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Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday Feb 15, 2025 [1]

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

Date: 2025-02-15

The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, doomandgloom, Besame, and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Rise above the swamp, 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 since 2007, 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.

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From SciTechDaily:

Scientists Just Made Bacteria 1000x Bigger – And Discovered Something Incredible

By combining MERFISH imaging with expansion microscopy, researchers have unlocked a new way to study bacteria at the single-cell level. This allows them to see how bacteria activate different genes in response to their environment, offering insights into microbial behavior, antibiotic resistance, and infection strategies. How Bacteria Organize Their Activities How do bacteria — whether beneficial ones in our bodies or harmful disease-causing strains — coordinate their activities? A recent study has provided new insights by combining advanced genomic-scale microscopy with an innovative technique to track which genes bacteria activate in different conditions and environments. Published recently in the journal Science, this breakthrough is set to advance bacterial research significantly. ***

From Archaeology Magazine:

2500-YEAR-OLD BURIALS EXPAND SARMATIAN TERRITORY

ATYRAU, KAZAKHSTAN—According to a report in The Astana Times, excavation of the Karabau-2 mound in western Kazakhstan’s Atyrau region revealed nine Sarmatian burials dated to the fifth century B.C. Archaeologist Marat Kasenov said that seven of the graves, some of which contained multiple sets of human remains, were preserved. More than 1,000 artifacts were recovered from the burials, Kasenov added, including gold jewelry decorated with images of leopards, bears, tigers, and antelopes; weapons; ceramics; and two rare wooden bowls. Archaeologists excavating at the Karakuduk-1 and Karakuduk-2 mounds, which are located about six miles away from the Karabau-2 mound, uncovered iron and bronze weapons, household items, silver pictograms, and two touchstones with gold handles thought to have been used by the Sarmatians to test objects for gold content. ***

From SciTechDaily:

How Depression Rewires Your Appetite and Increases Cravings for Carbs

Depression doesn’t just affect mood — it changes how people eat. Some lose their appetite, while others crave food, particularly carbohydrates. Depression affects approximately 280 million people worldwide and is known to impact eating habits. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the University Hospital Tübingen have found that while people with depression often experience a reduced appetite, they tend to prefer carbohydrate-rich foods. Their findings were recently published in the journal Psychological Medicine. ***

(I can vouch for this from personal experience. All I want to eat are carbs either sugary or starchy.)

From SciTechDaily:

A new paper reveals what lies ahead for the fastest-warming region on Earth.

In 2024, the global average air temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, contributing to extreme weather events such as record-breaking rainfall and flooding in the Sahara Desert, as well as intense summer heat waves worldwide. However, global warming is expected to continue beyond this threshold. Based on current national pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures are projected to rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. This level of warming would significantly alter the Arctic, the fastest-warming region on Earth. ***

From Science:

Inside an ice stream Drill cores, fiber sensors, and radars spy on an enigmatic river of ice

Wherever the ice sheet that covers Greenland finds an outlet to the coast, it is sliding seaward, and far faster than it used to. Inland the motion slows—except in northeastern Greenland. There, three neighboring outlet glaciers are fed by a narrow channel of fast-moving ice that reaches 700 kilometers into the interior. On color-coded maps of ice velocity, the channel looks like a dagger aimed at the ice sheet’s heart. Called the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), it accounts for some 12% of the ice sheet’s mass loss. Its rapid flow—more than 50 meters a year—is a mystery, says Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, a glaciologist at the University of Copenhagen (KU). “We really have a very, very basic understanding." Ten years ago, Dahl-Jensen and others set out to solve that mystery by drilling right through the ice stream. The East Greenland Ice-core Project (EastGRIP), which ended last year, lost 2 years to the COVID-19 pandemic before it reached bottom at a depth of 2670 meters. But it is already yielding transformative results—including a worrying discovery that the bottom of the ice stream is not frozen to bedrock, as previously thought. Instead, from top to bottom, the ice moves as a block toward the ocean. “The whole block of ice is sliding on water and mud,” Dahl-Jensen says. That raises fears that the stream could accelerate as the climate continues to warm. ***

From Science:

Earth’s inner core might harbor volcanoes and landslides Seismic waves radiating through the planet’s interior point to dramatic activity

