Head lice could be the key to a better understanding of the history and lives of ancient humans in South America, according to a new study released on Tuesday and led by the University of Reading.
DNA
of ancient Argentinian mummies was extracted from a cement-like
substance used by lice in the distant past to glue their eggs to human
hair.
The study was published in the Molecular Biology and Evolution
journal by University of Reading scientists who worked in collaboration
with the National University of San Juan, Bangor University, the Oxford
University Museum of Natural History and the University of Copenhagen.
The DNA extracted from the human remains, which date from
1,500-2,000 years ago, was of better quality than DNA recovered through
any other method and has revealed clues about pre-Columbian human
migration patterns within South America, according to the University of
Reading.
According
to the researchers, the preservation of human DNA within the lice's
"cement" is possible due to skin cells becoming encased in the
substance, which was produced by female lice to attach their eggs to the
human scalp.
Human DNA Strand (credit: LIAT LOMBROZO)
The
scientists were able to closely analyze the DNA samples extracted and
come to amazing conclusions, due to the well-preserved nature of the
DNA.
For example,
the scientists were able to determine the sex of each of the human
hosts. In addition, they found a genetic link between the DNA and humans
living in Amazonia 2,000 years ago, meaning that the human remains most
likely migrated from northern South America down to the land which is
now Argentina.
This new method of DNA extraction could potentially allow many more unique samples to be studied from human remains when bone and tooth samples are unavailable.
"We have shown that our genetic information can be preserved by the
sticky substance produced by headlice on our hair," said University of
Reading's Dr. Alejandra Perotti, who led the research.
"In
addition to genetics, lice biology can provide valuable clues about how
people lived and died thousands of years ago. Head lice have
accompanied humans throughout their entire existence, so this new method
could open the door to a goldmine of information about our ancestors
while preserving unique specimens."
Neander-Troll wishes all readers & their families a Happy New Year
THIS PAGE WAS POSTED BY SPUTNIK ONE OF THE SPUTNIKS ORBIT BLOG
Summary: Using observations from NASA's ICON mission, scientists presented the first direct measurements of Earth's long-theorized dynamo on the edge of space: a wind-driven electrical generator that spans the globe 60-plus miles above our heads. The dynamo churns in the ionosphere, the electrically charged boundary between Earth and space. It's powered by tidal winds in the upper atmosphere that are faster than most hurricanes and rise from the lower atmosphere, creating an electrical environment that can affect satellites and technology on Earth.
What happens on Earth doesn't stay on Earth.
Using observations from NASA's ICON mission, scientists presented the first direct measurements of Earth's long-theorized dynamo on the edge of space: a wind-driven electrical generator that spans the globe 60-plus miles above our heads. The dynamo churns in the ionosphere, the electrically charged boundary between Earth and space. It's powered by tidal winds in the upper atmosphere that are faster than most hurricanes and rise from the lower atmosphere, creating an electrical environment that can affect satellites and technology on Earth.
The new work, published today in Nature Geoscience, improves our understanding of the ionosphere, which helps scientists better predict space weather and protect our technology from its effects.
Launched in 2019, ICON, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer, is a mission to untangle how Earth's weather interacts with the weather in space. Radio and GPS signals zip through the ionosphere, which is home to auroras and the International Space Station. Empty pockets or dense swells of electrically charged particles can disrupt these signals.
Scientists who study the atmosphere and space weather have long included Earth's dynamo in their models because they knew it had important effects. But with little information, they had to make some assumptions about how it works. Data from ICON is the first concrete observation of winds fueling the dynamo, eventually influencing space weather, to feed into those models.
"ICON's first year in space has shown predicting these winds is key to improving our ability to predict what happens in the ionosphere," said Thomas Immel, ICON principal investigator at University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of the new study.
Earth's sky-high generator
The ionosphere is like a sloshing sea of electrically charged particles, created by the Sun and intermixed with the neutral upper atmosphere. Sandwiched between Earth and space, the ionosphere responds to changes from both the Sun above and Earth below. How much influence comes from each side is what researchers are interested in figuring out. Studying a year of ICON data, the researchers found much of the change they observed originated in the lower atmosphere.
Generators work by repeatedly moving an electricity-carrying conductor -- like a copper wire -- through a magnetic field. Filled with electrically charged gases called plasma, the ionosphere acts like a wire, or rather, a tangled mess of wires: Electricity flows right through. Like the dynamo in Earth's core, the dynamo in the atmosphere produces electromagnetic fields from motion.
Strong winds in the thermosphere, a layer of the upper atmosphere known for its high temperatures, push current-carrying plasma in the ionosphere across invisible magnetic field lines that arc around Earth like an onion. The wind tends to push on chunky, positively charged particles more than small, negatively charged electrons. "You get pluses moving differently than minuses," said co-author Brian Harding, a physicist at University of California, Berkeley. "That's an electric current."
