Hey there, welcome to my blog Mufawad. In this monthly writeup, we will try to unveil the latest breakthroughs & uncover tomorrow's possibilities. Whether you are a student, a professional, or simply a science enthusiast, this article will provide you an engaging and informative insights and updates. Plus, as a compliment, you will get a peep into quirky AI images generated by me related to those particular topics.
Let’s delve
into the new scientific research that happened in the past month or so and
explore the latest technologies and breakthroughs that were achieved in this field
of science. In current blog, you will read about the following science events
of the month:
- Do you think Morality is declining; Scientists claim it is untrue
- All you need to know about Titan Oceangate
- Data from Laos cave fossils forces re-think of the human migratory pattern
- Enormous Gravitational waves detected for the first time
- Vaginal liquid bathing for C-section infants may improve their immunity: Research
- Taurine used in energy drinks increases life expectancy in animals: Research
- Know about the
brightest Bioluminescence found in the sea
- Huge Dam collapses in Ukraine due to explosion
- Asteroid expedition from the UAE will visit atleast seven space rocks
- Sleep Deprivation Affects Smell Memory, as per research done on Worms
- Time to endorse role of Moths in pollination like Bees
- JWST suggests less habitable worlds in the cosmos
- Cancer risk impacted by presence/absence of Y chromosome
- Early humans showed cannibalistic behaviour, ate each other
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| Current Science Report: June 2023; Mufawad |
Do you think Morality is declining; Scientists claim it is untrue
Research by
psychologists Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert suggests that the
perception of moral decline is a powerful and persistent illusion. For decades,
people around the world have reported that morals are deteriorating when
comparing the morals of the present day with those of the past.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
However, when
surveys asked about current morality, participant responses remained relatively
stable across time, suggesting this perception of decline is false.
Mastroianni, the
lead author of the paper, said that the intense feeling we get that all this
nastiness that we see today is new is an illusion. The researchers led by
Mastroianni looked at 70 years of archival questions or prompts from major
survey research providers, about 84% of the questions, the majority of
Americans said morality had declined.
Survey responses in
59 other countries had similar findings. However, when Mastroianni looked at
other survey questions from 1965 to 2020, which asked 4.5 million respondents
to evaluate current morality, their responses appeared stable, giving little
support to the idea that morality is in a downward spiral.
People all over the
world believe that morality has declined, and they have believed this for as
long as researchers have been asking them about it. The researchers also asked
their own participants to compare present morality to the past and found that
they were caught up in the same illusion. Their perceptions were slightly
influenced by political leanings and age, even infact the liberal and younger
participants were vulnerable to the same line of thinking.
Mastroianni
suggests that the illusion may be the result of deeply held biases. Studies
have shown that people have a bias toward negative information in the moment,
but negative events also fade more easily in memory, giving the past a rosiness
that the present lacks.
The result is a
kind of distortion in the rear-view mirror: the road behind us looks smoother,
the one we are on seems rough, and it's natural to conclude that somewhere we
made a wrong turn.
The consequences of this ought to be very significant. Liane Young, a moral psychologist at Boston College, notes that perception of others' morals can influence our own. If we think that the morality of others around us is declining, then our pessimism might lead us to lower our own moral standards. Mastroianni says that such thinking could keep people from speaking with strangers or relying on their kindness, an act that might well ameliorate the illusion itself.
All you need to know about Titan, Oceangate
A five-person crew
on a submersible named Titan, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, submerged on a
dive to the Titanic wreckage site on Sunday morning. The Coast Guard first
alerted mariners about the missing sub on Sunday night, stating that a 21-foot
submarine with a white hull was overdue and giving its last known position.
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| P.C: OceanGate |
The sub was lost in
an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, in the North Atlantic, in water with
a depth of about 13,000 feet, which is about level with the depth of the
Titanic wreck. Amid growing concern about its dwindling supply of breathable
air, search and rescue efforts by a unified command composed of several
international agencies ramped up accordingly.
