Centipedes shown to have incorporated the weapons of bacteria and fungi into their venoms

As part of an ongoing, wider study into centipede venoms,  researchers set out to discover whether centipede venom toxins may have evolved elsewhere in the tree of life, in places other than their direct, arthropod ancestors.

They soon unveiled that centipedes have repeatedly stocked their venoms with proteins that independently evolved within bacteria and fungi. The centipedes have acquired these toxin components through a process known as 'horizontal gene transfer'.

Horizontal gene transfer is a process by which genetic material moves between distantly related organisms, in this case between bacteria and fungi, and centipedes. It is distinguished from the movement of genetic material from parents to offspring and from ancestors to direct descendants, which is known as vertical gene transfer.

This finding  reveals the largest, most diversely sourced contribution of horizontal gene transfer to the evolution of animal venom composition known to date.'

Three of the five venom protein families that centipedes have acquired by horizontal gene transfer are used by bacteria explicitly to exploit their hosts', including by damaging their cells by the formation of pores. 

Researchers also noticed "three protein families were each horizontally transferred twice which shows that horizontal gene transfer is an unexpectedly important factor in the evolution of centipede venoms." While the mechanisms behind horizontal gene transfer, especially from bacteria to animals, are not well understood, it is known to have contributed a range of adaptive benefits to different groups of animals.

https://natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/phylogenetic-analyse...

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/centipedes-shown-...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5071/Centipedes-shown-to-have-incorpor...

To find an extraterrestrial civilization, pollution could be the solution, NASA study suggests

If there's an advanced extraterrestrial civilization inhabiting a nearby star system, we might be able to detect it using its own atmospheric pollution, according to new NASA research. The study looked at the presence of nitrogen dioxide gas (NO₂), which on Earth is produced by burning fossil fuels but can also come from non-industrial sources such as biology, lightning, and volcanoes.

On Earth, most of the nitrogen dioxide is emitted from human activity—combustion processes such as vehicle emissions and fossil-fueled power plants. In the lower atmosphere (about 10 to 15 kilometers or around 6.2 to 9.3 miles), NO₂ from human activities dominate compared to non-human sources. Therefore, observing NO₂ on a habitable planet could potentially indicate the presence of an industrialized civilization.

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Astronomers have found over 4,000 planets orbiting other stars to date. Some might have conditions suitable for life as we know it, and on some of these habitable worlds, life may have evolved to the point where it produces a technological civilization. Since planets around other stars (exoplanets) are so far away, scientists cannot look for signs of life or civilization by sending spacecraft to these distant worlds. Instead, they must use powerful telescopes to see what's inside the atmospheres of exoplanets.

A possible indication of life, or biosignature, could be a combination of gases like oxygen and methane in the atmosphere. Similarly, a sign of technology on an exoplanet, called a technosignature, could be what's considered pollution here on Earth—the presence of a gas that's released as a byproduct of a widespread industrial process, such as NO₂.

This study is the first time NO₂ has been examined as a possible technosignature.

Other studies have examined chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as possible technosignatures, which are industrial products that were widely used as refrigerants until they were phased out because of their role in ozone depletion.

CFCs are also a powerful greenhouse gas that could be used to terraform a planet like Mars by providing additional warming from the atmosphere. As far as we know, CFCs are not produced by biology at all, so they are a more obvious technosignature than NO₂. However, CFCs are very specific manufactured chemicals that might not be prevalent elsewhere; NO₂, by comparison, is a general byproduct of any combustion process.

Atmospheric NO2 strongly absorbs some colors (wavelengths) of visible light, which can be detected by observing the light reflected from an exoplanet as it orbits its star. They found that for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star, a civilization producing the same amount of NO₂ as ours could be detected up to about 30 light-years away with about 400 hours of observing time using a future large NASA telescope observing at visible wavelengths.

Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution as a Signature of Extraterrestrial Technology. arXiv:2102.05027v1 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/2102.05027

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-extraterrestrial-civilization-polluti...

Tiny microorganisms in the Southern Ocean affect how the rest of the world's seas respond to carbon

In the ocean that surrounds Antarctica, deep water wells up to the surface, carrying nutrients and other dissolved materials needed by light-loving ocean life. One of these materials is calcium carbonate, which, when dissolved, raises seawater alkalinity and helps the ocean respond to increasing carbon dioxide levels. Ocean currents carry this alkalinity-enriched water northward—unless tiny organisms intercept it and trap the alkalinity in the Southern Ocean.

Plankton in the Southern Ocean capture upwelled alkalinity to make protective shells composed of calcium carbonate. When the plankton die, their calcified shells sink and break down, returning the alkalinity to deep waters, from where it can well up again. If calcifying organisms are not very active, more high-alkalinity water escapes northward, allowing the global ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide. If, on the other hand, the calcifying plankton quickly use alkalinity that rises to the surface, this cycle traps alkalinity in the Southern Ocean.

Researchers recently  demonstrated this process through model simulations, showing that calcification in the Southern Ocean affects how alkalinity spreads around the world.

In general, more calcifying activity traps alkalinity in the Southern Ocean, but certain conditions limit the main phytoplankton responsible. For instance, high levels of silicic acid and iron might favor silicon-shelled microorganisms over calcium carbonate-shelled ones, allowing more alkalinity to flow out to other oceans. High ocean acidity may also cause problems for calcifying organisms.

The researchers note that after an interruption in calcification in the Southern Ocean, increases in alkalinity reached some subtropical regions within 10 years. The alkalinity irregularity took longer to reach more northerly oceans, gradually becoming more apparent the longer that Southern Ocean calcification was suppressed. On millennial timescales, the authors say, the activity of tiny southern plankton has the potential to influence global climate.

 K. M. Krumhardt et al. Southern Ocean Calcification Controls the Global Distribution of Alkalinity, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020GB006727

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-tiny-microorganisms-southern-ocean-af...

Air pollution caused 1 out of 5 deaths in 2018—that's more than 8 million, study says

Microscopic, and sometimes larger, particles of soot, smoke and dust that spew out of gas-guzzling factories, ships, cars and aircraft are responsible for 18% of total global deaths in 2018—that equals more than 8 million people, a new study found.

That number far surpasses previous estimates of the amount of people killed globally by all types of air pollution, including dust and smoke from wildfires and agricultural burns. The most widely accepted estimate stands at 4.2 million.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-air-pollution-deaths-2018that-million...

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How microplastics in the soil contribute to environmental pollution

Plastic, with its unabated global production, is a major and persistent contributor to environmental pollution. In fact, the accumulation of plastic debris in our environment is only expected to increase in the future. "Microplastics" (MP)—plastic debris

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A new way of forming planets

In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, the planets display a remarkable variety. This variety is not unexpected. The sophisticated computer models, with which scientists study the formation of planets, also spawn very different planets. What the models have more difficulty to explain is the observed mass distribution of the planets discovered around other stars. The majority have fallen into the intermediate mass category—planets with masses of several Earth masses to around that of Neptune. Even in the context of the solar system, the formation of Uranus and Neptune remains a mystery. Scientists of the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge, associated with the Swiss NCCR PlanetS, have now proposed an alternative explanation backed up by comprehensive simulations. Their results were published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

Our Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy. It evolved into its flat disk shape over billions of years. But astronomers have discovered a distant and young galaxy that has a remarkably similar shape.

Reconstructing Molecules in Motion

A reeking, parasitic plant lost its body and much of its genetic blueprint

The genome of Sapria himalayana is rife with gene loss and theft

New research on the genetic instruction book of a rare plant Sapria genus reveals the lengths to which it has gone to become a specialized parasite. The findings, published January 22 in Current Biology, suggest that at least one species of Sapria has lost nearly half of the genes commonly found in other flowering plants and stolen many others directly from its hosts. 

The plant’s rewired genetics echo its bizarre biology. Sapria and its relatives in the family Rafflesiaceae have discarded their stems, roots and any photosynthetic tissue.