In most generators, these components are bound tightly so they stay put and act predictably. But the ionosphere is free to move however it likes. "The current generates its own magnetic field, which fights Earth's magnetic field as it's passing through," Immel said. "So you end up with a wire trying to get away from you. It's a messy generator."
Following the whims of the ionosphere is key to predicting space weather's potential impacts. Depending on which way the wind blows, plasma in the ionosphere shoots out into space or plummets toward Earth. This behavior results from the tug-of-war between the ionosphere and Earth's electromagnetic fields.
The dynamo, which lies at the lower end of the ionosphere, has remained a mystery for so long because it's difficult to observe. Too high for scientific balloons and too low for satellites, it has eluded many of the tools researchers have to study near-Earth space. ICON is uniquely equipped to investigate this part of the ionosphere from above by taking advantage of the upper atmosphere's natural glow to detect the motion of plasma.
ICON simultaneously observes powerful winds and migrating plasma. "This was the first time we could tell how much the wind contributes to the ionosphere's behavior, without any assumptions," said Astrid Maute, another study co-author and ICON scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Only in the past decade or so, Immel said, have scientists realized just how much those rising winds vary. "The upper atmosphere wasn't expected to change rapidly," he said. "But it does, day to day. We're finding this is all due to changes driven up from the lower atmosphere."
Wind power
Familiar are the winds that skim the surface of Earth, from gentle breezes to bracing gusts that blow one way and then the other.
High-altitude winds are a different beast. From 60 to 95 miles above the ground, in the lower thermosphere, winds can blast in the same direction at the same speed -- around 250 mph -- for a few hours at a time before suddenly reversing direction. (By comparison, winds in the strongest Category 5 hurricanes tear at 157 mph or more.)
These dramatic shifts are the result of waves of air, called tides, born at Earth's surface when the lower atmosphere heats up during the day then cools down at night. They surge through the sky daily, carrying changes from below.
The farther the atmosphere stretches away from the surface, the thinner it becomes and the less turbulence there is to disrupt these motions. That means small tides generated near the surface can grow much larger when they reach the upper atmosphere. "Changes in the winds up there are mostly controlled by what happens below," Harding said.
ICON's new wind measurements help scientists understand these tidal patterns that span the globe and their effects.
Tides ripple up through the sky, building in strength and growing before gusting through the ionosphere. The electric dynamo whirs in response.
The scientists analyzed the first year of ICON data, and found high-altitude winds strongly influence the ionosphere. "We traced the pattern of how the ionosphere moves, and there was a clear wave-like structure," Harding said. Changes in the wind, he explained, directly corresponded to the dance of plasma 370 miles above Earth's surface.
"Half of the motion of the plasma can be attributed to the winds that we observe right there on that same magnetic field line," Immel said. "That tells you it's an important observation to make if you want to predict what plasma is doing."
ICON's first year of observations coincided with solar minimum, the quiet phase of the Sun's 11-year activity cycle. During this time, the Sun's behavior was a low, constant hum. "We know the Sun's not doing much, but we saw a lot of variability from below, and then remarkable changes in the ionosphere," Immel said. That told the researchers they could rule out the Sun as the main influence.
As the Sun ramps up to its active phase, scientists will be able to study more complex changes and interactions between space and Earth's atmosphere.
Immel said he is excited to have this confirmation of long-held ionosphere theories. "We found half of what causes the ionosphere to behave as it does right there in the data," he said. "This is what we wanted to know."
Still, Maute said, "This leaves room to explore what else is contributing to the ionosphere's behavior."
The seamount identified by satellites and partially mapped by RSV Nuyina.
Credit: Pete Harmsen / AAD
The summit of an underwater mountain, higher than Mount Kosciuszko, has been mapped for the first time by the Australian icebreaker Research and Supply Vessel (RSV) Nuyina.
At 2500 meters high, 2900 meters wide and 4500 meters long, the seamount had been identified from satellites at about 50 degrees South, on the edge of the "Furious Fifties."
While an earlier voyage had skimmed one side of the seamount, no detailed mapping at its summit had ever been done.
Data from the ship’s multibeam echosounder were used to create a map of the seamount topography, with high points in red and the seafloor (at about 3000 meters depth) in green. The highest point mapped so far was about 500 meters beneath the ocean’s surface.
Credit: Pete Harmsen / AAD
Seamounts are usually formed from extinct volcanoes and can be biological hotspots, attracting plankton, corals, fish and marine mammals.
As Nuyina's passage to Davis research station took the ship directly over the seamount, the onboard acoustics team took the opportunity to switch on the ship's hull-mounted multibeam echosounder, to find out what lay beneath.
Senior Acoustics Officer Floyd Howard said the echosounder "sees" seafloor features by emitting pings of sound in a fan-like pattern beneath the ship.
When the sound hits an object or the seafloor, it bounces back towards the ship, allowing scientists to build a picture of the seafloor—similar to echolocation used by dolphins.
