This is the real ‘after life’

 Research suggests 'magnetic tunnel' surrounds our solar system

An astronomer's new  research suggests the solar system is surrounded by a magnetic tunnel that can be seen in radio waves.

Two bright structures seen on opposite sides of the sky—previously considered to be separate—are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments. The connection forms what looks like a tunnel around our solar system.

The data results of this research have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

If we were to look up in the sky, say researchers, we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked—that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light.

Called "the North Polar Spur" and "the Fan Region," astronomers have known about these two structures for decades, West says. But most scientific explanations have focused on them individually. This new work, by contrast, reveals for the first time that they are connected as a unit.

Made up of charged particles and a magnetic field, the structures are shaped like long ropes. They are located about 350 light-years away from us, and are about 1,000 light-years long.

 J. L. West et al, A Unified Model for the Fan Region and the North Polar Spur: A bundle of filaments in the Local Galaxy. arXiv:2109.14720v1 [astro-ph.GA], arxiv.org/abs/2109.14720

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-astronomer-magnetic-tunnel-solar.html...

Memories pass through many transformation stages as they are encoded

Memory, the human ability to recall things that happened in the past, is one of the topics most widely investigated by neuroscientists and psychologists. Past studies have collected extensive evidence suggesting that memory is a dynamic process, rather than a static one. In other words, instead of merely entailing the storage of events or information in the brain and their subsequent recall, memories appear to be shaped by a series of complex processes, including imagination and emotion.

Some neuroscientists have been closely examining what happens in the brain while memories are being encoded and retrieved, to better understand their neural underpinnings. They found that the neural representation patterns observed while the same memories are being encoded and retrieved are in some ways similar (i.e., there is an overlap between them), yet from the moment they are stored to when they are recalled at a later point in time, their neural representations can undergo significant transformations.

Recent findings, presented in a paper published in Science Advances, suggest that memory representations undergo several transformations while they are being encoded and consolidated in the brain.

Part 1

Combining intracranial EEG recordings with deep neural network models, researchers provided a detailed picture of the representational transformations from encoding to short-term memory maintenance and long-term memory retrieval that underlie successful episodic memory.

The results  suggest that memory representations pass through multiple stages of transformations to achieve successful long-term memory formation and recall.

Overall, the findings offer further evidence of the transformation of memory-specific neural representations throughout the encoding, short-term maintenance and long-term consolidation stages of memory.

Jing Liu et al, Transformative neural representations support long-term episodic memory, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg9715

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-memories-stages-encoded.html...

Part 2

Metaverse, the future tech 

Metaverse is internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. It as a "virtual environment" you can go inside of—instead of just looking at on a screen. Essentially, it's a world of endless, interconnected virtual communities where people can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices.

It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media. It's the next evolution of connectivity where all of those things start to come together in a seamless, doppelganger universe, so you're living your virtual life the same way you're living your physical life.

You will be able to do  things like go to a virtual concert, take a trip online, and buy and try on digital clothing. The metaverse also could be a game-changer for the work-from-home shift amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing co-workers on a video call grid, employees could see them virtually.

For those who can afford it, users would be able, through their avatars, to flit between virtual worlds created by different companies.

A lot of the metaverse experience is going to be around being able to teleport from one experience to another.

And let me  also warn you about this ....  it will be based on using your personal data to sell targeted advertising, into the metaverse.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-metaverse.html?utm_source=nwlet...

'Smart bandage' may help solve a major problem when treating chronic wounds

How can doctors make sure a dressed wound is healing without taking off the bandage? This is a conundrum, because removing a bandage can disrupt the healing process. Technology presented in a new study in open-access journal Frontiers in Physics could help.

This new 'smart bandage' contains a sensor that can very sensitively measure wound moisture levels and then transmit the data to a nearby smartphone, without requiring doctors to remove the bandage. In the future, by changing the geometry and materials in the bandage, the researchers may be able to fine tune it to suit different types of wounds. The technology could help doctors to monitor wounds more easily and successfully.

Chronic wounds can be a source of significant suffering and disability for patients who experience them. Getting such wounds to heal is tricky and there are many factors that can affect wound healing, such as temperature, glucose levels, and acidity. However, one of the most important is moisture levels. Too dry, and the tissue can become desiccated; too wet, and it can become white and wrinkly, as it does in the bath. Both these situations disrupt the healing process.

However, if a doctor wants to check the moisture levels of a wound then they need to remove the bandage, potentially damaging the delicate healing tissue. These issues have inspired this latest smart bandage, as a way to monitor wound moisture levels non-invasively. The choice of materials was a challenge, as bandages need to be biocompatible, disposable and inexpensive.

To achieve this, the researchers applied a conductive polymer called poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) onto a gauze using a technique called screen printing, and then incorporated the gauze with commercially available bandage materials. The idea is that changes in the moisture level of the wound cause a change in an electrical signal measured by the sensor.

PEDOT:PSS is an organic semiconducting polymer that can be easily deposited on several substrates as a standard ink. Researchers also incorporated a cheap, disposable and bandage-compatible RFID tag, similar to those used for clothing security tags, into the textile patch. The tag can wirelessly communicate moisture level data with a smartphone, allowing healthcare staff to know when a bandage needs to be changed.

Wireless textile moisture sensor for wound care, Frontiers in Physics, DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2021.722173

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-smart-bandage-major-problem-chronic.h...

Researchers discover a way to increase the effectiveness of antibiotics

Using immunotherapeutics to tackle the threat of superbugs

Researchers found a way to make antibiotics more effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria—also known as 'superbugs.

Antimicrobial resistance to superbugs has been evolving and is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity, according to the World Health Organization.

This new research will provide a pathway to increasing the effectiveness of antibiotics, without clinicians having to resort to risky strategies of giving patients higher doses or relying on the discovery of new types of antibiotics.

