Lightning, camera, gamma ray!

Lightning captured with the highspeed camera at 40,000 frames per second.
Photo Credit: Rasha Abbasi

In September 2021, an unprecedented thunderstorm blew across Utah’s West Desert. Lightning from this storm produced at least six gamma ray flashes that beamed downward to Earth’s surface and activated detectors at the University of Utah-led Telescope Array. The storm was noteworthy on its own—the array usually clocks one or two of the lightning-triggered gamma rays per year—but recent upgrades led to a new observation by the Telescope Array scientists and their lightning collaborators.

For the first time ever, they captured video footage of lightning-triggered downward terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). A special camera running at 40,000 frames per second gave an unprecedented look at how gamma rays burst downwards to the Earth’s surface from cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. They found that not only were multiple gamma rays produced at later lightning stages than previously thought, but the rays were also associated with a pulse of optical light that had never been recorded.

“This is an important step in lightning research that could lead us to the physics producing these downward gamma rays,” said lead author Dr. Rasha Abbasi, now an assistant professor of physics at Loyola University Chicago. Abbasi began the research on TGFs as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Utah.

New study eyes nutrition-rich chia seed for potential to improve human health

Chia seeds.
Photo Credit: Pankaj Jaiswal.

Oregon State University scientists have sequenced the chia genome and in doing so provided a blueprint for future research that capitalizes on the nutritional and human health benefits of the plant.

In the just-published paper, the researchers identified chia genes associated with improving nutrition and sought after properties for pharmaceuticals that could be used to treat everything from cancer to high blood pressure. The seeds of the chia plant have received widespread attention in recent years because of the nutritional punch they pack.

Others have sequenced the chia genome, but this paper provides a more detailed look at the molecular level and the potential of genetic data mining with a keen focus on human health applications.

“This research opens up possibilities for scientists to study chia seed through the lens of improving human health while at the same time continuing to further our knowledge of all the nutritional benefits of chia,” said Pankaj Jaiswal, a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology in the College or Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State.

Camera traps uncover mysterious lesula monkey’s ‘business’

Camera traps equipped with infrared sensors automatically and non-invasively captured videos of Africa’s lesula monkey in the central Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo without any disturbance to their social groups.

Video Credit: Florida Atlantic University

Strategically placed camera traps have uncovered the mysterious behavior of an elusive species of African monkey – Cercopithecus lomamiensis, commonly known as the “lesula.”

In much the same way that Ring home security cameras capture both mundane and extraordinary events, strategically placed camera traps have uncovered the mysterious behavior of an elusive species of African monkey – Cercopithecus lomamiensis, commonly known as the “lesula.” With its large human-like eyes, golden mane and pink face, this cryptic species was discovered in 2012 in the central Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Because of the lesula’s mysterious behavior, traditional observational methods in the field are challenging. To date, no behavioral study has been done to evaluate this species’ degree of terrestriality.

To address a lack of comprehensive ecological knowledge on this lineage, Florida Atlantic University researchers were the first to design and employ an intensive camera trap study to document the lesula’s terrestrial movement, daytime activity pattern, birth seasonality, group size and social organization.

Camera traps, equipped with infrared sensors to automatically and non-invasively capture videos, provided the researchers with the best approach to estimate group counts from non-habituated lesula individuals without any disturbance to their social groups.

Tropical ice cores offer deeper insights into Earth’s temperature record

Ice cores recovered from tropical locations act as unique records of Earth's complex climate history.
Huascarán, Huaraz, Perú
Photo Credit: Jean Simón

A new study suggests ice recovered from high tropical mountains can reveal key insights about Earth’s past climate changes.  

Led by scientists at The Ohio State University, the study showed that oxygen-stable isotope records stored in tropical mountain glacier ice cores can be used to provide scientists with a distinct paleoclimate history of the planet’s middle and upper troposphere. By combining ice core proxy records, paleoclimate simulations and modern satellite measurements and comparing the results to those from previous climate models, they found that the temperature in this region of the atmosphere cooled by 7.35 degrees Celsius during the Earth’s glacial period, which for many researchers illuminates new theories about climate dynamics throughout the ages.  

