Recommendable, but video is way too short!
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Plastic-eating worm which could end pollution found in Africa
Recommendable! Next question, is the mealworm edible? 😊
Yemen Death Sentence: India’s Efforts to Save nurse Nimisha Priya with Palki Sharma
What a story! Not often are nurses accused of murdering a business partner!
How OnlyFans Grew Its Revenue by 2000% in Just Four Years
Recommendable! Why not be a content provider? 😊
Starlink's first direct-to-phone satellite network is now in orbit
Good news!
"SpaceX has launched 20 of its Starlink satellites up into Earth's orbit, enabling direct-to-cellphone connectivity for subscribers anywhere on the planet. That completes the constellation's first orbital shell, following a launch of an initial batch of six satellites for testing back in January. ...
Indeed, you'll currently get only text service through the end of 2024; voice and data will become available sometime next year, as will support for IoT devices (such as smart home gadgets). ..."
Starlink's first orbital shell of direct-to-cell satellites will enable texting in 2024, and voice and data next year
Twisted carbon nanotube filaments can emit circularly polarized thermal radiation with a high brightness
Amazing stuff!
"... Usually photons from a blackbody source are randomly polarized—their waves may oscillate along any axis. The new study revealed that if the emitter was twisted at the micro or nanoscale, with the length of each twist similar to the wavelength of the emitted light, the blackbody radiation would be twisted too. The strength of the twisting in the light, or its elliptical polarization, depended on two main factors: how close the wavelength of the photon was to the length of each twist and the electronic properties of the material—nanocarbon or metal, in this case.
Twisted light is also called “chiral” because the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations are mirror images of one another. The study was undertaken to demonstrate the premise of a more applied project that the Michigan team would like to pursue: using chiral blackbody radiation to identify objects. ...
While brightness is the main advantage of this method for producing twisted light, up to 100 times brighter than other approaches, the light includes a broad spectrum of both wavelengths and twists. ... a laser that relies on twisted light-emitting structures. ..."
From the perspective abstract:
"Every object, including the human body, emits thermal radiation that is generated by tiny internal fluctuating dipoles. These heat waves can oscillate with some degree of preferential direction, called polarization.
Among different types of polarization (linear, circular, or elliptical), circular polarization of thermal radiation is desired for advanced technologies, such as thermal imaging, biological sensing, and passive infrared detectors for security systems. However, heat waves emitted by most objects exhibit only a small degree of circular polarization.
The rare effect of circularly polarized thermal radiation was primarily observed in astronomical objects (1). On page 1400 of this issue, Lu et al. (2) report that twisted carbon nanotube filaments can emit circularly polarized thermal radiation with a high brightness. These materials could be used at high temperatures that are unattainable by existing emitters."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Upon heating, carbon nanotube yarns or tungsten wires mechanically twisted to have submicrometer-scale chirality can generate circularly polarized light ranging from the visible to mid-infrared wavelengths. Lu et al. found that unlike other chiral emitters, these blackbody emitters have no vibronic state limitations and can achieve high brightness ... The spectral characteristics were modeled with a mechanism that reconciled Planck’s law and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Ceramic composites allowed the electrically heated emitters to achieve long lifetimes. ...
Abstract
Planck’s law ignores but does not prohibit black-body radiation (BBR) from being circularly polarized. BBR from nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry from nanocarbon or metal has strong ellipticity from 500 to 3000 nanometers. The submicrometer-scale chirality of these filaments satisfies the dimensionality requirements imposed by fluctuation-dissipation theorem and requires symmetry breaking in absorptivity and emissivity according to Kirchhoff’s law. The resulting BBR shows emission anisotropy and brightness exceeding those of conventional chiral photon emitters by factors of 10 to 100. The helical structure of these filaments enables precise spectral tuning of the chiral emission, which can be modeled using electromagnetic principles and chirality metrics. Encapsulating nanocarbon filaments in refractive ceramics produces highly efficient, adjustable, and durable chiral emitters capable of functioning at extreme temperatures previously considered unattainable."
Twisted Edison: bright, elliptically polarized incandescent light (original news release)
Thermal radiation with a twist (no public access) "Carbon nanotube filaments with a twisted geometry emit spinning heat waves at high temperatures"
Bright, circularly polarized black-body radiation from twisted nanocarbon filaments (no public access)
Behind the bulb, a screen displays the temperature of the glowing filament. The wavelengths of light emitted by the filament depend on its temperature, and how well the filament twirls the light depends on how close the wavelengths are to the pitch of the filament’s twists.
Gene therapy shows promise for reversing heart failure
Good news!
"... The new gene therapy ... prevented heart failure (HF) from worsening and even improved some key measures of heart function in pig models. ..."
"A new gene therapy can reverse the effects of heart failure and restore heart function in a large animal model, according to new research ... The therapy increases the amount of blood the heart can pump and dramatically improves survival, in what the study calls “an unprecedented recovery of cardiac function.”
