Recent respiratory disease epidemics have attracted a lot of attention, yet most respiratory monitoring is limited to physical signals. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is packed with rich molecular information that can reveal various insights into an individual's health. Now, Professor Wei Gao and colleagues at California Institute of Technology have developed EBCare, a mask-based device that monitors EBC biomarkers in real time. For example, the EBCare mask can monitor asthma patients for their levels of nitrite, a chemical that indicates airway inflammation.
This diagram shows how the smart mask detects breathed chemicals, such as nitrite, an indicator of airway inflammation. Images by Wei Gao and Wenzheng Heng, Caltech.
“Monitoring a patient's breathing is routinely done, for example to assess asthma and other respiratory diseases,” Prof Gao said.
“However, this method requires patients to visit a clinic to have a sample taken and then wait for the test results.”
“Since COVID-19, people have started wearing masks. We can leverage this increased use of masks for remote, personalized monitoring to get real-time feedback on one's health from the comfort of one's own home or office.”
“For example, we could use this information to evaluate how effective a medical treatment is.”
To selectively analyze the chemicals and molecules in your breath, you first need to cool them down and condense them into a liquid.
In a clinical setting, this cooling step is separate from the analysis: Moistbreath samples are cooled in a bucket of ice or a large refrigerated cooler.
The EBCare mask, on the other hand, is self-cooling, according to the team.
The breath is cooled by a passive cooling system that integrates hydrogel evaporative cooling and radiative cooling to effectively cool the breath on the facemask.
“This mask represents a new paradigm for respiratory and metabolic disease management and precision medicine because wearing it daily allows for easy collection of breath samples and real-time analysis of exhaled chemical molecules,” said Wen-zheng Heng, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology.
“Breath condensate contains soluble gases as well as non-volatile substances in the form of aerosols and droplets, including metabolic products, inflammatory indicators and pathogens.”
Once the breath is converted into liquid, a series of capillaries in a device called bioinspired microfluidics immediately transports the liquid to a sensor for analysis.
“We learned how to transport water from plants, which use capillary action to pull water up from the ground,” Professor Gao said.
“The analysis results are then sent wirelessly to an individual's phone, tablet or computer.”
“The smart mask can be prepared at a relatively low cost. The materials are designed to cost just $1.”
To test the masks, the authors conducted a series of human studies, focusing primarily on patients with asthma or COPD.
The researchers specifically monitored the patients' breath for nitrite, a biomarker of inflammation in both diseases.
Results showed that the masks accurately detected biomarkers indicative of inflammation in patients' airways.
In a separate experiment, the masks demonstrated that they could accurately detect subjects' blood alcohol levels, suggesting that they could potentially be used for field DUI checks and other alcohol consumption monitoring.
We also explored how the mask can be used to assess blood urea levels in the monitoring and management of kidney disease.
As kidney function declines, by-products of protein metabolism, such as urea, accumulate in the blood.
At the same time, the amount of urea in saliva increases, which breaks down into ammonia gas, leading to high ammonium concentrations in the breath condensate.
The study showed that the smart mask could accurately detect ammonium levels, closely reflecting the urea concentration in blood.
“Our smart mask platform for EBC collection and analysis represents a major advancement in the potential for real-time monitoring of lung health,” said Professor Harry Rossiter, director of the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
“This concept, with the potential to add biosensors for a wide range of compounds in the future, highlights the groundbreaking potential of smart masks in health monitoring and diagnostics.”
An AI-generated replica scene from the computer game Doom
ID Software
Recreating classic computer games with AI Doom It's playable without any computer code or graphics, and researchers on the project say it may be possible in the future to use similar AI models to create games from scratch, in the same way that we currently create text and images.
This model Game NGenIt was compiled by Dani Walewski of Google Research and his colleagues, who declined to be interviewed. New ScientistAccording to them paper According to the study, the AI can play for up to 20 seconds while retaining all the features of the original, including score, ammo levels, map layout, etc. The player can attack enemies, open doors, and interact with the environment as normal.
After this period, the model's memory begins to run out and the illusion begins to break down.
original Doom It was released in 1993 and has since become a popular subject for computer science projects. Running on specially restricted hardware Toasters, treadmills, espresso machines, etc.
But in all of these cases, the hardware is simply running the original game's code. What GameNGen does is fundamentally different: a type of AI called a neural network learns by observation how to recreate a game, without ever seeing the game's code.
The researchers first created an AI model that learned how to interact with Doom in a human-like way, then had it play the game over and over again, and then the second AI model learned how to interact with Doom in a human-like way. Stable diffusion The image generator learned how the game state changes with hundreds of millions of inputs.
The second model was essentially a copy of the game, with all of the knowledge, rules, and instructions from the original code encoded into a mysterious network of artificial neurons within its own architecture. In tests, human players were slightly better than chance at distinguishing between short clips of the game and clips of the AI simulation.
In their paper, GameNGen's developers claim that this is a proof of concept that games can be created by neural networks rather than lines of code. They suggest that games can be generated from text descriptions and concept art, making them cheaper to produce than using human programmers.
Andrew Rogojski Researchers from the University of Surrey in the UK say the idea of having neural networks hallucinate game environments and human interactions is an interesting step forward, but it's not meant to replace human game designers.
“I don't think it's the end of game studios. I think what game studios have is the imagination and the skill – the ability to actually create these worlds, understand gameplay, understand engagement, understand how to draw us into a story – that's not just the nuts and bolts or bits and bytes,” he says. “There's something very human about creating compelling experiences that we humans enjoy, and that's going to come primarily from other humans at the moment, and for the foreseeable future.”
Polarized light can erase messages encoded in quantum holograms
Hong Liang, Wai Chun Wong, Tailing Ang, Jensen Lee 2024
The quantum evanescence phenomenon makes it possible to embed secure messages in holograms and selectively erase parts of them even after they have been transmitted.
Quantum optical signals are inherently secure information carriers: any interception of the message destroys the fragile quantum states that encode it. To harness this without the use of bulky devices, Jensen Lee Researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK MetasurfaceIt is a 2D material engineered with special properties to create quantum holograms.
Holograms encode complex information that can be restored when light is shone on it. For example, when light hits a 2D holographic paper card at the right angle, a 3D image appears. To create quantum holograms, researchers encoded information in the quantum state of particles of light, or photons.
First, they used a laser to emit two photons from a special crystal that were tightly bound by quantum entanglement. The photons traveled along separate paths, with only one encountering the metasurface along the way. Thousands of tiny components on the metasurface, like nano-sized bumps, altered the photon’s quantum state in a preprogrammed way, encoding a holographic image into it.
The partner photon encountered a polarizing filter, which controlled which parts of the hologram appeared and which disappeared. The first photon’s state was a superposition of holograms, so it contained different variations of the message at the same time. Because the photons were in an entangled state, polarizing the second photon affected the image the other photon created when it hit the camera. For example, a test hologram contained the letters H, D, V, and A, but adding a filter for horizontal polarization caused the letter H to disappear from the final image.
Li says metasurfaces could be used to encode more complex information into photons, for example as part of quantum cryptography protocols. He calls the research SPIE Optics + Photonics Conference August 21st, San Diego, California.
“Everyone dreams of quantum technology going from square metres on a table to being compact enough to fit in a smartphone, and metasurfaces seem like a good way to achieve that. [about that]” Andrew Forbes A researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, said quantum holograms like the one used in this experiment could also be used to image tiny biological structures in the rapidly expanding medical field.
A research team from Finland and Norway has identified two candidate anti-toxic compounds against enteric pathogens. E. coli Marine actinomycete strains from the bacterial metabolite (EPEC) infection Cochlea and Rhodococcus From the Arctic Ocean.
Strain T091-5 of this genus RhodococcusImages/Photos Courtesy of: Pylkkö others., doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1432475.
“We show that advanced screening assays can identify anti-toxic and antibacterial metabolites from actinomycete extracts,” says Professor Paivi Tamela from the University of Helsinki.
“We discovered compounds in the Arctic actinomycete that inhibit virulence without affecting EPEC growth, as well as compounds that inhibit growth.”
Professor Tamera and his colleagues have developed a series of new methods that allow them to simultaneously test the antitoxic and antibacterial effects of hundreds of unknown compounds.
They targeted a strain of EPEC that causes severe, sometimes fatal, diarrhea in children under the age of 5, especially in developing countries. EPEC attaches to cells in the human intestine and causes disease.
Once EPEC attaches to these cells, it injects so-called “virulence factors” into the host cell that hijack its molecular machinery and ultimately kills the cell.
The compounds tested were extracted from four species of actinomycetes isolated from invertebrates collected in the Arctic waters off the coast of Svalbard during an expedition by a Norwegian research vessel. Cronprince Haakon August 2020.
These bacteria were cultured, the cells were extracted, and their contents were separated into fractions.
Each fraction was then tested in vitro against EPEC attached to cultured colon cancer cells.
The researchers discovered two previously unknown compounds with strong anti-toxic or anti-bacterial activity: one from an unknown strain of the genus (called T091-5); Rhodococcusand another strain from an unknown strain of this genus (T160-2). Cochlea.
These compounds exhibited two complementary biological activities.
First, it inhibits the formation of the so-called “actin pedestal” by EPEC bacteria, a key step in the attachment of this pathogen to the host intestinal wall.
The second is to block EPEC binding to so-called Tir receptors on the surface of host cells, a necessary step to rewire intracellular processes and cause disease.
Unlike compounds in T160-2, compounds in T091-5 did not slow the growth of EPEC bacteria.
This means that T091-5 is the most promising of the two strains, as EPEC is unlikely to eventually develop resistance to its antivirulence effects.
Using advanced analytical techniques, the authors determined that the active compounds in T091-5 were likely phospholipids, a type of fatty phosphorus-containing molecule that plays an important role in cellular metabolism.
“The next steps are to optimise the culture conditions for compound production and to isolate sufficient quantities of each compound to elucidate their structures and further explore their respective biological activities,” Prof Tamera said.
of Survey results Published in today's journal The cutting edge of microbiology.
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Tuomas Pirko others2024. Bioprospecting EPEC virulence inhibitors from metabolites of an Arctic marine actinomycete. Front. Microbiol 15;doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1432475
Researchers are experimenting with biosensors that can monitor workers’ vital signs and provide warnings if they show signs of heatstroke.
The four-year study involves more than 150 farmworkers in Florida who have been wearing sensors in the fields.
Agricultural workers are 35 times more likely to die from heatstroke than other workers.
People who work outdoors are at greatest risk from extreme heat, which can be fatal within minutes, so researchers have begun experimenting with wearable sensors that can monitor workers’ vital signs and warn them if they are starting to show the early symptoms of heatstroke.
In Pearson, Florida, where temperatures can soar to nearly 90 degrees just before and after noon, workers on a fern farm wear experimental biopatches as part of a study sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency. National Institutes of HealthThe patch also measures a worker’s vital signs and skin hydration, and is equipped with a gyroscope to monitor continuous movement.
Scientists from Emory University and Georgia Tech are collecting data and feeding it into an artificial intelligence algorithm. The ultimate goal is for the AI to predict when workers are likely to suffer from heatstroke and send them a warning on their phone before that happens. But for now, the researchers are still analyzing the data and plan to publish a research paper next year.
“There’s a perception that field work is hot, and that’s the reality,” says Roxana Chicas, a nurse researcher at Emory University who has been overseeing Biopatch data collection. “I think with research and creativity, we can find ways to protect field workers.”
average 34 workers died of heatstroke According to the Environmental Protection Agency, farmworkers will be killed every year from 1992 to 2022. 35x odds Workers are more likely to die from heatstroke than other workers, but until now it has been left to states to decide how to protect workers from heatstroke. California, for example, requires employers to provide training, water, and shade when temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but many states have no such rules.
Chicas and his team partnered with the Florida Farmworkers Association to recruit participants for the study, aiming to have 100 workers wear the biopatch over the four-year study, but were surprised by how many volunteered, ultimately enrolling 166.
Participating workers arrive at work before dawn, receive a patch, have their vital signs monitored, and then head out into the fields before the hottest, most dangerous parts of the day.
“We hope this study will help improve working conditions,” study participant Juan Pérez said in Spanish, adding that he has worked in the fern fields for 20 years and would like more breaks and higher wages.
Other farmworkers said they hoped the study would shed light on just how tough their jobs are.
Study participant Antonia Hernandez, who lives in Pearson, said she often worries about the heat hazards facing her and her daughter, who both work in fern fields.
“When you don’t have a family, the only thing you worry about is the house and the rent,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “But when you have children, the truth is, there’s a lot of pressure and you have to work.”
Chicas said he could see the heat-related fatigue showing on some of the workers’ faces.
“They look much older than their real age, some of them look much older than their real age, because it takes a toll on their body and their health,” she said.
Chikas has been researching ways to protect farmworkers from the heat for nearly a decade. In a project that began in 2015, workers were fitted with bulky sensors that measured skin temperature, skin hydration, blood oxygen levels, and vital signs. This latest study is the first to test a lightweight biopatch that looks like a large bandage and is placed in the center of the chest.
Overall, wearable sensors are much easier to use, and some are becoming more widely used. While the biosensors that Cikas’ team is experimenting with aren’t yet available to the public, a brand called SlateSafety sells a system (sponsored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) that is available to employers. The system includes an armband that transmits measurements of a worker’s core temperature to a monitoring system. If the temperature is too high, the employer can notify the worker to take a break.
A similar technology, called the Heat Stroke Prevention System, is used in the military. Developed by the U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine, the system requires soldiers or Marines in a company to wear a chest strap that estimates core temperature, skin temperature and gait stability, allowing commanders to understand a soldier’s location and risk of heatstroke.
“The system is programmed to sense when a person is approaching higher than appropriate levels of heat exposure,” says Emma Atkinson, a biomedical researcher at the institute. stated in a news release “Our system allows us to provide warnings before heat stroke occurs, allowing us to intervene before someone collapses,” the report, released in February, added.
