Rare quadruple-helix DNA found in living human cells with glowing probes
New probes allow scientists to see four-stranded DNA interacting with molecules inside living human cells, unraveling its role in cellular processes.
DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape of two strands wound around each other. While DNA can form some more exotic shapes in test tubes, few are seen in real living cells.
However, four-stranded DNA, known as G-quadruplex, has recently been seen forming naturally inhuman cells. Now, in new research published today inNature Communications, a team led by Imperial College London scientists have created new probes that can see how G-quadruplexes are interacting with othermoleculesinside living cells.
G-quadruplexes are found in higher concentrations in cancer cells, so are thought to play a role in the disease. The probes reveal how G-quadruplexes are 'unwound' by certain proteins, and can also help identify molecules that bind to G-quadruplexes, leading to potential new drug targets that can disrupt their activity.
A different DNA shape will have an enormous impact on all processes involving it—such as reading, copying, or expressing genetic information.
"Evidence has been mounting that G-quadruplexes play an important role in a wide variety of processes vital for life, and in a range of diseases, but the missing link has been imaging this structure directly in living cells.
They used a chemical probe called DAOTA-M2, which fluoresces (lights up) in the presence of G-quadruplexes, but instead of monitoring the brightness of fluorescence, they monitored how long this fluorescence lasts. This signal does not depend on the concentration of the probe or of G-quadruplexes, meaning it can be used to unequivocally visualize these rare molecules.
Peter A. Summers et al. Visualizing G-quadruplex DNA dynamics in live cells by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20414-7
At any given moment in the human body, in about 30 trillion cells, DNA is being read into molecules of messenger RNA, the intermediary step between DNA and proteins, in a process called transcription. Scientists have a pretty good idea of how transcription gets started: Proteins called RNA polymerases are recruited to specific regions of the DNA molecules and begin skimming their way down the strand, synthesizing mRNA molecules as they go. But part of this process is less-well understood: How does the cell know when to stop transcribing? Now, new work from the labs of Richard Young, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research member and MIT professor of biology, and Arup K. Chakraborty, professor of chemical engineering, physics, and chemistry at MIT, suggests that RNA molecules themselves are responsible for regulating their formation through a feedback loop.
Biotin, mitochondria, and dementia: Research reveals a connection
By any measure, carbon-based life originates from carboxylation. That is to say, the coupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide to sugar. Carboxylation is also critical for mitochondria to function. There are five carboxylation enzymes in mitochondria, and they share one thing in common—they are all operated by a covalently linked biotin cofactor.
Biotin is also known as vitamin H, named for the German words "Haar" and "Haut," which mean hair and skin. This was due to the fact that even slight deficiencies cause hair thinning, skin rash or brittle fingernails. New research, just published in PNAS, now shows that some forms of severe neurodegeneration, like the frontotemporal dementia seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, can directly result from lack of sufficient biotin.
Biotin comes to us in the form of biocytin, which is simply a biotin linked to a lysine. Btnd cleaves off the biotin from biocytin, or from its attachment to lysine in carboxylases. When Btnd was also crippled in the flies, their dementia got worse. Furthermore, their mitochondria also became deformed and elongated. The researchers were able to remedy all of these effects by simply giving supplementary biotin, suggesting that some humans with dementia could similarly benefit. They were also able to piece together a mechanism that functionally links tau and Btnd.
Kelly M. Lohr et al. Biotin rescues mitochondrial dysfunction and neurotoxicity in a tauopathy model, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922392117
Noncognitive skills—distinct from cognitive abilities—are important to success across the life
Noncognitive skills and cognitive abilities are both important contributors to educational attainment—the number of years of formal schooling that a person completes—and lead to success across the life course, according to a new study.
The research provides evidence for the idea that inheriting genes that affect things other than cognitive ability are important for understanding differences in people's life outcomes. Until now there had been questions about what these noncognitive skills are and how much they really matter for life outcomes. The new findings are published in the journal Nature Genetics.
"Genetic studies of educational attainment were initiated with the goal of identifying genes that influenced cognitive abilities. They've had some success in doing that. But it turns out they've also identified genetics that influence a range of other skills and characteristics. What was most surprising about the results was that these noncognitive skills contributed just as much to the heritability of educational attainment as cognitive ability. Of the total genetic influence on educational attainment, referred to as the heritability, cognitive abilities accounted for 43 percent and noncognitive skills accounted for 57 percent.
Similar to the genetics of cognitive abilities, the genetics of noncognitive skills were related to achievements outside of schooling, including holding more prestigious jobs, earning higher incomes, and living longer. And, genes associated with noncognitive skills showed relationships with these other life outcomes that were as strong or stronger than the relationships seen with cognitive genetics. These results were important proof of concept. They showed us that noncognitive skills genetics have implications for economics and public health similar to the genetics of cognitive abilities.
Overall, the genetics of noncognitive skills were associated with higher tolerance of risks, greater willingness to forego immediate gratification, less health-risk behavior, and delayed fertility. Researchers also observed that noncognitive skill genetics were associated with a constellation of personality traits linked with success in relationships and at work, such as being curious and eager to learn, being more emotionally stable, and being more industrious and orderly.
Noncognitiveor “softskills” are related to motivation, integrity, and interpersonal interaction. They may also involve intellect, but more indirectly and less consciously thancognitive skills. Softskillsare associated with an individual's personality, temperament, and attitudes.
By comparing thousands of bacterial genomes, scientists in Gothenburg, Sweden have traced back the evolutionary history of antibiotic resistance genes. In almost all cases where an origin could be determined, the gene started to spread from bacteria that, themselves, can cause disease.
An essential component of every eukaryotic cell is the cytoskeleton. Microtubules, tiny tubes consisting of a protein called tubulin, are part of this skeleton of cells. Cilia and flagella, which are antenna-like structures that protrude from most of the cells in our body, contain many microtubules. An example of flagell is the sperm tail, which is essential for male fertility and thus for sexual reproduction. The flagellum has to beat in a very precise and coordinated manner to allow progressive swimming of the sperm. Failure to do so can lead to male infertility.
Using copper foil, glass containers and a conventional household microwave oven, University of Wyoming researchers have demonstrated that pulverized coal powder can be converted into higher-value nano-graphite.
Eating a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, has a positive impact on health, but little is known about the effects of including unhealthy foods in an otherwise healthy diet. Now researchers at Rush University Medical Center have reported diminished benefits of a Mediterranean diet among those with high frequency of eating unhealthy foods. The results of their study were published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association on Jan. 7.
Researchers report new state of matter described as 'liquid glass'
Discovery of liquid glass sheds light on the old scientific problem of the glass transition: An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Konstanz has uncovered a new state of matter, liquid glass, with previously unknown structural elements—new insights into the nature of glass and its transitions.
Using a model system involving suspensions of tailor-made ellipsoidal colloids, the researchers uncovered a new state of matter, liquid glass, where individual particles are able to move yet unable to rotate—complex behavior that has not previously been observed in bulk glasses. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jörg Roller et al. Observation of liquid glass in suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018072118
While glass is a truly ubiquitous material that we use on a daily basis, it also represents a major scientific conundrum. Contrary to what one might expect, the true nature of glass remains something of a mystery, with scientific inquiry into its chemical and physical properties still underway. In chemistry and physics, the term glass itself is a mutable concept: It includes the substance we know as window glass, but it may also refer to a range of other materials with properties that can be explained by reference to glass-like behavior, including, for instance, metals, plastics, proteins, and even biological cells.
While it may give the impression, glass is anything but conventionally solid. Typically, when a material transitions from a liquid to a solid state the molecules line up to form a crystal pattern. In glass, this does not happen. Instead, the molecules are effectively frozen in place before crystallization happens. This strange and disordered state is characteristic of glasses across different systems and scientists are still trying to understand how exactly this metastable state forms.
Unravelling the mystery that makes viruses infectious
Researchers have for the first time identified the way viruses like the poliovirus and the common cold virus 'package up' their genetic code, allowing them to infect cells.
The findings open up the possibility that drugs or anti-viral agents can be developed that would stop such infections.
Once a cell is infected, avirusneeds to spread its genetic material to other cells. This is a complex process involving the creation of what are known as virions—newly-formed infectious copies of the virus. Each virion is a protein shell containing a complete copy of the virus's genetic code. The virions can then infect other cells and cause disease.
What has been a mystery until now is a detailed understanding of the way the virus assembles these daughter virions. If we can disrupt the mechanism of virion formation, then there is the potential to stop an infection in its tracks.
The analysis suggests that the molecular features that control the process of virion formation are genetically conserved, meaning they do not mutate easily—reducing the risk that the virus could change and make any new drugs ineffective.
The study published today details the role of what are called RNA packaging signals, short regions of the RNA molecule which together with proteins from the virus's casing ensure accurate and efficient formation of an infectious virion.
Using a combination of molecular and mathematical biology, the researchers were able to identify possible sites on the RNA molecule that could act as packaging signals. Using advanced electron microscopes at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory at the University of Leeds, scientists were able to directly visualise this process—the first time that has been possible with any virus of this type.
Rebecca Chandler-Bostock et al, Assembly of infectious enteroviruses depends on multiple, conserved genomic RNA-coat protein contacts, PLOS Pathogens (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009146
Scientists developing new solutions for honeybee colony collapse
Scientists at four University of California campuses, including UC San Diego, are leading a new effort to stop and reverse a worldwide decline in honeybees, which threatens food security and prices. Honeybees pollinate more than 80 agricultural crops, which account for about a third of what we eat. Several factors, including pesticide exposure and the spread of parasites and environmental changes, are to blame for the widespread collapse of bee colonies over the past decade. To boost dwindling honeybee populations.
Researchers will be testing how nutritional supplements may help bees that have been exposed to pesticides and on how to harness the natural honey bee microbiome against a very common bee gut disease.
Researchers have also focused a great deal on the harms caused by pesticides and this has helped improve some aspects of regulation.
Research is also aimed at understanding the complex genomes of feral honey bees. These bees have genomes that are a complex mixture of genomes of honey bee varieties from Africa, Europe and the Middle East. They are highly genetically diverse and ecologically successful. Their genomes likely hold variation useful to breeding domesticated honey bees with increased levels of resistance to the common diseases that currently plague the honey bee industry. They seek to identify and breed bees that are better able to cope with environmental stress
A second goal of the new network is to develop medications and treatments for sick bees. Certain types of honeybees generate molecules that make them more tolerant of pesticides and parasites. New technology will enable the scientists to isolate those molecules and use them as a basis for drugs.
Finally, the group is looking to give beekeepers tools to better monitor bees’ health. Small devices will be able to “listen” and “smell” inside hives to give beekeepers indications about the health of the hive.
“We know bee queens have a special pheromone they give off when they’re hungry or dying, and these can be traced,” Baer said. “We are essentially building ‘electronic veterinarians.’”
Scientists discover bizarre new mode of snake locomotion
A team of researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Cincinnati have discovered a new mode of snake locomotion that allows the brown tree snake to ascend much larger smooth cylinders than any previously known behaviour.
This lassolocomotion, named because of a lasso-like body posture, may contribute to the success and impact of this highly invasive species. It allows these animals to access potential prey that might otherwise be unobtainable and may also explain how this species could climb power poles, leading to electrical outages.
Researchers said they hope the findings will help people protectendangered birdsfrom the snakes.
For nearly 100 years, allsnakelocomotion has been traditionally categorized into four modes: rectilinear, lateral undulation, sidewinding and concertina.