The five people
aboard included an operator, later identified as Stockton Rush, the CEO of
OceanGate Expeditions, and four mission specialists, a term the company uses
for its passengers, who paid up to $250,000 for a seat.
For days, the fate
of the sub and its passengers was a mystery. After the debris was found, a U.S.
Navy official said the Navy had detected "an acoustic anomaly consistent
with an implosion" shortly after the sub lost contact with the surface
Sunday.
The information was
relayed to the Coast Guard, which used it to narrow the radius of the search
area. Such an implosion, under the intense pressure of the depths of the sea,
would have destroyed the vessel almost instantly, experts explained.
The Coast Guard is
leading the investigation into the incident, assisted by National
Transportation Safety Board. The five people onboard the submersible were Hamish
Harding, a 59-year-old British billionaire, business owner, and explorer;
British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman;
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who had made multiple dives over
the years to explore the Titanic; and Stockton Rush, the CEO of
OceanGate Expeditions, who was serving as pilot.
The Dawood family,
of the large Pakistan-based global business conglomerate Dawood Group, issued a
statement confirming their family members were on the expedition. OceanGate
spokesperson Andrew Von Kerens offered condolences to the families of the Titan
crew and recognized that all five people on board the submersible were believed
to be dead.
The discovery of
the Titan debris came after multiple agencies from the U.S. and Canada spent
days scouring thousands of square miles of open ocean in search of the missing
submersible. The U.S. Coast Guard announced that underwater noises were
detected in the search area and that searches involving remotely operated
vehicles (ROVs) were focusing on the area where the noises were heard.
The Coast Guard
said there were five "surface assets" involved in the search along
with two ROVs "actively searching," with several more due to arrive
to join the search that Thursday.
The Coast Guard
said it had C-130 aircraft searching for the sub, and the Rescue Coordination
Center Halifax was assisting with a P-8 Poseidon aircraft, which has underwater
detection capabilities. Canadian P-3s were also involved in the operation and
deployed sonar buoys. Just after midnight that Wednesday, officials said
aircraft had detected underwater noises in the search area, and underwater
search operations were relocated as a result.
The Coast Guard
acknowledged that the sounds detected underwater by Canadian aircraft could
have been caused by multiple sources. After the discovery of the sub debris on
the sea floor, a U.S. Navy source told CBS News that the implosion would be
inconsistent with banging noises heard at 30-minute intervals. Those noises,
the official said, are now assessed as having come from other ships in the
area.
In 2018, former OceanGate Expeditions submersible pilot David Lochridge filed a lawsuit against the company for disclosing confidential information in a whistleblower complaint to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Lochridge claimed that the Titan would carry passengers as deep as 4,000 meters, despite the vessel's carbon fiber hull being built to withstand a certified pressure of 1,300 meters.
Data from Laos cave fossils forces re-think of the human migratory pattern
New ancient human
fossils are shedding light on the first modern humans in southeast Asia. Homo
sapiens are supposed to have arisen from Africa, but the timing of its
migration across the world is open for debate.
Fossils seem to
show our species leaving Africa over 100,000 years ago, while genetic evidence
points to a migration around 40,000 years later. Newly described fossils from Tam
PÃ Ling cave in Laos have now added more pieces to the puzzle, with a
fragment of a human leg bone found in sediments believed to be as much as 86,000
years old. In combination with other fossils from the cave, it suggests Homo
sapiens lived there for as long as 56,000 years.
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| P.C: The Nature |
The discovery of
Tam PÃ Ling cave in 2009 offered a new source of evidence, with a partial skull
and jawbone dating to between 46-63,000 years old belonging to Homo sapiens.
However, questions over the site remained, as it wasn't known if the sediments
containing the bones had been washed into the site or whether they represented
a gradual build up over time.
After over a decade
of research at the cave, the scientists behind the study are confident that Tam
PÃ Ling offers a window into tens of thousands of years of early human history.
