A new ring system discovered in our solar system

Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the solar system. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed.

The ring system is around a dwarf planet, named Quaoar, which is approximately half the size of Pluto and orbits the sun beyond Neptune.

The discovery, published in Nature, was made by an international team of astronomers using HiPERCAM—an extremely sensitive high speed camera developed by scientists at the University of Sheffield which is mounted on the world's largest optical telescope, the 10.4 meter diameter Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on La Palma.

The rings are too small and faint to see directly in an image. Instead, the researchers made their discovery by observing an occultation, when the light from a background star was blocked by Quaoar as it orbits the sun. The event lasted less than a minute, but was unexpectedly preceded and followed by two dips in light, indicative of a ring system around Quaoar.

Ring systems are relatively rare in the solar system. In addition to the well-known rings around the giant planets Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two other minor planets possess rings—Chariklo and Haumea. All of the previously known ring systems are able to survive because they orbit close to the parent body, so that tidal forces prevent the ring material from accreting and forming moons.

What makes the ring system around Quaoar remarkable is that it lies at a distance of over seven planetary radii—twice as far out as what was previously thought to be the maximum radius according to the so-called "Roche limit," which is the outer limit of where ring systems were thought to be able to survive. For comparison, the main rings around Saturn lie within three planetary radii. This discovery has therefore forced a rethink on theories of ring formation.

Three hallmarks of aging work together to prevent cancer: 

telomeres, mitochondria, and inflammation

As we age, the end caps of our chromosomes, called telomeres, gradually shorten. Now,  scientists have discovered that when telomeres become very short, they communicate with mitochondria, the cell's powerhouses. This communication triggers a complex set of signaling pathways and initiates an inflammatory response that destroys cells that could otherwise become cancerous.

The findings, published in Nature on February 8, 2023, could lead to new ways of preventing and treating cancer as well as designing better interventions to offset the harmful consequences of aging.

It is surprising to note that telomeres talk to mitochondria. They clearly synergize in well-controlled biological processes to initiate cellular pathways that kill cells that could cause cancer.

When telomeres shorten to a point where they can no longer protect chromosomes from damage, a process called "crisis" occurs and cells die. This beneficial natural process removes cells with very short telomeres and unstable genomes and is known to be a powerful barrier against cancer formation. Cells in crisis are removed by a process called autophagy, in which the body rids itself of damaged cells.

 Jan Karlseder, Telomere-to-mitochondria signalling by ZBP1 mediates replicative crisis, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05710-8. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05710-8

Donor hearts can be reprogrammed with medication for longer storage, improved transplant outcomes

Although thousands of people are sick with heart failures around the world,  only around few heart transplants are performed annually.

One reason for this gap is the time window during which a heart can survive outside the donor body before transplant hovers around four hours. And the longer it takes for the donor heart to be transported to the recipient, the more likely that heart will not work well once it's implanted.

Using a drug previously used to treat seizures, researchers have found a way to reprogram donor hearts to boost the production of a beneficial enzyme that both increases the amount of time they can be stored and transported, as well as improves their function after they are transplanted, a study published in Science Translational Medicine suggests. This technology that coaxes donor hearts to mount adaptive responses to existence outside the body could lead to a paradigm shift not only for extending the time a heart can be outside of the donor during transport but for improving heart function after transplant.

Being able to extend the storage of hearts by figuring out the pathways that define and modulate preservation biology is the first step toward the ultimate goal of organ banking.

Current donor preservation techniques focus on cold storage and, more recently, technologies that keep the organs perfused during transport to minimize injury to the heart, but there are no targeted molecular therapies to improve heart preservation in a very precise fashion.

When an organ is in cold storage, succinate is free to build up in excess—more ammunition for stress against the soon-to-be-transplanted heart. To reprogram hearts to take on the heart-damaging succinate, researchers used valproic acid, a histone deacetylase inhibitor previously used as an anti-seizure medication. They found that it defused a significant amount of this cumulative stress in both human and pig hearts by instructing the donor heart to produce antioxidants and anti-inflammatory proteins while preserved on ice.

Using a metabolomic screen, researchers found that valproic acid can reprogram the donor heart to produce beneficial itaconate during preservation.

Ienglam Lei et al, Metabolic reprogramming by immune-responsive gene 1 upregulation improves donor heart preservation and function, Science Translational Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ade3782. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.ade3782

Could we use Space dust as Earth's Sun-shield? Researchers are exploring this idea

On a cold winter day, the warmth of the sun is welcome. Yet as humanity emits more and more greenhouse gases, the Earth's atmosphere traps more and more of the sun's energy and steadily increases the Earth's temperature. One strategy for reversing this trend is to intercept a fraction of sunlight before it reaches our planet. For decades, scientists have considered using screens, objects or dust particles to block just enough of the sun's radiation—between 1 or 2%—to mitigate the effects of global warming.

A new study  explored the potential of using dust to shield sunlight. They analyzed different properties of dust particles, quantities of dust and the orbits that would be best suited for shading Earth. The authors found that launching dust from Earth to a way station at the "Lagrange Point" between Earth and the sun (L1) would be most effective but would require astronomical cost and effort. An alternative is to use moondust. The authors argue that launching lunar dust from the moon instead could be a cheap and effective way to shade the Earth.

The team of astronomers applied a technique used to study planet formation around distant stars, their usual research focus. Planet formation is a messy process that kicks up lots of astronomical dust that can form rings around the host star. These rings intercept light from the central star and re-radiate it in a way that we can detect it on Earth. One way to discover stars that are forming new planets is to look for these dusty rings.

That was the seed of the idea; if we took a small amount of material and put it on a special orbit between the Earth and the sun and broke it up, we could block out a lot of sunlight with a little amount of mass. It is amazing to contemplate how moon dust—which took over four billion years to generate—might help slow the rise in Earth's temperature, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce.

The authors, however,  stress that this study only explores the potential impact of this strategy, rather than evaluate whether these scenarios are logistically feasible.

Dust as a solar shield, PLOS Climate (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000133 , journals.plos.org/climate/arti … journal.pclm.0000133

Air pollution linked with blood pressure in London teens

In a new analysis involving adolescents living in London, exposure to higher levels of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, while exposure to higher levels of particulate matter (PM_2.5) was associated with higher systolic blood pressure. Scientists presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 8, finding that these associations are stronger for girls than for boys.

Exposure to air pollutants is linked to greater risk of cardio-respiratory disease, hospital visits, and death. Adolescents' rapidly growing bodies may be particularly susceptible to long-lasting effects of exposure to air pollutants, including effects on BP. However, most prior studies on air pollution and blood pressure have focused on adults.

For this analysis, they used data on 3,284 adolescents in DASH to examine associations between blood pressure and exposure to pollution in the form of nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5; exposures were estimated based on annual mean levels of pollutants where each participant lived. The researchers found that greater estimated exposure to nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, and greater estimated exposure to PM2.5 was associated with higher systolic blood pressure. These associations were stronger in girls than in boys. No evidence of a relationship between nitrogen dioxide/PM2.5 and diastolic blood pressure was observed. For example, a 1μg/m3 increase in nitrogen dioxide was associated with a 0.30 mmHg (95% CI 0.18 to 0.40) decrease in systolic blood pressure for girls and 0.19 mmHg (95% CI 0.07 to 0.31) decrease in systolic blood pressure for boys. Meanwhile, a 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with a 1.34 mmHg (95% CI 0.85 to 1.82) increase in systolic blood pressure for girls and 0.57 mmHg (95% CI 0.04 to 1.03) increase in systolic blood pressure for boys. The associations between pollutants and blood pressure were consistent regardless of ethnicity, body size, or socioeconomic status. Eighty percent of the adolescents studied were from ethnic minority groups, and the residential estimates suggest that these adolescents were exposed to higher levels of the pollutants than their white peers.

The researchers call for further studies to help confirm and clarify these findings, particularly among young people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

 Associations between air pollutants and blood pressure in an ethnically diverse cohort of adolescents in London, England, PLoS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279719

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How India is battling deadly rain storms

Grassroots action such as the flood early-warning system along the Meenachil River run by Eby Emmanuel is doing something India’s country-wide forecasts can’t: collating local knowledge to warn people of deadly rainstorms. The South Asian summer monsoon is a notoriously complex weather phenomenon. “Climate change is making [extreme rainfall] more erratic and the weather forecasting models are unable to account for that increase in chaos,” says climate scientist Roxy Koll. And forecasting models created in the United States and Europe do not account for how much South Asia’s farming practices and population can change the weather.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00341-5?utm_source=Natur...