More than 5000 kilometers beneath our feet, Earth’s iron inner core seems to be spinning, growing, and occasionally speeding up or slowing down. It’s also likely changing shape, according to research published today in Nature Geoscience, with some areas rising and falling up to 1 kilometer within a few years. Although most changes are likely subtle bumps in the iron landscape, some could mirror rising mountains and tumbling landslides. Though these movements—picked up as seismic waves traveling through the planet—have scant effect on us surface dwellers, they help bring into focus a more dynamic picture of Earth’s insides. ***

From NASA:

NASA Study: Crops, Forests Responding to Changing Rainfall Patterns

Earth’s rainy days are changing: They’re becoming less frequent, but more intense. Vegetation is responding. A new NASA-led study has found that how rain falls in a given year is nearly as important to the world’s vegetation as how much. Reporting Dec. 11 in Nature, the researchers showed that even in years with similar rainfall totals, plants fared differently when that water came in fewer, bigger bursts. In years with less frequent but more concentrated rainfall, plants in drier environments like the U.S. Southwest were more likely to thrive. In humid ecosystems like the Central American rainforest, vegetation tended to fare worse, possibly because it could not tolerate the longer dry spells. Scientists have previously estimated that almost half of the world’s vegetation is driven primarily by how much rain falls in a year. Less well understood is the role of day-to-day variability, said lead author Andrew Feldman, a hydrologist and ecosystem scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Shifting precipitation patterns are producing stronger rainstorms — with longer dry spells in between — compared to a century ago. ***

From Phys.org:

Simulation shows wolves had time to self-domesticate and evolve into dogs

A team of mathematicians and statisticians from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the University of Tennessee and Valparaiso University, all in the U.S., has found new evidence that wolves had ample time to self-domesticate and evolve into modern dogs. In their study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group developed a computer simulation showing the evolution process. Prior research has suggested that the process of self-domesticating and then slowly evolving into modern dogs would have taken too long. Additionally, researchers believe that humans and dogs have been living in close proximity for approximately 30,000 years and that for the past 15,000 years, humans have been breeding them to perform certain tasks. But what happened in the first 15,000 years is less clear. ***

From Phys.org:

Money may have originated through long distance trade, new theory suggests

Two of the most commonly accepted theories for the origin of money are the commodity theory and the chartalist theory. Both have drawbacks, but in recent years, the chartalist theory has gained much traction. [...] Dr. Fauvelle provides evidence that supports a third theory, the so-called "Trade Money Theory." The theory proposes that it was not internal barter problems that money was used to solve but rather long-distance external exchange networks that could not rely on familiar, trust-based relationships of delayed reciprocity. To support this theory, Dr. Fauvelle examines the money systems of two pre-state societies. "I focused on shell beads in Western North America and Bronze Money in Europe as these are two well-documented case studies with considerable evidence for widespread trade and monetary economies predating the development of ancient states." ***

From SciTechDaily:

Scientists Stunned: Large Magma Bodies Found Beneath “Sleeping” Volcanoes

Researchers found that magma chambers beneath Cascade Range volcanoes persist even when the volcanoes are dormant, challenging previous assumptions. This discovery could improve volcanic monitoring and eruption prediction. New research led by Cornell University challenges the long-standing belief that active volcanoes contain large magma bodies that are expelled during eruptions and gradually dissipate as the volcanoes become dormant. Using seismic waves, researchers identified magma chambers beneath six volcanoes of varying sizes and dormancy within the Cascade Range, which includes half of the U.S. volcanoes designated as “very high threat” by the U.S. Geological Survey. The team discovered that all of the volcanoes, including dormant ones, contain persistent and sizable magma bodies. ***

From SciTechDaily:

Yale Scientists Reprogram Genetic Code To Create Revolutionary Synthetic Organism

Yale researchers have created “Ochre,” a genomically recoded organism that enables the production of synthetic proteins with novel properties, paving the way for groundbreaking applications in medicine, biotechnology, and industry. Synthetic biologists from Yale successfully rewrote the genetic code of an organism—a novel genomically recoded organism (GRO) with a single stop codon—using a cellular platform they developed that enables the production of new classes of synthetic proteins. Researchers say these synthetic proteins offer the promise of innumerable medical and industrial applications that can benefit society and human health. ***

See you in three weeks.

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