Science Simplified!

                       JAI VIGNAN

All about Science - to remove misconceptions and encourage scientific temper

Communicating science to the common people

'To make  them see the world differently through the beautiful lense of  science'

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  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists create simple synthetic cell that grows and divides normally

    Five years ago, scientists created a single-celled synthetic organism that, with only 473 genes, was the simplest living cell ever known. However, this bacteria-like organism behaved strangely when growing and dividing, producing cells with wildly different shapes and sizes.

    Now, scientists have identified seven genes that can be added to tame the cells' unruly nature, causing them to neatly divide into uniform orbs. This achievement

    was described in the journal Cell.

    Identifying these genes is an important step toward engineering synthetic cells that do useful things. Such cells could act as small factories that produce drugs, foods and fuels; detect disease and produce drugs to treat it while living inside the body; and function as tiny computers.

    But to design and build a cell that does exactly what you want it to do, it helps to have a list of essential parts and know how they fit together.

    Cell (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.008

    --

    Scientists at JCVI constructed the first cell with a synthetic genome in 2010. They didn't build that cell completely from scratch. Instead, they started with cells from a very simple type of bacteria called a mycoplasma. They destroyed the DNA in those cells and replaced it with DNA that was designed on a computer and synthesized in a lab. This was the first organism in the history of life on Earth to have an entirely synthetic genome. They called it JCVI-syn1.0.

    Since then, scientists have been working to strip that organism down to its minimum genetic components. The super-simple cell they created five years ago, dubbed JCVI-syn3.0, was perhaps too minimalist. The researchers have now added 19 genes back to this cell, including the seven needed for normal cell division, to create the new variant, JCVI-syn3A. This variant has fewer than 500 genes. To put that number in perspective, the E. coli bacteria that live in your gut have about 4,000 genes. A human cell has around 30,000.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-simple-synthetic-cell.html...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    A third of global farmland at 'high' pesticide pollution risk

    A third of the planet's agricultural land is at "high risk" of pesticide pollution from the lingering residue of chemical ingredients that can leach into water supplies and threaten biodiversity, according to research published recently.

    The use of pesticides has soared globally as agricultural production has expanded, prompting growing fears over environmental damage and calls to cut hazardous chemical use.

    Researchers in Australia modelled pollution risk across 168 countries with data on the usage of 92 active pesticide ingredients and found "widespread global pesticide pollution risk".

    They highlighted several acutely vulnerable ecosystems in South Africa, China, India, Australia and Argentina, at the nexus of high pollution risk, high water scarcity and high biodiversity.

    The study, published in Nature Geoscience, found that overall 64 percent of global agricultural land —approximately 24.5 million square kilometres (9.4 million sq miles)—was at risk of pesticide pollution from more than one active ingredient, and 31 percent is at high risk.

    It is significant because the potential pollution is widespread and some regions at risk also bear high biodiversity and suffer from water scarcity.

    Risk of pesticide pollution at the global scale, Nature Geoscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00712-5

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-global-farmland-high-pesticide-pollut...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    New drug to regenerate lost teeth

    Antibody for USAG-1 shown to stimulate tooth growth

    A new study by scientists at Kyoto University and the University of Fukui, however, may offer some hope. The team reports that an antibody for one gene -- uterine sensitization associated gene-1 or USAG-1 -- can stimulate tooth growth in mice suffering from tooth agenesis, a congenital condition. The paper was published in Science Advances.

    Although the normal adult mouth has 32 teeth, about 1% of the population has more or fewer due to congenital conditions. Scientists have explored the genetic causes for cases having too many teeth as clues for regenerating teeth in adults.

    According to researchers the fundamental molecules responsible for tooth development have already been identified. The morphogenesis of individual teeth depends on the interactions of several molecules including BMP, or bone morphogenetic protein, and Wnt signaling.

    The paper "Anti-USAG-1 therapy for tooth regeneration through enhanced BMP signaling" appeared 12 February 2021 in the journal Science Advances, with doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf1798

    https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/ku-ndt032921.php

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Self healing robots

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Physicists flip particle accelerator setup to gain a clearer view of atomic nuclei

    Physicists at MIT and elsewhere are blasting beams of ions at clouds of protons —like throwing nuclear darts at the speed of light—to map the structure of an atom's nucleus.

    The experiment is an inversion of the usual particle accelerators, which hurl electrons at atomic nuclei to probe their structures. The team used this "inverse kinematics" approach to sift out the messy, quantum mechanical influences within a nucleus, to provide a clear view of a nucleus' protons and neutrons, as well as its short-range correlated (SRC) pairs. These are pairs of protons or neutrons that briefly bind to form super-dense droplets of nuclear matter and that are thought to dominate the ultradense environments in neutron stars.

    The results, published today in Nature Physics, demonstrate that inverse kinematics may be used to characterize the structure of more unstable nuclei—essential ingredients scientists can use to understand the dynamics of neutron stars and the processes by which they generate heavy elements.

    --

    Particle accelerators typically probe nuclear structures through electron scattering, in which high-energy electrons are beamed at a stationary cloud of target nuclei. When an electron hits a nucleus, it knocks out protons and neutrons, and the electron loses energy in the process. Researchers measure the energy of the electron beam before and after this interaction to calculate the original energies of the protons and neutrons that were kicked away.

    While electron scattering is a precise way to reconstruct a nucleus' structure, it is also a game of chance. The probability that an electron will hit a nucleus is relatively low, given that a single electron is vanishingly small in comparison to an entire nucleus. To increase this probability, beams are loaded with ever-higher electron densities.

