The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

Some of the responses seemed more rational than some of the questions ... and some of the robots can lie and spin as well as any human ...

AT A UN AI SUMMIT IN GENEVA, A GROUP OF NINE HUMANOID ROBOTS FIELDED QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS.

A United Nations technology agency assembled a group of robots that physically resembled humans at a news conference Friday, inviting reporters to ask them questions in an event meant to spark discussion about the future of artificial intelligence.

The nine robots were seated and posed upright along with some of the people who helped make them at a podium in a Geneva conference center for what the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union billed as the world’s first news conference featuring humanoid social robots.

Among them: Sophia, the first robot innovation ambassador for the U.N. Development Program, or UNDP; Grace, described as a health care robot; and Desdemona, a rock star robot. Two, Geminoid and Nadine, resembled their makers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T80yQHmqp6o

[Jundo]

The early universe ... with all the time in the world ...

Quasar “Clocks” Show Universe Was 5x Slower Soon After the Big Bang

In a pioneering study, scientists have used quasars as cosmic clocks to observe the early universe running in extreme slow motion, further validating Einstein’s theory of general relativity. By examining data from nearly 200 quasars, hyperactive supermassive black holes in the centers of early galaxies, the team found that time appeared to flow five times slower when the universe was just over a billion years old.

... “If you were there, in this infant universe, one second would seem like one second – but from our position, more than 12 billion years into the future, that early time appears to drag.” ... “Thanks to Einstein, we know that time and space are intertwined and, since the dawn of time in the singularity of the Big Bang, the universe has been expanding,” Professor Lewis said. “This expansion of space means that our observations of the early universe should appear to be much slower than time flows today.

“In this paper, we have established that back to about a billion years after the Big Bang.”

Previously, astronomers have confirmed this slow-motion universe back to about half the age of the universe using supernovae – massive exploding stars – as ‘standard clocks’. But while supernovae are exceedingly bright, they are difficult to observe at the immense distances needed to peer into the early universe. By observing quasars, this time horizon has been rolled back to just a tenth the age of the universe, confirming that the universe appears to speed up as it ages.

https://scitechdaily.com/einstein-vindicated-quasar-clocks-show-universe-was-5x-slower-soon-after-the-big-bang/?expand_article=1

I believe in these ghosts ... (follow-up to a report last week) ...

Ghostlike Astronomical Messengers Reveal New View of Milky Way

Our Milky Way galaxy is an awe-inspiring feature of the night sky, viewable with the naked eye as a horizon-to-horizon hazy band of stars. Now, for the first time, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has produced an image of the Milky Way using neutrinos—tiny, ghostlike astronomical messengers. In an article published on June 30 in the journal Science, the IceCube Collaboration, an international group of over 350 scientists, presents evidence of high-energy neutrino emission from the Milky Way. The high-energy neutrinos, with energies millions to billions of times higher than those produced by the fusion reactions that power stars, were detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a gigaton detector operating at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. ... This one-of-a-kind detector encompasses a cubic kilometer of deep Antarctic ice instrumented with over 5,000 light sensors. IceCube searches for signs of high-energy neutrinos originating from our galaxy and beyond, out to the farthest reaches of the universe.

... the final breakthrough came from the implementation of machine learning methods, developed by IceCube collaborators at TU Dortmund University, which improve the identification of cascades produced by neutrinos as well as their direction and energy reconstruction. The observation of neutrinos from the Milky Way is a hallmark of the emerging critical value that machine learning provides in data analysis and event reconstruction in IceCube. ...

A view of the IceCube Lab with a starry night sky showing the Milky Way and green auroras.

https://scitechdaily.com/ghostlike-a...-of-milky-way/

The sun is still hot hot hot ...

Intensely Powerful X1.0 Solar Flare Witnessed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 7:14 p.m. EDT (4:14 p.m. PDT) on July 2, 2023. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

This flare is classified as an X1.0 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

A solar flare is a sudden and significant release of energy in the Sun’s atmosphere, often associated with sunspots and magnetic activity. These flares are the largest explosive events in our solar system, ejecting bundles of charged particles and electromagnetic radiation into space. ...

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the top right area of the Sun – on July 2, 2023.

https://scitechdaily.com/intensely-p...s-observatory/

Voyage to the center of the earth ... and it's hot down there! ... which led to us ...

The Inside of the Earth Is As Hot as the Sun’s Surface – How Has It Stayed That Way for Billions of Years?

The Earth’s layered structure, which includes moving plates, is heated by remnants of the planet’s formation and the decay of radioactive isotopes. Geoscientists use seismic waves to study these internal structures and movements, which are critical for environmental changes and life evolution on Earth. The internal heat drives plate movements, contributing to phenomena like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the creation of new land and oceans, thus making Earth habitable.

... Starting from the top down, there’s the crust, which includes the surface you walk on; then farther down, the mantle, mostly solid rock; then even deeper, the outer core, made of liquid iron; and finally, the inner core, made of solid iron, and with a radius that’s 70% the size of the Moon’s. The deeper you dive, the hotter it gets – parts of the core are as hot as the surface of the Sun.

... Where does all that heat come from?

It is not from the Sun. While it warms us and all the plants and animals on Earth’s surface, sunlight can’t penetrate through miles of the planet’s interior. Instead, there are two sources. One is the heat that Earth inherited during its formation 4.5 billion years ago. The Earth was made from the solar nebula, a gigantic gaseous cloud, amid endless collisions and mergings between bits of rock and debris called planetesimals. This process took tens of millions of years. An enormous amount of heat was produced during those collisions, enough to melt the whole Earth. Although some of that heat was lost in space, the rest of it was locked away inside the Earth, where much of it remains even today.

The other heat source: the decay of radioactive isotopes, distributed everywhere in the Earth. ...

No heat, no plate movement, no life

Even now, the moving plates keep changing the surface of the Earth, constantly making new lands and new oceans over millions and billions of years. The plates also affect the atmosphere over similarly lengthy time scales.

But without the Earth’s internal heat, the plates would not have been moving. The Earth would have cooled down. Our world would likely have been uninhabitable. You wouldn’t be here.

The slice you see cut out of the Earth reveals its core, depicted here in bright yellow.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-inside-...ions-of-years/

Or maybe not ...

Life Sprung From a “Stagnant Lid,” Not Plate Tectonics

A study from the University of Rochester, using zircon crystals, found that plate tectonics was inactive during the period when life first appeared on Earth. Instead, a “stagnant lid” mechanism was operating, releasing heat through surface cracks. This discovery challenges the traditional belief that plate tectonics is essential for life’s origination, potentially reshaping our understanding of conditions required for life on other planets.

https://scitechdaily.com/zircons-unlock-earths-early-history-life-sprung-from-a-stagnant-lid-not-plate-tectonics/?expand_article=1

Sadly, the surface of the world is getting warm too ...

World swelters under unofficial hottest day on record

The global average temperature hit 17.01 degrees Celsius, or 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit, on Monday, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool often used by climate scientists to gauge conditions around the world. The next day, July 4, the average global temperature climbed to another high, reaching 17.18 C, or 62.92 F.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...cord-rcna92598

The environment is killings millions says the W.H.O. ... a environmental war crime in the making ...

OFFICIALS RAISE ALARM OVER WHAT THEY SAY CAUSED OVER A MILLION DEATHS IN EUROPE ALONE

Each year, across the 53-country WHO European Region [alone], an estimated 1.4 million deaths are linked to environmental risk factors, such as pollution and climate change. ... “A healthy environment in the WHO European Region: why it matters and what steps we can take to improve health” – shows that air pollution, unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene, climate change and chemical pollution continue to pose a significant threat to health in the Region, with a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, including children, women, and elderly people. Environmental risks also contribute to a quarter of all noncommunicable diseases globally, including cancer, along with cardiovascular, respiratory, and mental diseases.

This new report shows the following, in the Region, covering Europe and central Asia.
Every year, there are more than 1.4 million deaths associated with avoidable environmental risks to health. These deaths account for approximately 15% of the burden of disease in the Region.
About 570 000 deaths could be attributed to ambient air pollution, and more than 150 000 deaths to household air pollution in 2019.
About 77 million people lacked access to safely managed drinking water in 2020.
Only last year, at least 20 000 people died from extreme heat in what was the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe.
Green spaces have a protective health effect that can reduce natural-cause mortality by nearly 1%.

https://www.who.int/europe/news/item...imate%20change

Bad for the oceans too ...

Climate Change’s Deadly Grip: Coral Disease Prevalence Projected To Skyrocket to 76.8% by 2100

Global warming is leading to the increased spread of deadly coral disease, which, according to new research, is predicted to become endemic to reefs worldwide by the next century.

The research, recently published in the journal Ecology Letters, demonstrates the potential severity of climate change impacts on coral health. It warns of the potential eradication of entire reef ecosystems and the subsequent detrimental effects on coastal populations.

... They found coral disease increased with ocean temperatures over time, tripling over the past 25 years to 9.92 percent globally. Their modeling also predicts disease prevalence can increase to 76.8 percent in 2100 if temperatures continue to rise on the same trajectory – the most conservative worst-case scenario. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/climate-cha...-76-8-by-2100/

Something good for the environment may be lab grown meats ... but there are critics ...

... and, sorry, I am VERY SUSPICIOUS of the reasoning here ... I'll will bet that this article was funded by the pro-meat industry (like the cigarette industry used to do) ...

Opinion: Lab-grown meat is an expensive distraction from reality

... Lab-grown meat has more in common with meat produced at a slaughterhouse than you might think. Some critics of the meatpacking industry have gotten excited about the idea of lab-grown meat as an alternative to Big Chicken. But among those most likely to profit from these experiments are the major meatpacking companies. Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in the US, was an early investor in the plant-based meat company Beyond Meat and has put money in Upside Foods. Meatpacking giants JBS and Cargill have also invested in lab-grown meat. ...

... Cultured meat seems visionary, but the biology and economics don’t add up. Live animal cells are put in stainless steel bioreactors to grow the meat. For cultivated meat production to reach 1% of the protein market, the industry would need 88 to 176 Olympic swimming pools of fermentation capacity, according to a 2021 report on cultivated meat by McKinsey & Company. The biopharma industry has less than 10 swimming pools of capacity, the report said then.

At farms and labs, the process begins with a living animal. In the case of cultured meat, the process starts when cells are extracted from a live animal’s muscle and skin tissue, and fetal bovine serum is collected from the unborn fetuses of slaughtered cows. Cell-cultured meat is grown in a lab; the resulting product is a single-cell slurry, a mix of 30% animal cells and 70% water. The slurry is used to make ground-meat products. ... Like slaughterhouses, cultured-meat labs will have to confront problems with infection. Cultured animal cells are alive and can become infected with viruses. At the scale required to mass-produce lab-grown meat, the challenges would multiply.

In 2018, David Humbird, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, began work on a comprehensive study of cultivated meat’s potential. Humbird found that the cost of cultivation facilities would be too high for lab-grown meat to significantly displace the meatpacking industry’s market share, according to a 2021 analysis published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Both the meatpacking industry and lab-cultured meat exert a high environmental cost. While we know the meatpacking industry contributes to climate change, a 2023 study (not yet peer-reviewed) by the University of California, Davis, suggests lab-grown meat may be worse for the environment than the products it wants to replace. The study found that lab-grown meat’s carbon footprint is potentially greater than retail beef. Before celebrating cultured meat as a victory for anyone, surely more studies are needed to explore this point further. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/07/05/opinions/lab-grown-meat-expensive-distraction-driver/index.html

And what will we eat on Mars? ...

Does this look appetizing? If you go to Mars, it may be your meal

As part of a NASA competition called the Deep Space Food Challenge, a San Francisco based design firm shows CNN its ideas for tasty treats astronauts can grow themselves and even grill while on a long flight to Mars.

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2...td-gr-orig.cnn

Bamboo may be a renewable resource ... Zen Master and Poet Ryokan wrote ...

There is a bamboo grove
around my house.
Several thousands stand together,
forming a placid shade.
Young shoots run wild,
blocking the roads here and there.
Old branches stretch all the way,
cutting across the sky.
Frosty winters have armed them
with a spiritual strength.
Rising mists wrap them
with the veil of profound mystery.
In their healthy beauty
they even rank with pine and oak,
Although they do not vie in grandeur
with peach and plum.
Their trunks are upright
and their knots are far between.
Their hearts are void of stuffing
and their roots sturdy.
Bamboo trees, I admire you
for your honesty and strength.
Be my friends, and stand
about my retreat until eternity.
(Translation adapted from Nobuyuki Yuasa)

Bamboo: The Next Source of Renewable Energy?

A new article published in the journal GCB Bioenergy explores why bamboo could be a sustainable, eco-friendly renewable energy source that could serve as an alternative to fossil fuels.

The authors highlight bamboo’s rapid growth, its proficiency in carbon dioxide absorption, and its ability to contribute substantial quantities of oxygen to the environment. They describe various processes—such as fermentation and pyrolysis—that can be performed to convert its raw material into bioethanol, biogas, and other bioenergy products.

https://scitechdaily.com/bamboo-the-...pand_article=1

Wait a second ... I thought that the whole thing about cavemen and dinosaurs was wrong ...

ONE-MILLION-YEARS-B.C.-9992-1-scaled-682x1024.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2bgeq6hAlU

WELL, ALMOST ...

Shocking Study: Humans’ Ancestors Lived Among Dinosaurs and Survived Asteroid Strike

A Cretaceous origin for placental mammals, the group that includes humans, dogs, and bats, has been revealed by in-depth analysis of the fossil record, showing they co-existed with dinosaurs for a short time before the dinosaurs went extinct.

The catastrophic destruction triggered by the asteroid hitting the Earth resulted in the death of all non-avian dinosaurs in an event termed the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. Debate has long raged among researchers over whether placental mammals were present alongside the dinosaurs before the mass extinction, or whether they only evolved after the dinosaurs were done away with.

https://scitechdaily.com/shocking-study-humans-ancestors-lived-among-dinosaurs-and-survived-asteroid-strike/

In the (near) future, we will exist with the robots ...

tsuku.jpg

... But what does Confucius have to say about that? ...

Giving Robots Rights Is a Bad Idea – But Confucianism Offers an Alternative

Notable philosophers and legal experts have delved into the moral and legal implications of robots, with a few advocating for giving robots rights. As robots become more integrated into various aspects of life, a recent review of research on robot rights concluded that extending rights to robots is a bad idea. The study, instead, proposes a Confucian-inspired approach. ...

... Although many believe that respecting robots should lead to granting them rights, Kim argues for a different approach. Confucianism, an ancient Chinese belief system, focuses on the social value of achieving harmony; individuals are made distinctively human by their ability to conceive of interests not purely in terms of personal self-interest, but in terms that include a relational and a communal self. This, in turn, requires a unique perspective on rites, with people enhancing themselves morally by participating in proper rituals.

When considering robots, Kim suggests that the Confucian alternative of assigning rites—or what he calls role obligations—to robots is more appropriate than giving robots rights. The concept of rights is often adversarial and competitive, and potential conflict between humans and robots is concerning. “Assigning role obligations to robots encourages teamwork, which triggers an understanding that fulfilling those obligations should be done harmoniously,” explains Kim. “Artificial intelligence (AI) imitates human intelligence, so for robots to develop as rites bearers, they must be powered by a type of AI that can imitate humans’ capacity to recognize and execute team activities—and a machine can learn that ability in various ways.”

Kim acknowledges that some will question why robots should be treated respectfully in the first place. “To the extent that we make robots in our image, if we don’t treat them well, as entities capable of participating in rites, we degrade ourselves,” he suggests.

Various non-natural entities—such as corporations—are considered people and even assume some Constitutional rights. In addition, humans are not the only species with moral and legal status; in most developed societies, moral and legal considerations preclude researchers from gratuitously using animals for lab experiments.

Reference: “Should Robots Have Rights or Rites?” by Tae Wan Kim and Alan Strudler, 24 May 2023, Communications of the ACM.
DOI: 10.1145/3571721

https://scitechdaily.com/giving-robots-rights-is-a-bad-idea-but-confucianism-offers-an-alternative/?expand_article=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mUitchS_iw&t=4s

Are we biological robots ...

Illuminating Neural Pathways: A New Technique for Brain Imaging

The Scattering Light Imaging (SLI) technique provides a cost-effective, high-resolution method to map neural connections in the brain. The technique, which involves analyzing light scattering patterns in thin brain slices, offers more detailed results than existing methods like dMRI, and is more accessible and faster than SAXS.

Color-coded nerve fiber orientations in a brain section obtained from scattered light imaging (SLI, left) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, right)

https://scitechdaily.com/illuminatin...brain-imaging/

We are living Origami ... think of this the next time you dip into a salad ...

Beyond the Helix: DNA’s Complex Folding Unveils New Functions

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a department of the National Institutes of Health, found that DNA can emulate the functions of proteins by forming intricate, three-dimensional structures.

This research, which was recently published in the journal Nature, made use of high-definition imaging technologies to uncover the unique and multifaceted configuration of a synthesized DNA molecule. This molecule was designed to simulate the behavior of a protein known as green fluorescent protein (GFP). Originally extracted from jellyfish, GFP has become a critical tool in labs, serving as a luminescent marker or beacon within cells. The findings advance the science of how DNA can be made to fold into complex shapes, and will help researchers build such DNA molecules for a variety of laboratory and clinical applications. An all-DNA fluorescent tag that mimics GFP, for example, would often be ideal for labeling targeted pieces of DNA in biological studies and in diagnostic test kits, and would be relatively inexpensive to make.

“These findings really change our understanding of what we can do with DNA,” said study co-author Dr. Samie Jaffrey, Greenberg-Starr Professor of Pharmacology and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.

DNA in nature exists mostly in a double-stranded, “twisted ladder” or “helical” form, and serves as a relatively stable store of genetic information. All of the other complex biological processes in cells are done by other types of molecules, especially proteins.