There was little
evidence that it had been disturbed or tampered with after getting put down in
the cave, suggesting that it could be reliably dated. The team used a mixture
of techniques, including luminescence dating and U-series dating, to create a
timeline of the site.
The earliest human
fossil found at the site is a newly discovered leg bone around 77,000 years
old, but could be even older. Meanwhile, the youngest fossil is at least 30,000
years old, suggesting that the cave was an important region for many
generations of Homo sapiens.
While attempts to
extract DNA from the fossils failed, their presence alone shows that humans
were living around Tam PÃ Ling for 10,000 years longer than previously thought.
The task for scientists now is to explain what happened to these early
pioneers.
If the growing
picture of a pre-60,000-year-old dispersal to east Asia is confirmed, it
implies that the DNA of these earlier populations has not come through to the
present day at detectable levels. This means that these older populations
either died out or were replaced or swamped by a more substantial later spread
of Homo sapiens into the region.
Regardless of what
happened to the first Homo sapiens at Tam PÃ Ling, humans would continue to
visit the region for thousands of years. The researchers suggest the cave might
have been used by people gradually migrating across Asia and down towards
Australia. Along the way, it's possible that Homo sapiens would have
encountered its relatives, such as Homo floresiensis and Homo
luzonensis.
Finding more fossils in southeast Asia could help to reveal the relationship they might have had and larger questions in human evolution, such as why we are now the only human species left on Earth.
Enormous Gravitational waves detected for the first time
Researchers have
discovered Albert Einstein's waves using a different technique, tracking
changes in the distances between Earth and beacon stars in its Galactic neighborhood called pulsars. This approach reveals how the space in between is
stretched and squeezed by the passage of gravitational waves.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
The most likely
source of the latest finding is the combined signal from many pairs of much
larger black holes — millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun —
slowly orbiting each other in the hearts of distant galaxies.
These waves are
thousands of times stronger and longer than those found in 2015, with
wavelengths of up to tens of light years. By contrast, the ripples detected
since 2015 using interferometry are just tens or hundreds of kilometers long.
The discovery could indicate that the Earth is jiggling due to gravitational waves that are sweeping our Galaxy. Three collaborations have amassed decades' worth of pulsar data and are reporting similar results: the North American group NANOGrav; the European Pulsar Timing Array, with the contribution of astronomers in India; and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array in Australia. A fourth collaboration, the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array, says it has found a signal with merely three years of data, owing to the exceptional sensitivity of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which they launched in 2016 in the Guizhou region.
The timing of a single pulsar would not be reliable enough to detect gravitational waves. Instead, each collaboration monitors an array of dozens, as a result, they have found a signature called the Hellings–Downs curve, which predicts how, in the presence of gravitational waves coming from all possible directions, the correlation between pairs of pulsars varies as a function of their separation in the sky.
It was Albert Einstein,
who first predicted gravitational waves in 1916. However. on 14 September 2015,
the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (LIGO) confirmed his prediction by detecting a burst of waves
from the merger of two black holes.
Physicists have
since captured gravitational waves from dozens of such events. If the latest
signal is from the combined gravitational waves of thousands of pairs of
supermassive black holes across the Universe, it would be the first direct
evidence that such binaries exist and that some have orbits tight enough to
produce measurable gravitational waves.
Scientists says a major implication is that each of the pairs will ultimately merge, creating bursts similar to the ones seen by LIGO but on a much larger scale.
Vaginal liquid bathing for C-section infants may improve their immunity: Research
A baby born through
the vaginal canal picks up critical microbes that help it stay healthy later in
life. However, babies delivered via cesarean section miss out on these
gut-colonizing bacteria, which may put them at greater risk of developing
certain health conditions and developmental disorders.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
Newborns delivered via C-section who received their mother's vaginal microbes had more advanced motor and communication skills than other C-section babies months later, the team reports today in Cell Host & Microbe. However, some clinicians argue these benefits for infants have not yet been proved, nor has the procedure's safety.
