Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Astronomical instrument hunts for ancient metal

A new study looks at quasars to explore the origin of the iron in your blood

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

IMAGE: THE WINERED SPECTROGRAPH WAS MOUNTED ON THE 3.58-METER NEW TECHNOLOGY TELESCOPE (NTT) AT THE LA SILLA OBSERVATORY IN CHILE. view more
CREDIT: © 2020 EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/B. TAFRESHI

Researchers created a new astronomical instrument that has successfully aided in estimating the abundance of metals in the early universe. The WINERED instrument allows for better observations of astronomical bodies like quasars in the early universe, billions of years ago. Researchers hope this deeper level of exploration could help answer questions about the origins not only of metals in the universe but also of the stars themselves.

Iron is one of the most important elements for life as we know it, and for the technology, both primitive and modern, that has shaped human history. But details of the exact origin of iron and other important metals such as magnesium remain elusive. Exploration of this is important in the field of astronomy as it also connected to the origins of the first stars that would have begun to shine several hundred million years after the Big Bang.

Project Research Associate Hiroaki Sameshima from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo and his team decided a new instrument was needed to study these matters. Due to limited instrumentation, previous observations to collect data for the study of metals' origins mainly looked at old stars nearby. But this only gave astronomers information about our own unique galaxy. A new instrument with enhanced sensitivity to near-infrared light could push the boundary and open up observations of distant quasars, ferociously energetic ancient galactic cores that emitted light when the universe was only 2.4 billion years old.

"By mounting the WINERED instrument on a large telescope, we can see further back in time as we can observe bodies more distant, or more ancient, than those from previous studies. We can now see details of quasars over 10 billion years old," said Sameshima. "WINERED is a special kind of spectrograph, which can read the chemical signatures present in the light from distant bodies. It revealed to us the fingerprints of iron and magnesium in the light from these quasars, and this allowed us to calculate the abundance of these elements when the universe was much younger than previous studies allowed."

Now that the researchers have established a new method to directly examine the abundance of metals in the early universe, the challenge becomes one of refining the technique and broadening its scope to collect more data. With improved data, astronomers can build on this study and create theories to explain the origins of metals including the iron in your blood.

CAPTION

The WINERED instrument allows observations of distant quasars from when the universe was only 2.4 billion years old. Previous studies with visible light were limited to astronomical bodies 4 billion years old. The colored lines represent three different possible models for the chemical evolution of the universe.

CREDIT

Journal article

Hiroaki Sameshima, Yuzuru Yoshii, Noriyuki Matsunaga, Naoto Kobayashi, Yuji Ikeda, Sohei Kondo, Satoshi Hamano, Misaki Mizumoto, Akira Arai, Chikako Yasui, Kei Fukue, Hideyo Kawakita, Shogo Otsubo, Giuseppe Bono and Ivo Saviane. Mg II and Fe II Fluxes of Luminous Quasars at z ~ 2.7 and Evaluation of the Baldwin Effect in the Flux-to-abundance Conversion Method for Quasars. The Astrophysical Journal.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.10548

Funding

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers: 19K0397, 16684001, 20340042, 21840052). The MEXT Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities (grant numbers: S081061, S1411028). Hayakawa Satio Funds in the Astronomical Society of Japan.

Useful links

Institute of Astronomy - http://www.ioa.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
La Silla Observatory - https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/
Graduate School of Science - https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Research contact

Hiroaki Sameshima
Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo,
2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015, JAPAN
Tel: +81(0)-422-34-5021
Email: hsameshima@ioa.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Press Contact

Mr. Rohan Mehra
Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, JAPAN
Email: press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

FASTER PUSSY CAT, KILL, KILL, KILL

Earth faster, closer to black hole in new map of galaxy

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Research News

IMAGE: ARROWS SHOW POSITION AND VELOCITY DATA FOR THE 224 OBJECTS USED TO MODEL THE MILKY WAY GALAXY. THE SOLID BLACK LINES SHOW THE POSITIONS OF THE GALAXY'S SPIRAL ARMS. THE... view more
CREDIT: NAOJ

Earth just got 7 km/s faster and about 2000 light-years closer to the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. But don't worry, this doesn't mean that our planet is plunging towards the black hole. Instead the changes are results of a better model of the Milky Way Galaxy based on new observation data, including a catalog of objects observed over the course of more than 15 years by the Japanese radio astronomy project VERA.

VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry, by the way "VLBI" stands for Very Long Baseline Interferometry) started in 2000 to map three-dimensional velocity and spatial structures in the Milky Way. VERA uses a technique known as interferometry to combine data from radio telescopes scattered across the Japanese archipelago in order to achieve the same resolution as a 2300 km diameter telescope would have. Measurement accuracy achieved with this resolution, 10 micro-arcseconds, is sharp enough in theory to resolve a United States penny placed on the surface of the Moon.

Because Earth is located inside the Milky Way Galaxy, we can't step back and see what the Galaxy looks like from the outside. Astrometry, accurate measurement of the positions and motions of objects, is a vital tool to understand the overall structure of the Galaxy and our place in it. This year, the First VERA Astrometry Catalog was published containing data for 99 objects.

Based on the VERA Astrometry Catalog and recent observations by other groups, astronomers constructed a position and velocity map. From this map they calculated the center of the Galaxy, the point that everything revolves around. The map suggests that the center of the Galaxy, and the supermassive black hole which resides there, is located 25800 light-years from Earth. This is closer than the official value of 27700 light-years adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1985. The velocity component of the map indicates that Earth is travelling at 227 km/s as it orbits around the Galactic Center. This is faster than the official value of 220 km/s.

Now VERA hopes to observe more objects, particularly ones close to the central supermassive black hole, to better characterizes the structure and motion of the Galaxy. As part of these efforts VERA will participate in EAVN (East Asian VLBI Network) comprised of radio telescope located in Japan, South Korea, and China. By increasing the number of telescopes and the maximum separation between telescopes, EAVN can achieve even higher accuracy.

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"The First VERA Astrometry Catalog" by VERA collaboration et al. appeared in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan in August 2020.

Mystery of Siberian freshwater seal food choice solved

RESEARCH ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS

Research News

IMAGE: SKULL AND JAW DEMONSTRATING THE HIGHLY SPECIALIZED, COMB-LIKE TEETH OF THE BAIKAL SEAL THAT ALLOW THEM TO EXPEL WATER WHILE RETAINING PREY DURING HIGH-SPEED HUNTING. THIS TOGETHER WITH THEIR SMALL... view more
CREDIT: NIPR

Through video tracking and examination of museum specimens, scientists have discovered why Siberia's Lake Baikal seals are thriving when so many other seal populations are suffering from human-caused environmental stresses.

Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, containing more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined. Native only to the lake whose name it bears, the Baikal seal is the only exclusively freshwater seal in the world.

Baikal seals are thriving in this location even as populations of many seals elsewhere have been hit by anthropogenic stresses. It appears to quite like chomping on amphipods, extremely tiny crustaceans typically under 10mm long. These are so small that in terms of the energy gained from eating them, it really should not be worth the hassle of hunting them individually. Yet Lake Baikal seals do precisely this, a rare behaviour for seals or toothed whales anywhere else.

It turns out they have highly specialized comb-line teeth that allow them to expel water while retaining prey during high-speed hunting. Their small size, compared to most other seals, also allows them to achieve a net energy gain from these crustaceans that no other aquatic mammals are terribly keen to eat, according to a study published November 16, 2020 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

While researchers until now had thought Baikal seals primarily stuck to fish, past investigations of stomach contents have shown that Lake Baikal seals also feed on the amphipod Macrohectopus branickii, the world's only freshwater amphipod with a planktonic (floating) lifestyle. But the plankton's tiny size (only a few centimeters long and weighing less than 0.1gram) and the fact that all of its body parts are digestible made it challenging to ascertain just how much plankton these seals ate - and how such tiny prey sustains the seal.

Using animal-borne accelerometers and video cameras, Yuuki Watanabe, a marine biologist with Japan's National Institute of Polar Research, and colleagues recorded Baikal seals' foraging behavior, and found that contrary to the prevailing view that they mainly eat fish, the seals actually hunted the amphipod at extremely high rates.

