Doctors are calling for a ban on artificial stone, a popular material used for kitchen worktops, following the confirmation of eight cases of artificial stone silicosis in the UK for the first time.
Also known as engineered or reconstituted stone, artificial stone has gained popularity for its aesthetics and durability over the last two decades. However, a new report published in the British Journal of Construction highlights the serious health risks posed by its high silica content, which exceeds 90% compared to 3% in marble and 30% in granite.
“Silicosis is a progressive lung disease caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust,” said Dr. Patrick Howlett, a spokesperson for BBC Science Focus. “The risk of developing silicosis is significantly higher for workers in the artificial stone industry compared to those with chronic respiratory conditions.”
“Various industries expose individuals to silicosis, including mining, pottery, cement work, and now artificial stone fabrication. Prolonged exposure to low levels of silica dust can lead to the development of silicosis over time,” added Dr. Howlett.
All eight affected individuals were male, with an average age of 34, and most worked for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Poor safety practices, such as inadequate respiratory protection and ventilation systems, were reported by workers during cutting and grinding operations.
The report’s authors emphasized the need for national guidelines and better enforcement to protect workers from artificial stone silicosis. They highlighted the urgent need for early detection of cases and preventative measures to avoid a potential epidemic.
Since 2010, cases of artificial stone silicosis have been reported worldwide, but the UK confirmed its first cases in mid-2023. California has identified nearly 100 cases of silicosis among countertop workers, prompting the adoption of new regulations to safeguard workers.
Australia has already banned the use of artificial stone as of July 2024, aiming to eliminate the health risks associated with its production and installation.
In related editorials, Dr. Christopher Barber and researchers from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust drew parallels between artificial stone silicosis and historical occupational health crises, urging stricter regulations and enforcement to protect workers.
Experts are currently reviewing exposure limits for crystalline silica dust in the UK, with a focus on mitigating the risks associated with artificial stone worktops. Silicosis remains a significant concern for clinicians and researchers in the occupational health field.
About our experts
Patrick Howlett: An MRC Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, focusing on silicosis and tuberculosis among small-scale miners in Tanzania.
Christopher Barber: A leading expert in occupational and environmental lung disease, serving as a medical advisor to the UK Health and Safety Executive and conducting extensive research in the field.
The Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the Step Pyramid, is believed to be the oldest of the seven great pyramids, built around 4,500 years ago.
Map of the Saqqara Plateau showing the waterway from the Gisr el-Mudir Dam (left) to the water treatment plant near the Pyramid of Djoser. The water is then routed to the pyramid's network of pipes to power the hydraulic elevators. Image courtesy of Landreau. others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306690.
The Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2680 BC at Saqqara in Egypt, is considered a major milestone in monumental architecture.
This revealed for the first time two important innovations: the pyramidal shape of the pharaoh's tomb and the use of only perfectly finished stones in the masonry.
In fact, the ability to extract, lift and precisely stack millions of stones is also revolutionary.
Such were the complex and visible achievements of King Djoser that his architect, vizier and great priest of Ra, Imhotep, was deified during the New Kingdom.
In a new interdisciplinary analysis, Dr. Xavier Landreau of the CEA Palaeotechnical Institute and his colleagues have found that hydraulic lifts may have been used in the construction of the pyramid.
Based on their mapping of nearby watersheds, the authors found that one of Saqqara's large unexplained structures, the Gisr el-Mudir Enclosure, has the characteristics of a check dam intended to capture sediment and water.
Additionally, a series of compartments dug into the ground outside the pyramid may have acted as water treatment plants, allowing sediment to settle as water passed through each compartment.
This would have allowed the water to flow into the pyramid's columns themselves, and its upward force could have carried the building stones along.
More research is needed to understand how water flowed through the tunnels and how much water was present on the land at that point in Earth's history.
However, archaeologists suggest that while other building methods such as ramps may have been used to construct the pyramids, if there was enough water a hydraulic lift system may have been used to support the building process.
“The internal structure of the step pyramid is found to be consistent with a previously unreported mechanism for hydraulic build-up,” the researchers said.
“The ancient builders may have used sediment-free water from the south side of the dry moat to raise the stones from the center of the pyramid in a volcanic fashion.”
“The ancient Egyptians are famous for being pioneers and masters of hydraulics, including irrigation canals and barges for transporting megaliths.”
“This research opens up a new field of research into the use of water power to build the massive structures erected by the Pharaohs.”
of study Published online in the journal PLoS One.
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X. Landreau others2024. On the possibility of using hydropower to aid in the construction of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. PLoS One 19 (8): e0306690; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306690
Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, features several Neolithic temple-like enclosures decorated with many intricately carved symbols.
Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for “Pot-bellied Hill”) is one of the oldest known examples of an artificial megalithic structure constructed by prehistoric builders specifically for ritual purposes.
Its impressive monumental architecture was built by a group of hunter-gatherers during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period between 9600 and 8200 BC.
Göbekli Tepe was discovered towards the end of the last century in a hillside overlooking the Harran Plain.
It lies between the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, about 12 km northeast of the modern city of Şanlıurfa, known as Ancient Urfa and said to be the birthplace of the biblical Abraham.
Excavations at Göbekli Tepe, which began in 1994, have uncovered four large, nearly circular enclosures and a number of smaller, generally rectangular, buildings.
Each circular enclosure consists of rough stone walls with T-shaped megalithic pillars inset around two centrally located tall T-shaped pillars, which are usually fixed within stone sockets.
Archaeologists initially thought that Göbekli Tepe was merely a religious center, but recent excavations have revealed that it also contained a settlement of rectangular buildings, now thought to be homes.
The large enclosures are still considered “special” buildings, although there is debate as to whether they had a specific religious purpose or were large homes for powerful families.
In the context of this debate, it is debated whether the largest pillars represent gods or even worshipped ancestors.
In any case, it is generally believed that these large enclosures were roofed, but hard evidence is elusive.
A round-elliptical monumental structure with a distinctive T-shaped monolithic pillar at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Image credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, German Archaeological Institute.
“The largest complete enclosure discovered so far, Enclosure D (30 metres, 98 feet wide), has the oldest radiocarbon date yet obtained from the site, dating to 9530 BC,” said archaeologist David Schneider of the University of Edinburgh. paper Published in the journal Time and Heart.
“This date corresponds roughly to the end of the Younger Dryas period, at the boundary between the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, when the Northern Hemisphere climate suddenly warmed after a near-glacial Younger Dryas climate that lasted for more than 1,200 years.”
“However, the date of the earliest occupation of Göbekli Tepe is unknown,” he added.
“Ground penetrating radar scans indicate that there appear to be several other large structures near the center of the main trail, waiting to be discovered.”
“Since only a small portion of the site's surface has been excavated, and even less has been excavated down to bedrock, the origins of Göbekli Tepe may ultimately be dated back to a time closer to the beginning of the Younger Dryas period, around 10,800 BC.”
“In fact, scientists have suggested it may have originated in the Paleolithic period.”
In a new analysis of the V-shaped symbols carved into the pillars at Göbekli Tepe, Dr Sweatman found that each V likely represents a day.
This interpretation allowed researchers to count a 365-day solar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months and 11 extra days on one of the pillars.
The summer solstice was considered a special day, and a V was drawn around the neck of a bird-like beast, which was thought to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time.
Other statues believed to represent gods were found nearby, all with similar V-shaped markings around their necks.
As both lunar and solar cycles are depicted, the carving may represent the world's oldest known lunisolar calendar, based on the phases of the moon and the position of the sun, predating any other known calendar of this type by thousands of years.
Detail of the center section of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe. Image courtesy of Martin B. Sweatman, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876.
“Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date when a swarm of cometary fragments hit Earth about 13,000 years ago, i.e. in 10,850 BC,” the scientists said.
“The cometary impact is thought to have caused a mini-glacial period lasting more than 1,200 years and led to the extinction of many large animal species.”
“It may also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture that are associated with the emergence of civilisations in the Fertile Crescent of Western Asia shortly thereafter.”
Another pillar at the site appears to depict the Taurid meteor shower, which emanated over a 27-day period from the direction of Aquarius and Pisces, and is thought to be the source of cometary debris.
The discovery also appears to confirm that ancient peoples were able to use precession — the wobble of the Earth's axis that affects the movement of the constellations in the sky — to record dates at least 10,000 years before it was recorded by the ancient Greek Hipparchus in 150 BC.
The carvings appear to have been important to the people of Göbekli Tepe for thousands of years, suggesting that the impact event may have sparked new cults and religions that influenced the development of the civilization.
The discovery also supports the theory that Earth's orbit crosses the path of orbiting cometary debris that we normally experience as meteor showers, increasing the chances that Earth will face cometary impacts.
“The inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe are likely to have been avid skywatchers, which is not surprising given that their world was devastated by a cometary impact,” Dr Sweatman said.
“This event may have marked the beginning of a new religion and may have sparked civilization by encouraging the development of agriculture to cope with the cold climate.”
“Perhaps their attempt to record what they saw was the first step towards the development of writing thousands of years later.”
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Martin B. Sweatman. The representations of calendar and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbols. Time and HeartPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876
In the new study, Dr David Hernández Uribe from the University of Illinois at Chicago used computer models to study the formation of magma, which is thought to hold clues to the origin of Earth's continents.
Hadean Earth. Image by Alec Brenner.
Magma is molten material that forms rocks and minerals as it cools.
Dr Hernández Uribe searched for magma that matched the compositional characteristics of rare mineral deposits called zircons, which date back to the Archean Era (2.5 to 4 billion years ago), when scientists believe the continents first formed.
In a recent study, researchers argued that Archean zircons could only have been formed by subduction, i.e. two crustal plates colliding under the ocean and pushing land up onto the surface.
This process still occurs today, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and reshaping the coastlines of continents.
However, Dr. Hernández Uribe found that subduction was not necessary for the formation of Archean zircons.
Rather, he found that the minerals may have formed due to the high pressures and temperatures associated with the melting of Earth's thick primordial crust.
“Using my calculations and models, we can get the same characteristics in zircons and even a better match through partial melting at the base of the crust,” Dr Hernández Uribe said.
“So based on these results, we don't yet have enough evidence to say by what process the continents formed.”
The findings also create uncertainty about when plate tectonics began on Earth.
If Earth's first continents formed by subduction, then the continents would have started moving between 3.6 and 4 billion years ago, or just 500 million years after Earth existed.
But an alternative theory, that the first continents formed from melting crust, means that subduction and tectonic shifts may have started much later.
“As far as we know, Earth is the only planet in the solar system where plate tectonics is actively occurring,” Dr Hernández Uribe said.
“And this has implications for the origin of life, because how the first continents moved controlled the weather, controlled the chemistry of the oceans, and controlled everything related to life.”
of study Published in the journal on July 11, 2024 Nature Chemistry.
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Hernández-Uribe, D. Generation of Archean oxidized and wet magmas by mafic crustal overthickening. National GeographyPublished online July 11, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01489-z
This article is a version of a press release from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Use of Data ESA's Gaia mission Astronomers have discovered a number of metal-poor stars that are more than 13 billion years old and in orbits similar to our sun.
Rotational motion of a young (blue) and an older (red) star similar to the Sun (orange). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt / SSC / Caltech.
“The Milky Way has a large halo, a central bulge and bar, and thick and thin disks,” said Dr Samir Nepal of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam and his colleagues.
“Most of the stars are found in a thin disk of the so-called Milky Way galaxy, which revolves regularly around the galactic center.”
“Middle-aged stars like our Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old, belong to a thin disk that is generally thought to have begun to form between 8 and 10 billion years ago.”
Astronomers used the new Gaia data set to study stars within about 3,200 light-years of the Sun.
They found a surprisingly large number of very old stars in the thin disk orbit, most of which are over 10 billion years old, with some being over 13 billion years old.
These ancient stars show a wide range of metal compositions: some are very metal-poor (as expected), while others have twice the metal content of the much younger Sun, indicating that rapid metal enrichment occurred early in the evolution of the Milky Way.
“These ancient stars in the disk suggest that the formation of the Milky Way's thin disk began much earlier than previously thought, around 4 to 5 billion years ago,” Dr Nepal said.
“This study also reveals that the Galaxy underwent intense star formation early on, leading to rapid metal enrichment in its inner regions and the formation of a disk.”
“This discovery brings the Milky Way's disk formation timeline into line with that of high-redshift galaxies observed with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).”
“This shows that cold disks can form and stabilize very early in the history of the universe, providing new insights into the evolution of galaxies.”
“Our study suggests that the Milky Way's thin disk may have formed much earlier than previously thought and that its formation is closely linked to an early chemical enrichment in the innermost regions of the galaxy,” said Dr Cristina Chiappini, astronomer at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.
“The combination of data from different sources and the application of advanced machine learning techniques has allowed us to increase the number of stars with high-quality stellar parameters, which is an important step leading our team to these new insights.”
Samir Nepal others2024. Discovery of local counterparts of disk galaxies at z > 4: The oldest thin disk in the Milky Way using Gaia-RVS. A&Ain press; arXiv: 2402.00561
A new study led by Western Washington University suggests that sister city relationships have been around for longer than we thought.
Jack H. McBride and Tesla A. Monson conducted a comprehensive study of primate offspring numbers using life history data from 155 primate species and offspring numbers from an additional 791 mammal species. Image by Jason Brougham.
“Nearly all primates give birth to a single litter,” say Tesla Monson, a professor at Western Washington University, and Jack McBride, a doctoral student at Yale University.
“However, some genera, such as marmosets, tamarins, lemurs, lorises, and galagos, regularly give birth to twins or triplets.”
“Although humans most often give birth to singletons, twin pregnancies occur naturally at a rate of approximately 1.1-1.5% worldwide.”