This new discovery of a fifth mode of locomotion was the unexpected result . Even though they can climb using this mode, it is pushing them to the limits. The snakes pause for prolonged periods to rest.
Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth.
New research shows that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the intergalactic medium by the coming together of two galaxies.
The researchers say that this event, together with a large amount of star formation in the nuclear regions of the galaxy, would eventually deprive the merged galaxy—called ID2299—of fuel for newstars. This would stop star formation for several hundred million years, effectively halting the galaxy's development.
Astronomers observe many massive, dead galaxies containing very old stars in the nearby Universe and don't exactly know how these galaxies have been formed.
Simulations suggest that winds generated by active black holes as they feed, or those created by intense star formation, are responsible for such deaths by expelling the gas from galaxies.
Now this study offers galaxy mergersas another way of shutting down star formation and altering galaxy growth.
Inspired by kombucha tea, engineers create 'living materials'
Engineers at MIT and Imperial College London have developed a new way to generate tough, functional materials using a mixture of bacteria and yeast similar to the "kombucha mother" used to ferment tea.
Using this mixture, also called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), the researchers were able to produce cellulose embedded with enzymes that can perform a variety of functions, such as sensing environmental pollutants. They also showed that they could incorporate yeast directly into the material, creating "living materials" that could be used to purify water or to make "smart" packaging materials that can detect damage.
This work shows diverse materials could be grown at home or in local production facilities, using biology rather than resource-intensive centralized manufacturing.
Neuroscientists identify brain circuit that encodes timing of events
When we experience a new event, our brain records a memory of not only what happened, but also the context, including the time and location of the event. A new study from MIT neuroscientists sheds light on how the timing of a memory is encoded in the hippocampus, and suggests that time and space are encoded separately.
In a study of mice, the researchers identified a hippocampal circuit that the animals used to store information about the timing of when they should turn left or right in a maze. When this circuit was blocked, the mice were unable to remember which way they were supposed to turn next. However, disrupting the circuit did not appear to impair their memoryof where they were in space.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that when we form new memories, different populations of neurons in the brain encode time and place information, the researchers say.
There is an emerging view that 'place cells' and 'time cells' organize memories by mapping information onto the hippocampus. This spatial and temporal context serves as a scaffold that allows us to build our own personal timeline of memories.
Christopher J. MacDonald el al., "Crucial role for CA2 inputs in the sequential organization of CA1 time cells supporting memory," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2020698118
Special relativity is one of the most strongly validated theories humanity has ever devised. It is central to everything from space travel and GPS to our electrical power grid. Central to relativity is the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant. The problem is, that fact has never been proven.
Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA—Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, now explains how this was possible. Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolution and, for the first time, found evidence for a rapid growth of dust due to a high concentration of metals in the distant Universe. The study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offers a new approach to investigate the evolutionary phase of massive objects.
Study should significantly facilitate research into the promising substance
Cornelia Hermes, René Richarz, Daniel A. Wirtz, Julian Patt, Wiebke Hanke, Stefan Kehraus, Jan Hendrik Voß, Jim Küppers, Tsubasa Ohbayashi, Vigneshwaran Namasivayam, Judith Alenfelder, Asuka Inoue, Peter Mergaert, Michael Gütschow, Christa E. Müller, Evi Kostenis, Gabriele M. König & Max Crüsemann: Thioesterase-mediated side chain transesteri ?cation generates potent Gq signaling inhibitor FR900359; Nature Communications; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20418-3
Reasons to study science communication beyond the West
All cultures have communicated their knowledge in diverse and marvellous ways throughout time. Failing to see the significance of this is racist and lazy.
More than three quarters of people hospitalised with Covid-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published Saturday that scientists said shows the need for further investigation into lingering coronavirus effects. The research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal and involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is among the few to trace the long-term symptoms of Covid-19 infection. It found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleeping difficulties. "Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patients' health," said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine. The professor said the research highlighted the need for ongoing care for patients after they have been discharged from hospital, particularly those who have had severe infections.
Most consumers of drinking water in the United States know that chemicals are used in the treatment processes to ensure the water is safe to drink. But they might not know that the use of some of these chemicals, such as chlorine, can also lead to the formation of unregulated toxic byproducts.
Discovery of quantum behavior in insulators suggests possible new particle
In a surprising discovery, Princeton physicists have observed an unexpected quantum behavior in an insulator made from a material called tungsten ditelluride. This phenomenon, known as quantum oscillation, is typically observed in metals rather than insulators, and its discovery offers new insights into our understanding of the quantum world. The findings also hint at the existence of an entirely new type of quantum particle.
The discovery challenges a long-held distinction between metals and insulators, because in the established quantum theory of materials, insulators were not thought to be able to experience quantum oscillations.
If scientists' interpretations are correct, we are dealing with a fundamentally new form of quantum matter.
The observation of quantum oscillations has long been considered a hallmark of the difference between metals and insulators. In metals, electrons are highly mobile, and resistivity—the resistance to electrical conduction—is weak. Nearly a century ago, researchers observed that amagnetic field, coupled with very low temperatures, can cause electrons to shift from a "classical" state to a quantum state, causing oscillations in the metal's resistivity. In insulators, by contrast, electrons cannot move and the materials have very high resistivity, so quantum oscillations of this sort are not expected to occur, no matter the strength of magnetic field applied.
The discovery was made when the researchers were studying a material called tungsten ditelluride, which they made into a two-dimensional material. They prepared the material by using standard scotch tape to increasingly exfoliate, or "shave," the layers down to what is called a monolayer—a single atom-thin layer. Thick tungsten ditelluride behaves like a metal. But once it is converted to a monolayer, it becomes a very strong insulator.
This material has a lot of quantum properties.
Pengjie Wang et al, Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9
Researchers develop oral insulin nanoparticles that could be an alternative to jabs
Scientists have developed insulin nanoparticles that may one day become the basis for an oral medicine, and an alternative to insulin injections for diabetic patients. In a pre-clinical study, the scientist team fed insulin-containing nanoparticles to rats and found that insulin increased in their blood minutes later. Insulin therapy is often an important part of treatment for diabetes, a metabolic disease that affects 422 million people globally . Delivering insulin orally would be preferable over insulin jabs for patients because it causes less pain than jabs, and could thus lead to improved patient compliance. But oral dosage remains a challenge. As insulin is a protein, it gets broken down in the gastrointestinal tract before it can even reach the bloodstream to regulate blood glucose. To overcome this challenge, the interdisciplinary team designed a nanoparticle loaded with insulin at the core, then coated with alternating layers of insulin and chitosan, a natural sugar. Dosing is achieved by controlling the number of layers in the nanoparticle. Through lab experiments using cell cultures and rat models, the team demonstrated that this layer-by-layer coated nanoparticle is stable as it passes through the stomach into the small intestine with minimal insulin release, and is able to pass through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream.
Yiming Zhang et al. Layer-by-layer coated nanoliposomes for oral delivery of insulin, Nanoscale (2020). DOI: 10.1039/D0NR06104B
Washing your clothes can create microplastic pollution
Households in Europe and North America are flooding the oceans with plastic pollution simply by washing their clothes, scientists said Tuesday after research found the majority of microplastics in Arctic seawater were polyester fibres.
Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet.
These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of theocean—the Mariana Trench—peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.
But questions remain over exactly where thisplasticcontamination is coming from.
In the new study by the Ocean Wise conservation group and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, researchers sampled seawater from across the Arctic and foundsynthetic fibresmade up around 92 percent of microplastic pollution.
Of this, around 73 percent was found to be polyester, resembling the dimensions and chemical identities of synthetic textiles—particularly clothing.
"The striking conclusion here is that we now have strong evidence that homes in Europe and North America are directly polluting the Arctic with fibres from laundry (via wastewater discharge)
Scientists Discover a New Type of Chemical Bond, And It's Surprisingly Strong
It's like the hydrogen bonds found in water, but way stronger.
Scientists have recently discovered a totally new type of chemical bond – and it's way stronger than it has any right to be.
The new type of bond shows that the divide between powerful covalent bonds, which bind molecules together, and weak hydrogen bonds, which form between molecules and can be broken by something as simple as stirring salt into a glass of water.
Ionic bonds link metals and non-metals to form salts. Strong covalent bonds bind together molecules likecarbon dioxideand water. Far weaker hydrogen bonds form because of an electrostatic type of attraction between hydrogen and a more negatively charged atom or molecule, for instance causing water molecules to attract one another and form droplets or crystalline ice.
Ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonds are all relatively stable; they tend to last for extended periods of time and have effects are easily observable.
But researchers have long known that during a chemical reaction, as chemical bonds are forming or breaking, the story is more complicated and involves "intermediate states" that may exist for tiny fractions of a second and are more difficult to observe.
In the new study, the researchers managed to keep these intermediate states going for long enough to make a detailed examination. What they found was a hydrogen bond with the strength of a covalent bond, binding atoms together into something resembling a molecule.
For the first time, physicists from the University of Innsbruck have entangled two quantum bits distributed over several quantum objects and successfully transmitted their quantum properties. This marks an important milestone in the development of fault-tolerant quantum computers. The researchers published their report in Nature.
Egg cells are among the largest cells in the animal kingdom. If moved only by the random jostlings of water molecules, a protein could take hours or even days to drift from one side of a forming egg cell to the other. Luckily, nature has developed a faster way: cell-spanning whirlpools in the immature egg cells of animals such as mice, zebrafish and fruit flies. These vortices enable cross-cell commutes that take just a fraction of the time. But until now, scientists didn't know how these crucial flows formed.
Study Just Identified 6 Distinct Types of Prediabetes
People with prediabetes have a higher than normal blood sugar level, and sometimes – but not always – go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Doctors should now be able to better manage that risk, thanks to a study identifying six different subtypes of prediabetes.
In an analysis covering 25 years of data and 899 individuals, researchers were able to categorise these six subtypes through a series of shared biomarkers, including glucose levels, liver fat, body fat distribution, blood lipid levels, and genetic risk.
The six subtypes (or "clusters") carry different levels of risk when it comes to developing type 2 diabetes, and that should help health professionals in tailoring treatments to match, as well as managing prediabetes and the secondary issues that come with it.
Clusters 1, 2 and 4 represent a low diabetes risk: they include participants who aren't overweight, or who are overweight but have a relatively healthy metabolism. Clusters 3, 5 and 6, meanwhile, are linked to an increased risk of diabetes and secondary diseases.
Those in cluster 3 produce too little insulin naturally, as well as showing other biomarkers such as higherintima-media thickness(IMT) in their arteries. Cluster 5 includes people more resistant to the effects of insulin and also with higher amounts of liver fat.
Those in cluster 6 have higher levels of particular types of body fat (visceral and renal sinus). While these individuals have a lower risk of developing diabetes compared with clusters 3 and 5, there is a higher mortality risk and more chance of kidney malfunction in this group.
Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age, scientists find
Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth.
Melting icebergs in the Antarctic are the key, say the team from Cardiff University, triggering a series of chain reactions that plunges Earth into a prolonged period of cold temperatures.
The findings have been published today inNaturefrom an international consortium of scientists from universities around the world.
It has long been known that ice age cycles are paced by periodic changes to Earth's orbit of the sun, which subsequently changes the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface.
However, up until now it has been a mystery as to how small variations in solar energy can trigger such dramatic shifts in the climateon Earth.
