Chimpanzees and monkeys have entered the Stone Age

Posted date: 11:55 PM / comment : 0 Research, Science

“Some Chimpanzees Have Entered Stone Age.” Scientists On 3 Continents Make Surprising Discovery.

In the rainforests of west Africa, the woodlands of Brazil and the beaches of Thailand, archaeologists have stumbled upon some fascinating stone tools.

What sets them apart is not the workmanship or their antiquity: they belong to the same age as the Egyptian pyramids.

Source

What is exceptional about this discovery is that the tools were held by non-human hands.

Collin Barras, BBC, reports:

The tools are crude. A chimpanzee or monkey stone hammer is hardly a work of art to rival the beauty of an ancient human hand axe. But that’s not the point. These primates have developed a culture that makes routine use of a stone-based technology. That means they have entered the Stone Age.

The chimpanzees of west Africa had used these tools in a cruder way, to crack open nuts for example.

A few years ago, biologists believed only humans could make extensive use of tools. However, recent discovery falsifies this claim.Our closest living relatives might be similar to us, more than we could have ever imagined. An article published in Oxford journals suggests monkeys and chimpanzees have a flair for reading each other’s facial expressions. This certainly calls for a re-assessment of primates.

Countries like New Zealand and the United Kingdom consider experiments on apes, illegal. Spain for example, allots them some human rights. In the U.S. too, there are reforms taking place in this area. A trial pending in New York courts wants chimpanzees to be granted full human rights.

If nothing else, we should certainly be compassionate and sympathetic to our primate cousins.

For Further Reading

Link 1, Link 2, Link 3.

George W. Archibald

Posted date: 12:02 PM / comment : 0 Science

George William Archibald (born 13 July 1946) is the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation and was the inaugural winner of the 2006 Indianapolis Prize. Archibald was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada to Donald Edison and Annie Letitia ("Lettie") (née MacLeod) Archibald. He received his bachelor's degree from Dalhousie University in 1968 and his doctorate in 1975 from Cornell University. He married Kyoko Matsumoto on 15 August 1981. [Reference: Bergquist, Lee (22 August 2006) "Crane conservationist to receive $100,000 prize" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin), page B-1].
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The Man Who Saves Cranes

George Archibald was awarded the $100,000 Lufkin Prize from National Audubon in recognition of his long career in conservation. It’s Archibald, as much as anyone, who is responsible for the whooping crane’s long, slow climb back from the brink of extinction. A pivotal moment in that return can be traced back 37 years, to an individual whooping crane going through an identity crisis.

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In 1973, when cranes were in a perilous situation and many of the fifteen remaining species were on the brink of extinction, Archibald founded the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He was Director from 1973 to 2000. Currently he heads a World Conservation Union commission on crane survival. Forty years later, the world's cranes are still in a perilous situation.
At the time, during 1976, Tex was only one of 100 whooping cranes (Grus americana) left in the world, and the only female whooping crane in her home at the San Antonio Zoo, so experts of a young crane breeding program were desperate to get her to produce offspring. But since Tex had been hand-raised in captivity by humans, and thus had been accidentally "imprinted" to believe that she was human, she refused to mate with any male whooping crane.
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Archibald pioneered several techniques to rear cranes in captivity, including the use of crane costumes by human handlers. Archibald spent three years with a highly endangered whooping crane named Tex, acting as a male crane – walking, calling, dancing – to shift her into reproductive condition. Through his dedication and the use of artificial insemination, Tex eventually laid a fertile egg. As Archibald later recounted the tale on The Tonight Show he stunned the audience and host Johnny Carson with the sad end of the story – the death of Tex shortly after the hatching of her one and only chick.

Further Reading
The Man Who Saves Cranes

Postmortem Stability of Ebola Virus

Posted date: 9:14 PM / comment : 0 Research, research paper, Science, Slider

Date:

February 12, 2015

Source:

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Summary:

To determine how long Ebola virus could remain infectious in a body after death, scientists sampled deceased Ebola-infected monkeys and discovered the virus remained viable for at least seven days. They also detected non-infectious viral RNA for up to 70 days post-mortem.