“Advances in assisted reproductive technology have increased twin birth rates to around 3% in some areas over the past 50 years.”
“There is an urgent need to understand the impact of twins on pregnancy, mothers, and newborns.”
In this study, the authors collected data on reproduction and body size from nearly 1,000 different mammalian species to investigate the evolutionary history of twinning in primates.
The traits they analyzed included offspring size (number of offspring), gestation period, body size, and lifespan.
Contrary to previous assumptions, the analysis demonstrates that the earliest primates likely gave birth to twins.
The researchers also found that birth size and gestational age (the length of pregnancy) were closely related.
“Animals that give birth to more pups on average tend to have shorter gestation periods,” Professor Monson said.
“This also applies to humans. In the United States, full-term twins are considered to be born at 38 weeks, not 40 weeks, and many twins are born earlier than that.”
“This may be related to maternal energy limitations.”
“The next step is to look more broadly at offspring number across mammals and see which other reproductive, brain, and body size traits are associated with twinning.”
“We are particularly interested in understanding the relationship between twinning and tooth morphology.”
In a new study, a team of scientists from Virginia Tech investigated the extent to which exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, was widespread in wildlife communities in Virginia and Washington, DC, between May 2022 and September 2023. They documented positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in six species: deer mice, Virginia opossums, raccoons, groundhogs, cotton-tailed bats, and eastern red bats. They also found no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was transmitted from animals to humans, and people should not fear general contact with wildlife.
Goldberg othersThis suggests that a wide variety of mammal species were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the wild. Image credit: Goldberg others., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49891-w.
“SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted from humans to wild animals during contact between humans and wild animals, in the same way that a hitchhiker might jump to a new, more suitable host,” said Carla Finkelstein, a professor at Virginia Tech.
“The goal of a virus is to spread in order to survive. It wants to infect as many humans as possible, but vaccination protects many of us. So the virus turns to animals, where it adapts and mutates to thrive in a new host.”
SARS CoV-2 infections have previously been identified in wild animals, primarily white-tailed deer and wild mink.
This new research significantly expands the number of species investigated and improves our understanding of virus transmission in and between wild animals.
The data suggest that exposure to the virus is widespread among wild animals and that areas with high human activity may be contact points for interspecies transmission.
“This study was prompted by the realization that there were significant and important gaps in our knowledge about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the broader wildlife community,” said Dr. Joseph Hoyt of Virginia Tech.
“Most studies to date have focused on white-tailed deer, but we still don't know what's going on with many of the wildlife species commonly found in our backyards.”
For the study, the researchers collected 798 nasal and oral swabs from animals that had been caught live and released from the wild, or that were being treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center, as well as 126 blood samples from six animal species.
These sites were chosen to compare the presence of viruses in animals across different levels of human activity, from urban areas to remote wilderness.
The scientists also identified two mice with the exact same mutation on the same day and in the same location, indicating that they either both got infected from the same person, or one had transmitted it to the other.
How it spreads from humans to animals is unknown, but wastewater is a possibility, but trash cans and discarded food are more likely sources.
“I think the biggest takeaway from this study is that this virus is everywhere. We're finding it in common backyard animals that are testing positive,” said Dr. Amanda Goldberg of Virginia Tech.
“This study highlights the potentially broad host range of SARS-CoV-2 in nature and how widely it may actually spread,” Dr Hoyt said.
“There is much work to be done to understand which wildlife species, if any, are important in the long-term maintenance of SARS-CoV-2 in humans.”
“But what we've already learned is that SARS CoV-2 is not just a human problem, and we need multidisciplinary teams to effectively address its impacts on different species and ecosystems,” Professor Finkelstein said.
Parapontoporia The common dolphin, an extinct genus of long-nosed dolphins that lived along the Pacific coast of North America from the late Miocene to the Pliocene, was likely able to hear in a narrow band of high-frequency sounds, a new analysis has found. Parapontoporia The bony labyrinth.
The last known Chinese river dolphin, Qiqi. Image by Roland Seitre / CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) represent one of the most dramatic transitions in the history of mammals: a return from land to water,” said researchers Dr. Joyce Sanks of Vanderbilt University and Dr. Rachel Racicot of the Senckenberg Institute and the Natural History Museum.
“As a result, this group acquired a series of aquatic adaptations, such as moving their nostrils to the top of their heads and streamlining their bodies.”
“Echolocation developed early in the evolutionary history of Oligocene toothed whales (Odontoceti), and all modern toothed whales possess this ability.”
“The biosonar clicks produced by most extant toothed whales typically cover a wide frequency spectrum, from tens of kilohertz to 150-170 kHz.”
“Conversely, certain toothed whales emit characteristic biosonar clicks that have narrow bandwidth but high centroid frequencies.”
“These distinctive clicks have a peak frequency of 125-140 kHz and a bandwidth of 11-20 kHz.”
Using high-resolution x-ray CT scans, the authors examined the inner ears of three people. Parapontoporia Two specimens, Parapontoporia sternbergii and Parapontoporia pacifica From the collection of the San Diego Natural History Museum.
With the help of 3D models, the team was able to prove that these creatures already had narrow-band, high-frequency hearing during the Miocene epoch, about 5.3 million years ago.
“Echolocation, as used by animals, also developed quite early in evolutionary history,” Dr Racicot said.
“The animals emit sound waves that bounce off objects and send back echoes, providing information about the object's distance and size. All toothed whales currently use this natural sonar system.”
“Echolocation is a rational hunting and communication strategy, especially in the ocean, where sound travels five times faster than in air, and where visibility is often reduced.”
“What's particularly interesting is that these dolphins have once again changed habitat, leaving the marine environment to colonize rivers.”
There are still a few dolphins living in the river today, with all six species now extremely rare and endangered.
As a relative Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexilifer) Last recorded in 2002, Parapontoporia It provides insight into the transition from marine habitats to freshwater environments.
“We speculate that this early and widespread evolution of echolocation in the dolphins we studied was driven by selective pressure or ecological advantage,” Dr Racicot said.
“River systems are spatially complex habitats, and this form of orientation and communication would likely have been advantageous for long-nosed dolphins.”
“Further research into toothed whales' sensory organs could be an important tool for studying the influence of habitat on cetacean hearing and for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of marine mammals.”
of result Published in this month's journal Anatomy record.
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Joyce Sanks & Rachel Racicot. Biology and prediction of hyperacusis. Parapontoporia – The extinct fin whale. Anatomy record Published online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1002/ar.25538
Ice 0 is Ice Shape If it is possible to induce the formation of ice crystals in supercooled water, University of Tokyo.
Ice nucleation in water nanodroplets at 180 K (minus 93.15 degrees Celsius, minus 135.76 degrees Fahrenheit). Image courtesy of G. Sun & H. Tanaka, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50188-1.
“Ice crystallization, known as ice nucleation, usually occurs heterogeneously, in other words, on solid surfaces,” said University of Tokyo researchers Gan Song and Hajime Tanaka.
“This is typically expected to occur at the surface of a container of water, where the liquid and solid meet.”
“But our study shows that ice crystallization can also occur just below the water surface, in contact with the air.”
“Here, ice nucleates around a small precursor that has the same characteristic ring-like structure as ice-0.”
“Simulations show that under isothermal conditions, water droplets are likely to crystallize near the free surface,” Dr Sun added.
“This settles a long-standing debate about whether crystallization occurs more easily on the surface or in the interior.”
The precursor to ice-0 has a structure very similar to supercooled water, which allows water molecules to crystallize more easily without having to form directly into the structure of regular ice.
These form naturally as a result of the negative pressure effect caused by the surface tension of water.
When crystallization begins from these precursors, the ice-0-like structure rapidly rearranges into the more typical ice-I.
“Our discovery of the mechanism behind water surface crystallization is expected to make significant contributions to various fields, such as climate research and food science, where water crystallization plays an important role,” said Dr. Tanaka.
“Understanding ice in more detail and how it forms can provide valuable insights into many different fields of research.”
“This work may be particularly important in meteorology, because the formation of ice from precursors such as ice-0 may have a much more pronounced effect on tiny water droplets such as those found in clouds.”
“Understanding ice also has benefits in technology, from food science to air conditioning.”
Team paper Published online in the journal Nature Communications.
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G. Sun & H. Tanaka. 2024. Surface-induced water crystallization driven by precursors formed in a negative pressure region. Nat Community 15, 6083; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50188-1
This article is based on a press release from the University of Tokyo.
Increasing plant-based food consumption is known to benefit both health and the environment, yet only a few individuals fully commit to a vegan diet.
However, a recent study suggests that following a vegan diet for just eight weeks could potentially reverse one’s biological age. Researchers discovered that participants who adhered to a vegan diet showed a reduction in their estimated biological age, as indicated by DNA methylation, an epigenetic marker.
Dr. Lucia Aronica, along with other co-authors from BBC Science Focus, explains, “DNA methylation and other epigenetic modifications regulate gene activity and expression.” These modifications change in specific ways as we age, allowing scientists to track and understand the aging process.
The study, as detailed in BMC Medicine, involved 21 adult identical twin pairs, where one twin followed a vegan diet while the other maintained an omnivorous diet for eight weeks. Blood samples were taken before and after the study to measure DNA methylation levels and assess the effects of each diet.
Results demonstrated that only the vegan group showed a slowing of the epigenetic aging clock, with some participants appearing almost one year younger by certain measures. A vegan diet was associated with reduced estimated ages of various organ systems, such as the heart, hormones, liver, and inflammatory and metabolic systems.
The average reduction in biological age for the vegan group was a remarkable 0.63 years. However, researchers caution that these findings should be interpreted carefully due to other factors like weight loss, as participants in the vegan group lost an average of 2 kilograms more than those in the omnivorous group.
Despite the promising outcomes, further research is necessary to understand the long-term effects of a vegan diet on aging and to differentiate between the effects of dietary composition and weight loss.
Experts like Dr. Hou Lifang suggest that additional studies are needed to validate these results, emphasizing the need for caution when drawing broad conclusions. While the study provides valuable insights, more research is required to fully comprehend the impact of a vegan diet on aging.
About our experts
Lucia Aronica focuses on epigenetics and gene-environment interactions in health outcomes. She is currently leading epigenetic analysis in the largest low-carb vs. low-fat diet study for weight loss. Aronica teaches nutritional genomics at Stanford University.
Varun Dwaraka is a bioinformatics researcher specializing in aging, epigenetics, and genetics. He has co-authored various publications on DNA methylation, tissue regeneration, and the epigenetic clock.
Hou Li-Fan, MD, MS, PhD, is a Professor of Preventive Medicine, integrating epidemiology with molecular technologies in disease studies focused on molecular markers and disease prevention.
Interested in trying a water, oats, and lime juice smoothie? You may have come across the internet buzz about this mixture, likened to the effects of the weight-loss drug Ozempic. Dubbed “Oat Zempic” by some influencers, this concoction is gaining popularity.
Recent research published in the Nutrition Journal suggests that there is a similarity between a type of fiber found in oats and the biochemical pathway of Ozempic.
Ozempic, a medication widely used for type 2 diabetes treatment, has gained attention for its weight loss benefits, as well as its potential to reduce heart disease risk, prevent cognitive decline, and aid in smoking cessation.
Derived from semaglutide, Ozempic falls into the category of GLP-1 receptor agonists, which mimic a digestive hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite.
While oats have known benefits in promoting satiety and aiding in weight loss as part of a balanced diet, they do not match the potency of Ozempic in terms of GLP-1 agonist effects.
Nutrition experts caution against replacing meals with trendy drinks like Oat Zempic, emphasizing the importance of a well-rounded diet for long-term health and weight management.
Ultimately, incorporating high-fiber foods like oats into your diet can be beneficial, but there is no substitute for a healthy, balanced eating plan. Remember, sustainable weight loss requires a holistic approach.
About our experts
Emily Leeming: A Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow, Emily brings a wealth of knowledge on nutrition, gut health, and dietetics. Her background in science and culinary arts gives her a unique perspective on food and health.
To learn more about Emily and her work, check out her book The Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science of Diet for Your Second Brain.
A new study explains how bird flu spreads between dairy cows and from them to other mammals.
Experts are concerned that the virus may be developing new capabilities that help it evolve so it can spread from person to person, something that has not yet been observed.
A new study has found that cats and raccoons have died from a virus, possibly from drinking raw milk.
A new study of an ongoing avian flu outbreak on dairy farms provides an unprecedented look into how efficiently the virus spreads among cows and from them to other mammals, including cats and raccoons.
This suggests the virus is developing new capabilities that have bird flu experts concerned.
To the best of researchers' knowledge, there has not yet been any human-to-human transmission, but the number of cases of person-to-person transmission is continuing to increase, Colorado health officials confirmed. 3 new cases Fourteen new cases of bird flu were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total in the country to 14.
All of the human cases have been farm workers who became infected after coming into contact with sick animals, and all but one was diagnosed within the past four months. Little is still known about the three most recent infections, but the remaining infections are mild.
New research shows that the virus is spreading from one mammal species to another, a relatively new phenomenon that could make it difficult for authorities to control.
The longer the virus goes uncontrolled, the greater the chance it will evolve and adapt, becoming a greater threat to people, say the authors of the new study. The study was published Tuesday in the journal Nature.
“This virus is not very effective at infecting or transmitting to humans, but that could change if the virus continues to circulate among dairy cows and then from there to other mammals,” said study author Diego Diehl, head of the virology lab at Cornell University's Animal Health Diagnostic Center. “This is cause for concern.”
The new study assessed the first outbreaks of avian influenza among cows on nine farms in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and Ohio, taking animal samples and comparing the genetic similarities of the viruses between them.
