Scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst to a neutron star

Amazing stuff!

"Fast radio bursts are brief and brilliant explosions of radio waves emitted by extremely compact objects such as neutron stars and possibly black holes. These fleeting fireworks last for just a thousandth of a second and can carry an enormous amount of energy — enough to briefly outshine entire galaxies. ... 

Since the first fast radio burst (FRB) was discovered in 2007, astronomers have detected thousands of FRBs, whose locations range from within our own galaxy to as far as 8 billion light-years away. Exactly how these cosmic radio flares are launched is a highly contested unknown. ..."

From the abstract:

"Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are microsecond-to-millisecond-duration radio transients that originate mostly from extragalactic distances. The FRB emission mechanism remains debated, with two main competing classes of models: physical processes that occur within close proximity to a central engine; and relativistic shocks that propagate out to large radial distances. The expected emission-region sizes are notably different between these two types of models.

Here we present the measurement of two mutually coherent scintillation scales in the frequency spectrum of FRB 20221022A10: one originating from a scattering screen located within the Milky Way, and the second originating from its host galaxy or local environment.

We use the scattering media as an astrophysical lens to constrain the size of the observed FRB lateral emission region to ≲3 × 104 kilometres. This emission size is inconsistent with the expectation for the large-radial-distance models, and is more naturally explained by an emission process that operates within or just beyond the magnetosphere of a central compact object. Recently, FRB 20221022A was found to exhibit an S-shaped polarization angle swing, most likely originating from a magnetospheric emission process. The scintillation results presented in this work independently support this conclusion, while highlighting scintillation as a useful tool in our understanding of FRB emission physics and progenitors."

Scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst

MIT scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst "The fleeting cosmic firework likely emerged from the turbulent magnetosphere around a far-off neutron star."

Magnetospheric origin of a fast radio burst constrained using scintillation (no public access)

Researchers introduce Boltz-1, a fully open-source model for predicting biomolecular structures

Good news!

"Developed by a team of researchers in the MIT Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, Boltz-1 is the first fully open-source model that achieves state-of-the-art performance at the level of AlphaFold3, the model from Google DeepMind that predicts the 3D structures of proteins and other biological molecules. ..."

From the abstract:

"Understanding biomolecular interactions is fundamental to advancing fields like drug discovery and protein design. In this paper, we introduce Boltz-1, an open-source deep learning model incorporating innovations in model architecture, speed optimization, and data processing achieving AlphaFold3-level accuracy in predicting the 3D structures of biomolecular complexes. Boltz-1 demonstrates a performance on-par with state-of-the-art commercial models on a range of diverse benchmarks, setting a new benchmark for commercially accessible tools in structural biology. By releasing the training and inference code, model weights, datasets, and benchmarks under the MIT open license, we aim to foster global collaboration, accelerate discoveries, and provide a robust platform for advancing biomolecular modeling."

MIT researchers introduce Boltz-1, a fully open-source model for predicting biomolecular structures | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "With models like AlphaFold3 limited to academic research, the team built an equivalent alternative, to encourage innovation more broadly."

Boltz-1: Democratizing Biomolecular Interaction Modeling (open access)

A link between viruses and Alzheimer's disease

Good news!

"Despite decades of study, neuroscientists aren’t sure exactly why some people develop the clumps of β-amyloid and tangles of phosphorylated tau proteins that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, a study adds to the support for a controversial hypothesis that viruses, especially those that cause herpes, may exacerbate or even trigger the neurodegenerative disease. ...

To further investigate this idea, researchers looked for HSV-1 proteins in postmortem brain samples from people with and without Alzheimer’s disease. They found bits of the virus in the same places as phosphorylated tau, suggesting an association. When they introduced the virus into cultured mini-brains grown from stem cells (known as organoids), levels of tau increased—and this rise helped suppress the infection. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• HSV-1 protein expression increases with Alzheimer’s disease progression

• In Alzheimer’s disease, phosphorylated tau colocalizes with HSV-1 protein

• Following HSV-1 infection, tau is phosphorylated downstream to cGAS-STING pathway

• Post-infection tau phosphorylation reduces viral protein and boosts cell viability

Summary

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis relies on the presence of extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) and intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau). Emerging evidence suggests a potential link between AD pathologies and infectious agents, with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) being a leading candidate.

