Study raises concerns over powdered infant formula preparation machines

Photo Credit: Lucy Wolski

A study by Swansea University academics into powdered infant formula preparation safety has revealed that 85% of the 74 infant formula preparation machines tested by parents in UK homes did not appear to produce water that would be hot enough to kill all harmful bacteria in infant formula, and this could pose a serious risk to infant health.

This was compared to 69 parents in the study who used a kettle to heat the water used to prepare infant formula, where 22% reported water temperatures that were not hot enough to kill all harmful bacteria.

Almost three quarters of infants in the UK are fed infant formula in the first six weeks of life and this rises to 88% by six months of age. 

Formula-fed infants have a higher risk of gastrointestinal infections compared to breastfed infants1 which can be attributed, in part, to bacterial contamination from: the powdered infant formula itself (which cannot be made sterile), the equipment used for feeding, and also preparing infant formula with unclean hands. To help reduce the risk of such infections, the NHS has adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that water used to make infant formula should be boiled and cooled, so that it is at a temperature of at least 70oC to eliminate bacteria.

Potential genetic screening for aggressive melanoma

Photo Credit: cottonbro studio

Researchers from The University of Queensland and The Alfred hospital in Melbourne have identified gene variants which may contribute to people being at higher risk for nodular melanoma.

Dr Mitchell Stark from UQ’s Frazer Institute said nodular melanoma only accounts for around 14 per cent of invasive melanoma cases, but the aggressive subtype is the largest contributor to melanoma deaths.

“Melanoma is highly curable by surgery when diagnosed early, but nodular melanoma is often detected later because of its rapid growth rate and short window of opportunity for detection and diagnosis,” Dr Stark said.

“Up to 27 per cent of nodular melanoma cases appear as a skin-colored tumor, as opposed to other more pigmented melanomas, adding an additional challenge to early diagnosis.

“We hope that by identifying these rare variants, it could help establish screening programs to determine the people most at risk.”

Scientists illuminate the mechanics of solid-state batteries

The image conceptualizes the processing, structure and mechanical behavior of glassy ion conductors for solid state lithium batteries.
Illustration Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

As current courses through a battery, its materials erode over time. Mechanical influences such as stress and strain affect this trajectory, although their impacts on battery efficacy and longevity are not fully understood.

A team led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a framework for designing solid-state batteries, or SSBs, with mechanics in mind. Their paper, published in Science, reviewed how these factors change SSBs during their cycling.

“Our goal is to highlight the importance of mechanics in battery performance,” said Sergiy Kalnaus, a scientist in ORNL’s Multiphysics Modeling and Flows group. “A lot of studies have focused on chemical or electric properties but have neglected to show the underlying mechanics.”

The team spans several ORNL research areas including computation, chemistry and materials science. Together, their review painted a more cohesive picture of the conditions that affect SSBs by using perspectives from across the scientific spectrum. “We’re trying to bridge the divide between disciplines,” said Kalnaus.

AI copilot enhances human precision for safer aviation

With Air-Guardian, a computer program can track where a human pilot is looking (using eye-tracking technology), so it can better understand what the pilot is focusing on. This helps the computer make better decisions that are in line with what the pilot is doing or intending to do.
Illustration Credit: Alex Shipps/MIT CSAIL via Midjourney

Imagine you're in an airplane with two pilots, one human and one computer. Both have their “hands” on the controllers, but they're always looking out for different things. If they're both paying attention to the same thing, the human gets to steer. But if the human gets distracted or misses something, the computer quickly takes over.

Meet the Air-Guardian, a system developed by researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). As modern pilots grapple with an onslaught of information from multiple monitors, especially during critical moments, Air-Guardian acts as a proactive copilot; a partnership between human and machine, rooted in understanding attention.

But how does it determine attention, exactly? For humans, it uses eye-tracking, and for the neural system, it relies on something called "saliency maps," which pinpoint where attention is directed. The maps serve as visual guides highlighting key regions within an image, aiding in grasping and deciphering the behavior of intricate algorithms. Air-Guardian identifies early signs of potential risks through these attention markers, instead of only intervening during safety breaches like traditional autopilot systems. 

New strategy for eye condition could replace injections with eyedrops

Yulia Komarova, UIC associate professor in the department of pharmacology and regenerative medicine at the College of Medicine
Photo Credit: Komarova

A new compound developed at the University of Illinois Chicago could potentially offer an alternative to injections for the millions of people who suffer from an eye condition that causes blindness.

Wet age-related macular degeneration causes vision loss due to the uncontrolled growth and leakage of blood vessels in the back of the eye. A new paper in Cell Reports Medicine led by UIC researcher Yulia Komarova finds that a small-molecule inhibitor can reverse damage from AMD and promote regenerative and healing processes. 

