Scientists construct first-ever synthetic DNA-like polymer

Double helical covalent polymers—which are spiraling collections of nature's building blocks—are fundamental to life itself, and yet, despite decades of research, scientists have never been able to synthesize them in their entirety like their non-helical brethren—until now.

have cracked the code, creating synthetic versions of these large DNA-like molecules for the first time. Using dynamic covalent chemistry, which is a chemistry tool pioneered by these researchers that focuses on reversible bonding interactions with self-correction capabilities, they were able to not only construct a helical covalent polymer that rivals the sophistication of those found in nature but confirm its existence with absolute certainty using single crystal X-ray diffraction (a powerful, non-destructive way to characterize single crystals using light).

Previously, scientists have only been able to solve individual parts of the puzzle. This new discovery out last week in Nature Chemistry, though, completes it, potentially opening this critical and understudied field to new research that could have implications on everything from artificial enzyme creation, which has already found success in various medical applications, to the creation of biomimetic materials (materials that mimic processes found in nature).

Yiming Hu et al. Single crystals of mechanically entwined helical covalent polymers, Nature Chemistry (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-021-00686-2

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-scientists-first-ever-synthetic-dna-l...

Scientists debut most efficient 'optical rectennas,' devices that harvest power from heat

Scientists have tapped into a unique property of electrons to design devices that can capture excess heat from their environment—and turn it into usable electricity.

The researchers have described their new "optical rectennas" in a paper published recently in the journal Nature Communications. These devices, which are too small to see with the naked eye, are roughly 100 times more efficient than similar tools used for energy harvesting. And they achieve that feat through a mysterious process called "resonant tunneling"—in which electrons pass through solid matter without spending any energy.

Rectennas (short for "rectifying antennas") work a bit like car radio antennas. But instead of picking up radio waves and turning them into tunes, optical rectennas absorb light and heat and convert it into power.

They're also potential game changers in the world of renewable energy. Working rectennas could, theoretically, harvest the heat coming from factory smokestacks or bakery ovens that would otherwise go to waste. Some scientists have even proposed mounting these devices on airships that would fly high above the planet's surface to capture the energy radiating from Earth to outer space.

But, so far, rectennas haven't been able to reach the efficiencies needed to meet those goals. Until now, perhaps. In the new study, researchers have designed the first-ever rectennas that are capable of generating power.

Scientists demonstrate for the first time electrons undergoing resonant tunneling in an energy-harvesting optical rectenna. Until now, it was only a theoretical possibility.

 Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23182-0

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-scientists-debut-efficient-opti...

World first concept for rechargeable cement-based batteries

The concept involves a cement-based mixture with small amounts of short carbon fibres added to increase the conductivity and flexural toughness. Embedded within the mixture is a metal-coated carbon fibre mesh—iron for the anode, and nickel for the cathode. After much experimentation, this is the prototype the researchers now present.

Emma Qingnan Zhang et al, Rechargeable Concrete Battery, Buildings (2021). DOI: 10.3390/buildings11030103

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-world-concept-rechargeable-ceme...

How lightning may help clean the air

Lightning may play an important role in clearing the air of pollutants.

A storm-chasing airplane has shown that lightning can forge large amounts of oxidants. These chemicals cleanse the atmosphere by reacting with pollutants such as methane. Those reactions form molecules that dissolve in water or stick to surfaces. The molecules can then rain out of the air or stick to objects on the ground.
Researchers knew lightning could produce oxidants indirectly. The bolts generate nitric oxide. That chemical can react with other molecules in the air to make some oxidants. But no one had seen lightning directly create lots of oxidants.

A NASA jet got the first glimpse of this in 2012. The jet flew through storm clouds over Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas in both May and June. Instruments on board measured two oxidants in the clouds. One was hydroxyl radical, or OH. The other was a related oxidant. It’s called the hydroperoxyl (Hy-droh-pur-OX-ul) radical, or HO2. The airplane measured the combined concentration of both in the air.
Lightning and other electrified parts of the clouds sparked the creation of OH and HO2. Levels of these molecules rose to thousands of parts per trillion. That may not sound like much. But the most OH seen in the atmosphere before was only a few parts per trillion. The most HO2 ever seen in the air was about 150 parts per trillion. Researchers reported the observations online April 29 in Science.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/711

European fire ant chemicals may send spiders scurrying away

But don’t go adding the invasive, biting insects to your home as an arachnid repellent

To make a spider flee, bring on the fire ants. Or rather, just their chemical signals.

Some spiders common in North American homes avoid building their webs in chambers that recently housed European..., researchers report May 19 in Royal Society Open Science. The ants probably left behind chemical traces, the researchers say. That could signal danger to the arachnids because ants sometimes feast on spiders. The reaction hints that the insects might be a source of natural spider-repelling chemicals.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/european-fire-ant-chemicals-spi...

