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Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday, 8/5/23 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-05

Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame, jck and jeremybloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.

OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. Webb Telescope Spots Water (Vapor) in a Nearby Planetary System "Astronomers have detected water vapor swirling close to a nearby star," reports CNN, "indicating that the planets forming around it might someday be able to support life." The young planetary system, known as PDS 70, is 370 light-years away... Circling it are two known gas giant planets, and researchers recently determined that one of them, PDS 70b, may share its orbit with a third "sibling" planet that is forming there… Two different disks of gas and dust — the ingredients necessary to form both stars and planets — surround the star. The inner and outer disks are separated by a gap spanning 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers). The gas giants are in the gap, where they orbit the star. The Webb telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument detected the signature of water vapor in the inner disk, less than 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) from the star. Astronomers believe that inner disk is where small, rocky planets similar to those in our solar system could form if PDS 70 is anything like our solar system… "We've seen water in other disks, but not so close in and in a system where planets are currently assembling. We couldn't make this type of measurement before Webb," said lead study author Giulia Perotti, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, in a statement... No planets have been found forming in the inner disk, but all the ingredients necessary have been detected. The presence of water vapor suggests the planets could contain water in some form. Only time will tell whether the planets form — and if they are potentially habitable for life. All Calories are Created Equal? Your Gut Microbes Don't Think So "For years scientists have believed that when it comes to weight gain, all calories are created equal," the Washington Post reported last month. "But an intriguing new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that's not true. The body appears to react differently to calories ingested from high-fiber whole foods vs. ultra-processed junk foods."The reason? Cheap processed foods are more quickly absorbed in your upper gastrointestinal tract, which means more calories for your body and fewer for your gut microbiome, which is located near the end of your digestive tract. But when we eat high-fiber foods, they aren't absorbed as easily, so they make the full journey down your digestive tract to your large intestine, where the trillions of bacteria that make up your gut microbiome are waiting. By eating a fiber-rich diet, you are not just feeding yourself, but also your intestinal microbes, which, the new research shows, effectively reduces your calorie intake. The study reveals that inside all of us, our gut microbes are in a tug of war with our bodies for calories, said Karen D. Corbin, an investigator at the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute of Metabolism and Diabetes in Orlando and the lead author of the study.

The closely-tracked study participants ate foods "like crispy puffed rice cereal, white bread, American cheese, ground beef, cheese puffs, vanilla wafers, cold cuts and other processed meats, and sugary snacks and fruit juices." Then they switched to the "microbiome enhancer diet," with foods like "oats, beans, lentils, chickpeas, brown rice, quinoa and other whole grains" (plus fruits, nuts and vegetables). Despite getting "the same amount of calories and similar amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates," the Post reports that "On average, they lost 217 calories a day on the fiber-rich diet, about 116 more calories than they lost on the processed-food diet." A Room-Temperature Superconductor? New Developments

Derek Lowe, a medicinal chemist and freelance writer on science and pharmaceutical topics, comments on the latest developments around last week's remarkable claim of a well-above-room-temperature superconducting material at ambient pressure, dubbed LK-99. Here's an excerpt from his post: As of this morning, there are (as yet not really verified) reports of replication from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. At least, a video has been posted showed what could be a sample of LK-99 levitating over a magnet due to the Meissner effect, and in different orientations relative to the magnet itself. That's important, because a (merely!) paramagnetic material can levitate in a sufficiently strong field (as can diamagnetic materials like water droplets and frogs), but these can come back to a particular orientation like a compass needle. Superconductors are "perfect diamagnets," excluding all magnetic fields, and that's a big difference. The "Meissner effect" that everyone has been hearing about so much is observed when a material first becomes superconductive at the right temperature and expels whatever magnetic fields were penetrating it at the time. All this said, we're having to take the video on the statements of whoever made/released it, and there are other possible explanations for the it that do not involve room-temperature superconductivity. I will be very happy if this is a real replication, but I'm not taking the day off yet to celebrate just based on this. And even though I'm usually more of an experimental-results guy than a theory guy, two other new preprints interest me greatly. One is from a team (PDF) at the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, and the other (PDF) is from Sinead Griffin at Lawrence Berkeley. Both start from the reported X-ray structural data of LK-99 and look at its predicted behavior via density functional theory (DFT) calculations. And they come to very similar conclusions: it could work. This is quite important, because this could mean that we don't need to postulate completely new physics to explain something like LK-99 - if you'd given the starting data to someone as a blind test, they would have come back after the DFT runs saying "You know, this looks like it could be a really good superconductor..." [...] I am guardedly optimistic at this point. The Shenyang and Lawrence Berkeley calculations are very positive developments, and take this well out of the cold-fusion "we can offer no explanation" territory. Not that there's anything wrong with new physics (!), but it sets a much, much higher bar if you have to invoke something in that range. I await more replication data, and with more than just social media videos backing them up. This is by far the most believable shot at room-temperature-and-pressure superconductivity the world has seen so far, and the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely damned interesting.

