Green and gold bell frogs in an artificial hotspot shelter
Anthony Waddle
One of Australia’s most endangered amphibians can fight off a deadly fungal infection with the help of a naturally heated shelter that researchers are calling a “frog sauna.”
The disease, chytridiomycosis, has wiped out about 100 species of frogs, toads and salamanders worldwide.
Green and gold bell frog (Litoria aureaThe fungus was once widespread along the south-eastern coast of Australia, but its range has shrunk by 90 percent, and although other factors such as habitat loss are also at play, chytrid is thought to be the greatest threat to the endangered species.
It has long been known that warm temperatures suppress fungal infections, and many frog species, including the Japanese bush frog, are susceptible to the disease in winter when it’s hard for them to stay warm, especially when it’s hard to find a warm place.
To learn more, Anthony Waddle The researcher, from Macquarie University in Sydney, and his colleagues studied two groups of captive frogs that were intentionally infected with chytridiomycosis over the winter.
The first group was provided with bricks with holes in them in an unshaded greenhouse shelter where temperatures rose to nearly 40°C (104°F), while the second group was provided with bricks in a shaded greenhouse shelter where temperatures rose to 35°C (95°F).
Frogs that were given warmer shelter had 100 times fewer chytrid spores on their skin than other groups.
Although chytrid has difficulty growing above 28°C (82°F), warmer temperatures appear to activate the frogs’ immune systems, Waddle said.
“Using shelter to survive is like a vaccination for the frogs,” Waddle says, “and we’ve shown that firefly frogs can develop resistance after heat has cleared their infection, potentially making them 22 times more likely to survive future infections in cold environments.”
Although the researchers have only tested the shelter on one species at this stage, they believe the technology could be used with other animals threatened by chytrid fungus, as long as they seek out natural warmth when it’s cold. Waddle says there are at least six Australian animal species that could benefit from the technology.
Importantly, these thermal shelters are easy and inexpensive to set up: “All you need is a small vegetable greenhouse from the hardware store and a few bricks, and it will only cost about $60-70. [Australian] “It will cost a few hundred dollars to build,” Waddle said, “and I can envision people putting them in their backyards to help the frogs through the winter.”
A powerful DNA-editing mechanism discovered in bacteria has the potential to enable much larger genome modifications than are currently possible with CRISPR-based techniques, but it is not yet clear whether it would work in human cells.
Patrick Shue Researchers at the Ark Institute in California call their new genome editing system the “bridge editing” system because it physically links, or bridges, two strands of DNA. “Using this system, we can modify large parts of the genome,” says Su. Su's team has figured out how bacterial “parasitic” DNA sequences naturally replicate using this system and how it can be applied to genome editing.
“We're excited about the possibility of making much broader genome modifications that go far beyond what we can do today with CRISPR,” he says, “and we see this as an important step toward a broader vision for genome design.”
CRISPR gene editing has revolutionized biology since it was introduced in 2012. It is used for a variety of purposes, and the first CRISPR-based therapeutic was approved last year. However, the basic form of CRISPR, which uses the Cas9 protein, is gene disruption rather than gene editing.
A standard CRISPR Cas9 protein has two parts: one part binds to a guide RNA molecule and looks for DNA that matches a specific section of the guide RNA. Custom guide RNAs are easy to create, so CRISPR Cas9 can be “programmed” to look for any part of the genome.
The second part of CRISPR Cas9 is a cutter that cuts the DNA when Cas9 binds to the target site. Once the cell has repaired the damage, Cas9 cuts it again. This action continues until an error is made during repair, resulting in the intended mutation of the target site.
While being able to mutate specific sites is useful, biologists want to make more precise changes, so they are modifying CRISPR proteins to edit DNA directly rather than relying on cellular repair mechanisms. For example, base editors can change one DNA letter to another without cutting the DNA, while prime editors can convert an extra section of guide RNA into DNA and add it to the target site.
These improved versions of CRISPR have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases, with several clinical trials already underway, but to address some diseases, more sophisticated genome modifications are needed. Many teams around the world are working on ways to achieve this. Some have realized that the mechanism by which genetic parasites cut and paste from one part of the genome to another, called IS110 elements, has potential because, like CRISPR, it is RNA-guided, but Hsu's team is the first to fully understand how it works.
The bridge-editing system consists of a so-called recombinase protein that binds to a guide RNA, such as the CRISPR Cas9 protein. What's unique about this system is that the guide RNA specifies two DNA sequences to seek out, not just one, Hsu's team found.
One sequence specifies the target site in the genome to modify, similar to CRISPR, and the other specifies the DNA to change. Using this system, DNA sequences of virtually any length can be added, deleted, or inverted.
There are already ways to do this, but they typically require multiple steps and leave behind a piece of extra DNA called a scar. “Bridge editing leaves virtually no scar,” Hsu says. “It offers an unprecedented level of control in engineering the genome.”
This means that it could be used for more than just replacing faulty genes, he says: It could also be useful for completely remaking the genomes of plants and animals. “What we want to do is go from inserting individual genes to doing chromosome-scale genome engineering,” Su says.
“The findings reported are certainly exciting and the underlying biology is truly surprising.” Steven Tang Bridge editing is being done at Columbia University in New York, but so far it has only been demonstrated to work in bacterial cells or in test tubes. Tang says it remains to be seen whether and to what extent bridge editing will work in complex cells like humans. But even if bridge editing doesn't work in initial tests in human cells, it may be possible to modify the system to work over time.
Denmark is taking action to address methane emissions, a significant contributor to global warming. Starting in 2030, Denmark will be the first country to implement a tax on livestock farmers based on the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their cows, sheep, and pigs.
Tax Minister Jeppe Bruus aims to reduce Denmark’s greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
From 2030, Danish livestock farmers will face a tax of 300 kroner ($43) per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, increasing to 750 kroner ($108) by 2035. However, with a 60% income tax credit, the effective cost per tonne will start at 120 kroner ($17.3) and gradually rise to 300 kroner by 2035.
While carbon dioxide is often the focus, methane is a potent greenhouse gas, trapping significantly more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Methane ConcentrationMethane emissions from various sources, including landfills, oil and gas systems, and livestock, have been on the rise. Livestock alone contributes to about 32% of man-made methane emissions, as reported by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Denmark’s move is a significant step towards achieving climate neutrality by 2045. The country is pioneering the implementation of a substantial carbon tax on agriculture, with hopes that other nations will also take similar actions.
In New Zealand, a similar law was passed but later revoked amid criticism from farmers. Denmark, on the other hand, reached an agreement with various stakeholders to implement the carbon tax.
The Danish Society for Nature Conservation hailed the tax agreement as a “historic compromise,” emphasizing the importance of restructuring the food industry beyond 2030.
Denmark’s decision comes after protests from farmers across Europe, who argue that climate policies are jeopardizing their livelihoods.
Despite Denmark’s status as a major dairy and pork exporter, the country plans to tax pigs alongside cows due to their significant emissions. The tax proposal is expected to receive broad support in the parliament.
Statistics Denmark reported a slight decrease in the number of cattle in the country as of June 30, 2022, with 1,484,377 cattle in total.
This story is part of our “Cosmic Perspective” series, which confronts the incredible vastness of the universe and our place in it. Read the rest of the series here.
This map shows the cosmic ring that surrounds us, stretching out to distances of up to 200 million light-years. At this scale, the universe is made up of galaxy clusters and voids, the latter being regions with relatively few galaxies. The Milky Way at the center is part of the Local Group, while the Virgo Cluster is our nearest neighbour.
The magnificent spiral
The Milky Way’s spiral structure is dominated by two major arms called Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus. It also features a dense region called the central bar. Our solar system sits on a more modest structure called the Orion Arm.
No matter how complex the questions about our metaphorical place in the universe, astronomy can help us understand Earth’s physical location.
Earth orbits at a distance of 150 million kilometers from the Sun, which in turn orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Specifically, Earth is located in the Orion Arm, about 26,500 light years from the center.
The Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Local Group of galaxies. Its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, is about 2.5 million light-years away and is the largest galaxy in the Local Group. We are currently hurtling towards the Andromeda Galaxy at over 100 kilometers per second, and in about 4 billion years the two galaxies will collide.
Local Groups
It will shake up local groups, but it will barely be on the radar of the wider cosmic neighborhood.
Have you ever experienced this feeling before? On a blazing hot day, the desire to plunge into a cool stream of water intensifies by the minute. The water appears pristine, clear, and incredibly refreshing. However, in reality, it could be extensively contaminated.
Even the purest rivers can harbor harmful bacteria, including fecal bacteria originating from livestock manure and human waste.
In a recent announcement, the Designated bathing area in the UK, a favored holiday spot, has been a subject of concern due to issues such as being submerged in sewage and incidents of rowers contracting E. coli infections. To address these concerns, we consulted with water and sanitation expert Professor David Werner to provide essential information for safely enjoying wild swimming this summer.
Werner’s research delves into treated sewage, stormwater (untreated sewage overflows following heavy rains), and occasionally illegal sewage disposal in dry weather. These factors impact both human health and ecosystem health. While human waste is discharged into oceans, rivers tend to exhibit higher concentrations of human waste and the accompanying harmful bacteria due to lower dilution levels compared to water bodies, increasing the risk of exposure to harmful substances.
(Notably, a microbiology professor, William Gays, mentioned in BBC Science Focus that rivers have only recently been subjected to the same microbial testing as coastal waters. Moreover, wastewater discharged into the ocean is often subjected to more stringent treatment standards than rivers, including ultraviolet disinfection.)
The following guidelines mainly focus on rivers but are also relevant for coastal swimming activities.
The key takeaway? Avoid swimming after rainfall.
How do diseases enter rivers, and what is the risk of swimming in them?
Fecal contamination doesn’t always mean significant. The majority of people’s stool contains beneficial bacteria essential for our health. However, the stool of an ill individual harbors bacteria responsible for the illness, potentially leading to disease transmission.
According to Warner, the risk of contracting a disease from a river is relatively low, but it escalates if you ingest river water (discouraged but not impossible).
This can result in unpleasant symptoms like infections and diarrhea. The worst-case scenario involves acquiring antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an eventuality deemed highly improbable by Warner.
So, should one abstain from wild swimming altogether? Ultimately, it boils down to whether you are willing to accept the (generally minimal) risk for the mental health benefits, as Warner highlights.
“There is no such thing as absolute safety or zero risk,” he states. “Each time we embark on a car journey, we weigh the trip’s advantages against the accident risks. Similarly, outdoor recreation offers significant mental health perks, particularly for urban dwellers.”
How to safeguard yourself from sewage while swimming
Warner and his team are currently devising a device capable of swiftly testing water for contaminants, akin to a lateral flow corona test, though substantial research is required to materialize this concept.
Until this technology is available, several straightforward methods can help identify sewage presence while swimming in rivers this summer. Here are Warner’s recommendations:
1. Choose your spot wisely
According to Werner, it is crucial to avoid swimming downstream from a sewage treatment plant under any circumstances. While untreated sewage overflows are a common concern, treating sewage does not completely eradicate the risks; it merely diminishes them.
“Treating wastewater significantly reduces the levels of harmful bacteria, possibly by a factor of 1,000, but it doesn’t eliminate them,” Werner explains.
“Hence, if a location is situated immediately downstream of a treatment plant discharge point, one can expect a consistent presence of fecal bacteria due to the continuous discharge.”
Individuals can consult the “Poop Map” and trace their local river upstream to identify any treatment facilities along the route.
2. Check the poop map
UK organizations such as Rivers Trust and Surfers Against Sewage have developed an interactive map showcasing regular treated sewage discharges and anticipated untreated sewage overflows across the UK in 2023.
To locate a wastewater treatment plant on The Rivers Trust map, click the yellow square corresponding to your area or tap the brown circle icon, peruse the cards to pinpoint locations. The phrase “Sewage Discharge – Final/Treated Effluent – Water Companies” typically indicates a wastewater treatment facility.