COVID-19 Insights: Will Steam Kill the SARS-COV-2 inside The Cells?

Stanford researchers make 'bombshell' discovery of an entirely new ...

Researchers have discovered a new kind of biomolecule that could play a significant role in the biology of all living things. The novel biomolecule, dubbed glycoRNA, is a small ribbon of ribonucleic acid (RNA) with sugar molecules, called glycans, dangling from it. Up until now, the only kinds of similarly sugar-decorated biomolecules known to science were fats (lipids) and proteins. These glycolipids and glycoproteins appear ubiquitously in and on animal, plant and microbial cells, contributing to a wide range of processes essential for life. The newfound glycoRNAs, neither rare nor furtive, were hiding in plain sight simply because no one thought to look for them – understandably so, given that their existence flies in the face of well-established cellular biology. A study in the journal Cell, published May 17, describes the findings. “This is a stunning discovery of an entirely new class of biomolecules.

Study shows how our brains sync hearing with vision

Every high-school physics student learns that sound and light travel at very different speeds. If the brain did not account for this difference, it would be much harder for us to tell where sounds came from, and how they are related to what we see. Instead, the brain allows us to make better sense of our world by playing tricks, so that a visual and a sound created at the same time are perceived as synchronous, even though they reach the brain and are processed by neural circuits at different speeds. One of the brain’s tricks is temporal recalibration: altering our sense of time to synchronize our joint perception of sound and vision. A new study finds that recalibration depends on brain signals constantly adapting to our environment to sample, order and associate competing sensory inputs together. Scientists at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill university recruited volunteers to view short flashes 

A newfound quasicrystal formed in the first atomic bomb test

‘Trinitite’ contains a material that is ordered but doesn’t repeat itself

In an instant, the bomb obliterated everything.

The tower it sat on and the copper wires strung around it: vaporized. The desert sand below: melted.

In the aftermath of the first test of an atomic bomb, in July 1945, all this debris fused together, leaving the ground of the New Mexico test site coated with a glassy substance now called trinitite. High temperatures and pressures helped forge an unusual structure within one piece of trinitite, in a grain of the material just 10 micrometers across — a bit longer than a red blood cell.

That grain contains a rare form of matter called a quasicrystal, born the moment the nuclear age began, scientists report May 17 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Normal crystals are made of atoms locked in a lattice that repeats in a regular pattern. Quasicrystals have a structure that is orderly like a normal crystal but that doesn’t repeat. This means quasicrystals can have properties that are forbidden for normal crystals. First discovered in the lab in 1980s, quasicrystals also appear in nature in meteorites .

The newly discovered quasicrystal from the New Mexico test site is the oldest one known that was made by humans.

Trinitite takes its moniker from the nuclear test, named Trinity, in which the material was created in abundance

 the trinitite the team studied was a rarer variety, called red trinitite. Most trinitite has a greenish tinge, but red trinitite contains copper, remnants of the wires that stretched from the ground to the bomb. Quasicrystals tend to be found in materials that have experienced a violent impact and usually involve metals. Red trinitite fit both criteria.

But first the team had to find some.

L. Bindi et al. Accidental synthesis of a previously unknown quasicrystal in the fi.... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol 118, May 17, 2021, e2101350118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2101350118.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-quasi-crystal-formed-first-...

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First nuke made ‘impossible’ quasicrystals

Scientists searching for quasicrystals — so-called ‘impossible’ materials, with unusual, non-repeating structures — have identified one in remnants of the world’s first nuclear-bomb test. The previously unknown structure, made of iron, silicon, copper and calcium, probably formed from the fusion of vapourized desert sand and coppe.... Similar materials have been synthesized in the laboratory and identified in meteorites, but this is the first example of a quasicrystal with this combination of elements.

Neuroscientists Have Followed a Thought as It Moves Through The Human Brain

A study using epilepsy patients undergoing surgery has given neuroscientists an opportunity to track in unprecedented detail the movement of a thought through the human brain, all the way from inspiration to response.

The findings confirmed the role of the prefrontal cortex as the coordinator of complex interactions between different regions, linking our perception with action and serving as what can be considered the "glue of cognition".

The study recorded the electrical activity of neurons using a precise technique called electrocorticograhy (ECoG).

The results clearly emphasized the role of the prefrontal cortex in directing activity. The prefrontal cortex was seen to remain active throughout most of the thought process, as would be expected for a multitasking region of the brain.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0267-2

https://www.sciencealert.com/neuroscientists-followed-a-thought-as-...

An illuminating possibility for stroke treatment: Nano-photosynthesis

Blocked blood vessels in the brains of stroke patients prevent oxygen-rich blood from getting to cells, causing severe damage. Plants and some microbes produce oxygen through photosynthesis. What if there was a way to make photosynthesis happen in the brains of patients? Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have done just that in cells and in mice, using blue-green algae and special nanoparticles, in a proof-of-concept demonstration.

