Process turns harmful pollutants into harmless substances

Conceptual image
Illustration Credit: Evan Fields/UCR

As scientists look for ways to clean up “forever chemicals” in the environment, an increasing concern is a subgroup of these pollutants that contain one or more chlorine atoms in their chemical structure.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Water, University of California, Riverside, environmental and chemical engineering Associate Professor Jinyong Liu and UCR graduate student Jinyu Gao describe newly discovered chemical reaction pathways that destroy chlorinated forever chemicals and render them into harmless compounds.

Known formally as PFAS or poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances, forever chemicals have been used in thousands of products ranging from potato chip bags, stain and water repellents used on fabrics, cleaning products, non-stick cookware, and fire-suppressing foams. They are so named because they persist in the environment for decades or longer due to their strong fluorine-to-carbon chemical bonds.

Chlorinated PFAS are a large group in the forever chemical family of thousands of compounds. They include a variety of non-flammable hydraulic fluids used in industry and compounds used to make chemically stable films that serve as moisture barriers in various industrial, packaging, and electronic applications.

Sleep apnea link to cognitive decline

Photo Credit: SHVETS production

Flinders University experts are working on better solutions for sleep apnea to ward off a range of health risks, including cognitive decline.

Improved solutions for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), insomnia and other sleep disorders are being developed by the Flinders Sleep Health experts to reduce the associated negative health effects such as cardiovascular harm, diabetes, anxiety and depression and even long-term cognitive decline.

Heightened risk of cognitive function decline from undiagnosed OSA – particularly in middle-aged men living in the community – is the focus of one of the latest studies published in Sleep Health.

The study recorded the sleep patterns of more than 470 men aged from 41-87 years alongside their daytime cognitive function for processing speed, visual attention, episodic memory recollection and other markers.

Measuring distinct features of brain electrical activity during non-REM sleep, called ‘sleep spindles’, the study aimed to explore if these features can serve as markers of cognitive function.

“Non-REM sleep includes light stage 1 and 2 sleep, as well as deeper stage 3 sleep which is thought to play an important role in learning and memory,” says Flinders University sleep researcher Dr Jesse Parker.

Why women with multiple sclerosis get better when pregnant

Women suffering from the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis temporarily get much better when pregnant.
Photo Credit: Neal E. Johnson

Women suffering from the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis temporarily get much better when pregnant. Researchers have now identified the beneficial changes naturally occurring in the immune system during pregnancy. The findings can show the way to new treatments.

Pregnancy is a very special condition from an immunological point of view. The immune system serves to defend us against foreign substances. However, although half of the genetic material of the fetus comes from the father, it is not rejected by the mother’s immune system. One reason why this balancing act is almost always successful is that during pregnancy the mother’s immune system is adapted to become more tolerant.

In multiple sclerosis, MS, nerve function is hampered due to the immune system attacking the fat that serves as an insulating sheath around the nerve fibers. The nerves become inflamed, which could lead to nerve damage. Although new and more effective treatment options are available, most MS patients deteriorate over time.

Researchers believe that the temporary dampening of the immune response could explain why women with MS actually get better when pregnant. Periods of symptoms, i.e. relapses, decrease by 70 percent during the last third of pregnancy. Also, some other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, temporarily ameliorate during pregnancy. But the reason for this has not been clear. This is why the researchers behind this study wanted to investigate what mechanisms that could be of particular importance for the decrease in symptoms during pregnancy, as a step to finding future treatment strategies that give the same effect in MS and possibly also other similar diseases.

Blocking immune system ‘messenger’ may treat severe asthma

Professor Toshiaki Kawakami, M.D., Ph.D.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Asthma is more dangerous than many people realize. An estimated 10 Americans die every day from asthma, and the disease leads to around 439,000 hospitalizations and 1.3 million emergency room trips each year.

“Asthma is one of the most important allergic diseases to study,” says Professor Toshiaki Kawakami, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the Center for Autoimmunity and Inflammation at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI).

In a new study, Kawakami and his colleagues at LJI investigated the molecular drivers of severe asthma and rhinovirus-induced asthma exacerbation (a type of asthma that can accompany a common cold). Their findings, published recently in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggest people with both types of asthma may benefit from therapies that block interactions between a molecule called histamine-releasing factor (HRF) and antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE).

