Current Science Report: September 2023

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:

• India launches its first Sun Mission; Aditiya-L1
• Chandriyaan III makes new startling discoveries
• CERN confirms Anti-Matter influenced by Gravity
• AI guesses smell of compounds from the molecular structures
• Will Concrete structures in UK collapse anytime soon
• Artificial wombs to hit the markets soon
• JWST may force scientists to write new cosmology books
• NASA brings collection of rocks and dust from an asteroid back to the earth
• Earthworms truly the farmer’s best friend; New research says so
• Invasive alien species costing billions of dollars loss to World
• First Global survey on organizations working with viruses undertaken
• Post Ebola & Covid, New policy on public health in Africa on cards
• Babies born during Covid possess different micro-biome

Current Science Report: September 2023,By Mufawad

India launches its first Sun Mission; Aditiya-L1

India launched its first spacecraft, Aditya-L1, on 2 September, marking another aerospace engineering success for the nation. The mission, which will be joined by four other spacecraft circling Lagrange point 1 (L1), will examine the Sun's outer atmosphere, corona, lower atmosphere, and boundary between the Sun's atmosphere and its interior, photosphere. Aditya-L1 is equipped with seven instruments to observe the Sun's layers, including electromagnetic and particle detectors, which will examine the properties of the corona and what prompts coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

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India will also take new technology to the craft's vantage point, developing the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) for Aditya-L1 to monitor the inner corona. Data from VELC will help understand the initial acceleration of coronal mass ejections, which are the most dangerous space-weather events. Scientists are also looking forward to data from Aditya-L1's Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), which will help them study coronal heating and solar-wind acceleration.

Aditya-L1 will enter orbit around L1, one of five Lagrange points in space where the gravity between two bodies cancels each other out, such that a spacecraft there can remain in position with minimal use of fuel. L1 offers a good view of the Sun. The mission will join four other craft also orbiting L1: the 1995 European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO); NASA's 1997 Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE); NASA's 2009 Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE); and 2015's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a mission involving NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Air Force.

Missions such as Aditya-L1 are providing more accurate measurements than before thanks to advances in remote-sensing instrument design. As scientists expect solar activity to keep rising over the next two years, this is a good time to collect data on the Sun and the dynamics within the corona and chromosphere. Timely and accurate space-weather forecasts will help protect crucial infrastructure and ensure astronauts' safety during future missions to the Moon and Mars.

In addition to gathering data on the Sun, Aditya-L1 will monitor the solar wind at L1, helping characterize the space weather just before it impacts the Earth.

Sources: The Hindu, The Nature

Chandriyaan III makes new startling discoveries

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Moon lander Vikram and robotic rover Pragyan have been given a two-week sojourn around the Moon's south pole, providing valuable insights for planetary scientists. The lander made the first measurements of the density and temperature of the Moon's ionosphere, which indicates a "relatively sparse" mix of ions and electrons in the 100-kilometer-thick layer of electrically charged plasma surrounding the Moon's surface near the south pole. The density seems to vary as the lunar day progresses, with the peak density of a similar layer in Earth's upper atmosphere being one million electrons per cubic centimetre.

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Understanding lunar soil, including its temperature and conductivity, is crucial when considering settlement on the Moon. The lander is fitted with a temperature probe containing 10 sensors and can reach 10 centimetres below the surface of the Moon. Preliminary data show that during the day, the temperature 8 cm down is around 60 ⁰C lower than at the surface.

Measurements so far have found that the temperature at the surface is significantly warmer than recorded by NASA's 2009 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The temperatures are too warm for water ice to be stable, as water converts from solid to gas at a very low temperature in the vacuum of space at about −160 ⁰C. Chandrayaan-3's data indicate temperatures warmer than −10 ⁰C at all depths sampled.

A small seismic event recorded by the lander's seismograph caught the attention of scientists, who suspect it was a small moonquake or the impact of a tiny meteorite. Such perturbations are expected on the Moon, but a global seismic network and longer-term observations are needed to understand the significance of any particular event.

Testing by the rover confirmed the presence of sulfur in the lunar surface near the south pole, along with aluminium, silicon, calcium, and iron. Sulfur is a key element of molten rock, and researchers believe that the primitive Moon was covered with a thick layer of hot molten rock that crystallized to form the Moon's surface.

