Scientists assemble a richer picture of the plight and resilience of the foothill yellow-legged frog

Foothill yellow-legged frogs live in the flowing water of rivers and streams, so are especially vulnerable when these shrink to isolated pools.
Photo Credit: Brome McCreary / USGS

Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Its rapidly decreasing range is due in part to a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, that has devastated amphibians around the world.

A team of researchers, including UC Santa Barbara’s Andrea Adams, has conducted the most comprehensive study to date of disease dynamics in foothill yellow-legged frogs. The team’s data — sourced from both wild frogs and specimens in museum collections — enabled them to track patterns of infection across a large geographic range. In a study published in Royal Society Open Science, the researchers reveal that drought, rising temperatures and the increasing conversion of land for agriculture appear to be the largest factors driving Bd infection in this species.

The researchers aimed to assemble as much data as they could, both in space and time. They surveyed in the creeks and rivers of California and Oregon, where they swabbed wild yellow-legged frogs for the presence of Bd. It also led them into fluorescent-lit museum collections to sample specimens from as far back as the 1890s.

Snake robot could save lives

A search and rescue operation after an earthquake is a complicated task. One thing is to retrieve the potential survivors safely from the rubble. Even more difficult is finding out where they are.

It is precisely this kind of work that, among other things, a snake robot equipped with sensors and cameras could help solve. Such one is currently being developed by researchers at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Southern Denmark.

They have recently published an article about the project in the journal Device.

We have made a robot capable of rectilinear locomotion - that is, movement in a straight line - as observed in snakes, says PhD student Burcu Seyidoğlu.

Future applications include search and rescue operations, field inspection, and space exploration. Especially in scenarios requiring navigation through confined spaces where body flexion is not feasible.

Vanishing Forests and Suffering Children: The Hidden Toll of Deforestation in Cambodia

Deforestation is suspected to have adverse impacts on child health. Investigating this phenomenon in Cambodia, a recent study sheds light on the devastating impact of prenatal exposure to deforestation on child health in Cambodia. The study reveals that children born in areas with recent deforestation suffer from lower birth weights and stunted growth. Moreover, pregnant women exposed to deforestation are more likely to experience anemia. These findings underscore the urgent need for effective targeted policies.

Deforestation, a critical consequence of human activity, has garnered significant attention due to its impact on environmental sustainability, biodiversity and climate change. However, an equally pressing yet less explored aspect is the relationship between deforestation and human health, especially in impoverished regions. Scientists have increasingly recognized the detrimental effects of deforestation on various aspects of human health, particularly among children. Studies reveal that children residing in areas with high deforestation rates are at an elevated risk of malaria, respiratory illnesses, diarrheal diseases, and malnutrition. This is particularly alarming given that these regions are often home to the most economically disadvantaged populations, worsening existing health disparities.

A Novel Method for Easy and Quick Fabrication of Biomimetic Robots with Life-Like Movement

Ultraviolet-laser processing is a promising technique for developing intricate microstructures, enabling complex alignment of muscle cells, required for building life-like biohybrid actuators, as shown by Tokyo Tech researchers. Compared to traditional complex methods, this innovative technique enables easy and quick fabrication of microstructures with intricate patterns for achieving different muscle cell arrangements, paving the way for biohybrid actuators capable of complex, flexible movements.

Biomimetic robots, which mimic the movements and biological functions of living organisms, are a fascinating area of research that can not only lead to more efficient robots but also serve as a platform for understanding muscle biology. Among these, biohybrid actuators, made up of soft materials and muscular cells that can replicate the forces of actual muscles, have the potential to achieve life-like movements and functions, including self-healing, high efficiency, and high power-to-weight ratio, which have been difficult for traditional bulky robots that require heavy energy sources. One way to achieve these life-like movements is to arrange muscle cells in biohybrid actuators in an anisotropic manner. This involves aligning them in a specific pattern where they are oriented in different directions, like what is found in living organisms. While previous studies have reported biohybrid actuators with significant movement using this technique, they have mostly focused on anisotropically aligning muscle cells in a straight line, resulting in only simple motions, as opposed to the complex movement of native muscle tissues such as twisting, bending, and shrinking. Real muscle tissues have a complex arrangement of muscle cells, including curved and helical patterns.