Researchers found that the virus, a specific strain of avian flu known as H5N1, spread rapidly between farms. When infected cows were moved from Texas to another farm in Ohio, the virus was soon found in the Ohio cows. Genetic sequences also suggest that cats and raccoons have died from the virus, possibly after drinking raw milk.
Studies have shown that sick cows eat less feed, chew their cud less, produce less milk, and the color of their milk changes. On some infected farms, cows died at twice the normal rate.
Andrew Bowman, a professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University who was not involved in the study, said the research reflects the experience of veterinarians on many U.S. farms.
“It's consistent with the clinical picture,” Bowman said. “This is exactly what we've been seeing on dairy farms. This is really just the first documentation that's been published.”
The study adds to the growing evidence that handling and drinking unpasteurized milk is dangerous.
Diehl said infected cows shed incredible amounts of the virus from their mammary glands, at concentrations higher than could easily be cultured in a lab.
“Drinking raw milk is extremely dangerous,” Diehl said.
Farmers must not send potentially contaminated milk to production.
“Milk from sick cows should not be used in the milk supply,” Bowman said.
As scientists continue to study the avian flu outbreak, Bowman said he's interested to know whether cows can shed the virus before they start showing signs of illness and whether the virus can continue to spread from mammals infected by cows.
This is only the third time a virus has spread fairly quickly between groups of mammals, said Anise Loewen, a virologist and professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, who was also not involved in the new study. Spreading on mink farms and Between sea lions and fur seals last summer.
Some mammals have severe cases, such as sea lions. sealamong other species.
Lowen said health officials should also consider the risk that people could be infected with H5N1 and seasonal influenza at the same time this winter: When people are infected with more than one influenza virus, the viruses can exchange genetic information, a process called “reassortment.”
This process could give the virus an evolutionary shortcut and change how the virus spreads.
“The viruses currently infecting cattle pose a relatively low risk to humans — that's what the CDC says, and they're right,” Loewen said. “But the risk I see is viral evolution. Viruses change as they adapt to new hosts. They change as they reassort and swap genes.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to comment on the new study.
Komodo dragon (Komodo dragon coatiThe Komodo dragon is the largest living predatory lizard, and its serrated, curved, blade-like teeth provide valuable analogues for studying tooth structure and function and for comparison with extinct species such as theropod dinosaurs. The Komodo dragon's teeth only have a thin layer of enamel, but they are still capable of meeting the piercing and pulling feeding demands. A new study reveals that the Komodo dragon's teeth have unique adaptations to maintain their sharpness, with serrations and an orange layer of iron-rich material at the tips of the teeth.
The pigmented cutting edge of a Komodo dragon tooth. Image courtesy of LeBlanc others., doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02477-7.
Native to Indonesia, the Komodo dragon is the largest extant monitor lizard.
These creatures can grow up to 3 metres (10 feet) in length and run at speeds of up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) per hour.
They have sharp, curved teeth similar to those of many carnivorous theropod dinosaurs.
They eat almost any type of meat, from small reptiles and birds to deer, horses and buffalo, tearing and tearing at the flesh of their prey.
“The Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard, is indisputably an impressive animal,” said Dr Benjamin Tapley, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Zoological Society of London.
“Having worked with them at London Zoo for 12 years, I continue to be fascinated by them and this latest discovery only further highlights how incredible they are.”
“Komodo dragons are sadly endangered and this discovery not only improves our understanding of how this iconic dinosaur lived, but also helps us to better appreciate this magnificent reptile as we work towards conservation.”
To understand the chemical and structural makeup of Komodo dragon teeth, Dr Tapley, researcher Aaron LeBlanc of King's College London and their colleagues scoured museums for Komodo dragon skulls and teeth.
They also studied the teeth of Ganas, a 15-year-old Komodo dragon who lived at London Zoo.
Using advanced imaging and chemical analysis, the researchers were able to observe that the iron in Komodo dragon enamel is concentrated in a thin coating on the serrations and tips of the teeth.
This protective layer keeps the serrated edges of the teeth sharp and ready to use.
“Komodo dragons, like carnivorous dinosaurs, have curved, serrated teeth for tearing apart their prey,” Dr LeBlanc said.
“We hope to use these similarities to learn more about how carnivorous dinosaurs ate and whether they used iron in their teeth, like the Komodo dragon.”
“Unfortunately, with current technology we can't tell you whether fossil dinosaur teeth had a lot of iron or not.”
“We suspect that chemical changes that occur during fossilization may obscure how much iron was originally present.”
“But what we found is that large carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus had changed the structure of the enamel on the cutting edges of their teeth.”
“So while the Komodo dragon changed the chemical composition of its teeth, some dinosaurs changed the structure of their tooth enamel to maintain a sharp cutting edge.”
“Further analysis of Komodo's teeth may reveal other markers within the iron coating that were not altered during fossilization.”
“With these markers, we can know for sure whether dinosaurs also had iron-plated teeth, giving us a better understanding of these ferocious predators.”
ARH LeBlanc othersKomodo dragon teeth encrusted with iron and intricate dental enamel of carnivorous reptiles. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02477-7
According to a recent study conducted by researchers from Bond University, University of Helsinki, and Helsinki University Hospital, increasing fluid intake can help reduce the occurrence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) compared to no treatment. However, consuming cranberry juice has shown even better clinical outcomes in terms of decreased UTIs and antibiotic usage, suggesting that it should be considered as a management option for UTIs.
Cranberry juice drinkers are 54% less likely to develop a urinary tract infection. Image courtesy of The Loves of Eirlys.
“Urinary tract infections are one of the most common bacterial infections,” stated lead author Christian Moro, PhD, along with his colleagues.
“Over 50% of women and more than 20% of men will experience UTIs at least once in their lifetime, making it the most prevalent bacterial infection in children.”
“While antibiotics have traditionally been effective for UTI treatment, the growing resistance of bacteria to these drugs poses a challenge.”
“Studies have shown that over 90% of UTIs contain drug-resistant bacteria, many of which are resistant to multiple antibiotics.”
“Given the rise in microbial resistance to antibiotics, it is essential to explore evidence-based non-drug interventions for UTI prevention and treatment.”
“Reducing antibiotic usage will not only alleviate the financial and clinical burden of prescriptions but also address the increasing issue of antibiotic resistance.”
“Encouraging patients to increase fluid intake and incorporating cranberry juice or tablets have been proposed as beneficial strategies.”
“However, the existing literature on this topic is extensive, with conflicting findings regarding the effectiveness of cranberries.”
The authors utilized a novel research approach known as network meta-analysis, enabling simultaneous comparisons of multiple interventions across various studies.
A total of 20 trials involving 3,091 individuals were analyzed, with 18 of these studies revealing that cranberry juice consumption was linked to a 54% lower UTI incidence compared to no treatment and a 27% lower incidence than placebo liquids.
“These results have the potential to reduce the reliance on antibiotics for UTI treatment,” commented Dr. Moro.
“More than half of women will experience a UTI, often resulting in antibiotic prescriptions.”
“Given the escalating antibiotic resistance, identifying effective non-pharmaceutical interventions is critical.”
“Cranberry juice presents a straightforward and effective intervention that should be considered in managing UTIs.”
Furthermore, the study found that cranberry juice led to a 59% reduction in antibiotic requirements and significantly alleviated symptoms in individuals with active UTIs.
“Simple measures like increasing water intake or taking cranberry tablets also showed benefits, albeit not as pronounced as consuming cranberries in liquid form such as juice,” the researchers noted.
Read their paper published in the journal European Urology Focus.
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Christian Moro others Cranberry juice, cranberry tablets, or liquid therapy for urinary tract infections: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Yurol Focus Published online on July 18, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2024.07.002
This article is based on a press release provided by Bond University.
East Africa contains the world’s most complete record of human evolution, yet scientists know little about how long-term biogeographic dynamics in the region have influenced human diversity and distribution.
An artist’s depiction of early human habitation in Tanzania 1.8 million years ago. Image courtesy of M. Lopez-Herrera / Enrique Baquedano / Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project.
In the new study, Dr. Ignacio Razaga-Baster from the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) and his colleagues focused on the mammal fossil record of the East African Rift Valley.
“The Late Cenozoic fossil beds of the East African Rift Valley provide the world’s richest, longest and most continuous record of human evolution and its environmental context,” the authors explained.
“As such, the human and faunal records of East Africa have been central to understanding the factors that shaped human evolutionary history.”
“Our study provides a new perspective on how climatic and environmental changes over the past six million years have influenced mammal and human evolution,” Dr Razaghabastar said.
“This study particularly highlights how biotic homogenization – the process by which the faunas of different regions become more similar in composition – has been an important factor in the evolution of ecosystems and the species that live in them.”
“Beta diversity analysis, which shows the relationships between regional and local biodiversity, allows us to trace how changes in vegetation and climate have driven patterns of dispersal and extinction over time.”
The team found that faunas from the Late Miocene and Pliocene (approximately 3 million to 6 million years ago) were primarily made up of endemic species.
The shift towards biotic homogenization, or faunal homogenization, began around 3 million years ago with the loss of endemic species within functional groups and an increase in the number of grazing species shared between regions.
This important biogeographic transition coincides closely with the regional expansion of ecosystems dominated by grasses and C4 grasslands that thrive better in warmer, drier climates.
These environmental changes directly affected the feeding and migration patterns of humans and animals that shared the habitat.
“We are certain that hominoids, like other East African mammals, were influenced by many factors. This study offers a new perspective on the link between environmental and human evolutionary change and, through an integrated approach, provides a framework for future research and to test the hypothesis that hominoids adapted to their environment,” Dr Razaghabastar said.
of study Published in the journal on July 15, 2024 Natural Ecology and Evolution.
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J. Rowan othersLong-term biotic homogenization in the East African Rift Valley during the past 6 million years of human evolution. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02462-0
During the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., residents were trapped under ash and rock, unable to escape. Surprisingly, a new study shows that some people did survive, only to meet their end later due to a different natural disaster.
The eruption covered the city in ash and rock particles for 18 hours, preserving the Roman inhabitants in a protective shell of solidified ash. However, experts discovered two skeletons in a house buried on top of the ash, rather than beneath it, indicating a massive earthquake as the cause of death.
Researchers investigating the house, Casa dei Pittori al Lavoro, noticed the absence of typical volcanic signs in the excavation near Vesuvius. Further examination revealed that the two men found in the house, around 50 years old, suffered severe injuries and were crushed by a collapsing wall due to the earthquake.
Scientists have discovered two skeletons in the ruins of a building in Pompeii and concluded that the cause of death was the collapse of a wall caused by an earthquake. – Image courtesy of Pompeii Archaeological Park
Residents who survived the initial eruption likely thought they were safe and attempted to flee, only to be met with powerful earthquakes. The combination of volcanic and seismic effects made it difficult to study the coincident earthquakes occurring at that time.
Researchers suggest that seismic activity during the eruption played a significant role in the destruction of Pompeii and may have affected the decisions made by its inhabitants facing imminent death.
Physicists have been intrigued by χc1(3872), also known as X(3872), since its discovery two decades ago. They have been exploring whether it is a conventional charmonium state composed of two quarks or an exotic particle made up of four quarks. The LHCb collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) set out to find the answer.
Artist's impression of a tetraquark, made up of two charm quarks and an up and down antiquark. Image courtesy of CERN.
In the quark model of particle physics, there are heavy particles (composed of three quarks), mesons (consisting of quark-antiquark pairs), and exotic particles (comprising an unusual number of quarks).
To determine the composition of χc1(3872), physicists must measure properties like mass and quantum numbers.
According to theory, χc1(3872) could be a standard charmonium state made of a charm quark and an anticharm quark, or it could be an exotic particle consisting of four quarks.
These exotic particles could be tightly bound tetraquarks, molecular states, cc-gluon hybrid states, vector glueballs, or a combination of various possibilities.
Recent measurements by LHCb physicists revealed that its quantum number is 1++, and in 2020 they obtained precise data on the particle’s width (lifetime) and mass.
They also examined low-energy scattering parameters.
Their findings indicated that the mass of χc1(3872) is slightly less than the combined masses of the D0 and D*0 mesons.
These results have sparked debate within the theoretical community, with some proposing that χc1(3872) is a molecular state made up of spatially separated D0 and D*0 mesons.
However, this hypothesis faces challenges, as physicists anticipate molecular matter to be suppressed in hadron-hadron collisions, yet significant amounts of χc1(3872) are produced.
Other theorists suggest that the particle contains “compact” components, indicating a smaller size and potentially consisting of tightly bound charmonium or tetraquarks.
One method to uncover the composition of χc1(3872) is to calculate the branching ratio, which involves the probabilities of decay into different lighter particles.
By comparing the decay into a photon of the excited charmonium state, physicists can gain insights into the nature of the particle.
A key theoretical indicator is a non-zero ratio, suggesting the presence of compact components and countering a purely molecular model.
Using data from LHC Run 1 and Run 2, LHCb scientists found significant ratios beyond six standard deviations, ruling out a pure D0D*0 molecular hypothesis for χc1(3872).
Instead, the results support various predictions based on alternative hypotheses for the structure of χc1(3872, such as a mix of conventional (compact) charmonium, tetraquarks, light quarks, or molecules with a substantial compact core element.
Thus, the findings provide compelling evidence in favor of a χc1(3872) structure including a compact component.
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R. Aiji others (LHCb Collaboration). 2024. Probing the properties of the χc1(3872) state using radiative decay. arXiv: 2406.17006
This article is based on the original release from CERN.
Toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ used in lithium-ion batteries that are essential to the clean energy transition New research findings As the emerging industry expands, it will pose threats to the environment and human health.