During a bacterial infection, the body uses molecules called chemoattractants to recruit neutrophils to the site of the infection. Neutrophils are immune cells with the ability to encapsulate and kill dangerous bacteria, critical to the immune response. Researchers attached a chemoattractant to an antibiotic, enabling them to enhance the recruitment of immune cells and improve their killing ability.

The findings have now been published in Nature Communications.

Antibiotic-chemoattractants enhance neutrophil clearance of Staphylococcus aureus, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26244-5

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-effectiveness-antibiotics.html?utm_so...

“Politicians who are not trained in science should not meddle in our day-to-day business, or tell scientists what’s right or wrong.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02885-w?utm_source=Natur...

"Aquatic" Jaguars

Found: an Unknown 'Ghost' Ancestor in The Human Genome

A teenage girl from over 50,000 years ago of such strange uniqueness she looked to be a 'hybrid' ancestor to modern humans that scientists had never seen before.

Only recently, researchers have uncovered evidence she wasn't alone. In a 2019 study analysing the complex mess of humanity's prehistory, scientists used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify an unknown human ancestor species that modern humans encountered – and shared dalliances with – on the long trek out of Africa millennia ago.

About 80,000 years ago, the so-called Out of Africa occurred, when part of the human population, which already consisted of modern humans, abandoned the African continent and migrated to other continents, giving rise to all the current populations.

As modern humans forged this path into the landmass of Eurasia, they forged some other things too – breeding with ancient and extinct hominids from other species.

Up until recently, these occasional sexual partners were thought to include Neanderthals and Denisovans, the latter of which were unknown until 2010.

But in this study, a third ex from long ago was isolated in Eurasian DNA, thanks to deep learning algorithms sifting through a complex mass of ancient and modern human genetic code. 

Using a statistical technique called Bayesian inference, the researchers found evidence of what they call a "third introgression" – a 'ghost' archaic population that modern humans interbred with during the African exodus.

This population is either related to the Neanderthal-Denisova clade or diverged early from the Denisova lineage.

 In 2018, another team of researchers identified evidence of what they called a "definite third interbreeding event" alongside Denisovans and Neanderthals, and a pair of papers published in early 2019 traced the timeline of how those extinct species intersected and interbred in clearer detail than ever before.

There's a lot more research to be done here yet. Applying this kind of AI analysis is a decidedly new technique in the field of human ancestry, and the known fossil evidence we're dealing with is amazingly scant.

But according to the research, what the team has found explains not only a long-forgotten process of introgression – it's a dalliance that, in its own way, informs part of who we are today. If you subtract the Neanderthal and Denisovan parts, there is still something in the genome that is highly divergent.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08089-7

https://www.sciencealert.com/artificial-intelligence-finds-an-unkno...

'Nanozyme' therapy prevents harmful dental plaque build-up

A growing body of evidence points to a link between iron-deficiency anemia and severe tooth decay. Whether the connection is correlative or causative is unknown, though both conditions are associated with poor diets and are more common in people living in impoverished environments and with underlying medical conditions.

Now, new research suggests that an FDA-approved therapy for iron-deficiency anemia also holds promise for treating, preventing, and even diagnosing dental decay. The therapeutic, a combination of an iron-oxide nanoparticle-containing solution called ferumoxytol and hydrogen peroxide, was applied to real tooth enamel placed in a denture-like appliance and worn by the study subjects.

The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, found that a twice daily application of ferumoxytol, which activated hydrogen peroxide contained in a follow-up rinse, significantly reduced the buildup of harmful dental plaque and had a targeted effect on the bacteria largely responsible for tooth decay. These types of nanoparticles with enzyme-like properties are sometimes known as "nanozymes" and are increasingly being explored for their potential in biomedical and environmental applications.

Researchers found that this approach is both precise and effective. It disrupts biofilms, particularly those formed by Streptococcus mutans, which cause caries, and it also reduced the extent of enamel decay. 

Yuan Liu et al, Ferumoxytol Nanoparticles Target Biofilms Causing Tooth Decay in the Human Mouth, Nano Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02702

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-nanozyme-therapy-dental-plaque-build-...

 Lack of sleep affects your walk, new study finds

Good sleep can be hard to come by. But a new study finds that if you can make up for lost sleep, even for just a few weekend hours, the extra zzz's could help reduce fatigue-induced clumsiness, at least in how you walk.

There's plenty of evidence to show sleep, and how much we get of it, can affect how well we do on cognitive tasks such as solving a math problem, holding a conversation, or even reading this article. Less explored is the question of whether sleep influences the way we walk or carry out other activities that are assumed to be less mentally taxing.

The new study, by researchers at MIT and the University of São Paulo in Brazil, reports that walking—and specifically, how well we can control our stride, or gait—can indeed be affected by lack of sleep.

In experiments with student volunteers, the team found that overall, the less sleep students got, the less control they had when walking during a tread-mill test. For students who pulled an all-nighter before the test, this gait control plummeted even further.

Interestingly, for those who didn't stay up all night before the test, but who generally had less-than-ideal sleep during the week, those who slept in on weekends performed better than those who didn't.

Sleep deprivation affects gait control, Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-00705-9

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-feet-lack-affects.html?utm_s...

Underwater Drone Flies AND Swims

This device could usher in GPS-free navigation

A new era of navigation.

For over a year, the avocado-sized vacuum chamber has contained a cloud of atoms at the right conditions for precise navigational measurements. It is the first device that is small, energy-efficient and reliable enough to potentially move quantum sensors — sensors that use quantum mechanics to outperform conventional technologies — from the lab into commercial use, said Sandia National Laboratories scientist Peter Schwindt.

Sandia developed the chamber as a core technology for future navigation systems that don’t rely on GPS satellite.

Countless devices around the world use GPS for wayfinding. It’s possible because atomic clocks, which are known for extremely accurate timekeeping, hold the network of satellites perfectly in sync.

But GPS signals can be jammed or spoofed, potentially disabling navigation systems on commercial and military vehicles alike, Schwindt said.