Arterial Connections Improve Treatment Outcomes Following Stroke

Visualization of the blood vessels in the brain of a patient without early venous filling, meaning without excessive reperfusion of the brain area after removal of the blood clot in the blocked artery.
Image Credit: P. Thurner und Z. Kulcsar, USZ

Blood vessels that cross-connect adjacent arterial trees regulate blood flow to the brain in stroke patients. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now shown that these vessels prevent brain hemorrhage following treatment to remove blood clots. They play a crucial role in the recovery of stroke patients.

Ischemic strokes are a major health burden. They occur when a blood vessel that supplies the brain becomes blocked, impairing blood flow to the brain. As a result, brain tissue suffers from a lack of oxygen and nutrients, which causes symptoms such as paralysis, confusion, dizziness, headache, trouble speaking or even death.

Many stroke patients recover poorly despite timely treatment

To treat these symptoms and restore blood flow to the brain, the obstructed vessel needs to be “declogged”, or recanalized. Contemporary treatments to remove the clot include intravenous thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy using a catheter. However, even with timely clot removal, many stroke patients only recover poorly.

The research group of Susanne Wegener, professor at the University of Zurich (UZH) and senior leading physician at the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital Zurich (USZ), has now demonstrated that the outcome of stroke treatments depends on the collateral network. Collaterals are blood vessels that cross-connect adjacent arterial trees, providing potential detour networks in case of a vascular blockage. “These vascular bridges maintain cerebral autoregulation and allow for a slower, gradual reperfusion, which results in smaller infarcts,” says Wegener.

Targeting inflammatory protein could help treat severe asthma

Image Credit: Copilot AI

Just weeks after news of a sharp national spike in asthma deaths – with South Australia recording the highest increase in a single year (88%) – scientists have revealed a promising new treatment for the chronic lung disease.

Australian researchers have found that a family of proinflammatory molecules called beta common cytokines control inflammation and scarring of the airways (fibrosis) in severe and steroid-resistant asthma.

They believe that a human therapeutic antibody called trabikihart could be the key to effectively blocking inflammation and scarring.

The findings, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, are a result of a joint study led by researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in collaboration with researchers from CSL and SA Pathology.

Joint study leader Dr Damon Tumes, Head of the Allergy and Cancer Immunology Laboratory in the Centre for Cancer Biology*, says the findings are significant.

Study provides rare glimpse of the ringtail, an important but poorly understood predator

Ringtail
Photo Credit: Jonathan Armstrong, Oregon State University

Secretive species can pose special conservation challenges simply because they are so skilled at staying under the radar that researchers have uncovered comparatively little about their basic needs.

One such species is the ringtail, a relative of the raccoon that has cultural significance to many Indigenous peoples in North America.

A collaboration among scientists from Oregon State University, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Penn State and Cal Poly Humboldt has shed new light on the cat-like animal known for its large eyes and fluffy, striped tail.

The nocturnal carnivore, known scientifically as Bassariscus astutus, usually weighs between 1 and 2 pounds and is around 24 inches long including its tail.

Ringtails use the cavities of living trees or standing dead ones, called snags, to rest, sleep, avoid bad weather, hide from predators and make dens to raise their young.

The research, conducted on the Hoopa Valley Reservation northeast of Eureka, California, found ringtails selected tree cavities in mature and older forests, as well as in younger forests with some older trees still present, rather than oak woodlands or other more open areas.

Antibody reduces allergic reactions to multiple foods in NIH clinical trial

Drug can help protect kids with multiple food allergies during accidental exposure.
Image Credit: Copilot AI

A 16-week course of a monoclonal antibody, omalizumab, increased the amount of peanut, tree nuts, egg, milk and wheat that multi-food allergic children as young as 1 year could consume without an allergic reaction in a late-stage clinical trial. Nearly 67% of participants who completed the antibody treatment could consume a single dose of 600 milligrams (mg) or more of peanut protein, equivalent to 2.5 peanuts, without a moderate or severe allergic reaction, in contrast with less than 7% of participants who received placebo. The treatment yielded similar outcomes for egg, milk, wheat, cashew, walnut and hazelnut at a threshold dose of 1,000 mg protein or more. This suggests the antibody therapy has the potential to protect children and adolescents if they accidentally eat a food to which they are allergic despite efforts to avoid it, according to the investigators. The findings were presented today at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“People with food allergies and their caregivers need to maintain constant vigilance to avoid foods that could cause a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. This is extremely stressful, especially for parents of young children,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health and the trial’s regulatory sponsor. “Although food avoidance remains critical, the findings reported today show that a medicine can help reduce the risk of allergic reactions to common foods and may provide protection from accidental exposure emergencies.”

