Researchers find snake venom complexity is driven by prey diet

Diversity in diet plays a role in the complexity of venom in pit vipers such as rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths. Right?NO!

Now scientists found that the number of prey species a snake ate did not drive venom complexity. Rather, it was how far apart the prey species were from each other evolutionarily. It's not just diet that drives the variation in venom across snakes. It's the breadth of diet.

If a snake eats 20 different species of mammals, its venom will not be very complex. But if it eats a centipede, a frog, a bird and a mammal, it's going to have a highly complex venom because each component of that venom is affecting something different in one of the different animals the snake is feeding upon."

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the findings in a paper titled "Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pit vipers."

The research could lead to better anti-venoms and serve as a dietary database for other snake researchers.

 Matthew L. Holding el al., "Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2015579118

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-snake-venom-complexity-driven-prey.ht...

Study reveals the workings of nature's own earthquake blocker

A new study finds a naturally occurring "earthquake gate" that decides which earthquakes are allowed to grow into magnitude 8 or greater.

Sometimes, the "gate" stops earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range, while ones that pass through the gate grow to magnitude 8 or greater, releasing over 32 times as much energy as a magnitude 7.

Researchers learned about this gate while studying New Zealand's Alpine Fault, which they determined has about a 75 percent chance of producing a damaging earthquake within the next 50 years. The modeling also suggests this next earthquake has an 82 percent chance of rupturing through the gate and being magnitude 8 or greater. These insights are now published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Jamie D. Howarth et al, Spatiotemporal clustering of great earthquakes on a transform fault controlled by geometry, Nature Geoscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00721-4

Researchers' work combined two approaches to studying earthquakes: evidence of past earthquakes collected by geologists and computer simulations run by geophysicists. Only by using both jointly were the researchers able to get new insight into the expected behavior of future earthquakes on the Alpine Fault.

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-reveals-nature-earthquake-blocker.htm...

Scientists crack 'the Brazil-nut' puzzle, how do the largest nuts rise to the top?

Scientists have for the first time captured the complex dynamics of particle movement in granular materials, helping to explain why mixed nuts often see the larger Brazil nuts gather at the top. The findings could have vital impact on industries struggling with the phenomenon, such as pharmaceuticals and mining.

Many people will have the experience of dipping their hands into a bag of mixed nuts only to find the Brazil nuts at the top. This effect can also be readily observed with cereal boxes, with the larger items rising to the top. Colloquially, this phenomenon of particles segregating by their size is known as the 'Brazil-nut effect' and also has huge implications for industries where uneven mixing can critically degrade product quality.

Now, for the first time, scientists at The University of Manchester have used time-resolved 3D imaging to show how the Brazil nuts rise upwards through a pile of nuts. The work shows the importance of particle shape in the de-mixing process.

A common difficulty with examining granular materials is following what happens to particles on the inside of the pile, which cannot easily be seen. This new research published in the journal Scientific Reports makes a key breakthrough in our understanding by utilizing advanced imaging techniques at the new National Research Facility for Lab-based X-ray Computed Tomography (NXCT)

Brazil nut mystery - part 2

The team captured the unique imaging experiment on video showing the temporal evolution of the nut mixture in 3D. Peanuts are seen to percolate downwards whilst three larger Brazil nuts are seen to rise upwards. The first Brazil nut reaches the top 10% of the bed height after 70 shear cycles, with the other two Brazil nuts reaching this height after 150 shear cycles. The remaining Brazil nuts appear trapped towards the bottom and do not rise upwards.

Critically, the orientation of the Brazil nut is key to its upward movement. It 's found that the Brazil nuts initially start horizontal but do not start to rise until they have first rotated sufficiently towards the vertical axis. Upon reaching the surface, they then return to a flat orientation.

This study highlights the important role of particle shape and orientation in segregation. Further, this ability to track the motion in 3D will pave the way for new experimental studies of segregating mixtures and will open the door to even more realistic simulations and powerful predictive models. This will allow us to better design industrial equipment to minimize size segregation thus leading to more uniform mixtures. This is critical to many industries, for instance ensuring an even distribution of active ingredients in medicinal tablets, but also in food processing, mining and construction.

Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87280-1

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-brazil-nut-puzzle-largest-...

Study finds humans are directly influencing wind and weather over N...

A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science provides evidence that humans are influencing wind and weather patterns across the eastern United States and western Europe by releasing CO2 and other pollutants into Earth's atmosphere.

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Ocean currents modulate oxygen content at the equator

Due to global warming, not only the temperatures in the atmosphere and in the ocean are rising, but also winds and ocean currents as well as the oxygen distribution in the ocean are changing. For example, the oxygen content in the ocean has decreased globally by about 2% in the last 60 years, particularly strong in the tropical oceans. However, these regions are characterized by a complex system of ocean currents. At the equator, one of the strongest currents, the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), transports water masses eastwards across the Atlantic. The water transport by the EUC is more than 60 times larger than that of the Amazon river.

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When stars get too close to each other, they cast out interstellar ...

