The Milky Way may be swarming with planets with oceans and continents like here on Earth

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: 'ALL PLANETS IN THE MILKY WAY MAY BE FORMED BY THE SAME BUILDING BLOCKS, MEANING THAT PLANETS WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF WATER AND CARBON AS EARTH', SAYS PROFESSOR ANDERS... view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA AND G. BACON (STSCI).

Astronomers have long been looking into the vast universe in hopes of discovering alien civilisations. But for a planet to have life, liquid water must be present. The chances of that finding scenario have seemed impossible to calculate because it has been the assumption that planets like Earth get their water by chance if a large, ice asteroid hits the planet.

Now, researchers from the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen have published an eye-opening study, indicating that water may be present during the very formation of a planet. According to the study's calculations, this is true for both Earth, Venus and Mars.

'All our data suggest that water was part of Earth's building blocks, right from the beginning. And because the water molecule is frequently occurring, there is a reasonable probability that it applies to all planets in the Milky Way. The decisive point for whether liquid water is present is the distance of the planet from its star', says Professor Anders Johansen from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation who has led the study that is published in the journal Science Advances.

Using a computer model, Anders Johansen and his team have calculated how quickly planets are formed, and from which building blocks. The study indicates that it was millimetre-sized dust particles of ice and carbon - which are known to orbit around all young stars in the Milky Way - that 4.5 billion years ago accreted in the formation of what would later become Earth.

'Up to the point where Earth had grown to one percent of its current mass, our planet grew by capturing masses of pebbles filled with ice and carbon. Earth then grew faster and faster until, after five million years, it became as large as we know it today. Along the way, the temperature on the surface rose sharply, causing the ice in the pebbles to evaporate on the way down to the surface so that, today, only 0.1 percent of the planet is made up of water, even though 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered by water', says Anders Johansen, who together with his research team in Lund ten years ago put forward the theory that the new study now confirms.

The theory, called 'pebble accretion', is that planets are formed by pebbles that are clumping together, and that the planets then grow larger and larger.

Anders Johansen explains that the water molecule H2O is found everywhere in our galaxy, and that the theory therefore opens up the possibility that other planets may have been formed in the same way as Earth, Mars and Venus.

'All planets in the Milky Way may be formed by the same building blocks, meaning that planets with the same amount of water and carbon as Earth - and thus potential places where life may be present - occur frequently around other stars in our galaxy, provided the temperature is right', he says.

If planets in our galaxy had the same building blocks and the same temperature conditions as Earth, there will also be good chances that they may have about the same amount of water and continents as our planet.

Professor Martin Bizzarro, co-author of the study, says:

'With our model, all planets get the same amount of water, and this suggests that other planets may have not just the same amount of water and oceans, but also the same amount of continents as here on Earth. It provides good opportunities for the emergence of life', he says.

If, on the other hand, it was random how much water was present on planets, the planets might look vastly different. Some planets would be too dry to develop life, while others would be completely covered by water.

'A planet covered by water would of course be good for maritime beings, but would offer less than ideal conditions for the formation of civilisations that can observe the universe', says Anders Johansen.

Anders Johansen and his research team are looking forward to the next generation of space telescopes, which will offer far better opportunities to observe exoplanets orbiting a star other than the Sun.

'The new telescopes are powerful. They use spectroscopy, which means that by observing which type of light is being blocked from the planets' orbit around their star, you can see how much water vapour there is. It can tell us something about the number of oceans on that planet', he says.

The appearance of robots affects our perception of the morality of their decisions

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Research News

 

Moralities of Intelligent Machines is a project that investigates people's attitudes towards moral choices made by artificial intelligence. In the latest study completed under the project, study participants read short narratives where either a robot, a somewhat humanoid robot known as iRobot, a robot with a strong humanoid appearance called iClooney or a human being encounters a moral problem along the lines of the trolley dilemma, making a specific decision. The participants were also shown images of these agents, after which they assessed the morality of their decisions. The study was funded by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and the Academy of Finland.