Currently, heart failure is irreversible. In the absence of a heart transplant, most medical treatments aim to reduce the stress on the heart and slow the progression of the often-deadly disease. But if the gene therapy shows similar results in future clinical trials, it could help heal the hearts of the one in four people alive today who will eventually develop heart failure. ..."
From the abstract:
"Heart failure (HF) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, yet with limited therapeutic options. Cardiac bridging integrator 1 (cBIN1), a cardiomyocyte transverse-tubule (t-tubule) scaffolding protein which organizes the calcium handling machinery, is transcriptionally reduced in HF and can be recovered for functional rescue in mice.
Here we report that in human patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), left ventricular cBIN1 levels linearly correlate with organ-level ventricular remodeling such as diastolic diameter. Using a minipig model of right ventricular tachypacing-induced non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic HFrEF, we identified that a single intravenous low dose (6 × 1011 vg/kg) of adeno associated virus 9 (AAV9)-packaged cBIN1 improves ventricular remodeling and performance, reduces pulmonary and systemic fluid retention, and increases survival in HFrEF minipigs. In cardiomyocytes, AAV9-cBIN1 restores t-tubule organization and ultrastructure in failing cardiomyocytes. In conclusion, AAV9-based cBIN1 gene therapy rescues non-ischemic HFrEF with reduced mortality in minipigs."
New gene therapy reverses heart failure in large animal model (original news release)
Fig. 2: AAV9 transduced cBIN1 in myocardium rescues survival rates in minipigs with RVP-induced non-ischemic HFrEF.
Can An Experimental Drug Rewire the Brain to Treat Parkinson’s?
Good news! However, this is also a scandal of a promising drug being unnecessarily delayed!
"About a decade ago, ... researcher ... came up with a novel idea for treating Parkinson’s disease.
The proposed treatment—an amino acid that occurs naturally in the body ... it not just slowed but reversed the course of the disease in mice; it showed promise in a small clinical trial; it appears safe for human use; it could be taken orally; and it was cheap to manufacture.
But the potential remedy had a fateful flaw: as a naturally occurring substance, it couldn’t be patented. With little profit to be made, no pharmaceutical or biotech company would invest the millions needed to support a clinical trial. And so the potential treatment languished on a laboratory shelf. ...
just recently attracting support from SPARK NS, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to efficiently advancing promising academic discoveries in neuroscience from the lab to the clinic. With funding and other support including education, mentorship from industry expert advisors, and networking opportunities as part of a two-year translational research program from SPARK NS, ... hopes to launch at least a modest clinical trial of the amino acid—D-serine—and give this potential Parkinson’s therapy a second chance. ...
just recently attracting support from SPARK NS, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to efficiently advancing promising academic discoveries in neuroscience from the lab to the clinic. With funding and other support including education, mentorship from industry expert advisors, and networking opportunities as part of a two-year translational research program from SPARK NS, ... hopes to launch at least a modest clinical trial of the amino acid—D-serine—and give this potential Parkinson’s therapy a second chance. ...
on a small trial of D-serine as a treatment for apathy and depression in 10 patients with Parkinson’s. Their psychiatric symptoms improved, but surprisingly, so did their motor symptoms. ..."
Ice cores identify obscure Pacific volcano as cause of one of about three 19th century climate disasters caused by volcano eruptions
Volcanoes probably have more influence on climate than the global warming hoax and climate change religion!
When will be the next major volcano eruption darkening the skies?
This also means there were at least three major volcano related events in the 19th century. "... The most notable eruptions of Krakatoa culminated in a series of massive explosions over 26–27 August 1883, which were among the most violent volcanic events in recorded history. ..." (Source)
"The first sign of an impending cataclysm in the summer of 1831 was an eerie dimming of the Sun, which for days appeared bluish green across the Northern Hemisphere. In the ensuing weeks, foul weather and a long cold snap triggered crop failures and famines in India and Japan. The instigator was long presumed to be a climate-altering plume from a major eruption, but the volcano’s identity had been one of the great unsolved mysteries of volcanology. ...
A team led by volcanologist William Hutchison of the University of St. Andrews describes sulfur isotopes and glassy shards of ash deposited in ice core layers dated to 1831 that trace back to an obscure volcano in the remote Kuril Islands north of Japan’s Hokkaido Island. ...
A team led by volcanologist William Hutchison of the University of St. Andrews describes sulfur isotopes and glassy shards of ash deposited in ice core layers dated to 1831 that trace back to an obscure volcano in the remote Kuril Islands north of Japan’s Hokkaido Island. ...
“Huge hailstones destroyed crops in Europe.” Decreased rainfall during the Indian monsoon led to crop failures and a devastating famine in the eastern Indian state of Madras in 1832 and 1833 that killed about 150,000 people. About twice as many died in a famine that gripped northeastern Japan from 1832 to 1837. ...
The sulfur-laden aerosols blocked sunlight, tamping down temperatures by as much as 1°C over 2 years, according to historical records. ...