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COVID drug might drive viral mutations

Molnupiravir, a drug widely used to treat COVID-19, might be spurring the evolution of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The drug works by peppering the coronavirus’s genome with mutations, which add up to make SARS-CoV-2 worse at replicating. But scientists have raised the possibility that, in rare cases, molnupiravir treatment might not entirely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, allowing some individuals who have taken the drug to continue to transmit the virus. Now, a preprint study (which is not yet peer reviewed) of more than 13 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences has uncovered sequences that bear molnupiravir’s fingerprints. Quantitative bioscientist Rustem Ismagilov says the study underscores the need to quickly assess the risk of continued use of the drug. “If we are playing Russian roulette, we’d better know our odds.”

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.23284998v2

The everyday chemicals that make us fatter

“There are at least 50 chemicals, probably many more, that literally make us fatter,” says environmental-health scientist Leonardo Trasande. He is among those researching ‘obesogens’ — chemicals, such as fungicides and flame retardants, that seem to ma.... The term was coined by cell biologist Bruce Blumberg, who discovered in 2006 that tributyltin chloride promoted fat formation in mice. His advice? “Do not eat packaged processed food. It’s full of obesogens. Buy fresh ingredients and make a meal.”

https://academic.oup.com/mend/article/20/9/2141/2738473

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Global supply chains are devouring what's left of Earth's unspoiled...

While farming continues to drive deforestation around the world, 60% of the destruction of Earth's large, intact forests is caused by other forces. In particular, our research shows that more than one-third of this destruction can be blamed on the production of commodities for export, particularly timber, minerals and oil and gas.

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Urgent environmental action needed to limit the spread of superbugs...

To reduce superbugs, world must cut down pollution and change how we behave, according to a new report by the UN.

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Light pollution has cut humanity's ancient connection with the star...

Humans are naturally afraid of the dark. We sometimes imagine monsters under the bed and walk faster down unlit streets at night. To conquer our fears, we may leave a night light on to scare away the monsters and a light over the porch to deter break-ins.

Calorie restriction slows pace of aging in healthy adults

In a first of its kind randomized controlled trial an international team of researchers shows that caloric restriction can slow the pace of aging in healthy adults. The CALERIE intervention slowed pace of aging measured from participants' blood DNA methylation using the algorithm DunedinPACE (Pace of Aging, Computed from the Epigenome). The intervention effect on DunedinPACE represented a 2-3 percent slowing in the pace of aging, which in other studies translates to a 10-15 percent reduction in mortality risk, an effect similar to a smoking cessation intervention. The results are published online in the journal Nature Aging.

The CALERIE Phase-2 randomized controlled trial is the first ever investigation of the effects of long-term calorie restriction in healthy, non-obese humans. The trial randomized 220 healthy men and women at three sites in the U. S. to a 25 percent calorie-restriction or normal diet for two years. CALERIE is an acronym for 'Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy'.

To measure biological aging in CALERIE Trial participants, the researchers analyzed blood samples collected from trial participants at pre-intervention baseline and after 12- and 24-months of follow-up. Humans live a long time, so it isn't practical to follow them until we see differences in aging-related disease or survival. Instead, we rely on biomarkers developed to measure the pace and progress of biological aging over the duration of the study. The team analyzed methylation marks on DNA extracted from white blood cells. DNA methylation marks are chemical tags on the DNA sequence that regulate the expression of genes and are known to change with aging.

In the primary analysis teh researchers focused on three measurements of the DNA methylation data, sometimes known as "epigenetic clocks". The first two, the PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks, estimate biological age, or the chronological age at which a person's biology would appear "normal". These measures can be thought of as "odometers" that provide a static measure of how much aging a person has experienced. The third measure studied by the researchers was DunedinPACE, which estimates the pace of aging, or the rate of biological deterioration over time. DunedinPACE can be thought of as a "speedometer".

The study found evidence that calorie restriction slowed the pace of aging in humans. But calorie restriction is probably not for everyone. These findings are important because they provide evidence from a randomised trial that slowing human aging may be possible. They also give us a sense of the kinds of effects researchers might look for in trials of interventions that could appeal to more people, like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.

A follow-up of trial participants is now ongoing to determine if the intervention had long-term effects on healthy aging.

Daniel Belsky, Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial, Nature Aging (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00357-y. www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00357-y

New land creation on waterfronts is increasing

Humans are artificially expanding cities' coastlines by extending industrial ports and creating luxury residential waterfronts. Developers have added over 2,350 square kilometers of land (900 square miles, or about 40 Manhattans) to coastlines in major cities since 2000, according to a new study.

The study reports the first global assessment of coastal land reclamation, which is the process of building new land or filling in coastal water bodies, including wetlands, to expand a coastline. The researchers used satellite imagery to analyze land changes in 135 cities with populations of at least 1 million, 106 of which have done some coastline expansion.

The study was published in the journal Earth's Future.

It's quite important to capture this. There are more and more people, and our footprint is going up. Inevitably, there are ecologic consequences.

The researchers found that  industrialization and a need for urban space have driven much coastal land reclamation, while a smaller proportion of expansion projects are for "prestige," such as the palm tree-shaped islands of Dubai.

About 70% of coastal land expansion has been carried out in low-lying regions that are likely to be exposed to extreme sea level rise by the end of the century. Both environmental impacts and projected coastal inundation suggest these developed coastlines are not sustainable, but cities will likely continue to build them, the researchers say.

Ecological impacts: 

New land is typically created by piling sediments in the ocean, building cement sea walls and structures to contain sediments or cement, or by filling in wetlands and other shallow water bodies near the coast. These methods require vast volumes of sediment and disturb ecosystems irreversibly, as other research has established.

The ecological impacts of reclamation are immense. Reclamation is a massive civil engineering project that fundamentally alters the characteristics of the space that it targets. Coastal wetlands are particularly hard-hit. In the Yellow Sea, for example, more than half of tidal flats were lost mainly due to reclamation.

The creation of land will make sense where it's needed, but you have to do it in a responsible way … and think about whether it is really needed. Those are value judgments.

Other environmental impacts include adding sources of point-source pollution, changing the patterns of sediment movement and altering the biosphere, all of which can impact ocean-based economies such as fishing and tourism. And unequal access to newly created shoreline can exacerbate class divides.

Reclamation also impacts distant ecosystems where fill materials such as sand and gravel are quarried. With a global shortage of sand,  construction companies are quarrying sand and clay from the seabed, which destroys benthic ecosystems.

Dhritiraj Sengupta et al, Mapping 21st Century Global Coastal Land Reclamation, Earth's Future (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2022EF002927

Cockatoos know to bring along multiple tools when they fish for cashews

Scientists develop test that can identify respiratory viruses within five minutes

Scientists have developed a world-first diagnostic test, powered by artificial intelligence, that can identify known respiratory viruses within five minutes from just one nasal or throat swab. The new diagnostic test could replace current methods that are limited to testing for only one infection—such as a lateral flow test for COVID-19—or otherwise are either lab-based and time-consuming or fast and less accurate.

The new virus detection and identification methodology is described in a paper published in ACS Nano. The paper demonstrates how machine learning can significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy and time taken to not only identify different types of viruses, but also differentiate between strains.

The ground-breaking testing technology combines molecular labeling, computer vision and machine learning to create a universal diagnostic imaging platform that looks directly at a patient sample and can identify which pathogen is present in a matter of seconds—much like facial recognition software, but for germs.

Preliminary research demonstrated that this test could identify the COVID-19 virus in patient samples and further work determined that the test could be used to diagnose multiple respiratory infections.

In the study, the researchers began by labeling viruses with single-stranded DNA in over 200 clinical samples from John Radcliffe Hospital. Images of labeled samples were captured using a commercial fluorescence microscope and processed by custom machine-learning software that is trained to recognize specific viruses by analyzing their fluorescence labels, which show up differently for every virus because their surface size, shape and chemistry vary.

The results show the technology is able to rapidly identify different types and strains of respiratory viruses, including flu and COVID-19, within five minutes and with >97% accuracy.

 Nicolas Shiaelis et al, Virus Detection and Identification in Minutes Using Single-Particle Imaging and Deep Learning, ACS Nano (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c10159

Tracing the origin of life—a new abiotic pathway for the formation of peptide chains from amino acids

A team of scientists has discovered a new abiotic pathway for the formation of peptide chains from amino acids—a key chemical step in the origin of life. The current study provides strong evidence that this crucial step for the emergence of life can indeed occur even in the very inhospitable conditions of space.

The origin of life is one of the great questions of mankind. One of the prerequisites for the emergence of life is the abiotic—not by living beings caused chemical—production and polymerization of amino acids, the building blocks of life.

Two scenarios are being discussed for the emergence of life on Earth: On the one hand, the first-time creation of such amino acid chains on Earth, and on the other hand, the influx from space. For the latter, such amino acid chains would have to be generated in the very unfavorable and inhospitable conditions in space.