The system that Chicas and his team are developing differs from those systems in that it notifies workers directly, rather than in a larger system controlled by their employers. They haven’t finished collecting data from farmworkers yet, but the next step is for algorithms to start identifying patterns that might indicate risk of heatstroke.
“Outdoor workers need to spend time outdoors – otherwise food wouldn’t be harvested, ferns wouldn’t be cut, houses wouldn’t be built,” Chicas said. “With the growing threat of climate change, workers need something to better protect themselves.”
David Bennett Jr. knelt at his bedside, phone in hand, anxiously waiting for the call he’d never received before: The hospital was supposed to update him on whether his father, who had received a new heart transplanted from a pig, was still alive.
It was the first time a living human had received a pig organ transplant.
“I don’t know what the news is, but my dad opened his eyes, he was awake and he was OK. It was unbelievable,” Bennett Jr. said.
Bennett’s father, David Bennett Sr., had severe congestive heart failure and was not a candidate for a transplant. He knew he would likely die soon. There was nothing else he could do but take a chance on a novel, cutting-edge procedure. Bennett Sr. and his son agreed it was worth the risk.
The achievement made headlines around the world following the transplant in January 2022. Initially, the results looked promising, with some family members beginning to entertain the idea that Bennett Sr. might eventually be released from the hospital.
“There were definitely future-oriented conversations about the home environment, who was going to care for him and what that was going to look like,” Bennett Jr. said. “Everyone was very optimistic and hopeful.”
David Bennett Jr. and his family. Jesse Barber, NBC News
But two months later, Bennett Sr.’s body rejected the heart and he died at age 57. paperDoctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center said his body likely produced too many antibodies to fight the new organ. The drugs he was given may have also increased the chance of rejection, and a virus in the pig’s heart further complicates things.
Three other patients have followed in Bennett Sr.’s footsteps and received pig organs, most recently a pig kidney transplant in April. Together, they are pioneers in the burgeoning field of xenotransplantation. For them, the journey has been a roller coaster of emotions, from anxiety to blind hope and ultimately praise for their loved one’s decision, three family members told NBC News.
“Obviously, I wish my dad was still here, but I know his sacrifice was not in vain,” Bennett Jr. said.
None of the patients survived more than three months. To the public, it may have seemed a failure. But to their families, the transplants had accomplished a goal: to buy their loved ones more time and to advance research that may one day save their lives.
“Larry thought: He’s going to die. It’s inevitable, it’s coming,” says Anne Fawcett, whose husband of nearly 38 years, Laurence Fawcett, is the second person to receive a pig heart transplant. “So to gather as much data as we can, to do as much research as we can, why not use Larry’s body as a test subject, to give people in the future who need a transplant another option?”
The potential of xenotransplantation lies in the shortage of available human organs. 17 people die every day in the United States while waiting for an organ transplantBecause pig organs are more readily available, doctors expect such surgeries to become as common as hip replacements in the future, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
“There’s no moon, but the sky is full of stars.” The Milky Way in the Atacama Desert
Alamy Stock Photo
Chapter 1
Everything you touch changes.
Everything you change changes you.
The only lasting truth is change.
God is change.
Earthseed: The Book of the Living
Saturday,July20,2024
I had the same dream last night. I should have expected it. This dream appears when I am struggling – when I am trying to twist my own personal hooks and pretend nothing unusual is happening. It appears when I am trying to be my father’s daughter. Today is our birthday – mine is 15, my father’s is 55. Tomorrow I will try to please my father, my community and God. So last night I had a dream that reminded me that it is all a lie. I feel I need to write about this dream because this lie is bothering me so much.
I am learning to fly, to levitate. Nobody is teaching me. I am learning bit by bit, in my dreams, little by little. Not very subtle images, but persistent images. I have taken many lessons, and I am better at flying than I was before. I trust my abilities a lot more now, but it still scares me. I still can’t control my direction very well.
I lean toward the door. It’s the kind of door between my room and the hallway. It seems far away from me, but I lean toward it. I stiffen and tense, releasing everything I’ve been holding onto that’s kept me from rising or falling. I lean into the air, straining upward. Not moving upward, but not falling completely either. And I begin to glide on the air a few feet above the floor, oscillating between fear and delight.
I drift toward a doorway. A cold, pale light shines from it. I slide a little to the right, then a little further. I pass the door and nearly hit the wall beside it, but I can’t stop or turn. I drift away from the doorway, away from the cold, glowing light and into another light.
The wall in front of me is on fire. Fire has come out of nowhere, eating through the wall, coming towards me, towards me. The fire spreads. I drift into it. It burns around me. I struggle and struggle, grasping for air and fire, kicking and burning, trying to swim back out of it. Darkness.
Maybe it wakes me up a little. When the fire engulfs me, I wake up sometimes. That’s bad. If I wake up completely, I can’t go back to sleep. I try, but I’ve never been able to fall asleep.
This time I didn’t wake up completely. I gradually blended into the second half of the dream, the part that actually happened years ago when I was little, the part that seemed like no big deal at the time.
darkness.
Darkness turns to light. Stars.
The stars cast a cold, pale light.
“We were invisible So “When I was little, I could see a lot of stars,” my mother-in-law tells me. She speaks Spanish as her native language. She stands small and still, gazing up at the wide sweep of the Milky Way. She and I went outside after dark to retrieve the laundry that was hanging on the clothesline. The day was still hot, and we both like the cool darkness of the early evening. There is no moon, but it’s easy to see. The sky is full of stars.
The neighborhood wall is a huge, looming presence. To me it looks like a crouching animal, ready to pounce at any moment, more threatening than protective. But my mother-in-law is there and she is not scared. I am with her. I am 7 years old.
I look up at the stars and the deep black sky. “Why didn’t you see the stars?” I ask her. “Everyone can see them.” I speak to her in Spanish, just like she taught me. It feels somehow intimate.
“The city lights,” she says. “The lights, the progress, the growth, all that stuff, I just don’t care anymore because it’s too hot and too poor.” She pauses. “When I was your age, my mother told me that the stars, the few stars we could see, were windows to heaven. Windows through which God could look at us. And for almost a year, I believed her.” My stepmother handed me an armful of diapers for my youngest brother. I took them and walked back to the house where she kept a big wicker laundry basket, and piled the diapers on top of the rest of the clothes. The basket was full. I made sure she wasn’t looking, and then collapsed backwards onto the pile of stiff, clean, soft clothes. For a moment, the fall felt like floating.
I lie there and look up at the stars, pick out some constellations and name the stars that make up them, which I learned from an astronomy book that belonged to my paternal grandmother.
Suddenly, I saw a streak of light from a meteor streak across the western sky. I stared at it, hoping to see another one. Then my mother-in-law called me, and I returned to her.
“We have city lights now,” I told her. “They don’t hide the stars,” she shook her head. “There aren’t as many as there used to be. Kids today don’t know how bright the city lights used to be, and that wasn’t that long ago.” “I want stars,” I said.
“The stars are free,” she shrugs. “I want the city lights back, I wish they’d come back soon. But you can buy the stars.”
excerpt The Parable of the Sower Written by Octavia E. Butler and published by Headline, this is the latest selection from the New Scientist Book Club. Sign up here to read it with us.
Driving these days can be quite challenging with traffic jams, road construction, and unexpected hazards causing delays to your daily schedule. But imagine if things were even worse, like driving down a mountain road where one wrong move could mean catastrophe.
This is a reality in many parts of the world, where the only way to get from point A to point B is by taking your life into your own hands.
Buckle up and prepare for a harrowing journey on some of the most treacherous roads in the world.
Keylon Kishtwar Road, India
The mountainous section of India’s “Kila-Kishtwar” road. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
If a 235km stretch of single-track dirt road through treacherous mountain passes sounds like a fun road trip to you, then the road from Keylong to Kishwar in India is perfect for you.
With no safety fences and cliffs thousands of metres below, along with the risk of landslides and unpredictable weather, it’s no surprise this road is one of the most perilous in India.
A portion of the road called the “Cliffhanger” is narrow and could collapse if too close to the cliff.
Ibarska Magistrala, Serbia
A truck climbs the steep hill towards Mount Rudnik on the Ibar highway in Serbia. Photo credit: BrankaVV/Wikipedia Commons
National Route 22 or the “Ibar Highway,” also known as the “Black Highway,” is among the most dangerous roads in Europe and one of the busiest in the country.
Connecting Belgrade with other major municipalities in Serbia and neighboring countries like Montenegro, this highway features long stretches of straight road with perilous curves that lead to many accidents, especially at night, often due to speeding or drunk driving.
The village of Vrjani, a quiet corner of the Ibar Highway, Serbia. Photo credit: BrankaVV/Wikipedia Commons
Transfagarasan, Romania
Romania’s Transfagarasan Highway is one of the most beautiful roads in Europe, but also one of the most dangerous. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Romania’s highways might not be the best in Europe in terms of quality, but the most famous and perilous is the Transfagarasan highway.
This winding mountain road climbs to over 2,000 meters, offering breathtaking views along its 150-kilometer route. Its hairpin turns, tunnels, and dramatic elevation changes pose a real challenge for drivers, with the added danger of encountering large flocks of sheep on the road, as shepherds use it to move their sheep between pastures.
Skippers Canyon Road, New Zealand
Skippers Canyon, Queenstown, New Zealand. Photo by Bernard Spragg/Wikipedia Commons
Skippers Canyon is a hazardous road in New Zealand, carved into rock by miners using hand tools and explosives. With steep cliffs, hairpin turns, and a one-way road for most of its 22-kilometer length, it’s extremely dangerous, and rental car insurance doesn’t cover this section.
Though the Gold Rush that spurred its construction is long over, the area’s historical significance and stunning landscapes make it a tourist attraction today.
A warning sign highlighting the dangers encountered on the road to Skippers Canyon, New Zealand. Photo courtesy of Alamy
James Dalton Highway, USA
A truck drives along the James Dalton Highway (also known as Haul Road) in the Arctic Circle of Alaska, USA, on a stormy day. Photo credit: Alamy
Made famous by the TV show “Ice Road Truckers,” the James Dalton Highway is a challenging road in Alaska that connects Fairbanks to Deadhorse north of the Arctic Circle.
This 666-km road, named after an Alaskan engineer, is the main route for trucks transporting fuel and supplies to oil field workers. Only a third of the road is paved, with the rest being gravel and stone.
The main hazards on this highway include severe weather, isolation, and encounters with polar bears, making it a risky journey for any driver.
A large trailer truck travels along the Dalton Highway through the Brooks Range region of Alaska’s North Slope, USA. The Dalton Highway (Alaska State Route 11) runs 412 miles (666 km) through northern Alaska from Livengood (53 miles north of Fairbanks) to Prudhoe Bay. Photo by Lance King/Getty Images
Zojila Pass, India
Indian Army vehicles travel through the Zojila Pass in India, the only road connecting Kashmir with Ladakh. Photo: Faisal Khan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Zojila Pass is a critical road linking Ladakh with the Kashmir Valley, situated high in the Himalayas. The road faces challenges like snow, ice, and seasonal closures lasting months.
The narrow pass with no safety fences has no room for more than one car at a time, making it a daunting route with cliffs that drop straight into the valley below – not for the faint of heart.
A new tunnel is under construction to protect the road from harsh winters, keeping it open year-round, but its safety remains to be seen.
Fairy Meadows Road, Pakistan
This photo of Fairy Meadows Road in Pakistan shows how narrow and dangerous the road is. Photo by Alamy
The harrowing Fairy Meadows Road in Pakistan winds through mountainous terrain over 3,000 meters above sea level. With only enough room for one car at a time and no safety barriers, accidents are frequent.
This 16km road connects the Karakoram Highway to the village of Tato inside Fairy Meadows National Park, reserved exclusively for local drivers due to its extreme danger.
Yungas Road, Bolivia
Bolivia’s North Yungas Road, known as the “Road of Death,” is one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Looking at this image, it’s easy to see why. Photo: Anton Petras/Getty Images
The North Yungas Road in Bolivia, famously known as the “Road of Death,” is a treacherous 64km route connecting La Paz to the Yungas region. The road saw an average of 200 to 300 fatalities annually until a safer alternative was built.
This gravel road climbing up the mountain is notorious for poor visibility due to fog and rain, narrow and winding paths, and steep cliffs that make overtaking traffic a dangerous endeavor.
A bus approaches a simple bridge on Bolivia’s “Road of Death.” Photo by Anton Petras/Getty Images
Sichuan-Tibet Expressway, China
The winding road connecting Sichuan and Tibet on the snow-covered Qier Mountains in Dege County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The Sichuan-Tibet Expressway in China, one of the world’s highest roads, presents challenges like avalanches, landslides, and single-track sections at high altitudes with low grip.
This busy road, known for frequent traffic jams and gridlock, can take up to 15 days to navigate, testing drivers’ patience and skill amid snow-capped mountains and dramatic canyons.
Bayburt D915, Türkiye
Drivers Yagiz Avci and Dmitry Sotnikov speed along the D915 road from Trabzon to Bayburt in Turkey. Photo courtesy of Alamy
The twisty D915 in Turkey is often cited as one of the world’s scariest roads due to its numerous hairpin turns through mountainous terrain. Linking the Black Sea to Bayburt, a city with roots in the ancient Silk Road trade route, this road demands careful navigation due to its loose surface, exposure to bad weather, and various hazards.
The winding Bayburt D915 highway crosses the Soganli mountainside in Trabzon, Turkey. Photo: Ali Ihsan Özturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Paleontologists have unearthed the 20-million-year-old fossil skeleton of a species of sirenian mammal from the dugong family. Cleavage Shark and crocodile bite marks have been found in northwestern Venezuela. The most prominent bite marks are from deep, dragging tooth impacts concentrated on the snout of the animals. Researchers interpret this as the result of active predation, as they are similar to bite marks made by crocodiles when they grab and roll their prey. Moreover, shark bite marks can be observed throughout Venezuela. CleavageThe skeleton of Tiger shark (Galeocerdo Aduncus) The teeth associated with this skeleton.
Tiger sharks are congregating to make easy catches of larger prey as crocodiles attack ancient dugong-like siren mammals. CleavageImage courtesy of Jaime Bran Sarmiento.