The sulfur-laden aerosols blocked sunlight, tamping down temperatures by as much as 1°C over 2 years, according to historical records. ...
The 1831 eruption is intriguing also because it and several other major eruptions occurred near the end of the Little Ice Age, a 500-year-long big chill felt across the globe. This cluster of eruptions includes one of the biggest in recorded history: that of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora in 1815, which also cooled the planet and led to widespread harvest failures. ..."
President Carter sparked the U.S. craft beer industry
One more good reason to remember this US president! Cheers!
You have to give somebody credit when credit is due! 😊
"... In 1978, Carter signed a bill that legalized homebrewing, jumpstarting today’s craft beer craze. ..."
"... The American Homebrewers Association, a trade group, lauded Carter in a statement Monday as “an American homebrew hero” for signing a bill as president in 1978 that “created an exemption from taxation of beer brewed at home,” essentially negating federal laws imposed decades earlier during the Prohibition era. ..."
Maysaa Sabrine becomes first woman to lead Syria’s central bank
Good news! This could be another sign that the current political regime of Syria is moderate.
Not even the socialist Baath party under dictator Hafez al-Assad managed to do that!
NYSE, Nasdaq, and CBOE Intend to close on Jan. 9 in Memory of Jimmy Carter
This is a very nice tribute to late President Carter!
"The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq separately plan to close their markets on Jan. 9 to mourn the death of former President Jimmy Carter. ..."
"... “Jimmy Carter, with humble roots as a farmer and family man, devoted his life to public service and defending our freedom,” said Lynn Martin, President of NYSE Group. “During his noteworthy post-presidential life, President Carter left an enduring legacy of humanitarianism. The NYSE will respectfully honor President Carter’s lifetime of service to our nation by closing our markets on the National Day of Mourning.” ..."
Lynn Martin
President, NYSE Group &
Chair, ICE Fixed Income & Data Services
Monday, December 30, 2024
Nantucket nonprofit says wind farm will harm whales, petitions Supreme Courrt
Good news! Wind power is one of the greatest scams of our time!
China's Central Bank Invests In India's Stock Market Despite Tensions with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Superpower rivalry! Small investments, but not negligible!
Russia To Lift Ban On Nuclear Missile Development: Lavrov
Bad news! When will the lethargic and apathetic Russian people finally get rid of the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible!
OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji Death: Elon Musk Wants FBI Probe with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Suicide or murder? The parents think it was murder.
Pakistan And Tajikistan Deepen Bilateral Cooperation Through Landmark Agreements
The stan countries are coming together! In the summer of 2024, Pakistan and Azerbaijan strengthened their cooperation.
"The recently concluded seventh Joint Commission meeting between Pakistan and Tajikistan in the signing of two landmark Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and protocols, which marks the deepening of ties between the two countries. The agreements reflect a shared vision to improve multilateral cooperation in the spheres of trade, energy, sports and cultural ties. ..."
Researchers discover COVID-19 Spike Protein Persists in Brain Tissues for Years
Good news!
"... A groundbreaking study has revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can remain in the skull’s bone marrow and brain-protective tissues, such as the meninges, for up to four years after infection. This prolonged presence may lead to chronic brain inflammation, accelerating brain ageing and increasing risks of neurodegenerative diseases and strokes. Importantly, the study highlights that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduce the accumulation of spike protein in these regions, providing crucial, though incomplete, protection against long-term neurological effects. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persists in the skull-meninges-brain axis in COVID-19 patients
• Spike protein is sufficient to induce brain pathological and behavioral changes in mice
• Spike protein enhances brain vulnerability and exacerbates neurological damage in mice
• mRNA vaccines reduce, but do not eliminate, the spike burden
Summary
SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with long-lasting neurological symptoms, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Using optical clearing and imaging, we observed the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the skull-meninges-brain axis of human COVID-19 patients, persisting long after viral clearance. Further, biomarkers of neurodegeneration were elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid from long COVID patients, and proteomic analysis of human skull, meninges, and brain samples revealed dysregulated inflammatory pathways and neurodegeneration-associated changes.
Similar distribution patterns of the spike protein were observed in SARS-CoV-2-infected mice.
Injection of spike protein alone was sufficient to induce neuroinflammation, proteome changes in the skull-meninges-brain axis, anxiety-like behavior, and exacerbated outcomes in mouse models of stroke and traumatic brain injury. Vaccination reduced but did not eliminate spike protein accumulation after infection in mice. Our findings suggest persistent spike protein at the brain borders may contribute to lasting neurological sequelae of COVID-19."
Persistence of spike protein at the skull-meninges-brain axis may contribute to the neurological sequelae of COVID-19 (open access)
Graphical abstract:
Breakthrough treatment flips cancer cells back into normal cells
Good news! Amazing stuff! Cancer is history (soon)! However, these are machine learning results.
"... By using a digital model of the gene network of normal cell development, they found several molecules known as "master regulators" that are involved in the differentiation process of the cells lining the intestinal walls. These regulators are known as MYB, HDAC2, and FOXA2 and when they were suppressed in colon cancer cells, the cells switched back to a normal-like state, removing the cancer threat without destroying any cellular material.