The Rivers Trust’s interactive wastewater map displaying treated and untreated sewage discharge locations into UK rivers in 2023. – Image credit: Rivers Trust
This year, the charity integrated near real-time data into its maps. “This marks a significant advancement for individuals seeking real-time updates,” remarks Warner. “We strongly recommend utilizing these online resources, offering current information.”
Presently, individuals can ascertain if sewage has been discharged within the last 24 hours, albeit inland data is exclusive to designated bathing locations and rivers within the Thames Basin (Northumbrian Water also provides a County-level map while coastal regions are included).
3. Monitor the weather
Despite the allure of swimming on a sunny day, verify there hasn’t been rainfall for a few days. Swimming post-rainfall significantly heightens the possibility of encountering contaminated water due to sewer overflows and increased water release during heavy downpours.
To compound matters, even as a dry spell seems to prevail and swimming appears safe, hidden risks could lurk upstream. Thunderstorms can unleash localized rainfall, implying that upstream areas may experience heavy showers despite sunshine at your location.
4. Steer clear of small rivers
In addition to potentially turbid waters, small rivers tend to exacerbate the situation as sewage, whether treated or untreated, is less diluted in these settings.
Warner adheres to a safety benchmark stipulating that raw sewage minimal dilution should be 1,000 times for paddling and over 10,000 times for swimming. While calculating these dilution levels is not advised, the underlying principle is straightforward: “A large river with vigorous flow signifies ample dilution,” Werner asserts.
Nonetheless, disparate river segments need not cause undue concern: while one side may seem stagnant relative to the center, the water mixes uniformly.
5. Keep tabs on the paper trail
Exhibit prudence: refrain from swimming if toilet paper is visible. Alarming indicators surpass toilet paper and include wet wipes and sanitary pads crafted from plastic materials that should not be flushed but often are.
According to Werner, unlike toilet paper and human excrement, these items do not disintegrate in swiftly moving waters.
6. Stay informed
“After frolicking in the river, diligently cleanse yourself. Embrace standard personal hygiene,” stresses Werner.
About our experts
David Warner serves as a Professor of Environmental Systems Modelling at Newcastle University. Previously, his research concentrated on sanitation and water quality in low-income countries by utilizing DNA sequencing and assessing microbial hazards in rivers. During travel restrictions amid the pandemic, he shifted his focus to the UK’s rivers. His research on post-rain fecal bacteria levels has been documented in various journals such as Water Science and Technology, Comprehensive Environmental Science, and Environmental Pollution.
William Gays, a Professor of Microbiology at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health within the University of Exeter’s Medical School, conducts research published in journals like International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Food and Environmental Virology, and Water Research.
Amazon workers facing work-related injuries are resorting to online fundraising to cover expenses while they pursue compensation and disability benefits.
Three current employees injured at Amazon’s warehouses reported bureaucratic hurdles in seeking financial aid, with one losing their home.
Workers claimed that Amazon ignored their concerns about warehouse work strain, denied compensation requests, and prioritized productivity over safety.
Amazon acknowledged finding issues but disputed some information provided by employees.
The company, with 1.5 million employees worldwide, has faced continuous criticism over warehouse working conditions despite claiming commitment to safety.
Many workers have experienced delays and battles in obtaining benefits and care for job-related injuries.
“This is why we became homeless.”
Keith Williams suffered an injury at an Amazon warehouse, leading to financial struggles and homelessness.
Williams highlights the challenges faced in obtaining disability benefits while grappling with homelessness.
A GoFundMe campaign is supporting Williams’ family during this hardship.
Christine Mano also faced hardships due to injury at Amazon, struggling to secure benefits and facing financial strain.
Despite surgeries and medical treatments, Mano faced challenges with Amazon regarding her injury.
Safety concerns are raised as workers like Nick Moran highlight prioritization of productivity over safety at Amazon.
Amazon has pledged to create the safest workplace but labor groups argue that injury rates remain high.
“Safety is an afterthought”
Moran’s experience underlines the challenges faced by Amazon workers in navigating compensation and medical claims.
Amazon faces criticism for its injury rates compared to other companies and disputes such allegations.
“The safest workplace on earth”
Despite Amazon’s efforts to enhance safety, injury rates at the company remain a concern.
Workers like Williams are still fighting for benefits amidst financial and housing struggles.
Williams received support through an online campaign, providing a glimmer of hope amidst challenging times.
This tournament Insect Week It showcases the best insect photography by amateurs of all ages, shedding light on the miniature world of insects.
The overall winner of this year’s competition is Luke Chambers from the UK, whose piece “Sleeping Cuckoos” depicts two beautiful cuckoo bees resting on a blade of grass covered with morning dew (scroll down to see it).
The overall winner in the “18 and under” category was 17-year-old Gustaf Pallenmark from Sweden, whose work “Silence” shows a striped damselfly at rest.
The Royal Entomological Society exists to advance the science of insects through research and to increase public understanding and appreciation of insects and the vital role they play in the Earth’s ecosystems.
Here are this year’s fantastic contest winners and some other favourites.
Special Award for Under 18s – Purple Fire
Leaf-cutter wasp (Megachile lagopoda). This species is under threat due to intensive land use. Photo: Gustav Pallenmark
Portrait of Special Praise – Picasso Bug
The aptly named Picasso bug (Sphaerocoris annulus) was photographed in Louiru, Kenya. Photo by Robin Backhouse
Under 18 Runner-up – Robber Fly Breakfast
A spindly-legged centipede fly (Leptarththrus brevirostris) feeds on small insects. Photo by Jamie Smart
Special Award Portrait – Flowers of Evil
European mantis (Mantis religiosa) among cyclamen. Photo by Panagiotis Dalagiorgos
Honorable Mention Portrait – Brown Argus Roosting at Sunrise
A brown argus butterfly (Alicia agastis) warms itself on a stalk of grass as the sun rises, Martin Down, Dorset, UK. Photo by Richard Sheldrake
Particularly praised behavior – mating veins
Two mating Timandra comai moths. Timandra comai moths belong to the Geometridae family. They get their name from the distinctive reddish stripes that run from wing to wing. Photo by Heath McDonald
Specially praised environment – a pair of silverfish
These silverfish (family Bacillarioidea) appear to be stuck together in tiny clay nest structures. Some of their shiny silvery scales are frayed, which may indicate an imminent moult. Photographed in Western Australia. Photo by Frank Ashwood.
Under 18 Winner – Tranquility
A striped male Calopteryx splendens dragonfly photographed in Sweden. Photo by Gustav Pallenmark
Special Smartphone Award – Pollinator
A common Carder’s bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) collecting pollen from a flower. Photo by Michael Wood
Particularly praised behavior – fatal attraction
A swarm of dead flying ants floats on the surface of a swimming pool. United States. Photo by Rosemary Haleem
Special Award for Under 18s – Camouflage Masters
An Indian praying mantis (Schizocephala bicornis) transforms into a leaf. The color of the mantis and the leaf are almost the same and it is impossible to spot the insect unless it is moving. The mantis’s body was following the veins of the leaf, making it difficult to identify. Photo by Kushaan A Ksheerasagar
Particularly praised behavior – Conopidae column
Male and female red-legged bees (Sicus ferrugineus) nestle after mating. The smaller male guards the female, making sure no other suitors ruin the night. Photo by Luke Chambers
Special Smartphone Award – Wasps join cream teas
A German hornet (Vespula germanica) joins a family enjoying a cream tea at a British cafe. Photo by Abi Batten
Special Smartphone Award – The Moth and the Mountain
A male wolf moth (Saturnia pavonia) rests on the heather on the slopes of Meal Buide. In the background you can see the summit of Stack an Lochaine in the Scottish Highlands. Photographed in Scotland, UK in May 2023. Photo by Marianne Cockburn.
Special Prize Portrait – Centipede
A brown heath robberies (Epitriptus cingulatus) resting on long grass in Droxford, Hampshire, UK. Photo by Stephen Mahy
Particularly rewarded behavior – Junk Bugs
Junk bugs (Chrysopidae) are voracious predators of the insect kingdom, so named because they wear vegetable matter and the exoskeletons of past victims on their backs as part of a complex camouflage to fool predators. Photo by Rosa Dunbar
Special Featured Portrait – The Third Eye
A photo of a velvet wasp (Ichneumonidae) in a moth trap in the UK. Photo by Ben James
2nd place overall – Caddisfly larvae
Spotted sedge caddisfly (Glyphotaelius pellucidus) larvae in a gelatinous egg sac. Taken on a leaf overhanging the water, this image shows newly hatched caddisfly larvae in a clear, gelatinous egg sac. The larvae fall into the water and live as aquatic insects through their larval and pupal stages. Photo by Tim Jonas
Overall Winner – Sleeping Cuckoo
A flying squirrel (Epeolus variegatus) sleeps on a leaf. Morning dew is visible on the surface of its eyes. Photo by Luke Chambers
Jupiter’s upper atmosphere consists of a neutral thermosphere and an electrically charged ionosphere. Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered unexpected small-scale intensity features, including arcs, bands, and spots, in the low-latitude ionosphere in the region above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
This illustration shows the region observed by Webb, first with its location on the NIRCam image of the entire planet (left), and then the region itself as imaged by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Jupiter ERS Team / J. Schmidt / H. Melin / M. Zamani, ESA and Webb.
Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky and can be easily seen on a clear night.
Apart from the bright Northern and Southern Lights at Jupiter’s poles, the glow from Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is weak, making details in this region difficult to discern with ground-based telescopes.
But Webb’s infrared sensitivity has allowed scientists to study the upper atmosphere of the infamous Great Red Spot in unprecedented detail.
The upper atmosphere of this gas giant is the interface between the planet’s magnetic field and the atmosphere below it.
Here you can see the bright and vibrant aurora borealis and southern lights, created by volcanic material erupting from Jupiter’s moon Io.
However, as one approaches the equator, the structure of the planet’s upper atmosphere is influenced by incoming sunlight.
Because Jupiter receives only 4% of the sunlight that Earth does, astronomers predicted that this region would be essentially homogeneous.
Astronomer Henrik Melin of the University of Leicester and his colleagues observed the Great Red Spot in July 2022 using an Integral Field Unit. Webb’s near-infrared spectrometer (NIR Spec).
Their early public science observations aimed to investigate whether this region was in fact dull, and the region above the iconic Great Red Spot was the subject of Webb’s observations.
They were surprised to find that the upper atmosphere contains a variety of complex structures, including dark arcs and bright spots across the entire field of view.
“We probably naively thought this area would be really boring. It’s actually just as interesting, if not more so, than the Northern Lights. Jupiter never fails to surprise us,” Dr Melin said.
The light emitted from this region is driven by sunlight, but the team suggests there must be another mechanism that changes the shape and structure of the upper atmosphere.
“One way this structure can be altered is by gravity waves, similar to how waves crashing on the shore create ripples in the sand,” Dr Melin said.
“These waves originate deep within the turbulent lower atmosphere around the Great Red Spot and can rise in altitude to alter the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere.”
“These atmospheric waves are occasionally observed on Earth, but they are much weaker than those Webb observed on Jupiter.”
“In the future, we hope to carry out follow-up webbed observations of these complex wave patterns and investigate how they move within the planet’s upper atmosphere to improve our understanding of the energy budget of this region and how its features change over time.”
Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN have announced the results of the most sensitive search to date for double Higgs production and self-coupling, achieved by combining five double Higgs studies from LHC Run 2 data.
Event display of a double Higgs candidate event, photographed in 2017. Image courtesy of ATLAS Collaboration / CERN.
Remember how hard it was to find one Higgs boson? Now try and find two of them in the same place at the same time.
This intriguing process, known as double Higgs production, can teach scientists about the Higgs particle's self-interaction.
By studying it, physicists can measure the strength of the Higgs particle's self-binding, a fundamental aspect of the Standard Model that links the Higgs mechanism to the stability of the universe.
Searching for the creation of double Higgs particles is a particularly challenging task.
This is an extremely rare process, about 1,000 times rarer than the creation of a single Higgs particle.