Our investigation, using metagenomics, mass spectrometry, western blotting, and decrowding expansion pathology, detects HSV-1-associated proteins in human brain samples. Expression of the herpesvirus protein ICP27 increases with AD severity and strongly colocalizes with p-tau but not with Aβ. Modeling in human brain organoids shows that HSV-1 infection elevates tau phosphorylation. Notably, p-tau reduces ICP27 expression and markedly decreases post-infection neuronal death from 64% to 7%. This modeling prompts investigation into the cGAS-STING-TBK1 pathway products, nuclear factor (NF)-κB and IRF-3, which colocalizes with ICP27 and p-tau in AD. Furthermore, experimental activation of STING enhances tau phosphorylation, while TBK1 inhibition prevents it. Together, these findings suggest that tau phosphorylation acts as an innate immune response in AD, driven by cGAS-STING."

ScienceAdviser

Anti-herpetic tau preserves neurons via the cGAS-STING-TBK1 pathway in Alzheimer’s disease (open access)

Graphical abstract:

At the beginning of 2025, Netherlands throws open archive of suspected Nazi collaborators

A complete history of the Holocaust is still not written!

"... The Dutch government investigated 300,000 people for collaborating with the Nazis and more than 65,000 of them stood trial in a special court system in the years after World War II.

Collaboration enabled the Nazis to murder an estimated three quarters of Dutch Jews, including their most famous victim, Anne Frank, and her family. The identity of the person who exposed Frank’s hiding place has been a matter of debate. ...

The Netherlands also opened its first national Holocaust museum [in 2024] ..."

To kick off 2025, Netherlands throws open archive of suspected Nazi collaborators - Jewish Telegraphic Agency "Dutch privacy laws shielded the names from public view until the end of 2024."

Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma! (Official Live Performance Video)

Enjoy!

Terror in German Cities: Fireworks Misused by Illegal Immigrants

Incredible! Germany has descended into a banana republic since Chancellor Merkel!

What’s it like inside Turkmenistan’s Darvaza Crater?

Recommendable!

How MSC Cruises Turned an Industrial Wasteland Into an Caribbean Island Paradise

Recommendable!

Saudi Snubs America, Eyes 100 Turkish Kaan Fighter Jets with Molly Gambhir

What is going on?

Musk Accuses UK Government of Not Tackling Pakistani Grooming Gangs with Palki Sharma

A very disturbing story!

Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq

Amazing stuff!

"Excavations at a 4th millennium BCE settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan have revealed new clues about the origins of the world's earliest governing institutions, suggesting they emerged partly from their ability to provide large-scale meals, potentially as payment for labor. ...

The excavations at Shakhi Kora uncovered a long sequence of structures spanning several centuries. Over time, the cultural items found at the site shifted from reflecting primarily local traditions to being closely associated with the major ancient city of Uruk in southern Iraq, one of the world's first cities, which featured a large-scale monumental precinct in the later 4th millennium BCE and yielded thousands of clay tablets containing the earliest written texts. ...

However, the eventual abandonment of the final institutional building at Shakhi Kora, without any signs of it being violently destroyed or seemingly facing environmental pressures, points to a deliberate choice by the local community to move away from this centralized system of authority and resource distribution. ..."

From the abstract:

"During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolithic institutional households precedes population dispersal and the apparent regional rejection of centralised social forms of organisation that were not then revisited for almost 1500 years."

Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq

There and back again: local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region

Figure 2. Aerial view of the 2023 exposure in Area I at Shakhi Kora

Planet X: evidence mounts for undiscovered 9th planet in our solar system

Welcome new planet! More to explore! Get your telescope ready!

"... But for the past decade, astronomers have been finding it increasingly likely that something big – often called Planet X – might actually be out there. And a new study by a team from Princeton University has substantially raised the likelihood that it really exists. ...

The evidence comes from an apparently non-random distribution in the orientation of the orbits of smaller outer Solar System bodies known as trans-Neptunian objects or Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). ...

At the moment, he says, the quest to actually find Planet X is on hiatus, awaiting the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a half-billion-dollar (or more) project being built on a mountaintop in northern Chile. ..."

From the abstract:

"The plausibility of an unseen planet in the outer solar system, and the expected orbit and mass of such a planet, have long been a topic of inquiry and debate. We calculate the long-term orbital stability of distant TNOs, which allows us to expand the sample of objects that would carry dynamical information about a hypothetical unseen planet in the solar system.