On average, Baikal seals caught 57 amphipods per dive - not all at once, but hunting them individually, leading to thousands of amphipod catches per day. This represents the highest consumption rate ever recorded of any aquatic mammal that feeds on single prey one at a time rather than scooping up lots of different types of prey all at once. In one case, the research team observed a seal hunting down 154 individual amphipods, meaning that it hunted one every 2.5 seconds.

Everywhere else in the world, amphipods are rarely targeted by aquatic mammals, except for a few baleen whales which are able to do so using baleen, which acts as a great big filter to collect krill, plankton and small fish. But hunting these tiny crustaceans individually would have made gaining an energy surplus almost impossible. Swallowing prey and water together requires extra muscular activity, adding to the energy expenditure, and in turn slowing down foraging rates, further reducing the energy profit.

"Each time the seals open their mouth to try to catch an amphipod, there is this huge drawback," said Watanabe, the paper's first author. "Water is inevitably going to be swallowed too."

To answer this question, the team examined museum specimens of the seal, and found that Baikal seals have the most specialized comb-like post-canine teeth in the subfamily Phocinae (Northern seals). This unique feature allows them to expel water while retaining prey during high-speed foraging.

The small body size of the Baikal seals also plays a role in making individual hunting of tiny amphipods energetically rational. Weighing in at around 50 kilograms, they are some of the smallest seals in the world. The researchers modeled the relationship of predator body size, prey body size, and the number of prey a predator needs to consume per dive to replenish the energy expended during the dive. As predator body mass increases, the number of prey needed to be caught per dive increases rapidly. But the Baikal seal size hits the sweet spot where there is a substantial energy profit.

The final piece of the puzzle of the Baikal seal's unique prey choice, and why it hasn't been threatened by human-caused environmental changes lies in where it lives: Lake Baikal produces very little algae but is abundant in amphipods.

"This apparent paradox can at least partly be resolved by our finding that the seals eat the amphipods instead of just eating the fish that eat the amphipods," said Watanabe.

When an organism from a lower trophic level, or food chain, is consumed by one at a higher level, there is a certain loss of energy. "When the seals eat the prey of the fish directly, they are basically shortcutting this chain, and thus avoiding that energy loss."

The researchers conclude that this evolutionary innovation gives the ecosystem a greater capacity to support apex predators than would otherwise be the case, even given significant levels of human disturbance.

CAPTION

A Baikal seal

About National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)

The NIPR engages in comprehensive research via observation stations in Arctic and Antarctica. As a member of the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), the NIPR provides researchers throughout Japan with infrastructure support for Arctic and Antarctic observations, plans and implements Japan's Antarctic observation projects, and conducts Arctic researches of various scientific fields such as the atmosphere, ice sheets, the ecosystem, the upper atmosphere, the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field. In addition to the research projects, the NIPR also organizes the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition and manages samples and data obtained during such expeditions and projects. As a core institution in researches of the polar regions, the NIPR also offers graduate students with a global perspective on originality through its doctoral program. For more information about the NIPR, please visit: https://http://www.nipr.ac.jp/english/

About the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)

The Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS) is a parent organization of four national institutes (National Institute of Polar Research, National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and National Institute of Genetics) and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research. It is ROIS's mission to promote integrated, cutting-edge research that goes beyond the barriers of these institutions, in addition to facilitating their research activities, as members of inter-university research institutes.

How we learn words and sentences at the same time

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

Research News

How people work out the meanings of new words has been revealed by Lancaster University researchers, who say this is similar to the way in which young children learn language.

The research published in Cognition is by Professor Patrick Rebuschat and Professor Padraic Monaghan, who said: "Have you ever caught yourself saying long burbly streams of words to babies? A lot of what infants hear is "who's a lovely baby yes you are now where's teddy gone oh look here is teddy". How do babies begin to make sense of this burbling to figure out the language?"

There are two problems about language that young children have to solve:

2. they need to understand how those words go together in sentences

These problems are interwoven, because to be able to acquire the meaning of words the child also needs to know what role they play in the sentence: is the word "teddy" about a thing, or what the thing is doing, or something else? And to figure out what a word's role is, the child needs to already know what it means.

Professor Rebuschat said: "This is a chicken-and-egg type of problem: Which comes first, the word or the sentence?"