While LHC Run 2 produced 40 million collisions per second, ATLAS is expected to produce just a few thousand double Higgs events.
So how can physicists find these rare needles in a mountain of data?
One way to make it easier to find double Higgs production is to search in multiple locations.
By investigating the different ways in which the double Higgs decay (decay modes) and combining them, physicists can maximise their chances of discovering and studying the creation of the double Higgs.
The new results from the ATLAS collaboration are the most comprehensive search to date, covering more than half of all possible double Higgs events with ATLAS.
Each of the five individual studies in this combination focuses on a different mode of damping, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
For example, the most likely double-Higgs decay mode is the decay into four bottom quarks.
However, the Standard Model QCD process likely also produces four bottom quarks, making it difficult to distinguish this background process from a double Higgs event.
The double-Higgs decay into two bottom quarks and two tau leptons involves moderate background contamination, but it occurs five times less frequently and there are neutrinos that escape undetected, complicating physicists' efforts to recreate the decay.
Decays into multiple leptons are not uncommon, but they have complex characteristics.
Other double Higgs decays are even rarer, such as the decay into two bottom quarks and two photons.
This final state accounts for only 0.3% of all double Higgs decays, but has a cleaner signature and much smaller background contamination.
Combining their findings for each of these decays, ATLAS physicists were able to find that the probability of producing two Higgs particles rules out more than 2.9 times the Standard Model prediction.
This result has a confidence level of 95% and an expected sensitivity of 2.4 (assuming this process does not exist in nature).
They were also able to provide constraints on the strength of the Higgs particle's self-coupling, achieving the highest sensitivity to date for this important observable.
They found that the magnitude of the Higgs self-coupling constant and the strength of the interaction between two Higgs particles and two vector particles are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.
“This overall result marks a milestone in the study of double Higgs particle production,” the researchers said.
ATLAS Collaboration. 2024. Combined search for Higgs pair production in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Physiotherapy Rev Lett,in press; arXiv:2406.09971
The report highlighted the importance of establishing a system in the UK to track instances of misuse or failure of artificial intelligence. Without such a system, ministers could be unaware of alarming incidents related to AI.
The Centre for Long Term Resilience (CLTR) suggested that the next government should implement a mechanism to record AI-related incidents in public services and possibly create a centralized hub to compile such incidents nationwide.
CLTR emphasized the need for incident reporting systems, similar to those used by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), to effectively leverage AI technology.
According to a database compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), there have been approximately 10,000 AI “safety incidents” reported by news outlets since 2014. These incidents encompass a wide range of harms, from physical to economic and psychological, as defined by the OECD.
The OECD’s AI Safety Incident Monitor also includes instances such as a deepfake of Labour leader Keir Starmer and incidents involving self-driving cars and a chatbot-influenced assassination plot.
Tommy Shafer-Shane, policy manager at CLTR and author of the report, noted the critical role incident reporting plays in managing risks in safety-critical sectors like aviation and healthcare. However, such reporting is currently lacking in the regulatory framework for AI in the UK.
CLTR urged the UK government to establish an accident reporting regime for AI, similar to those in aviation and healthcare, to address incidents that may not fall under existing regulatory oversight. Labour has promised to implement binding regulations for most AI incidents.
The think tank recommended the creation of a government system to report AI incidents in public services, identify gaps in AI incident reporting, and potentially establish a pilot AI incident database.
In a joint effort with other countries and the EU, the UK pledged to cooperate on AI security and monitor “AI Harm and Safety Incidents.”
CLTR stressed the importance of incident reporting to keep DSIT informed about emerging AI-related risks and urged the government to prioritize learning about such harms through established reporting processes.
Cygnus X-3It is an X-ray binary system located about 7,400 parsecs (24,136 light years) away in the constellation Cygnus, and analysis of the data indicates that it is a type of extremely luminous X-ray source. NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Probe (IXPE).
The halo around Cygnus X-3. Image courtesy of NASA.
“X-ray binaries are interesting systems that consist of two objects: a normal star and a compact object such as a black hole or neutron star that sucks material from the companion star,” explained astronomer Aleksandra Beredina from the University of Turku and her colleagues.
“To date, several hundred such sources have been identified in our Milky Way galaxy.”
“When it comes to the most powerful phenomena in the Universe, the release of gravitational energy in binary X-ray systems stands out as an extremely efficient process.”
“Among the first X-ray binary systems discovered in the Universe is the Cygnus X-3 system,” the researchers added.
“Since the early 1970s, this binary system has been noted for its ability to briefly appear as one of the most powerful radio sources, only to fade or disappear completely after a few days.”
“This unique feature prompted early efforts to coordinate astronomical observations around the world through telephone coordination.”
“The peculiar behaviour of this system during this short-lived, high-energy event contrasts with its normal nature and led to it being named ‘Astronomical Mystery Cygnus X-3’ by R.M. Helming in 1973.”
“Since then, there have been numerous efforts to understand its properties.”
Dr. Veredina and her co-authors used the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer to measure the X-ray polarization of Cygnus X-3.
“The X-ray polarization images provide insight into the composition of matter surrounding the compact object in Cygnus X-3,” the researchers said.
“We found that this compact object is surrounded by a dense, opaque membrane of material.”
“The light we see is a reflection from the inner walls of a funnel formed by the surrounding gas, similar to a cup with a mirror on the inside.”
“Cygnus X-3 is a type of Ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), which consumes material at such a rate that a significant portion of the infalling material does not fall within the event horizon, but rather is ejected out of the system.”
“ULXs are usually observed as points of light in images of distant galaxies, and their radiation is amplified by the focusing effect of the funnel around the compact object, acting like a megaphone,” said Professor Juri Poutanen from the University of Turku.
“But these sources are so far away – thousands of times the extent of the Milky Way – that they appear relatively faint to X-ray telescopes.”
“This discovery reveals that luminous counterparts to these distant ULXs exist within our own Galaxy.”
“This important discovery marks a new chapter in our investigation into the source of this extraordinary universe, providing an opportunity to study its extreme matter consumption in detail.”
of result Published in the journal Natural Astronomy.
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A. Veredina othersIXPE discovered Cygnus X-3 as an ultra-luminous X-ray source in the galaxy. Nat AstronPublished online June 21, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02294-9
The five man-made greenhouse gases identified by astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman of the University of California, Riverside, and his colleagues could be detected in relatively low concentrations in exoplanet atmospheres using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and future space telescopes.
Diagram of the technological features of various planets, including artificial atmospheric gases. Image courtesy of Sohail Wasif / University of California, Riverside.
“For us, these gases are bad because we don’t want them to accelerate warming,” Dr Schwietermann said.
“But they could be useful to a civilization wanting to halt an impending ice age, or to terraform uninhabitable planets in its own system, as humanity has proposed for Mars.”
“These gases are not known to occur in large quantities in nature, so they have to be manufactured.”
“Finding them would therefore be evidence of the presence of intelligent, technological life forms. Such evidence is called a technosignature.”
The five gases proposed by the authors are used on Earth for industrial purposes, such as making computer chips.
These include fluorinated versions of methane, ethane and propane, as well as gases made of nitrogen and fluorine, or sulfur and fluorine.
One advantage is that it’s a very effective greenhouse gas — sulfur hexafluoride, for example, has a warming power 23,500 times that of carbon dioxide — and even a relatively small amount could heat a frozen planet to the point where liquid water could remain on the surface.
Another advantage of the proposed gas, at least from an alien perspective, is that it is extremely long-lived, surviving in an Earth-like atmosphere for up to 50,000 years.
“You won’t need to refill it very often to maintain a comfortable climate,” Dr. Schwieterman said.
Others suggest that refrigerant chemicals such as CFCs are technology signature gases because they are almost entirely man-made and visible in Earth’s atmosphere.
But unlike the chemically inert fully fluorinated gases discussed in the new paper, CFCs damage the ozone layer and may not be advantageous.
“If other civilizations had oxygen-rich atmospheres, they would have also had an ozone layer that they wanted to protect,” Dr Schwietermann said.
“CFCs will be broken down in the ozone layer while also catalyzing its destruction.”
“CFCs degrade easily and have a short lifespan, making them difficult to detect.”
Finally, for fluorinated gases to have an effect on climate, they need to absorb infrared radiation.
This absorption creates an infrared signature that can be detected by space telescopes.
Using current and planned technology, scientists may be able to detect these chemicals in nearby exoplanetary systems.
“In an Earth-like atmosphere, only one in a million molecules could be any of these gases and be detectable, and that concentration would be enough to even alter the climate,” Dr Schwietermann said.
To reach this calculation, the astrobiologists simulated a planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system, located about 40 light-years from Earth.
They chose this system because it contains at least seven rocky planets and is one of the best-studied planetary systems other than Earth.
Although it is not possible to quantify the likelihood of discovering man-made greenhouse gases in the near future, we are confident that, if they exist, they could be detected during missions currently planned to characterize the planet’s atmosphere.
“If telescopes are already characterizing planets for other reasons, there would be no need for extra effort to look for these technical features,” Dr Schwietermann said.
Ocean worlds are planetary bodies with liquid oceans, often beneath an icy shell or within rocky interiors. In our solar system, several moons of Jupiter and Saturn are ocean worlds. Some ocean worlds are thought to have hydrothermal circulation, where water, rocks, and heat combine to pump and expel fluids to the ocean floor. Hydrothermal circulation influences the chemical composition of the water and rocks of ocean worlds and may help life develop deep beneath the icy surface. In a new study, planetary researchers used computer simulations of hydrothermal circulation based on well-understood systems on Earth to measure the effects of low gravity at values appropriate for ocean worlds smaller than our home planet. Simulations of ocean worlds with (lower) gravity result in fluid circulation that is roughly similar to that which occurs above and below the ocean floor on Earth, but with some key differences. Low gravity reduces buoyancy, so fluids do not become lighter as they heat up, which reduces their flow rate. This increases the temperature of the circulating fluids, which could lead to more extensive chemical reactions, possibly including those necessary to support life.
This diagram shows how Cassini scientists think rocks and water at the bottom of Enceladus’ ocean interact to produce hydrogen gas. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Southwest Research Institute.
Rock-heat-fluid systems were discovered on the Earth’s ocean floor in the 1970s, where scientists observed releases of fluids carrying heat, particles, and chemicals.
Many of the vents were surrounded by a novel ecosystem, including specialized bacterial mats, red and white tube worms and heat-sensing shrimp.
For the new study, Professor Andrew Fisher from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues used a complex computer model based on the hydrothermal cycle that occurs on Earth.
After varying variables such as gravity, heat, rock properties and depth of fluid circulation, the researchers found that hydrothermal vents could persist under a wide range of conditions.
If these flows occurred on an ocean world like Jupiter’s moon Europa, they could increase the chances of life surviving there as well.
“This study suggests that extraterrestrial ocean worlds may have supported low-temperature (but not hot enough for life) hydrothermal systems on timescales similar to those it took for life to become established on Earth,” Prof Fischer said.
The ocean circulation system on which the researchers based their computer model was discovered on the 3.5-million-year-old seafloor of the northwest Pacific Ocean, east of the Juan de Fuca Ridge.
There, cold undersea water flows through an extinct volcano (seamount), travels about 30 miles (48.3 km) underground, and then flows out into the ocean through another seamount.
“As water flows, it picks up heat, it’s warmer than when it entered, and its chemistry changes dramatically,” says Kristin Dickerson, a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
“The flow from seamount to seamount is driven by buoyancy – as water warms it becomes less dense and as it cools it becomes more dense,” Prof Fischer added.
“The difference in density creates a difference in fluid pressure within the rock, and the system is sustained by the flow itself. So as long as there is enough heat supplied and the rock properties allow for sufficient fluid circulation, the system will keep running. We call this a hydrothermal siphon.”
“Hot vent systems are primarily driven by sub-sea volcanism, while the Earth’s ocean floor experiences large amounts of fluid flowing in and out at much cooler conditions, driven primarily by Earth’s background cooling.”
