A new study reveals how oxygen first reached Earth’s oceans

WHOI Geochemist Andy Heard uses precise measurements of isotope ratios in sedimentary rocks to learn about the history of oxygen in Earth’s ocean.
Photo Credit: Daniel Hentz, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

For roughly two billion years of Earth’s early history, the atmosphere contained no oxygen, the essential ingredient required for complex life. Oxygen began building up during the period known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), but when and how it first entered the oceans has remained uncertain.

A new study published in Nature Communications shows that oxygen was absorbed from the atmosphere into the shallow oceans within just a few million years—a geological blink of an eye. Led by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the work provides new insight into one of the most important environmental shifts in Earth’s history.

“At that point in Earth’s history, nearly all life was in the oceans. For complex life to develop, organisms first had to learn not only to use oxygen, but simply to tolerate it,” said Andy Heard, lead author of the study and assistant scientist at WHOI. “Understanding when oxygen first accumulated in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans is essential to tracing the evolution of life. And because ocean oxygenation appears to have followed atmospheric oxygen surprisingly quickly, it suggests that if we detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet, there’s a strong chance its oceans also contain oxygen.”

Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos Go Where the Salt Is

Many protected areas are located in sodium-deficient landscapes. Animals travel long distances in search of salt.
Photo Credit: Ray Rui

In some regions in Africa, large herbivores struggle to get enough sodium. As many of the continent’s protected areas are in regions where salt levels are low, this scarcity may also affect conservation efforts, according to UZH researchers. 

Herbivores require a steady intake of sodium to keep their metabolism running smoothly. This is why farm animals have long been given salt or mineral licks. Animals in the wild, however, need to get their salt from sources in their habitats. In some areas, plants and other natural sources of salt provide sufficient sodium, while in others, sodium levels are scarce. These differences can influence where certain species settle or how far they will migrate to find natural salt licks. 

A new study conducted in collaboration with the University of Zurich now shows that in many places the largest herbivores in the wild – elephants, giraffes and rhinos – have limited access to sodium. The researchers combined high-resolution maps of plant sodium with data on the animals’ population density and with results of fecal analyses. Since sodium deficiency is directly detectable in the feces, they were able to draw conclusions about the species’ actual sodium intake. 

Breakthrough technique could facilitate faster nuclear forensics

A new nuclear forensics technique enabled the rapid analysis of nuclear materials for most of the elements in the periodic table. The tool could one day help nuclear nonproliferation efforts around the globe.
Illustration Credit: generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have, for the first time, used a breakthrough technique with a goal of better identifying the origin of nuclear materials — a tool that could someday help efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear material around the globe.

Using a commercially developed benchtop instrument, called a Laser Ablation Laser Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (LALI-TOF MS), researchers were able to characterize mock nuclear fuel pellets that incorporate specific elemental and isotopic fingerprints. The first laser “blows off” (ablates) a few molecules of material from the sample’s surface, while the second ionizes the neutral particles to turn them into charged ions, which are then separated by their unique mass.

Breakthrough could connect quantum computers at 200 times longer distance

New research from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Asst. Prof. Tian Zhong could make it possible for quantum computers to connect at distances up to 1,243 miles, shattering previous records.
Photo Credit: Jason Smith

A new nanofabrication approach could increase the range of quantum networks from a few kilometers to a potential 2,000 km, bringing quantum internet closer than ever

Quantum computers are powerful, lightning-fast and notoriously difficult to connect to one another over long distances. 

Previously, the maximum distance two quantum computers could connect through a fiber cable was a few kilometers. This means that, even if such cable were run between them, quantum computers in downtown Chicago’s Willis Tower and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) on the South Side would be too far apart to communicate with each other. 

A delicate balance between growth hormone and stem cells

Andrei Chagin, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.
Photo Credit: Magnus Gotander

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg can now demonstrate previously unexplained processes behind growth therapy. It involves hormonal mechanisms at the cellular level, with focus on a sensitive balance between stem cells and growth hormone. 

When children grow in length, it occurs from growth plates, a cartilage structure at both ends of the long bones found in the arms and legs. The growth plates contain special stem cells that continuously produce new cartilage cells, which are converted into bone tissue. 