“Our discovery adds to the growing evidence that food chains millions of years ago worked in a similar way to how they do today,” said Dr Aldo Benitez Palomino, a paleontologist at the institute. University of Zurich.
“Today, when we observe predators in the wild, we often find dead prey, indicating that the animal also served as a food source for other animals. However, the fossil record of this is rare.”
“It was unclear which animals would serve this purpose as a food source for multiple predators.”
“Our previous research has confirmed that several shark species scavenge sperm whale carcasses, and this new study highlights the importance of sea cows in the food chain.”
Evidence for food web interactions is abundant in the fossil record, but most of it is represented by fragmentary fossils that provide ambiguous meaning.
Therefore, it is often difficult to distinguish between active feeding and signs of saprophytic activity.
“Our results are one of the few to document multiple predators on a single prey and provide a glimpse into food webs in the region during the Miocene,” Dr Benitez-Palomino said.
The dugong specimen studied by the team was collected from an outcrop of the Agua Clara Formation, south of the city of Coro, Venezuela.
The fossil is closely related to a species of sirenian in the dugong family. Cleavage.
“We first heard about the site through word of mouth from local farmers who noticed some unusual 'rocks'. We were intrigued and decided to investigate,” said Professor Marcelo Sánchez-Vilagra from the University of Zurich.
“Initially, we weren't familiar with the geology of the site, and the first fossil we unearthed was just part of a skull.”
“It took us a while to identify what it was – very strange looking remains of a sea cow.”
“By studying geological maps and examining the sediments at the new site, we were able to determine the age of the rocks in which the fossils were found.”
“One of the factors that allowed us to observe evidence of aquatic mammal predation, which is known to exist in this region, is the extremely well-preserved cortical layer of the fossil, which is likely due to the fine sediment in which the fossil was embedded.”
“After locating the fossils, our team organized a paleontological rescue operation, employing extraction techniques with full case protection.”
“A team of five people was involved in working on the fossil, and the job took about seven hours.”
“The subsequent preparations, particularly the meticulous task of preparing and repairing the skull, took several months.”
Team Survey results Published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Aldo Benitez Palomino othersTrophic interactions between sharks and crocodiles and Sirenia in the Miocene of Venezuela. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontologyy, published online August 28, 2024, doi: 10.1080/02724634.2024.2381505
Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a stone seal from the First Temple period near the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel. The ancient seal bears a name inscribed in ancient Hebrew script and a winged figure.
A 2,700-year-old stone seal discovered in Jerusalem, Israel. Image courtesy of Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The seal, made of black stone, is one of the most beautiful seals ever found in excavations in ancient Jerusalem and is executed at the highest artistic level,” said Dr. Yuval Baruch and Dr. Navot Rom, directors of the excavation at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“These objects, inscribed with mirror writing, served as talismans for their owners and as a means of legally signing documents and certificates.”
“It has convex notches on both sides and holes along its length so it can be put on a chain and worn around your neck.”
“In the centre is a profile of what is probably a king, winged and wearing a long striped shirt, striding to the right.”
“The figure has a long, curly mane that covers his neck and wears a hat or crown on his head.”
“The figure has one arm raised in front of him with the palm open, possibly suggesting that he is holding something.”
On either side of the statue are ancient Hebrew inscriptions. Rehoezer ben Hoshayahu.
“We believe this seal was worn around the neck as a talisman by a man named Hoshayahu, who was a high-ranking official in the administration of the kingdom of Judah,” said Dr Philip Vukosavovich, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“Hoshayahu, by virtue of his authority and position, allowed himself to be ennobled and to sport a seal bearing an awe-inspiring figure that embodied the symbols of his authority.”
“The amulet was likely made by a local craftsman, a Jew, at the request of the owner. It was made at a very high artistic level.”
“The hypothesis is that after Hoshaiah died, his son Jehoezer inherited the seal and added his own name and his father's name on either side of the demon.”
“Perhaps he did so in order to directly adopt for himself the beneficial properties that he believed the talisman embodied as a magical item.”
The name Jehoezer is better known in the Bible (1 Chronicles 12:7) as its abbreviated form, Yoezer. King David's Warriors.
“And in the Book of Jeremiah (43:2), which records the events of these times, a man with a similar name, Azariah ben Hoshaiah, is mentioned.”
“The two parts of his first name are written in reverse order to the seal bearer's name, and his surname is the same, but in an abbreviated form.”
“The text matches the name on the newly discovered seal and is appropriate for the period.”
“When we compare the shape and writing of the letters with other Hebrew seals and stamps from Jerusalem, we see that the names on the seals were carelessly engraved, in contrast to the carefully carved sculptures of demons,” said Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa.
“It is possible that it was Jehoezeru himself who inscribed his name on the object.”
“This is further evidence of the literacy that existed during this time,” Dr Baruch said.
“Contrary to popular belief, literacy during this period does not appear to have been the sole domain of the elite of society.”
“People were able to read and write at least at a basic level because of commercial necessity.”
“Numerous traces of seals written in ancient Hebrew characters have been found in the City of David and in the surrounding areas of the Kingdom of Judah.”
“The distinctive Neo-Assyrian image of the winged man is unique and highly unusual for a hieroglyphic style from the Late First Temple period.”
“The influence of the Assyrian Empire, which conquered the entire region, is clearly visible here.”
“Judah in general, and Jerusalem in particular, was under the hegemony and influence of the Assyrian Empire at that time, a reality that is reflected in its culture and art.”
“That the seal's owner chose the devil as the symbol of his seal may prove that he felt he belonged to a broader cultural context, much like the people of Israel today who consider themselves part of Western culture.”
“But even in his emotions, this Jehoezer held firmly to his local identity, so his name is written in Hebrew letters and his name is a Hebrew name that belongs to the Judah culture.”
Polyethylene plastic bags are difficult to recycle
Robert Sanders/University of California, Berkeley
Plastic bottles and bags can be evaporated into their chemical components and turned into new plastic that has all the properties of virgin material. Though there are still hurdles to overcome, this new process is a big step towards a truly circular economy for plastics.
About 5 billion tons of plastic Plastics have been heading to landfills since the 1950s, but recycling efforts only address 9% of what we produce. With current technology, plastics degrade every time they are recycled, and after just a few rounds of this process they end up in landfills.
John Hartwig Dr. Hartz and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, had previously developed a process to break down waste plastic into its component parts, but it relied on expensive metal catalysts — iridium, ruthenium and palladium — that were lost in the process and couldn't be recovered. Hartwig says the technology is “good for academic papers and demonstrations, but it's not anywhere near what could be considered industrialized.”
Now his team has found an improved process that works for both polyethylene, the raw material in most plastic bags, and polypropylene, used to make stiffer objects. The process uses only a catalyst that's so common it's considered “earthy” in nature, Hartwig says.
Plastics are made up of large molecules called polymers, which are in turn made up of smaller units called monomers. The catalyst breaks the chemical bonds in the polymers, turning them into gaseous monomers from which new plastic can be made with all the properties of virgin, non-recycled material.
In their experiments, the team used two catalysts — sodium on aluminum oxide and tungsten oxide on silica — to convert a mixture of polyethylene and polypropylene into the monomers propylene and isobutylene with nearly 90 percent efficiency.
Benjamin Ward A researcher from Cardiff University in the UK, who was not involved in the study, says thousands of additives, including dyes, flame retardants and plasticizers, make plastics difficult to recycle. These additives can make up a third of the finished product and can contaminate the end product after it's recycled. “Additives delay landfilling. They delay the environmental problem. But they don't prevent it entirely,” he says.
Ward believes the new process solves the additive problem by stripping the material down to its constituent gaseous monomers, which also removes the additives.
Hartwig cautions that there are still many hurdles to overcome, and that the process has only been tested in the presence of a small number of common additives. “There will be additives that poison the catalyst or inhibit it,” he says. “We need to find a way to isolate them, which may not be optimal, or we need to find a different catalyst structure or composition that is more resistant to those additives. It's definitely a challenge.”
Cressida Bowyer Researchers from the University of Portsmouth in the UK say that even if there are processes in place that can break down waste plastic into its component parts and tolerate additives, further concerns remain: “The toxicity and disposal of the recycled end product.” [such as catalysts and additives] “These must be taken into account, and may outweigh the benefits of recycling technologies,” she says. “Recycling should not be seen as a solution or justification for maintaining or increasing the production of single-use or unnecessary plastics and continuing the current prevalent 'take, make and throw away' culture.”
Composite image of a jumping spherical collembolan
Adrian Smith
High-speed cameras have clearly captured the springtails spinning in the air faster than any other animal ever recorded.
Springtails are a type of arthropod, a group related to insects, that are a few millimeters long and can be found in most places on Earth.
As its name suggests, the animal leaps off the ground using a tail-like appendage called a “furka” that folds up under its body and can instantly unfold to launch the creature into the air and escape predators.
Adrian Smith A North Carolina State University student was sifting through leaves in his backyard when he came across a round, mottled orange-and-brown reptile. Dikiltmina Minuta.
“We brought them into the lab to film them, and we were amazed by what they did,” Smith says.
Working together Jacob Harrison Smith, of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, used a high-speed camera to capture dozens of Springtail shells, and to encourage the arthropods to turn over, the researchers placed the Springtails under bright lights and sometimes poked them with tiny paintbrushes.
With each jump, the tiny acrobatic creatures arc backwards up to 80 times their body length, and springtails can spin up to 368 times a second, faster than any animal yet studied.
Smith and Harrison found that springtails have two ways of landing: by bouncing and rolling uncontrollably, or by a fixed stop made possible by organs called colophores, sticky tubes that allow them to attach to the ground.
Scientists continue to study the jumping mechanics of springtails for engineering clues, and they are also studying the forward somersaults of the blue-green algae, another arthropod that has evolved a rapid escape jump.
Smith says people may think that everything in the natural world is explained and known, but that's not the case: “There's so much that exists within us and between us that is incredible.”
What effect might it have on adolescents and young children to see the positive expressions on the faces of strangers eating raw broccoli?
Katie Edwards of Aston University in the UK, along with colleagues from the same university and the University of Birmingham, also in the UK, set out to find out.
There's no need to mince words about what they found: in their own words, “Contrary to our hypothesis, the facial expression of the model while eating broccoli did not significantly affect their initial willingness to try it.”
Circle of Life
In the 1960s, young intellectuals in the West encouraged each other to adopt the philosophy and path of Zen Buddhism. They were encouraged to “walk the Zen path” and “become one with the universe” in order to live a thoughtful, wise and good life.
Sixty years later, thinking and conversation have advanced.
No alternative to this has been widely adopted in the West in the 2020s, but feedback suggests a Venn diagram.
Like Zen, Venn diagrams aim to provide a simpler understanding of seemingly complex things. Venn diagram masters might describe the practice like this: Venn diagrams use overlapping circles or similar shapes to show logical relationships between different types of items.
Adopt the philosophy and method of the Venn diagram. Recognize and nurture the overlaps in your life. Draw a Venn diagram of the characteristics of all the people, places, and things in your life from birth to the present. The Venn diagram overlaps will reveal commonalities. Embrace them. Identify with the few.
Ven, let's go.
The talent for titration
Psychics, whether trivial or not, have a reputation for being either you get it all or you get nothing. John Hancock tells Feedback about an exception to that, perhaps a partial exception:
He says, “I can consistently pour almost half a 339ml bottle of beer so that the height of the beer in two identical glasses is within 1mm, 2mm at most. I can do this in one go, unassisted, and I seem to know when to stop pouring.”
(Feedback: The name Hancock is well known to Americans. On January 4, 1776, the late John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that egged on Britain. Hancock wrote it in such large, bold letters that his name became synonymous with “a man's handwritten signature.” In the U.S., people still say “Sign John Hancock.” The late John Hancock, unlike today's John Hancock, hated doing things by halves.)
Questionable discomfort
A recent addition to Feedback's collection is called “The Title Tells You Everything You Need to Know.”
“The pain one may experience when executed in various ways” probably came as a surprise to magazine readers. Sensing It was published in 1993, and in 1997 Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey in the UK was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize.
If you've come across similarly impressive examples, please submit them to Telltale titles, c/o Feedback, along with citation details.
Teflon Diet
Teflon, prized as a “non-stick” coating for frying pans and other cookware, may become a common additive to foods, especially in weight-control diets.
The 2016 paper has an intelligent and intriguing title:Consuming polytetrafluoroethylene is a way to increase food volume and feel full without increasing calorie content.“US authors Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich and Frank Greenway explain that polytetrafluoroethylene (also known as PTFE or Teflon) is a plastic. They claim its benefits: “Animal feeding studies showed that rats fed a diet of 25% PTFE for 90 days showed no signs of toxicity and lost weight.”
They further hypothesized that “incorporating PTFE powder into foods (1 part food to 1 part PTFE) and increasing the portion size of the food would significantly increase satiety and decrease caloric intake.”
Polytetrafluoroethylene “does not impart flavor (as evidenced by its use in tongue piercings) and therefore does not affect the taste of food,” they write, and is “highly inert, meaning it does not react with food in the body.”
This makes it an “ideal ingredient to use as a bulking agent for foods that are not metabolized” and can be used in foods that don't make you feel stuffed.
Do you have a story for feedback? Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or New Scientist, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY. Review of mailed items is delayed
You can submit articles for Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week's and past Feedback can be found on our website.
A sweet dessert made from Neurospora crassa served at the Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen.
Alchemist
A type of mold that grows on discarded food has been shown to fundamentally change the taste of the food, making food that would otherwise be thrown away edible in new ways.
Neurospora crassa, Orange fungus, grown from waste products from soy milk production, has been used for centuries to make onkom, a traditional food from the Indonesian island of Java.
Vayuhir Maini The UC Berkeley professor and his colleagues worked with chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and Copenhagen to develop new foods using the bacteria, some of which are now appearing on their menus, including a cheese-flavored toast made with stale bread and a sweet dessert made with sugar-free rice custard.