“The flow of water through low-temperature vents is equivalent to all the rivers and streams on Earth in terms of the volume of water released, and accounts for about a quarter of the Earth’s heat loss.”
“About every 500,000 years, the entire volume of ocean water is pumped up and out of the ocean floor.”
Many previous studies of the hydrothermal circulation on Europa and Enceladus have considered hotter fluids.
“Cartoons and other illustrations often depict undersea systems that are similar to Earth’s black smokers, where cooler currents could occur just as much or even more than they do on Earth,” said Dr Donna Blackman from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The results show that in very low gravity, such as on the ocean floor of Enceladus, the circulation can continue at low to moderate temperatures for millions or billions of years.
This could help explain why small ocean planets can have long-lived fluid circulation systems beneath their seafloors despite limited heating: the inefficiency of heat extraction could extend their lifetimes considerably, potentially for the entire lifetime of the solar system.
Scientists acknowledge that it is uncertain when active hydrothermal systems will be directly observed on the ocean planet’s seafloor.
The distance from Earth and physical characteristics pose significant technical challenges for spacecraft missions.
“It is therefore essential to make the most of the available data, much of which is remotely collected, and to leverage the understanding gained from decades of detailed study of the analog Earth system,” the authors concluded.
their paper Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
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A.T. Fisher others2024. Gravitational maintenance of hydrothermal circulation in relation to the ocean world. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 129(6):e2023JE008202; doi:10.1029/2023JE008202
In the last week alone, extreme weather has wreaked havoc in many parts of the United States and around the world.
Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme temperatures and heavy rainfall such as those seen recently.
This year has been the warmest on record so far, with ocean temperatures breaking new records for more than 15 months.
Summer is quickly becoming a brutal season: Last week alone, record-breaking June heat forced schools to close across the Northeast and slowed some trains, flooding caused bridges to collapse in the Midwest and inundated towns across three states, and tropical storm-force winds prompted disaster declarations for 51 Texas counties.
The threat of climate change lurks behind many recent events.
“Last year, of course, was the warmest year on record by a pretty large margin, and this year, so far, has been the warmest on record for this time of June,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said at a briefing on Monday.
While it will take time for climate scientists to understand and calculate the impact of global warming on individual weather events, the science is clear that as the planet warms, the likelihood of extreme temperatures increases, and the risk of heavy rains increases because a warmer atmosphere can hold and release more moisture.
As a result, the effects of climate change will be more noticeable in the summer, Swain said.
“It’s not surprising that we’re seeing another wave of record-breaking heat and record-breaking rainfall. It’s exhausting, but I think it’s really important that we don’t forget or let it slip away,” he said. “And this heat is especially pronounced in the summer, because, of course, the Northern Hemisphere summer is when most people on the planet experience the hottest weather.”
Extremely heavy rainfall over the weekend flooded communities in at least 80 counties in Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota, temporarily isolating the town of Spencer, Iowa, of 11,000 people from the rest of the state. About 2,000 structures, including hundreds of homes, were damaged in Iowa alone.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes some crazy ideas for how to tinker with the universe and tests their effects against the laws of physics, from snapping the moon in half to causing doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or check out our podcast page.
By the end of the 16th century, pretty much everyone knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, not the other way around. This was a huge blow to those who thought the Earth was the center of the universe, but the Dead Planets Society is here to ease their disappointment. Yes, we're trying to revive geocentrism.
Putting Earth at the center of the solar system requires more than just fudging the math: The Sun is much more massive than our puny planet, so forcing it to orbit the Sun would be nearly impossible, so hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane would have to make some major changes to the solar system as we know it.
In this episode, Andy Rivkin Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland say the only way to make Earth an Earth-centered solar system would be to make it the most massive thing around – which would have some strange effects, assuming it doesn't collapse the planet into a black hole.
First, the Moon would have to speed up to maintain its orbit, orbiting the Earth in an hour or so before it would break apart. If the remaining planets didn't speed up too, they would all crash into the new giant Earth within a decade or two. The Earth's extra mass could also disrupt other nearby stars, causing them to start attracting it to Earth. A victorious Earth-centered solar system might not last long, but it would certainly come to a dramatic end.
We tend to think of space-time as the underlying structure of the universe, but whether it’s truly fundamental, or whether it arises from something much deeper, is a question that keeps physicists up at night. “It’s not a philosophical question to debate over a beer,” physicists say. Marika Taylor “This is something that actually gets built into the calculations that people make,” say researchers from the University of Birmingham in the UK.
A great place to start is quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of elementary particles. One of the core tenets of this notoriously counterintuitive theory is that connections between particles can transcend our usual concepts of space and time. This happens through a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, in which particles can affect each other’s properties even when they’re half a universe apart.
Cosmologists now generally accept that quantum entanglement is intimately connected to the emergence of space. If we know the degree of quantum entanglement between two quantum particles, we can derive the distance between them. When we do this for a network of many particles, a geometry begins to form from which we can call space emerge. In other words, space may emerge from quantum entanglement.
Entanglement and space-time
Furthermore, advances in string theory, a candidate theory of everything, suggest that what happens in the universe can be explained entirely by data held at the exterior, or boundary, of that space — a phenomenon known as holographic duality. Combine this with quantum entanglement and you can build a universe that boasts a spatial fabric of distance and geometry.
All life as we know it in the entire universe is tucked away on a tiny rock floating in a tiny branch of the Milky Way galaxy. There are billions of other planets that could potentially support life, but how does our location affect our chances of finding it?
So far, the search for life elsewhere has only scratched the surface. “The bubble of space we've been able to explore around the Sun is tiny compared to the size of our galaxy,” he said. Jesse Christiansen“But we've already discovered more than 5,000 planets, called exoplanets, that orbit other stars,” says John F. Kennedy, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology. Some of these have been found throughout our galaxy and even in other galaxies, but most are within a few hundred light years of the sun, a stone's throw in the scheme of the universe.
Our Galactic Neighborhood
Astronomers are beginning to look at different types of stars in the galactic outskirts and how they affect the habitability of planets around them. We live in an arm of the Milky Way galaxy called Orion, inside the main plane of the galaxy called the thin disk. We are surrounded by stars in the Orion arm. Further outwards, we are surrounded by the dense bulge of the galaxy's dense core on one side, and the sparser outer parts of the other arms of the galaxy on the other side.
Thin, disk-shaped stars, like our Sun and other stars in the constellation Orion, generally…
Researchers say smiles made from living human skin could one day be attached to humanoid robots, allowing the machines to emote and communicate in a more lifelike way – and the wrinkles could even be useful for the cosmetics industry.
The living tissue is a mixture of human skin cells grown on a collagen scaffold, then placed on a 3D-printed resin base. Unlike previous similar experiments, this skin also contains the equivalent of ligaments, which are embedded in the layers of tissue beneath the skin of humans and other animals and hold the skin in place, giving it incredible strength and flexibility.
Michio Kawai The Harvard researchers call their ligament equivalents “perforated anchors” because they were made by drilling holes in the robot's plastic base and filling the tiny V-shaped cavities with tissue, which helps the robot's skin stay in place.
The team attached the skin to a smiling robotic face a few centimeters wide, which could be moved by rods attached to a base, and to a similarly sized 3D shape in the shape of a human head (see below), which could not be moved.
“As the roles required of robots expand due to developments in AI technology and other factors, the functions required of robot skin are also starting to change,” Kawai said, adding that having human-like skin could make communication between robots and humans smoother.
3D head shape covered with living skin
Takeuchi et al. (CC-BY-ND)
The research could also have unexpected benefits for the cosmetics industry: In tests, the researchers made the tiny robot's face laugh for a month and found that they could replicate the formation of expression wrinkles on the skin, Kawai says.
“If we can reproduce wrinkle formation on a palm-sized research chip, it could also be used to test new cosmetics and skincare products aimed at preventing, delaying or improving wrinkle formation,” said Kawai, who conducted the research while at the University of Tokyo.
Of course, this skin still lacks some of the functionality and durability of real skin, Kawai says.
“They have no sensing capabilities and no blood vessels to provide them with nutrients and water, so they cannot survive long in air,” he says. “To address these issues, our current challenge is to incorporate neural mechanisms and perfusion pathways into the skin tissue.”
In a sense, we are at the center of the universe. But that’s because we see the same distance in every direction, and the observable universe is perfectly spherical. Due to the limitations of the speed of light and the inexorable expansion of the universe, we can see about 46 billion light years away in every direction. What is beyond this horizon? That is a mystery that will never be solved.
But there are clues. The overall size of the universe is governed by two competing effects: gravity and dark energy. All matter has mass, which causes gravity, pulling everything to everything else. But to their surprise, early 20th-century cosmologists discovered that distant galaxies appear to be moving away from us at incredible speeds. The mysterious force that causes this strange expansion of space is called dark energy, and its nature remains a mystery to this day.
“Before we discovered dark energy and accelerating expansion, the universe was much simpler,” the cosmologist says. Wendy Friedman Researchers at the University of Chicago say that without dark energy, the universe would be much smaller, making its size easier to predict.
Even with dark energy, the universe may only be slightly larger than we can see. Jean-Luc LehnersHe then worked at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany. Jerome Quintin University of Waterloo, Canada The model was published It suggests that the period of rapid expansion just after the Big Bang, the so-called inflation, may have been even shorter than we thought, making the universe smaller…
The Chang’e-6 probe is recovered in Xiziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, China.
Xinhua/Shutterstock
China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft has returned to Earth, bringing back the first chunk of space rock from the far side of the moon.
The capsule separated from the orbital container at around 1:20 p.m. local time, 5,000 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in Xiziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China on June 25.
The sample, which should contain about 2 kilograms of lunar material, descended the final 10 kilometres by parachute, landing at 2:07pm and being retrieved by scientists from the China National Space Administration.
Landing on the far side of the moon is difficult because it always faces away from Earth and there is no direct communication line, and this area’s surface remained unexplored until a Chinese spacecraft landed there earlier this month.
The landing and recovery operations relied heavily on autonomous processes and robotic tools, but Chinese engineers were able to send messages to the spacecraft through the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, which was launched in March this year and is still orbiting the moon.
The samples include surface and two meters of material scooped up by Chang’e-6 drilling into its landing site in Apollo Crater, which is within the larger South Pole-Aitken Basin. Scientists hope that this material will help explain how and when these basins formed, and may enable understanding of the origins of other similar lunar craters.
The rocks may indicate the amount of water ice in the region, which could be a key resource for a manned mission that China hopes to send to the moon by 2030.
Before embarking on its crewed mission, China plans to send two more spacecraft, Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8, to the lunar south pole to gather information on a potential site for a base to be called the International Lunar Research Station. China is leading the mission in collaboration with Russian space agency Roscosmos.
We think of this universe as containing everything that exists, has existed in the past, and will exist in the future, but that may not be the case – there are many ways in which other universes exist.
One is that we may be part of a branch of an infinite number of universes collectively known as the multiverse. These universes could have emerged shortly after the Big Bang, could be hiding in extra dimensions, or could suddenly appear whenever quantum properties shift from different states into a single reality.
The idea of a multiverse rose to scientific prominence in the 1980s with the invention of inflation, a period when the early universe suddenly expanded. Inflation explains why the universe is so flat and smooth, but it also predicts the creation of many independent bubble universes.
Cyclic Universe
But inflation is only one path to a multiverse, and critics say it has some merit. In recent years, many cosmologists have turned to alternative theories, such as cyclical universe theory, which claims that the universe is expanding and compressing endlessly. These theories still claim multiple universes, but at different times.
“What I don’t like about inflation is that there is very little true prediction. You never get back more than you put in.” Neil Tulloch Physicist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Model of a cyclical universe In my 2001 book Inflation Rivals, I argued that there must be a better explanation for inflation.
IIn the vast white desert of Salinas Grandes, 45-year-old Antonio Carpanchay raises an axe and chips away at the earth. He has worked the land since he was 12, splitting and collecting salt, replenishing it for the next season and teaching his children to do the same.