The multifaceted, peer-reviewed study focused on a little-studied and unregulated subclass of PFAS called bis-FASIs, which are used in lithium-ion batteries.
Researchers have found alarming levels of chemicals in the environment near manufacturing plants and in remote locations around the world, found that they can be toxic to living organisms, and found that battery waste in landfills is a major source of contamination.
“The nation faces two important challenges — minimizing water pollution and increasing access to clean, sustainable energy — and both are worthwhile,” said Jennifer Gelfo, a researcher at Texas Tech University and co-author of the study.
“But there is a bit of a tug-of-war between the two, and this study highlights that there is now an opportunity to better incorporate environmental risk assessments as we expand our energy infrastructure,” she added.
PFAS are a group of about 16,000 man-made compounds that are most commonly used to make products that are resistant to water, stains, and heat. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally and are known to accumulate in the human body. PFAS have been linked to cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, a dramatic drop in sperm count, and a variety of other serious health problems.
As the transition unfolds, public health advocates have begun sounding the alarm about the need to find alternatives to toxic chemicals used in clean energy technologies like batteries and wind turbines.
The paper notes that few end-of-life standards exist for PFAS battery waste, and most ends up in municipal waste sites, where it can leach into waterways, accumulate locally or be transported long distances.
When historical leachate samples were examined for the presence of the chemical, no detections were found in samples taken before the mid-1990s, when the chemical was commercialized.
The study points out that while BisFASI can be reused, previous research has shown that only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled. Unless battery recycling is dramatically scaled up to keep up with demand, it is predicted that 8 million tonnes of battery waste will be generated by 2040.
“This shows we need to look more closely at this class of PFAS,” Guelfo said.
Little toxicity data exists on bis-FASI, so the study also looked at its effects on invertebrates and zebrafish. Effects were seen even at low levels of exposure, suggesting it may be as toxic as other PFAS compounds known to be dangerous.
Researchers also took water, soil and air samples around a 3M plant in Minnesota and other large facilities known to make the chemical. Guelfo said the levels in the soil and water are of concern, and that detection of the chemical in the snow suggests it could easily travel through the air.
This could help explain why the chemicals have been found in China’s seawater and other remote locations not close to production plants.
The most commonly used definition of PFAS worldwide includes bis-FASIs, but one division of the EPA considers them to not belong to a chemical class, and therefore they are not included in the list of compounds monitored in U.S. waters. The EPA’s narrow definition of PFAS has been criticized by public health advocacy groups for excluding some chemicals at the urging of industry.
But the new study, combined with previous evidence, shows that bisFASI, like most other PFAS, is persistent, mobile and toxic, said co-author Lee Ferguson, a researcher at Duke University.
“This classification, coupled with the massive increase in clean energy storage that we’re seeing, should at the very least sound alarm bells,” he said.
The Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) is a hypothetical common ancestor of all modern cellular life, from single-celled organisms such as bacteria to giant sequoia trees and even to us humans. Our understanding of LUCA therefore has implications for our understanding of the early evolution of life on Earth.
Probabilistic inference of metabolic networks for modern organisms present in LUCA. Image courtesy of Moody others., doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1.
LUCA is a node on the tree of life from which the basic prokaryotic domains (Archaea and Bacteria) branch off.
Modern life evolved from LUCA from a variety of different sources: the same amino acids used to build proteins in all cellular organisms, a shared energy currency (ATP), the presence of cellular machinery such as ribosomes involved in creating proteins from information stored in DNA, and even the fact that all cellular organisms use DNA itself as a way to store information.
In the new study, University of Bristol scientist Edmund Moody and his colleagues compared all the genes in the genomes of modern species and counted the mutations that had occurred in the sequences over time since a common ancestor called LUCA.
The time when some species split off is known from the fossil record, and the team used a genetic equivalent of a familiar equation used in physics to calculate speed to determine when LUCA existed, arriving at 4.2 billion years ago – just 400 million years after Earth and the solar system formed.
“The evolutionary history of genes is complicated by the exchange of genes between lineages,” Dr Moody said.
“Reconciling the evolutionary history of genes with species lineages requires the use of complex evolutionary models.”
“We didn't expect LUCA to be so old, within just a few hundred million years of Earth's formation,” said Dr Sandra Alvarez-Carretero, also from the University of Bristol.
“But our findings are consistent with modern views of the habitability of early Earth.”
The study authors also traced the lineage of life back to LUCA and modeled the physiological traits of modern species to elucidate LUCA's biology.
“One of the real advantages here is that we applied the gene tree and species tree reconciliation approach to a highly diverse dataset representing the major domains of life: Archaea and Bacteria,” said Dr Tom Williams from the University of Bristol.
“This allows us to make statements with some confidence about how LUCA lived and to assess that level of confidence.”
“Our study shows that LUCA was a complex organism not too different from modern prokaryotes, but what's really interesting is that LUCA clearly had an early immune system, indicating that by 4.2 billion years ago our ancestors were in an arms race with viruses,” said Professor Davide Pisani, from the University of Bristol.
“LUCA clearly used and transformed its environment, but it is unlikely to have lived alone,” said researcher Dr Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter.
“That waste would then serve as food for other microorganisms, such as methanogens, helping to create a recycling ecosystem.”
“The insights and methods provided by this study will also inform future studies looking in more detail at the subsequent evolution of prokaryotes in the context of Earth's history, including the less-studied archaea and their methanogens,” said Professor Anja Spang, researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Marine Research.
“Our study brings together data and methods from multiple disciplines, revealing insights into the early Earth and life that could not be achieved by any single discipline alone,” said Professor Philip Donoghue, from the University of Bristol.
“It also shows how quickly ecosystems were established on the early Earth.”
“This suggests that life may thrive in an Earth-like biosphere somewhere in the universe.”
This study paper Published in the journal today Natural Ecology and Evolution.
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ERR Moody othersThe nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 12, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1
This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Bristol.
Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine and other institutions have announced the discovery of ancient chromosome subfossils in a female mammoth fossil.Mammutus primigeniusThe mammoth, a species of mammoth known as the pygmy mammoth, died 52,000 years ago in what is now Siberia. The fossil preserves the structure of its ancient chromosomes down to the nanometer (billionth of a meter) scale. Researchers hypothesize that the cold of Siberia naturally freeze-dried the mammoth's skin, causing a glass transition that preserved the fossil.
Sandoval Velasco othersAssembled the genome and 3D chromosome structure of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth. Image courtesy of Sandoval Velasco. others., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.002.
“This is a new type of fossil, one whose scale far exceeds that of individual ancient DNA fragments, with sequences a million times larger,” said Dr. Erez Lieberman Aiden, director of the Center for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine.
“This is also the first time that an ancient sample has been karyotyped.”
Knowing the three-dimensional structure of a genome gives us a lot of additional information beyond its sequence, but most ancient DNA specimens are made up of very small, jumbled up pieces of DNA.
Building on their work mapping the 3D structure of the human genome, Dr Aiden and his colleagues reasoned that the same strategy could be used to assemble ancient genomes, provided suitable ancient DNA samples were found.
The researchers tested dozens of samples over a five-year period, eventually locating an unusually well-preserved woolly mammoth that was unearthed in September 2018 near Belaya Gora, in the Sakha Republic in northeastern Siberia.
“We believe that the freeze-drying occurred naturally shortly after death, and the nuclear structures in the dried samples can remain viable for an incredibly long period of time,” said Dr. Olga Dudchenko of the Center for Genome Structure at Baylor College of Medicine.
To reconstruct the mammoth's genome structure, the authors extracted DNA from skin samples taken from behind the mammoth's ears.
They are, High C This allows them to detect which parts of DNA are in spatial proximity and likely to interact in their natural state within the nucleus.
“Imagine having a puzzle with 3 billion pieces, but not having the final puzzle picture at hand,” said Professor Marc-Marty-Renom, a structural genomicist at the National Center for Genome Analysis and Genomic Regulation.
“Hi-C allows me to get a rough idea of what the picture looks like before I start putting the puzzle pieces together.”
They then combined the physical information from the Hi-C analysis with DNA sequences to identify interacting DNA sections and produced a neat map of the mammoth genome using the modern elephant genome as a template.
The analysis revealed that mammoths had 28 chromosomes, the same number as modern Asian and African elephants.
Remarkably, the fossilized mammoth chromosomes retained a great deal of physical integrity and detail, including the nanoscale loops that contact transcription factors with the genes they control.
By examining the compartmentalization of genes within the nucleus, the scientists were able to identify active and inactive genes in the mammoth skin cells, a proxy for epigenetics and transcriptomics.
Compared with skin cells from the mammoth's closest relative, the Asian elephant, the mammoth's skin cells showed different gene activation patterns, including genes that may be related to fur and cold tolerance.
“For the first time we have mammoth tissue where we can roughly tell which genes are on and which are off,” said Professor Martti Renom.
“This is a surprising new type of data, the first time we've measured cell-specific genetic activity of genes in ancient DNA samples.”
In a new study, planetary scientists have found strong similarities between the soil of Gale Crater on Mars and that of the cold, sub-Arctic climate of Newfoundland, Canada.
X-ray amorphous material comprises 15-73% by weight of the sedimentary rocks and eolian deposits in Gale Crater. This material is siliceous and high in iron and low in aluminum. The presence of volatiles is consistent with the presence of early weathering products. To better understand the impact of this material on past water conditions on Mars, Feldman and others used bulk and selective dissolution techniques, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy to investigate the formation and lifetime of X-ray amorphous material in terrestrial iron-rich soils of different ages and environmental conditions. Image courtesy of M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Scientists often use soil to portray environmental history, as the minerals it contains can tell the story of a landscape's evolution over time.
Understanding more about how these materials formed could help answer long-standing questions about the Red Planet's historical conditions.
The soil and rocks in Gale Crater are a record of a climate that existed 3 to 4 billion years ago, when Mars was relatively water-rich, coinciding with the time when life first emerged on Earth.
“Gale Crater is an ancient lake bed and clearly water was present, but what were the environmental conditions like when the water was there?” said Dr Anthony Feldman, a soil scientist and geomorphologist at the Desert Institute.
“We'll never find a direct analogue on the Martian surface because conditions on Mars and Earth are so different, but we can look at trends under Earth conditions and apply them to problems on Mars.”
NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale Crater since 2011 and has found large amounts of soil material known as X-ray amorphous material.
These components of soil lack the typical repeating atomic structure that characterizes minerals and therefore cannot be easily characterized using traditional techniques such as X-ray diffraction.
For example, when a crystalline material like diamond is hit with X-rays, the rays scatter at characteristic angles based on the mineral's internal structure.
However, X-ray amorphous materials do not produce these characteristic fingerprints.
This X-ray diffraction method was used by the Curiosity rover to demonstrate that soil and rock samples tested in Gale Crater consisted of 15-73% X-ray amorphous material.
“Think of X-ray amorphous material as being like jelly, which is a soup of different elements and chemicals that slide around one another,” Dr. Feldman said.
Curiosity also conducted chemical analysis of soil and rock samples and found that the amorphous material was rich in iron and silica and deficient in aluminum.
Beyond limited chemical information, scientists don't yet understand what this amorphous material is or what its presence means about Mars' historical environment.
Uncovering more information about how these enigmatic materials formed and persist on Earth could help answer long-standing questions about the Red Planet.
Dr. Feldman and his colleagues visited three locations in their search for similar X-ray amorphous material: the Tablelands of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, the Klamath Mountains in Northern California, and western Nevada.
All three sites contain serpentinite soils that the researchers predicted would be chemically similar to the X-ray amorphous material in Gale Crater, meaning it would be rich in iron and silicon but poor in aluminum.
The three locations also recorded ranges of rainfall, snowfall and temperatures, which could help provide insight into the types of environmental conditions that produce amorphous material and promote its preservation.
At each site, the team examined the soil using X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy, allowing them to see the soil material at a more detailed level.
The subarctic climate of Newfoundland produced materials chemically similar to those found at Gale Crater, but lacked the crystalline structure, whereas soils produced in warmer climates such as California and Nevada did not produce the crystalline structure.
“This tells us that you need water there to form these materials,” Dr. Feldman said.
“But to preserve the amorphous material in the soil, the average annual temperature needs to be cold, close to freezing.”
Amorphous materials are often considered to be relatively unstable, meaning that at the atomic level, the atoms have not yet organized into a final crystalline form.
“Something is happening in the rates, or kinetics, of the reactions that slows them down so that these materials are preserved over geological timescales,” Dr Feldman said.
“What we're suggesting is that very cold conditions, close to freezing, are the specific kinetic limiting factors that allow these materials to form and be preserved.”
“This research improves our understanding of the Martian climate.”
“The results suggest that the abundance of this material in Gale Crater is consistent with subarctic conditions similar to those found in Iceland, for example.”
Team work Published in a journal Communication Earth and the Environment.
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A.D. Feldman othersIn 2024, iron-rich X-ray amorphous material will record Mars' past climate and the persistence of water. Community Global Environment 5, 364; doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01495-4
This article is based on a press release from the Desert Research Institute.
If you struggle to picture a two-ton, wingless creature hovering, you’re not alone. However, a recent study shows that hippos (or hippopotamuses, to use the full name) can reach speeds that rival flying.
Although hippos are amphibious, they are some of the largest land animals, often weighing over 2,000 kg (2.2 tonnes). Due to their aquatic lifestyle, little is known about their terrestrial movement.
In a surprising discovery, researchers found that hippos can remain airborne for short periods, representing about 15 percent of their stride cycle, or approximately 0.3 seconds. This suggests that they move differently on land than previously thought.