So instead of relying on satellites,  future vehicles might keep track of their own position. They could do that with on-board devices as accurate as atomic clocks, but that measure acceleration and rotation by shining lasers into small clouds of rubidium gas like this one.

Atomic accelerometers and gyroscopes already exist, but they’re too bulky and power-hungry to use in an airplane’s navigation system. That’s because they need a large vacuum system to work, one that needs thousands of volts of electricity.

“Quantum sensors are a growing field, and there are lots of applications you can demonstrate in the lab. But when you move it into the real world there are lots of problems you have to solve. Two are making the sensor compact and rugged. The physics takes place all in a cubic centimeter (0.06 cubic inches) of volume, so anything larger than that is wasted space.”

part1

 quantum sensing can work without a high-powered vacuum system. This shrinks the package to a practical size without sacrificing reliability.

Instead of a powered vacuum pump, which whisks away molecules that leak in and wreck measurements, a pair of devices called getters use chemical reactions to bind intruders. The getters are each about the size of a pencil eraser so they can be tucked inside two narrow tubes sticking out of the titanium package. They also work without a power source.

To further keep out contaminants, Schwindt partnered with Sandia materials scientists to build the chamber out of titanium and sapphire. These materials are especially good at blocking out gasses like helium, which can squeeze through stainless steel and Pyrex glass. Funding was provided by Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

Construction took sophisticated fabrication techniques that Sandia has honed to bond advanced materials for nuclear weapons components. And like a nuclear weapon, the titanium chamber must work reliably for years.

The Sandia team is continuing to monitor the device. Their goal is to keep it sealed and operational for five years, an important milestone toward showing the technology is ready to be fielded. In the meantime, they’re exploring ways to streamline manufacturing.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/932743

part2

Atoms .... see them!

Study confirms mistaken identity may explain why sharks bite humans

World-first research testing a simulated 'shark vision' model on swimming patterns of humans, seals and sea-lions, confirms theories that when great white sharks bite humans, it may be a case of mistaken identity.

Great white sharks are also called white sharks—and together with bull and tiger sharks, they account for by far the most bites on humans.

Researchers found that surfers, swimmers and pinnipeds (seals and sea-lions) on the surface of the ocean will look the same to a white shark looking up from below, because these sharks can't see fine details or colours.

Sharks use a range of sensory cues to distinguish between different objects and zero in on their food, and these differ in sensitivity between shark species. White sharks are highly visual—and juveniles are more dangerous to humans than are older, larger white sharks which have better vision.

When white sharks reach around 2.5 meters in length, their jaws begin to harden so they can take on bigger prey like seals. They need to develop a search image for these prey items and combine that with other sensory information; it's a learning process that could be prone to mistakes. Understanding why shark bites occur can help us find ways to prevent them, while keeping both humans and sharks safer.

 Laura A. Ryan et al, A shark's eye view: testing the 'mistaken identity theory' behind shark bites on humans, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0533

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-mistaken-identity-sharks-humans.html?...

Researchers create mirror-image peptides that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created chemical compounds that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and several of its variants.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the researchers report the creation of D-peptides that neutralize the virus and stop infection of cultured human cells.

Known as mirror-image peptides, the compounds have chemical properties that make them suitable for the development of low-cost antiviral therapeutics.

A big advantage of mirror-image peptides is their long stability and that they are relatively cheap to produce.

Peptides are similar to proteins in that they are composed of the same amino-acids building blocks. But they are smaller than protein molecules. They can be designed to bind virtually any molecular target and with a greater specificity than small-molecule drugs, reducing the risk of side effects. In this way, peptides are similar to antibodies but are at least 100 times cheaper to produce thanks to their small size. The combination of low cost and easy scaling of manufacturing makes peptides attractive, particularly for low-income countries.

But there's a caveat. In the body, peptides are rapidly degraded by the enzymes that have evolved to stamp out harmful versions produced by bacteria and other pathogens. But science has found a solution in mirror-image peptides that are resistant to degradation.

For reasons that remain unclear, all naturally occurring amino acids exist in a left-handed configuration, as defined by the direction in which they rotate. Consequently, all proteins and peptides are also left-handed—and known as L-peptides. These mirror-image molecules are manufactured from synthetic D-amino acids strung together in the same way as their left-handed counterparts.  They can be engineered to bind the same targets with undiminished specificity. The main difference is that their unusual geometry makes them resistant to enzymes in the bloodstream that break down normal L-peptides. 

Pedro A. Valiente et al, Computational Design of Potent D-Peptide Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00655

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-mirror-image-peptides-neutralize-sars...

**

The Pupil in Your Eye Can Perceive Numerical Information, Not Just Light

You might know that the size of the pupils in our eyes changes depending on how well lit our environment is, but there's more to the story: Scientists have now discovered that the pupil also shifts in size depending on how many objects we're observing.

The more objects in a scene, the bigger the pupil grows, as if to better accommodate everything that it has to look at. This "perceived numerosity" is a simple and automatic reflex, the new research shows.

In a new study, researchers observed the pupil sizes of 16 participants while they looked at pictures of dots. In some of the pictures, the dots were linked together in dumbbell shapes – creating the illusion that there were fewer objects – and pupil size then shrank. This result shows that numerical information is intrinsically related to perception.

As for where this reaction comes from, it's likely to be linked to the need for survival – most species are thought to have a dedicated 'number sense' that enables them to spot enemies in the wild, find food, get back home, and more besides.

When it comes to humans, being able to weigh up numbers is something that seems to appear as soon as a few hours after birth – even if you're terrible at math, you have a built-in aptitude for judging numerosity, and it appears the dilation of our pupils is part of a response to that. When we look around, we spontaneously perceive the form, size, movement and color of a scene. Equally spontaneously, we perceive the number of items before us. This ability, shared with most other animals, is an evolutionary fundamental: it reveals immediately important quantities, such as how many apples there are on the tree, or how many enemies are attacking.