“Our whole indigenous community works here, even the elders,” he says, shielding his sunburned face from the sun. “We’ve always done it. It’s our livelihood.”
As his son watches warily, Karpanchai points north, to a pile of black stones and mud that stands out from the stark whiteness of the plains. “They started mining for lithium in 2010,” he says. “We made them stop because they were destroying the environment and affecting the water quality. But now they’re coming back, and I’m scared. We could lose everything we have.”
Antonio Carpanchay and his son mine and sell salt in Salinas Grandes, Argentina.
The Salinas Grandes are the largest salt flats in Argentina, stretching over 200 miles and containing a biodiverse ecosystem. Sitting in the Lithium Triangle The same goes for parts of Chile and Bolivia.
Lithium is a silvery metal known as platinum and is a vital element in batteries for mobile phones and electric cars. By 2040, global demand is predicted to increase more than 40-fold. But that exploitation has also raised moral debates, pitting the transition to green energy against the rights of local and indigenous peoples.
The sign reads “No to Lithium.”
Thirty-three indigenous communities in the Atacama and Cola regions, fearful of losing or polluting their water resources and being forced off their lands, have banded together for 14 years to try to halt the mining operations. “Please respect our territory” and “No to lithium” are scrawled on dozens of road signs, abandoned buildings, and murals.
But now, with more than 30 global mining conglomerates moving into the region at the instigation of “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milley, the battle lines are being redrawn. Offers of jobs and investment are increasingly dividing communities, with some already reneging on agreements and more expected to follow.
“Businesses are moving in,” Karpanchai said. “I worry about my grandchildren’s future.”
TThe biggest concern for indigenous peoples is water. Approximately 2 million liters of evaporation is required per tonne of lithium. This threatens to dry up the region’s wetlands and already dry rivers and lakes. Industrial-scale pumping also threatens to contaminate fresh groundwater, endangering livestock and small-scale agriculture. The impacts will likely reach farther than the immediate source of the water: as locals say, “water knows no borders.”
Clemente Flores, a 59-year-old community leader, says water is the most important part of Pachamama, which means “Mother Earth.” “Water nourishes the air, the soil, the pastures for the animals and the food we eat,” he argues.
“If we used all the water for mining, the salt flats would dry up. We need water to grow salt. Without salt, there are no jobs,” said Karpanchai, who relies on the freshwater resources to raise llamas and sheep. “Chemicals from mining could pollute the water and pastures. We could lose everything.”
Flavia Lamas, 30, a tour guide on the salt flats, remembers when lithium companies began exploring around 2010. “They said mining lithium would not affect Mother Earth, but then water became a problem. Water was running off the salt flats and after just one month our land started to degrade,” she says.
Flavia Lamas, who guides tourists through the Salinas Grandes salt flats, compares the mining companies to the Spanish colonial army of the 1500s.
According to Pia Marchegiani, director of environmental policy at the NGO: Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (Fern) Environmental assessments leave gaps in understanding the full impact of large-scale development. “This region is a watershed. Water comes from everywhere, but nobody is looking at the whole picture,” Marchegiani says. “You have Australians, Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, but nobody is adding up their water use.”
Wildlife within the ecosystem may also be affected. A 2022 study found that flamingosLithium mining in Chile is slowly killing off coral reefs that feed on microorganisms in seawater.
Communities also fear their land will disappear. Indigenous people consider the land sacred and ancestral, and have lived on it for centuries, but they worry they will be forcibly removed. “We can’t sacrifice our community land. Do you think that’s going to save the planet? Instead, we’re destroying Mother Earth herself,” Flores says.
A painting welcoming visitors to the village of El Moreno features an anti-lithium message.
youUntil recently, the 33 communities fought together as one, but over the past year, cracks have appeared as mining companies have offered economic incentives. “Companies are approaching,” Karpanchai said. “They approach us alone, they come in disguise. People are feeling the pressure.”
Lamas says mining companies are descending on the region like conquistadors in the 1500s. “The Spanish brought mirrors as gifts. Now the miners come by truck,” she says. “We’ve been offered gifts, trucks, and houses in the city, but we don’t want to live there.”
Marchegiani accuses the companies of deploying “divide and conquer” tactics. Alicia Chalabet, an indigenous lawyer from Salinas Grandes, says the community is under “constant pressure” to agree to the demands. “We’re flooded with lithium companies here. It’s increased a lot in the last five years,” said Chalabet, who is currently handling 20 cases. “The community is just an obstacle.”
The community of Lipan was the first to agree to let mining company Rishon Energy explore the waters beneath the saltwater in exchange for promises of jobs and essential services, but some residents say the decision was controversial, and some community members claim not all residents were allowed to vote.
A facility set up by Rishon Energy to explore lithium potential near the village of Lipan. The company claims to employ staff from the local area and invest in their training.
Rishon denies that its decision to mine in Lipan was controversial and says it complied with all regulations that require it to seek local community support in lithium exploration. The company has previously told reporters that it has invested in 15 secondary school and 15 university scholarships, provided computers to local schools, and hired 12 workers from Lipan.
Anastasia Castillo, 38, grew up in Lipan and now lives in a nearby commune. She says neither she nor her parents, who remain in the village, agreed. “I’m very sad. My children’s future is ruined. We have 100 cows and 80 llamas in the area, which is my main job. I’m afraid they’ll die,” Castillo said. “Now we’re separated.”
An astrophysicist and a surgeon walk into a bar. No, this is not the start of a bad joke. A few years ago, an astrophysicist Franco Vazza I met my childhood friend Alberto FerrettiAnd then he became a neurosurgeon. Vazza was modeling the structure of the universe, while Ferretti was delving into the brain. The two men reminisced and talked about their work. And then an idea occurred to them: What if they compared?
Vazza, based at the University of Bologna in Italy, has done just that. He used statistical techniques to compare neurons in a region of the brain called the cortex to the cosmic web, the pattern of matter distribution throughout the universe. Vazza looked at the number of nodes in each network and how densely connected each node is. The results surprised him.“It's a really interesting level of similarity,” he says. Ignoring the difference in the structures' sizes, which are about 27 orders of magnitude, “the two patterns kind of overlap,” Vazza says.
Some physicists cannot ignore this similarity, suggesting that the universe may “think” – that is, be conscious in some sense – an idea that has roots in the philosophy of panpsychism.
Traditionally, researchers have explained consciousness in one of two ways. Materialists argue that there is only matter, and consciousness somehow arises from that. Dualists argue that there are fundamentally two kinds of matter: matter and consciousness. There has been much discussion about the shortcomings of both views. For example, how can consciousness arise from pure matter?
IEven though it’s the next big game for the PlayStation 5 and it’s in Sony’s DNA, there’s still something Nintendo about Astro Bot. That’s because it’s perfectly designed for the controller it’s played on, taking advantage of all the features of the DualSense controller. The spacey aesthetic, with different planets representing different colorful worlds to jump into, is reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy, and it’s just pure joy to play. On a console where the most well-known hits are pretty serious (like God of War and The Last of Us), Astro Bot prioritizes fun.
“I think Sony’s product design is about cool, but it also embraces playfulness,” says Nicolas Doucet, studio director at Team Asobi, the Japanese studio behind Astro Bot. “The two are not mutually exclusive or antagonistic… [PlayStation] The hardware team loved it and no one cared less about it. These are highly crafted products, so you can imagine that designers wouldn’t want them tampered with. But we were looking at PSVR and turning it into a mothership.”
The first Astro Bot game, Rescue Mission, was the best thing ever made for PlayStation’s VR headset, a clever platformer brimming with original ideas. Astro’s Playroom was a treat that came packaged with the PS5 when it launched in 2020, designed to show off the capabilities of Sony’s new console and its controller. It did so brilliantly, with levels themed around the PS5’s super-fast SSD hard drive and a singing GPU soundtrack, taking full advantage of every little gimmick in the PS5 controller, from the microphone to the haptic triggers. But Astro’s Playroom was also, unexpectedly, an interactive museum of Sony’s gaming hardware. As I played, I collected consoles, peripherals, and other knickknacks, gradually filling the lab with PlayStation history. It was fun.
A cheeky idea that will never come again… Astro Bots. Photo: Sony/Team Asobi
During the development of Astro’s Playroom, Team Asobi worked very closely with the people making the PS5 and the controller. They were even running around the building with prototypes in paper bags, Doucet said. “They gave us prototype controllers that were twice the size of a normal controller, or they put two controllers together because they needed more power. You can see how much work went into miniaturizing all that and making a controller that looks and feels good. They came up with features like adaptive triggers and haptics because they Feeling Our job is to generate as many ideas as possible about how it might be used, and then validate and sometimes deny those intuitions. After all, we’re not selling technology, we’re selling an experience, a magical experience. come “From technology.”
Now, Team Asobi was given the freedom to create a bigger, longer game (12 hours or so) as an extended tech demo, without being tied to a single piece of PlayStation hardware. That said, it’s still a clear tribute to all things Sony. It incorporates many ideas that didn’t make it into the 2020 game. Astro Bot now flies between levels in a controller-shaped spaceship whose exhaust gases are made up of PlayStation button symbols. Running around several levels as this adorable robot, I slid down a waterslide with a bunch of beach balls, jumped off a high board into a pool, took down an angry giant octopus by slingshotting myself in the face with a retractable frog-face boxing glove, used a magnet to gather pieces of metal into a ball big enough to smash things, and blew up Astro like a balloon before sending him flying with the gas that erupted.
It’s super cute, funny and full of playful details. We discovered that the flames spewing from Astro’s jetpack can cut through wooden logs, but only because it’s fun; Astro struck a confident surfing pose when he hopped onto a turtle to see if he could ride on its back; and when we tickled a sad-looking anemone to discover a secret room, we were greeted with a chorus of “Secret!” These details are inconsequential, but as Doucet points out, “They’re important, because all these little things become memories.”
The levels are like a solar system that slowly expands outwards as the challenge increases. There’s the safest one towards the middle, where a 5-year-old can have fun kicking a football, jumping through water, and punching the occasional bad guy. And then there are the hardest levels towards the edge. There are over 150 little tributes to PlayStation games, from PaRappa the Rapper to Journey, in the form of cosplay robots that you can rescue. The challenge levels will test your 90s childhood 3D platforming skills, including precision jumps across platforms suspended in time and a miniature ice rink floating in space. This is the simplest fun I’ve had playing a game in a long time.
Team Asobi is relatively small, with about 65 people, and relatively international. According to Doucet, three-quarters of the team is Japanese, and the rest are from 16 countries. Some of them have worked on past PlayStation projects, such as Shadow of the Colossus and Gravity Daze, but some are newcomers. They are all focused on making Astro Bot a true mascot for PlayStation, Doucet says. “We want to develop Astro into a really strong franchise. We want to develop this little character even more,” he says. “There are a lot of expectations to meet at PlayStation, but we never forget that we are the underdogs. That’s part of the mindset of a successful person, you always want to be in pursuit of something. If you become too satisfied, the game starts to lose its soul.”
Astro Bot certainly has a soul. It’s clear that the development team is having a lot of fun. “We’re geeky people, and I’m a PlayStation collector myself,” says Doucet. “It might sound a little corny, but it’s important that we’re happy so that our players are happy.”
Astro Bot will be available on PlayStation 5 on September 6th
TThe state of the art in AI just got a little bit further along: On Friday, Anthropic, an AI lab founded by a team of disgruntled OpenAI staffers, released the latest version of its Claude LLM. From Bloomberg:
The company announced on Thursday that a new model of the technology behind its popular chatbot, “Claude,” is twice as fast as its most powerful predecessor. In its evaluation, Anthropik said the model outperformed leading competitors such as OpenAI in several key intelligence capabilities, including coding and text-based reasoning.
Anthropik just released the previous version of Claude, 3.0, in March. This latest model is called 3.5, and it’s currently only available on the company’s mid-range model, “Sonnet.” The company says a faster, cheaper, less powerful “Haiku” version is coming soon, as well as a slower, more expensive, but most powerful “Opus.”