About 44 percent of the genes found in most flowering plants were missing in S. himalayana. Yet, at the same time, the genome is about 55,000 genes long, more than that of some other nonparasitic plants. The count is inflated by many repeating segments of DNA, the team found.

Loss of the chlorophyll pigments responsible for photosynthesis is common in parasitic plants that rely on their hosts for sustenance. But S. himalayana appears to have even scrapped all genetic remnants of its chloroplasts, the cellular structures where photosynthesis occurs. 

Chloroplasts have their own genome, distinct from the nuclear genome that runs a plant’s cells and the mitochondria that produce energy for the cells. S. himalayana seems to have lost this genome altogether, suggesting that the plant has purged the last remnants of its ancestral life that allowed it to make its own food.

even genes in S. himalayana’s nuclear genome that would regulate components of the chloroplast genome have vanished. 

Among the remaining parts of the nuclear genome, it was  also found that more than 1 percent of S. himalayana’s genome comes from genes stolen from other plants, likely its current and ancestral hosts.

The new discovery illustrates the level of commitment S. himalayana and its relatives have given to evolving a parasitic lifestyle

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31897-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220318972%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/reeking-parasitic-sapria-plant-...

Synchronization of brain hemispheres changes what we hear

How come we don’t hear everything twice: After all, our ears sit on opposite sides of our head and most sounds do not reach both our ears at exactly the same time. While this helps us determine which direction sounds are coming from, it also means that our brain has to combine the information from both ears. Otherwise, we would hear an echo.

In addition, input from the right ear reaches the left brain hemisphere first, while input from the left ear reaches the right brain hemisphere first. The two hemispheres perform different tasks during speech processing: The left side is responsible for distinguishing phonemes and syllables, whereas the right side recognizes the speech prosody and rhythm. Although each hemisphere receives the information at a different time and processes different features of speech, the brain integrates what it hears into a unified speech sound.

The exact mechanism behind this integration process was not known until now. 

Now researchers have managed to demonstrate that the process of integrating what we hear is directly linked to synchronization by gamma waves.

During the experiments, the researchers disrupted the natural activity pattern of gamma waves by stimulating both hemispheres of the brain with electrodes attached to the head. This manipulation affected participants’ ability to correctly identify the syllable they heard. The fMRI analysis showed that there were also changes in the activity of the neural connections between the right and the left brain hemispheres: The strength of the connection changed depending on whether the rhythm of the gamma waves was influenced by electric stimulation in the two brain hemispheres synchronously or asynchronously. This disruption also impaired the integration process. Thus, synchronization of the gamma waves seems to serve to balance the different inputs from the two hemispheres of the brain, providing a unified auditory impression.

These findings could thus also find clinical application in the near future. “Previous studies show that disturbances in the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain are associated with auditory phantom perceptions such as tinnitus and auditory verbal hallucinations. Thus, electric brain stimulation may present a promising avenue for the development of therapeutic interventions.

Preisig BC, Riecke L, Sjerps M, Kösem A, Kop BR, Bramson B, Hagoort P, Hervais-Adelman A. Selective modulation of interhemispheric connectivity by transcranial alternating current stimulation influences binaural integration. PNAS, 2021 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015488118

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210208173103.htm#:~:t....

https://researchnews.cc/news/5061/Synchronization-of-brain-hemisphe...

An Optical Coating Like No Other

Human Cells Can Synthesize DNA in Their Cytoplasm

While studying a degenerative eye disease, researchers find the first evidence that cells produce endogenous DNA in the cytoplasm. Drugs that block this activity are linked with reduced risk of atrophic age-related macular degeneration.

Over the past decade, there have been scattered reports of mammalian cells’ own DNA being found in the cytoplasm, mainly in the context of disease and aging. While it is not unusual to find DNA from an invading organism there, the presence of an organism’s own genetic code—in the form of complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesized from an RNA template—has puzzled scientists. In each case, the cDNA has come from endogenous retrotransposons, known for their copy-and-paste mechanism that results in the insertion of new copies of themselves into the genome. This process typically takes place in the nucleus, so the cytoplasmic cDNA lacked an explanation.

After detecting cDNA of Alu, the most abundant retrotransposon in the human genome, in the cytoplasm of cells modeling a degenerative eye disease, University of Virginia ophthalmologist Jayakrishna Ambati and his colleagues decided to investigate its mysterious origin. Their results, reported February 1 in PNAS, reveal that human cells can actually synthesize cDNA of Alu in the cytoplasm.

S. Fukuda et al., “Cytoplasmic synthesis of endogenous Alu complementary DNA via reverse transcription and implications in age-related macular degeneration,” PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas.2022751118, 2021.

Scientists Think They've Figured Out What's Triggering Brain Fog in COVID-19 Patients
Not long after the first wave of COVID-19 infections hit, doctors all around the world began to notice something strange – a host of lingering effects persisting in patients, long after they appeared to have otherwise recovered from the virus.

These unusual neurological symptoms – encompassing fatigue, memory loss, confusion, and other abnormalities – are sometimes known as 'brain fog' or 'COVID brain', and new research may have identified an underlying cause of the condition.

As part of the new study, researchers screened the cerebrospinal fluid of 18 cancer patients who were experiencing neurological dysfunction (aka encephalopathy) after having been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Initially, it was suspected that an ongoing viral infection might be the cause of their brain fog symptoms, but microbiological analysis of fluid taken in spinal taps did not reveal any sign of the virus, suggesting the patients had recovered from COVID-19.

They found that these patients had persistent inflammation and high levels of cytokines in their cerebrospinal fluid, which explained the symptoms they were having.

Cytokines are a broad category of proteins that are involved with signalling in the immune system.

In some cases of coronavirus, an over-production of these molecules results in what's known as a cytokine storm, which can cause excessive inflammation and is potentially deadly.

A similar phenomenon showing high levels of inflammatory cytokines is sometimes seen as a side effect of chimeric antibody receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, an immunotherapy treatment, which can also produce confusion, delirium, and other neurological effects that bear a resemblance to COVID brain fog.

The thinking is that the flood of these inflammatory chemicals in the immune system seeps into the brain, producing symptoms of encephalopathy as seen in patients. 

The findings here suggest anti-inflammatory drugs might be helpful in mitigating brain fog in patients, and could highlight new directions in terms of diagnosing this strange, lingering malaise.

Researchers used to think that the nervous system was an immune-privileged organ, meaning that it didn't have any kind of relationship at all with the immune system.

But the more scientists looked, the more the connections connections between the two were found.

https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(21)00051-9

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-may-have-identified-what-ca...

Birds can 'read' the Earth's magnetic signature well enough to get back on course

Birdwatchers get very excited when a 'rare' migratory bird makes landfall having been blown off-course and flown beyond its normal range. But these are rare for a reason; most birds that have made the journey before are able to correct for large displacements and find their final destination.

Now, new research by an international team shows for the first time, how birds displaced in this way are able to navigate back to their migratory route and gives us an insight into how they accomplish this feat. They describe how reed warblers can navigate from a 'magnetic position' beyond what they have experienced in their normal migration route, back towards that correct route.

Different parts of the Earth have a distinct 'geomagnetic signature' according to their location. This is a combination of the strength of the geomagnetic field, the magnetic inclination or the dip angle between magnetic field lines and the horizon and the magnetic declination, or the angle between directions to the geographic and magnetic North poles.

Adult birds already familiar with their migration route, and its general magnetic signatures, were held in captivity for a short period before being released back into the wild, and exposed to a simulation of the earth's magnetic signature at a location thousands of miles beyond the birds' natural migratory corridor. Despite remaining physically located at their capture site and experiencing all other sensory clues about their location, including starlight and the sights, smell and sounds of their actual location, the birds still showed the urge to begin their journey as though they were in the location suggested by the magnetic signal they were experiencing.