Abstract

The ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has highlighted questions regarding stability of the virus and detection of RNA from corpses. We used Ebola virus–infected macaques to model humans who died of Ebola virus disease. Viable virus was isolated 7 days posteuthanasia; viral RNA was detectable for 10 weeks.

Joseph Prescott, Trenton Bushmaker, Robert Fischer, Kerri Miazgowicz, Seth Judson, and Vincent J. Munster

Author affiliations: National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA

Research:

The ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus (EBOV) infection in West Africa highlights several questions, including fundamental questions surrounding human-to-human transmission and stability of the virus. More than 20,000 cases of EBOV disease (EVD) have been reported, and >8,000 deaths have been documented (1). Human-to-human transmission is the principal feature in EBOV outbreaks; virus is transmitted from symptomatic persons or contaminated corpses or by contact with objects acting as fomites (2). Contact with corpses during mourning and funeral practices, which can include bathing the body and rinsing family members with the water, or during the removal and transportation of bodies by burial teams has resulted in numerous infections (3).

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Assessing the stability of corpse-associated virus and determining the most efficient sampling methods for diagnostics will clarify the safest practices for handling bodies and the best methods for determining whether a person has died of EVD and presents a risk for transmission. To facilitate diagnostic efforts, we studied nonhuman primates who died of EVD to examine stability of the virus within tissues and on body surfaces to determine the potential for transmission, and the presence of viral RNA associated with corpses.

The Study

We studied 5 cynomolgus macaques previously included in EBOV pathogenesis studies and euthanized because of signs of EVD and viremia. Two animals were infected with EBOV-Mayinga and 3 with a current outbreak isolate (Makona-WPGC07) (4).

Immediately after euthanasia, multiple samples were collected: oral, nasal, ocular, urogenital, rectal, skin, and blood (pooled in the body cavity) swab samples and tissue biopsy specimens: from the liver, spleen, lung, and muscle. Swabs were placed in 1 mL of culture medium and tissue samples were placed in 500 μL of RNAlater (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA, USA), or an empty vial for titration, before freezing at −80°C. Carcasses were placed in vented plastic containers in an environmental chamber at 27°C and 80% relative humidity throughout the study to mimic conditions in West Africa (5). At the indicated time points (<9 days for 2 animals and 10 weeks for 3 animals), swab and tissue samples were obtained and used for EBOV titration on Vero E6 cells to quantify virus or for quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) (40 cycles) to measure viral RNA, as reported (6,7).

Viral RNA was detectible in all swab samples and tissue biopsy specimens at multiple time points (Figure 1). For swab samples (Figure 1, panel A), the highest amount of viral RNA was in oral, nasal, and blood samples; oral and blood swab specimens consistently showed positive results for all animals until week 4 for oral specimens and week 3 for blood, when 1 animal was negative for each specimen type. Furthermore, oral swab specimens had the highest amount of viral RNA after the first 2 weeks of sampling, although after the 4-week sampling time point, some samples from individual animals were negative.

In all samples, RNA was detectable sporadically for the entire 10-week period, except for blood, which had positive results for <9 weeks. Tissue samples were more consistently positive within the first few weeks after euthanasia (Figure 1, panel B). All samples from the liver and lung were positive for the first 3 weeks, and spleen samples were positive for the first 4 weeks, at which time lung and spleen samples were no longer tested because of decay and scarcity of tissue. Muscle sample results were sporadic: a sample from 1 animal was negative at the 1-day time point and at several times throughout sampling.

Figure 1. Presence and stability of Ebola virus RNA in deceased cynomolgus macaques. Swab (A) and tissue (B) specimen samples were obtained at the indicated time points, and viral RNA was isolated and used in a 1-step quantitative reverse transcription PCR with a primer/probe set specific for the nucleoprotein gene and standards consisting of known nucleoprotein gene copy numbers. Line plots show means of positive samples from 5 animals up to the 7 day time point and from 3 animals thereafter. Error bars indicate SD, and - indicates time points at which ≥1 animal had undetectable levels of viral RNA at that time point. Absence of a hyphen indicates that all animals had detectible levels of viral RNA.

