Lesser-known eating disorder just as severe as anorexia and bulimia

Photo Credit: Sehajpal Singh

A diagnosis often viewed as less serious than anorexia and bulimia – and the most common eating disorder worldwide – can cause just as much harm, a new study has found. 

Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED) is diagnosed when a person’s symptoms don’t fit neatly into the classical categories but are still clinically significant. 

Researchers from McGill University and Douglas Research Centre compared clinical data from adults with OSFED to those with anorexia and bulimia. Across measures of depression, anxiety, well-being, and concerns about shape, weight and eating, they found people with OSFED were just as ill, and in some cases had more severe symptoms. 

Hawaiian monk seals are far more ‘talkative’ than previously known

Two adult Hawaiian monk seals interacting under water.
Photo Credit: Krista Jaspers

A new study by researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) has revealed that endangered Hawaiian monk seals have a hidden vocal repertoire, using a complex range of sounds to call underwater.

Previously, scientists believed monk seals had a simple repertoire, identifying only six different calls based on seals in human care. In this study, the scientists analyzed thousands of hours of passive acoustic data from the wild, they discovered 25 distinct vocalizations.

How chromosomes separate accurately

Representation how separase recognizes the cohesin subunit SCC1 before chromosome segregation occurs.
Illustration Credit: © Margot Riggi

Cell division is a process of remarkable precision: during each cycle, the genetic material must be evenly distributed between the two daughter cells. To achieve this, duplicated chromosomes, known as sister chromatids, are temporarily linked by cohesin – a ring-shaped protein complex that holds them together until separation. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have uncovered the mechanism by which separase – the molecular ‘‘scissors’’ responsible for this cleavage – recognizes and cuts cohesin. Their findings, published in Science Advances, shed new light on chromosome segregation errors that can lead to certain forms of cancer. 

Variety of animals evolved similar genetics solutions to survive on land, study finds

Transition from water to land 
Image Credit: Dinghua Yang

Animals from completely different branches of the tree of life such as insects, worms and vertebrates independently evolved similar genetic solutions to survive on land, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol and University of Barcelona. 

The research, published in Nature suggests that some adaptations are so essential that environmental challenges make evolution predictable.  

The researchers decoded the genetic basis of one of evolution’s more extraordinary innovations – the transition from water to land. 

New lightweight polymer film can prevent corrosion

MIT researchers tested the gas permeability of their new polymer films by suspending them over microwells to form bubbles. Some bubbles from 2021 experiments are still inflated. This optical micrograph shows how the films form very colorful spots when suspended over microwells.
Image Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

MIT researchers have developed a lightweight polymer film that is nearly impenetrable to gas molecules, raising the possibility that it could be used as a protective coating to prevent solar cells and other infrastructure from corrosion, and to slow the aging of packaged food and medicines.

The polymer, which can be applied as a film mere nanometers thick, completely repels nitrogen and other gases, as far as can be detected by laboratory equipment, the researchers found. That degree of impermeability has never been seen before in any polymer, and rivals the impermeability of molecularly-thin crystalline materials such as graphene.

“Our polymer is quite unusual. It’s obviously produced from a solution-phase polymerization reaction, but the product behaves like graphene, which is gas-impermeable because it’s a perfect crystal. However, when you examine this material, one would never confuse it with a perfect crystal,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.

Astronomers discover a superheated star factory in the early universe

Glowing deep red from the distant past: galaxy Y1 shines thanks to dust grains heated by newly-formed stars (circled in this image from the James Webb telescope).
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Diego (Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Spain), J. D’Silva (U. Western Australia), A. Koekemoer (STScI), J. Summers & R. Windhorst (ASU), and H. Yan (U. Missouri)

Astronomers have uncovered a previously unknown, extreme kind of star factory by taking the temperature of a distant galaxy using the ALMA telescope. The galaxy is glowing intensely in superheated cosmic dust while forming stars 180 times faster than our own Milky Way. The discovery indicates how galaxies could have grown quickly when the universe was very young, solving a long-standing puzzle for astronomers.  

The first generations of stars formed under conditions very different from anywhere we can see in the nearby universe today. Astronomers are studying these differences using powerful telescopes that can detect galaxies so far away their light has travelled towards us for billions of years.   

Higher methane emissions from warmer lakes and reservoirs may exacerbate worst-case climate scenario

Lakes are large sources of methane.
Photo Credit:Monica Westman

Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from lakes and reservoirs risk doubling by the end of the century due to climate change according to a new study from Linköping University, Sweden, and NASA Ames Research Center in the US. This in turn could raise Earth’s temperature more than suggested by the UN climate panel IPCC’s current worst-case scenario. 

“This study makes it even clearer that we really, really want to change the climate scenario as quickly as possible. The future will be very uncertain if we don’t,” says Professor David Bastviken at Linköping University. 

Lakes and water reservoirs are some of the largest sources of methane on Earth. The methane emitted is largely formed as microorganisms decompose organic matter in oxygen-free environments. Before industrialization, natural methane emissions to the atmosphere were in balance with the methane breakdown processes. If the ongoing climate change disturbs the natural balance causing emissions to increase, global warming is at risk of worsening. 

Bioengineering: In-Depth Description

Bioengineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies engineering principles, design concepts, and quantitative methods to biological systems. It bridges the gap between engineering and the life sciences to create solutions for problems in biology, medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. Its primary goals are to analyze and understand complex biological systems and to develop new technologies, materials, and therapies to improve human health, quality of life, and sustainability.

New ultrasound technique could help aging and injured brains

Raag Airan, Matine Azadian, Payton Martinez, and Yun Xiang in the lab. Azadian is holding a version of their ultrasound apparatus designed for humans.
Photo Credit: Andrew Brodhead

Just like your body needs a bath now and then, so too does your brain – but instead of a tub filled with hot water, your brain has cerebrospinal fluid, which flows around inside the brain and helps clear away waste products, misplaced blood cells, and other sometimes-toxic debris.

The trouble is, that natural brain-bathing system can break down as people age or after a brain injury, such as a stroke – and there aren’t any particularly good ways to help the brain out in those situations. Indeed, current ideas to promote cerebrospinal fluid cleaning are either rather invasive or require drugs that may not be safe or effective in people.

Fortunately, a team of Stanford researchers has found a radically simple tool that may help the brain wash itself out without the need for drugs or invasive procedures: ultrasound, the same tool obstetricians regularly use at prenatal checkups.

Metasurfaces show promise in boosting AR image clarity and brightness

Photo Credit: J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester

Researchers at the University of Rochester have designed and demonstrated a new optical component that could significantly enhance the brightness and image quality of augmented reality (AR) glasses. The advance brings AR glasses a step closer to becoming as commonplace and useful as today’s smartphones.

“Many of today’s AR headsets are bulky and have a short battery life with displays that are dim and hard to see, especially outdoors,” says research team leader Nickolas Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics with URochester’s Institute of Optics. “By creating a much more efficient input port for the display, our work could help make AR glasses much brighter and more power-efficient, moving them from being a niche gadget to something as light and comfortable as a regular pair of eyeglasses.”