Hot Recent Science & Technology Articles (31)

Posted: 1/14/2017

1. Bacteria recruit other species with long-range electrical signals (Really amazing stuff! “Bacteria living in diverse communities called "biofilms" ...  by sending long-range electrical signals to other bacterial species that can lead to the recruitment of new members to their biofilm community. … "... that bacterial biofilm communities can actively modulate the motile behavior of diverse bacterial species through electrical signals," ... "In this way, bacteria within biofilms can exert long-range and dynamic control over the behavior of distant cells that are not part of their communities."  … identified a new mechanism and paradigm for inter-species signaling … discovered in their laboratory work, which integrated experiments with mathematical modeling, that a biofilm composed of a single species of Bacillus subtilis bacteria was able to recruit bacteria of a different species—in this case, Pseudomonas aeruginosa—through electrical signaling. …  potassium ion electrical signaling generated by B. subtilis biofilms … Bacteria at the outer edge of the biofilm are closest to nutrients necessary for growth and could starve the sheltered interior cells. … discovered that oscillating biofilms develop what they call "metabolic codependence" by putting the brakes periodically on the outer cells' growth to give the interior cells access to nutrients. … that bacteria living in biofilm communities communicate with one another electronically through proteins called "ion channels," an electrical signaling method similar to that used by neurons in the human brain. … "... discovery suggests that the composition of mixed species bacterial communities, such as our gut microbiome, could be regulated through electrical signaling," … "It may even be possible that bacterial and human gut cells can interact electrically within the human gut. … in the future even lead to new electrical-based biomedical approaches to control bacterial behavior and communities."”)
2. 'BioClay' a ground-breaking discovery for world food security (“Our disruptive research involves a spray of nano-sized degradable clay used to release double-stranded RNA, that protects plants from specific disease-causing pathogens." … the technology reduced the use of pesticides without altering the genome of the plants. "Once BioClay is applied, the plant 'thinks' it is being attacked by a disease or pest insect and responds by protecting itself from the targeted pest or disease.”)
3. Porous, 3-D forms of graphene developed at MIT can be 10 times as strong as steel but much lighter (Is the future of 3D graphene finally near? “The team was able to compress small flakes of graphene using a combination of heat and pressure. This process produced a strong, stable structure whose form resembles that of some corals and microscopic creatures called diatoms. These shapes, which have an enormous surface area in proportion to their volume, proved to be remarkably strong. …. they created a variety of 3-D models and then subjected them to various tests. In computational simulations, which mimic the loading conditions in the tensile and compression tests performed in a tensile loading machine, "one of our samples has 5 percent the density of steel, but 10 times the strength ...”)
4. Physicists detect exotic looped trajectories of light in three-slit experiment (As if the two slit experiments were not weird enough! “"Our work is the first experimental observation of looped trajectories," …  "Looped trajectories are extremely difficult to detect because of their low probability of occurrence. … To increase the probability of the occurrence of looped trajectories, the researchers designed a three-slit structure that supports surface plasmons … The presence of these electromagnetic fields near the three slits increases the contribution of looped trajectories to the overall interference pattern by almost two orders of magnitude. … One of the reasons why the double-slit experiment has attracted so much attention is that it represents a physical manifestation of the principle of quantum superposition. The observation that individual particles can create an interference pattern implies that the particles must travel through both slits at the same time. This ability to occupy two places, or states, at once, is the defining feature of quantum superposition. ... The superposition principle can be applied to this surprising scenario by using the sum or 'superposition' of two wavefunctions; one describing a straight trajectory and the other describing looped trajectories.”)
5. TSRI Study: Protein Monitors Lung Volume and Regulates Breathing (Might help with lots of respiratory disorders like COPD, SIDS. “... how the Piezo2 protein, previously shown to be the principal [mechano]sensor of touch and proprioception, also plays a critical role in sensing lung expansion. … Adult mice lacking the Piezo2 channel in sensory neurons exhibit significantly increased tidal volume (amount of inhaled air in lungs) as well as an impaired Hering-Breuer reflex, an inhibitory respiratory reflex that prevents lung over-expansion.”)
6. Researchers harness novel RNA-targeting CRISPR system (Move over CRISPR Cas9 here comes CRISPR Cas13b “... has discovered and characterized two new types of RNA-targeting CRISPR systems, which utilize a new Cas enzyme, dubbed Cas13b ... is capable of targeting and degrading RNA … is expected to open new avenues for RNA manipulation and accelerate progress to understand, treat, and prevent disease. This ability to target only RNA, which helps carry out genomic instructions, allows researchers to specifically manipulate RNA in a high-throughput manner—and manipulate gene function more broadly. The characterization of Cas13b has the potential to create a suite of RNA manipulation tools for studying a wide-range of biological processes. … The newly characterized enzyme shares some of the features of Cas13a (formerly known as C2c2) … first characterized … in June 2016. Cas13b, like Cas13a, requires only a single guide RNA to specify the target and is also genetically encodable—meaning the necessary components can be synthesized as DNA for delivery into tissue and cells—and capable of targeting multiple RNA transcripts simultaneously. ”)
7. Nanoparticles awaken immune cells to fight cancer (Cancer is history! “... worked with mice with breast cancer, another form of cancer that often doesn’t respond to current immunotherapy drugs. Again, they injected the animals with their nanoparticles along with a checkpoint antibody. But this time their nanoparticles didn’t contain any additional chemotherapeutic drug. They then blasted the tumors with infrared light, and waited for the results. And in almost every case, not only was the primary breast cancer tumor destroyed, but metastases in the lung were wiped out as well, … “We were surprised to find that without the cytotoxic agents, you can achieve the same effect,” ...)