Using this expanded sample, we find statistically significant clustering at the ∼3σ level for TNOs with semimajor axes >170 AU, in longitude of perihelion (ϖ), but not in inclination (i), argument of perihelion (ω) or longitude of node (Ω). Since a natural explanation for clustering in ϖ is an unseen planet, we run 300 n-body simulations with the giant planets, a disk of test particles representing Kuiper belt objects, and an additional planet with varied initial conditions for its mass, semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclination. Based on the distribution of test particles after 1−2 Gyr, we compute relative likelihoods given the actual distribution of ϖ as a function of semimajor axis for distant TNOs on stable orbits using a significantly larger sample than previous work.

We find the best-fit unseen planet parameters to be: mass mp=4.4±1.1M⊕, semimajor axis ap=290±30AU, eccentricity ep=0.29±0.13, and inclination ip=6.8±5.0∘. Only 0.06% of the Brown & Batygin (2021) Planet Nine reference population produce probabilities within 1σ of the maximum within our quadrivariate model, indicating that our work identifies a distinct preferred region of parameter space for an unseen planet in the solar system."

Planet X: evidence mounts for undiscovered 9th planet

Orbit of a Possible Planet X (open access)

Figure 6:Left: the relative probability density distribution for the unseen planet as a function of right ascension and declination. Right: the relative probability density distribution from Brown & Batygin. Blue dashed lines indicate the ecliptic plane and $\pm {20}^{\circ }$ from the Galactic plane.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon hit as China slaps dual-use export ban on 28 US defence firms

Is China already responding in kind before Trump is sworn in?

Hopefully, there will be no trade war! Trade wars can get very nasty and affect many people!

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon hit as China slaps dual-use export ban on 28 US defence firms | South China Morning Post "Ministry of Commerce announces move on Thursday, with 10 of the firms also placed on unreliable entities list over Taiwan arms sales"

Human eyelashes are like umbrellas

Amazing stuff! Next time you lose an eyelash ...

"... Now, a new study has revealed that human eyelashes are good for more than just catching dust and looking pretty. As researchers report in Science Advances, they also actively fling water droplets away from the eyes, helping to keep vision clear when we swim, sweat, and cry (or shower). In the future, the team writes, the findings could inspire the design of better waterproof materials.

The scientists conducted numerous experiments, including dripping water on people’s eyelashes—using a soft plastic nozzle, they note, “to avoid stabbing the volunteers.” To analyze the lashes’ shape and structure, they also dipped individual hairs into pools of water before slowly pulling them out. These tests demonstrated that eyelashes are made up of densely-packed, hydrophobic fibers, which cause water to bead up and roll off when it makes contact. In addition, each lash is covered with overlapping scale-like cells. This “micro-ratchet” structure, the study authors write, allows water to flow easily from root to tip but blocks it from moving in the opposite direction.

The researchers also discovered that the curved, flexible structure of a human eyelash mimics a shape known as a brachistochrone curve, which physicists define as the quickest path an object can take between two points under the influence of gravity. A ball rolls faster, for example, down a ramp that starts out steep and gradually flattens than down a ramp with a uniform slope. Thanks to this curved shape, droplets that land on an eyelash are propelled rapidly away from the eye—a bit like a child getting launched off the end of a water slide. ..."

From the abstract:

"Numerous organisms exploit asymmetrical capillary forces generated by unique fiber or asymmetrical tapered structures to rapidly eliminate undesired liquid for survival in moist or rainy habitats.

Human eyelashes, the primary protector of eyes, use a yet-to-be-fully-understood mechanism to efficiently transfer incoming liquid for vision safeguarding. Here, we elucidate that human eyelashes featuring a hydrophobic curved flexible fiber array with surface micro-ratchet and macro-curvature approximating the Brachistochrone is adept at directionally and rapidly expelling incoming liquid to maintain clear vision. These structural attributes are sequentially used for liquid drainage, starting from anisotropic retention via micro-ratchet, followed by the elastic expulsion among deflected hydrophobic flexible fiber arrays and culminating in the fastest sliding off along a Brachistochrone path, which together reduce the contact time by about 20% of that on rigid linear slopes. Investigating the intricate relationship between multistructure and draining efficiency of human eyelashes may inspire the design of advanced liquid-repelling edges on outdoor devices to maintain dryness."