Sources: The Nature, Indian Express

CERN confirms Anti-Matter influenced by Gravity

Physicists have discovered that antimatter falls downwards when dropped, similar to everything else experiencing gravity. This discovery has significant implications for physics, as it would change the gravitational behaviour of matter and antimatter.

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Antimatter particles are typically short-lived and cannot combine into antiatoms due to their annihilation properties. CERN is currently the only place in the world where antihydrogen can be made, with an accelerator that makes antiprotons from high-speed proton collisions and a 'decelerator' called ELENA that slows them down enough for further manipulation.

ALPHA-g is one of several experiments that feed off ELENA in CERN's antimatter research hall. Researchers created a thin gas of thousands of antihydrogen atoms and pushed it up a 3-meter-tall vertical shaft surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils. They then let some of the hotter anti-atoms escape, causing the gas to get colder and the remaining antiatoms to move slowly. The researchers then gradually weakened the magnetic fields at the top and bottom of their trap and detected the antiatoms using two sensors as they escaped and annihilated.

To ensure that this asymmetry was due to gravity, the researchers had to control the strength of the magnetic fields to a precision of at least one part in 10,000. The results were consistent with the antiatoms experiencing the same force of gravity as hydrogen atoms would. The error margins are still rather large, but the experiment can at least conclusively rule out the possibility that antihydrogen falls upwards.

The gravity experiment went as expected as Ruggero Caravita, a physicist at the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, points out that no one would have expected antimatter to go up, if nothing else, because antiprotons are made of antiquarks, which only constitute less than 1% of an antiproton's mass: the rest is the energy that keeps them together. Going beyond that would subvert not only the theory of gravitation but also the standard model of particle physics. R. Caravita is leading a third CERN experiment, called AEgIS, which will attempt to measure the gravitational force on a beam of antihydrogen atoms in the absence of any magnetic fields.

 

AI guesses smell of compounds from the molecular structures

Scientists have developed a tool that predicts the odour profile of a molecule based on its structure, identifying molecules that look different but smell the same or molecules that look very similar but smell totally different. This breakthrough is possible due to the the new machine learning-generated model that correctly predicts the odour of those exceptions.

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The research applied machine learning to create an 'odour map' that will be highly valuable in the field of synthetic chemistry in the food and fragrance industries. It may also open up avenues for the production of more sustainable flavors and fragrances. The map doesn't just work for known odorants and those structurally very similar, but can describe a wide subset of unrelated molecules with different molecular characteristics.

Professor Jane Parker, a flavour chemist, worked with colleagues at the Monell Chemical Senses Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Arizona State University, and Osmo, a company spun out of Google's machine learning lab. The University of Reading assessed the purity of the samples used to test the AI, which was verified through gas chromatography.

Once the AI had been taught with data, its ability to predict the smell of a novel compound was excellent. If working correctly, it should match the average scent scores of a panel of humans, which it did. Dr. Parker said that this tool for synthetic chemistry will be invaluable, as it can be used to seek out new aromas and screen large numbers of molecules for aroma, similar to the pharmaceutical industry for new medicines.

Source: University of Reading

Will Concrete structures in UK collapse anytime soon

Over 100 schools and public buildings in the United Kingdom are facing closure due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a type of concrete used extensively in that country and in many others between the 1950s and 1990s. The UK government announced that school buildings containing RAAC would need to close or delay opening owing to a risk of collapse last week, just days before the start of the school year. Theodore Hanein, a materials scientist at the University of Sheffield, UK, says that similar problems will soon be experienced with the rest of the infrastructure.

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RAAC is a type of concrete invented in the 1930s and was used widely in the United Kingdom and countries in Europe, Asia, and North America in the decades after the Second World War. Made of materials including cement, lime, and sand, the concrete is heated to 200°C under high pressure, a process called autoclaving. Aluminium flakes added before autoclaving react with lime to produce hydrogen, forming air bubbles. The resulting material is much cheaper and lighter than regular concrete, and less than half as dense.

The reason RAAC is now unsafe is that inside RAAC blocks, most commonly used in roofs, steel bars provide support. This steel is encased by a protective layer, often a mix of latex and cement or sometimes acrylic powder, to prevent corrosion if water gets into the concrete’s pores.