And there's lots more to explore here as well. Our eyes seem to be more sensitive to the number of items we're looking at rather than how they're spaced or arranged, which is another reaction that can be analyzed in future studies.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26261-4

https://www.sciencealert.com/pupil-size-changes-depending-on-how-ma...

Technology to produce unbreakable screens

Cracked phone screens could become a thing of the past thanks to breakthrough research.

A team of researchers  have unlocked the technology to produce next-generation composite glass for lighting LEDs and smartphone, television and computer screens.

The findings will enable the manufacture of glass screens that are not only unbreakable but also deliver crystal clear image quality.

The discovery was a huge step forward in perovskite nanocrystal technology as previously, researchers were only able to produce this technology in the bone-dry atmosphere of a laboratory setting. The emitting materials are made from nanocrystals, called lead-halide perovskites.

They can harvest sunlight and concert it into renewable electricity—playing a vital role in low-cost and high-efficiency new generation solar cells and many promising applications like lighting. Unfortunately, these nanocrystals are extremely sensitive to light, heat, air and water—even water vapor in our air would kill the current devices in a matter of minutes. But this team of chemical engineers and material scientists has developed a process to wrap or bind the nanocrystals in porous glass. This process is key to stabilizing the materials, enhancing its efficiency and inhibits the toxic lead ions from leaching out from the materials.

At present QLED or quantum dot light-emitting diode screens are considered the top performer for image display and performance. This research will enable us to improve on this nanocrystal technology by offering stunning picture quality and strength.

Jingwei Hou et al, Liquid-phase sintering of lead halide perovskites and metal-organic framework glasses, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abf4460

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-technology-unbreakable-screens.html?u...

10 UNESCO forests emit more CO2 than they soak up

Sites containing some of the world's most treasured forests, including the Yosemite National Park and Indonesia's Sumatra rainforest, have been emitting more heat-trapping carbon dioxide than they have absorbed in recent years, a U.N.-backed report said.

According to the report released Thursday, factors like logging, wildfires and clearance of land for agriculture are to blame. The excess carbon turns up from just 10 of 257 forests classified among UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The 10 sites that were net sources of carbon from 2001 to 2020 were the Tropical Rainforest in Sumatra; the Río Platano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras; Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park in the United States: Waterton Glacier International Peace Park in Canada and the U.S.; the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains in South Africa; Kinabalu Park in Malaysia; the Uvs Nuur Basin in Russia and Mongolia; the Greater Blue Mountains area of Australia; and Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica.

The Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature and UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural and educational agency, said their report provides the first-ever assessment of greenhouse gases produced and absorbed in UNESCO-listed forests. The study was based on information collected through on-site monitoring and from satellites.

The study adds to growing signs that human activities and the fallout from climate change —which scientists say has made weather extremes like drought and wildfires more likely—have transformed some natural carbon sinks that suck up CO₂ from the air into net sources of it over the last two decades.

The report's finding that even some of the most iconic and best protected forests, such as those found in World Heritage sites, can actually contribute to climate change is alarming.

This is because of cutting trees and clearing forests , which produce CO2 and  also largely due to a bout of devastating wildfires in these areas in recent years.

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-unesco-forests-emit-co2.html?utm_sour...

Study finds California condors can have 'virgin births'

 Condors can have "'virgin births," according to a study released recently. 

Researchers with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said genetic testing confirmed that two male chicks hatched in 2001 and 2009 from unfertilized eggs were related to their mothers. Neither was related to a male.

The study was published Thursday in the the Journal of Heredity. It's the first report of asexual reproduction in California condors, although parthenogenesis can occur in other species ranging from sharks to honey bees to Komodo dragons.

But in birds, it usually only occurs when females don't have access to males. In this case, each mother condor had previously bred with males, producing 34 chicks, and each was housed with a fertile male at the time they produced the eggs through parthenogenesis.

The researchers said they believe it is the first case of asexual reproduction in any avian species where the female had access to a mate.

These findings now raise questions about whether this might occur undetected in other species too. 

OUP accepted manuscript, Journal Of Heredity (2021). DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esab052

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-california-condors-virgin-births.html...

Study finds the SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect the inner ear

Many COVID-19 patients have reported symptoms affecting the ears, including hearing loss and tinnitus. Dizziness and balance problems can also occur, suggesting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be able to infect the inner ear.

A new study from MIT and Massachusetts Eye and Ear provides evidence that the virus can indeed infect cells of the inner ear, including hair cells, which are critical for both hearing and balance. The researchers also found that the pattern of infection seen in human inner ear tissue is consistent with the symptoms seen in a study of 10 COVID-19 patients who reported a variety of ear-related symptoms.

The researchers used novel cellular models of the human inner ear that they developed, as well as hard-to-obtain adult human inner ear tissue, for their studies. The limited availability of such tissue has hindered previous studies of COVID-19 and other viruses that can cause hearing loss.

Direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of the human inner ear may underlie COVID-19-associated audiovestibular dysfunction, Communications Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/s43856-021-00044-w

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-sars-cov-virus-infect-ear.ht...

Researchers invent chemical reaction that could accelerate drug discovery

Medicines come from chemical reactions, and better chemical reactions lead to better medicines.

Yet, the most popular reaction used in drug discovery, called the amide coupling, makes an inherently unstable amide bond. Because the body excels at metabolizing medication, one of the most important and difficult goals of drug research is to invent metabolically stable molecules, so we can take one pill a day instead of every 15 minutes.

To that end, researchers at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy hacked the popular amide coupling to produce a carbon-carbon bond instead of an amide. The carbon-carbon bond is the most prevalent bond arrangement in nature and in synthetic drugs, and it's also typically more stable than the amide bond, the study appears online in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

The discovery of the carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction opens the door to more stable medicines, and is particularly applicable to biological probes and new medical imaging agents.

The common amide bond is formed by coupling an amine and a carboxylic acid. To form a carbon-carbon bond, researchers identified a catalyst that deaminates the amine and decarboxylates the carboxylic acid, forming a carbon-carbon bond in the process.