But even before Opus arrived, Anthropic claimed to have the best AI on the market. In a series of head-to-head comparisons posted on the company’s blog, 3.5 Sonnet outperformed OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4o, in tasks like math quizzes, text comprehension, and undergraduate-level knowledge. It wasn’t a clean sweep, with GPT maintaining the lead in several benchmarks, but it was enough to justify the company’s claim that it’s on the cutting edge of what’s possible.
From a more qualitative perspective, AI seems to be a step forward. Anthropic states:
They have a significantly improved ability to understand nuance, humor, and complex instructions, and they excel at writing high-quality content in a natural, relatable tone.
They’re grading their own homework, and their explanation matches the changes I’ve noticed: No matter where the technical benchmarks are, I find talking to the latest version of Claude more enjoyable than any AI system I’ve used before.
But the company isn’t just selling power updates. Instead, in a way favored by smaller competitors around the world, Anthropic is focusing as much on cost as it is on features. The company claims that Claude 3.5 is not only smarter than its predecessor, but also cheaper.
Antarctica’s melting ice sheet could retreat faster as warmer ocean water invades underneath it, and rising ocean temperatures could trigger a “runaway” feedback effect that pushes warm water further inland, melting even more ice and accelerating sea-level rise.
As the climate warms, the future of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet remains uncertain, and predictions vary widely about how quickly it will melt and therefore how much it will contribute to sea-level rise. One dynamic that researchers have only recently begun to recognize as a key factor is the intrusion of warmer ocean water beneath the ice.
“The mechanisms of invasion are much more powerful than we previously understood.” Alexander Bradley At the British Antarctic Survey.
Such intrusions are driven by density differences between the freshwater flowing out from beneath the ice sheet and the warmer waters where the ice meets the sea floor, known as the grounding line. They are difficult to observe directly because they occur hundreds of meters beneath the ice, but simulations suggest that in some places the warm waters could extend several kilometers inland.
One model by Alexander Lovell Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta found that widespread ice-sheet intrusion could add heat from below, lubricating ice flow along bedrock and more than doubling ice loss from the ice sheet.
Bradley and his colleagues Ian Hewitt Using their model, Oxford researchers explained how the shape of cavities in the ice changes as the ice melts, altering how ocean water flows in.
The researchers found that once ocean water reaches a certain temperature threshold, ice from the ice sheet melts faster than it can be replaced by outflowing ice. If this cavity grows larger, more water could flow under the ice sheet and penetrate further inland, creating a so-called “runaway” positive feedback effect.
“Small changes in ocean temperature lead to dramatic changes in how far warm water can intrude,” Bradley said. The ocean warming needed to cause this effect is within the range expected this century, he said, but models cannot yet predict it for specific ice sheets, and not all ice sheets are equally susceptible to such intrusions.
“This positive feedback could lead to much more intrusion than we thought,” Lovell says. “Whether that’s a tipping point that leads to unrestrained intrusion of ocean water beneath the ice sheet is probably a stretch.”
Do you own a precious and adorable cat? If so, your feline friend may be obstructing your view of this page and causing havoc once again, particularly if you are browsing on a laptop.
But why do cats have this tendency? What drives them to interfere with our computers?
Unfortunately, there have not been any extensive scientific studies to explore this question yet. However, cat behavior experts have a relevant theory that could shed light on why cats love to sit on keyboards.
Why does my cat sit on my laptop?
It’s unlikely that your cat wants to mimic your typing or join in with your computer activities. Recent research suggests that cats are capable of imitating human actions, such as touching objects with specific body parts. However, typing is a behavior that cats struggle to replicate, as explained by Dr. David Sands, an Animal Psychology Expert with over 25 years of experience.
While laptops do emit heat which may attract cats, the main draw for felines is the smell of their owners on the keyboard. Cats have a strong sense of smell and enjoy leaving their scent on objects to show ownership. This behavior is more about claiming territory and marking their humans rather than seeking warmth or copying human actions.
In summary, it’s not harmful for your cat to sit on your laptop physically, but if the behavior becomes excessive or is accompanied by other signs of anxiety or attention-seeking, it may be worth monitoring.
About our Expert, Dr. David Sands
Dr. David Sands holds a PhD in Ethology (Animal Psychology) and boasts more than 25 years of experience in animal behavior clinics. He is affiliated with the Canine and Cat Behavioural Association (CFBA) and the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) and has authored several books, including 500 Questions About Cats Answered.
The choice to name a new project the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) may come across as presumptuous. Dark energy, you see, is completely unseen; it does not emit any detectable light for a spectrometer to analyze. In fact, dark energy has never been directly observed and has managed to evade capture despite efforts made using the most advanced telescopes and detectors available.
As far as we understand it, dark energy is invisible, uniformly spread throughout space, does not interact with matter or light, and serves the sole purpose of accelerating the universe’s expansion through a mechanism that remains a mystery to us.
So, with the recent announcement of DESI’s initial data release, are we witnessing a shift in our comprehension of dark energy, as promised?
In the search for elusive dark energy, our observations offer limited insights: dark energy merely stretches space-time. To investigate different theories about dark energy, we must examine how this stretching occurred over cosmic time.
One method is to observe the universe’s expansion history, while another involves examining how matter accumulated within galaxies and clusters at various junctures in the universe’s past.
Efforts to measure the expansion rate often involve constructing a precise 3D map of the universe’s matter. By studying the spectra of light, we can determine how much it has stretched due to the universe’s expansion. By combining this information with accurate physical distances, we gain valuable insights into the universe’s evolution.
DESI’s new model has stirred speculation by proposing that dark energy may have a more intricate history than previously believed. If these indications prove to be accurate, they could revolutionize our understanding of not just the universe’s past, but also its eventual fate.
The Concordance Model of Cosmology outlines the prevailing model of the universe and its components. In this model, dark energy is viewed as a cosmological constant, providing a minimal flexibility to every part of space.
DESI and other surveys commonly report their dark energy findings in terms of an “equation of state” parameter denoted as w. A value of w = -1 is expected if dark energy behaves as a cosmological constant. Any deviation from this value implies a different characteristic for dark energy.
The recent DESI findings present a puzzling scenario: while a constant w of -1 aligns well with the results, a scenario where w is variable suggests a different interpretation. When combined with data from other sources, these results hint at a changing w, implying a varying impact of dark energy on the universe over time.
While the implications of these findings remain uncertain, they raise intriguing possibilities about the future course of the universe and the role of dark energy within it. Though still preliminary, these results suggest that dark energy may continue to surprise us in unforeseen ways in the future.
The Moon, Earth’s steadfast companion that remains in orbit, has been a popular subject of discussion since the early days of space exploration. Missions have been planned, rovers have explored its surface, and even a flag has been planted there.
But why all the interest? The Moon is over 400,000 km away from Earth, a considerable distance to travel, and it poses many challenges as a potential habitat for humans, such as exposure to solar radiation.
However, the Moon offers other advantages. Being largely untouched, it presents opportunities for planetary research, scientific experiments, and notably, mining for valuable resources.
There is a growing interest in lunar exploration, raising the important question of lunar ownership. Philosopher and author AC Grayling addresses this topic in his new book, “Who owns the moon?”
SF: Why are we interested in going to the moon, and will it ever happen?
ACG: The Moon holds vast resources, making it a lucrative target for mining operations. Coupled with the rapid pace of technological advancements, the obstacles to lunar exploration are likely to be overcome. Significant investments are being made in this endeavor, indicating the potential benefits that could be derived.
While some argue that lunar exploration is not feasible, the lure of valuable resources like Helium-3 for clean nuclear fusion makes the Moon an attractive destination for mining activities.
SF: So who actually owns the moon?
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, agreed upon by the United Nations, asserts that the Moon cannot be militarized or claimed for sovereignty or ownership. It is considered a shared resource belonging to all of humanity.
With various nations eyeing lunar exploration and exploitation, concerns about potential conflicts arise, highlighting the need for clearer regulations and agreements.
What are the next steps? Will the law be strengthened?
Efforts are being made to establish binding regulations, but the presence of multiple space agencies and rivalries between nations complicate the process. Initiatives like the Artemis Accords aim to set guidelines for responsible behavior in space.
However, the prospect of a new space race between major powers like the US, China, and Russia raises concerns about the potential for conflict and competition in space.
Can history give us any indication of what might happen?
The Antarctic Treaty serves as a model for international cooperation in preserving shared resources. However, challenges to extend the treaty’s scope and conflicting claims in Antarctica hint at the complexities of managing common territories.
Similar issues could arise in lunar exploration, especially with the potential for valuable mineral resources like Helium-3. The absence of clear regulations and the lack of a universal agreement on space governance present significant hurdles.
Is there an argument to leave the moon alone?
Given the Moon’s vast and barren nature, concerns about environmental impacts are minimal compared to Earth. Utilizing lunar resources for space exploration and sustainable practices could be more beneficial in the long run.
What’s the next step after the moon?
The Moon’s potential as a refueling station for Mars missions opens up new possibilities for further space exploration. As colonies on celestial bodies evolve, questions of independence and governance will arise, shaping the future of human presence in space.
In conclusion, the direction of space activities will determine whether they align with values upheld on Earth or devolve into profit-driven ventures. Clear regulations and international cooperation are essential to ensure a sustainable and equitable future in space.
About our expert, A.C. Grayling
AC Grayling is a philosopher and author of the book “Whose Moon is It?” He is also the founder of the New College of the Humanities and a respected figure in literary criticism and intellectual discourse.
The ancient ship and its cargo are estimated to date to the 13th century BC, making it one of the oldest shipwrecks ever discovered.
Canaanite amphorae discovered in a 3,300-year-old shipwreck. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The 3,300-year-old shipwreck was discovered 90 kilometers (56 miles) off the coast of Israel, on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles).
“The ship appears to have sunk due to a storm or an attempted pirate attack,” said Dr Jacob Sharvit, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s maritime department.
“This is the first ship ever found in the deep waters of the eastern Mediterranean, 90 kilometres from the nearest coast, and also the oldest.”
“This is a history-changing discovery of global scale. It sheds light like never before on the navigational skills of ancient sailors who were able to cross the Mediterranean without ever seeing the coast. From this geographical point, all you can see is the horizon.”
“It seems likely that celestial objects were used to navigate by observing the positions and angles of the sun and stars.”
The discovery was made by a team from Energene, a London-based natural gas producer, during an environmental survey of the seabed.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to discover and extract natural gas from the deep sea, we are carrying out surveys to check various parameters using advanced submersible robots to explore the seabed,” said Dr Karnit Bahartan, head of Energean’s environmental staff.
“About a year ago, while surveying, we came across an unusual sight: a large pile of water jugs on the seabed.”
“We have been in constant contact with the Israel Antiquities Authority and when we sent them the images, it turned out to be a sensational find, far beyond our imagination.”
A 3,300-year-old shipwreck on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“Robotic investigation and mapping of the site revealed that the ship was a wreck approximately 12-14 metres (39-46 feet) long and was carrying hundreds of passengers. Late Bronze Age Canaanite storage vesselsOnly a small fraction of it is visible above the ocean floor,” Dr Sharbit said.
“There appears to be a second level of ship hidden in the muddy bottom, with the wooden beams of the ship also buried in the mud.”
“The type of vessel identified in the shipment was designed as the most efficient means of transporting relatively cheap, mass-produced products, such as oil, wine, and agricultural products such as fruit.”
“The discovery of such a large number of amphorae on a single ship attests to important commercial links between their country of origin and the ancient Near Eastern countries along the Mediterranean coast.”
“This is a truly stunning discovery. There are only two other known cargo-laden shipwrecks from the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean – the Cape Gelidnja ship and the Uluburun ship, both found off the coast of Turkey.”
“But both wrecks were found relatively close to shore and were accessible using standard diving equipment.”
“Based on these two discoveries, the previous academic hypothesis was that trade at that time was carried out by flying safely from port to port, keeping eye contact along the coastline.”
“The discovery of this ship completely changes our understanding of the capabilities of ancient seafarers. It is the first time that a ship has been found so far away that land is completely out of sight.”