Over time, this reinforcement can erode, leading to the concrete “fail catastrophically and suddenly”. If water seeps into the concrete and comes into contact with the steel, it can cause the metal to rust. As the concrete absorbs carbon dioxide over many years, its pH drops, which also increases the risk of corrosion. Corrosion can increase the volume of the iron by “up to seven times”, says Hanein.

Overloading RAAC structures, or cutting the concrete to make room for skylights and ventilation, can also increase the chance of failure. Like any material, if you overload it, it will bend a bit more, and you’ll get long-term durability issues and it will crack more. In mid-August, the Health and Safety Executive announced that RAAC is “now life-expired” and “liable to collapse with little or no notice”, leading to the immediate closure of buildings at dozens of schools.

In the United Kingdom, RAAC was used extensively in public buildings, including schools, hospitals, and universities, at a time when budgets and materials were tight. Materials specialists from the University of Leeds, UK, estimate that “between one and five per cent of public buildings built between 1950 and 1990 will have some of this material,” equating to “certainly hundreds, possibly thousands, of public buildings.”

Source: The Nature

 

Artificial wombs to hit the markets soon

The Extra-uterine Environment for Newborn Development (EXTEND) is a new artificial-womb device developed by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The technology is not intended to support development from conception to birth, but rather to simulate some elements of a natural womb to increase survival and improve outcomes for extremely premature babies. In humans, that’s anything earlier than 28 weeks of gestation, less than 70% of the way to full term, which is typically between 37 and 40 weeks.

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The CHOP group has made bold predictions about the technology’s potential, with Alan Flake, a fetal surgeon at CHOP, saying that if it’s as successful as they think it can be, ultimately, the majority of pregnancies that are predicted at-risk for extreme prematurity would be delivered early onto our system rather than being delivered premature onto a ventilator. In 2019, several members of the CHOP team joined a start-up company, Vitara Biomedical in Philadelphia, which has since raised US$100 million to develop EXTEND.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will convene a meeting of independent advisers on 19–20 September to discuss regulatory and ethical considerations and what human trials for the technology might look like. The committee’s discussion will be scrutinized by the handful of other groups around the world that are developing similar devices, and by bioethicists exploring the implications for health equity, reproductive rights, and more.

Preterm birth, defined by the World Health Organization as birth before 37 weeks of gestation, can happen spontaneously or because some conditions, such as an infection, hormone imbalance, high blood pressure, or diabetes, can turn the womb into an inhospitable environment for the fetus. Preterm birth is the largest cause of death and disability in children under five. In 2020, there were about 13.4 million such births worldwide, and complications related to preterm birth caused about 900,000 deaths in 2019.

In a natural womb, a fetus receives oxygen, nutrients, antibodies, and hormonal signals and gets rid of waste through the placenta, a transient organ in which fetal blood interacts with maternal blood. Artificial-womb technology is most focused on providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, replacing the mechanical ventilators that are often used for neonates. The artificial womb “would bridge a baby born extremely premature through those days and weeks when they’re most at risk for lung and brain damage,” Werner says. The CHOP group has signaled that it would wean babies off its system after a few weeks, when their organs are more fully developed and their likelihood of healthy survival is higher.

Researchers say that the CHOP group's system is probably closest to human trials, but groups in Spain, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and the Netherlands are also developing artificial-womb technology.

Eduard Gratacós, a fetal-medicine specialist at the University of Barcelona in Spain who is also developing an artificial womb, acknowledges that his group is years behind the CHOP group. But if clinical-trial results look promising, he says, “we're going to need several of these systems in the world.”

Even as excitement mounts about this type of technology, questions remain about what data will be required to get the green light for human trials. Lambs at the same stage of development as extremely premature babies are two to three times larger, meaning that researchers would need to further tweak the already-tiny equipment necessary for the artificial womb. Fetal pigs are more similar in size to human fetuses, but they are harder to work with than lambs. Non-human primates are a gold-standard animal model to precede clinical trials because of their physiological similarities to humans, but their fetuses are even smaller than those of humans, and the ethics of conducting such experiments are complex.

Safety questions would be the another ethical concerns. The development of artificial wombs represents a "big transformational leap" that solves lots of issues, but it also opens up a whole new slew of issues. Researchers discount these concerns, as the idea "is so far in the distant future that it's not worth discussing its implications in relation to the current technology."