The microbiomes of
C-section babies look a lot different from those of babies born vaginally. They
have lower numbers of Lactobacillus, Escherichia, and Bacteroides bacteria in
their guts, which are believed to be critical for growth and help protect against
asthma, allergies, obesity, and autoimmune disorders.
A few highly
controversial studies have suggested some babies delivered by C-section may be
at a greater risk of developing neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism
spectrum disorder, which some researchers attribute to their disrupted
microbiome.
To restore the microbiomes of infants delivered by C-section, researchers have come up with a simple solution: Swab them with bacteria from their mother's vagina shortly after they are born. This method, called vaginal seeding, was first clinically tested 7 years ago by Jose Clemente, a geneticist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello, a microbial ecologist at Rutgers University, who found the procedure indeed restored microbes that C-section babies lacked. However, these results were based on a small group of just 11 babies.
In the new paper,
Clemente and colleagues tested this method with a larger group of 68 C-section
babies. Shortly after delivery, a nurse swabbed each baby's mouth and body with
a gauze soaked either in saline or in the mother's vaginal fluid.
Six weeks later,
researchers took samples of the babies' poop and studied their fecal microbes.
They found that infants who had received their mother's vaginal microbes had
increased levels of gut bacteria, particularly of Lactobacillus. Overall, their
microbiomes looked more like those of vaginally delivered infants than those of
the other C-section babies swabbed with the saline-soaked gauze.
However, the
study's sample size remains too small to make firm conclusions about any
benefits associated with vaginal seeding. Previous work found that giving a
baby its mother's vaginal microbes did not influence its gut bacteria in more
than 600 cases. Other studies have suggested factors such as breastfeeding
influence a baby's gut microbiome more than the route of delivery.
More research into vaginal seeding will help scientists pin down the specific microbes that babies need to encounter in their earliest hours and days to give them the best chance at healthy development. Doctors could then expose newborns to just this particular combination of bacteria, rather than a microbial scattershot.
Taurine used in energy drinks increases life expectancy in animals: Research
Taurine, an amino acid produced by the human body
and often added to energy drinks, has been found to slow aging and extend the
life spans of certain animals. However, the exact mechanism behind this slowing
of aging in some animals and the long-term effects of taurine supplementation
in humans remain unclear. The study suggests that taurine should be tested as a
treatment to promote healthy aging in people.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
The human body
makes taurine, and people also get the amino acid from foods like meat and
dairy. It's also added to energy drinks like Red Bull, likely due to claims
that it can improve athletic performance and focus. Taurine is a key
component of bile salts, liver-made compounds that help the body digest fat,
and it boosts the body's supply of antioxidants, regulates fluid levels,
activates certain brain receptors, and helps build key proteins in cells'
energy-generating mitochondria.
A study that was
conducted about 10 years ago found that mice given taurine showed better
functionality than untreated mice. This finding prompted the team to look at
benefits of taurine in other species as well.
The current study
suggests that blood levels of taurine significantly decline along with the age
in mice, monkeys, and humans. In humans, taurine levels drop by about 80%
between early childhood and age 60.
Treated mice also
had increased muscle strength and more efficient sugar metabolism, and certain
hallmarks of aging, such as DNA damage and cellular senescence, were
less extensive. Rhesus monkeys given taurine supplements for six months showed
improved bone, metabolism, and immune health compared to untreated monkeys.
These experiments
suggest that taurine is basically putting a brake on the speed of aging, but
the exact reason is not clear. Carefully designed clinical trials are needed to
determine if taurine supplements could slow aging in humans and if so, when and
in what doses they should be taken.
The team tested what happens when you restore "youthful" levels of taurine, finding that in taurine-treated worms, the median life span increased by 10% to 23%, and mice given taurine daily had median life spans that were 10% to 12% longer than untreated mice.