“Typically, you need hundreds of pieces of data to construct a record of global mean temperature,” said Zhengyu Liu, lead author of the study and a professor of geography at The Ohio State University. “It turns out, in that region in the tropics and at that height, you can use just one, and it’s very consistent with many other independent constructions available, which rely primarily on sea surface temperature proxies.” 

Researchers Find Way to Weld Metal Foam Without Melting Its Bubbles

Composite metal foam (CMF) components
Image Credit: Courtesy of North Carolina State University

Researchers at North Carolina State University have now identified a welding technique that can be used to join composite metal foam (CMF) components together without impairing the properties that make CMF desirable. CMFs hold promise for a wide array of applications because the pockets of air they contain make them light, strong and effective at insulating against high temperatures.

CMFs are foams that consist of hollow, metallic spheres – made of materials such as stainless steel or titanium – embedded in a metallic matrix made of steel, titanium, aluminum or other metallic alloys. The resulting material is both lightweight and remarkably strong, with potential applications ranging from aircraft wings to vehicle armor and body armor.

In addition, CMF is better at insulating against high heat than conventional metals and alloys, such as steel. The combination of weight, strength and thermal insulation means that CMF also holds promise for use in storing and transporting nuclear material, hazardous materials, explosives and other heat-sensitive materials.

However, in order to realize many of these applications, manufacturers would need to weld multiple CMF components together. And that has posed a problem.

Quantum batteries break causality

Charging quantum batteries in indefinite causal order.
In the classical world, if you tried to charge a battery using two chargers, you would have to do so in sequence, limiting the available options to just two possible orders. However, leveraging the novel quantum effect called ICO opens the possibility to charge quantum batteries in a distinctively unconventional way. Here, multiple chargers arranged in different orders can exist simultaneously, forming a quantum superposition.
Illustration Credit: ©2023 Chen et al.
CC BY-ND 4.0 DEED

Batteries that exploit quantum phenomena to gain, distribute and store power promise to surpass the abilities and usefulness of conventional chemical batteries in certain low-power applications. For the first time, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo take advantage of an unintuitive quantum process that disregards the conventional notion of causality to improve the performance of so-called quantum batteries, bringing this future technology a little closer to reality.

When you hear the word “quantum,” the physics governing the subatomic world, developments in quantum computers tend to steal the headlines, but there are other upcoming quantum technologies worth paying attention to. One such item is the quantum battery which, though initially puzzling in name, holds unexplored potential for sustainable energy solutions and possible integration into future electric vehicles. Nevertheless, these new devices are poised to find use in various portable and low-power applications, especially when opportunities to recharge are scarce.

Bats declined as Britain felled trees for colonial shipbuilding

A western barbastelle.
Photo Credit: Antton Alberdi

Bat numbers declined as Britain’s trees were felled for shipbuilding in the early colonial period, new research shows.

The study, by the University of Exeter and the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), found Britain’s Western barbastelle bat populations have dropped by 99% over several hundred years.

Animals’ DNA can be analyzed to discover a “signature” of the past, including periods when populations declined, leading to more inbreeding and less genetic diversity.

Scientists used this method to discover the historic decline of Western barbastelles in Britain – and also analyzed modern landscapes to see what helps and harms bats.

They found more genetic diversity among bats in areas rich in broadleaf woodland and diverse habitats.

Artificial light reduced connectivity between populations, probably because bats avoid areas with bright lighting, while rivers and woodlands increased connectivity.

“These bats usually roost in mature oak and beech trees, and move around every few nights – so they benefit from areas with substantial woodland cover,” said Dr Orly Razgour, from the University of Exeter.

Enabling early detection of cancer

With his group’s new method and the use of artificial intelligence, G.V. Shivashankar hopes to improve tumor diagnosis.
Photo Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer

Blood cells reveal tumors in the body. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute achieve an advance with the development of a test for early diagnosis of cancer.