In their study, the team propose that when the orbit of Earth around the sun is just right, Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.
As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale oceancirculation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.
This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions.
As part of their study the scientists used multiple techniques to reconstruct past climate conditions, which included identifying tiny fragments of Antarctic rock dropped in the open oceanby melting icebergs.
Fish-inspired robots coordinate movements without any outside control
Schools of fish exhibit complex, synchronized behaviors that help them find food, migrate and evade predators. No one fish or team of fish coordinates these movements nor do fish communicate with each other about what to do next. Rather, these collective behaviors emerge from so-called implicit coordination—individual fish making decisions based on what they see their neighbors doing.
This type of decentralized, autonomous self-organization and coordination has long fascinated scientists, especially in the field of robotics.
Now, a team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed fish-inspired robots that can synchronize their movements like a real school of fish, without any external control. It is the first time researchers have demonstrated complex 3-D collective behaviourswith implicit coordination in underwater robots.
A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.
For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from a black hole; Stephen Hawking proposed thatblack holescould release energy through quantum mechanical emission; while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek suggested electromagnetic torque as a main agent of energy extraction.
Now, in a study published in the journalPhysical Review D, physicists Luca Comisso from Columbia University and Felipe Asenjo from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile, found a new way to extract energy from black holes by breaking and rejoiningmagnetic fieldlines near theevent horizon, the point from which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole's gravitational pull.
"Black holes are commonly surrounded by a hot 'soup' ofplasmaparticles that carry a magnetic field. This new theory theory shows that when magnetic field lines disconnect and reconnect, in just the right way, they can accelerate plasma particles to negative energies and large amounts of black hole energy can be extracted.
This finding could allow astronomers to better estimate the spin of black holes, drive black hole energy emissions, and might even provide a source of energy for the needs of an advanced civilization.
Dull, featureless camouflage provides better protection from predators than zebra stripes, according to a new study.
Biologists explaining the existence of such stripes have proposed the "motion dazzle hypothesis", which suggests that high-contrast patterns can make it difficult for predators to track amoving target.
University of Exeter scientists tested this using a touch-screen game called Dazzle Bug in which visitors to Cornwall's Eden Project had to catch a moving rectangular "bug".
Bug patterns were programmed to "evolve" to find the best camouflage strategy.
"Surprisingly, targets evolved to lose patterns and instead match their backgrounds.
The new study results indicate that low-contrast, featureless targets were hardest to catch when in motion. These findings provide the clearest evidence to date against the motion dazzle hypothesis and suggest that protection in motion may rely on completely different mechanisms to those previously assumed.
Researchers identify nanoparticles that could deliver therapeutic mRNA before birth
Researchers have identified ionizable lipid nanoparticles that could be used to deliver mRNA as part of fetal therapy. The proof-of-concept study, published today in Science Advances, engineered and screened a number of lipid nanoparticle formulations for targeting mouse fetal organs and has laid the groundwork for testing potential therapies to treat genetic diseases before birth.
This is an important first step in identifying nonviral mediated approaches for delivering cutting-edge therapies before birth.
These lipidnanoparticles may provide a platform for in utero mRNA delivery, which would be used in therapies like fetal protein replacement and gene editing.
Having identified the lipid nanoparticles that were able to accumulate within fetal livers, lungs, and intestines with the highest efficiency and safety, the researchers also tested therapeutic potential of those designs by using them to deliver erythropoietin (EPO) mRNA, as the EPO protein is easily trackable. They found that EPO mRNA delivery to liver cells in mouse fetuses resulted in elevated levels of EPO protein in the fetal circulation, providing a model for protein replacement therapy via the liver using these lipid nanoparticles.
"Ionizable lipid nanoparticles for in utero mRNA delivery" Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba1028
Researchers at Brazil's space institute discover why lightning branches and flickers
Researchers have recorded for the first time the formation and branching of luminous structures by lightning strikes.
Analyzing images captured by a super slow motion camera, they discovered why lightning strikes bifurcate and sometimes then form luminous structures interpreted by the human eye as flickers.
The researchers used ultra high speed digital video cameras to record more than 200 upward flashes during summer thunderstorms in São Paulo City (Brazil) and Rapid City, South Dakota (USA) between 2008 and 2019. Upward lightning strikes start from the top of a tall building or other ground-based structure and propagate upward to the overlying cloud.
The upward flashes they recorded were triggered by positively charged cloud-to-ground lightning discharges, which are much more common, as described by the same INPE research group in a previous study.
"Upward lightning originates at the top of a tower or the lightning conductor on a skyscraper, for example, when the storm's electrical field is disturbed by a cloud-to-ground discharge as far away as 60 kilometers.
Although the study conditions were very similar in Brazil and the US, luminous structures were observed in only three upward flashes, recorded in the US. These were formed by a positive leader discharge propagating toward the cloud base.
"The advantage of recording images of upward lightning is that they let us see the entire trajectory of these positive leaders from ground to cloud base. Once inside the cloud, they can no longer be seen.
The researchers found that a low-luminosity discharge with a structure resembling a paintbrush sometimes forms at the tip of the positive leader. It was observed that this discharge, often referred to as a corona brush, may change direction, split in two, and define the path of the lightning flash and how it branches.
When an upward flash branches successfully, it may proceed to the left or right. When branching fails, the corona brush may give rise to very short segments as bright as the leader itself. These segments first appear milliseconds after the corona brush splits, and pulsate as the leader propagates upward toward the cloud base, the videos show.
The flickers are recurring failed attempts to start a branch, the flickers may explain why multiple lightning discharges are frequent, but more studies are needed to verify this theory.
Marcelo M. F. Saba et al, Optical observation of needles in upward lightning flashes, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74597-6
The ocean withdraws about one third of the CO₂ in the atmosphere, mitigating climate change and making life possible on Earth. An important share of this CO2 is removed thanks to phytoplankton, tiny marine creatures that use light to do photosynthesis, just as plants or trees on land. These cells fix CO2 to build up biomass and multiply, and take it down to the deep ocean when they die and sink. Phytoplankton are thus the basis of the marine food chain, and their productivity not only affects CO2 levels, but also fish catch and world economy.
Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries. One was black holes, which were only unequivocally detected over the past few years. Another was "wormholes"—bridges connecting different points in spacetime, in theory providing shortcuts for space travelers.
Model analyzes how viruses escape the immune system
One reason it's so difficult to produce effective vaccines against some viruses, including influenza and HIV, is that these viruses mutate very rapidly. This allows them to evade the antibodies generated by a particular vaccine, through a process known as "viral escape."
Researchers have now devised a new way to computationally model viral escape, based on models that were originally developed to analyze language. The model can predict which sections of viral surface proteins are more likely to mutate in a way that enables viral escape, and it can also identify sections that are less likely to mutate, making them good targets for new vaccines.
Viral escape of the surface protein of influenza and the envelope surface protein of HIV are both highly responsible for the fact that we don't have a universal flu vaccine, nor do we have a vaccine for HIV, both of which cause hundreds of thousands of deaths a year.
Scientists discover the secret of Galapagos' rich ecosystem
New research has unlocked the mystery of how the Galápagos Islands, a rocky, volcanic outcrop, with only modest rainfall and vegetation, is able to sustain its unique wildlife habitats.
The Galápagos archipelago, rising from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean some 900 kilometres off the South American mainland, is an iconic and globally significant biological hotspot. The islands are renowned for their unique wealth of endemic species, which inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and today underpins one of the largest UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Marine Reserves on Earth.
Scientists have known for decades that the regional ecosystem is sustained by upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich deep waters, which fuel the growth of the phytoplankton upon which the entire ecosystem thrives.
Yet despite its critical life-supporting role, the upwelling's controlling factors had remained undetermined prior to this new study. Establishing these controls, and their climate sensitivity, is critical to assessing the resilience of the regional ecosystem against modern climatic change.
In this new research, published in Scientific Reports, scientists used a realistic, high-resolution computer model to study the regional ocean circulation around the Galápagos Islands.
This model showed that the intensity of upwelling around the Galápagos is driven by local northward winds, which generate vigorous turbulence at upper-ocean fronts to the west of the islands. These fronts are areas of sharp lateral contrasts in ocean temperature, similar in character to atmospheric fronts in weather maps, but much smaller.
The turbulence drives upwelling of deep waterstoward the ocean surface, thus providing the nutrients needed to sustain the Galápagos ecosystem. Galápagos upwelling is controlled by highly localised atmosphere-ocean interactions. There now needs to be a focus on these processes when monitoring how the islands' ecosystem is changing, and in mitigating the ecosystem's vulnerability to 21st -century climate change.
Sexual harassment claims considered more credible if made by 'prototypical' women
Women who are young, "conventionally attractive" and appear and act feminine are more likely to be believed when making accusations of sexual harassment, a new University of Washington-led study finds.
That leaveswomenwho don't fit the prototype potentially facing greater hurdles when trying to convince a workplace or court that they have been harassed.
The study, involving more than 4,000 participants, reveals perceptions that primarily "prototypical" women are likely to be harassed. The research also showed that women outside of those socially determined norms—or "nonprototypical" women—are more likely perceived as not being harmed by harassment.
The consequences of that are very severe for women who fall outside of the narrow representation of who a victim is .
Nonprototypical women are neglected in ways that could contribute to them having discriminatory treatment under the law; people think they're less credible—and less harmed—when they make a claim, and think their perpetrators deserve less punishment.
Researchers recently conducted an experiment to investigate the initial steps in the formation of aerosols. Their findings are now aiding efforts to better understand and model that process—for example, the formation of clouds in the atmosphere.
Aerosols are suspensions of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Clouds, for example, are aerosols because they consist of water droplets dispersed in the air. Such droplets are produced in a two-step process: first, a condensation nucleus forms, and then volatile molecules condense onto this nucleus, producing a droplet. Nuclei frequently consist of molecules different to those that condense onto them. In the case of clouds, the nuclei often contain sulphuric acids and organic substances. Water vapor from the atmosphere subsequently condenses onto these nuclei.
Scientists l have now gained new insights into the first step of aerosol formation, nucleation. Observations have shown that the volatile components can also influence the nucleation process but what was unclear was how this was happening at the molecular level. Previously it was impossible to observe the volatile components during nucleation in an experimental setting. Even in a famous CERN experiment on cloud formation, certain volatile components could not be directly detected.
The ETH researchers developed an experiment aimed at the first microseconds of the nucleation process. In the experiment, the particles formed remain intact during this time and can be detected using mass spectrometry. The scientists looked at nucleation in various gas mixtures containing CO2and for the first time, they were able to detect the volatile components as well—in this case, the CO2. The researchers could show that the volatile components were essential for the formation of nuclei and also accelerated this process.
An analysis of the experimental data revealed that this acceleration is the result of the volatile components catalyzing the nucleation of other, less volatile components. They do this by forming short-lived, heterogeneous molecular aggregates, known as chaperon complexes. Because temperature determines the volatility of gas components, it also plays a decisive role in these processes.
Chenxi Li et al. How volatile components catalyze vapor nucleation, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd9954
Glowing cells offer clues to the mysterious mechanism that animals such as birds, bats, eels and whales might use to navigate using Earth’s magnetic field. Cryptochrome, a protein found in plants and animals that can absorb light and emit an electromagnetic signal, has been a prime suspect for the source of magnetoreception — the ability to detect magnetic fields. Using a specialized microscope, scientists irradiated human cells, which caused cryptochromes to fluoresce. But when the researcherspassed magnets over the cells, the fluorescence dropped. It’s the first time that cryptochromes have been observed responding to magnetic fields in a living cell.