As Kawakami explains, many people with severe asthma aren’t responsive to current asthma therapies. He hopes two potential drug strategies from his laboratory might inhibit HRF and IgE interactions and deliver relief for these patients. “We hope this approach can be a means of treating severe asthma and asthma exacerbation,” he says.

New study links contraceptive pills and depression

According to the study, women who began to use contraceptive pills as teenagers had a 130 per cent higher incidence of symptoms of depression.
Photo Credit: Thought Catalog

Women who used combined contraceptive pills were at greater risk of developing depression than women who did not, according to a new study from Uppsala University. Contraceptive pills increased women’s risk by 73 per cent during the first two years of use.

In a global perspective, depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability. More than 264 million people are affected and at least 25 per cent of all women and 15 per cent of all men experience a depression that requires treatment at some point during their life.

The possibility that contraceptive pills might have negative effects on mental health and even lead to depression has long been discussed. Although many women choose to stop using contraceptive pills because of the influence on their mood, until now the picture emerging from research has not been straightforward. This study is one of the largest and widest-ranging to date, following more than a quarter of a million women from UK Biobank from birth to menopause.

First side-necked turtle ever discovered in UK

The fossil was found on a National Trust beach on the Isle of Wight
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Portsmouth

The first side-necked turtle ever to be found in the UK has been discovered by an amateur fossil collector and paleontologists at the University of Portsmouth.

The fossil remains are the earliest of a so-called side-necked pan-pleurodiran turtle, named as such because they fold their neck into their shell sideways when threatened. This does mean they can only see out with one eye.

Originally found on a beach on the Isle of Wight, the turtle fossil is an almost complete shell with cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, scapulae, pelvic girdle and appendicular bones. Sadly, the skull was missing.

Lead author, Megan Jacobs, said: “This is an amazing discovery because it’s the first time this type of turtle has been found in the UK. Even more exciting is that we used a new technique of radiometric dating to determine the age of the fossil beyond any doubt. And to top it off, CT scanning revealed all the tiny bones inside. It’s really incredible for what looks like a rolled beach pebble!”

Dynamic plants: Origin and geographic evolution of cycads clarified

The African cycad Encephalartos altensteinii Lehm is widely cultivated in botanical gardens around Europe (like this one in the Botanical Garden of the University of Naples "Federico II"), including one specimen that was brought from South Africa to the UK in 1775 and that is still alive today. Large Encephalartos are highly prized as ornamental plants, and unfortunately many species have been brought to the brink of extinction by poaching.
Photo Credit: Mario Coiro

Paleobotanist Mario Coiro of the Institute of Paleontology at the University of Vienna and colleagues at the University of Montpellier (France) have made an important breakthrough in understanding the origin and geographic distribution of cycads. By combining genetic data with leaf morphological data from both fossil and living species for the first time, the researchers created a phylogenetic tree of these fascinating and endangered plants. The results of the study, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, have now been published in the journal New Phytologist.

Cycads (order Cycadales) are an evolutionarily very old and once very diverse group of palm-like plants that were widespread worldwide at the time of the dinosaurs. Now their distribution is limited to subtropical regions of the earth with low latitudes, and some of them have been considered as "living fossils". Until now, little was known about the origin of these plants, which are also highly valued by garden lovers and collectors, and their evolutionary distribution paths – a fact that Mario Coiro's team have actively challenged. To this end, the researchers developed an innovative research approach that actually makes a significant contribution to clarifying the biogeographical distribution of cycads.

A Baking Soda Solution for Clean Hydrogen Storage

A research team at PNNL has proposed a safe pathway to store and release clean energy based on the chemistry of baking soda.   
Image Credit: Composite image by Shannon Colson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

In a world of continuously warmer temperatures, a growing consensus demands that energy sources have zero, or next-to-zero, carbon emissions. That means growing beyond coal, oil, and natural gas by getting more energy from renewable sources.

One of the most promising renewable energy carriers is clean hydrogen, which is produced without fossil fuels.