Search for Voyager 2 After Nasa Accidentally Sends Wrong Command

Nasa engineers hope to re-establish contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft after sending a faulty command that severed communications with the far-flung probe. From a report: The spacecraft is one of a pair that launched in 1977 to capture images of Jupiter and Saturn, but continued on a journey into interstellar space to become the farthest human-made objects from Earth. The space agency lost contact with Voyager 2, which is now more than 12bn miles away, when mission staff accidentally beamed the wrong command to the distant spacecraft more than a week ago. The command caused the probe to tilt its antenna away from Earth, and although the direction it is pointing in changed by only 2%, the shift was enough for engineers operating receivers on Earth to lose touch with it. Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, were launched within a couple of weeks of one another to explore the planets and moons of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 is still in contact with Earth and nearly 15bn miles away. In 2012, it became the first probe to enter interstellar space and is now the most distant spacecraft ever built. Voyager 2 hurtled into interstellar space in 2018 after discovering a new moon around Jupiter, 10 moons around Uranus and five around Neptune. It remains the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system's giant planets at close range. Update "NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2," according to a mission update posted Friday:The agency's Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar "shout" more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory.

Nuclear spin's impact on biological processes uncovered

A research team led by Prof. Yossi Paltiel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with groups from HUJI, Weizmann and IST Austria new study reveals the influence of nuclear spin on biological processes. This discovery challenges long-held assumptions and opens up exciting possibilities for advancements in biotechnology and quantum biology. Scientists have long believed that nuclear spin had no impact on biological processes. However, recent research has shown that certain isotopes behave differently due to their nuclear spin. The team focused on stable oxygen isotopes (16O, 17O, 18O) and found that nuclear spin significantly affects oxygen dynamics in chiral environments, particularly in its transport. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), have potential implications for controlled isotope separation and could revolutionize nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology.

Half the population to have a mental health disorder by 75

A global study co-led by researchers from The University of Queensland and Harvard Medical School has found one in two people will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime. Professor John McGrath from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, Professor Ronald Kessler from Harvard Medical School, and their colleagues from 27 other countries, analysed data from more than 150,000 adults across 29 countries between 2001 and 2022, taken from the largest ever coordinated series of face-to-face interviews -- the World Health Organisation's World Mental Health Survey initiative. Lead author Professor McGrath said the results demonstrate the high prevalence of mental health disorders, with 50 per cent of the population developing at least one disorder by the age of 75. "The most common were mood disorders such as major depression or anxiety," Professor McGrath said.

Winter storms over Labrador Sea influence Gulf Stream system

The Gulf Stream, which brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe and keeps the climate mild, is only part of a larger system of oceanic currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. It runs through the Atlantic like a giant climate machine: as warm water from the tropics is transported northwards at the surface, the current reverses in the North Atlantic -- the water cools, becomes heavier and flows south at depth. Where exactly these sinking processes take place is the subject of current research, and recent measurement programmes have located them to the east of Greenland. A team of scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, has now conducted a modelling study focusing on the Labrador Sea southwest of Greenland. In their study, now published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used complex computer simulations to show that fluctuations in the Labrador Sea can have a significant influence on the strength of sinking processes east of Greenland. An important link is a little-noticed system of deep currents that ensures rapid spreading of Labrador Sea water into the deep-sea basin between Greenland and Iceland.