They oriented themselves to fly in a direction which would lead them 'back' to their migratory path from the location suggested to them by the magnetic signals they were experiencing.

This shows that the earth's magnetic field is the key factor in guiding reed warblers when they are blown off course. The overriding impulse was to respond to the magnetic information they were receiving. current work shows is that birds are able to sense that they are beyond the bounds of the magnetic fields that are familiar to them from their year-round movements, and are able to extrapolate their position sufficiently from the signals. This fascinating ability enables bird to navigate towards their normal migration route.

What these birds are achieving is "true navigation". In other words, they are able to return to a known goal after displacement to a completely unknown location without relying on familiar surroundings, cues that emanate from the destination, or information collected during the outward journey.

But questions remain about whether the birds have an accurate 'map' or are just using a 'rule of thumb' measurement to judge the general direction of travel needed to get back on course.

"Navigation by extrapolation of geomagnetic cues in a migratory songbird" Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.051

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-birds-earth-magnetic-signature.html?u...

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Women better at reading minds than men, new study finds

Psychologists  have developed the first ever 'mind-reading questionnaire' to assess how well people understand what others are really thinking.

A new approach to 'mind-reading' has been developed by researchers at the University of Bath, Cardiff, and London to improve how well we understand what others are thinking. And it transpires that women are much better than men at putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

Mind-reading, sometimes referred to in psychology as 'mentalising', is an important ability enabling us to pick-up on subtle behavioural cues that might indicate that someone we are speaking to is thinking something that they are not saying (e.g. being sarcastic or even lying).

The researchers say that we all have different mind-reading abilities, with some of us inherently better than others. The fact that not all of us are good at mind-reading can cause challenges—in particular for people with autism where it can lead to social struggles in building or maintaining relationships.

Rachel A. Clutterbuck et al, Development and validation of the Four-Item Mentalising Index., Psychological Assessment (2021). DOI: 10.1037/pas0001004

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-women-minds-men.html?utm_sou...

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Tuning the circadian clock, boosting rhythms may be key to future treatments and medicines

Subconsciously, our bodies keep time for us through an ancient means—the circadian clock. A new  article reviews how the clock controls various aspects of homeostasis, and how organs coordinate their function over the course of a day.

What is fascinating is that nearly every cell that makes up our organs has its own clock, and thus timing is a crucial aspect of biology. Understanding how daily timing is integrated with function across organs has implications for human health, as disruption of the clock and circadian rhythms can be both a cause and effect of diseases from diabetes to cancer.

The circadian clock generates a ~24 hour rhythm that controls behavior, hormones, the immune system and metabolism. Using human cells and mice, researchers  aim to uncover the physiological circuits, for example between the brain and liver, whereby biological clocks achieve coherence. Their work, titled, "Communicating clocks shape circadian homeostasis," was published recently in Science.

Circadian clocks align internal processes with external time, which enables diverse lifeforms to anticipate daily environmental changes such as the light-dark cycle. In complex organisms, clock function starts with the genetically encoded molecular clock or oscillator within each cell and builds upward anatomically into an organism-wide system. Circadian misalignment, often imposed in modern society, can disrupt this system and induce adverse effects on health if prolonged.

Strategies to tune our clocks and boost rhythms have been promising in pre-clinical studies, which illustrates the importance of unraveling this aspect of our biology and unlocking the potential it holds for treatments and medicines of the future.

Without electrical light, high-speed travel, constant food availability and around the clock work-life schedules, our ancestors' clocks were in constant harmony with the environment. However, due to these pressures of modern society, aligning our internal time with geophysical time has become a challenge in today's world. Chronic misalignment—when eating and sleeping patterns conflict with the natural light-dark cycle—is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, neurological conditions, and cancer. A large portion of the global workforce has atypical hours and may be particularly vulnerable.

It has become urgent that we uncover the molecular underpinnings of the relationship between the circadian clock and disease. Deciphering the means by which clocks communicate across metabolic organs has the potential to transform our understanding of metabolism, and it may hold therapeutic promise for innovative, noninvasive strategies to promote health.

 Kevin B. Koronowski et al, Communicating clocks shape circadian homeostasis, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abd0951

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-tuning-circadian-clock-boost...

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Electron refrigerator: Ultrafast cooling mechanism discovered in novel plasma

Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence "CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter" have achieved a breakthrough—creating a completely new type of plasma by combining state-of-the-art technologies using ultrashort laser pulses and ultracold atomic gases. They report on a novel electron cooling mechanism occurring in such plasmas in the journal Nature Communications.

Matter exists in four states—solid, gas, liquid, and plasma—with plasma being the most abundant state in the visible universe. It consists of free charged particles such as ions and electrons. Plasmas can exist over a tremendous range of temperatures and densities, from the sun's core to lightning or flames. The challenges to understand plasma dynamics are first to identify universal mechanisms and then compare them to a controlled laboratory experiment. 

the researchers cool and trap atoms with laser light. They use the intense light field of an ultrashort laser pulse to break up atoms into electrons and ions within 200 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is one millionth of one billionth of a second. Because of the extremely low initial temperature of the atoms, the ions have temperatures lower than 40 millikelvin, which is only a fraction above the lowest possible temperature in the universe (0 Kelvin or minus 273 degree on the Celsius scale). In contrast, the electrons are initially very hot with temperatures of 5250 Kelvin, close to the ones found at the surface of the sun.

Hot electrons directly created by the ultrashort laser pulse begin to escape and leave behind a positively charged region that traps some of the electrons in an ultracold plasma. Such a plasma state has never been observed before.

The researchers  also observed that the trapped electrons in the plasma are cooled on ultrafast timescales and measured the final electronic temperature. In addition, they observed that the plasma is stable over a few hundred nanoseconds, which is a very long time for such systems.

Such ultracold plasmas provide benchmarks for theoretical models and can shed light on extreme conditions present in inertial confinement fusion or astronomical objects such as white dwarfs. Furthermore, the resulting ultracold electrons are interesting by themselves as a bright source for imaging biological samples.

Tobias Kroker et al. Ultrafast electron cooling in an expanding ultracold plasma, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20815-8

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-electron-refrigerator-ultrafast-cooli...

Why is there water on Earth?

Water is essential to life as we know it and it seems completely normal to have water all around us. Yet Earth is the only known planet to be covered by oceans. Do we know exactly where its water came from?

This is not a simple question: it was long thought that Earth formed dry—without water, because of its proximity to the Sun and the high temperatures when the solar system formed. In this model, water could have been brought to Earth by comets or asteroids colliding with the Earth. Such a complex origin for water would likely mean that our planet is unique in the universe.

However, in a 2020 study, researchers showed that water—or at least its components, hydrogen and oxygen—may have been present in the rocks that initially formed the Earth. If that is so indeed, other "blue planets" with liquid water are more likely to exist elsewhere.

Liquid water covers more than 70% of Earth's surface, with about about 95.6% of it in oceans and seas, and the remaining 4% in glaciers, ice caps, groundwater, lakes, rivers, soil humidity, and the atmosphere.

But most of Earth's water is deep underground: between one and ten times the volume of the oceans are contained in the mantle.

At the surface of the Earth, "water" means two hydrogens for each oxygen (H₂0), whereas what we call "water" in the mantle corresponds to hydrogen incorporated in minerals, magmas and fluids. This hydrogen can bond with surrounding oxygen to form water at the appropriate temperature and pressure conditions.

While water represents less than 0.5% of the mass of the Earth, it is key to the evolution of the planet itself and to life at its surface.

In the early solar system, there was a lot of hydrogen, mainly in the form of dihydrogen gas (H₂), or bonded with oxygen atoms to form water (H₂O). However, Earth and the other rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars) formed near the Sun, where it was too hot for water to incorporate into rock as ice: it just would have evaporated. So why does the Earth now have so much water, both in its mantle and on its surface?

https://sciencex.com/news/2021-02-earth.html?utm_source=nwletter&am...