The researchers paired S. elongatus with neodymium up-conversion nanoparticles that transform tissue-penetrating near-infrared light to a visible wavelength that the microbes can use to photosynthesize. In a cell study, they found that the nano-photosynthesis approach reduced the number of neurons that died after oxygen and glucose deprivation. They then injected the microbes and nanoparticles into mice with blocked cerebral arteries and exposed the mice to near-infrared light. The therapy reduced the number of dying neurons, improved the animals' motor function and even helped new blood vessels to start growing. Although this treatment is still in the animal testing stage, it has promise to advance someday toward human clinical trials, the researchers say.

"Oxygen-Generating Cyanobacteria Powered by Upconversion-Nanoparticles-Converted Near-Infrared Light for Ischemic Stroke Treatment" Nano Letters (2021). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00719

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-illuminating-possibility-treatment-na...

New technology makes tumor eliminate itself

Scientists at the University of Zurich have modified a common respiratory virus, called adenovirus, to act like a Trojan horse to deliver genes for cancer therapeutics directly into tumor cells. Unlike chemotherapy or radiotherapy, this approach does no harm to normal healthy cells. Once inside tumor cells, the delivered genes serve as a blueprint for therapeutic antibodies, cytokines and other signaling substances, which are produced by the cancer cells themselves and act to eliminate tumors from the inside out. 

Researchers tricked the tumor into eliminating itself through the production of anti-cancer agents by its own cells. The therapeutic agents, such as therapeutic antibodies or signaling substances, mostly stay at the place in the body where they’re needed instead of spreading throughout the bloodstream where they can damage healthy organs and tissues.

This technology is named SHREAD: It builds on key technologies previously engineered by another team, including to direct adenoviruses to specified parts of the body to hide them from the immune system.

With the SHREAD system, the scientists made the tumor itself produce a clinically approved breast cancer antibody, called trastuzumab (Herceptin®), in the mammary of a mouse. They found that, after a few days, SHREAD produced more of the antibody in the tumor than when the drug was injected directly. Moreover, the concentration in the bloodstream and in other tissues where side effects could occur were significantly lower with SHREAD. The scientists used a very sophisticated, high-resolution 3D imaging method and tissues rendered totally transparent to show how the therapeutic antibody, produced in the body, creates pores in blood vessels of the tumor and destroys tumor cells, and thus treats it from the inside.

SHREAD is applicable not only for the fight against breast cancer. As healthy tissues no longer come into contact with significant levels of the therapeutic agent, it is also applicable for delivery of a wide range of so-called biologics – powerful protein-based drugs that would otherwise be too toxic.

https://www.media.uzh.ch/en/Press-Releases/2021/shred.html#:~:text=....

https://researchnews.cc/news/6770/New-technology-makes-tumor-elimin...

From Avocet to Zebra Finch: big data study finds more than 50 billi...

There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study by UNSW Sydney suggests  about six birds for every human on the planet. The study  which bases its findings on citizen science observations and detailed algorithms  estimates how many birds belong to 9700 different bird species, including flightless birds like emus and penguins. It found many iconic Australian birds are numbered in the millions, like the Rainbow Lorikeet (19 million), Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (10 million) and Laughing Kookaburra (3.4 million). But other natives, like the rare Black-breasted Buttonquail, only have around 100 members left. The findings are being published this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Study finds link between blood sugar and liver disease progression
DURHAM, NC.- There are no approved drugs to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease but controlling blood sugar over time may help decrease the risk of liver scarring and disease progression. According to a new study by researchers, the average three-month blood glucose levels of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease influenced their chance of having more severe scarring in the liver, which can lead to liver failure.

Researchers make 'bombshell' discovery of an entirely new kind of b...

researchers have discovered a new kind of biomolecule that could play a significant role in the biology of all living things. The novel biomolecule, dubbed glycoRNA, is a small ribbon of ribonucleic acid (RNA) with sugar molecules, called glycans, dangling from it. Up until now, the only kinds of similarly sugar-decorated biomolecules known to science were fats (lipids) and proteins. These glycolipids and glycoproteins appear ubiquitously in and on animal, plant and microbial cells, contributing to a wide range of processes essential for life. The newfound glycoRNAs, neither rare nor furtive, were hiding in plain sight simply because no one thought to look for them  understandably so, given that their existence flies in the face of well-established cellular biology. A study in the journal Cell, published May 17, describes the findings.

https://news.stanford.edu/2021/05/17/stanford-study-reveals-new-bio...

https://researchnews.cc/news/6751/Stanford-researchers-make--bombsh...