ScienceAdviser

Rapid water drainage on human eyelashes of a hydrophobic Brachistochrone fiber array (open access)

Key players in brain aging: New research identifies age-related damage on a cellular level

Good news! Closing in on the fountain of youth!

"Largest study on brain aging points to possible connections between diet, inflammation, and brain health.

Scientists ... have identified specific cell types in the brain of mice that undergo major changes as they age, along with a specific hot spot where many of those changes occur. ...

Aging hot spot: Scientists discovered a specific hot spot combining both the decrease in neuronal function and the increase in inflammation in the hypothalamus. The most significant gene expression changes were found in cell types near the third ventricle of the hypothalamus, including tanycytes, ependymal cells, and neurons known for their role in food intake, energy homeostasis, metabolism, and how our bodies use nutrients. This points to a possible connection between diet, lifestyle factors, brain aging, and changes that can influence our susceptibility to age-related brain disorders.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Biological ageing can be defined as a gradual loss of homeostasis across various aspects of molecular and cellular function. Mammalian brains consist of thousands of cell types, which may be differentially susceptible or resilient to ageing.

Here we present a comprehensive single-cell RNA sequencing dataset containing roughly 1.2 million high-quality single-cell transcriptomes of brain cells from young adult and aged mice of both sexes, from regions spanning the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. High-resolution clustering of all cells results in 847 cell clusters and reveals at least 14 age-biased clusters that are mostly glial types.

At the broader cell subclass and supertype levels, we find age-associated gene expression signatures and provide a list of 2,449 unique differentially expressed genes (age-DE genes) for many neuronal and non-neuronal cell types. Whereas most age-DE genes are unique to specific cell types, we observe common signatures with ageing across cell types, including a decrease in expression of genes related to neuronal structure and function in many neuron types, major astrocyte types and mature oligodendrocytes, and an increase in expression of genes related to immune function, antigen presentation, inflammation, and cell motility in immune cell types and some vascular cell types.

Finally, we observe that some of the cell types that demonstrate the greatest sensitivity to ageing are concentrated around the third ventricle in the hypothalamus, including tanycytes, ependymal cells, and certain neuron types in the arcuate nucleus, dorsomedial nucleus and paraventricular nucleus that express genes canonically related to energy homeostasis. Many of these types demonstrate both a decrease in neuronal function and an increase in immune response. These findings suggest that the third ventricle in the hypothalamus may be a hub for ageing in the mouse brain. Overall, this study systematically delineates a dynamic landscape of cell-type-specific transcriptomic changes in the brain associated with normal ageing that will serve as a foundation for the investigation of functional changes in ageing and the interaction of ageing and disease."

Key players in brain aging: New research identifies age-related damage on a cellular level

Key players in brain aging (original news release) "New research identifies age-related damage on a cellular level"

Brain-wide cell-type-specific transcriptomic signatures of healthy ageing in mice (open access)

Fig. 1: Transcriptomic cell types in young adult and aged mouse brains.

Fig. 6: Decreased neuronal function and increased immune activity as common signatures of ageing across brain cell types.

New method may enhance drug effectiveness

Good news!

"The pharmaceutical industry is constantly searching for new drugs, but can existing drugs be rendered more effective? More than half of the drugs we use are, in terms of their chemical properties, weakly basic. In a new study ... showed that this property may reduce the drugs’ effectiveness: Their availability in the cell is decreased by their tendency to bind to large, charged molecules within the cell or to become trapped inside acidic organelles, such as the cellular recycling bin called the lysosome. The result is decreased activity, which leads to the use of larger doses that can aggravate side effects and cause unwanted interactions with other drugs.

The researchers then showed that this problem can be overcome by a chemical modification – addition of an acetyl group – that makes these drugs more available for activity in the cell. These findings highlight the importance of taking intra-cellular dynamics into account in the course of drug development. They may help improve the effectiveness of a wide range of drugs, making it possible to reduce their dosage, thereby decreasing side effects."

"eLife Assessment

This is a valuable study on the diffusion rates of drug molecules in human-derived cells, presenting convincing data indicating that their diffusion behavior depends on their charged state. It proposes that blocking drug protonation enhances diffusion and fractional recovery, suggesting improved intracellular availability of weakly basic drugs. The findings are significant for drug design and understanding the biophysical behavior of small molecules in cells."