Discovery of naturally occurring protein that could reverse severe muscle wasting in disease, aging and trauma

An exciting discovery by scientists may lead to faster recovery from muscle injury and wasting diseases.

When we tear a muscle – stem cells within it repair the problem. We can see this occurring not only in severe muscle wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy and in war veterans who survive catastrophic limb injuries, but also in our day to day lives when we “pull” a muscle. Also when we age and become frail we lose much of our muscle and our stem cells don’t seem to be able to work as well as we age.

These muscle stem cells are invisible engines that drive the tissue's growth and repair after such injuries. But growing these cells in the lab and then using them to therapeutically replace damaged muscle has been frustratingly difficult.

Researchers  have discovered a factor that triggers these muscle stem cells to proliferate and heal. In a mouse model of severe muscle damage, injections of this naturally occurring protein led to the complete regeneration of muscle and the return of normal movement after severe muscle trauma.

The scientists studied the regeneration of skeletal muscle in zebrafish, fast becoming the go-to animal model for the study of stem cell regeneration because the fish are quick to reproduce, easier to experimentally manipulate, and share at least 70 percent of their genes with humans. It is also transparent which allows the scientists to witness the actual regeneration in living muscle.

By studying the cells that migrated to a muscle injury in these fish the scientists identified a group of immune cells, called macrophages, which appeared to have a role in triggering the muscle stem cells to regenerate.

Macrophages are the cells that flock to any injury or infection site in the body, removing debris and promoting healing. They are the clean up crew of the immune system.

It has long been thought that two types of macrophages exist in the body: those that move to the injury rapidly and remove debris, and those that come in slower and stick around doing the longer term clean-up.

The research team, however, found that there were in fact eight genetically different types of macrophages in the injury site, and that one type, in particular, was the “cuddler”. Further investigation revealed that this affectionate macrophage released a substance called NAMPT. By removing these macrophages from the zebrafish and adding the NAMPT to the aquarium water the scientists found they could stimulate the muscle stem cells to grow and heal – effectively replacing the need for the macrophages.

The researchers are now trying to conduct clinical trials for the use of this compound in the treatment of muscle disease and injury.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03199-7

https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/discovery-of-naturally-occurri...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5097/Discovery-of-naturally-occurring-...

Tiny Crustacean Redefines Ultrafast Movement

A new study from Duke University describes how the amphipod Dulichiella cf. appendiculata sets a new standard for achieving high acceleration and repeatable movements at small sizes. Males will snap their relatively huge claws 10,000 faster than the blink of an eye. These ultrafast movements make an audible snap, create water jets, and sometimes produce small bubbles due to rapid changes in water pressure. The potential behind these ultrafast movements is so great that even the Army is paying attention to these small animals. Even the world’s most technologically advanced robots would lose in a competition with this tiny crustacean.

World First BMW Self Driving Motorbike Demo Live Video 2019 BMW Vision R1200 Autonomous Motorbike V

Protein behind corona’s slow Asia spread: Study

Deficiency in a particular human protein, which is more common in Europe and the United States than in Asia, could explain why coronavirus is not spreading as fast in Asian countries. The team has explained how higher levels of a human protein — neutrophil elastase — helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and also spread faster from infected individuals.

Deficiency in a particular human protein, which is more common in Europe and the United States than in Asia, could explain why coronavirus is not spreading as fast in Asian countries.

A team of scientists from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in WB, have found a biological reason for the slower spread of a mutant of coronavirus in Asia compared to the West. The team has explained how higher levels of a human protein — neutrophil elastase — helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and also spread faster from infected individuals.

However, this protein is kept in check by the biological system, which produces another protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT). AAT deficiency leads to higher levels of neutrophil elastase in the cells, which in turn helps in faster spread of the virus. This deficiency is known to be much higher in Europe and America than among Asians. The study has been published in the journal, Infection, Genetics and Evolution

As per their data, AAT deficiency is the least in East Asian countries — 8 per 1,000 individuals in Malaysia, 5.4 per 1,000 in South Korea, 2.5 in Singapore. On the other hand, 67.3 in per 1,000 individuals in Spain are AAT deficient, 34.6 in the UK and 51.9 in France and in the US it is prevalent in 29 individuals among 1,000.

The numbers are representative of other Asian regions too, including India.

The researchers emphasized that this finding along with other social factors may explain the differential geographical/ethnic spread of the mutant virus.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/protein-b...

Never Google Your Symptoms

Astronomers confirm orbit of most distant object ever observed in o...

A team of astronomers, including associate professor Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University's Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system. The planetoid, which has been nicknamed "Farfarout," was first detected in 2018, and the team has now collected enough observations to pin down its orbit. The Minor Planet Center has now given it the official designation of 2018 AG37.

Astronomers confirm orbit of most distant object ever observed in our solar system

A team of astronomers, including associate professor Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University's Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system. The planetoid, which has been nicknamed "Farfarout," was first detected in 2018, and the team has now collected enough observations to pin down its orbit. The Minor Planet Center has now given it the official designation of 2018 AG37.

Farfarout's nickname distinguished it from the previous record holder "Farout," found by the same team of astronomers in 2018. 

Farfarout's average distance from the Sun is 132 astronomical units (au); 1 au is the distance between the Earth and Sun. For comparison, Pluto is only 39 au from the Sun. The newly discovered object has a very elongated orbit that takes it out to 175 au at its most distant, and inside the orbit of Neptune, to around 27 au, when it is close to the Sun.

Farfarout's journey around the Sun takes about a thousand years, crossing the massive planet Neptune's orbit every time. This means Farfarout has likely experienced strong gravitational interactions with Neptune over the age of theA single orbit of Farfarout around the Sun takes a millennium. Because of this long orbital, it moves very slowly across the sky, requiring several years of observations to precisely determine its trajectory. solar system, and is the reason why it has such a large and elongated orbit. Farfarout is very faint, and based on its brightness and distance from the Sun, the team estimates its size to be about 400 km across, putting it on the low end of being a dwarf planet, assuming it is an ice rich object.

https://www.space.com/farfarout-most-distant-solar-system-object-co...

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-astronomers-orbit-distant-solar.html?...

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Elderly show fewer post-vaccine symptoms than young: Study

The elderly, who bore the brunt of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have reacted with fewer symptoms after taking the vaccine against Covid-19 as compared to people in the 20-40 age group. This was the broad observation across India 29 days after the vaccination drive started on January 16.

With eight million healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated across the country by the end of Saturday, there are a range of observations that doctors’ associations and groups have made. For instance, most manage to make it to work despite suffering post vaccine symptoms, ranging from fatigue and headache to nausea. The majority of those vaccinated have some postvaccine symptom.

Also, women are more likely than men to develop symptoms. The milder-symptoms-foraged theory has been confirmed by a study of 5,396 healthcare workers put together by the Kochi branch of the Indian Medical Association. Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, head of the epidemiology cell of Kochi IMA who conducted the study, said 947 of the respondents were over 60 years of age.

The Kochi study, based on an online survey conducted between January 29 and February 4, also found that 66% of those vaccinated reported at least one post-inoculation symptom. The most reported symptoms were tiredness (45%), myalgia (44%), fever (34%), headache (28%), local pain at the infection site (27%), joint pain (12%), nausea (8%) and diarrhoea (3%).

The sharpest finding concerns the elderly who have accounted for almost 70% of mortalities caused by Covid-19 across the world. Infectious diseases specialist, Dr Tanu Singhal, from Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai said, “People who are older have tolerated the vaccine better than younger people.”

The chance of having symptoms decreased with advancing age. Older people also had later onset of symptoms, occurring at an average of 13.4 hours (70-79 years), compared to 10 hours in younger age groups (20-29 years) following vaccination.