A team of researchers now made a significant discovery in the field of abiotic peptide chain formation from amino acids for the smallest occurring amino acid, glycine, a molecule that has been observed several times extraterrestrially in recent years.

A study published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, which also made the cover of the journal, shows that small clusters of glycine molecules exhibit polymerization upon energy input. A reaction occurs within a cluster consisting of two glycine molecules. The two amino acids become a dipeptide and a water molecule. The reaction of a dipeptide to a tripeptide within a cluster was also demonstrated by the researchers.

This new  study sheds light on the less likely unimolecular scenario for the formation of such amino acid chains in the extreme conditions of space. Researchers  were able to show that peptide chain growth occurs through unimolecular reactions in excited cluster ions, without the need for contact with an additional partner such as dust or ice.

The recent paper provides evidence that the first step toward the origin of life can occur in the highly unlikely conditions of space.

Denis Comte et al, Glycine Peptide Chain Formation in the Gas Phase via Unimolecular Reactions, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c08248

Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection

scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and forms a natural protective barrier in the human body.

This protein, the leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15), is an inbuilt receptor that binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus without passing on the infection.

The research opens up an entirely new area of immunology research around LRRC15 and offers a promising pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or deal with fibrosis in the lungs.
 This new receptor acts by binding to the virus and sequestering it which reduces infection.

The COVID-19 virus infects humans by using a spike protein to attach to a specific receptor in our cells. It primarily uses a protein called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter human cells. Lung cells have high levels of ACE2 receptors, which is why the COVID-19 virus often causes severe problems in this organ of infected people.

Like ACE2, LRRC15 is a receptor for coronavirus, meaning the virus can bind to it. But unlike ACE2, LRRC15 does not support infection. It can, however, stick to the virus and immobilize it. In the process, it prevents other vulnerable cells from becoming infected.

Scientists think it acts a bit like Velcro, molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus and then pulls it away from the target cell types.

LRRC15 is present in many locations such as lungs, skin, tongue, fibroblasts, placenta and lymph nodes. But the researchers found human lungs light up with LRRC15 after infection.

Scientists  can now use this new receptor to design broad acting drugs that can block viral infection or even suppress lung fibrosis. 
The study has been published in the journal PLOS Biology. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pb...

Drugs Hitch a Ride on Algae for Targeted Delivery

A new microrobot uses algae to transport antibiotics into the lungs of mice with pneumonia.

When you swallow a pill, only a fraction of the drug ends up where it’s needed. Active compounds diffuse across the intestinal wall and are diluted in rivers of blood, aimlessly drifting with the currents. For more precise delivery, scientists are recruiting motile, single-celled organisms as vehicles that transport drugs to specific sites in the body.

So far, researchers have harnessed swimming bacteria for targeted drug delivery. In one case, magnetotactic bacteria guided by an external magnetic field carried nanosize liposomes loaded with a chemotherapy drug to mouse tumors. But bacteria are prime targets for the immune system that are often destroyed before they reach their destination.

Now, a team at the University of California, San Diego has built a microscopic robot—or microrobot—using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a species of microalgae, which are less likely to elicit an immune response than bacteria.

Researchers attached antibiotic-filled nanoparticles to the microbes’ surfaces using click chemistry, the Nobel Prize-winning
method that uses rapid reactions to connect molecules. Inside the body, modified algae beat their flagella to swim through the blood and dive deep into tissues. Each nanoparticle is wrapped in a neutrophil membrane, which promotes immune evasion and allows the microrobots to latch onto pathogens, depositing the drugs in their vicinity.

The researchers tested the algae in mice with a severe form of pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. Known as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), the potentially fatal infection is picked up by human patients during ventilator use in hospitals. Microrobots were delivered directly into mouse lungs through a tube leading into the windpipe. After one week, infections disappeared in all treated mice. Their untreated littermates died within three days.

The researchers then compared the microrobots to intravenous injection, the current standard treatment for VAP. Treatment with microalgae worked despite a dose of antibiotics 3,000 times smaller than was needed intravenously, which could reduce side effects.

Taking advantage of the algae’s natural fluorescence, the researchers dissected and imaged the mouse lungs. Light radiated from the whole organ for over 24 hours and from homogenized lung tissue for three days, indicating that the robots had dispersed throughout the tissue and dodged immune attack long enough for successful drug delivery.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01360-9.epdf?sharing_tok...

Protein droplets may cause many types of genetic disease

Most proteins localize to distinct protein-rich droplets in cells, also known as “cellular condensates”. Such proteins contain sequence features that function as address labels, telling the protein which condensate to move into. When the labels get screwed up, proteins may end up in the wrong condensate. According to an international team of researchers from clinical medicine and basic biology, this could be the cause of many unresolved diseases.

Patients with BPTA syndrome have characteristically malformed limbs featuring short fingers and additional toes, missing tibia bones in their legs and reduced brain size. As the researchers found out, BPTAS is caused by a special genetic change that causes an essential protein to migrate to the nucleolus, a large proteinaceous droplet in the cell nucleus. As a result, the function of the nucleolar condensate is inhibited and developmental disease develops.

Affected individuals have complex and striking malformations of the limbs, face, and nervous and bone systems, only partially described by the already-long disease name “brachyphalangy-polydactyly-tibial aplasia/hypoplasia syndrome” (BPTAS).

 To track down the cause,  researchers decoded the genome of five affected individuals and found that the gene for the protein HMGB1 was altered in all patients.

This protein has the task of organizing the genetic material in the cell nucleus and facilitates the interaction of other molecules with the DNA, for example to read genes.

In mice, a complete loss of the gene on both chromosomes is catastrophic and leads to death of the embryo. In some patients with only one copy mutated, however, the cells are using the intact copy on the other chromosome, resulting only in mild neurodevelopmental delay. But the newly discovered cases did not fit this scheme.

A closer look revealed that different mutations of HMGB1 have different consequences. The sequencing data showed that in the affected individuals with the severe malformations, the reading frame for the final third of the HMGB1 gene is shifted.After translation to protein, the corresponding region is now no longer equipped with negative but with positively charged amino acid building blocks. This can happen if a number of genetic letters not divisible by three is missing in the sequence, because exactly three consecutive letters always code for one building block of the protein.

However, the tail part of the protein does not have a defined structure. Instead, this section hangs out of the molecule like a loose rubber band. The purposes of such protein tails (also called “intrinsically disordered regions”) are difficult to study because they often become effective only in conjunction with other molecules. So how might their mutation lead to the observed disease?

To answer this question, the medical researchers approached biochemists  who work with cellular condensates that control important genes. These droplet-like structures behave much like the oil and vinegar droplets in a salad dressing. Composed of a large number of different molecules, they are separated from their surroundings and can undergo dynamic changes.

Researchers think condensates are formed in the cell for practical reasons.

 Molecules for a specific task are grouped together in this way, say to read a gene. For this task alone several hundred proteins need to somehow make their way to the right place.
Intrinsically disordered regions, which tend not to have an obvious biochemical role, are thought to be responsible for forming condensates.

Part1

The nucleolus within the cell nucleus is also a condensate, which appears as a diffuse dark speck under the microscope. This is where many proteins with positively charged tails like to linger. Many of these provide the machinery required for protein synthesis, making this condensate essential for cellular functions.

The mutant protein HMGB1 with its positively charged molecular tail is attracted to the nucleolus as well, as the team observed from experiments with isolated protein and with cell cultures.

But since the mutated protein region has also gained an oily, sticky part, it tends to clump. The nucleolus loses its fluid-like properties and increasingly solidifies, which Niskanen was able to observe under the microscope. This impaired the vital functions of the cells – with the mutated protein, more cells in a culture died compared to a culture of cells without the mutation.

What scientists discovered in this one disease might apply to many more disorders. It is likely not a rare unicorn that exists only once.

The research team then searched databases of genomic data from thousands of individuals looking for similar incidents. In fact, the scientists were able to identify more than six hundred similar mutations in 66 proteins, in which the reading frame had been shifted by a mutation in the protein tail, making it both more positively charged and more “greasy”. Of the mutations, 101 had previously been linked to several different disorders.

For a cell culture assay, the team selected 13 mutant genes. In 12 out of 13 cases, the mutant proteins had a preference to localize into the nucleolus. About half of the tested proteins impaired the function of the nucleolus, resembling the disease mechanism of BPTA syndrome.