The trolley dilemma is a problem where a person sees a trolley careening on the tracks, without anyone in control, towards five people. The person can either do nothing or turn the trolley onto another track, saving the five people but killing another individual on the other track.

Attitudes more negative towards humanoid robots According to the study, people consider the choice made by the humanoid iRobot and iClooney less ethically sound than the same decision made by a human and a robot with a traditional robot-like appearance. Michael Laakasuo, senior researcher in University of Helsinki, project lead and the principal investigator of the study, links the findings to the uncanny valley effect, which has been identified in prior research.

"Humanness in artificial intelligence is perceived as eerie or creepy, and attitudes towards such robots are more negative than towards more machine-like robots. This may be due to, for example, the difficulty of reacting to a humanoid being: is it an animal, a human or a tool?"

According to Laakasuo, the findings indicate that humans do not find robots making moral decisions a strange idea, since the decisions made by a human and a traditional robot were seen as equally acceptable. Instead, the appearance of the robot makes a difference to evaluating their morality.

Discussion guides the regulation of AI Laakasuo says that the number of intelligent machines making moral choices is growing in our society, with self-driving cars as an example.

"It's important to know how people view intelligent machines and what kinds of factors affect related moral assessment. For instance, are traffic violations perpetrated by a stylish self-driving car perceived differently from those of a less classy model?"

This knowledge can influence the direction of AI and robotics development, as well as, among other things, product branding. Knowledge can also shape the political discussion relating to the regulation of artificial intelligence. For example, self-driving cars can become test laboratories of sorts for private companies: in the case of accidents, the consequences can be dealt with using money, risking human health in the name of technological advancement with appeals to consequentialist morals.

"What kind of robots do we want to have among us: robots who save five people from being run over by a trolley, sacrificing one person, or robots who refuse to sacrifice anyone even if it would mean saving several lives? Should robots be designed to look like humans or not if their appearance affects the perceived morality of their actions?"

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See the media release in University of Helsinki web page.

A sleep disorder associated with shift work may affect gene function

Going on holiday has a restorative effect on changes in DNA

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Research News

 

Long-term sleep deprivation is detrimental to health, increasing the risk of psychiatric and somatic disorders, such as depression and cardiovascular diseases. And yet, little is known about the molecular biological mechanisms set in motion by sleep deprivation which underlie related adverse health effects.

In a recently published study, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the Finnair airline investigated dynamic changes to DNA methylation in shift workers. DNA methylation denotes epigenetic regulation that modifies gene function and regulates gene activity without changing the sequence of bases in the DNA.

Short-term genetic changes caused by DNA methylation are not well known. While methylation is connected with our surroundings, more research is needed on how the environment affects epigenetic regulation and gene function.

The recently published study provides researchers with new information on both DNA methylation and the biological processes that have an impact on a sleep disorder related to shift work (shift work disorder, or SWD).

The study was published in the esteemed Scientific Reports publication series.

Changes to DNA methylation can mediate infections caused by sleep deprivation

A total of 32 shift workers participated in the study, of whom 21 suffered from shift work disorder and 11 were in the control group. Dynamic changes to DNA methylation were investigated through a genome-wide analysis during work and after a holiday period.

Changes to DNA methylation which affected gene function were identified in study subjects suffering from a sleep disorder caused by shift work. The findings demonstrated that rest and recovery during holiday periods also resulted in the restoration of DNA methylation in cases where changes had been observed during the work period.

The study proved the dynamic nature of DNA methylation, which was particularly emphasised in the activity of NMDA glutamate receptors. The strongest evidence was gained from the GRIN2C receptor: the methylation level of a specific CpG base pair in the regulatory region was lower during the work period in subjects suffering from shift work disorder. However, this change was reversed after the holiday period.

"Based on the results, we can deduce that changes to the DNA methylation of white blood cells are associated with shift work disorder. These changes, such as low methylation levels observed during the work period, are probably linked to sleep deprivation and related inflammatory consequences which DNA changes may mediate," says doctoral student Alexandra Lahtinen, MSc, from the University of Helsinki.

