Marine biologists identify new species of skate Leucolaja It lurks in the deep waters of the southwestern Indian Ocean.
brown long nose skates (Leucolaya longirostris), holotype of an adult male viewed from the dorsal side. Scale bar – 5 cm. Image credit: Weigman others., doi: 10.3390/biology13060405.
members of the genus Leucolaja A small to medium sized skate, usually with a short, obtuse snout.
To date, 14 valid species of this genus have been identified, primarily in the Atlantic Ocean, but also in the Indian Ocean.
“The 14 species currently described are Leucolaja It reaches a maximum size of 30-120 cm and is found in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. ” Dr Simon Weigman by the Leibniz Institute for Biodiversity Change Analysis and colleagues.
“Of these 12 species, Leucolaja Compagnoi and Leucolaja wallasei They also live outside the Atlantic Ocean, in continental waters in the southwestern Indian Ocean. ”
The newly discovered Leucolaja This species is the fourth known species of this genus from the western Indian Ocean.
named Leucolaya longirostris (common name is Brown Longnose Skate), apparently endemic to the Madagascar Ridge in Walters Shoals.
“In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers working on the Madagascar Ridge, a raised area of the ocean floor in the southwestern Indian Ocean, collected a total of eight rare skate specimens at depths of 750 to 1,050 meters.” biologists said.
“Despite the long snout, this specimen could definitely be assigned to the genus. Leucolaja This is due to the typical characteristics of claspers. ”
“It can be easily distinguished from all 14 congeners by its long, sharply pointed snout,” the researchers said.
“Furthermore, it appears to occur only on the Madagascar Ridge, away from the known distribution areas of all congeners, and its clasper morphology exhibits several unique aspects.”
brown long nose skates (Leucolaya longirostris), holotype of an adult male viewed from the ventral side. Scale bar – 5 cm. Image credit: Weigman others., doi: 10.3390/biology13060405.
Leucolaya longirostris These are medium-sized skates with a total length of 71.1 cm or more.
Males mature at about 60 cm. The largest known female is 70cm long. The smallest known specimen is a young female with a total length of 27.6 cm.
recognition of Leucolaya longirostris Provide new insights into morphological variation within the genus Leucolaja “This constitutes a very unusual and noteworthy addition to this genus Sketchi,” the researchers said.
“Nevertheless, the very limited distribution of this new species raises concerns about its ability to sustain fisheries, and it may be susceptible to capture in longline fisheries, particularly deep-sea trawl fisheries.”
“Although little information is available about fisheries operating in the region of the Madagascar Ridge, this deep-sea skate tolerates intensive fishing pressure, potentially due to its slow-life history characteristics and low productivity. You may not be able to.”
“Walter's Shoal has had good catches in the past and this pressure may return in the future,” they added.
“As a fishery targeting orange roughy (Hoplostessus atlanticus) and Kinmedai (Belix Decactylus) have typically used mesophoric trawls on the ocean floor, but new species may have benthic refugia. ”
“However, further research is needed to investigate its distribution, life history, population size and trends, and threats.”
“This is essential to improving data collection and research and making more effective conservation and management policy decisions.”
a paper Report findings published in journals biology.
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Simon Weigman others. 2024. Description of a noteworthy new type of skate shoe Leucolaja Malm of the southwestern Indian Ocean, 1877 (Radidae, Radidae): Introducing 3D modeling as an innovative tool for visualization of clasper characters. biology 13 (6): 405;doi: 10.3390/Biology 13060405
The newly discovered isotope plutonium-227 has a half-life of 0.78 seconds, according to a team of Chinese physicists.
Areas 87≤Z≤97 and 112≤N≤136 in the nuclear map show the new isotope plutonium-227 (red star) and 12 nuclides (blue stars) discovered at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Science. Image credit: Huabin Yang.
“The magic numbers of protons and neutrons, such as 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126, are correlated with shell closure,” said Dr. Zaiguo Gan of the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. . And my colleagues.
“Previous studies have shown that the closure of the 126 neutron shell weakens persistently up to uranium, so it will be interesting to explore whether shell closure weakens in the transuranium region.”
“Through a series of experiments, we discovered that shell closure exists in neptunium isotopes.”
“However, due to the lack of experimental data, the robustness of this closure in plutonium isotopes remains unknown.”
To investigate the unknown plutonium isotope, the authors conducted experiments in the gas-filled reaction separator SHANS (Spectrometer for Heavy Atom and Nuclear Structures).
Using nuclear fusion vaporization reactions, we were able to synthesize plutonium-227, a plutonium isotope that is severely deficient in neutrons.
“Plutonium-227 is the 39th new isotope discovered by the Modern Institute of Physics,” they said.
From the nine decay chains observed, physicists determined the alpha particle energy and half-life of plutonium-227 to be approximately 8,191 keV and 0.78 seconds, respectively.
“These data are in very good agreement with the known plutonium isotope system,” they said.
The researchers now plan to examine more plutonium isotopes to gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of the shell in plutonium.
“The newly discovered plutonium-227 is still seven neutrons away from the magic number 126,” said Dr. Huabin Yang, also of the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“To study the robustness of plutonium’s shell closure, we need to continue research on lighter plutonium isotopes, including plutonium-221 to plutonium-226.”
of the team work appear in the diary Physical Review C.
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HB Yang others. 2024. Alpha decay of the new isotope 227Pu. Physics. Rev.C 110 (4): 044302;doi: 10.1103/PhysRevC.110.044302
Black widow spider venom contains a cocktail of seven specific latrotoxins, but only one, alpha-latrotoxin, targets vertebrates, including humans. chemist of University of Munster They have now deciphered the structure of alpha-latrotoxin before and after membrane insertion at near atomic resolution.
Cryo-EM structures of α-latrotoxin in two different tetrameric states. Image credit: Klink others., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52635-5.
Latrotoxin is the main toxic component of the venom of black widow spiders (genus). latrodectus).
The toxins include five insecticidal toxins known as α-latrotoxin, α-, β-, γ-, δ-, and ε-latroinsect toxins, which are unique to vertebrates, and one toxin that is unique to crustaceans.
“Alpha-latrotoxin interferes with nervous system signal transmission,” said researcher Björn Klinck and colleagues at the University of Münster.
“As soon as alpha-latrotoxin binds to specific receptors at the synapse (contacts between nerve cells or between nerve cells and muscles), calcium ions flow uncontrollably into the presynaptic membrane of the signal-transmitting cell.”
“This triggers the release of neurotransmitters, which causes strong muscle contractions and spasms.”
“Although this process seems simple at first glance, there are very complex mechanisms behind it.”
To better understand the mechanism of calcium influx into the presynaptic membrane, the authors used high-performance cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations.
They showed that alpha-latrotoxin undergoes significant changes when it binds to the receptor.
Some of the toxic molecules form stalks and penetrate the cell membrane like a syringe.
As a special feature, this stalk forms small pores in the membrane, which act as calcium channels.
MD simulations revealed that calcium ions can enter the cells through a selection gate on the side directly above the pore.
“This toxin mimics the function of calcium channels in the presynaptic membrane in a very complex way,” said Christos Gatsogiannis, a researcher at the University of Münster.
“Therefore, it is different in every way from any toxin known to date.”
“The new discovery opens up a wide range of potential applications.”
“Latrotoxin has considerable biotechnological potential, including the development of improved antidotes, treatments for paralysis, and new biopesticides.”
of study Published in a magazine nature communications.
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Clink BU others. 2024. Structural basis of α-latrotoxin transition to cation-selective pores. Nat Commune 15, 8551; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52635-5
According to a team of geoscientists from the University of Maryland and the University of Maryland, between 250 million and 120 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, the ancient ocean floor was formed by the East Pacific Rise, a plate boundary at the bottom of the southeastern Pacific Ocean. It is said to have sunk deep into the earth. University of Alberta.
A map of the East Pacific Ridge region where the ancient ocean floor was discovered. Image credit: Jingchuan Wang.
University of Maryland researcher Jingchuan Wang and his colleagues used innovative seismic imaging techniques to look deep into the Earth's mantle, the layer between the Earth's crust and core.
They discovered an unusually thick region in the mantle transition zone at depths of about 410 to 660 km below the Earth's surface.
This zone separates the upper and lower mantle and expands or contracts depending on temperature.
The newly discovered ocean floor may also explain the unusual structure of the Pacific Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP), a huge region in Earth's lower mantle. Because LLSVP appears to be divided by slabs.
“This thickened area is like a fossil fingerprint of an ancient ocean floor that sank into the Earth about 250 million years ago,” Wang said.
“This gives us a glimpse into Earth's past that we've never seen before.”
Subduction occurs when one tectonic plate slides beneath another and surface material is recycled into the Earth's mantle.
This process often leaves behind visible evidence of movement, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and deep ocean trenches.
Geologists, on the other hand, typically study subduction by examining rock samples and sediments found at the Earth's surface.
By studying how seismic waves travel through the different layers of the Earth, researchers were able to create a detailed map of the structures hidden deep within the mantle.
“You can think of seismic imaging as similar to a CT scan. Essentially, it allows us to see a cross-section of the Earth's interior,” Dr. Wang said. .
“Typically, chunks of ocean material are completely consumed by the Earth, leaving no discernible traces on the surface.”
“But looking at ancient subducted slabs through this perspective has provided new insights into the relationship between the Earth's very deep structures and surface geology that were not previously clear.”
What the authors discovered surprised them. Matter was moving much more slowly through the Earth's interior than previously thought.
The unusual thickness of this region they found suggests the presence of cold material in this part of the mantle transition zone, where parts of the oceanic slab become stuck in the middle as they sink through the mantle. It suggests that there is.
“We found that material is sinking at about half the rate expected in this region. This may be due to the mantle transition zone acting like a barrier, slowing the movement of material through the Earth. “This suggests something,” Dr. Wang said.
“Our findings raise new questions about how the deep Earth influences what we see at the surface over vast distances and time scales.”
of result Published in a magazine scientific progress.
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Wang Jingchuan others. 2024. Intraoceanic subduction during the Mesozoic era formed the lower mantle beneath the East Pacific uplift. scientific progress 10(39);doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado1219
An exoplanet with at least half the mass of Venus orbits Barnard's Star, the closest single star to the Sun, once every 3.15 days.
Artist's impression of Bernard B. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.
Barnard's Star is a 10 billion year old red dwarf star located in the constellation Ophiuchus.
At a distance of about 6 light years, it is the second closest star to the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
The star, also known as Gliese 699 or GJ 699, is much smaller than the Sun and is classified as an M3.5 dwarf.
Despite the prospect of a “super-Earth” with a mass 3.2 times that of Earth in 2018, no planets have ever been confirmed to orbit this star.
The new exoplanet discovery is the result of five years of observations using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
“We were always confident that we would find something, even if it took a long time,” said Dr. Jonay González Hernández, an astronomer at the Canarias Astronomical Institute.
The newly discovered planet, named Barnard b, is about 20 times closer to Barnard's star than Mercury is to the Sun.
It orbits its parent star in 3.15 Earth days and has a surface temperature of about 125 degrees Celsius (257 degrees Fahrenheit).
“Bernard B is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known, and one of the few exoplanets known to have less mass than Earth,” said Dr. González-Hernández. Ta.
“But this planet is too close to its host star, closer than the habitable zone.”