    Scientists also use beams of protons instead of electrons to probe nuclei, as protons are comparably larger and more likely to hit their target. But protons are also more complex, and made of quarks and gluons, the interactions of which can muddy the final interpretation of the nucleus itself.

    To get a clearer picture, physicists in recent years have inverted the traditional setup: By aiming a beam of nuclei, or ions, at a target of protons, scientists can not only directly measure the knocked out protons and neutrons, but also compare the original nucleus with the residual nucleus, or nuclear fragment, after it has interacted with a target proton.

    "With inverted kinematics, we know exactly what happens to a nucleus when we remove its protons and neutrons.

    Unperturbed inverse kinematics nucleon knockout measurements with a carbon beam, Nature Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-021-01193-4

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-physicists-flip-particle-setup-gain.h...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Researchers discover how animals grow their pointy body parts

    An interdisciplinary research team  discovered a new universal rule of biological growth that explains surprising similarities in the shapes of sharp structures across the tree of life, including teeth, horns, claws, beaks, animal shells, and even the thorns and prickles of plants.

    Animals and plants often grow in specific patterns, like logarithmic spirals following the golden ratio. There are very simple processes that generate these patterns—a logarithmic spiral is produced when one side of a structure grows faster than another at a constant ratio. We can call these 'rules of growth', and they help us understand why organisms are certain shapes.

    In the new study published today in BMC Biology, the research team demonstrates a new rule called the 'power cascade' based on how the shape 'cascades' down a tooth following a power law.

    When an elephant tusk grows longer, it grows wider at a very specific rate following a 'power law'—a mathematical pattern where there is a straight-line relationship between the logarithm of the tooth's width and length. Power laws are found throughout nature, such as in the magnitudes of earthquakes, the sizes of cities, and the movement of the stock market.

    This pattern applies across many animals, in the teeth of giant sharks, Tyrannosaurus rex, mammoths, and even humans. Remarkably, this power law works for claws, hooves, horns, spider fangs, snail shells, antlers, and the beaks of mammals, birds, and dinosaurs. Beyond animals, the team also observed it in the thorns of the rose bush and lemon tree. This was found   almost everywhere researchers looked across the kingdoms of life—in living animals and those extinct for millions of years.

    The new study shows that shells and other shapes such as teeth and horns are in fact the power cascade shape (called a 'power cone').

    Because so many structures follow this growth pattern, we can use it to predict the likely pattern of evolution. Whenever animals evolve teeth, horns, or claws, it seems most likely that they will be this shape. It even allows us to predict what mythical animals would look like if they follow the same patterns of nature.

    BMC Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1186/s12915-021-00990-w

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-animals-pointy-body.html?utm_source=n...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists identify molecular pathway that helps moving cells avoid aimless wandering

    Working with fruit flies, scientists  have identified a new molecular pathway that helps steer moving cells in specific directions. The set of interconnected proteins and enzymes in the pathway act as steering and rudder components that drive cells toward an "intended" rather than random destination.

    These same molecular pathways, according to the scientists, may drive cancer cells to metastasize or travel to distant areas of the body and may also be important for understanding how cells assemble and migrate in an embryo to form organs and other structures.

    Scientists more specifically pin pointed gene called Tre1 and its role. 

    In experiments with fruit fly embryos carrying an intact Tre1 gene, cells that produce future generations of the organism, called germ cells, migrate correctly to the sex organ, known as the gonad.

    Without the Tre1 gene, however, most of the germ cells failed to meet up with other nongerm cells, or somatic cells, of the gonad.

    Ji Hoon Kim et al, Hedgehog signaling and Tre1 regulate actin dynamics through PI(4,5)P2 to direct migration of Drosophila embryonic germ cells, Cell Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108799

    --

    This is not the first time that scientists noted Tre1's importance in germ cell navigation. Two research teams from Indiana University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had previously made the link.

    It was already known that the Tre1 gene encodes a protein that spans the cell membrane multiple times and pokes out onto the cell's surface. It's a member of a large family of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors, which enable cells to communicate and respond to signals from other cells and light and odor cues. Nearly 35% of  approved medicines target G protein-coupled receptors.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-molecular-pathway-cells-ai...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    New physics at the Large Hadron Collider? Scientists are excited, but it's too soon to be sure

    https://theconversation.com/new-physics-at-the-large-hadron-collide...

    https://sciencex.com/news/2021-03-physics-large-hadron-collider-sci...

    --

    Oil-eating bacteria could help to tackle spills

    A team of scientists from Heriot-Watt University has created an underwater observatory in the Faroe-Shetland Channel—and found its waters are teeming with oil-eating bacteria that could help deal with future oil spills.

    --

    How to talk to people about climate change

    As our planet warms, seas rise and catastrophic weather events become more frequent, action on climate change has never been more important. But how do you convince people who still don't believe that humans contribute to the warming climate?

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    Satellite light pollution is everywhere

    There seems to be nowhere left on Earth to view the stars without encountering light pollution from space stuff. After analysing light scattered off the collective cloud of satellites and debris above Earth, researchers found that human-made objects cast a background glow on the night sky even whe.... Stargazers might not be able to notice the difference with the naked eye, but astronomers worry that the pervasive glare of debris orbiting Earth could obscure our view of distant galaxies. “As space gets more crowded, the magnitude of this effect will only be more, not less,” says astronomer John Barentine.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

     A rapid, sensitive test for detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Neuroscientists have identified a brain circuit that stops mice from mating with others that appear to be sick

    When someone is sick, it's natural to want to stay as far from them as possible. It turns out this is also true for mice, according to an MIT study that also identified the brain circuit responsible for this distancing behaviour.