As the ship cruised at 8 knots over the seamount, its surface structure and height were gradually revealed, ping by colorful ping, with different colors representing different depths.
Approximate position of seamount mapping on 28 December during Nuyina's first voyage to Antarctica.
Credit: AAD
The excitement was palpable as people gathered to see just how high the mountain would rise from a base elevation of about 3000 meters.
"The highest point we reached was about 500 meters below the ocean surface, so it's a significant feature," Mr Howard said.
The team has informally named the feature "Ridgy-Didge Seamount" until an official name can be bestowed upon it.
The information collected during the seamount pass, and future mapping efforts by Nuyina and other ships, will contribute to global efforts to map the world's oceans by 2030.
Summary: Thyme and oregano are not only popular herbs for cooking, but also valuable medicinal plants. Their essential oils contain thymol and carvacrol which impart the typical flavors and are medically important. A team has now fully identified how the plants produce these two substances. The results could simplify the breeding process and improve the pharmaceutical value of thyme and oregano.
Thyme and oregano are not only popular herbs for cooking, but also valuable medicinal plants. Their essential oils contain thymol and carvacrol which impart the typical flavors and are medically important. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Purdue University in the USA has now fully identified how the plants produce these two substances. The results could simplify the breeding process and improve the pharmaceutical value of thyme and oregano. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Thymol, which is mainly extracted from thyme, has secretolytic, antibacterial and antispasmodic properties. The plant is therefore often used in tea for colds, cough syrups and as an herbal remedy for bronchitis. In contrast, oregano contains particularly high levels of carvacrol, which has similar properties. Its smell is often associated with pizza sauce and other Mediterranean dishes. Both substances are chemically closely related and are produced by thyme and oregano in multi-stage processes. "It's like a production line in a factory: Every step needs to be coordinated and the desired product only emerges when the steps are carried out in the right order," explains Professor Jörg Degenhardt from the Institute of Pharmacy at MLU. Instead of machines, specific biomolecules -- enzymes -- carry out this work in special glands on the surface of the leaves.
Together with researchers from Purdue University in the USA, the team in Halle decoded the individual production steps, thereby solving a decades-old mystery.
"For a long time it was assumed that p-Cymene was an intermediate product of thymol and carvacrol synthesis. However, it was chemically not feasible for thymol or carvacrol to ultimately be produced from this substance," says Degenhardt. In fact, normal production of the two substances does not produce any p-Cymene at all, but rather an extremely unstable intermediate product. "This is only present for a few moments in the plant cells, which is why observing it is so difficult. However, it represents the hitherto missing step in the synthesis of the two substances," says Degenhardt. The processes start out the same for both thymol and carvacrol; only in step four do different enzymes that produce the respective substances come into play. In a fifth step, thymol and carvacrol can be further converted to thymohydroquinone and thymoquinone, which have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour effects.
The researchers were also able to use these new findings to genetically reprogramme a species of tobacco, the model plant N. benthamiana, to produce thymol. "Even though this only happened in small quantities, it meant that we were able to fully understand the synthesis pathways and the associated enzymes," summarises Degenhardt.
The new findings are also important for plant breeding. "Up to now, plants have mostly been crossbred randomly with one another and then selected for cultivation based on their smell," says Degenhardt. This new molecular knowledge may one day enable the development of biomarkers for the targeted selection of plants with high essential oil content. The findings could also help to develop new active substances based on thymol, carvacrol and thymohydroquinone to fight bacterial infections, inflammation and cancer.
Major transitions in hominoid subsistence energetics.(A) The shift from great ape–like foraging to hunting and gathering (1) and the adoption of subsistence farming during the Neolithic Revolution (2) involved changes in behavior and technology to allow access to novel food resources. (B) Through these transitions, humans paid higher energy costs in order to acquire a greater number of calories in less time; transitions from left to right are as depicted in (A). Human subsistence minimizes time costs but not energy costs, resulting in improved return rates but efficiency similar to that of other great apes.
A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S., the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has found evidence that suggests early humans gained an energy budget by increasing their rate of energy acquisition, not by taking advantage of adaptive strategies. In their paper published in the journal Science, they describe their study of energy expenditure versus energy intake in early humans.
In this new effort, the researchers noted that humans long ago diverged in significant ways from the other great apes. They wondered how this happened and decided to look at energy intake and expenditure. People and other animals have to put in a certain amount of work (expenditure) to receive an energy intake. Climbing a tree to fetch a banana is a simple example. The amount of energy required to climb a tree far outweighs the potential benefit of eating a single banana. But if a single person is able to throw down multiple bananas, then the overall energy intake may surpass the effort of climbing a tree a single time. To learn more about how energy intake and expenditure might have led to modern human characteristics, the researchers studied two groups of modern people—hunter gatherers in Tanzania and forager-horticulturalists in a Bolivian rain forest.