“Even though this star is about 2,500 degrees cooler than the Sun, it's still too hot to support liquid water on its surface.”
In addition to the confirmed planet, astronomers also discovered hints of three more exoplanet candidates orbiting the same star.
However, additional observations are required to confirm these candidates.
“We need to continue observing this star to confirm other candidate signals,” said Dr. Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, also from the Canarias Astronomical Institute and co-author of the study.
“But the discovery of this planet, along with previous discoveries such as Proxima b and Proxima d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.”
Bernard B's findings were published in a. paper in diary astronomy and astrophysics.
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JI Gonzalez Hernandez others. 2024. A sub-Earth mass planet orbiting Barnard's star. A&A 690, A79; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451311
Martian “spiders” are small, dark, spider-shaped formations up to 1 km (0.6 miles) in diameter. The leading theory is that they form when spring sunlight hits a layer of carbon dioxide that builds up during the dark winter months. In a new experiment, a team of NASA scientists has recreated these formation processes for the first time, simulating Martian temperatures and air pressure.
Examples of “Keefer Zoo” features proposed to have formed by seasonal CO2 sublimation dynamics on Mars: (a) a “skinny” spider within layered deposits in Antarctica, (b) a dark spot on a layer of translucent CO2 slab ice covering a group of “fat” spiders in an “Inca city” on Mars, (c) a “fried egg” showing a ring of dark dust surrounded by a bright halo, (d) patterned ground within high Antarctic latitudes with dark directional fans and some bright white fans indicating wind direction, (e) a bright halo surrounding a Swiss cheese depression, (f) a “lacey topography”, a type of patterned ground suggested to be polygonal patterned ground that was later scraped and eroded by surface-flowing CO2 gas from the Keefer model. Image credit: HiRISE/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of Arizona.
Today, Mars is a dynamic planet with a rich variety of surface changes, despite its thin atmosphere and cold climate.
In winter, most of Mars' mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere accumulates on the surface as frost.
In spring, it sublimates and takes on forms never seen on Earth.
These include dark Dalmatian spots, directional alluvial fans, “fried eggs”, grooves which may have dark finger-like flows or light “halos” in spring, dendritic “spiders”, sand grooves in active dunes and growing dendritic valleys.
These features have been detected in the loose material around the Antarctic and in the inter-dune material towards the mid-Antarctic latitudes, although some smaller phenomena have also been detected in the Arctic.
Many of these features make up the so-called “Kiefer zoo,” or collection of surface expressions. Explained It was first published in 2003 and was proposed to be produced by the solid-state greenhouse effect.
“In the Kiefer model, sunlight penetrates a translucent ice sheet in spring, trapping thermal radiation and heating the topsoil beneath the ice, causing the impermeable sheet to sublime from beneath,” explained Dr. Lauren McKeown of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and her colleagues.
“Through this process, the spiders are thought to be caused by high-velocity gases scraping away topsoil beneath the ice sheet, littering the ice surface with fan and patchy variations that are then deposited by dust and gas plumes.”
The study authors were able to create a complete cycle of the Kiefer model in the lab and confirm the formation of several types of Kiefer zookeeper features.
“The greatest challenge in conducting the experiment was replicating the conditions found on the polar surface of Mars, namely the extremely low air pressure and temperatures of minus 185 degrees Celsius (minus 301 degrees Fahrenheit),” the researchers said.
“To do this, we used a liquid nitrogen-cooled test chamber, the Dirty Under Vacuum Simulation Chamber for Icy Environments (DUSTIE).”
“In our experiments, we cooled a Martian soil simulant in a container submerged in a bath of liquid nitrogen.”
“We placed it in the Dusty Chamber, where the air pressure was lowered to the same as in the southern hemisphere of Mars.”
“Carbon dioxide gas was then released into the chamber, where it condensed from the gas into ice over a period of three to five hours.”
“It took a lot of trial and error before we found the right conditions to make the ice thick and clear enough for the experiment to work.”
“Once we have ice with the right properties, we place a heater in the chamber underneath the simulant to heat it up and crack the ice.”
“We were thrilled when we finally saw plumes of carbon dioxide gas coming out of the powdered simulant.”
a paper The explanation for these experiments is Planetary Science Journal.
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Lauren E. McKeon others2024. Laboratory-scale investigation of the Kiefer Model of Mars. Planet Science Journal 5, 195;doi:10.3847/PSJ/ad67c8
Seismologists detected unusual vibrations and determined that a 650-foot-high tsunami had occurred in Greenland.
The tsunami was caused by melting glacial ice that triggered landslides and washed away water in Greenland's fjords.
The waves it created continued to travel back and forth across the fjord for nine days.
Last September, seismologists around the world detected vibrations never before observed.
The monotony seemed to come from Greenland and continued for nine days.
“We saw some very strange signals at some stations in the north that we'd never seen before,” said Karl Ebeling, a seismologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Shortly after the vibrations began, a cruise ship sailing near a Greenland fjord noticed that a key landmark on the remote island of Ella, a scientific research and Danish military dog sled patrol base, had been destroyed.
The event drew an international group of seismologists, the Danish military and oceanographers into the mystery: what struck the island, and where did it come from?
It was the result of a rare series of cascading events caused by climate change.
The researchers traced the initial trigger to the collapse of a glacier tongue that had been thinned by rising temperatures. This destabilized the steep mountainside, sending an avalanche of rock and ice into Greenland's deep Dikson Fjord. Massive amounts of water were displaced, causing towering waves to move across the narrow fjord, about a mile and a half wide.
The tsunami, at least as high as the Statue of Liberty, surged up the steep rock faces along the fjord and, because the landslide struck the waterway at a nearly 90-degree angle, sent waves circling the channel for nine days — a phenomenon scientists call a seiche.
“No one has ever seen anything like this,” said Christian Svennevig, lead author of the study and a geologist and senior research scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
The findings are the result of a complex year-long investigation. The team determined that Ella Island, about 45 miles from the landslide site, was hit by a tsunami at least 13 feet high.
Tourists visit the island from time to time.
“The cruise ship had been docked off the coast just a few days before,” Svennevig said. “We were really lucky that no one was there when it happened.”
The seiche was the longest scientists had ever observed: Until now, tsunamis generated by landslides have typically produced waves that dissipate within a few hours.
“This is really a cascade of events that has never been observed before,” said Alice Gabriel, co-author of the study. “The Earth is a very dynamic system, and we're currently at a stage where this very delicate balance is being disrupted pretty dramatically by climate change.”
Tsunamis triggered by landslides occur more frequently than many people realize and are a danger to people living and working in some Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.
In 2017, a landslide triggered a tsunami that killed four people and destroyed 11 homes. Attacked the village of Ngaatsiaq in West GreenlandThe tsunami was estimated to be at least 300 feet high. Two villages were abandoned in the aftermath of the tsunami due to fears of further landslides, and Svennevig said hundreds of people remain evacuated.
Bretwood “Higg” Higman, an Alaska geologist who studies landslide tsunamis but was not involved in the new study, said evidence suggests landslide tsunamis are a growing problem, but more research is needed.
“I'm pretty confident that these events are becoming more and more frequent,” he said. “Exactly how frequent these events are and can we predict the future? We're not there yet.”
Higman said he thought the Greenland study's researchers were “spot on” and that the research was an important example of how dangerous landslide-induced tsunamis could be.
First, rising temperatures are eroding the permafrost within rock formations, weakening slopes and making them more susceptible to collapse. Second, warming is thinning the glaciers that support the rock slopes. Without the ice, sudden collapses could occur. Third, climate change is increasing the likelihood of heavy rains, which are the biggest risk factor for landslides because saturated rocks and soils become more slippery.
Higman has compiled a list of Alaska's slopes that are at risk for landslides that could trigger tsunamis. He said there are dozens of sites of concern that need further study, some of which are near populated areas where a landslide could be catastrophic.
“We're in an awkward position: Scientists know something, but they don't know enough to provide certainty to take action,” Higman said.
Last month, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a 56-foot-high landslide tsunami in Alaska's Pedersen Lagoon. Higman visited the site and believes the tsunami was larger than initially predicted.
Globally, risks are growing due to expanding development in some polar regions and increased visitation by miners, shippers and tourists, Svennevig said.
“At the same time as the population increases, the risk of landslides, geological hazards also increases,” he said. “It's an unfortunate combination.”
From the early days of robot creation, researchers have been dealing with the “uncanny valley” phenomenon, where something resembles a human but falls short of being completely realistic. A recent breakthrough involves attaching human skin to robots, creating a more lifelike appearance.
The team of researchers from the University of Tokyo, Harvard University, and the International Neurointelligence Research Center have successfully created lifelike skin for robots using live human skin cells, as detailed in a study published in the journal Cell Report Physical Sciences.
Lead author Michio Kawai explained that the skin is created by culturing skin cells from excess tissue with collagen tissue, which is then solidified around the robot using a perforated anchor structure.
Initially, they experimented with attaching skin using tiny hooks, but this caused tears. Instead, they developed a perforated anchor structure that mimics the functionality of real skin, creating a more natural appearance.
To ensure durability and flexibility, holes were drilled in the robot, collagen gel was applied, and skin was attached on top. This method aims to create robots that can self-repair surface damage and adapt to a wide range of tasks.
While the skin lacks blood vessels and must be kept moist to prevent drying out, future research aims to create pathways for nutrients and moisture within the skin tissue. Challenges such as maintaining sterile conditions during development must also be addressed.
In the quest for human-like robots, the team aims to replicate anatomical structures like glands, pores, blood vessels, fat, and nerves to achieve the perfect skin resemblance. As soft robotics technology advances, the potential applications of skin-covered robots expand to various fields.
While still in the demonstration phase for research purposes, this technology could eventually impact areas like skin aging, cosmetics, surgery, and training for surgeons. Despite the current limitations, advancements in robotic skin signal a promising future.
About our experts
Michio Kawai: A PhD student in bioengineering at Harvard University, focusing on research in Cell Report Physical Sciences, Helyon, and Case.
Shoji Takeuchi: Professor of Biohybrid Systems at the University of Tokyo, known for research in Science Robotics, Natural Chemistry, and Nature Communications.
Yes, hurricanes are getting worse. While there isn’t a significant increase in the frequency of hurricanes compared to 40 years ago, there is evidence that they are becoming more intense and destructive due to climate change. In 2022, it was predicted that the Atlantic hurricane season would be exceptionally severe with storms having more energy than before because of warmer sea levels.
According to the 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, North Atlantic storms are more likely to intensify into “major hurricanes,” making them harder to predict and prepare for. This intensification trend is attributed to the warmer climate.
On a scale of 1 to 5 based on maximum sustained wind speed, hurricanes are classified. Category 5 storms with wind speeds exceeding 262 km/h are the most powerful and can cause catastrophic damage. However, storms of lower categories can also be devastating, as seen with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Climate change, by raising sea levels and affecting atmospheric conditions, is making hurricanes more destructive. The increase in extreme precipitation, slower storm movement across the Earth’s surface, and longer-lasting torrential rains are some of the impacts observed.
The forecast for the current Atlantic hurricane season suggests an above-average number of hurricanes due to the record heat in the region. The evidence points to hurricanes becoming more powerful, unpredictable, and persistent in a warmer world.
This article is a response to the question “Are hurricanes getting worse?” (asked by Johnny Adams of Peterborough).