Know about the
brightest Bioluminescence found in the sea
Deep under the sea,
deep-sea squid Taningia danae, also known as the Dana octopus
squid for their eight arms and lack of feeding tentacles, glide through
the depths on a pair of huge muscular fins that unfurl from their maroon-coloured
body. These animals glide through the depths on a pair of huge muscular fins
that unfurl from their maroon-colored body, what is also called as mantle.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
Their arms are
lined with two rows of sharp retractable hooks. Like most deep-sea squid, they
are adorned with light organs called photophores. They have some on the
underside of their mantle and more facing upward, near one of their eyes. But
it's the photophores at the tip of two stubby arms that are truly unique. With
the size and shape of lemons, each nestled within a retractable lid like an
eyeball in a socket, they are by far the largest and brightest photophores
known to science.
Producing light is
expensive, a luxury in an ecosystem where food is scarce, and it is also risky.
Many deep-sea animals have a tremendous number of photophores, but the
individual photophores themselves are not that big; typically, only of couple of millimetres in size. This Bioluminescence
is a novelty to terrestrial mammals, but dive down into the ocean’s depths,
past the beginning of the midnight zone where no sunlight penetrates, and it is
the norm.
Oceanographer Edith
Widder in her book Below the Edge of Darkness writes that most of the
animals you bring up in that net will make light. “We’re talking about a world
teeming with light makers.” However, diving down into the ocean’s depths, past
the beginning of the midnight zone where no sunlight penetrates, and it is the
norm. Producing light is expensive, a reaction of molecules—luciferin and
luciferase—that are a luxury in a place where food is scarce.
Hunted by 230-foot-long sperm whales, elephant seals, and deep-sea sharks, perhaps these photophores are so large because they need to stun some of the animal kingdom’s largest eyes. Although, Whales rely on echolocation to locate their prey in the depths, however for the last few seconds of the hunt, they exclusively rely on vision. If in that final moment of attack, they meet with a bright, retina-bleaching flash, a Taningia might use, this may ensure a blind spot for the predator and hence a narrow escape.
Kakhovka Dam collapses in Ukraine due to explosion
The Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in south Ukraine collapsed on June 6th, triggering a catastrophic humanitarian and environmental crisis. The dam's reservoir, the country's largest in terms of water volume, has been controlled by Russian forces for over a year.
The breach
triggered extensive flooding, which peaked at a depth of 5.6 meters in Kherson
on 8 June and has already displaced more than 20,000 people across dozens of
settlements, including in Russian-held areas on the river's lower-left bank. The
deluge is expected to continue for at least a week.
The immediate
consequences of the disaster include the loss of over 19 cubic kilometers of
water before the breach, which now only has 11 cubic kilometers left. The
reservoir provides water for over 700,000 people in south Ukraine, and cities
on the Dnieper River are short of water supplies, according to the United
Nations. The flood waters themselves have caused extensive damage, destroying
houses, roads, and other crucial infrastructure.
The flooding has
had immediate and far-reaching impacts on the biodiverse ecosystems, with
nearly 160,000 animals and 20,000 birds under threat. Some of these species are
rare or found only in this area, such as the vulnerable Nordmann's birch
mouse (Sicista loriger) and the endangered sand mole rat (Spalax
arenarius). The rapid draining of its water means that vast numbers of
fish will be either stranded in shallow, dried-up zones or swept away to sea,
where they will perish in the salt water.
Nearby national
parks have also been flooded, causing irreparable damage to their flora and
fauna. Nine sites in Ukraine's Emerald Network, a Europe-wide conserved area,
and five internationally important wetlands have been flooded. Around 55,000
hectares of forest have been inundated with water that is predicted to
remain stagnant for 20 days.
The dam's proximity
to a nuclear power plant poses another danger, as Europe's largest nuclear
power plant, in Zaporizhzhia, is located around 150 kilometers upstream
of the Kakhovka dam and is supplied water for cooling from the same dam.
The plant's six
reactors have been shut down for more than eight months, but it needs cooling
water to manage the residual decay heat. If the water level in the Kakhovka
reservoir drops too low to be able to supply cooling water, Zaporizhzhia will
have to switch to alternative water supplies.