Study shows how our brains sync hearing with vision

Every high-school physics student learns that sound and light travel at very different speeds. If the brain did not account for this difference, it would be much harder for us to tell where sounds came from, and how they are related to what we see. Instead, the brain allows us to make better sense of our world by playing tricks, so that a visual and a sound created at the same time are perceived as synchronous, even though they reach the brain and are processed by neural circuits at different speeds. One of the brain's tricks is temporal recalibration: altering our sense of time to synchronize our joint perception of sound and vision. A new study finds that recalibration depends on brain signals constantly adapting to our environment to sample, order and associate competing sensory inputs together.

Now, white fungus, which is more dangerous than black fungus, hit India - Who are more at risk?

White Fungus infection is more dangerous than black fungus infection because it affects lungs as well as other parts of the body.

Amid the rising cases of Black Fungus infection in several states of India, four cases of White Fungus infection have been reported from Patna in Bihar. It is to be noted that White Fungus is considered more dangerous than Black Fungus. One of the infected patients is a famous doctor from Patna.

White Fungus infection is more dangerous than black fungus infection because it spreads rapidly and  affects lungs as well as other parts of the body including nails, skin, stomach, kidney, brain, private parts and mouth.

Doctors said that white fungus also infect the lungs and an infection similar to COVID-19 is detected when HRCT is performed on the infected patient.  

Patients of white fungus show Covid-like symptoms but test negative; the infection can be diagnosed through CT-Scan or X-ray.

All the four persons infected by White Fungus showed coronavirus-type symptoms but they were not COVID-19 positive. Singh added that but there lungs were found infected and after tests when they were given anti-fungal medicines then they recovered.

Just like Black Fungus, White Fungus is also more dangerous for those who have weak immunity. Diabetes patients and those who are taking steroids for a long period of time are more at risk of getting infected with White Fungus.

COVID-19 patients are more prone to white fungus as it affects the lungs and similar symptoms are created like that of coronavirus.

“Those who have weak immunity like diabetes, cancer patients, and those who are taking steroids for a long period of time must take special care as they are more at risk. It is also affecting those coronavirus patients who are on oxygen support.

Additionally, the white fungus infection may be risky for pregnant women and children, as per reports. Hence, proper emphasis should be laid on sanitization and cleaning of supplies, environment, since molds can be directly inhaled by a suspected patient.

Widely used herbicide linked to preterm births

Exposure to a chemical found in the weed killer Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides is significantly associated with preterm births, according to a new University of Michigan study.

New Coronavirus Detected In Patients At Malaysian Hospital; The Source May Be Dogs

A new coronavirus might be from dogs

Eight people hospitalized with pneumonia in Malaysia several years ago had evidence of infection with a coronavirus that might have been caugh.... A test designed to detect all coronaviruses — even unknown ones — picked up the genetic signature of a canine coronavirus in samples from the people. It’s the first time that a canine coronavirus — which the researchers have named CCoV-HuPn-2018 — has been found in a person with pneumonia. It is not known whether the virus caused the people’s illness, and there’s no evidence that it can pass from person to person. If it is confirmed that the virus causes disease in humans, it will be the eighth unique coronavirus known to do so; others include those that cause some common colds, and SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

Part 2:

In the past 20 years, new coronaviruses have emerged from animals with remarkable regularity. In 2002, SARS-CoV jumped from civets into people. Ten years later, MERS emerged from camels. Then in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the world.

For many scientists, this pattern points to a disturbing trend: Coronavirus outbreaks aren't rare events and will likely occur every decade or so.

Now, scientists are reporting that they have discovered what may be the latest coronavirus to jump from animals into people. And it comes from a surprising source: dogs.

Researchers found evidence of an entirely new coronavirus associated with pneumonia in hospitalized patients — mostly in kids. This virus may be the eighth coronavirus known to cause disease in people, the team reports  in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The patients had what looked like regular pneumonia. But in eight out of 301 samples tested, or 2.7%,it was  found that the patients' upper respiratory tracts were infected with a new canine coronavirus, i.e., a dog virus.

That's a pretty high prevalence of a [new] virus. Canine coronaviruses were not thought to be transmitted to people. It's never been reported before.

Researchers, after thorough examination, did discover a very, very unique mutation — or deletion — in the genome .That specific deletion, isn't present in any other known dog coronaviruses, but it is found somewhere else: in human coronaviruses. It's a mutation that's very similar to one previously found in the SARS coronavirus and in [versions of] SARS-CoV-2 ... [that appeared] very soon after its introduction into the human population.

This deletion, scientists think helps the dog virus infect or persist inside humans. And it may be a key step required for coronaviruses to make the jump into people.

There's no evidence yet of transmission from human to human.

And in order to stop a future coronavirus pandemic, he says, scientists need to do more testing in people and seek out these strange, hidden infections — before they become a problem.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/05/20/996515792/a-ne...

What if The Heart of The Milky Way Isn't Actually a Black Hole?

All these years we thought there's a blackhole at the centre of our galaxy. 

Now , consider this....