Joining an amine and a  carboxylic acid to make a carbon-carbon bond is also advantageous because these reagents are available in the highest diversity, and are typically less expensive than other raw ingredients that could be used to make a carbon-carbon bond.

Timothy Cernak et al, The Formal Cross‐Coupling of Amines and Carboxylic Acids to Form sp3–sp3 Carbon–Carbon Bonds, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2021). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202112454

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-chemical-reaction-drug-discovery.html...

What is net-zero?

The search for people who never get COVID

Scientists have launched a global hunt for people who are genetically resistant to infection with SARS-CoV-2. They hope that identifying the genes protecting these individuals could lead to the development of virus-blocking drugs that not only protect people from COVID-19, but also prevent them from passing on the infection.

Vascular disease in COVID-19 is not caused by viral infection of blood vessels

The SARS-CoV-2 virus does not infect blood vessels, despite the high risk of blood clots to COVID-19 patients, researchers have found.

The researchers found that the cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 are triggered by inflammation caused by infected airway cells. At least 40 per cent of patients that are hospitalised with COVID-19 are at high risk of blood clots, and anti-coagulation therapies are now being routinely used.

There have been many studies attempting to prove whether the virus is infecting cells of the inner blood vessel wall or not.

By conducting the experiments using real, infectious virus rather than fragments of the virus’s spike protein,researchers now can definitively say it is not.

The researchers used UQ’s sophisticated microscopy facilities to track where the virus travelled in the cells and visualise how blood vessels respond to the live virus.
The body’s inflammatory response had a big effect on the cardiovascular system because they work together to fight infection – the blood delivers the immune cells to the site of infection and makes blood clots if the blood vessel is damaged.

When our immune system works well, it clears the virus from our bodies. But sometimes it goes into overdrive and we get an overblown inflammatory response causing complications –in the case of COVID-19, this is often blood clots, when there shouldn’t be any.

Knowing that it is inflammation causing these cardiovascular complications arising from COVID-19 rather than the virus itself will help us develop the right treatments, and a better understanding of how and why these complications arise.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cti2.1350

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2021/10/vascular-disease-covid-1...

https://researchnews.cc/news/9726/Vascular-disease-in-COVID-19-is-n...

Experts name new species of human ancestor

An international team of researchers, led by University of Winnipeg palaeoanthropologist Dr. Mirjana Roksandic, has announced the naming of a new species of human ancestor, Homo bodoensis. This species lived in Africa during the Middle Pleistocene, around half a million years ago, and was the direct ancestor of modern humans.

The Middle Pleistocene (now renamed Chibanian and dated to 774,000–129,000 years ago) is important because it saw the rise of our own species (Homo sapiens) in Africa, our closest relatives, and the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) in Europe.

However, human evolution during this age is poorly understood, a problem which paleoanthropologists call "the muddle in the middle." The announcement of Homo bodoensis hopes to bring some clarity to this puzzling, but important chapter in human evolution.

 Resolving the "muddle in the middle": The case for Homo bodoensis sp. nov, Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews, DOI: 10.1002/EVAN.21929

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-experts-species-human-ancestor.html?u...

Using immunotherapeutics to tackle the threat of superbugs

Recognizing familiar faces relies on a neural code shared across brains

The ability to recognize familiar faces is fundamental to social interaction. This process provides visual information and activates social and personal knowledge about a person who is familiar. But how the brain processes this information across participants has long been a question. Distinct information about familiar faces is encoded in a neural code that is shared across brains, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Within visual processing areas, researchers found that information about personally familiar and visually familiar faces is shared across the brains of people who have the same friends and acquaintances. The surprising part of these findings was that the shared information about personally familiar faces also extends to areas that are non-visual and important for social processing, suggesting that there is shared social information across brains.

In decoding personally familiar identities, the findings demonstrated that there was much more shared information across the brains of the participants. There was high decoding accuracy in four other areas outside of the visual system: the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, which is known to be involved in social processing (processing other people's intentions and traits); the precuneus, an area which has been shown to be more active when processing personally familiar faces; the insula, which is known to be involved in emotional processing; and the temporal parietal junction, which plays an important role in social cognition and in representing the mental states of others (also known as the "theory of the mind").

This shared conceptual space for the personal knowledge of others allows us to communicate with people that we know in common.

Shared neural codes for visual and semantic information about familiar faces in a common representational space, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2110474118.

Part 1

For the study, the research team applied a method called hyperalignment, which creates a common representational space for understanding how brain activity is similar between participants. The team used data obtained from three fMRI tasks with 14 graduate students who had known each other for at least two years. In two of the tasks, participants were presented with images of four other personally familiar graduate students and four other visually familiar persons, who were previously unknown. In the third task, participants watched parts of The Grand Budapest Hotel. The movie data, which is publicly available, was used to apply hyperalignment and align participants' brain responses into a common representational space. This allowed the researchers to use machine learning classifiers to predict what stimuli a participant was looking at based on the brain activity of the other participants.

The results showed that the identity of visually familiar and personally familiar faces was decoded with accuracy across the brain in areas that are mostly involved in visual processing of faces. Outside of the visual areas however, there was not a lot of decoding. For visually familiar identities, participants only knew what the stimuli looked like; they did not know who these people were or have any other information about them.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-familiar-neural-code-brains....

Part 2

 Ocean plastics could be converted to ship fuel

A team of researchers think that the plastic amassing in floating islands in the oceans could be used to power the ships that are sent to clean them up. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how ocean plastics could be converted to ship fuel.

Prior research has shown that millions of tons of plastics enter the ocean each year—some of it is ground into fragments and disperses, and some of it winds up in colossal garbage patches floating in remote parts of the ocean. Because of the danger that such plastics present to ocean life, some environmentalists have begun cleanup operations. Such operations typically involve sending a ship to a garbage patch, collecting as much as the ship will hold and then bringing it back to port for processing. In this new effort, the researchers suggest it would be far more efficient and greener to turn the plastic into fuel for both a processing machine and for uninterrupted operation of the ships.