1. Martin A. Mensah, Henri Niskanen, Alexandre P. Magalhaes, Shaon Basu, Martin Kircher, Henrike L. Sczakiel, Alisa M. V. Reiter, Jonas Elsner, Peter Meinecke, Saskia Biskup, Brian H. Y. Chung, Gregor Dombrowsky, Christel Eckmann-Scholz, Marc Phillip Hitz, Alexander Hoischen, Paul-Martin Holterhus, Wiebke Hülsemann, Kimia Kahrizi, Vera M. Kalscheuer, Anita Kan, Mandy Krumbiegel, Ingo Kurth, Jonas Leubner, Ann Carolin Longardt, Jörg D. Moritz, Hossein Najmabadi, Karolina Skipalova, Lot Snijders Blok, Andreas Tzschach, Eberhard Wiedersberg, Martin Zenker, Carla Garcia-Cabau, René Buschow, Xavier Salvatella, Matthew L. Kraushar, Stefan Mundlos, Almuth Caliebe, Malte Spielmann, Denise Horn, Denes Hnisz. Aberrant phase separation and nucleolar dysfunction in rare genetic diseases. Nature, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05682-1

Part 2

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Study reveals how drug resistant bacteria secrete toxins, suggesting targets to reduce virulence

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the top 10 global public health threats according to the World Health Organization, and scientists have been scrambling to find new tools to cure the most deadly drug-resistant infections.

New research work  suggests that reducing virulence in drug resistant infections rather than trying to kill bacteria  outright may offer an alternative approach to treatment.

The study revealed how two proteins enable the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium to secrete the toxins that make people sick. The research suggests that therapies targeting these two proteins could disable MRSA, making it less deadly and possibly even harmless. Such an approach would also reduce the risk of promoting antibiotic resistance.

The paper, which was published on February 13, 2023, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that similar mechanisms may exist in other bacteria, pointing to the potential for a new approach to treating other bacterial infections.

 Dickey, Seth W. et al, Two transporters cooperate to secrete amphipathic peptides from the cytoplasmic and membranous milieus, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2211689120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211689120

Time of day may determine the amount of fat burned by exercise

Physical activity at the right time of the day seems able to increase fat metabolism, at least in mice. A new study shows that mice that did exercise in an early active phase, which corresponds to morning exercise in humans, increased their metabolism more than mice that did exercise at a time when they usually rest. The results are published in the journal PNAS.

Physical activity at different times of the day can affect the body in different ways since the biological processes depend on the circadian rhythms of the cells. To ascertain how the time of day at which exercise is done affects the burning of fat, researchers studied the adipose tissue of mice after a session of high-intensity exercise performed at two points of the daily cycle, an early active phase and early rest phase (corresponding to a late morning and late evening session, respectively, in humans). The researchers studied various markers for fat metabolism and analyzed which genes were active in adipose tissue after exercise.

Independent of food intake

The researchers found that physical activity at an early active phase increased the expression of genes involved in the breakdown of adipose tissue, thermogenesis (heat production) and mitochondria in the adipose tissue, indicating a higher metabolic rate. These effects were observed only in mice that exercised in the early active phase and were independent of food intake.

These results suggest that late morning exercise could be more effective than late evening exercise in terms of boosting the metabolism and the burning of fat, and if this is the case, they could prove of value to people who are overweight.

The right timing seems to be important to the body's energy balance and to improving the health benefits of exercise. This has to to be ascertained in human beings now.

Pendergrast, Logan A. et al, Time of day determines postexercise metabolism in mouse adipose tissue, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218510120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218510120

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How eyeless centipedes are able to detect sunlight

Researchers have  uncovered the means by which the Chinese red-headed centipede is able to detect sunlight despite having no eyes or even photoreceptors.

Venomous Chinese red-headed centipedes have long, black segmented bodies, yellow legs and a large, eyeless head with long antennae and a mouth capable of biting and injecting venom into prey, predators and humans that happen to step on them. Prior research has shown that the centipede actively avoids sunlight, though it is not known if this is to avoid predators or prevent overheating. Prior research has also shown that in addition to having no eyes, the pencil-size bugs also have no photoreceptors, raising the question of how they know when the sun is shining on them. To find out, the researchers conducted experiments that involved placing specimens in clear containers, some of which were covered with black tape. They then studied how the centipedes moved when exposed to differing amounts of light. They also used thermal cameras to record changes in body temperature during sunlight exposure. They found that the temperature of the antennae rose almost immediately when exposed to sunlight, and did so rapidly. Readings showed temperature increases of up to 9°C within seconds.

To confirm that the antennae were alerting the centipedes to sunlight, the researchers covered the curly red, segmented structures of several specimens and then retested the bugs to see how they responded to sudden bursts of light. The covering made the creatures far less averse to sunlight. The researchers then took a closer look at the antennae to find out how they were working as sunlight heat sensors and found thermal receptors called BRTNaC1 that served as ion channels. They were triggered by temperature increases.

 Zhihao Yao et al, A thermal receptor for nonvisual sunlight detection in myriapods, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218948120

Kangaroo fecal microbes could reduce methane from cows

Baby kangaroo feces might help provide an unlikely solution to the environmental problem of cow-produced methane. A microbial culture developed from the kangaroo feces inhibited methane production in a cow stomach simulator in a recent study.

After researchers added the baby kangaroo culture and a known methane inhibitor to the simulated stomach, it produced acetic acid instead of methane. Unlike methane, which cattle discard as flatulence, acetic acid has benefits for cows as it aids muscle growth.

While the researchers have tested their system in the simulated rumen, they hope to try it on real cows  in the future.

 Supriya C. Karekar et al, Reducing methane production from rumen cultures by bioaugmentation with homoacetogenic bacteria, Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.bcab.2022.102526

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Reducing the burps and farts of methane emissions from cattle is no laughing matter. Methane is the second largest greenhouse gas contributor and is about 30 times more potent at heating up the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. More than half of the methane released to the atmosphere is thought to come from the agricultural sector, and ruminant animals, such as cattle and goats, are the most significant contributors. Furthermore, the process of producing methane requires as much as 10% of the animal's energy.

Researchers have tried changing cows' diets as well as giving them chemical inhibitors to stop methane production, but the methane-producing bacteria soon become resistant to the chemicals. They also have tried to develop vaccines, but a cow's microbiome depends on where it's eating, and there are far too many varieties of the methane-producing bacteria worldwide. The interventions can also negatively affect the animals' biological processes. 

The weird world of Quantum Mechanics: When the light is neither 'on' nor 'off' in the nanoworld!

Whether the light in our living spaces is on or off can be regulated in everyday life simply by reaching for the light switch. However, when the space for the light is shrunk to a few nanometers, quantum mechanical effects dominate, and it is unclear whether there is light in it or not. Both can even be the case at the same time, as scientists show in the journal Nature Physics.

The technology of our digital world is based on the principle that either a current flows or it does not: one or zero, on or off. Two clear states exist. In quantum physics, on the other hand, it is possible to disregard this principle and create an arbitrary superposition of the supposed opposites. This increases the possibilities of transmitting and processing information many times over. Such superposition states have been known for some time, especially for the particles of light, so-called photons, and are used in the detection of gravitational waves.

A team of physicists and physical chemists from Bielefeld and Würzburg has now succeeded in detecting such superposition states of light directly in a nanostructure. Light is captured in a nanostructure in a very small space and couples to electronic oscillations: so-called plasmons. This allows the energy of the light to be held in place on the nanoscale.

In the experiment, the researchers investigated how many photons from a light pulse couple to the nanostructure. The result: simultaneously no photon and three photons.

Detecting this signature was an enormous challenge. Photons can be detected very well with sensitive detectors; however, in the case of single photons, which are also in a quantum mechanical superposition state, suitable methods did not exist in the nanoworld." In addition, the coupled states of photons and electrons survive for less than a millionth of a millionth of a second and then decay again, leaving hardly any time for their detection.

Part 1

In the experiments now published, a special detection was used. "The energy released during the decay of the state is sufficient to release other electrons from the nanostructure.

The triggered electrons could then be captured in an image using a photoemission electron microscope and a resolution of a few nanometers. Because of the fast decay times, sequences of ultrashort laser pulses were used to obtain the "fingerprint" of the superposition states of the light.

This is a first step toward the goal of analyzing the full quantum physical state of coupled photon and electrons directly at the nanoscale. 

Sebastian Pres et al, Detection of a plasmon-polariton quantum wave packet, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01912-5

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We really need this : New AI tool guides users away from vitriol

To help identify when tense online debates are inching toward irredeemable meltdown,  researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can track these conversations in real-time, detect when tensions are escalating and nudge users away from using incendiary language.

Detailed in two recently published papers that examine AI's effectiveness in moderating online discussions, the research shows promising signs that conversational forecasting methods within the field of natural language processing could prove useful in helping both moderators and users proactively lessen vitriol and maintain healthy, productive debate forums.