If you have any questions, please send them to the email address below.For further information:or send us a messageFacebook,XorInstagramPage (be sure to include your name and location).
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
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.
Chinese scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in producing large amounts of water using lunar soil collected from the 2020 mission, as reported by state-run CCTV on Thursday.
The Chang’e-5 mission in 2020 marked a significant milestone in collecting lunar samples after a 44-year hiatus. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found high amounts of hydrogen in minerals present in the lunar soil. When heated to extreme temperatures, this hydrogen reacts with other elements to generate water vapor, according to China Central Television.
CCTV reported, “After extensive research and verification over three years, a new method has been identified for producing significant quantities of water from lunar soil. This discovery is anticipated to play a crucial role in designing future lunar research and space stations.”
This finding could have significant implications for China’s long-standing ambition to establish a permanent lunar base, amid the race between the United States and China to explore and exploit lunar resources.
On August 26, 2021, a small vial containing lunar soil brought back from the moon by China’s lunar probe Chang’e-5 was placed in Beijing.Ren Hui/VCG via Getty Images file
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has expressed concerns about China’s rapid progress in space exploration and the potential risk of Beijing controlling valuable lunar resources.
According to state media, the new technique can yield approximately 51-76 kilograms of water from one ton of lunar soil, enough to fill over 100 500ml bottles or sustain the daily water needs of 50 individuals.
China aims for its recent and upcoming lunar missions to establish a basis for constructing the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a collaborative project with Russia.
The Chinese space agency’s plan includes establishing a lunar “base station” at the moon’s south pole by 2035, followed by a lunar orbiting space station by 2045.
This discovery coincides with ongoing experiments by Chinese scientists on lunar samples obtained from the Chang’e-6 probe in June.
While the Chang’e-5 mission collected samples from the moon’s near side, Chang’e-6 gathered lunar soil from the far side, perpetually hidden from Earth.
The significance of lunar water surpasses sustaining human settlement; NASA’s Nelson mentioned to NPR in May that moon water could be utilized to produce hydrogen fuel for rockets, potentially fueling missions to Mars and beyond.
Life on Earth has faced various threats over millions of years, from asteroids to pandemics to climate change. According to the IPCC, nearly one in five terrestrial species is at risk of extinction by 2100 due to rising global temperatures.
Marine life is also in peril, with coral reefs disappearing rapidly. Dr. Mary Hagedorn, a coral reef expert, has been working on cryopreserving coral to ensure its survival and potential reintroduction into ecosystems.
Her innovative idea involves creating a lunar biorepository to store frozen cell samples of key species for ecosystem reconstruction. The moon’s cold temperatures and protection from radiation make it an ideal location for such a vault.
The focus is on preserving fibroblasts, which can be reprogrammed into different cell types, including stem cells for cloning. This initiative aims to safeguard Earth’s ecosystems and potentially support future human space exploration, such as Mars missions.
While the concept may seem futuristic, the team has already begun freezing cell samples from species like the starry goby for testing. The ultimate goal is to send diverse genetic samples to the lunar vault to ensure the preservation of essential species.
Creating a biorepository on the moon presents logistical challenges but could be achievable with NASA’s support and funding. Future generations might benefit from this innovative approach to conservation and space exploration.
Dr. Mary Hagedorn and Professor Ian Crawford are leading experts in this field, with a focus on conservation, lunar science, and astrobiology. Their research and work contribute to the understanding of ecosystems and the future of space exploration.
An object moving through space at close to 1 million miles per hour has been detected, moving so fast that it is leaving the Milky Way galaxy. Scientists are now trying to identify this mysterious object.
Currently located 400 light-years away, the object known as CWISE J1249 is unlikely to be a spacecraft due to its massive size. It is approximately 30,000 times the mass of Earth, making it about 8% of the mass of the Sun.
This unusual size places J1249 somewhere between a star and a planet, as described by Dr. Darren Baskill, a lecturer in astronomy at the University of Sussex. According to Dr. Baskill, stars moving at such high speeds are rare.
The object’s speed is so rapid that it could exit the Milky Way galaxy in just a few tens of millions of years, which is a short period considering stars’ long lifespans.
This massive object, flying at 0.001% of the speed of light, has the potential to escape the galaxy and venture into intergalactic space.
Discovered by citizen scientists contributing to NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project, J1249’s speed is approximately 2.6 times faster than any space probe ever launched.
A new study, pending peer review, confirms these findings and further characterizes the object discovered through the initiative.
The object, with an unusual composition compared to stars and brown dwarfs, may be the first star of its kind in the galaxy, based on NASA’s observations.
Researchers believe the high-speed movement of the object may be linked to a supernova explosion in a binary star system or encounters with black holes in a star cluster.
Dr. Baskill suggests that gravitational slingshots could explain the extreme speed of J1249, potentially originating from the galaxy’s dense center and accelerated through gravitational interactions.
About our experts:
Dr. Darren Baskill is an Outreach Officer and Lecturer at the University of Sussex School of Physics and Astronomy, with a background in organizing astronomy-related events and competitions.
If you like video games, playing them might not be something you need to worry about.
Asia Vision/Getty Images
Despite being an oft-maligned pastime, playing video games actually seems to make people happier, a finding that comes from a unique study taking advantage of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that if you enjoy a hobby, it has a positive effect on your health.” Hiroyuki Egami At Nihon University in Japan.
In 2019, The World Health Organization has added “gaming disorder” It violates the International Classification of Diseases. However, studies on the effects of playing video games have produced mixed results when it comes to mental health outcomes, with many studies unable to prove causation. Studies that aim to prove causation are usually conducted in controlled laboratory environments, which “are far removed from the experience of actually playing video games,” the researchers say. Peter Etchells The researchers are from Bath Spa University in the UK but were not involved in the latest study.
But between 2020 and 2022, Egami and his colleagues had a rare opportunity to investigate the causal effects of video games on people's happiness in the real world. At the time, game consoles were in short supply, so lotteries were held in parts of Japan where people could enter to receive either a PlayStation 5 or a Nintendo Switch console.
The researchers surveyed 8,192 people aged between 10 and 69 who had entered such lotteries. Respondents answered questions about their gambling habits and levels of psychological distress, an indicator of mental health.
Egami and his colleagues found that people who won the lottery had slightly higher mental health scores than those who didn't, but that their scores plateaued once they exceeded about three hours of total play time per day.
The team also used machine learning models to analyze the data and found that the effects varied by console type and owner demographics. For example, younger people who own a Nintendo Switch saw greater benefits compared to older people. The team also found that people without children saw greater benefits from owning a PlayStation 5 than those with children.
“This highlights the need to be nuanced and specific about what we measure and how we measure it if we want to understand how video games affect us,” Etchells said, though he said participants self-reported the amount of time they played, which may not be accurate.
Etchells and Egami also note that the data was collected during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced people's video game habits and health. Further research using this methodology could reveal whether the trends hold in other contexts.
Scientists in Japan have captured full-spectrum, two-dimensional (2D) auroral images using a newly developed Hyperspectral Camera for Auroral Imaging (HySCAI).
(a) All-sky camera and (b) HySCAI keograms, and (c) time evolution of the spatially averaged spectrum of auroral emission measured by HySCAI on October 20-21, 2023. Image courtesy of Yoshinuma others., doi: 10.1186/s40623-024-02039-y.
The aurora is a natural optical phenomenon caused by the interaction of precipitation particles with components of the upper atmosphere.
The majority of the observed spectrum consists of lines or bands of neutral and ionized nitrogen and oxygen atoms.
The aurora comes in a variety of distinctive colors, including green and red, but there are multiple theories about how the different auroras emit light, and understanding their colors requires breaking down the light.
To study the auroral radiation processes and colors in detail, comprehensive (temporal and spatial) spectral observations are required.
“We have observed light being emitted from plasma within the magnetic field of the Large Helical Device (LHD),” said Dr. Katsumi Ida of the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan and his colleagues.
“Various systems have been developed to measure the spectrum of light emitted from plasmas, and the processes of energy transport and the emission of atoms and molecules have been studied.”
“By applying this technology and knowledge to auroral observations, we can contribute to our understanding of auroral luminescence and to research into the electron energy generation process that produces auroral luminescence.”
The newly developed camera, HySCAI, consists of an all-sky lens, a monitor camera, a galvanometer scanner, a grating spectrometer, and an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device.
“Aurora observations use optical filters to capture images of specific colors, but this has the drawback of limited wavelengths and low resolution,” the researchers said.
“On the other hand, hyperspectral cameras have the advantage of being able to obtain the spatial distribution of the spectrum with high wavelength resolution.”
“In 2018, we started a project to develop a high-sensitivity hyperspectral camera by combining an image sweeping optical system using a galvanometer mirror with the EMCCD camera and lens spectrometer used in the LHD.”
“It took five years of planning to develop a system with the sensitivity to measure auroras down to 1kR (1 kiloraylei).”
“The system was installed in May 2023 at the Swedish Space Corporation's Esrange Space Centre in Kiruna, Sweden, which is located directly below the auroral zone and where auroras can be observed frequently.”
“The system successfully captured hyperspectral images of the aurora, i.e. two-dimensional images resolved by wavelength.”
Team work Published in the journal Earth, planets, space.
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Masayuki Yoshinuma others2024: Development of a hyperspectral camera for photographing the aurora (HySCAI). Earth Planet Space 76, 96; doi: 10.1186/s40623-024-02039-y
ChatGPT and other large-scale language models (LLMs) consist of billions of parameters, are pre-trained on large web-scale corpora, and are claimed to be able to acquire certain features without any special training. These features, known as emergent capabilities, have fueled debates about the promise and peril of language models. Their new paperUniversity of Bath researcher Harish Tayyar Madhavshi and his colleagues present a new theory to explain emergent abilities, taking into account potential confounding factors, and rigorously validate this theory through over 1,000 experiments. Their findings suggest that so-called emergent abilities are not in fact emergent, but rather result from a combination of contextual learning, model memory, and linguistic knowledge.
Lou othersThis suggests that large language models like ChatGPT cannot learn independently or acquire new skills.
“The common perception that this type of AI is a threat to humanity is both preventing the widespread adoption and development of this technology and distracting from the real problems that need our attention,” said Dr Tayyar Madhavshi.
Dr. Tayyar Madabhushi and his colleagues carried out experiments to test LLM's ability to complete tasks that the model had not encountered before – so-called emergent capabilities.
As an example, LLMs can answer questions about social situations without being explicitly trained or programmed to do so.
While previous research has suggested that this is a product of the model's 'knowing' the social situation, the researchers show that this is actually a result of the model using a well-known ability of LLMs to complete a task based on a few examples that it is presented with – so-called 'in-context learning' (ICL).
Across thousands of experiments, the researchers demonstrated that a combination of LLMs' ability to follow instructions, memory, and language abilities explains both the capabilities and limitations they exhibit.
“There is a concern that as models get larger and larger, they will be able to solve new problems that we currently cannot predict, and as a result these large models may gain dangerous capabilities such as reasoning and planning,” Dr Tayyar Madabhshi said.
“This has generated a lot of debate – for example we were asked to comment at last year's AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park – but our research shows that fears that the models will go off and do something totally unexpected, innovative and potentially dangerous are unfounded.”
“Concerns about the existential threat posed by the LLM are not limited to non-specialists but have been expressed by some of the leading AI researchers around the world.”