“There is great potential for research here. Because the ship has been preserved at great depth, time has stopped since the moment of the disaster. The hull and the surrounding conditions have not been disturbed by human hands (divers, fishermen, etc.), nor have they been subject to the waves and currents that affect shipwrecks in shallow waters.”
“The significance of these discoveries has led to the decision to open the archaeological campus for ‘tasting’ tours this summer, to display these Canaanite ships excavated from the seabed and to tell the public their story,” said Dr. Eli Eskseed, Director General of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“This visit will allow visitors to get a glimpse of this unique building, its mosaics and laboratories ahead of the official opening of the vast visitor centre, scheduled for two years from today.”
“We are extremely grateful to Energiaan for their swift response in identifying this ancient cargo and for committing resources to enable this initial understanding to be gained from this unusual shipwreck.”
High concentrations of free amino acids in tea leaves are important for tea’s flavor and health functions, but their biosynthesis, transport and turnover in the tea plant have remained unknown.
A practical model of nitrogen assimilation, amino acid synthesis, transport, and decomposition/recycling in tea plants. Image courtesy of Yu others., doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae060.
“Amino acids are essential for plant growth and have a significant impact on the flavor and health benefits of tea,” Professor Zhao Jian Hunan Agricultural University and colleagues.
“Especially the tea trees Camellia sinensis exhibits a unique amino acid profile that contributes to its distinctive taste and nutritional value.”
“Although the importance of amino acids such as theanine and glutamine (Gln) is known, the detailed dynamics of their synthesis, transport and degradation in tea plants remain unknown.”
“These challenges require intensive research to be carried out to understand the complex metabolic pathways and spatial distribution of amino acids within the tea plant.”
In the study, Professor Zhao and his co-authors analyzed the spatial dynamics of amino acid biosynthesis, transport and turnover in tea plants.
“This study provides a detailed analysis of the metabolic pathways and gene expression that control these processes,” the researchers said.
“By understanding these mechanisms, we hope to improve tea cultivation and enhance the quality of tea beverages.”
“This study revealed that nitrogen assimilation occurs mainly in the roots, where glutamate, theanine and arginine (Arg) are actively synthesized. These amino acids are then transported through the plant’s vascular system.”
“Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes involved in Arg synthesis are highly expressed in roots, whereas genes involved in Arg transport and degradation are expressed in stems and young leaves. This indicates that there is a sophisticated amino acid management system within the plant.”
“One of the key findings is the role of the CsGSIa gene, which is crucial for the synthesis, transport and recycling of amino acids.”
“Overexpression and knockdown experiments of CsGSIa in transgenic tea plants demonstrated significant effects on the levels of Gln and theanine.”
“The study also revealed that Arg, Gln, glutamic acid (Glu), and theanine are the major amino acids transported through xylem sap, facilitating long-distance nitrogen transport from roots to leaves.”
“Our findings provide a detailed map of amino acid metabolism in the tea plant, which is of vital importance for both basic science and applied agricultural practice,” Dr Zhao said.
“Understanding these metabolic pathways opens up new possibilities for breeding tea varieties with enhanced flavor and health benefits.”
The team’s findings have important implications for the tea industry.
“By elucidating the pathway of amino acid metabolism, our study paves the way for the development of tea plants with higher contents of beneficial amino acids, enhancing both flavour and nutritional value,” the researchers said.
“These insights can be applied to breeding programs and cultivation practices to produce superior tea varieties.”
“Furthermore, understanding these metabolic processes can help us develop strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency, contributing to more sustainable and productive tea farms.”
of study Published in the journal Horticultural Research.
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Shuwei Yu others2024. Analysis of spatial dynamics of biosynthesis, transport and metabolism of major amino acids in tea plants (Camellia sinensis). Horticultural Research 11(5):uhae060; doi:10.1093/hr/uhae060
An illustration Sacesphoroides niedegidonaeImage courtesy of Eduardo Brettas.
A newly discovered species, the northern stingray (Sacesphoroides niedegidonae)teeth, CaatingaA natural area located in the interior of northeastern Brazil.
“Caatinga is the largest seasonally dry tropical forest in the Neotropics, located in northeastern Brazil, and is characterized by a predominantly deciduous forest and extreme seasonality of rainfall,” Dr. Pablo Cerqueira Emilio Goeldi from the Paraense Museum of the Federal University of Pará and his colleagues.
“Historically, this area has been treated as a biologically impoverished region, but recent studies have uncovered new diversification patterns and several new species of frogs, mammals, insects and fish.”
“The region's topography has played an important role in its biogeographical history, with altitudes ranging from sea level in the north to an average of 400-700 metres in the central states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, to over 1,000 metres on the slopes of the Sierra de Espinhaço mountain range.”
Sacesphoroides niedegidonae It is the second known species in the genus. SacesphoroidesThis also includes Sacesphoroides cristatus.
“Until recently, Sacesphoroides cristatus Classified into the genus SacesphorusHowever, new genetic and morphological data have revealed that the genus is non-monophyletic, prompting its transfer to a separate genus. Sacesphoroides” the researchers said.
In this study, a total of 1,079 Sacesphoroides cristatus Sample size (818 males, 261 females).
To investigate song variation, the researchers analyzed a total of 115 different audio recordings.
They also sequenced 58 tissue samples from across the country. Sacesphoroides cristatus The range is wide, with 39 of them belonging to the left bank of the San Francisco River and 19 on the right bank.
Of the 1,079 individuals analysed (skins and photographs), no diagnostic plumage differences could be identified among males, but two main plumage patterns were diagnosed in females, mainly across the river.
“Men Sacesphoroides niedegidonae The feathers are similar Sacesphoroides cristatus“The males are males, but the females have different colouring on the top of their heads, backs and tails than the males,” the scientists said.
“Sacesphoroides niedegidonae It is generally lighter in color (amber) rather than chestnut brown. Sacesphoroides cristatus. “
The back is olive brown Sacesphoroides niedegidonae,on the other hand, Sacesphoroides cristatus It's cinnamon brown.”
“The overall color of the tail is Sacesphoroides niedegidonae Darker than Sacesphoroides cristatusThe most noticeable difference is the black and white stripes. Sacesphoroides cristatus It has a modest dull brown and reddish stripes, and no white stripes at all.”
“Sing out loud Sacesphoroides niedegidonae The general pattern is: Sacesphoroides cristatus“However, the shape of the first note is noticeably different,” they added.
“The new species is almost exclusively restricted to the left/north bank of the São Francisco River, with one population occurring on the right bank in the “Raço da Catarina” region of Bahia.”
“This population, discovered on the right/south bank of the San Francisco River, may have 'migrated' across the river due to changes in paleotopography, as detailed in the Discussion section below.”
Sacesphoroides niedegidonae It is a common species throughout most of its range and occurs in a variety of habitats in the Caatinga, including secondary growth vegetation.
“The range of the outbreak is estimated to be 630,000 km.2not approaching the threshold Vulnerable Status according to IUCN range criteria (<20,000 km2)2),” the authors state.
“Although population data is not available, the mature population is estimated at more than 10,000 individuals, and the species Least Concern. “
“But a new approach using niche modelling for future climate scenarios shows Sacesphoroides cristatus (include Sacesphoroides niedegidonae(same as treated prior to this study).
“When we apply the IUCN criteria to these estimated future range sizes, the threatened category is Near Threatened And more Vulnerable It depends on future global change scenarios.”
Discovery Sacesphoroides niedegidonae It has been reported paper In the journal Zoological scriptor.
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Pablo Cerqueira othersA new ant shrike (Aves: Shrikeidae) endemic to Caatinga and the role of climate variability and drainage change in shaping the potential diversity of a Neotropical seasonally dry forest. Zoological scriptorpublished online June 17, 2024. Source: 10.1111/zsc.12672
Jet engines emit large amounts of ultrafine particles
Aerovista Luchtfotografie/Shutterstock
The health of more than 50 million people living within 20 kilometres of Europe's busiest airport is being harmed by high levels of ultrafine particle pollution from jet engines, according to a report. the study It was commissioned by campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E).
Several Other studies It says ultrafine particles can increase the risk of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, diabetes and pregnancy problems. Darn Fun Setters His team, working at the Dutch consultancy CE Delft, are using these studies to try to estimate the impact for Europe as a whole.
But ultrafine particle pollution is a less-studied aspect of air pollution and there is a lot of uncertainty: “There is little research in this area and the evidence is often inconclusive,” Van Seters said.
Most research on particulate air pollution has focused on particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, so-called PM2.5. Ultrafine particles are particles smaller than 0.1 micrometers in diameter.
“They are very dangerous because they are so small and can get very deep into the human body.” Carlos Lopez de la Osa At T&E.
Jet engines emit more ultrafine particles than other types of engines, so people who live or work near airports are most likely to be exposed to this form of air pollution, but there are no effective limits on its levels.
Ultrafine particles are a type of PM2.5, but PM2.5 limits are set for the total mass of particles per cubic metre of air. Ultrafine particles are so small that even a huge number of particles per cubic metre would not exceed the PM2.5 limit.
In fact, there's very little monitoring of ultrafine particle levels, says Lopez de la Osa. “What we have are mostly regional studies around individual airports like Zurich, Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles,” he says. “We don't have a comprehensive view, and that's one of the main reasons we decided to launch this study.”
To estimate the impact across Europe, van Seters and his colleagues first estimated ultrafine particle pollution levels around the continent's 32 busiest airports, based on figures from surveys of individual airports. The team assumed that ultrafine particle pollution increases linearly with the number of flights and did not take wind patterns into account.
Next, based on studies looking at health effects, the researchers estimated that ultrafine particle pollution near 32 airports was responsible for an additional 280,000 cases of hypertension, 330,000 cases of diabetes, and 18,000 cases of dementia over the years.
“This is a first-order estimate based on extrapolation, and we need to do epidemiological studies to get more precise estimates,” Van Seters said.
But he thinks that, if anything, is an underestimate because the study only looked at 32 airports and people living within 20 kilometres, and excluded people who work at the airports.
In terms of population at risk, Orly Airport near Paris tops the list, with more than six million people living within 20 kilometers of the airport, while London's Heathrow Airport comes in fourth, with more than three million people living within the airport's vicinity.
The research team's estimates of health effects rely heavily on a study carried out in 2022 at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam. Nicole Jansen Contacted by CE Delft, Janssen and her colleagues at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands said they advised researchers not to try to quantify the impact in this way because of large uncertainties.
But they agree that more research is needed: “We would underscore our recommendation to further investigate the risk of ultrafine particles from aircraft around other international airports,” Janssen said.
There are ways to reduce ultrafine particle pollution levels, says Christina Toth of T&E. Jet fuel can be improved to reduce ultrafine particle emissions, for example by reducing its sulfur content. So-called “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAF) also reduce ultrafine particle pollution.
“Unfortunately, we know it will be a long time before SAF can be produced at scale and be effective,” Toth says.
Limiting airport expansion and flight frequencies and encouraging alternative modes of transport would help, and would also limit flying's impact on the climate.
The test flight of Starliner to the International Space Station is aimed at showcasing the spacecraft’s capability to safely transport astronauts to low Earth orbit and assess its various systems in space.
The launch of the capsule was delayed numerous times before finally taking off on June 5, several years behind schedule and significantly over budget.
According to NASA officials, the return date for the astronauts has not yet been determined, but they could potentially return after a spacewalk scheduled for July 2 from the International Space Station.
Officials mentioned that there is no urgency to depart as the space station has adequate supplies to accommodate the visitors. NASA will thoroughly investigate before approving the undocking of the capsule.
Wilmore and Williams are currently residing on the ISS alongside seven other crew members: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominic, Tracy Dyson, and Janet Epps, as well as Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkhin, and Oleg Kononenko.
During their prolonged stay in space, Wilmore and Williams will assist in the operations of the space station and conduct various tests as part of the certification process for Starliner by NASA.
