Justinianic Plague was nothing like flu and may have hit England before Constantinople

Detail of the mosaic of Justinianus I in the Basilica di San Vitale,
Ravenna, Italy 
Credit: Petar Milošević

‘Plague sceptics’ are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6th– 8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries. The same study suggests that bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia.

The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment in its historical development, when the Emperor Justinian was trying to restore Roman imperial power.

For decades, historians have argued about the lethality of the disease; its social and economic impact; and the routes by which it spread. In 2019-20, several studies, widely publicized in the media, argued that historians had massively exaggerated the impact of the Justinianic Plague and described it as an ‘inconsequential pandemic’. In a subsequent piece of journalism, written just before COVID-19 took hold in the West, two researchers suggested that the Justinianic Plague was ‘not unlike our flu outbreaks’.

In a new study, published in Past & Present, Cambridge historian Professor Peter Sarris argues that these studies ignored or downplayed new genetic findings, offered misleading statistical analysis and misrepresented the evidence provided by ancient texts.

Sarris says: “Some historians remain deeply hostile to regarding external factors such as disease as having a major impact on the development of human society, and ‘plague skepticism’ has had a lot of attention in recent years.”

How smart is an octopus?

Credit: University of Queensland

The unique brainpower of octopuses – known for their intelligence and Houdini-like escapes – has been revealed by University of Queensland researchers.

Dr Wen-Sung Chung from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute is part of a team that studied four octopus species using MRI techniques to produce detailed 3D images for comparing their unique brain structures.

He said octopus brains varied, depending on where a species lived, when it was active and if it interacted with other animals.

“The octopus is a master of camouflage, capable of solving complex tasks and their cognitive ability is said to approach that of some small mammals,” Dr Chung said.

“We investigated four species, including one deep-sea octopus, one solitary nocturnal species and two different reef dwellers active during daylight.”

Dr Chung said the octopus found in deep waters had a smooth brain like marsupials and rodents, suited for its slow pace of life and limited interactions with other animals.

The reef octopuses had a significantly larger brain with some properties similar to primates, adapted for complex visual tasks and social interaction in a busy, well-lit environment.

SPARKing the fight against deadly superbugs

Associate Professor Mark Blaskovich

Disarming superbugs that can cause deadly infections is the focus of a powerful database now housed at The University of Queensland.

The database and virtual laboratory, called SPARK, aims to foster the development of new antibiotics to prevent projections of 10 million deaths globally per year from superbugs by 2050.

SPARK– the Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge – enables scientists to share data and insights, learn from past research and generate new knowledge into how to kill bacteria.

Associate Professor Mark Blaskovich said superbugs threatened to make common medical procedures such as joint replacements, liver transplants and chemotherapy too dangerous because of the risk of untreatable infection.

“Without new antibiotics, the world risks a return to the day when a simple schoolyard scrape could lead to a deadly infection,” Dr Blaskovich said.

Superbugs have evolved to develop resistance, with mechanisms that protect them from the effects of a range of antibiotics.

“Many pharmaceutical companies have left the field of antibiotic research and development because of low returns on investment,” Dr Blaskovich said.

“This is where SPARK comes in, filling the gap and helping the global community come together to discover effective new antibiotics.

“SPARK captures the collective wisdom of companies and researchers that have retired from antibiotic discovery and provides a one-stop shop to find a wealth of antibiotic-related data that would otherwise be difficult to access.”

Terra Orbital Drift

On YouTube

Terra has consistently orbited Earth from pole to pole for over twenty years, collecting important data about Earth’s systems. Crossing the equator at 10:30 am mean local time allowed Terra’s five instruments to collect consistent, simultaneous data, important to Earth’s systems research and applications. In 2020, Terra completed its final inclination maneuver, using some of its limited fuel supply, to maintain that crossing time.

Since that final inclination maneuver, Terra has continuously drifted to an earlier equatorial crossing time. By the Fall of 2022, Terra’s crossing time will be earlier than 10:15 am. To ensure Terra, with limited fuel supplies, is a safe distance from other missions in the Earth Observing Satellite constellation orbit, Terra will be lowered to a new orbit, where it will be able to collect valuable data at an even earlier crossing time.

Breeding Plants With Genes From 1 Parent

Photo by Johann Piber from Pexels

Scientists are a step closer to breeding plants with genes from only one parent. New research led by plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Nov. 19 in Science Advances, shows the underlying mechanism behind eliminating half the genome and could make for easier and more rapid breeding of crop plants with desirable traits such as disease resistance.

The work stems from a discovery made over a decade ago by the late Simon Chan, associate professor of plant biology in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, and colleagues.

Plants, like other sexual organisms, inherit a matching set of chromosomes from each parent. In order to transmit a favorable trait, such as pest or drought resistance, to all their offspring, the plant would have to carry the same genetic variant on each chromosome. But creating plants that “breed true” in this way can take generations of cross-breeding.

In 2010, Chan and postdoctoral fellow Ravi Maruthachalam serendipitously discovered a way to eliminate the genetic contribution from one parent while breeding the lab plant Arabidopsis. They had modified a protein called CENH3, found in the centromere, a structure in the center of a chromosome. When they tried to cross wild-type Arabidopsis with plants with modified CENH3, they got plants with half the normal number of chromosomes. The part of the genome from one parent plant had been eliminated to create a haploid plant.

Smokers more likely to die from heart disease than lung cancer

The most likely cause of death for people who smoke is a fatal heart attack, stroke or heart failure that occurs without any warning signs, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

“Most people are aware about the risks of lung cancer with smoking, but many people who smoke do not realize that dying from cardiovascular disease is more likely than dying from lung cancer,” said lead study author Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist.