However, Dr Tayyar Madabushi and his co-authors argue that this concern is unfounded as tests show that LLMs lack complex reasoning skills.
“While it is important to address existing potential misuse of AI, such as the creation of fake news and increased risk of fraud, it would be premature to enact regulations based on perceived existential threats,” Dr Tayyar Madabhsi said.
“The point is, it is likely a mistake for end users to rely on LLMs to interpret and perform complex tasks that require complex reasoning without explicit instructions.”
“Instead, users are likely to benefit from being explicitly told what they want the model to do, and from providing examples, where possible, for all but the simplest tasks.”
“Our findings do not mean that AI is not a threat at all,” said Professor Irina Gurevich of Darmstadt University of Technology.
“Rather, the emergence of threat-specific complex thinking skills is not supported by the evidence, and we show that the learning process in LLMs can ultimately be quite well controlled.”
“Future research should therefore focus on other risks posed by the model, such as the possibility that it could be used to generate fake news.”
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Shen Lu others. 2024. Is emergent capability in large-scale language models just in-context learning? arXiv: 2309.01809
The new biomaterial, called C-ELM, incorporates live cyanobacteria in translucent panels that can be attached to the interior walls of buildings. The microbes embedded in these panels grow through photosynthesis, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and attaching it to calcium through a biomineralization process to produce calcium carbonate, which traps carbon.
C-ELM is Camptonema Animal Cyanobacteria extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Image courtesy of Prantar Tamuli.
One kilogram of C-ELM (cyanobacterial engineered biomaterial) can capture and sequester up to 350 grams of carbon dioxide, while the same amount of traditional concrete releases as much as 500 grams of carbon dioxide.
A 150-square-metre wall covered with these C-ELM panels will trap around one tonne of carbon dioxide.
“By developing C-ELM materials, my goal is to transform the construction of future human settlements from one of the largest carbon emitting activities into one of the largest carbon sequestration activities,” said Planter Tamri, a graduate student at University College London.
“I was inspired to develop this material through my study of stromatolites – natural stone structures that formed over millions of years from sediments trapped by algal mats, the oldest living organisms on Earth.”
Tamri et al. Camptonema AnimalA type of photosynthetic cyanobacteria, it grows in long filamentous structures that help attach the microbes to the surrounding material within the panel.
The calcium carbonate produced by the cyanobacteria helps strengthen the panels.
The panels themselves are designed to provide a variety of aesthetic and structural benefits to buildings.
It is lightweight, sound absorbing, translucent enough to let light through, and has insulating properties, making buildings more energy efficient.
The first such panel was unveiled at an exhibition in the “Bioscope” pavilion at St. Andrews Botanic Garden in Scotland.
Designed by design collective Studio Biocene, the exhibit showcased low-carbon, low-impact building methods that mimic the natural environment.
“The potential of this type of biomaterial is enormous,” said Professor Marcos Cruz, from University College London.
“If mass-produced and widely adopted, it has the potential to dramatically reduce the construction industry's carbon footprint.”
“We hope to scale up the production of this C-ELM and further optimize its performance to make it suitable for use on construction sites.”
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This article is a version of a press release provided by University College London.
Ideas for change Mars Towards a more livable world Human settlements It's a common theme in science fiction, but could this happen in the real world?
Scientists are now proposing a new approach to warming up. Neighbors of Earth The idea is to release artificial particles made of iron or aluminum, the same size as commercial glitter, into the atmosphere as an aerosol, trapping escaping heat and scattering sunlight onto the Martian surface. Greenhouse effect On Mars, the plan is to raise the surface temperature by about 50 degrees (28 °C) over a 10-year period.
While this alone wouldn't make Mars habitable for humans, the scientists behind the proposal believe it could be a feasible first step.
“Terraforming is the process of changing a planet's environment to be more similar to Earth. In the case of Mars, heating the planet is a necessary first step, but it is not enough. Previous concepts have focused on releasing greenhouse gases, which requires large amounts of resources that are in short supply on Mars,” said University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite, who led the study published in the journal Nature this week. Scientific advances.
“The key elements of our paper are the novel proposal to use engineered nanoparticles to warm the Martian atmosphere, and the climate modelling which suggests this approach could be much more efficient than previous concepts. This is important as it offers a more feasible way to alter the Martian climate and could inform future Mars exploration strategies,” Kite added.
NASA has sent a robotic rover to explore the surface of Mars and the InSight lander to explore the planet's interior. Project Artemis The goal is to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 in the next few years, in preparation for future manned missions to Mars.
There are many challenges to living on Mars, including a lack of breathable oxygen, harmful ultraviolet rays due to the thin atmosphere, salty soil that is unsuitable for growing crops, and dust storms that sometimes cover large parts of the planet. But the planet's frigid temperatures are a serious obstacle.
“Our aim is to show that the idea of warming Mars is not impossible. We hope that our findings will inspire the broader scientific community and the general public to explore this intriguing idea,” said Samaneh Ansari, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois and lead author of the study.
The average surface temperature of Mars is about minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 65 degrees Celsius). Because the Martian atmosphere is thin, solar heat on the surface easily escapes into space. This proposal aims to have liquid water on the surface of Mars, where water exists in the form of ice at the poles and underground.
The scientists proposed releasing tiny, rod-shaped particles (nanorods) into the atmosphere at a rate of about eight gallons (30 liters) per second continuously for many years.
“The surface of Mars has an abundance of iron and aluminum, so the idea is to transport the materials, or even better, the manufacturing tools, to make nanorods on Mars,” Ansari said.
Researchers are mindful of the potential unintended consequences of terraforming another planet for the benefit of humanity: For example, scientists want to know whether Mars was ever alive in the past, or whether it still exists today in the form of subsurface microbial life.
“Nanoparticles could potentially heat Mars, but both the benefits and potential costs of this course of action are currently unknown. For example, in the unlikely event that Martian soil contains irreparable compounds that are toxic to all Earth-derived life, the benefits of heating Mars would be zero,” Kite said.
“On the other hand, the establishment of a photosynthetic biosphere on the Martian surface may increase the likelihood of human thriving in the solar system,” Kite added. “On the cost side, if life exists on Mars, studying that life may be sufficiently beneficial to warrant vigorous protection of the habitat.”
One-third of Mars’ surface has shallow groundwater, but it is currently too cold for life to harness it. Proposals to use greenhouse gases to heat Mars require large amounts of raw materials that are scarce on the Martian surface. But a new study shows that artificial aerosols made from materials readily available on Mars (such as conductive nanorods about 9 micrometers long) could heat Mars more than 5,000 times more effectively than the best gases.
This artist’s impression shows what Mars looked like about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Mars geoengineering is a concept that frequently appears in science fiction.
But real-world researchers are also investigating techniques that could melt and release frozen groundwater, potentially making the Martian environment more hospitable to life.
Many of these strategies involve warming through greenhouse gases, but the Earth lacks the ingredients needed to produce them.
“A once habitable Martian surface is crossed by dry river valleys, but the current icy soil is too cold for Earth-derived life,” said Dr Samaneh Ansari of Northwestern University and his colleagues.
“Rivers may have flowed as far back as 600,000 years ago, suggesting the beginnings of a habitable planet.”
“Many methods have been proposed to heat the Martian surface by closing the spectral window centered on wavelengths of 22 and 10 micrometers, through which the surface would be cooled by thermal infrared radiation rising into space.”
“Modern Mars has a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere that provides a greenhouse effect of only 5 Kelvin through absorption in the 15 micrometer wavelength range, and Mars clearly lacks sufficient condensed or mineralized carbon dioxide to restore a temperate climate,” the researchers said.
“It is possible to close the spectral window using man-made greenhouse gases (e.g. chlorofluorocarbons), but this would require volatilizing about 100,000 megatons of fluorine, which is only present in trace amounts on the Martian surface.”
“An alternative approach is suggested by natural Martian dust aerosols, which are, after all, the result of the slow breakdown of iron-rich minerals on the Martian surface.”
“Due to its small size (effective radius of 1.5 micrometers), Martian dust rises to high altitudes (at an altitude of 15-25 km, where the dust mass mixing ratio peaks) and is consistently visible in the Martian sky, present at altitudes of up to 60 km or more.”
“Natural Martian dust aerosols reduce daytime surface temperatures because the composition and shape properties of man-made dust can be modified. For example, nanorods, which are about half the wavelength of upwelling thermal infrared light, should interact strongly with that infrared light.”
In the new paper, Dr Ansari and his co-authors propose an alternative strategy for heating Mars: aerosolizing 9-micrometre-long nanorods made from iron and aluminium, which are available on Mars.
The bars are about the same size as natural Martian dust — essentially a bit smaller than glitter — and should fly up into the air when dispersed.
However, other properties of the rod-shaped material mean it should settle 10 times slower than natural dust.
The researchers evaluated their proposal using a version of the MarsWRF global climate model and another complementary 1D model.
The study found that these bars amplify the amount of sunlight reaching the Martian surface and prevent heat from escaping.
In fact, a sustained release of 30 liters of nanorods per second could warm the entire planet by more than 30 Kelvin above baseline temperature, enough to melt the ice.
After a few months, atmospheric pressure will rise by 20%, creating conditions to initiate a feedforward loop involving the volatilization of carbon dioxide.
It’s worth noting that the nanorod process will still take centuries, and Mars certainly won’t be a suitable place for human habitation.
“The increase in Martian temperature alone will not be sufficient to make the Martian surface habitable for oxygenic photosynthetic organisms,” the scientists said.
“On the other hand, establishing a photosynthetic biosphere on the Martian surface, possibly with the help of synthetic biology, might increase the chances of human thriving in the solar system.”
Team work Published in today’s journal Scientific advances.
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Samaneh Ansari others2024. Nanoparticles could keep Mars warm. Scientific advances 10(32);doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn4650
“Losing or ending a romantic relationship is one of the most painful losses an adult can experience,” begins the BAS (A Study Full of Acronyms) study by German and Iranian researchers. Journal of Psychiatry Research.
This is science at its most overtly romantic: electromagnetically stimulating the brains of volunteers who have suddenly experienced heartbreak. It's also science with the most acronyms: tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation), DLPFC (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), VLPFC (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), LTS (love trauma syndrome).
For those who have suffered through heartbreak, here's a passage worth hearing out loud as a midnight rooftop monologue: “Thirty-six participants with love trauma syndrome were randomly assigned to three tDCS conditions (left DLPFC, right VLPFC, or sham stimulation). LTS symptoms, treatment-related outcome variables (depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, positive and negative affect), and cognitive functioning were assessed pre-intervention, immediately after intervention, and one month after the intervention.”
The evaluation showed that brain zapping “ameliorated symptoms of LTS,” according to the researchers, but they cautioned that, in terms of science in general, “there are significant gaps in the research on 'love trauma syndrome,' what exactly the symptoms are and what the diagnostic criteria are.”
Eliminates odors
Kevin Lee sees some causation in the actions of perhaps London's (and the world's) first celebrity pathologist.
He writes: “I'm a retired forensic scientist and, as you can imagine, I've been asked countless times how I deal with smells. Apart from the old-fashioned solution of smiling innocently and asking, 'Ouch, what's that?', I still have a keen sense of smell and can detect a range of odours, even when the smell of decay is very faint. I've trained myself to have a fairly neutral approach to these smells, so that although I still notice them well, after one good sniff, they're no longer an issue.”