Figure 2. Efficiency of Ebola virus isolation from deceased cynomolgus macaques. Swab (A) and tissue (B) specimen samples were obtained at the indicated time points, and virus isolation was attempted on Vero E6 cells. Cells were inoculated in triplicate with serial dilutions of inoculum from swab specimens placed in 1 mL of medium or tissues homogenized in 1 mL of medium. The 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) was calculated by using the Spearman-Karber method (8). Line plots show means of positive samples from 5 animals to the day 9 time point. Error bars indicate SD.

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Viable EBOV was variably isolated from swab from all sampling sites. Among blood samples, those from the body cavity had the highest virus titer (2 × 105 50% tissue culture infectious doses/mL) and longest-lasting isolatable virus (7 days posteuthanasia) (Figure 2, panel A). Consistent with the qRT-PCR results, for swab samples, oral and nasal sample titers were highest, followed by those for blood samples, and relatively high titers were observed <4 days posteuthanasia (Figure 2, panel B). Similar to the qRT-PCR experiments, virus titers were higher in tissue samples than in swab samples but were not as sustained; all tissue samples were positive at day 3 posteuthanasia but negative by day 4.

Conclusions

The efficiency of detecting EBOV from corpse samples has not been systematically studied; this information is needed for interpreting results for diagnostic samples for epidemiologic efforts during outbreaks. We showed that viral RNA is readily detectable from oral and blood swab specimens for <3 weeks postmortem from a monkey carcass that was viremic at the time of death, in environmental conditions similar to those during current outbreak (5).

The stability of the target RNA used for RT-PCR is more robust than that of viable virus because degradation of any part of the genome (or proteins and lipids) would compromise the ability of the virus to replicate. Thus, the ability to isolate replicating virus in cell culture from postmortem materials was much less sensitive than detection of viral RNA by qRT-PCR. The sensitivity for quantitating infectious virus is probably lowered because of limitations in isolation efficiency on cell culture and necessary dilutions of tissues for homogenization for titration. Nonetheless, we detected viable virus <7 days posteuthanasia in swab specimens and 3 days in tissues, and showed that infectious virus is present at least until these times. Because virus titers decreased relatively sharply, despite sensitivity issues, it is unlikely that viable virus persists for times longer than we measured.

Humans who die of EVD typically have high levels of viremia, suggesting that most fresh corpses contain high levels of infectious virus, similar to the macaques in this study (9). Furthermore, family members exposed to EVD patients during late stages of disease or who had contact with deceased patients have a high risk for infection (2). The presence of viable EBOV and viral RNA in body fluids of EVD patients has been studied, and oral swabbing has been shown to be effective for diagnosis of EVD by RT-PCR compared with testing of serum samples from the same persons (10,11). However, detection limits for diagnostic swab samples are unknown for early phases of EVD, and blood sampling is probably more sensitive and reliable for antemortem diagnostics and should be used whenever possible, which has also been shown with closely related Marburg virus (12).

Although these studies included data from outbreak situations, they are limited in their sampling numbers, swabbing surfaces, and time course, and it is unknown how predictive they are for samples collected postmortem. It is essential to stress that swab samples should be obtained by vigorous sampling to acquire sufficient biologic material for testing, and development of a quality-control PCR target (housekeeping gene target) would be beneficial for sample integrity assessment, which is a limitation of this study.

In summary, we present postmortem serial sampling data for EBOV-infected animals in a controlled environment. Our results show that the EBOV RT-PCR RNA target is highly stable, swabbing upper respiratory mucosa is efficient for obtaining samples for diagnostics, and tissue biopsies are no more effective than simple swabbing for virus detection. These results will directly aid interpretation of epidemiologic data collected for human corpses by determining whether a person had EVD at the time of death and whether contact tracing should be initiated. Furthermore, viable virus can persist for >7 days on surfaces of bodies, confirming that transmission from deceased persons is possible for an extended period after death. These data are also applicable for interpreting samples collected from remains of wildlife infected with EBOV, especially nonhuman primates, and to assess risks for handling these carcasses.