... In the research led by Dr. Luiz Passalacqua, a research fellow at Dr. Ferré-D’Amaré’s team, advanced structural imaging techniques were used, including cryo-electron microscopy, to resolve the structure of lettuce at atomic-scale resolution. They found that it folds into a shape that has at its center a four-way junction of DNA, of a type never seen before, enclosing the fluorophore in a way that activates it.

They also observed that lettuce’s foldings are held together with bonds between nucleobases—the building blocks of DNA that are often referred to as the “letters” in the four-letter DNA alphabet. ...

“Studies like this are going to be essential for the creation of new DNA-based tools,” Dr. Jaffrey said.

https://scitechdaily.com/beyond-the-helix-dnas-complex-folding-unveils-new-functions/

And when you get the desire to eat a salad and more ... and a way to manipulate desires ...

MIT’s New Technology Can Probe the Neural Circuits That Influence Hunger, Mood, and Diseases

MIT engineers have developed a new optogenetic technology that can manipulate the neurological connections between the brain and gut, potentially offering insights into the links between digestive health and neurological conditions.

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors. This extensive communication network also influences our mental state and has been implicated in many neurological disorders. MIT engineers have designed a new technology for probing those connections. Using fibers embedded with a variety of sensors, as well as light sources for optogenetic stimulation, the researchers have shown that they can control neural circuits connecting the gut and the brain, in mice.

In a new study, the researchers demonstrated that they could induce feelings of fullness or reward-seeking behavior in mice by manipulating cells of the intestine. ... “The exciting thing here is that we now have technology that can drive gut function and behaviors such as feeding. More importantly, we have the ability to start accessing the crosstalk between the gut and the brain with the millisecond precision of optogenetics, and we can do it in behaving animals,” says Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, director of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center, associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

https://scitechdaily.com/mits-new-technology-can-probe-the-neural-circuits-that-influence-hunger-mood-and-diseases/?expand_article=1

Eyes from bacteria ...

500 Million-Year Journey: The Bacterial Origins of Our Vision

New discovery reveals that vertebrates gained a unique protein from bacteria over half a billion years ago.
Humans and other backbone-bearing organisms possess a marvel of evolution: eyes that operate similarly to cameras, offering a finely tuned visual system. Charles Darwin acknowledged the eye’s intricacy as a significant potential stumbling block to his theory of natural selection through incremental evolutionary steps.

The distinction in visual capabilities between vertebrates and invertebrates can be traced back to a distinctive protein. This protein is responsible for specializing cells that play a vital role in vision. Mutations in the protein... have been known to cause a variety of diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, but its evolutionary origin has remained elusive with no obvious genetic precursor. Scientists in the University of California San Diego School of Biological Sciences, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have now traced the 500 million-year-old origin of vertebrate IRBP to a bacterial source. Their discovery, using phylogenetic reconstruction methods, was made possible because of the growing number of fully detailed genomes now available. Their analysis of more than 900 genomes across the tree of life revealed that the IRBP integration in vertebrate eyes was not the result of traditional vertical gene transfer, in which an evolutionary advancement is adapted, or “tinkered with” using available genetic material. Rather, the IRBP was acquired, duplicated, and integrated through horizontal gene transfer from foreign bacterial genes.

“It’s a massive shift because this is an entirely new piece of genetic material that’s been introduced from bacteria,” said Biological Sciences Associate Professor Matt Daugherty, the paper’s senior author. ...“This study shows that a major innovation that distinguishes vertebrate eyes from all the rest of the eyes out there wasn’t done by molecular tinkering but rather a big leap of genetic innovation.”

... Once the key gene that eventually became IRBP was acquired from bacteria, a new door opened in vertebrates that allowed retinoids, molecules in the eye that directly sense light, to be shuttled between cell types to efficiently recycle it for further light sensing. This separation of photoreception, or light sensing, and retinoid recycling provides unique functionality to vertebrates and the way they can see.

https://scitechdaily.com/500-million...of-our-vision/

Seeing small as an atom ...

For the Very First Time: Scientists Analyze a Single Atom With X-Rays

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and various universities have successfully used X-ray beams to analyze a single atom, marking a groundbreaking achievement in X-ray technology. This leap forward could revolutionize numerous scientific fields, including quantum technology and medical research, and could lead to the development of new technologies.

On left, image of a ring-shaped molecular host that contains just one iron atom.

I want my own designer vaccines ...

Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment: The Power of Personalized Vaccines

Researchers at Edith Cowan University have found promising results from a trial combining an mRNA vaccine, tailored to individual tumor genetics, with conventional immunotherapy for high-risk melanoma patients. The results showed a significant increase in cancer-free survival rates and decreased disease recurrence, potentially marking a significant stride toward personalized cancer treatment.

Incorporating a personalized mRNA vaccine, designed to match an individual’s tumor genetics, into standard immunotherapy substantially boosts survival rates and reduces the recurrence of high-risk skin cancers in patients who have had these malignancies removed.

Professor Khattak outlined how survival and disease recurrence rates among people who’d had high-risk skin cancers (melanomas) removed improved significantly when an mRNA vaccine tailored to suit an individual’s tumor genetics was added to common immunotherapy treatment.

After 18 months, cancer-free survival among patients who received the vaccine and the immunotherapy treatment was 78.6 percent, compared to 62.2 percent of those who only received the immunotherapy.

https://scitechdaily.com/revolutioni...ized-vaccines/

And more designer precision ...

Artificial Intelligence Meets CRISPR: The Rise of Precision RNA-Targeting and Gene Modulation

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model, TIGER, that predicts the on- and off-target activity of RNA-targeting CRISPR tools. This innovation, detailed in a study published in Nature Biotechnology, can accurately design guide RNAs, modulate gene expression, and is poised to drive advancements in CRISPR-based therapies. ... A key goal of the study is to maximize the activity of RNA-targeting CRISPRs on the intended target RNA and minimize activity on other RNAs which could have detrimental side effects for the cell. Off-target activity includes both mismatches between the guide and target RNA as well as insertion and deletion mutations. Earlier studies of RNA-targeting CRISPRs focused only on on-target activity and mismatches; predicting off-target activity, particularly insertion and deletion mutations, has not been well-studied. In human populations, about one in five mutations are insertions or deletions, so these are important types of potential off-targets to consider for CRISPR design. ... The researchers also demonstrated that TIGER’s off-target predictions can be used to precisely modulate gene dosage—the amount of a particular gene that is expressed—by enabling partial inhibition of gene expression in cells with mismatch guides. This may be useful for diseases in which there are too many copies of a gene, such as Down syndrome, certain forms of schizophrenia, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (a hereditary nerve disorder), or in cancers where aberrant gene expression can lead to uncontrolled tumor growth.

“Our deep learning model can tell us not only how to design a guide RNA that knocks down a transcript completely, but can also ‘tune’ it—for instance, having it produce only 70% of the transcript of a specific gene,” said Andrew Stirn, a PhD student at Columbia Engineering and the New York Genome Center, and the study’s co-first author.

https://scitechdaily.com/artificial-intelligence-meets-crispr-the-rise-of-precision-rna-targeting-and-gene-modulation/

News from TSUKUBA (home to Treeleaf Japan) ... or maybe PARALLEL TSUKUBA TREELEAF ...

... (maybe, in a parallel universe, I understand this )

Physicists Prove That Parallel Worlds Cannot Be Extremely Different From Each Other

In the realm of theoretical physics, superstring theories propose the existence of parallel worlds (A-side and B-side). Although it’s impossible to differentiate between these universes, they are interlinked. A team of researchers at the University of Tsukuba have demonstrated through mathematical evidence that under specific circumstances, dramatic transformations (“blowing up”) which do not transpire within the A-side, similarly do not occur within the B-side.

Theoretical string theory in theoretical physics predicts the existence of parallel worlds (mirror symmetry prediction). These two worlds (A-side and B-side) are supposed to differ in terms of the six-dimensional spaces (A and B) hidden in each world. However, as these spaces are extremely similar and invisible, theoretically, we cannot distinguish the world that we live in. Considerable research has been conducted on the properties of space A, and extreme changes (i.e., blowing up) do not occur in it under certain conditions.

However, recently it has been discovered that spaces A and B are transformed in a certain way and their apparently different objects correspond to each other. However, the nature and extent of this transformation are not well understood, and research on the properties of space B has not yet progressed. In this study, the scientists mathematically investigated whether the behavior of space B also has the same properties as that of space A. They transferred a known phenomenon from the A-side to the B-side and proved that no blowing up occurs even in space B under certain conditions.

This achievement provides mathematical proof for one of the previously intuitively expected similarities between A-side and B-side. Although the researchers made some assumptions to prove this theorem, in the future, they will clarify whether this theorem holds even without these assumptions.

Reference: “An ε-regularity theorem for line bundle mean curvature flow” by Xiaoli Han and Hikaru Yamamoto, 27 April 2023, The Asian Journal of Mathematics.
DOI: 10.4310/AJM.2022.v26.n6.a1

https://scitechdaily.com/physicists-prove-that-parallel-worlds-cannot-be-extremely-different-from-each-other/

More science news from the ocean right off our Ibaraki Prefecture coast ...

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says Japan can release nuclear waste water into the ocean

The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved a plan by Japan to release more than a million tons of treated nuclear waste water from the destroyed Fukushima power plant into the ocean, despite vehement international opposition.

In a report released Tuesday, the IAEA said it has concluded after a two-year assessment that the plan is "consistent with relevant international safety standards" and that while societal, political and environmental concerns have been raised, the discharged water "will have negligible radiological impact on people and the environment." ... The water, which was used to cool the fuel rods of the plant in 2011 following meltdowns in three of its reactors, will be treated and released into the Pacific Ocean over the next 30-40 years. The disaster was caused by tsunami waves triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/04/11859...ter-into-the-o

That articles causes me to have an out-of-body experience ...

Having an out-of-body experience? Blame this sausage-shaped piece of your brain

Dr. Josef Parvizi remembers meeting a man with epilepsy whose seizures were causing some very unusual symptoms.

"He came to my clinic and said, 'My sense of self is changing,'" says Parvizi, a professor of neurology at Stanford University.

The man told Parvizi that he felt "like an observer to conversations that are happening in my mind" and that "I just feel like I'm floating in space."

Parvizi and a team of researchers would eventually trace the man's symptoms to a "sausage-looking piece of brain" called the anterior precuneus.

This area, nestled between the brain's two hemispheres, appears critical to a person's sense of inhabiting their own body, or bodily self, the team recently reported in the journal Neuron.

... In 2019, when the man first came to Stanford's Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Parvizi thought his symptoms were caused by seizures in the posteromedial cortex, an area toward the back of the brain.

This area includes a brain network involved in the narrative self, a sort of internal autobiography that helps us define who we are. Parvizi's team figured that the same network must be responsible for the bodily self too.

"Everybody thought, 'Well, maybe all kinds of selves are being decoded by the same system,'" he says. ... When the team stimulated the anterior precuneus, "lo and behold, everybody has changes in their sense of what we call the bodily or physical self," Parvizi says.

In other words, the stimulation produced an out-of-body experience. People felt detached from their own thoughts and no longer anchored in their own bodies.

The finding was surprising because the anterior precuneus is separate from the brain's system for maintaining a narrative self. Instead, it appears devoted to the sense that something is "happening to me," not another person, Parvizi says.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ody-experience

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Wonderful news!

Euclid “Dark Universe” Space Telescope Lifts Off on Quest To Unravel Deepest Cosmic Mysteries

ESA’s Euclid spacecraft lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, at 11:12 a.m. EDT on July 1, 2023. The successful launch marks the beginning of an ambitious mission to uncover the nature of two mysterious components of our Universe: dark matter and dark energy, and to help us answer the fundamental question: what is the Universe made of?

https://youtu.be/wbWA1OhHeCA

Form is emptiness, emptiness just form ... but what is that "form?" ... especially all the mysterious "dark form!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U60LhdfgDGk

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tokan]

Wow, you have been busy reading Jundo - as always, thanks for the articles, just fascinating

Gassho, Tokan

satlah

[Jundo]

We are lucky survivors, time and time and time and time and time again ... whether this is true or not, countless hurdles like it were true ...

Cosmic Shield: How Our Solar System Survived a Supernova

Evidence gleaned from isotope ratios within meteorites indicates that a supernova detonation occurred nearby while our Sun and Solar System were still in their formative stages. The resulting blast from that supernova could have potentially destroyed the nascent solar system. ...a supernova that was close enough to deliver the amount of isotopes seen in meteorites would have also created a blast wave strong enough to rip the nascent Solar System apart.

[BUT] Assuming that the Sun formed along a dense molecular gas filament, and a supernova exploded at a nearby filament hub ... [the] parent filament may have acted as a buffer to protect the young Sun and helped catch the radioactive isotopes from the supernova blast wave and channel them into the still-forming Solar System.

https://scitechdaily.com/cosmic-shield-how-our-solar-system-survived-a-supernova/?expand_article=1

We also survived the hurdle of the oxygen/atmospheric mix on our planter ... what brought that about? ...

“Groundbreaking” Findings – Previously Unknown Process Could Be Responsible for 12% of Earth’s Total Oxygen Production

Take a deep breath. Now take nine more. One of those 10 breaths you just took was made possible due to a newly discovered cellular mechanism that promotes photosynthesis in marine phytoplankton, according to recent research.

Described as “groundbreaking” by a team of researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, this hitherto unknown mechanism is responsible for between 7% and 25% of all oxygen production and carbon fixation in the ocean. Taking into account photosynthesis on land, it’s estimated that this process could be responsible for generating as much as 12% of the planet’s total oxygen. ... “This study represents a breakthrough in our understanding of marine phytoplankton,” said lead author Daniel Yee, who conducted the research while a Ph.D. student at Scripps Oceanography and currently serves as a joint postdoctoral researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and University of Grenoble Alpes in France. “Over millions of years of evolution, these small cells in the ocean carry out minute chemical reactions, in particular to produce this mechanism that enhances photosynthesis, that shaped the trajectory of life on this planet.”

... “We were able to generate these images that are showing the protein of interest and where it is inside of a cell with many membranes,” said Yee. “In combination with detailed experiments to quantify photosynthesis, we found that this protein is actually promoting photosynthesis by delivering more carbon dioxide, which is what the chloroplast uses to produce more complex carbon molecules, like sugars, while also producing more oxygen as a by-product.” ...

Once the underlying mechanism was established, the team was able to connect it to multiple aspects of evolution. Diatoms were derived from a symbiotic event between a protozoan and an algae around 250 million years ago that culminated into the fusing of the two organisms into one, known as symbiogenesis. The authors highlight that the process of one cell consuming another, known as phagocytosis, is widespread in nature. Phagocytosis relies on the proton pump to digest the cell that acts as the food source. However, in the case of diatoms, something special occurred in which the cell that was eaten didn’t get fully digested.

https://scitechdaily.com/groundbreaking-findings-previously-unknown-process-could-be-responsible-for-12-of-earths-total-oxygen-production/

Brain connections and unconnections are further hurdles ...

Battle of the Dendrites: How Neurons Compete To Cut Connections

Researchers at Kyushu University discovered the chemical pathways that regulate synaptic pruning, a crucial phase in brain development where excessive and incorrect neuronal connections are eliminated. The team found that in the presence of neurotransmitter signaling, the receiving dendrite is protected while other dendrites of the same neuron are set on a path to be pruned, a mechanism that helps refine neural networks and contribute to proper brain maturation.

... “The elimination of neuronal connections, what we call pruning, was something everybody in the field knew about and observed. But if you look at the literature, there was a lack of study on the exact mechanism that drove the process,” explains first author Satoshi Fujimoto.

Elimination of connections happens everywhere in the nervous system, for example in neuromuscular junctions, the neurons that send signals to your muscles to move. At first, the muscle fibers receive inputs from many motor neurons. As you grow, these connections are finetuned, where some are strengthened, and others are eliminated, until just one neuron connects to one muscle fiber. It is why you have awkward motor control and coordination at an early age. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/battle-of-t...pand_article=1

Another hurdle ... not neuron pruning, but neuron integrity ...

Key Protein Vital for Structural Integrity of Neurons – Without It Axons Break, Synapses Die

In a study conducted by MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, researchers found that a protein named perlecan plays a crucial role in maintaining the structural integrity of neurons. Perlecan is part of the extracellular matrix that surrounds cells and helps them develop in a supportive, yet non-rigid environment. The study revealed that, without perlecan, the axons (long projections of neurons used for connection) can break apart during development, leading to the death of synapses (neuronal connections).

https://scitechdaily.com/key-protein-vital-for-structural-integrity-of-neurons-without-it-axons-break-synapses-die/?expand_article=1

Cellular chemistry, more hurdles and hurdles ...

Cracking the Tubulin Code: A Breakthrough in Cellular Mechanics

Tubulin is a protein that plays a crucial role in the structure and function of cells. It is the main component of microtubules, which are long, hollow fibers that provide structural support, help the cell divide, give it its shape, and act as tracks for moving molecular cargo around inside the cell.

There are two types of tubulin: alpha-tubulin and beta-tubulin. Together, they form dimeric (two-part) building blocks, spontaneously assembling into microtubules that undergo further continuous cycles of assembly and disassembly.

To fine-tune microtubules, the dimers undergo various post-translational modifications (PTMs), which are chemical modifications that occur after they are synthesized, and can affect their structure, activity, and interactions with other molecules.

Two important PTMs take place on the unstructured tail of alpha-tubulin: Polyglutamylation, which adds chains of glutamate amino acids, and detyrosination, which removes the final tyrosine amino acid. These PTMs, among others, are found together in stable microtubules, e.g. in neurons.

... The researchers also found that polyglutamylation of alpha-tubulin facilitated its detyrosination by enhancing the activity of the protein complex vasohibin/SVBP, the key enzyme responsible for this modification. The team confirmed their findings by changing the levels of polyglutamate in living cells and observing the effects on tyrosine removal.