The radical pair mechanism is the favored hypothesis for explaining biological effects of weak magnetic fields, such as animal magnetoreception and possible adverse health effects. To date, however, there is no direct experimental evidence for magnetic effects on radical pair reactions in cells, the fundamental building blocks of living systems. In this paper, using a custom-built microscope, we demonstrate that flavin-based autofluorescence in native, untreated HeLa cells is magnetic field sensitive, due to the formation and electron spin–selective recombination of spin-correlated radical pairs. This work thus provides a direct link between magnetic field effects on chemical reactions measured in solution and chemical reactions taking place in living cells.
Mushroom house: a 'tiny house' out of mushrooms - Mushroom Tiny House, a 64-square-foot home designed by Ecovative Design that uses mycelium -- a type of fungi -- to literally grow the structure from the inside out.
There are two principal advantages to this. First, living fungus might behave as a self-healing material, simply re-growing if it becomes damaged. Second, mycelium networks are capable of information processing. Electrical signals run through them and change over time in a manner almost akin to a brain. Fungal materials respond to tactile stimulation and illumination by changing their patterns of electrical activity.
Snakes evolve a magnetic way to be resistant to venom
Certain snakes have evolved a unique genetic trick to avoid being eaten by venomous snakes, according to new research. the technique worked in a manner similar to the way two sides of a magnet repel each other.
The target of snake venom neurotoxins is a strongly negatively charged nerve receptor.
This has caused neurotoxins to evolve with positively charged surfaces, thereby guiding them to the neurological target to produce paralysis.
"But some snakes have evolved to replace a negatively charged amino acid on their receptor with a positively charged one, meaning the neurotoxinis repelled.
It's an inventive genetic mutation and it's been completely missed until now. this trait has evolved at least 10 times in different species of snakes.
The researchers found that the Burmese python—a slow-moving terrestrial species vulnerable to predation by cobras—is extremely neurotoxin resistant. Similarly, the South African mole snake, another slow-moving snake vulnerable to cobras, is also extremely resistant.
But Asian pythons which live in trees as babies, and Australian pythons which do not live alongside neurotoxic snake-eating snake, do not have this resistance.
We've long known that some species—like the mongoose—are resistant to snakevenom through a mutation that physically blocks neurotoxins by having a branch-like structure sticking out of the receptor, but this is the first time the magnet-like effect has been observed.
It has also evolved in venomous snakes to be resistant to their own neurotoxins on at least two occasions.
Richard J. Harris et al. Electrostatic resistance to alpha-neurotoxins conferred by charge reversal mutations in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2703
Scientists identify nutrient that helps prevent bacterial infection
Scientists studying the body's natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient—taurine—that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics.
Scientists know that microbiota—the trillions of beneficial microbes living harmoniously inside our gut—can protect people from bacterial infections, but little is known about how they provide protection. Scientists are studying the microbiota with an eye to finding or enhancing natural treatments to replace antibiotics, which harm microbiota and become less effective as bacteria develop drug resistance.
The scientists observed that microbiota that had experienced prior infection and transferred to germ-free mice helped prevent infection with Kpn. They identified a class of bacteria—Deltaproteobacteria—involved in fighting these infections, and further analysis led them to identify taurine as the trigger for Deltaproteobacteria activity.
Taurine helps the body digest fats and oils and is found naturally in bile acids in the gut. The poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide is a byproduct of taurine. The scientists believe that low levels of taurine allow pathogens to colonize the gut, but high levels produce enough hydrogen sulfide to prevent colonization. During the study, the researchers realized that a single mild infection is sufficient to prepare the microbiota to resist subsequent infection, and that the liver and gallbladder—which synthesize and store bile acids containing taurine—can develop long-term infection protection.
The study found that taurine given to mice as a supplement in drinking water also prepared the microbiota to prevent infection. However, when mice drank water containing bismuth subsalicylate—a common over-the-counter drug used to treat diarrhea and upset stomach—infection protection waned because bismuth inhibits hydrogen sulfide production.
A Stacy et al. Infection trains the host for microbiota-enhanced resistance to pathogens. Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.12.011 (2021).
There is currently no cure for osteoarthritis, but a group of scientists believe they've discovered a method through which a simple knee injection could potentially stop the disease's effects. These researchers showed that they could target a specific protein pathway in mice, put it into overdrive and halt cartilage degeneration over time. Building on that finding, they were able to show that treating mice with surgery-induced knee cartilage degeneration through the same pathway via the state of the art of nanomedicine could dramatically reduce the cartilage degeneration and knee pain. These findings were published in Science Translational Medicine.
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Seagrass Is Doing Us All a Favor And Trapping Our Plastic in Balls
KELLY MACNAMARA & MARLOWE HOOD, AFP
16 JANUARY 2021
Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap bits of plastic in natural bundles of fibre known as'Neptune balls', researchers said Thursday.
With no help from humans, the swaying plants – anchored to shallow seabeds – may collect nearly 900 million plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, they reported in the journalScientific Reports.
Transmitting cancer from mother to child is rare, but it does happen.
It's not impossible for an infant to getcancerfrom their mother, but it doesn't happen very often.
Researchers estimate transmission of maternal cancer to offspring occurs perhaps only twice inevery million birthsfor mothers with cancer, with the diseased cells being delivered to the infant via the placenta in these exceedingly rare and unfortunate cases.
But that's not the only way a mother with cancer might unknowingly infect her child, scientists say.
In a newcase studypublished by researchers in Japan, doctors report what appears to be a medical first: vaginal transmission of cancer cells from mothers with cervical cancer to infants at the moment of their birth.
"Mother-to-infant transmission of tumour in the birth canal during vaginal delivery is also theoretically possible.
If the mother has cervical cancer, the infant can be exposed to tumour cells in fluids in the birth canal and could aspirate tumour cells into the lungs.
This obscure and previously unknown vector – inhaling cancer in your very first breaths, ostensibly – appears to be responsible for two otherwise unlinked cases of paediatric lung cancer diagnosed in a pair of young male patients: a 23-month-old and a six-year-old.
In both cases, the patients presented to hospital with symptoms of their illness, the 23-month-old experiencing coughing, and the six-year-old experiencing chest pain.
In each instance, CT scans revealed what eventually turned out to be cancerous tumours in the boys' lungs, which were successfully treated in both cases – although not easily.
The peribronchial [relating to airways of the respiratory system] pattern of tumour growth in both children suggested that the tumours arose from mother-to-infant vaginal transmission through aspiration of tumour-contaminated vaginal fluids during birth
In most cases involving mother-to-foetus transmission of cancer, the placental delivery of cancerous cells tends to result in the spreading of cancers to the brain, bones, liver, and other tissues, including the lungs. Here, it was just the lungs – which offers a strong clue as to how the disease could have been delivered to the boys' own bodies.
A Man Injected Magic Mushroom 'Tea' Into His Veins, And Fungus Grew Inside Him
A man brewed a tea from "magic mushrooms" and injected the concoction into his veins; several days later, he ended up at the emergency department with the fungus growing in his blood.
The man spent 22 days in the hospital, with eight of those days in the intensive care unit (ICU), where he received treatment for multisystem organ failure.
The case didn't reveal whether injecting shroom tea can cause persistent psychoactive effects, as sometimes seen when people ingest the fungus orally, the doctors wrote in the report.
For example, in rare cases, people can develop a condition called hallucinogen-induced persisting perception disorder (HPPD), where they experience vivid flashbacks of their trip long after the fact, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The case "underscores the need for ongoing public education regarding the dangers attendant to the use of this, and other drugs, in ways other than they are prescribed," the doctors wrote.
Remdesivir is the first drug against Covid-19 to be conditionally approved in Europe and the United States. The drug is designed to suppress the rapid replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human cells by blocking the viral copying machine, called RNA polymerase. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and the University of Würzburg have now elucidated how remdesivir interferes with the viral polymerase during copying and why it does not inhibit it completely. After complicated studies, they come to a simple conclusion. Remdesivir does interfere with the polymerase while doing its work, but only after some delay. And the drug does not fully stop the enzyme.
After remdesivir had been incorporated into the viral genome, the researchers examined the polymerase-RNA complexes using biochemical methods and cryo-electron microscopy. They discovered that the copying process pauses precisely when three more building blocks have been added after remdesivir was incorporated into the RNA chain. “The polymerase does not allow the installation of a fourth one. This pausing is caused by only two atoms in the structure of remdesivir that get hooked at a specific site on the polymerase. However, remdesivir does not fully block RNA production. Often, the polymerase continues its work after correcting the error.
Understanding how remdesivir works opens up new opportunities for scientists to tackle the virus. Now that theyknow how remdesivir inhibits the corona polymerase, they can work on improving the substance and its effect. In addition, we want to search for new compounds that stop the viral copying machine.
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Rare quadruple-helix DNA found in living human cells with glowing probes
New probes allow scientists to see four-stranded DNA interacting with molecules inside living human cells, unraveling its role in cellular processes.
DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape of two strands wound around each other. While DNA can form some more exotic shapes in test tubes, few are seen in real living cells.
However, four-stranded DNA, known as G-quadruplex, has recently been seen forming naturally in human cells. Now, in new research published today in Nature Communications, a team led by Imperial College London scientists have created new probes that can see how G-quadruplexes are interacting with other molecules inside living cells.
G-quadruplexes are found in higher concentrations in cancer cells, so are thought to play a role in the disease. The probes reveal how G-quadruplexes are 'unwound' by certain proteins, and can also help identify molecules that bind to G-quadruplexes, leading to potential new drug targets that can disrupt their activity.
A different DNA shape will have an enormous impact on all processes involving it—such as reading, copying, or expressing genetic information.
"Evidence has been mounting that G-quadruplexes play an important role in a wide variety of processes vital for life, and in a range of diseases, but the missing link has been imaging this structure directly in living cells.
They used a chemical probe called DAOTA-M2, which fluoresces (lights up) in the presence of G-quadruplexes, but instead of monitoring the brightness of fluorescence, they monitored how long this fluorescence lasts. This signal does not depend on the concentration of the probe or of G-quadruplexes, meaning it can be used to unequivocally visualize these rare molecules.
Peter A. Summers et al. Visualizing G-quadruplex DNA dynamics in live cells by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20414-7
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-rare-quadruple-helix-dna-human-cells....
Jan 10, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
At any given moment in the human body, in about 30 trillion cells, DNA is being read into molecules of messenger RNA, the intermediary step between DNA and proteins, in a process called transcription. Scientists have a pretty good idea of how transcription gets started: Proteins called RNA polymerases are recruited to specific regions of the DNA molecules and begin skimming their way down the strand, synthesizing mRNA molecules as they go. But part of this process is less-well understood: How does the cell know when to stop transcribing? Now, new work from the labs of Richard Young, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research member and MIT professor of biology, and Arup K. Chakraborty, professor of chemical engineering, physics, and chemistry at MIT, suggests that RNA molecules themselves are responsible for regulating their formation through a feedback loop.
https://researchnews.cc/news/4493/RNA-molecules-are-masters-of-thei...
Jan 10, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Invisible Polar Bears and Other Arctic Adaptations
Jan 10, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
How To Levitate with the help of science
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Quantum Locking Will Blow Your Mind—How Does it Work?