Dr. Prescott is a research fellow in the Virus Ecology Unit at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hamilton, Montana. He is currently involved in the Ebola virus outbreak at the combined Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institutes of Health diagnostic laboratory, Monrovia, Liberia. His research interests include the immune response, transmission, and modeling of viral hemorrhagic fevers.

Acknowledgments

We thank Darryl Falzarano and Andrea Marzi for use of animal carcasses upon completion of their studies and Anita Mora for providing assistance with graphics.

This study was supported by the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ebola hemorrhagic fever [cited 2015 Jan 3]. http://www.cdc.gov.ezproxy.nihlibrary.nih.gov/vhf/ebola/
Dowell SF, Mukunu R, Ksiazek TG, Khan AS, Rollin PE, Peters CJ. Transmission of Ebola hemorrhagic fever: a study of risk factors in family members, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995. J Infect Dis. 1999;179(Suppl 1):S87–91 . DOI PubMed
Khan AS, Tshioko FK, Heymann DL, Le Guenno B, Nabeth P, Kerstiëns B, The reemergence of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995. J Infect Dis. 1999;179(Suppl 1):S76–86. DOI PubMed
Hoenen T, Groseth A, Feldmann F, Marzi A, Ebihara H, Kobinger G, Complete genome sequences of three Ebola virus isolates from the 2014 outbreak in West Africa. Genome Announc. 2014;2:e01331–14.
Ng S, Cowling B. Association between temperature, humidity and ebolavirus disease outbreaks in Africa, 1976 to 2014. Euro Surveill.2014;19:20892 .PubMed
Marzi A, Ebihara H, Callison J, Groseth A, Williams KJ, Geisbert TW, Vesicular stomatitis virus–based Ebola vaccines with improved cross-protective efficacy. J Infect Dis. 2011;204(Suppl 3):S1066–74. DOI PubMed
Ebihara H, Rockx B, Marzi A, Feldmann F, Haddock E, Brining D, Host response dynamics following lethal infection of rhesus macaques with Zaire ebolavirus. J Infect Dis. 2011;204(Suppl 3):S991–9. DOI PubMed
Finney DJ. Statistical method in biological assay. New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc.; 1978. p. 394–8.
Towner JS, Rollin PE, Bausch DG, Sanchez A, Crary SM, Vincent M, Rapid diagnosis of Ebola hemorrhagic fever by reverse transcription–PCR in an outbreak setting and assessment of patient viral load as a predictor of outcome. J Virol. 2004;78:4330–41. DOI PubMed
Bausch DG, Towner JS, Dowell SF, Kaducu F, Lukwiya M, Sanchez A, Assessment of the risk of Ebola virus transmission from bodily fluids and fomites. J Infect Dis. 2007;196(Suppl 2):S142–7. DOI PubMed
Formenty P, Leroy EM, Epelboin A, Libama F, Lenzi M, Sudeck H, Detection of Ebola virus in oral fluid specimens during outbreaks of Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever in the Republic of Congo. Clin Infect Dis. 2006;42:1521–6. DOI PubMed
Grolla A, Jones SM, Fernando L, Strong JE, Ströher U, Möller P, The use of a mobile laboratory unit in support of patient management and epidemiological surveillance during the 2005 Marburg outbreak in Angola. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2011;5:e1183. DOI PubMed

Suggested citation for this article: Prescott J, Bushmaker T, Fischer R, Miazgowicz K, Judson S, Munster VJ. Postmortem stability of Ebola virus. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 May [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2105.150041

DOI: 10.3201/eid2105.150041

Astronomers Find Ancient Earth-Sized Planets in Our Galactic Backyard

Posted date: 10:56 PM / comment : 0 Discovery, NASA, NATURE/SPACE, Science, Slider

Sun-like star with orbiting planets, dating back to the dawn of the Galaxy, has been discovered by an international team of astronomers.

At 11.2 billion years old, it is the oldest star with Earth-sized planets ever found and proves that such planets have formed throughout the history of the Universe.