Source: The Nature

JWST may force scientists to write new cosmology books

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in late 2021 as a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, has revealed that the standard model of cosmology may not accurately represent the origin and development of the universe. The telescope discovered that fully formed galaxies were formed earlier than expected according to the standard model, which is the basis for most research in the field.

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The standard model, which is the basis for essentially all research in the field, states that there is a fixed and precise sequence of events that followed the Big Bang: first, the force of gravity pulls together denser regions in the cooling cosmic gas, which grew to become stars and black holes; then, the force of gravity pulls together the stars into galaxies. However, the Webb data revealed that some very large galaxies formed really fast, in too short a time, at least according to the standard model. This discrepancy is no minor incident, but it is not an isolated incident.

There have been other recent occasions in which the evidence behind science’s basic understanding of the universe has been found to be alarmingly inconsistent. For example, the Hubble constant, a foundational fact in cosmological science, has not been able to be settled on a number. Two main ways to calculate it are measurements of the early universe (such as the sort that the Webb is providing) and measurements of nearby stars in the modern universe. These two methods continue to yield different answers.

At first, scientists expected this discrepancy to resolve as the data got better. But the problem has stubbornly persisted even as the data have gotten far more precise. Now new data from the Webb have exacerbated the problem, suggesting a flaw in the model, not in the data.

Two serious issues with the standard model of cosmology would be concerning enough, but the model has already been patched up numerous times over the past half century to better conform with the best available data. In light of the problems we are now confronting, some physicists and astronomers are starting to get the sense that something may be really wrong. It might also require us to change the way we think about some of the most basic features of our universe, a conceptual revolution that would have implications far beyond the world of science.

Cosmology is a unique field that requires scientists to address questions about the environment in which science operates, such as the nature of time, space, law-like regularity, and the role of observers. This field is closely tied to philosophy, making it difficult to question basic assumptions like the assumption that scientific laws don't change over time.

One possibility suggested by physicist Lee Smolin and philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger is that the laws of physics can evolve and change over time, with different laws competing for effectiveness. Another radical possibility is that every act of observation influences the future and past history of the universe.

However, it is not clear how revolutionary reconsiderations of our science could help us better understand the cosmological data that is confusing us. The data itself is shaped by the theoretical assumptions of those who collect them, making it a leap of faith to step back and rethink fundamentals about our science.

A revolution may be the best path to progress, as seen with scientific breakthroughs like Copernicus's heliocentrism or Einstein's relativity. These theories have had enormous cultural influence, challenging our sense of our special place in the cosmos, our intuition that we are fundamentally different from other animals, and upending our faith in common sense ideas about the flow of time.

Philosopher Robert Crease has written that philosophy is necessary when doing more science may not answer a scientific question. However, if more tweaks and adjustments don't work, we may need a new story of the universe and a new way to tell stories about it.

Sources: NYT Science

NASA brings collection of rocks and dust from an asteroid back to the earth

NASA has successfully brought a precious collection of rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu back to Earth for the first time. The material comes from the US$1.2-billion OSIRIS-REx mission, which launched in 2016 and arrived at Bennu in 2018. The spacecraft spent nearly two years studying the dark-colored, diamond-shaped asteroid before extending its robotic arm to the rocky surface, blasting it with a puff of gas and collecting the dust and rocks it kicked up. The spacecraft managed to collect around 250 grams of rocks and dirt, including several chunks that are at least one centimetre long. This is by far the largest amount of material ever brought back from an asteroid.

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The NASA curation team planned to put the Bennu samples into an atmosphere of pure nitrogen soon after the capsule touched down, to reduce the potential for contamination. That will enable scientists to study the asteroid’s geology and chemistry, preserved all the way back to the formation of the Solar System, more than 4.5 billion years ago. The pristine material hasn’t been altered by passing through Earth’s atmosphere, as happens with meteorites. “The thing that will really be different about this sample is we’ll have that chain of custody of keeping it protected from Earth’s atmosphere,” says Nicole Lunning, the mission’s lead sample curator at the Johnson Space Center.

Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid, so the samples might resemble carbon-rich meteorites that have fallen to Earth. The bits collected by OSIRIS-REx probably contain organic compounds, carbon-based molecules found in many meteorites that are the building blocks of many exciting types of chemistry, including those conducive to life.

