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Murine Intestine

This cross section of a mouse intestine has been stained with fluorescent dyes. The red curved border along the bottom is the outer muscular wall that encloses the intestine. The green fingerlike projections pointing into the lumen (the black space near the top, center of the image) are villi. Villi increase the internal surface area of the intestine and make more surface area available to nutrient absorption. To further increase surface area, villi themselves are covered in smaller fingerlike projections called microvilli, or collectively the “brush border.” A red dye was used to stain actin filaments which are densely packed in microvilli—this also outlined the internal walls of the intestine. Goblet cell mucus were detected with a blue-fluorescent dye, whereas cell nuclei were stained green.

Photo credit: Thermo Fischer Scientific.

Pro-gun advocates claim new laws will not make us safer. But here is evidence the right laws will do exactly that

Pro-gun advocates claim new laws will not make us safer. But here is evidence the right laws could do exactly that:

1. Require permits to purchase firearms

The risk of guns going to criminals post-sale dropped by 68% when law enforcement officials had discretion about who could get a permit.

After Missouri repealed its permit-to-purchase handgun law in 2007, firearm homicide rates rose by 25%, a jump that was not seen in neighboring states or the rest of the country. In addition, handgun murders of police in the line of duty rose by 52%.

2. Ban individuals convicted of any violent crime (not just domestic violence) from purchasing guns

In 1991, California passed a law preventing individuals with violent convictions from buying guns. Convicts who bought guns before the law passed were ~30% more likely to be arrested later for a gun crime or other violent act compared to convicts who tried, but were unable, to buy guns after the law was passed.

3. Make all serious domestic violence offenders surrender firearms

More than 20% of all public mass shootings between 1999 and 2013 were precipitated in part by domestic disputes.

Laws requiring domestic violence offenders to surrender their firearms are ~50% more effective at reducing intimate partner violence than letting them voluntarily relinquish their guns to police.

The risk for intimate partner homicide in large U.S. cities dropped by 19% when guns were restricted from people with domestic violence restraining orders against them.

4. Temporarily ban active alcohol abusers from firearms

9 million U.S. firearm owners also binge drink.

People convicted of driving under the influence are 4-5× more likely than people with no criminal record to be arrested for a violent crime in the future.

Nematode

Nematodes are small, slender worms otherwise known as roundworms—the one above has been magnified 20×. Nematodes are extremely abundant; several hundred species, and as many as a million individuals, often inhabit a square yard (0.84 m2) of soil. Nematodes are also extremely varied ecologically. They are found in land-based, freshwater, and saltwater ecosystems, as well as within other organisms as parasites. They play a critical role in decomposition and nutrient cycling, acting as intermediate decomposers that partly break down organic materials so bacteria can finish the job.

Video credit: Ralph Grimm, Jimboomba, Australia, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

typhlonectes

The world is lit at night like never before, and ecologists are assessing the damage.

It’s a summer night near a forest lake in Germany and something unnatural is going on. Beyond the dark waters lapping at the shores, a faint glow emanates from rings of light hovering above the surface. Nearby, bobbing red torchlights — the least-disruptive part of the visible spectrum — betray the presence of scientists on the shoreline. They are testing what happens when they rob the lake creatures of their night.

This experiment near Berlin is the most ambitious of several projects going on in dark patches of countryside around Europe, set up in the past few years to probe what light pollution is doing to ecosystems. Researchers are growing increasingly concerned about the problem. Although many studies have documented how artificial light harms individual species, the impacts on whole ecosystems and the services they provide, such as crop pollination, is less clear. Several field studies hope to provide answers, by monitoring how plant and animal communities respond to both direct light and the more diffuse unnatural luminance of the night sky, known as skyglow…

#science #light #light pollution #ecology #artificial #unnatural #night #nighttime #lights #lake #experiment #Germany #Europe #dark #darkness #ecosystem #technology #luminance #skyglow #nature #natural

Klebsiella pneumoniae

This Gram-negative bacteria (red) is normally found in human intestines. There, they are harmless. They can also be found (not surprisingly) in human feces. In healthcare settings, however, malicious Klebsiella infections often occur in sick, vulnerable patients. Spread only by direct contact, Klebsiella can cause pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and meningitis. Healthy people usually do not get Klebsiella infections.