The discovery, announced on 28 January (AEDT) in the Astrophysical Journal, used observations made by NASA's Kepler satellite. The scientific collaboration was led by the University of Birmingham and contributed to by the University of Sydney.

The star, named Kepler-444, hosts five planets smaller than Earth, with sizes varying between those of Mercury and Venus.

"We've never seen anything like this -- it is such an old star and the large number of small planets make it very special," said Dr Daniel Huber from the University's School of Physics and an author on the paper.

"It is extraordinary that such an ancient system of terrestrial-sized planets formed when the universe was just starting out, at a fifth its current age. Kepler-444 is two and a half times older than our solar system, which is only a youthful 4.5 billion years old.

"This tells us that planets this size have formed for most of the history of the universe and we are much better placed to understand exactly when this began happening."

Dr Tiago Campante, the research leader from the University of Birmingham said, "We now know that Earth-sized planets have formed throughout most of the Universe's 13.8-billion-year history, which could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the Galaxy."

Together with their international colleagues the University's astronomy team used asteroseismology to determine the age of the star and planets. This technique measures oscillations -- the natural resonances of the host star caused by sound waves trapped within it.

They lead to miniscule changes or pulses in the star's brightness and allow researchers to measure its diameter, mass, and age. The presence and size of the planets is detected by the dimming that occurs when the planets pass across the face of the star. This fading in the intensity of the light received from the star enables scientists to accurately measure the sizes of the planets relative to the size of the star.

"When asteroseismology emerged about two decades ago we could only use it on the Sun and a few bright stars, but thanks to Kepler we can now apply the technique to literally thousands of stars. Asteroseismology allows us to precisely measure the radius of Kepler-444 and hence the sizes of its planets. For the smallest planet in the Kepler-444 system, which is slightly larger than Mercury, we measured its size with an uncertainty of only 100km," Dr Huber said.

"It was clear early on that we had discovered something very unusual because we had five planets orbiting a very bright star -- one of the brightest Kepler has observed. It is fantastic that we can use asteroseismology to date the star and determine just how old it is.

"In the case of Kepler-444 the planets orbit their parent star in less than 10 days, at less than one-tenth the Earth's distance from the Sun. Their closeness to their host star means they are uninhabitable because of the lack of liquid water and high levels of radiation. Nevertheless, discoveries like Kepler-444 provide important clues on whether a planet that is more truly comparable to Earth may exist. "We're another step closer towards finding the astronomers' holy grail -- an Earth-sized planet with a one year orbit around a star similar to our Sun."
A/c NASA, Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission have discovered a planetary system of five small planets dating back to when the Milky Way galaxy was a youthful two billion years old.

The tightly packed system, named Kepler-444, is home to five planets that range in size, the smallest comparable to the size of Mercury and the largest to Venus. All five planets orbit their sun-like star in less than ten days, which makes their orbits much closer than Mercury's sweltering 88-day orbit around the sun.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Sydney.

Read article on Science @ NASA

Journal Reference:

J. Ireland, R. T. J. McAteer, A. R. Inglis. CORONAL FOURIER POWER SPECTRA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CORONAL SEISMOLOGY AND CORONAL HEATING. The Astrophysical Journal, 2014; 798 (1): 1 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/1

Regenerating plastic grows back after damage

Posted date: 9:47 PM / comment : 0 Interesting, Science

Regenerating plastic grows back after damage

Looking at a smooth sheet of plastic in one University of Illinois laboratory, no one would guess that an impact had recently blasted a hole through it.

Illinois researchers have developed materials that not only heal, but regenerate. Until now, self-repairing materials could only bond tiny microscopic cracks. The new regenerating materials fill in large cracks and holes by regrowing material.Led by professor Scott White, the research team comprises professors Jeffry S. Moore and Nancy Sottos and graduate students Brett Krull, Windy Santa Cruz and Ryan Gergely. They report their work in the May 9 issue of the journal Science.

"We have demonstrated repair of a nonliving, synthetic materials system in a way that is reminiscent of repair-by-regrowth as seen in some living systems," said Moore, a professor of chemistry.