From the abstract:

"For drugs to be active they have to reach their targets. Within cells this requires crossing the cell membrane, and then free diffusion, distribution, and availability. Here, we explored the in-cell diffusion rates and distribution of a series of small molecular fluorescent drugs, in comparison to proteins, by microscopy and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). While all proteins diffused freely, we found a strong correlation between pKa and the intracellular diffusion and distribution of small molecule drugs. 

Weakly basic, small-molecule drugs displayed lower fractional recovery after photobleaching and 10- to-20-fold slower diffusion rates in cells than in aqueous solutions. As, more than half of pharmaceutical drugs are weakly basic, they, are protonated in the cell cytoplasm. Protonation, facilitates the formation of membrane impermeable ionic form of the weak base small molecules. This results in ion trapping, further reducing diffusion rates of weakly basic small molecule drugs under macromolecular crowding conditions where other nonspecific interactions become more relevant and dominant. Our imaging studies showed that acidic organelles, particularly the lysosome, captured these molecules. Surprisingly, blocking lysosomal import only slightly increased diffusion rates and fractional recovery. Conversely, blocking protonation by N-acetylated analogues, greatly enhanced their diffusion and fractional recovery after FRAP. Based on these results, N-acetylation of small molecule drugs may improve the intracellular availability and distribution of weakly basic, small molecule drugs within cells."

Ants vs. Humans: The Maze Challenge – plus more news from the Weizmann Institute of Science

Reversing protonation of weakly basic drugs greatly enhances intracellular diffusion and decreases lysosomal sequestration (open access)

Fig. 3 Fluorescein, CCF2 and CF514 diffusion in PBS and inside HeLa cells.

Pupil size in sleep reveals how memories are processed

Amazing stuff! More on the enigma of longer term memory formation!

"The eyes may be the window to the soul, but the pupil is key to understanding how, and when, the brain forms strong, long-lasting memories ...

By studying mice equipped with brain electrodes and tiny eye-tracking cameras, the researchers determined that new memories are being replayed and consolidated when the pupil is contracted during a substage of non-REM sleep.

When the pupil is dilated, the process repeats for older memories. The brain’s ability to separate these two substages of sleep with a previously unknown micro-structure is what prevents “catastrophic forgetting” in which the consolidation of one memory wipes out another one.  ...

The recordings showed that the temporal structure of sleeping mice is more varied, and more akin to the sleep stages in humans, than previously thought.

By interrupting the mice’s sleep at different moments and later testing how well they recalled their learned tasks, the researchers were able to parse the processes. When a mouse enters a substage of non-REM sleep, its pupil shrinks, and it’s here the recently learned tasks – i.e., the new memories – are being reactivated and consolidated while previous knowledge is not. Conversely, older memories are replayed and integrated when the pupil is dilated. ..."

From the abstract:

"Recently acquired memories are reactivated in the hippocampus during sleep, an initial step for their consolidation. This process is concomitant with the hippocampal reactivation of previous memories posing the problem of how to prevent interference between older and recent, initially labile, memory traces. Theoretical work has suggested that consolidating multiple memories while minimizing interference can be achieved by randomly interleaving their reactivation.

An alternative is that a temporal microstructure of sleep can promote the reactivation of different types of memories during specific substates.

Here, to test these two hypotheses, we developed a method to simultaneously record large hippocampal ensembles and monitor sleep dynamics through pupillometry in naturally sleeping mice. Oscillatory pupil fluctuations revealed a previously unknown microstructure of non-REM sleep-associated memory processes. We found that memory replay of recent experiences dominated in sharp-wave ripples during contracted pupil substates of non-REM sleep, whereas replay of previous memories preferentially occurred during dilated pupil substates. Selective closed-loop disruption of sharp-wave ripples during contracted pupil non-REM sleep impaired the recall of recent memories, whereas the same manipulation during dilated pupil substates had no behavioural effect. Stronger extrinsic excitatory inputs characterized the contracted pupil substate, whereas higher recruitment of local inhibition was prominent during dilated pupil substates. Thus, the microstructure of non-REM sleep organizes memory replay, with previous versus new memories being temporally segregated in different substates and supported by local and input-driven mechanisms, respectively. Our results suggest that the brain can multiplex distinct cognitive processes during sleep to facilitate continuous learning without interference."