 About 80% of those who took the vaccine said the symptoms didn’t affect their work the next day. “Women were more likely to develop post-vaccination symptoms. This observation was consistent across all age groups,” said the study, which is in pre-print stage.

A sticky topic has been the reaction among recovered Covid-19 patients who took the vaccine: while some doctors said recovered patients showed more symptoms after the vaccine, the study from Kochi hasn’t found this.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/elderl...

South Africa coronavirus variant identified in reinfection case

Patient critical after reinfection with S.African variant: study

 Doctors in France are treating a critically ill patient infected with the South African coronavirus variant, four months after he recovered from Covid-19, in what study authors said was the first case of its kind. The 58-year-old man had a history of asthma and initially tested positive for Covid-19 in September when he presented to medical staff with a fever and shortness of breath. The symptoms persisted only for a few days, and the man tested negative for Covid-19 twice in December 2020. However, he was admitted to hospital in January and diagnosed with the South African variant. The patient's condition worsened, and he is currently in a "critical condition" on a ventilator. "This is, to our knowledge, the first description of reinfection with the South African (variant) causing severe Covid-19, four months after a first mild infection," said authors of a study published this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant emerged late last year in South Africa and immediately provoked alarm among disease specialists.

It has eight key mutations, one of which affects the virus' spike protein, making it more effective at binding to human cells and therefore more infectious.

Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna say their mRNA vaccines retain their effectiveness against the South African variants and another that emerged last year in Britain.

However a study last week showed that AstraZeneca's vaccine failed to prevent mild and moderate cases of infection of the South African variant.

"The impact of 501Y.V2 mutations on the effectiveness of vaccines developed based on earlier SARS-CoV-2 strains is still unknown," said the authors of the reinfection study.

https://www.mdlinx.com/news/patient-critical-after-reinfection-with...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5146/Patient-critical-after-reinfectio...

LaserFactory: Fabricating fully functional devices

scientists develop urine test to detect womb cancer

scientists announced on Friday they had developed a test to detect womb cancer using urine samples, explaining the method could replace a painful and invasive procedure currently in use.

At present, clinicians diagnose the cancer by taking a biopsy, a process which requires a narrow telescope called a hysteroscope, to examine inside of the uterus and remove cells.

Nearly a third of women who undergo the procedure have the process repeated because of technical difficulties or intolerable pain, the research showed.

 developed a new detection tool which examines urine or vaginal samples that can be collected by women on their own at home.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed analysis of the samples correctly diagnosed 91.7 percent of women with womb cancer.

The proportion of women without womb cancer who tested negative with the new tool was 88.9 percent, the study showed. The results show that womb cancer cells can be detected in urine and vaginal samples using a microscope.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21257-6

https://researchnews.cc/news/5144/UK-scientists-develop-urine-test-...

There's a Link Between Air Pollution And Irreversible Vision Loss, Study Reveals

Air pollution could cloud your vision in later life, according to a large study that found a link between fine particle air pollution and macular degeneration, an age-related eye disease that can lead to irreversible blindness.

The findings serve as a clear reminder of the many ways that air pollution can be harmful to our health, even though it's still early days for this research.  

The biggest public health concerns about poor air quality circle around pollutants such as particulate matter (dust, soot, and more), ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other gases, which are emitted from motor vehicles, heavy industry, and wood fires.

Fine particles, called PM_2.5 for short, are especially concerning. These microscopic particles less than 2.5 micrometres in size can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing inflammation around the body.

Repeated exposure to pollutants like these can irritate people's eyes and throat, cause breathing difficulties. Furthermore, ambient air pollution accounts for 43 percent of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and for over a quarter of all deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, or stroke.

In this study, the focus was on age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition where a person's vision worsens with age, leading to increased vision loss and potentially even blindness.

The disease is linked to leaky blood vessels in the back of the eye and small blobs of fat and protein that build up on the macula, the part of the eye at the centre of the retina. Genetics and being a smoker are amongst the main risk factors for this condition.

What the study found is that people who were exposed to higher levels of fine particle air pollution had higher rates of self-reported AMD.

Exposure to other pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide but not coarse particulate matter, was also associated with changes in retina thickness, detected on imaging.

But don't be swayed by the big numbers alone. Only a tiny fraction of people were actually diagnosed with AMD during the study – and remember, while this observational study can bring our attention to trends and patterns observed across a population, it can't establish a cause. 

The researchers suggest that air pollution may affect the eye in a roundabout way through inflammation and oxidative stress, two defence mechanisms where the body is fighting against foreign material and trying to detoxify chemical species, respectively. But more research will be required to examine that plausible link.

https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2021/01/11/bjophthalmol-2020-316218

https://www.sciencealert.com/air-pollution-linked-to-deteriorating-...

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A Signal From Beyond 

Researchers  recently published data on a hint of a signal that sent ripples of excitement through the physics community. These monumental findings are the culmination of 12 and a half years of data gathered from NANOGrav—a network of pulsars across the galaxy—all in the hopes of detecting gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are generated when galaxies merge and supermassive black holes at their centers collide and send low-frequency gravitational waves out into the universe. The team thinks the source of the signal could be gravitational waves, but it will take about 2 more years of data to be sure.

Microalgae identified as clean source of hydrogen production

Microalgae identified as clean source of hydrogen production

Researchers at Monash University's Department of Chemical Engineering, IITB-Monash Research Academy Mumbai, and The Indian Institute of Technology's Department of Chemical Engineering have used reactive flash volatilisation (RFV) gasification technology to produce hydrogen using microalgae, giving rise to newer and cleaner forms of energy.

Hydrogen and methane are clean sources of fuel and green chemical synthesis only if they are produced from renewable resources. At present, 96% of hydrogen and all methane is produced using non-renewable resources. 

Microalgae as a feedstock is attractive due to its high carbon dioxide fixation efficiency, growth rate, photosynthetic efficiency, ability to grow in brackish water—like rivers and lakes—and the ability to cultivate it on land not suitable for agriculture.

"Water and renewable electricity integration with microalgae harvesting can bring down the costs and increase the sustainability of hydrogen production from this process.

 Pratik Gholkar et al. Renewable hydrogen and methane production from microalgae: A techno-economic and life cycle assessment study, Journal of Cleaner Production (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123726

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-microalgae-source-hydrogen-prod...

Post Covid, patients see rise in rare fungal infection

A rare and serious fungal infection called ‘Mucormycosis’ that can affect the respiratory system, digestive system as well as the brain has been on the rise in recent months, especially among immuno compromised Covid-19 patients who have recovered.

A rare and serious fungal infection called ‘Mucormycosis’ that can affect the respiratory system, digestive system as well as the brain has been on the rise in recent months, especially among immuno compromised Covid-19 patients who have recovered. From barely five to seven cases in a year, the number of cases has jumped to over 60 over the last seven to eight months, say experts. Of these, 10 were seen at the state-run Gandhi hospital alone as several patients who had been treated are returning with post-Covid-19 complications including this infection. The infection, although, rare is a serious one as it can even lead to death if not treated in time. 

This infection is an opportunistic one which is seen in immune-compromised patients, especially patients who had a transplant or are on cancer-related drugs. Now this infection is seen in patients who have recovered from viral diseases and since Covid is also a viral disease, it is being seen in the Covid recovered patients too.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/post-c...

Oxygen deficit makes nerve cells grow

Oxygen deficit, also called hypoxia, in the brain is actually an absolute state of emergency and can permanently damage nerve cells. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence that to a certain extent, hypoxia can also be an important signal for growth. Together with scientists from the University Hospitals of Copenhagen and Hamburg-Eppendorf, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have shown in mice that mentally and physically demanding activity triggers not only a local but also a brain-wide functional hypoxia. Although in an attenuated form, the effects are similar to oxygen deprivation. The shortage of oxygen activates, among other things, the growth factor erythropoietin (Epo), which stimulates the formation of new synapses and nerve cells. This mechanism could explain why physical and mental training have a positive effect on mental performance.