    In a study that explores how otherwise powerful instincts can be overridden in some situations, researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory found that when male mice encountered a female mouse showing signs of illness, the males interacted very little with the females and made no attempts to mate with them as they normally would. The researchers also showed that this behavior is controlled by a circuit in the amygdala, which detects distinctive odors from sick animals and triggers a warning signal to stay away.

    Earlier  studies have shown that mice can distinguish between healthy mice and mice that have been injected with a bacterial component called LPS, which induces mild inflammation when given at a low dose. These studies suggested that mice use odor, processed by their vomeronasal organ, to identify sick individuals.

    To explore whether mice would change their innate behavior when exposed to sick animals, the researchers placed male mice in the same cage with either a healthy female or a female that was showing LPS-induced signs of illness. They found that the males engaged much less with the sick females and made no effort to mount them.

    The researchers then tried to identify the brain circuit underlying this behavior. The vomeronasal organ, which processes pheromones, feeds into a part of the amygdala called the COApm, and the MIT team found that this region is activated by the presence of LPS-injected animals.

    Further experiments revealed that activity in the COApm is necessary to suppress the males' mating behavior in the presence of sick females. When COApm activity was turned off, males would try to mate with sick females. Additionally, artificially stimulating the COApm suppressed mating behavior in males even when they were around healthy females.

     An amygdala circuit that suppresses social engagement, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03413-6

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-neuroscientists-brain-circuit-mice-si...

    **

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Here’s why humans chose particular groups of stars as constellations

    Scientists simulate how humans trace patterns in the night sky

    Stargazers can easily pick out the shape of a constellation. Now, scientists have shown that three factors can explain why certain groups of stars form such recognizable patterns.

    To replicate how humans perceive the celestial sphere, a team of researchers considered how the eye might travel randomly across this night sky. Human eyes tend to move in discrete jumps, called saccades (SN: 10/31/11), from one point of interest to another. Scientists created a simulation that incorporated the distribution of lengths of those saccades, combined that with basic details of the night sky as seen from Earth — namely the apparent distances between neighboring stars and their brightnesses. The technique could reproduce individual constellations.

    Ancient people from various cultures connected similar groupings of stars independently of each other. this indicates that there are some fundamental aspects of human learning … that influence the ways in which we organize information.

    S. David et alFree energy model of the human perception of a starry sky. American Physical Society March Meeting. March 18, 2021.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    DNA can be collected from air, scientists show for first time

    Scientists have shown for the first time that DNA can be collected from the air. The finding could provide new techniques for forensics researchers, anthropologists, and even help in the understanding of the transmission of airborne diseases like COVID-19, they say.

    The team looked at whether environmental DNA (eDNA) could be collected from air samples and used to identify animal species. Most similar studies to date have focused on the collection of eDNA from water.

    But the new proof-of-concept study, published in the journal PeerJ, showed that airDNA sampling could successfully detect naked mole rat DNA and human DNA in the air.

    They first took air samples from a room which had housed naked mole-rats, and then used existing techniques to check for DNA sequences within the sampled air.

    Using this approach, the research team showed that airDNA sampling could successfully detect mole rat DNA within the animals’ housing and from the room itself. They also found human DNA in the air samples, suggesting a potential use of this sampling technique for forensic applications.

    https://peerj.com/articles/11030/

    https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/dna-can-be-collected-from-air-sci...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    How brain cells repair their DNA reveals 'hot spots' of aging and disease

    Neurons lack the ability to replicate their DNA, so they're constantly working to repair damage to their genome. Now, a new study by Salk scientists finds that these repairs are not random, but instead focus on protecting certain genetic "hot spots" that appear to play a critical role in neural identity and function.

    The findings, published in the April 2, 2021, issue of Science, give novel insights into the genetic structures involved in aging and neurodegeneration, and could point to the development of potential new therapies for diseases such Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other age-related dementia disorders.

    "This research shows for the first time that there are sections of genome that neurons prioritize when it comes to repair.

    Unlike other cells, neurons generally don't replace themselves over time, making them among the longest-living cells in the human body. Their longevity makes it even more important that they repair lesions in their DNA as they age, in order to maintain their function over the decades of a human life span. As they get older, neurons' ability to make these genetic repairs declines, which could explain why people develop age-related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

    To investigate how neurons maintain genome health, the study authors developed a new technique they term Repair-seq. The team produced neurons from stem cells and fed them synthetic nucleosides—molecules that serve as building blocks for DNA. These artificial nucleosides could be found via DNA sequencing and imaged, showing where the neurons used them to make repairs to DNA that was damaged by normal cellular processes. While the scientists expected to see some prioritization, they were surprised by just how focused the neurons were on protecting certain sections of the genome.

    "Incorporation of a nucleoside analog maps genome repair sites in postmitotic human neurons" Science (2021). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abb9032

    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-brain-cells-dna-reveals-hot....

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Physicists observe new phase in Bose-Einstein condensate of light pa...

    About 10 years ago, researchers at the University of Bonn produced an extreme aggregate photon state, a single "super-photon" made up of many thousands of individual light particles, and presented a completely new light source. The state is called an optical Bose-Einstein condensate and has captivated many physicists ever since, because this exotic world of light particles is home to its very own physical phenomena. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz, who discovered the super photon, and theoretical physicist Prof. Dr. Johann Kroha now report a new observation: a so-called overdamped phase, a previously unknown phase transition within the optical Bose-Einstein condensate. The study has been published in the journal Science.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Hubble Shows Torrential Outflows from Infant Stars May Not Stop Them from Growing

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    A Visual Guide to the New Coronavirus Variants

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Butterflies Behaving Badly: What They Don’t Want You to Know

    Butterflies have had us fooled for centuries. They bobble around our gardens, all flappy and floppy, looking so pretty with their shimmering colors.