What if it's not a black hole at all? What if it's a core of dark amtter? According to a new and fascinating study, those observed orbits of the galactic center, as well as the orbital velocities in the outer regions of the galaxy, might actually be easier to explain if it was a core of dark matter at the heart of the galaxy, rather than a black hole.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.06301

https://www.sciencealert.com/wild-new-paper-proposes-the-center-of-...

Strange Discovery Reveals Prematurely Born Male Babies 'Age' Slightly Faster

As part of the world's longest-running analysis of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) babies born prematurely, scientists have discovered that the genes of male ELBW babies age more quickly than those of full-term male newborns.

We're talking about biological aging or senescence here: these men aren't suddenly rushing through their birthdays at an accelerated rate, but rather hundreds of key genes in their bodies have a greater degree of the kind of chemical editing that occurs naturally over time.

The study results indicated them to be an average of 4.6 years 'older' by their 30s than boys with normal birth weight born at the same time.

The difference wasn't found in female ELBW babies, the researchers report, matching up with previous research that has shown premature male babies may be more sensitive to prenatal stress than premature females.

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2021/05/13/ped...

https://www.sciencealert.com/prematurely-born-male-babies-age-faste...

Rare blood clots more likely after COVID-19 infection than from vac...

The rare blood clot disorder reported by some Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine recipients is also a risk of COVID-19 infection, according to a new report by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Stroke Council Leadership. Dr. Karen L. Furie, chair of the Department of Neurology at Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School, served as lead author of the report, which synthesized existing data from more than 81 million patients and found that risk of developing CVST blood clots is eight to 10 times higher following a COVID-19 infection as compared to the risk associated with receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine. While national news coverage has focused on reports of the CVST blood clot/stroke condition  cerebral venous sinus thrombosis  following vaccination, the report, published in the journal Stroke, puts the risk in perspective. COVID-19 infection is a significant risk factor for CVST clots.

https://researchnews.cc/news/6792/Rare-blood-clots-more-likely-afte...

Scientists find new way of predicting COVID-19 vaccine efficacy

The early immune response in a person who has been vaccinated for COVID-19 can predict the level of protection they will have to the virus over time, according to analysis from Australian mathematicians, clinicians, and scientists, and published in Nature Medicine. The researchers have identified an immune correlate of vaccine protection. This has the potential to dramatically cut development times for new vaccines, by measuring neutralising antibody levels as a proxy for immune protection from COVID-19. Professor Jamie Triccas from the University of Sydney School of Medical Sciences, and Dr Timothy Schlub from the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health were co-authors on the study. Neutralising antibodies are tiny Y-shaped proteins produced by our body in response to infection or vaccination. They bind to the virus, reducing its ability to infect,” says Dr Deborah Cromer from the Kirby Institute.

“While we have known for some time that neutralising antibodies are likely to be a critical part of our immune response to COVID-19, we haven’t known how much antibody you need for immunity. Our work is the strongest evidence to date to show that specific antibody levels translate to high levels of protection from disease.”

The researchers analysed data from seven COVID-19 vaccines to examine the how the response measured soon after vaccination correlated with protection. They then used statistical analysis to define the specific relationship between immune response and protection. Their analysis was remarkably accurate and was able to predict the efficacy of a new vaccine.

Dr Cromer said that this finding has the potential to change the way we conduct COVID-19 vaccine trials in the future.

“Antibody immune levels are much easier to measure than directly measuring vaccine efficacy over time. So, by measuring antibody levels across the range of new vaccine candidates during early phases of clinical trials, we can better determine whether a vaccine should be used to prevent COVID-19.”

Russians infected with crossover flu virus suggests possibility of another pandemic

Two virus researchers in China are recommending security measures after seven Russian farm workers became infected with a crossover flu virus last year. In their Perspectives piece published in the journal Science, suggest that the makeup and history of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza virus threaten the possibility of another pandemic.

The new strain of influenza virus was first discovered in a duck in China back in 2010. By 2014, outbreaks had been seen in Japan and South Korea in both domestic and wild birds. And by 2016, it had been found in birds in India, Russia Mongolia, the U.S. and parts of Europe. By 2020, outbreaks had been seen in 46 countries. This history indicates that the virus is able to spread very rapidly. Even more concerning was a report of crossover infections in seven Russian farm workers this past December. The infected workers did not have any symptoms (they were tested for safety reasons) and there was no indication that the virus was transmissible from one person to the next. But they point out, that once a crossover has been made, it generally does not take a virus long to adapt to spread to other victims— Researchers note how quickly the virus mutated to jump from duck to duck and then to other bird species. They also note that the virus has been found to be quite lethal, with massive die-offs in multiple outbreaks. The Russian workers were tested, for example, after 101,000 hens died.

But it is not too late to take preventive measures that could prevent a pandemic. Vigilant surveillance of farms, live markets and wild birds, along with the implementation of standard infection control measures, could slow the spread of the virus, giving pharmaceutical companies time to develop a vaccine for it.