“Recent articles [Feedback, 15 June] Sir Bernard Spilsbury, a very famous forensic scientist in the early 20th century, said that his sense of smell was extremely defective. If it was, it is more likely that this was because he was a heavy smoker, smoking around 50 cigarettes a day. It is also possible that he used the same techniques that I later used.”
A slice of life
This note from UK reader Gerald Legg depicts body parts that are living (elbow), dead (hair), nominal (leg) and sliced: “Your recent article, 'Parting the Hair' (July 20th) made me think of my time at Manchester University, where my PhD research involved a lot of microtome work using an old but still-functioning Cambridge rocking microtome. [a specialist cutting device].
“I was taught how to sharpen the blade using a glass plate and cerium dioxide. Before each use, the blade is sharpened and then tested under 40x magnification to make sure it is free of scratches. The test is to cut a hair. A sharp blade can cut a hair three times, lifting the little curled section that is still attached to the body of the hair and then cutting the hair straight through.
“There was a sharp knife in the lab, and I put my elbow against the knife and heard it cutting all the way to the bone, but I didn’t feel anything.
“I was rushed to the nearby Manchester Hospital, where I was quickly healed with just a few stitches and was able to return to the lab and continue serial sectioning with the same blade.”
Anonymous
When students make tangible contributions to science, some teachers find ways to publicly recognize who, what, and where they did it, especially when students make extraordinary sacrifices.
In the academic world, credits are limited: individual students are not identified by name.
Simple Happiness
“Simple, simple, simple” is an old rule of thumb, especially among scientists. In honor of this maxim, Feedback has created a document collection called “Simple, Simple, Simple.”
The first item in this assemblage is report It was published in the February 6, 1997 issue under the heading “The Uniquely Simple Personality of Politicians” NatureThe study suggests that a politician's personality can be summed up in just two or three numbers – in stark contrast to the five numbers psychologists claim are needed to judge the average person.
The study's authors were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology in 2003.
If you have the simple pleasure of finding another good example, send it to us (with details of the citation) at Simple pleasures, Feedback.
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.
Do you have a story for feedback?
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.
Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in the hair loss industry by finding that a naturally occurring sugar in the human body, 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), could be the key to combating male pattern baldness.
The study, published in the journal The forefront of pharmacology, revealed that this natural sugar treatment is as effective as current FDA-approved treatments with fewer side effects.
Research co-author, Professor Sheila McNeill, highlighted the potential of 2dDR in increasing blood supply to hair follicles and promoting hair growth. The study was initially focused on wound healing, where accelerated hair growth was observed around sites treated with 2dDR.
Testing in mice showed that 2dDR Gel was 80-90% as effective as minoxidil, a common FDA-approved hair loss treatment found in products like Rogaine and Celoxidil. The discovery offers a promising, safer alternative with fewer side effects, as 2dDR is naturally occurring in the body.
Experts, such as Professor Muhammad Yar, stressed the potential benefits of 2dDR in stimulating blood vessel growth, crucial for healthy hair follicles, and promoting hair growth.
While the research is still in early stages, it could provide hope for those suffering from hair loss conditions like chemotherapy-induced alopecia. More studies are needed before 2dDR-based treatments become available, but the results so far are promising.
For men dealing with hair loss, this discovery offers a ray of hope for an effective, natural, and non-invasive treatment option. Further research is warranted to explore its effects on human hair growth and follicle health.
Learn more from our experts:
Sheila McNeill: Professor Emeritus of Tissue Engineering with a focus on translating research into clinical practice.
Muhammad Yar: Associate Professor with expertise in tissue engineered skin and targeted drug delivery.
Claire Higgins: Lecturer specializing in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, focusing on skin and hair follicles.
The phrase “dining on earthworms” intrigues people in a variety of ways (whether or not they are intrigued in the first place). For historians, it can spark debates like this: Political rallies That happened in the German city of Worms in 1521. To nutritionists, the phrase can describe the work of scientists considering whether today's roughly 8 billion humans could all survive, if necessary, on a diet primarily of earthworms.
Henry Miller, James Mulhall, Lou Aino Pfau, Rachel Palm, and David Denkenberger, whom Feedback considers an all-star team in the earthworm nutrition community, recently devoured a mountain of data. After the meal, intellectually speaking, they said:Could harvesting earthworms significantly reduce global hunger in the event of a major disaster?” Published in the journal biomass.
The five researchers analyzed four techniques for efficiently capturing earthworms: digging and sorting, spraying with anthelmintics, making worm noises, and electric shocks.
They asked the “canned” (worm) question: Given the constraints of “scalability, climate-related collection barriers, and pre-consumption processing requirements,” could earthworms collected in these ways feed all of humanity? Their answer, in a word, is “no.”
Their 48-word response reads: “The authors are not aware of any studies on the human health effects of consuming diets high in harvested earthworms. However, in the authors' opinion, there is reasonable evidence that such diets may be harmful and therefore should not be recommended unless starvation is the alternative.”
Earthworm Meal
Miller, Mulhall, Pfau, Palm and Denkenberger are the latest pioneers in a long line of scientists who have come together to study earthworms' feeding habits.
Many others have focused on the feeding habits of the insects themselves.
Charles Darwin achieved some fame through his 1881 book, Formation of vegetable mold by the action of earthwormsNearly a century later, Christian Forchard and Peter Jummers wroteEarthworm diet: a study of the feeding guild of polychaetes” took up 92 pages. Annual Review of Oceanography and Marine Biology.
Forchard and Jumaz include a conversation-ending sentence that's worth memorizing and reciting if you want to impress at a party: “Alciopids are holoplanktonic animals with a muscular, eversable pharynx.”
Other scientists have studied what happens when insects are eaten, particularly by non-humans.
In 2002, Mary Silcox and Mark Teaford examined the teeth of several habitual earthworm eaters. They summarized their observations: Journal of Mammalogy,title”Insect diet: analysis of microwear on mole teeth” “.
“We measured microwear from the shear surfaces of mandibular molars. Parascallops Brewery (a hairy-tailed mole) Scapanus orarius “We compared the genes of (coast moles) with those of other small mammals, including tenrecs, hedgehogs, three species of primates and two species of bats.”
Some of the wear patterns on the mole's teeth “can plausibly be explained by interactions between the inner and outer teeth of the earthworm and the soil,” the researchers wrote.
Silcox and Teaford's mole teeth study may take on new importance if people on Earth choose to live a diet based primarily on earthworms, despite Miller and others' warnings.
Feedback has been received on the news regarding height requirements for certain courses at Vietnam National University’s School of Business Administration (HSB).
Deutsche Welle On July 2nd, the school announced that “this year's admission requirements are 1.58m or above for girls and 1.65m or above for boys,” because “the school aims to develop future leaders and excellent administrators” and “height is a determining factor, especially when it comes to leadership and self-confidence.”
The news report said that following public outcry, “HSB adjusted its admissions criteria” so that “the rule now applies to only one course – management and security.”
Are there schools or other institutions in the science, medical, or technology fields that have strict height requirements for students or employees? If so, please send us a document in Feedback with the subject line “Big/Small Careers.” Some job requirements reasonably specify that applicants must be physically able to use certain job-related equipment. Please do not send such requirements. We are seeking examples in Feedback where numbers, not needs, are prioritized.
Toilet Humor
Inspired by Feedback's collection of abandoned organisation slogans, Ken Taylor has been writing down slogans about abandoned things.
“I live in a very rural area. [the] UK – Cumbria. There are many isolated plots of land that are not connected to the sewer network and so rely on septic tanks, which need to be emptied regularly. I saw one such tanker truck carrying out its duties. The slogan on the side read “Move yesterday’s meal”. Nothing more to add…”
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.
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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 recent study published in July suggests that Egypt’s oldest pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser, may have been constructed using advanced technology. The study proposes that a hydraulic lift system was used during the construction of the pyramid to raise the massive blocks needed for its construction.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built as the final resting place of King Djoser, the first or second pharaoh of Egypt’s Third Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, around 4,700 years ago. The pyramid rises in six tiers to a height of 62 meters above the Saqqara plateau, equivalent to the height of a 14-storey building.
If proven true, the existence of this hydraulic lift system would offer an explanation for how the ancient Egyptians were able to construct such monumental structures with the technology available at the time. The study also suggests that a nearby enclosure, known as Gisr el-Mudir, may have served as a “check dam” to capture water and sediment, supporting the hydraulic system.
Map of the Saqqara plateau showing the waterway from the Gisr el-Mudir Dam to the water treatment facility near the Pyramid of Djoser. The water is then routed to the pyramid’s pipe network to power the hydraulic elevators. – Image courtesy of Paléotechnique, Paris, France
The study proposes that a sophisticated system of water treatment plants outside the pyramid combined with the Gisr el-Mudir and a ditch controlled water quality and flow. Water would flow into a shaft inside the pyramid where a float system potentially carried building stones to their needed locations. A plug system at the base of the shaft could then drain the water for the process to start again.
Xavier Landreau, president of Paleotechnique and lead author of the study, emphasizes the importance of this discovery in questioning established historical narratives and the technical knowledge possessed by the ancient Egyptian architects. The study also raises the intriguing question of whether the same hydraulic system used to construct the pyramid could have been used to bury the king in his final resting place within the pyramid.
About the Experts
Xavier Landreau: President of Paleotechnique and lead author of the study. Paleotechnique is a research practice that combines hydrology, geotechnical engineering, physics, mathematics, materials science, and history to explore the origins of civilization.
Permafrost is ground that is always frozen, and the possibility of life existing there is believed to be low. However, in recent years, Scientists have discovered an abundance of microorganisms that are still alive despite being frozen in permafrost.
More concerning viruses, such as strains of influenza that caused the 1918 pandemic, have also been discovered. The smallpox virus was found in a 300-year-old Siberian mummy, but the virus was no longer infectious as its genome was degraded.
Scientists have found these microorganisms frozen in the permafrost. – Image credit: Getty
Most viruses cannot survive long outside a host, reducing the likelihood of still-infectious human viruses in permafrost. Rather, the discovery of viruses infecting other microbes, like bacteria adapted to extreme environments, is more probable.
Some living bacteria found in permafrost over a million years old can still cause illness. The anthrax outbreak in Siberia in 2016 killed humans and animals, likely due to melting permafrost exposing the bacteria.
Bacillus anthracis is a type of bacteria that can form spores enabling survival in harsh environments. Climate change-induced permafrost melting may lead to ancient microbe outbreaks, but the emergence of new viruses causing global pandemics from permafrost is unlikely.
This article addresses the question of how a virus can survive in ice for many years, posed by Roy Meddings in an email.
If you have any questions, please email us below. For more information:
Gamma-ray bursts occur when massive stars collapse or collide.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/ A. Simonett, Sonoma State University
The most powerful explosion astronomers have ever seen contains a mysterious signal they thought couldn't exist. The signal provides the first detailed look inside a gamma-ray burst and suggests it involves the annihilation of matter and antimatter.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful outbursts of radiation in the universe, produced by cosmic explosions and collisions. Physicists believe that the most energetic GRBs are produced when a star collapses to form a black hole. The black hole produces a jet of material traveling close to the speed of light, penetrating the collapsing star and emitting an explosion of radiation that can be observed on Earth. However, we still don't know how this radiation is produced or what is contained in the jet.