Oldest known species of swimming jellyfish identified

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announces the oldest swimming jellyfish in the fossil record with the newly named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis. These findings are announced in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Jellyfish belong to medusozoans, or animals producing medusae, and include today's box jellies, hydroids, stalked jellyfish and true jellyfish. Medusozoans are part of one of the oldest groups of animals to have existed, called Cnidaria, a group which also includes corals and sea anemones. Burgessomedusa unambiguously shows that large, swimming jellyfish with a typical saucer or bell-shaped body had already evolved more than 500 million years ago. Burgessomedusa fossils are exceptionally well preserved at the Burgess Shale considering jellyfish are roughly 95% composed of water. ROM holds close to two hundred specimens from which remarkable details of internal anatomy and tentacles can be observed, with some specimens reaching more than 20 centimetres in length. These details enable classifying Burgessomedusa as amedusozoan. By comparison with modern jellyfish, Burgessomedusa would also have been capable of free-swimming and the presence of tentacles would have enabled capturing sizeable prey. x Burgessomedua phasmiformis is a newly discovered jellyfish from the Raymond Quarry of the Burgess Shale. Reaching up to 20cm in height, they were active predators, and the earliest known free-swimming jellyfish in the fossil record.https://t.co/8sOVGxbETI pic.twitter.com/IeYiRnStm3 — Prehistorica (Christian M.) (@Prehistorica_CM) August 1, 2023

Bacteria as Blacksmiths

A hot bath is a place to relax. For scientists, it is also where molecules or tiny building blocks meet to form materials. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) take it to the next level and use the energy of swimming bacteria to forge materials. A recent study in Nature Physics shows us how this works and the potential sustainability benefits that may arise from this innovative approach. You never know when dazzling ideas will strike you. Sometimes they emerge from the most unexpected places, like a boulder gym in Vienna. Such was the case for ISTA's Daniel Grober, a graduate student in the research group of physicist Jérémie Palacci, who had been working on how to assemble materials leveraging the energy of swimming bacteria, and Mehmet Can Uçar, a postdoc in Edouard Hannezo's group. Fueled by their shared passion for science and climbing, discussions at the gym turned into a paper-pen model of Grober's experiment. Their concept captivated Ivan Palaia, a postdoc in Anđela Šarić's group, who decided to join the task force. Together, this dynamic all-ISTA trio embarked on a collaborative effort that now reaches its pinnacle with a paper published today in Nature Physics. The study shows a novel experimental strategy to fabricate materials from small building blocks. It translates ideas from metallurgy -- the fine art of blacksmithing, where cycles of high temperature and slow cooling set a material's structure -- into soft materials, using the activity from a bath of swimming bacteria.

Energy-storing supercapacitor from cement, water, black carbon

Two of humanity's most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study. The technology could facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and tidal power by allowing energy networks to remain stable despite fluctuations in renewable energy supply. The two materials, the researchers found, can be combined with water to make a supercapacitor -- an alternative to batteries -- that could provide storage of electrical energy. As an example, the MIT researchers who developed the system say that their supercapacitor could eventually be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house, where it could store a full day's worth of energy while adding little (or no) to the cost of the foundation and still providing the needed structural strength. The researchers also envision a concrete roadway that could provide contactless recharging for electric cars as they travel over that road.

Scientists uncover a startling -- and exploitable -- coordination of gene expression in tumors