“Crew feedback has been extremely positive, and they recognize that all the insights gained during crew flight testing will enhance and refine the experience for future crew members,” stated Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Boeing’s Starliner program.
Ultimately, Boeing aims to provide scheduled flights to and from the space station for NASA, akin to the commercial services offered by SpaceX with its Crew Dragon spacecraft since 2020.
Walking on hot red sand is hard work, especially when the temperature exceeds 40°C (104°F). After about 40 minutes you are soaked, dehydrated and exhausted. It is hard to imagine doing this for 40 days with all your gear, including 40 liters of water for five days, on a two-wheeled trolley. But that is exactly what my traveling companions did.
I'm in the Nahud Desert, a vast expanse of sand and rocky wilderness in northern Saudi Arabia, to experience the almost unbearable heat and meet up with 20 other people who are part of an expedition. Deep ClimateHe is dedicated to understanding how humans respond to extreme situations. “The aim is to study how humans adapt to new kinds of environments,” he says. Christian Clotteleader of the expedition and director of the French Institute of Human Adaptation.
This problem becomes even more pressing as the climate gets warmer: even in the most optimistic scenarios, heatwaves exceeding 40°C, as observed in southern Europe and across the United States over the past few months, will become the norm in many parts of the world.
So the question of what happens to our brains and bodies, and how well the human physiology can handle extreme heat, is a question that matters to millions of people. “We're going to see large swaths of densely populated areas rise to unprecedented temperatures that nobody has seen in historical climates,” he said. Tim Renton He is a researcher at the University of Exeter in the UK and recently co-authored a research paper titled “…
When Gene Marrazzo was announced as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) last year, he became one of the world's leading public health policymakers, and the responsibilities are heavier than ever before for the institute's new director, who will succeed Anthony Fauci, who held the position during the coronavirus pandemic and became a household name.
After decades of working on HIV prevention and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as overseeing COVID-19 treatment interventions, Marrazzo is now responsible for NIAID's $6.6 billion annual budget and the future of infectious disease control in the United States.
This includes working with the institute's 21 laboratories across the country, leading the fight against Ebola and HIV, and spearheading the development of new vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and technologies.
Top of Marrazzo's to-do list is tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or drug-resistant superbugs, which are predicted to cause 10 million deaths a year and cost the global economy $1 trillion annually by 2050. In May, Britain's former chief medical officer warned that the rise of these pathogens could make pandemics seem “small” and that the problem is more serious than climate change.
Global warming is one of the factors contributing to the increase in drug-resistant bacteria, and changes in the climate conditions on Earth Salmonella Causes cholera Biblio To survive, we'll need to avoid our current antibiotic arsenal altogether. Here, Marrazzo outlines what we should probably fear most, and some developments we can expect in the near future.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered at least five young globular clusters within SPT 0615-JD1 (also known as the Cosmic Gems Arc), a strongly lensed galaxy that existed when the universe was 460 million years old.
These images show the galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746 (right) and part of this cluster (left), showing two clearly lensed galaxies. The Cosmic Gems arc is shown along with several galaxy clusters. Images courtesy of NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / L. Bradley, STScI / A. Adamo, Stockholm University / Cosmic Spring Collaboration.
“These galaxies are thought to be the main source of intense radiation that reionized the early universe,” said Dr Angela Adamo, astronomer at Stockholm University and the Oskar Klein Centre.
“What’s special about the Cosmic Gems Ark is that thanks to gravitational lensing, we can actually resolve galaxies down to the parsec scale.”
SPT 0615-JD1 was originally discovered in Hubble Space Telescope images obtained by the RELICS (Reionizing Lensing Cluster Survey) program of the lensing galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746, located about 7.7 billion light-years away in the constellation of Scorpio.
The Webb telescope will enable Dr Adamo and his colleagues to see where stars are forming and how they are distributed, in a similar way that the Hubble telescope is used to study the local galaxy.
Webb’s observations provide a unique opportunity to study star formation and the internal structure of young galaxies at unprecedented distances.
“The combination of the Webb Telescope’s incredible sensitivity and angular resolution at near-infrared wavelengths, along with gravitational lensing by a large foreground galaxy cluster, made this discovery possible that would not have been possible with any other telescope,” said Dr. Larry Bradley, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
“The surprise and excitement I felt when I first opened the Webb images was overwhelming,” Dr. Adamo said.
“We saw a string of tiny bright dots projected from one side to the other. These cosmic gems are star clusters.”
“Without Webb, we would never have known we were observing star clusters in such a young galaxy.”
Astronomers say the discovery connects different scientific disciplines.
“These results provide direct evidence of the formation of protoglobular clusters in faint galaxies during periods of reionization and help us understand how these galaxies successfully reionized the Universe,” Dr Adamo said.
“This discovery also places important constraints on the formation of globular clusters and their early properties.”
“For example, the high stellar densities found in galaxy clusters provide the first indications of processes occurring within them and give new insights into the possible formation of very massive stars and black hole seeds that are important for the evolution of galaxies.”
In the future, the team hopes to construct a sample of galaxies that can achieve a similar resolution.
“I am convinced that there are more such systems in the early universe waiting to be discovered, which will improve our understanding of early galaxies even further,” said Dr Eros Vanzella, astronomer at the Bologna Observatory for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (INAF).
A. Adamo othersA bound star cluster observed in a lensed galaxy 460 million years after the Big Bang. NaturePublished online June 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07703-7
Amsterdam’s tiny street gardens provide habitat for insects
Marijke Thyssen/Shutterstock
A study of small urban gardens in the Netherlands found that they can be havens for insects and other wildlife. The two most effective factors were having a lot of plants and a wide variety of plants, whether or not the plants were native.
“Even in a really small garden, just a few plants can make a big difference.” Joe Morpurgo At Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Morpurgo says there have been some studies on biodiversity in larger gardens, but virtually none on smaller ones, so in 2019 his team surveyed 65 urban gardens in Amsterdam and The Hague, all measuring less than 10 square metres.
The researchers measured factors such as the total number of insects, the number of different species, whether the plants were native, and the area covered by the plants. Plant cover was calculated by adding up the area covered by individual specimens, so the garden’s cover can be greater than the area of the land due to plant overlap.
The researchers found that insect abundance and species richness were strongly correlated with plant cover and plant richness, but surprisingly, neither garden size nor native plant cover made any difference.
In theory, native plants should be better: Pollinating insects often adapt to particular flower shapes, and some plant-eating insects will eat specific varieties.
There are several possible explanations for why the proportion of native plants had no effect, Morpurgo said. For example, insects that breed in cities could be omnivorous, or many of them could be invasive species (the study did not categorize insects as native or not).
A study on the large-scale gardens of Wisley, England produces almost the same results“The more plant matter there is, the more invertebrates there are.” Andrew Salisbury These studies were led by staff from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
But one RHS study found that native plants could support slightly higher numbers of plant-eating species, such as caterpillars, Salisbury said.
Morpurgo said he would continue to encourage people to grow native plants, which he said have many more benefits, including cultural value as well as helping insects.
His main advice is to do nothing and just allow plants, even those we might call weeds, to grow and attract wildlife: “If you leave everything alone, nature will come into your garden,” says Morpurgo.
Maintaining good oral hygiene is crucial for overall health. It goes beyond just having clean and shiny teeth – it’s about preventing cavities, gum disease, and maintaining a healthy oral microbiome.
Everyone has their own oral care routine, but it’s important to know how to properly care for your teeth in between visits to the dentist. Dr. Kami Hoss, in his book If Your Mouth Could Speak, shares valuable insights on oral hygiene.
How should I brush my teeth?
Dr. Hoss recommends a specific order for your morning oral care routine. After breakfast, follow these steps:
Use an alkaline mouthwash
Floss
Use a tongue cleaner
Brush
Brushing your teeth should be the last step, as plaque builds up overnight and mouthwash helps loosen it. Flossing, using a tongue cleaner, and then brushing with a mild alkaline toothpaste complete the routine.
What kind of mouthwash should I use?
Dr. Hoss advises against using strong antiseptic mouthwashes, as they can disrupt the oral microbiome. Instead, opt for alkaline mouthwashes that restore pH balance in the mouth.
What causes tooth decay?
Tooth decay occurs when the pH in your mouth becomes acidic, leading to demineralization of tooth enamel. Avoiding sugary and acidic foods can help maintain a balanced pH level and prevent cavities.
About our Expert, Dr. Kami Hoss
Dr. Kami Hoss is a dentist with extensive education in dentistry and orthodontics. He is the co-founder of The Super Dentists and author of If Your Mouth Could Speak.
Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi masterpiece Dune: Part 2 The film hits theaters in the US in spring 2024. The movie follows the power struggles of the noble families of the desert planet Arrakis. But what if humanity had become an empire that spanned thousands of worlds in the distant future, as depicted in the film? Sand Dunes How common are desert planets or planets with no water at all in movies and novels?
In the search for these planets, a good place to start is with the most common stars: astronomers have observed what are called small, faint, cool, reddish stars. Red dwarf They make up most of the stars in the galaxy. Astronomers who study planets around stars other than the Sun estimate that every star has at least one planet. About half of the planets around red dwarfs are small, rocky planets with compositions similar to Earth. On the ground planet. Therefore, the most common type of terrestrial planet is thought to be around a red dwarf star.
For decades, astronomers have thought that red dwarfs are too cold for liquid water to exist on their surfaces. To reach the temperature range needed to support liquid water, planets around cooler stars need to orbit closer to their host stars than planets around hotter ones. But unlike stars like the Sun, which have a constant brightness, red dwarfs are born hotter and brighter than their final state for most of their lives.
The terrestrial planets formed with 15 to 70 times more water than Earth, most of it coming from drifting icy comets. But the heat of the young red dwarf star causes the water on these planets to evaporate, turning from liquid to gas in their atmospheres. In the planet's atmosphere, the intense starlight breaks down the water vapor into oxygen and hydrogen. Photolysis. The heavier oxygen stays on the planet while the lighter hydrogen drifts away, and astronomers estimate that as a result, planets around red dwarf stars lose tens of times as much water as Earth's oceans over their first billion years.
A team of Japanese scientists led by Hiroshi Kawamura challenged the paradigm that planets around red dwarfs should lose all their water in this way. They proposed that two factors could significantly reduce the initial water loss of planets orbiting dwarf stars. First, water is decomposed by the intense light in the planet's atmosphere, but some water is produced in the atmosphere when reactive free hydrogen mixes with hydrogen superoxide. Second, the decomposition of water in the atmosphere produces oxygen gas, which protects the water from further intense light.
Kawamura's team used software called the Photochemical and Radiation Transport Model to Proteus To test whether the planet would lose less water if these two factors were taken into account. The researchers calculated the water loss for an Earth-like planet with a water vapor-filled atmosphere and huge oceans. The planet orbits the dwarf star at a distance about 2% of the distance it orbits around the Sun, relative to TRAPPIST-1, shown in the featured image above. The researchers assumed that the only chemical reaction occurring in the planet's atmosphere is between hydrogen and oxygen. Kawamura and his team ran the model once to see if the results differed from previous studies and how they changed depending on the altitude of the planet's atmosphere.
The team found that the model planet's atmosphere turned out as expected: It had a very high layer of atmosphere, where starlight split water into free hydrogen and oxygen atoms, with the hydrogen escaping into space, and a layer of oxygen gas formed below, reducing the intensity of the starlight at lower altitudes, and the free hydrogen mixed with hydrogen superoxide in a chemical reaction to produce more water.
Ultimately, they calculated that the amount of water lost to space was only about seven times that of Earth's oceans. This means that even if a terrestrial planet started at the low end of the water content range, it could still have eight times as much water as Earth's oceans after its first billion years of existence. The researchers suggested that their findings imply that rather than a galaxy filled with planets with little water, like Earth, the universe could contain worlds with vast oceans orbiting dwarf stars. In other words, future humans are likely to discover Arrakis, but not Caladan. Still, they suggested that future researchers should test planetary water loss models with different atmospheric compositions, alternative cooling processes, and water trapped in the planet's rocks and magma.
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