The study presents a novel approach to designing tubulins with specific PTMs and uncovers a new interplay between two key regulatory systems that control the function of tubulin: polyglutamylation and detyrosination.

https://scitechdaily.com/cracking-th...pand_article=1

Another hurdle ... surrounding our DNA ...

Scientists Completely Define the Process of Methylation

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from UNSW Sydney have completely defined the essential cellular process known as methylation for the first time. The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underlines the crucial role that methylation plays in the creation of proteins.

Methylation is a biochemical process where a small molecule, known as a methyl group, is attached to or ‘tags’ DNA, proteins, or other molecules. The act of methylation can influence cell behavior, such as propelling the growth and differentiation of stem cells.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...f-methylation/

Another hurdle, a crucial molecule ... detected far away ...

Webb telescope detects crucial molecule in space for the first time

Astronomers have detected a crucial carbon molecule in space for the first time using the James Webb Space Telescope.

The compound, called methyl cation, or CH3+, was traced back to a young star system located 1,350 light-years away from Earth in the Orion Nebula, according to NASA.

Carbon compounds are intriguing to scientists because they act as the foundation for all life as we know and understand it. Methyl cation is considered a key component that helps form more complex carbon-based molecules. ... Methyl cation was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula. ... CH3+ is theorized to be particularly important because it reacts readily with a wide range of other molecules. As a result, it acts like a “train station” where a molecule can remain for a time before going in one of many different directions to react with other molecules. Due to this property, scientists suspect that CH3+ forms a cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry.

PHOTO BELOW: The largest image, on the left, is from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument. At upper right, the telescope is focused on a smaller area using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). At the very center of the MIRI area is a young star system with a protoplanetary disk named d203-506. The pullout at the bottom right displays a combined NIRCam and MIRI image of this young system.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/26/world/webb-telescope-carbon-molecule-detection-scn/index.html

https://scitechdaily.com/foundation-...pand_article=1

It is a minefield out there ...

Ancient galaxy reveals a surprising way to annihilate a star

During their quest to find the source of one of the brightest and most powerful explosions in the universe, astronomers discovered a new chaotic way that stars can die.

The bright flash of gamma-ray light was first detected by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory on October 19, 2019. The explosion lasted just over a minute — considered long, like any gamma-ray burst, or GRB, that lasts more than two seconds.

Most GRBs have been traced back to the collapse of stars with at least 10 times the mass of our sun or to the mergers between neutron stars — the dense remnants left behind when large stars explode.

But the October 2019 burst, named GRB 191019A, came from a different source, revealing a type of stellar death that had been theorized but never observed.

Astronomers believe the burst occurred when stars, or possibly the remnants of stars, collided within the densely crowded environment near the supermassive black hole at the center of an ancient galaxy. A study detailing the findings published Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“For every hundred events that fit into the traditional classification scheme of gamma-ray bursts, there is at least one oddball that throws us for a loop,” said study coauthor Wen-fai Fong, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement. “However, it is these oddballs that tell us the most about the spectacular diversity of explosions that the universe is capable of.”

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/22/world/...scn/index.html

Another hurdle by which, not only would we not be here, all matter would not be here ...

Scientists Discover First Evidence of Symmetry Violation – And It Could Explain Why You Exist

... in a new paper, University of Florida astronomers have found the first evidence of this necessary violation of symmetry at the moment of creation. The UF scientists studied a whopping million trillion three-dimensional galactic quadruplets in the universe and discovered that the universe at one point preferred one set of shapes over their mirror images.

This idea, known as parity symmetry violation, points to an infinitesimal period in our universe’s history when the laws of physics were different than they are today, with enormous consequences for how the universe evolved. The finding, established with a high level of statistical confidence, has two primary consequences. First, this parity violation could only have imprinted itself on the future galaxies during a period of extreme inflation in the earliest moments of the universe, confirming a central component of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the cosmos.

Parity violation would also help answer perhaps the most crucial question in cosmology: Why is there something instead of nothing? That’s because parity violation is required to explain why there is more matter than antimatter, an essential condition for galaxies, stars, planets, and life to form in the way they have.

... Parity symmetry is the idea that physical laws shouldn’t prefer one shape over its mirror image. Scientists usually use the language of “handedness” to describe this trait, because our left and right hands are mirror images we are all familiar with. There is no way to rotate your left hand in three dimensions to make it look like your right hand, which means they are always distinguishable from one another. ...

Parity violation would mean that the universe does have a preference for either left- or right-handed shapes.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...why-you-exist/

More hurdles ... separate men and monkeys from other mammals ...

New Research Unlocks Hidden Secrets of Primate Evolution

Analyses of 50 primate genomes through comparative genomics unveil essential genetic processes involved in primate speciation, adaptive phenotypic changes, and the evolution of social systems. ... The study reported detailed genomic rearrangements across primate lineages and identified thousands of candidate genes that have undergone adaptive natural selection at different ancestral branches of the phylogeny. This includes genes that are important for the development of the nervous, skeletal, digestive, and sensory systems, all of which are likely to have contributed to evolutionary innovations and adaptations of primates.

“It is surprising to see that so many genomic changes involving brain-related genes occurred in the common ancestor of the Simian group which includes New-world monkey, Old-world monkey, and great apes,” states Guojie Zhang, “These genomic innovations evolving deep in time at this ancestral node might have paved the way for the further evolution of human unique traits.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-unlocks-hidden-secrets-of-primate-evolution/?expand_article=1

Those wild apes are still us ...

French cave markings may be the oldest known engravings by Neanderthals

[Marks] made by dragging fingers across relatively soft rock, lines, swirls and dots on the walls of a cave in France are the oldest known engravings by Neanderthals, according to a new analysis of the ancient marks.

A team of researchers, led by Jean-Claude Marquet of the University of Tours in France, believe the markings “demonstrate a deliberate creative process,” the study published in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday noted. ... Based on the shape, spacing and arrangement of these engravings, the team concluded that markings in eight panels in La Roche-Cotard cave were intentional shapes and patterns created by human hands. ... Researchers were not able to date the engravings directly, but — by using optically stimulated luminescence dating that measures when mineral in sediment was last exposed to sunlight — they estimated the marks were made at least 57,000 years ago when the cave became sealed off. ... This date, combined with the fact that all stone tools within the cave are Mousterian, a style associated with Neanderthals, is strong evidence that these engravings are the work of the extinct Stone Age hominin, according to the study.

Neanderthals are considered separate from Homo sapiens, our species, but they are from a close branch of the human family tree. The two groups overlapped in Europe for thousands of years, intermingled and had babies before Neanderthals became extinct. Most people alive today have traces of Neanderthal DNA.

Examples of the engravings include a circular panel (left) with ogive-shaped tracings and a wavy panel with two contiguous tracings forming sinuous lines.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/23/europe/neanderthals-french-cave-markings-scn/index.html

Meanwhile, down here on earth, we face hurdles ... many of our own making ...

Humans approaching limits of ‘survivability’ as sweltering heatwaves engulf parts of Asia

The weekend downpour in Uttar Pradesh was a welcome change for the northern state of 220 million after temperatures in some areas soared to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) last week, sickening hundreds with heat-related illnesses.

... A study published in April by the University of Cambridge said heatwaves in India are putting “unprecedented burdens” on India’s agriculture, economy and public health systems, stalling efforts to reach its development goals.

“Long-term projections indicate that Indian heatwaves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050,” the study said. “They will impact the labor productivity, economic growth, and quality of life of around 310 - 480 million people. Estimates show a 15% decrease in outdoor working capacity during daylight hours due to extreme heat by 2050.” ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/26/india/...hnk/index.html

And we do more damage ...

Rainforest destruction soared in 2022 despite global pledges to halt deforestation, new report finds

The destruction of the world’s rainforests ramped up last year, despite global pledges to end deforestation by 2030, according to a new report.

An area of tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost in 2022, as forest destruction rose by 10% compared to the previous year, according to the report by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch, which draws on data collected by the University of Maryland.

The rate of loss was equivalent to losing 11 soccer fields of forest a minute, the report found, as swaths of tropical forest were cleared for farming, mining and other commercial activities.

As well as having a devastating impact on wildlife, this destruction has significant consequences for climate change, as tropical forests are important stores of carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon pollution produced in 2022 from deforestation was equivalent to India’s annual fossil fuel emissions, according to the report.

Brazil cut down the most tropical primary forest, amounting to 43% of the global total, the report found. The country’s rate of forest loss rose 15% from 2021 to 2022.

This comes as some scientists warn the Amazon is approaching a critical tipping point that could see the rainforest transform into a grassy savannah, with huge implications for the world’s ability to tackle the climate crisis.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/27/world/...ntl/index.html

We may have always been cruel to each other ... but, lunch is lunch, I suppose ...

Nine cut marks on a fossilized shin bone suggest that ancient human relatives butchered and possibly ate one another 1.45 million years ago, according to a new study.

“These cut marks look very similar to what I’ve seen on animal fossils that were being processed for consumption,” Pobiner said in a news release.

“It seems most likely that the meat from this leg was eaten and that it was eaten for nutrition as opposed to for a ritual.”

... The cut marks are all oriented in the same direction, making it possible that a hand wielding a stone tool could have made the marks one after another without changing grip.

It’s not clear what species of ancient hominin the shin bone belonged to — because a leg bone doesn’t offer as much taxonomic information as a cranium or jawbone. The fossilized tibia was initially identified as Australopithecus boisei and then in 1990 as Homo erectus.

The emergence of sophisticated stone tools is linked with the emergence of the Homo genus that includes our own species, Homo sapiens, but more recent research has suggested that other ancient hominins may have used stone tools even earlier. ... By themselves, the cuts do not definitively prove that the ancient human relative who inflicted the damage also made a meal out of the leg, but Pobiner said it was possible. The marks are located where a calf muscle would have been attached to the bone — a good place to cut if the aim was to remove flesh.

“The information we have tells us that hominins were likely eating other hominins at least 1.45 million years ago,” Pobiner said.

“There are numerous other examples of species from the human evolutionary tree consuming each other for nutrition, but this fossil suggests that our species’ relatives were eating each other to survive further into the past than we recognized.”

[BELOW] Nine of 11 marks on the fossilized bone (numbers 1 to 4 and 7 to 11) were identified as stone tool cut marks. Marks 5 and 6 were identified as identified as tooth marks — likely from a big cat.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/26/world/...scn/index.html

Getting past eating meat altogether ...

The plant protein that could push meat off your plate

I came to this aquatic farm an hour outside of San Diego because I wanted to see what could be the future of humanity’s protein supply.

At the moment, it looks more like a meth lab out of the drama “Breaking Bad,” jokes Tony Martens Fekini, the chief executive of Plantible Foods.

Decrepit recreational vehicles squat on the property. In one corner, people tend to vials, grow lights and centrifuges in a trailer lab. More than a dozen big ponds filled with duckweed, a tiny green plant, bask in the Southern California sunshine.

But the only thing cooking here is protein. ... Within each tiny floating aquatic plant is a molecule colloquially called rubisco. Without it, most life on Earth would cease to exist.

Plants use rubisco protein — technically known as Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase — as the catalyst for photosynthesis, combining CO2 from the air with the building blocks for sugars and carbohydrates composing the base of our food chain.

Rubisco is arguably the most abundant protein on the planet. Every green leaf has it. But this tireless molecule is locked inside plants’ cells, spoiling almost as soon as it comes into contact with the outside world. At the moment, eating salads is the only way to consume much of it. But Plantible’s farm may change that. If it succeeds, duckweed may become humanity’s first new major crop in more than a century, a skeleton key to unlock how plants replace animal protein on an unprecedented scale.

Rubisco doesn’t just provide the protein we crave. It’s one of the world’s most versatile proteins, shape-shifting into forms resembling egg whites, meat, milk, gluten or even steak — all extracted from leaves. If we can harvest enough, it may elevate plants from a side dish to the main course — and as I found, it tasted delicious.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...isco-duckweed/

Plus, pills to reduce human desire, hunger to consume ...

Effective pills for weight loss, including an oral version of Ozempic, are on the horizon

Results of two clinical trials, presented here at the 2023 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, point toward the progress drug companies have made in the development of a weight loss drug in pill form.

Popular drugs, including Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, can produce significant weight loss, but all are given as weekly injections.

A weight loss drug in the form of a daily pill may be a more palatable option for some people.

“The nice thing about tablets is that virtually everyone is used to taking a tablet for something, even if it’s just a vitamin. It’s not a big deal,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, the ADA’s chief scientist.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...izon-rcna90981

We are still cruel to each other ... and victims of our own weaknesses ...

Hepatitis C can be cured. So why aren't more people getting treatment?

... Ten years ago, safe and effective treatments for hepatitis C became available.

These pills are easy-to-take oral antivirals with few side effects. They cure 95% of patients who take them. The treatments are also expensive, coming in at $20 to 25,000 dollars a course.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the high cost of the drugs, along with coverage restrictions imposed by insurers, have kept many people diagnosed with hepatitis C from accessing curative treatments in the past decade. ... The CDC estimates that 2.4 million people in the U.S. are living with hepatitis C, a liver disease caused by a virus that spreads through contact with the blood of an infected person. Currently, the most common route of infection in the U.S. is through sharing needles and syringes used for injecting drugs. It can also be transmitted through sex, and via childbirth. Untreated, it can cause severe liver damage and liver cancer, and it leads to some 15,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ting-treatment

Is our heading into space too rash?

Why do some people get rashes in space? There's a clue in astronaut blood

... In a new study in Frontiers in Immunology, Laneuville and her colleagues suggest it could be due to the reduced activity of one hundred immune-related genes, which help give opportunistic infections a toehold.

Knowing what causes astronauts to be more vulnerable to infections could help make future missions to space safer, experts say — and may improve treatments for those who are immunocompromised back here on Earth.

Normally, Laneuville says our bodies host a multitude of viruses and bacteria at any given moment — even when we feel just fine.

"And because we're healthy, we manage to keep those at check and dormant," she says. "But if we're stressed or if there's a dysregulation of the immune system," then those viruses and bacteria can cause infections. Laneuville thought maybe something in space was triggering a change in the gene activity of of the immune cells in astronaut blood that was allowing these opportunistic infections to surface.

... Here's what that special blood revealed. Exactly one hundred immune-related genes get dialed down in outer space. It could be due to stress. But Laneuville thinks there's another possibility: "Those genes respond to a decrease in gravitational force." She says that when an astronaut enters microgravity, their blood shifts from their legs to their torsos and heads. It's uncomfortable and throws things out of whack. Their body resolves the problem by reducing the fluid by up to 15%. But that now means that there are too many immune cells crammed into this smaller amount of blood.

Laneuville thinks the drop in gene activity helps eliminate those extra cells. And this in turn affects the way the immune system responds to pathogens.

"It's as if the body is telling them, 'Don't defend, put your guards down,'" she says.

And this would allow viral and bacterial infections — normally held at bay — to rise up, infecting the astronauts. But once they step foot on land again, the whole thing reverses as the genes are dialed back up and fluid levels return to normal. This reversal takes no longer than a year, but for many genes it's only a matter of a few weeks.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...-travel-health

As to AI ... can we rely on this research result?

Misinformation Express: How Generative AI Models Like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney May Distort Human Beliefs

Generative AI models such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney may distort human beliefs through the transmission of false information and stereotyped biases, according to researchers Celeste Kidd and Abeba Birhane. In their perspective, they delve into how studies on human psychology could shed light on why generative AI possesses such power in distorting human beliefs. ... They argue that society’s perception of the capabilities of generative AI models has been overly exaggerated, which has led to a widespread belief that these models surpass human abilities. Individuals are inherently inclined to adopt the information disseminated by knowledgeable, confident entities like generative AI at a faster pace and with more assurance. ... These generative AI models have the potential to fabricate false and biased information which can be disseminated widely and repetitively, factors which ultimately dictate the extent to which such information can be entrenched in people’s beliefs. Individuals are most susceptible to influence when they are seeking information and tend to firmly adhere to the information once it’s been received. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/misinformat...pand_article=1

I see a ghost ...

Our own Milky Way is sending out neutrinos, the so-called 'ghost particles'

A giant detector buried deep within the Antarctic ice at the South Pole has obtained the first evidence of eerie particles called neutrinos coming from the innards of our own home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The discovery is a step towards scientists being better able to use particles to study hidden or elusive phenomena in the universe, rather than having to rely on light seen by telescopes.

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have been compared to "ghosts slipping through the night," because they're so insubstantial and seem to barely interact with the rest of the physical world.

The Earth is constantly being bombarded by neutrinos, but most originate in the sun or in the atmosphere. ...The IceCube team says in the journal Science that it's used machine-learning techniques to sort through ten years of data, revealing neutrinos emanating from the inner parts of the Milky Way.

But it's not yet clear whether the neutrinos are coming from a collection of specific sources or if it's a more diffuse kind of emission. "It's probably a combination of both," Taboada says.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/11850...host-particles

All that said, the universe is musical ...

Hear the mesmerizing sounds of space translated by NASA

NASA has produced cosmic harmonies using astronomical data of objects in space. The mesmerizing sounds represent wavelengths of light detected by NASA telescopes.

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/06/27/space-sounds-nasa-contd-orig-jc.cnn

https://youtu.be/AzL10r8AeQ8

Another symphony of space ...

Louder Than Expected: Gravitational Waves From Merging Supermassive Black Holes “Heard” for First Time

Following 15 years of data collection in a galaxy-sized experiment, scientists have “heard” the perpetual chorus of gravitational waves rippling through our universe for the first time — and it’s louder than expected. The groundbreaking discovery was made by scientists with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) who closely observed stars called pulsars that act as celestial metronomes. The newly detected gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time — are by far the most powerful ever measured: They carry roughly a million times as much energy as the one-off bursts of gravitational waves from black hole and neutron star mergers detected by experiments such as LIGO and Virgo. ... “It’s like a choir, with all these supermassive black hole pairs chiming in at different frequencies,” says NANOGrav scientist Chiara Mingarelli, who worked on the new findings while an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in New York City. “This is the first-ever evidence for the gravitational wave background. We’ve opened a new window of observation on the universe.”

https://scitechdaily.com/louder-than...pand_article=1

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

About to launch ... scheduled July 1 ...

