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Scientists have figured out a non-invasive way to determine if a transplanted organ is failing to take in a patient – no matter if it's a ki

Scientists have figured out a non-invasive way to determine if a transplanted organ is failing to take in a patient – no matter if it's a kidney, liver, lung, or heart. It's the first time that biomarkers of dysfunction have matched across multiple types of transplanted organs, and it hints at the possibility of a blood test that can diagnose early rejection in all transplant scenarios – a tool that doesn't yet exist. If more research is done, the newly identified biomarkers could even be used to differentiate between various types of organ rejection, including immune issues, inadequate blood supply, or maladaptive repairs.

mindblowingscience

An exoplanet identified in 2017 as one of the most promising locations for life to flourish outside the Solar System has just become even mo

An exoplanet identified in 2017 as one of the most promising locations for life to flourish outside the Solar System has just become even more promising – and a whole lot weirder. The alien world LHS-1140b shows signs of being an 'eyeball' planet, with a global ocean capped in ice, and a single, iris-like region some 4,000 kilometers (around 2,500 miles) across permanently gazing at its host star.

humanrightsupdates

Sierra Leone Acts to Ban Child Marriage

Last week, Sierra Leone’s parliament enacted landmark legislation to ban child marriage. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024, which makes marriage for anyone under 18 a criminal offense, seeks to protect girls from a harmful practice that has long violated their rights and hindered their development.

Child marriage is a serious problem in Sierra Leone, where 30 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys are married before age 18, with even higher rates in rural areas. Around 800,000 girls are currently married in Sierra Leone, half before turning 15.

Child marriages fuel the high adolescent pregnancy rate in Sierra Leone where, tragically, pregnancy complications are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19.

The new law prohibits all forms of child marriage and cohabitation with a child, including aiding and abetting, protects the best interests of children, and ensures affected girls have access to counseling and safeguarding. The law amends existing legislation, including the Child Rights and Registration of Customary Marriage Acts, to harmonize the legal framework on marriage and break the cycle of early marriage and its devastating consequences.

The law also builds on Sierra Leone’s efforts to protect young girls from marriage and tackle barriers to girls’ education. A new education law, adopted in 2023, guarantees children 13 years of free education, including one year of preprimary education as well as secondary education.

The First Lady’s “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign has been instrumental in advocating against child marriage.

mindblowingscience

White or reflective paint is more effective at cooling cities than covering roofs in solar panels or greenery, scientists say, and could off

White or reflective paint is more effective at cooling cities than covering roofs in solar panels or greenery, scientists say, and could offer some relief on extremely hot summer days. Two separate studies looked at the effect of 'cool roofing' and found using white or reflective coatings could reduce outdoor city temperatures by up to 2 degrees Celsius. Scientists at University College London (UCL) used a model of Greater London to test various cooling methods against its hottest days of 2018, when the city endured a record-breaking summer.

materialsscienceandengineering

Researchers invent 100% biodegradable 'barley plastic'

A biofriendly new material made from barley starch blended with fiber from sugarbeet waste—a strong material that turns into compost should it end up in nature—has been created at the University of Copenhagen. In the long term, the researchers hope that their invention can help put the brakes on plastic pollution while reducing the climate footprint of plastic production. Enormous islands of plastic float in our oceans and microscopic particles of it are in our bodies. The durability, malleability and low cost of plastics has made them ubiquitous, from packaging to clothing to aircraft parts. But plastics have a downside. Plastics contaminate nature, are tough to recycle and their production emits more CO2 than all air traffic combined. Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences have invented a new material made from modified starch that can completely decompose in nature—and do so within only two months. The material is made using natural plant material from crops and could be used for food packaging, among many other things.

wyldefungi

As fashion designers look for alternatives to leather, growing mycelium—or fungi-based—'leather' substitutes using a new paste media has ope

nasa

For the Benefit of All: Assistive Tech Developed from NASA Tech

What do modern cochlear implants and robotic gloves have in common? They were derived from NASA technology. We’ve made it easier to find and use our patented inventions that could help create products that enhance life for people with disabilities.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which highlights the contributions of American workers with disabilities – many of whom use assistive technology on the job. Take a look at these assistive technologies that are NASA spinoffs.

mindblowingscience

An Edinburgh food research team produces a lower-fat alternative aimed at cutting palm oil dependence.