The tool, named ConvoWizard, is a browser extension powered by a deep neural network. That network was trained on mountains of language-based data pulled from the subreddit Change My View, a forum that prioritizes good faith debates on potentially heated subjects related to politics, economics and culture.

When participating Change My View users enable ConvoWizard, the tool can inform them when their conversation is starting to get tense. It can also inform users, in real-time as they are writing their replies, whether their comment is likely to escalate tension. The study suggests that AI-powered feedback can be effective in guiding the user toward language that elevates constructive debate, researchers say.

Jonathan P. Chang et al, Thread With Caution: Proactively Helping Users Assess and Deescalate Tension in Their Online Discussions, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (2022). DOI: 10.1145/3555603

Charlotte Schluger et al, Proactive Moderation of Online Discussions: Existing Practices and the Potential for Algorithmic Support, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (2022). DOI: 10.1145/3555095

Snakes can hear more than you think

A new  study has found that as well as ground vibrations, snakes can hear and react to airborne sound.

Because snakes don't have external ears, people typically think they're deaf and can only feel vibrations through the ground and into their bodies.

But this new research—the first of its kind using non-anesthetized, freely moving snakes—found they do react to soundwaves traveling through the air, and possibly human voices.

Researchers  played three different sound frequencies to captive-bred snakes one at a time in a soundproof room and observed their reactions. The study involved 19 snakes, representing five genetic families of reptile.

 They played one sound which produced ground vibrations, while the other two were airborne only. It meant researchers  were able to test both types of 'hearing'—tactile hearing through the snakes' belly scales and airborne through their internal ear.

The reactions strongly depended on the genus of the snakes.

Only the woma python tended to move toward sound, while taipans, brown snakes and especially death adders were all more likely to move away from it. The types of behavioral reactions also differed, with taipans in particular more likely to exhibit defensive and cautious responses to sound.

The different reactions are likely because of evolutionary pressures over millions of years, designed to aid survival and reproduction.

For example, woma pythons are large nocturnal snakes with fewer predators than smaller species and probably don't need to be as cautious, so they tended to approach sound. But taipans may have to worry about raptor predators and they also actively pursue their prey, so their senses seem to be much more sensitive.

These new  the findings challenge the assumption that snakes can't hear sound, such as humans talking or yelling, and could reshape the view on how they react to sound.

 PLoS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.pone.0281285

Food coloring and anti-caking nanoparticles may affect the human gut

Metal oxide nanoparticles—ubiquitous in nature, and commonly used as food coloring and anti-caking agents in the commercial ingredients industry—may damage and disturb parts of the human intestine, according to new research conducted by  scientists.

They  found that specific nanoparticles—titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide—ordinarily used in food may negatively affect intestinal functionality. They have a negative effect on key digestive and absorptive proteins. 

In their research, the group used human-relevant doses of titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide in the Tako laboratory's in vivo system, which offers a health response similar to the human body's.

The scientists injected the nanoparticles into chicken eggs. After the chickens hatched, the scientists detected changes in the functional, morphological and microbial biomarkers in the blood, the duodenum (upper intestine) and the cecum (a pouch connected to the intestine).

The scientists found shifts in the composition of intestinal bacterial populations. The animals' mineral transport was affected and the brush border membrane (the intestine's digestive and absorptive surface) was disturbed.

Additionally, the group examined zinc oxide, a micronutrient, and iron oxide, an iron fortification supplement. Zinc oxide nanoparticles support intestinal development, as well as a compensatory mechanism following intestinal damage. Iron oxide nanoparticles are a potential option for iron fortification, though with potential alterations in intestinal functionality and health.

The scientists are not advocating for ending the use of these nano particles.

Based on the information, they are suggesting to simply being aware. Science needs to conduct further investigations based on their findings. They are opening the door for discussion.

Jacquelyn Cheng et al, Food-Grade Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Exposure Alters Intestinal Microbial Populations, Brush Border Membrane Functionality and Morphology, In Vivo (Gallus gallus), Antioxidants (2023). DOI: 10.3390/antiox12020431

Discovering the magic in superconductivity's 'magic angle'

Researchers have produced new evidence of how graphene, when twisted to a precise angle, can become a superconductor, moving electricity with no loss of energy.

They reported on their finding of the key role that quantum geometry plays in allowing this twisted graphene to become a superconductor. 

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms, the lead that is found in a pencil.

In 2018, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that, under the right conditions, graphene could become a superconductor if one piece of graphene were laid on top of another piece and the layers were twisted to a specific angle—1.08 degrees—creating twisted bilayer graphene.

Ever since, scientists have been studying this twisted bilayer graphene and trying to figure out how this 'magic angle' works. The conventional theory of superconductivity doesn't work in this situation. so scientists  did a series of experiments to understand the origins of why this material is a superconductor. 

In a conventional metal, high-speed electrons are responsible for conductivity.

But twisted bilayer graphene has a type of electronic structure known as a "flat band" in which the electrons move very slowly—in fact at a speed that approaches zero if the angle is exactly at the magic one.

Under the conventional theory of superconductivity, electrons moving this slowly should not be able to conduct electricity.

With great precision the research group was able to obtain a device so close to the magic angle that the electrons were nearly stopped by usual condensed matter physics standards. The sample nevertheless showed superconductivity.

It is a paradox: How can electrons which move so slowly conduct electricity at all, let alone superconduct? It is very remarkable.

In their experiments, the research team demonstrated the slow speeds of the electrons and gave more precise measurements of electron movement than had been previously available.

And they also found the first clues as to what makes this graphene material so special.

They couldn't use the speed of electrons to explain how the twisted bilayer graphene is working. Instead, they had to use quantum geometry.

As with everything quantum, quantum geometry is complex and not intuitive. But the results of this study have to do with the fact that an electron is not only a particle, but also a wave—and thus has wavefunctions.

The geometry of the quantum wavefunctions in flat bands, together with the interaction between electrons, leads to the flow of electrical current without dissipation in bilayer graphene.

Their  experimental measurements suggest quantum geometry is 90% of what makes this a superconductor.

 Chun Lau, Evidence for Dirac flat band superconductivity enabled by quantum geometry, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05576-2. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05576-2

Study: The faster El Niño decays, the fewer typhoons occur the following summer

As the largest climate signal on the interannual time scale, El Niño has pronounced impacts on typhoon activity. Recently, a growing number of studies have been focusing on the climatic effects of the pace of El Niño decay and the remarkable role this plays in the genesis position and intensity variations of typhoons. However, the response of the frequency of typhoon occurrence to the pace of El Niño decay remains unclear.

In a paper recently published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, scientists attempted to address this issue. They present new evidence for variation in the pace of El Niño decay having a significant influence on the typhoon frequency in the summer following the mature winter of El Niño.

Firstly they classified El Niño cases into two categories: fast decaying [FD] and slow decaying [SD]. Interestingly, the typhoon occurrence frequency decreased sharply in the following summer only for FD El Niño cases. In order to explore the possible reason for this observed typhoon response, tehy further compared the environmental factors for typhoon development and the related atmospheric circulation processes between the FD and SD El Niño years.

Compared with those for SD El Niño years, fewer typhoons occurred in the following summer for FD El Niño years, and the causal mechanism was a stronger anticyclonic anomaly over the western North Pacific forced by tropical Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. Therefore, the pace of El Niño decay might serve as an important factor in the prediction of typhoon activity.

However, the question of how these distinct patterns of tropical SST anomalies establish under FD and SD El Niño conditions needs to be studied in future work from the perspective of ocean dynamics.

Qun Zhou et al, Influence of the pace of El Niño decay on tropical cyclone frequency over the western north pacific during decaying El Niño summers, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.aosl.2023.100328

Scientists find first evidence that black holes are the source of dark energy

Observations of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies point to a likely source of dark energy—the 'missing' 70% of the universe.

The measurements from ancient and dormant galaxies show black holes growing more than expected, aligning with a phenomenon predicted in Einstein's theory of gravity. The result potentially means nothing new has to be added to our picture of the universe to account for dark energy: black holes combined with Einstein's gravity are the source.

The conclusion was reached by a team of 17 researchers in nine countries, led by the University of Hawai'i and including Imperial College London and STFC RAL Space physicists. The work is published in two papers in the journals The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

If the theory holds, then this is going to revolutionize the whole of cosmology, because at last we've got a solution for the origin of dark energy that's been perplexing cosmologists and theoretical physicists for more than 20 years.