Much of this mystery arises from the spectrum of light we can see: while the light observed from other objects in the universe contains characteristic spikes that tell us about the specific atoms or other matter that produced this burst of energy, the spectrum of light from a gamma ray burst is always smooth and featureless.
In the 1990s, researchers became excited about the possibility that some GRBs might show distinct lines, but careful analysis showed that these were statistical errors and concluded that GRB spectra could not possibly be spike-like.
now, Maria Ravasio Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and their colleagues have discovered that GRB221009A, discovered in 2022 and dubbed the most luminous explosion since the Big Bang, actually has an energy peak of about 10 megaelectronvolts.
“When I first saw the lines, I thought we'd done something wrong,” Ravasio says. But after detailed statistical analysis and ruling out any instrument problems, Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope Ravasio and his colleagues concluded that the spectral spike was real: “When I realized it wasn't a false alarm, I got goosebumps because I realized something big had happened.”
Nearly all GRBs exhibit a similar energy distribution, so astronomers analyze new GRB detections using the data analysis method that best suits this pattern. But Ravasio and her team instead used a method that allows for peaks, and found that this fit the data better. “That part of the GRB spectrum has been the same for years, and no one had looked at it,” Ravasio says. [GRB221009A] We can now look at that part of the spectrum better.”
This peak points to a specific physical process behind GRBs that is missing from the best models of GRBs.
To zero in on what this could be, Ravasio and his colleagues worked under the assumption that because the jet's energy was so high, there were no intact atoms in it. This left one plausible explanation: the annihilation of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron. Such an annihilation produces gamma rays with a distinct peak at 511 kiloelectron volts. “This already tells us the composition of the jet, which is something we haven't understood since the first GRB,” Ravasio says.
The higher 10 MeV peak that the researchers observed was due to a shift in the energy spectrum caused by the high-speed jet producing the radiation, similar to how the siren of an approaching ambulance sounds higher-pitched.
This difference allowed them to calculate the speed of the jet that produced the burst, which was traveling at 99.99 percent of the speed of light.
The discovery of GRBs with their distinctive lines is “one of the biggest surprises in our field in more than a decade,” he said. Eric Burns At Louisiana State University.
Barnes, who helped analyze the original data that led to the discovery of GRB221009A, was presenting his results at a conference with his colleagues when he heard about Ravasio's findings. “Nobody thought the paper was right,” Barnes says. “We read the title and all thought, 'This is wrong. It can't be right.'”
But the analysis conducted by Ravasio and his colleagues appears to be correct, he says. “It's pretty surprising, because we were so sure that gamma-ray bursts don't have lines, that we didn't look for this, and so we missed this completely,” Burns says.
Other GRBs may have similar spectral peaks and be worth searching for, but the peak was only observed because it came from the most luminous GRB on record, Burns said.
Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science have discovered that the deep ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean, covered with polymetallic nodules, produces so-called “dark oxygen.”
Polymetallic nodules recovered from the ocean floor in a Northwestern University lab. Image courtesy of Camille Bridgewater/Northwestern University.
Polymetallic nodules – naturally occurring mineral deposits that form on the seafloor – are commonly found in the sediment-covered abyssal plains of oceans around the world.
These consist primarily of iron and manganese oxides, but also contain metals such as cobalt and rare earth elements, which are essential components of many advanced, low-carbon energy technologies.
For the new study, Dr Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science and his colleagues carried out experiments using chambers placed on the seafloor at a depth of around 4,200 metres to measure oxygen levels at multiple sites more than 4,000 kilometres apart in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific Ocean, where polymetallic nodules are found.
Nearly every experiment showed a steady increase in oxygen levels over the two days.
The researchers conducted additional laboratory analysis and claim that the source of the detected oxygen release is polymetallic nodules.
Based on numerical simulations, they hypothesize that the electrical properties of the nodes are responsible for oxygen production.
While the researchers note that it is difficult to estimate how much oxygen polymetallic nodules produce over a wide area, they suggest that this source of oxygen may support ecosystems on the deep seafloor, which could be affected if these nodules are mined.
“We understand that oxygen was needed for aerobic life to begin on Earth, and Earth's oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms,” Dr Sweetman said.
“But we now know that oxygen is produced even in the deep ocean, where there is no light.”
“So I think we need to rethink questions like where did aerobic life begin.”
of result Published in a journal Nature Chemistry.
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A.K. Sweetman othersEvidence for dark oxygen production on the deep seafloor. National GeographyPublished online July 22, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8
This article is based on a press release provided by Springer Nature and Northwestern University.
According to a team of astronomers from the University of Hull, spotting a deepfake is as simple as looking for stars in the eyes. They propose that AI-generated fakes can be identified by examining human eyes in a similar manner to studying photos of galaxies. This means that if the reflections in a person’s eye match, then the image is likely of a real human. If not, it is likely a deepfake.
In this image, the person on the left (Scarlett Johansson) is real and the one on the right is generated by AI. Below their faces are painted eyeballs. The reflections in the eyeballs match in the real person but are inaccurate (from a physical standpoint) in the fake one. Image credit: Adejumoke Owolabi / CC BY 4.0.
“The eye reflections match up for real people but are incorrect (from a physics standpoint) for fake people,” said Prof Kevin Pimblett, from the University of Hull.
Professor Pimblett and his colleagues analysed the light reflections of the human eye in real and AI-generated images.
They then quantified the reflections using a method commonly used in astronomy to check for consistency between the reflections in the left and right eyes.
In fake images, the reflections in both eyes are often inconsistent, while in real images the reflections in both eyes are usually the same.
“To measure the shape of a galaxy we analyse whether it has a compact centre, whether it has symmetry and how smooth it is – we analyse the distribution of light,” Professor Pimblett said.
“We automatically detect the reflections and run their morphological features through CAS (density, asymmetry, smoothness) Gini Coefficient. This is to compare the similarities between the left and right eyeballs.”
“Our findings suggest that there are some differences between the two types of deepfakes.”
The Gini coefficient is typically used to measure how light in an image of a galaxy is distributed from pixel to pixel.
This measurement is done by ordering the pixels that make up an image of a galaxy in order of increasing flux, and comparing the result with what would be expected from a perfectly uniform flux distribution.
A Gini value of 0 is a galaxy whose light is evenly distributed across all pixels in the image, and a Gini value of 1 is a galaxy whose light is all concentrated in one pixel.
The astronomers also tested the CAS parameter, a tool originally developed by astronomers to measure the distribution of a galaxy’s light to determine its morphology, but found it to be useless for predicting false eyes.
“It’s important to note that this is not a silver bullet for detecting fake images,” Professor Pimblett said.
“There are false positives and false negatives, and it doesn’t detect everything.”
“But this method provides a foundation, a plan of attack, in the arms race to detect deepfakes.”
Snake bites affect approximately 1.8 million people annually. The current standard of care is antibody-based antivenom, but it can be difficult to obtain and is generally ineffective against local tissue damage. New research suggests that heparin, a commonly used blood-clotting inhibitor, could be repurposed as an inexpensive antidote for cobra venom.
Zebra snake (Naja Nigrichinta) in Namibia. Image credit: Wolfgang Wüster.
“Our findings have the potential to significantly reduce the horrific necrotic injury caused by cobra bites, and may also slow the release of venom and improve survival rates,” Professor Greg Neely, from the University of Sydney, said.
The authors identified a way to block cobra venom using CRISPR gene editing technology and showed that heparin and related drugs could be repurposed to prevent necrosis caused by cobra bites.
“Heparin is cheap, ubiquitous and listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation,” says Tian Du, a PhD student at the University of Sydney.
“If the human trials are successful, it could be used relatively quickly as a cheap, safe and effective drug to treat cobra bites.”
Using CRISPR, researchers have discovered the human gene required for cobra venom to kill flesh at the bite site.
One of the desired venom targets is an enzyme needed to make heparan and heparin, related molecules produced by many human and animal cells.
Heparan is present on cell surfaces and heparin is released during immune responses, and because of their similar structure, toxins can bind to either.
Scientists have used this knowledge to create an antidote that can stop necrosis in human cells and mice.
Unlike current cobra bite antivenoms, which are 19th century technology, heparinoids act as a “decoy” antidote.
The antidote works by injecting large amounts of “decoy” heparin sulfate or related heparinoid molecules into the bite site, which are able to bind to and neutralize the toxins in the venom that cause tissue damage.
“Our findings are intriguing because current antivenoms are largely ineffective at treating severe, localised poisoning which causes painful, progressive swelling, blistering and tissue necrosis around the bite,” said Professor Nicholas Casewell, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
of study Published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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Tian Y. Du others2024. Molecular dissection of cobra venom highlights heparinoids as potential antidotes to spitting cobra venom. Science Translational Medicine 16 (756); doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adk4802
Being a neuroscientist comes with a unique occupational hazard of existential anxiety. The more we uncover about perception, cognition, decision-making, and behavioral selection, the more we are faced with the realization that it’s all mechanical. Everything we think of as heart-driven decisions may simply be the result of a machine’s workings.
How can we claim to choose when the process is just a collection of mechanical cogs turning? Who truly bears responsibility?
Modern technology allows us to witness these metaphorical gears in motion. By tracking neural activity in different circuits and brain regions through neuroimaging tools, we can understand the cognitive operations behind decision-making and behavior.
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Read the full interview with Kevin Mitchell here Instant genius. Bite-sized masterclasses in podcast format by the BBC Science Focus team.
Patterns of neural activity can correspond with evidence accumulation, certainty levels, confidence, goal adoption, rewards, learning, emotional signals, habit formation, and real-time behavioral adjustments. It’s like witnessing thought in action.
In some cases, we can even predict behavior onset before an individual acts. Research setups using rodents or monkeys reveal brain activity patterns anticipating behavior thresholds and even predicting future actions.
Experiments with humans, like those by Benjamin Libet in the 1980s, have shown brain activity leading movement occurring before conscious awareness of the decision. These findings challenge the notion that our conscious mind controls behavior, suggesting a more complex underlying mechanism.
External intervention in neural mechanisms can influence behavior patterns. Studies with patients undergoing brain surgery by Wilder Penfield showed how stimulating different brain areas can evoke sensations, emotions, memories, and movements, highlighting the intricate control system within us.
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Optogenetics in animals enables researchers to activate specific neurons and study real-time behavior effects. Understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind actions, memories, decision-making, and options weighing provides a deeper insight into behavior control.
This shift towards understanding the brain as an essential part of the decision-making process challenges our perception of choice and control. As we delve deeper into the neural mechanics, we question the concept of free will and autonomy.
A team of Chinese scientists has assembled a reference genome from telomere to telomere. Korean ginseng (Korean ginseng)A representative of traditional Chinese medicine.
Overview of morphological characteristics of Korean ginseng (Korean ginseng). Image credit: Song others., doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae107.
Ginseng is one of the most important medicinal plants and is cultivated in Northeast Asia, including China, Korea, Siberia, and Japan, and in smaller quantities in North America.
As recorded in the ancient Chinese text Shennong Benmatao Jing, the perennial root of ginseng has been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine and as a functional food and beverage with bodily and immune-boosting properties.
Ginseng has a very long history of being collected from the wild in fields, and cultivation began about 500 years ago. Since then, selective breeding has begun and cultivated varieties have become common.