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Nanotechnologies reduce friction and improve durability of materials

A team of scientists from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and Immanuel Kant Baltic State Federal University suggested using innovative thin films to considerably reduce friction and thus increase the durability of surfaces in mechanisms. This discovery can be important for many fields, from medicine to space technologies.

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Experimental demonstration of measurement-dependent realities possi...

Shoe shops sell a variety of shoe sizes to accommodate a variety of foot sizes—but what if both the shoe and foot size depended on how it was measured? Recent developments in quantum theory suggest that the available values of a physical quantity, such as a foot size, can depend on the type of measurement used to determine them. If feet were governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, foot size would depend on the markings on a foot measure to find the best fit—at the time of measurement—and even if the markings were changed, the measurement could still be precise.

Integrating maths and plant science to explain how plant roots generate a hormone gradient

The research team that developed a biosensor that first recorded that a distinct gradient of the plant growth hormone gibberellin correlated with plant cell size has now revealed how this distribution pattern is created in roots.

Starting when a plant embryo forms within a seed and continuing throughout the plant lifecycle, undifferentiated stem cells undergo radical transformations into specialised root, stem, leaf and reproductive organ cells. This transformation relies on a suite of molecules called phytohormones that, much like human hormones, can move between cells and tissues and trigger distinct biological processes across the body plan. While it was not known at the time, mutations involving the gibberellin class of phytohormones were behind the development of many of the high-yielding semi-dwarf wheat and rice varieties that helped drive the Green Revolution in the 1950s and 60s.

The mutations resulted in shorter stems, enabling the crop plants to redirect energy into growing grain rather than stems and leaves and also prevented lodging caused when tall spindly plants fall over before harvest. We now know through advances in molecular and genetic tools that gibberellins (GA) regulate growth and development throughout the plant lifecycle—from germinating seeds, elongating stems and roots, to the formation of flowers. It is therefore not surprising that GA continues to attract the interest of plant scientists investigating how hormones control plant growth and as a possible target for future crop improvements.

 Differential biosynthesis and cellular permeability explain longitudinal gibberellin gradients in growing roots. PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1921960118

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-maths-science-roots-hormone-gradient....

Microbes could pose health, ecosystem risks when rain brings them to Earth

Human health and ecosystems could be affected by microbes including cyanobacteria and algae that hitch rides in clouds and enter soil, lakes, oceans and other environments when it rains, according to a  study.

Some of the organisms the researchers detected in clouds and rain are known to have possible impacts on human health and could also affect microbial populations at rainfall locations.

Researchers  collected cloud water at the summit of puy de Dôme, a mountain in central France, about 4,800 feet above sea level. They also collected rainwater below the mountain at about 2,230 feet above sea level. They detected blue-green (cyanobacteria), green, red and golden algae, as well as diatoms (another form of algae), and they grew green algae in the Chlorellaceae family in a lab.

Some of the microbes that hitched a ride in clouds may have come from the Atlantic Ocean. Others were likely from other parts of France that clouds passed over. Microbes in rain include those in a cloud and the air below it.

The airborne organisms could have important impacts on atmospheric processes and the ecosystems they enter after falling to Earth, the study says.

Future work would involve identifying specific genes associated with the production of toxins by these organisms and trying to understand what could or would limit the growth of these microorganisms after they're transported into a new ecosystem by rain.

Kevin P. Dillon et al, Cyanobacteria and Algae in Clouds and Rain in the Area of puy de Dôme, Central France, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2020). DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01850-20

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-microbes-pose-health-ecosystem-earth....

Five ways to reduce your household waste – and stop it being shipped to poorer countries -1

The UK is the largest plastic waste producer in Europe and one of the biggest producers of plastic waste in the world, second only to the US. The UK produces 99kg of plastic waste per person per year. And it exports about two-thirds of this waste to poorer countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Shipping unsorted plastic waste from the European Union to non-OECD countries was banned by the EU from January this year. But the UK continues to export plastic waste to developing countries as part of new post-Brexit regulations.

Most of the plastic waste is sold to these countries as the UK currently does not have the means and capacity to process it at home. But these countries also lack the infrastructure and capacity to recycle imported waste. And waste that can't be recycled often ends up dumped in landfill or waterways or even burned—releasing toxic fumes into the environment. Indeed, much of the waste sent to these countries is unsorted and dirty plastics which can hardly be recycled anyway.

This trade of waste and the shifting of one country's problem onto another simply cannot continue. Our behaviour as consumers is central to tackling this huge amount of plastic waste waste—along with the 26 million tonnes of general household waste produced yearly in the UK. We therefore all need to start taking responsible actions and be held accountable for the waste we generate. Of course, changing behaviour is not easy or straightforward.

How to reduce waste  -2

Here are some affordable and practical tips:

Use less - stop and reflect on your wasteful consumption practices and simply use less (as many have during lockdown). Rethink your lifestyle and only use what you need for your daily living; not everything may be essential.

Buy local - in the early stages of the pandemic, with flights grounded and entry in and out of countries proving problematic, food shortages were abundant. Buying local proved to be the alternative. Buying local is not only better for the environment but it also helps to support your local economy and local producers.

Be resourceful - try your best to reuse, repair or upcycle before you decide to throw away things you think no longer work. Be creative in how you might repurpose products and materials. It may simply be giving a new lease of life to your old furniture with a touch of non-toxic paint instead of getting new pieces.

Think beyond recycling – recycling is good, but we consume more than we recycle. So avoid buying goods that you cannot recycle. This will push businesses to better design products and ultimately, design out wasteful materials.

Rethink ownership - there is a rise in new businesses adopting "rental", "pay per use" and "on-demand" models for products ranging from clothes to furniture. So where possible do not buy things you use only occasionally; instead pay for access to these things when you need them.

https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-reduce-your-household-wast...

Planetary scientists discover evidence for a reduced atmosphere on ancient Mars

Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidising atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during the oxidation reaction of iron and oxygen. The Earth has had an oxidising atmosphere for approximately 2.5 billion years, but before that, the atmosphere of this planet was reducing—there was no rust.

The transition from a reduced planet to an oxidised planet is referred to as the Great Oxidation Event or GOE. This transition was a central part of our planet's evolution, and fundamentally linked to the evolution of life here—specifically to the prevalence of photosynthesis that produced oxygen. Planetary geologists at HKU have discovered that Mars underwent a great oxygenation event of its own—billions of years ago, the red planet was not so red.

 The researchers used infrared remote sensing and spectroscopy to measure the molecular vibration of the material on the Martian surface from orbit, in order to reveal the mineralogy and geochemistry of ancient rocks on Mars. Through detailed comparisons of infrared remote sensing data and data collected in the laboratory here on Earth, the team showed that ancient rocks on Mars exposed at the surface had been weathered under reducing conditions, indicating a reduced atmosphere did exist.

 Mars is cold and dry now, but ~ 3.5 billion years ago, it was warmer and wetter. It was warm enough to allow the formation of river channels, lakes and minerals that formed by interaction with water. Scientists who have used mathematical models to constrain the conditions of an early Martian atmosphere, have concluded that greenhouse warming occurred, but they also concluded from their models that the greenhouse must have included reduced gases rather than carbon dioxide, implied that a reducing atmosphere might have existed. Yet until now, there has not been any evidence that the reduced atmosphere of early Mars actually occurred. This work indicates that it did exist.

5G phones may interfere with aircraft: French regulator

The latest generation of smartphones, 5G, can interfere with aircraft altitude instruments, the French Civil Aviation Authority warned Tuesday as it recommended they should be turned off during flight.

The utilisation of 5G devices onboard aircraft could lead to risks of interference that could potentially result in errors in altitude readings," a spokesman for the agency told AFP.

