Whaling wiped out far more fin whales than previously thought

The study found current conservation efforts should be enough to help the Eastern North Pacific fin whale population rebound without becoming inbred.
Photo Credit: Aqqa Rosing-Asvid
(CC BY 4.0 DEED)

A new genomic study by UCLA biologists shows that whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding, or “effective,” population — 29% more than previously thought.

But there is also some good news: Genes among members of this endangered species are still diverse enough that current conservation measures should be be enough to help the population rebound without becoming inbred. The study also found that the health of this group is essential for the survival of highly isolated, genetically distinct fin whales in the Gulf of California.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is among the first to use whole genome information to get a picture of the size and genetic diversity of today’s population. Previous studies had to rely on whaling records or mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from the mother, providing limited genetic information.

In the 19th century, whaling decimated most whale species around the world but left the largest ones — blue and fin whales — largely untouched. That changed with the advent of industrial whaling in the 20th century. By midcentury, close to a million fin whales worldwide had been slaughtered, at least 75,000 of these in the Eastern North Pacific.

How do caterpillars acquire chubby legs

Prolegs in the body of the world’s largest moth (dark color), the Atlas moth (Atticus atlas), support the caterpillar in hanging upside down on a twig. Meanwhile, the smaller thoracic legs can be used to help in food processing.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of National University of Singapore

Adult insects, including butterflies and moths, typically have only three pairs of legs. But the existence of extra legs in caterpillars – chubby abdominal appendages also known as ‘prolegs’ – has long posed an evolutionary mystery to biologists. A recent study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) linked this novel trait to crustaceans.

Caterpillars use their prolegs to grab on to twigs and leaves, while using their thoracic or ‘true’ legs to hold on to other plant parts for feeding.

“The three main theories regarding prolegs suggested that they might be modified thoracic legs, completely novel traits, or modified lobes (endites) of primitive thoracic legs,” explained Professor Antónia Monteiro, who led the team of researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science. “Our study proposes that prolegs are indeed novel traits unrelated to thoracic legs. However, they are derived from a genetic program that specifies lobes that were originally found in the proximal region of crustacean limbs, but had remained inactive in this limb region for millions of years.”

The NUS team published their findings in the scientific journal Science Advances.

Ultrahigh-sensitivity microprobe optimizes detection of molecular fingerprints

Illustration of a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microprobe scanning across a sample substrate to collect 2D mapping of molecular fingerprints of substances.
Illustration Credit: Yang lab

Being a good detective requires top-notch evidence gathering, going where the clues are and recognizing their meaning. The same holds true in the realm of sensing technology, where the quest for the perfect balance between ultrahigh sensitivity and a large detection area has been an ongoing challenge. These properties are crucial for a wide range of applications, from biomedical monitoring and chemical imaging to magnetic sensing and vibration detection.

Optical whispering-gallery-mode microsensors, characterized by their ability to trap light in tiny spherical cavities, have emerged as a promising platform for various sensing applications. However, they have historically struggled to achieve both ultrahigh sensitivity and a substantial detection area simultaneously.

Breaking new ground in the field, researchers working with Lan Yang, the Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, have developed a scanning whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microprobe. This novel device represents a shift in the world of microsensors, offering a remarkable solution to the sensitivity-detection area trade-off conundrum. The findings were published in Light: Science & Applications.

Boom in “ice ivory” trade of mammoth tusks presents new threat to elephants and environment

A new study warns the close similarities between the tusks of elephants and mammoths poses threats to conservation and environment efforts

Conservationists fear a rise in the buying and selling of mammoth tusks, known as the “ice ivory” trade, poses a new threat to elephants.

A UK-wide ban on the sale of ivory came into force in 2018, following a University of Portsmouth led investigation into the British antiques trade of the material.

Earlier this year, it was announced the Ivory Act would be extended to protect five more endangered CITES-listed species, including the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, orca and sperm whale.

However, a new study has warned that the sale of mammoth tusks is an unregulated aspect of the ivory trade that needs to be addressed. The species falls outside of the regulation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); a multi-government agreement set up to ensure the survival of animals and plant species.

Brain tumor treatment by targeting TUG1, a gene that controls replication stress

Researchers discovered the mechanism of interaction among TUG1 (red), R-loops (green),  and another protein (blue) in cancer cells, which provides a key to therapeutic applications. 
Image Credit: Yutaka Kondo, Nagoya University

A new study has unraveled a crucial link between how cancer cells cope with replication stress and the role of Taurine Upregulated Gene 1 (TUG1). By targeting TUG1 with a drug, the researchers were able to control brain tumor growth in mice, suggesting a potential strategy to combat aggressive brain tumors such as glioblastomas. 

“These findings have the potential to be translated into therapeutic applications, as TUG1 is highly expressed in glioblastoma,” said lead researcher Professor Yutaka Suzuki. “In this study, we successfully developed a therapeutic drug named TUG1-DDS, which selectively targets TUG1. It significantly suppressed tumor growth and improved survival, especially when administered in combination with the standard treatment of temozolomide. Therefore, it is a potentially effective therapeutic agent for treating glioblastoma.” 

To understand how TUG1 could potentially treat the most dangerous forms of brain cancer, it is important to understand how cancer turns the usual processes of host cells against themselves to create an environment favorable to cancer cell growth. Even essential cell processes, such as replication, are used to the cancer’s advantage.  