"Sufficient rest and recovery are important for everyone, but especially important for people with a background of long-term sleep deprivation due to, for example, living habits or irregular working conditions. Having said that, it's positive that the subjects recovered from at least some of the changes related to shift work disorder observed in the study," says Professor Tiina Paunio from the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, who was the principal investigator of the study.

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Can bacteria make stronger cars, airplanes and armor?

USC researchers harness the power of living organisms to make materials that are strong, tolerant and resilient

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: FIG. 1 THE LIVING MATERIALS CREATED BY USC VITERBI RESEARCHERS MIMICS THE BOULIGAND STRUCTURE FOUND IN MANY STRONG, FRACTURE-RESISTANT AND ENERGY DAMPING MATERIALS FOUND IN NATURE. view more 

CREDIT: QIMING WANG, USC VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Biological systems can harness their living cells for growth and regeneration, but engineering systems cannot. Until now.

Qiming Wang and researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering are harnessing living bacteria to create engineering materials that are strong, tolerant, and resilient. The research is published in Advanced Materials.

"The materials we are making are living and self-growing," said Wang, the Stephen Schrank Early Career Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). "We have been amazed by the sophisticated microstructures of natural materials for centuries, especially after microscopes were invented to observe these tiny structures. Now we take an important step forward: We use living bacteria as a tool to directly grow amazing structures that cannot be made on our own."

The researchers work with specific bacteria-- S. pasteurii--known for secreting an enzyme called urease. When urease is exposed to urea and calcium ions, it produces calcium carbonate, a fundamental and strong mineral compound found in bones or teeth. "The key innovation in our research," said Wang, "is that we guide the bacteria to grow calcium carbonate minerals to achieve ordered microstructures which are similar to those in the natural mineralized composites."

Wang added: "Bacteria know how to save time and energy to do things. They have their own intelligence, and we can harness their smartness to design hybrid materials that are superior to fully synthetic options.

Borrowing inspiration from nature is not new in engineering. As one would suspect, nature has great examples of complex mineralized composites that are strong, fracture resistant, and energy damping--for example nacre or the hard shell surrounding a mollusk.

Wang said: "Although microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viri are sometimes detrimental in causing diseases--like COVID-19--they can also be beneficial. We have a long history of using microorganisms as factories--for example, using yeast to make beer. But there is limited research on using microorganisms to manufacture engineering materials."

Combining living bacteria and synthetic materials, Wang said this new living material demonstrates mechanical properties superior to that of any natural or synthetic material currently in use. This is largely due to the material's bouligand structure, which is characterized by multiple layers of minerals laid at varying angles from each other to form a sort of "twist" or helicoidal shape. This structure is difficult to create synthetically.

Wang worked in collaboration with USC Viterbi researchers An Xin, Yipin Su, Minliang Yan, Kunhao Yu, Zhangzhengrong Feng, and Kyung Hoon Lee. Additional support was provided by Lizhi Sun, professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and his student Shengwei Feng.

What's in a Shape?

One of the key properties of a mineralized composite, Wang said, is that it can be manipulated to follow different structures or patterns. Researchers long ago observed the ability of a mantis shrimp to use his "hammer" to break open a muscle shell. Looking at his "hammer"--a club-like structure or hand--more closely, they found it was arranged in a bouligand structure. This structure offers superior strength to one arranged at more homogenous angles--for example alternating the lattice structure of the material at 90 degrees with each layer.

"Creating this structure synthetically is very challenging in the field," Wang said. "So we proposed using bacteria to achieve it instead."

In order to build the material, the researchers 3-D printed a lattice structure or scaffolding. This structure has empty squares within it and the lattice layers are laid at varying angles to create scaffolding in line with the helicoidal shape.