The potential phenomenon is due to "signal interference from a close frequency source of a strength that is similar or even superior to that of altimeters."

This interference can cause errors "in instruments that are extremely critical during landing," said the agency, known by its French acronym DGAC.

It sent a bulletin on the issue to airlines last week, recommending that 5G phones should either be turned off completely or put in "airplane mode" during flight

Most countries have long required that mobile phones be turned off or placed in airplane mode due to concerns that previous generations of mobile telecommunications networks can interfere with a plane's navigation and communication equipment.

The DGAC also recommended that in cases of disruption to an aircraft's equipment that the flight crew immediately notify air traffic controllers who can then alert authorities at the airport.

DGAC also noted that it had laid out conditions for the positioning of 5G base stations in order to limit the risks of interference during landing at French airports.

The strength of signals from 5G base stations placed near France's main airports has been restricted, said the DGAC, which has been conducting additional testing since November when French telecommunications operators were given the green light to begin rolling out 5G services.

It is continuing to monitor 5G base stations around all French airports in cooperation with the agency responsible for radio frequencies.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-5g-aircraft-french.html?utm_sou...

Collective worm and robot "blobs" protect individuals, swarm together

'New Car Smell' Is The Scent of Carcinogens, And Even Short Trips May Overexpose Us

A new study found commutes of more than 20 minutes put people at risk of unacceptably high levels of two carcinogens used in car manufacturing.

The distinct smell of a new car gives you a whiff of what's happening here. Materials used to fit out cars, from hard and soft plastics to adhesives, textiles and foam, contain some chemicals that can slowly seep into the air (the technical term is 'off-gas') or catch a ride on dust.

These chemicals are very volatile, moving easily from plastics and textiles to the air that you breathe. Volatile compounds can build up in small spaces, such as inside a car (unless you open a window for fresh air).

The researchers predicted that commuters' daily exposure to two out of five chemicals studied - benzene and formaldehyde - would probably exceed levels considered safe . The likelihood continued to rise the longer a person's commute. 

The two chemicals of concern are not huge unknowns, but certainly warrant attention. Benzene is found in rubber and dyes, and formaldehyde is used in carpets and paints. There is a range of exposure that depends on how long you're in the car, and how much of the compounds your car is emitting which can depend on the vehicle's age and surrounding temperatures.

 just because something is listed as a carcinogen doesn't mean it's guaranteed to cause health problems – it depends on the dose that people are exposed to, and how often.

Even known carcinogens are not likely to cause cancer under certain thresholds, and limiting your exposure to harmful substances goes a long way to reducing any associated risk.

Plus, the poor health outcomes observed among commuters – which does include higher rates of cancer – may stem from a combination of inactivity, obesity and shorter sleep that often come with lengthy commutes. These factors were not considered in this study.  

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202100026X...

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-20-minute-commute-puts-you-at-risk-o...

The Colossal Weight of Cities Is Making Them Sink, Even as Sea Levels Are Rising

Cities don't just have sea level rises to worry about – they're also slowly sinking under the weight of their own development, according to new research, which emphasises the importance of factoring subsidence into models of climate change risk.

As global populations move disproportionately toward the coasts, this additional subsidence in combination with expected sea level rise may exacerbate risk associated with inundation.

Anthropogenic loading effects at tectonically active continental margins are likely greater than more stable continental interiors where the lithosphere tends to be thicker and more rigid.

There are plenty of other causes of subsidence to think about too, including tectonic plate shifting and the groundwater pumping necessary to support a growing population – something we've seen cause significant city sinking in other parts of the world. The findings are notable enough to make city weight another consideration when scientists are figuring out how geography might change over time, and which areas are under threat as the sea level gets higher.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020AV000277

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-weight-of-cities-is-sinking-urban-...

Lunar Pioneers Will Use Lasers to Phone Home

NASA’s Orion and Gateway will try out optical communications gear for a high-speed connection to Earth

To meet the demands of high-definition video and data-intensive scientific research, NASA and other space agencies are pushing the radio bands traditionally allocated for space research to their limits. For example, the Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts around the moon during NASA’s Artemis 2 mission in 2022, will transmit mission-critical information to Earth via an S-band radio at 2 megabits per second. “It’s the most complex flight-management system ever flown on a spacecraft.

To boost data rates even higher means moving beyond radio and developing optical communications systems that use lasers to beam data across space. In addition to its S-band radio, Orion will carry a laser communications system for sending ultrahigh-definition 4K video back to Earth. And further out, NASA’s Gateway will create a long-term laser communications hub linking our planet and its satellite.

Laser communications are a tricky proposition. The slightest jolt to a spacecraft could send a laser beam wildly off course, while a passing cloud could interrupt it. But if they work, robust optical communications will allow future missions to receive software updates in minutes, not days. Astronauts will be sheltered from the loneliness of working in space. And the scientific community will have access to an unprecedented flow of data between Earth and the moon.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/lunar-pioneers-will-use-...

A 'twisted elevator' could be key to understanding neurological diseases

A University of Sydney-led international team of scientists has revealed the shape of one of the most important molecular machines in our cellsthe glutamate transporter, helping to explain how our brain cells communicate with one another.

Glutamate transporters are tiny proteins on the surface of all our cells that shut on and off the chemical signals that have a big role in making sure all cell-to-cell talk runs smoothly. They are also involved in nerve signalling, metabolism and learning and memory.

The researchers captured the transporters in exquisite detail using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), showing they look like a 'twisted elevator' embedded in the cell membrane.

This world-first discovery opens a whole new field of possibility, studying if defects in the transporters could be the reason behind neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

The results of the research have been published in Nature.

Using Cryo-EM,researchers have uncovered for the first time just how these transporters can multitask—carrying out the dual functions of moving chemicals (like glutamate) across the cell membrane while also allowing water and chloride ions to move through at the same time. These molecular machines use a really cool twisting, elevator-like mechanism to move their cargo across the cell membrane. But they also have an additional function where they can allow water and chloride ions to move across the cell membrane.

Understanding how the molecular machines in our cells work enables us to interpret defects in these machines in disease states and also gives us clues as to how we might target these machines with therapeutics.

Mapping out in detail the structure of the glutamate transporter could be a crucial tool for researchers in understanding how our bodies work ,and the mechanism behind some diseases.

Defects in the glutamate transporter have been linked to many neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

This includes rare diseases such as episodic ataxia, a disease that impacts movement and causes periodic paralysis, caused by an uncontrolled leak of chloride through the glutamate transporter in brain cells.

Glutamate transporters have a chloride channel with two hydrophobic gates, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03240-9 , dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03240-9

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-elevator-key-neurological-diseases.ht...

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A disease-sniffing device that rivals a dog's nose

Numerous studies have shown that trained dogs can detect many kinds of disease—including lung, breast, ovarian, bladder, and prostate cancers, and possibly COVID-19—simply through smell. In some cases, involving prostate cancer for example, the dogs had a 99 percent success rate in detecting the disease by sniffing patients' urine samples.

But it takes time to train such dogs, and their availability and time is limited. Scientists have been hunting for ways of automating the amazing olfactory capabilities of the canine nose and brain, in a compact device. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and other institutions has come up with a system that can detect the chemical and microbial content of an air sample with even greater sensitivity than a dog's nose. They coupled this to a machine-learning process that can identify the distinctive characteristics of the disease-bearing samples.

The findings, which the researchers say could someday lead to an automated odor-detection system small enough to be incorporated into a cellphone, are being published recently in the journal PLoS ONE.

Guest C, Harris R, Sfanos KS, Shrestha E, Partin AW, Trock B, et al. (2021) Feasibility of integrating canine olfaction with chemical and microbial profiling of urine to detect lethal prostate cancer. PLoS ONE 16(2): e0245530. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245530

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-disease-sniffing-device-rivals-dog-no...