A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified a pair of genes whose expression by a type of immune cell within tumors is predictive of outcomes for cancer patients and is linked to a vast network of gene expression programs, engaged by multiple cell types in the tumor microenvironment, that control human cancers. Researchers led by Ludwig Lausanne's Mikaël Pittet report in the current issue of Science that patients with higher expression of the gene CXCL9 in their tumor-associated macrophages had far better clinical outcomes than those with higher expression of a gene named SPP1 by the immune cells. Macrophages expressing the former gene, they show, are invariably poised to attack cancer cells, while those expressing SPP1 are in a state supportive of tumor growth. Most intriguing, however, is the discovery that when the ratio of CXCL9 to SPP1 is high in the tumor microenvironment (TME), gene expression programs in other TME cells indicate a similarly anti-tumor slant; a low CS ratio, on the other hand, invariably accompanies pro-tumor gene expression signatures across the TME. "We were very surprised to find that just this one parameter -- the ratio of two genes primarily expressed by macrophages -- could tell us so much else about the tumor," said Pittet. "This is true for multiple types of solid tumors. It means that, despite their enormous complexity, the microenvironments of tumors are governed by a clear set of rules. We have described one of them in this study."

New exoplanet discovery builds better understanding of planet formation

An international team of scientists have discovered an unusual Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a low-mass star called TOI-4860, located in the Corvus constellation. The newly discovered gas giant, named TOI-4860 b, is an unusual planet for two reasons: stars of such low mass are not expected to host planets like Jupiter, and the planet appears to be particularly enriched by heavy elements. The study, led by University of Birmingham astronomers, is published today (Friday 4th August) in a letter published within the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Novel machine learning blood test detects cancers with genome-wide mutations in single molecules of cell-free DNA

Novel blood testing technology being developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center that combines genome-wide sequencing of single molecules of DNA shed from tumors and machine learning may allow earlier detection of lung and other cancers. The test, called GEMINI (Genome-wide Mutational Incidence for Non-Invasive detection of cancer), looks for changes to DNA throughout the genome. First, a blood sample is collected from a person at risk for developing cancer. Then, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) shed by tumors is extracted from the plasma and sequenced using cost-efficient whole genome sequencing. Single molecules of DNA are analyzed for sequence alterations and are used to obtain mutation profiles across the genome. Finally, a machine learning model trained to identify changes in cancer and non-cancer mutation frequencies in different regions of the genome is used to distinguish people who have cancer from those who do not have cancer. The classifier generates a score ranging from 0 to 1, with a higher score reflecting a higher probability of having cancer.

x Introducing the thiccest boi ever, the extremely dense and big-boned whale Perucetus colossus (Basilosauridae) from the mid-Eocene of Peru! Congrats to all of my Latin American and European colleagues on this discovery! https://t.co/TcuxF9xwze pic.twitter.com/kQegTzHdQZ — Robert Boessenecker, Doctor of Whaleontology™️ (@CoastalPaleo) August 2, 2023

How sensory neurons impact the gut

Gastrointestinal and digestive issues impact roughly 3 million people across the United States alone, and that number is growing. A new study from Scripps Research scientists shows how sensory neurons control our gastrointestinal tracts -- critical information that could shape our understanding of related diseases and disorders. The study, published in the journal Cell on Aug. 3rd, 2023, used a combination of human clinical data and animal models to reveal that the receptor PIEZO2 controls gastrointestinal transit through the stomach, small intestine, and colon by sensing the presence of food and slowing the rate of gut motility accordingly. These findings could lead to therapeutic applications for a range of gastrointestinal conditions, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Gas streamers feed triple baby stars

New observations and simulations of three spiral arms of gas feeding material to three protostars forming in a trinary system have clarified the formation of multi-star systems. Most stars with a mass similar to the Sun form in multi-star systems together with other stars. So an understanding of multi-star system formation is important to an overall theory of star formation. However, the complexity and lack of high-resolution, high-sensitivity data left astronomers uncertain about the formation scenario. In particular, recent observations of protostars often reported structures called "streamers" of gas flows toward the protostars, but it has been unclear how these streamers form.

Scientists help discover the highest-energy light coming from the sun

Sometimes, the best place to hide a secret is in broad daylight. Just ask the sun. "The sun is more surprising than we knew," said Mehr Un Nisa, a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University. "We thought we had this star figured out, but that's not the case." Nisa, who will soon be joining MSU's faculty, is the corresponding author of a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters that details the discovery of the highest-energy light ever observed from the sun. The international team behind the discovery also found that this type of light, known as gamma rays, is surprisingly bright. That is, there's more of it than scientists had previously anticipated.