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Biotin, mitochondria, and dementia: Research reveals a connection
By any measure, carbon-based life originates from carboxylation. That is to say, the coupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide to sugar. Carboxylation is also critical for mitochondria to function. There are five carboxylation enzymes in mitochondria, and they share one thing in common—they are all operated by a covalently linked biotin cofactor.
Biotin is also known as vitamin H, named for the German words "Haar" and "Haut," which mean hair and skin. This was due to the fact that even slight deficiencies cause hair thinning, skin rash or brittle fingernails. New research, just published in PNAS, now shows that some forms of severe neurodegeneration, like the frontotemporal dementia seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, can directly result from lack of sufficient biotin.
Biotin comes to us in the form of biocytin, which is simply a biotin linked to a lysine. Btnd cleaves off the biotin from biocytin, or from its attachment to lysine in carboxylases. When Btnd was also crippled in the flies, their dementia got worse. Furthermore, their mitochondria also became deformed and elongated. The researchers were able to remedy all of these effects by simply giving supplementary biotin, suggesting that some humans with dementia could similarly benefit. They were also able to piece together a mechanism that functionally links tau and Btnd.
Kelly M. Lohr et al. Biotin rescues mitochondrial dysfunction and neurotoxicity in a tauopathy model, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922392117
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-biotin-mitochondria-dementia...
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Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Noncognitive skills—distinct from cognitive abilities—are important to success across the life
Noncognitive skills and cognitive abilities are both important contributors to educational attainment—the number of years of formal schooling that a person completes—and lead to success across the life course, according to a new study.
The research provides evidence for the idea that inheriting genes that affect things other than cognitive ability are important for understanding differences in people's life outcomes. Until now there had been questions about what these noncognitive skills are and how much they really matter for life outcomes. The new findings are published in the journal Nature Genetics.
"Genetic studies of educational attainment were initiated with the goal of identifying genes that influenced cognitive abilities. They've had some success in doing that. But it turns out they've also identified genetics that influence a range of other skills and characteristics. What was most surprising about the results was that these noncognitive skills contributed just as much to the heritability of educational attainment as cognitive ability. Of the total genetic influence on educational attainment, referred to as the heritability, cognitive abilities accounted for 43 percent and noncognitive skills accounted for 57 percent.
Similar to the genetics of cognitive abilities, the genetics of noncognitive skills were related to achievements outside of schooling, including holding more prestigious jobs, earning higher incomes, and living longer. And, genes associated with noncognitive skills showed relationships with these other life outcomes that were as strong or stronger than the relationships seen with cognitive genetics. These results were important proof of concept. They showed us that noncognitive skills genetics have implications for economics and public health similar to the genetics of cognitive abilities.
Overall, the genetics of noncognitive skills were associated with higher tolerance of risks, greater willingness to forego immediate gratification, less health-risk behavior, and delayed fertility. Researchers also observed that noncognitive skill genetics were associated with a constellation of personality traits linked with success in relationships and at work, such as being curious and eager to learn, being more emotionally stable, and being more industrious and orderly.
Nature Genetics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-020-00754-2
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-noncognitive-skillsdistinct-...
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Cognitive and noncognitive skills - ACT
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Where antibiotic resistance comes from
By comparing thousands of bacterial genomes, scientists in Gothenburg, Sweden have traced back the evolutionary history of antibiotic resistance genes. In almost all cases where an origin could be determined, the gene started to spread from bacteria that, themselves, can cause disease.
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Keeping sperm cells on track
An essential component of every eukaryotic cell is the cytoskeleton. Microtubules, tiny tubes consisting of a protein called tubulin, are part of this skeleton of cells. Cilia and flagella, which are antenna-like structures that protrude from most of the cells in our body, contain many microtubules. An example of flagell is the sperm tail, which is essential for male fertility and thus for sexual reproduction. The flagellum has to beat in a very precise and coordinated manner to allow progressive swimming of the sperm. Failure to do so can lead to male infertility.
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Researchers turn coal powder into graphite in microwave oven
Using copper foil, glass containers and a conventional household microwave oven, University of Wyoming researchers have demonstrated that pulverized coal powder can be converted into higher-value nano-graphite.
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Including unhealthy foods may diminish positive effects of an other...
Eating a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, has a positive impact on health, but little is known about the effects of including unhealthy foods in an otherwise healthy diet. Now researchers at Rush University Medical Center have reported diminished benefits of a Mediterranean diet among those with high frequency of eating unhealthy foods. The results of their study were published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association on Jan. 7.
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Researchers report new state of matter described as 'liquid glass'
Discovery of liquid glass sheds light on the old scientific problem of the glass transition: An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Konstanz has uncovered a new state of matter, liquid glass, with previously unknown structural elements—new insights into the nature of glass and its transitions.
Using a model system involving suspensions of tailor-made ellipsoidal colloids, the researchers uncovered a new state of matter, liquid glass, where individual particles are able to move yet unable to rotate—complex behavior that has not previously been observed in bulk glasses. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jörg Roller et al. Observation of liquid glass in suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018072118
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-state-liquid-glass.html?utm_source=nw...
While glass is a truly ubiquitous material that we use on a daily basis, it also represents a major scientific conundrum. Contrary to what one might expect, the true nature of glass remains something of a mystery, with scientific inquiry into its chemical and physical properties still underway. In chemistry and physics, the term glass itself is a mutable concept: It includes the substance we know as window glass, but it may also refer to a range of other materials with properties that can be explained by reference to glass-like behavior, including, for instance, metals, plastics, proteins, and even biological cells.
While it may give the impression, glass is anything but conventionally solid. Typically, when a material transitions from a liquid to a solid state the molecules line up to form a crystal pattern. In glass, this does not happen. Instead, the molecules are effectively frozen in place before crystallization happens. This strange and disordered state is characteristic of glasses across different systems and scientists are still trying to understand how exactly this metastable state forms.
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Unravelling the mystery that makes viruses infectious
Researchers have for the first time identified the way viruses like the poliovirus and the common cold virus 'package up' their genetic code, allowing them to infect cells.
The findings open up the possibility that drugs or anti-viral agents can be developed that would stop such infections.
Once a cell is infected, a virus needs to spread its genetic material to other cells. This is a complex process involving the creation of what are known as virions—newly-formed infectious copies of the virus. Each virion is a protein shell containing a complete copy of the virus's genetic code. The virions can then infect other cells and cause disease.
What has been a mystery until now is a detailed understanding of the way the virus assembles these daughter virions. If we can disrupt the mechanism of virion formation, then there is the potential to stop an infection in its tracks.
The analysis suggests that the molecular features that control the process of virion formation are genetically conserved, meaning they do not mutate easily—reducing the risk that the virus could change and make any new drugs ineffective.
The study published today details the role of what are called RNA packaging signals, short regions of the RNA molecule which together with proteins from the virus's casing ensure accurate and efficient formation of an infectious virion.
Using a combination of molecular and mathematical biology, the researchers were able to identify possible sites on the RNA molecule that could act as packaging signals. Using advanced electron microscopes at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory at the University of Leeds, scientists were able to directly visualise this process—the first time that has been possible with any virus of this type.
Rebecca Chandler-Bostock et al, Assembly of infectious enteroviruses depends on multiple, conserved genomic RNA-coat protein contacts, PLOS Pathogens (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009146
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-unravelling-mystery-viruses-infectiou...
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Scientists developing new solutions for honeybee colony collapse
Scientists at four University of California campuses, including UC San Diego, are leading a new effort to stop and reverse a worldwide decline in honeybees, which threatens food security and prices. Honeybees pollinate more than 80 agricultural crops, which account for about a third of what we eat. Several factors, including pesticide exposure and the spread of parasites and environmental changes, are to blame for the widespread collapse of bee colonies over the past decade. To boost dwindling honeybee populations.
Researchers will be testing how nutritional supplements may help bees that have been exposed to pesticides and on how to harness the natural honey bee microbiome against a very common bee gut disease.
Researchers have also focused a great deal on the harms caused by pesticides and this has helped improve some aspects of regulation.
Research is also aimed at understanding the complex genomes of feral honey bees. These bees have genomes that are a complex mixture of genomes of honey bee varieties from Africa, Europe and the Middle East. They are highly genetically diverse and ecologically successful. Their genomes likely hold variation useful to breeding domesticated honey bees with increased levels of resistance to the common diseases that currently plague the honey bee industry. They seek to identify and breed bees that are better able to cope with environmental stress
A second goal of the new network is to develop medications and treatments for sick bees. Certain types of honeybees generate molecules that make them more tolerant of pesticides and parasites. New technology will enable the scientists to isolate those molecules and use them as a basis for drugs.
Finally, the group is looking to give beekeepers tools to better monitor bees’ health. Small devices will be able to “listen” and “smell” inside hives to give beekeepers indications about the health of the hive.
“We know bee queens have a special pheromone they give off when they’re hungry or dying, and these can be traced,” Baer said. “We are essentially building ‘electronic veterinarians.’”
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https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/scientists-developing-new-so...
https://researchnews.cc/news/4531/Scientists-developing-new-solutio...
Jan 11, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Scientists discover bizarre new mode of snake locomotion
A team of researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Cincinnati have discovered a new mode of snake locomotion that allows the brown tree snake to ascend much larger smooth cylinders than any previously known behaviour.
This lasso locomotion, named because of a lasso-like body posture, may contribute to the success and impact of this highly invasive species. It allows these animals to access potential prey that might otherwise be unobtainable and may also explain how this species could climb power poles, leading to electrical outages.
Researchers said they hope the findings will help people protect endangered birds from the snakes.
For nearly 100 years, all snake locomotion has been traditionally categorized into four modes: rectilinear, lateral undulation, sidewinding and concertina.
This new discovery of a fifth mode of locomotion was the unexpected result . Even though they can climb using this mode, it is pushing them to the limits. The snakes pause for prolonged periods to rest.
Current Biology, Savidge et al.: "A novel mode of locomotion expands the climbing abilities of snakes"
www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(20)31763-2 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.050
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-bizarre-mode-snake-locomot...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Galaxy mergers could limit star formation
Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth.
New research shows that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the intergalactic medium by the coming together of two galaxies.
The researchers say that this event, together with a large amount of star formation in the nuclear regions of the galaxy, would eventually deprive the merged galaxy—called ID2299—of fuel for new stars. This would stop star formation for several hundred million years, effectively halting the galaxy's development.
Astronomers observe many massive, dead galaxies containing very old stars in the nearby Universe and don't exactly know how these galaxies have been formed.
Simulations suggest that winds generated by active black holes as they feed, or those created by intense star formation, are responsible for such deaths by expelling the gas from galaxies.
Now this study offers galaxy mergers as another way of shutting down star formation and altering galaxy growth.
A titanic interstellar medium ejection from a massive starburst galaxy at redshift 1.4, Nature Astronomy (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01268-x , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01268-x
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-galaxy-mergers-limit-star-formation.h...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Inspired by kombucha tea, engineers create 'living materials'
Engineers at MIT and Imperial College London have developed a new way to generate tough, functional materials using a mixture of bacteria and yeast similar to the "kombucha mother" used to ferment tea.
Using this mixture, also called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), the researchers were able to produce cellulose embedded with enzymes that can perform a variety of functions, such as sensing environmental pollutants. They also showed that they could incorporate yeast directly into the material, creating "living materials" that could be used to purify water or to make "smart" packaging materials that can detect damage.