NASA curators will work their way through unpacking and studying the dust and pebbles inside OSIRIS-REx’s storage container in the coming weeks. Using nitrogen-filled gloveboxes, technicians will analyze the samples with scanners and other instruments to discern how many rock types were collected, and they will record the samples’ color, volume, and porosity. It will probably be several weeks before the curators open the heart of the sample container and begin extracting the bulk of the material inside. Early experiments could include looking at how material that was on the surface of Bennu compares with what came from deeper inside the asteroid.

Sources: The Nature

Earthworms truly the farmer’s best friend; New research says so

Earthworms, a type of soil organism, contribute significantly to crop yields, adding over 140 million tons of food each year. This is equivalent to one slice in every loaf of bread. Earthworms make soil more fertile by feeding on dead plant matter, releasing nutrients faster than soil microbes would alone, and improving the physical structure of soil. They excrete tiny, stable clumps of particles, which together with earthworm burrows make soil more porous, allowing rainwater to soak in and enabling roots to grow more easily.

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A study by Steven Fonte, a soil and agroecosystem ecologist at Colorado State University, combined a global atlas of earthworm abundance with maps of agricultural harvests and factored in previous estimates of their enhancement of plant productivity. The team found that earthworms are responsible for nearly 7% of global grain harvests, such as rice, wheat, and corn. The contribution is smaller for legumes, like soybeans and lentils, because these crops can cooperate with microbes to produce their own nitrogen and are less reliant on the worms to make that nutrient available.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where many soils are depleted in nutrients and fertilizer is scarce, earthworms boost grain production by 10%. However, more work is needed on that region's estimate due to most studies underlying the earthworm atlas being from northern, temperate countries.

Fonte hopes the study will encourage policymakers and land managers to look more carefully at the role of soil invertebrates and microbes. Farmers can make their soils more friendly for earthworms by ploughing less and increasing moisture or organic matter.

Source: Science.org

Invasive alien species costing billions of dollars loss to World

A scientific report published on Monday has found that invasive species introduced to new ecosystems around the world are causing more than $423 billion in estimated losses to the global economy every year by harming nature, damaging food systems, and threatening human health. The costs have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970, according to the report, which was based on 2019 data. Over the last few centuries, humans have intentionally and unintentionally introduced more than 37,000 species to places outside their natural ranges as the world has become more interconnected. More than 3,500 of those are considered invasive because they are harmful to their new ecosystems.

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Invasive nonnative species were a major factor in 60 percent of recorded extinctions of plants and animals, according to the report, which was produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the United Nations. It expands on a sweeping 2019 report by the same panel, which found that as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction.

The report is the most exhaustive look yet at how invasive nonnative species are driving biodiversity loss. It was compiled by 86 experts from 49 countries, who drew on thousands of scientific studies and contributions from Indigenous people and local communities. Some species are relocated by global forces like wildlife trade and international shipping. Other plants and animals have been known to hitch a ride with ordinary travellers moving by car, plane, or train.

Such Invasions by nonnative species can also damage human health. Mosquitoes that transmit diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and the Zika virus have become invasive around the world. Disturbed ecosystems may be unable to deliver some of the services depended on by humans, like maintaining fisheries, regulating rain patterns, and purifying drinking water. Invasive species also make ecosystems more vulnerable by reducing the biodiversity that makes them resilient to diseases and other threats.

Islands are particularly vulnerable, with the number of invasive nonnative species exceeding the number of native ones in more than a quarter of the world's islands. The cost of inaction is high, as getting rid of invasive species, especially in marine environments, is typically very expensive or even impossible.

Source: NY Times

 

First Global survey on organizations working with viruses undertaken

A group of researchers at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology used an artificial-intelligence tool to assess the scientific literature on where and how often 'gain of function' (GOF) studies on bacteria and viruses are conducted.

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These studies, in which scientists bestow new abilities on pathogens by inserting a fluorescent gene or making them more transmissible, are common in microbiology research. However, only a small fraction of the research involves agents dangerous enough to require the strictest biosafety precautions in laboratories. About one-quarter of studies involving GOF or loss of function (LOF) — in which pathogens are weakened or lose capabilities — are related to vaccine development or testing.

The bitter debate over the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified calls to clarify and tighten oversight of this research. Many virologists say that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus probably spread to humans through contact with infected animals, but some argue that it could have escaped from a laboratory in which researchers might have been conducting GOF work. This has led to intense politicization over precisely what constitutes GOF research and how it should be regulated.

