 2 triplets) and found thousands of mutations that appeared in one twin and not the other. Twins differed on average by 5.2 early developmental mutations, which occurred after the initial formation of the zygote. Some siblings differed by dozens of mutations, and some did not differ at all. “The implication is that we have to be very careful when we are using twins as a model” .

--

Skin cells protect their DNA from bumps and bruises with a jello-like response

Cells’ responses to microscopic pushes and pulls prevent cancers from forming

https://massivesci.com/articles/skin-cells-mechanics-forces/?utm_so...

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Deadly parasites create unique cellular structures to survive

Scientists have solved a key parasitic puzzle, revealing the unique and complex structures toxoplasmosis and malaria parasites make in order to survive in different hosts.

The new work details how certain parasites can create unique cellular structures to control how they create energy and thus survive in different hosts.

Malaria and toxoplasmosis, both potentially deadly diseases, are caused by similar parasites which organize themselves to exploit their host's energy resources in order to infect and transmit to new hosts. However, until now, scientists didn't fully understand the detailed mechanisms behind this process.

In this new research, researchers have solved a parasitic puzzle at the heart of how these deadly pathogens are able to survive in different hosts in order for them to transmit onwards.

In order to survive these parasites rely on resources available in their host—for toxoplasmosis it is animals and humans, while for malaria this includes also insects. This means that in order to survive, to infect the host and to transmit between hosts, these parasites have to be flexible in how they create energy based on what is available to them.

Scientists studied a vital energy-producing machine within the parasite called ATP synthase. In addition to making energy, ATP synthase machines can also come together into large structures that together shape the mitochondrial membrane, controlling the rate of energy production, and key to its survival. Researchers found that, in these parasites, the ATP synthase machines were able to make complex and unique pentagonal pyramid structures, unlike anything produced by the same systems in their human host.

Alexander Mühleip et al. ATP synthase hexamer assemblies shape cristae of Toxoplasma mitochondria, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20381-z

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-deadly-parasites-unique-cellular-surv...

Bacteria can tell the time

Humans have them, so do other animals and plants. Now research reveals that bacteria too have internal clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.

--

The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.

Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.

Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight and temperature to synchronise biological clocks to their environment. It is why we experience the jarring effects of jet lag as our internal clocks are temporarily mismatched before aligning to the new cycle of light and dark at our travel destination.

A growing body of research in the past two decades has demonstrated the importance of these molecular metronomes to essential processes, for example sleep and cognitive functioning in humans, and water regulation and photosynthesis in plants.

Although bacteria represent 12% biomass of the planet and are important for health, ecology, and industrial biotechnology, little is known of their 24hr biological clocks.

Previous studies have shown that photosynthetic bacteria which require light to make energy have biological clocks.

But free-living non photosynthetic bacteria have remained a mystery in this regard.

In this international study researchers detected free running circadian rhythms in the non-photosynthetic soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

 A circadian clock in a non-photosynthetic prokaryote, Science Advances (2021). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abe2086

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-bacteria.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

Entangling electrons with heat

A joint group of scientists from various countries has demonstrated that temperature difference can be used to entangle pairs of electrons in superconducting structures.

 The team has shown that the thermoelectric effect provides a new method for producing entangled electrons in a new device.

In quantum computing, entanglement is used to fuse individual quantum systems into one, which exponentially increases their total computational capacity. "Entanglement can also be used in quantum cryptography, enabling the secure exchange of information over long distances.

Given the significance of entanglement to quantum technology, the ability to create entanglement easily and controllably is an important goal for researchers.

The researchers designed a device where a superconductor was layered withed graphene and metal electrodes. Superconductivity is caused by entangled pairs of electrons called "cooper pairs." Using a temperature difference, they cause them to split, with each electron then moving to different normal metal electrode. "The resulting electrons remain entangled despite being separated for quite long distances.

Thermoelectric current in a graphene Cooper pair splitter, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20476-

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-entangling-electrons.html?utm_source=...

Scientists discover virus-like particles in Bryozoa

Scientists from Russia, Austria, and the USA have discovered virus-like particles in the bacterial symbionts of Bryozoa—a phylum of colonial aquatic invertebrates—filter-feeders dominating in many bottom ecosystems.

Some of the virus-like particles resemble red blood cells, while others have a sea-urchin-like appearance. Although viruses have never been reported inside symbiotic bacteria in bryozoans, scientists suggest that this 'matryoshka doll' may have a prominent effect on the bacterial hosts.

A. E. Vishnyakov et al, First evidence of virus-like particles in the bacterial symbionts of Bryozoa, Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78616-4

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-virus-like-particles-bryoz...