The researchers note that the plastic in a garbage dump could be converted to a type of oil via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). In this process, the plastic is heated to 300–550 degrees Celsius at pressures 250 to 300 times that of sea-level conditions. The researchers have calculated that a ship carrying an HTL converter would be capable of producing enough oil to run the HTL converter and the ship's engine. Under their scenario, plastic collection booms would be permanently stationed at multiple sites around a large garbage patch, able to load the plastic it collects onto ships.

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The researchers acknowledge that burning the oil produced would release carbon into the atmosphere, but note that the amount emitted would still be less than that emitted by a ship burning conventional oil making trips back and forth to ports. They also note that HTL does produce a small amount of solid waste, which would have to be taken back to port, likely every few months—excess fuel produced by the HTL could be used for these trips.

 Elizabeth R. Belden et al, Thermodynamic feasibility of shipboard conversion of marine plastics to blue diesel for self-powered ocean cleanup, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107250118

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-ocean-plastic-power-cleanup-shi...

Change in the Arctic and how it affects the whole world

Researchers discover new type of nerve cell in the retina

Scientists have discovered a new type of nerve cell, or neuron, in the retina.

In the central nervous system, a complex circuitry of neurons communicate with each other to relay sensory and motor information; so-called interneurons serve as intermediaries in the chain of communication. Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a research team  identifies a previously unknown type of interneuron in the mammalian retina.

The discovery marks a notable development for the field as scientists work toward a better understanding of the central nervous system by identifying all classes of neurons and their connections.

Based on its morphology, physiology, and genetic properties, this cell doesn't fit into the five classes of retinal neurons first identified more than 100 years ago. Researchers, therefore, propose they might belong to a new retinal neuron class by themselves.

The research team named their discovery the Campana cell after its shape, which resembles a hand bell. Campana cells relay visual signals from both types of light-sensing rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina, but their precise purpose is the subject of ongoing research. Experiments showed Campana cells remain activated for an unusually long time—as long as 30 seconds—in response to a 10 millisecond light flash stimulation.

In the brain, persistent firing cells are believed to be involved in memory and learning. Since Campana cells have a similar behavior, we theorize they could play a role in prompting a temporal 'memory' of a recent stimulation.

Brent K. Young, Charu Ramakrishnan, Tushar Ganjawala, Ping Wang, Karl Deisseroth, Ning Tian. An uncommon neuronal class conveys visual signals from rods and cones to retinal ganglion cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021; 118 (44): e2104884118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2104884118

https://researchnews.cc/news/9777/Researchers-discover-new-type-of-...

COVID-19 virus test sensitivity follows the body’s circadian rhythm

Ecosystems worldwide are disrupted by lack of large wild herbivores—except in Africa

Biological research has repeatedly demonstrated that the relationship between the producer and the consumer is governed by a scaling law. An international research team has now looked into whether this law of nature can be reproduced in the relationship between the production of plants in an area and the number of large herbivores that graze on them. The study reveals that Africa is the only continent where the scaling law holds true.

June 2021 saw the start of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. A total of 115 countries have committed themselves to restoring up to a billion hectares of nature worldwide.

According to a group of researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Sussex, one of biggest challenges will be restoring the historical and prehistoric grazing of large mammals. What level of restoration should we aim for? How many large herbivores will we need? And how are we going to co-exist with these large animals?

The researchers examined the current low densities of large herbivores in a scientific article in the Journal of Applied Ecology. In the article, they calculated a baseline for large animals based on the ratio between producer and consumer, i.e. plants and herbivores, in nature reserves in Africa.

They stress that this relationship between producers and consumers applies across ecosystems and biomes implying a close correlation between the biomass produced and the biomass of dependent consumers.

However, after investigating the density of large herbivores in  nature reserves throughout the world, the researchers were only able to find such a close correlation on one continent: Africa. On the other continents, they found strong indications of impoverished fauna, even in protected natural areas.

African ecosystems have species-rich mammal fauna and a large biomass of big herbivores that are significantly linked to plant productivity. But we can't find this pattern on other continents, and in general the large herbivore biomass is much lower than we would expect considering the level of productivity.

In the article, the researchers argue that large herbivores are still being displaced, hunted and eradicated, and that there is a widespread perception, even among game managers, that there are plenty of herbivores in the wild, perhaps even too many. This perception is not supported by the new study.

On the contrary, efforts to decrease populations of large herbivores can reflect a shifting baseline.

Bringing back big animals is crucial to restoring self-sustaining ecosystems and conserving biodiversity, but it is not going to be easy. Large animals are troublesome, because they damage crops, disrupt traffic and generally just get in the way. It will require political commitment and careful physical planning, including fenced reserves.

Camilla Fløjgaard et al, Exploring a natural baseline for large‐herbivore biomass in ecological restoration, Journal of Applied Ecology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14047

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-ecosystems-worldwide-disrupted-lack-l...

Using microbes to make carbon-neutral fuel

Researchers  have discovered a new way to train microbes to make a readily usable biofuel.

A team of biologists and engineers modified a microbe called Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 (TIE-1) so that it can produce a biofuel using only three renewable and naturally abundant source ingredients: carbon dioxide, solar panel-generated electricity and light.

The resulting biofuel, n-butanol, is an authentically carbon-neutral fuel alternative that can be used in blends with diesel or gasoline. The results are reported Nov. 3 in the journal Communications Biology.

 n-Butanol production by Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1, Communications Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02781-z

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-microbes-carbon-neutral-fuel.ht...

The Twisted Paths of Perception

These patterned pavements make pedestrians watch their step

The King Pedro IV Square in Lisbon, Portugal, better known as the Rossio, regales visitors with a delightful exemplar of the traditional pavement called calçada portuguesa. Originally cobbled in 1848, the dizzying light and dark undulations symbolize the sea voyages of Portuguese navigators and predate 20th-century designs by Op Art creators such as Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, while inducing similar perceptions of flowing motion. But does the vibrant pattern stand in the way of safety?

