Scientists, students will utilize newly launched James Webb Space Telescope for solar system research

The flight mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope undergo cryogenic testing at NASA Marshall. Credit: Ball Aerospace

In one of the most exciting developments in astronomy in the 21st century, NASA is launching the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) today—and Northern Arizona University astronomers, planetary astronomers and their students will use the massive observatory to expand their research and advance our understanding of the solar system.

“Webb is NASA’s newest premier space science observatory—destined to be a household name, like its predecessor, Hubble,” NASA announced. “This is an Apollo moment for NASA science—Webb will fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe. It can observe all of the cosmos, from planets to stars to nebulae to galaxies and beyond—helping scientists uncover secrets of the distant universe as well as exoplanets closer to home. Webb can explore our own solar system’s residents with exquisite new detail and search for faint signals from the first galaxies ever made. From new forming stars to devouring black holes, Webb will reveal all this and more.”

The JWST, which NASA calls “a feat of human ingenuity,” is being launched in a global partnership with the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency. The mission has evolved over the past 20 years with contributions from thousands of scientists, engineers and other professionals from more than 14 countries and 29 U.S. states, including professor David Trilling, professor Josh Emery and assistant professor Cristina Thomas of NAU’s Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science.

New grafting technique could combat the disease threatening Cavendish bananas

Credit: Steve Hopson

Grafting is the technique of joining the shoot of one plant with the root of another, so they continue to grow together as one. Until now it was thought impossible to graft grass-like plants in the group known as monocotyledons because they lack a specific tissue type, called the vascular cambium, in their stem.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered that root and shoot tissues taken from the seeds of monocotyledonous grasses - representing their earliest embryonic stages - fuse efficiently. Their results are published today in the journal Nature.

An estimated 60,000 plants are monocotyledons; many are crops that are cultivated at enormous scale, for example rice, wheat and barley.

The finding has implications for the control of serious soil-borne pathogens including Panama Disease, or ‘Tropical Race 4’, which has been destroying banana plantations for over 30 years. A recent acceleration in the spread of this disease has prompted fears of global banana shortages.

“We’ve achieved something that everyone said was impossible. Grafting embryonic tissue holds real potential across a range of grass-like species. We found that even distantly related species, separated by deep evolutionary time, are graft compatible,” said Professor Julian Hibberd in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the report.

Nasal spray to fight COVID-19 heads to clinical trial

The coronavirus in culture.
Credit: Dr Julian Druce VIDRL, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

An at-home nasal spray treatment for COVID-19 will be put to the test by Melbourne biomedical researchers, as the University of Melbourne and Monash University receive $4.2 million to establish a six-month clinical trial lead by Northern Hospital in collaboration with Oxford University.

Heparin, a widely used blood-thinning drug to treat or prevent blood clots forms the base of the nasal spray treatment that is simple to administer, stable at room temperature and available globally.

Director of Lung Health Research Centre, University of Melbourne Professor Gary Anderson said the spray will be easy to use, with two puffs in each nostril, three times a day.

“Basic science studies revealed that intranasal heparin may be an effective way to prevent COVID-19 infection and spread. COVID-19 first infects cells in the nose, and to do that the virus must bind to Heparan Sulfate on the surface of nasal cells lining the nose,” Professor Anderson said.

“Heparin - the active ingredient in our spray - has a structure that is very similar to Heparan Sulfate, so it behaves as a ‘decoy’ and can rapidly wrap around the virus’s spike protein like a python, preventing it from infecting you or spreading the virus to others.

Lizards offer new possibilities for artificial lungs

Male Brown anole displaying dewlap

When it comes to studying lungs, humans take up all the air, but it turns out scientists have a lot to learn from lizards.

A new study from Princeton University shows how the brown anole lizard solves one of nature’s most complex problems — breathing — with elegant simplicity. Whereas human lungs develop over months and years into baroque tree-like structures, the anole lung develops in just a few days into crude lobes covered with bulbous protuberances. These gourd-like structures, while far less refined, allow the lizard to exchange oxygen for waste gases just as human lungs do. And because they grow quickly by leveraging simple mechanical processes, anole lungs provide new inspiration for engineers designing advanced biotechnologies.

