Designing a plant cuticle in the lab could yield many benefits

Yandeau-Nelson inside her lab
Photos credit Christopher Gannon | Iowa State University

Scientists are working to bioengineer a common defense mechanism that most plants develop naturally to protect against drought, insects and other environmental stresses.

The goal is to identify the genetic structure of a plant cuticle and create a roadmap for breeding plants with designer cuticles that can respond to changing climates. The cuticle is a thin, waxy layer that provides a physical barrier between the plant and its environment. The work also has potential biorenewable applications for developing value-added chemicals with industrial functions.

Marna Yandeau-Nelson, an associate professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State University, is leading the cross-disciplinary team that includes researchers from Iowa State, the University of Delaware and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The project, which is funded by a $2.65-million National Science Foundation grant, includes a unique partnership with Iowa State’s Science Bound program to provide research opportunities for underrepresented students.

“If we understand what genes are required for certain compositions and what compositions of the cuticle protect against different stresses, then we have the ability for applied breeding for the production of designer cuticles with important protective functions,” Yandeau-Nelson said.

Claims AI can boost workplace diversity are ‘spurious and dangerous’, researchers argue

Co-author Dr Eleanor Drage testing the 'personality machine' built by Cambridge undergraduates.
  Credit: Eleanor Drage

Recent years have seen the emergence of AI tools marketed as an answer to lack of diversity in the workforce, from use of chatbots and CV scrapers to line up prospective candidates, through to analysis software for video interviews.

Those behind the technology claim it cancels out human biases against gender and ethnicity during recruitment, instead using algorithms that read vocabulary, speech patterns and even facial micro-expressions to assess huge pools of job applicants for the right personality type and “culture fit”.

However, in a new report published in Philosophy and Technology, researchers from Cambridge’s Centre for Gender Studies argue these claims make some uses of AI in hiring little better than an “automated pseudoscience” reminiscent of physiognomy or phrenology: the discredited beliefs that personality can be deduced from facial features or skull shape.

They say it is a dangerous example of “techno solutionism”: turning to technology to provide quick fixes for deep-rooted discrimination issues that require investment and changes to company culture.

Sikorsky Continues Progress on RAIDER X® Helicopter for U.S. Army

RAIDER X is 92% complete at Sikorsky’s Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The design is based on Sikorsky’s X2 technology, which provides unmatched potential and growth.
 Photo courtesy Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company.

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company is completing early tests toward a safe flight test program for the RAIDER X® competitive prototype it is building for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program.

“The RAIDER X prototype, which is 92% complete, draws on Lockheed Martin’s broad expertise in developing innovative weapons systems using the latest digital design and manufacturing techniques. These advancements will enable the Army to not only lower the acquisition cost, but also enable rapid, affordable upgrades to stay ahead of the evolving threat,” said Jay Macklin, director, Sikorsky Future Vertical Lift business development.

There are hundreds of additively manufactured parts installed on RAIDER X, including flight-critical parts. The 3D printing process has been so successful that first articles are 95% compliant, saving the team hundreds of hours compared to previous processes.

Mathematical Formula Tackles Complex Moral Decision-Making in AI

Photo credit: Andy Kelly.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed a blueprint for creating algorithms that more effectively incorporate ethical guidelines into artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making programs. The project was focused specifically on technologies in which humans interact with AI programs, such as virtual assistants or “carebots” used in healthcare settings.

“Technologies like carebots are supposed to help ensure the safety and comfort of hospital patients, older adults and other people who require health monitoring or physical assistance,” says Veljko Dubljević, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor in the Science, Technology & Society program at North Carolina State University. “In practical terms, this means these technologies will be placed in situations where they need to make ethical judgments.

“For example, let’s say that a carebot is in a setting where two people require medical assistance. One patient is unconscious but requires urgent care, while the second patient is in less urgent need but demands that the carebot treat him first. How does the carebot decide which patient is assisted first? Should the carebot even treat a patient who is unconscious and therefore unable to consent to receiving the treatment?

“Previous efforts to incorporate ethical decision-making into AI programs have been limited in scope and focused on utilitarian reasoning, which neglects the complexity of human moral decision-making,” Dubljević says. “Our work addresses this and, while I used carebots as an example, is applicable to a wide range of human-AI teaming technologies.”

Taking a biochemical snapshot of sea turtle health

Green Sea Turtle 
Photo credit: Randall Ruiz

New Griffith research is using biochemical profiles from the blood of sea turtles as a tool to monitor the health of populations in the wild.