In October 2017, humanity caught its first-ever glimpse of an interstellar object—a visitor from beyond our solar system—passing nearby the sun. We named it "Oumuamua, and its unusual properties fascinated and confounded astronomers. Less than two years later, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov found a second interstellar object: a comet-like body that began to disintegrate as it passed within 2 AU of the sun (1 AU equals the distance from Earth to the sun). Where do these interstellar objects come from? How common are they? With a sample size of just two, it's difficult to make any generalizations just yet. On the other hand, given what we know about star formation, we can begin to make some inferences about the likely origins of these objects, and what we are likely to see of them in the future.

Russian scientists discover a new gene regulation mechanism

A team of scientists from Russia studied the role of double-stranded fragments of the maturing RNA and showed that the interaction between distant parts of the RNA can regulate gene expression. The research was published in Nature Communications.

At school, we learn that DNA is double-stranded and RNA is single-stranded, but that is not entirely true. Scientists have encountered many cases of RNA forming a double-stranded (a.k.a. secondary) structure that plays an important role in the functioning of RNA molecules. These structures are involved in the regulation of gene expression, where the double-stranded regions typically carry specific functions and, if lost, may cause severe disorders. A double-stranded structure is created by sticky complementary regions. For the strands to stick to each other, U and G should appear opposite A and C, respectively. The majority of the sticking regions are located close to one another, but the role of those located far apart has not been well understood.

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Life Sciences (CLS) led by professor Dmitri Pervouchine and their colleagues from Russian and international laboratories used molecular and bioinformatics techniques to analyze the structure and roles of complementary RNA regions spaced far apart but capable of forming secondary structures. It transpired that the secondary structure plays an important role in the maturation of information-carrying RNA molecules and particularly in splicing, a process in which non-coding regions are cut out, and the coding regions are stitched together. The team showed that the RNA secondary structures can regulate splicing and thus contribute strongly to gene regulation.

"This paper culminates years of research on the RNA secondary structure and its role in the regulation of gene expression. We have published an extensive computation-based catalog of potentially important RNA structures, but the experimental research in this direction is just starting", professor Pervouchine comments.

Web: https://www.skoltech.ru/en.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/sios-rsd041921.php

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Flushing a public toilet? Don't linger, because aerosolized droplets do

Flushing a toilet can generate large quantities of microbe-containing aerosols depending on the design, water pressure or flushing power of the toilet. A variety of pathogens are usually found in stagnant water as well as in urine, feces and vomit. When dispersed widely through aerosolization, these pathogens can cause Ebola, norovirus that results in violent food poisoning, as well as COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Respiratory droplets are the most prominent source of transmission for COVID-19, however, alternative routes may exist given the discovery of small numbers of viable viruses in urine and stool samples. Public restrooms are especially cause for concern for transmitting COVID-19 because they are relatively confined, experience heavy foot traffic and may not have adequate ventilation.

A team of scientists put physics of fluids to the test to investigate droplets generated from flushing a toilet and a urinal in a public rest room under normal ventilation conditions. To measure the droplets, they used a particle counter placed at various heights of the toilet and urinal to capture the size and number of droplets generated upon flushing.

Results of the study, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, demonstrate how public restrooms could serve as hotbeds for airborne disease transmission, especially if they do not have adequate ventilation or if toilets do not have a lid or cover. 

The droplets were detected at heights of up to 5 feet for 20 seconds or longer after initiating the flush. Researchers detected a smaller number of droplets in the air when the toilet was flushed with a closed lid, although not by much, suggesting that aerosolized droplets escaped through small gaps between the cover and the seat.

Jesse H. Schreck et al, Aerosol generation in public restrooms, Physics of Fluids (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0040310

Using a public restroom? Mask up!

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-flushing-toilet-dont-linger-aerosoliz...

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Omega-3 supplements do double duty in protecting against stress

A high daily dose of an omega-3 supplement may help slow the effects of aging by suppressing damage and boosting protection at the cellular level during and after a stressful event, new research suggests.

Researchers found that daily supplements that contained 2.5 grams of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, the highest dose tested, were the best at helping the body resist the damaging effects of stress.

Compared to the placebo group, participants taking omega-3 supplements produced less of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of a pro-inflammatory protein during a stressful event in the lab. And while levels of protective compounds sharply declined in the placebo group after the stressor, there were no such decreases detected in people taking omega-3s.

The supplements contributed to what the researchers call stress resilience: reduction of harm during stress and, after acute stress, sustained anti-inflammatory activity and protection of cell components that shrink as a consequence of aging.

Annelise A. Madison et al. Omega-3 supplementation and stress reactivity of cellular aging biomarkers: an ancillary substudy of a randomized, controlled trial in midlife adults, Molecular Psychiatry (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01077-2

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-omega-supplements-duty-stres...

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Orbital debris threatens satellites: Time to act

Should Facebook and Twitter review your posts before they're published?

The day is coming when your posts to social media may travel through checkpoints before the messages go public.

All of your posts to Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms may be instantly examined by an artificial intelligence filter that roots out hate speech and misinformation. Some posts that have been flagged by artificial intelligence may then be reviewed by a human supervisor.

social media filters are needed because the platforms have grown and scaled faster than they can be regulated—with the result that social channels are now being accused of enabling hate speech and misinformation that contributes to violence.

comprehensive regulations will include heavy government fines for platforms that enable hate speech and misinformation. Such penalties will create additional incentives to invest in the necessary content moderation and technology.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-04-facebook-twitter-theyre-publish...