To find out, the researchers tested how people learned new words and sentence by giving adults an artificial language to learn. They invented a language spoken by aliens and showed people sentences in alien language alongside scenes showing aliens carrying out different actions.

Over time, learners were able to acquire the words' meanings and their roles in the scenes - the names of the aliens, their colours, and the actions they were doing.

Learners do this by keeping track of all the associations between words and different aspects of the scenes across many learning trials before narrowing down to focus on those associations that are reliable.

The researchers said this method is similar to how young children learn.

Professor Rebuschat said: "So, when you say a sentence including "teddy", very often baby's teddy bear will be nearby and in view. When this occurs repeatedly over time, the child is able to figure out from "look at teddy" that "teddy" means that cuddly brown thing."

The only way to learn a new language is by keeping track of the words and grammar across hundreds of learning trials, a process called cross-situational statistical learning.

Professor Rebuschat said: "We knew children and adults can use this learning process to acquire individual words and very limited languages. But it was remarkable to witness that our participants could use this process to learn a highly complex language with considerable speed. It shows the power of humans' ability to keep track of all kinds of possible links between language and the world. This study shows us the way in which language can be learned in natural situations."

Professor Padraic Monaghan added: "We have discovered that the chicken-and-egg problem of learning language can be solved just by hearing lots of language and applying some very simple but very powerful learning to this. Our brains are clearly geared up to keep track of these links between words and the world. We know that infants already have the same power to their learning as adults, and we are confident that young children acquire language using the same types of learning as the adults in our study."

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Why spending a long time on your phone isn't bad for mental health

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

Research News

General smartphone usage is a poor predictor of anxiety, depression or stress say researchers, who advise caution when it comes to digital detoxes.

The study published in Technology, Mind, and Behavior was led by Heather Shaw and Kristoffer Geyer from Lancaster University with Dr David Ellis and Dr Brittany Davidson from the University of Bath and Dr Fenja Ziegler and Alice Smith from the University of Lincoln.

They measured the time spent on smartphones by 199 iPhone users and 46 Android users for one week. Participants were also asked about their mental and physical health, completing clinical scales that measure anxiety and depression symptoms. They also completed a scale which measured how problematic they perceived their smartphone usage to be.

Surprisingly, the amount of time spent on the smartphone was not related to poor mental health.

Lead author Heather Shaw of Lancaster University's Department of Psychology said: "A person's daily smartphone pickups or screen time did not predict anxiety, depression, or stress symptoms. Additionally, those who exceeded clinical 'cut off points' for both general anxiety and major depressive disorder did not use their phone more than those who scored below this threshold."

Instead, the study found that mental health was associated with concerns and worries felt by participants about their own smartphone usage.

This was measured through their scores on a problematic usage scale where they were asked to rate statements such as "Using my smartphone longer than I had intended", and "Having tried time and again to shorten my smartphone use time but failing all the time".

Heather Shaw said: "It is important to consider actual device use separately from people's concerns and worries about technology. This is because the former doesn't show noteworthy relationships with mental health, whereby the latter does."

Previous studies have focussed on the potentially detrimental impact of 'screen time', but the study shows that people's attitudes or worries are likely to drive these findings.

Dr David Ellis, from the University of Bath's School of Management, said: "Mobile technologies have become even more essential for work and day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results add to a growing body of research that suggests reducing general screen time will not make people happier. Instead of pushing the benefits of digital detox, our research suggests people would benefit from measures to address the worries and fears that have grown up around time spent using phones."

Watch the video here.

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Family pigs prefer their owner's company as dogs do, but they might not like strangers

Both dogs and pigs stay close to their owner if no other person is present; but if a stranger is also there, only dogs stay near humans, pigs prefer to stay away

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE

Research News

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT ELTE DEPARTMENT OF ETHOLOGY IN BUDAPEST COMPARED HOW YOUNG COMPANION DOGS AND COMPANION PIGS SEEK HUMAN PROXIMITY IN A NOVEL ENVIRONMENT. view more
CREDIT: PHOTO: TÜNDE SZALAI

Researchers at ELTE Department of Ethology in Budapest compared how young companion dogs and companion pigs seek human proximity in a novel environment. It turned out that both dogs and pigs stay close to their owner if no other person is present; but if a stranger is also there, only dogs stay near humans, pigs prefer to stay away. The study reveals that living in a human family is not enough for early developing a general human preference in companion animals, species differences weigh in.