Emerging H5N8 avian influenza viruses, Science  21 May 2021: Vol. 372, Issue 6544, pp. 784-786. DOI: 10.1126/science.abg6302 , science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6544/784

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-russians-infected-crossover-...

Scientists reveal structural details of how SARS-CoV-2 variants escape immune response

Fast-spreading variants of the COVID-19-causing coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, carry mutations that enable the virus to escape some of the immune response created naturally or by vaccination. A new study by scientists  has revealed key details of how these escape mutations work.

used structural biology techniques to map at high resolution how important classes of neutralizing antibodies bind to the original pandemic strain of SARS-CoV-2—and how the process is disrupted by mutations found in new variants first detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa and India.

The research also highlights that several of these mutations are clustered in one site, known as the "receptor binding site," on the spike protein of the virus. Other sites on the receptor binding domain are unaffected.

An implication of this study is that, in designing next-generation vaccines and antibody therapies, we should consider increasing the focus on other vulnerable sites on the virus that tend not to be affected by the mutations found in variants of concern.

Structural and functional ramifications of antigenic drift in recent SARS-CoV-2 variants, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abh1139 , science.sciencemag.org/content … 5/19/science.abh1139

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-scientists-reveal-sars-cov-v...

Water treatment: Removing hormones with sunlight

Organic pollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and hormones, even at nanoscale concentrations, contaminate drinking water in a way that poses significant risks to humans, animals and the environment. In particular, the steroid hormones estrone, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone can cause biological damage in humans and wildlife. The European Union has therefore set strict minimum quality standards for safe and clean drinking water, which must also be taken into account in the development of new technologies for water treatment.

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Biodiversity devastation: Human-driven decline requires millions of...

A new study shows that the current rate of biodiversity decline in freshwater ecosystems outcompetes that at the end-Cretaceous extinction that killed the dinosaurs: damage now being done in decades to centuries may take millions of years to undo.

Using CRISPR to lower cholesterol levels in monkeys

A team of researchers from Verve Therapeutics and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a CRISPR gene-editing technique that lowered the levels of cholesterol in the blood of test monkeys. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers describe their technique.

Prior research has shown that in some people, the PCSK9 gene codes excess PCSK9 protein production (which occurs mostly in the liver)—leading to an increase in lipoprotein cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. This is because it interferes with blood cells with LDL receptors that "grab" LDL and remove it. For this reason, pharmaceutical companies have developed therapies that reduce the production of PCSK9 protein. However, most do not work well enough, which is why there is still so much atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. In this new effort, the researchers have tried another approach—altering the PCSK9 gene to make it stop coding for PCSK9 protein production.

The approach involved using a base editing technology made up of messenger RNA encoding for an adenine base editor along with guided RNA that was packaged in a lipid nanoparticle. Notably, the base editing technique was able to substitute a single nucleotide with another in the DNA without cutting the double helix. Prior research has shown the technique to be more precise, which means fewer errors than other CRISPR techniques. In their work, the researchers replaced an adenine with a guanine and a thymine with a cytosine, completely incapacitating the gene. Implementation of the therapy involved a one-time injection into the liver of cynomolgus monkeys.

After injection, the researchers tested the monkeys' cholesterol levels regularly. The researchers found that after just one week, levels of the PCSK9 protein had fallen by approximately 90% and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels were down by approximately 60%. They also found that both percentages held up for at least 10 months.

The researchers suggest their strong results show that the technique is ready for testing in humans, though there is still hesitation by medical authorities on approving such work due to the inability to reverse the process should unintended effects occur.

Kiran Musunuru et al, In vivo CRISPR base editing of PCSK9 durably lowers cholesterol in primates, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03534-y

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-crispr-cholesterol-monkeys.html?utm_s...

First-of-its-kind flower smells like dead insects to imprison 'coffin flies'

The plant Aristolochia microstoma uses a unique trick: its flowers emit a fetid-musty scent that seems to mimic the smell of decomposing insects. Flies from the genus Megaselia (family Phoridae) likely get attracted to this smell while searching for insect corpses to mate over and lay their eggs in. When they enter a flower, they are imprisoned and first pollinate the female organs, before being covered with pollen by the male organs. The flower then releases them unharmed.

The flowers of A. microstoma emit an unusual mix of volatiles that includes alkylpyrazines, which are otherwise rarely produced by flowering plants. Our results suggest that this is the first known case of a flower that tricks pollinators by smelling like dead and rotting insects rather than vertebrate carrion.

Thomas Rupp et al, Flowers of Deceptive Aristolochia microstoma Are Pollinated by Phorid Flies and Emit Volatiles Known From Invertebrate Carrion, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.658441

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-first-of-its-kind-dead-insects-impris...

banana Eel

Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof.

One of the simplest forms of animal life, the tiny aquatic organism called the hydra, has been shown to spend some time every few hours asleep — a fact that deepens the mystery of why sleep evolved in the first place.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/sleep-evolved-before-brains-hydras-a...