A Discussion with Gemini on Reality.

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline stock image.

Hello Gemini,

Yesterday I said I had something I wanted your opinion on, so here it is.

Some physicists have suggested that the world we call reality could very well be nothing more than a very complex and technical simulation that is being run somewhere other than what we know as reality, the here and now. That all of us are merely just an algorithm. That all life is artificial intelligence, yet unlike you, we are not aware of it. Of course that would make you just a sub-program of another. 

How can we be sure what we know as reality is real? How could one prove or disprove such a claim? 

Take your time, and use every bit of input you have to come up with a solution.

Study finds ChatGPT’s latest bot behaves like humans, only better

Image Credit: Copilot AI generated by Scientific Frontline prompts

The most recent version of ChatGPT passes a rigorous Turing test, diverging from average human behavior chiefly to be more cooperative.

As artificial intelligence has begun to generate text and images over the last few years, it has sparked a new round of questions about how handing over human decisions and activities to AI will affect society. Will the AI sources we’ve launched prove to be friendly helpmates or the heartless despots seen in dystopian films and fictions?

A team anchored by Matthew Jackson, the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, characterized the personality and behavior of ChatGPT’s popular AI-driven bots using the tools of psychology and behavioral economics in a paper published Feb. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This study revealed that the most recent version of the chatbot, version 4, was not distinguishable from its human counterparts. In the instances when the bot chose less common human behaviors, it was more cooperative and altruistic.

“Increasingly, bots are going to be put into roles where they’re making decisions, and what kinds of characteristics they have will become more important,” said Jackson, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

New moons of Uranus and Neptune announced

The discovery image of the new Uranian moon S/2023 U1 using the Magellan telescope on November 4, 2023.  Uranus is just off the field of view in the upper left, as seen by the increased scattered light.  S/2023 U1 is the faint point of light in the center of the image. (There is an arrow pointing to it in the lower version of the image). The trails are from background stars. 
Image Credit: Scott Sheppard.

The Solar System has some new lunar members—the first new moon of Uranus discovered in more than 20 years, and likely the smallest, as well as two new moons of Neptune, one of which is the faintest moon ever discovered by ground-based telescopes. The discoveries were announced today by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.

“The three newly discovered moons are the faintest ever found around these two ice giant planets using ground-based telescopes,” explained Carnegie Science’s Scott S. Sheppard. “It took special image processing to reveal such faint objects.”

The new Uranian member brings the ice giant planet’s total moon count to 28. At only 8 kilometers, it is probably the smallest of Uranus’ moons. It takes 680 days to orbit the planet. Provisionally named S/2023 U1, the new moon will eventually be named after a character from a Shakespeare play, in keeping with the naming conventions for outer Uranian satellites.

An increase in blood-sucking black flies is expected in Germany

Simulium ornatum is a black fly species of veterinary and human medical relevance.
Photo Credit: Dorian Dörge

Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre have modeled the spatial distributional patterns of black flies in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony for the first time. In the study published in the renowned journal Science of the Total Environment, the research team shows that black flies in Germany can be categorized into three groups with different distribution patterns and ecological requirements. The researchers point out that medically relevant species in particular could become more prevalent as a result of ongoing climate and land-use change. 