The drug can also be delivered via eyedrops — an improvement over current treatments for AMD, which require repeated injections into the eye. 

“The idea was to develop something that can be more patient-friendly and doesn’t require a visit to the doctor’s office,” said Komarova, associate professor of pharmacology at the College of Medicine. 

Pulling carbon dioxide straight from the air

John Hegarty and Ben Shindel with new ions to facilitate carbon capture
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Northwestern University

Even as the world slowly begins to decarbonize industrial processes, achieving lower concentrations of atmospheric carbon requires technologies that remove existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — rather than just prevent the creation of it.

Typical carbon capture catches CO2 directly from the source of a carbon-intensive process. Ambient carbon capture, or “direct air capture” (DAC) on the other hand, can take carbon out of typical environmental conditions and serves as one weapon in the battle against climate change, particularly as reliance on fossil fuels begins to decrease and with it, the need for point-of-source carbon capture.

New research from Northwestern University shows a novel approach to capture carbon from ambient environmental conditions that looks at the relationship between water and carbon dioxide in systems to inform the “moisture-swing” technique, which captures CO2 at low humidities and releases it at high humidities. The approach incorporates innovative kinetic methodologies and a diversity of ions, enabling carbon removal from virtually anywhere.

Study suggests large mound structures on Kuiper belt object Arrokoth may have common origin

The large mound structures that dominate one of the lobes of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin, according to a new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern.
Graphic Credit: Courtesy of SwRI

A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern posits that the large, approximately 5-kilometer-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of the pristine Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin. The SwRI study suggests that these “building blocks” could guide further work on planetesimal formational models. Stern presented these findings this week at the American Astronomical Society’s 55th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in San Antonio. These results are now also published in the peer-reviewed Planetary Science Journal.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made a close flyby of Arrokoth in 2019. From those data, Stern and his coauthors identified 12 mounds on Arrokoth’s larger lobe, Wenu, which are almost the same shape, size, color and reflectivity. They also tentatively identified three more mounds on the object’s smaller lobe, Weeyo..

Understanding the behavior of light and matter - key to future technologies

Scientific Frontline stock image

If we can understand how and why light and matter behave as they do, we are one step closer to solving some of the most fundamental problems in physics. Finding the answers to these questions drives Ville Maisi, Associate Professor of Solid States Physics at NanoLund.

As long as he can remember he has been interested in electric circuits and physics. With the support of a new ERC Consolidator Grant, he has now started to bring these two fields together to develop ultra-sensitive detectors for high frequency electronic signals – building on the principles of quantum physics.

Measuring microwaves

His research project aims to design ultra-sensitive microwave detectors that can be used to measure tiny microwave light signals consisting of elementary particles, called photons. They will be 100 times more sensitive detectors than currently exists. Microwave measurements are important in quantum technology, astronomy, communications, and other technology areas such as radars.

Wearable sensor to monitor ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic

Sandia National Laboratories postdoctoral fellow Alex Downs places a wearable puck with microneedles under a microscope. Sandia researchers have combined earlier work on minimally invasive microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of a ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic.
Photo Credit: Craig Fritz

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, bacteria have evolved numerous ways to evade or outright ignore the effects of antibiotics. Thankfully, healthcare providers have an arsenal of infrequently used antibiotics that are still effective against otherwise resistant strains of bacteria.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have combined earlier work on painless microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of one of these antibiotics.

The specific antibiotic they’re tracking is vancomycin, which is used as a last line of defense to treat severe bacterial infections, said Alex Downs, a Jill Hruby Fellow and project lead. Continuous monitoring is crucial for vancomycin because there is a narrow range within which it effectively kills bacteria without harming the patient, she added.

“This is a great application because it requires tight control,” said Philip Miller, a Sandia biomedical engineer who advised on the project. “In a clinical setting, how that would happen is a doctor would check on the patient on an hourly basis and request a single time-point blood measurement of vancomycin. Someone would come to draw blood, send it to the clinic and get an answer back at some later time. Our system is one way to address that delay.”

The researchers shared how to make these sensors and the results of their tests in a paper recently published in the scientific journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

ALPHA collaboration at CERN confirms antimatter falls in the same way as matter for the first time

An aerial view of the ALPHA experimental area.
Photo Credit: © CERN, Julien Marius Ordan.

Swansea University physicists, as leading members of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) collaboration at CERN, have demonstrated that atoms of antihydrogen fall to Earth in the same way as their matter equivalents for the first time.

Published in Nature, the study's groundbreaking results rule out the possibility of antimatter being accelerated upwards in Earth's gravity and bring researchers one step closer to unravelling one of the most high-profile problems in physics.

ALPHA creates antihydrogen atoms by taking negatively charged antiprotons and binding them with positively charged positrons. The neutral but slightly magnetic antimatter atoms are then confined in a magnetic trap, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating.