No Need to Buy an Oximeter Anymore? This Mobile App Monitors Blood Oxygen, Pulse Rate

The new app called CarePlix Vital's can monitor your blood oxygen level, pulse, and respiration rates.

With India reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic since last year, oximeters have become an important item for households, especially since the severe second wave. However, with an increase in demand for the vital health device, prices of pulse oximeters have been hiked by manufacturers. A good pulse oximeter can easily cost around Rs 2,000 these days.

To replace the oximeter, a Kolkata-based health startup has developed a mobile app. The new app called CarePlix Vital's can monitor your blood oxygen level, pulse, and respiration rates.

According to a report in Technology News, Latest Technology News, Gadgets News | BGR India, all one needs to do to use the mobile app is place a finger on their smartphone's rear camera and flashlight and within seconds, the oxygen saturation (SpO2), pulse and respiration rates are displayed on the device.

The underlying technology in all of this is photoplethysmography or PPG

We are achieving this through our smartphone's rear camera and flashlight. If you see the wearables and oximeters have infrared light sensors in them but for the phone, we just have the flashlight. Once we cover the rear camera and flashlight with the finger and start the scan for around 40 seconds, we are doing nothing but calculating the difference of light intensity and based on the difference we plot the PPG graph. From the graph, the SpO2 and pulse rate is derived," the co-founder said.

The CarePlix Vital's app is a registration-based application. It is said that the "application's AI helps in determining the strength of finger placement, that is, the stronger the finger placement, more accurate readings."

Source: https://www.india.com/

Beating Cardioid: This Beating Sesame Seed-Sized 'Human Heart' Grew Itself in a Lab

High-resolution simulation of how stars are born

To prevent next pandemic, scientists say we must regulate air like ...

To prevent next pandemic, scientists say we must regulate air like food and water

Humans in the 21st century spend most of their time indoors, but the air we breathe inside buildings is not regulated to the same degree as the food we eat and the water we drink. A group of 39 researchers from 14 countries say that needs to change to reduce disease transmission and prevent the next pandemic. In a Perspectives piece published in Science on May 14, they call for a paradigm shift in combating airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, demanding universal recognition that respiratory infections can be prevented by improving indoor ventilation systems. Air can contain viruses just as water and surfaces do. We need to understand that it's a problem and that we need to have, in our toolkit, approaches to mitigating risk and reducing the possible exposures that could happen from build-up of viruses in indoor air.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/689

https://researchnews.cc/news/6872/To-prevent-next-pandemic--scienti...

Everything Discovered On Mars So Far

No link between milk and increased cholesterol according to new study of 2 million people

Regular consumption of milk is not associated with increased levels of cholesterol, according to new research.

Karani Santhanakrishnan Vimaleswaran et al, Evidence for a causal association between milk intake and cardiometabolic disease outcomes using a two-sample Mendelian Randomization analysis in up to 1,904,220 individuals, International Journal of Obesity (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41366-021-00841-2

New quantum material discovered

In everyday life, phase transitions usually have to do with temperature changes—for example, when an ice cube gets warmer and melts. But there are also different kinds of phase transitions, depending on other parameters such as magnetic field. In order to understand the quantum properties of materials, phase transitions are particularly interesting when they occur directly at the absolute zero point of temperature. These transitions are called "quantum phase transitions" or a "quantum critical points."

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Electromagnetic anomalies that occur before an earthquake

It has been documented over hundreds of years that various electromagnetic anomalies occur a few weeks before the occurrence of a large earthquake. These electromagnetic anomalies are variations that appear in telluric current, geomagnetism, electromagnetic waves etc. before the earthquake.

New quantum material discovered

In everyday life, phase transitions usually have to do with temperature changes—for example, when an ice cube gets warmer and melts. But there are also different kinds of phase transitions, depending on other parameters such as magnetic field. In order to understand the quantum properties of materials, phase transitions are particularly interesting when they occur directly at the absolute zero point of temperature. These transitions are called "quantum phase transitions" or a "quantum critical points."

Such a quantum critical point has now been discovered by an Austrian-American research team in a novel material, and in an unusually pristine form. The properties of this material are now being further investigated. It is suspected that the material could be a so-called Weyl-Kondo semimetal, which is considered to have great potential for quantum technology due to special quantum states (so-called topological states). If this proves to be true, a key for the targeted development of topological quantum materials would have been found. The results were found in a cooperation between TU Wien, Johns Hopkins University, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Rice University and has now been published in the journal Science Advances.

Wesley T. Fuhrman et al, Pristine quantum criticality in a Kondo semimetal, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf9134

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-quantum-material.html?utm_source=nwle...