It’s a promising idea because the most abundant element in the universe is hydrogen, found in 75 percent of all matter. Moreover, a hydrogen molecule has two paired atoms—Gemini twins that are both non-toxic and highly combustible.

Hydrogen’s combustive potential makes it an attractive subject for energy researchers around the world.

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a team is investigating hydrogen as a medium for storing and releasing energy, largely by cracking its chemical bonds. Much of their work is linked to the Hydrogen Materials-Advanced Research consortium (HyMARC) at the Department of Energy (DOE).

CRISPR/Cas9-Based Gene Drive Could Suppress Agricultural Pests

NC State researchers used a florescent protein to mark the genetic changes to spotted-wing Drosophila.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the researchers / North Carolina State University

Researchers have developed a “homing gene drive system” based on CRISPR/Cas9 that could be used to suppress populations of Drosophila suzukii vinegar flies – so-called “spotted-wing Drosophila” that devastate soft-skinned fruit in North America, Europe and parts of South America – according to new research from North Carolina State University.

The NC State researchers developed dual CRISPR gene drive systems that targeted a specific D. suzukii gene called doublesex, which is important for sexual development in the flies. CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” and Cas9 is an enzyme that performs like molecular scissors to cut DNA. CRISPR systems are derived from bacterial immune systems that recognize and destroy viruses and other invaders, and are being developed as solutions to problems in human, plant and animal health, among other uses.

Targeting the doublesex gene resulted in female sterility in numerous experiments as females were unable to lay eggs, says Max Scott, an NC State entomologist who is the corresponding author of a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that describes the research.

“This is the first so-called homing gene drive in an agricultural pest that potentially could be used for suppression,” Scott said.

New discoveries about where atherosclerotic plaques rupture can lead to preventive treatments

Isabel Goncalves, Jiangming Sun, and Andreas Edsfeldt studying two atherosclerotic plaques
Photo Credit: Petra Olsson

A common cause of myocardial infarction and stroke is the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. The exact location of plaque ruptures has previously been unknown, but now researchers at Lund University have mapped this. The research team has also identified an enzyme, a marker, that they hope will help predict who is at risk of having a myocardial infarction or a stroke due to a ruptured atherosclerotic plaque.

In atherosclerosis, fat is accumulated in the artery walls creating atherosclerotic plaques. Plaques that rupture can cause a stroke or myocardial infarction, and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying plaque rupture is needed to prevent serious complications. Research at Lund University in Sweden, now shows that atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid arteries often rupture at the beginning of the plaque, at a location closest to the heart. The study has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

“In our study, we were able to pinpoint exactly where plaques rupture. This is an important step, allowing for a better understanding of why they rupture. Previous studies have focused more on how plaques are formed while we have studied the precise area where they rupture, which no previous human study has done”, says Isabel Goncalves, who led the study.

Which came first: the reptile or the egg?

Photo Credit: PIRO

The earliest reptiles, birds and mammals may have been born live young, researchers from Nanjing University and University of Bristol have revealed.

Until now, the hard-shelled egg was thought to be the key to the success of the amniotes - a group of vertebrates that undergo embryonic or fetal development within an amnion, a protective membrane inside the egg.

However, a fresh study of 51 fossil species and 29 living species which could be categorized as oviparous (laying hard or soft-shelled eggs) or viviparous (giving birth to live young) suggests otherwise.

The findings, published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, show that all the great evolutionary branches of Amniota, namely Mammalia, Lepidosauria (lizards and relatives), and Archosauria (dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds) reveal viviparity and extended embryo retention in their ancestors.

Extended embryo retention (EER) is when the young are retained by the mother for a varying amount of time, likely depending on when conditions are best for survival.

New Keck Observatory Instrument Sets Its Sights on Turtle Nebula

The Keck and Subaru observatories atop Maunakea summit in Hawaiʻi.
Photo Credit: Tracey Parmley Nuki

A new instrument for studying a web of filaments that connects galaxies across the universe has captured its first image, a milestone known in astronomy as "first light." The Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper (KCRM) at the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Maunakea summit in Hawaiʻi, will provide detailed maps of gas around dying stars and other cosmic objects, and it will map the so-called cosmic web that links and feeds galaxies. The instrument was recently installed next to its partner, the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), which began operations in 2017.