New process makes 'biodegradable' plastics truly compostable

Biodegradable plastics have been advertised as one solution to the plastic pollution problem bedeviling the world, but today's "compostable" plastic bags, utensils and cup lids don't break down during typical composting and contaminate other recyclable plastics, creating headaches for recyclers. Most compostable plastics, made primarily of the polyester known as polylactic acid, or PLA, end up in landfills and last as long as forever plastics.

Scientists have now invented a way to make these compostable plastics break down more easily, with just heat and water, within a few weeks, solving a problem that has flummoxed the plastics industry and environmentalists.

The new process involves embedding polyester-eating enzymes in the plastic as it's made. These enzymes are protected by a simple polymer wrapping that prevents the enzyme from untangling and becoming useless. When exposed to heat and water, the enzyme shrugs off its polymer shroud and starts chomping the plastic polymer into its building blocks—in the case of PLA, reducing it to lactic acid, which can feed the soil microbes in compost. The polymer wrapping also degrades.

The process eliminates microplastics, a byproduct of many chemical degradation processes and a pollutant in its own right.

Near-complete depolymerization of polyesters with nano-dispersed enzymes, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03408-3

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-biodegradable-plastics-compostable.ht...

Lifelong burden of high stress hormones in female baboons shortens life expectancy

Female baboons may not have bills to pay or deadlines to meet, but their lives are extremely challenging. They face food and water scarcity and must be constantly attuned to predators, illnesses and parasites, all while raising infants and maintaining their social status.

A new study appearing April 21 in Science Advances shows that female baboons with high life-long levels of glucocorticoids, the hormones involved in the 'fight or flight' response, have a greater risk of dying than those with lower levels.

Glucocorticoids are a group of hormones that help prepare the body for a challenge. While these hormones have many functions in the body, persistently high levels of glucocorticoids in the bloodstream can be a marker of stress.

Females with higher levels of glucocorticoids in their feces, either due to more frequent exposure to different types of challenges, or more intense stress responses, tended to die younger.

 F.A. Campos at University of Texas at San Antonio in San Antonio, TX el al., "Glucocorticoid exposure predicts survival in female baboons," Science Advances (2021). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abf6759

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-lifelong-burden-higher-stress-hormone...

Microplastics affect global nutrient cycle and oxygen levels in the...

The effects of the steadily increasing amount of plastic in the ocean are complex and not yet fully understood. Scientists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have now shown for the first time that the uptake of microplastics by zooplankton can have significant effects on the marine ecosystem even at low concentrations. The study, published in the international journal Nature Communications, further indicates that the resulting changes may be responsible for a loss of oxygen in the ocean beyond that caused by global warming.

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Climate 'tipping points' need not be the end of the world

The disastrous consequences of climate "tipping points" could be averted if global warming was reversed quickly enough, new research suggests.

Flying a helicopter on Mars

NASA Extracts Breathable Oxygen From Thin Martian Air

: NASA has logged another extraterrestrial first on its latest mission to Mars: converting carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into pure, breathable oxygen, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday.

The unprecedented extraction of oxygen, literally out of thin air on Mars, was achieved Tuesday by an experimental device aboard Perseverance, a six-wheeled science rover that landed on the Red Planet February 18 after a seven-month journey from Earth.

In its first activation, the toaster-sized instrument dubbed MOXIE, short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment, produced about 5 grams of oxygen, equivalent to roughly 10 minutes’ worth of breathing for an astronaut, NASA said.

The instrument works through electrolysis, which uses extreme heat to separate oxygen atoms from molecules of carbon dioxide, which accounts for about 95% of the atmosphere on Mars.

The remaining 5% of Mars’ atmosphere, which is only about 1% as dense Earth’s, consists primarily of molecular nitrogen and argon. Oxygen exists on Mars in negligible trace amounts.

Although the initial output was modest, the feat marked the first experimental extraction of a natural resources from the environment of another planet for direct use by humans.

https://www.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-mars-oxygen/nasa-...

https://science.thewire.in/spaceflight/nasa-extracts-breathable-oxy...

Part 3

The solution is clear: fossil fuels must be kept in the ground. 

Leaders, not industry, hold the power and have the moral responsibility to take bold  actions to address this crisis. We call on world leaders to work together in a spirit of  international cooperation to: 

• End new expansion of oil, gas and coal production in line with the best available science as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Nations Environment Program; 
• Phase out existing production of oil, gas and coal in a manner that is fair and equitable, taking into account the responsibilities of countries for climate change and their respective dependency on fossil fuels, and capacity to  transition; 
• Invest in a transformational plan to ensure 100% access to renewable energy globally, support dependent economies to diversify away from fossil fuels, and enable people and communities across the globe to flourish  through a global just transition. 

Fossil fuels are the greatest contributor to climate change. Allowing the  continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable. The fossil fuel system  is global and requires a global solution – a solution the Leaders’ Climate Summit  must work towards. And the first step is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. 

https://fossilfueltreaty.org/nobel-letter

Part 2

The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for almost 80% of carbon dioxide  emissions since the industrial revolution. In addition to being the leading source of  emissions, there are local pollution, environmental and health costs associated with  extracting, refining, transporting and burning fossil fuels. These costs are often paid  by Indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. Egregious industry practices  have led to human rights violations and a fossil fuel system that has left billions of  people across the globe without sufficient energy to lead lives of dignity. 