Solving Dark Cosmic Mysteries: ESA’s Euclid Mission Into the Unknown

ESA’s Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhJFvtvgwmc

I will bet at this point that dark matter/dark energy is somehow tied to consciousness ...

Can Euclid help figure out this mystery? ...

The Universe Throws a Curveball: The Dark Matter Distribution Paradox

Astrophysicists found the “clumpiness” of Universe’s dark matter to be 0.76, a figure conflicting with the Cosmic Microwave Background value of 0.83, indicating possible errors or an incomplete cosmological model. The research used the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program data and will further investigate this compelling discrepancy.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-universe-throws-a-curveball-the-dark-matter-distribution-paradox/

In any event ...

Not merely a theoretical question ... but does not this "junk code" also result in our tendencies to kill and abuse each other too? ...

Robot Souls and “Junk Code”: Should AI Be Given a Human Conscience?

Dr. Eve Poole’s book “Robot Souls” explores the concept of embedding ‘junk code’—traits such as emotions and free will—into AI systems. She proposes this as a solution to ethical dilemmas in AI, arguing these human traits are crucial for societal survival and should be integrated into AI development for ethical and value-aligned automation.

... She argues that in its bid for perfection, humans stripped out the ‘junk code’ including emotions, free will, and a sense of purpose.

She said: “It is this ‘junk’ which is at the heart of humanity. Our junk code consists of human emotions, our propensity for mistakes, our inclination to tell stories, our uncanny sixth sense, our capacity to cope with uncertainty, an unshakeable sense of our own free will, and our ability to see meaning in the world around us.

“This junk code is in fact vital to human flourishing, because behind all of these flaky and whimsical properties lies a coordinated attempt to keep our species safe. Together they act as a range of ameliorators with a common theme: they keep us in community so that there is safety in numbers.”

... She said: “If we can decipher that code, the part that makes us all want to survive and thrive together as a species, we can share it with the machines. Giving them to all intents and purposes a ‘soul’.”

In the new book, Poole suggests a series of next steps to make this a reality, including agreeing a rigorous regulation process, and an immediate ban on autonomous weapons along with a licensing regime with rules that reserve any final decision over the life and death of a human to a fellow human.

She argues we should also agree the criteria for legal personhood and a road map for Al toward it.

... “Because humans are flawed we disregarded a lot of characteristics when we built AI,” Poole explains. “It was assumed that robots with features like emotions and intuition, that made mistakes and looked for meaning and purpose, would not work as well. “But on considering why all these irrational properties are there, it seems that they emerge from the source code of soul. Because it is actually this ‘junk’ code that makes us human and promotes the kind of reciprocal altruism that keeps humanity alive and thriving. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/robot-souls...pand_article=1

That last story makes me all emotional ...

Decoding Emotional Intelligence: MIT’s Computational Model Excels in Predicting Emotions

MIT neuroscientists have created a computational model that successfully predicts human emotions — including joy, gratitude, confusion, regret, and embarrassment — in social scenarios, using the prisoner’s dilemma game as a base. The model considers individuals’ desires, expectations, and the influence of observers, deducing motivations, comparing outcomes with expectations, and predicting emotions based on these factors. This model, mimicking human social intelligence, outperformed other emotion prediction models, and researchers aim to adapt it for broader applications.

https://scitechdaily.com/decoding-emotional-intelligence-mits-computational-model-excels-in-predicting-emotions/

Maybe it is too late? ...

Forget about the AI apocalypse. The real dangers are already here

Altman, whose company is behind the viral chatbot tool ChatGPT, joined Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Microsoft’s CTO Kevin Scott and dozens of other AI researchers and business leaders in signing a one-sentence letter last month stating: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” ... For Marcus, a self-described critic of AI hype, “the biggest immediate threat from AI is the threat to democracy from the wholesale production of compelling misinformation.”

Generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Dall-E are trained on vast troves of data online to create compelling written work and images in response to user prompts. With these tools, for example, one could quickly mimic the style or likeness of public figures in an attempt to create disinformation campaigns.

In his testimony before Congress, Altman also said the potential for AI to be used to manipulate voters and target disinformation were among “my areas of greatest concern.”

Even in more ordinary use cases, however, there are concerns. The same tools have been called out for offering wrong answers to user prompts, outright “hallucinating” responses and potentially perpetuating racial and gender biases.

...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/16/tech/a...ngs/index.html

Our leaders met in person to talk about it ... slowly, with our relatively slow brains ...

Takeaways from the roundtable with President Biden on artificial intelligence

... I want people to know - I don't want to alarm people, but I do think that we have to have an honest assessment of the risk so that we can take the actions that are necessary to lower that risk. And I know a lot of people who work inside the AI companies who do not know even how we will safely steward what already exists. There's many dangerous capabilities that are already out there. I do think the stakes of this are incredibly high, and that's why I think people should be calling their members of Congress to advocate for the need to get this international regulation in place and these guardrails. ...

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/22/11838...l-intelligence

Think of this the next time you open the faucet ... all things are connected ...

We’ve Pumped So Much Groundwater That Earth’s Spin Shifted

Groundwater extraction and redistribution by humans caused the Earth’s rotational pole to shift nearly a meter in two decades (1993-2010), contributing to a sea level rise, reveals a study in Geophysical Research Letters. The most water redistribution occurred in western North America and northwestern India, and efforts to reduce groundwater depletion in such areas could theoretically affect this shift. The phenomenon doesn’t risk shifting seasons but could impact climate over geological time scales.

https://scitechdaily.com/earth-tilte...pand_article=1

The Origami of Gene Manipulation ...

Triplex Origami: A Game-Changer in Gene Therapy and DNA Nanotechnology

Scientists have developed a method called triplex origami, using Hoogsteen interactions to fold DNA into various compact shapes, offering potential benefits for gene therapy and DNA nanotechnology. The method protects DNA from enzymatic degradation and could revolutionize the way we manipulate DNA, though current limitations in needing specific building blocks are being addressed.

Every cell in your body contains about 2 meters of DNA, which carries the essential genetic information about you as an individual. If you unwind all the DNA contained in a single person, it would stretch over a staggering distance — enough to reach the sun and back again over 60 times. To handle such astonishingly long molecules, the cell compresses its DNA into compact packages called chromosomes.

“Imagine DNA as a piece of paper on which all our genetic information is written.” Says Minke A.D. Nijenhuis, co-corresponding author of the new paper. “The paper is folded in a very tight structure to fit all this information in a small cell nucleus. But to read the information, parts of the paper have to be unfolded and then folded again. This spatial organization of our genetic code is a central mechanism in life. We, therefore, wanted to create a methodology that allows researchers to engineer and study the compaction of double-stranded DNA.”

In nature, DNA is often made up of two strands that are twisted together into a double helix. One strand contains the genes responsible for encoding our traits and the other strand acts as a backup. These two strands are held together by certain bonds, called Watson-Crick interactions, which allow the two strands to recognize and bind to each other. In addition to these well-known interactions, there is a lesser-known type of interaction between DNA strands. These so-called normal or reverse Hoogsteen interactions allow a third strand to join and form a beautiful triple helical structure: a triplex

In the new article published in the scientific journal Advanced Materials, researchers from Gothelf’s laboratory at Aarhus University have introduced a simple method for organizing DNA strands. The method is based on the aforementioned Hoogsteen interactions. The research shows that using this method, DNA can be bent or “folded” in a way that creates compact structures. These structures can take various forms, from hollow two-dimensional shapes to dense three-dimensional constructions and everything in between. In fact, you can even create structures that resemble a potted flower. The researchers call their method triplex origami (figure below).

https://scitechdaily.com/triplex-origami-a-game-changer-in-gene-therapy-and-dna-nanotechnology/?expand_article=1

Triplex-mediated folding of dsDNA, a) A dsDNA sequence containing triplex-forming domains (coloured) is folded by four TFO strands, i.e. single-stranded DNA acting as staples, into a hairpin structure b) Images of two hairpin structures made with atomic force microscopy (AFM). c) S-shaped structure formed from a polypyrin DNA. d) Assembly of a large TFO origami resembling a potted flower structure from a 9000 bases long piece of double-stranded DNA. Scale bar = 100 nm.

Maybe we can see it clearly ...

Super-Resolution DNA Analysis: Multi-Scanning Individual Molecules for Extreme Precision

Aleksandra Radenovic, head of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology in the School of Engineering, has worked for years to improve nanopore technology, which involves passing a molecule like DNA through a tiny pore in a membrane to measure an ionic current. Scientists can determine DNA’s sequence of nucleotides – which encodes genetic information – by analyzing how each one perturbs this current as it passes through. The research was published on June 19 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. ... “We have combined the sensitivity of nanopores with the precision of scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), allowing us to lock onto specific molecules and locations and control how fast they move. This exquisite control could help fill a big gap in the field,” Radenovic says. The researchers achieved this control using a repurposed state-of-the-art scanning ion conductance microscope, recently developed at the Lab for Bio- and Nano-Instrumentation. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/super-resol...eme-precision/

We are the products of the past ... including unwanted visitors ...

A “Genetic Parasite” – The Secret Protector of Fertility

The genetic makeup of many species, including humans, contains crucial components known as ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences. Due to their highly repetitive pattern, these DNA sequences tend to reduce in size over time, leading to cell death if they shrink excessively. If this happens in germ cells — cells that give rise to eggs and sperm — it can result in infertility and the potential extinction of the individual’s lineage.

Scientists have long theorized that some mechanism works to preserve our rDNA over successive generations, thereby maintaining the fertility of humans and other species. However, the specifics of this process remained unclear until recently. New findings from Yukiko Yamashita, a member of the Whitehead Institute, and postdoc Jonathan Nelson, unveiled an unexpected defender of rDNA: a retrotransposon. Prior to this discovery, retrotransposons were predominantly considered genetic parasites because they seemed to exist only to replicate themselves. What the researchers discovered is that rDNA is restored with the help of a retrotransposon, R2. Retrotransposons are genetic sequences whose primary function is to replicate themselves, even at the expense of the rest of the genome. They have been called genetic parasites, but their behavior is most similar to that of a virus, which manipulates cells into making copies of itself.

...

https://scitechdaily.com/a-genetic-parasite-the-secret-protector-of-fertility/

Can we get our brains around this?

“Cytoelectric Coupling”: A Groundbreaking Hypothesis on How Our Brains Function

A new study proposes a hypothesis called “Cytoelectric Coupling,” arguing that the brain’s electrical fields, created by neural network activity, can influence the physical configuration of neurons’ sub-cellular components to optimize network stability and efficiency. The research, conducted by scientists from MIT, City University of London, and Johns Hopkins University, builds upon earlier studies that showed how rhythmic electrical activity or ‘brain waves’ in neural networks and the influence of electric fields at the molecular level can coordinate and adjust the brain’s functions, facilitating flexible cognition ...

... “The brain adapts to a changing world,” Pinotsis said. “Its proteins and molecules change too. They can have electric charges and need to catch up with neurons that process, store, and transmit information using electric signals. Interacting with the neurons’ electric fields seems necessary.” ...

... If the brain carries information in electric fields and those electric fields are capable of configuring neurons and other elements in the brain that form a network, then the brain is likely to use this capability. The brain can use fields to ensure the network does what it is supposed to do, the authors suggest.

To put it (loosely) in couch potato terms, the success of a television network isn’t just its ability to transmit a clear signal to millions of homes. What’s also important is the details as fine as the way each viewer household arranges its TV, sound system, and living room furniture to maximize the experience. Both in this metaphor and in the brain, Miller said, the presence of the network motivates the individual participants to configure their own infrastructure to participate optimally. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/cytoelectri...pand_article=1

And we need to monitor, and manipulate, fine parts of the body ...

The Future of Medical Diagnostics: All-Purpose Biosensor Chip With 10,000-Fold Increase in Detection Range

UC Santa Cruz scientists have significantly improved chip-based biosensors, expanding their concentration range detection by over 10,000 times. These advancements enable a single device to perform multiple medical tests simultaneously on different biomolecules, even at vastly different concentrations. The team leveraged machine learning for high accuracy particle recognition, making these devices suitable for real-time data analysis in point-of-care scenarios.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-...pand_article=1

In colonizing nearby planets and moons, we will need energy, food, materials ...

Harnessing Photosynthesis: A Green Energy Solution for Martian Occupation & Space Exploration

Researchers from the University of Warwick propose using artificial photosynthesis devices, capable of harnessing sunlight to generate oxygen and recycle carbon dioxide, for sustainable energy solutions in space exploration. The devices could potentially be used on the Moon and Mars, improving the efficiency of space travel and informing improvements in Earth-based solar technologies. This is an artist’s concept of an artificial photosynthesis device on Mars.

... There is a need for efficient and reliable energy sources in space to enable the exploration of our solar system. It is hoped that the technology could be installed on the Moon and Mars to harvest green energy to help power rockets and complement life support systems for the production of oxygen and other chemicals as well as the recycling of carbon dioxide. The insights gained in this study with respect to improving device efficiencies also feed back into their optimization for Earth applications and also provide insights into the performance of traditional solar cells in space. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/harnessing-...pand_article=1

But will we get there if we destroy this planet first? ...

When Carbon Sinks Sink: New Research Uncovers a Climate Change Time Bomb

A new study reveals that rising global temperatures could convert widespread microbial communities worldwide from carbon sinks to carbon emitters, potentially triggering climate change tipping points. These findings were recently published in the British Ecological Society’s journal, Functional Ecology.

New research finds that under a warming climate, ocean plankton and other single-celled organisms, known as mixotrophic microbes – can switch from being carbon sinks to carbon emitters. The research also finds that changes in the behavior of these organisms right before they switch can act as an early warning signal for climate change tipping points. However, increases in nutrient levels in the environment, such as nitrogen from agricultural runoff, can mute these warning signals.

https://scitechdaily.com/when-carbon...nge-time-bomb/

Dream a little dream ...

Harnessing Hypnagogia: MIT and Harvard’s Breakthrough in Boosting Creativity Through Targeted Dream Incubation

Researchers from MIT and Harvard have demonstrated that people are more creative when awakened from early sleep stages and guided to dream about a specific topic. This method, facilitated by a device called Dormio, increased creativity by 43% in comparison to those who napped without specific dream guidance.

https://scitechdaily.com/harnessing-...am-incubation/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

This is a big discovery because phosphorus is a basic building block of life as we know it ... In fact, you depend on the stuff from head to toe ...

Building Block for Life Discovered in Enceladus’ Ocean by NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft

Phosphorus, a vital element for life, has been discovered in icy grains emitted from Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, by NASA’s Cassini mission. This first-time discovery in an ocean beyond Earth hints at the potential for life-supporting conditions in Enceladus’ subsurface ocean and possibly other icy ocean worlds. However, the presence of life is yet to be confirmed. ...

... Phosphorus, the least abundant of the essential elements necessary for biological processes, hadn’t been detected until now. The element is a building block for DNA, which forms chromosomes and carries genetic information, and is present in the bones of mammals, cell membranes, and ocean-dwelling plankton. Phosphorus is also a fundamental part of energy-carrying molecules present in all life on Earth. Life wouldn’t be possible without it. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/building-block-for-life-discovered-in-enceladus-ocean-by-nasas-cassini-spacecraft/

One more amazing natural chemical which makes the brain go ...

Neuroscience Breakthrough: Missing Link Explains mRNA Delivery in Brain Cells

Collaborative efforts from teams at the MPI Institutes located in Dresden, Dortmund, Frankfurt am Main, and Göttingen have led to the first evidence of a protein complex that plays a crucial role in transporting messenger RNA in neurons.

Every part of brain cells, even their lengthy offshoots, is involved in the production of proteins. A lack of this function in neurons can lead to serious neurological disorders such as disability and epilepsy. ... [The researchers] identified a new mechanism that transports messenger RNA (mRNA), the blueprint for proteins, exactly where it’s needed within neurons.

Using an array of techniques, the researchers have identified a protein complex, named FERRY, which links mRNA to intra-cellular carriers, and elucidated its role and structure.

... Cells produce vital proteins using mRNA as a blueprint and ribosomes as 3D printers. Yet, brain cells have a logistic challenge to overcome: A tree-like shape with branches that can span centimeters in the brain. “This implies that thousands of mRNAs need to be transported far away from the nucleus, resembling the logistic effort of properly supplying supermarkets in an entire country,” Jan Schuhmacher says, first author of the study.

So far, researchers attributed the carrier role to spherical compartments inside the cell, called Late Endosomes. However, MPI scientists argue that a different form of the compartments, called Early Endosomes (EEs), are also suitable as mRNA carriers, due to their ability to travel in both directions along intracellular road networks. In the first publication, led by Marino Zerial from MPI in Dresden, scientists discovered the function of a protein complex that they called FERRY (Five-subunit Endosomal Rab5 and RNA/ribosome intermediarY). In neurons, FERRY is linked to EEs and works similarly to a tie-down strap during transport: It interacts directly with mRNA and holds it onto EEs, which hence become logistic carriers for mRNA transport and distribution in brain cells.

But how does FERRY bind to mRNA? That’s when Stefan Raunser’s group from the MPI Dortmund comes into play. In the second publication, Dennis Quentin et al. used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to infer the structure of FERRY and the molecular features that allow the complex to bind to both EEs and mRNAs. The new 3D atomic model of FERRY, with a resolution of 4 Ångstroms, shows a novel mode of binding RNA, which involves coiled-coil domains. Scientists also explained how some genetic mutations affect FERRY’s ability to link mRNA thus leading to neurological disorders.

https://scitechdaily.com/neuroscienc...n-brain-cells/

Getting a jump on things ...