The team first identified about 159,000 original English-language research papers involving pathogens published between 2000 and mid-2022. They then developed a machine-learning model that looked for key terms that would identify papers containing GOF and LOF work. The model found about 7,000 studies that fitted the bill, and about 1,000 of those were randomly chosen and manually sorted through to ensure they were, in fact, GOF or LOF studies. This left them with 488 publications.

When the authors drilled down into these studies, they found that about one-quarter of the studies involved only GOF work, and about three-quarters involved less controversial LOF work, either alone or in combination with GOF. The team also explored which pathogens are studied most often and how dangerous they are to humans. More than 60% of the research that was analysed involved viruses, and more than half of these belonged to the viral families that cause flu, herpes, dengue, and COVID-19. Most of the pathogens studied were of moderate risk to humans.

One drawback of the report is that the 1,000 publications randomly reviewed by the Georgetown team might not be representative of all LOF and GOF studies. The report concludes that blanket regulations are too blunt an instrument, as one-size-fits-all policies aimed at mitigating dangers from one approach could limit other, less-risky research, and overly broad regulations could ultimately limit the scientific community's ability to prepare for future disease outbreaks.

Source: The Nature

Post Ebola & Covid, New policy on public health in Africa on cards

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is facing several challenges, including applying lessons learned from COVID-19 to become a world-class institution. The organization's priority ranking of infectious diseases, including Ebola, cholera, and COVID-19, indicates that these diseases have the highest epidemic potential across Africa. The CDC has also expanded its focus to non-infectious diseases and mental health, as people are more likely to die from non-communicable diseases than communicable, nutritional, maternal, and perinatal conditions combined.

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To address these challenges, the CDC is focusing on six areas: local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments, improved surveillance, intelligence, and early-warning systems, integrated health systems and robust primary care, expanded networks of laboratories, emergency preparedness and response, and strong national public-health institutes. The CDC must coordinate the continental agenda on local manufacturing of these fundamental health-care tools, target outbreak-prone and non-communicable diseases, and improve health security on the continent.

A new partnership between the Africa CDC, the WHO, and the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin will strengthen integrated disease surveillance at the community level, democratize genomic surveillance, and strengthen epidemic intelligence. The first phase will be implemented in Gambia, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, and South Africa. The CDC is also working to equip all rural health clinics with tests for the 15 most common infectious diseases, enabling them to reliably flag potential new diseases and prevent them from jumping from rural to more densely populated urban areas.

The CDC has allocated US$3.9 million to training programs, including for field epidemiologists, in partnership with the Kofi Annan Foundation. Since 2020, the CDC's Pathogen Genomics Initiative has conducted 5 training sessions and delivered sequencing and automation systems, equipment, and reagents to 14 AU member states. The organization will harness technologies developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the PanaBIOS system, to improve cross-border coordination.

In conclusion, the Africa CDC faces numerous challenges in transforming public health in Africa, but it is confident that a new way of doing public health is within reach.

Source: The Nature

Babies born during Covid possess different micro-biome

Babies born during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic have a different composition of gut microbes compared to those born before the introduction of lockdowns in March 2020. The gut microbiome, which is important for bodily function and development, has been linked to psychiatric disorders, skin conditions, and gastrointestinal issues. Babies acquire many gut microbes from their environment, and evidence is emerging to suggest that being born into the unique situation of a lockdown can have a lasting effect on the microbiome, which can, in turn, affect other aspects of infants’ development.

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The first 1,000 days are critical to pick up a healthy microbiome, and without the proper establishment of beneficial bacteria during this period, babies are at higher risk of health issues further down the line. Researchers have found that lockdown babies’ gut microbiomes are less diverse and there were alterations in specific bacterial populations. A team of researchers led by Liam O’Mahony, an immunologist at University College Cork in Ireland, studied babies born in Dublin during lockdown and found distinct compositions of bacterial populations in the infants’ guts.

The relationship between the gut microbiome and conditions such as allergies and eczema is already well-established. Other research teams have shown impaired communication skills in infants born during the lockdowns, but the literature on gut–brain interactions, particularly in human infants, is “scant”. At the moment, these studies’ small sample sizes and the anecdotal nature of other observations limit how much researchers can generalize when drawing conclusions about the effects of lockdown. There is a need for broader, longer-term studies that monitor children born during the pandemic to learn more about their development.

Source: The Nature

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