For both people and the planet, continued support must be given to tackling climate  change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and  its Paris Agreement. Failure to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature limit of  1.5°C risks pushing the world towards catastrophic global warming. 

Yet, the Paris Agreement has no mention of oil, gas or coal. Meanwhile, the  fossil fuel industry continues to plan new projects. Banks continue to fund new  projects. According to the most recent United Nations Environment Programme  report, 120% more coal, oil, and gas will be produced by 2030 than is consistent  with limiting warming to 1.5°C. Efforts to meet the Paris Agreement and to reduce  demand for fossil fuels will be undermined if supply continues to grow.

A statement of the Nobel Laureates on the occasion of World Leaders meet on climate. 27 Nobel Chemists and 22 Nobel Physicists are signatories of this letter demanding "Keep the Fossil Fuels in the Ground" .

Part 1

Nobel Laureates’ Statement to Climate Summit World Leaders: Keep  Fossil Fuels in the Ground 

As Nobel Laureates from peace, literature, medicine, physics, chemistry  and economic sciences, and like so many people around the globe, we are  seized by the great moral issue of our time: the climate crisis and  commensurate destruction of nature. 

Climate change is threatening hundreds of millions of lives, livelihoods across every  continent and is putting thousands of species at risk. The burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and gas – is by far the major contributor to climate change. 

We write today, on the eve of Earth Day 2021 and the Leaders’ Climate  Summit, hosted by President Biden, to urge you to act now to avoid a  climate catastrophe by stopping the expansion of oil, gas and coal. 

We welcome President Biden and the US government’s acknowledgement in the  Executive Order that “Together, we must listen to science and meet the moment.”  Indeed, meeting the moment requires responses to the climate crisis that will  define legacies. Qualifications for being on the right side of history are clear. 

For far too long, governments have lagged, shockingly, behind what  science demands and what a growing and powerful people-powered  movement knows: urgent action is needed to end the expansions of fossil  fuel production; phase out current production; and invest in renewable  energy.

Scientists glimpse signs of a puzzling state of matter in a superconductor

Unconventional superconductors contain a number of exotic phases of matter that are thought to play a role, for better or worse, in their ability to conduct electricity with 100% efficiency at much higher temperatures than scientists had thought possible—although still far short of the temperatures that would allow their wide deployment in perfectly efficient power lines, maglev trains and so on.

Now scientists have glimpsed the signature of one of those phases, known as pair-density waves or PDW, and confirmed that it's intertwined with another phase known as charge density wave (CDW) stripes—wavelike patterns of higher and lower electron density in the material.

Observing and understanding PDW and its correlations with other phases may be essential for understanding how superconductivity emerges in these materials, allowing electrons to pair up and travel with no resistance.

 H. Huang et al. Two-Dimensional Superconducting Fluctuations Associated with Charge-Density-Wave Stripes in La1.87Sr0.13Cu0.99Fe0.01O4, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.167001

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-glimpse-puzzling-state-sup...

Toxic masculinity: Y chromosome contributes to a shorter lifespan in male flies

Males may have shorter lifespans than females due to repetitive sections of the Y chromosome that create toxic effects as males get older. These new findings appear in a study published April 22 in PLOS Genetics.

In humans and other species with XY sex chromosomes, females often live longer than males. One possible explanation for this disparity may be repetitive sequences within the genome. While both males and females carry these repeat sequences, scientists have suspected that the large number of repeats on the Y chromosome may create a "toxic y effect" that shortens males' lives.

To test this idea, researchers studied male fruit flies from the species Drosophila miranda, which have about twice as much repetitive DNA as females and a shorter lifespan. They showed that when the DNA is in its tightly packed form inside the cells of young male flies, the repeat sections are turned off. But as the flies age, the DNA assumes a looser form that can activate the repeat sections, resulting in toxic side effects.

The new study demonstrates that Y chromosomes that are rich in repeats are a genomic liability for males. The findings also support a more general link between repeat DNA and aging, which currently, is poorly understood. Previous studies in fruit flies have shown that when repeat sections become active, they impair memory, shorten the lifespan and cause DNA damage. This damage likely contributes to aging's physiological effects, but more research will be needed to uncover the mechanisms underlying repeat DNA's toxic effects.

Nguyen AH, Bachtrog D (2021) Toxic Y chromosome: Increased repeat expression and age-associated heterochromatin loss in male Drosophila with a young Y chromosome. PLoS Genet 17(4): e1009438. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009438

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-toxic-masculinity-chromosome-contribu...

New material could better protect soldiers, athletes and motorists

Soldiers, athletes, and motorists could lead safer lives thanks to a new process that could lead to more efficient and re-useable protection from shock and impact, explosion, and vibration, according to a new study.

Pressurized insertion of aqueous solutions into water-repellent nanoporous materials, such as zeolites and metal-organic frame works, could help to create high-performance energy absorbing systems.

An international research team experimented with hydrothermally stable zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) with a 'hydrophobic' cage-like molecular structure—finding that such systems are remarkably effective energy absorbers at realistic, high-rate loading conditions, and this phenomenon is associated with the water clustering and mobility in nanocages.