This work shows diverse materials could be grown at home or in local production facilities, using biology rather than resource-intensive centralized manufacturing.
Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures, Nature Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-00857-5 , www.nature.com/articles/s41563-020-00857-5
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-kombucha-tea-materials.html?utm_sourc...
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Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Neuroscientists identify brain circuit that encodes timing of events
When we experience a new event, our brain records a memory of not only what happened, but also the context, including the time and location of the event. A new study from MIT neuroscientists sheds light on how the timing of a memory is encoded in the hippocampus, and suggests that time and space are encoded separately.
In a study of mice, the researchers identified a hippocampal circuit that the animals used to store information about the timing of when they should turn left or right in a maze. When this circuit was blocked, the mice were unable to remember which way they were supposed to turn next. However, disrupting the circuit did not appear to impair their memory of where they were in space.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that when we form new memories, different populations of neurons in the brain encode time and place information, the researchers say.
There is an emerging view that 'place cells' and 'time cells' organize memories by mapping information onto the hippocampus. This spatial and temporal context serves as a scaffold that allows us to build our own personal timeline of memories.
Christopher J. MacDonald el al., "Crucial role for CA2 inputs in the sequential organization of CA1 time cells supporting memory," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2020698118
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-neuroscientists-brain-circui...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
There's no way to measure the speed of light in a single direction
Special relativity is one of the most strongly validated theories humanity has ever devised. It is central to everything from space travel and GPS to our electrical power grid. Central to relativity is the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant. The problem is, that fact has never been proven.
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Unveiling the double origin of cosmic dust in the distant Universe
Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA—Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, now explains how this was possible. Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolution and, for the first time, found evidence for a rapid growth of dust due to a high concentration of metals in the distant Universe. The study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offers a new approach to investigate the evolutionary phase of massive objects.
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Five ways to manage your screen time in a lockdown, according to tech experts
1. Setting limits
2. Online Support Groups
3. Self-reflection
4. Know your triggers
5. Prioritise the social
https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-manage-your-screen-time-in...
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-ways-screen-lockdown-tech-exper...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Bacterium produces pharmaceutical all-purpose weapon
Study should significantly facilitate research into the promising substance
Cornelia Hermes, René Richarz, Daniel A. Wirtz, Julian Patt, Wiebke Hanke, Stefan Kehraus, Jan Hendrik Voß, Jim Küppers, Tsubasa Ohbayashi, Vigneshwaran Namasivayam, Judith Alenfelder, Asuka Inoue, Peter Mergaert, Michael Gütschow, Christa E. Müller, Evi Kostenis, Gabriele M. König & Max Crüsemann:
Thioesterase-mediated side chain transesteri ?cation generates potent Gq signaling inhibitor FR900359; Nature Communications; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20418-3
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uob-bpp011121.php
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Reasons to study science communication beyond the West
All cultures have communicated their knowledge in diverse and marvellous ways throughout time. Failing to see the significance of this is racist and lazy.
https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-to-study-science-communicatio...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Most Covid-19 patients have at least one symptom 6 months on: study
More than three quarters of people hospitalised with Covid-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published Saturday that scientists said shows the need for further investigation into lingering coronavirus effects. The research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal and involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is among the few to trace the long-term symptoms of Covid-19 infection. It found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleeping difficulties. "Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patients' health," said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine. The professor said the research highlighted the need for ongoing care for patients after they have been discharged from hospital, particularly those who have had severe infections.
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Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Why does ice float on water?
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/why-does-ice-float-on-water/?u...
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Scientist develops method to find toxic chemicals in drinking water
Most consumers of drinking water in the United States know that chemicals are used in the treatment processes to ensure the water is safe to drink. But they might not know that the use of some of these chemicals, such as chlorine, can also lead to the formation of unregulated toxic byproducts.
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How does Wi-Fi work?
https://theconversation.com/how-does-wi-fi-work-an-electrical-engin...
Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Breakthrough technology promises earlier detection for Alzheimer’s disease
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Discovery of quantum behavior in insulators suggests possible new particle
In a surprising discovery, Princeton physicists have observed an unexpected quantum behavior in an insulator made from a material called tungsten ditelluride. This phenomenon, known as quantum oscillation, is typically observed in metals rather than insulators, and its discovery offers new insights into our understanding of the quantum world. The findings also hint at the existence of an entirely new type of quantum particle.
The discovery challenges a long-held distinction between metals and insulators, because in the established quantum theory of materials, insulators were not thought to be able to experience quantum oscillations.
If scientists' interpretations are correct, we are dealing with a fundamentally new form of quantum matter.
The observation of quantum oscillations has long been considered a hallmark of the difference between metals and insulators. In metals, electrons are highly mobile, and resistivity—the resistance to electrical conduction—is weak. Nearly a century ago, researchers observed that a magnetic field, coupled with very low temperatures, can cause electrons to shift from a "classical" state to a quantum state, causing oscillations in the metal's resistivity. In insulators, by contrast, electrons cannot move and the materials have very high resistivity, so quantum oscillations of this sort are not expected to occur, no matter the strength of magnetic field applied.
The discovery was made when the researchers were studying a material called tungsten ditelluride, which they made into a two-dimensional material. They prepared the material by using standard scotch tape to increasingly exfoliate, or "shave," the layers down to what is called a monolayer—a single atom-thin layer. Thick tungsten ditelluride behaves like a metal. But once it is converted to a monolayer, it becomes a very strong insulator.
This material has a lot of quantum properties.
Pengjie Wang et al, Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-discovery-quantum-behavior-insulators...
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Researchers develop oral insulin nanoparticles that could be an alternative to jabs
Scientists have developed insulin nanoparticles that may one day become the basis for an oral medicine, and an alternative to insulin injections for diabetic patients.
In a pre-clinical study, the scientist team fed insulin-containing nanoparticles to rats and found that insulin increased in their blood minutes later.
Insulin therapy is often an important part of treatment for diabetes, a metabolic disease that affects 422 million people globally .
Delivering insulin orally would be preferable over insulin jabs for patients because it causes less pain than jabs, and could thus lead to improved patient compliance. But oral dosage remains a challenge. As insulin is a protein, it gets broken down in the gastrointestinal tract before it can even reach the bloodstream to regulate blood glucose.
To overcome this challenge, the interdisciplinary team designed a nanoparticle loaded with insulin at the core, then coated with alternating layers of insulin and chitosan, a natural sugar. Dosing is achieved by controlling the number of layers in the nanoparticle.
Through lab experiments using cell cultures and rat models, the team demonstrated that this layer-by-layer coated nanoparticle is stable as it passes through the stomach into the small intestine with minimal insulin release, and is able to pass through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream.
Yiming Zhang et al. Layer-by-layer coated nanoliposomes for oral delivery of insulin, Nanoscale (2020). DOI: 10.1039/D0NR06104B
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-oral-insulin-nanoparticles-alternativ...
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Washing your clothes can create microplastic pollution
Households in Europe and North America are flooding the oceans with plastic pollution simply by washing their clothes, scientists said Tuesday after research found the majority of microplastics in Arctic seawater were polyester fibres.
Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet.
These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean—the Mariana Trench—peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.
But questions remain over exactly where this plastic contamination is coming from.
In the new study by the Ocean Wise conservation group and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, researchers sampled seawater from across the Arctic and found synthetic fibres made up around 92 percent of microplastic pollution.
Of this, around 73 percent was found to be polyester, resembling the dimensions and chemical identities of synthetic textiles—particularly clothing.
"The striking conclusion here is that we now have strong evidence that homes in Europe and North America are directly polluting the Arctic with fibres from laundry (via wastewater discharge)
Pervasive distribution of polyester fibres in the Arctic Ocean is driven by Atlantic inputs, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20347-1 , www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20347-1
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-arctic-microplastic-pollution.html?ut...
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Scientists Discover a New Type of Chemical Bond, And It's Surprisingly Strong
It's like the hydrogen bonds found in water, but way stronger.
Scientists have recently discovered a totally new type of chemical bond – and it's way stronger than it has any right to be.
The new type of bond shows that the divide between powerful covalent bonds, which bind molecules together, and weak hydrogen bonds, which form between molecules and can be broken by something as simple as stirring salt into a glass of water.
Ionic bonds link metals and non-metals to form salts. Strong covalent bonds bind together molecules like carbon dioxide and water. Far weaker hydrogen bonds form because of an electrostatic type of attraction between hydrogen and a more negatively charged atom or molecule, for instance causing water molecules to attract one another and form droplets or crystalline ice.
Ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonds are all relatively stable; they tend to last for extended periods of time and have effects are easily observable.
But researchers have long known that during a chemical reaction, as chemical bonds are forming or breaking, the story is more complicated and involves "intermediate states" that may exist for tiny fractions of a second and are more difficult to observe.
In the new study, the researchers managed to keep these intermediate states going for long enough to make a detailed examination. What they found was a hydrogen bond with the strength of a covalent bond, binding atoms together into something resembling a molecule.
https://www.livescience.com/new-chemical-bond-discovered.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-a-new-type-of-chem...
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
The properties and anatomy of an unfixed brain.
WARNING: The video contains graphic images
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Error-protected quantum bits entangled for the first time
Error-protected quantum bits entangled for the first time
For the first time, physicists from the University of Innsbruck have entangled two quantum bits distributed over several quantum objects and successfully transmitted their quantum properties. This marks an important milestone in the development of fault-tolerant quantum computers. The researchers published their report in Nature.
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Mathematics explains how giant whirlpools form in developing egg cells
Egg cells are among the largest cells in the animal kingdom. If moved only by the random jostlings of water molecules, a protein could take hours or even days to drift from one side of a forming egg cell to the other. Luckily, nature has developed a faster way: cell-spanning whirlpools in the immature egg cells of animals such as mice, zebrafish and fruit flies. These vortices enable cross-cell commutes that take just a fraction of the time. But until now, scientists didn't know how these crucial flows formed.
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Study Just Identified 6 Distinct Types of Prediabetes
People with prediabetes have a higher than normal blood sugar level, and sometimes – but not always – go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Doctors should now be able to better manage that risk, thanks to a study identifying six different subtypes of prediabetes.
In an analysis covering 25 years of data and 899 individuals, researchers were able to categorise these six subtypes through a series of shared biomarkers, including glucose levels, liver fat, body fat distribution, blood lipid levels, and genetic risk.
The six subtypes (or "clusters") carry different levels of risk when it comes to developing type 2 diabetes, and that should help health professionals in tailoring treatments to match, as well as managing prediabetes and the secondary issues that come with it.
Clusters 1, 2 and 4 represent a low diabetes risk: they include participants who aren't overweight, or who are overweight but have a relatively healthy metabolism. Clusters 3, 5 and 6, meanwhile, are linked to an increased risk of diabetes and secondary diseases.
Those in cluster 3 produce too little insulin naturally, as well as showing other biomarkers such as higher intima-media thickness (IMT) in their arteries. Cluster 5 includes people more resistant to the effects of insulin and also with higher amounts of liver fat.
Those in cluster 6 have higher levels of particular types of body fat (visceral and renal sinus). While these individuals have a lower risk of developing diabetes compared with clusters 3 and 5, there is a higher mortality risk and more chance of kidney malfunction in this group.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1116-9
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https://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-25-year-study-has-identified-six...
Jan 13, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age, scientists find
Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth.
Melting icebergs in the Antarctic are the key, say the team from Cardiff University, triggering a series of chain reactions that plunges Earth into a prolonged period of cold temperatures.