The tests were carried out digitally, through molecular experiments, and in mice. .."
From the abstract:
"Cellular differentiation is controlled by intricate layers of gene regulation, involving the modulation of gene expression by various transcriptional regulators. Due to the complexity of gene regulation, identifying master regulators across the differentiation trajectory has been a longstanding challenge. To tackle this problem, a computational framework, single-cell Boolean network inference and control (BENEIN), is presented. Applying BENEIN to human large intestinal single-cell transcriptome data, MYB, HDAC2, and FOXA2 are identified as the master regulators whose inhibition induces enterocyte differentiation. It is found that simultaneous knockdown of these master regulators can revert colorectal cancer cells into normal-like enterocytes by synergistically inducing differentiation and suppressing malignancy, which is validated by in vitro and in vivo experiments."
KAIST Develops Foundational Technology to Revert Cancer Cells to Normal Cells (original news release)
Fig 1: Schematic diagram of BENEIN for reconstruction of Boolean GRN from single-cell transcriptome data and identification of master regulators for cancer reversion.
Newly discovered mechanism reveals NAD's role in aging and disease
Good news!
"... "Therefore, dysregulated NAD levels are involved in aging processes as well as many pathologies ranging from cancer to diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. And the reason for this is that it holds a key position in both energy metabolism and the regulation of vital functions," ...
Based on their new findings, the team of researchers believes that excessive consumption of mitochondrial NAD might constitute a key factor leading to dysfunctional cellular powerhouses and thus aging-associated diseases. ..."
From the abstract:
"The coenzyme NAD+ is consumed by signalling enzymes, including poly-ADP-ribosyltransferases (PARPs) and sirtuins. Ageing is associated with a decrease in cellular NAD+ levels, but how cells cope with persistently decreased NAD+ concentrations is unclear. Here, we show that subcellular NAD+ pools are interconnected, with mitochondria acting as a rheostat to maintain NAD+ levels upon excessive consumption.
To evoke chronic, compartment-specific overconsumption of NAD+, we engineered cell lines stably expressing PARP activity in mitochondria, the cytosol, endoplasmic reticulum or peroxisomes, resulting in a decline of cellular NAD+ concentrations by up to 50%. Isotope-tracer flux measurements and mathematical modelling show that the lowered NAD+ concentration kinetically restricts NAD+ consumption to maintain a balance with the NAD+ biosynthesis rate, which remains unchanged.
Chronic NAD+ deficiency is well tolerated unless mitochondria are directly targeted. Mitochondria maintain NAD+ by import through SLC25A51 and reversibly cleave NAD+ to nicotinamide mononucleotide and ATP when NMNAT3 is present. Thus, these organelles can maintain an additional, virtual NAD+ pool. Our results are consistent with a well-tolerated ageing-related NAD+ decline as long as the vulnerable mitochondrial pool is not directly affected."
Subcellular NAD+ pools are interconnected and buffered by mitochondrial NAD+ (no public access)
Proposed model for the cooperation of SLC25A51 and NMNAT3 to buffer cellular NAD+ fluctuations.
Zugewanderte Inder in Deutschland verdienen mehr Geld als die Durchschnittsbevölkerung und mehr als alle anderen zugewanderten Arbeitnehmer
Was bedeutet indogermanische Sprachen in unserer Zeit?
"Welche Facharbeiter brauchen wir, wer ist überhaupt als Facharbeiter geeignet? Diese Diskussion über die Qualifikation von Migranten wird zurzeit in Deutschland überaus kontrovers geführt. Da liefert, in aller Stille sozusagen, die Auswertung des Instituts der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) verblüffende Zahlen: Inder in Deutschland verdienen mehr Geld als die Durchschnittsbevölkerung ...
Der Durchschnittslohn lag in Deutschland Ende 2023 im Monat bei 3945 Euro. Indische Beschäftigte kamen auf 5359 Euro. Indische Migranten sind laut IW überdurchschnittlich gut qualifiziert. Solche Migranten braucht das Land – ein Hoch auf die fleißigen indischen Arbeitshelden! ..."
"... Auch beim internationalen Wissenschaftspersonal an deutschen Hochschulen zeigt sich eine starke Dynamik an indischen Beschäftigten, die mit 5.018 Personen im Jahr 2022 den Spitzenplatz unter dem internationalen Wissenschaftspersonal an deutschen Hochschulen einnehmen (von 63.073 insgesamt) ..."
Indian manpower corporation CEO: Israel rivals India in over-regulation
That's quite a compliment! 😊
"After the trauma and loss of October 7, Israel’s economy, particularly the construction industry, tried to return to normal but faced an acute problem: a severe shortage of workers. ...
just before the war, there were about 100,000 Palestinian workers working in Israel; since the massacre, they have not been permitted to enter the country. At the same time, many foreign construction workers from China left for fear of an escalation in the security situation.