Earth Formed Much Faster Than Previously Thought – Increases Chances of Alien Life

A groundbreaking study from the University of Copenhagen has presented a fresh perspective on Earth’s formation, suggesting it occurred in a few million years, far quicker than the previously believed 100 million years. The research indicates that Earth was formed through the fast accumulation of small pebbles, and water’s existence is a byproduct of this formation process. This theory provides a promising outlook for the potential of habitable planets beyond our Solar System, given that water is a critical ingredient for life.

https://scitechdaily.com/earth-forme...of-alien-life/

A busy cave motel during their travels ...

Tam Pà Ling, a cave located in the northern region of Laos, unveils new insights into the earliest human migrations from Africa all the way to Australia.

What links a fossil discovered in a northern Laotian cave to ancient stone tools from northern Australia? It’s us, Homo sapiens. As our forebears journeyed from Africa to Australia, they marked their path with evidence of their presence in the form of human fossils that accumulated over thousands of years deep in a cave. Recent findings from the Tam Pà Ling cave in northern Laos have cast new light on this narrative. The investigation conducted by a multi-national team of researchers from Laos, France, America, and Australia, and subsequently published in Nature Communications, has conclusively established that modern humans ventured from Africa, traversed through Arabia, and reached Asia significantly earlier than was previously believed.

It also confirms that our ancestors didn’t just follow coastlines and islands. They traveled through forested regions, most likely along river valleys, too. Some then moved on through Southeast Asia to become Australia’s First People.

... “Far from reflecting a rapid dump of sediments, the site represents a consistent and seasonally deposited stack of sediments,” explains Flinders University geoarchaeologist Associate Professor Mike Morley, who worked with Ph.D. students Vito Hernandez and Meghan McAllister-Hayward.

The new chronology revealed there had been a human presence in this area for more than 56,000 years. Furthermore, the age of the lowest fossil at seven meters – a fragment of a leg bone – provides a timeline for modern human arrival in this region between 86,000 to 68,000 years ago. This pushes back the arrival time in mainland Southeast Asia by approximately 40,000 years. Although, according to genetics, these early migrations did not contribute significantly to our modern-day populations.

https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-cave-reveals-new-secrets-of-our-first-ancestors/?expand_article=1

This story boomerangs in my head ...

Quantum Boomerangs: MIT Physicist Explores the Universe’s Mysteries in an Alternate Reality

MIT physicist is searching for answers to one of the biggest questions in modern physics: How can our universe abide by two incompatible rulebooks?

The first — the Standard Model of Physics — is the quantum mechanical theory of particles, fields, and forces, and the ways in which they interact to build the universe we live in. The second — Einstein’s theory of general relativity — describes the influence of gravity and how the fundamental force pulls together matter to build the planets, galaxies, and other massive objects.

Both theories do remarkably well in their respective lanes. However, Einstein’s theory breaks down when trying to describe how gravity works at quantum scales, while quantum mechanics makes reality-bending predictions when applied at massive, cosmic dimensions. For over a century, physicists have searched for ways to unite the two theories and get to the truth of what makes our universe tick.

Harlow suspects that any connecting thread may be too delicate to grasp in our existing universe. Instead, he’s looking for answers in a “boomerang” version — an alternate reality that folds back on itself, much like a boomerang’s trajectory, rather than stretching and expanding without end as our actual universe does. Quantum gravity in this boomerang universe turns out to be easier to understand, as it can be reformulated in terms of conventional quantum theory (without gravity) using a powerful idea called holographic duality. This makes it far simpler to contemplate, at least from a theory perspective.

In this boomerang environment, Harlow has made some exciting, unexpected revelations. He has shown, for instance, that the equations that describe how gravity behaves in this “toy” universe are the very same equations that control the quantum error-correcting codes that will hopefully soon be used to build real-world quantum computers. That the mathematics describing gravity should have anything to do with protecting information in quantum computers was a surprise in itself. The fact that both phenomena shared the same physics, at least in this alternate universe, suggests a potential connection between Einstein’s theory and quantum mechanics in the real universe.

https://scitechdaily.com/quantum-boo...rnate-reality/

Simulated artificial molecules which act like real ones ...

Astonishing – Scientists Develop Artificial Molecules That Behave Like Real Ones

Researchers from Radboud University, led by Alex Khajetoorians and Daniel Wegner, have successfully created synthetic molecules that closely mimic the characteristics of organic ones. This interdisciplinary team can now simulate the actions of genuine molecules via these artificial constructs. This innovative approach allows them to modify the traits of molecules in ways that would typically be challenging or unrealistic, enhancing their understanding of molecular transformations.

... Sierda: “The resemblance between what we built and real molecules was uncanny.”

https://scitechdaily.com/astonishing...ike-real-ones/

A new phase ...

Physicists have discovered a new phase of matter, the “chiral bose-liquid state.”

This state, discovered through the exploration of kinetic frustration in quantum systems, exhibits robust properties such as unchangeable electron spin and long-range entanglement. The discovery, requiring high magnetic fields for observation, expands our understanding of the physical world and could have applications in fault-tolerant digital data encoding.

https://scitechdaily.com/quantum-fru...ase-of-matter/

And there's more ...

Biocompatible Innovation: MIT’s Soft, Printable, Metal-Free Electrodes for Next-Gen Implants

MIT engineers have created a soft, conductive polymer hydrogel that could serve as a biocompatible, metal-free implantable electrode. The material, which can be made into printable ink, might be used in a variety of medical applications, such as pacemakers and deep-brain stimulators. It has shown promise in preliminary animal tests for maintaining stability and effectively transmitting electrical pulses, with less inflammation and scarring compared to traditional metal electrodes.

Implantable electrodes are predominantly made from rigid metals that are electrically conductive by nature. But over time, metals can aggravate tissues, causing scarring and inflammation that in turn can degrade an implant’s performance.

Now, MIT engineers have developed a metal-free, Jell-O-like material that is as soft and tough as biological tissue and can conduct electricity similarly to conventional metals. The material can be made into a printable ink, which the researchers patterned into flexible, rubbery electrodes. The new material, which is a type of high-performance conducting polymer hydrogel, may one day replace metals as functional, gel-based electrodes, with the look and feel of biological tissue.

...

https://scitechdaily.com/biocompatib...-gen-implants/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

If there was not more matter than anti-matter, none of us would be here ...

CP Symmetry Violation: Large Hadron Collider Tightens Precision on Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry

The Big Bang is thought to have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, yet the Universe today is made almost entirely of matter, so something must have happened to create this imbalance.

The weak force of the Standard Model of particle physics is known to induce a behavioral difference between matter and antimatter – known as CP symmetry violation – in decays of particles containing quarks, one of the building blocks of matter. But these differences, or asymmetries, are hard to measure and insufficient to explain the matter–antimatter imbalance in the present-day Universe, prompting physicists to both measure precisely the known differences and to look for new ones.

At a seminar held at CERN today, June 13, the LHCb collaboration reported how it has measured, more precisely than ever before, two key parameters that determine such matter–antimatter asymmetries.

...In 2001, the BaBar experiment in the US and the Belle experiment in [TSUKUBA! ] Japan confirmed the existence of CP violation ... In 2008, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their theoretical framework that elegantly explained the observed CP violation phenomena.

https://scitechdaily.com/cp-symmetry...ter-asymmetry/

On 5/28, I reported that egg and sperm can now be made from any cell (https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post324892). The following does away with even the need for egg and sperm!!

... But they are not really full "embryos" ... only embryo-ish ...

Scientists report creation of first human synthetic model embryos

A team of researchers in the United States and United Kingdom say they have created the world’s first synthetic human embryo-like structures from stem cells, bypassing the need for eggs and sperm.

These embryo-like structures are at the very earliest stages of human development: They don’t have a beating heart or a brain, for example. But scientists say they could one day help advance the understanding of genetic diseases or the causes of miscarriages.

The research raises critical legal and ethical questions, and many countries, including the US, don’t have laws governing the creation or treatment of synthetic embryos.

... The embryo-like structures that Zernicka-Goetz says her lab has created were grown from single human embryonic stem cells that were coaxed to develop into three distinct tissue layers, she said. They include cells that would typically go on to develop a yolk sac, a placenta and the embryo itself.

“I just wish to stress that they are not human embryos,” Zernicka-Goetz said. “They are embryo models, but they are very exciting because they are very looking similar to human embryos and very important path towards discovery of why so many pregnancies fail, as the majority of the pregnancies fail around the time of the development at which we build these embryo-like structures.”

She said that to her knowledge, it was the first time a human model embryo had been created with three tissue layers. But she stressed that while it mimics some of the features of a natural embryo, it doesn’t have all of them.
https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/14/health...ryo/index.html

Then there are these guys who pack the whole family within ...

Defying Fundamental Laws of Biology – Scientists Discover Real-Life Chimeras

International researchers studying the yellow crazy ant, or Anoplolepis gracilipes, found that male ants of this species are chimeras, containing two genomes from different parent cells within their bodies. This unique reproductive process, originating from a single fertilized egg that undergoes separate maternal and paternal nuclear division, is unprecedented and challenges the fundamental biological inheritance law stating that all cells of an individual should contain the same genome.

... The results were quite extraordinary. It had been assumed to date that the males of the yellow crazy ant carried the same two sets of chromosomes in all cells of their body. However, the team was able to demonstrate that this premise was anything but correct. “We discovered that the male ants have maternal and paternal genomes in different cells of their body and are thus chimeras. To put it another way, all males have two genomes, but each cell of their bodies contains only one or the other of the two genomes,” summarized Darras.

Normally, in a multicellular life form – be this a human, a dog, or a bat – all cells contain identical genetic material.

https://scitechdaily.com/defying-fun...life-chimeras/

And we have a little more of these guys working in us then once thought ....

Revealing the Neanderthal Legacy: Modern Humans Inherited More Than You Think

A multi-institution research team, including Cornell University, used a new suite of computational genetic tools to examine how Neanderthal genes still actively influence human traits in people of non-African ancestry, revealing that certain Neanderthal genes significantly impact modern human immune systems and other traits. Analyzing nearly 300,000 UK Biobank datasets, they found 4,303 Neanderthal genetic variants affecting 47 distinct genetic traits, with modern human genes overall winning out over generations. ... [I]nterbreeding between humans of non-African ancestry and Neanderthals that took place some 50,000 years ago ...

... the researchers analyzed more than 235,000 genetic variants likely to have originated from Neanderthals. They found that 4,303 of those differences in DNA are playing a substantial role in modern humans and influencing 47 distinct genetic traits, such as how fast someone can burn calories or a person’s natural immune resistance to certain diseases. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/revealing-the-neanderthal-legacy-modern-humans-inherited-more-than-you-think/

Of course, what makes us human is our brain ... and what an amazing structure that is ...

A New Twist in Brain Science: A Proteasome Particle’s Unforeseen Function in Synapses

Darwin’s evolutionary theory underscored the significance of adaptation and variety in nature. However, can proteins within a biological cell also exhibit versatility and adapt to new roles in varying contexts?

The answer appears to be yes for the central protein-decomposition apparatus in the brain. When located at synapses, it reveals a previously unseen mechanism enabling synapses to adapt to varying situations.

The role of the regulatory (19S) proteasome particle has always been exclusively linked to its functioning in the proteasome complex, where it collaborates with the catalytic (20S) particle to recognize and remove unwanted or damaged proteins- a mechanism that is crucial for normal brain development and function.

Using a super-resolution imaging technique, called DNA PAINT, the research team noticed an abundance of free 19S particles in synapses, floating around without their 20S partners:

“What we realized was that 19S is not only a partner of 20S. It also works alone as an independent regulator for many key synaptic proteins. This revealed a whole new dimension to our understanding of protein function at synapses,” explains Chao Sun, Associate Professor, and lead author of the article. ...

... “Usually, if the cell makes excess copies of one protein component, it needs to get rid of these excess copies. Because cells do not like to have extra proteins lying around when they can’t find partners to enable protein function. We call them ‘orphan proteins’. But in this case, it seems like the synapses are making use of these free 19S particles and adapting them to fulfill alternative functions in the synapses,” Chao Sun explains. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/a-new-twist...n-in-synapses/

But the human brain was made for earth, not zero gravity ...

Astronauts’ brains take a hit during long spaceflights


Spaceflights lasting six months or longer take a toll on the brains of astronauts, and crew members may need to wait at least three years before returning to space, according to new research.

Scientists compared the brain scans of 30 astronauts taken before spaceflights lasting two weeks, six months or a year with scans taken after they returned to Earth. The scans revealed that the ventricles, or cavities within the brain that are filled with cerebrospinal fluid, expanded significantly within the brains of astronauts who went to the International Space Station on missions lasting at least six months.

The findings have implications for future longer-term missions as NASA and its international partners aim to establish a sustained human presence on the moon with the Artemis program, with the eventual goal of sending humans to deep-space destinations such as Mars. ... “People who spend just a couple of weeks show little to no change in these structures,” Seidler said. “This is good news for those going on short space junkets.” ...

... We don’t yet know for sure what the long-term consequences of this is on the health and behavioral health of space travelers, so allowing the brain time to recover seems like a good idea,” she said. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/08/world/...scn/index.html

A supernova superstar ...

A new supernova has appeared in the night sky

... The supernova was first spotted within the spiral arms of the Pinwheel Galaxy by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki on May 19. Itagaki, an avid supernova hunter, has discovered more than 80 of the stellar explosions using his observatory in the mountains outside Yamagata, Japan.

The supernova, named SN 2023ixf, is the closest one seen in five years. A supernova occurs when a star violently explodes at the end of its lifetime. The Pinwheel Galaxy is in the direction of the Ursa Major constellation, about 21 million light-years from Earth. ... Astronomers believe it is a Type II supernova, when a massive star between eight and 50 times the mass of our sun exhausts its nuclear fuel supply, collapses and explodes. It’s the second supernova observed in the Pinwheel Galaxy in 15 years. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/09/world/...scn/index.html

Speaking of stars ... I love Lucy! ...

51zZnl4ZyEL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

The other Lucy ... brought to life ...

3D Muscle Reconstruction Reveals 3.2 Million-Year-Old “Lucy” Could Stand As Erect as Modern Humans

Digital modeling of legendary fossil’s soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree-dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking. ... A Cambridge University researcher has digitally reconstructed the missing soft tissue of an early human ancestor – or hominin – for the first time, revealing a capability to stand as erect as we do today. ... Named for the Beatles classic ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, Lucy is one of the most complete examples to be unearthed of any type of Australopithecus – with 40% of her skeleton recovered. ...

https://youtu.be/WUjynpAb7gY

Some really early ancestors ...

Billion-year-old rocks reveal traces of ancient life

Plants, algae, fungi, and animals — including humans — are all eukaryotes: life forms with complex, nucleus-containing cells.

A recent discovery of organic compounds in ancient rocks in Australia helps illuminate the early history of eukaryotes, suggesting that this group was already abundant more than a billion years ago, according to a new study.

Eukaryotes are believed to date back 2 billion years, but scientists thought that they only became widespread about 800 million years ago, said Dr. Benjamin Nettersheim, one of the co-first authors of the study published in Nature.

However, newfound traces of molecules possibly produced by eukaryotes are up to 1.6 billion years old, which indicates “that early eukaryotes were already ecologically important for all this time,” said Nettersheim, who is a postdoctoral researcher in geobiology at the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen in Germany. “We just didn’t see their traces until now. They’ve kind of been hidden in plain sight.”

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/12/world/...scn/index.html

Speaking of the Beatles, bringing a couple of them back from the dead ...

The Beatles will release a new and 'final record' this year, Paul McCartney says — with a little help from AI

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the 80-year-old McCartney confirmed that the band — whose cultural influence may have been unmatched in the 20th century — will release "the final Beatles record" this year, having used cutting-edge technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo recording.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/b...tney-rcna88998

We can't even trust our own eyes now ...

‘We no longer know what reality is.’ How tech companies are working to help detect AI-generated images

For a brief moment last month, an image purporting to show an explosion near the Pentagon spread on social media, causing panic and a market sell-off. The image, which bore all the hallmarks of being generated by AI, was later debunked by authorities.

But according to Jeffrey McGregor, the CEO of Truepic, it is “truly the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come.” As he put it, “We’re going to see a lot more AI generated content start to surface on social media, and we’re just not prepared for it.”

McGregor’s company is working to address this problem. Truepic offers technology that claims to authenticate media at the point of creation through its Truepic Lens. The application captures data including date, time, location and the device used to make the image, and applies a digital signature to verify if the image is organic, or if it has been manipulated or generated by AI.

... Companies are broadly taking two approaches to address the issue.

One tactic relies on developing programs to identify images as AI-generated after they have been produced and shared online; the other focuses on marking an image as real or AI-generated at its conception with a kind of digital signature. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/08/tech/a...ion/index.html

Making drugs in space ...

This company wants to make drug manufacturing the next big extraterrestrial business

One California-based startup, Varda Space Industries, is betting that big business will lie in relatively unassuming satellites that will spend days or months in Earth’s orbit quietly carrying out pharmaceutical development. Its research, company officials hope, could lead to better, more effective drugs — and hefty profits. ... Varda launched its first test mission Monday aboard a SpaceX rocket, which took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California just after 2:30 pm PT. The company then confirmed in a tweet that its satellite successfully separated from the rocket.

... The core of this idea — manufacturing pharmaceuticals in microgravity — builds on experiments carried out on the International Space Station, which is operated by astronauts but hosts experiments from a range of private companies and research institutions. Big pharma firms, including Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb, have sent experiments there, working with the ISS National Laboratory. And some of this work may lead to changes in the drugs that people on Earth take today.

But whether Varda’s ambitious business plan is viable will depend on numerous technological and financial questions. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/12/busine...scn/index.html

I look forward to someday sitting on my Martian porch ...

The Curiosity rover has captured a stunning new mosaic that reveals the dramatic, colorful hues of morning and afternoon light on the surface of Mars.

The Curiosity rover has captured a stunning new mosaic that reveals the dramatic, colorful hues of morning and afternoon light on the surface of Mars.