The bacteria are then introduced to this structure. Bacteria intrinsically like to attach to surfaces and will gravitate to the scaffolding, grabbing on to the material with their "legs." There the bacteria will secrete urease, the enzyme which triggers formations of calcium carbonate crystals. These grow from the surface up, eventually filling in the tiny squares or voids in the 3-D printed lattice structure. Bacteria like porous surfaces, Wang said, allowing them to create different patterns with the minerals.

The Trifecta

"We did mechanical testing that demonstrated the strength of such structures to be very high. They also were able to resist crack propagation--fractures--and help dampen or dissipate energy within the material," said An Xin, a CEE doctoral student.

Existing materials have shown exceptional strength, fracture resistance, and energy dissipation but the combination of all three elements has not been demonstrated to work as well as in the living materials Wang and his team created.

"We fabricated something very stiff and strong," Wang said. "The immediate implications are for use in infrastructures like aerospace panels and vehicle frames."

The living materials are relatively lightweight, also offering options for defense applications like body armor or vehicle armor. "This material could resist bullet penetration and dissipate energy from its release to avoid damage," said Yipin Su, a postdoc working with Wang.

There's even potential for these materials to be reintroduced to bacteria when repairs are needed.

"An interesting vision is that these living materials still possess self-growing properties," Wang said. "When there is damage to these materials, we can introduce bacteria to grow the materials back. For example, if we use them in a bridge, we can repair damages when needed."

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Binary stars are all around us, new map of solar neighborhood shows

Gaia survey provides location and motion of 1.3 million binary pairs within 3,000 light years of Earth

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY

Research News

VIDEO: A PROJECTION INTO THE FUTURE OF THE MOTIONS OF BINARY STAR PAIRS NEAR OUR SUN. view more 

CREDIT: ANIMATION BY JACKIE FAHERITY, AMNH, BASED ON DATA BY KAREEM EL-BADRY, UC BERKELEY

The latest star data from the Gaia space observatory has for the first time allowed astronomers to generate a massive 3D atlas of widely separated binary stars within about 3,000 light years of Earth -- 1.3 million of them.

The one-of-a-kind atlas, created by Kareem El-Badry, an astrophysics Ph.D. student from the University of California, Berkeley, should be a boon for those who study binary stars -- which make up at least half of all sunlike stars -- and white dwarfs, exoplanets and stellar evolution, in general. Before Gaia, the last compilation of nearby binary stars, assembled using data from the now-defunct Hipparcos satellite, included about 200 likely pairs.

"This is just a massive increase in sample size," said El-Badry. "And it is an increase in what kinds of evolutionary phases we find the binaries in. In our sample, we have 17,000 white dwarfs alone. This is a much bigger census."

White dwarfs are the end stages of most stars; the sun will likely end up as a compact white dwarf in 5 billion years. El-Badry's atlas includes 1,400 systems that consist of two white dwarfs and 16,000 binaries that consist of a white dwarf and another type of star

The vast majority of the 2.6 million individual stars are still in the prime of life, however. Astronomers refer to them as main sequence stars, because they cluster along a line when plotted on a graph showing temperature versus brightness.

With such a large sample size, El-Badry said, it's possible to do population demographics of these stellar twins, asking questions such as: What is the distribution of mass ratios of the two stars in all these binary systems? How are their separations or eccentricities distributed?

El-Badry plans to focus in the future on the white dwarf binaries, because white dwarfs can be assigned an age more precisely than is possible with regular stars. Main sequence stars like the sun can look the same for billions, or even tens of billions, of years, while white dwarfs change -- for one thing, they cool down at a well-defined rate. And since binary pairs are birthed at the same time, the age of the white dwarf tells astronomers the age of its main-sequence twin, or of any planets around the stars.

CAPTION

A colorful collage of binary star pairs near Earth, courtesy of the Gaia survey.

CREDIT

ESA/Gaia/DPAC

"For a white dwarf, in general, it is easy to tell how old it is -- not just how old since it became a white dwarf, but what its total age is," he said. "You can also measure their masses, because white dwarfs have a well-understood mass-radius relation."