Duncan Farrah et al, A Preferential Growth Channel for Supermassive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies at z ≲ 2, The Astrophysical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acac2e

The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2023). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acb704. iopscience.iop.org/article/10. … 847/2041-8213/acb704

The global toll of chicken and salmon

Farmed chicken and salmon are among the most sustainable meats available, but they still exert intense environmental pressures on the hotspots where farming.... The first study to map their impact on a global scale found that, by some metrics, chicken farming is more efficient than salmon farming: it yields 55 times more food per year because chickens grow to full size faster. But the study notes that marine wildlife disturbed by farming tend to recover, whereas habitats and species affected by farming on land generally don’t. And fishmeal that is used to make chicken feed is taken from the ocean, anyway.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00071-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982223000714%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

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Sleeping volcanoes leak more sulfur

Thanks to ‘passive degassing’ from dormant volcanoes, the atmosphere in pre-industrial times contained many more climate-cooling sulfur particles than we thought. Researchers examined Greenland ice cores to study the pristine Arctic atmosphere. They found that volcanoes are a major source of sulfur emissions, even during decades without major eruptions — in fact, dormant volcanoes belch out a lot more sulfur over those time spans than do active ones. Sulfate aerosols have a net cooling effect, but adding more gives diminishing returns. So, if natural levels are higher than we thought, we might have overest..., perhaps by as much as half.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL102061?ut...

Scientists discover mirror neurons in mice and find they're tuned to aggression

In nature, when two animals fight, they are seldom without an audience. 

Researchers wanted to know how the animals on the sidelines perceive these aggressive interactions. In a new study in mice, they discovered that some neurons in a part of the brain known as the "rage center" fire both when a mouse is fighting and when it watches others fight. Such neurons are known as mirror neurons—they are active when an animal is doing the behaviour and when it's watching another animal do that same behaviour.

The study is the first to find mirror neurons in mice and in the hypothalamus—an evolutionarily ancient part of the brain—hinting at a more primal origin for mirror neurons than previously thought.

Aggression in the wild is rarely a private affair. Aggression is usually not only to defeat the other animal, but also to tell others in the vicinity, 'Hey, I'm the boss.' It's a public display. Previous work  traced aggression in male mice to a cluster of brain cells in a part of the ventromedial hypothalamus. (In female mice, the same neurons do not trigger aggression.) Dubbed the "rage center," these neurons could activate aggression, but also seemed sensitive to a mouse's socialization—communally housed mice were less aggressive. 

What else are these neurons sensitive to? Researchers proposed that these neurons might be sensitive to aggression between other mice.

And that turned out to be the case: They're mirroring aggression by other animals. 

Using precise imaging techniques, the researchers recorded activity in the rage center of male mice engaged in a brawl and those witnessing a fight.

Sparking a fight between male mice is simple—the researchers had only to introduce a male mouse into another's cage. The resident mouse would attack the intruder and display threatening behavior, like tail-rattling. To set up a witness, the researchers allowed a lone mouse to observe these fights through a transparent divider.

They found that a nearly identical set of neurons in the rage center were active in both fighters and observers—qualifying them as mirror neurons.

Another surprise was that in an observer, aggression-mirroring neurons were triggered by sight, whereas in fighting mice, they are triggered by the smell of pheromones. Video recordings revealed that mirror neurons fired only in the moments when the observer was facing the fighters, not when it was turned away. And when the researchers turned off the lights, the observer's mirror neurons were entirely unresponsive to the fracas next door.

The researchers found also that these mirror neurons seemed innately tuned to aggression, even in mice that had never witnessed or engaged in aggressive behavior. They did not fire when mice watched other behaviors, like sniffing, grooming or running on a wheel.

Part 1

Next, in a series of experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the aggression-mirroring neurons not only sensed aggression but enabled it. When they selectively inhibited these neurons, mice were less irked by a male intruder—and initiated only a third as many attacks or tail-rattles as normal mice.

Inversely, when the mirror neurons were switched on, the mice became indiscriminately aggressive. Not only did they initiate three times more attacks on male intruders than usual, they attacked even female visitors, who normally would have prompted frisky coupling behavior. Needless to say, they were less successful in mating. The male mice were so riled up they even tail-rattled at their own mirror reflection.

It tells you that the activity of these neurons is sufficient for aggression, even when there's no provocation. 

The fact that aggression-mirroring neurons exist in such a primitive part of the brain indicates they may have been conserved across evolution, from mouse to human. It suggests that we might have the same neurons, and maybe they encode some qualities of aggression in ourselves. 

The researchers did not investigate how observing aggressive behavior affected the observers, but they offer their own speculation—perhaps, like boxers studying videos of their opponent's moves, the mice on the sidelines learn to be better fighters.

Taehong Yang et al, Hypothalamic neurons that mirror aggression, Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.022

Part 2

Novel method to accurately measure key marker of biological aging

Telomeres—the caps at the ends of chromosomes that protect our genetic materials from the brunt of cellular wear and tear—are known to shorten and fray over time. Lifestyle, diet and stress can exacerbate this process, leading to early loss of telomere protection and increasing the chances of early aging and diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

To date, approaches for measuring biological aging based on telomere length have been limited as they can only ascertain average telomere lengths within a pool of DNA fragments, or they are time-consuming and require highly-skilled specialists. Being able to accurately and efficiently measure the length of an individual's telomeres could open the doors to developing lifestyle interventions that slow aging and prevent disease.

Scientists have recently devised a way to rapidly and precisely measure the length of a single telomere.

They applied a novel approach that uses DNA sequences—they call them 'telobaits'—to latch onto the ends of telomeres in large pools of DNA fragments, like fishing in pond. Then, with specific scissor-like enzymes, they snip the telomeres out of the pools.

Using high-throughput genetic sequencing technology, they were able to read the DNA 'letters' that comprised each individual telomere, allowing them to very precisely measure their lengths.

The team successfully validated this approach when they tested it using human cell lines and patient cells. Interestingly, the sequencing results revealed that the genetic sequences within certain parts of the telomeres, known as telomeric variant sequences, were distinct to each individual person.

The researchers think this new approach could be used as a predictive biomarker for human aging and disease at the individual level, as well as for population-level studies on the impacts of lifestyle, diet and the environment on human health.

Cheng-Yong Tham et al, High-throughput telomere length measurement at nucleotide resolution using the PacBio high fidelity sequencing platform, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35823-7

Nanoparticles perform ultralong distance communication, have 'no counterpart or analogue in nature'

Chemists have designed a new photonic lattice with properties never before seen in nature. In solid materials, atoms must be equally spaced apart and close enough together to interact effectively. Now, new architectures based on stacked lattices of nanoparticles show interactions across unprecedentedly large distances.

When one lattice is stacked on top of the other, the nanoparticles can still interact with each other—even when the vertical separation among particles is 1,000 times the distance of the particle-to-particle spacing within the horizontal plane.

Because the nanoparticles can communicate across ultralong distances, the stacked architecture offers potential applications in remote sensing and detection.

This type of long-range coupling has not been observed before for any stacked periodic material. Other electronic or photonic stacked layers are separated vertically by a spacing similar to the horizontal periodicity of the building unit in the single layer. This is an entirely new class of engineered materials that have no counterpart or analogue in nature.

Jun Guan et al, Far-field coupling between moiré photonic lattices, Nature Nanotechnology (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01320-7

Researchers develop a novel 2D material that uses a virus to kill cancer cells

Electro-thermal therapy, which involves applying electrical signals to nanomaterials, provides high cancer cell targeting accuracy and is highly bio-compatible. In this research, scientists have designed a novel thermal-based therapy nano-system that destroys more than 20% of pancreatic cancer cells using microsecond electrical pulses and with excellent bio-compatibility.

Electro-thermal therapy works by injecting two dimensional (2D) materials in cancer cells and applying electrical currents to the cells. This causes the materials to heat up and kill neighboring cancer cells. Traditional electro-thermal therapy with 2D materials however, can fail as a result of weak cancer cell ablation. This is due to the limited amount of materials assembled on the cancer cells and the weak Joule heating generated in the material.

To alleviate these issues, the researchers deposited the M13 virus on molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) layered materials to create a hybrid nanomaterial MoS₂ Nanostructure with M13 virus (the authors call it MNM). Moreover, they altered the nanomaterial surfaces with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to improve bio-compatibility.

The introduction of the M13 virus improves the electro-thermal therapy performance. Compared to conventional 2D materials, a larger amount of MNM assembles on the cancer cells due to the higher specificity of the binding of the M13 virus to cancer cells. Due to the high electrical conductivity of the MoS₂ material, a strong Joule heating is also generated.

As a result, a larger amount of heat is produced in the nanomaterials, and can be used to kill a larger population of the cancer cells. For example, the MNM nanosystem can decrease the percentage of cancer cells by 23%, which is approximately 2 times higher than what current thermal-based therapy nano-systems can do.