High-rate nanofluidic energy absorption in porous zeolitic frameworks, Nature Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-00977-6

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-material-soldiers-athletes-motorists....

Eliminating resistant bacteria with nanoparticles

Novel nanoparticles developed by researchers  detect multi-resistant bacteria hiding in body cells and kill them. The scientists' goal is to develop an antibacterial agent that is effective where conventional antibiotics remain ineffective.

In the arms race "mankind against bacteria," bacteria are currently ahead of us. Our former miracle weapons, antibiotics, are failing more and more frequently when germs use tricky maneuvers to protect themselves from the effects of these drugs. Some species even retreat into the inside of human cells, where they remain "invisible" to the immune system. These particularly dreaded pathogens include multi-resistant staphylococci (MRSA), which can cause life-threatening diseases such as sepsis or pneumonia.

In order to track down the germs in their hideouts and eliminate them, a team of researchers  is now developing nanoparticles that use a completely different mode of action from conventional antibiotics: While antibiotics have difficulty in penetrating human cells, these nanoparticles can penetrate the membrane of affected cells. Once there, they can fight the bacteria.

They used cerium oxide, a material with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties in its nanoparticle form. The researchers combined the cerium oxide with a bioactive ceramic material known as bioglass and synthesized nanoparticle hybrids from the two materials.

In cell culture and using electron microscopy, they investigated the interactions between the hybrid nanoparticles, human cells and bacteria. When the scientists treated cells infected with bacteria with the nanoparticles, the bacteria inside the cells began to dissolve. However, if the researchers specifically blocked the uptake of the hybrid particles into the cells, the antibacterial effect was gone.

The particles' exact mode of action is not yet fully understood. It has been shown that other metals also have antimicrobial effects. However, cerium is less toxic to human cells than, for instance, silver. Scientists currently assume that the nanoparticles affect the cell membrane of the bacteria, creating reactive oxygen species that lead to the destruction of the germs. Since the cell membrane of human cells is structured differently than that of bacteria, our cells are not affected by this process.

The researchers think that resistance is less likely to develop against a mechanism of this kind. 

Martin T. Matter et al. Inorganic nanohybrids combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria hiding within human macrophages, Nanoscale (2021). DOI: 10.1039/d0nr08285f

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-resistant-bacteria-nanoparticles.html...

A novel optical physics method to measure the expansion of the univ...

Quasars are extraordinarily distant celestial objects that throw off a massive amount of light, and astrophysicists use them to probe cosmological theories.

Plastic: What we eat and breathe

Take a deep breath, drink a glass of water, eat a snack. If you do any of these things, it's likely that you are also inhaling and ingesting tiny particles of plastic, as much as a credit card's weight each week. Plastic pollution is everywhere, including in our bodies.

The industry also peddled the myth that recycling is the solution, even though it has long known that this is not economically viable. Today, we pay for recycling infrastructure and dutifully sort our waste into bins, even though only 10% of all plastic is recycled.

Individuals don't start pollution. The industry does. We must demand that they stop it.

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-plastic.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

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20% of groundwater wells around the world at risk of running dry, study says

If groundwater levels continue to decline as they have over the last several decades, new research suggests approximately one-fifth of groundwater wells around the world will be at risk of running dry.

Groundwater wells are the main source of water for roughly half the globe's population, but over the last half-century, many of the planet's major aquifers have suffered from mismanagement, growing human pressures and prolonged droughts.

The latest analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests millions of wells could run dry if aquifers continue to be depleted and regional water tables keep declining.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6540/418

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/04/22/groundwater-wells-globa...

Natural GM: how plants and animals steal genes from other species to accelerate evolution

If species already modify their genes, why shouldn't we?

https://theconversation.com/natural-gm-how-plants-and-animals-steal...

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Most Women at High-Risk of Breast Cancer Are Unaware of Preventative Medicines

Many women who are genetically susceptible to breast cancer have no idea they can take preventative medication to reduce their risk of developing the disease, according to new research from Australia.

https://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/14/1/131

https://www.sciencealert.com/many-women-at-high-risk-of-breast-canc...

Widespread lateral gene transfer among grasses

Climate-friendly microbes chomp dead plants without releasing heat-trapping methane

A team of scientists  has identified an entirely new group of microbes quietly living in hot springs, geothermal systems and hydrothermal sediments around the world. The microbes appear to be playing an important role in the global carbon cycle by helping break down decaying plants without producing the greenhouse gas methane.

The new group, which biologists call a phylum, is named Brockarchaeota.

So far, Brockarchaeota have not been successfully grown in a laboratory or imaged under a microscope. Instead, they were identified by painstakingly reconstructing their genomes from bits of genetic material collected in samples from hot springs in China and hydrothermal sediments in the Gulf of California. The team used high-throughput DNA sequencing and innovative computational approaches to piece together the genomes of the newly described organisms. The scientists also identified genes that suggest how they consume nutrients, produce energy and generate waste.

The Brockarchaeota are part of a larger, poorly studied group of microbes called archaea. Until now, scientists thought that the only archaea involved in breaking down methylated compounds—that is, decaying plants, phytoplankton and other organic matter—were those that also produced the greenhouse gas methane.