“Like other herbs, medicinal ginseng has complex metabolites that are believed to be active compounds, of which triterpene saponins (ginsenosides) are the most important class,” said Wei Li, PhD, of the Shenzhen Institute of Agricultural Genomics, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and colleagues.
“Ginseng probably contains more than 100 types of ginsenosides, but the synthesis pathways of most of the ginsenosides remain unknown.”
In the new study, Dr. Lee and his co-authors assembled a ginseng reference genome from telomere to telomere.
“We used this intertelomeric reference genome to study the phylogeny and evolution of ginseng and to explore the asymmetric loss and biased expression of genes among its subgenomes,” they explained.
The authors identified 77,266 protein-coding genes in the 3.45 Gb ginseng genome.
The team also identified asymmetric gene loss and biased gene expression across the subgenomes, tracing the divergence back approximately 6.07 million years.
Their analysis revealed extensive expansion of gene families related to saponin biosynthesis and highlighted the importance of specific gene duplications in enriching these pathways.
Comparative genomic analysis with related species will provide further insight into the evolutionary strategies employed by ginseng to maximize its medicinal properties.
“The complete sequencing of the ginseng genome is a monumental achievement in plant research,” Dr Lee said.
“Not only will it broaden our understanding of the genetic complexity of medicinal plants, but it will also introduce sophisticated methods for cultivating ginseng varieties with superior health properties.”
“Comprehensive sequencing of the ginseng genome has laid the foundation for precision breeding techniques aimed at enhancing its medicinal properties.”
“This research not only has immediate applications in the intensification of ginseng cultivation, but also serves as a model for studying other medicinal plants, potentially revolutionizing pharmacology and crop intensification strategies with natural products.”
of result Published in the journal Horticultural Research.
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Song Yi-ting others2024. Telomere-to-telomere reference genome Korean ginseng Our focus is on the evolution of saponin biosynthesis. Horticultural Research 11 (6): uhae107; doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae107
Four poultry workers in Colorado recently fell ill with avian flu, bringing the total number of cases in the United States to nine.
Almost all of the infections have been reported since April, giving experts a preliminary idea of what symptoms the virus causes in people.
Cases have been fairly mild, with some typical flu symptoms and some reports of conjunctivitis.
Four poultry workers in Colorado recently fell ill with avian flu, bringing the total number of cases in the United States to at least nine.
Though the numbers are small, researchers say the commonalities between the cases — all but one of which were reported in the past four months — are enough to get a sense of how the virus affects people.
Cases in the US have been relatively mild and limited to farm workers who have handled infected animals, suggesting that the virus in its current form does not pose a significant threat to humans.
Some patients have reported typical flu symptoms such as fever, chills, cough, sore throat, and runny nose, while a few have also developed conjunctivitis and measles.
“One thing we can say is that the current strain of the virus is not adapted to infect humans and may not be adapted to infect the lower respiratory tract,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic.
The cases have been attributed to the global outbreak of H5N1, a specific strain of avian influenza that swept through America’s poultry and dairy farms in 2020.
The first case in the country was reported in April 2022 in an inmate working on a farm in Colorado who was culling birds and whose only symptom was fatigue. Texas reported a second case in April, followed by two in Michigan and five in Colorado, the latest four of which were confirmed over the weekend.
This H5N1 strain is considered highly pathogenic, which, when the term is used in the context of avian flu, means it has a high chance of killing chickens.
“It’s really scary to hear about such viruses, but the term is actually the USDA term for what happens to poultry,” said John Lednicky, professor of environmental and global health studies at the University of Florida. “Just because it’s highly pathogenic for birds doesn’t mean it’s highly pathogenic for mammals or for humans.”
Lednicky added that some H5N1 strains are deadly to humans, but others are not.
Since 1997, more than 900 total cases of H5N1 have been reported worldwide, about half of which were fatal. But the global mortality rate has fallen to about 27% over the past two years. Still, that figure largely reflects only those whose illness was severe enough to cause them to seek medical treatment.
Dr. Peter Parese, a professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said the figures include patients “who were hospitalized and, in retrospect, came into contact with a lot of the virus.”
Palese’s 2012 StudyBlood samples from 12,500 people with no recorded history of avian flu infection were examined and found that 1% to 2% of them may have had a previous infection with H5N1.
But experts worry the virus could one day mutate and cause more severe illness or become more capable of spreading from person to person (all transmission so far has been from animals to people).
“The concern is that as it infects more animals and then infects more humans, the virus will change,” Binnicker said.
Why is conjunctivitis associated with bird flu?
At least four of nine people with avian flu in the United States reported having conjunctivitis.
This was the case in at least one recent case in Colorado, linked to an outbreak at a commercial farm in Weld County where workers were slaughtering poultry.
The state announced earlier this month that another patient Dairy workers People who came into contact with the infected cows also developed conjunctivitis.
A dairy farm worker in Texas was infected with avian influenza and developed conjunctivitis. New England Journal of Medicine
Texas 1 The patient had conjunctivitis and no other symptoms. The patient worked with dairy cows and developed redness and discomfort in her right eye in March. New England Journal of Medicine Case StudyThe individual reported wearing gloves while working but no eye protection.
Scientists say there could be a few factors that explain the recent spread of the condition. One is that farm workers don’t always cover their eyes when handling sick animals, which could result in dairy farmers ingesting raw milk, which can lead to infection. Carrying the virus — That’s how it seemed to them.
Perhaps it is Michigan Dairy Workers He developed mild conjunctivitis in May and was confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza.
The virus can also get into a person’s eye through respiratory droplets or aerosols (tiny droplets in the air), or by workers who touch the eye after handling infected animals or contaminated raw milk.
“The receptors on cells that the virus needs to bind to are quite abundant on cells in the eye, which may be one reason why people with avian flu have conjunctivitis,” Binnicker said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends treating people infected with avian flu with antiviral drugs, and some U.S. patients have been given Tamiflu, a drug also used to treat seasonal flu.
“Studies conducted to date have shown that Tamiflu is effective in treating currently circulating strains of avian flu,” Binnicker said, “and to be most effective, it usually needs to be administered within 48 hours after symptoms begin.”
Infection spreads, tests increase, number of infected people increases
Scientists say the reason why all but one of the U.S. cases have been reported since April could come down to two factors: First, the virus is spreading quickly among birds; Sporadically infect other animalsPeople who have been in contact with infected animals, such as pet cats, are more likely to become infected. Second, health officials have begun monitoring and testing people who have been in contact with infected animals if they develop symptoms.
“There’s probably a much higher amount of virus out there now than there was a year ago, but we’re also seeing more cases because we’re doing more testing,” Binnicker said.
Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical officer, said local health departments are conducting tests for people with even the most minor symptoms.
“I think that’s why we’re seeing milder cases,” she said, “because of the aggressive symptom surveillance that we’re doing.”
For example, a Michigan worker who had conjunctivitis did not even see a doctor before being tested for avian flu. Other cases Farm workers who cared for the infected cows reported sore throats, coughs, and stuffy noses to local health authorities.
Baghdasarian said the fact that Michigan has tested about 60 people but has only found two cases shows it takes a lot of contact for a person to get sick, and that the workers who tested positive were not wearing full personal protective equipment and were working on tasks like milking and hydrating cows, he said.
“We’re not talking about people who have had momentary contact with these animals, who pass by a barn or a pen,” Bagdasarian said. “We’re not talking about people who only touch a cow once.”
Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet that’s five times the mass of Jupiter and follows a very unusual orbit around its star.
Artist’s impression of TIC 241249530b. Image courtesy of NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva, Spaceengine.
TIC 241249530b was first detected in January 2020 by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
To confirm that the object is a planet, astronomers used two instruments on NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory’s WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, a program of NOIRLab.
They first harnessed the NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet and Stellar Speckle Imager (NESSI) with a technique that “freezes” atmospheric glitter, eliminating extraneous light sources that could confuse the signal source.
The team then used the NEID spectrometer to carefully observe how the host star’s spectrum, or the wavelengths of light it emits, changes as a result of the exoplanet orbiting TIC 241249530b, and measure the radial velocity of TIC 241249530b.
“NESSI provided much sharper images of the star than was possible with any other method, while NEID precisely measured the star’s spectrum and detected changes in response to the exoplanet orbiting it,” said Dr. Arvind Gupta, a postdoctoral researcher at NOIRLab.
“The unique flexibility of NEID’s observing schedule framework allows the team to quickly adjust their observing plans in response to new data.”
Analysis of the spectrum confirmed that TIC 241249530b has a mass about five times that of Jupiter.
The spectrum also revealed that the exoplanet orbits along a highly eccentric, or elongated, orbit.
The eccentricity of a planet’s orbit is measured on a scale from 0 to 1, with 0 representing a perfectly circular orbit and 1 representing an elliptical orbit.
The exoplanet’s orbital eccentricity is 0.94, higher than any exoplanet discovered so far by the transit method.
By comparison, Pluto orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of 0.25. Earth’s eccentricity is 0.02.
If the planet were part of the solar system, its orbit would stretch from its closest point, ten times closer to the Sun than Mercury, to its farthest point, about the same distance as Earth.
This extreme orbit would cause the planet’s temperatures to vary from mild to hot enough to melt titanium.
In addition to the unusual nature of the exoplanet’s orbit, the team also discovered that it orbits in a retrograde direction, meaning it moves in the opposite direction to the rotation of its host star.
This is a phenomenon astronomers have not seen in most other exoplanets or in our own solar system, and it helps the research team interpret the history of exoplanet formation.
The exoplanet’s unique orbital properties also hint at its future trajectory.
Because its initial orbit is highly eccentric and it is so close to the star, the planet’s orbit is expected to become “circular” because the planet’s tidal forces will sap energy from the orbit, causing it to gradually shrink and become circular.
Discovering this exoplanet before this migration occurs is valuable because it will give us important insight into how hot Jupiters form, stabilize, and evolve over time.
“While we can’t hit the rewind button and watch the planetary migration process in real time, this exoplanet serves as a kind of snapshot of the migration process,” Dr Gupta said.
“Planets like this are extremely rare and hard to find, so we hope they will help shed light on how hot Jupiters form.”
“We’re particularly interested in what we can learn about the dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere after it gets so close to its star,” said Professor Jason Wright of Pennsylvania State University.
“With telescopes like the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope having the sensitivity to study atmospheric changes on newly discovered exoplanets undergoing rapid heating, there is still much more for research teams to learn about exoplanets.”
TIC 241249530b is the second exoplanet discovered so far that represents the pre-transitional stage of a hot Jupiter.
Together, these two examples provide observational support for the idea that high-mass gas giants evolve into hot Jupiters as they move from highly eccentric orbits to tighter, more circular orbits.
“Astronomers have been searching for exoplanets for over 20 years that could be precursors to hot Jupiters or intermediate products in the migration process, so I was very surprised and excited to find one – it’s exactly what I was hoping to find,” Dr Gupta said.
Caves on the moon have been identified by scientists not too far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. They speculate that there could be hundreds more caves that could be suitable for future astronauts to inhabit.
A team of researchers led by Italians reported on Monday that they have evidence of a large cavern accessible through the deepest hole on the moon’s surface. This cavern is situated in Mare Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Apollo 11 landing site.
The hole, like over 200 others found in that area, was created by the collapse of a lava tube.