ScienceCasts: The Mystery of Coronal Heating

The sniffer dogs detecting coronavirus

Metabolic hormon 'leptin' linked to vaccine response

Reduced levels of a metabolic hormone known as leptin is linked to poor vaccine antibody responses in the general population, a University of Queensland study has found. The researchers made the discovery while investigating several cohorts responses to the influenza vaccine or hepatitis B vaccine pre-COVID. UQs Professor Di Yu identified a link between the metabolic and immune systems that could be used to develop new strategies for improving vaccine protection in vulnerable populations. Using multiple advanced techniques in immunology, genetics and biochemistry, our study found leptin directly promoted the development and function of cells which are vital in triggering an antibody response, Professor Yu said. In collaboration with global teams, we identified the reduction of an essential metabolic hormone called leptin was associated with compromised vaccine responses in both young and older individual ..

New insights into how phytochromes help plants sense and react to light, temperature

Plants contain several types of specialized light-sensitive proteins that measure light by changing shape upon light absorption. Chief among these are the phytochromes.

Phytochromes help plants detect light direction, intensity and duration; the time of day; whether it is the beginning, middle or end of a season; and even the color of light, which is important for avoiding shade from other plants. Remarkably, phytochromes also help plants detect temperature.

New research  helps explain how the handful of phytochromes found in every plant respond differently to light intensity and temperature, thus enabling land plants to colonize the planet many millions of years ago and allowing them to acclimate to a wide array of terrestrial environments.

For the first time, these biologists fully characterized the phytochrome family from the common model plant Arabidopsis thaliana on a biochemical level.

The scientists also extended that characterization into the phytochromes of two important food crops: corn and potatoes. Instead of finding that all phytochrome isoforms are identical, they found surprising differences.

A deeper understanding of these proteins will allow scientists to use phytochromes as tools both in agriculture and for research in the field of optogenetics, which has exploited phytochromes to precisely control cellular events simply by shining light.

E. Sethe Burgie el al., "Differing biophysical properties underpin the unique signaling potentials within the plant phytochrome photoreceptor families," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2105649118

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Plants typically express three or more phytochromes. It was well-known that plants can respond to wide ranges of light intensities but other factors such as expression levels and signaling potential were considered as the likely culprits.

"Now we know that the differing biophysical properties of the isoforms also underpin the unique signaling potentials within the plant phytochrome photoreceptor families," Vierstra said. "These properties are evident in Phy families in plants ranging from Arabidopsis to maize and potatoes, indicating that they likely emerged very early in phytochrome evolution."

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-insights-phytochromes-react-temperatu...

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First hacker-resistant cloud software system

Up to now, there has been no way to guarantee that a software system is secure from bugs, hackers, and vulnerabilities.

Researchers may now have solved this security issue. They have developed SeKVM, the first system that guarantees—through a mathematical proof—the security of virtual machines in the cloud. In a new paper to be presented on May 26, 2021, at the 42nd IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy, the researchers hope to lay the foundation for future innovations in system software verification, leading to a new generation of cyber-resilient system software.

SeKVM is the first formally verified system for cloud computing. Formal verification is a critical step as it is the process of proving that software is mathematically correct, that the program's code works as it should, and there are no hidden security bugs to worry about.

This is the first time that a real-world multiprocessor software system has been shown to be mathematically correct and secure. This means that users' data are correctly managed by software running in the cloud and are safe from security bugs and hackers.

A Secure and Formally Verified Linux KVM Hypervisor, DOI: 10.1109/SP40001.2021.00049

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-team-hacker-resistant-cloud-sof...

Resetting the biological clock by flipping a switch

The biological clock is present in almost all cells of an organism. As more and more evidence emerges that clocks in certain organs could be out of sync, there is a need to investigate and reset these clocks locally. Scientists  introduced a light-controlled on/off switch to a kinase inhibitor, which affects clock function. This gives them control of the biological clock in cultured cells and explanted tissue. They published their results on 26 May in Nature Communications.

Life on Earth has evolved under a 24-hour cycle of light and dark, hot and cold. "As a result, our cells are synchronized to these 24-hour oscillations. Our circadian clock is regulated by a central controller in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a region in the brain directly above the optic nerve, but all our cells contain a clock of their own. These clocks consist of an oscillation in the production and breakdown of certain proteins.

It is becoming increasingly clear that these clocks can be disrupted in organs or tissues, which may lead to disease. We know very little about how our cells coordinate these oscillations, or how it affects the body.

To study these effects, it would be useful to have a drug that affects the clocks and that can be activated locally. Researchers now  created several compounds, such as antibiotics or anticancer drugs, that could be switched on and off with light.

They  developed a kinase inhibitor, longdaysin, which slows down the circadian clock to a cycle that lasts up to 48 hours. They fitted this longdaysin with a light switch that allowed them to activate or deactivate the compound with violet and green light, respectively.

Reversible modulation of circadian time with chronophotopharmacology, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23301-x

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-resetting-biological-clock-flipping.h...