Maria P. Meivita et al, An Efficient, Short Stimulus PANC-1 Cancer Cell Ablation and Electrothermal Therapy Driven by Hydrophobic Interactions, Pharmaceutics (2022). DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15010106

Climate lessons from the last global warming

The Earth experienced one of the largest and most rapid climate warming events in its history 56 million years ago: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which has similarities to current and future warming. This episode saw global temperatures rise by 5°C–8°C. It was marked by an increase in the seasonality of rainfalls, which led to the movement of large quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for certain living species.

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Engineered wood grows stronger while trapping carbon dioxide

Rice University scientists have figured out a way to engineer wood to trap carbon dioxide through a potentially scalable, energy-efficient process that also makes the material stronger for use in construction.

Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own

Slipping and sliding on snowy or icy roads is dangerous. Salt and sand help melt ice or provide traction, but excessive use is bad for the environment. And sometimes, a surprise storm can blow through before these materials can be applied. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Omega have filled microcapsules with a chloride-free salt mixture that's added into asphalt before roads are paved, providing long-term snow melting capabilities in a real-world test.

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Driving on snowy roads at or near-freezing temperatures can create unsafe conditions, forming nearly invisible, slick black ice, if roads aren't cleaned quickly enough. But the most common ways to keep roads clear have significant downsides:

• Regular plowing requires costly equipment, is labor intensive and can damage pavement.
• Heavy salt or sand applications can harm the environment.
• Heated pavement technologies are prohibitively expensive to use on long roadways.

Recently, researchers have incorporated salt-storage systems into "anti-icing asphalt" to remove snow and prevent black ice from forming. However, these asphalt pavements use corrosive chloride-based salts and only release snow-melting substances for a few years.

So now they now wanted to develop a longer-term, chloride-free additive to effectively melt and remove snow cover on winter roads.

The researchers prepared a sodium acetate salt and combined it with a surfactant, silicon dioxide, sodium bicarbonate and blast furnace slag—a waste product from power plant operations—to produce a fine powder. They then coated the particles in the powder with a polymer solution, forming tiny microcapsules. Next, the team replaced some of the mineral filler in an asphalt mixture with the microcapsules. In initial experiments, a pavement block made with the new additive lowered the freezing point of water to -6 F. And the researchers estimated that a 5-cm-thick layer of the anti-icing asphalt would be effective at melting snow for seven to eight years. A real-world pilot test of the anti-icing asphalt on the off-ramp of a highway showed that it melted snow that fell on the road, whereas traditional pavement required additional removal operations. Because the additive used waste products and could release salt for most of a road's lifetime, the researchers say that is a practical and economic solution for wintertime snow and ice removal.

 Yingfei Zhao et al, Preparation of a Green Sustained-Release Microcapsule-Type Anti-Icing Agent for Asphalt Pavement and Its Application Demonstration Project, ACS Omega (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07212

Evolution: Mini-proteins in human organs appeared 'from nowhere'

Every biologist knows that small structures can sometimes have a big impact: Millions of signaling molecules, hormones, and other biomolecules are bustling around in our cells and tissues, playing a leading role in many of the key processes occurring in our bodies. Yet despite this knowledge, biologists and physicians long ignored a particular class of proteins—their assumption being that because the proteins were so small and only found in primates, they were insignificant and functionless.

However, the discoveries recently made changed this view. The existence of thousands of new microproteins in human organs has been established now.

Bioinformatic gene analyses revealed that most human microproteins developed millions of years later in the evolutionary process than the larger proteins currently known to scientists.

Yet the huge age gap doesn't appear to prevent the proteins from "talking" to each other. Lab experiments showed that the young and old proteins can bind to each other—and in doing so possibly influence each other.  The ability to bind does suggest the proteins might influence each other's functioning.

Unlike the known, old proteins that are encoded in our genome, most microproteins emerged more or less "out of nowhere—in other words, out of DNA regions that weren't previously tasked with producing proteins.

And because these small proteins only emerged during human evolution, they are missing from the cells of most other animals, such as mice, fish and birds. These animals, however, have been found to possess their own collection of young, small proteins.

During their work, the researchers also discovered the smallest human proteins identified to date. They found over 200 super-small proteins, all of which are smaller than 16 amino acids.

Scientists therefore suspect that contrary to long-held assumptions, the microproteins play a key role in a variety of cellular functions. The young proteins might also be heavily involved in evolutionary development thanks to comparatively rapid "innovations and adaptations."

It's possible that evolution is more dynamic than previously thought.

Norbert Hubner & colleauges, Evolutionary origins and interactomes of human young microproteins and small peptides translated from short open reading frames, Molecular Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.01.023. www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fu … 1097-2765(23)00075-8

Blood stem cells shown to be susceptible to ferroptosis, a type of cell death

The body is constantly replenishing the blood with new red and white blood cells thanks to a small but important group of cells called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Now, researchers have found that these cells are particularly vulnerable to ferroptosis, a kind of cell death triggered by iron.

Scientists have studied ferroptosis mostly in cancer cells, but this study, published recently in the journal Cell, is one of the first to show that a normal cell type is also susceptible to this form of cell death. The findings also point to potential side effects of drugs that are being developed to boost ferroptosis to kill cancer cells. And they suggest new strategies for treating blood disorders caused by low levels of HSCs.

The research team first discovered this ferroptosis vulnerability in a rare bone marrow disorder, but were surprised to find this feature in healthy HSCs as well. They also found that this susceptibility arises from the cells' decreased rate of protein production.

This is a good example where a rare disease can teach us much more about fundamental biological processes that we wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

Jiawei Zhao et al, Human hematopoietic stem cell vulnerability to ferroptosis, Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.020

Fun science: Physics

Here’s something that’s really amazing, but it also takes a bit of skill and patience too! How can you pick up a ball with a glass without touching the ball itself? Place the glass over the ball and then start spinning the glass around in a circular motion. Once the ball starts spinning inside the glass, lift it from the table. Watch out! If the ball isn’t spinning enough, then you won’t be able to lift it.

This is the explanation:

The Spinning Ball experiment Place the jar over the ball so that the ball is inside the mouth of the canning jar. Then start spinning the glass around in a circular motion Once the ball starts spinning inside the glass lift it from the table top. The ball is lifted from the table and will continue to spin inside the glass until it loses is speed. As a ball velocity increases inside the glass, the centripetal force increases. That force is what's keeping the ball stuck to the walls of the glass. As the ball goes faster, the resulting friction begins to cancel out the force of gravity acting on the ball. The centripetal force and friction, and those factors rely on velocity. If the ball goes too slowly, the velocity won't increase enough to out-do the force of gravity, and the ball will fall out of the glass.

Don’t Know CPR? There’s an App for That

Fibre discovery could shape better gut health

Changing the structure of a dietary fibre commonly used in a range of food products has been found to promote healthy gut bacteria and reduce gas formation, a finding that could help people with intolerances to fibre and irritable bowel conditions.

A team of scientists examined psyllium, a type of natural dietary fibre that is used in a range of products including cereals and yoghurts. They showed that the physical state of the fibre has a major impact on gas production which often is linked to bowel discomfort. The findings have been published in Food Hydrocolloids.

The team performed in vitro fermentation experiments seeded with human stool. They conducted analysis of fermentation products and evaluated the impact of different structures on the broad categories of microorganisms.

Although fibre is an important part of any diet, for many people it can cause bowel discomfort and for people with IBS or IBD fibre can be a trigger. This is because some foods cause bacterial interactions in the gut that create gas that can lead to pain or discomfort. This new study shows that the physical state of the fibre has a major impact on gas production by creating beneficial compounds that promote the creation of the good bacteria in the gut.

Psyllium fibre comes from the seeds of Plantago ovata plants, known by many common names such as blond plantain. These seeds produce a jelly-like material called mucilage, which comes in a variety of shapes and forms and these feature long-chain sugars, called polysaccharides. It is these polysaccharides that lead to the production of beneficial short-chain fatty acids that positively contribute to gut health and systemic metabolism. This study shows that different physical states of fibre impact the way dietary fibre breaks down and that microbes ‘colonise fibre’ during fermentation.

These findings show that there are new opportunities for designing targeted structures using psyllium, either through seed processing or selective breeding, to achieve new fibre materials with clear clinical benefit above that of unrefined psyllium powders aiding in the treatment of gastrointestinal discomfort.

Research is already underway to use this new knowledge to create and test psyllium-mimicking materials as medical nutrition which could provide a source of fibre for people with some bowel conditions and trials will be starting in the Spring.