The findings have been published today in Nature from an international consortium of scientists from universities around the world.
It has long been known that ice age cycles are paced by periodic changes to Earth's orbit of the sun, which subsequently changes the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface.
However, up until now it has been a mystery as to how small variations in solar energy can trigger such dramatic shifts in the climate on Earth.
In their study, the team propose that when the orbit of Earth around the sun is just right, Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.
As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale ocean circulation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.
This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions.
As part of their study the scientists used multiple techniques to reconstruct past climate conditions, which included identifying tiny fragments of Antarctic rock dropped in the open ocean by melting icebergs.
Antarctic icebergs reorganize ocean circulation during Pleistocene glacials, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03094-7 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03094-7
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-icebergs-key-sequence-ice-age.html?ut...
Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Fish-inspired robots coordinate movements without any outside control
Schools of fish exhibit complex, synchronized behaviors that help them find food, migrate and evade predators. No one fish or team of fish coordinates these movements nor do fish communicate with each other about what to do next. Rather, these collective behaviors emerge from so-called implicit coordination—individual fish making decisions based on what they see their neighbors doing.
This type of decentralized, autonomous self-organization and coordination has long fascinated scientists, especially in the field of robotics.
Now, a team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed fish-inspired robots that can synchronize their movements like a real school of fish, without any external control. It is the first time researchers have demonstrated complex 3-D collective behaviours with implicit coordination in underwater robots.
F. Berlinger el al., "Implicit coordination for 3D underwater collective behaviors in a fish-inspired robot swarm," Science Robotics (2021). robotics.sciencemag.org/lookup … /scirobotics.abd8668
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-fish-inspired-robots-movements....
Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Could we harness energy from black holes?
A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.
For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from a black hole; Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could release energy through quantum mechanical emission; while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek suggested electromagnetic torque as a main agent of energy extraction.
Now, in a study published in the journal Physical Review D, physicists Luca Comisso from Columbia University and Felipe Asenjo from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile, found a new way to extract energy from black holes by breaking and rejoining magnetic field lines near the event horizon, the point from which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole's gravitational pull.
"Black holes are commonly surrounded by a hot 'soup' of plasma particles that carry a magnetic field. This new theory theory shows that when magnetic field lines disconnect and reconnect, in just the right way, they can accelerate plasma particles to negative energies and large amounts of black hole energy can be extracted.
This finding could allow astronomers to better estimate the spin of black holes, drive black hole energy emissions, and might even provide a source of energy for the needs of an advanced civilization.
Luca Comisso and Felipe A. Asenjo. Magnetic reconnection as a mechanism for energy extraction from rotating black holes. Phys. Rev. D. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.023014 , journals.aps.org/prd/accepted/ … 304179756dd56a93a764
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-harness-energy-black-holes.html?utm_s...
Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Grey camouflage 'better than zebra stripes'
Dull, featureless camouflage provides better protection from predators than zebra stripes, according to a new study.
Biologists explaining the existence of such stripes have proposed the "motion dazzle hypothesis", which suggests that high-contrast patterns can make it difficult for predators to track a moving target.
University of Exeter scientists tested this using a touch-screen game called Dazzle Bug in which visitors to Cornwall's Eden Project had to catch a moving rectangular "bug".
Bug patterns were programmed to "evolve" to find the best camouflage strategy.
"Surprisingly, targets evolved to lose patterns and instead match their backgrounds.
The new study results indicate that low-contrast, featureless targets were hardest to catch when in motion. These findings provide the clearest evidence to date against the motion dazzle hypothesis and suggest that protection in motion may rely on completely different mechanisms to those previously assumed.
An online version of the game is available to play at www.dazzle-bug.co.uk
The evolution of patterning during movement in a large-scale citizen science game, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2020.2823
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-grey-camouflage-zebra-stripes.html?ut...
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Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Researchers identify nanoparticles that could deliver therapeutic mRNA before birth
Researchers have identified ionizable lipid nanoparticles that could be used to deliver mRNA as part of fetal therapy. The proof-of-concept study, published today in Science Advances, engineered and screened a number of lipid nanoparticle formulations for targeting mouse fetal organs and has laid the groundwork for testing potential therapies to treat genetic diseases before birth.
This is an important first step in identifying nonviral mediated approaches for delivering cutting-edge therapies before birth.
These lipid nanoparticles may provide a platform for in utero mRNA delivery, which would be used in therapies like fetal protein replacement and gene editing.
Having identified the lipid nanoparticles that were able to accumulate within fetal livers, lungs, and intestines with the highest efficiency and safety, the researchers also tested therapeutic potential of those designs by using them to deliver erythropoietin (EPO) mRNA, as the EPO protein is easily trackable. They found that EPO mRNA delivery to liver cells in mouse fetuses resulted in elevated levels of EPO protein in the fetal circulation, providing a model for protein replacement therapy via the liver using these lipid nanoparticles.
"Ionizable lipid nanoparticles for in utero mRNA delivery" Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba1028
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-nanoparticles-therapeutic-mrna-birth....
Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Researchers at Brazil's space institute discover why lightning branches and flickers
Researchers have recorded for the first time the formation and branching of luminous structures by lightning strikes.
Analyzing images captured by a super slow motion camera, they discovered why lightning strikes bifurcate and sometimes then form luminous structures interpreted by the human eye as flickers.
The researchers used ultra high speed digital video cameras to record more than 200 upward flashes during summer thunderstorms in São Paulo City (Brazil) and Rapid City, South Dakota (USA) between 2008 and 2019. Upward lightning strikes start from the top of a tall building or other ground-based structure and propagate upward to the overlying cloud.
The upward flashes they recorded were triggered by positively charged cloud-to-ground lightning discharges, which are much more common, as described by the same INPE research group in a previous study.
"Upward lightning originates at the top of a tower or the lightning conductor on a skyscraper, for example, when the storm's electrical field is disturbed by a cloud-to-ground discharge as far away as 60 kilometers.
Although the study conditions were very similar in Brazil and the US, luminous structures were observed in only three upward flashes, recorded in the US. These were formed by a positive leader discharge propagating toward the cloud base.
"The advantage of recording images of upward lightning is that they let us see the entire trajectory of these positive leaders from ground to cloud base. Once inside the cloud, they can no longer be seen.
The researchers found that a low-luminosity discharge with a structure resembling a paintbrush sometimes forms at the tip of the positive leader. It was observed that this discharge, often referred to as a corona brush, may change direction, split in two, and define the path of the lightning flash and how it branches.
When an upward flash branches successfully, it may proceed to the left or right. When branching fails, the corona brush may give rise to very short segments as bright as the leader itself. These segments first appear milliseconds after the corona brush splits, and pulsate as the leader propagates upward toward the cloud base, the videos show.
The flickers are recurring failed attempts to start a branch, the flickers may explain why multiple lightning discharges are frequent, but more studies are needed to verify this theory.
Marcelo M. F. Saba et al, Optical observation of needles in upward lightning flashes, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74597-6
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-brazil-space-lightning-flickers.html?...
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Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
These tiny oceanic creatures are essential to tackling climate change
The ocean withdraws about one third of the CO₂ in the atmosphere, mitigating climate change and making life possible on Earth. An important share of this CO2 is removed thanks to phytoplankton, tiny marine creatures that use light to do photosynthesis, just as plants or trees on land. These cells fix CO2 to build up biomass and multiply, and take it down to the deep ocean when they die and sink. Phytoplankton are thus the basis of the marine food chain, and their productivity not only affects CO2 levels, but also fish catch and world economy.
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Wormholes may be lurking in the universe—and new studies are propos...
Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries. One was black holes, which were only unequivocally detected over the past few years. Another was "wormholes"—bridges connecting different points in spacetime, in theory providing shortcuts for space travelers.
Jan 14, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Models to analyse 'viral escape'
Model analyzes how viruses escape the immune system
One reason it's so difficult to produce effective vaccines against some viruses, including influenza and HIV, is that these viruses mutate very rapidly. This allows them to evade the antibodies generated by a particular vaccine, through a process known as "viral escape."
Researchers have now devised a new way to computationally model viral escape, based on models that were originally developed to analyze language. The model can predict which sections of viral surface proteins are more likely to mutate in a way that enables viral escape, and it can also identify sections that are less likely to mutate, making them good targets for new vaccines.
Viral escape of the surface protein of influenza and the envelope surface protein of HIV are both highly responsible for the fact that we don't have a universal flu vaccine, nor do we have a vaccine for HIV, both of which cause hundreds of thousands of deaths a year.
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B. Hie el al., "Learning the language of viral evolution and escape," Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abd7331
Y.-A. Kim el al., "The language of a virus," Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abf6894
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-viruses-immune.html?utm_source=nwlett...
Jan 15, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Scientists discover the secret of Galapagos' rich ecosystem
New research has unlocked the mystery of how the Galápagos Islands, a rocky, volcanic outcrop, with only modest rainfall and vegetation, is able to sustain its unique wildlife habitats.
The Galápagos archipelago, rising from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean some 900 kilometres off the South American mainland, is an iconic and globally significant biological hotspot. The islands are renowned for their unique wealth of endemic species, which inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and today underpins one of the largest UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Marine Reserves on Earth.
Scientists have known for decades that the regional ecosystem is sustained by upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich deep waters, which fuel the growth of the phytoplankton upon which the entire ecosystem thrives.
Yet despite its critical life-supporting role, the upwelling's controlling factors had remained undetermined prior to this new study. Establishing these controls, and their climate sensitivity, is critical to assessing the resilience of the regional ecosystem against modern climatic change.
In this new research, published in Scientific Reports, scientists used a realistic, high-resolution computer model to study the regional ocean circulation around the Galápagos Islands.
This model showed that the intensity of upwelling around the Galápagos is driven by local northward winds, which generate vigorous turbulence at upper-ocean fronts to the west of the islands. These fronts are areas of sharp lateral contrasts in ocean temperature, similar in character to atmospheric fronts in weather maps, but much smaller.
The turbulence drives upwelling of deep waters toward the ocean surface, thus providing the nutrients needed to sustain the Galápagos ecosystem. Galápagos upwelling is controlled by highly localised atmosphere-ocean interactions. There now needs to be a focus on these processes when monitoring how the islands' ecosystem is changing, and in mitigating the ecosystem's vulnerability to 21st -century climate change.
Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80609-2
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-secret-galapagos-rich-ecos...
Jan 15, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Sexual harassment claims considered more credible if made by 'prototypical' women
The study, involving more than 4,000 participants, reveals perceptions that primarily "prototypical" women are likely to be harassed. The research also showed that women outside of those socially determined norms—or "nonprototypical" women—are more likely perceived as not being harmed by harassment.
The consequences of that are very severe for women who fall outside of the narrow representation of who a victim is .
Nonprototypical women are neglected in ways that could contribute to them having discriminatory treatment under the law; people think they're less credible—and less harmed—when they make a claim, and think their perpetrators deserve less punishment.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2021). DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000260
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-sexual-credible-prototypical...
Jan 15, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
How aerosols are formed
Researchers recently conducted an experiment to investigate the initial steps in the formation of aerosols. Their findings are now aiding efforts to better understand and model that process—for example, the formation of clouds in the atmosphere.