Published in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, the researchers used metabolomics, which measures the by-products of physiological processes, to determine if environmental conditions or the way in which they were captured can affect their health.

“As iconic but threatened species, there is considerable interest in adapting cutting-edge analytical techniques to evaluate the health of wild populations of sea turtles,” said Dr Steve Melvin a Research Fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute.

“Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a powerful technique that can provide a metabolic fingerprint of the physiological processes taking place in an animal. It gives a direct indication of an organism’s health and how external conditions influence an animal’s physiological response.

“Being non-lethal, metabolomics provides an attractive method for comparing populations of threatened species like sea turtles, and to understand how the environment they are living in impacts their health. However, few studies have used this method to evaluate wild populations of sea turtles.”

Male/female plumage differences in thrushes promote species recognition

A study of thrushes offers new insight into the differences in the appearance of plumage between male and female birds. Plumage of the American robin, top left and center, differs in subtle ways between female birds, left, and male birds, center. European blackbirds, top and lower right, differ dramatically between males, top, and females, bottom, while male and female song thrushes, bottom left, have no obvious differences between the sexes.
Resized Image using AI by SFLORG     
Photo credits: Female American robin: public domain photo via Pixabay; male American robin: photo by Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0; female Eurasian blackbird: photo by Charles Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, sharpphotography.co.uk; male Eurasian blackbird: photo by Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0; male and female song thrushes: photo by Tomas Grim.

In 1868, the naturalist Charles Darwin wrote that differences in plumage coloration between male and female birds of the same species were likely the result of sexual selection: Female birds – he used the peahen and peacock as an example – seemed to prefer the showiest males. A new study of thrushes offers evidence that another dynamic is at play, and helps explain why this phenomenon, called sexual dichromatism, is not universal among birds, its authors say.

They report their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

“There are a number of ideas about why there can be differences in the ornamentation and appearance of plumage between male and female birds,” said Alec Luro, who led the research with ornithologist Mark Hauber, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of evolution, ecology and behavior. Luro, now a research data analyst at Maine Medical Center, was a doctoral student in Hauber’s laboratory when they conducted the study. “A key question is why males and females look different in some species and similar in others,” Luro said.

Non-native species are also beneficial to the ecosystem

A non-native species, the brown trout is, for example, highly valued by New Zealanders who have established new environmental regulations to protect the species in their waters.
Credit: Hunter Brumels

Awareness of non-native species - often called ‘‘invasive’’ - has vastly increased over the past fifty years, to the point where anyone with green conscience has heard of them and their negative effects, whether it is the zebra mussel or ragweed. However, the contribution of these species can also be positive, as some earthworms help to improve the processes involved in organic farming. This is the finding of a study conducted by a team of researchers from Brown University in the United States and University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland. These results are published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Within scientific literature, long-standing biases against non-native species have clouded the scientific process and hindered public understanding. In a recent review article published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, an international team including researchers from Brown University, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Washington points out that the majority of studies on these species focus on their negative consequences. In this new paper, the scientists propose to shift their focus to also consider the potential benefits of non-native species for a more balanced discussion.

‘‘Positive impacts of non-native species are often explained as serendipitous surprises — the sort of thing that people might expect to happen every once in a while, in special circumstances,’’ says Dov Sax, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Brown University. ‘‘Our new paper argues that the positive impacts of non-native species are neither unexpected nor rare, but instead common, important and often of large magnitude.’’

Miniature Permanent Magnets Can Be Printed on a 3D Printer

3D-printing technology reduces production time of magnets by 30%.
Photo credit: Oksana Meleshchuk

Scientists from the Ural Federal University and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are determining the optimal conditions for 3D printing of permanent magnets from hard magnetic compounds based on rare-earth metals. This will make it possible to start small-scale production of magnets, give them any shape during manufacturing, and create complex configurations of magnets. Such magnets are suitable for miniature electric motors and electric generators, on which pacemakers work. In addition, the technology minimizes production waste and has a shorter production cycle. A description of the method and experimental results are presented in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

Creating complex and small magnets is not an easy scientific and technical task, but they are in demand in various specialized applications, primarily medical ones. One of the most promising ways to create complex-shaped parts from magnetically hard materials is 3D printing. Ural scientists managed to determine the optimal parameters for 3D printing of permanent magnets using the selective laser sintering method. This is an additive manufacturing method in which magnetic material in the form of powder is sintered layer by layer into a three-dimensional product of a given shape based on a previously created 3D model. This technology makes it possible to change the internal properties of the magnet at almost all stages of production. For example, to change the chemical composition of the compound, the degree of spatial orientation of crystallites and crystallographic texture, and to influence the coercivity (resistance to demagnetization).