Over the past 14 months, Israel has tried to employ foreign workers. Today, about 28,000 foreign workers, coming through foreign manpower corporations, work here. Most are from India, but there remains a shortage of tens of thousands more, according to industry estimates. ..."
9 remaining Syrian Jews revisit one of the oldest synagogues in the world in Damscus after Assad's fall
Amazing stuff!
"The remaining few Jews in Syria are now able to visit the Jobar Synagogue, one of the oldest synagogues in the world, after the fall of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
The synagogue, located in the Jobar suburb of Damascus, was partially destroyed during the Syrian Civil War ... The area was heavily restricted by Assad’s forces from 2018 until just a few weeks ago.
Syria only has nine Jewish people remaining in the country, the head of the Syrian Jewish community, Bakhour Chamntoub, told the AP."
A damaged synagogue is seen in the Damascus suburb of Jobar December 14, 2014. The shrine and synagogue of prophet Eliahou Hanabi, dates back to 720 B.C.
Deadly affairs: How Fuad Shukr's four extramarital relationships led to his elimination
Polygamy is not for everyone! Pardon my facetiousness!
"Israel’s surveillance into Hezbollah was so extensive that it revealed Islamist terror commander Fuad Shukr’s four extramarital affairs, according to a New York Times report published on Sunday.
Shukr had reportedly planned to marry all four mistresses after feeling guilty over the adultery, European and Israeli intelligence officials told the Times.
Shukr’s matrimonial plans reportedly came after he sought guidance from Hezbollah’s highest religious cleric, Hashem Safieddine, in early 2024. The religious cleric was thought to have succeeded the eliminated Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah and was also eliminated in an Israeli airstrike in October. ..."
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Nigerians celebrate cultural heritage with Calabar Carnival
Competes with carnival in Rio de Janeiro!
Exiled dictator Assad’s wife Asma BARRED from UK return amid cancer treatment & divorce rumour
She should have divorced her monster husband many years ago!
Unconventional Russian attacks could cause 'substantial' casualties, NATO warns
Recommendable! Constant hybrid warfare conducted by Russia and others against NATO countries is a serious issue not yet well addressed!
Jimmy Carter R.I.P.
Here is one reason why President Carter will be remembered! He made more peace in the Middle East possible!
Notice, then President of Egypt Anwar Sadat is laughing (Camp David Accords 1978).
Waltzing binary stars found near a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy
Amazing stuff!
"Astronomers studying the murky center of our Milky Way galaxy have discovered something they never expected: a pair of young stars orbiting each other near the supermassive black hole that is our galaxy’s dark heart. The observation comes as a surprise because astrophysicists had thought that the black hole’s intense gravity would either rip the stars in such a pair apart or squash them together.
The supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center has a mass four million times that of the Sun; a dense cluster of stars buzzes around its edge. Many of them are old stars that migrated there over billions of years, but others are unexpectedly young and it is not known how they got there. The newest member is D9, discovered by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. They noticed that its light shifted back and forth in frequency in a regular way every 372 days, just as happens with binaries as the orbiting stars move toward and away from Earth, Doppler-shifting their light. They concluded that within its dusty shroud, D9 hides a star just 2.7 million years old with 2.8 times the mass of our Sun and a companion of just 0.7 solar masses. ..."
"“Black holes are not as destructive as we thought,” ... Binary stars, pairs of stars orbiting each other, are very common in the Universe, but they had never before been found near a supermassive black hole, where the intense gravity can make stellar systems unstable.
This new discovery shows that some binaries can briefly thrive, even under destructive conditions. D9, as the newly discovered binary star is called, was detected just in time: it is estimated to be only 2.7 million years old, and the strong gravitational force of the nearby black hole will probably cause it to merge into a single star within just one million years, a very narrow timespan for such a young system. ..."
Young double-star system discovered near our Galaxy’s giant black hole (open access) "Surprising find could force rethink of astrophysics at Milky Way’s center"
First ever binary star found near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole (original news release, contains link to research paper)
An international team of researchers has detected a binary star orbiting close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. It is the first time a stellar pair has been found in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The discovery, based on data collected by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), helps us understand how stars survive in environments with extreme gravity, and could pave the way for the detection of planets close to Sagittarius A*.
Extensive ocean floor mapping via satellite of the still poorly charted seafloor
Amazing stuff! However, an 8-kilometer spatial resolution is not too impressive.
"... researchers using data from a cutting-edge satellite released a new map of the global seafloor charting more than 200,000 of these [abyssal] hills. Launched two years ago by NASA and CNES, France’s national space agency, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is primarily meant to map the height of ocean swirls and rivers in fine detail. But by looking at subtle ways water piles about these large seafloor features due to gravity, it can also map the abyss.
After just one year, seafloor maps created by SWOT have already outpaced those assembled from decades of older technology. With only 25% of the ocean bottom mapped by sonar, the SWOT maps will fill critical gaps for decades to come. And in particular, its view of the abyssal hills—one of the fundamental fabrics of Earth’s surface—will allow plate tectonics to be studied in fine detail, perhaps triggering a new boom in the field. ..."