    But butterflies have a dark side. For one thing, those gorgeous colors: They’re often a warning. And that’s just the beginning. All this time, butterflies been living secret lives that most of us never notice.

    Take this zebra longwing, Heliconius charithonia. It looks innocent enough. 

    But it’s also famously poisonous, and its caterpillars are cannibals that eat their siblings. And that’s hardly shocking compared with its propensity for something called pupal rape.

    Once you know that a pupa is the butterfly in its chrysalis—in between being a larva and an adult—then pupal rape is pretty much what it sounds like. As a female gets ready to emerge from her chrysalis, a gang of males swarms around her, jostling and flapping wings to push each other aside. The winner of this tussle mates with the female, but he’s often so eager to do so that he uses his sharp claspers to rip into the chrysalis and mate with her before she even emerges. Since the female is trapped in the chrysalis and has no choice in the matter, the term pupal rape came about, though some biologists refer to it more charitably as “forced copulation” or simply pupal mating.

    One day in Kenya’s North Nandi forest, Dino Martins, an entomologist, watched a spectacular battle between two white-barred Charaxes. A fallen log was oozing fermenting sap, and while a fluffy pile of butterflies was sipping and slowly getting drunk, the two white-barred butterflies showed up and started a bar fight. Spiraling and slicing at one another with serrated wings, the fight ended with the loser’s shredded wings fluttering gently to the forest floor.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Butterflies -2

    Martins, a former National Geographic Emerging Explorer, wrote about Charaxes, or emperor butterflies, in Swara magazine, published in East Africa where he is now Director of Kenya’s Mpala Research Centre.

    “They are fast and powerful,” he writes. “And their tastes run to stronger stuff than nectar: fermenting sap, fresh dung and rotting carrion are all particular favourites.”

    That’s right; don’t get between a butterfly and a freshly dropped pile of dung. It drives them wild. They uncoil their probosces and slurp away, lapping up the salts and amino acids they can’t get from plants.

    It’s called mud-puddling, and it’s very common butterfly behavior. It doesn’t have to be dung, although that’s always nice; you may see flocks of butterflies having a nip of a dead animal (as depicted in this diorama of butterflies eating a piranha), drinking sweat or tears, or just enjoying a plain old mud puddle.

    Butterflies start life as caterpillars, which are far from harmless if you’re a tasty plant, and can be carnivorous. Some are even parasites: Maculinea rebeli butterflies trick ants into raising their young. The caterpillars make sounds that mimic queen ants, which pick them up and carry them into their colonies like the well-to-do being toted in sedan chairs. Inside, they are literally treated as royalty, with worker ants regurgitating meals to them and nurse ants occasionally sacrificing ant babies to feed them when food is scarce. Butterflies invented the ultimate babysitting con.

    So, let’s review. Here are seven not-so-nice things butterflies are into:

    • Getting drunk
    • Fighting
    • Eating meat
    • Eating poop
    • Drinking tears
    • Tricking ants
    • Raping pupae

    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/butterflies-beha...

    The dark truth about butterflies
    All this time, butterflies have been living secret lives that most of us never notice. From getting drunk to eating poop and tricking ants into raising their young, here are a few lesser known facts about these beautiful (sometimes) cannibals.
  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Don’t go near water bodies that are coloured because study found airborne release of toxin from algal scum

    A dangerous toxin has been witnessed—for the first time—releasing into the air from pond scum, research published in the peer-reviewed journal Lake and Reservoir Management recently shows.

    Not only is pond scum—otherwise known as algal bloom—an unsightly formation which can occur on still water across the world, it can also prove dangerous to wildlife and humans.

    For the first time, scientists have now detected the presence of the algal toxin anatoxin-a (ATX)which is also known as 'Very Fast Death Factor', in the air near ponds with large algal blooms. ATX can cause a range of symptoms at acute doses, including loss of coordination, muscular twitching and respiratory paralysis, and has been linked to the deaths of livestock, waterfowl and dogs from drinking contaminated water.

    ATX is produced by single celled organisms known as cyanobacteria, which can form harmful algal blooms—when huge amounts of cyanobacteria grow in lake surface waters. Blooms are exacerbated by fertilizer run-off entering lakes or ponds from nearby fields or improperly treated wastewater, and can stimulate growth and high water temperatures. Cyanobacteria, which also are known as blue-green algae, are actually a type of bacteria that can photosynthesize.

    Cyanobacterial blooms can also lead to low oxygen conditions, further degrading water quality. This is because when the algae in these large blooms die, they sink to the lake bottom and decompose, which can use up all the oxygen in the water, killing fish and other animals. The blooms also can release toxins into the water that can prove fatal for these animals.

    ATX is one of the more dangerous cyanotoxins produced by harmful algal blooms, which are becoming more predominant in lakes and ponds worldwide due to global warming and climate change.People often recreate around these lakes and ponds with algal blooms without any awareness of the potential problems. Direct contact or inhalation of these cyanotoxins can present health risks for individuals, and researchers have reported a potential human health exposure not previously examined.

    The detection of airborne anatoxin-a (ATX) on glass fiber filters during a harmful algal bloom, Lake and Reservoir Management (2021). DOI: 10.1080/10402381.2021.1881191

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-airborne-toxin-algal-scum.html?

    utm_so...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Microplastics are affecting melt rates of snow and ice

    Microplastics have reached the farthest corners of the Earth, including remote fjords and even the Mariana Trench, one of the deepest parts of the ocean. Recently, yet another distant area of our planet has been found to contain these pollutants: glaciers and ice sheets. An Eos article published in March examines how microplastics create changes in these icy ecosystems, and underscores the importance of properly distinguishing them from another form of pollution in snow, black carbon.