The robotic explorer used its black-and-white navigation cameras to take panoramas of the Marker Band Valley on April 8 before leaving the site. One panorama was taken at 9:20 a.m., while the other was taken at 3:40 p.m., both local Mars time.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/14/world/mars-curiosity-rover-postcard-scn/index.html

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tokan]

Nine bows to the work of all these scientists attempting to save all beings and reduce suffering.

Gassho, Tokan

satlah

[Jundo]

So much amazing science and tech news in recent days ...

The faintest trace of an early galaxy ... showing how the cosmic dark ages ended ...

Astrophysicists Spot a Cosmic Whisper: The Faintest Galaxy in the Early Universe

An international research team has confirmed the existence of the faintest galaxy ever observed in the early universe, JD1. This discovery was made using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and contributes to the understanding of the universe’s evolution. JD1, typical of galaxies that ionized the post-Big Bang hydrogen fog, was studied thanks to its position behind a galaxy cluster that magnified its light.

After the Big Bang, the universe expanded and cooled sufficiently for hydrogen atoms to form. In the absence of light from the first stars and galaxies, the universe entered a period known as the cosmic dark ages. The first stars and galaxies appeared several hundred million years later and began burning away the hydrogen fog left over from the Big Bang, rendering the universe transparent, like it is today. Researchers led by astrophysicists from UCLA confirmed the existence of a distant, faint galaxy typical of those whose light burned through the hydrogen atoms; the finding should help them understand how the cosmic dark ages ended.

... Because light takes time to travel to Earth, JD1 is seen as it was approximately 13.3 billion years ago [the universe is thought to be about 13.8 billion years old], when the universe was only about 4% of its present age.

https://scitechdaily.com/astrophysicists-spot-a-cosmic-whisper-the-faintest-galaxy-in-the-early-universe/

And that is but one of hundreds of early galaxies found by Webb so far, more to come ... when all was creation, leading to us today ...

Webb Space Telescope Shows Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation

... Just over one whole month of Webb’s observing time is devoted to the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES. JADES will peer deeply into the universe to study some of the faintest and most distant galaxies. Among the program’s first findings: Hundreds of galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 600 million years old, and galaxies that have undergone repeated bursts of star formation. ...

... The sheer number of these galaxies was far beyond predictions from observations made before Webb’s launch. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/webb-space-telescope-shows-early-universe-crackled-with-bursts-of-star-formation/

We have touched the sun ...

A solar mission that has been spiraling closer to the sun to unravel its secrets has flown near enough to our star’s surface to make a key discovery.

Data from the Parker Solar Probe has uncovered the source of solar wind, a stream of energized particles that flow from the corona, or the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, toward Earth. ... As the probe came within about 13 million miles (20.9 million kilometers) of the sun, its instruments detected fine structures of the solar wind where it generates near the photosphere, or the solar surface, and captured ephemeral details that disappear once the wind is blasted from the corona.

The spacecraft was specially designed to eventually fly within 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) above the solar surface, and in late 2021, it became the first mission to “touch” the sun.

... Solar wind is a continuous outflow of plasma, which contains charged particles like protons and electrons. The far-reaching phenomenon also includes part of the solar magnetic field and extends well beyond the corona, interacting with planets and the interstellar medium. Understanding the source of the solar wind can help scientists better predict space weather and solar storms that can affect Earth.

Although they can cause beautiful auroras, the solar storms can also impact satellites and Earth’s electrical grids.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/07/world/...scn/index.html[

Sadly, we cannot handle the heat down here ... until we minimize human greed to consume, and increase human empathy for the suffering of others ...

The Arctic may be sea ice-free in summer by the 2030s, new study warns

The Arctic could be free of sea ice roughly a decade earlier than projected, scientists warn – another clear sign the climate crisis is happening faster than expected as the world continues to pump out planet-heating pollution.

A new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications found Arctic sea ice could disappear completely during the month of September as early as the 2030s. Even if the world makes significant cuts to planet-heating pollution today, the Arctic could still see summers free of sea ice by the 2050s, scientists reported. ... “We were surprised to find that an ice-free Arctic will be there in summer irrespective of our effort at reducing emissions, which was not expected,” Seung-Ki Min, lead author of the study and professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, told CNN.

... “We need to prepare ourselves for a world with warmer Arctic very soon,” Min said. “Since Arctic warming is suggested to bring weather extremes like heatwaves, wildfires, and floods on Northern mid- and high latitudes, the earlier onset of an ice-free Arctic also implies that we will be experiencing extreme events faster than predicted.” ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/06/world/arctic-sea-ice-free-climate-change/index.html

This too ... for we must regulate guns, but also the ability of one person to harm another with a lack of empathy for their pain, plus depression in self-harm ...

Gun deaths hit their highest level ever in 2021 [in USA], with 1 person dead every 11 minutes

The report found 26,328 suicides involving a firearm took place in 2021 and 20,958 homicides. The gun suicide rate represented an 8.3% increase from 2020 — the largest one-year increase in more than four decades. The gun homicide rate was up 7.6%.

Further, the gun homicide rate rose 45% from 2019 to 2021, while the rate for homicides not involving a gun rose just 7% in the same period. Likewise, while the rate of suicides by firearm increased 10% over the same period, it was down 8% when looking at suicides by other means.

"Guns are driving this increase," says Ari Davis, a lead author on the study.

... In 2021, the deadliest year in U.S. history due to the pandemic, guns also outpaced COVID-19, car crashes and cancers as the leading cause of death among children and teens — most notably among Black children and teens. While there were more suicides than homicides for the general population, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths for children and teens were homicides.

The study points out that the rise in gun deaths coincides with record gun sales. ... It also notes that "states with the lowest gun death rates in 2021 have some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the country," with someone in Mississippi — with the highest rate of gun violence, according to the study — 10 times more likely to die of gun violence than in Massachusetts, which ranked lowest. ...

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/06/11804...deaths-in-2021

And other example of society and technology run amok

The world’s biggest youth population has a chilling insight into the future of work

Shut out of the traditional labour market, the alternatives India’s working-age youth are exploring will forecast the future of work globally.


Only two months earlier, 32-year-old Indian national Raju Rai had answered a job ad on Facebook for a sales consultant in Thailand.

Dissatisfied with his low salary at an IT company in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, Rai took the first flight out to Bangkok, so he could earn in US dollars and send money home.

But things didn’t go according to plan. After arrival, Rai was picked up by locals representing his new employer who drove him inland for eight hours to a riverbank and then put him on a boat crossing the border into Myanmar.

Rai finally ended up at a sprawling compound that had dozens of apartment blocks and office buildings where thousands of Indians were living and working.

“I met people from everywhere in India, from my town in [the northern state] Uttar Pradesh to the edge of [the southern state] Kerala,” he told me.

Most of them were men, and they had one job: scamming wealthier people in the West.

Within days, Rai realized he was trapped in the web of cybercrime syndicates operating in ostensibly lawless zones in many parts of Southeast Asia. These syndicates traffic foreign workers from poor countries, to execute a variety of internet scams.

Rai says he and his colleagues opened fake accounts on social media impersonating attractive girls and befriended prospective victims in the US, the UK and Europe by offering love and friendship.

Once the target was reeled in, the scammers asked them if they were ready to build a shared future.

They made naïve foreigners convert their savings to cryptocurrency and persuaded them to invest all of it in fake crypto exchanges hosted on their company servers.

Barred from leaving the heavily guarded compound, those who were unwilling or unable to meet the daily targets were beaten up and tortured, Rai told me.

... Most of them didn’t want to return despite forced work and physical violence, because they didn’t see their prospects in India changing anytime soon. ...

... Even if more job seekers were upskilled, the IT industry, which currently employs around 5.1 million people, could only accommodate a fraction of the 4.75 million Indians who enter the labor force every year.

The rest will have to look elsewhere. Catering to a market of 750 million smartphone users, India’s fast-growing gig economy is attracting young workers in great numbers. Millions of them crisscross the major cities at any hour of the day, delivering food, driving commuters, and carrying beauty kits to give at-home facials. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/02/opinions/india-youth-population-online-internet-employment-poonam/index.html

Fortunately, scientists are getting a handle on some genetic and bio-chemical aspects of human emotions ...

Anxiety Relief in Sight: Scientists Identify Key Gene

Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter have identified a gene in the brain that drives anxiety symptoms and demonstrated that modifying this gene can significantly reduce anxiety levels, presenting a potential new target for anxiety treatment. The gene, regulated by a molecule called miR483-5p, suppresses the expression of the Pgap2 gene, which controls stress-induced changes in the brain, and enhancing this pathway could lead to more potent and effective treatments for anxiety disorders.

... Affecting 1 in 4 individuals at least once in their lives, anxiety disorders are quite common. Severe psychological distress can activate genetic, biochemical, and structural alterations in the amygdala neurons — the part of the brain associated with anxiety produced by stress. This can lead to the development of anxiety disorders, including panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the efficacy of currently available anti-anxiety drugs is low with more than half of patients not achieving remission following treatment. Limited success in developing potent anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs is a result of our poor understanding of the neural circuits underlying anxiety and molecular events resulting in stress-related neuropsychiatric states. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/anxiety-rel...tify-key-gene/

The chemistry of sharing emotions ... in fish and people ...

Scientists Discover That a Molecule Has Been Spreading Emotions for Millions of Years

Researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) have discovered that zebrafish, like humans, require oxytocin to mirror the emotions of others, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion. The zebrafish’s recognition of and reaction to emotions within their group, their use of similar brain areas to humans for this process, and their oxytocin-regulated behavior make them an ideal model for understanding emotional contagion, its impact on well-being and society, and its potential applications in various fields.

... In theory, the platform economy offers a unique combination of regular work and the freedom to opt out. But in practice, there is either too little work or too much of it – and with each task resulting in only a marginal commission, few can afford to turn off their devices.

As incidents of abuse and exploitation pile up, many of India’s gig workers are questioning their career choice. ... There are other ways in which India’s young people are shaping the future of technology. Indians make up the largest user base for some of the world’s biggest technology platforms, including YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Leaving millions of impressions every day with likes, shares, and quote-tweets, their patterns of social media use are influencing what the platforms will look like in the future: more videos (which takes care of the problem of low literacy rate), expansion of social commerce (history of selling and buying within small communities), and the rise of hyperlocal influencers (engendering high levels of trust in product).

The leaders of Big Tech might also want to study the behavior of Indian users to prepare themselves for darker contingencies.

Disinformation is no longer a problematic aspect of the Indian internet, but a defining feature. Hate speech, fake news and deep fakes are posted and shared more frequently than ever before.

Recently, a 28-year-old cow-protection vigilante who became wildly popular by posting hateful videos against Muslims, was linked to the murder of two Muslim men. Mohit Yadav, alias Monu Manesar, who earlier denied involvement in the case, was named as an accused in the police report filed last month.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-that-a-molecule-has-been-spreading-emotions-for-millions-of-years/

More effective desire reducers in the pipeline ... and does it aid addictions far beyond food? ...

Ozempic user says drug helped curb her addiction

... the cultural ubiquity of Ozempic and Wegovy as diet aids has spawned celebrity testimonials and thinkpieces galore.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in recent weeks and months, medical and scientific authorities have also indicated that next-generation drugs are now in development that may be easier and more convenient to use and have even greater capacity to induce weight loss. As CNN recently reported, according to research from financial firm TD Cowen, nearly two dozen experimental drugs are now being designed to be taken as pills for obesity and related conditions. ...

https://us.cnn.com/videos/health/202...ll-cnc-vpx.cnn

But, even in moderation, we will still need to eat something in space ...

How astronauts heading to Mars could enjoy fresh produce and grill meat

... the round trip to the red planet is expected to take about three years. Food is one of the many challenges NASA faces before sending humans into deep space, but it’s a big one. Nutritious food that also stimulates the appetite is necessary to keep astronauts healthy, and freeze-dried options won’t be enough.

... The culinary lab’s munch module offers another nutrition boost by growing microalgae in a bioreactor. Microalgae could help protect the astronauts as they leave the shielding effects of low Earth orbit and venture into the harsh radiation environment of deep space, Bagley said.

Rehydrated meats are something astronauts rely on as a source of protein. To make them more palatable, Nonfiction included sizzle as part of the culinary lab. The tiny microwave drawer, which resembles a convection oven, has glass plates and laser technology. Bagley demonstrated brushing a piece of rehydrated chicken with a blend of maple syrup and soy sauce, a combination that is “shelf stable and delicious,” she said.

As the meat warms, the “marinade” helps it caramelize, and a laser draws grill marks on the meat. ... Sizzle can be used to warm and “grill” vegetables, tofu and tortillas as well. ...
https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/03/world/...scn/index.html

Speaking of killing ... it is usually good that our cells know how to kill themselves in time ...

How Our Cells Kill Themselves – Scientists Decode the Exact Mechanism at the Atomic Level

Until recently, it was assumed that cells simply burst and die at the end of their life. Now, researchers at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, the University of Lausanne, and the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) at ETH Zurich have provided new insights into the final step of cell death.

In the scientific journal Nature, they describe how a protein called ninjurin-1 assembles into filaments that work like a zipper and open the cell membrane, thus leading to the disintegration of the cell. The new insights are an important milestone in the understanding of cell death.

Protein acts as a breaking point in the cell membrane

Various signals, such as bacterial components, trigger the cell death machinery. At the final stage of this process, the cell’s protective membrane is compromised by tiny pores which allow ions to stream into the cell.

In our bodies, millions of cells meet their end on a daily basis. Contrary to popular belief, cells don’t just explode when they die. Instead, a particular protein acts as a trigger for the rupture of the cell membrane. Scientists from the University of Basel have recently been able to elucidate the exact mechanism at the atomic level. Their findings are published in the journal Nature.

The self-elimination of cells is a vital process for all living organisms. When cells become damaged or infected with viruses or bacteria, they initiate an internal “self-destruct” sequence. This essential mechanism wards off the potential growth of tumors and prevents the spread of harmful pathogens throughout the body.

https://scitechdaily.com/how-our-cells-kill-themselves-scientists-decode-the-exact-mechanism-at-the-atomic-level/

https://youtu.be/Smvc06udcS0

And for something else to kill your appetite ... lungs in a vat ...

Lab-Grown Mini Lungs: Accelerating Respiratory Disease Research

Researchers have developed a cutting-edge technology that uses microchips to cultivate miniaturized “cloned” human lungs from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), aiming to better understand lung infections like COVID-19. The stem cells self-organize into complex “micro lungs,” replicating the intricacy of human lung tissue. This allows for an unprecedented high-throughput analysis of lung tissue infection, eliminating variable factors that typically occur when using different patient samples. This platform can also be used to study other diseases and screen for new drugs, and it is primed for swift response to future pandemics ...

And more hearts to go around too ...

Reanimated hearts work as well for transplants and could make more organs available for patients in need, study finds

Researchers say they have been able to tap a new pool of organ donors to preserve and transplant their hearts: people whose hearts have stopped beating, resulting in so-called circulatory death.

Traditionally, the only people considered to be suitable organ donors were those who have been declared brain-dead but whose hearts and other organs have continued to function.

There’s another group that would be willing to donate if survival wasn’t possible: people who may have severe brain injuries but who are not brain-dead. In these cases, people are considered deceased when their hearts stop beating after withdrawal of life support, also called circulatory death. Donation after circulatory death, or DCD, has caught on in other countries like the UK and Spain. It has become somewhat common in the US for organs like kidneys. But American transplant teams have been more reluctant to accept hearts that have stopped beating, even for a brief time, for fear that lack of oxygen to the heart would damage the organ and affect its longevity.

Shortly after death and before the heart can be salvaged, “there’s that period of both poor blood flow and no blood flow that the heart is very sensitive to. And that is why people did not think that this was necessarily going to be possible,” said Dr. Jacob Schroder, surgical director of the heart transplant program at Duke University ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/07/health...ath/index.html

Someday soon, we might 3-D print hearts ... and all manner or new materials ...

Revolutionary 3D Printing Technology a “Game Changer” for Discovering and Manufacturing New Materials

A novel 3D printing method called high-throughput combinatorial printing (HTCP) has been created that significantly accelerates the discovery and production of new materials.

The process involves mixing multiple aerosolized nanomaterial inks during printing, which allows for fine control over the printed materials’ architecture and local compositions. This method produces materials with gradient compositions and properties and can be applied to a wide range of substances including metals, semiconductors, polymers, and biomaterials. ... The new process mixes multiple aerosolized nanomaterial inks in a single printing nozzle, varying the ink mixing ratio on the fly during the printing process. This method — called high-throughput combinatorial printing (HTCP) — controls both the printed materials’ 3D architectures and local compositions and produces materials with gradient compositions and properties at microscale spatial resolution.

His research was published on May 10, 2023, in the journal Nature.

https://scitechdaily.com/revolutionary-3d-printing-technology-a-game-changer-for-discovering-and-manufacturing-new-materials/

I don't think these will catch on for daily wear ... but for factories, distance surgery, operating machines at a distance, and of course, as in most new internet innovations ... porno ... and the price will come down ...

I tried Apple’s new headset. Here’s what it’s like to use

It’s rare to find a new technology that feels groundbreaking. But last night, while sitting on a couch in a private demo room at Apple’s campus wearing its newly announced Vision Pro mixed reality headset, it felt like I’d seen the future — or at least an early and very pricey prototype of it.

In the demo, which lasted 30 minutes, a virtual butterfly landed on my finger; a dinosaur with detailed scales tried to bite me; and I stood inches away from Alicia Keys’ piano as she serenaded me in a recording studio. When a small bear cub swam by me on a quiet lake during another immersive video, it felt so real that it reminded me of an experience with a loved one who recently passed away. I couldn’t wipe the tears inside my headset. ...


... But it’s clearly a work in progress. The apps and experiences remain limited; users must stay tethered to a battery pack the size of an iPhone with just two hours of battery life; and the first minutes using the device can be off-putting. Apple also plans to charge $3,499 for the device when it goes on sale early next year – more than had been rumored and far more than other headsets on the market that have previously struggled to gain wide adoption. ...