“Our group is really interested in understanding lung development for engineering purposes,” said Celeste Nelson, the Wilke Family Professor in Bioengineering and the principal investigator of a study published in the journal Science Advances. “If we understand how lungs build themselves, then perhaps we can take advantage of the mechanisms mother nature uses to regenerate or engineer tissues.”

While avian and mammalian lungs develop great complexity through endless branching and complicated biochemical signaling, the brown anole lung forms its relatively modest complexity through a mechanical process the authors likened to a mesh stress ball — the common toy found in desk drawers and DIY videos. This study is the first to look at the development of a reptile lung, according to the researchers.

The anole lung starts a few days into development as a hollow, elongated membrane surrounded by a uniform layer of smooth muscle. During development, the lung cells secrete fluid, and as they do so the inner membrane slowly inflates and thins like a balloon. The pressure pushes against the smooth muscle, causing it to tighten and spread apart into fiber bundles that ultimately form a honeycomb-shaped mesh. Fluid pressure continues pushing the stretchy membrane outward, bulging through the gaps in the sinewy mesh and forming fluid-filled bulbs that cover the lung. Those bulges create lots of surface area where the gas exchange occurs.

Research suggests deer could be a possible source of human infection

Douglas Watts, Ph.D., right, professor of biological sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, and Pedro Palermo, manager of the UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center’s Biosafety Level 3 Infectious Disease Research Program laboratory, are authors of a study that proves for the first time that COVID-19 is present in white-tailed deer in Texas, a finding published recently in Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases.
Photo: J.R. Hernandez / UTEP Marketing and Communications

Research conducted by Douglas Watts, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, has found COVID-19 present in white-tailed deer in Texas. A report on the discovery was published recently in Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on diseases transmitted to humans by animals.

The UTEP team found the first reported evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in deer from Texas, which widens the previously reported geographical range of COVID-19 among deer in the United States, further confirming that infection was common among the species.

“The one thing we know best about SARS-CoV-2 is its unpredictability,” Watts said. “Therefore, the transmission of the virus from infected deer back to humans, while not likely, may be possible.”

While the mechanisms of COVID-19 transmission between humans and animals is still being investigated, the UTEP team’s study suggests that deer should not be neglected as a possible source of SARS-CoV-2 infection among humans as well as domestic and wildlife animals. Watts said subsequent investigations should work to mitigate any risks associated with deer as a possible source of human infection.

COVID-19 infection detected in deer in 9 Ohio locations

Credit: Heidi-Ann Fourkiller SFLORG

Scientists have detected infection by at least three variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 in free-ranging white-tailed deer in six northeast Ohio locations, the research team has reported.

Previous research led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture had shown evidence of antibodies in wild deer. This study, published in Nature, details the first report of active COVID-19 infection in white-tailed deer supported by the growth of viral isolates in the lab, indicating researchers had recovered viable samples of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and not only its genetic traces.

Based on genomic sequencing of the samples collected between January and March 2021, researchers determined that variants infecting wild deer matched strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that had been prevalent in Ohio COVID-19 patients at the time. Sample collection occurred before the Delta variant was widespread, and that variant was not detected in these deer. The team is testing more samples to check for new variants as well as older variants, whose continued presence would suggest the virus can set up shop and survive in this species.

The fact that wild deer can become infected “leads toward the idea that we might actually have established a new maintenance host outside humans,” said Andrew Bowman, associate professor of veterinary preventive medicine at The Ohio State University and senior author of the paper.

“Based on evidence from other studies, we knew they were being exposed in the wild and that in the lab we could infect them and the virus could transmit from deer to deer. Here, we’re saying that in the wild, they are infected,” Bowman said. “And if they can maintain it, we have a new potential source of SARS-CoV-2 coming in to humans. That would mean that beyond tracking what’s in people, we’ll need to know what’s in the deer, too.