They are using a novel metabolism that we didn't know existed in archaea. And this is very important because marine sediments are the biggest reservoir of organic carbon on Earth. These archaea are recycling carbon without producing methane. This gives them a unique ecological position in nature.

In addition to breaking down organic matter, these newly described microbes have other metabolic pathways that scientists speculate might someday be useful in applications ranging from biotechnology to agriculture to biofuels.

Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22736-6

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-climate-friendly-microbes-chomp-dead-...

Ingredient in Indian Long Pepper shows promise against brain cancer in animal models

Piperlongumine, a chemical compound found in the Indian Long Pepper plant (Piper longum), is known to kill cancerous cells in many tumor types, including brain tumors. Now an international team including researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has illuminated one way in which the piperlongumine works in animal models — and has confirmed its strong activity against glioblastoma, one of the least treatable types of brain cancer. The researchers, whose findings were published this month in ACS Central Science, showed in detail how piperlongumine binds to — and hinders the activity of — a protein called TRPV2, which is overexpressed in glioblastoma in a way that appears to drive cancer progression. The scientists found that piperlongumine treatment radically shrank glioblastoma tumors and extended life in two mouse models of this cancer, and also selectively destroyed glioblastoma

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.1c00070

https://researchnews.cc/news/6316/Ingredient-in-Indian-Long-Pepper-...

IceCube Neutrino Observatory Detects New High-Energy Particle

In December 2016, a high-energy particle hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light. Deep inside the ice sheet of the South Pole, it smashed into an electron, producing a shower of secondary particles. The interaction was captured by a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic glacier, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. To enable this discovery, a multinational team of scientists used millions of hours on multiple supercomputers, including SDSC's _Comet_.

'Undruggable' cancer protein becomes druggable, thanks to shrub

A chemist  has found a way to synthesize a compound to fight a previously "undruggable" cancer protein with benefits across a myriad of cancer types.

Inspired by a rare compound found in a shrub native to North America, a scientist  studied the compound and discovered a cost-effective and efficient way to synthesize it in the lab. The compound—curcusone D—has the potential to help combat a protein found in many cancers, including some forms of breast, brain, colorectal, prostate, lung and liver cancers, among others. The protein, dubbed BRAT1, had previously been deemed "undruggable" for its chemical properties. In collaboration with Alexander Adibekian's group at the Scripps Research Institute, they linked curcusone D to BRAT1 and validated curcusone D as the first BRAT1 inhibitor.

Curcusones are compounds that come from a shrub named Jatropha curcas, also called the purging nut. Native to the Americas, it has spread to other continents, including Africa and Asia. The plant has long been used for medicinal properties—including the treatment of cancer—as well as being a proposed inexpensive source of biodiesel.

Researchers tested the compounds on breast cancer cells and found curcusone D to be extremely effective at shutting down cancer cells. The protein they were targeting, BRAT1, regulates DNA damage response and DNA repair in cancer cells. Cancer cells grow very fast and make a lot of DNA. If scientists can damage cancer cells' DNA and keep them from repairing it, they can stop cancer cells from growing.

This compound can not only kill these cancer cells, it can stop their migration.

 Chengsen Cui et al, Total Synthesis and Target Identification of the Curcusone Diterpenes, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c00557

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-undruggable-cancer-protein-druggable-...

Body's natural pain killers can be enhanced

Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine—these substances are familiar to many as a source of both pain relief and the cause of a painful epidemic of addiction and death.

Scientists have attempted for years to balance the potent pain-relieving properties of opioids with their numerous negative side effects—with mostly mixed results. Now scientists seek to side-step these problems by harnessing the body's own ability to block pain.

All opioid drugs—from poppy-derived opium to heroin—work on receptors that are naturally present in the brain and elsewhere in the body. One such receptor, the mu-opioid receptor, binds to natural pain-killers in the body called endogenous endorphins and enkephalins. Drugs acting on the mu-opioid receptor can cause addiction as well as unwanted side effects like drowsiness, problems with breathing, constipation and nausea.

Normally, when you are in pain, you are releasing endogenous opioids, but they're just not strong enough or long lasting enough. Researchers had long hypothesized that substances called positive allosteric modulators could be used to enhance the body's own endorphins and enkephalins. In a new paper published in PNAS, they demonstrate that a positive allosteric modulator known as BMS-986122 can boost enkephalins' ability to activate the mu-opioid receptor.

What's more, unlike opioid drugs, positive allosteric modulators only work in the presence of endorphins or enkephalins, meaning they would only kick in when needed for pain relief. They do not bind to the receptor in the way that opioids do instead binding in a different location that enhances its ability to respond to the body's pain-relieving compounds.

When you need enkephalins, you release them in a pulsatile fashion in specific regions of the body, then they are metabolized quickly. In contrast, a drug like morphine floods the body and brain and sticks around for several hours.

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The team demonstrated the modulator's ability to stimulate the mu-opioid receptor by isolating the purified receptor and measuring how it responds to enkephalins. "If you add the positive allosteric modulator, you need a lot less enkephalin to get the response."

Additional electrophysiology and mouse experiments confirmed that the opioid receptor was more strongly activated by the body's pain-relieving molecules leading to pain relief. In contrast the modulator showed much reduced side effects of depression of breathing, constipation and addiction liability.