In the case of growth disorders in children, with a height significantly below the average for their age and sex, injections of growth hormone are the most common treatment. In the development of growth hormone therapy, the University of Gothenburg has played a historically important role  

Previous research has shown that growth hormones act directly on the growth plate. However, it has been unclear which cells are targeted by growth hormones and how. 

Research proves life-saving frozen blood platelets safe to use

A bag of platelets being prepared for freezing.
Photo Credit: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Research has proven frozen blood platelets are safe and effective to use on critically injured patients – a breakthrough dramatically extending their shelf life for transfusions from one week to two years. 

The results of the decade-long University of Queensland and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood research collaboration will have positive implications for the international management of blood supplies and could save lives in remote areas and war zones. 

In a clinical trial with cardiac surgery patients, Director of UQ’s Greater Brisbane Clinical School Professor Michael Reade used platelets that had been frozen at -80 degrees Celsius and found they were only slightly less effective than liquid platelets and still stopped blood loss. 

Archaeologists use lasers to locate ancient settlements and artefacts on Greek Islands

The small island of Palatia off Naxos has been investigated by the researchers.
Photo Credit: The Small Cycladic Islands Project

The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece. Made up of more than 200 islands, the Cyclades attract millions of tourists each year for holidays on islands like Mykonos and Santorini. But recent studies have revealed that before the luxury villas took over the islands, the Cyclades have been home to humans in not only ancient Greece, but in prehistoric times as well. 

As part of several international teams, archaeologist Evan Levine from the University of Copenhagen is using groundbreaking technological methods such as LIDAR and magnetometry to shed new light on the archaeology of the Cycladic islands. 

Prognostic tool could help clinicians identify high-risk cancer patients

In a new study, MIT researchers and their collaborators identified a practical, powerful predictor that could help clinicians spot high-risk lymphoma patients early and tailor treatments to improve survival.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Aggressive T-cell lymphoma is a rare and devastating form of blood cancer with a very low five-year survival rate. Patients often relapse after receiving initial therapy, making it especially challenging for clinicians to keep this destructive disease in check.

In a new study, researchers from MIT, in collaboration with researchers involved in the PETAL consortium at Massachusetts General Hospital, identified a practical and powerful prognostic marker that could help clinicians identify high-risk patients early, and potentially tailor treatment strategies to improve survival.

The team found that, when patients relapse within 12 months of initial therapy, their chances of survival decline dramatically. For these patients, targeted therapies might improve their chances for survival, compared to traditional chemotherapy, the researchers say.

How bacteria resist hostile attacks

Aggressor bacteria such as Acinetobacter baylyi (green) can rarely kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa (live cells in black, dying cells in cyan).
Image Credit: Alejandro Tejada-Arranz, Biozentrum, University of Basel

Some bacteria use a kind of molecular “speargun” to eliminate their rivals, injecting them with a lethal cocktail. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that certain bacteria can protect themselves against these toxic attacks. But this defense comes with a surprising downside: it makes them more vulnerable to antibiotics. 

Countless bacterial species share cramped environments where competition for space and resources is fierce. Some rely on a molecular speargun to outcompete their opponents. One of them is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is widespread in nature but also notorious as a difficult-to-treat hospital pathogen. 

Pseudomonas can live peacefully in coexistence with other microbes. But when attacked by bacteria from a different species, it rapidly assembles its own nano-speargun – the so-called type VI secretion system (T6SS) – to inject its aggressor with a toxic cocktail. 

How can Pseudomonas strike back when it has already been hit by a deadly cocktail itself? The answer has now been uncovered by Professor Marek Basler’s team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and published in Nature Communications. 

SoMAS Study: Microplastics in Oceans Distort Carbon Cycle Understanding

Plastic items, such as this part of a swimming float (blue), are often seen at ocean shorelines. These products eventually break down into microplastics, which permeate the oceans and add to the distribution of carbon along with organic matter.
Photo Credit: Luis Medina.

A study by researchers in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) shows that when microplastics are accidentally collected and measured with natural ocean organic particles, the carbon released by plastics during combustion appears as if it came from natural organic matter, which distorts scientists’ understanding of the ocean’s carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle in our oceans is critical to the balance of life in ocean waters and for reducing carbon in the atmosphere, a significant process to curbing climate change or global warming.

Microplastics are everywhere in the oceans. These small plastic fragments come from the breakdown of larger plastic items polluting the seas. Once they reach the sea through rivers, wastewater or runoff, they spread through coastal and open-ocean waters.