    --

    How pathogenic bacteria weather the slings and arrows of infection

    Infectious diseases are a leading cause of global mortality. During an infection, bacteria experience many different stresses—some from the host itself, some from co-colonizing microbes and others from therapies employed to treat the infection. In this arms race to outwit their competition, bacteria have evolved mechanisms to stay alive in the face of adversities. One such mechanism is the stringent response pathway. Understanding how the activation of the stringent response pathway is controlled can provide clues to treat infection.

    --

    Understanding itch: New insights at the intersection of the nervous...

    Eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), is sometimes called "the itch that rashes." Often, the itch begins before the rash appears, and, in many cases, the itchiness of the skin condition never really goes away. Although much has been learned about the uncomfortable sensation that triggers the desire to scratch, many mysteries remain about chronic itch, making it a challenge to treat. A paper by authors from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers new clues about the underlying mechanisms of itch. Findings suggest a key molecular player known as cysteine leukotriene receptor 2 (CysLT2R) that may be a new target for intractable chronic itch.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients

    A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point the way to cost-effective and eco-friendly methods of enriching soil and improving crop yields, reducing farmers' reliance on conventional fertilizers.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Cells Form Into ‘Xenobots’ on Their Own

    Embryonic cells can self-assemble into new living forms that don’t resemble the bodies they usually generate, challenging old ideas of what defines an organism.
    https://www.quantamagazine.org/cells-form-into-xenobots-on-their-ow...
  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    How life-span shifting insects are reshaping aging research

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Researchers achieve world's first manipulation of antimatter by laser

    Researchers with the CERN-based ALPHA collaboration have announced the world's first laser-based manipulation of antimatter, leveraging a made-in-Canada laser system to cool a sample of antimatter down to near absolute zero. The achievement, detailed in an article published today and featured on the cover of the journal Nature, will significantly alter the landscape of antimatter research and advance the next generation of experiments.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Researchers achieve world's first manipulation of antimatter by laser

    Researchers with the CERN-based ALPHA collaboration have announced the world's first laser-based manipulation of antimatter, leveraging a  laser system to cool a sample of antimatter down to near absolute zero. The achievement, detailed in an article published recently and featured on the cover of the journal Nature, will significantly alter the landscape of antimatter research and advance the next generation of experiments.

    Antimatter is the otherworldly counterpart to matter; it exhibits near-identical characteristics and behaviors but has opposite charge. Because they annihilate upon contact with matter, antimatter atoms are exceptionally difficult to create and control in our world and had never before been manipulated with a laser.

    These results are the culmination of a years-long program of research and engineering.

    Laser cooling of antihydrogen atoms , Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03289-6

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-canadian-built-laser-chills-antimatte...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Female monkeys use males as 'hired guns' for defense against predators, study says

    Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Congo Program and the Nouabalé-Ndoki Foundation found that female putty-nosed monkeys (Cercopithecus nictitans) use males as "hired guns" to defend from predators such as leopards.

    Publishing their results in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the team discovered that female monkeys use alarm calls to recruit males to defend them from predators. The researchers conducted the study among 19 different groups of wild putty-nosed monkeys, a type of forest guenon, in Mbeli Bai, a study area within the forests in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Northern Republic of Congo.

    The results promote the idea that females' general alarm requires males to assess the nature of the threat and that it serves to recruit males to ensure group defense. Females only cease the alarm call when males produce calls associated with anti-predator defense. Results suggest that alarm-calling strategies depend on the sex of the signaler. Females recruit males, who identify themselves while approaching, for protection. Males reassure their female of their quality in predation defense, probably to assure future reproduction opportunities.

    Males advertise their commitment to serve as hired guns by emitting general "pyow" calls while approaching the rest of their group—a call containing little information about ongoing events, but cues to male identity, similar as to a signature call. Hearing his "pyow" call during male approaches enables females to identify high quality group defenders already from a distance. This might contribute to long-term male reputation in groups, which would equip females to choose males that ensure their offspring's survival most reliably.

    Frederic Gnepa Mehon et al, Female putty-nosed monkeys ( Cercopithecus nictitans ) vocally recruit males for predator defense, Royal Society Open Science (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.202135

    https://phys.org/news/2021-03-female-monkeys-males-hired-guns.html?...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Climate Change is affecting you personally. Here's how

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    A sun reflector for Earth? Scientists explore the potential risks and benefits

    Nine of the hottest years in human history have occurred in the last decade. Without a major shift in this climate trajectory, the future of life on Earth is in question. Should humans, whose fossil-fueled society is driving climate change, use technology to put the brakes on global warming?

    Every month since September 2019 the Climate Intervention Biology Working Group, a team of internationally recognized experts in climate science and ecology, has gathered remotely to bring science to bear on that question and the consequences of geoengineering a cooler Earth by reflecting a portion of the sun's radiation away from the planet—a climate intervention strategy known as solar radiation modification (SRM).

    The group's seminal paper, "Potential ecological impacts of climate intervention by reflecting sunlight to cool Earth," was published in the most recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

    The costs and technology needed to reflect the Sun's heat back into space are currently more attainable than other climate intervention ideas like absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. 

    Scientific investigation into how a climate intervention strategy known as solar radiation modification (SRM), in tandem with greenhouse gas emissions reduction, would affect the natural world is being studied.

    The feasibility of planetary-wide SRM efforts hinge on accurate predictions of its myriad outcomes provided by the well-established computer simulations of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP).