A Scottish research team believe they may have produced the "holy grail" alternative to palm oil. It is estimated that almost half of all food and cosmetic products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil. The huge demand has led to significant deforestation in areas where oil palm trees can grow near the equator. Food experts at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh say their new 100% plant-based ingredient is 70% better for the environment. And with 80% less saturated fat and 30% fewer calories, they are also hailing PALM-ALT as a significantly healthier option. Catriona Liddle, one of the lead developers on the QMU team, said: "It's the holy grail to replace it and still have exactly the same end result in product - to taste the same and have the texture the same - and we've done that.

mindblowingscience

New research led by Queen's University Belfast has made a breakthrough in the field of microbiology, which could lead to the development of

New research led by Queen's University Belfast has made a breakthrough in the field of microbiology, which could lead to the development of new treatments for people with compromised immune systems, such as those with cystic fibrosis. To conduct their study the researchers looked at the bacterium Achromobacter, which can cause chronic lung infection and tissue damage in the airways. The study reveals how this bacterium overcomes the body's immune defenses to multiply and continue to grow. The findings have been published in Cell Reports.

mindblowingscience

Teeth don't grow back once we become adults: any wear and tear is permanent – as those of us with fillings will know – which is why it's imp

It's been announced that clinical trials for a potential tooth regrowth treatment are set to begin in July 2024, building on decades of research in the field. If those trials are successful, therapeutic drugs could be available by 2030. A team from the Medical Research Institute at Kitano Hospital in Japan is in charge of the trial, which is targeting people with anodontia, a rare genetic condition that prevents baby teeth and adult teeth from growing in the normal way. The treatment would initially target young children with the condition, but further down the line, the researchers think it could also be used more broadly – with people who have more common dental problems, such as gum disease, for example. "The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist's dream," Katsu Takahashi, head of the dentistry and oral surgery department at Kitano Hospital, told The Mainichi. "I've been working on this since I was a graduate student. I was confident I'd be able to make it happen." Here's how it works: having found a link between a specific gene called USAG-1 and limits on tooth growth in mice, the researchers then moved on to tests that tried to block the expression of USAG-1.

neurosciencestuff

A Therapeutic Target for Alzheimer's Disease Discovered

Scientists at Université Laval and the University of Lethbridge have succeeded in reversing certain cognitive manifestations associated with Alzheimer's disease in an animal model of the disease. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Brain.

"Although this has yet to be demonstrated in humans, we believe that the mechanism we have uncovered constitutes a very interesting therapeutic target, because it not only slows down the progression of the disease but also partially restores certain cognitive functions," comments study leader Yves De Koninck, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and researcher at Université Laval's CERVO research centre.

Previous studies have shown that even before Alzheimer's symptoms appear, brain activity is disrupted in people who go on to develop the disease. "There is neuronal hyperactivity and signal disorganization in the brain. Our hypothesis is that a mechanism that regulates neuronal activity, more specifically the one responsible for inhibiting neuronal signals, is disrupted," explains the researcher.

The main inhibitor of neuronal signals in the human brain is the neurotransmitter GABA. It works in close collaboration with a cotransporter, KCC2. This is an ion pump, located in the cell membrane, which circulates chloride and potassium ions between the inside and outside of neurons," recalls Professor De Koninck. Maintaining this ion pump in the neuron's cell membrane could slow down or reverse the pathology.

"A loss of KCC2 in the cell membrane can lead to neuronal hyperactivity. One study has already shown that KCC2 levels were reduced in the brains of deceased Alzheimer's patients. This gave us the idea of examining the role of KCC2 in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease," adds the researcher.

Promising Results in Mice

To do this, scientists used mouse lines expressing a manifestation of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that when these mice reached the age of four months, KCC2 levels decreased in two regions of their brains: the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. These two regions are also affected in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

In light of these results, the researchers turned to a molecule developed in their laboratory, CLP290, a KCC2 activator that prevents its depletion. In the short term, the administration of this molecule to mice that already had reduced KCC2 levels improved their spatial memory and social behaviour. In the long term, CLP290 protected them against cognitive decline and neuronal hyperactivity.

"Our results do not imply that the loss of KCC2 causes Alzheimer's disease," insists Prof. De Koninck. "On the other hand, it does appear to cause an ionic imbalance leading to neuronal hyperactivity that can lead to neuronal death. This suggests that by preventing the loss of KCC2, we could slow down and perhaps even reverse certain manifestations of the disease."