Dogs are known for being especially social with humans from a very early age. Even those with limited contact to humans readily approach and seek human proximity and dogs can also recognize familiar over unfamiliar humans. This special sociability of dogs has been assumed to be the result of both their domestication and socialization with humans during early development. "We were curious if being kept as a family member from a very early age, like dogs, would induce similar proximity-seeking behaviours towards their owner in another social domestic species, the pig"-explains PhD student Paula Pérez Fraga.

CAPTION

Researchers at ELTE Department of Ethology in Budapest compared how young companion dogs and companion pigs seek human proximity in a novel environment.

CREDIT

Photo: Balázs Somorjai

Nowadays, the domestic pig, especially the miniature variant, is a popular companion animal that occupies a similar social niche in the human family as the family dog. This new role of the pig creates the need to better understand the pig-human relationship in the household environment, and especially the relationship of the pigs with their owners. "The miniature pigs that are part of our Family Pig Project are raised in human families since their 6-8 weeks of age. This does not only provide a unique opportunity to investigate the pig-human relationship, but it also allows us to directly compare their human-oriented behaviour to those of dogs"- says Attila Andics, principal investigator of the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group.

"In this study, the animals were led into a novel room, where their owner was paired with a familiar object or with an unfamiliar person, on two separate occasions. The subjects could freely choose to be anywhere in the room, e.g. staying near or further away from any of the humans or the object"-says Linda Gerencsér, research fellow at the Research Group. "We found that both pigs and dogs preferred to stay near their owner over the familiar object. However, neither species preferred their owner over the stranger, but for seemingly different reasons. Dogs preferred to stay near both humans over being elsewhere, whereas pigs rather stayed away from the social partners, which might reflect slight fear towards the unfamiliar human." Interestingly, the research also revealed a difference in how the two species behaved near their owner. "Pigs needed more physical contact" - adds Pérez Fraga. "They touched the owner with the snout, in a similar manner as they do with conspecifics, and they climbed to the owner's lap."

Watch our study's video abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-srppJ6UupY.

This is the first study to investigate the proximity seeking behaviours of miniature pigs towards their owner. "The similar previous experience of both pigs and dogs might lead to a similar role of the owner for the two species" - adds Gerencsér. "However, being kept as a family member might not be enough for developing a general preference for human company in pigs. Species predispositions, including that dogs, have a longer socialization period and humans are more salient as a social stimulus for them, might play an important role."

CAPTION

The study reveals that living in a human family is not enough for early developing a general human preference in companion animals, species differences weigh in.

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This study was published on the 30th of November in Scientific Reports titled "Human proximity seeking in family pigs and dogs", written by Paula Pérez Fraga, Linda Gerencsér, and Attila Andics. The research was funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Lendület Program) and the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE).

More than one-third of children with COVID-19 show no symptoms: study

University of Alberta research also shows which symptoms are more likely to indicate infection

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA FACULTY OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRY

Research News

More than one-third of kids who have COVID-19 are asymptomatic, according to a University of Alberta study that suggests youngsters diagnosed with the disease may represent just a fraction of those infected.

"The concern from a public health perspective is that there is probably a lot of COVID-19 circulating in the community that people don't even realize," said Finlay McAlister, a professor of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

"When we see reports of 1,200 new cases per day in the province of Alberta, that's likely just the tip of the iceberg--there are likely many people who don't know they have the disease and are potentially spreading it," he said.

For the study, McAlister's team analyzed results for 2,463 children who were tested during the first wave of the pandemic--March to September--for COVID-19 infection.

All told, 1,987 children had a positive test result for COVID-19 and 476 had a negative result. Of children who tested positive, 714--35.9 per cent--reported being asymptomatic.

"It speaks to the school safety programs," he said. "We can do all the COVID-19 questionnaires we want, but if one-third of the kids are asymptomatic, the answer is going to be no to all the questions--yet they're still infected."

Because of the asymptomatic nature of the disease in up to one-third of children, McAlister said the province was right to close schools for a longer period over Christmas.