    While climate models have become quite advanced in predicting climate outcomes of various geoengineering scenarios, we have very little understanding of what the possible risks of these scenarios might be for species and natural systems. Are the risks for extinction, species community change, and the need for organisms to migrate to survive under SRM greater than those of climate change, or does SRM reduce the risks caused by climate change?

    Most of the GeoMIP models only simulate abiotic variables, but what about all of the living things that are affected by climate and rely on energy from the sun?

    "We need to better understand the possible impacts of SRM on everything from soil microorganisms to monarch butterfly migrations to marine systems."

    Phoebe L. Zarnetske el al., "Potential ecological impacts of climate intervention by reflecting sunlight to cool Earth," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1921854118

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-sun-reflector-earth-scientists-explor...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Geoengineering is just a partial solution to fight climate change

    --

    Study reveals uncertainty in how much carbon the ocean absorbs over...

    The ocean's "biological pump" describes the many marine processes that work to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transport it deep into the ocean, where it can remain sequestered for centuries. This ocean pump is a powerful regulator of atmospheric carbon dioxide and an essential ingredient in any global climate forecast.

    --

    Making cleaner, greener plastics from waste fish parts

    Polyurethanes, a type of plastic, are nearly everywhere—in shoes, clothes, refrigerators and construction materials. But these highly versatile materials can have a major downside. Derived from crude oil, toxic to synthesize, and slow to break down, conventional polyurethanes are not environmentally friendly. Today, researchers discuss devising what they say should be a safer, biodegradable alternative derived from fish waste—heads, bones, skin and guts—that would otherwise likely be discarded.

    --

    Paleopharmaceuticals from Baltic amber might fight drug-resistant i...

    For centuries, people in Baltic nations have used ancient amber for medicinal purposes. Even today, infants are given amber necklaces that they chew to relieve teething pain, and people put pulverized amber in elixirs and ointments for its purported anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties. Now, scientists have pinpointed compounds that help explain Baltic amber's therapeutic effects and that could lead to new medicines to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

    --

    Doping by athletes could become tougher to hide with new detection ...

    As the world awaits the upcoming Olympic games, a new method for detecting doping compounds in urine samples could level the playing field for those trying to keep athletics clean. Today, scientists report an approach using ion mobility-mass spectrometry to help regulatory agencies detect existing dopants and future "designer" compounds.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists develop a safe, cheap technology for disinfection of pac...

    Russian researchers have developed an inexpensive, safe, and reliable surface disinfection technology for packed eggs. This technology helps to kill bacteria, including salmonella, on eggshells. Also, it allows growing broiler chickens with strong immunity to viral diseases. Packed eggs are disinfected with an electron beam for 50 nanoseconds (one-billionth of a second). Disinfection takes place in plastic containers. The description of the technology was published in Food and Bioproducts Processing.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    The problems we face with

    Forever Chemicals

    Forever chemicals are used in everything from rain jackets to jet fuel. But the chemistry behind what makes them useful also makes them stick around in the environment and us...forever?

    Could microbes save us from PFAS? You can read about the study we mention here: https://cen.acs.org/environment/persistent-pollutants/microbes-save...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    A safer way to deploy bacteria as environmental sensors

    In recent years, scientists have developed many strains of engineered bacteria that can be used as sensors to detect environmental contaminants such as heavy metals. If deployed in the natural environment, these sensors could help scientists track how pollutant levels change over time, over a wide geographic area.

    MIT engineers have now devised a way to make this kind of deployment safer, by encasing bacterial sensors in a tough hydrogel shell that prevents them from escaping into the environment and potentially spreading modified genes to other organisms.

    "Right now there are a lot of whole-cell biosensors being developed, but applying them in the real world is a challenge because we don't want any genetically modified organisms to be able to exchange genetic material with wild-type microbes.

    Researchers showed that they could embed E. coli into hydrogel spheres, allowing them to detect the contaminants they're looking for while remaining isolated from other organisms. The shells also help to protect the sensors from environmental damage.

    Tzu-Chieh Tang et al. Hydrogel-based biocontainment of bacteria for continuous sensing and computation, Nature Chemical Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-021-00779-6

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-safer-deploy-bacteria-environmental-s...

    **

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Rise of the 'robo-plants', as scientists fuse nature with tech

    Remote-controlled Venus flytrap "robo-plants" and crops that tell farmers when they are hit by disease could become reality after scientists developed a high-tech system for communicating with vegetation.

    Researchers in Singapore linked up plants to electrodes capable of monitoring the weak electrical pulses naturally emitted by the greenery.

    The scientists used the technology to trigger a Venus flytrap to snap its jaws shut at the push of a button on a smartphone app.

    They then attached one of its jaws to a robotic arm and got the contraption to pick up a piece of wire half a millimetre thick, and catch a small falling object.

    The technology is in its early stages, but researchers think it could eventually be used to build advanced "plant-based robots" that can pick up a host of fragile objects which are too delicate for rigid, robotic arms. These kinds of nature robots can be interfaced with other artificial robots (to make) hybrid systems.

    The system can also pick up signals emitted by plants, raising the possibility that farmers will be able to detect problems with their crops at an early stage.

    "By monitoring the plants' electrical signals, we may be able to detect possible distress signals and abnormalities. Farmers may find out when a disease is in progress, even before full-blown symptoms appear on the crops.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-robo-plants-scientists-fuse-nature-te...

    **

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Researchers develop materials for oral delivery of insulin medication

    A revolutionary technology developed  could dramatically improve the wellbeing of diabetic patients: an insulin oral delivery system that could replace traditional subcutaneous injections without the side effects caused by frequent injections.