The researchers examined radar measurements from NASA’s lunar rover and compared their findings to lava tubes on Earth. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Scientists state that the radar data has only uncovered the initial section of the underground chamber, which they estimate to be at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide and potentially even longer.
Leonardo Carrell and Lorenzo Bruzzone from the University of Trento expressed their excitement in an email saying, “The lunar caves have remained a mystery for more than 50 years, so it’s exciting to finally be able to prove their existence.”
Most of the holes on the moon seem to be situated in the ancient lava plains, and there might also be caves at the moon’s south pole, where NASA intends to send astronauts in 10 years. A crater in perpetual shadow there is believed to contain frozen water that could be used for drinking or as rocket fuel.
NASA’s Apollo program successfully landed 12 astronauts on the moon, starting with Armstrong and Aldrin on July 20, 1969.
These findings suggest that the Moon could have numerous caves and lava tubes, providing natural shelter for astronauts and shielding them from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite impacts. Constructing habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging, even if cave walls need reinforcement to prevent collapse.
The rocks and other materials in these caves, unaffected by the harsh surface conditions for hundreds of millions of years, could also help scientists gain a better understanding of how the Moon evolved, especially in terms of its volcanic activity.
Researchers from Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have discovered the underlying cause of lupus, shedding light on a key mystery behind one of the most common autoimmune diseases affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the United States.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, points to an abnormality in the immune system of lupus patients, providing a clear pathway for how the disease develops.
Dr. Deepak Rao, a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, explained that the imbalance in the types of T cells that lupus patients make is at the heart of this discovery. By comparing blood samples from lupus patients with healthy individuals, the study revealed that lupus patients have too many T cells involved in damaging healthy cells, and too few T cells involved in repair.
The study also highlighted the role of interferons, proteins that defend the body against pathogens. Too much type I interferon in lupus patients can lead to adverse outcomes by blocking a protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which helps regulate the body’s response to bacteria and environmental pollutants.
Although the findings offer hope for new treatments, experts caution that more research is needed to fully understand the complexities of lupus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 200,000 in the United States have lupus, with as many as 1.5 million affected individuals.
Common symptoms of lupus include extreme fatigue, joint pain, and skin rashes. In severe cases, lupus can cause kidney or heart damage, as well as a weakened immune system that increases susceptibility to infections.
The research suggests potential new treatments, such as drugs that target interferon or activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, but challenges remain in finding effective and safe ways to administer these treatments.
While the study provides valuable insights into lupus, researchers emphasize the need for further investigation and clinical trials to develop personalized treatment options for individuals with this complex autoimmune disease.
Among the many strange robot designs in the past, a new contender has emerged as the world’s first robot powered by a real human brain, making it more human-like than ever.
Researchers from Tianjin University and Southern University of Science and Technology have managed to control the robot’s movements, such as tracking, grasping, and obstacle avoidance, using what they call “mini-brains.”
These miniature brains are not taken from human bodies but rather grown in labs for research purposes and then integrated into robots.
The researchers have utilized living organisms to create “brains on a chip,” which provide some intelligence to the robot’s brain but require assistance for full functionality.
Through the integration of these chips, scientists can debug the brain, send signals externally, and control specific functions like grasping in robots.
Professor Min Dong, Vice President of Tianjin University, explains that this brain-computer interface on a chip combines ex vivo cultured brains with electrode chips to interact with the outside world through encoding, decoding, and stimulation feedback.
With the brain chip, robots can perform tasks like tracking targets, avoiding obstacles, and learning to move their arms using electrical signals fed by the chips.
While robots do not have a human appearance, their brains process information through electrical signals from the chips. Training in simulated environments is possible, but understanding the real world remains a complex challenge.
The brain chip, known as MetaBOC, was developed as an open-source project and has been used in various experiments, including one where Neanderthal DNA was used to create mini-brains for robot control.
The latest research on robot-brain interaction focuses on utilizing ball-shaped organoids to create a more complex neural network for the brain-on-a-chip to function effectively.
Additionally, artificial intelligence algorithms have been integrated to enhance the robot’s capabilities through its mini-brain.
Although the advancements are groundbreaking, there is still progress to be made, with the current brain inside the robot being a model while the actual brain tissue is kept separate for testing purposes.
Life is abundant on Earth, from pigeons in the park to invisible microorganisms covering every surface. However, when Earth first formed 4.5 billion years ago, it was devoid of life. The question remains: how did the first life form emerge?
The answer is still unknown. If we understood the process, we could recreate it in a controlled environment. Scientists could replicate the right conditions with the right chemicals and potentially observe living organisms forming. Yet, this has never been accomplished before.
Although the exact origin of life remains a mystery, there are several clues that provide insight. Living organisms consist of various chemicals, including proteins and nucleic acids that carry genetic information. While these chemicals are complex, their basic building blocks are simple to create.
One of the first demonstrations of this concept came from chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. By simulating the early Earth’s conditions with water and gases, Miller produced amino acids, the fundamental components of proteins, through heating and electrical shocks resembling lightning.
Subsequent studies, such as one conducted by Sarah Simkuch, have shown how complex chemicals can arise from basic compounds. By starting with everyday chemicals like water and methane, researchers have generated thousands of substances found in living organisms.
While this abundance of chemical building blocks suggests a fertile environment for life to emerge, the transition from chemicals to life is not automatic. Several key factors contribute to the formation of life, including structure, sustenance, and reproduction.
Research into the origin of life has focused on creating systems that encompass these essentials, such as genetic molecules capable of self-replication. However, the interdependence of these systems suggests a simultaneous emergence may be more plausible, possibly within confined spaces like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or terrestrial pools.
While the exact beginning of life remains uncertain, advancements in understanding have made the origin of life seem less inexplicable than before.
Weight loss can be a challenging journey, but there may be a breakthrough discovery that could make it easier. Scientists have found a way to burn calories without changing your diet or exercising, thanks to a fat-burning mechanism in your body known as “beige fat.”
While diet and exercise are still crucial, researchers from the University of San Francisco have identified a way to convert regular white fat cells into beige fat cells.
In most mammals, including humans, there are three types of fat cells: white, brown, and beige. White fat cells store calories, brown fat cells burn energy for heat, and beige fat cells can do both.
This conversion from white to beige fat cells allows the body to naturally burn fat more efficiently.
Although the study was conducted with mice, it could pave the way for new weight-loss drugs and shed light on why previous trials have not been successful.
Scientists believed that stem cells were required to create beige fat, but the research shows that by inhibiting the production of a protein called KLF-15, white fat cells can be converted to beige fat cells. This finding offers promising insights into potential weight-loss treatments.
Feldman and his team discovered that KLF-15 controls the levels of the Adrb1 receptor, which plays a role in maintaining energy balance. Targeting this receptor with drugs could be a more effective approach for weight loss compared to current treatments.
By understanding the mechanisms behind beige fat cells, researchers hope to develop safer and more long-lasting weight-loss solutions for the future.
Scientists in South Africa were surprised to find that a termite mound standing in the country’s arid regions is over 30,000 years old, making it the oldest active termite mound known.
Located near the Buffels River in Namaqualand, several mounds have been dated back to 34,000 years ago by researchers from Stellenbosch University.
“I was aware of its age, but not to this extent,” said Michel Francis, a senior lecturer at the university’s soil science department who led the study. The findings were published in May.
These mounds existed during a time when sabre-toothed cats and mammoths roamed the Earth, and large parts of Europe and Asia were covered in ice. They even predate the oldest cave paintings in Europe.
While fossilized termite mounds millions of years old have been found, the oldest human-inhabited mound prior to this discovery was in Brazil and approximately 4,000 years old, visible from space.
Francis described the Namaqualand mounds as termite “apartment complexes”, showing evidence of a continuous termite colony living there.
Although termite mounds are a common sight in Namaqualand, their age was not questioned until samples were sent to Hungarian experts for radiocarbon dating.
The largest mounds, known as “heuweltjies” locally, can reach around 100 feet in diameter, with termite nests found up to 10 feet underground.
Researchers had to excavate parts of the mound for samples, but the termites went into “emergency mode” and started filling in the holes. The team reconstructed the mound to protect the termites from predators like aardvarks.
The project not only provided insight into ancient structures but also revealed information about the prehistoric climate, indicating Namaqualand was wetter when the mounds formed.
Southern harvester termites play a crucial role in capturing and storing carbon by collecting twigs and dead wood, contributing to offsetting climate change. This process also benefits the soil, supporting the growth of wildflowers on top of termite mounds in low rainfall areas.
Pope Francis encouraged further research on termite mounds for the valuable lessons they offer on climate change, ecosystem maintenance, and agricultural practices.
“Studying the termites’ activities within the mounds could provide valuable insights, considering the tedious job they are believed to have carried out,” she added.
You may be surprised by how little we actually know about the inner workings of the Earth. While we have a good grasp of how the Earth’s surface moves to create mountains and trigger earthquakes, the deeper we delve, the more mysterious it becomes.
One highly debated topic for years has been the movement of the Earth’s inner core. Does it move forward, backward, left, right? The truth is, nobody really knows. However, recent research published in Nature suggests that the core is receding relative to the surface, potentially putting an end to the long-standing debate.
This study confirms a controversial paper from the previous year by researchers at Peking University, as detailed in Nature Chemistry.
The inner core of the Earth is a solid, crystallized sphere of iron, approximately the size of the Moon, situated around 5,000 km beneath us in a liquid metal sea known as the outer core comprised of iron, nickel, and other metals.
“The inner core is a solid entity that floats within the outer core, lacking any anchorage,” explained Professor John Vidal, co-author of the study, a researcher at the University of Southern California (USC), in an interview with BBC Science Focus.
According to a press release from USC, the study presents “unequivocal evidence” that the movement of the inner core slowed around 2010 and is now lagging behind the surface movement. This new motion pattern makes the core appear to move backward compared to the surface, akin to how a slowing car seems to move in reverse to a steady-speed driver.
If the findings are accurate, this marks the initial detection of a slowdown in 40 years and supports the notion that the core’s velocity fluctuates in a 70-year cycle.
The research team utilized seismometers in Canada and Alaska to analyze repeated earthquakes, focusing on 121 events in the South Sandwich Islands between 1991 and 2023, along with data from past nuclear tests conducted by the Soviets.
By examining matching seismic waveforms from various time periods, the team sought to determine if the inner core rotates independently from the rest of the Earth. Discrepancies in wave patterns indicated changes in the core’s rotation, with some signals aligning pre and post-shift, implying a realignment of the core.
Bidart, one of the researchers, expressed initial confusion upon seeing seismic records suggesting a change but became convinced upon discovering more consistent observations. The slowdown in the inner core’s movement, unseen for decades, aligns with their latest findings, offering a plausible resolution to the ongoing debate.
Despite uncertainties regarding surface impacts, Bidale acknowledged a slight potential change in the length of a day, barely perceptible amid the Earth’s bustling activity of oceanic and atmospheric movements.
Future research aims to gather additional waveform data from diverse global locations and pathways. Vidar highlighted a wait-and-see approach, anticipating unusual core movements around 2001 and further exploration to elucidate these occurrences.
About our experts
John Vidale Dr. Schneider currently chairs the Department of Geosciences at the University of Southern California. His research covers earthquakes, Earth structure, volcanoes, and seismic hazards. At USC since 2017, Dr. Schneider previously directed the Southern California Earthquake Center and contributed to earthquake-related committees and working groups.
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