The ability to detect a developing tumor at a very early stage and to closely monitor the success or failure of cancer therapy is crucial for a patient’s survival. A breakthrough on both counts has now been achieved by researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Researchers led by G.V. Shivashankar, head of PSI‘s Laboratory for Nanoscale Biology and professor of Mechano-Genomics at ETH Zurich, were able to prove that changes in the organization of the cell nucleus of some blood cells can provide a reliable indication of a tumor in the body. With their technique – using artificial intelligence – the scientists were able to distinguish between healthy and sick people with an accuracy of around 85 percent. Besides that, they managed to correctly determine the type of tumor disease – melanoma, glioma, or head and neck tumor. “This is the first time anyone, worldwide, has achieved this,” Shivashankar says happily. The researchers have published their results in the journal npj Precision Oncology.

New Insights into Ecosystem Functions

The mastermind behind the new statistical method: mathematician and statistician Anne Chao from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. Here she is in the university forest of the University of Würzburg on an experimental test plot.
Photo Credit: Simon Thorn/JMU

A DFG research group led by the University of Würzburg has developed a method that makes it possible to analyze the relationship between biodiversity within and between ecosystems and the multifunctionality of entire landscapes.

Ecosystems fulfil a number of vital tasks: They store carbon, clean polluted water, pollinate plants and so on. How well an ecosystem can fulfil these tasks depends largely on its biodiversity, i.e. the variety of plants, animals and microorganisms that live in it. Until now, scientists have only been able to understand the exact nature of this relationship at a local level, for example in relation to individual forest areas, meadows and ponds. The DFG (German Research Foundation) research group BETA-FOR, led by the University of Würzburg (JMU), has now succeeded in developing a statistical method that for the first time can also analyze the contributions of biodiversity between local ecosystems to the multifunctionality of entire landscapes.

Flowers Were More Diverse 100 Million Years Ago Than They Are Today

In black and white: three fossil flowers from the Early Cretaceous (Glandulocalyx, Normanthus,Platydiscus; enlarged). In colour: four present-day species (Cymbidium, Primula,Hyacinthoides, and Passiflora)
Illustration Credit: Julia Asenbaum

Angiosperm flowers reached their greatest morphological diversity early in their evolutionary history

An international team of researchers around botanists at the University of Vienna, Austria, has now analyzed the morphological diversity of fossilized flowers and compared it with the diversity of living species. Their results were quite exciting: Flowering plants had already produced a large number of different flower types shortly after their emergence in the Cretaceous period, and this earliest floral diversity was greater than that today. The study has just been published in the prestigious journal New Phytologist.

With at least 300,000 species, flowering plants (angiosperms) are by far the largest group of plants living today. They first appeared at least 140 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In recent decades, many fossilized flowers from different geological time periods have been discovered and described, giving us a glimpse of past diversity. But how does this past diversity compare to the present one? And – what has happened to flower morphology over time? An international research team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Australia, and the University of Vienna, Austria, has tackled precisely these questions – and found answers.

Viking dentistry was surprisingly advanced

Teeth from individuals among the Viking Age population of Varnhem in Västergötland, Sweden, are clinically examined by Carolina Bertilsson at the Institute of Odontology.
Photo Credit: Yoichi Ishizuka

Widespread caries and toothache – but also some dental work and filing of front teeth. Viking Age teeth from Varnhem bear witness to surprisingly advanced dentistry. This has been shown in a study carried out at the University of Gothenburg.

The study examined 3,293 teeth from 171 individuals among the Viking Age population of Varnhem in Västergötland, Sweden. The site is known for extensive excavations of Viking and medieval environments, including tombs where skeletons and teeth have been preserved well in favorable soil conditions.

The research team from the University of Gothenburg’s Institute of Odontology worked with an osteologist from Västergötland’s Museum. The skulls and teeth were transported to Gothenburg, where all the examinations were carried out.

The teeth underwent clinical examinations using standard dentistry tools under bright light. A number of X-ray examinations were also performed using the same technique used in dentistry, where the patient bites down on a small square imaging plate in the mouth.

Ribosomal protein exhibits remarkable evolutionary transformation

The cryo-EM maps and atomic models showing the structure of ribosomal protein msL1 in the ribosome from microsporidian parasites V. necatrix (first row), and protein msL2 in the ribosome from microsporidian parasites E. cuniculi (second row).
Illustration Credit: Leon Schierholz

A team of researchers from the Universities of Newcastle and Umeå has discovered that a ribosomal protein exhibits a remarkable evolutionary transformation, with its three-dimensional structure changing drastically while its sequence remains relatively conserved.

