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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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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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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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...

Breakthrough technology promises earlier detection for Alzheimer’s disease

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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....

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...

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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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....

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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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.

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...

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...

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&...

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.

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...

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...

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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Neon-green flourescence in the desert gecko Pachydactylus rangei

Extremely Rare Phenomenon Sees Babies Inhale Cancer Cells During Va...

Transmitting cancer from mother to child is rare, but it does happen.

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...

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...

RNA folding in action

Heard about vampire birds? Watch them drinking blood in this video

In the Galápagos, when there's no food to be found, the sharp-beaked ground finch adapts with a bloodthirsty appetite. Their target: nearby seabirds called boobies

Type 2 diabetes: short-term low-carb diet linked to remission – but...

Latest meta-analysis shows weight loss is the most important factor in achieving remission.

Fake news: bold visual warnings needed to stop people clicking – ne...

Prominent 'danger' signs are needed online to warn people about misinformation.

https://theconversation.com/fake-news-bold-visual-warnings-needed-t...

The honey detectives are closing in on China’s shady syrup swindlers

Honey tests

Honey is not just a single consistent substance. Instead it’s a complex mix of sugars which vary according to the region it comes from, the flowers it is derived from and the time of harvesting. Designing a test that can work across a range of honeys and pick out the adulterated ones is a serious scientific challenge.

Historically regulators have relied on the one internationally accepted test, technically known as AOAC 998.12, but usually called the C4 Sugar test. This exploits the fact that the sugar molecules produced by tropical plants, such as sugarcane and maize, have four carbon atoms (C4), while the nectar and pollen protein collected by bees typically come from plants whose sugars have three carbon atoms (C3).

The test uses this difference to see whether C4 sugars have been added to honey. Fraudsters have, however, long been aware of this test – and how to beat it. They simply found other sources of cheap syrup, such as from rice or sugar beet, whose sugar molecules resemble those in honey – so undermining the test.

Scientists have fought back with other approaches, including liquid chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (lc/irms) which can detect C3 sugars from rice and sugar beet. But the laboratories warn fraudsters have found ways around this test too, creating syrups which mimic the composition of honey. Chinese traders even advertise on Alibaba that their syrup for blending with honey will pass the C4/C3 sugar tests.

There are other tests, but they all have their limitations. There are tests for enzymes such as beta-fructofuranosidase, which are used in industrial processes to turn sucrose into fructose, but the UK honey industry claims they can produce false positives because they do not properly account for the wide variations in honey profiles around the world.

Another test detects psicose in honey, a rare sugar which is not usually found in honey and is a marker for syrup adulteration. This sugar is however found naturally in a very small number of honeys, including chestnut honey, and is therefore unsuitable for prosecuting suspected fraudsters.

The failure to win the technological arms race means regulators are usually unable to prosecute – even though many scientists believe vast quantities of honey sold in shops are adulterated. No existing tests for honey purity are considered sufficiently robust to prove fraud. Or at least not until now.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is the technology that could change everything. It works by bathing samples in a powerful magnetic field, causing the atoms to resonate. The resonant frequencies of the nuclei in the atoms are then converted into peaks or spectra on a graph, generating a unique magnetic ‘signature’ for each sample.

In the case of honey, the technique is used to compare the molecular profile of a sample ‘honey’ with the NMR database of genuine honeys to establish authenticity. NMR can identify all the sugars, proteins and other molecules present – including those which should never be in any pure natural honey.

Beekeepers hope NMR will prove a technological lifeline.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/honey-fraud-detection?utm_source=Na...

New tool removes chemotherapy drugs from water systems

'What goes in, must come out' is a familiar refrain. It is especially pertinent to the challenges facing UBC researchers who are investigating methods to remove chemicals and pharmaceuticals from public water systems.

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grounded following two fatal crashes.

https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/tmb/2021/fakenewsbold.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="" class="CToWUd" />

Fake news: Bold visual warnings needed to stop people clicking – ne... A senior doctor in charge of the NHS anti-disinformation campaign has said that language and cultural barriers could be causing people from ethnic minorities to reject the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Harpreet Sood told the BBC it was "a big concern" and officials were working hard to reach different groups "to correct so much fake news."