In this image from the researchers’ footage, all four of the hippo’s legs are off the ground, giving the appearance of floating. – Image credit: Johan Vermeulen
While some animals like horses are known to leap into the air at high speeds, it’s rare for large animals like hippos to do so. This unique movement pattern sets them apart from elephants, which never lift all four legs off the ground simultaneously.
Prior studies were inconclusive about the hippo’s gait pattern, but recent research from the Royal Veterinary College reveals that hippos predominantly trot, regardless of their speed. This uniformity in movement is uncommon among land mammals and sheds light on how hippos navigate their environment.
Studying hippos is challenging due to their dangerous nature, making them elusive subjects for scientific research. Professor John Hutchinson, lead author of a study on hippos, emphasized the difficulty in studying these creatures due to their habitat and behavior.
To overcome these obstacles, researchers analyzed video footage of hippos at Flamingo Land Resort in Yorkshire, observing their movement patterns in detail. Their findings not only contribute to our understanding of terrestrial mammals but also have potential implications for veterinary medicine.
By uncovering how hippos walk and run, this study provides valuable insights into their behavior and capabilities. Hutchinson expressed admiration for the hippos’ surprising agility on land, highlighting the incredible nature of these animals.
Over the past 50,000 years, terrestrial vertebrate faunas have experienced severe declines in large species (megafauna), with most extinctions occurring during the Late Pleistocene and early to mid-Holocene. Importantly, this extinction event is unique in its strong size bias compared to other Cenozoic extinctions (past 66 million years). For example, of 57 species of large herbivores (weighing over 1,000 kg), only 11 have survived to the present day. Debate regarding the causes has continued for over two centuries.
Svenning othersGlobal extinction patterns, as well as fine-scale spatiotemporal and mechanistic evidence, show little evidence of a significant climate influence. Conversely, there is growing evidence of strong human pressure as the primary driver of these extinctions, with the initial onset linked to pre-global warming.Homo sapiens Hominins before the Late Pleistocene. Image courtesy of Svenning others., doi: 10.1017/ext.2024.4.
“The massive and selective disappearance of large animals over the past 50,000 years is unprecedented in the past 66 million years,” said Professor Jens Christian Svenning from Aarhus University.
“Past climate changes have not led to large-scale selective extinctions, arguing that climate played a major role in the extinction of large animals.”
“Another important pattern supporting the lack of a role for climate is that recent megafauna extinctions have hit climatically stable regions as hard as climatically unstable regions.”
Archaeologists have found traps designed to hunt very large animals, and isotope analysis of protein residues on ancient human bones and spear points reveals that they hunted and ate the largest mammals.
“Early modern humans were able to effectively hunt even the largest animal species and clearly had the capacity to reduce large animal populations,” Prof Svenning said.
“These large animals were and remain especially vulnerable to over-exploitation because they have long gestation periods, give birth to very small litters and take many years to reach sexual maturity.”
The analysis found that human hunting of large animals, such as mammoths, mastodons and giant sloths, was widespread and consistent around the world.
It also shows that the species went extinct at very different times and at different rates around the world.
In some areas it happened quickly, but in others it took more than 10,000 years.
But everywhere, it happened after the arrival of modern humans or, in the case of Africa, after human cultural advancement.
Species became extinct on every continent except Antarctica, and in every type of ecosystem, from tropical forests and savannas to Mediterranean and temperate forests and steppes, to Arctic ecosystems.
“Many extinct species could have thrived in a variety of environments,” Prof Svenning said.
“Therefore, their extinction cannot be explained by climate change that caused the disappearance of certain ecosystem types such as the Mammoth Steppe, which also contained only a few large animal species.”
“Most species live in temperate to tropical climates and would have actually benefited from the warming at the end of the last ice age.”
The researchers say the decline of large animals has serious ecological implications.
Macrofauna play a central role in ecosystems by influencing vegetation structure (e.g. the balance between dense forest and open areas), seed dispersal and nutrient cycling.
Their disappearance has led to major changes in ecosystem structure and function.
“Our findings highlight the need for active conservation and restoration efforts,” Professor Svenning said.
“Reintroducing large mammals can help restore ecological balance and maintain the biodiversity that evolved in ecosystems rich in large animals.”
of study Published in the journal Cambridge Prism: Extinction.
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Jens Christian Svenning others2024. Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions: patterns, causes, ecological impacts and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene. Aarhus University. Cambridge Prism: Extinction 2: e5; doi: 10.1017/ext.2024.4
This article has been edited based on the original release from Aarhus University.
Episodic memory and mental time travel have been considered uniquely human traits. This view has begun to change with the development of behavioral criteria to assess what is called episodic memory in animals. Key findings range from evidence of “what, where, when” memory in jays, mice and bees to episodic memory and future-oriented behavior in wild, free-foraging animals. In a new study, scientists investigated episodic memory and future-oriented behavior in wild, free-foraging animals. Egyptian fruit bat (Rusetus aegyptiacus)The team found that fruit bats rely on mental time maps to display future-oriented behaviour when foraging, and that time-mapping ability requires experience and is lacking in inexperienced bats.
Egyptian fruit bat (Rusetus aegyptiacus) track tree phenology and estimate fruit availability since their previous visit. Bats exhibit future-oriented behavior, flying to trees rich in specific proteins, while flying past many familiar sugar-rich trees. Young bats must learn tree phenology through experience. Image courtesy of Harten others., doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.05.046.
“For many years, the cognitive abilities to recall and plan personal experiences (episodic memory) have been thought to be uniquely human,” Tel Aviv University.
“However, a growing body of research suggests that various animals also have such abilities, although nearly all of these studies have been carried out in laboratory settings, as field studies on this issue are difficult to conduct.”
“To test these capabilities in wildlife, we designed a unique experiment using a wild colony of flying foxes.”
The researchers surmised that bats that depend on fruit trees for survival need to develop the ability to track food availability both spatially (where are the fruit trees?) and temporally (when does each tree bear fruit?).
As you navigate a landscape with numerous fruit and nectar trees, you'll need to mentally keep track of resources in order to revisit them at the right time.
To test this hypothesis, they fitted each bat with a small, high-resolution GPS tracker, allowing them to record their flight routes and the trees they visited over several months.
The vast amount of data collected in this way was thoroughly analyzed, yielding surprising results.
“Our first research question was: do bats form mental maps of time?” says Dr Lee Harten from Tel Aviv University.
“To investigate this issue, we confined bats to their colonies for various periods of time, ranging from one day to a week.”
“We wanted to see if the bats would recognise that time had passed and behave accordingly.”
“We found that after one day in captivity, the bats would return to the trees they had visited the previous night. But after a full week, the older bats, based on their past experience, began to avoid trees that had stopped bearing fruit in the meantime.”
“In other words, they could estimate how much time had passed since they last visited each tree, and thus know which trees only bore fruit for a short time and were no longer worth visiting.”
“Younger, inexperienced bats were unable to do this, suggesting that this is an acquired skill that must be mastered.”
“The first research question was about past experience, but the second question was about the future. Do bats exhibit future-oriented behavior? Can they plan for the future?”
“To address this issue, the researchers observed the route each bat took to reach the first tree in the evening, which could indicate a plan made before leaving the colony.”
“We found that bats usually fly directly to specific trees they know, sometimes up to 20-30 minutes away,” said Dr Chen Xin from Tel Aviv University.
“They're hungry, so they fly faster the further away the trees are, which suggests they're planning where they're going.”
“Furthermore, because they are so focused on their chosen target, they pass by other trees and even good sources of information that they only visited yesterday, demonstrating their ability to postpone gratification.”
“We also found that the first bats to leave the colony chose trees with fruits high in sugar, while those who left later sought out fruits with protein.”
The findings suggest that bats plan their foraging before they leave the colony, knowing exactly where they'll be flying and what nutrients they'll be looking for.
“The gap between human and animal cognition is one of the most fascinating questions in science,” Professor Yobel said.
“Our study demonstrates that flying foxes are able to carry out highly complex decision-making processes involving three questions that demonstrate cognitive capabilities: 'where?' (the location of each tree), 'when?' (when the trees will bear fruit) and 'what?' (what nutrients the trees provide, sugars or proteins).”
“Once again, the gap wasn't clearly carved out, and we find that humans are not as special as some think.”
“Apparently, humans and animals all lie on a spectrum, and almost all human abilities can also be found in animals.”
a paper The findings were published in the journal. Current Biology.
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Lee Harten othersTime mapping and future-oriented behavior in free-ranging wild fruit bats. Current BiologyPublished online June 20, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.05.046
This article is a version of a Tel Aviv University press release.
A recent study has shown that including just three baby carrots in your weekly diet can boost levels of beneficial carotenoids in your skin, particularly in young people.
These findings suggest that making small changes to your diet can have a significant impact on your health.
Researchers at Samford University conducted a study that revealed how incorporating baby carrots into your diet can increase carotenoids in your skin, which have various health benefits. When baby carrots were combined with a multivitamin containing beta-carotene, the levels of carotenoids in the skin increased even more significantly.
Carotenoids are compounds responsible for the vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables like red, orange, and yellow. They can only be obtained through diet and are used as an indicator of fruit and vegetable intake.
According to Mary Harper Simmons, a nutrition master’s student at Samford University and the study author, higher carotenoid intake leads to higher levels of antioxidants in the body, reducing inflammation and lowering the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and cardiovascular disease.
Previous research has shown that consuming three times the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables for three weeks can increase carotenoids in the skin. This study aimed to create a convenient snack rich in carotenoids that people enjoy.
Results of the study were presented at the American Academy of Nutrition’s annual meeting in Chicago. Participants were randomly assigned to different dietary intervention groups, including consuming baby carrots, a multivitamin supplement, or a combination of both. The group that ate baby carrots saw a 10.8% increase in skin carotenoid scores, while the combination group had a 21.6% increase.
Going forward, the research team plans to explore different populations and other carotenoid-rich foods like sweet potatoes and green leafy vegetables.
About our experts
Mary Harper Simmons: A master’s student in nutrition at Samford University and presenter of the talk “Effect of a 4-week intervention with baby carrots or a multivitamin supplement on skin carotenoid scores in young adults” at the NUTRITION 2024 conference.
According to a bold study, women might excel at certain cognitive tasks during their menstrual period. New Research from University College London (UCL) and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH) sheds light on this phenomenon.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychology, this study is the first of its kind to explore sports-related cognition throughout different phases of the menstrual cycle.
The study involved 241 participants who underwent various cognitive tests simulating mental processes relevant in team sports, such as recognizing expressions, attention, reaction time, and spatial awareness.
Participants also used a menstrual cycle tracking app to determine their phase during the testing period.
Surprisingly, contrary to their expectations, participants demonstrated faster reaction times and lower error rates during their period. For instance, their timing accuracy during a task improved by 10 milliseconds on average (12%) compared to other times.
Lead study author Dr. Flaminia Ronca from UCL Department of Surgery and Interventional Science and ISEH noted that the findings challenge assumptions about women’s capabilities during menstruation.
Conversely, during the luteal phase, participants showed slightly slower reaction times but maintained consistent error rates.
The authors highlighted that even a small difference of 10 milliseconds could impact performance outcomes significantly.
Dr. Megan Lawley, another author of the study, emphasized the importance of further research in understanding how women’s cognitive abilities affect athletic performance at different menstrual cycle stages.
About the Experts
Flaminia Ronca: Associate Professor in the Department of Targeted Interventions at UCL, with research interests in body-brain interaction through movement.
Megan Lawley: Senior Sports Scientist specializing in female athlete health and previously involved in research on athlete performance factors at UK Sport and Bangor University.
A team of British and American paleontologists has analysed the fossil record of ammonites (marine mollusks best known as snails) from the Late Cretaceous period (105 to 66 million years ago), a period that some scientists characterise as a period of decline before their complete extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The study suggests that, far from disappearing before this, ammonites were still going strong around the world during the Late Cretaceous.
An ammonite basking in the sun from the Late Cretaceous period. Image courtesy of Callum Pursall.
Ammonites thrived in the Earth’s oceans for more than 350 million years before becoming extinct in the same chance event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Some paleontologists argue that the extinction of ammonites (the last major lineage of ammonoids) was inevitable, and that ammonite diversity declined long before their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
But new research suggests that ammonites’ fate is not sealed; rather, the final chapter of their evolutionary history is more complicated.
“Understanding how and why biodiversity has changed over time is extremely difficult,” said Dr Joseph Flannery Sutherland, a palaeontologist from the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol.
“The fossil record tells us part of the story, but it’s often an unreliable narrator.”
“Patterns of diversity may simply reflect sampling patterns — essentially when and where new fossil species were discovered — rather than actual biological history.”
“Analysing the extant Late Cretaceous ammonite fossil record as if it were a complete global story is probably why previous researchers have thought of ammonites as being in a long-term ecological decline.”
To overcome this problem, Dr. Flannery Sutherland and his colleagues have built a new database of Late Cretaceous ammonite fossils to fill sample gaps in the record.
“We used museum collections to provide new sources of specimens rather than relying on what has already been published,” said researcher Cameron Crossan of the University of Bristol.
“By doing this, we’re confident that we’ll get a more accurate picture of the biodiversity before it went extinct.”
The paleontologists used the database to analyze how ammonite speciation and extinction rates changed in different regions of the planet.
If ammonites had declined throughout the Late Cretaceous, their extinction rate would have generally been higher than their speciation rate in every region the team studied.
What the researchers found instead was that the balance between speciation and extinction has shifted through geological time and between different geographic regions.
“These differences in ammonite diversification around the world are an important reason why the story of the Late Cretaceous has been misunderstood,” said Dr James Witts, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“The fossil record in some parts of North America is very well-sampled, but looking at it alone it might seem like North America was struggling while other parts were thriving.”