8. Scripps Florida Scientists Discover New Natural Source of Potent Anti-Cancer Drugs (Cancer is history! “Shen and his colleagues uncovered a new family of enediyne natural products, called tiancimycins, (TNMs) which kill selected cancer cells more rapidly and completely in comparison to toxic molecules used in FDA-approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)— monoclonal antibodies attached to cytotoxic drugs that target only cancer cells. … The scientists also discovered several new producers of C-1027, an antitumor antibiotic currently in clinical development, which can produce C-1027 at much higher levels.”)
9. Promising malaria vaccine disables key parasite genes (This is new, perhaps even better approach different from another recent vaccine called RTS,S. What a progress! “The new approach disrupts the cycle of infection by knocking out three genes that P. falciparum needs to move into the bloodstream. …  gave a rodent version of this “genetically attenuated parasite,” or GAP, to mice and showed that they were completely protected when later infected with an unmodified—or wild-type—version of the same Plasmodium strain. ”)
10. Newly discovered state of memory could help explain learning and brain disorders (“ … Their observations point to a new form of working memory, which they dub prioritized long-term memory, that exists without elevated neural activity. Consistent with other recent work, the study suggests that information can somehow be held among the synapses that connect neurons, even after conventional working memory has faded.”)
11. Neutron Star May Display First Evidence of 80-Year-Old Quantum Prediction Polarized light suggests the presence of quantum phenomenon first predicted in the 1930s (“In 1930, physicists Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler predicted that very strong magnetic fields could change the polarity of light waves in a vacuum (where polarity refers to the orientation of the light's electric and magnetic fields). This effect, which they dubbed "vacuum birefringence," is not predicted by classical physics. Now, scientists using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) say they may have observed this effect in the light coming from a neutron star— a cosmic object with a very strong magnetic field.”)
12. Living Cells Bind Silicon and Carbon for the First Time A modified bacterial enzyme is taught to make bonds that evolution avoids (“They showed that a natural enzyme from a bacterium that lives in hot springs can form C–Si bonds inside living Escherichia coli cells—when the cells are fed the right silicon-containing compounds. And by engineering the enzyme, the researchers created a biological catalyst that performs the reaction more efficiently than any artificial one. … So the team introduced mutations into the active region of the enzyme and selected the bacteria that showed an improvement. A few generations were sufficient to enhance the yields—beating those of artificial catalysts.”)
13. "Neural Tourniquet" Zaps a Nerve to Stop Bleeding Anywhere in the Body (This could be huge! Stops internal as well as external bleeding! “But 15 years of research by the Feinstein team has built up ample evidence for this example of bioelectronic medicine, which uses neural stimulation to prevent or stop life-threatening hemorrhages. Now the researchers are launching a major clinical trial to show the world that their strange idea doesn’t just work, it can save lives. … doctors press a handheld device against the skin ... to stimulate the vagus nerve, which transmits information between the brain and the major organs. The nerve stimulation conveys a signal to the spleen, where the platelet blood cells that form clots receive their instructions. This signal “primes” the platelets, prepping them to form clots if they encounter a wound anywhere in the body.  “This grabs control of the mechanism the brain uses,” … “The body has this natural physiologic pathway to control bleeding, and this just ramps it up. In partnership with the Bill Gates-backed Global Good Fund, the Feinstein and Sanguistat researchers are launching clinical trials in the United States and in the developing world””)
14. Gut Microbes Contribute to Recurrent ‘Yo-Yo’ Obesity, Study Shows (“Now, researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have shown in mice that intestinal microbes – collectively termed the gut microbiome – play an unexpectedly important role in exacerbated post-dieting weight gain, and that this common phenomenon may in the future be prevented or treated by altering the composition or function of the microbiome. … Furthermore, they identified two molecules driving the impact of the microbiome on regaining weight.  … flavonoids that are obtained through eating certain vegetables – are rapidly degraded by the “post-dieting” microbiome, so that the levels of these molecules in post-dieting mice are significantly lower than those in mice with no history of obesity.”)
15. Ancient pottery reveals oldest evidence of people cooking plants (“Researchers analyzed 110 pottery fragments (example above; scale bar is 5 centimeters long) unearthed at two sites in what is now southwestern Libya that were occupied, according to previous studies, between 8400 and 10,200 years ago. ”)
16. Antivenom made from nanoparticles could eventually treat bites from any snake (“Venomous snakes bite an estimated 4.5 million people every year, nearly 3 million of whom suffer serious injuries, such as the loss of a limb. That’s because almost all snake bites occur in rural areas where people lack ready access to a clinic stocked with antivenom. And in many cases, victims receive the incorrect antivenom. … They previously designed nanoparticles capable of binding a powerful toxin in bee venom, known as melittin, and removing it from blood. …   Their target was a family of toxins known as PLA2 proteins. Snakes produce hundreds of varieties of different PLA2s, which range from mildly toxic to powerful neurotoxins. … They incubated their nanoparticles with a cocktail of PLA2 molecules and isolated the nanoparticles that bound the PLA2s the best. ”)