A recent study from the University of Bristol in England asked participants how walking on floors patterned with visual illusions affected their discomfort levels and feeling of instability. Neuropsychologist Ute Leonards, who led the study, first considered the potential negative impact of such illusory patterns on walking during a visit to the iconic street of La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain. “I had noticed the 3-D effect of the floor patterns and wanted to add them to my collection,” she recalls. As Leonards photographed the waves in the paving design, an older gentleman approached her. “He said that he didn’t like the floor at all, as he wasn’t sure when his feet would actually hit the ground and how high he should lift his feet not to trip . . . he walked [as if] afraid that there might be black ice.”

Part1 

Back in the laboratory, Leonards and her collaborators investigated the effects of four illusory patterns on people’s walking experience. Two of the designs, consisting of black-and-white alternating “furrows and ridges” modeled after the undulating pattern in Rossio Square, looked three-dimensional despite being printed on flat surfaces. More than half of the walkers found such designs aversive or uncomfortable to tread on, affecting their stability and even occasionally inducing fear of falling. The discomfort may lie in the mismatch between the sensory and physical characteristics of the walking environment. In nature, surfaces that look bumpy are generally bumpy, but this was not the case for the floor patterns examined in the study—a concern that may extend to a number of human-built environments.

The clue to avoiding the clash of art and accessibility, Leonards says, is to bring people into the planning process directly from the start and think of the project in a human-centered way. “I don’t think that this comes at the cost of aesthetics,” she explains, “but rather allows a far bigger group of people to enjoy beautiful places safely.”

This article was originally published with the title "The Twisted Paths of Perception" in SA Mind 32, 6, 33-34 (November 2021)

doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind1121-33

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-twisted-paths-of-per...

Part 2

Vascular disease in COVID-19 is not caused by viral infection of blood vessels

Researchers identify bird and reptile 'microchromosomes' once thought to be dust specks on a microscope slide

 Scientists have discovered that tiny 'microchromosomes' in birds and reptiles, initially thought to be specks of dust on the microscope slide, are linked to a spineless animal ancestor that lived 684 million years ago. They prove to be the building blocks of all animal genomes, but underwent "dizzying rearrangement" in mammals, including humans.

A team of researchers made the discovery by lining up the DNA sequence of microchromosomes that huddle together in the cells of birds and reptiles.

When these little microchromosomes were first seen under the microscope, scientists thought they were just specks of dust among the larger bird chromosomes, but they are actually proper chromosomes.

Using advanced DNA sequencing technology, scientists can at last sequence microchromosomes end-to-end.

Researchers lined up these sequences from birds, turtles, snakes and lizards, platypus and humans and compared them. Astonishingly, the microchromosomes were the same across all bird and reptile species. Even more astonishingly, they were the same as the tiny chromosomes of Amphioxus—a little fish-like animal with no backbone that last shared a common ancestor with vertebrates 684 million years ago.

 In marsupial and placental mammals these ancient genetic remnants are split up into little patches on our big, supposedly normal, chromosomes. The exception is the platypus genome, in which the microchomosomes have all fused together into a few large blocks that reflect our oldest mammal ancestor.  the findings highlight the need to rethink how we view the human genome.

Microchromosomes form a compartment in the cell that might help the genes work together.

Rather than being 'normal,' chromosomes of humans and other mammals were puffed up with lots of 'junk DNA' and scrambled in many different ways. The new knowledge helps explain why there is such a large range of mammals with vastly different genomes inhabiting every corner of our planet. 

https://researchnews.cc/news/9809/Researchers-identify-bird-and-rep...

https://theconversation.com/specks-of-dust-on-the-microscope-slide-...

Part1

https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/63018

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/45/e2112494118

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/45/e2112494118

part2

Antibiotic resistance outwitted by supercomputers

 Scientists may have made a giant leap in fighting the biggest threat to human health by using supercomputing to keep pace with the impressive ability of diseases to evolve.

A new study by an international team tackled the problem of antibiotic resistance by redesigning existing antibiotics to overcome bacterial resistance mechanisms.

About 700,000 people are estimated to die every year because of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and that number is expected to rise to millions.

Without effective antibiotics, life expectancy is predicted to drop by 20 years.

The race has been on for many years to develop new antibiotics to fight disease faster than a disease can evolve.

Computers have been used in drug design for decades, but this is the first study to use a multi-pronged computer-guided strategy to make a new antibiotic from an existing one which bacteria have outwitted.

The research was published in PNAS.

Antibiotics are one of the pillars of modern medicine and antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human health. There's an urgent need to develop new ways of fighting ever-evolving bacteria. It's only a matter of time until bacteria develop counterstrategies against our counterstrategies and become resistant to the new antibiotic, so we will have to keep on studying bacterial resistance mechanisms and develop new derivatives accordingly.

The hope of this new work lies in showing that the resistance mechanisms of bacteria can be addressed in a systematic way, allowing science to continually fight back with a computational evolution of new antibiotics.

Researchers developed a strategy to simulate many aspects of a redesigned antibiotic at the same time, including how soluble it is, how effective it is at entering into the bacteria, and how efficient it is at blocking their protein production.

The computational work outlined in the research was done in a matter of weeks on one of the top supercomputers in Europe, but it took the international team several years to verify experimentally that their approach was indeed correct.

Using a computational approach makes the development of new antibiotic derivatives faster and cheaper, and predicting whether a chemical compound is going to be active before it is synthesized also avoids chemical waste. This is an extremely empowering technology.

https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/antibiotic-resist...

https://researchnews.cc/news/9807/Antibiotic-resistance-outwitted-b...