New skin patch brings us closer to wearable, all-in-one health monitor

Protein linked to Alzheimer's, strokes cleared from brain blood vessels

As people age, a normal brain protein known as amyloid beta often starts to collect into harmful amyloid plaques in the brain. Such plaques can be the first step on the path to Alzheimer's dementia. When they form around blood vessels in the brain, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, the plaques also raise the risk of strokes.

Several antibodies that target amyloid plaques have been studied as experimental treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Such antibodies also may have the potential to treat cerebral amyloid angiopathy, although they haven't yet been evaluated in clinical trials. But all of the anti-amyloid antibodies that have successfully reduced amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's clinical trials also can cause a worrisome side effect: an increased risk of brain swelling and bleeds.

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an antibody that, in mice, removes amyloid plaques from brain tissue and blood vessels without increasing risk of brain bleeds. The antibody targets a minor component of amyloid plaques known as apolipoprotein E (APOE).

The findings, published Feb. 17 in Science Translational Medicine, suggest a potentially safer approach to removing harmful amyloid plaques as a way of treating Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

 "APOE immunotherapy reduces cerebral amyloid angiopathy and amyloid plaques while improving cerebrovascular function" Science Translational Medicine (2021). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/ … scitranslmed.abd7522

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-protein-linked-alzheimer-bra...

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Researchers report switching material between semiconductor and met...

A group of researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have found out that a semiconductor can be converted to a metal and back by light more easily and more quickly than previously thought. This discovery may increase the processing speed and simplify the design of many common technological devices.

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Making swimming pools safer by reducing chlorine disinfection bypro...

Swimming in indoor or outdoor pools is a healthy form of exercise and recreation for many people. However, studies have linked compounds that arise from chlorine disinfection of the pools to respiratory problems, including asthma, in avid swimmers. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have found that using a complementary form of disinfection, known as copper-silver ionization (CSI), can decrease disinfection byproducts and cell toxicity of chlorinated swimming pool water.

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Evidence of Planet Nine diminishing as researchers find no evidence...

An international team of researchers has found no evidence of trans-Neptunian object clustering as part of an effort to refute the idea of the existence of Planet Nine. The group has written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.

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This is what happens to spacecraft when they re-enter the Earth's a...

When one of the Russian Progress resupply ships undocks from the International Space Station, timing is everything. The Progress needs to fire its engines at just the right time to instigate the deorbit burn in order for the ship to enter the atmosphere at just the right place so that its destructive re-entry occurs over the Pacific Ocean. That way, any potential surviving bits and pieces that might reach Earth will hit far away from any land masses—which are home to people, buildings, and other things we don't want to get bonked.

An mRNA vaccine for cancer immunotherapy

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to prevent COVID-19 have made headlines around the world recently, but scientists have also been working on mRNA vaccines to treat or prevent other diseases, including some forms of cancer. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have developed a hydrogel that, when injected into mice with melanoma, slowly released RNA nanovaccines that shrank tumors and kept them from metastasizing.

Cancer immunotherapy vaccines work similarly to mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, except they activate the immune system to attack tumors instead of a virus. These vaccines contain mRNA that encodes proteins made specifically by tumor cells. When the mRNA enters antigen-presenting cells, they begin making the tumor protein and displaying it on their surfaces, triggering other immune cells to seek and destroy tumors that also make this protein. However, mRNA is an unstable molecule that is quickly degraded by enzymes in the body. For cancer immunotherapy, researchers have tried using nanoparticles to protect and deliver mRNA, but they are typically cleared from the body within 1-2 days after injection. Researchers wanted to develop a hydrogel that, when injected under the skin, would slowly release mRNA nanoparticles, along with an adjuvant—a molecule that helps activate the immune system.

To develop their system, the researchers used ovalbumin (a protein found in chicken egg whites) as a model antigen. The team mixed ovalbumin mRNA and an adjuvant with other compounds to form a hydrogel. When injected under the skin of mice with melanoma tumors engineered to express ovalbumin, the hydrogel slowly released mRNA and adjuvant nanoparticles over a 30-day period. The mRNA vaccine activated T cells and stimulated antibody production, causing tumors to shrink in the treated mice. Also, in contrast to untreated mice, the vaccinated mice did not show any metastasis to the lung.

These results demonstrate that the hydrogel has great potential for achieving long-lasting and efficient cancer immunotherapy with only a single treatment, the researchers say.

"In Situ Transforming RNA Nanovaccines from Polyethylenimine Functionalized Graphene Oxide Hydrogel for Durable Cancer Immunotherapy" Nano Letters (2021). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c05039

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-mrna-vaccine-cancer-immunotherapy.htm...

Quantum collaboration gives new gravity to the mysteries of the universe

Scientists have used cutting-edge research in quantum computation and quantum technology to pioneer a radical new approach to determining how our Universe works at its most fundamental level.

An international team of experts have demonstrated that only quantum and not classical gravity could be used to create a certain informatic ingredient that is needed for quantum computation. Their research "Non-Gaussianity as a signature of a quantum theory of gravity" has been published recently in PRX Quantum.

For more than a hundred years, physicists have struggled to determine how the two foundational theories of science, quantum theoryand general relativity, which respectively describe microscopic and macroscopic phenomena, are unified into a single overarching theory of nature.

During this time, they have come up with two fundamentally contrasting approaches, called 'quantum gravity' and 'classical gravity'. However, a complete lack of experimental evidence means that physicists do not know which approach the overarching theory actually takes, our research provides an experimental approach to solving this.

This new research, which is a collaboration between experts in quantum computing, quantum gravity, and quantum experiments finds an unexpected connection between the fields of quantum computing and quantum gravity and uses this to propose a way to test experimentally that there is quantum not classical gravity. The suggested experiment would involve cooling billions of atoms in a millimeter-sized spherical trap to extremely low temperatures such that they enter a new phase of matter, called a Bose-Einstein condensate, and start to behave like a single large, quantum atom. A magnetic field is then applied to this "atom" so that it feels only its own gravitational pull. With this all in place, if the single gravitating atom demonstrates the key ingredient needed for quantum computation, which is curiously associated with "negative probability," nature must take the quantum gravity approach.

This proposed experiment uses current technology, involves just a single quantum system, the gravitating "atom," and does not rely on assumptions concerning the locality of the interaction, making it simpler than previous approaches and potentially expediating the delivery of the first experimental test of quantum gravity. Physicists would then, after more than a hundred years of research, finally have information on the true overarching, fundamental theory of nature.

Richard Howl et al, Non-Gaussianity as a Signature of a Quantum Theory of Gravity, PRX Quantum 2, 010325 – Published 17 February 2021, DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.010325

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-quantum-collaboration-gravity-mysteri...

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Plastic recycling results in rare metals being found in children's toys and food packaging

Some of the planet's rarest metals—used in the manufacture of smartphones and other electrical equipment—are increasingly being found in everyday consumer plastics, according to new research.

Scientists 

tested a range of new and used products including children's toys, office equipment and cosmetic containers.

Through a number of detailed assessments, they examined levels of rare earth elements (REEs) but also quantities of bromine and antimony, used as flame retardants in electrical equipment and a sign of the presence of recycled electronic plastic.

The results showed one or more REEs were found in 24 of the 31 products tested, including items where unregulated recycling is prohibited such as single-use food packaging.

They were most commonly observed in samples containing bromine and antimony at levels insufficient to effect flame retardancy, but also found in plastics where those chemicals weren't present.

Having also been found in beached marine plastics, the study's authors have suggested there is evidence that REEs are ubiquitous and pervasive contaminants of both contemporary and historical consumer and environmental plastics.

While they have previously been found in a variety of environments—including ground water, soils and the atmosphere—the study demonstrates the wide REE contamination of the "plastisphere" that does not appear to be related to a single source or activity.

Andrew Turner et al, Rare earth elements in plastics, Science of The Total Environment (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145405

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-plastic-recycling-results-rare-metals...

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