"As far as we know, kids are less likely to spread disease than adults, but the risk is not zero," he said. "Presumably asymptomatic spreaders are less contagious than the person sitting nearby who is sneezing all over you, but we don't know that for sure."

The researchers also found that although cough, runny nose and sore throat were three of the most common symptoms among children with COVID-19 infection--showing up in 25, 19 and 16 per cent of cases respectively--they were actually slightly more common among those with negative COVID-19 test results, and therefore not predictive of a positive test.

"Of course, kids are at risk of contracting many different viruses, so the COVID-specific symptoms are actually more things like loss of taste and smell, headache, fever, and nausea and vomiting, not runny nose, a cough and sore throat," he said.

McAlister noted that his group has a similar paper coming out that shows sore throats and runny noses aren't reliable signs of COVID-19 in adults either, although the vast majority of adults (84 per cent) do show symptoms.

"Sore throat and runny nose means you've got some kind of upper respiratory tract infection, but fever, headache, and loss of taste or smell are the big ones for indicating that one may have COVID-19 rather than another viral upper respiratory tract infection," he said, adding nausea and vomiting wasn't as prominent in adults.

McAlister added that if people have any symptoms at all, they should stay home and get tested, while even those who feel well should still be doing everything they can to stay safe--wearing a protective mask, frequent handwashing, keeping distance, and avoiding meeting indoors.

"Some people with COVID feel well and don't realize they have it so they socialize with friends and unintentionally spread the virus, and I think that's the big issue," he said.

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New cyberattack can trick scientists into making toxins or viruses -- Ben-Gurion University researchers

AMERICAN ASSOCIATES, BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

Research News

BEER-SHEVA, Israel...November 30, 2020 - An end-to-end cyber-biological attack, in which unwitting biologists may be tricked into generating dangerous toxins in their labs, has been discovered by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev cyber-researchers.

According to a new paper just published in Nature Biotechnology, it is currently believed that a criminal needs to have physical contact with a dangerous substance to produce and deliver it. However, malware could easily replace a short sub-string of the DNA on a bioengineer's computer so that they unintentionally create a toxin producing sequence.

"To regulate both intentional and unintentional generation of dangerous substances, most synthetic gene providers screen DNA orders which is currently the most effective line of defense against such attacks," says Rami Puzis, head of the BGU Complex Networks Analysis Lab, a member of the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering and Cyber@BGU. California was the first state in 2020 to introduce gene purchase regulation legislation.

"However, outside the state, bioterrorists can buy dangerous DNA, from companies that do not screen the orders," Puzis says. "Unfortunately, the screening guidelines have not been adapted to reflect recent developments in synthetic biology and cyberwarfare."

A weakness in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance for DNA providers allows screening protocols to be circumvented using a generic obfuscation procedure which makes it difficult for the screening software to detect the toxin producing DNA. "Using this technique, our experiments revealed that that 16 out of 50 obfuscated DNA samples were not detected when screened according to the 'best-match' HHS guidelines," Puzis says.

The researchers also found that accessibility and automation of the synthetic gene engineering workflow, combined with insufficient cybersecurity controls, allow malware to interfere with biological processes within the victim's lab, closing the loop with the possibility of an exploit written into a DNA molecule.

The DNA injection attack demonstrates a significant new threat of malicious code altering biological processes. Although simpler attacks that may harm biological experiments exist, we've chosen to demonstrate a scenario that makes use of multiple weaknesses at three levels of the bioengineering workflow: software, biosecurity screening, and biological protocols. This scenario highlights the opportunities for applying cybersecurity know-how in new contexts such as biosecurity and gene coding.

"This attack scenario underscores the need to harden the synthetic DNA supply chain with protections against cyber-biological threats," Puzis says. "To address these threats, we propose an improved screening algorithm that takes into account in vivo gene editing. We hope this paper sets the stage for robust, adversary resilient DNA sequence screening and cybersecurity-hardened synthetic gene production services when biosecurity screening will be enforced by local regulations worldwide.