Unfortunately, Klebsiella bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. In 2016, the CDC reported that an elderly woman in Nevada succumbed to carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella bacteria. Carbapenems are significant here because they are typically the last line of defense against Gram-negative bacteria. In trying to determine what might clear the Klebsiella infection, microbiologists discovered that the strain this woman had was resistant to a whopping 26 antibiotics, which is to say all available antibiotics in the United States.

The best way to prevent the spread of Klebsiella is, as with all microbial pathogens, frequent and thorough hand-washing. To reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance, always take the full course of antibiotics as prescribed and never save leftovers or share them.

Photo credit: David Dorward, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

mindblowingscience

In this study, the researchers found vaccinating mice with double-layered protein nanoparticles that target the stalk of this protein produces long-lasting immunity and fully protects them against various influenza A viruses. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers have developed a universal vaccine to combat influenza A viruses that produces long-lasting immunity in mice and protects them against the limitations of seasonal flu vaccines, according to a study led by Georgia State University.

Influenza, a contagious respiratory illness that infects the nose, throat and lungs, is among the leading causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC estimates influenza has resulted in between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually in the U.S. since 2010.

Diamond Pixel

When Samsung launched their Galaxy S4 smartphone, they introduced an OLED architecture that uses diamond subpixels. (This can be seen above at 4× magnification.) Diamond Pixel, as Samsung called their new screen design in 2013, has twice as many green subpixels as there are blue and red ones. The green subpixels are oval and small while the red and blue ones are diamond-shaped and larger. The diamond shape was chosen to maximize the density of pixels per inch (PPI)—the Galaxy S4's OLED screen had 441 PPI.

Video credit: Andrew Melia, Institute of Technical Education, Singapore, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

myfrogcroaked

A rare example of biofluorescence that isn't in the ocean.

Biofluorescence is the ability of an organism to absorb light of one wavelength and then re-emit it at a different one, and is different from bioluminescence, light emitted from a biological chemical reaction. It is usually observed in marine creatures, such as the corals and jellyfish. “So we could hardly believe our eyes when we illuminated the chameleons in our collection with a UV lamp, and almost all species showed blue, previously invisible patterns on the head, some even over the whole body,” said David Prötzel, a doctoral candidate at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology

Using micro-CT scans, Prötzel and his team, who published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports, found that the fluorescent blue patterns match the distribution of the reptiles’ tubercles, or bony protrusions. The skin over tubercles, they found, it is extremely thin, which allows light to penetrate to the bones, which do the biofluorescing. “It has long been known that bones fluoresce under UV light, but that animals use this phenomenon to fluoresce themselves has surprised us and was previously unknown,” said Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.

Researchers believe that the glow helps chameleons communicate their identities to one another.

Source: AtlasObscura

Paramecium

This single-celled organism can be found in freshwater, brackish, and marine environments. It is covered in cilia, short hair-like structures used for swimming and for wafting food into its groove-like mouth (center).

Photo credit: Power and Syred.

Infusoria

Infusoria is a collective term for microscopic aquatic creatures such as ciliates, euglenoids, protozoa, single-celled algae and small invertebrates that exist in freshwater ponds.

Video credit: Anatoly Mikhaltsov, Children’s Ecological and Biological Center, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

Cleavage

In embryology, cleavage is the division of cells in the early embryo. It differs from other forms of cell division in that it increases the number of cells without increasing cytoplasmic mass. The zygote undergoes rapid cell cycles with no significant growth and produces a cluster of cells the same size as the original zygote.

Video credit: Christian Sardet and Noe Sardet, Plankton Chronicles, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

currentsinbiology

A team of researchers with members from the U.S., Germany and Sweden has discovered that the cellulose found in bacterial biofilms differs from the cellulose in plants. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they found the difference and what their findings might mean for developing new ways to combat bacterial infections. Michael Galperin with NIH in the U.S. and Daria Shalaeva with Moscow State University offer a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.

One of the reasons that bacterial infections can be difficult to treat is their tendency to form biofilms resistant to penetration, making it difficult for antibiotic agents to reach and kill them. Such biofilms, Galperin and Shalaeva note, can cause a bacterial infection to shift from an acute infection to a chronic infection. Over the years, scientists have studied bacterial biofilms hoping to find a weakness that might be exploited to make them less protective of the bacteria hiding within them. Unfortunately, up until now, little progress has been made in this area. In this new effort, however, it appears the researchers have found something in the makeup of the biofilms that might make it possible to weaken them.