"I envisioned this instrument as a two-armed imaging spectrograph back in 2007, based on our Palomar Cosmic Web Imager, but it was a long road to get the funding, so we split the instrument into two halves," says Christopher Martin, the instrument's principal investigator and a professor of physics at Caltech. "KCWI was already doing phenomenal science with one arm tied behind its back, so now it's off to the races. It is fitting that our first-light image shows two ‘arms' of the turtle nebula. We would not have made it without the work of our fantastic instrument team and support from Caltech, the Keck Observatory, the National Science Foundation, and a generous anonymous donor."

AI unlikely to gain human-like cognition, unless connected to real world through robots

Embodying AI in robots so they can interact with the world around them and evolve like the human brain does is the most likely way AI will develop human-like cognition
Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann

Connecting artificial intelligence systems to the real world through robots and designing them using principles from evolution is the most likely way AI will gain human-like cognition, according to research from the University of Sheffield.

• University of Sheffield researchers say artificial intelligence systems are unlikely to gain human-like cognition, unless they’re connected to the real world through robots and designed using principles from evolution 

• Current AI systems, such as ChatGPT, copy some processes in the human brain to use datasets to solve difficult problems, but Sheffield researchers say this form of disembodied AI is unlikely to resemble the complexities of real brain processing no matter how big these datasets become

• Biological intelligence - such as the human brain - is achieved through a specific architecture that learns and improves using its connections to the real world, but this is rarely used in the design of AI

• Embodying AI in robots so they can interact with the world around them and evolve like the human brain does is the most likely way AI will develop human-like cognition

New method traces ancestry of hybrids

Goldfish, seen here, share a common hybrid ancestor with carp, according to recent research
Photo Credit: Riverse

If you’ve ever kept a garden, you’re probably familiar with hybrids, from disease-resistant tomatoes to Stargazer lilies.

Hybrids — common in agriculture as well as in nature — have chromosomes from two or more parent species. In some cases, including strawberries, goldfish and several other species, these disparate parental chromosomes become doubled, a condition known as allopolyploidy.

In “Transposon signatures of allopolyploid genome evolution,” a recent article published in the journal Nature Communications, Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Adam Session and Daniel S. Rokhsar, a professor of genetics, evolution and development at the University of California, Berkeley, outline a way to trace these genomes back to the polypoid hybrid’s parent species.

Unlike previous methods, which use comparison with related non-hybrid species to decipher polypoid ancestry, the authors’ method allows them to discover distinct ancestries by looking at genomic patterns in the hybrid itself.

“Each ancestral genome carries a unique set of repetitive elements,” Session explained. “So, if we find sets of chromosomes in a polypoid that carry different repetitive elements, that proves hybrid ancestry and allows us to figure out which chromosomes were inherited together coming from the various progenitor species.”

Exploring the complexities of using ladybugs as pest control

The convergent ladybug, left, and the harlequin ladybug, right, share many behavioral and life history trains, but one is deemed a weapon in the war on insects and the other the target. RIT assistant professor Kaitlin Stack Whitney uses this example to underscore how human choices are the driving force behind what is considered a pest, not nature.
Photo Credit: left: Flickr user Dru!, CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photo Credit right: Flickr user The Real Estreya, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

When creating a garden, it’s likely that most people want to make decisions that leave a positive footprint on the local environment. In an attempt to limit the use of chemical pesticides and promote native species on their land, some gardeners have begun purchasing ladybugs as a form of “natural” pest control. However, Kaitlin Stack Whitney, assistant professor in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of Science, Technology, and Society, says that buying ladybugs online, as opposed to attracting them naturally, can cause more harm than good to the environment.

In a recent publication in Catalyst Journal, Stack Whitney discussed the morality around employing ladybugs in a war on insect pests, as well as the nuance around which insects are considered “good” or “bad” by the general public.

“Ladybugs make up the insect family Coccinellidae. There are many different kinds of ladybug, but there are a lot of things that all ladybugs do, such as eating soft-bodied insects like aphids and other garden pests,” said Stack Whitney. “How we think about these ladybugs—which ones we celebrate and which ones we don’t—is really shaped by people’s ideas, not necessarily what the ladybugs are actually doing.”