The protein, known as msL1/msL2, is found in ribosomes of parasitic microorganisms called microsporidia, and it is suggested to play a role in stabilizing the highly reduced protein synthesis machinery in these unique organisms. 

“Despite its conserved sequence, msL1/msL2 adopts distinct folds in two different microsporidian species, Encephalitozoon cuniculi, and Vairimorpha necatrix. This structural divergence is particularly striking given that the two proteins share approximately 41% sequence similarity,” comments Léon Schierholz, one of the authors from Umeå University.  

Aquatic Insects in Restored Streams Need More Rocks to Lay Their Eggs

A caddisfly egg mass sits on the underside of a protruding rock.
Photo Credit: Brad Taylor, NC State University.

Likening it to providing more runways at busy airports, researchers at North Carolina State University found in a new study that adding protruding rocks to restored streams can help attract female aquatic insects that lay their eggs on the rock bottoms or sides.

More eggs that hatch into larval insects is great news for stream restoration because the re-establishment of organisms, such as insects, is often slower than expected in restored streams, says Brad Taylor, associate professor of applied ecology at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research. A thriving population of stream insects generally portends good water quality, overall stream health, and provides food for fish, amphibians, reptiles, and even birds, he adds.

Most stream insects use rocks protruding above the water as runways to land on, then crawl underwater and attach their eggs to the underside of the rocks. Because restored streams sometimes fail to regain their abundance of aquatic insects even decades following restoration, researchers were interested in testing whether increasing egg-laying habitat the rock landing areas would increase the abundance and diversity of insect eggs and larvae.

Taylor and NC State graduate student Samantha Dilworth selected 10 restored streams in northwestern North Carolina and added protruding rocks gathered near the streams to five of them; the other five restored streams did not receive additional rocks.

UNC Researchers Reveal Prevalence of Persistent Symptoms in Patients with Microscopic Colitis

Walker Redd, MD, a clinical outcomes and epidemiology fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University North Carolina, School of Medicine

It’s a hidden cause of diarrhea and the development of the disease is poorly understood. Multiple factors work against the diagnosis of microscopic colitis, an inflammatory digestive disease, because the symptom distress compared to patients with other causes of chronic diarrhea remains unknown. Now, a new study published in journal Gastro Hep Advances, shows patients may be unsure of a diagnosis based on their colonoscopy results, patients may not be prescribed the proper medications, and many patients may remain symptomatic one year after colonoscopy.

The study, led by corresponding author Walker Redd, MD, a clinical outcomes and epidemiology fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the UNC School of Medicine, involved a cohort of patients from April 1, 2015 to December 22, 2020 enrolled at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC. Patients participating in a follow-up survey included 74 with biopsy-confirmed microscopic colitis and 162 patients experiencing other causes of chronic diarrhea (diarrhea controls) after colonoscopy at a one-year follow-up.

“We thought it was important to better understand the burden of symptoms among those patients with microscopic colitis within the context of all patients undergoing colonoscopy to evaluate diarrhea,” Redd said.

Sugar analysis could reveal different types of cancer

By analyzing changes in glycan structures in the cell, researchers can detect different types of cancer.
Photo Credit: Mikhail Nilov

In the future, a little saliva may be enough to detect an incipient cancer. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed an effective way to interpret the changes in sugar molecules that occur in cancer cells.

Glycans are a type of sugar molecule structure that is linked to the proteins in our cells. The structure of the glycan determines the function of the protein. It has been known for a while that changes in glycan structure can indicate inflammation or disease in the body. Now, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed a way to distinguish different types of structural changes, which may provide a precise answer to what will change for a specific disease.

“We have analyzed data from about 220 patients with 11 differently diagnosed cancers and have identified differences in the substructure of the glycan depending on the type of cancer. By letting our newly developed method, enhanced by AI, work through large amounts of data, we were able to find these connections,” says Daniel Bojar, associate senior lecturer in bioinformatics at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the study published in Cell Reports Methods.