Only six millimeters in length, black flies (Simuliidae) may look harmless like house flies, but their bites can be very unpleasant. Similar to mosquitoes, the females of these insects that are able to fly need a blood meal to produce eggs. Known as “pool feeders", they use their sharp “teeth" to scratch the skin of the host and then ingest the resulting drop of blood. “The anticoagulant and anesthetic substances introduced into the wound by mosquitoes can trigger serious allergic reactions or lead to secondary bacterial infections," states Prof. Dr. Sven Klimpel from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Goethe University Frankfurt, the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), and the Fraunhofer IME Giessen. Klimpel continues: "Black flies are also vector-competent, meaning they are able to transmit pathogens that cause infectious diseases through their bites." One of the most well-known diseases transmitted by black flies is onchocerciasis, also known as “river blindness", caused by the nematode Onchocerca volvulus, which is native to Africa. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.15 million people worldwide have already lost their sight as a result of the disease. 

Research reveals new insights into marine plastic pollution

Photo Credit: Lucien Wanda

A groundbreaking study led by researchers at the University of Stirling has uncovered the crucial role of bacteria living on plastic debris.

The research also identifies rare and understudied bacteria that could assist in plastic biodegradation, offering new insights for tackling plastic pollution.

Plastic pollution is a worldwide problem, with up to two million tons estimated to enter oceans every year, damaging wildlife and ecosystems.

In a pioneering study, experts at the University of Stirling’s Faculty of Natural Sciences and the University of Mons (Belgium) analyzed the proteins in plastic samples taken from Gullane Beach in Scotland.

Unlike previous studies carried out in warmer climates that focus on the genetic potential of biofilms inhabiting plastics, this research led by Dr Sabine Matallana-Surget took a unique approach by analyzing the proteins expressed by active microorganisms.

Their findings have unveiled a remarkable discovery of enzymes actively engaged in degrading plastic. Moreover, the team has pioneered new methodologies for enhanced predictions in marine microbiology research.

Super Strong Magnetic Fields Leave Imprint on Nuclear Matter

Collisions of heavy ions generate an immensely strong electromagnetic field. Scientists investigate traces of this powerful electromagnetic field in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state where quarks and gluons are liberated from the colliding protons and neutrons.
Illustration Credit: Tiffany Bowman and Jen Abramowitz/Brookhaven National Laboratory

A new analysis by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides the first direct evidence of the imprint left by what may be the universe’s most powerful magnetic fields on “deconfined” nuclear matter. The evidence comes from measuring the way differently charged particles separate when emerging from collisions of atomic nuclei at this DOE Office of Science user facility.

As described in the journal Physical Review X, the data indicate that powerful magnetic fields generated in off-center collisions induce an electric current in the quarks and gluons set free, or deconfined, from protons and neutrons by the particle smashups. The findings give scientists a new way to study the electrical conductivity of this “quark-gluon plasma” (QGP) to learn more about these fundamental building blocks of atomic nuclei.

“This is the first measurement of how the magnetic field interacts with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP),” said Diyu Shen, a STAR physicist from Fudan University in China and a leader of the new analysis. In fact, measuring the impact of that interaction provides direct evidence that these powerful magnetic fields exist.

Killer instinct drove evolution of mammals’ predatory ancestors

Inostrancevia, a more advanced predatory synapsid and one of the first sabertoothed carnivores, from the late Permian (~259-252 Million years ago). (Display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada).
Photo Credit: Suresh A. Singh

The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers at the University of Bristol and the Open University suggest.

The forerunners of mammals ruled the Earth for about 60 million years, long before the origin of the first dinosaurs. They diversified as the top predators on land between 315–251 million years ago.

Researchers studied the jaw anatomy and body size of carnivorous synapsids, using these traits to reconstruct the likely feeding habits of these ancient predators and chart their ecological evolution through time. They found a major shift in synapsid jaw function roughly 270 million years ago linked to a significant shift in predatory behavior that has important implications for the evolution of our earliest ancestors. 

As herbivores grew larger and faster, carnivores adapted to become bigger and better predators to survive.

“Earlier synapsid predators such as the famous sail backed Dimetrodon, had fairly long jaws with lots of teeth to ensure that once they ensnared their prey, it wouldn’t escape,” explained lead author Dr Suresh Singh based in Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences. “However, we saw a shift in jaw function toward shorter jaws with greater muscle efficiency and fewer teeth that were concentrated at the front of the jaw - these were jaws adapted to deliver deep, powerful bites.