Your Partner’s Genome May Affect Your Health

A study using data from more than 80,000 couples finds evidence of indirect genetic effects on traits ranging from smoking habits to mental health.

C. Xia et al., “Evidence of horizontal indirect genetic effects in humans,” Nat Hum Behav, doi:10.1038/s41562-020-00991-9, 2020.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/your-partners-genome-may...

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/your-partners-genome-may...

Why cancer cells waste so much energy

study sheds light on the longstanding question of why cancer cells get their energy from fermentation.

In the 1920s, German chemist Otto Warburg discovered that cancer cells don't metabolize sugar the same way that healthy cells usually do. Since then, scientists have tried to figure out why cancer cells use this alternative pathway, which is much less efficient. Now biologists have now found a possible answer to this longstanding question. In a study appearing in Molecular Cell, they showed that this metabolic pathway, known as fermentation, helps cells to regenerate large quantities of a molecule called NAD+, which they need to synthesize DNA and other important molecules. Their findings also account for why other types of rapidly proliferating cells, such as immune cells, switch over to fermentation. This has really been a hundred-year-old paradox that many people have tried to explain in different ways.

Why cancer cells waste so much energy

https://news.mit.edu/2021/cancer-cells-waste-energy-0115

https://researchnews.cc/news/4689/Why-cancer-cells-waste-so-much-en...

Brilliant magnetar eruption in neighboring galaxy could aid search in the Milky Way

Termite mounds inspire energy-efficient buildings

Butterflies create jet propulsion with a clap of their wings

The whimsical, wafting flight of butterflies may not give the impression of top aerodynamic performance, but research published recently suggests their large flexible wings could be perfectly designed to give them a burst of jet propulsion.

Scientists set out to verify a decades-old theory that insects "clap" their wings together, squeezing out the air between with such force that it thrusts them forward.

In their aerodynamic analysis of free-flying butterflies published in the journal Interface, they showed that the clap function does generate a jet of air propulsion. But they also found that the butterflies perform this move "in a far more advanced way than we ever realised"

These findings could have uses for drones that use clapping wing propulsion.

L. C. Johansson et al. Butterflies fly using efficient propulsive clap mechanism owing to flexible wings, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2020.0854

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-butterflies-jet-propulsion-wings.html...

Designer DNA therapeutic wipes out cancer stem cells, treats multiple myeloma in mice

Many patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, eventually develop resistance to one treatment after another. That's in part because cancer stem cells drive the disease—cells that continually self-renew. If a therapy can't completely destroy these malignant stem cells, the cancer is likely to keep coming back.

Researchers are taking a new, targeted approach to myeloma treatment—silencing IRF4, a gene that allows myeloma stem cells and tumour cells to proliferate and survive. Past studies have shown that high IRF4 levels are associated with lower overall survival rates for patients with the disease.

The team details their successes inhibiting IRF4 with an antisense oligonucleotide, an engineered piece of DNA specifically designed to bind the genetic material coding for IRF4, causing it to degrade. The oligonucleotide—an investigational antisense medicine developed by Ionis and known as ION251—lowered disease burden, reduced myeloma stem cell abundance and increased survival of mice bearing human myeloma, according to preclinical study data.

Cell Stem Cell (2021). www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fu … 1934-5909(20)30601-9

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-dna-therapeutic-cancer-stem-...

Storing information with light

New photo-ferroelectric materials allow storage of information in a non-volatile way using light stimulus. The idea is to create energy efficient memory devices with high performance and versatility to face current challenges. The study has been published in Nature Communications by Josep Fontcuberta and co-workers and opens a path towards further investigations on this phenomenon and to neuromorphic computing applications. 

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Saturn's tilt caused by its moons

Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory—PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work, published on 18 January 2021 in the journal Nature Astronomy, also predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.

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Deep sleep takes out the trash

A new Northwestern University study reaffirms the importance of getting a good night's sleep.