Study examines Earth and Mars to determine how climate change affects the paths of rivers

In a new study published in Nature Geosciences, researchers, led by a Tulane University sedimentologist , investigated why the paths of meandering rivers change over time and how they could be affected by climate change. Chenliang Wu, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, began this research by looking at the Mississippi River before adding other rivers on Earth and ancient riverbeds on Mars to the study. The study specifically looks at river sinuosity, or how much rivers curve. The sinuosity of rivers changes over time, depending on the age of the river and environmental changes. Some of these changes include sediment and water supply and riverbank vegetation, all of which are affected by climate change. The study found that river sinuosity is related to the changes in how much water flows through the river. Rivers have different water levels depending on environmental factors, like precipitation levels.

The history and future of ancient einkorn wheat Is written in its genes

An international team of researchers led by UMD scientists have sequenced the complete genome for einkorn wheat, the world's first domesticated crop and traced its evolutionary history. The information will help researchers identify genetic traits like tolerance to diseases, drought and heat, and re-introduce those traits to modern bread wheat. It is a major step forward in the race to protect the world's food supply from climate change and the increasingly severe weather expected in coming years. The new reference genome and evolutionary history are published in the journal Nature. "The most exciting thing about having this genome sequenced is that einkorn is truly a model species that we can use for research, not only as a reference for bread wheat, but other small grains like rye, barley, oats," said Adam Schoen, a co-first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student working under professor Vijay Tiwari in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at UMD.

Astonishing complexity of bacterial circadian clocks

Bacteria make up more than 10% of all living things but until recently we had little realization that, as in humans, soil bacteria have internal clocks that synchronize their activities with the 24-hour cycles of day and night on Earth. New research shows just how complex and sophisticated these bacterial circadian clocks are, clearing the way for an exciting new phase of study. This work will provide diverse opportunities, from precision timing of the use of antibiotics, to bioengineering smarter gut and soil microbiomes. An international collaboration from Ludwig Maximillian University Munich (LMU Munich), The John Innes Centre, The Technical University of Denmark, and Leiden University, made the discovery by probing gene expression as evidence of clock activity in the widespread soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Lead author Dr. Francesca Sartor (LMU Munich) reports: "The circadian clock in this microbe is pervasive: we see it regulating several genes, and a range of different behaviours."

Exploring the origins of life

Catalytic molecules can form metabolically active clusters by creating and following concentration gradients -- this is the result of a new study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS). Their model predicts the self-organization of molecules involved in metabolic pathways, adding a possible new mechanism to the theory of the origin of life. The results can help to better understand how molecules participating in complex biological networks can form dynamic functional structures, and provide a platform for experiments on the origins of life. One possible scenario for the origin of life is the spontaneous organization of interacting molecules into cell-like droplets. These molecular species would form the first self-replicating metabolic cycles, which are ubiquitous in biology and common throughout all organisms. According to this paradigm, the first biomolecules would need to cluster together through slow and overall inefficient processes. Such slow cluster formation seems incompatible with how quickly life has appeared. Scientists from the department of Living Matter Physics from MPI-DS have now proposed an alternative model that explains such cluster formation and thus the fast onset of the chemical reactions required to form life.

Scientists develop method to predict the spread of armed conflicts

Around the world, political violence increased by 27 percent last year, affecting 1.7 billion people. The numbers come from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), which collects real-time data on conflict events worldwide. Some armed conflicts occur between states, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are, however, many more that take place within the borders of a single state. In Nigeria, violence, particularly from Boko Haram, has escalated in the past few years. In Somalia, populations remain at risk amidst conflict and attacks perpetrated by armed groups, particularly Al-Shabaab. To address the challenge of understanding how violent events spread, a team at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) created a mathematical method that transforms raw data on armed conflicts into meaningful clusters by detecting causal links. "Our main question was: what is a conflict? How can we define it?," says CSH scientist Niraj Kushwaha, one of the coauthors of the study published in the latest issue of PNAS Nexus. "It was important for us to find a quantitative and bias-free way to see if there were any correlations between different violent events, just by looking at the data."

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