Aerosols are suspensions of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Clouds, for example, are aerosols because they consist of water droplets dispersed in the air. Such droplets are produced in a two-step process: first, a condensation nucleus forms, and then volatile molecules condense onto this nucleus, producing a droplet. Nuclei frequently consist of molecules different to those that condense onto them. In the case of clouds, the nuclei often contain sulphuric acids and organic substances. Water vapor from the atmosphere subsequently condenses onto these nuclei.
Scientists l have now gained new insights into the first step of aerosol formation, nucleation. Observations have shown that the volatile components can also influence the nucleation process but what was unclear was how this was happening at the molecular level. Previously it was impossible to observe the volatile components during nucleation in an experimental setting. Even in a famous CERN experiment on cloud formation, certain volatile components could not be directly detected.
The ETH researchers developed an experiment aimed at the first microseconds of the nucleation process. In the experiment, the particles formed remain intact during this time and can be detected using mass spectrometry. The scientists looked at nucleation in various gas mixtures containing CO2 and for the first time, they were able to detect the volatile components as well—in this case, the CO2. The researchers could show that the volatile components were essential for the formation of nuclei and also accelerated this process.
An analysis of the experimental data revealed that this acceleration is the result of the volatile components catalyzing the nucleation of other, less volatile components. They do this by forming short-lived, heterogeneous molecular aggregates, known as chaperon complexes. Because temperature determines the volatility of gas components, it also plays a decisive role in these processes.
Chenxi Li et al. How volatile components catalyze vapor nucleation, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd9954
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-aerosols.html?utm_source=nwletter&...
Jan 15, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Cellular autofluorescence is magnetic field sensitive
How cells might sense Earth’s magnetic field
Glowing cells offer clues to the mysterious mechanism that animals such as birds, bats, eels and whales might use to navigate using Earth’s magnetic field. Cryptochrome, a protein found in plants and animals that can absorb light and emit an electromagnetic signal, has been a prime suspect for the source of magnetoreception — the ability to detect magnetic fields. Using a specialized microscope, scientists irradiated human cells, which caused cryptochromes to fluoresce. But when the researchers passed magnets over the cells, the fluorescence dropped. It’s the first time that cryptochromes have been observed responding to magnetic fields in a living cell.
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/3/e2018043118?utm_source=Nature+Br...
The radical pair mechanism is the favored hypothesis for explaining biological effects of weak magnetic fields, such as animal magnetoreception and possible adverse health effects. To date, however, there is no direct experimental evidence for magnetic effects on radical pair reactions in cells, the fundamental building blocks of living systems. In this paper, using a custom-built microscope, we demonstrate that flavin-based autofluorescence in native, untreated HeLa cells is magnetic field sensitive, due to the formation and electron spin–selective recombination of spin-correlated radical pairs. This work thus provides a direct link between magnetic field effects on chemical reactions measured in solution and chemical reactions taking place in living cells.
Jan 15, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Future homes could be made of living fungus
Mushroom house: a 'tiny house' out of mushrooms - Mushroom Tiny House, a 64-square-foot home designed by Ecovative Design that uses mycelium -- a type of fungi -- to literally grow the structure from the inside out.
There are two principal advantages to this. First, living fungus might behave as a self-healing material, simply re-growing if it becomes damaged. Second, mycelium networks are capable of information processing. Electrical signals run through them and change over time in a manner almost akin to a brain. Fungal materials respond to tactile stimulation and illumination by changing their patterns of electrical activity.
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-future-homes-fungus.html?utm_source=n...
Jan 16, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Snakes evolve a magnetic way to be resistant to venom
Certain snakes have evolved a unique genetic trick to avoid being eaten by venomous snakes, according to new research. the technique worked in a manner similar to the way two sides of a magnet repel each other.
The target of snake venom neurotoxins is a strongly negatively charged nerve receptor.
This has caused neurotoxins to evolve with positively charged surfaces, thereby guiding them to the neurological target to produce paralysis.
"But some snakes have evolved to replace a negatively charged amino acid on their receptor with a positively charged one, meaning the neurotoxin is repelled.
It's an inventive genetic mutation and it's been completely missed until now. this trait has evolved at least 10 times in different species of snakes.
The researchers found that the Burmese python—a slow-moving terrestrial species vulnerable to predation by cobras—is extremely neurotoxin resistant. Similarly, the South African mole snake, another slow-moving snake vulnerable to cobras, is also extremely resistant.
But Asian pythons which live in trees as babies, and Australian pythons which do not live alongside neurotoxic snake-eating snake, do not have this resistance.
We've long known that some species—like the mongoose—are resistant to snake venom through a mutation that physically blocks neurotoxins by having a branch-like structure sticking out of the receptor, but this is the first time the magnet-like effect has been observed.
It has also evolved in venomous snakes to be resistant to their own neurotoxins on at least two occasions.
Richard J. Harris et al. Electrostatic resistance to alpha-neurotoxins conferred by charge reversal mutations in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2703
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-snakes-evolve-magnetic-resistant-veno...
Jan 16, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Scientists identify nutrient that helps prevent bacterial infection
Scientists studying the body's natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient—taurine—that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics.
Scientists know that microbiota—the trillions of beneficial microbes living harmoniously inside our gut—can protect people from bacterial infections, but little is known about how they provide protection. Scientists are studying the microbiota with an eye to finding or enhancing natural treatments to replace antibiotics, which harm microbiota and become less effective as bacteria develop drug resistance.
The scientists observed that microbiota that had experienced prior infection and transferred to germ-free mice helped prevent infection with Kpn. They identified a class of bacteria—Deltaproteobacteria—involved in fighting these infections, and further analysis led them to identify taurine as the trigger for Deltaproteobacteria activity.
Taurine helps the body digest fats and oils and is found naturally in bile acids in the gut. The poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide is a byproduct of taurine. The scientists believe that low levels of taurine allow pathogens to colonize the gut, but high levels produce enough hydrogen sulfide to prevent colonization. During the study, the researchers realized that a single mild infection is sufficient to prepare the microbiota to resist subsequent infection, and that the liver and gallbladder—which synthesize and store bile acids containing taurine—can develop long-term infection protection.
The study found that taurine given to mice as a supplement in drinking water also prepared the microbiota to prevent infection. However, when mice drank water containing bismuth subsalicylate—a common over-the-counter drug used to treat diarrhea and upset stomach—infection protection waned because bismuth inhibits hydrogen sulfide production.
A Stacy et al. Infection trains the host for microbiota-enhanced resistance to pathogens. Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.12.011 (2021).
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-nutrient-bacterial-infecti...
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Jan 16, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
New treatment target discovered that halts osteoarthritis-like knee...
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Jan 16, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Seagrass Is Doing Us All a Favor And Trapping Our Plastic in Balls
Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap bits of plastic in natural bundles of fibre known as 'Neptune balls', researchers said Thursday.
With no help from humans, the swaying plants – anchored to shallow seabeds – may collect nearly 900 million plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, they reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79370-3
Jan 17, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Neon-green flourescence in the desert gecko Pachydactylus rangei
Jan 17, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Extremely Rare Phenomenon Sees Babies Inhale Cancer Cells During Va...
Transmitting cancer from mother to child is rare, but it does happen.
It's not impossible for an infant to get cancer from their mother, but it doesn't happen very often.
Researchers estimate transmission of maternal cancer to offspring occurs perhaps only twice in every million births for mothers with cancer, with the diseased cells being delivered to the infant via the placenta in these exceedingly rare and unfortunate cases.
But that's not the only way a mother with cancer might unknowingly infect her child, scientists say.
In a new case study published by researchers in Japan, doctors report what appears to be a medical first: vaginal transmission of cancer cells from mothers with cervical cancer to infants at the moment of their birth.
"Mother-to-infant transmission of tumour in the birth canal during vaginal delivery is also theoretically possible.
If the mother has cervical cancer, the infant can be exposed to tumour cells in fluids in the birth canal and could aspirate tumour cells into the lungs.
This obscure and previously unknown vector – inhaling cancer in your very first breaths, ostensibly – appears to be responsible for two otherwise unlinked cases of paediatric lung cancer diagnosed in a pair of young male patients: a 23-month-old and a six-year-old.
In both cases, the patients presented to hospital with symptoms of their illness, the 23-month-old experiencing coughing, and the six-year-old experiencing chest pain.
In each instance, CT scans revealed what eventually turned out to be cancerous tumours in the boys' lungs, which were successfully treated in both cases – although not easily.
The peribronchial [relating to airways of the respiratory system] pattern of tumour growth in both children suggested that the tumours arose from mother-to-infant vaginal transmission through aspiration of tumour-contaminated vaginal fluids during birth
In most cases involving mother-to-foetus transmission of cancer, the placental delivery of cancerous cells tends to result in the spreading of cancers to the brain, bones, liver, and other tissues, including the lungs. Here, it was just the lungs – which offers a strong clue as to how the disease could have been delivered to the boys' own bodies.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2030391
https://www.sciencealert.com/extremely-rare-phenomenon-sees-babies-...
Jan 17, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
A Man Injected Magic Mushroom 'Tea' Into His Veins, And Fungus Grew Inside Him
A man brewed a tea from "magic mushrooms" and injected the concoction into his veins; several days later, he ended up at the emergency department with the fungus growing in his blood.
The man spent 22 days in the hospital, with eight of those days in the intensive care unit (ICU), where he received treatment for multisystem organ failure.
Now released, he is still being treated with a long-term regimen of antibiotic and antifungal drugs, according to a description of the case published January 11 in the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266729602030015X
The case didn't reveal whether injecting shroom tea can cause persistent psychoactive effects, as sometimes seen when people ingest the fungus orally, the doctors wrote in the report.
For example, in rare cases, people can develop a condition called hallucinogen-induced persisting perception disorder (HPPD), where they experience vivid flashbacks of their trip long after the fact, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The case "underscores the need for ongoing public education regarding the dangers attendant to the use of this, and other drugs, in ways other than they are prescribed," the doctors wrote.
https://www.livescience.com/magic-mushroom-injection-case-report.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/patient-grows-magic-mushrooms-in-his-b...
Jan 17, 2021
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Why remdesivir does not fully stop the coronavirus
Remdesivir is the first drug against Covid-19 to be conditionally approved in Europe and the United States. The drug is designed to suppress the rapid replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human cells by blocking the viral copying machine, called RNA polymerase. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and the University of Würzburg have now elucidated how remdesivir interferes with the viral polymerase during copying and why it does not inhibit it completely. After complicated studies, they come to a simple conclusion. Remdesivir does interfere with the polymerase while doing its work, but only after some delay. And the drug does not fully stop the enzyme.
After remdesivir had been incorporated into the viral genome, the researchers examined the polymerase-RNA complexes using biochemical methods and cryo-electron microscopy. They discovered that the copying process pauses precisely when three more building blocks have been added after remdesivir was incorporated into the RNA chain. “The polymerase does not allow the installation of a fourth one. This pausing is caused by only two atoms in the structure of remdesivir that get hooked at a specific site on the polymerase. However, remdesivir does not fully block RNA production. Often, the polymerase continues its work after correcting the error.
Understanding how remdesivir works opens up new opportunities for scientists to tackle the virus. Now that theyknow how remdesivir inhibits the corona polymerase, they can work on improving the substance and its effect. In addition, we want to search for new compounds that stop the viral copying machine.
https://researchnews.cc/news/4679/Why-remdesivir-does-not-fully-sto...
https://www.mpg.de/16261941/0113-bich-why-remdesivir-does-not-fully...
Jan 18, 2021