“Their extinction was an accident, not a foreseeable event.”
To understand why ammonites continued to thrive throughout the Late Cretaceous, scientists investigated factors that may have changed ammonite diversity over time.
They were particularly interested in whether ammonite speciation and extinction rates were driven primarily by environmental conditions such as ocean temperature and sea level, or by biological processes such as pressure from predators and competition between ammonites themselves.
“We found that the causes of ammonite speciation and extinction were as geographically diverse as their rates,” said Dr. Colin Myers, a paleontologist at the University of New Mexico.
“You can’t look at the whole fossil record and say, for example, that diversity is entirely driven by changes in temperature.”
“In reality it was more complicated and it depended on where in the world they lived.”
Team result Published in a journal Nature Communications.
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JT Flannery Sutherland others2024. Late Cretaceous ammonites show regional heterogeneity in drivers of diversification. Nat Community 15, 5382; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49462-z
High concentrations of free amino acids in tea leaves are important for tea’s flavor and health functions, but their biosynthesis, transport and turnover in the tea plant have remained unknown.
A practical model of nitrogen assimilation, amino acid synthesis, transport, and decomposition/recycling in tea plants. Image courtesy of Yu others., doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae060.
“Amino acids are essential for plant growth and have a significant impact on the flavor and health benefits of tea,” Professor Zhao Jian Hunan Agricultural University and colleagues.
“Especially the tea trees Camellia sinensis exhibits a unique amino acid profile that contributes to its distinctive taste and nutritional value.”
“Although the importance of amino acids such as theanine and glutamine (Gln) is known, the detailed dynamics of their synthesis, transport and degradation in tea plants remain unknown.”
“These challenges require intensive research to be carried out to understand the complex metabolic pathways and spatial distribution of amino acids within the tea plant.”
In the study, Professor Zhao and his co-authors analyzed the spatial dynamics of amino acid biosynthesis, transport and turnover in tea plants.
“This study provides a detailed analysis of the metabolic pathways and gene expression that control these processes,” the researchers said.
“By understanding these mechanisms, we hope to improve tea cultivation and enhance the quality of tea beverages.”
“This study revealed that nitrogen assimilation occurs mainly in the roots, where glutamate, theanine and arginine (Arg) are actively synthesized. These amino acids are then transported through the plant’s vascular system.”
“Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes involved in Arg synthesis are highly expressed in roots, whereas genes involved in Arg transport and degradation are expressed in stems and young leaves. This indicates that there is a sophisticated amino acid management system within the plant.”
“One of the key findings is the role of the CsGSIa gene, which is crucial for the synthesis, transport and recycling of amino acids.”
“Overexpression and knockdown experiments of CsGSIa in transgenic tea plants demonstrated significant effects on the levels of Gln and theanine.”
“The study also revealed that Arg, Gln, glutamic acid (Glu), and theanine are the major amino acids transported through xylem sap, facilitating long-distance nitrogen transport from roots to leaves.”
“Our findings provide a detailed map of amino acid metabolism in the tea plant, which is of vital importance for both basic science and applied agricultural practice,” Dr Zhao said.
“Understanding these metabolic pathways opens up new possibilities for breeding tea varieties with enhanced flavor and health benefits.”
The team’s findings have important implications for the tea industry.
“By elucidating the pathway of amino acid metabolism, our study paves the way for the development of tea plants with higher contents of beneficial amino acids, enhancing both flavour and nutritional value,” the researchers said.
“These insights can be applied to breeding programs and cultivation practices to produce superior tea varieties.”
“Furthermore, understanding these metabolic processes can help us develop strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency, contributing to more sustainable and productive tea farms.”
of study Published in the journal Horticultural Research.
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Shuwei Yu others2024. Analysis of spatial dynamics of biosynthesis, transport and metabolism of major amino acids in tea plants (Camellia sinensis). Horticultural Research 11(5):uhae060; doi:10.1093/hr/uhae060
Walking on hot red sand is hard work, especially when the temperature exceeds 40°C (104°F). After about 40 minutes you are soaked, dehydrated and exhausted. It is hard to imagine doing this for 40 days with all your gear, including 40 liters of water for five days, on a two-wheeled trolley. But that is exactly what my traveling companions did.
I'm in the Nahud Desert, a vast expanse of sand and rocky wilderness in northern Saudi Arabia, to experience the almost unbearable heat and meet up with 20 other people who are part of an expedition. Deep ClimateHe is dedicated to understanding how humans respond to extreme situations. “The aim is to study how humans adapt to new kinds of environments,” he says. Christian Clotteleader of the expedition and director of the French Institute of Human Adaptation.
This problem becomes even more pressing as the climate gets warmer: even in the most optimistic scenarios, heatwaves exceeding 40°C, as observed in southern Europe and across the United States over the past few months, will become the norm in many parts of the world.
So the question of what happens to our brains and bodies, and how well the human physiology can handle extreme heat, is a question that matters to millions of people. “We're going to see large swaths of densely populated areas rise to unprecedented temperatures that nobody has seen in historical climates,” he said. Tim Renton He is a researcher at the University of Exeter in the UK and recently co-authored a research paper titled “…
In a recent study, researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland examined the antiviral properties of different types of wood, including coniferous and deciduous trees, against coronaviruses and enteroviruses.
Shroff othersScots pine and Norway spruce were found to have excellent antiviral activity, especially against enveloped viruses, with onset within 10-15 minutes. In contrast, other hardwoods showed mixed efficacy, and oak showed effectiveness against enteroviruses. Image courtesy of Schroff. others., doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c02156.
Since ancient times, wood has played a vital role in tools, utilities, and construction.
The 20th century witnessed a depletion of wood resources, prompting the emergence of alternatives like plastics and metals for interior surfaces and fixtures.
A growing concern for sustainability and the unique qualities of wood has led to a resurgence in its use across various applications.
The 21st century has brought new health challenges, including viral outbreaks like SARS and COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of surface hygiene.
Viruses can persist on surfaces as fomites, with enveloped viruses having shorter survival times compared to non-enveloped viruses.
Wood has been known for its antibacterial and antifungal properties, but its antiviral capabilities were not thoroughly explored until this study.
Researchers investigated how different types of wood affect the infectivity of enveloped and non-enveloped viruses.
The study found that certain types of wood could significantly reduce viral infectivity within hours, showcasing their potential as natural antiviral materials.
Their research paper was published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
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Reference: Sailey Shroff et al. (2024). Inactivation of coronaviruses and enteroviruses on solid wood surfaces depending on wood species. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 16(23), 29621-29633. doi:10.1021/acsami.4c02156
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is the only known planet other than Earth that still retains liquid water. Liquid hydrocarbons fed by rain from Titan’s thick atmosphere form rivers, lakes, and oceans, most of which are found in the polar regions. In a new study, a team of MIT geologists surveyed Titan’s coastline and found that the moon’s large lakes and oceans were likely formed by waves.
Artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image by Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.
The existence of waves on Titan has been a somewhat controversial topic ever since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered liquid puddles on Titan’s surface.
“Some people who have looked for evidence of waves haven’t seen any waves at all and have said, ‘The ocean is as smooth as a mirror,'” said Dr. Rose Palermo, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Others have said they saw some roughness in the water but didn’t know if it was caused by waves.”
“Knowing whether there is wave activity in Titan’s oceans can provide scientists with information about the moon’s climate, including the strength of the winds that generate such waves.”
“Wave information could also help scientists predict how the shape of Titan’s ocean will change over time.”
“Rather than looking for direct signs of wave-like features in Titan images, we wanted to take a different approach and see if just looking at the shape of the coastline could tell us what it is that is eroding the coast.”
Titan’s oceans are thought to have formed when rising waters flooded a landscape crisscrossed by river valleys.
The researchers zeroed in on three scenarios for what happened next: no coastal erosion, wave-driven erosion, and uniform erosion caused by either dissolution, where liquids passively dissolve coastal material, or a mechanism where the coast gradually peels away under its own weight.
They simulated how different coastline shapes would change under each of the three scenarios.
To simulate wave erosion, the researchers took into account a variable called “fetch,” which describes the physical distance from one point on the shoreline to the other side of a lake or ocean.
“Wave erosion depends on the height and angle of the waves,” Dr Palermo said.
“We used the fetch to estimate wave height because the bigger the fetch, the further away the wind will blow and the bigger the waves will be.”
Cassini observed Titan’s surface with microwaves and found several grooves that are deep canyons filled with liquid hydrocarbons, including Vid Fulmina, a branching network of thin lines in the upper left quadrant of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASI.
To test how coastline shape would differ between the three scenarios, the scientists started with a simulated ocean area with a flooded river valley all around it.
For wave erosion, we calculated the fetch distance from every point along the coastline to every other point and converted that distance to wave height.
They then ran simulations to see how waves would erode the original shoreline over time.
They compared this to how the same coastline would change due to erosion caused by uniform erosion.
The authors repeated this comparative modelling for hundreds of different initial shoreline configurations.
They found that the shape of the termini varies greatly depending on the underlying mechanism.
Most notably, uniform erosion produced a bulging shoreline that was evenly distributed all around, even in flooded river valleys, whereas wave erosion smoothed out portions of the shoreline exposed primarily to long downstream distances, leaving the flooded valleys narrow and rough.
“Although the initial coastline was the same, we found that uniform erosion and wave erosion resulted in very different final shapes,” Dr Perron said.
“Although it looks like a flying spaghetti monster because of the flooded river valley, the endpoints created by the two types of erosion are very different.”
This image is a composite of images taken during two flybys of Titan in 2006. A large circular feature near the center of Titan’s disk may be the remnant of a very old impact basin. The mountain range southeast of the circular feature and the long, dark linear feature northwest of the old impact site may be the result of deformation of Titan’s crust caused by energy released when the impact occurred. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
Dr. Perron and his colleagues verified their results by comparing their simulation results with actual lakes on Earth.
They found the same shape differences between Earth’s lakes known to have been eroded by waves and those affected by homogeneous erosion, such as dissolved limestone.
Their modelling revealed distinct and distinctive shapes depending on the mechanism by which the shoreline evolved.
So they wondered: Where does Titan’s coastline fit into these distinctive shapes?
In particular, they focused on four of Titan’s largest and best-mapped oceans: Kraken Mare, which is comparable in size to the Caspian Sea; Ligeia Mare, which is larger than Lake Superior; Punga Mare, which is longer than Lake Victoria; and Lake Ontario, which is about 20% the size of the land-based lake of the same name.
The researchers used Cassini’s radar images to map the coastlines of each of Titan’s oceans, and then applied their model to the coastlines of each ocean to see which erosion mechanisms best explain their shape.
They found that all four oceans fit closely to the wave-induced erosion model, meaning that waves created the closest coastlines to Titan’s four oceans.
“We found that when the shoreline is eroding, its shape is more consistent with wave-driven erosion than uniform erosion or no erosion,” Dr Perron said.
Scientists are trying to figure out how strong Titan’s winds would need to be to churn up waves strong enough to repeatedly scrape away the shoreline.
They also hope to learn from the shape of Titan’s coastline which direction the winds primarily blow from.
“Titan shows us that this case is completely pristine,” Dr. Palermo said.
“It may help us learn more fundamental things about how coasts erode without human influence, which in turn may help us better manage coastlines around the world in the future.”
With their bulging red eyes and alien-like mating sounds, periodical cicadas may seem scary and weird, but some of them are speed-freak, sex-crazed zombies that have been hijacked by super-sized fungi.
West Virginia University mycology professor Matt Casson, his 9-year-old son Oliver, and graduate student Angie Macias have been tracking a pesky fungus called Massospora cicadina, the only fungus on Earth that can hijack an animal’s body to make amphetamines (a drug known as speed)—and sure enough, it’s taking over cicadas, increasing their sex drive and spreading a parasite that’s transmitted sexually.
“They’re zombies, totally at the mercy of the fungus,” says John Cooley, a cicada researcher at the University of Connecticut.
The fungus has the largest genome of any known fungus—about 1.5 billion base pairs, Casson says, making it about 30 times longer than any common fungus we know—and while the periodical cicada lives underground for 17 years (13 years in the southern U.S.), its spores typically remain underground as well.
“It’s been a mycological oddity for a long time,” says Casson, “and it has the largest genome, produces wild compounds, keeps its host active, and has a whole host of other strange characteristics.”
Matt Cusson, a professor of mycology at West Virginia University, dissects fungal tissue from the posterior abdomen of a female periodical cicada infected with the fungus Massospora cicadina.Carolyn Custer/AP
This year, Casson decided to ask people to send him infected cicadas from around the country, and despite his injured leg, he, his son, and Mathias traveled from West Virginia to the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago, where they reported a fungus that takes over the lower half of the cicada’s body, discarding its reproductive organs and replacing them with a rather conspicuous mass that’s white, sticky but flaky. The spores then spill out like salt from a shaker.
Infected cicadas can be hard to spot.
Ten seconds after jumping off the golf cart, Macias was in the trees, looking around. She triumphantly raised the semi in the air and shouted, “I got it!”
“That was just luck,” Oliver complained.”
“Luck, eh? Good luck,” Macias replies.
Ten seconds later, Oliver spotted another bird in the bushes next to him, and a little later the photographer spotted a third.
Casson is tracking the only bacteria on Earth that produces amphetamines in living organisms when it takes control of them.Carolyn Custer/AP
Kasson and his small team collected 36 infected cicadas during a quick trip around Chicago, and another 200 or so have been sent in from elsewhere. He’s still waiting for the results of an RNA analysis of the fungus.