... The initial setup process was somewhat unpleasant: I felt a little nauseous and claustrophobic as I adjusted to the device. It tracked my eyes, scanned my hands and mapped the room to better tailor the augmented reality experience.

But Apple has also taken steps to reduce the motion sickness problem that has plagued other headsets. The headset uses an R1 processor, a custom chip that cuts down on the latency issue found in similar products that can result in nausea. ...

... The headset itself felt light enough in the beginning, but even with Apple’s considerable design chops, I never shook the idea that there was a computer on my face. Fortunately, unlike other computing products, the headset did remain cool on my face throughout the experience, thanks largely to a quiet fan and airflow running through the system

Unlike other headsets, the new mixed reality headset also displays the eyes of its users on the outside, so “you’re never isolated from the people around you, you can see them and they can see you,” Alan Dye, vice president of human interface, said during the keynote.
... The real magic of the Vision Pro, however, is in the immersive videos. Watching an underwater scene from Avatar 2 in 3D, for example, was surreal, seemingly placing me right in the ocean with these fictional creatures. It’s easy to imagine buy-in from Hollywood filmmakers to create experiences just for the headset. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/apple-vision-pro-hands-on/index.html

https://youtu.be/8XtAY9LjtuQ

An ancient cousin's version of the Apple headset ...

Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans

... The brains belonging to the extinct species, known as Homo naledi, were around one-third the size of a modern human brain.

The revelations could change the understanding of human evolution, because until now such behaviors only have been associated with larger-brained Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. ... Now, the research team has discovered the remains of Homo naledi adults and children that were laid to rest in the fetal position within cave depressions and covered with soil. The burials are older than any known Homo sapiens burials by at least 100,000 years.

... During the work to identify the cave burials, the scientists also found a number of symbols engraved on the cave walls, which are estimated to be between 241,000 and 335,000 years old, but they want to continue their testing for more precise dating.

The symbols include deeply carved hashtag-like cross-hatchings and other geometric shapes. Similar symbols found in other caves were carved by early Homo sapiens 80,000 years ago and Neanderthals 60,000 years ago and were thought to have been used as a way to record and share information.

“These recent findings suggest intentional burials, the use of symbols, and meaning-making activities by Homo naledi. It seems an inevitable conclusion that in combination they indicate that this small-brained species of ancient human relatives was performing complex practices related to death,” said Berger, lead author on two of the studies and coauthor on the third, in a statement. “That would mean not only are humans not unique in the development of symbolic practices, but may not have even invented such behaviors.” ...

... This image shows two burial features discovered in the Rising Star cave's Dinaledi Chamber. One body belonged to an adult Homo naledi, and the other was a juvenile. ,,, A wall of the Hill Antechamber showcases numerous engravings and etchings. The panel shows repeated etchings of squares, ladders, triangles, crosses and X's.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Skid marks of our black hole ...

Astronomers “Stunned” by Discovery of Mysterious Filaments in Milky Way’s Center

Hundreds of horizontal filaments point toward our central supermassive black hole.

New radio telescope images reveal hundreds of filaments along the galactic plane, each measuring 5 to 10 light-years in length. These structures likely originated a few million years ago when outflow from our supermassive black hole interacted with surrounding materials ...

... “It was a surprise to suddenly find a new population of structures that seem to be pointing in the direction of the black hole,” Yusef-Zadeh said. “I was actually stunned when I saw these. We had to do a lot of work to establish that we weren’t fooling ourselves. And we found that these filaments are not random but appear to be tied to the outflow of our black hole. By studying them, we could learn more about the black hole’s spin and accretion disk orientation. It is satisfying when one finds order in a middle of a chaotic field of the nucleus of our galaxy.” ...

... While the vertical filaments sweep through the galaxy, towering up to 150 light-years high, the horizontal filaments look more like the dots and dashes of Morse code, punctuating only one side of Sagittarius A*. ... Yusef-Zadeh was shocked to uncover their horizontal counterparts, which he estimates are about 6 million years old. ...

MeerKAT image of the galactic center with color-coded position angles of all filaments.

https://scitechdaily.com/astronomers-stunned-by-discovery-of-mysterious-filaments-in-milky-ways-center/

So, the universe is only 13.8 billion years old since the Big Bang ... but this galaxy is 25 billion light years away ...

The Earliest Quiescent – Researchers Reveal Traits of Ancient Galaxy 25 Billion Light-Years Away

GS-9209, a galaxy discovered by Edinburgh researchers and detailed by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the earliest known quiescent galaxy, forming 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang and ceasing star production half a billion years later. Despite being 10x smaller than the Milky Way, it contains a similar number of stars (that have a combined mass around 40 billion times that of our Sun) and a central supermassive black hole five times larger than anticipated, which may have halted star formation by emitting high-energy radiation that drove out galactic gas.

... The galaxy is 25 billion light years away today, researchers say, but when the light started traveling from it to us about 12.5 billion years ago, it was much closer, because the Universe is expanding.

This means, despite the Universe being an estimated 13.8 billion years old, it is possible to see things as far away as around 45 billion light-years, they add.

GS-9209 observed by the James Webb Space Telescope next to other galaxies.

A little Zap ... about something, I forget what ... (seems like a very small study, however) ...

Scientists zap sleeping humans' brains with electricity to improve their memory

A little brain stimulation at night appears to help people remember what they learned the previous day.

A study of 18 people with severe epilepsy found that they scored higher on a memory test if they got deep brain stimulation while they slept, a team reports in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The stimulation was delivered during non-REM sleep, when the brain is thought to strengthen memories it expects to use in the future. It was designed to synchronize the activity in two brain areas involved in memory consolidation: the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.

"Some improved by 10% or 20%, some improved by 80%," depending on the level of synchrony, says Dr. Itzhak Fried, an author of the study and a professor of neurosurgery at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The results back a leading theory of how the brain transforms a daily event into a memory that can last for days, weeks, or even years. They also suggest a new approach to helping people with a range of sleep and memory problems.

"We know for instance that in patients with dementia, with Alzheimer, sleep is not working very well at all," Fried says. "The question is whether by changing the architecture of sleep, you can help memory."

... During sleep, brain cells fire in rhythmic patterns. Scientists believe that when two brain areas synchronize their firing patterns, they are able to communicate.

Studies suggest that during non-REM sleep, the hippocampus, found deep in the brain, synchronizes its activity with the prefrontal cortex, which lies just behind the forehead. That process appears to help transform memories from the day into memories that can last a lifetime.

So Fried and his team wanted to know whether increasing synchrony between the two brain areas could improve a person's memory of facts and events.

Their study involved epilepsy patients who already had electrodes in their brains as part of their medical evaluation. This gave the scientists a way to both monitor and alter a person's brain rhythms.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...o-boost-memory

First official AI redundancies ... more sure to follow ... but this little interview shows a possible way forward ...

Artificial Intelligence responsible for 5% of jobs lost in May [in USA]

For the first time in history, Artificial Intelligence is cited as a reason for U.S. job losses. Tracy Alloway, co-host of the Bloomberg podcast “Odd Bits,” discusses the new report ...

https://youtu.be/Ey-nWV98cJ4

Wastewater ... not wasted ...

A Sustainable Solution – Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Wastewater

Researchers have developed a method to extract and recover valuable nutrients like phosphate and ammonium from wastewater using a specially designed membrane containing inorganic particles. The research, which positions wastewater as a resource rather than a nuisance, could potentially contribute to a circular economy by providing materials for agricultural fertilizer production, and mitigate impending shortages of these nutrients which could threaten the global food supply.

Used water from bathing, toileting, laundry, and other sources flows down drains to sewers that lead to wastewater treatment plants, where it is cleaned so it can be safely discharged into nature without impacting the environment. The key objectives of the treatment process include removing solids, organic matter, pathogens, and nutrients, such as those that derive from household products and excreta — waste matter discharged from the body. Among these nutrients are phosphate and ammonium, two essential ingredients in agricultural fertilizers.

While phosphorous is essential for thriving plant life, too much of the chemical can cause eutrophication. This complex process begins when an environment becomes overly enriched by nutrients, leading to an explosion in the growth of algae. These harmful algae blooms deplete the availability of oxygen in the water, creating ‘dead zones’ where aquatic organisms suffocate. Long-term exposure to ammonium can also be toxic to aquatic life.

Current wastewater treatment facilities have established processes for removing phosphate and ammonium during the treatment process. Typically, a chemical treatment converts the phosphate into a solid form that settles at the bottom of the water, where it is then collected as sludge and sent to a landfill. Ammonium is traditionally removed using biological treatment, where bacteria consume it and turn it into nitrate and then to nitrogen gas. “These are two high-value products that are key ingredients in fertilizers, but current wastewater treatment processes treat these nutrients as waste,” says Abu-Obaid.

“My solution is to extract the nutrients from the water completely, and so it can be used as a source for fertilizer production.”

https://scitechdaily.com/a-sustainab...of-wastewater/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Looking deep down ... via a DNA origami nanostructure ...

Unlimited Resolution – Unprecedented Microscopy Technique Is a “True Game-Changer”

Scientists have achieved Ångström-level resolution using DNA-tagged fluorescent microscopy.
Ralf Jungmann’s research group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich have accomplished a significant advance in fluorescence microscopy.

They have developed a groundbreaking method called Resolution Enhancement by Sequential Imaging, which remarkably improves the resolution of fluorescence microscopy to an Ångström scale. This novel approach is set to revolutionize our exploration of biological systems by providing hitherto unprecedented detail. Cells, the fundamental units of life, contain a plethora of intricate structures, processes, and mechanisms that uphold and perpetuate living systems. Many cellular core components, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids, are just a few nanometers in size.

This makes them substantially smaller than the resolution limit of traditional light microscopy. The exact composition and arrangement of these molecules and structures are thus often unknown, resulting in a lack of mechanistic understanding of fundamental aspects of biology.
Single-molecule localization microscopy, or SMLM, is a super-resolution approach that can resolve structures on the order of ten nanometers in size by temporally separating their individual fluorescence emission. As individual targets stochastically light up (they blink) in an otherwise dark field of view, their location can be determined with sub-diffraction precision.

DNA-PAINT, invented by the Jungmann group, is an SMLM technique that uses transient hybridization of dye-labeled DNA “imager” strands to their target-bound complements to achieve the necessary blinking for super-resolution. However, to date, even DNA-PAINT has not been able to resolve the smallest cellular structures. ... The new technique, called “Resolution Enhancement by Sequential Imaging”, or RESI for short, capitalizes on the ability of DNA-PAINT to encode target identity via unique DNA sequences. By labeling adjacent targets, too close to each other to be resolved even by super-resolution microscopy, with different DNA strands, an additional degree of differentiation (a barcode) is introduced into the sample. ... By designing a DNA origami nanostructure such that it presents single-stranded DNA sequences that protrude from a double helix at one base pair distance and then imaging these single strands sequentially, the research team resolved a distance of 0.85 nm (or 8.5 Ångström) between adjacent bases, a previously unimaginable feat.

RESI enables microscopy across length scales at Ångström resolution: From whole cells over individual proteins down to the distance between two adjacent bases in DNA.

The Diamond Sutra, " ... This fleeting world -- A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, a flash of lightening in a summer cloud ... "

Galactic Bubbles: Unexpected Complexity of the Milky Way’s Mysterious Structures

Astronomers have found that eRosita bubbles, high-energy gas structures in the Milky Way, are more complex and not hotter than surrounding areas, contrary to previous assumptions. Their analysis of Suzaku satellite data suggests the bubbles originate from nuclear star-forming activity rather than a supermassive black hole. ... These bubbles exist in the gas that surrounds galaxies, an area that is called the circumgalactic medium. ... Although the origin of these bubbles has been debated in scientific literature, this study is the first that begins to settle it, said Mathur. As the team found an abundance of non-solar neon-oxygen and magnesium-oxygen ratios in the shells, their results strongly suggest that galactic bubbles were originally formed by nuclear star-forming activity, or the injection of energy by massive stars and other kinds of astrophysical phenomena, rather than through the activities of a supermassive black hole.

A superposition of an image of the Milky Way, taken by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, and a visualization of the simulations of the eRosita and Fermi bubbles. A new study published in Nature Astronomy has provided further insight into the properties of eRosita bubbles, giant structures of high-energy gas extending above and below the Milky Way galaxy’s center

And here's the flash of lightning ... and what a flash it is ...

Bright Beyond Belief: How Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources Surpass Theoretical Limits

At the extreme end of astrophysics, there are all sorts of phenomena that seem to be counter-intuitive. For example, how can an object not possibly get any brighter? For a long time, this limit, known as the Eddington limit, was thought to be an upper bound on how bright an object could be, and it was directly correlated with the mass of that object. But observations showed that some objects were even brighter than this theoretical limit, and now data collected by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) confirms that these objects are, in fact, breaking the Eddington limit. But why?

The simple answer is magnetic fields. Or at least that is the most likely answer. Unfortunately, the only way to test this answer is by observing astronomical objects, as the magnetic fields around these Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are billions of times stronger than anything we could produce on Earth.

https://scitechdaily.com/bright-beyond-belief-how-ultra-luminous-x-ray-sources-surpass-theoretical-limits/

I'm trying to bend my head around this ...

The shape of your brain may strongly influence your thoughts and behavior, study finds

Research suggests that the brain's size, curves and grooves may play important roles in its function, perhaps even more than the connections between neurons.

Though much about the brain remains a mystery, scientists have long surmised that our thoughts, feelings and behavior are the result of billions of interconnected neurons that transmit signals to each other, thereby enabling communication between regions of the brain.

But a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature challenges that idea, suggesting instead that the shape of the brain — its size, curves and grooves — may exert a greater influence on how we think, feel and behave than the connections and signals between neurons.

A research team in Australia arrived at that conclusion after taking MRI scans of 255 people’s brains while the participants performed tasks like tapping their fingers or recalling a sequence of images. From there, the team examined 10,000 different maps of people’s brain activity, gathered from more than 1,000 experiments worldwide, to further assess the role of brain shape. ... The comparison showed that the new model provided a more accurate reconstruction of the brain activity shown in the MRI scans and brain activity maps than the prior model.

James Pang, the study’s lead author and a research fellow at Monash University in Australia, likened the significance of brain shape to a pebble making ripples in a pond: The size and shape of the pond helps determine the nature of those ripples.

"The geometry is pretty important because it guides how the wave would look, which in turn relates to the activity patterns that you see when people perform different tasks," Pang said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...vior-rcna86938

Of course, "right now" is still "back then," giving the signal delay, brain processing time and such ... so actually about 17 minutes ago, more or less ... but you get the point ...

For the first time, you can see Mars as it is right now

Mars is making its live streaming debut, and the show will reveal the red planet in a whole new light.

On Friday, the European Space Agency is set to stream on YouTube an hour of the first live images directly from Mars, according to statement from the agency.

“Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before,” said James Godfrey, spacecraft operations manager at ESA’s mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, in a statement. “I’m excited to see Mars as it is now — as close to a martian ‘now’ as we can possibly get!” ... You can watch the stream on ESA’s YouTube channel for an hour starting at 6 p.m. Central European Time, or noon ET Friday. ...

... Depending on where Mars and Earth are in their orbits around the sun, the messages that journey through space can take anywhere from 3 to 22 minutes.

To begin the live stream, the ESA estimates it will take about 17 minutes for the light needed to form the images to travel directly from Mars to Earth and then another minute to get through the wires and servers on the ground, the ESA said.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/01/world/mars-live-images-scn/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNqeJ6wQ

AND FINALLY ... oh my ... we can always trust big companies to do the right thing (I'm being sarcastic) ...

It is a caution that "white hat" researchers and their supporters must stay ahead of the "black hats" in other areas, from genetics to AI ...

Tobacco Industry Tactics: Makers of PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Covered Up the Dangers

Widely used in clothing, household products and food, they resist breaking down in the environment.

The chemical industry took a page out of the tobacco playbook when they discovered and suppressed their knowledge of health harms caused by exposure to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), according to an analysis of previously secret industry documents by UC San Francisco (UCSF) researchers.

A new paper published on June 1, 2023, in Annals of Global Health, examines documents from DuPont and 3M, the largest manufacturers of PFAS, and analyzes the tactics industry used to delay public awareness of PFAS toxicity and, in turn, delay regulations governing their use. PFAS are widely used chemicals in clothing, household goods, and food products, and are highly resistant to breaking down, giving them the name “forever chemicals.” They are now ubiquitous in people and the environment.

“These documents reveal clear evidence that the chemical industry knew about the dangers of PFAS and failed to let the public, regulators, and even their own employees know the risks,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, professor and director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), a former senior scientist and policy advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and senior author of the paper.

This is the first time these PFAS industry documents have been analyzed by scientists using methods designed to expose tobacco industry tactics.

... The paper documents a timeline of what industry knew versus public knowledge and analyzes strategies the chemical industry used to suppress information or protect their harmful products. Examples include:

As early as 1961, according to a company report, Teflon’s Chief of Toxicology discovered that Teflon materials had “the ability to increase the size of the liver of rats at low doses,” and advised that the chemicals “be handled ‘with extreme care’ and that ‘contact with the skin should be strictly avoided.’” ...

... The paper documents a timeline of what industry knew versus public knowledge and analyzes strategies the chemical industry used to suppress information or protect their harmful products. Examples include:

As early as 1961, according to a company report, Teflon’s Chief of Toxicology discovered that Teflon materials had “the ability to increase the size of the liver of rats at low doses,” and advised that the chemicals “be handled ‘with extreme care’ and that ‘contact with the skin should be strictly avoided.’”

https://scitechdaily.com/tobacco-industry-tactics-makers-of-pfas-forever-chemicals-covered-up-the-dangers/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

We are not alone ... in all probablility ...