Adaptation to climate change impacts – action too uncoordinated worldwide

How are governments, organizations, companies, and individuals dealing with the impacts of global warming? Indeed, who are the actors, when it comes to reducing the risks of climate change, such as droughts, floods, and forest fires? What do the individual actor groups contribute? And where and how are they already working together in a systematic fashion?

A new study provides the first global analysis of actors engaged in climate adaptation and the roles they are playing. For the publication, an international team led by scientists from LMU and the University of Hamburg assessed more than 1,400 scientific studies on the subject of climate change adaptation. The results show that there are, across the globe, many gaps in distribution of roles and responsibilities for adaptation. Above all, there is a lack of adaptation that profoundly transforms societies, infrastructure, and risk management in response to the massive impacts of climate change. Further, there is a lack of comprehensive collaborations between various state and non-state actors.

“Comprehensive, fair, and forward-looking adaptation is successful when formal organizations and the various other actor group are integrated at all levels,” says Dr. Jan Petzold, geographer at LMU and lead author of the study.

Simulations of ‘backwards time travel’ can improve scientific experiments

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline stock graphic

If gamblers, investors and quantum experimentalists could bend the arrow of time, their advantage would be significantly higher, leading to significantly better outcomes. 

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that by manipulating entanglement – a feature of quantum theory that causes particles to be intrinsically linked – they can simulate what could happen if one could travel backwards in time. So that gamblers, investors and quantum experimentalists could, in some cases, retroactively change their past actions and improve their outcomes in the present.

Whether particles can travel backwards in time is a controversial topic among physicists, even though scientists have previously simulated models of how such spacetime loops could behave if they did exist. By connecting their new theory to quantum metrology, which uses quantum theory to make highly sensitive measurements, the Cambridge team has shown that entanglement can solve problems that otherwise seem impossible. The study appears in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“Imagine that you want to send a gift to someone: you need to send it on day one to make sure it arrives on day three,” said lead author David Arvidsson-Shukur, from the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory. “However, you only receive that person’s wish list on day two. So, in this chronology-respecting scenario, it’s impossible for you to know in advance what they will want as a gift and to make sure you send the right one.

An electrical switch to control chemical reactions

The device takes the form of a small box in which the reaction medium circulates between two electrodes producing the electric field.
Photo Credit: © Stefan Matile

New pharmaceuticals, cleaner fuels, biodegradable plastics: in order to meet society’s needs, chemists have to develop new synthesis methods to obtain new products that do not exist in their natural state. A research group at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with Cardiff University, has discovered how to use an external electric field to control and accelerate a chemical reaction, like a "switch". This work, to be read in Science Advances, could have a considerable impact on the development of new molecules, enabling not only more environmentally friendly synthesis, but also very simple external control of a chemical reaction.

In chemistry, creating complex organic chemical compounds from simpler reagents is denoted "organic synthesis". Through successive reactions, chemists assemble small molecules to ultimately form the desired products. Organic synthesis is crucial to the manufacture of drugs, polymers, agrochemicals, pigments and fragrances. These successive steps are extremely precise and delicate to control. To limit the required resources, the yield of each reaction step should be optimal. Achieving better control and simpler operation of these reactions remains a major research challenge.

New study reveals the influence of natural climate drivers on extreme monsoons in Pakistan

Satellite image of flooding in Pakistan in August 2022.
Image Credit: Moetasim Ashfaq

A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks at some of the influences that could be driving the increasingly severe weather over Pakistan.

Published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, the study analyzed over 40 years of data and found that natural climate variability, which includes factors such as sea surface temperature and jet stream anomalies, accounts for over 70% of observed monsoon variability and extremes in Pakistan during the 21st century — with climate change potentially adding to their severity.

Pakistan is no stranger to floods and droughts. However, these events have become more frequent and severe in recent decades — unprecedented rainfall in 2010 and 2022 caused catastrophic floods and landslides, and a drought at the beginning of the 21st century caused widespread famine.

Climate scientists must quantify the influence of natural climate variability on these extreme weather events to understand how and the extent to which climate change has contributed to this increased volatility.

The study, called “The influence of natural variability on extreme monsoons in Pakistan,” focused on precipitation variability in West South Asia, a region that includes Pakistan and parts of India. The South Asian climate is commonly studied due to the area’s high population and strong monsoon season, which can bring up to 70% of the annual rainfall in a few months. 

Drug-filled nanocapsule helps make immunotherapy more effective in mice

Image illustrates the effect of lactate oxidase (LOx) nanocapsules (depicted in orange) within solid tumors. By reducing lactate concentrations and generating hydrogen peroxide in the tumor microenvironment, these nanocapsules promote the infiltration and activation of T cells (depicted in blue and green).
Image Credit: Courtesy of the Jing Wen laboratory.

UCLA researchers have developed a new treatment method using a tiny nanocapsule to help boost the immune response, making it easier for the immune system to fight and kill solid tumors.

The investigators found the approach, described in the journal Science Translational Medicine, increased the number and activity of immune cells that attack the cancer, making cancer immunotherapies work better.

“Cancer immunotherapy has reshaped the landscape of cancer treatment,” said senior author of the study Jing Wen, assistant adjunct professor of microbiology, immunology, & molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a scientist at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “However, not all patients with solid tumors respond well to immunotherapy, and the reason seems to be related to the way the cancer cells affect their surroundings.”

Cancer cells produce a lot of lactate, Wen explained, which creates an environment around the solid tumor that makes it difficult for the immune system to work effectively against the cancer.