Such self-repair capabilities would be a boon not only for commercial
goods - imagine a mangled car bumper that repairs itself within minutes of an accident - but also for parts and products that are difficult to replace or repair, such as those used in aerospace applications.

The regenerating capabilities build on the team's previous work in developing vascular materials. Using specially formulated fibers that disintegrate, the researchers can create materials with networks of capillaries inspired by biological circulatory systems.

"Vascular delivery lets us deliver a large volume of healing agents - which, in turn, enables restoration of large damage zones," said Sottos, a professor of materials science and engineering. "The vascular approach also enables multiple restorations if the material is damaged more than once."

For regenerating materials, two adjoining, parallel capillaries are filled with regenerative chemicals that flow out when damage occurs. The two liquids mix to form a gel, which spans the gap caused by damage, filling in cracks and holes. Then the gel hardens into a strong polymer, restoring the plastic's mechanical strength.

"We have to battle a lot of extrinsic factors for regeneration, including gravity," said study leader White, a professor of aerospace engineering. "The reactive liquids we use form a gel fairly quickly, so that as it's released it starts to harden immediately. If it didn't, the liquids would just pour out of the damaged area and you'd essentially bleed out. Because it forms a gel, it supports and retains the fluids. Since it's not a structural material yet, we can continue the regrowth process by pumping more fluid into the hole."

The team demonstrated their regenerating system on the two biggest classes of commercial plastics: thermoplastics and thermosets. The researchers can tune the chemical reactions to control the speed of the gel formation or the speed of the hardening, depending on the kind of damage. For example, a bullet impact might cause a radiating series of cracks as well as a central hole, so the gel reaction could be slowed to allow the chemicals to seep into the cracks before hardening.

The researchers envision commercial plastics and polymers with vascular networks filled with regenerative agents ready to be deployed whenever damage occurs, much like biological healing. Their previous work established ease of manufacturing, so now they are working to optimize the regenerative chemical systems for different types of materials.

"For the first time, we've shown that you can regenerate lost material in a structural polymer. That's the kicker here," White said, "Prior to this work, if you cut off a piece of material, it's gone. Now we've shown that the material can actually regrow."

THIS BRAIN IMPLANT MAY HELP PEOPLE WALK AGAIN

Posted date: 5:06 PM / comment : 0 Science, Technology

Brain implants sound strange, like something out of sci-fi, but they’re closer than you think. Researchers at the A*Star Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore have developed a neural probe array small enough that it can sit inside someone’s brain on a long-term basis without damaging delicate tissue. The probe array is so compact that it can float along with a person’s brain inside their head. Their specialty: helping amputees and people with spinal cord injuries control artificial limbs.

The neural array forms a link between the brain and artificial limbs, allowing someone with an injury to walk or move again. As the technology advances, who knows what else they could allow us to do.

Despite the benefits, neural implants come with risks. The most common way of inserting probes into people’s brains is by drilling holes into the skull to serve as a pathway for electrodes. If things go wrong, patients can develop infections, or even bleed in the brain.

“A high-profile array may touch the skull and damage the tissue when relative micromotions occur between brain and the probes,“ researcher Ming-Yuan Cheng told Phys.org.

To solve this issue, Cheng and his team made the probe array as thin as possible, employing “innovative microassembly” techniques to limit the height of the array to within 750 micrometers, or about 75 percent of a single millimeter. The probe array is implanted in the brain’s subarachnoid space, 1-2.5 millimeter a cavity in the brain between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater of the meninges.

These are layers of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. Basically, the implants sit right in the middle of our brain’s protective membranes.

Biocompatibility tests conducted with the neural probes have shown that it did not cause cell membranes to rupture nor suppressed cell growth, both of which would be bad. The team will make design tweaks to make the probes fully implantable.