Some cicada experts estimate that one in every 1,000 periodical cicadas is infected with the fungus, but that’s just a guess, says Gene Kritsky, a biologist at Mount St. Joseph University who has written a book about the fungus. This year’s unique double appearanceHe said the numbers could be skewed because healthy cicadas tend to stay higher in trees.
“This year’s fungal situation is business as usual and not particularly unusual,” Cooley said in an email.
Scientists debate whether the fungus burrows deep underground and then infects the cicadas that emerge after 13 or 17 years, or whether it infects newly hatched larvae as they make their way underground for more than a decade.
The fungus isn’t a parasite that kills its host, but rather needs to keep it alive, Casson said. Infected cicadas will try to mate with other cicadas, spreading the spores to their mates/victims. Males may also become hypersexual and pose as females to lure and infect other males, Casson said.
Test tubes containing live periodical cicadas infected with the fungus Massospora cicadina await field processing at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, on June 6, 2024.Carolyn Custer/AP
A related species of the fungus that infects annual cicadas in the West also produces psychoactive compounds in the cicadas that are more similar to hallucinogens like magic mushrooms, Kasson said. That’s why some people, even experts, confuse the amphetamines produced by infected 17- and 13-year cicadas with the highly hallucinogenic compounds in the annual insects, he said.
Out of scientific curiosity, Casson experimented on one during this emergence, ensuring that it was taken from the body of a female, which was more sterile.
“It was really bitter,” Cason said, explaining that she quickly rinsed her mouth. “It tasted like poison.”
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is perhaps the best-known atmospheric feature and a popular icon among the solar system’s objects. Its large oval shape, contrasting red color, and long lifespan make it easily visible with a small telescope. A new study led by scientists from the University of the Basque Country, based on historical measurements of its size and motion, shows that the present-day Great Red Spot was probably first reported in 1831 and is not a permanent spot observed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini and others between 1665 and 1713.
The Permanent Spot (PS) and the early Great Red Spot (GRS): (a) drawing of the PS by GD Cassini on 19 January 1672, (b) drawing by S. Swave on 10 May 1851, showing the GRS area as a clear ellipse bounded by a depression (depicted by a dashed red line). (c) photograph taken by AA Common on 3 September 1879 using a 91 cm reflecting telescope at Ealing (London). The GRS appears as a clear "dark" ellipse because it is red and the photographic plate is sensitive to violet-blue wavelengths. (d) photograph taken at Lick Observatory on 14 October 1890 using a yellow filter. All figures show astronomical images of Jupiter (south at top, east at left) to preserve the notes on the drawings. Image courtesy of Sánchez-Lavega others., doi: 10.1029/2024GL108993.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is the largest and longest-lasting known vortex of any planet in the solar system.
The formation mechanism that produced this feature is unknown, and its longevity is controversial.
It was also unclear whether the Great Red Spot was the dark oval nicknamed the “Eternal Spot” that astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini and others reported between 1665 and 1713.
“Speculation about the origin of the Great Red Spot dates back to the first telescopic observations by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who in 1665 discovered a dark oval at the same latitude as the Great Red Spot, which he named a permanent spot, because it was observed by Cassini and other astronomers until 1713,” said Professor Agustin Sánchez Lavega from the University of the Basque Country.
“For the next 118 years, traces of it were lost, and it was only after 1831 that S. Schwabe again observed a clear, almost elliptical structure at the same latitude as the GRS. This can be considered the first observation of the present-day GRS, possibly of the infant GRS.”
“Since then, the Great Red Spot has been regularly observed by telescopes and by various space probes that have visited the planet up to the present day.”
In their study, the authors analysed the change in the size of the Great Red Spot over time, its structure, and the behaviour of two meteorological structures, the former permanent spot and the Great Red Spot.
To do so, they used historical sources dating back to the mid-17th century, shortly after the telescope was invented.
“Based on our measurements of its size and motion, we infer that it is highly unlikely that the current Great Red Spot is the permanent spot observed by Cassini,” Professor Sanchez LaVega said.
“The permanent spot probably disappeared sometime between the mid-18th and 19th centuries, which would put the lifespan of the red spot at least 190 years.”
“The Red Spot, which in 1879 measured 39,000 kilometres along its longest axis, has now shrunk to about 14,000 kilometres and is becoming rounder at the same time.”
“Furthermore, since the 1970s, several space missions have studied this weather phenomenon in detail.”
“Recently, various instruments on the Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter have shown that the Great Red Spot is shallow and thin compared to its horizontal length. Its vertical length is about 500 km.”
To understand how this giant whirlpool formed, the astronomers ran numerical simulations using two complementary models of the behavior of thin vortices in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Powerful winds prevail on this giant planet, flowing along parallels that alternate in direction and latitude.
To the north of the Great Red Spot, winds blow westward at 180 km/h, while to the south, winds blow in the opposite direction, eastward at 150 km/h.
This creates huge north-south shear in the wind speed, which is the fundamental element that allows vortices to grow internally.
The study explored a variety of mechanisms to explain the formation of the Great Red Spot, including the eruption of a giant superstorm like those rarely observed around its twin planet Saturn, or the merging of several smaller vortices caused by sheared winds.
The results show that although anticyclones form in both cases, their shapes and dynamic characteristics are different from those of the present-day Great Red Spot.
“We believe that if one of these anomalies had occurred, it, or its effects in the atmosphere, would have been observed and reported by astronomers at the time,” Prof Sanchez Lavega said.
In a third set of numerical experiments, the researchers investigated how the GRS may arise from known instabilities in the winds that they believe could produce elongated cells that surround and trap the GRS.
Such cells were early red spots, the proto-Great Red Spot, whose subsequent shrinkage would give rise to the compact, rapidly rotating Great Red Spot observed in the late 19th century.
The formation of large elongated cells has already been observed during the emergence of other major vortices on Jupiter.
“In our simulations, thanks to supercomputers, we were able to find that elongated cells are stable when they rotate around the Great Red Spot at the speed of Jupiter’s winds, which is what you would expect to form due to this instability,” said Dr Enrique García Melendo, an astronomer at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
Using two different numerical models, the scientists concluded that if the GRS rotated slower than the surrounding winds, it would break up and the formation of a stable vortex would be impossible.
And if it were very high, the properties of the primordial Great Red Spot would be different from those of the current Great Red Spot.
“Future studies will aim to reconstruct the Great Red Spot’s shrinkage over time and elucidate in more detail the physical mechanisms underlying its persistence,” the authors wrote.
“At the same time, we try to predict whether the Great Red Spot will collapse and disappear when it reaches its size limit, as happened with Cassini’s permanent spot, or whether it will remain stable at its size limit and persist for many years.”
of result Published in a journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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Agustin Sanchez Lavega others2024. Origin of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Geophysical Research Letters 51(12):e2024GL108993; doi:10.1029/2024GL108993
The movement of Earth’s inner core has been a topic of debate in the scientific community for the past 20 years, with some studies suggesting that the inner core rotates faster than the Earth’s surface. However, a new study has presented clear evidence that the inner core started to slow down around 2010 and is now moving at a slower pace compared to the Earth’s surface.
king othersIt shows that Earth’s inner core gradually super-rotated from 2003 to 2008, then repeated a slower rotation 2-3 times along the same path from 2008 to 2023. Image by USC Graphic/Edward Sotelo.
“When I first saw the earthquake records suggesting this change, I was puzzled,” said John Bedale, a professor at the University of Southern California.
“But when we found 24 more observations showing the same pattern, the result was inevitable.”
“The inner core is slowing down for the first time in decades.”
“Other scientists have recently proposed similar or different models, but our latest work offers the most plausible solution.”
The inner core is believed to be rotating and moving relative to the Earth’s surface, as it is now moving slightly slower than Earth’s mantle after about 40 years of moving faster.
Compared to the rates observed over the past few decades, the inner core is now slowing down.
The inner core is a solid iron-nickel sphere surrounded by a liquid iron-nickel outer core.
Located more than 4,828 km (3,000 miles) beneath the Earth’s surface, the inner core is roughly the size of the Moon and poses a challenge for researchers as it cannot be visited or directly observed.
Scientists rely on seismic waves from earthquakes to study the movement of the inner core.
In contrast to previous studies, Professor Vidale and his team used waveforms and repeating earthquakes in their research.
Repeating earthquakes are seismic events that occur in the same location and produce identical earthquake records.
The study analyzed recorded seismic data from 121 repeating earthquakes around the South Sandwich Islands between 1991 and 2023, as well as data from Soviet and nuclear tests from the early 1970s and other studies on the inner core.
“The slowing down of the inner core is attributed to the churning of the liquid iron outer core that surrounds it. This churning creates a gravitational pull from the Earth’s magnetic field and the dense region of the rocky mantle above,” Prof Vidale explained.
“We can only speculate on how these changes in the inner core’s movement will impact the Earth’s surface.”
“The retreat of the inner core could briefly alter the length of the day. This alteration lasts for milliseconds and is almost imperceptible amid the noise of the ocean and atmosphere,” he added.
Wang others Retrograde motion of the inner core due to reversal of seismic waveform changes. Nature. Published online June 12, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07536-4
To find out whether air taxi passengers need to worry about collisions with birds, a number of tests were carried out by a German emergency program.
Colliding a real air taxi with a real bird would be complicated and dangerous, so perfection was impossible, so experimenters made do by dropping artificial “bird bullets” onto a rigged metal plate that allowed them to measure the force of the impact.
Aditya Devta and Isabelle Metz of the German Aerospace Center and Sophie Armani of the Technical University of Munich described these violent encounters as follows: Preprint paper(Thanks to reader Mason Porter for pointing this out.)
This study was, necessarily, a rough step toward definitively answering the big questions.
The report said the bird shots were dropped manually and faced various challenges, including “inconsistency and lack of repeatability” due to human involvement. Future efforts should “eliminate human involvement and [so as to] “Improve the accuracy and repeatability of force measurements.”
Collision in the middle of the track
Speaking of experiments involving birds and flying taxis, have you heard of the moose and bullet train experiment? Yong Peng and his colleagues from Central South University in China began investigating what happens when these heavy animals meet at high speed.Analysis of moose movement trajectory after collision between bullet train and moose” “.
The questions go beyond the initial simple collision: the scientists mention two possible complications: “If the moose lies on the tracks after the collision, it could increase the risk of train derailment” and “if the moose is thrown into the air during the collision, it could strike and damage the pantograph, disrupting train operation.”
Previous investigations have relied on mathematical simulations using finite element methods and less-heavy experiments, using fresh beef muscle tissue (from cows, not elk) and a type of stress-strain testing machine called a “split-Hopkinson pressure bar.”
Essentially, the force of the impact “depends on the area of contact between the train and the moose,” the scientists report.
Regarding these complexities, the report states: “The moose will not be pushed aside by the V-shaped locomotive and derail, and the moose will not be thrown into the air to the height of the pantograph, causing no damage to the Shinkansen pantograph.”
The study suggests something bigger is on the way: “Only a scenario of a train crossing the tracks at 110km/h hitting a moose was simulated, which cannot fully reflect the risk of a train-moose collision. Therefore, further speeds and attitudes are needed to enhance ongoing research.”
Feeling cheeky
Slowly and gently, new findings about sources are coming in from readers. These concern the off-label use of ketchup and other sticky foods to make electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes work better (Feedback, May 25).
Brian Leffin Smith adds a musical note: “You don’t need human skin to test whether ketchup electrodes are better than regular gel electrodes. I have equipment that applies a low voltage to plant leaves (or anything else) and converts the varying current into a MIDI signal that can be sent to a computer or synthesizer to play sounds… Anyway, in a statistically insignificant but anecdotally and culinarily interesting test, I found that low-salt ketchup placed between an ECG electrode and a chili leaf produced a fairly high E, while the proper gel placed on the adjacent leaf produced a G. I thought this might be useful, but now I don’t think so.”
Dave Hardy makes a point about practicality: “In the early 1970s, my GP said that gel was ridiculously expensive, but that strawberry jam would work just as well. I don’t know if he tried a range of options or just used what he had on hand (this was in the Falkland Islands).”
Death of a Star
It is surprising how few people are hailed as “famous pathologists.” news The paper reported on the death of one of them: “Dr. Cyril Wecht, the prominent pathologist who argued that more than one shooter killed JFK, has died at age 93.”
One of the first celebrated pathologists, Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947), helped establish London’s reputation as a hotbed of fascinating and intricate murder mystery investigations.
Royal College of Physicians RevealedAfter his death, he said that Spilsbury’s career had been a truly dramatic one: “The famous Crippen trial in which he was involved [William] Wilcox’s attempts to prove that the murders were committed with hyoscine hydrobromide first attracted him to public attention, and he lamented it at every trial he subsequently attended, which no doubt accounted for his stern and cold demeanor towards all but his closest friends.
Spilsbury’s attitude was by no means contemptible. One aspect of the job of dissecting a corpse is the terrible stench of rotting bodies, which can put off sensitive people. Spilsbury was not a sensitive person in this respect. His colleagues were amazed at how enthusiastic he was about dissecting a corpse. Obituary To put it politely, it was an “olfactory disorder.”
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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A recent study suggests that women may have improved cognitive performance during their menstrual cycle. The research conducted by University College London (UCL) and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH) sheds light on this phenomenon.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychology, this study is the first to analyze sports-related cognition throughout the menstrual cycle phases.
241 participants took cognitive tests simulating mental processes common in team sports, such as recognizing emotions, attention, reaction time, and spatial awareness.
Participants also tracked their menstrual cycle using an app to identify their phase during testing. Surprisingly, participants performed better in reaction time and made fewer errors during menstruation, contrary to their expectations.
For example, their timing accuracy in a ball collision task was 10 milliseconds better during menstruation. Similarly, their error rates were 25% lower in an inhibition task involving smiles and winks.