About a third of food is wasted worldwide, and discarded agricultural products account for about 8% of greenhouse gas emissions. Upcycling, or turning discarded produce into new, edible foods, can divert waste from landfills and reduce the climate impact of food production while also strengthening food security, Hill-Maini said.
His team: N. Intermedia It can thrive on at least 30 types of agricultural waste, including tomato pomace and banana peels, without producing toxins.
The fungus is capable of turning indigestible plant waste into nutritious food in about 36 hours. “It seems to be on a unique trajectory of transforming waste from trash to treasure,” Hill-Maini said.
When the team first had Danish consumers try Oncom, people consistently rated it a six or above on a scale of one to nine, and described the taste as “earthy and nutty,” he says.
Hill-Maini developed the fungus-based food in collaboration with Rasmus Munk, owner of the Copenhagen restaurant The Alchemist, and Andrew Lasmore of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York.
In The Alchemist, N. Intermedia It was used in a dessert of gelled plum wine and unsweetened rice custard and was fermented for 60 hours, a process that Munch says changed both the aroma and flavor “pretty dramatically.”
“It was shocking to suddenly discover flavors like banana and pickled fruit without adding anything other than the fungus itself,” he says. “Of course, not all of our wild shots work, but when they do, they can produce pretty revolutionary results.”
By demonstrating what upcycled food can achieve at the highest gastronomic level, the chefs hope to help accelerate commercial acceptance of the concept.
“We're just in the beginning stages of realizing its full potential,” Hill-Maini says.
Struggling to catch some shut-eye with temperatures soaring in your bedroom? As climate change intensifies and heatwaves become more common, researchers have observed that nighttime temperatures are rising at a faster rate compared to daytime temperatures.
This trend of climate change is affecting sleep quality, making it increasingly difficult to get a good night’s rest. Studies show that people lose an average of 44 hours of sleep due to heat every year, and this is not limited to specific regions. A recent global study revealed that higher temperatures are linked to shorter sleep durations across 68 countries, with individuals experiencing shortened sleep times with warmer temperatures.
The study involved 47,000 adults who used wrist-worn sleep trackers to monitor their sleep patterns compared to both the average and their personal baseline. The results confirmed that as temperatures increased, sleep durations decreased.
“People are going to bed later and waking up earlier than usual,” said Dr. Kelton Miner, a data scientist at Columbia University and the lead author of the study. “This shift in sleep patterns increases the likelihood of experiencing shorter sleep durations compared to one’s individual baseline.”
Research projections indicate that by the end of the century, individuals could lose an average of two weeks of sleep annually due to temperature-related disturbances, equating to 50 to 58 hours of lost sleep. Compensating for this significant sleep deficit becomes challenging for many.
Addressing the issue, Miner suggested that while air conditioning provides relief, the widespread adoption of this technology would significantly impact global energy consumption. Alternatively, using fans can be a more energy-efficient cooling option, promoting heat loss through convection and evaporation.
Adhering to optimal sleep temperatures, enhancing indoor ventilation, and adopting cooling measures like cold showers can aid in combating the adverse effects of rising nighttime temperatures on sleep quality. As the battle against heat-induced sleep loss continues, exploring innovative solutions such as cooling mattress toppers can provide additional relief.
About our experts
Dr. Kelton Miner: A data scientist at Columbia University specializing in climate and technological change research, encompassing studies like One Planet, Lancet, and Sleeping pills reviews.
With the abundance of news stories, one might believe that humanity is on a path to self-destruction due to pollution, microplastics, and harmful chemicals. Reports of decreasing sperm counts have led to discussions about a possible “Spermageddon,” with politicians even considering incentivizing women to have children (source).
However, after speaking with experts like Professor Alan Pacey, a male infertility researcher, and Professor Sarah Harper, director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, it seems that while there is reason to be concerned, we are not currently in a crisis.
Why are some people concerned about “Spermageddon”?
The concern dates back to a study from 1974 that showed a decrease in sperm counts among American men compared to the data from the 1950s (source). While various factors like climate change, genetic defects, and microplastics have been suggested as causes for declining sperm counts, not all experts are convinced about the severity of the issue.
Recent studies, including those conducted in Denmark, have not shown significant declines in sperm quality, leading to doubts about the extent of the problem. While concerns about microplastics and chemicals are valid, they may not be directly linked to infertility as some believe.
Recent research published in the journal Nature also suggests that semen quality worldwide may not be declining significantly.
Is global infertility on the rise?
While birth rates are indeed falling, experts argue that there is no concrete evidence of a widespread increase in infertility. Factors like delayed childbearing, improved access to fertility treatments, and reduced stigma around infertility may be contributing to more people seeking assistance at fertility clinics.
Why are populations declining in many areas?
The declining birth rates in countries like South Korea, China, and the United States are influenced by various factors, including economic growth and changing societal norms. While it may seem like an “infertility epidemic,” some experts see it as a demographic outcome of broader trends.
Should we be concerned?
Experts have differing perspectives on the issue. While some, like Professor Harper, believe that falling birth rates are not a cause for alarm, others, like Professor Pacey, are concerned about the barriers to fertility treatment and the impact on individuals facing infertility. Both emphasize the need for a nuanced approach to addressing the complex factors affecting fertility rates.
About our experts
Professor Alan Pacey MBE is a renowned researcher in male fertility and sperm biology at the University of Manchester, with over 30 years of experience in the field.
Professor Sarah Harper CBE is a gerontology expert at the University of Oxford, focusing on population aging and fertility trends.
Those who suffer from the throbbing pain of migraines know how challenging everyday tasks can become. However, a new medication, if taken at the first signs of a migraine, could potentially prevent the onset of debilitating symptoms.
The drug, ubrogepant, has recently been approved for use in the US and is available in the UK, although not covered by the NHS. A study funded by AbbVie, the manufacturer of ubrogepant, revealed that taking the pill at the first indication of a migraine can prevent severe headaches from developing.
Before a migraine attack, some individuals experience early warning signs like sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, neck pain, stiffness, and dizziness. Identifying these symptoms can help in timely treatment with ubrogepant to inhibit the protein CGRP in the brain responsible for migraines.
The research conducted by Dr. Richard B. Lipton and his team involved 518 participants who were able to predict the onset of migraines within a few hours. Those who took ubrogepant reported being able to function normally two hours after ingestion, with fewer limitations on their activities even after 24 hours.
While promising, ubrogepant may not be effective for those who experience sudden migraine attacks without warning signs. Regardless, experts view this development as a positive step in migraine treatment, providing hope for those who suffer from this common but debilitating condition.
About our experts:
Dr. Steven Ross, a professor and vice chair of clinical affairs in the Department of Neurology at Pennsylvania State University College and Penn State Health, USA, has conducted extensive research in neurology, medicine, and pediatric emergency medicine.
DNA methylation is a widely observed epigenetic modification in biological systems that serves diverse functions in transcriptional regulation, transposable element silencing, and innate immunity.
A nucleosome composed of DNA (grey) and histones (blue) with a single hemimethylated cytosine bound by CDCA7 (purple). Image courtesy of Kyohei Arita and Kazuaki Ushi.
DNA methylation is the process by which methyl groups are added to cytosine bases in DNA molecules and is the primary way in which DNA is epigenetically marked.
Epigenetic modifications act as on-off switches that regulate gene expression, helping to generate diverse cell types without altering the underlying DNA sequence – a way for the body to ensure that brain-related genes aren’t turned on in heart cells, for example.
Therefore, maintenance of DNA methylation patterns is crucial to ensure correct and consistent function of each cell type.
However, this is not easy: DNA methylation patterns can change over time, and this has been linked to a range of diseases.
One is a rare genetic disorder called immunodeficiency, centromere instability and facial anomalies (ICF) syndrome, whose symptoms include recurrent respiratory infections, facial abnormalities, and poor growth and cognitive function.
Although it was known that mutations in the CDCA7 gene cause ICF syndrome, little was known about the molecular function of this gene.
In a new study, Professor Hironori Funabiki of Rockefeller University and his colleagues have identified unique functional features of CDCA7 that ensure the correct inheritance of DNA methylation.
The researchers discovered that CDCA7 senses hemimethylation in eukaryotes, an important finding because hemimethylation sensing was long thought to be carried out exclusively by a protein called UHRF1.
“This is a really surprising discovery,” said Isabel Wassing, a scientist at Rockefeller University.
“The discovery that CDCA7 also acts as a sensor explains why mutations in it lead to diseases like ICF syndrome and fills a major gap in the field of epigenetics.”
“But it also raised new questions, such as why do cells need two different hemimethylation sensors?”
“We discovered that the CDCA7 gene, known to be the causative gene for ICF syndrome, specifically binds to hemimethylated DNA on nucleosomes and promotes DNA methylation by controlling the ubiquitination of histone H3,” said Atsuya Nishiyama, a research scientist at the University of Tokyo.
Scientists know that chromatin limits access for many enzymes and DNA-binding proteins, including those needed to introduce methylation into DNA.
Previous research by Professor Funabiki’s team has shown that CDCA7 forms a complex with a protein encoded by the HELLS gene, mutations of which also cause ICF syndrome.
HELLS is a so-called nucleosome remodeller that can temporarily release DNA molecules from nucleosomes.
“We reasoned that the CDCA7-HELLS complex is important in helping cells overcome the barrier of condensed heterochromatin and make DNA molecules available for methylation deposition,” Professor Funabiki said.
“But there are many nucleosome remodelers that can expose DNA molecules in this way.”
“It remained a mystery to us why CDCA7-HELLS is the only nucleosome-remodeling complex directly linked to DNA methylation maintenance.”
“By showing that CDCA7 specifically recruits HELLS to hemimethylated DNA, we finally have an explanation.”
In this model, CDCA7 recognizes hemimethylated DNA in chromatin and recruits HELLS to the site, which acts as a nucleosome remodeler to slide nucleosomes and reveal the hemimethylated site to UHRF1.
The takeover of hemimethylation sensing indicates that CDCA7 is better at detecting hemimethylation in dense heterochromatin than UHRF1 and also explains why cells require two distinct sensors.
“For these sensors to detect hemimethylation, they need to bind directly and selectively to hemimethylated DNA substrates,” Dr. Wassing said.
“CDCA7 appears to perform its function independently while DNA is wrapped around the nucleosome. Without CDCA7, UHRF1 cannot recognize the hemimethylation signals within the nucleosome particle.”
“Our findings suggest that CDCA7 and HELLS promote DNA methylation through a mechanism distinct from de novo DNA methylation, and this is strengthened by our demonstration that the CDCA7 HMZF domain specifically recognizes hemimethylated CpGs, which are substrates for the maintenance DNA methyltransferase DNMT1,” said Dr. Nishiyama.
“ICF disease-associated mutations in the CDCA7 gene abolish hemimethylated DNA binding, supporting the functional importance of hemimethylation detection by CDCA7.”
This new understanding may help elucidate the underlying mechanisms of diseases resulting from methylation dysfunction.
In the future, the functions of hemimethylation sensors beyond maintaining DNA methylation will be explored.
“Because some chromosomal regions are known to maintain a hemimethylated state, their recognition by CDCA7 may play a broader role in gene regulation and chromosomal organization, which is a very intriguing possibility,” says Professor Funabiki.
“Our research lays the foundation for the development of new DNA methylation inhibitors and therapeutic drugs for ICF syndrome,” said Dr. Nishiyama.
“Therapies that artificially control CDCA7-dependent DNA methylation may be useful for preventing cancer and aging and extending healthy lifespan.”
of Survey results Featured in this month’s journal Scientific advances.
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Isabel E. Wassing others2024. CDCA7 is an evolutionarily conserved hemimethylated DNA sensor in eukaryotes. Scientific advances 10 (34); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp5753
This article is based on a press release from Rockefeller University.
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to capture a detailed image of the spectacular centre of the Triangulum Galaxy.
The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest galaxy in our galaxy group. Image credit: NASA/ESA/M. Boyer, STScI/J. Dalcanton, University of Washington/Gladys Kober, NASA and The Catholic University of America.
The Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33, M33, and NGC 598, is a spiral galaxy located about 3 million light-years away.
Under very dark sky conditions, the galaxy can be seen with the naked eye as a faint, fuzzy object in the constellation Triangulum, and its ethereal glow makes it a fascination for amateur astronomers.
The galaxy is a notable member of the Local Group, a collection of more than 50 galaxies bound together by gravity. It is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group, but it is also the smallest spiral galaxy in the group.
The Triangulum Galaxy is only about 60,000 light years in diameter, and the Andromeda Galaxy is 200,000 light years in diameter. The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, placing it halfway between these two extremes.
“The Triangulum Galaxy is a known hotbed of star birth, forming stars at an average rate ten times higher than in the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Interestingly, its well-ordered spiral arms indicate that it has few interactions with other galaxies, so galactic collisions are not driving rapid star formation as they do in many other galaxies.”
“The galaxy has an abundance of dust and gas to produce stars, and it also has many clouds of ionized hydrogen, also known as HII regions, that give rise to phenomenal star formation.”
“Researchers present evidence that high-mass stars form in collisions between giant molecular clouds in the Triangulum Galaxy.”
This new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a reddish cloud of ionized hydrogen dotted with dark dust bands that make the image look grainy but are actually a swarm of stars.
“The Triangulum Galaxy is one of fewer than 100 galaxies close enough that a telescope like Hubble can resolve individual stars, as revealed here,” the astronomers write.
“It is known that this galaxy does not have a central bulge, and there is no evidence of a supermassive black hole at its center. This is odd, given that most spiral galaxies have a central bulge made of densely packed stars, and most large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers.”
“Galaxies with this type of structure are called pure disk galaxies, and studies suggest that they make up about 15-18 percent of galaxies in the universe.”
“The Triangulum Galaxy could lose its streamlined appearance and peaceful state in a dramatic way, potentially colliding with both the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies.”
“The image was taken as part of an investigation of the Triangulum Galaxy to refine theories on topics such as the physics of the interstellar medium, star formation processes and stellar evolution.”