In looking at both groups, they found that both spent more energy on subsistence but also achieved energy efficiencies compared to modern great apes. This was despite the fact that bipedalism and the use of tools are known to decrease the amount of energy expended to obtain food. The result was the acquisition of more food at a much higher rate than the great apes. The researchers suggest this indicates that humans are not cost economizers but are instead creatures that operate in high throughput ways that lead to large payoffs. They suggest that diverging from the great apes in such a way led to the production of so much food that early humans had much more time to do other things, such as socialize. They further suggest that such socializing, combined with the organizational activities involved in obtaining food led to the development of larger brains and from there, other uniquely human attributes.
Controlled burning through cooler, infrequent fires helps encourage grass growth and can increase root biomass, therefore increasing the amount of carbon stored in an ecosystem.
A University of Cambridge study has found that, contrary to popular belief, controlled burning of forests and other natural areas can actually increase carbon levels in the soil of forests, savannahs, grasslands and other environments.
The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Geoscience, outlined how planting trees and suppressing wildfires does not necessarily maximize the carbon storage of natural ecosystems, and how controlled burning can be a viable method of carbon storage.
“Using controlled burns in forests to mitigate future wildfire severity is a relatively well-known process. But we’ve found that in ecosystems including temperate forests, savannahs and grasslands, fire can stabilize or even increase soil carbon,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Adam Pellegrini of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences.
Fire burns plant matter and organic layers within the soil, and severe wildfires can take years or even decades to re-accumulate lost soil carbons. The researchers, however, argue that fires can also cause other transformations within soils that can offset these immediate carbon losses – and may ultimately stabilize ecosystem carbon.
The sky over Jerusalem painted red and filled with smoke following a massive forest fire raging out in a forest near Beit Meir, outside of Jerusalem on August 15, 2021.
(credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
“Fire is often seen as a bad thing. We hope this new study will show that when managed properly, fire can also be good - both for maintaining biodiversity and for carbon storage,” said Pellegrini.
Fire stabilizes carbon within the soil in several ways: It creates charcoal – which is very resistant to decomposition – and forms physical clumps of soil called “aggregates” that can protect carbon-rich organic matter. Fire can also increase the amount of carbon bound tightly to minerals in the soil.
While intense or frequent fires burn all the plant material that would otherwise decompose and release carbon into the soil, a lack of fires leads to the recycling of soil carbons, meaning organic matter from plants gets consumed by microbes and released as carbon dioxide or methane gas.
Controlled burning through cooler, infrequent fires helps encourage grass growth and can increase root biomass – therefore increasing the amount of carbon stored in an ecosystem.
“Ecosystems can store huge amounts of carbon when the frequency and intensity of fires are just right. It’s all about the balance of carbon going into soils from dead plant biomass, and carbon going out of soils from decomposition, erosion and leaching,” Pellegrini declared.
Shunning climate-changing fossil fuels is turning out to be more difficult than promised in Illinois.
Two weeks after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law billed as the nation's most aggressive mandate for clean energy, the Chicago Democrat's administration tentatively approved a major new source of heat-trapping pollution.
A draft state permit for a new natural gas power plant, planned for a small town south of Springfield, would allow the proposed Lincoln Land Energy Center to emit more carbon dioxide than 800,000 automobiles every year.
Combined with CO2 emitted by two other gas plants approved during Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's single term in office, the downstate generator would wipe out climate benefits from closing four of the state's coal-fired power plants last year.
During 2019, the now-shuttered coal plants emitted 7.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, federal records show.
State permits for soon-to-be-operating gas plants near Elwood and Morris and the draft permit for Lincoln Land enable the new gas-burners to release 63% more CO2 into the atmosphere—up to 12.7 million tons annually.
"That certainly appears to be inconsistent with the path Illinois has chosen to move toward carbon-free energy," said James Gignac, senior Midwest energy analyst for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.
Unlike power plants built during the last century by state-regulated utilities, companies behind the three new gas plants aren't required to demonstrate their projects are necessary to meet demand for electricity.
Instead, private investors financing the projects are betting natural gas prices will remain low enough for them to profit as dirtier, less-efficient coal and gas plants are retired. Another way the companies can make money is through annual capacity auctions held by the regional grid operator to guarantee enough electricity is available during hot days and other times when the grid is challenged.
One of Pritzker's top aides deferred to career state employees when asked why a governor who promotes himself as a clean energy champion would allow a big new source of climate pollution to be built under his watch.
"IEPA (the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency), not the governor, is authorized to act on permit applications such as this," Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzker's chief spokeswoman, said about the proposed Lincoln Land gas plant. "In doing so, the IEPA must follow applicable statutory and regulatory provisions governing that process."
At least one other state is considering the impact of climate change now rather than years in the future. In October, the same month Illinois signaled it would approve the Lincoln Land project, New York denied a permit for a new gas-fired unit at an existing power plant, declaring it "would be inconsistent with or interfere with" a state law demanding carbon-free electricity by 2040.