A fungus that uses chemicals to trick male flies into mating with infected dead females

A combined team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences reports that a certain fungus uses chemicals to trick male flies into mating with infected dead females. They have written a paper describing their findings and have posted it on the bioXiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that some types of fungus can give insect victims what has become known as summit disease, in which a victim's nervous system is infected and the unwilling creature begins climbing to the highest vantage point possible. Once there, the wings are spread wide and the victim begins spewing spores. In this new effort, the researchers have found a fungus that takes summit disease one step further by having its female victims also emit chemicals that sexually attract males.

In studying the fungus Entomophthora muscae, the researchers found that it was capable of infecting other insects, primarily house flies, with summit disease. Airborne spores land on a female victim and penetrate her skin. Soon, they invade her entire body, including her nervous system and brain. Chemicals produced by the spores incite the female to begin climbing until she reaches the highest possible point, such as a leaf on a tree. Then, she opens her wings and dies. Meanwhile, the fungus covers her body with little spore-filled cannons. At some point, a male happens by, and when he touches her body, the cannons fire, filling the air with spores, ready to infect others in the vicinity.

Part 1

In their lab, the researchers captured a host of infected and non-infected flies. Males were given a choice of mating with either an infected or non-infected female, and more often than not, chose the one that was infected. This suggested that the fungus was doing something to make the infected female more attractive to the male even though she was dead. In studying the dead females, the researchers found instances of unusual volatile compounds, including some chemicals called sesquiterpenes, which are not normally associated with house flies but have been found to sexually attract many types of insects, including house flies.

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The vast little library inside your cells

The human genome can be thought of as a massive library, containing over 20,000 different "instruction manuals": your genes. For example, there are genes which contain information to build a brain cell, a skin cell, a white blood cell, and so on. There are even genes that contain information about regulating the genome itself—like books that explain how to organize a library. The ability to regulate gene expression—in other words, the cell's ability to turn various constellations of genes on or off—is the basis of why different cells (such as a muscle cell or a brain cell) have different forms and functions.
In a cellular nucleus, there is over six feet of genetic material packed into a space 50 times smaller than the width of a human hair. How is the "library" in the nucleus organized? When a cell needs to regulate certain genes, how does the cellular machinery find the right ones amongst 20,000 others?
A new study uses a powerful new tool that can peer into the world of the cell's genetic material (DNA and RNA) in order to find answers to these questions.

Part1

A research  team found that molecules of non-coding RNA are responsible for establishing "compartments" within the nucleus and shepherding in key molecules to precise regions in the genome. Noncoding RNA are molecules that do not encode for proteins, and instead have an array of functions that are often still mysterious to biologists. In the library analogy, non-coding RNA molecules act as the "shelves" that organize different groups of genes and the machinery that interacts with them.

Understanding how genetic material is organized spatially is a crucial part of understanding the basic workings of life. Dysfunction within the nucleus is a hallmark of many diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and others.

The research was made possible by a powerful tool developed in the Guttman laboratory that enables detailed views of the RNA world, called RD-SPRITE (RNA and DNA Split-Pool Recognition of Interactions by Tag Extension). In essence, RD-SPRITE works by tagging molecules of RNA and DNA with miniscule unique barcodes based on their locations; analyzing the barcodes can then tell you which molecules were at which positions within the cell.

 Sofia A. Quinodoz et al, RNA promotes the formation of spatial compartments in the nucleus, Cell (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.10.014

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-vast-library-cells.html?utm_source=nw...

Part2

Lightning Strikes Carve a Deadly Signature Deep Inside The Bones, Scientists Discover

When a body is struck by lightning, a lot of different things happen. For those who do not survive the ordeal, a range of physical evidence is left on their bodies that can identify the cause of death: damage to the skin, including sometimes burn marks, as well as trauma to various organs.

But what if all the tissue decomposes? From the standpoint of forensic scientists who may only have bones to work with, does lightning leave any discernible trace behind on a skeleton?

According to a new study, yes it does.

In previous experiments, Bacci and fellow researchers identified these unique markers in animal bones, noting "extensive micro-fracturing and fragmentation of the bone matrix" in pig bones subjected to high impulse current, simulating the electrical jolt of a lightning bolt.

In that study, the same kind of micro-fracturing was also seen in the bones of a wild giraffe that was killed by a lightning strike, but it remained unclear whether human skeletons exposed to lightning-levels of current would reveal the same gruesome signature.

With the aid of cadavers donated to science, we now have our answer, with the researchers observing similar patterns of micro-fracturing in human bone subjected to the current application, and of a kind that's distinct from purely thermally induced changes to bone (such as bones burnt in a fire).

"[The lightning damage] takes the form of cracks which radiate out from the center of bone cells, or which jump irregularly between clusters of cells. The pattern of trauma is identical even though the micro-structure of human bone is different from animal bone.

Part 1

Another expected differentiator affecting micro-fracture propagation in human skeletons is bone density, which decreases with age after people reach about 40 years of age, and which might be susceptible to greater amounts of lightning-induced fracturing due to bones being more brittle.

According to the researchers, a two-fold mechanism explains why the micro-fractures in bones form the way they do.

"Firstly, the current itself produces a high-pressure shock wave when traveling through the bone," members of the research team explain in an article written for The Conversation.

"Lightning specialists term this barotrauma: the passage of electrical energy literally blows bone cells apart."

The second mechanism is an example of the piezoelectric effect, affecting how bone behaves when it's in an electric field.

"Collagen, the organic part of bone, is arranged as fibers or fibrils," the researchers explain.

"These fibrils rearrange themselves when a current is applied, causing stress to build up in the mineralized and crystallized component of bone, in turn leading to deformation and cracking."

For forensic pathologists, the discovery of the micro-fracture patterns could indeed be a "smoking gun", indicating the probable cause of death in mysterious fatalities where no other evidence remains.

For the rest of us, if we want to avoid sustaining these microscopic ruptures ourselves, it's best to stay inside whenever the weather looks like it could turn deadly.

After all, even if lightning (almost) never strikes twice, it often only needs once.

The findings are reported in Forensic Science International: Synergy.

https://www.sciencealert.com/lightning-strikes-carve-a-deadly-signa...

part 2

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