As ransomware attacks increase, new algorithm may help prevent power blackouts

Saurabh Bagchi, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering, develops ways to improve the cybersecurity of power grids and other critical infrastructure.
Credit: Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter

Millions of people could suddenly lose electricity if a ransomware attack just slightly tweaked energy flow onto the U.S. power grid.

No single power utility company has enough resources to protect the entire grid, but maybe all 3,000 of the grid’s utilities could fill in the most crucial security gaps if there were a map showing where to prioritize their security investments.

Purdue University researchers have developed an algorithm to create that map. Using this tool, regulatory authorities or cyber insurance companies could establish a framework that guides the security investments of power utility companies to parts of the grid at greatest risk of causing a blackout if hacked.

Power grids are a type of critical infrastructure, which is any network – whether physical like water systems or virtual like health care record keeping – considered essential to a country’s function and safety. The biggest ransomware attacks in history have happened in the past year, affecting most sectors of critical infrastructure in the U.S. such as grain distribution systems in the food and agriculture sector and the Colonial Pipeline, which carries fuel throughout the East Coast.

Repurposing existing drugs to fight new COVID-19 variants

Photo Credit: Myriam Zilles

MSU researchers are using big data and AI to identify current drugs that could be applied to treat new COVID-19 variants

Finding new ways to treat the novel coronavirus and its ever-changing variants has been a challenge for researchers, especially when the traditional drug development and discovery process can take years. A Michigan State University researcher and his team are taking a hi-tech approach to determine whether drugs already on the market can pull double duty in treating new COVID variants.

“The COVID-19 virus is a challenge because it continues to evolve,” said Bin Chen, an associate professor in the College of Human Medicine. “By using artificial intelligence and really large data sets, we can repurpose old drugs for new uses.”

Chen built an international team of researchers with expertise on topics ranging from biology to computer science to tackle this challenge. First, Chen and his team turned to publicly available databases to mine for the unique coronavirus gene expression signatures from 1,700 host transcriptomic profiles that came from patient tissues, cell cultures and mouse models. These signatures revealed the biology shared by COVID-19 and its variants.

On-site reactors could affordably turn CO2 into valuable chemicals

 Left: a schematic showing the key components of the reactor and working mechanism.
Right: a picture of the CO2 stack, which is a demonstration of the commercial reactors.
Credit: Dr. Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Waterloo

New technology developed at the University of Waterloo could make a significant difference in the fight against climate change by affordably converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and other valuable chemicals on an industrial scale.

Outlined in a study published today in the journal Nature Energy, the system yields 10 times more carbon monoxide (CO) – which can be used to make ethanol, methane and other desirable substances – than existing, small-scale technologies now limited to testing in laboratories.

Its individual cells can also be stacked to form reactors of any size, making the technology a customizable, economically viable solution that could be installed right on site, for example, at factories with CO2 emissions.

“This is a critical bridge to connect CO2 lab technology to industrial applications,” said Dr. Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo. “Without it, it is very difficult for materials-based technologies to be used commercially because they are just too expensive.”

Bioplastics made of bacteria to reduce plastic waste in oceans

The Nereid Biomaterials team, including Rochester biologist Anne S. Meyer, has created the first ocean instrument made with 3D-printed internal parts composed of bioplastics. The instrument will be replicated and deployed in swarms to enable distributed measurements of the ocean carbon cycle. But because they will be made of bioplastic designed to degrade in oceans, the instruments will not add to the growing problem of (nondegradable) plastic marine pollution. Future applications may extend well beyond ocean instrumentation.
Credit: Melissa Omand / University of Rhode Island

A team of scientists, including Rochester biologist Anne S. Meyer, is developing bioplastics to degrade in oceans.

Plastic waste poses an urgent problem for our planet’s ecosystems, especially our waterways. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter Earth’s oceans every year, and plastic has been found in every part of the ocean, including at the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches.

Although some biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, have recently been developed, these plastics were intended to break down in industrial compost facilities. In cold, dark ocean environments, they break down very slowly.