Environmental groups are citing the New York decision in comments urging Illinois to withdraw the Lincoln Land permit. But it appears they are outgunned.
Backed by unions for construction workers, gas-plant developers had enough clout in Springfield during the summer to block Pritzker's clean energy initiatives until the governor and his legislative allies stripped out provisions that would have required the facilities to steadily reduce carbon emissions during years leading up to 2045, when they would either need to find a way to eliminate heat-trapping pollution altogether or shut down.
In the final version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act, the new gas plants can operate without climate-focused restrictions until the 2045 deadline for carbon-free electricity in Illinois. The law also extends a lifeline to a pair of municipally owned coal plants, including the Prairie State Generating Station southeast of St. Louis, which last year was the nation's seventh-largest industrial source of carbon dioxide.
J.C. Kibbey is a clean energy advocate at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council who was involved in negotiations that brokered the deal. He lamented having to compromise to protect a handful of fossil fuel interests for a quarter century, but suggested a dramatic increase in wind and solar power demanded by the Illinois law, along with advances in industrial-scale battery storage, will end up erasing competitive advantages enjoyed by new gas plants.
"Renewables with storage are far more economical than any fossil fuel," Kibbey said. "While we're scaling that up and bringing prices down, gas will probably fill gaps when the sun isn't shining or wind isn't blowing. What I fear is these developers are pursuing a world where their gas plants run 24/7, and we just can't allow that if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change."
In interviews and public comments, companies building or seeking to build gas plants in Illinois contend their projects will help ease the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Some are investing in both. Competitive Power Ventures, a Maryland-based company building the 1,250 megawatt Three Rivers gas plant near Morris, also is developing a 350 megawatt solar array in Livingston County.
"We build based on what we think the system is going to need and because of that people will pay for it," said Tom Rumsey, the company's senior vice president for external and regulatory affairs.
Rumsey ticked off one of the gas lobby's latest talking points: Deadly power outages during a Texas cold snap last winter showed the nation can't rely on just wind and solar power.
"If you get too far over your skis on renewables and don't pay attention to what you need to manage the system you run into reliability issues," he said.
The main problem in Texas, though, was an electrical grid dominated by gas-fired power that hadn't been weatherized, and according to the state's largest generator, still isn't.
Reliability hasn't been an issue in Illinois as climate-changing pollution from the state's industries declined by 30% during the past decade, in part because several coal-fired power plants closed.
Another variable involves the state's fleet of six nuclear power plants. Planning for the large gas-fired generators began when it appeared Chicago-based Exelon might close some of its nukes, which generally operate around the clock. Since then state lawmakers have approved two rounds of subsidies for Exelon, including $700 million during the next five years provided in the new clean energy law.
From a health and climate perspective, continuing to operate the carbon-free plants should help block additional gas-fired generation and stabilize the grid as more wind and solar power comes online.
Some analysts think gas plants intended to operate near full capacity will soon become obsolete if the cost of renewable energy and storage continues to fall at its current pace. That could limit Three Rivers and the other Illinois projects to being used only when demand peaks.
A new study by Stanford researchers found that a 100% renewable energy grid is feasible by 2050. Moving to wind, water and solar energy, the researchers concluded, would save money, create jobs and cut pollution.
HULUNBUIR, CHINA SUFFERS COLDEST DAY IN HISTORY (-54.4F)
Historic cold and snow has been buffeting eastern Asia in recent weeks, including the nations of China, Japan and South Korea–more on the latter below.
Following the host of Chinese locales breaking all-time low temperature records this week (which include Tuli River’s -42C (-43.6F); Fuyuan’s -42.3C (-44.1F); Wuying’s -43.3C (-45.9F); and Jiayan’s -44.4C (-47.9F)), the city of Hulunbuir has bested them all with its low of –46.9C (-54.4F) — thought to be the city’s coldest temperature ever recorded.
Hulunbuir is located in northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and although the area is used to the cold, such a fierce and widespread chill –with much of northern China holding below -40C– has proved problematic for authorities.
As a result, major supermarkets have been instructed to increase supplies of certain necessities, and people have been urged to stay indoors, reports the South China Morning Post.
Since Dec 23, some 70 percent of China has experienced freezing temperatures, bitter winds, and snow after a severe Siberian cold wave descended deep into the country, with many locales, far more than I’ve mentioned above, enduring their lowest temperatures on record.
A meteorologist based in Beijing told the Global Times that this cold wave is “very powerful” and that it is impacting the majority of China, bringing blizzards to some parts which, in combination with the cold, are disrupting the power supply.
“The extreme weather will influence the power and energy supply in southern areas since the snow will have negative effects on the grid and the transmission of electricity,” noted one energy expert,as reported by manilatimes.net.
SEOUL REGISTERS LOWEST TEMP SINCE 1980
Much like China, over the past few days, South Korea has been hit by historic snowfall and record freezes as the accumulative effect of low solar activity accelerates the cooling of Earth’s lower atmosphere — the troposphere.