The impact of intergroup conflict on demographics has long been debated, especially in prehistoric and non-state societies. In their study, scientists from the Complexity Science Hub, the University of Washington, and the Leibniz Center for Archaeology believe that beyond the direct casualties of combat, conflicts can create “landscapes of fear” that can lead many non-combatants near conflict zones to abandon their homes and migrate.
The Battle of Orsha by Hans Krell.
“Around the world, scientists have extensively studied and debated the existence and role of prehistoric conflict,” said Dr Daniel Condor, a researcher at the Complexity Science Hub.
“But it remains difficult to estimate the impact on population numbers and so on.”
“The situation is further complicated by potential indirect effects, such as people leaving their homes or avoiding certain areas out of fear.”
These indirect effects of conflict can have caused significant long-term demographic changes in non-state societies such as Neolithic Europe (c. 7000-3000 BC).
“Our model shows that fear of conflict led to population declines in potentially dangerous areas.”
“As a result, people began concentrating in safer areas, such as on the hills, and overpopulation threatened to increase death rates and decrease birth rates.”
“The results of the simulation study are in good agreement with empirical evidence from archaeological field investigations, for example the Late Neolithic site of Kapellenberg near Frankfurt, dating to around 3700 BC,” added Dr Detlef Groenenborn, researcher at the Leibniz Archaeological Centre.
“There are many examples of agricultural land being temporarily abandoned as groups retreated to more defensible locations and invested heavily in extensive defensive systems such as walls, palisades and ditches.”
“The concentration of people in particular, often well-defended locations, may have led to growing wealth inequalities and political structures that legitimised these differences,” said Dr Peter Turchin, a researcher at the Complexity Science Hub.
“Thus, the indirect effects of conflict may also have played an important role in the emergence of larger political units and the rise of early states.”
To simulate the demographic dynamics of Neolithic Europe, the authors developed a new computational model.
To test their model, the researchers used a database of archaeological sites and analysed a number of radiocarbon dates from different locations and time periods, under the assumption that this reflects the scale of human activity and therefore population numbers.
“This allows us to explore the typical amplitudes and time scales of population growth and decline across Europe. Our goal was to reflect these patterns in our simulations,” Dr Conder said.
“Direct collaboration with archaeologists is crucial to ensure we have as complete a picture as possible.”
“This study is a great example of the potential of such interdisciplinary collaboration.”
of study Published in Royal Society Journal Interface.
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Daniel Condor others2024. Landscapes of Fear: Indirect Impacts of Conflict May Cause Large-Scale Population Declines in Non-State Societies. JR Association Interface 21(217):20240210;doi:10.1098/rsif.2024.0210
This article is based on an original release by Complexity Science Hub.
First hypothesized over 60 years ago Bipolar electric field Polar winds are the primary driver of a constant outflow of charged particles into space above the Earth’s poles. These electric fields lift charged particles in the upper atmosphere to higher altitudes than usual, and may have shaped the evolution of Earth in ways that are still unknown.
Collinson othersThey report that a potential drop of +0.55 ± 0.09 V exists between 250 km and 768 km due to the planetary electrostatic field, generated solely by the outward pressure of ionospheric electrons. They experimentally demonstrate that the Earth’s ambipolar field controls the structure of the polar ionosphere, increasing its scale height by 271%. Image courtesy of NASA.
Since the 1960s, spacecraft flying over Earth’s poles have detected streams of particles streaming from Earth’s atmosphere into space.
Theorists predicted these outflows, named them polar winds, and stimulated research to understand their causes.
Some outflow from the atmosphere was expected — intense, unobstructed sunlight should send some atmospheric particles escaping into space, like water vapor evaporating from a pot of water — but the observed polar winds were more puzzling.
Many of the particles inside were cold and showed no signs of heating, but they were moving at supersonic speeds.
“Something must be attracting these particles to the outer reaches of the atmosphere,” said Dr. Glynn Collinson, Endurance mission principal investigator and a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The electric fields, hypothesized to be generated at subatomic levels, would be incredibly weak and their effects would be expected to be felt only for distances of hundreds of miles.
For decades, detecting it has been beyond the limits of existing technology.
In 2016, Dr Collinson and his colleagues began inventing a new instrument that they thought would be suitable for measuring Earth’s bipolar magnetic field.
The team’s equipment and ideas were perfectly suited for a suborbital rocket flight launched from the Arctic.
The researchers named the mission “Antarctic Expedition,” in honor of the ship that carried Ernest Shackleton on his famous 1914 Antarctic voyage. Endurance.
They set course for Svalbard, a Norwegian island just a few hundred miles from the North Pole and home to the world’s northernmost rocket launch site.
“Svalbard is the only rocket launch site in the world that can fly through the polar winds and make the measurements we need,” said Dr Susie Ingber, an astrophysicist at the University of Leicester.
Endurance was launched on May 11, 2022, reaching an altitude of 768.03 kilometers (477.23 miles) and splashing down in the Greenland Sea 19 minutes later.
Over the 518.2 kilometres (322 miles) altitude where Endurance collected data, it measured a change in electrical potential of just 0.55 volts (V).
“Half a volt is almost meaningless – it’s about the strength of a watch battery – but it’s just right for describing polar winds,” Dr Collinson said.
Hydrogen ions, the most abundant type of particle in the polar wind, experience an outward force from this field that is 10.6 times stronger than gravity.
“That’s more than enough to counter gravity, in fact to launch you into space at supersonic speeds,” said Dr. Alex Grosser, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Endurance project scientist.
Heavier particles are also accelerated: an oxygen ion at the same altitude, immersed in this 0.5 volt electric field, loses half its mass.
In general, scientists have found that bipolar magnetic fields increase what’s called the scale height of the ionosphere by 271%, meaning the ionosphere remains denser up to higher altitudes than it would be without the bipolar magnetic field.
“It’s like a conveyor belt that lifts the atmosphere up into space,” Dr Collinson said.
The Endurance discovery has opened up many new avenues of exploration.
The polarity field, as a fundamental energy field of the Earth alongside gravity and magnetism, may have continually shaped the evolution of the atmosphere in ways that we are only now beginning to explore.
Because it is generated by the internal dynamics of the atmosphere, similar electric fields are expected to exist on other planets, including Venus and Mars.
“Any planet with an atmosphere should have a bipolar magnetic field, and now that we’ve finally measured it we can start to learn how it has shaped our planet and other planets over time,” Dr Collinson said.
G.A. Collinson others2024. Earth’s bipolar electrostatic field and its role in the escape of ions into space. Nature 632, 1021-1025;doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07480-3
This article is a version of a press release from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is not scheduled to return astronauts from space this year
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
It’s official: Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain aboard the International Space Station until at least February. While it’s a major setback for Boeing’s Starliner, the plane that carried them there, it doesn’t spell doom for the U.S. space program. Rather, it highlights the success of the transition from the government providing the sole rocket to space to a proliferation of commercial spaceflight options.
This is exactly the contingency that NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which transports astronauts to the ISS using spacecraft built by private companies, was designed to handle. “The Commercial Crew Program deliberately selected two providers for redundancy in preparation for exactly this situation,” he said. Laura Forzigan independent space industry consultant. The two NASA astronauts were originally scheduled to arrive at the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 and return to Earth about a week later. However, issues with the spacecraft resulted in them staying for an extended mission before returning home aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft instead of the Starliner.
“If they had only picked one provider, it would have been Boeing because SpaceX was a riskier proposition at the time,” Forczyk said, “so in some sense, this is a win for the Commercial Crew program.”
The mission was Starliner’s first manned test flight, and it was rocky from the start: valve leaks and thruster failures on the journey into space forced NASA and Boeing to reconsider whether the spacecraft could safely return astronauts to Earth. Tests of the thrusters on the ground were inconclusive, and there was still a risk of the thrusters failing during the return journey.
The safest alternative would be for astronauts to remain on the ISS until SpaceX’s proven Crew Dragon spacecraft has room to return, which could happen in early 2025. In the meantime, Starliner will autonomously detach from the ISS in September and return to Earth without a crew member while Boeing engineers continue to troubleshoot.
“This was a test mission, but sometimes testing gives you answers that tell you there are things that need to be fixed,” said former NASA astronaut Michael Fossum. statement“Testing doesn’t necessarily prove that everything worked perfectly.”
At a press conference on August 24, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson Though Boeing has been adamant that Starliner will get another chance to carry crew to the ISS, some aren’t so convinced. Boeing’s contract requires that the vehicle isn’t certified for use in real missions until it completes a successful test flight, which it didn’t this time. If NASA requires Starliner to undergo another test flight, Forchik says, the first operational flight could be delayed until 2026 at the earliest. With the ISS scheduled to close around 2030, keeping Starliner ready for active duty may not be worth it.
Without redundancy in the commercial crew program, the failure of Starliner could have left the U.S. without a launch provider entirely. As it stands, SpaceX will continue to shuttle astronauts to and from the ISS. Although Wilmore and Williams will need to stay aboard the ISS for a little longer, they are veteran astronauts with the experience and equipment to quickly jump into daily life in space before returning safely to Earth.
For Wilmore and Williams, the challenges and inconveniences of a long-term stay may not outweigh the excitement of life in orbit. “I know them really well, and I think in some ways they were a little disappointed to be up there in such a short amount of time,” Fossum said. “They both have been on long-term missions aboard the space station before… and they both enjoyed it.”
Typically, plants grow in crowded environments where neighboring plants compete for light while shading each other. The presence of neighboring plants varies through space and time, and plants have developed the ability to detect neighboring plants and grow away from their shade. Although it is generally accepted that these responses help plants increase their individual light exposure, it is not clear how plants find solutions that are beneficial for them as a whole. In a new study, physicists from Tel Aviv University and elsewhere focus on the spontaneous self-organized pattern formation of sunflower flocks mediated by shade avoidance. Their analysis reveals that circumnavigation (the innate movement of plants) results in random perturbations that follow a restricted random walk.
Circling is widespread in plant systems and is commonly associated with exploratory behavior, but its role is difficult to quantitatively understand. otherswere the first to report their role in promoting optimal growth patterns in dense plant populations that shade each other. Image courtesy of Manuel H.
“Previous studies have shown that when sunflowers are planted close together in a field and shade each other, they will grow in a zigzag pattern, one forward and one backward, to avoid shading each other,” said Professor Yasmin Meros of Tel Aviv University.
“That way the plants can grow side by side, maximizing the light they receive from the sun and maximizing photosynthesis overall.”
“In fact, plants know how to distinguish between the shadow of a building and the green shadow of their leaves.”
“When they sense the shadow of a building, they usually don't change their growth direction because they know it won't have any effect.”
“But when a plant senses shadow, it grows away from the shadow.”
In this study, the researchers investigated the question of how sunflowers “know” how to grow optimally (i.e. to capture the most sunlight collectively) and analysed the growth dynamics of sunflowers in the lab that exhibit a zigzag pattern.
Meros and his colleagues grew sunflowers in high-density environments, photographing them every few minutes as they grew, and then stitched together the images to create a time-lapse video.
The researchers followed the movements of each sunflower and observed the blossoms dancing en masse.
According to the authors, Darwin was the first to recognise that all plants grow by exhibiting a kind of cyclical movement (circumlocution), and that both stems and roots exhibit this behaviour.
But until now, apart from a few examples such as vines that grow in large circular motions searching for something to grab hold of, it hasn't been clear whether this is an artefact or an important feature of growth. Why would a plant expend energy growing in a random direction?
“As part of our research, we carried out a physical analysis to capture the behaviour of each sunflower in the colony and found that they dance to find the optimal angle to avoid blocking the sunlight of their neighbours,” Professor Meros said.
“We statistically quantified this movement and showed through computer simulations that these random movements are used collectively to minimize the amount of shadowing.”
“We were also very surprised to see that the distribution of sunflower stride lengths was so wide, spanning three orders of magnitude, from nearly zero displacement to moving two centimetres in either direction every few minutes.”
“Sunflower plants take advantage of the fact that they can use both small, slow steps and large, fast steps to find the optimal arrangement for their population,” Professor Meros said.
“That means that if the steps are narrow or wide, the arrangement will increase mutual shading and reduce photosynthesis.”
“It's like a crowded dance party, where people dance around to get more space. If you move too much, you get in the way of the other dancers, but if you move too little, it doesn't solve the crowding problem, because one corner of the square will be very crowded and the other side will be empty.”
“Sunflowers also exhibit similar communication dynamics: a combination of response to the shade of neighboring plants and random movement without regard to external stimuli.”
of result Published in the journal Physical Review X.
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Chantal Nguyen others2024. Noisy turning movements promote self-organized shade avoidance in sunflowers. Physical Review X 14 (3): 031027; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.14.031027
SpaceX has once again delayed the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, which was supposed to take four private citizens into space, this time citing bad weather forecasts.
The company attributed the postponement to adverse weather conditions off the Florida coast, without specifying whether their main concern was the potential impact on the spacecraft’s water landing in case of an emergency or the safety of the crew during their return home after the five-day journey.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Kidd, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon are set to launch early on Wednesday for what will be the first all-civilian crew spacewalk.
Isaacman noted in a post on X that the Polaris Dawn mission will face significant limitations due to the expected splashdown conditions as the capsule will not dock with the International Space Station, and astronauts might have to wait for improved weather conditions.
“With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support supplies, it’s crucial for us to verify re-entry weather conditions before the launch,” he stated.
Alternate launch dates were initially set for Thursday, but SpaceX canceled both launches due to the weather outlook. The company has yet to announce new launch dates.
“The team will continue monitoring the weather for favorable launch and return conditions,” SpaceX shared on X.
An earlier launch attempt on Tuesday was called off after a helium leak was detected on the launch pad.
In addition to attempting the first all-civilian spacewalk, Polaris Dawn aims to reach the highest orbital altitude humans have reached since the final Apollo moon mission in 1972. The mission will also test new spacesuits and other technologies for future long-duration expeditions, potentially providing valuable research to support SpaceX’s long-term goal of launching missions to the Moon and eventually Mars.
A monster looms, threatening our democracy. The monster comes in many forms, from online misinformation networks and deepfakes, to social media bots and psychological microtargeting that uses our personal data to customize political messages to our interests, attitudes and demographics.