Using a vertical apparatus called ALPHA-g, the 'g' denoting the local acceleration of gravity, the ALPHA team can measure the vertical positions at which antihydrogen atoms annihilate with matter once the trap's magnetic field is switched off, allowing the atoms to escape.

Type 2 diabetes diagnosis at age 30 can reduce life expectancy by up to 14 years

Photo Credit: isens usa

Even people who do not develop the condition until later in life – with a diagnosis at age 50 years – could see their life expectancy fall by up to six years, an analysis of data from 19 high-income countries found.

The researchers say the findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, highlight the urgent need to develop and implement interventions that prevent or delay onset of diabetes, especially as the prevalence of diabetes among younger adults is rising globally.

Increasing levels of obesity, poor diet and increased sedentary behavior are driving a rapid rise in the number of cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide. In 2021, 537 million adults were estimated to have diabetes worldwide, with an increasing number diagnosed at younger ages.

Type 2 diabetes increases an individual’s risk of a range of complications including heart attack and stroke, kidney problems, and cancer. Previous estimates have suggested that adults with type 2 diabetes die, on average, six years earlier than adults without diabetes. There is uncertainty, however, about how this average reduction in life expectancy varies according to age at diagnosis.

Controlled burns help prevent wildfires. Climate change is limiting their use

 The U.S. Army conducting a controlled burn of over 400 acres at Fort Ord National Monument near Monterrey, California, in 2017.
Photo Credit: Flickr/PresidioofMonterrey

Prescribed fires, sometimes called controlled burns, are one of the most common tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires in the Western United States. Lit by highly trained firefighters, they help clear away excess dry plant matter that might otherwise turn a healthy vegetation fire into a raging inferno.

To safely carry out controlled burns, firefighters must wait for specific weather conditions: not so damp as to prevent combustion, but not so dry or windy as to burn more vegetation than intended. These conditions limit the opportunities.

Now, a new study led by UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain has found that climate change is further reducing the overall number of days and changing the times of year when prescribed fires can be safely used.

Currently, scientists project warming of 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2060 — a projection Swain called “optimistic” given the current trajectory of even greater warming. Still, these temperatures would reduce the number of days when weather and vegetation conditions favor prescribed fires by 17% on average across the Western U.S.

Gut bacteria found in wild wolves may be key to improving domestic dogs’ health

Photo Credit: Nicky Pe

Gut microbes found in wild wolves may be the key to alleviating a debilitating gastrointestinal condition common to domestic dogs, according to a study led by researchers at Oregon State University – Cascades.

In a paper published in Applied Microbiology, the authors report a novel strain of Paenibacillus bacteria with characteristics of a probiotic – an organism that conveys a health benefit to the host.

In this case, the benefit would be to head off canine inflammatory bowel disease, a chronic illness characterized by vomiting, reduced appetite, weight loss, flatulence, a rumbling stomach and/or abdominal discomfort, said Bruce Seal of OSU-Cascades’ biology program.

“At present there is no known cure for this ongoing dysbiosis of the gastrointestinal tract, and there are limited options for treatment,” Seal said. “Underlying causes of the condition include an animal’s genetics, environmental factors, the immunological state of the GI tract and, maybe most importantly, an altered gut microbiome.”

Bird species changing faster than expected in protected areas

The study compared bird communities during the breeding season inside and outside protected areas in Canada between 1997 and 2019. The results indicated that protected areas remain important for the conservation of northern bird species such as the Lapland longspur, which breeds in Finland as well. However, during the 22-year period, bird communities inside the protected areas began to resemble those outside them in terms of climate requirements. This poses additional challenges for ensuring the continued vitality of species under a warming climate. Communities with similar climate requirements consist of an equal proportion of cold- and warm-dwelling species.

“Protected areas are more effective in helping cold-dwelling northern bird species, but it was surprising to discover that southern species increased faster in abundance inside than outside protected areas,” explains Doctoral Researcher Leena Hintsanen of the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Luomus) under the University of Helsinki.

DNA from discarded whale bones suggests loss of genetic diversity due to commercial whaling

Abandoned whaling stations on South Georgia Island
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oregon State University

Commercial whaling in the 20th century decimated populations of large whales but also appears to have had a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of today’s surviving whales, new research from Oregon State University shows.

Researchers compared DNA from a collection of whale bones found on beaches near abandoned whaling stations on South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic Ocean to DNA from whales in the present-day population and found strong evidence of loss of maternal DNA lineages among blue and humpback whales.

“A maternal lineage is often associated with an animal’s cultural memories such as feeding and breeding locations that are passed from one generation to the next,” said the study’s lead author, Angela Sremba, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral studies at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. “If a maternal lineage is lost, that knowledge is likely also lost.”

The findings were published recently in the Journal of Heredity.