Another more
concerning issue is the potential dispersal of toxic compounds with more than
150 tonnes of machine oil from the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which
sits on the dam, have spilled into the Dnieper River, according to the
environment ministry. The flood water also carried garbage, construction waste,
and sewage into the Dnieper watershed, where it could potentially contaminate
supplies of drinking water.
A scientific survey will be further needed to explore whether the dam should be rebuilt, but a complete assessment of the flood's impact is unlikely at present, as Russian forces currently control the south side of the river, where most of the flooding has occurred.
UAE’s Asteroid expedition will visit at least seven space rocks
The United Arab
Emirates is planning an ambitious space mission to the asteroid belt, targeting
seven different space rocks. The mission, announced recently, will launch in
2028 and visit seven main belt asteroids, including six high-speed flyby
encounters.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
The spacecraft will
deploy a lander after a rendezvous with 269 Justitia, a rare asteroid
with a reddish hue possibly due to the presence of organic compounds called tholins.
The mission's objectives include understanding the origins and evolution of
water-rich asteroids and assessing their potential use for resources. The
spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion for its six-year voyage and will
use gravity-assist flybys of Venus, Earth, and Mars.
The UAE will collaborate with the University of Colorado, Boulder, as it did for the Hope Mars mission, the country's first interplanetary endeavour. The Hope probe is still operating in Mars orbit and has recently conducted an unprecedented survey of Deimos, the smaller of the Red Planet's two moons.
Sleep Deprivation Affects Smell Memory, as per research done on Worms
Sleep deprivation
has been linked to adverse effects on cognitive functions, including
memory. A study conducted on nematode worms, Caenorhabditis elegant, revealed
that sleep loss specifically impairs the memory of smells. This research
highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between sleep and
memory, as sleep plays a vital role in memory consolidation, which involves
solidifying and storing newly acquired information in long-term memory.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
Sleep is essential
for memory consolidation, as it allows the brain to strengthen and reinforce
connections between neurons involved in memory. Synaptic plasticity, synaptic
pruning, and memory replay are all crucial aspects of memory consolidation.
The brain also processes and organizes information from short-term memory to
long-term memory during sleep, contributing to the consolidation and storage of
memories.
The study was
designed to investigate the effects of sleep loss on the memory of smells in
nematode worms, Caenorhabditis elegans. Researchers used a gentle
tapping method to induce sleep deprivation, creating a controlled
sleep-deprived group for comparison with a well-rested group. They then tested
the worms' ability to remember an association between a specific smell and a
food source.
After the initial
training phase, the researchers assessed the worms' memory recall abilities.
Well-rested worms with intact memory of the association between smell and food
exhibited feeding behavior when exposed to the odor alone. In contrast,
sleep-deprived worms showed impaired memory recall.
The study's findings align with previous research demonstrating the detrimental effects of sleep loss on memory functions in various organisms, including humans. Sleep deprivation disrupts the processes involved in memory formation and consolidation, leading to compromised memory recall
The impaired memory
performance observed in sleep-deprived worms provides valuable insights into
the consequences of sleep loss on olfactory memory. It underscores the
importance of adequate sleep for the proper functioning of memory systems, even
in simpler organisms.
To gain insights
into the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for the impaired memory of
smells in sleep-deprived worms, the researchers examined the activity of
specific neural circuits involved in processing olfactory information. The
results revealed that sleep deprivation caused notable changes in the patterns
of neural activity within these circuits. The neural circuits responsible for
processing olfactory information showed altered patterns of activation and
communication when compared to well-rested worms. This altered neural activity
is directly correlated with the impaired memory observed in sleep-deprived
worms.
These findings
suggest that sleep loss disrupts the delicate balance of neural circuitry
involved in memory processes. Sleep is known to play a crucial role in
regulating neural plasticity, the brain's ability to modify and strengthen
synaptic connections. However, sleep deprivation disrupts this plasticity,
leading to aberrant neural activity patterns that can impair memory formation
and recall.