This is the first study showing smokers are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than lung cancer and to show they are more likely to die from a fatal cardiovascular event without warning.

“This is so important because in the U.S., one in five people still report using tobacco, which may have increased with the added stress of the pandemic,” Khan said.

The analysis was an observational study and used individual-level data from multiple cohorts that followed people for several decades to examine risk of cardiovascular disease based on whether someone smoked or not.

“One of the most important findings of this analysis is that the first sign of cardiovascular disease is more likely to be a fatal event in those who smoke,” Khan said. “Smoking is more likely to kill people from heart disease even before someone may know they have heart disease.”

Nations are overusing natural resources faster than they are meeting basic human needs

For at least the last 30 years, not a single country has met the basic needs of its residents without overconsuming natural resources, according to new research led by the University of Leeds.

If current trends continue, no country will do so over the next three decades either, perpetuating human deprivation and worsening ecological breakdown.

The study, published in Nature Sustainability, is the first to track nations’ progress in terms of both meeting basic needs and respecting environmental limits in 148 countries since 1992, with projections to 2050 based on recent trends.

The country-level findings for social and environmental performance are available through an interactive website built by the researchers involved in the study.

The research team found that without urgent changes, national economies will continue to drive ecological breakdown, while delivering slow and insufficient improvements in living standards.

Wealthy countries like the US, UK, and Canada are transgressing planetary boundaries linked to climate and ecological breakdown, yet achieving minimal social gains. Poorer countries like Bangladesh, Malawi, and Sri Lanka are living within planetary boundaries, but still falling short on meeting many basic human needs.

New link between diet, intestinal stem cells and disease discovered

How unhealthy diet makes you sick

Obesity, diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer are frequently linked to an unhealthy diet. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this are hitherto not fully understood. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich have gained some new insights that help to better understand this connection. These findings provide an important basis for the development of new, non-invasive therapies.

The intestine is essential for maintaining our energy balance and is a master at reacting quickly to changes in nutrition and nutrient balance. It manages to do this with the help of intestinal cells that among other things are specialized in the absorption of food components or the secretion of hormones.

In adult humans, the intestinal cells regenerate every five to seven days. The ability to constantly renew and develop all types of intestinal cells from intestinal stem cells is crucial for the natural adaptability of the digestive system. However, a long-term diet high in sugar and fat disrupts this adaptation and can contribute to the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer.

The molecular mechanisms behind this maladaptation are part of the research field of the group of Heiko Lickert, professor for diabetes research and ß-cell biology at the Technical University of Munich and head of the Institute for Diabetes and Regeneration Research at Helmholtz Munich.

The scientists assume that intestinal stem cells play a special role in the maladaptation. Using a mouse model, the researchers investigated the effects of a high-sugar and high-fat diet and compared it with a control group.

“The first thing we noticed was that the small intestine increases greatly in size on the high-calorie diet,” says study leader Anika Böttcher. “Together with Fabian Theis’ team of computational biologists, we then profiled 27,000 intestinal cells from control diet and high fat/high sugar diet fed mice. Using new machine learning techniques, we thus found that intestinal stem cells divide and differentiate significantly faster in the mice on an unhealthy diet.”

New mothers could help protect other babies’ brains

The placenta from mothers of healthy newborns could one day be used to reduce brain injury in growth-restricted babies, according to University of Queensland research.

Dr Julie Wixey from UQ’s Centre for Clinical Research said the study found stem cells sourced from a healthy placenta may reduce damaging inflammation in these babies after only three days.

“There is currently no treatment to protect the brains of a growth-restricted baby,” Dr Wixey said.

“Up to 50 per cent of them have long term issues ranging from mild learning and behavioral disorders all the way through to cerebral palsy.

“We know there’s inflammation in the brain and it doesn’t cease once these babies are born.

“Our study has shown we could reduce inflammation and ongoing brain injury by treating these newborns on the day they’re born using a combination of two types of stem cells – endothelial colony forming cells and mesenchymal stromal cells – isolated from a healthy human placenta.”

About 32 million growth-restricted babies are born around the world each year, with around 10 per cent of newborns in Australia affected.

These babies fail to grow normally in the womb, often because they haven’t received enough nutrients and oxygen from the placenta.

Antarctic ice-sheet destabilized within a decade

Iceberg in Antarctica © Uni Bonn/ Michael Weber

After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study led by the University of Bonn (Germany) now shows that it took only a decade to initiate this tipping point in the climate system, and that ice mass loss then continued for many centuries. Accompanying modeling studies suggest that today's accelerating Antarctic ice mass loss also represents such a tipping point, which could lead to irreversible and long-lasting ice retreat and global sea level rise. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Dr. Michael Weber from the Institute of Geosciences
 at the University of Bonn
© Uni Bonn/ Michael Weber

To understand what the consequences of current and future human-induced climate warming may be, it helps to take a look at the past: how did sea-level changes look like during times of natural climate warming? In a recent study, an international research team led by Dr. Michael Weber from the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Bonn investigated this question. In doing so, they focused on the Antarctic Ice Sheet as the largest remaining ice sheet on Earth.

There, they searched for evidence of icebergs that broke off the Antarctic continent, floated in the surrounding ocean and melted down in the major gateway to lower latitudes called “Iceberg Alley”. In the process, the icebergs released encapsulated debris that accumulated on the ocean floor. The team took sediment cores from the deep ocean in 3.5 km water depth from the area, dated the natural climate archive and counted the ice-rafted debris.