Hannah C. Harris, Noelia Pereira, Todor Koev, Yaroslav Z. Khimyak, Gleb E. Yakubov, Frederick J. Warren. The impact of psyllium gelation behaviour on in vitro colonic fermentation properties. Food Hydrocolloids, 2023; 139: 108543 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2023.108543

 Volcanoes Leak Climate-Changing Gasses Into The Atmosphere Even While Dormant

We know volcanoes can cause dramatic shifts in the atmosphere when they erupt, but what about those long stretches of time when they appear to have fallen silent? A new study suggests that dormant volcanoes could be leaking out much more sulfur than we thought.

In fact, we might have underestimated sulfur output from sleeping volcanoes by a factor of three. That could mean a recalibration of climate and air quality models, as sulfur is one of the most important elements in terms of providing a climate cooling effect.

These findings are based on tiny particles trapped in layers of an ice core extracted from central Greenland, showing the make-up of the atmosphere circulating above the Arctic between the years 1200 and 1850. Sulfur emissions from dormant volcanoes were much higher than expected.  On longer timescales the amount of sulfate aerosols released during passive degassing is much higher than during eruptions.

It was found that passive degassing releases at least 10 times more sulfur into the atmosphere, on decadal timescales, than eruptions, and it could be as much as 30 times more.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL102061

Smart insole to identify and mitigate workplace slips, trips and falls

Psyllium Husk is simple Sago Dana in India - used for centuries for Stomach cleaning - it's also universally used for providing a stomach lining which reduces alcohol potency! Any comments Dr. Krishna?

Pungent ginger compound puts immune cells on heightened alert

Ginger has a reputation for stimulating the immune system. New results from research now support this thesis. In laboratory tests, small amounts of a pungent ginger constituent put white blood cells on heightened alert. The study also shows that this process involves a type of receptor that plays a role in the perception of painful heat stimuli and the sensation of spiciness in food.

Whether as a medicinal plant or foodstuff, ginger is also becoming increasingly popular. However, even though ginger consumption has increased, the question arises as to whether normal consumption levels are sufficient to achieve health effects. And if so, which compounds and molecular mechanisms play a role in this.

To help clarify these questions, researchers conducted extensive research. 

As the study shows, significant amounts of pungent ginger compounds enter the blood about 30 to 60 minutes after consuming one liter of ginger tea. By far the highest levels were achieved by [6]-gingerol, with plasma concentrations of approximately 7 to 17 micrograms per liter.

The pungent compound is known to exert its "taste" effect via the so-called TRPV1 receptor, an ion channel located on the surface of nerve cells that responds to painful heat stimuli as well as to pungent compounds from chili and ginger. Since some studies suggest that white blood cells also possess this receptor, the research team tested whether [6]-gingerol influences the activity of these immune cells.

In a first step, the team succeeded in detecting the receptor on neutrophil granulocytes. These cells make up about two-thirds of white blood cells and serve to combat invading bacteria. Further laboratory experiments by the research group also showed that even a very low concentration of almost 15 micrograms of [6]-gingerol per liter is sufficient to put the cells on heightened alert.

Thus, compared to control cells, the stimulated cells reacted about 30 percent more strongly to a peptide that simulates a bacterial infection. Addition of a TRPV1 receptor-specific inhibitor reversed the effect induced by [6]-gingerol.

Thus, at least in experiments, very low [6]-gingerol concentrations are sufficient to affect the activity of immune cells via the TRPV1 receptor. In blood, these concentrations could theoretically be achieved by consuming about one liter of ginger tea.

These  results support the assumption that the intake of common amounts of ginger may be sufficient to modulate cellular responses of the immune system. Nevertheless, there are still many unanswered questions at the molecular, epidemiological and medical levels that need to be addressed with the help of modern food and health research.

Gaby Andersen et al, [6]‐Gingerol Facilitates CXCL8 Secretion and ROS Production in Primary Human Neutrophils by Targeting the TRPV1 Channel, Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (2022). DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.202200434

Changes in how the heart produces energy may be the earliest signal of cardiac deterioration

Heart failure is often identified only when the heart has already deteriorated. This is in large part because the cause is unknown for about 70% of people who experience heart failure.

Researchers now discovered that one of the earliest signs of heart failure is a change in how the heart  produces energy, with findings offering a potential way to preempt heart failure before the heart begins to deteriorate.

 The research may also help to explain the diversity of causes underlying heart failure.

Dysregulation of energy production is the earliest sign of heart failure. People associate deficiency in energy production with later stage heart failure, but these new findings show this could actually be the cause of heart failure, not a result.

In a healthy heart, a protein called lysine demethylase 8 (Kdm8) helps to maintain a balanced energy use, also known as metabolism, by repressing TBX15, another protein that decreases energy production.

In a study published recently in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the researchers  analyzed a large dataset on gene expression, the process by which DNA is converted to proteins, in human hearts at a later stage of heart failure and found that KDM8 was less active. This allowed TBX15 to be more highly expressed, leading to changes in metabolism. Researchers also found that TBX15 was expressed at the highest levels in hearts where energy production genes were most strongly suppressed. There are many genes that help regulate energy production in our bodies, but researchers were able to identify changes in specific proteins that occur well before cardiac deterioration.

After identifying change in energy production as an early sign of heart failure, the research team drilled down further to explore how metabolic pathways could be modified to prevent the failure. In doing so they found that the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) pathway, which regulates energy metabolism, was less active. The team was then able to intervene and prevent heart failure in a mouse model by providing NAD+ injections and boosting energy production. This research suggests it may be possible to alter certain metabolic pathways to prevent heart failure before damage to the heart begins.

Abdalla Ahmed et al, KDM8 epigenetically controls cardiac metabolism to prevent initiation of dilated cardiomyopathy, Nature Cardiovascular Research (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s44161-023-00214-0

Evolution -correct depiction

This one shows the relationship with other modern apes and the other hominids.

Granted, it does not have the poster-like quality of the classical image, and it’s a lot more cluttered. But at least it is much more correct.

This old pic of evolution  is  misleading and incomplete. The problem with this old image is that first,  it suggests a linear progression. The second is that it suggests that we are descendants of chimpanzees. And the third is that early Homo sapiens were not white – it’s actually a pretty recent phenomenon, around 7,500–8,500 BCE in Europe.

A robot that can help firefighters during indoor emergencies

Robots could be valuable assistants for most first responders, as they could help them to remotely monitor or intervene in areas that are inaccessible or life-threatening for humans. Firefighters, who are at high risk of getting injured during their missions, would undoubtedly benefit from the assistance of reliable mobile robots.

Researchers recently created an autonomous ground robot that could assist firefighters when they are tackling emergencies in indoor environments. Their system, introduced in the Journal of Field Robotics, could allow agents responding to fire emergencies to plan their interventions better, clearing safe paths for them to access affected areas and supporting them during evacuations.

This work is part of a project called HelpResponder, which aims to reduce the accident rates and mission times of intervention teams This is achieved using fixed beacons, drones, and ground robots. This new robot can monitor its surrounding environment, sharing the data it collects with human agents. This is achieved using various sensors that can measure the temperature, humidity and air quality in an indoor setting, as well as its position and the position of other objects. This data is then saved in a database that can be remotely accessed by firefighters through a smartphone application. 

N. Fernández Talavera et al, An autonomous ground robot to support firefighters' interventions in indoor emergencies, Journal of Field Robotics (2023). DOI: 10.1002/rob.22150

M. Cristina Rodriguez-Sanchez et al, HelpResponder—System for the Security of First Responder Interventions, Sensors (2021). DOI: 10.3390/s21082614

Fernández Talavera, Sistema de navegación autónomo en entornos reales y simulados para situaciones de emergencia, BURJC Digital (2021). hdl.handle.net/10115/18048

Survey of fire victims in Spain. Fundacion MAPFRE(2021). www.fundacionmapfre.org/en/pub … -fire-in-spain-2014/

Juan Jesús Roldán-Gómez et al, A Survey on Robotic Technologies for Forest Firefighting: Applying Drone Swarms to Improve Firefighters' Efficiency and Safety, Applied Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.3390/app11010363

Weaponizing part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein against itself to prevent infection

The virus that causes COVID-19, called SARS-CoV-2, uses its spike protein in order to stick to and infect our cells. The final step for the virus to enter our cells is for part of its spike protein to act like a twist tie, forcing the host cell's outer membrane to fuse with the virus.

Now researchers have generated a molecule based on the twisted part of the spike protein (called HR2), which sticks itself onto the virus and prevents the spike protein from twisting. The reason the longHR2_42 inhibitor may work against an evolving virus is that it is based on part of the spike protein that hasn't changed even as other parts have.

Kailu Yang et al, Nanomolar inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection by an unmodified peptide targeting the prehairpin intermediate of the spike protein, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210990119

Conference: www.biophysics.org/2023meeting#/