Considering that roughly half of the world's population will go to the polls in 2024, democracy may seem to be in good health. But many worry that it is being undermined by powerful new digital technologies that can target individuals, manipulate voters, and influence elections. Fears about digital influence stem in part from the novelty of the technology. We're still so new to the online age that no one fully understands what's going on, much less what's coming. Every new technology is unfamiliar, and it can sometimes feel like the rules of the game are being rewritten. But are these concerns justified?
We are one of a growing number of researchers with expertise in political science and psychology who are trying to drag these monsters out of the shadows. Our research aims to shed light on how new technologies are being used, by whom, and how effective they are as tools of propaganda. By carefully defining the concept of digital manipulation, we can better understand than ever the threat it poses to democracy. While some lobbying groups loudly warn about its dangers, our research points to more surprising conclusions. Moreover, our findings can help society better prepare to confront digital demons, by telling us exactly what we should worry about and what are just ghosts of our imagination.
Canada’s historic wildfire season last year resulted in the burning of numerous trees, causing forests to emit more carbon than the fossil fuel emissions of most countries in 2022, as per a study released on Wednesday.
According to Brendan Byrne, a carbon cycle scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead author of the study, “Only China, the United States, and India emit more carbon dioxide annually than these fires. Emissions from these fires are unprecedented in Canada’s history.”
Byrne’s research, published in Nature magazine, estimates that the emissions from the fires (approximately 647 megatons of carbon) are over four times the annual emissions from Canada’s fossil fuel burning. The study predicts that by 2023, about 4% of Canada’s forests will have burned.
While Canada’s forests typically absorb more carbon than they emit, the latest findings suggest a concerning trend where these carbon sinks may be exacerbating emissions. This raises concerns about the reliability of carbon sinks in the future as wildfire patterns evolve.
Byrne stated, “The year 2023 was truly exceptional due to heat, drought, and fire emissions. With summer temperatures projected to normalize in Canadian forests around the 2050s, we might see a rise in the frequency of fires, impacting the carbon storage capacity of forests significantly.”
In 2023, 232,000 individuals were evacuated due to the smoke from the wildfires in Canada, leading to the worst smoke season in modern U.S. history, with cities like New York facing air pollution concerns.
A subway station in the Bronx, New York City, on June 7, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images file.
To calculate the total carbon emissions from the wildfire season, researchers used satellite data to determine how much atmospheric carbon was absorbed by light. They also noted that Canada experienced exceptional drought and its hottest summer since at least 1980, conditions expected to become more frequent in the future.
Approximately half of the carbon released by human activities remains in the atmosphere, a quarter is absorbed by oceans, and the remaining quarter by terrestrial ecosystems like trees and plants on Earth.
Byrne emphasized, “Changes in the frequency and severity of fires could impact this absorption process. This has significant implications for global carbon emissions.”
Canada’s forested regions account for about 8.5% of global forests, as per a recent study.
The emissions estimates from the researchers align closely with other analyses of the 2023 fires in Canada. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reported approximately 480 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions from fires, which is based on different analytical methods.
Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at Copernicus, noted that the new study corroborated the findings of their research while incorporating additional satellite data to reduce uncertainties. Although the U.S. has not been as affected by Canadian wildfire smoke this season, large carbon dioxide emissions are once again being released.
Parrington mentioned, “Monitoring indicates that 2024 is the second-worst wildfire year in Canada in the last two decades, based on estimated emissions, following 2023.”
Salmon will soon be able to migrate freely up the Klamath River and its tributaries, marking a significant milestone in the watershed near the California-Oregon border. The largest dam removal project in American history is reaching completion.
This week, excavators will destroy rock dams that have been obstructing water flow upstream on two rivers. Two embankments, Iron Gate and Copco No. 1, which were almost completely removed, will now allow the river to flow freely through its historic channel, providing salmon access to vital habitat just in time for the fall king salmon season.
A Yurok tribal member leads a redwood canoe tour on the lower Klamath River in Klamath, California, on June 8, 2021. As salmon in the Klamath River decline, the Yurok Tribe is turning to alternative sources of revenue, such as ecotourism and canoe tours, to support the tribe. Nathan Howard/AP File
“Seeing the river return to its original course and the dams removed bodes well for our future,” said Leaf Hillman, a ceremonial leader for the Karuk people who have been advocating for Klamath dam removal for over 25 years. This is crucial for the tribe and others in the region.
The demolition precedes the anticipated completion of the removal of four massive dams on the Klamath River by about a month. This is part of a national movement to restore rivers to their natural state and revive ecosystems for fish and wildlife.
Since February, over 2,000 dams have been removed in the United States, with many removed in the past 25 years, according to the environmental group American Rivers, including dams on the Elwha River in Washington state and Condit Dam on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River.
“Now is when the healing process truly begins for the river,” said Joshua Chenoweth, a senior ecologist with the Yurok Tribe, who has long advocated for dam removal and river restoration. “Removing the dams allows the river to naturally restore itself.”
The Klamath River, once a prominent salmon-producing region, saw a drastic decline in fish populations due to dams built by PacifiCorp between 1918 and 1962. These dams disrupted the river’s natural flow and impacted the salmon’s life cycle.
Efforts to remove the dams intensified after a bacterial outbreak in 2002 killed thousands of fish, mainly Chinook salmon, prompting tribes and environmental groups to push for action. The dam removal plan was approved in 2022.
Following the removal of the smallest dam, Copko 2, workers drained the reservoirs of the other three dams and began dismantling their structures in March.
Gilbert Myers measures water temperature in a king salmon trap in the lower Klamath River, California, on June 8, 2021. Nathan Howard/AP File
Removing the dams on the Klamath River will not significantly impact electricity supply, as the dams produce less than 2 percent of PacificCorp’s energy capacity, enough for around 70,000 homes. While hydroelectric power is considered clean and renewable, environmental groups and tribes have targeted large dams in the Western U.S. due to their negative impact on fish and river ecosystems.
The project’s cost of approximately $500 million will be covered by taxpayers and Pacific Command funds.
The timeline for the salmon’s return and the river’s recovery remains uncertain. There have been reports of salmon at the river’s mouth beginning to migrate. Michael Belchik, a senior water policy analyst for the Yurok Tribe, anticipates the salmon passing through Iron Gate Dam soon.
“We can expect to see early signs of recovery,” he said. “I believe we’ll witness fish swimming over the dam, possibly this year or certainly by next year.”
There are two small upstream dams on the Klamath River that allow salmon to pass through fish ladders, enabling them to overcome the dam barriers.
Mark Brantham, CEO of the Klamath River Restoration Authority overseeing the project, pointed out that it took roughly a decade for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe to resume fishing after the Elwha River dam removal.
“The impacts on fish recovery are uncertain,” he stated. “It will take time to undo the damage and restore the river system after a century of impact.”
Using data collected by the Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC) and Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, scientists have created the first complete 3D radiation map of the Jupiter system. The map characterizes the intensity of high-energy particles near the orbit of the icy moon Europa and shows how the radiation environment is shaped by small moons orbiting close to Jupiter’s rings.
This diagram shows a model of radiation intensity at different points on the Juno spacecraft’s orbit around Jupiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / DTU.
“With Juno, we’ve been trying to invent new ways to use sensors to learn about nature, and we’ve been using many of our science instruments in ways that were not originally intended,” said Juno principal investigator Dr. Scott Bolton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.
“This is the first detailed radiation map of this high-energy region and marks a major step forward in understanding how Jupiter’s radiation environment works.”
“It’s significant that we’ve been able to map this area in detail for the first time, because we don’t have instruments designed to look for radiation.”
“This map will help plan observations for future missions to the Jovian system.”
Juno’s ASC instrument, consisting of four star cameras mounted on the spacecraft’s magnetometer boom, takes images of the stars to determine the spacecraft’s orientation in space.
But the instrument is also a valuable detector for detecting the flow of high-energy particles within Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
The cameras record “hard radiation” – ionizing radiation that affects the spacecraft with enough energy to penetrate the ASC’s shielding.
“The ASC takes an image of the star every quarter of a second,” said Juno scientist Dr. John Leif Jorgensen, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark.
“The highly energetic electrons that penetrate the shield leave distinctive signatures in our images, like firefly trails.”
“The device is programmed to count the number of fireflies, allowing us to accurately calculate the amount of radiation.”
Juno’s orbit is constantly changing, so the spacecraft has traversed nearly every region of space near Jupiter.
The ASC data suggests that there is more very high-energy radiation, relative to low-energy radiation, near Europa’s orbit than previously thought.
The data also confirm that there are more energetic electrons on the side of Europa facing in the direction of its orbital motion than on the rear side of Europa.
This is because most of the electrons in Jupiter’s magnetosphere pass Europa from behind due to the planet’s rotation, but the very energetic electrons flow backwards, like a fish swimming upstream, and slam into the front of Europa.
The Jupiter radiation data is not the ASC’s first scientific contribution to the mission: even before it arrived at Jupiter, ASC data was used to measure interstellar dust bombarding Juno.
Using the same dust-detection techniques, the imager also discovered a previously undiscovered comet, identifying tiny pieces of the spacecraft ejected by fine dust particles that collided with Juno at high speed.
Like Juno’s ASC, the SRU will act as a radiation detector and low-light imaging instrument.
Data from both instruments show that, like Europa, small shepherd moons that orbit inside or near the edges of Jupiter’s rings and help maintain their shape also appear to interact with the planet’s radiation environment.
If the spacecraft flies over magnetic field lines that connect to ring moons or dense dust, the radiation dose to both the ASC and SRU drops sharply.
The SRU is also collecting rare low-light images of the rings from Juno’s unique vantage point.
“Many mysteries remain about how Jupiter’s rings formed, and very few images have been collected by previous spacecraft,” said SRU principal investigator Dr. Heidi Becker, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“If you’re lucky, you might even be able to capture a little shepherd moon in your photo.”
“These images allow us to get a better idea of where the ring moons are currently located and to see the distribution of dust relative to the distance from Jupiter.”
of Survey results Will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning image of the Pegasus dwarf elliptical galaxy, a moon of the Andromeda galaxy.
The Pegasus dwarf elliptical galaxy is located about 959,000 light-years away from the Andromeda galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Weisz, University of California, Berkeley / Gladys Kober, NASA and The Catholic University of California.
“The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, is the closest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and is orbited by at least 13 dwarf moons,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“The Pegasus dwarf spheroidal galaxy is one of these compact galaxies.”
“Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the faintest and most massive galaxies known,” they explained.
“They tend to have an elliptical shape and a relatively smooth distribution of stars.”
“Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are typically devoid of gas and contain mostly old and intermediate-stage stars, although some have recently undergone a small amount of star formation.”
The Pegasus dwarf spheroidal galaxy, also known as Andromeda VI, was discovered in 1996 in images from the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
“The galaxy is characterised by a low abundance of heavy elements, leaving very little gas needed to form the next generation of stars, although it still has more than many of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies in our Local Group,” the astronomers said.
“Researchers suspect that Andromeda's gravitational field is stripping away star-forming gas, leaving it with insufficient material to form more than a few generations of stars.”
“By comparison, some of the Milky Way's comparable distant dwarf spheroidal companions contain intermediate-age stars, which may be because the Andromeda Galaxy is so massive and extended that its gravitational influence reaches farther.”
“The jury is still out on how dwarf elliptical galaxies form,” they noted.
“Theories include collisions between galaxies that break off smaller pieces, the gravitational influence of larger galaxies on small, disk-like dwarf galaxies, and processes related to the birth of small systems among dark matter aggregates.”
“Andromeda and the Milky Way are the only galaxies close enough for astronomers to observe these faint satellite galaxies, so clues to their formation come from nearby galaxies like this one.”
“Hubble studied this galaxy as part of a survey of the entire Andromeda moon system to investigate important topics such as dark matter, reionization, and the growth of galactic ecosystems through the ages of the universe.”
Paleontologists have added a new species to Europe's Cretaceous dinosaur fauna, discovered in Normandy, France.
Abelisaurid teeth are associated with the holotype specimen. Caletodraco CottardiImages/Photos Courtesy of Buffetaut others., doi: 10.3390/fossils2030009.
Caletodraco Cottardi It lived in what is now France during the Cenomanian period of the Early Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago.
The ancient species Fuuriusauriais a derived subgroup of abelisaurid dinosaurs (medium-to-large bipedal predators that dominated the Late Cretaceous carnivore fauna of the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana) previously known only from South America.
“My family Abelisauridae Built in 1985, the museum features Abelisaurus komafuensis“It was a large carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the Campanian formation of Patagonia,” said Dr Eric Baffeteau from PSL Research University and his colleagues.
“It has since become clear that Abelisauridae actually constitute a major lineage of neoceratopsid theropods, and played an important role in the Cretaceous continental ecosystems of South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Madagascar.”
“The Abelisauridae are mainly distributed in Gondwana, but in 1988 abelisaurids were reported from the Late Cretaceous of southern France, and are now known from Cretaceous localities in several European countries, including France, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands.”
Two blocks containing fossilized bones and teeth Caletodraco Cottardi The fossils were excavated by paleontologist Nicolas Cotard at the foot of the sea cliffs of Saint-Jouin-Bruneval, on the coast of the Caux department in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy, northwest France.
“The glauconitic chalk layers of the Pays de Caux are marine deposits, as suggested in this case by the presence of a shark's tooth in the matrix close to one of the bones of the anterior block,” the paleontologists said.
“The nearest land mass where the dinosaur described below could have lived must have been the Armorica Massif, about 100 km to the southwest.”
“The dinosaur specimens must have somehow been transported to the ocean, possibly by a river, and then drifted quite a long distance before sinking to the ocean floor.”
“Dinosaur fossils are fairly common in marine deposits, but this appears to be the first record from the Late Cretaceous of the Pays de Caux. The only relatively common vertebrate fossils in the region are fish teeth.”
Presence of the furiosaur Abelisaurus Caletodraco Cottardi This dinosaur, discovered in the Cenomanian of Normandy, suggests that the history of abelisaurids in Europe may have been more complex than previously thought.