Understanding the
neural mechanisms underlying sleep-related memory impairment is crucial for
developing targeted interventions or therapies aimed at mitigating memory
deficits associated with sleep deprivation.
By unravelling the
specific neural circuits affected by sleep loss, researchers can further
explore the molecular and cellular processes involved, ultimately contributing
to the development of targeted interventions or therapies aimed at mitigating
memory deficits associated with sleep deprivation.
Understanding the
neural circuits affected by sleep deprivation offers opportunities for targeted
interventions to enhance memory consolidation. Techniques like transcranial
magnetic stimulation (TMS) or optogenetics can be used to
selectively activate or inhibit specific neural circuits involved in memory
formation and retrieval. Cognitive training and memory-enhancing techniques can
also be tailored to address sleep deprivation challenges.
By identifying
memory processes affected by sleep loss, researchers can develop training
programs that target and strengthen these processes, such as memory
exercises, mnemonic techniques, or cognitive strategies. This research has
implications for the development of cognitive enhancement strategies, targeting
neural circuits involved in memory processes, to optimize memory consolidation
even in limited or disrupted sleep situations. These strategies hold promise
for enhancing memory performance and cognitive functioning in individuals
facing sleep challenges.
Time to endorse
role of Moths in pollination like Bees
Moths are a
fascinating and diverse group of insects that are often overlooked in studies
due to their nocturnal nature. They may often seen during the day, but are
often out roaming during nights, making them difficult to study.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
However, recent
research published in Ecology Letters shows that moths are actually busy like
the bees. The team collected bees and moths in Leeds, England, and processed
the DNA of the pollen that had accumulated on the insects to determine the
plant species each had visited and potentially pollinated.
The team found that moths were carrying more pollen than scientists had previously understood, and accounted for a third of pollinator visits, also more than previously believed.
The researchers
found that moths were carrying pollen from a number of cultivated species, such
as strawberries, citrus, and stone fruits, suggesting that the insects
play a role in pollinating the food we eat. Previous studies have shown that
moths may also be pollinators for blueberries, raspberries, and apples.
There are differing
preferences between moths and bees due to their distinct life cycles. An adult
bee visits flowers to drink nectar and for pollen to feed to its growing
larvae, while an adult moth is only after the nectar for itself.
They also have
different housing situations, with bees living in burrows or cavities inside
dead wood or the walls of buildings, emerging during the day to visit flowers.
Moths, on the other hand, don't build burrows or nests and instead roost in
trees and shrubs during the day.
The study also
shows that moths visit many kinds of flowers for food, not just pale or
white ones. However, this only meets half their needs, as they still need
woody plants like shrubs to roost in. Moth numbers have plummeted by a third in
the UK in the past 50 years due to factors like light pollution, the use of
pesticides, and habitat loss.
Using this new data can help researchers develop a better understanding of how to create urban ecosystems that foster many kinds of pollinators. A truly biodiverse garden needs to be untidy and wild to provide the cover that native bees use to avoid birds and other predators, and it needs open stretches of dirt for native bees and other insects to take shelter underground. More complex vegetation, such as shrubs and trees, are important for increasing moth communities, providing habitat and food for moths, as well as protection from predators.
JWST suggests less habitable worlds in the Cosmos
The James Webb
Space Telescope (JWST) has failed to find a thick atmosphere on an exoplanet in
one of the most exciting planetary systems known. Astronomers report that there
is probably no tantalizing atmosphere on planet TRAPPIST-1 c, just as
they reported months ago for its neighbour TRAPPIST-1 b.
There is still a
chance that some of the five other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might have
thick atmospheres containing geologically and biologically interesting
compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane, or oxygen. However, the two
planets studied so far seem to be without, or almost without, an atmosphere.