South Korea’s lowest lows have been felt in northern parts of the country, as you’d expect — Cheorwon, located in Gangwon Province, registered the country’s coldest temperature this week — the -25.4C (-13.7F).
However, the biscuit was taken by Seoul — despite the well-documented Urban Heat Island effect, which has been found to skew metropolises and built-up areas to the warm side, the nation’s capital still managed to log a legendary low of -16C (3.2F) this week — the city’s coldest December temperature in 41 years, since 1980.
And with regards to the snow, Gangwon Province has notched as much as 56cm (22 inches) in recent days, while 17cm (6.7 inches) has been registered in what is considered the warmest part of South Korea, Jeju Island.
Transport disruptions and flight cancellations have arisen across all of East Asia, particularly in Japan where they’re measuring snow totals in the feet (7+ft in Sukayu):
BIG BLIZZARDS BATTER RUSSIA…
Shifting attention east, and to the Republic of Bashkortostan, also called Bashkiria –a republic of Russia located between the Volga and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe– a “mad blizzard” has descended, causing traffic chaos.
As collated in the Forces Of Nature video embedded below, footage shows multiple vehicles captured by the snow in Bashkiria, where a severe blizzard has left the region struggling to cope.
A number of rescue operations are underway, according to the regional department for emergency situations, including on a section of the M-5 highway which is clogged with buses, trucks and cars due to the inclement weather.
https://youtu.be/aH8pQV5WbrQ
The story is a similar one in the far northeast of Russia, in the city Murmansk, near Finland, as this video from Is it close ? shows:
https://youtu.be/lezLlr-n1n0
…AND NEPAL
Headed back to the southeast, heavy snowfall and sub-zero cold has swept the landlocked South Asian country of Nepal.
A recent report from Phungling in Taplejung stated that heavy snowfall (2+feet) in recent days, particularly at elevations of 3,400 metes (11,000 feet), has led to disruptions to “normal life” and a sharp drop in the mercury.
One local, Pema Sherpa, said that people have not been able to go outdoors due to the snowfall, and that children and the elderly people have been affected the most due to the freezing cold.
https://youtu.be/AoBbCDGDGkE
13 FEET OF SNOW BURIES PARTS OF TURKEY
Turkey has been battered by intense snowfall and extreme frosts this month. Benchmarks have been falling, and people have been dying in the anomalous cold.
Particularly in eastern Turkey, and at elevations above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), historic snowfall has managed to quite literally bury a number of locales, most notably in Muş province where persistent heavy snowfall has seen accumulations climb to more than 4 meters (13+ feet), according to local media reports.
Adem Toprak, a worker who has been involved in snow-clearing operations, told Reuters he had a hard time believing the scale of the snow depth at first, and how the accumulation could be in meters.
“We live in the city center. They said that the snow depth was around four meters here, but we didn’t believe that. We came and saw that the snow depth here exceeded four meters,” he said.
Despite reopening roads, they would soon be blocked again because of the heavy snowfall, according to local officials.
“Since the first day of snowfall, we had to reopen the roads of approximately 185 villages in our city twice,” said Seyhmus Yentur, secretary-general of Mus Special Provincial Administration. “Our fight against snow continues uninterruptedly for 24 hours with 59 construction machineries and 90 personnel,” he added.
The cold has also been noteworthy.
Low temperatures in the valleys have been approaching -40C (-40F), which is astonishing given that the records for these regions rarely descend below -30C (-22F).
Göle, for example, aptly known as ‘The Siberia of Turkey’, is currently an ice box: “We are frozen, even the water in our homes is frozen,” said local man Aleaddin Kılıç, who noted the mercury had been regularly dipping to -30C (-22F) overnight, freezing fountains, and coating trees in a thick white frost.
Eastern Turkey has become somewhat accustomed to anomalous cold and snow this month.
As have parts of the West, as the below footage (from Dec 22), shot in Istanbul, reveals:
VANCOUVER SEES COLDEST TEMP SINCE 1969
After Canada’s first sub -50C in December since 1998, the polar cold has persisted and spread.
Vancouverites can usually count on relatively mild winter conditions, at least compared to typical Canadian chill — but not this month: According to The Weather Network, Vancouver, B.C. reached a low -15.3C (4.5F) on Dec 27, which they described as “a radical departure from seasonal norms,” and the coldest temperature that Vancouver has seen in the past 52 years, since 1969:
The freezing weather can be credited to an Arctic outflow “funneling bitterly cold air down into southern B.C., which is then prevented from escaping”.
The fierce chill paired with Vancouver’s unusually snowy Christmas has made this a unique weather month, continues the article. But the uniqueness hasn’t just been confined to Vancouver; all of Western Canada has been holding exceptionally cold (and snowy) of late:
As has the Western U.S.:
And this extreme cold will continue dominating into the New Year, when it will then start spreading eastwards:
A sugar additive used in several foods could have helped spread a seriously dangerous superbug around the US, according to a 2018 study.