    Using prepared layers of nanosheets with insulin loaded in between layers to protect it, the researchers developed gastro-resistant imine-linked-covalent organic framework nanoparticles (nCOFs) that exhibited insulin protection in the stomach as well in diabetic test subjects whose sugar levels completely returned to normal within two hours after swallowing the nanoparticles.

    Farah Benyettou et al. In vivo oral insulin delivery via covalent organic frameworks, Chemical Science (2021). DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05328G

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-materials-oral-delivery-insulin-medic...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists Reverse Engineer mRNA Sequence of Moderna Vaccine

    Stanford University researchers determined the code from spare drops in discarded vials of the COVID-19 vaccine and published it on GitHub.

    Leftover drops in vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine allowed a group of researchers from Stanford University to determine the sequence of the mRNA for SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein that is used in the immunization, Motherboard reported March 29. The sequence has been posted on the open-access website GitHub.

    “Sharing of sequence information for broadly used therapeutics has substantial benefit in design of improved clinical tools and precise diagnostics,” the authors write in their post. They explain that knowing the vaccine’s sequence will allow diagnostic labs to more easily differentiate between RNA from the vaccine versus that from an actual viral infection.

    https://github.com/NAalytics/Assemblies-of-putative-SARS-CoV2-spike...

    https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/scientists-reverse-engin...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Complete chromosome 8 sequence reveals novel genes and disease risks

    The full assembly of human chromosome 8 is reported this week in Nature. While on the outside this chromosome looks typical, being neither short nor long or distinctive, its DNA content and arrangement are of interest in primate and human evolution, in several immune and developmental disorders, and in chromosome sequencing structure and function generally.

    This linear assembly is a first for a human autosome—a chromosome not involved in sex determination. The entire sequence of chromosome 8 is 146,259,671 bases. The completed assembly fills in the gap of more than 3 million bases missing from the current reference genome.

    One of several intriguing characteristics of chromosome 8 is a fast-evolving region, where the mutation rate appears to be highly accelerated in humans and human-like species, in contrast to the rest of the human genome.

    While chromosome 8 offers some insights into evolution and human biology, the researchers point out that the complete assembly of all human chromosomes would be necessary to acquire a fuller picture.

    Glennis A. Logsdon et al, The structure, function and evolution of a complete human chromosome 8, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03420-7

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-chromosome-sequence-reveals-genes-dis...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups' movements

    A lion yawn is contagious, and when lions start yawning together, they start moving together. Synchronization may be key for group hunters like lions.

    Subtle social cues may be embedded in a lion's lazy gape, new research suggests

    Watch a group of lions yawn, and it may seem like nothing more than big, lazy cats acting sleepy, but new research suggests that these yawns may be subtly communicating some important social cues. Yawning is not only contagious among lions, but it appears to help the predators synchronize their movements, researchers report March 16 in Animal Behaviour

    Lions yawn when they are relaxed and engage in social affiliation.

    The arousal state seems to inhibit yawning in wild lions.

    Wild lions are infected by others' yawns.

    Yawn contagion facilitates motor convergence thus favouring lion group synchrony.

    G. Casetta, A.P. Nolfo and E. Palagi. Yawn contagion promotes motor synchrony in wild lions, Panthera leoAnimal Behaviour. Vol. 174, April 2021, p. 149. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.02.010.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000334722100...

    https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lion-yawn-contagious-synchroniz...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    New, reversible CRISPR method can control gene expression while leaving underlying DNA sequence unchanged

    Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms' DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a variety of diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 editing involves cutting DNA strands, leading to permanent changes to the cell's genetic material.

    Now, in a paper published online in Cell on April 9, researchers describe a new gene editing technology called CRISPRoff that allows researchers to control gene expression with high specificity while leaving the sequence of the DNA unchanged. 

    The method is stable enough to be inherited through hundreds of cell divisions, and is also fully reversible. It can be done for multiple genes at the same time without any DNA damage, with great deal of homogeneity, and in a way that can be reversed. It's a great tool for controlling gene expression.

    Cell (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.025

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-reversible-crispr-method-gene-underly...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Biodiversity 'hot spots' devastated in warming world

    Unless nations dramatically improve on carbon cutting pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate treaty, the planet's richest concentrations of animal and plant life will be irreversibly ravaged by global warming, scientists warned Friday, 9th April, 2021.

    An analysis of 8,000 published risk assessments for species showed a high danger for extinction in nearly 300 biodiversity "hot spots", on land and in the sea, if temperatures rise three degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, they reported in the journal Biological Conservation.

    From snow leopards in the Himalayas and the vaquita porpoise in the Gulf of California to lemurs in Madagascar and forest elephants in central Africa, many of the planet's most cherished creatures will wind up on a path to extinction unless humanity stops loading the atmosphere with CO2 and methane, the study found. Endemic land species in biodiverse hot spots are nearly three times as likely to suffer losses due to climate change than more widespread flora and fauna, and 10 times more likely than invasive species.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-biodiversity-hot-devastated-world.htm...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    How we found hints of new particles or forces of nature – and why i...

    Seven years ago, a huge magnet was transported over 3,200 miles (5,150km) across land and sea, in the hope of studying a subatomic particle called a muon.

    --

    Methane-eating bacteria found in a common tree is possible game-cha...

    Trees are the Earth's lungs—it's well understood they drawdown and lock up vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But emerging research is showing trees can also emit methane, and it's currently unknown just how much.

    --

    Antibody binding-site conserved across COVID-19 virus variants

    A tiny protein of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that gives rise to COVID-19, may have big implications for future treatments, according to a team of Penn State researchers.