Experts help to save rare endangered plant from brink of extinction

Ka palupalu o Kanaloa (Photo credit: Zachary Wingert)

Ka palupalu o Kanaloa (Kanaloa kahoolawensis) is one of 10 most critically endangered plants and animals in the world to be impacted by climate change, according to a December 2021 report by the Endangered Species Coalition. The species was declared extinct in the wild in 2015. Over the past several years, experts at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have brought the Ka palupalu o Kanaloa back from the edge of disappearing from existence.

Ka palupalu o Kanaloa is a densely branched shrub with thin oval leaves and produces large clusters of small white flowers. The plant was historically found to grow on the rocky cliffs of Kahoʻolawe, but fossilized pollen from the species has been found on Oʻahu, Maui, and Kauaʻi. Two Ka palupalu o Kanaloa plants were discovered in 1992 growing on a sea stack off the coast of Kahoʻolawe. Fortunately, seeds were collected from the last two plants before they died in 2015.

Conservation efforts through propagation to save Ka palupalu o Kanaloa were led by Doug Okamoto, a greenhouse technician with UH Mānoa’s Lyon Arboretum, and Anna Palomino from UH Mānoa’s Center for Conservation Research and Training, who is also a Department of Land and Natural Resources Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DLNR-DOFAW) and Plant Extinction Prevention Program horticulturist.

Sugar-coated COVID-19 test takes advantage of coronavirus’ sweet tooth

Ronit Freeman, a UNC-Chapel Hill associate professor of biomedical engineering and applied physical sciences, studies the way coronaviruses enter cells as well as how to simplify the COVID-19 testing process.

Even those tracking each new discovery about the coronavirus and its variants may not be aware of the virus’ sugar cravings.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of California San Diego take advantage of the virus’ sweet tooth in the design of a sugar-coated COVID-19 test strip that’s been effective at detecting all known variants of the coronavirus, including delta.

In the next few weeks, researchers will determine if the self-test known as GlycoGrip can detect infections caused by the omicron variant too, said Carolina researcher Ronit Freeman.

“We have turned the tables on the virus by using the same sugar coat it binds to infect cells – to capture it into our sensor,” said Freeman, who published the findings in ACS Central Science.

The test is inspired by the natural biology of epithelial cells – those that are targeted and infiltrated by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These cells are coated with a dense matrix of sugars called the glycocalyx, and it’s this sugar net that the virus exploits to cause infection.

Templating approach stabilizes ‘ideal’ material for alternative solar cells

Artist's impression of formamidinium (FA)-based crystal 
Credit: Tiarnan Doherty

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used an organic molecule as a ‘template’ to guide perovskite films into the desired phase as they form. Their results are reported in the journal Science.

Perovskite materials offer a cheaper alternative to silicon for producing optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and LEDs.

There are many different perovskites, resulting from different combinations of elements, but one of the most promising to emerge in recent years is the formamidinium (FA)-based FAPbI3 crystal.

The compound is thermally stable and its inherent ‘bandgap’ – the property most closely linked to the energy output of the device – is not far off ideal for photovoltaic applications.

For these reasons, it has been the focus of efforts to develop commercially available perovskite solar cells. However, the compound can exist in two slightly different phases, with one phase leading to excellent photovoltaic performance, and the other resulting in very little energy output.

“A big problem with FAPbI3 is that the phase that you want is only stable at temperatures above 150 degrees Celsius,” said Tiarnan Doherty from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, the paper's first author. “At room temperature, it transitions into another phase, which is really bad for photovoltaics.”

Recent solutions to keep the material in its desired phase at lower temperatures have involved adding different positive and negative ions into the compound.

ESO telescopes help uncover largest group of rogue planets

This artist’s impression shows an example of a rogue planet with the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex visible in the background. Rogue planets have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own. 
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Rogue planets are elusive cosmic objects that have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own. Not many were known until now, but a team of astronomers, using data from several European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes and other facilities, have just discovered at least 70 new rogue planets in our galaxy. This is the largest group of rogue planets ever discovered, an important step towards understanding the origins and features of these mysterious galactic nomads.