What if there were a way to avoid the problem of plastic pollution while still reaping the benefits of plastic’s durability, versatility, and low cost?

In order to tackle this problem, Anne S. Meyer, an associate professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester, worked with marine microbiologist Alyson Santoro at the University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Rhode Island oceanographer Melissa Omand; ecologist Ryan Freedman from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary; and industry partner Mango Materials. Together, the team is developing bioplastics—environmentally friendly plastic materials engineered to degrade in ocean environments.

Boron Nitride with a Twist Could Lead to New Way to Make Qubits

Shaul Aloni, Cong Su, Alex Zettl, and Steven Louie at the Molecular Foundry. The researchers synthesized a device made from twisted layers of hexagonal boron nitride with color centers that can be switched on and off with a simple switch.
Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab

Achieving scalability in quantum processors, sensors, and networks requires novel devices that are easily manipulated between two quantum states. A team led by researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has now developed a method, using a solid-state “twisted” crystalline layered material, which gives rise to tiny light-emitting points called color centers. These color centers can be switched on and off with the simple application of an external voltage.

“This is a first step toward a color center device that engineers could build or adapt into real quantum systems,” said Shaul Aloni, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, who co-led the study. The work is detailed in the journal Nature Materials.

For example, the research could lead to a new way to make quantum bits, or qubits, which encode information in quantum computers.

Color centers are microscopic defects in a crystal, such as diamond, that usually emit bright and stable light of specific color when struck with laser or other energy source such as an electron beam. Their integration with waveguides, devices that guide light, can connect operations across a quantum processor. Several years ago, researchers discovered that color centers in a synthesized material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which is commonly used as a lubricant or additive for paints and cosmetics, emitted even brighter colors than color centers in diamond. But engineers have struggled to use the material in applications because producing the defects at a determined location is difficult, and they lacked a reliable way to switch the color centers on and off.

Study Shows Gravitational Forces Deep Within the Earth Have Great Impact on Landscape Evolution

These visuals from the modeling illustrate metamorphic core complex development showing crustal stresses and strain rates, faults, uplift of deeper rocks, and sedimentation from surface erosion. These processes of core complex development occur after a thickened crustal root supporting topography is weakened through the introduction of heat, fluids, and partial melt.
Credit: Alireza Bahadori and William E. Holt

Stony Brook University is leading a research project that focuses on the interplay between the evolution of the landscape, climate and fossil record of mammal evolution and diversification in the Western United States. A little explored aspect of this geosciences research is the connection between gravitational forces deep in the Earth and landscape evolution. Now in a newly published paper in Nature Communications, the researchers show by way of computer modeling that deep roots under mountain belts (analogous to the massive ice below the tip of an iceberg) trigger dramatic movements along faults that result in collapse of the mountain belt and exposure of rocks that were once some 15 miles below the surface.

The origin of these enigmatic exposures, called ‘metamorphic core complexes,’ has been hotly debated within the scientific community. This study finding may alter the way scientists attempt to uncover the history of Earth as an evolving planet.

Lead principal investigator William E. Holt, PhD, a Professor of Geophysics the Department of Geosciences in the School of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University, first author Alireza Bahadori, a former PhD student under Holt and now at Columbia University, and colleagues found that these core complexes are a fossil signature of past mountain belts in the Western United States that occupied regions around Phoenix and Las Vegas. These mountain areas left traces in the form of gravel deposits from ancient northward and eastward flowing rivers, found today south and west of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Discovering New Cancer Treatments in the “Dark Matter” of the Human Genome

Microscopy pictures of three-dimensional lung cancer spheroids transfected with green fluorescent-labelled ASOs.
Credit: UniBE / NCCR RNA & Disease

Researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital, University Hospital Bern, have developed a screening method to discover new drug targets for cancer treatment in the so-called “Dark Matter” of the genome. They applied their method to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the greatest cancer killer for which effective therapies are urgently sought. They could show that inhibiting identified targets could greatly slow down cancer growth, and their method is adaptable to other cancers.

Cancer is in Switzerland the second leading cause of death. Among the different types of cancers, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) kills most patients and remains largely incurable. Unfortunately, even newly approved therapies can extend the life of patients by only a few months and only a few survive the metastatic stadium long-term. Thus, new treatments which attack cancer in novel ways are sought. In a recently published study in the Journal Cell Genomics, researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital determined new targets for drug development for this cancer type.