“discovery Caletodraco Cottardi “This study shows that dinosaur fossils, although extremely rare, are present in the chalk layers of the Anglo-Paris Basin and that a careful search for vertebrate fossils in these marine layers may yield surprising and important results,” the researchers said.
“This new species has led to a re-evaluation of the European abelisaurid fossil record and shows that, contrary to what was previously assumed, majungasaurus was not the only abelisaurid subspecies present in that geographic region. Caletodraco Cottardi It clearly belongs to the Furileusauridae, a highly derived clade of the Abelisauridae.”
“Caletodraco Cottardi It is one of the oldest known furyleusaurids and its discovery in Europe leads us to reconsider the biogeographic history of this theropod group, previously known from South America.”
a paper The findings were published in an online journal. Fossil Research.
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Eric Buffett others2024. Caletodraco Cottardi: A new abelisaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian Chalk of Normandy (northwestern France). Phos. Stud 2 (3): 177-195; doi: 10.3390/fossils2030009
How to use Near-infrared imaging device and slitless spectrometer Using the NIRISS instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered six new free-floating planet-mass members of NGC 1333, with estimated masses ranging from 5 to 15 times that of Jupiter. One of these objects is five times the mass of Jupiter (about 1,600 times that of Earth), making it likely the lowest-mass object with a dusty planetary orbiting disk.
NIRISS-NGC1333-5 (also known as NN5), with an estimated mass five times that of Jupiter, is the lowest-mass object yet found in NGC 1333 and is likely the lowest-mass object with a disk in any region identified so far. Image credit: Langeveld others., doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad6f0c.
NGC 1333 is a star-forming cluster located about 1,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Perseus.
Also known as Ced 16 and LBN 741, the star cluster was first discovered in 1855 by German astronomer Eduard Schoenfeld.
NGC 1333 is only 1 to 3 million years old and harbors brown dwarfs equivalent to about half the number of stars, a higher proportion than previously observed.
“We're exploring the limits of the star formation process,” said astrophysicist Adam Langeveld of Johns Hopkins University.
“If we had a young Jupiter-like object, could it become a star under the right conditions? This is important context for understanding the formation of stars and planets.”
Dr. Langeveld and his colleagues used Webb's NIRISS instrument to carry out an extremely deep spectroscopic survey of NGC 1333.
Observations have discovered 19 known brown dwarfs and six free-floating planetary-mass objects with masses between 5 and 10 times that of Jupiter.
This means they are among the most lightweight objects yet discovered that were formed from processes that normally produce stars or brown dwarfs (objects that straddle the boundary between stars and planets, do not undergo hydrogen fusion reactions, and disappear over time).
“We used the Webb Telescope's unprecedented sensitivity at infrared wavelengths to search for the faintest members of young star clusters and answer a fundamental question in astronomy: how can objects form star-like shapes with light?” said Ray Jayawardene, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.
“The smallest stray objects forming like stars turn out to be comparable in mass to giant exoplanets orbiting nearby stars.”
Webb's observations, despite being sensitive enough to detect such objects, did not find any objects with a mass less than five times that of Jupiter.
This strongly suggests that stars less massive than this threshold are likely to form in the same way as planets.
“Our observations confirm that nature produces planetary-mass objects in at least two different ways: from the collapse of clouds of gas and dust as stars form, and from disks of gas and dust around young stars, such as Jupiter in our own solar system,” Dr Jayawardene said.
The most interesting of the planetary-mass objects is NIRISS-NGC1333-5, which is the lightest, with an estimated mass of five Jupiters.
“The presence of a dust disk means that the object almost certainly formed like a star, because cosmic dust typically revolves around a central object during the early stages of star formation,” Dr Langeveld said.
“Disks are also a prerequisite for planet formation, so our observations could also have important implications for potential small planets.”
“These small objects with masses comparable to the giant planets could potentially form planets themselves,” said Dr Alex Scholz, an astrophysicist at the University of St Andrews.
“This could be a nursery for small planetary systems, much smaller in scale than our solar system.”
Astronomers also discovered a new brown dwarf with a planetary-mass companion, a rare find that calls into question theories about how binary star systems form.
“Such pairs likely formed from a contracting, fragmenting cloud, much like a binary star system,” Dr Jayawardene said.
“The diversity of systems created by nature is astonishing and inspires us to refine our models of star and planet formation.”
Astrophysicists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have conducted test observations that achieve the highest resolution ever obtained from Earth’s surface by detecting light emanating from the center of a distant galaxy at a frequency of about 345 GHz. When combined with existing images of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 and the Milky Way galaxy at a lower frequency of 230 GHz, these new results not only produce a 50% sharper picture of the black hole, but also a multi-color image of the region just outside the boundaries of these cosmic monsters.
This artist’s impression shows the locations of radio observatories on Earth that took part in the EHT Collaboration’s pilot experiment to produce the highest-resolution observations from the ground. Image courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser.
In 2019, the EHT Collaboration released images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, and in 2022, they released images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
These images were obtained by linking multiple radio observatories around Earth, using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope.
To get higher resolution images, astronomers typically resort to larger telescopes, or greater distances between observatories acting as part of an interferometer.
But because the EHT was already the same size as Earth, a different approach was needed to increase the resolution of ground-based observations.
Another way to increase a telescope’s resolution is to observe shorter wavelengths of light, and that’s exactly what the EHT Collaboration is currently doing.
“The EHT has seen the first image of a black hole at 1.3 millimeter wavelengths, but the bright ring created by the black hole’s gravity bending light still appears blurry because we’ve reached the absolute limit of how sharp an image we can make,” said Dr Alexander Raymond, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“At 0.87mm, the images will be clearer and more detailed, which may reveal new properties, some previously predicted, but also some perhaps not.”
To demonstrate detection at 0.87 mm, EHT researchers carried out test observations of distant, bright galaxies at this wavelength.
Rather than using the entire EHT array, they used two smaller subarrays, including ALMA and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX).
Other facilities that will be used include the IRAM Thirty Meter Telescope in Spain, the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, and the Greenland Telescope and Submillimeter Array in Hawaii.
In this pilot experiment, scientists achieved measurements down to 19 microarcseconds, the highest resolution ever achieved from the Earth’s surface.
But it hasn’t yet been able to capture an image: Though it has robustly detected light from some distant galaxies, it hasn’t used enough antennas to be able to accurately reconstruct an image from the data.
This technical test opens up new avenues for studying black holes.
With the full array, the EHT can see details as small as 13 microarcseconds, the equivalent of seeing a bottle cap on the Moon from Earth.
This means that at 0.87mm we can obtain images with approximately 50% higher resolution than the previously published M87* and Sagittarius A* 1.3mm images.
What’s more, it may be possible to observe a black hole that is more distant, smaller and fainter than the two black holes imaged so far.
“Observing changes in the surrounding gas at different wavelengths will help us solve the mysteries of how black holes attract and accrete matter, and how they can launch powerful jets that travel across the Milky Way galaxy,” said Dr Shepard Doleman, EHT founding director and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
This is the first time that VLBI technology has been used successfully at a wavelength of 0.87 mm.
“The detection of a VLBI signal at 0.87 mm is groundbreaking as it opens a new observational window into the study of supermassive black holes,” said Dr Thomas Krichbaum, astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.
“In the future, the Spanish and French IRAM telescopes in combination with ALMA and APEX will allow us to image smaller and fainter radiation simultaneously at two wavelengths, 1.3 mm and 0.87 mm, which was previously possible.”
Online misinformation has fuelled tensions over immigration, sparking riots in Sunderland and other parts of the UK.
Doric/Getty Images
Last week, Pakistani police Sued the man Cyber terrorism links have been made in relation to a misleading news article that allegedly sparked riots in the UK. The article falsely claimed that an asylum seeker was responsible for the murder of three girls in Southport, UK, and the misinformation spread rapidly on social media, fuelling anger against immigrants.
The threat of online misinformation causing real-world problems is a major concern for governments around the world, particularly…
Throughout the history of cinema, filmmakers have constantly pushed the boundaries of special effects. From early techniques like using puppets to create dramatic scenes to more advanced methods involving animation and computer graphics, the evolution of visual effects has been remarkable.
In the past, creating high-quality computer graphics for films was a time-consuming and expensive process. However, with the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), this has changed. AIs like DALL.E, Midjourney, and Firefly have demonstrated the ability to generate stunning visuals from text descriptions almost instantly.
These AI-powered tools not only make it easier to edit images and footage but also offer the potential to create fully computer-generated movies without the need for physical actors. While there has been some resistance from screenwriters and actors, the rapid advancements in AI technology are reshaping the film industry.
Despite some concerns about copyright and the originality of AI-generated content, it is clear that AI is revolutionizing the creation of special effects in movies. While the long-term impact of AI on the film industry remains uncertain, it is certain that visual effects are becoming more accessible and affordable thanks to AI.
Ultimately, AI can be a powerful tool in post-production and help filmmakers focus on storytelling and performance rather than just visual effects. The future of filmmaking may be different, but with the right approach, AI can enhance the creative process and lead to more memorable films.
This article is a response to a question sent via email by Hilda Patterson: “To what extent will AI change the film industry?”
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Astronomers have discovered six new worlds that look like planets but formed like stars. These so-called “rogue worlds” are between five and 15 times the mass of Jupiter, and one of them may even host the beginnings of a miniature solar system.
Ray Jayawardene Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a researcher from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and his colleagues discovered these strange worlds in the NGC 1333 star cluster. Despite being planet-sized, none of these worlds orbit a star. This indicates that they likely formed by the collapse of a cloud of dust and gas, similar to how stars like our Sun are born. These objects that form like stars but are not massive enough to sustain the fusion of hydrogen are called brown dwarfs, or failed stars.
“In some ways, the most shocking thing is what we didn't find,” Jayawardene says. “Even though we had the sensitivity to do so, we couldn't find anything with a mass less than five times that of Jupiter.” This may indicate that brown dwarfs can't form at lower masses — that is, they are the smallest objects that can form like stars.
From their observations, the researchers found that about 10 percent of the objects in NGC 1333 are made up of brown dwarfs — a much higher number than expected based on star formation models — and that additional processes, such as turbulence, may be driving the formation of these nomadic planets.
One of the brown dwarfs is particularly unusual, with a ring of dust around it similar to the ones that formed the planets in our solar system. At about five times the mass of Jupiter, it's the smallest planet with such a ring ever found and may mark the beginning of a strange, shrunken planetary system around a dysfunctional star.
“From the miniature world around these objects, [brown dwarf] “It will glow mostly in the infrared, with a very reddish glow, and over hundreds of millions of years it will gradually fade away and become invisible,” Jayawardene says. As the brown dwarf fades, any planets that form around it will freeze out completely, darkening the entire system and making it a less than promising world for searching for life.
A recent study suggests that living in a neighborhood filled with trees can have similar heart benefits to regular exercise. Researchers at the University of Louisville conducted a clinical trial involving hundreds of people living in six low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in South Louisville, Kentucky. They found that planting thousands of mature trees near people’s homes led to lower levels of blood markers associated with heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.
The Green Heart Louisville Project, part of the HEAL Research, revealed that areas with more trees and shrubs had improved health outcomes compared to areas with fewer trees. This study aimed to reduce the incidence of heart disease in the community under the leadership of Professor Aruni Bhatnagar.
Unlike previous observational research, the HEAL study had a control group and an intervention group, providing clearer insights into the effects of nature. Participants aged 25 to 75 living in South Louisville were recruited for the study, with samples collected before and after the tree-planting intervention.
The results showed a 13% decrease in a blood marker associated with heart disease in individuals living in areas with more trees. This reduction was comparable to the benefits seen from starting a regular exercise routine.
Overall, the study demonstrated a strong link between trees and improved physical health by providing shade, cooling, and noise reduction. Beyond physical health, trees also offer mental health benefits and create spaces for relaxation, exercise, and socialization.
How trees improve your physical health
Trees play a crucial role in mitigating urban heat and air pollution, which can worsen existing health conditions. The project in South Louisville focused on areas with poor air quality to study the impact of tree planting on pollution levels.
As the project continues, researchers plan to expand tree planting to other areas and explore additional benefits such as encouraging outdoor activities and improving overall well-being. The findings highlight the importance of equitable access to green spaces in cities and the essential role of nature in human health.
In conclusion, nature is not just a luxury but a necessity for human well-being, and efforts should be made to ensure everyone has access to green spaces for a healthier future.
Bees are winged insects that feed on nectar and pollen from flowers and sometimes produce honey. There are around 20,000 species of honeybees, of which 270 live in the UK. More than 90% of honeybee species are solitary, but the remaining species, such as honeybees and bumblebees, live socially in colonies consisting of a single queen bee, female worker bees and male drones.
The largest wasp, Wallace's giant wasp, can grow up to 4cm in length, while tiny stingless wasp workers are smaller than a grain of rice. Wasps live on every continent except Antarctica, and in all habitats with flowering plants that are pollinated by insects.
Honeybees pollinate many of the plants we rely on for food, but their numbers are declining. Bee species numbers have been declining for decades and bees are now missing from a quarter of the places in the UK where they were found 40 years ago.
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How intelligent are honeybees?
Bees are highly intelligent creatures: they can count, solve puzzles and even use simple tools.
in An experimentIn a study, bees were trained to jump over three identical, evenly spaced landmarks to reach a sugar reward 300 meters away. When the number of landmarks was then reduced, the bees flew much farther; when the number of landmarks was increased, the bees landed a shorter distance away.
This suggests that the bees were counting landmarks to decide where to land.
in Another studyScientists have created a puzzle box that can be opened by twisting the lid to access sugar. Solution: Press the red tab to rotate the lid clockwise. Press the blue tab to rotate it counterclockwise. Not only can bees be trained to solve puzzles, they can also learn to solve problems themselves by watching other bees solve them.
In terms of tool use, Asian honeybees have been known to collect fresh animal waste and smear it around the hive entrance to repel predatory Asian giant hornets. This may smell a bit, but it also counts as tool use.