For various reasons, CLP290 cannot be used in humans. Professor De Koninck's team is searching for other KCC2-activating molecules that would be well tolerated by Alzheimer's sufferers.

"We have developed new molecules which are currently being evaluated in our laboratory. In parallel with this research, we are testing drugs that are used for purposes other than Alzheimer's in humans, in order to assess their effects on KCC2. Repositioning an existing drug would accelerate work on this new therapeutic avenue," emphasizes the researcher.

mapsontheweb

India successfully lands on the moon

Chandrayaan-3 makes India the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, joining the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

mindblowingscience

In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid can do something strange. While they normally have a mass and

In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid can do something strange. While they normally have a mass and an electric charge, Pines asserted that they can combine to form a composite particle that is massless, neutral, and does not interact with light. He called this particle a "demon." Since then, it has been speculated to play an important role in the behaviors of a wide variety of metals. Unfortunately, the same properties that make it interesting have allowed it to elude detection since its prediction. Now, a team of researchers led by Peter Abbamonte, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have finally found Pines' demon 67 years after it was predicted. As the researchers report in the journal Nature, they used a nonstandard experimental technique that directly excites a material's electronic modes, allowing them to see the demon's signature in the metal strontium ruthenate. "Demons have been theoretically conjectured for a long time, but experimentalists never studied them," Abbamonte said. "In fact, we weren't even looking for it. But it turned out we were doing exactly the right thing, and we found it."

reasonsforhope

China is on track to double its wind and solar energy capacity and hit its 2030 clean energy targets five years early, a new report has foun

"China is on track to double its wind and solar energy capacity and hit its 2030 clean energy targets five years early, a new report has found.

The country is expected to produce 1,200 gigwatts of solar and wind power by 2025 if all prospective plants are built and commissioned, according to the study from the non profit Global Energy Monitor.

Solar capacity in China is now greater than the rest of the world combined. Its onshore and offshore wind capacity has doubled since 2017, and is roughly equal to the combined total of the other top seven countries, according to the report.

Dorothy Mei, project manager at Global Energy Monitor, said China’s surge in solar and wind capacity was “jaw-dropping.”

The country’s renewable energy boom is the result of a combination of incentives and regulations, according to the report. China pledged in 2020 to become carbon neutral by 2060...

China’s reliance on coal poses a significant challenge to global green energy targets, but the pace of wind and solar development is a positive sign, Byford Tsang, senior policy adviser at climate think tank E3G told CNN.

“China is rapidly and successfully scaling up its deployment of renewable power and has become the largest investor into renewables globally. This is both a cause and consequence of rapidly falling costs of renewable energy as compared to coal power,” he said.

Tsang hopes that relative cheapness of renewable energy will persuade China to kick its coal habit."

-via CNN, June 29, 2023

nasa

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s flight harness is transferred from the mock-up structure to the spacecraft flight structure.

Your Body is Wired Like a NASA Space Telescope. Sort Of.

photomatt

Researchers make progress toward a new environmentally friendly nanomaterial that could revolutionize electronic devices

A team of researchers from the Instituto de Carboquímica of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has made a remarkable step forward

materialsscienceandengineering

Ultra-thin layers of rust generate electricity from flowing water

There are many ways to generate electricity – batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams, to name a few examples. …. And now there’s rust.

New research conducted by scientists at Caltech and Northwestern University shows that thin films of rust – iron oxide – can generate electricity when saltwater flows over them. These films represent an entirely new way of generating electricity and could be used to develop new forms of sustainable power production.

Interactions between metal compounds and saltwater often generate electricity, but this is usually the result of a chemical reaction in which one or more compounds are converted to new compounds. Reactions like these are what is at work inside batteries.

In contrast, the phenomenon discovered by Tom Miller, Caltech professor of chemistry, and Franz Geiger, Dow Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern, does not involve chemical reactions, but rather converts the kinetic energy of flowing saltwater into electricity.

The phenomenon, the electrokinetic effect, has been observed before in thin films of graphene – sheets of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice – and it is remarkably efficient. The effect is around 30 percent efficient at converting kinetic energy into electricity. For reference, the best solar panels are only about 20 percent efficient.

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