Aging Successfully Reversed in Mice; Human Trials to Begin Next

Posted date: 10:23 PM / comment : 0 Interesting, Science

Aging Successfully Reversed in Mice; Human Trials to Begin Next

Scientists have successfully reversed the aging process in mice according to a new study just released. Human trials are to begin next, possibly before the year is over. The study was published in the peer reviewed science journal Cell after researchers from both the U.S and Australia made the breakthrough discovery. Lead researcher David Sinclair of the University of New South Wales says he is hopeful that the outcome can be reproduced in human trials. A successful result in people would mean not just a slowing down of aging but a measurable reversal.

The study showed that after administering a certain compound to the mice, muscle degeneration and diseases caused by aging were reversed. Sinclair says the study results exceeded his expectations, explaining:

I’ve been studying aging at the molecular level now for nearly 20 years and I didn’t think I’d see a day when ageing could be reversed. I thought we’d be lucky to slow it down a little bit. The mice had more energy, their muscles were as though they’d be exercising and it was able to mimic the benefits of diet and exercise just within a week. We think that should be able to keep people healthier for longer and keep them from getting diseases of ageing.

The compound the mice ate resulted in their muscles becoming very toned, as if they’d been exercising. Inflammation, a key factor in many disease processes, was drastically reduced. Insulin resistance also declined dramatically and the mice had much more energy overall. Researchers say that what happened to the mice could be compared to a 60 year old person suddenly having the muscle tone and energy of someone in his or her 20s.

What’s more, say the researchers, these stunning results were realized within just one week’s time. The compound raises the level of a naturally occurring substance in the human body called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. This substance decreases as people age, although those who follow a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise do not suffer the same level of reduction in the substance as do people who do not exercise. This may explain why people who remain fit into their senior years often enjoy better health than others.

Scientists who participated in the study say that poor communication between mitochondria and the cell nucleus is to blame for the aging process. The compound the researchers have developed cause the cells to be able to “talk” to each other again. They compared the relationship between the nucleus and the mitochondria to a married couple; by the time the couple has been married for 20 years, “communication breaks down” and they don’t talk to each other as much. Just like a marriage, this relationship and communication within it can be repaired, say the researchers.

Aging has successfully been reversed in mice, but Sinclair says he needs to raise more money before he can commit to a date when trials may begin in humans. The results of this initial study in mice are very promising and may pave the way for similar results in humans.

By: Rebecca Savastio

Sources:

ABC News

Science Direct

Huffington Post

What does a geodesist do?

Posted date: 7:52 PM / comment : 0 Interesting, Science

What does a geodesist do?

Geodesists measure and monitor the Earth to determine the exact coordinates of any point.

NGS surveyor measures the difference in elevation between two points in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. — Geodesists measure and monitor the Earth’s size and shape, geodynamic phenomena (e.g., tides and polar motion), and gravity field to determine the exact coordinates of any point on Earth and how that point will move over time.

Using a wide variety of tools, both on the land and in space, geodesists are experts at measuring things. Here are a few examples of what geodesists can measure.

With the precision of atomic clocks and lasers, geodesists can measure the the pull of gravity so accurately, they could detect changes of one billionth of your body weight.
With tools that monitor the noise from outside our own galaxy, geodesists are able to measure the distances between two points on Earth to less than a millimeter.
By bouncing signals from satellites located hundreds of kilometers above the ocean, geodesists are able to track the rise of the mean ocean surface to about 1.7 millimeters per year.
And, probably most well-known, by using signals generated by GPS satellites that are located approximately 20,000 kilometers above the Earth, geodesists are able to accurately determine the positions of points to a few centimeters in just a matter of minutes.

Within the United States, this accurate determination of positions forms the scientific basis for all geodetic control, known collectively as the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). Every non-military federal geospatial product of the United States is tied to the NSRS so that they may all overlap and align accurately.

Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling

Posted date: 9:43 PM / comment : 0 Interesting, Science

CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Tesfayohanes Yakob, left, and research engineer Dana Haushulz are shown here with a novel solar-thermal toilet developed by a team led by CU-Boulder Professor Karl Linden as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" to improve sanitation and hygiene in developing countries.

Credit: Image courtesy of University of Colorado at Boulder

Abstract: A revolutionary toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month. The self-contained, waterless toilet has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal.

A revolutionary University of Colorado Boulder toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month.