Ram Kandasamy et al, Positive allosteric modulation of the mu-opioid receptor produces analgesia with reduced side effects, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2000017118

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-body-natural-pain-killers.ht...

Hot spring microbes

Nanobodies inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection, including emergent variants

Researchers have identified neutralizing nanobodies that block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells in preclinical models.

The discovery paves the way for further investigations into nanobody-based treatments for COVID-19.

Using alpaca 'nanobodies' to block COVID-19 infection

Antibodies are key infection-fighting proteins in our immune system. An important aspect of antibodies is that they bind tightly and specifically to another protein.

Antibody-based therapies, or biologics, harness this property of antibodies, enabling them to bind to a protein involved in disease.

Nanobodies are unique antibodies—tiny immune proteins—produced naturally by alpacas in response to infection.

As part of the research, a group of alpacas in regional Victoria were immunized with a synthetic, non-infectious part of the SARS-CoV-2 'spike' protein to enable them to generate nanobodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The synthetic spike protein is not infectious and does not cause the alpacas to develop disease—but it allows the alpacas to develop nanobodies.

Researchers can then extract the gene sequences encoding the nanobodies and use this to produce millions of types of nanobodies in the laboratory, and then select the ones that best bind to the spike protein. 

the leading nanobodies that block virus entry were then combined into a 'nanobody cocktail."

"By combining the two leading nanobodies into this nanobody cocktail, we were able to test its effectiveness at blocking SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells and reducing viral loads in preclinical models.

 Phillip Pymm et al. Nanobody cocktails potently neutralize SARS-CoV-2 D614G N501Y variant and protect mice, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101918118

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-nanobodies-inhibit-sars-cov-infection...

Warp drives: Physicists give chances of faster-than-light space tra...

The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now- in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed of 450,000 mph. It would take just 20 seconds to go from Los Angeles to New York City at that speed, but it would take the solar probe about 6,633 years to reach Earth's nearest neighboring solar system.

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New study shows microbes trap massive amounts of carbon

Violent continental collisions and volcanic eruptions are not things normally associated with comfortable conditions for life. However, a new study, involving University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Associate Professor of Microbiology Karen Lloyd, unveils a large microbial ecosystem living deep within the earth that is fueled by chemicals produced during these tectonic cataclysms.

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Forensic scientists unlocking unique chemical signatures in tires

Skid marks left by cars are often analyzed for their impression patterns, but they often don't provide enough information to identify a specific vehicle. UCF Chemistry Associate Professor Matthieu Baudelet and his forensics team at the National Center for Forensic Science, which was established at UCF in 1997, may have just unlocked a new way to collect evidence from those skid marks.

Forensic scientists unlocking unique chemical signatures in tires

Skid marks left by cars are often analyzed for their impression patterns, but they often don't provide enough information to identify a specific vehicle. Forensic scientists may have just unlocked a new way to collect evidence from those skid marks.

The team recently published a study in the journal Applied Spectroscopy that details how they are classifying the chemical profile of tires to link vehicles back to potential crime scenes.

Tire evidence is often overlooked in forensics. In cases of hit and runs or accidents involving multiple cars the chemical signature of the tires have the potential to be integral information to the investigation."

The team used laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) on each sample. The technique focuses a laser onto the tire sample, which creates a microscopic plasma that emits light according to the chemical elements present. The spectroscopy comes in because it analyzes this light and matches it to the corresponding chemicals. It's the same technique that instruments aboard the Mars rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance) use to determine what kinds of elements are found within the rocks of Mars.

Every tire is expected to have its own chemical signature, and as such, a unique, corresponding skid mark. One current challenge is identifying how elements on the road like oil, rainwater, and other cars interfere and change that signature. 

https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-forensic-scientists-unlocking-unique-c...

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-forensic-scientists-unique-chemical-s...

Bioprinted mini pancreas will help in the fight against diabetes

IMMUNE SYSTEM MADE EASY- IMMUNOLOGY INNATE AND ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY SIMPLE ANIMATION

Robot guide dog could help people who are blind navigate

Skin and bones repaired by bioprinting during surgery

Fixing traumatic injuries to the skin and bones of the face and skull is difficult because of the many layers of different types of tissues involved, but now, researchers have repaired such defects in a rat model using bioprinting during surgery, and their work may lead to faster and better methods of healing skin and bones.

Currently, fixing a hole in the skull involving both bone and soft tissue requires using bone from another part of the patient's body or a cadaver. The bone must be covered by soft tissue with blood flow, also harvested from somewhere else, or the bone will die. Then surgeons need to repair the soft tissue and skin.

The researchers attacked the problem of bone replacement first, beginning in the laboratory and moving to an animal model. They needed something that was printable and nontoxic and could repair a 5-millimeter hole in the skull. The "hard tissue ink" consisted of collagen, chitosan, nano-hydroxyapatite and other compounds and mesenchymal stem cells—multipotent cells found in bone marrow that create bone, cartilage and bone marrow fat.

The hard tissue ink extrudes at room temperature but heats up to body temperature when applied. This creates physical cross-linkage of the collagen and other portions of the ink without any chemical changes or the necessity of a crosslinker additive.

The researchers used droplet printing to create the soft tissue with thinner layers than the bone. They used collagen and fibrinogen in alternating layers with crosslinking and growth enhancing compounds. Each layer of skin including the epidermis and dermis differs, so the bioprinted soft tissue layers differed in composition.