From the perspective abstract:
"Global marine gravity fields—variations in Earth’s gravitational pull across the ocean surface—provide valuable information about seafloor topography and plate tectonics beneath the water, knowledge that is essential for understanding geological features and ocean dynamics.
A technique that estimates Earth’s surface heights from space, called satellite altimetry, has partially resolved marine gravity fields. However, conventional altimetry can only obtain one-dimensional measurements along a satellite track. The 2022 Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission marked a considerable advancement in satellite altimetry because it captures two-dimensional, large-area topography data with high precision (3). On page 1251 of this issue, Yu et al. (4) report that a gravity field derived from 1 year of SWOT data reveals plate tectonics along the deep ocean floor that had remained hidden for the past 30 years with conventional altimeter observations. This level of detail could improve understanding of ocean environment and dynamics."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Detailed maps of the ocean floor come from ship crossings but can also be obtained using satellite altimetry. Yu et al. used radar altimetry observations from just 1 year of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission to develop a high-resolution global seafloor map ... The new satellite observations have a resolution about twice that of the older observations, presenting an opportunity to better understand the geological features of the seafloor. ...
Abstract
The global ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, yet the seafloor is poorly charted compared with land, the Moon, Mars, and Venus. Traditional ocean mapping uses ship-based soundings and nadir satellite radar altimetry—one limited in spatial coverage and the other in spatial resolution. The joint NASA–CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission uses phase-coherent, wide-swath radar altimetry to measure ocean surface heights at high precision. We show that 1 year of SWOT data offers more detailed information than 30 years of satellite nadir altimetry in marine gravity, enabling the detection of intricate seafloor structures at 8-kilometer spatial resolution. With the mission still ongoing, SWOT promises critical insights for bathymetric charting, tectonic plate reconstruction, underwater navigation, and deep ocean mixing."
Transforming coastal mapping from space (no public access)
Abyssal marine tectonics from the SWOT mission (no public access)
The parallel ridges of abyssal hills, as seen by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, extend out from the flanks of a seafloor spreading center (black lines) in the Indian Ocean.
Study sheds new light on what causes long-term disability after a stroke, offers new path toward possible treatment
Good news!
"... shows how the thalamus – a sort of central networking hub that regulates functions such as language, memory, attention and movement – is affected months or years after a person has experienced a stroke, even though it was not directly damaged itself. ..."
From the significance and highlights:
"Significance
It is not currently understood why stroke causes a prominent slowing of neural activity, nor the associated functional impairment. Using a computational corticothalamic circuit model, we find that thalamic dysfunction is central to this abnormal activity as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG), despite the absence of direct damage to the thalamus itself. The model indicated that slowing was caused by thalamic disinhibition, which was in turn associated with secondary thalamus degeneration. These findings highlight secondary thalamus disruption as an important determinant of corticothalamic circuit dysfunction and poststroke patient outcomes, and demonstrate how noninvasive measures of brain activity like MEG can be linked to underlying stroke pathophysiology via computational modeling.
Abstract
Stroke causes pronounced and widespread slowing of neural activity. Despite decades of work exploring these abnormal neural dynamics and their associated functional impairments, their causes remain largely unclear. To close this gap in understanding, we applied a neurophysiological corticothalamic circuit model to simulate magnetoencephalography (MEG) power spectra recorded from chronic stroke patients. Comparing model-estimated physiological parameters to those of controls, patients demonstrated significantly lower intrathalamic inhibition in the lesioned hemisphere, despite the absence of direct damage to the thalamus itself. We hypothesized that this disinhibition could instead be related to secondary degeneration of the thalamus, for which growing evidence exists in the literature. Further analyses confirmed that spectral slowing correlated significantly with overall secondary degeneration of the ipsilesional thalamus, encompassing decreased thalamic volume, altered tissue microstructure, and decreased blood flow. Crucially, this relationship was mediated by model-estimated thalamic disinhibition, suggesting a causal link between secondary thalamic degeneration and abnormal brain dynamics via thalamic disinhibition.
Finally, thalamic degeneration was correlated significantly with poorer cognitive and language outcomes, but not lesion volume, reinforcing that thalamus damage may account for additional individual variability in poststroke disability. Overall, our findings indicate that the frequently observed poststroke slowing reflects a disruption of corticothalamic circuit dynamics due to secondary thalamic dysfunction, and highlights the thalamus as an important target for understanding and potentially treating poststroke brain dysfunction."
SFU study sheds new light on what causes long-term disability after a stroke and offers new path toward possible treatment (original news release)
Secondary thalamic dysfunction underlies abnormal large-scale neural dynamics in chronic stroke (no public access)
Image of the day
Would you play chess in Winter in New York city's Washington Square Park?