Lead researcher Dr. Flaminia Ronca from UCL Department of Surgery and ISEH noted the unexpected performance enhancement during menstruation.
During the luteal phase, reaction times slightly decreased, but error rates remained stable. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding how menstrual cycle phases impact cognitive abilities in sports performance.
Co-author Dr. Megan Lawley highlights the need for more research in this area to improve performance discussions between coaches and athletes.
About the Experts
Flaminia Ronca, an Associate Professor at UCL, focuses on the body-brain interaction through movement in her research. She is also a leader at UCL’s Movement Neuroscience Research Group (ENRG).
Megan Lawley, a Senior Sports Scientist, specializes in female athlete health and performance factors. Her previous research at UK Sport and Bangor University delved into the complexities of athletes’ success in high-performance environments.
Planetary scientists first became aware of the connection between Earth and Jupiter in 2018, when they noticed striking similarities in images of Jupiter's giant cyclones and turbulent ocean currents. In 2022, they Analyzed High-resolution infrared image of a cyclone on Jupiter taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Analysis reveals that a type of convection similar to that seen on Earth helps sustain Jupiter's storms, which can be thousands of miles wide and last for years. The 2022 study focused directly on Jupiter's cyclones, but the authors also saw thin tendrils called filaments in the spaces between the vortices of gas. These filaments have analogues on Earth, and the authors used Juno's detailed images to study whether this similarity to Earth's oceanic and atmospheric processes is merely superficial.
This composite image, created from data collected by the JIRAM instrument on NASA's Juno spacecraft, shows a central cyclone at Jupiter's north pole and eight surrounding cyclones. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiated heat. The yellow (thinnest) clouds have a brightness temperature of about -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 degrees Celsius), while the dark red (thickest) clouds have a brightness temperature of about -181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.
Fronts are often featured in weather forecasts (for example, cold fronts and storm fronts) and apply to both gases and liquids.
A front is a boundary between masses of gas or liquid that have different densities due to differences in properties such as temperature.
In the ocean, fronts can also form due to differences in salinity, which, along with temperature, affects the density of seawater.
The main characteristic of a front is that its leading edge is characterized by strong vertical speed and can generate wind and currents.
To understand the role of the filaments clearly visible during Jupiter's cyclones in the Juno images, Dr. Leah Siegelman of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Dr. Patrice Klein of the California Institute of Technology examined a series of infrared images from Juno.
The series of images was taken 30 seconds apart of Jupiter's north polar region.
Because the images were taken in infrared, the team was able to calculate the temperature, finding that brighter areas were warmer and darker areas were cooler.
On Jupiter, the hotter parts of the atmosphere correspond to thin clouds, while the cooler parts are covered by thicker clouds that block more of the heat emanating from Jupiter's superheated core.
The researchers then tracked the movement of the clouds and filaments over the 30-second intervals between photos to calculate horizontal wind speeds.
These two pieces of information allowed the scientists to apply methods from ocean and atmospheric science to Jupiter to calculate vertical wind speeds that correspond to the temperatures and horizontal wind speeds the researchers derived from the images.
Calculating vertical wind speeds, they found that Jupiter's filaments do in fact move like Earth's fronts.
The vertical wind speeds at the edges of Jupiter's fronts also mean that the fronts transport energy in the form of heat from the planet's hot interior to the upper atmosphere, potentially generating large cyclones.
Although convection is the primary driving force, fronts account for a quarter of the total kinetic energy powering Jupiter's cyclones and 40 percent of the vertical heat transport.
“These cyclones at Jupiter's poles have continued since they were first observed in 2016,” Dr Siegelman said.
“These filaments between the larger vortices are relatively small, but they are a key mechanism for maintaining cyclones.”
“It's intriguing that fronts and convection exist and influence Earth and Jupiter, suggesting that these processes may also exist on other turbulent fluid bodies in the universe.”
“Jupiter's enormous scale and Juno's high-resolution images allow us to more clearly visualize how small-scale phenomena like fronts connect with larger-scale phenomena like cyclones and the atmosphere. These connections are often difficult to observe on Earth because they are much smaller and more ephemeral.”
“But the long-awaited new satellite, SWOT, will make observing these ocean phenomena much easier.”
“There's a kind of cosmic beauty in knowing that these physical mechanisms on Earth exist on other planets far, far away.”
Team paper Published in the journal Natural Physics.
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L. Siegelman & P. Klein. Frontogenesis at high latitudes on Jupiter. National Physical SocietyPublished online June 6, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41567-024-02516-x
WASHINGTON — African elephants communicate through calls and respond to their own names, a behavior rarely observed in the wild, according to a new study published Monday.
These names are embedded in the elephants’ distinctive low-pitched vocalizations that carry across the savanna, suggesting that animals with intricate social structures, where family units frequently disband and reunite, are more likely to have individual names.
Ecologist Stuart Pimm from Duke University, who was not involved in the study, remarked, “If you’re managing a large family, you need to be able to call out, ‘Hey, Virginia, come over here!'”
The phenomenon of animals calling each other by name is exceptionally rare in the wild. Humans have names, allowing us to call out to others, and pets like dogs also respond to their names. Baby Dolphin Birds have their own unique names, known as signature whistles, while parrots may also utilize names.
These named species possess the ability to learn and produce distinct sounds throughout their lives, a skill elephants also share.
Biologists conducted research on wild ecology and evolution using machine learning to identify name usage in audio recordings of savanna elephant vocalizations captured in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park.
By observing the elephants from vehicles, researchers were able to determine which elephants were calling and responding to each other, such as a mother calling for her calf or an older female reaching out to a stray elephant later rejoining the group.
The computer model, analyzing the audio data likely containing names, accurately predicted the addressed elephant 28% of the time, compared to just 8% with meaningless data.
Lead author Mickey Pardo, a biologist at Cornell University, explained, “Like humans, elephants utilize names, but we can’t rely on them entirely as they likely don’t use names in the majority of their vocalizations.”
Elephants incorporate sounds beyond the human hearing range in their calls, leaving scientists uncertain about the specific vocal components that form an elephant’s name.
To validate their findings, researchers played the recordings to individual elephants. The elephants showed heightened responses, including ear flapping and trunk lifting, to recordings containing their names. Some elephants even disregarded vocalizations meant for other elephants.
“Elephants are highly social beings, constantly communicating and interacting, and this system of naming could be a fundamental aspect of their communication abilities,” noted co-author George Wittemyer, an ecologist at Colorado State University and a science advisor for Save the Elephants.
“We’ve provided a glimpse into the elephant’s cognitive world.”
A new study led by scientists at the University of New South Wales confirms that eating fruit can help ward off depression – but eating vegetables does not.
High fruit intake is associated with a reduced risk of developing depression.
Depression is a major public health concern: the global impact of depressive disorders is estimated to be over 50 million years of life lived with disability, making depression the largest contributor to non-fatal disease burden.
More than 80% of this burden is borne by low- and middle-income countries.
Compared with depression in younger adults, depression in older adults has a greater impact on physical and cognitive abilities and is associated with reduced quality of life and increased all-cause mortality.
A growing body of evidence suggests that diet, particularly increasing fruit and vegetable intake, may be important in reducing the risk of depression.
“The aim of this new study was to examine the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and depression in adults aged 45 and over,” said researcher Dr Annabel Mattison, from the University of New South Wales.
The study involved 7,801 non-depressed, community-dwelling adults from multiple sites across six continents, including the United States, Sweden, Brazil, Nigeria, Malaysia and Australia.
The results showed a beneficial association between higher fruit intake and a lower risk of depression over a nine-year period.
“This intriguing finding of a protective relationship between fruit consumption and risk of depression points to the need for greater emphasis on diet in healthcare,” said Dr Mattison.
The results suggested a benefit to vegetable consumption, but the benefit was not statistically significant.
“The reason we found a beneficial association with fruit consumption but not with vegetable consumption may be because fruits are typically consumed raw, whereas vegetables are typically consumed cooked, which may affect their nutritional value,” Dr Mattison said.
“Fruit and vegetable intake was self-reported via a comprehensive food frequency questionnaire, a short food questionnaire, or a dietary history.”
“Depressive symptoms were assessed using validated scales, and depression was defined by applying validated cut-offs.”
“We used Cox regression to examine the association between baseline fruit and vegetable intake and incident depression over 3- to 9-year follow-up periods.”
It has been suggested that the high antioxidant, dietary fiber, and vitamin content of fruits and vegetables may have beneficial effects on depression through a variety of mechanisms, including their role in inflammation, oxidative stress, and gut microbiota.
Because fruits and vegetables contain different nutrients, it is also possible that different types of fruits and vegetables may have different effects on depression risk.
The evidence that citrus fruits and green leafy vegetables reduce the risk of depression is particularly strong.
“Future studies that take into account consumption of different types of fruit and vegetables using standardized measures and focus on a larger number of older people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, are definitely needed,” Professor Henry Brodaty, from the University of New South Wales, said.
“The expanding research currently being conducted into genes associated with dietary intake provides a promising avenue for influencing fruit and vegetable intake.”
“To better understand the association, the types of fruits and vegetables consumed also need to be taken into account, and studies need to be designed to be more comparable across cohorts.”
of study Published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
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Annabelle P. Mathison others2024. Associations between fruit and vegetable intake and incident depression in middle-aged and older adults in 10 diverse international longitudinal cohorts. Journal of Affective Disorders 359: 373-381; doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.05.096
Earth’s Speed It’s getting warmer 2023 is the highest on record, beating last year’s astonishing 92%. Record-breaking heatwave Leading scientists have calculated that the cause is human.
A group of 57 scientists from around the world used UN-approved methods to investigate what’s behind it. Last year’s heatwaveThey said that even if the rate of warming has increased, they found no evidence of a significant acceleration of human-induced climate change beyond increased burning of fossil fuels.
Last year’s record temperatures were so extraordinary that scientists have been debating what’s behind the spike, whether climate change is accelerating or if other factors are at play.
“When we see the world accelerating or going through a major tipping point, things aren’t happening,” said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study. “Temperatures are rising and things are getting worse exactly as we predicted.”
A person sprays water at passersby on a hot summer day in Karachi, Pakistan on May 30, 2024. Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
This can mostly be explained by the buildup of carbon dioxide from increased fossil fuel use, he and his co-authors said.
Last year’s warming rate was 0.26C (0.47F) per decade, up from 0.25C (0.45F) the year before. Forster said that’s not a huge difference, but this year’s rate is the highest on record.
Still, outside scientists said the report paints a more alarming picture than ever before.
“While whether or not to tackle climate is a politically contentious issue, this report should remind people that it is actually a fundamentally life-saving choice,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin who was not part of the international research team. “To me, that’s something worth fighting for.”
Ocean Beach in San Francisco during a heat wave warning in California on June 4, 2024. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
The authors, who formed to provide an annual scientific update between major UN scientific assessments every seven to eight years, concluded that last year’s temperature was 1.43 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 average, of which 1.31 degrees was due to human activities. The remaining 8 percent of warming was Mainly due to El NiñoThese include natural, temporary warming in the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather around the world, as well as unusual warming along the Atlantic Ocean and other weather randomness.
Looking at longer time frames — decade-by-decade, which scientists prefer over annual periods — the world has warmed about 1.19 degrees Celsius (2.14 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, the report said. Earth System Science Data Journal found.
The report also says that if the world continues to burn coal, oil and natural gas, the planet is likely to reach a point within four and a half years where it will become unavoidable to cross internationally accepted warming thresholds. 1.5℃ (2.7℃) ).
Students experience extreme heat at an elementary school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on May 7, 2024. Chaidir Mahyudin/AFP via Getty Images
This is consistent with previous studies that project that if emissions trajectory remains unchanged, the planet will reach at least 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by early 2029. While reaching 1.5 degrees may be years away, it seems inevitable once all the carbon is used, Forster said.
Scientists say that going over 1.5 degrees won’t mean the end of the world or humanity, but it will be pretty dire. Past UN Studies Large-scale changes to Earth’s ecosystems are expected to become more likely with a warming of between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, ultimately resulting in the loss of the planet’s coral reefs, Arctic sea ice, plant and animal species, as well as more extreme and life-threatening weather events.
Last year’s temperature rise wasn’t just a minor spike — September was particularly unusual, said study co-author Sonia Seneviratne, head of the land climate dynamics department at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
A caged howler monkey receives treatment during a heatwave in Cunduacan, Mexico, on May 24, 2024. The heat was so severe that the monkey fell from a tree and died. Jose Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images
Seneviratne said this year was at the higher end of the range but within expectations.
“If there was an acceleration, it would be even worse, perhaps a worst-case scenario, where the world would reach a tipping point,” Seneviratne said. “But what’s happening now is already very bad, and we’re already seeing big impacts. We’re in the middle of a crisis.”
Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Environmental Studies, and Zeke Hausfather, a global climate scientist at the University of Berkeley, neither of whom worked on the study, said they still see an acceleration in warming, which Hausfather noted is much faster than the 0.18 degrees Celsius (0.32 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade that occurred from 1970 to 2010.
Medical workers treat a dehydrated patient in Austin, Texas, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images file
The scientists Big increase in SeptemberHausfather called that “staggering.” Wednesday’s report didn’t find enough warming from other potential causes. It said that while reduced sulfur pollution from ships had some cooling effect on the atmosphere, that was offset last year by carbon particles released into the atmosphere by Canadian wildfires.
The report also noted that undersea volcanoes, which released huge amounts of heat-trapping water vapor into the atmosphere, also spewed cooling particles, with the two forces roughly cancelling each other out.
“The future is in our hands,” said Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “It’s up to us, humans, not physicists, to decide how fast and how much the Earth will warm.”
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