The self-contained, waterless toilet, designed and built using a $777,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal, said project principal investigator Karl Linden, professor of environmental engineering. The biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

The project is part of the Gates Foundation's "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge," an effort to develop a next-generation toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste while generating useful end products, both in developing and developed nations, said Linden. Since the 2012 grant, Linden and his CU-Boulder team have received an additional $1 million from the Gates Foundation for the project, which includes a team of more than a dozen faculty, research professionals and students, many working full time on the effort.

According to the Gates Foundation, the awards recognize researchers who are developing ways to manage human waste that will help improve the health and lives of people around the world. Unsafe methods to capture and treat human waste result in serious health problems and death -- food and water tainted with pathogens from fecal matter results in the deaths of roughly 700,000 children each year.

Linden's team is one of 16 around the world funded by the Gates "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" since 2011. All have shipped their inventions to Delhi, where they will be on display March 22 for scientists, engineers and dignitaries. Other institutional winners of the grants range from Caltech to Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the National University of Singapore.

The CU-Boulder invention consists of eight parabolic mirrors that focus concentrated sunlight to a spot no larger than a postage stamp on a quartz-glass rod connected to eight bundles of fiber-optic cables, each consisting of thousands of intertwined, fused fibers, said Linden. The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fiber-optic cable system -- similar in some ways to a data transmission line -- can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material, disinfect pathogens in both feces and urine, and produce char.

"Biochar is a valuable material," said Linden. "It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients and bring more stability to the soils." A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water and increase the availability of plant nutrients, he said. Additionally, the biochar can be burned as charcoal and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal.

Linden is working closely with project co-investigators Professor R. Scott Summers of environmental engineering and Professor Alan Weimer chemical and biological engineering and a team of postdoctoral fellows, professionals, graduate students, undergraduates and a high school student.

"We are doing something that has never been done before," said Linden. "While the idea of concentrating solar energy is not new, transmitting it flexibly to a customizable location via fiber-optic cables is the really unique aspect of this project." The interdisciplinary project requires chemical engineers for heat transfer and solar energy work, environmental engineers for waste treatment and stabilization, mechanical engineers to build actuators and moving parts and electrical engineers to design control systems, Linden said.

Tests have shown that each of the eight fiber-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy, meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber, said Linden. In late December, tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water and effectively carbonize solid waste.

While the current toilet has been created to serve four to six people a day, a larger facility that could serve several households simultaneously is under design with the target of meeting a cost level of five cents a day per user set by the Gates Foundation. "We are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and lower costs," he said.

"The great thing about the Gates Foundation is that they provide all of the teams with the resources they need," Linden said. "The foundation is not looking for one toilet and one solution from one team. They are nurturing unique ideas and looking at what the individual teams bring overall to the knowledge base."

Linden, who called the 16 teams a "family of researchers," said the foundation has funded trips for CU-Boulder team members to collaborate with the other institutions in places like Switzerland, South Africa and North Carolina. "Instead of sink or swim funding, they want every team to succeed. In some ways we are like a small startup company, and it's unlike any other project I have worked on during my career," he said.

CU-Boulder team member Elizabeth Travis from Parker, Colo., who is working toward a master's degree in the engineering college's Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities, said her interest in water and hygiene made the Reinvent the Toilet project a good fit. "It is a really cool research project and a great team," she said. "Everyone is very creative, patient and supportive, and there is a lot of innovation. It is exciting to learn from all of the team members."

"We have a lot of excitement and energy on our team, and the Gates Foundation values that," Linden said. "It is one thing to do research, another to screw on nuts and bolts and make something that can make a difference. To me, that's the fun part, and the project is a nice fit for CU-Boulder because we have a high interest in developing countries and expertise in all of the renewable energy technologies as well as sanitation."

The CU-Boulder team is now applying for phase two of the Gates Foundation Reinvent the Toilet grant to develop a field-worthy system to deploy in a developing country based on their current design, and assess other technologies that may enhance the toilet system, including the use of high-temperature fluids that can collect, retain and deliver heat.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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