Source: The Only Place Where a 7-Foot-3 NBA Star Can Get Dunked On: A New York City Chess Board "The league’s reigning Rookie of the Year, Victor Wembanyama, paid a surprise visit to the chess boards of Washington Square Park on Saturday for a different kind of 1-on-1"
Robotics and Paradise on Earth
A brief discourse in philosophy!
Perhaps never in human history has humanity been this close to the proverbial Paradise on earth. Unless, humanity self destructs, there is a good chance to get there within a foreseeable future (perhaps 20-50 years from now).
A significant decline in world population in coming decades is forecasted. The long time obsession with the so called replacement rate or fertility rate becomes obsolete.
The age of robotics is upon us. Robots will multiply.
Symbiosis of machine and humans. Machines become more human and vice versa. Anthropogenic evolution?
Commercial tea bags release millions of microplastics, entering human intestinal cells. Really!
Is this a serious concern or just a tempest of alarmism and hysteria in a teapot? Are you not scared to death yet?
Alert: Plastophobia is a serious disorder. Please seek immediate medical help! (Caution: satire)
What about all the benefits of plastics in our lives? What are the substitutes?
"... Food packaging is a major source of micro and nanoplastic (MNPLs) contamination and inhalation and ingestion is the main route of human exposure. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights • Nanoplastics were obtained from three teabag brands during a standard preparation. • ATR-FTIR shows nylon, polypropylene, and cellulose as constituents. • MNPLs release was higher for propylene and lower for nylon. • Uptake in Caco-2, HT29, and HT29-MTX human intestinal cells was determined. • Cell uptake depends on both cell type and chemical constitution of released MNPLs. Abstract The potential health implications of environmental micro/nanoplastics (MNPLs) are increasingly concerning. Beyond environmental exposure, other sources such as food packaging, including herbal/teabags, may also be significant. This study investigates the release of MNPLs from three commercially available teabags. By simulating tea preparation, MNPL samples were extracted and characterized using a range of analytical techniques: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), attenuated total reflectance/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). The results confirmed that the teabags were made of nylon-6 (NY6), polypropylene (PP), and cellulose (CL) and that microfibers and nano-range particles (NPLs) were present in the leachates. NTA data revealed that the number of released NPLs was 1.20 × 109/mL (PP; 136.7 nm), 1.35 × 108/mL (CL; 244 nm), and 8.18 × 106/mL (NY6; 138.4). The leachate particles were then stained with iDye Poly-Pink and used to expose three human intestine-derived cell types (Caco-2, HT29, and HT29-MTX) to assess their biointeractions and the role of the mucosubstances in vitro. The results demonstrated that after 24 h of exposure to 100 μg/mL NPLs, there was significant uptake of PP-NPLs in HT29-MTX cells, as a model of cells segregating high amount of mucus. A similar uptake was observed for CL-NPLs in HT29 and HT29-MTX cells, while NY6-NPLs were internalized preferentially in Caco-2 cells. These findings underscore the importance of identifying new environmentally relevant MNPL exposure sources, for developing realistic MNPLs samples, and further investigating their potential human health effects."
Graphical abstract
Spuren von 10.000 Jahre altem Reisbier entdeckt in China
Erstaunlich!
"In der Shangshan-Stätte in der chinesischen Provinz Zhejiang wurden Hinweise auf die Herstellung von Reisbier entdeckt, die rund 10.000 Jahre alt sind. Diese Entdeckung gilt als eines der frühesten Zeugnisse für die Herstellung alkoholischer Getränke in Ostasien und wirft neues Licht auf die Lebensweise und Kultur der Jungsteinzeit. ..."
So stellten die Menschen in der Jungsteinzeit Reisbier und andere Produkte aus Reis her
Saturday, December 28, 2024
The Secret Side of Sir Isaac Newton
Recommendable! The video gets a few things quite wrong!
E.g. the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University was not famous because of Stephen Hawking, but because of Newton!
Where K-pop idols learn to dance: Inside 1Million, South Korea’s biggest dance studio
Brush up on your rusty dance styles! 😊 About 40-30 years ago it was black American dance styles like Hip Hop, break dance ...!
Belgium to become first EU country to ban disposable vape sales. Really!
The usual government paternalism! Teenagers try a lot of things! That does not mean they will become addicted etc.!
The Skin has its own immune system
Amazing stuff!
"The skin seems to produce its own antibodies to keep microbes in check. ... In mice colonized by Staphylococcus epidermidis, a common and harmless bacterium found on human skin, the skin was able to generate antibodies even when other parts of the immune system were disabled. And this surprise power might be harnessed to fight pathogens: when researchers modified S. epidermidis to display part of the tetanus toxin, the skin response protected mice from a lethal dose."
"The skin — once thought to be a mainly passive barrier — can produce its own antibodies that fight off infections, a pair of studies reports in Nature this week. The findings could pave the way for the development of needle-free vaccines that can be applied to the skin."
"... The initial experiments ... were simple: Dip a cotton swab into a vial containing S. epidermidis. Rub the swab gently on the head of a normal mouse ... and put the mouse back in its cage. Draw blood at defined time points over the next six weeks, asking: Has this mouse’s immune system produced any antibodies that bind to S. epidermidis?