Journal reference: Science

Escherichia coli. Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH

Zebrafish Embryogenesis

For more than half a century, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been an important model organism in scientific research. It has many characteristics that make it useful for studying human genetics, development, and disease. Its embryonic development, for example, is very rapid; a zebrafish embryo develops as much in a day as a human embryo does in one month. Additionally, zebrafish embryos are relatively large, robust, and transparent, and able to develop outside their mother.

Video credit: Gopi Shah, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

currentsinbiology

In the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, a submarine is shrunken down and injected into a scientist's body to repair a blood clot in his brain. While the movie may be still be fiction, researchers at Caltech are making strides in this direction: they have, for the first time, created bacterial cells with the ability to reflect sound waves, reminiscent of how submarines reflect sonar to reveal their locations.

The ultimate goal is to be able to inject therapeutic bacteria into a patient’s body—for example, as probiotics to help treat diseases of the gut or as targeted tumor treatments—and then use ultrasound machines to hit the engineered bacteria with sound waves to generate images that reveal the locations of the microbes. The pictures would let doctors know if the treatments made it to the right place in the body and were working properly.

“We are engineering the bacterial cells so they can bounce sound waves back to us and let us know their location the way a ship or submarine scatters sonar when another ship is looking for it,” says Mikhail Shapiro, assistant professor of chemical engineering, Schlinger Scholar, and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. “We want to be able to ask the bacteria, ‘Where are you and how are you doing?’ The first step is to learn to visualize and locate the cells, and the next step is to communicate with them.”

The results will be published in the January 4 issue of the journal Nature.

Acoustic reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of microorganisms in mammalian hosts, Nature (2018). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25021

Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) image of a single commensal bacterium, E. coli Nissle 1917, which has been genetically engineered to express gas-filled protein nanostructures known as gas vesicles. The cell is approximately 2 micrometers in length, and the lighter-colored structures contained inside of it are individual gas vesicles. Credit: Anupama Lakshmanan/Caltech

Inoculated with Malaria

Female mosquitoes feed on blood. Although we call them "bites," a female mosquito actually stabs a part of her mouth—the proboscis—through your skin. Then, as if to add insult to injury, she spits into the wound and sucks up some of your blood. (Mosquito saliva contains an anti-coagulant that helps keep your blood flowing so she can quickly get her fill.) The injection phase of a mosquito bite is what makes them so dangerous—their saliva can carry lethal microorganisms.

One of the most notorious mosquito-borne diseases is human malaria. In 2015, 212 million malaria cases were reported worldwide with approximately 429,000 deaths, 92% of which occurred in Africa. Unlike most infectious diseases, malaria is actually caused by protozoan parasites.

At 10× magnification, the clip above shows a mosquito injecting malaria parasites into a live mouse.

Video credit: Christine Hopp and Photini Sinnis, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

Branching Microtubules

Microtubules are one of the main components of the cytoskeleton. They provide eukaryotic cells shape and enable a variety of movements: cell locomotion, the intracellular transport of organelles, and the separation of chromosomes during mitosis. Microtubules are dynamic structures that undergo continual assembly and disassembly within the cell.

At 100× magnification, the time-lapse clip above shows new microtubules branching off the sides of existing microtubules.

Video credit: Akanksha Thawani and Sabine Petry, Princeton University, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

Interorganelle Interactions

Organelles are small, specialized structures in cells that carry out specific tasks. In eukaryotic cells, such as those that make up our bodies, organelles are enclosed by lipid membranes. These membrane-bound compartments allow certain biochemical reactions to proceed without interference from the rest of the cell’s chemistry.

Organelles do, however, move around in cells and bump into one another—doing so allows them to transfer materials and send and receive biochemical signals. To analyze the ways in which organelles interact throughout cells over time, researchers engineered the monkey kidney cell shown above. This kidney cell expresses different-colored fluorescent proteins, each designed to localize in one type of organelle:

Lipid droplets ➝ dark blue

Peroxisomes ➝ red

Mitochondria ➝ green

Golgi ➝ pink

Lysosomes ➝ light blue

Endoplasmic reticulum ➝ yellow

Video credit: Alex Valm & Sarah Cohen, University at Albany, winner of Honorable Mention in Nikon’s 2017 Small World in Motion Competition.

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