    --

    Scientists successfully breed corals in the lab

    Scientists at the University of Oldenburg's Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) have scored a success: in the aquariums at the ICBM's Wilhelmshaven site they were able to induce sexual reproduction in stony corals for the first time ever in Germany.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Honey bees rally to their queen via ‘game of telephone’

    "

    Buzz. Buzz. The queen is that way,” said one honey bee to another. “Pass it on.”

    Honey bees can’t speak, of course, but scientists have found that the insects combine teamwork and odor chemicals to relay the queen’s location to the rest of the colony, revealing an extraordinary means of long distance, mass communication.

    Honey bees communicate with chemicals called pheromones, which they sense through their antennae. Like a monarch pressing a button, the queen emits pheromones to summon worker bees to fulfill her needs. But her pheromones only travel so far. Busy worker bees, however, roam around, and they, too, can call to each other by releasing a pheromone called Nasanov, through a gesticulation known as “scenting; they raise their abdomens to expose their pheromone glands and fan their wings to direct the smelly chemicals backward .

    The scientists then recorded the insects’ movements from above with a camera; artificial intelligence software tracked bees that were releasing Nasanov pheromones.

    Once the first worker honey bees located the queen, they began to assemble chains of evenly spaced bees that extended outward from the queen, with each bee wafting Nasanov to its neighbor down the line. The findings, reported this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the first direct observations of this collective communication in h.... 

    https://www.pnas.org/content/118/13/e2011916118

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/honey-bees-rally-their-quee...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Vanishing Glaciers

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Less is more: Why our brains struggle to subtract

    Pager, a nine year old Macaque, plays MindPong with his Neuralink.

    Field Study Sheds New Light on Melt Zone
  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    'Tantalizing' results of 2 experiments defy physics rulebook

    Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.

    Tiny particles called muons aren't quite doing what is expected of them in two different long-running experiments. The confounding results—if proven right—reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level.

    The rulebook, called the Standard Model, was developed about 50 years ago. Experiments performed over decades affirmed over and again that its descriptions of the particles and the forces that make up and govern the universe were pretty much on the mark. Until now.

    Now it 's observed that the muons' magnetic fields don't seem to be what the Standard Model says they should be. If confirmed, the results would be the biggest finding in the bizarre world of subatomic particles in nearly 10 years.

    The secrets don't just live in matter. They live in something that seems to fill in all of space and time. These are quantum fields.

    --

    The results involve the strange, fleeting particle called the muon. The muon is the heavier cousin to the electron that orbits an atom's center. But the muon is not part of the atom, it is unstable and normally exists for only two microseconds. 

    Preliminary results suggest that the magnetic "spin" of the muons is 0.1% off what the Standard Model predicts. That may not sound like much, but to particle physicists it is huge—more than enough to upend current understanding.

    The observations and the experiment  are not being called an official discovery yet because there is still a tiny chance that the results are statistical quirks.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-tantalizing-results-defy-physics-rule...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists discover three liquid phases in aerosol particles

    Researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered three liquid phases in aerosol particles, changing our understanding of air pollutants in the Earth's atmosphere.

    While aerosol particles were known to contain up to two liquid phases, the discovery of an additional liquid phase may be important to providing more accurate atmospheric models and climate predictions. The study was published today in PNAS.

    Jeffrey S. Kwang el al., "The role of lateral erosion in the evolution of nondendritic drainage networks to dendricity and the persistence of dynamic networks," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2102512118

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-liquid-phases-aerosol-part...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Researchers discover new way to starve brain tumors

    Scientists have found a new way to starve cancerous brain tumor cells of energy in order to prevent further growth.

    Medulloblastoma is the most common high-grade brain tumor in children. Survival rate is 70 percent for those whose tumor has not spread but it is almost always fatal in cases of recurrent tumor.

    The research, published in the high impact journal Nature Communications, looks at inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), a naturally occurring compound present in almost all plants and animals, and showed how it inhibits medulloblastoma and can be combined with chemotherapy to kill tumor cells.

    Inositol treatment inhibits medulloblastoma through suppression of epigenetic-driven metabolic adaptation, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22379-7

    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-starve-brain-tumors.html?utm...

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Upward lightning takes its cue from nearby lightning events

    In the chaos of a thunderstorm, upward moving lightning occasionally springs from the tops of tall structures. Scientists don't fully understand how upward lightning is triggered; it is likely a combination of multiple environmental factors, such as the background electric field and the structure's height. In a new study, Sunjerga et al. investigate how ambient lightning events near tall structures may trigger upward lightning.

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    Scientists Create the Next Generation of Living Robots

  • Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

    In a first, scientists watch 2D puddles of electrons spontaneously emerge in a 3D superconducting material

    Creating a two-dimensional material, just a few atoms thick, is often an arduous process requiring sophisticated equipment. So scientists were surprised to see 2D puddles emerge inside a three-dimensional superconductor—a material that allows electrons to travel with 100% efficiency and zero resistance—with no prompting.

    Within those puddles, superconducting electrons acted as if they were confined inside an incredibly thin, sheet-like plane, a situation that requires them to somehow cross over to another dimension, where different rules of quantum physics apply.

    "This is a tantalizing example of emergent behavior, which is often difficult or impossible to replicate by trying to engineer it from scratch.

    It's as if when given the power to superconduct,  the 3D electrons choose for themselves to live in a 2D world.

    The research team calls this new phenomenon "inter-dimensional superconductivity,"  in a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    This is how 3D superconductors reorganize themselves just before undergoing an abrupt shift into an insulating state, where electrons are confined to their home atoms and can't move around at all.

    Carolina Parra el al., "Signatures of two-dimensional superconductivity emerging within a three-dimensional host superconductor," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2017810118

    https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-2d-puddles-electrons-spont...