Pupil size in sleep reveals how memories are processed "Cornell University researchers have found that the pupil is key to understanding how, and when, the brain forms strong, long-lasting memories."

Pupil size in sleep reveals how memories are sorted and preserved (original news release)

Sleep microstructure organizes memory replay (no public access)

Zum Jahreswechsel droht vielen alten Kaminöfen das Aus

Wieder mal die spinnerte Bananenrepublik D! Was für ein Unsinn!

Zum Jahreswechsel droht vielen alten Kaminöfen das Aus "Kaminöfen, die zwischen 1995 und 2010 eingebaut wurden, müssen zum Jahreswechsel stillgelegt werden. Welche Ausnahmen gibt es?"

South Africa's love for car spinning

A new sport for 2025?

Mexico's Cartels Employ 175,000 Members, Become 5th Largest Employer in the country

Bad news!

The World's 500 Richest Surpassed $10 Trillion In Wealth In 2024 and biggest loosers

Recommendable! Donald Trump is also listed!

Disco Inferno in the Netheralands

Enjoy!

Taiwan Ready To Hit Beijing With Hypersonic Missiles as Xi Threatens Conquest with Molly Gambhir

Good news! David and Goliath?

Will India Become the World’s First Quick Commerce Success Story? with Palki Sharma

Recommendable!

Heatwave-tolerant potatoes the latest climate change ready crops. Really!

What about heatwave-tolerant couch potatoes?

Keep in mind: Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion! It is being used as a pretext by Big Government and the elite to interfere with our lives. It is among the greatest scams and scandals of at least the last 30 years!

"Engineering plants to thrive in warmer and drier conditions associated with climate change is an exploding field of scientific study, as researchers all over the world work to stave off the threat of food insecurity. ..."

Heatwave-tolerant potatoes the latest climate ready crops

Shortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave Stress (open access)

The lead author of the study

Fig. 1 The native and introduced alternative photorespiratory pathway (AP3). 

New pathway found for regulating zinc in E. coli

E. coli is probably one of the most researched subjects in history!

"... researchers have discovered a pathway by which E. coli regulates all-important zinc levels, an insight that could advance the understanding of metal regulation in bacteria generally and lead to antibacterial applications such as in medical instruments and surgical settings. ...

E. coli have evolved mechanisms to bring in more zinc when it’s needed and to get rid of extra to avoid toxicity ... lab has discovered a previously unknown pathway the bacteria can use to control cellular zinc levels. 

The researchers found that the metal-regulating proteins Zur and ZntR – which control uptake and efflux (outflow), respectively – can cross-interact directly through the cell’s DNA, providing another way for the two metalloregulators to coordinate their actions as they control metal concentration in the cell. ...

Studying E. coli DNA, the researchers found that the DNA sequences Zur and ZntR recognize overlap partially, raising the question of whether they really can cross-interact. The experiment proving that they can was the first in-cell study of protein-DNA interaction kinetics as a function of concentration of two proteins.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Transition metals like Zn are essential for all organisms including bacteria, but fluctuations of their concentrations in the cell can be lethal. Organisms have thus evolved complex mechanisms for cellular metal homeostasis. One mechanistic paradigm involves pairs of transcription regulators sensing intracellular metal concentrations to regulate metal uptake and efflux.

Here we report that Zur and ZntR, a prototypical pair of regulators for Zn uptake and efflux in E. coli, respectively, can coordinate their regulation through DNA, besides sensing cellular Zn2+ concentrations. Using a combination of live-cell single-molecule tracking and in vitro single-molecule FRET measurements, we show that unmetallated ZntR can enhance the unbinding kinetics of Zur from DNA by directly acting on Zur-DNA complexes, possibly through forming heteromeric ternary and quaternary complexes that involve both protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions. This ‘through-DNA’ mechanism may functionally facilitate the switching in Zn-uptake regulation when bacteria encounter changing Zn environments, such as facilitating derepression of Zn-uptake genes upon Zn depletion; it could also be relevant for regulating the uptake-vs.-efflux of various metals across different bacterial species and yeast."