Scientists have previously shown that honeybees can learn to use tools in the lab. Fecal discovery in 2020 This is the first observation of tool use by wild honeybees.
Honeybee Anatomy
Image credit: Daniel Bright
The head includes:
1. Two compound eyes 2. Three small, lenticular eyespots (called ocelli) 3. Antennae that detect smell, taste, sound, and temperature 4. Chewing jaws, often used as nest building material 5. A proboscis that sucks up nectar, honey, and water
The thorax consists of:
6. Bee body 7. 3 pairs of legs 8. Two pairs of wings
The abdomen contains the following:
9. An esophagus, or honey stomach, for transporting nectar to the nest 10. Stinger – A sharp organ used to inject venom
How do bees communicate?
Honeybees have two primary modes of communication: expressive dance and expressive olfaction.
Honeybees use their famous “wag dance” to guide hive-mates to nectar- and pollen-rich flowers. Returning from a successful scouting mission, a worker bee scurries to one of the hive's vertical combs and begins tracing a figure-eight pattern.
Honeybees doing the “tail dance” – Photo credit: Kim Taylor / naturepl.com
When it reaches the straight center of its shape, it vibrates its abdomen and flaps its wings, a motion that makes the bird's wings wag like a tail.
The length of the tail flick indicates the distance to the flower, with each second increasing the distance traveled by 100 metres.Communicating direction is more complicated but can be done by the bee orienting its body in the direction of the food, relative to the sun.
The intensity of the dance indicates the abundance of food sources, and the dancers also release a cocktail of pheromones that spur nestmates into action: Colony members watch the dance, smell it with their antennae, and then set off in search of flowers.
There are other dances too, such as the “round dance” where the hips are not shaken and is used to indicate the position of flowers. Nearby, forager bees perform their “trembling dance” to gather their swarm members together to collect nectar from worker bees.
How do bees travel?
A honeybee can travel miles to find food in distant flower fields, yet still reliably find its way home – and with a brain the size of a sesame seed! So how does it do this?
First, they use the sun as a compass. Honeybees' eyes are sensitive to polarized light and can penetrate thick clouds, meaning that even on cloudy days, honeybees can “see” the sun and use it as a guide. Combining the position of the sun with the time indications of the animals' internal clocks allows honeybees to figure out both direction and distance.
Bees also monitor how much the sun moves while they are migrating, so that when they return to the hive they can tell their hive-mates where the food is relative to the sun's current position, rather than where it was when they found it.
Finally, honeybees are known to be able to sense magnetic fields through some sort of magnetic structure in their abdomen, so researchers believe they may also use the Earth's magnetic field to help them navigate.
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What does a bumblebee nest look like?
Bumblebees are plump, hairy bees that look like they can't fly. There are 24 species in the UK, of which 6 are parasitic and 18 are social.
Social species, such as garden bumblebees, form colonies and nest in protected places out of direct sunlight – good places include abandoned rodent burrows, compost piles, birdhouses, tree holes and spaces under sheds.
Photo credit: John Waters / naturepl.com
Unlike honeybee nests, which are elaborate structures with hexagonal cells, bumblebee nests are messy structures of cells, often insulated with leaves or animal fur, and designed to house small numbers of bees (about 40 to 400) during one nesting season.
In contrast, a honeybee hive can house up to 40,000 bees and last for many years.
Parasitic bumblebees, such as the giant cuckoo bee, don't build their own nests – instead, the queen invades other bumblebee nests, kills the queen and lays her own eggs, which are then raised by the local worker bees.
When did honeybees evolve?
Hornets are said to be cruel and are universally disliked, while honeybees are seen as benevolent and widely revered, yet honeybees evolved from hornets.
Bees belong to the order Hymenoptera, which also includes sawflies, ants, and wasps. The oldest Hymenoptera fossils date to the Triassic Period, about 224 million years ago. Wasps appeared in the Jurassic Period, 201 to 145 million years ago, and honeybees appeared in the Cretaceous Period, 145 to 66 million years ago.
Trigona prisca was one of the first species. Stingless bees discovered immortalized in amber in New JerseyThey flew about 85 million years ago, and the key specimens were female, worker bees with small abdomens, indicating that some bee species had already formed complex social structures.
The first animal-pollinated flowers had already evolved by this time and were pollinated by beetles, but the evolution of bees prompted the evolution of flowering plants, which prompted the evolution of bees, and so on.
This is one of the best examples of co-evolution: flowers evolved nectar and a funnel-shaped head, while bees evolved a long tongue to drink the nectar and specialized hairs to transport the pollen.
Can humans survive without bees?
Probably not, but the disappearance of honeybees would pose a serious threat to global food security and nutrition.
One third of the food we eat relies on insects like bees to pollinate the plants they grow, transporting pollen between them – from staples like potatoes and onions to fruits like apples and watermelon to condiments like basil and coriander.
For example, coffee and cocoa trees depend on honeybees for pollination, as do around 80% of Europe's wildflowers.
Bees are also a food source for many birds, mammals and insects, so if they were to disappear, their role in the ecosystem would be lost, with knock-on effects for many other animals and plants.
It's bad news, then, that honeybees are in global decline due to habitat loss, intensive farming, pollution, pesticide use, disease and climate change. Recent studies have found that the global decline of pollinating insects is already causing around 500,000 premature human deaths per year by reducing healthy food supplies.
What should I plant to make my garden bee-friendly?
Bees navigate by their position relative to the sun. – Photo credit: Getty Images
Most bee species aren't too picky about where they get their pollen and nectar from, so plants like lavender, hollyhocks and marigolds attract a variety of bees.
But other species are more specialized and depend on fewer plants. These bees are often rare, and if the plants they need to survive disappear, local bee populations can be at risk.
Raise yellow-flowered bees for yellow-flowered bees. Yellow-flowered bees are medium-sized bees that frequent this plant in search of pollen and aromatic oils. Females use the oils to waterproof their nests, which are often found on the banks of ponds and rivers.
Lamb's ear is an easy-to-grow evergreen perennial that is a favorite of wool-carder wasps. Female wool-carder wasps use the soft, hairy leaf fibers to line their nests, and males defend territories that contain these plants.
Another easy way is to let your grass grow long and embrace the weeds.
Dandelions and related plants like honeysuckle and chickweed are favorites of pantaloon bees, so named because the long hairs on the female's hind legs, covered with pollen, look like clown trousers. Buttercups, in turn, attract large pincer bees and sleepy carpenter bees.
5 Common Myths About Bees…Bullshit
1. Bees are too heavy to fly – This myth dates back to the 1934 publication of Antoine Magnin's “Book of Insects.” Magnin mistakenly believed that bees' wings were too small to generate the lift needed for flight. Obviously, he was wrong.
2. All bees sting – Male honeybees cannot sting; the stinger is a modified egg-laying organ that only females have. There are also about 550 species of stingless bees, but their stingers are too small to be used for defense.
3. If a bee stings, it will die. – Of all the bees that can sting, only the honeybee dies after stinging. The barbs on the bee's stinger get stuck in the victim's skin and when the bee tries to escape, its abdomen bursts, causing a fatal injury.
4. All bees make honey – Most bees don't make honey. In fact, there are only eight species of bees that produce large amounts of sweet nectar. There are hundreds of other species of bees that produce honey, but in much smaller amounts.
5. All bees are hard workers – As busy as honeybees are, aren't they? The queen bee lays up to 1,500 eggs a day. The worker bees forage, feed the larvae, and clean the hive. But the drones don't have as much work to do in a day. Their only role is to mate with the virgin queen bee.
in paper Announced today Astronomical JournalThe astronomers analysed the evolution of giant galaxies at redshifts 4 to 8 selected from the JWST Cosmic Evolution Early Emission Survey (CEERS).
A composite color image of the very red quasar-like object A2744-QSO1. Image courtesy of Furtak. others., doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8.
“We still see more galaxies than expected, but none of them are massive enough to 'break' the universe,” said Katherine Kworowski, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.
Galaxies that appear excessively massive are likely to harbor black holes that are rapidly eating away at gas, according to a new study.
Friction between the fast-moving gas releases heat and light, making these galaxies much brighter than they would be if light were emitted only by stars.
This extra light can make galaxies appear to contain more stars, and therefore more massive, than we would normally assume.
When scientists remove these galaxies, which they call “little red dots,” from their analysis, the remaining early galaxies are not so massive that they fit the predictions of the Standard Model.
“This means there is no crisis with regard to the standard model of cosmology,” Professor Steven Finkelstein said.
“When you have a theory that has stood the test of time for a long time, you need overwhelming evidence to really disprove it, and that's simply not the case.”
They've solved the main dilemma, but a less troubling one remains: there are still about twice as many massive galaxies in the Webb data from the early universe than would be expected from the standard model.
One possible explanation may be that stars formed more quickly in the early universe than they do today.
“Maybe early in the universe, galaxies were better at turning gas into stars,” Kurowski said.
Star formation occurs when hot gas cools enough to succumb to gravity and condense into one or more stars.
But as the gas contracts, it heats up and creates outward pressure.
In our region of the universe, the balance of these opposing forces tends to make the process of star formation very slow.
But some theories suggest that the early universe was denser than it is today, which could have made it harder for gas to escape during star formation, speeding up the process.
At the same time, astronomers are analyzing spectra of the tiny red dots that Webb has spotted, and the CEERS team and others are finding evidence of fast-moving hydrogen gas that is characteristic of black hole accretion disks.
This supports the idea that at least some of the light from these compact red objects comes from gas swirling around black holes rather than from stars, strengthening Kurowski and his colleagues' conclusion that black holes are probably not as massive as astronomers originally thought.
However, further observations of these intriguing objects are underway, which should help solve the mystery of how much light is coming from the star and how much is coming from the gas around the black hole.
In science, answering one question often gives rise to a new one.
Although the authors show that the Standard Model of cosmology is likely not broken down, their work points out the need for new ways of thinking about star formation.
“So there's still curiosity. Not everything is fully understood, which is why this kind of science is fun to do, because if one paper explained everything or there were no more questions to answer, it would be a very boring field,” Kurowski says.
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Katherine Choworowski others2024. Evidence for shallow evolution of bulk density in massive galaxies at z = 4-8 from CEERS. AJ 168, 113;doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad57c1
A SpaceX spacecraft set to carry four civilians on a mission into space is facing a delay due to a helium leak, pushing the launch to later this week.
The crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Kidd, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. They were all geared up for a mission that would mark the first spacewalk by a civilian crew.
The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, was initially slated for an early Tuesday launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, SpaceX published a statement on X indicating that the helium leak discovery will likely push the launch to Wednesday at the earliest.
“Teams are currently investigating a ground-side helium leak in the quick-disconnect umbilical in detail,” the company reported. “Falcon and Dragon remain in good condition, with crews ready for their multi-day journey to low Earth orbit.”
The helium leak setback comes as a disappointment for SpaceX, which has been responsible for transporting NASA astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020. In 2021, SpaceX launched its first private citizen into orbit – a mission that was also funded and participated in by Isaacman to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The highlight of the upcoming mission, the spacewalk, is expected to occur on the third day. Two crew members will be tethered out of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, with all astronauts equipped in newly designed space suits as the capsule undergoes depressurization to create a vacuum.
Traditionally, only astronauts from government space agencies have ventured into space for tasks such as building or upgrading orbital space stations, satellite repairs, or scientific experiments.
The Crew Dragon capsule is set to reach an altitude of 870 miles above Earth’s surface – surpassing the orbital altitude of the International Space Station by three times. This height will allow the capsule to navigate through the inner region of the Van Allen radiation belts, a zone with high-energy radiation particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.
The Polaris Dawn flight aims to study the effects of space radiation on astronauts and spacecraft, valuable research that could assist SpaceX in planning future missions to the Moon and Mars where astronauts will need to navigate both inside and outside of the Van Allen radiation belts.
Polaris Dawn is just one of three spaceflights that Isaacman is co-sponsoring and organizing with SpaceX. Details regarding the cost of the mission and the objectives of the other upcoming missions remain undisclosed for now.
Astronomers Murchison Widefield Alley Researchers in Western Australia conducted a search for extraterrestrial signals emanating from around 2,800 galaxies pointing towards the Vela supernova remnant with a spectral resolution of 10 kHz.
This diagram shows what a Kardashev Type III civilization might operate like. Containing stellar energy in so-called Dyson spheres is one way to harness the enormous energy on a galactic scale. The resulting waste heat products should be detectable with telescopes. Image by Danielle Futselaar / ASTRON.
“When we think about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we often consider the age and advancement of technology that could produce signals that we could detect with telescopes,” said Dr Chenoa Tremblay from the SETI Institute and Professor Steven Tingay from Curtin University.
“In popular culture, advanced civilizations are depicted as having interstellar spacecraft and the means to communicate.”
“In the 1960s, astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev proposed a scale for quantifying the degree of technological advancement of extraterrestrial intelligence.”
“The Kardashev scale has three levels. A Type I civilization uses all the energy available on its planet (1016 W); Type II civilizations can consume stellar energy directly (1026 W) and a Type III civilization could consume all the energy emitted by the galaxy (1036 “W)”
“Civilizations at the higher end of the Kardashev scale could generate vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation detectable at galactic distances.”
“Some of the ideas that have been explored in the past have been to harness the light of stars in our galaxy, to colonize the solar system, and to use pulsars as a communications network.”
“Radio waves' ability to penetrate space over long distances and even planetary atmospheres makes them a practical tool for searching for interstellar communications.”
The authors used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), focusing on low radio frequencies (100 MHz), to look for signs of alien technology in galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
They observed about 2,800 galaxies in one observation, and determined the distances to 1,300 of them.
“This research represents a major step forward in efforts to detect signals from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations,” Dr Tremblay said.
“The MWA's wide field of view and low-frequency range make it an ideal tool for this type of study, and the limits we set will guide future research.”
CD Tremblay & SJ Tingay. 2024. An extragalactic wide-field search for technosignatures with the Murchison Wide Field Array. ApJ 972, 76;doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad6b11
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