This would reduce the number of planets which might be habitable, says Sebastian
Zieba, an exoplanet researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in
Heidelberg, Germany.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
All of the seven
TRAPPIST-1 planets, which orbit a star some 12 parsecs (40 light years) from
Earth, have rocky surfaces and are roughly the size of Earth. Astronomers
consider the system to be one of the best natural laboratories for studying how
planets form, evolve, and potentially become habitable. The planets' host star
is a dim cool star known as an M dwarf, which blasts out large amounts
of ultraviolet radiation, which could erode any atmosphere on a nearby planet.
The innermost planet, TRAPPIST-1 b, is blasted with four times the amount of radiation that Earth gets from the Sun, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when JWST found that it had no substantial atmosphere. The next in line, TRAPPIST-1 c, orbits farther from its star, and it seemed possible that the cooler planet might have managed to hang on to more of an atmosphere.
By comparing the observations with models of the planet's possible chemistry, the scientists concluded that TRAPPIST-1 c would have had very little water when it formed. However, there might still be hope for other planets in the system.
Cancer risk impacted by presence/absence of Y chromosome
Two studies published in Nature on 21st June found that the Y chromosome could explain why men are less likely than women to survive some cancers. The first study found that the loss of the entire Y chromosome in some cells, which occurs naturally as men age, raises the risk of aggressive bladder cancer and could allow bladder tumors to evade detection by the immune system. The second study found that a particular Y-chromosome gene in mice raises the risk of some colorectal cancers spreading to other parts of the body.
The two studies are a step towards understanding why so many cancers have a bias towards men, says Sue Haupt, a cancer researcher at the George Institute of Global Health in Sydney, Australia. She says that it's becoming clear that it's beyond lifestyle and that there is a genetic component.
Lifestyle has long been given the blame for the fact that
many non-reproductive cancers tend to be more frequent and more aggressive in
men than women. However, even when such factors are accounted for, some
differences in cancer rate or severity between men and women persist.
Researchers have also found that the Y chromosome, which is
often found in men, can be spontaneously lost during cell division. As men age,
the proportion of Y-less blood cells increases, and an abundance of such
cells has been linked to conditions including heart disease, neurodegenerative
conditions, and some cancers.
To learn more about how this process might affect bladder
cancer, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California,
and his colleagues studied human bladder cancer cells that had either lost
their Y chromosome spontaneously or had it removed using CRISPR-Cas9 genome
editing. The team found that such cancer cells were more aggressive when
transplanted into mice than comparable cells that still had their Y chromosome.
They also found that immune cells surrounding tumors with no Y chromosomes
tended to be dysfunctional.
In mice, a therapeutic antibody that can restore the activity
of those immune cells was more effective against such Y-less tumors than
against tumors that still had their Y chromosome. This finding is "the
most important message" of the study, as it suggests a better way to treat
these cancers. Similar antibodies, called checkpoint inhibitors, are
already used clinically against some tumors.
The contrast between the two findings emphasizes the importance of context in cancer, as not every tumor will have the same biological behaviour. Researchers will need to look at the effect of losing the Y chromosome on various organs and tumor types.
Early humans showed cannibalistic behaviour, ate each other
The oldest proof that prehistoric humans killed and consumed
one other's flesh may be a fossilised thigh bone with cut marks caused by stone
tools. The fossilised human bone from 1.45 million years ago, which was
disclosed in Scientific Reports on June 26, has incisions that resemble
butchery markings on fossilised animal bones from the same period. The scrapes
were likely created with the goal of slicing up the carcass for sustenance
since they are situated in an ideal place for extracting muscle.
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| Image created by Mufawad using AI |
According to Briana Pobiner, a palaeoanthropologist at
the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, who is a research co-author,
"the most logical conclusion is that, like the other animals, this hominin
was butchered to be eaten." It was "shocking, honestly, and very
surprising, but very exciting" to make the finding, she continues.
Pobiner discovered the surprising linear lines on the
fossilised tibia of an unnamed hominin species as she was looking through a
collection of fossils at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi for evidence
of animal bites.
Pobiner came to the conclusion that the incisions didn't
match animal bites but rather those formed by stone tools.
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