New pathway found for regulating zinc in E. coli | Cornell Chronicle

A ‘through-DNA’ mechanism for co-regulation of metal uptake and efflux

Fig. 2: Single-molecule tracking shows that ZntRapo enhances the kinetics of ZurZn unbinding from DNA in cells.

Climate-friendly farming: Scientists find feeding grazing cattle seaweed cuts methane emissions by almost 40%. Really!

I guess, if you are obsessed with or delusional about climate change and global warming, you try anything!

Welcome back to alchemy! Mad scientists please leave the cows alone!

Where is all that seaweed going to come from?

What will the seaweed fed beef or milk taste like? Iodine?

"... A study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that feeding grazing beef cattle a seaweed supplement in pellet form reduced their methane emissions by almost 40% without affecting their health or weight. ..."

Climate-friendly farming: Scientists find feeding grazing cattle seaweed cuts methane emissions by almost 40%

Feeding Grazing Cattle Seaweed Cuts Methane Emissions by Almost 40% (original news release) "Findings Offer Solution for More Climate-Friendly Cattle Farming"

Mitigating methane emissions in grazing beef cattle with a seaweed-based feed additive: Implications for climate-smart agriculture (open access)

Fig. 1 Enteric CH4 emissions and bromoform intake of grazing beef steers treated

Israel, Argentina to expand defense cooperation

Good news!

"... The agreement, while short on details, said the effort would involve a focus on joint projects “in cyber defense, unmanned aerial vehicles, border protection, satellite communications, and future government-to-government (G2G) contracts in light arms, light munitions, radios, and related equipment,” ... It would also establish a “joint program for strategic workshops and seminars across various fields of mutual interest.” ...

Argentina has grown closer to Israel under President Javier Milei. He was elected in 2023 and visited Israel in May 2024, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two months later, in solidarity with Jerusalem, Argentina declared Hamas a terrorist organization. The Israeli government described his visit at the time as marking a “new milestone” in friendship between the countries. ..."

Israel, Argentina to expand defense cooperation - Breaking Defense "Though halfway around the world from each other, the two nations pledged new cooperation in cyber defense, drones and other defense areas."

Research reveals how fructose in diet enhances tumor growth

What is your New Year's resolution? Cancer is history (soon)!

"... New research ... shows that dietary fructose promotes tumor growth in animal models of melanoma, breast cancer and cervical cancer. However, fructose does not directly fuel tumors, according to the study ...

began their investigation by feeding tumor-bearing animals a diet rich in fructose, then measuring how quickly their tumors grew. The researchers found that added fructose promoted tumor growth without changing body weight, fasting glucose or fasting insulin levels. ...

"Over the past few years, it's become clear that many cancer cells prefer to take up lipids rather than make them," ... "The complication is that most lipids are insoluble in blood and require rather complex transport mechanisms. LPCs are unique. They might provide the most effective and efficient way to support tumor growth." ..."

From the abstract:

"Fructose consumption has increased considerably over the past five decades, largely due to the widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has been proposed that fructose promotes the growth of some tumours directly by serving as a fuel. Here we show that fructose supplementation enhances tumour growth in animal models of melanoma, breast cancer and cervical cancer without causing weight gain or insulin resistance. The cancer cells themselves were unable to use fructose readily as a nutrient because they did not express ketohexokinase-C (KHK-C). Primary hepatocytes did express KHK-C, resulting in fructolysis and the excretion of a variety of lipid species, including lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs). In co-culture experiments, hepatocyte-derived LPCs were consumed by cancer cells and used to generate phosphatidylcholines, the major phospholipid of cell membranes.

In vivo, supplementation with high-fructose corn syrup increased several LPC species by more than sevenfold in the serum. Administration of LPCs to mice was sufficient to increase tumour growth. Pharmacological inhibition of ketohexokinase had no direct effect on cancer cells, but it decreased circulating LPC levels and prevented fructose-mediated tumour growth in vivo. These findings reveal that fructose supplementation increases circulating nutrients such as LPCs, which can enhance tumour growth through a cell non-autonomous mechanism."

Research reveals how fructose in diet enhances tumor growth

Research reveals how fructose in diet enhances tumor growth (original news release)

Dietary fructose enhances tumour growth indirectly via interorgan lipid transfer (no public access)

The Ottoman Empire: A World of Difference

Very recommendable!