The finger of blame is pointed squarely at the sugar trehalose, found in foods such as nutrition bars and chewing gum.
If the findings are confirmed, it's a stark warning that even apparently harmless additives have the potential to cause health issues when introduced to our food supply.
In this case, trehalose is being linked with the rise of two strains of the bacterium Clostridium difficile, capable of causing diarrhea, colitis, organ failure, and even death.
The swift rise of the antibiotic-resistant bug has become a huge problem for hospitals in recent years, and the timing matches up with the arrival of trehalose.
"In 2000, trehalose was approved as a food additive in the United States for a number of foods from sushi and vegetables to ice cream," said one of the researchers, Robert Britton from the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, back in January 2018.
"About three years later the reports of outbreaks with these lineages started to increase. Other factors may also contribute, but we think that trehalose is a key trigger."
The C. difficile lineages Britton is referring to are RT027 and RT078. When the researchers analysed the genomes of these two strains, they found DNA sequences that enabled them to feed off low doses of trehalose sugar very efficiently.
In fact, these particular bacteria need about 1,000 times less trehalose to live off than other varieties of C. difficile, thanks to their genetic make-up.
To test their findings, the scientists experimented with mice given the RT027 strain. In the group given low doses of trehalose, the death rate was much higher – not because of more bacteria, the scientists found, but because the sugar enabled it to produce more poisonous toxins.
Further testing on fluids from three human intestines showed that RT027 was able to grow from small amounts of trehalose, while other bacteria strains weren't.
It's still not certain that trehalose has contributed to the rise of C. difficile, but the study results and the timing of its approval as an additive are pretty compelling. More research will now be needed to confirm the link.
According to the figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, logged in 2011, C. difficile was responsible for half a million infections across the year and 29,000 deaths within the first 30 days of diagnosis. Let's hope this new research can help us work out ways to fight back against it.
"These lineages have been present in people for years without causing major outbreaks," says one of the researchers, James Collins from the Baylor College of Medicine.
"In the 1980s they were not epidemic or hypervirulent but after the year 2000 they began to predominate and cause major outbreaks."
"An important contribution of this study is the realisation that what we once considered a perfectly safe sugar for human consumption, can have unexpected consequences."
ADHD drug could slow Alzheimer progression - study
The study’s authors believe that the
drug can help to increase levels of norepinephrine in the brain, and
that this may slow the progression of the disease.
ADHD drug atomoxetine may help to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease,
according to a new study by researchers at the Emory Brine Health
Center.
Alzheimer's occurs when neurons in the brain become injured and
die and connections between neural networks break down. A particular
protein, known as tau, contributes to the disease by causing
neurofibrillary tangles.
In this peer-reviewed study, 39 patients with mild cognitive impairment
were given atomoxetine over the course of 6 months. The drug was shown
to reduce inflammation as well as levels of tau in cerebrospinal fluid.
The study’s authors believe that atomoxetine can help to increase levels
of norepinephrine in the brain and that this may slow the progression
of the disease. Atomoxetine has already been in use as an FDA-approved
treatment for ADHD in children for almost 20 years.
Previous
studies involving mice and rats with Alzheimer’s symptoms have
indicated that elevated levels of norepinephrine can have a positive
effect on cognitive functions.
The study’s authors say more research is needed, but they’re excited for the potential of where their findings could lead.
PET
scans showing the differences between a healthy older adult's brain and
the brain of an older adult afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease (credit:
Wikimedia Commons)
Allan
Levey, the study’s lead author explained in a press release "We are
encouraged by the results of the exam. The treatment is safe,
well-tolerated in people with mild cognitive impairment, and regulated
the brain neurotransmitter norepinephrine as we hypothesized. In
addition, our exploratory studies include imaging and spinal fluid.
Promising results for biomarkers. Longer treatment period."
Funding for the study was provided by the Cox and Kenan Family Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery Foundation.
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In an experiment, strawberries that were wrapped in the NTU-Harvard University-developed packaging stayed fresh for seven days before developing mould, compared to counterparts that were kept in mainstream fruit plastic boxes, which stayed fresh for four days. Credit: Nanyang Technological University
A team of scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US, has developed a 'smart' food packaging material that is biodegradable, sustainable and kills microbes that are harmful to humans. It could also extend the shelf-life of fresh fruit by two to three days.
The water-proof food packaging is made from a type of corn protein called zein, starch and other naturally derived biopolymers, infused with a cocktail of natural antimicrobial compounds (see video). These include oil from thyme, a common herb used in cooking, and citric acid, which is commonly found in citrus fruits.
In lab experiments, when exposed to an increase in humidity or enzymes from harmful bacteria, the fibers in the packaging have been shown to release the natural antimicrobial compounds, killing common dangerous bacteria that contaminate food, such as E. Coli and Listeria, as well as fungi.