A discovery from the University of Florida ... (but, question: Is there intelligent life in Florida )

Goldilocks Galore: Hundreds of Millions of Planets in the Milky Way Could Potentially Harbor Life

University of Florida astronomers find that hundreds of millions of planets orbiting dwarf stars in the Milky Way could potentially harbor life, occupying a ‘Goldilocks’ orbit that allows them to withstand extreme tidal forces and retain liquid water, according to data from NASA’s Kepler and Gaia telescopes.

... In a new analysis based on the latest telescope data, University of Florida astronomers have discovered that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by these tidal extremes, sterilizing them. But that leaves one-third of the planets – hundreds of millions across the galaxy – that could be in a Goldilocks orbit close enough, and gentle enough, to hold onto liquid water and possibly harbor life.

https://scitechdaily.com/goldilocks-galore-hundreds-of-millions-of-planets-in-the-milky-way-could-potentially-harbor-life/

That's not intelligent life, by the way ... let alone you and me ... but some simple life perhaps ...

And speaking of water ... THAR SHE BLOWS! ... on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus ...

Webb Space Telescope Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

A water vapor plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus spanning more than 6,000 miles – nearly the distance from Los Angeles, California to Buenos Aires, Argentina – has been detected by researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Not only is this the first time such a water emission has been seen over such an expansive distance, but Webb is also giving scientists a direct look, for the first time, at how this emission feeds the water supply for the entire system of Saturn and its rings.

Enceladus, an ocean world about four percent the size of Earth, just 313 miles across, is one of the most exciting scientific targets in our solar system in the search for life beyond Earth. Sandwiched between the moon’s icy outer crust and its rocky core is a global reservoir of salty water. Geyser-like volcanos spew jets of ice particles, water vapor, and organic chemicals out of crevices in the moon’s surface informally called ‘tiger stripes.’

Previously, observatories have mapped jets hundreds of miles from the moon’s surface, but Webb’s exquisite sensitivity reveals a new story.

“When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong. It was just so shocking to detect a water plume more than 20 times the size of the moon,” said lead author Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The water plume extends far beyond its release region at the southern pole.”

https://youtu.be/AgHdtDlrvbU

https://scitechdaily.com/webb-space-telescope-detects-6000-mile-water-plume-jetting-from-saturns-moon-enceladus/

Feelin' no pain ... but too much of a good thing ...

The Woman Who Doesn’t Feel Pain – New Study Reveals Her Unique Molecular Machinery

New research from University College London (UCL) has unraveled the biology behind a unique genetic mutation that results in its carrier experiencing minimal pain, enhanced healing, and lower levels of anxiety and fear.

Published in the journal Brain, the research is a follow-up to the team’s 2019 discovery of the FAAH-OUT gene and its rare mutations, which make Jo Cameron almost immune to pain, and devoid of fear and anxiety. The latest study elucidates how this mutation reduces the expression of the FAAH gene and impacts other molecular pathways associated with mood and wound healing. The insights garnered from these findings could potentially pave the way for novel drug targets and foster further research in these domains.

Jo, who lives in Scotland, was first referred to pain geneticists at UCL in 2013, after her doctor noticed that she experienced no pain after major surgeries on her hip and hand. After six years of searching, they identified a new gene that they named FAAH-OUT, which contained a rare genetic mutation. In combination with another, more common mutation in FAAH, it was found to be the cause of Jo’s unique characteristics.

The area of the genome containing FAAH-OUT had previously been assumed to be ‘junk’ DNA that had no function, but it was found to mediate the expression of FAAH, a gene that is part of the endocannabinoid system and that is well-known for its involvement in pain, mood, and memory.

In this study, the team from UCL sought to understand how FAAH-OUT works at a molecular level, the first step towards being able to take advantage of this unique biology for applications like drug discovery.

This included a range of approaches, such as CRISPR-Cas9 experiments on cell lines to mimic the effect of the mutation on other genes, as well as analyzing the expression of genes to see which were active in molecular pathways involved with pain, mood, and healing.

The team observed that FAAH-OUT regulates the expression of FAAH. When it is significantly turned down as a result of the mutation carried by Jo Cameron, FAAH enzyme activity levels are significantly reduced.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-woman-w...lar-machinery/

Maybe we will feel no pain when AI destroys us ... and Grimes agrees ...

Or maybe Elon just wants to slow things down until he can get a foothold?

AI industry and researchers sign statement warning of ‘extinction’ risk

Dozens of AI industry leaders, academics and even some celebrities on Tuesday called for reducing the risk of global annihilation due to artificial intelligence, arguing in a brief statement that the threat of an AI extinction event should be a top global priority.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” read the statement published by the Center for AI Safety.

The statement was signed by leading industry officials including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; the so-called “godfather” of AI, Geoffrey Hinton; top executives and researchers from Google DeepMind and Anthropic; Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s chief technology officer; Bruce Schneier, the internet security and cryptography pioneer; climate advocate Bill McKibben; and the musician Grimes, among others.

The statement highlights wide-ranging concerns about the ultimate danger of unchecked artificial intelligence. AI experts have said society is still a long way from developing the kind of artificial general intelligence that is the stuff of science fiction; today’s cutting-edge chatbots largely reproduce patterns based on training data they’ve been fed and do not think for themselves.

Still, the flood of hype and investment into the AI industry has led to calls for regulation at the outset of the AI age, before any major mishaps occur.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/30/tech/ai-industry-statement-extinction-risk-warning/index.html

That is the end of the human race ... what of the start?

I posted this previously, but worth noting again ...

Contemporary DNA evidence suggests that humans emerged from the interaction of multiple populations living across the continent.

A new study in Nature challenges prevailing theories, suggesting that Homo sapiens evolved from multiple diverse populations across Africa, with the earliest detectable split occurring 120,000-135,000 years ago, after prolonged periods of genetic intermixing.

There is broad agreement that Homo sapiens originated in Africa. But there remain many uncertainties and competing theories about where, when, and how.

In a paper published on May 17, 2023, in Nature, an international research team led by McGill University and the University of California-Davis suggest that, based on contemporary genomic evidence from across the continent, there were humans living in different regions of Africa, migrating from one region to another and mixing with one another over a period of hundreds of thousands of years. This view runs counter to some of the dominant theories about human origins in Africa.

https://scitechdaily.com/genes-dont-...-origin-story/

Elon is already getting a foothold in AI mindreading ...

A CNN reporter tries it out ...

Neuroscientists test out brain-reading AI on CNN reporter

https://us.cnn.com/videos/tech/2023/...-contd-vpx.cnn

Evidence of particles beyond the standard model? ... Opinions on this question "collide" ...

Higgs Boson Unveils New Secrets: Rare Decay Detected at Large Hadron Collider

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have uncovered the first evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a Z boson and a photon, a rare process that could provide indirect evidence of particles beyond those predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/higgs-boson...dron-collider/

This report puts me to sleep ...

Scientists Induce Hibernation-Like State Using Ultrasound Stimulation of the Brain

A multidisciplinary team led by associate professor Hong Chen at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a novel, noninvasive method to induce a torpor-like state in mammals by targeting the central nervous system with ultrasound. The technique, which involves stimulating the hypothalamus preoptic area in the brain, was shown to effectively reduce body temperature and metabolic rate in mice, leading to a state of torpor, which is a natural mechanism used by some animals to survive extreme conditions. ... The noninvasive technique could potentially be used in scenarios like space flights or for patients with severe health conditions to conserve energy and heat.
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...-of-the-brain/

Botox ... beautiful eyes, so long as one keeps alive ...

Botox Breakthrough – New Discovery Could Save Lives

Professor Frederic Meunier and Dr. Merja Joensuu, affiliated with the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland, have unveiled the precise molecular process through which Botulinum neurotoxin type-A, commonly referred to as Botox, penetrates brain cells. This toxin is produced from a highly lethal biological substance. ... “The toxin hijacks this complex and enters the synaptic vesicles which store neurotransmitters critical to communication between neurons.

“Botox then interrupts the communication between nerves and muscle cells, causing paralysis.”

The discovery means new therapeutic targets can be identified to develop effective treatments for botulism – a rare but potentially fatal bacterial infection.

https://scitechdaily.com/botox-break...ld-save-lives/

History down the toilet ...

Ancient toilets unearthed in Jerusalem reveal a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease

The Iron Age users of two ancient toilets in Jerusalem were not a healthy bunch, according to an analysis of poop samples from the 2,500-year-old latrines.

Researchers found traces of dysentery-causing parasites in material excavated from the cesspits below the two stone toilets that would have belonged to elite households in the city. Back then, Jerusalem was a vibrant political and religious center in the Assyrian empire and home to between 8,000 and 25,000 people.

It’s the earliest known evidence of a disease called Giardia duodenalis, although the infection, which causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and weight loss, had previously been identified in Roman-era Turkey and in medieval Israel.

“Dysentery is spread by faeces contaminating drinking water or food, and we suspected it could have been a big problem in early cities of the ancient Near East due to over-crowding, heat and flies, and limited water available in the summer,” said Dr. Piers Mitchell, lead author of the study that published Thursday in the scientific journal Parasitology and an honorary fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology, in a statement.

Most of those who die from dysentery caused by Giardia today are children, and chronic infection in kids can lead to stunted growth, impaired cognitive function and failure to thrive.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

... And speaking of sperm ... we all may be the children of space sperm ...

Space Dust – A New Way To Search for Alien Life

In the aftermath of massive cosmic collisions, such as those caused by asteroid impacts, a portion of the impacted planet’s material may be hurled into the cosmos. This expelled matter can traverse enormous distances and persist for incredibly long durations. Hypothetically, this ejected material could hold direct or indirect evidence of life from its planet of origin, such as microbial fossils. This extraterrestrial material, bearing potential signs of life, could be within our detection capabilities either in the near future or perhaps even at present.

... Professor Tomonori Totani from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Astronomy has an idea for space dust that might sound like science fiction but actually warrants serious consideration.

“I propose we study well-preserved grains ejected from other worlds for potential signs of life,” said Totani. “The search for life outside our solar system typically means a search for signs of communication, which would indicate intelligent life but precludes any pre-technological life. Or the search is for atmospheric signatures that might hint at life, but without direct confirmation, there could always be an explanation that does not require life. However, if there are signs of life in dust grains, not only could we be certain, but we could also find out soon.”

... There may be such grains already on Earth, and in plentiful amounts, preserved in places such as the Antarctic ice, or under the seafloor. Space dust in these places could be retrieved relatively easily, but discerning extrasolar material from material originating in our own solar system is still a complex matter. If the search is extended to space itself, however, there are already missions that capture dust in the vacuum using ultralight materials called aerogels. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/space-dust-...or-alien-life/

Our new tech invader battles the old school kinds ...

AI Battles Superbugs: Helps Find New Antibiotic Drug To Combat Drug-Resistant Infections

Using an artificial intelligence algorithm, researchers at MIT and McMaster University have identified a new antibiotic that can kill a type of bacteria that is responsible for many drug-resistant infections. If developed for use in patients, the drug could help to combat Acinetobacter baumannii, a species of bacteria that is often found in hospitals and can lead to pneumonia, meningitis, and other serious infections. The microbe is also a leading cause of infections in wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

... The researchers identified the new drug from a library of nearly 7,000 potential drug compounds using a machine-learning model that they trained to evaluate whether a chemical compound will inhibit the growth of A. baumannii. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/ai-battles-...nt-infections/

Manipulating Dopamine to create healthy behavioral patterns ...

Dopamine – The Secret Ingredient to Effortless Exercise?

A new study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers indicates that dopamine, a neurotransmitter traditionally linked with pleasure, motivation, and reward-seeking, also seems to be a key factor in determining why physical activities feel “easy” to some individuals while proving to be draining for others. This conclusion was drawn from studying people with Parkinson’s disease, a condition characterized by the progressive loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain.

The study, which was recently published in npj Parkinson’s Disease, could potentially pave the way for the development of improved methods to encourage individuals to adopt and maintain exercise routines.

... Previous studies have shown that people with increased dopamine are more willing to exert physical effort for rewards, but the current study focuses on dopamine’s role in people’s self-assessment of effort needed for a physical task, without the promise of a reward. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/dopamine-th...less-exercise/

This is apparently different from a patch I recently posted about ...

Engineers Develop the First Fully Integrated Wearable Ultrasound System for Deep-Tissue Monitoring

A group of engineers from the University of California San Diego have successfully created the inaugural entirely integrated wearable ultrasound system for deep-tissue tracking, applicable even for mobile individuals.

This innovation may prove crucial for monitoring cardiovascular health and represents a significant milestone for one of the foremost labs specializing in wearable ultrasound technology. Their research,was recently published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. ... In this work, it includes a small, flexible control circuit that communicates with an ultrasound transducer array to collect and transmit data wirelessly. A machine learning component helps interpret the data and track subjects in motion.

According to the lab’s findings, the ultrasonic system-on-patch allows continuous tracking of physiological signals from tissues as deep as 164 mm, continuously measuring central blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, and other physiological signals for up to twelve hours at a time.

... “This technology has lots of potential to save and improve lives,” Lin said. “The sensor can evaluate cardiovascular function in motion. Abnormal values of blood pressure and cardiac output, at rest or during exercise, are hallmarks of heart failure. For healthy populations, our device can measure cardiovascular responses to exercise in real-time and thus provide insights into the actual workout intensity exerted by each person, which can guide the formulation of personalized training plans.”

... The USoP also represents a breakthrough in the development of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), a term for a network of medical devices connected to the internet, wirelessly transmitting physiological signals into the cloud for computing, analysis, and professional diagnosis. ...

Finally, our amazing bodies ... which even recycle ...

Nature’s Alchemy: Cellular Waste Transformed Into Essential Chemicals

A new perspective published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology uncovers a previously unknown biochemical recycling process in animals. The authors review a flurry of recent papers demonstrating that animals extensively recycle biochemical waste to produce novel chemicals that play key roles in biology, from regulating behavior to development and aging.

These studies show that the genes previously thought to code for carboxylesterases, enzymes that hydrolyze esters, actually play a pivotal role in assembling a wide range of new metabolites from building blocks generally considered “cellular waste.” Surprisingly, the so-called carboxylesterases were found to contribute to the formation of esters and amide bonds, a function opposite to that predicted by computational algorithms.

“This discovery reveals that our understanding of biochemistry remains largely incomplete,” says the perspective’s lead author, Frank Schroeder, a professor at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI). “This research has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of how animals, including humans, function.”

Recent investigations indicate that animals and humans may produce over 100,000 distinct chemicals, most of which have not been investigated. This unknown structure space is a treasure trove of chemicals, which may hold the key to understanding many biological processes.

https://scitechdaily.com/natures-alc...ial-chemicals/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Soon, we won't even need parents!

[NPR] Creating a sperm or egg from any cell? Reproduction revolution on the horizon

It's a Wednesday morning at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in downtown Washington, D.C., and Dr. Eli Adashi is opening an unprecedented gathering: It's titled "In-Vitro Derived Human Gametes as a Reproductive Technology."

It's the academy's first workshop to explore in-vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, which involves custom-making human eggs and sperm in the laboratory from any cell in a person's body.

"It is on the precipice of materialization," says Adashi, a reproductive biology specialist from Brown University. "And IVF will probably never be the same."

For the next three days, dozens of scientists, bioethicists, doctors, and others describe the latest scientific advances in IVG and explore the potentially far-reaching thicket of social, ethical, moral, legal and regulatory ramifications of the emerging technology. Hundreds more attend the workshop remotely.

... Japanese scientists describe how they've already perfected IVG in mice. The researchers used cells from the tails of adult mice to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and then coaxed those iPS cells to become mouse sperm and eggs. They've even used those sperm and eggs to make embryos and implanted the embryos into the wombs of female mice, which gave birth to apparently healthy mouse pups.

"We are in the pathway of translating these technologies into the humans," says Mitinori Saitou from Kyoto University, addressing the group via Zoom.

In fact, Saitou says he's fairly far down that pathway. He's turned human blood cells into iPS cells, and used those iPS cells to create very primitive human eggs. Others have created primitive human sperm this way. Neither the sperm or eggs are developed enough to make embryos or babies. But scientists around the world are intensively working on that.

... IVG would enable infertile women and men to have children with their own DNA instead of genes from the sperm and eggs or donors. Same goes for women of any age, rendering the biological clock irrelevant. ... IVG could also enable gay and trans couples to have babies that are genetically related to both partners.

... Another theoretical possibility is "solo IVG" — single people having "uni-babies" — babies with just one person's genes, says Dr. Paula Amato, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland

"In theory you could reproduce with yourself. And the resulting child would be 100 percent related to you" ...

... That raises a long list of other provocative possibilities, he says, including "90-year-old genetic mothers, 9-year-old genetic mothers, 9-month-old fetuses that become genetic parents, people who've been dead for three years whose cells were saved who become parents."

People could even potentially steal the DNA of celebrities from, for example, a clipping of their hair to make babies, he says. ...

... Throughout the meeting, researchers and bioethicists warn that the ability to create a limitless supply of IVG embryos — combined with new gene-editing techniques — could turbo-charge the power to eradicate unwanted genes. That could help eradicate terrible genetic diseases, but also move "designer babies" even closer to reality.

"The desire to genetically modify the future generation in a hunt for a assumed perfect race, perfect baby, perfect future generation is not science fiction," says Amrita Pande, a professor of sociology at the University of Cape Town in South African. "IVG when used with gene-editing tools like CRISPR should make us all worried." ...

... IVG is probably still at least years away — and may never happen, several of the participants note. There are still significant technical hurdles that would need to be overcome, and questions about whether IVG could ever be done safely, several experts repeatedly warn during the workshop ...

... But if IVG remains off-limits in the U.S, Marks and others warn IVG clinics could easily spring up in other countries with looser regulations, creating a new form of medical tourism that raises even more ethical worries. That includes the exploitation of women as surrogate mothers. ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/27/1177191913/sperm-or-egg-in-lab-breakthrough-in-reproduction-designer-babies-ivg