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About American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. Activities include showcasing BGU's academic excellence and cutting-edge research through educational programs, events and informative communications. AABGU's main purpose is to support Ben-Gurion's vision and the university that bears his name by creating a community of Americans committed to improving the world tomorrow from the heart of the Israeli desert today. For more information visit http://www.aabgu.org.

Young people feel let down by politicians and media stereotypes, says new research

UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

Research News

IMAGE: AN ILLUSTRATION BY ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE GROWING UP UNDER COVID-19 RESEARCH PROJECT PORTRAYING WHAT LIFE HAS BEEN LIKE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE DURING THE PANDEMIC view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

Decision-makers are failing to harness young people's potential to help shape pandemic responses, according to a major study that features the views of young people from around the world.

The report, titled: To lockdown and back: young people's lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the impact of the virus' first wave on 14-to-18-year-olds from seven countries, including the UK, from the perspectives of young people.

The study, which includes the expertise of the University's Professor Barry Percy-Smith and researcher Dr Leanne Monchuk, is the initial report from the 18-month Growing up Under COVID-19 project.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted with the independent research institute Ecorys, the study explores how young people experience the crisis and outlines how to promote their rights and wellbeing during and after the pandemic.

As well as arguing that their experiences could drive more inclusive, democratic COVID-19 approaches, the report shows their rights have been marginalised through lack of access to quality education, healthcare, and other services.

The international study says that political, public and media discourses feature young people as 'victims' of educational upheaval or rule-breaking 'villains'. Yet this population is overlooked in decisions about how the pandemic is handled.

Professor Percy-Smith, who is the Director of the University's Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research, said the Centre is committed to research that makes a difference in the lives of young people and families.

"So often research messages are reported to adult decision makers in the hope they will listen and respond. But what happens when politicians don't listen to what young people are saying?", said Professor Percy-Smith.

"In this report, with their insightful observations and commentaries, young people are telling us how politicians and public officials so often are failing to act in the best interests of children and young people.

"This really is the time for us to start taking young people seriously, listen to what they are telling us, value their contributions and support their involvement as a force for change. This report and the research will contribute to that endeavour," he added.

The research involved 70 young people from the four UK nations and Italy, Singapore and Lebanon. The diverse participants, who contributed to the study between July and September 2020, included BAME, LGBTQ+ young people and teenagers with experience of care or mental health issues.

Each participant was mentored by the project team to undertake research and commentary on the crisis, according to their own priorities and terms of reference. Thus meaning, they were not seen simply as research subjects but as active 'experts by experience'.

Findings of the study

While there were differences between the seven countries, the young people shared a common frustration towards the media for dismissing younger people as irresponsible in contrast to examples of individuals embracing volunteering or greater family responsibility.

"I think there's been a lot of this about, 'oh young people feel like they're invincible so they're not socially distancing'... and I think it's quite a generalisation from unfair stereotypes about young people."

Anonymous participant

There were significant concerns about how politicians ignore younger people and why there was a lack of opportunity to speak out about their experiences in strategies decided by local schools or services. For example, participants had to be over the age of 18 to ask a question in the televised COVID-19 briefings.

There was also disappointment in participatory processes such as youth councils or surveys due to their failure to impact on a national level.

"We were saying, 'Well, young people have questions, too'; why can't we? There's been no address to us, we can't ask questions. Where are we at all in this pandemic?"

Anonymous participant

The report also discovered the polarising impact of COVID-19. Just as some teenagers experienced moments of self-reflection and resilience, others struggled with a lack of support services. The need for a holistic strategy when managing global public health emergencies was also made clear.

Lessons to be learnt

Ultimately moving forward, the report suggests government and public authorities must improve young people's representation on participatory platforms and review access to support. Furthermore, it challenges schools, youth organisations and service providers to review opportunities intended for engaging young people in decision-making.

The report highlighted the importance of the media removing negative stereotypes and said they need to balance the portrayal of young people during the pandemic, from involving them in reporting roles to covering their personal stories.

Two further reports are scheduled for spring and autumn 2021, with the project set to conclude a month later. There will also be additional outputs and communications from young people released throughout the year.

Download the full list of findings and recommendations from phase 1 of the Growing Up Under Covid-19 research project: https://www.guc19.com/pdf/resource-bank/to-lockdown-and-back-research-report.pdf

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