The packaging is designed to release the necessary miniscule amounts of antimicrobial compounds only in response to the presence of additional humidity or bacteria. This ensures that the packaging can endure several exposures, and last for months.
As the compounds combat any bacteria that grow on the surface of the packaging as well as on the food product itself, it has the potential to be used for a large variety of products, including ready-to-eat foods, raw meat, fruits, and vegetables.
In an experiment, strawberries that were wrapped in the packaging stayed fresh for seven days before developing mold, compared to counterparts that were kept in mainstream fruit plastic boxes, which only stayed fresh for four days.
The invention is the result of the collaboration by scientists from the NTU-Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Initiative for Sustainable Nanotechnology (NTU-Harvard SusNano), which brings together NTU and Harvard Chan School researchers to work on cutting edge applications in agriculture and food, with an emphasis on developing non-toxic and environmentally safe nanomaterials.
The development of this advanced food packaging material is part of the University's efforts to promote sustainable food tech solutions, that is aligned with the NTU 2025 strategic plan, which aims to develop sustainable solutions to address some of humanity's pressing grand challenges.
Professor Mary Chan, Director of NTU's Centre of Antimicrobial Bioengineering, who co-led the project, said that "this invention would serve as a better option for packaging in the food industry, as it has demonstrated superior antimicrobial qualities in combatting a myriad of food-related bacteria and fungi that could be harmful to humans. The packaging can be applied to various produces such as fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits. The smart release of antimicrobials only when bacteria or high humidity is present, provides protection only when needed thus minimizing the use of chemicals and preserving the natural composition of foods packaged."
Professor Philip Demokritou, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School, who is also Director of Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology Center and Co-director of NTU-Harvard Initiative on Sustainable Nanotechnology, who co-led the study, said that "food safety and waste have become a major societal challenge of our times with immense public health and economic impact which compromises food security. One of the most efficient ways to enhance food safetyand reduce spoilage and waste is to develop efficient biodegradable non-toxic food packaging materials. In this study, we used nature-derived compounds including biopolymers, non-toxic solvents, and nature-inspired antimicrobials and develop scalable systems to synthesize smart antimicrobial materials which can be used not only to enhance food safety and quality but also to eliminate the harm to the environment and health and reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastics at global level and promote sustainable agri-food systems."
Providing an independent assessment of the work done by the NTU research team, Mr Peter Barber, CEO of ComCrop, a Singapore company that pioneered urban rooftop farming, said that "the NTU-Harvard Chan School food packaging material would serve as a sustainable solution for companies like us who want to cut down on the usage of plastic and embrace greener alternatives. As ComCrop looks to ramp up product to boost Singapore's food production capabilities, the volume of packaging we need will increase in sync, and switching to a material such as this would help us have double the impact. The wrapping's antimicrobial properties, which could potentially extend the shelf life of our vegetables, would serve us well. The packaging material holds promise to the industry, and we look forward to learning more about the wrapping and possibly adopting it for our usage someday."
The results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces in October.
Cutting down on packaging waste
The packaging industry is the largest and growing consumer of synthetic plastics derived from fossil fuels, with food packaging plastics accounting for the bulk of plastic waste that are polluting the environment.
In Singapore, packaging is a major source of trash, with data from Singapore's National Environment Agency showing that out of the 1.76 million tons of waste disposed of by domestic sources in 2018, one third of it was packaging waste, and over half of it (55 percent) was plastic.
The smart food package material, when scaled up, could serve as an alternative to cut down on the amount of plastic waste, as it is biodegradable. Its main ingredient, zein, is also produced from corn gluten meal, which is a waste by-product from using corn starch or oils in order to produce ethanol.
The food packaging material is produced by electrospinning the zein, the antimicrobial compounds with cellulose, a natural polymer starch that makes up plant cell walls, and acetic acid, which is commonly found in vinegar.
Prof Mary Chan added that "the sustainable and biodegradable active food packaging, which has inbuilt technology to keep bacteria and fungus at bay, is of great importance to the food industry. It could serve as an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based polymers used in commercial food packaging, such as plastic, which have a significant negative environmental impact."
Prof Demokritou added that "due to the globalization of food supply and attitude shift towards a healthier lifestyle and environmentally friendly food packaging, there is a need to develop biodegradable, non-toxic and smart/responsive materials to enhance food safety and quality. Development of scalable synthesis platforms for developing food packaging materials that are composed of nature derived, biodegradable biopolymers and nature inspired antimicrobials, coupled with stimuli triggered approaches will meet the emerging societal needs to reduce food waste and enhance food safety and quality."
The team of NTU and Harvard Chan School researchers hope to scale up their technology with an industrial partner, with the aim of commercialisation within the next few years.
They are also currently working on developing other technologies to develop biopolymer-based smart food package materials to enhance food safety and quality.