The mice’s antibody response to S. epidermidis was “a shocker,” ...“Those antibodies’ levels increased slowly, then some more – and then even more.” At six weeks, they’d reached a higher concentration than one would expect from a regular vaccination – and they stayed at those levels. ..."
From the abstract (1):
"The ubiquitous skin colonist Staphylococcus epidermidis elicits a CD8+ T cell response pre-emptively, in the absence of an infection. However, the scope and purpose of this anti-commensal immune program are not well defined, limiting our ability to harness it therapeutically. Here, we show that this colonist also induces a potent, durable, and specific antibody response that is conserved in humans and non-human primates. A series of S. epidermidis cell-wall mutants revealed that the cell surface protein Aap is a predominant target.
By colonizing mice with a strain of S. epidermidis in which the parallel β-helix domain of Aap is replaced by tetanus toxin fragment C, we elicit a potent neutralizing antibody response that protects mice against a lethal challenge.
A similar strain of S. epidermidis expressing an Aap-SpyCatcher chimera can be conjugated with recombinant immunogens; the resulting labeled commensal elicits high antibody titers under conditions of physiologic colonization, including a robust IgA response in the nasal and pulmonary mucosa. Thus, immunity to a common skin colonist involves a coordinated T and B cell response, the latter of which can be redirected against pathogens as a novel form of topical vaccination."
From the abstract (2):
"The microbiota colonizes each barrier site and broadly controls host physiology. However, when uncontrolled, microbial colonists can also promote inflammation and induce systemic infection. The unique strategies employed at each barrier tissue to control the coexistence of the host with its microbiota remain largely elusive. Here we uncover that, within the skin, host-microbiota symbiosis depends on the remarkable ability of the skin to act as an autonomous lymphoid organ. Notably, an encounter with a new skin commensal promotes two parallel responses, both under the control of Langerhans cells.
On one hand, skin commensals induce the formation of classical germinal centers within the lymph node associated with IgG1 and IgG3 antibody responses.
On the other hand, microbial colonization also leads to the development of tertiary lymphoid organs within the skin that can locally sustain IgG2b and IgG2c responses.
These phenomena are supported by the ability of regulatory T cells to convert into T follicular helper cells. Skin autonomous production of antibodies is sufficient to control local microbial biomass, as well as subsequent systemic infection with the same microbe. Collectively, these results reveal a striking compartmentalization of humoral responses to the microbiota allowing for control of both microbial symbiosis and potential pathogenesis."
The skin’s ‘surprise’ power: it has its very own immune system (no public access) "The finding could lead to the development of needle-free vaccines."
Stanford scientists transform ubiquitous skin bacterium into a topical vaccine (original news release) "Findings in mice could translate into a radical, needle-free vaccination approach that would also eliminate reactions including fever, swelling and pain."
Discovery and engineering of the antibody response to a prominent skin commensal (1; no public access, but first article above contains link to PDF, bioRxiv link)
Skin autonomous antibody production regulates host-microbiota interactions (2; no public access, but first article above contains link to PDF)
Quantum uncertainty and wave–particle duality are equivalent, experiment shows
Amazing stuff! Don't we love dualities? Or the Russian Matryoshka doll of enigmas! 😊
"With the help of a new experiment, researchers at Linköping University, among others, have succeeded in confirming a ten-year-old theoretical study, which connects one of the most fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics – the complementarity principle – with information theory. Their study has been published in the journal Science Advances and provides a piece of the puzzle for understanding future quantum communication, metrology, and cryptography. ...
In 2014, a research team from Singapore demonstrated mathematically a direct connection between the complementarity principle and the degree of unknown information in a quantum system, the so-called entropic uncertainty. This connection means that no matter what combination of wave or particle characteristic of a quantum system is looked at, the amount of unknown information is a least one bit of information, i.e. the unmeasurable wave or particle.
Researchers ... have now succeeded in confirming the Singapore researchers’ theory in reality with the help of a new type of experiment. ..."
"... Partial particles
In 1979, ... showed that wave–particle duality is not a one-or-the-other phenomenon. Instead it is possible to observe partial particle and partial wave-like behaviour, with a trade-off between the two. ..."
From the abstract:
"Wave-particle duality is one of the most notable and counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics, illustrating that two incompatible observables cannot be measured simultaneously with arbitrary precision. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the equivalence of wave-particle duality and entropic uncertainty relations using orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of light. Our experiment uses an innovative and reconfigurable platform composed of few-mode optical fibers and photonic lanterns, showcasing the versatility of this technology for quantum information processing. Our results provide fundamental insights into the complementarity principle from an informational perspective, with implications for the broader field of quantum technologies."
A connection between quantum theory and information theory proved (original news release)
Experimental demonstration of the equivalence of entropic uncertainty with wave-particle duality (open access)
Fig. 3. Dynamic change between OAM wave and particle behavior.
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