Experiments repairing 6 mm holes in full thickness skin proved successful. Once the team understood skin and bone separately, they moved on to repairing both during the same surgical procedure.

After careful imaging to determine the geometry of the defect, the researchers laid down the bone layer. They then deposited a barrier layer mimicking the periosteum, a heavily vascularized tissue layer that surrounds the bone on the skull.

Kazim K. Moncal et al, Intra‐Operative Bioprinting of Hard, Soft, and Hard/Soft Composite Tissues for Craniomaxillofacial Reconstruction, Advanced Functional Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202010858

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-skin-bones-bioprinting-surge...

Benefits of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks, modeling study suggests

The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is suspected of being linked to a small number of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) cases, which recently emerged within Europe as millions of people received vaccinations. This led several countries to suspend AstraZeneca injections and investigate the causal links to DVT.

Researchers discover two-dimensional material using high-pressure technology

An international team of researchers has succeeded for the first time in discovering a previously unknown two-dimensional material by using modern high-pressure technology. The new material, beryllonitrene, consists of regularly arranged nitrogen and beryllium atoms. It has an unusual electronic lattice structure that shows great potential for applications in quantum technology. Its synthesis required a compression pressure that is about one million times higher than the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere. The scientists have presented their discovery in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Researchers  have now produced novel compunds composed of nitrogen and beryllium atoms. These are beryllium polynitrides, some of which conform to the monoclinic, others to the triclinic crystal system. The triclinic beryllium polynitrides exhibit one unusual characteristic when the pressure  drops. They take on a crystal structure made up of layers. Each layer contains zigzag nitrogen chains connected by beryllium atoms. It can therefore be described as a planar structure consisting of BeN₄ pentagons and Be₂N₄ hexagons. Thus, each layer represents a two-dimensional material, beryllonitrene.

Maxim Bykov et al. High-Pressure Synthesis of Dirac Materials: Layered van der Waals Bonded BeN4 Polymorph, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.175501

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-two-dimensional-material-high-pressur...

Scientists design 'nanotraps' to catch, clear coronavirus

Researchers have designed a completely novel potential treatment for COVID-19: nanoparticles that capture SARS-CoV-2 viruses within the body and then use the body's own immune system to destroy it.

These "Nanotraps" attract the virus by mimicking the target cells the virus infects. When the virus binds to the Nanotraps, the traps then sequester the virus from other cells and target it for destruction by the immune system.

In theory, these Nanotraps could also be used on variants of the virus, leading to a potential new way to inhibit the virus going forward. Though the therapy remains in early stages of testing, the researchers envision it could be administered via a nasal spray as a treatment for COVID-19.

The results were published April 19 in the journal Matter.

Min Chen et al, Nanotraps for the containment and clearance of SARS-CoV-2, Matter (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2021.04.005

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-nanotraps-coronavirus.html...

Five new insights in the fight against COVID-19

Researchers announce new findings on treatments, health impacts and repercussions for science education

Scientists from around the world are gathering to share the latest research at the forefront of biology during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2021 meeting. Many sessions focus on the year's most pressing priorities in bioscience: COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2. 

Five new insights in the fight against COVID-19

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/eb-fni041621.php

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Farming without disturbing soil could cut agriculture’s climate impact by 30% – new research

agriculture accounts for a staggering 26% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Tractors running on diesel release carbon dioxide (CO₂) from their exhausts. Fertilisers spread on fields produce nitrous oxide. And cattle generate methane from microbes in their guts.

Even tilling the soil – breaking it up with ploughs and other machinery – exposes carbon buried in the soil to oxygen in the air, allowing microbes to convert it to CO₂. Farmers usually do this before sowing crops, but what if they could avoid this step?

In newly published research from farms across the UK, we discovered that an alternative approach called no-till farming, which does not disturb soils and instead involves placing seeds in drilled holes in the earth, could slash greenhouse gas emissions from crop production by nearly a third and increase how much carbon soils can store.

https://theconversation.com/farming-without-disturbing-soil-could-c...

One dose of COVID vaccine cuts household spread by up to 50%:  study

One dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines reduces the chances of someone infected with coronavirus from spreading it to other household members by up to 50 percent, according to a  study published Wednesday.

The Public Health England (PHE) research found that those who became infected three weeks after receiving their first jab were between 38 and 49 percent less likely to pass the virus on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated.

We already know vaccines save lives and this study is the most comprehensive real-world data showing they also cut transmission of this deadly virus. It further reinforces that vaccines are the best way out of this pandemic as they protect you and they may prevent you from unknowingly infecting someone in your household.

Studies have already shown that being vaccinated reduces the risk of a person developing symptomatic infection in the first place by up to 65 percent, four weeks after one dose.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-dose-covid-vaccine-household...

Earth has been knocked off its axis over the last 25 years, changing the locations of the north and south poles

• Earth's axis - the invisible line around which it spins - is bookended by the north and south poles.
• The axis, and thus the poles too, shift depending on how weight is distributed across Earth's surface.
• Melting glaciers have changed that distribution enough to knock Earth off its axis, research shows.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL092114

https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/earth-has-been-knocked-...