As an example, El-Badry and colleagues recently used the Gaia data to estimate the age of a Jupiter-sized gas giant discovered by the TESS satellite around a white dwarf-K dwarf pair. That exoplanet, TOI-1259Ab, turned out to be about 4 billion years old, based on the age of the white dwarf.

"In this catalog, there are something like 15 systems like this: star plus planet plus white dwarf," he said, "and there are another few hundred that are star plus planet plus another star. Those are also potentially interesting because, in some cases, the other star will do something dynamically to the planet."

The new catalog of nearby binary stars has been accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

El-Badry also collaborated with Jackie Faherity, a scientist and educator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, to create a video fly-through of all the million binary stars around Earth, which represents a good chunk of the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

CAPTION

When stars are plotted according to their color and brightness, they fall along a line called the main sequence, where they spend most of their lives, evolving into red giants and then white dwarfs only at the end of their lives. The previous survey of nearby binary stars found several hundred, whereas the newest atlas contains 1.3 million pairs, allowing astronomers to better understand the evolution of binary stars and stars in general.

CREDIT

Kareem El-Badry, UC Berkeley

Binary stars

Until Gaia was launched by the European Space Agency in 2013 to precisely measure the distances and motions of millions of nearby stars, the only way to find binaries was to look for stars close together in the sky. This can be tricky, because stars that look very close from Earth could be hundreds to thousands of light-years from one another, merely sitting along the same line of site.

Ruling out a chance alignment requires lots of observing time to confirm that the two candidates are actually at the same distance and moving together. Because of Earth's motion around the sun, nearby stars appear to change position in the sky, and that parallax can be used to calculate how far away they are. The star's motion across the sky, known as proper motion, helps determine its velocity.

Gaia conducts this tedious astrometry continuously for all nearby stars in the sky, 24/7, from its orbit at the Earth-Sun Lagrange point. The space telescope's survey is most useful for stars within about 3,000 light years of Earth, however, because beyond that, the parallax is usually too small to measure.

El-Badry first looked for binary stars in Gaia data after the mission's second release of star measurements in 2018, with the help of colleagues Hans-Walter Rix, director of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and Tyler Heintz, a graduate student at Boston University. They developed computational techniques to identify stars moving together through space and at the same distance from Earth. The technique basically projects each star's movement over thousands of years, based on its proper motion today, and pulls out stars that are moving in the same direction. If they also turn out to be at the same distance based on parallax, they're probably bound to one another, he said.

He and his colleagues focus primarily on wide-binaries -- those separated by a distance of 10 AU (astronomical units) or more -- that is, 10 or more times the distance between Earth and the sun (93 million miles). Stars closer than that typically appear as one point of light and require other spectroscopic techniques to distinguish whether they are true binaries.

To get first crack at Gaia's latest data, El-Badry arose at 3 a.m. on the release date, Dec. 3 of last year, and joined some 100 other astronomers from around the world on Zoom. He quickly ran pre-programmed queries on the data to extract the catalog information he needed to create the 3D map.

The initial queries returned some 1.8 million binary candidates from Gaia's catalog of 1.8 billion stars, so El-Badry first had to assess the likelihood that some of the pairs were at the same distance and moving in similar directions just by chance, not because they are paired. He estimates that nearly 1.3 million pairs had at least a 90% chance of being bound, and 1.1 million had a 99% chance.

"About half of all sun-like stars are binaries, many of them too close to distinguish, but we find something like 25% of all sun-like stars have a binary companion at separations of more than 30 AU, about the distance to Pluto," he said. "The distribution peaks at a separation of 30 or 50 AU."

Some pairs are separated by as much as a parsec -- 260,000 AU, or 3.26 light years -- though most are within 1,000 AU of one another.

One takeaway, he said, is that the new analysis confirms something hinted at in the 2018 data: Many binary star pairs are very similar in mass.

"One thing we already found that is cool -- we discovered this with Gaia DR2, but now we can study it better with this sample -- is that binaries like to be identical twins," he said. "That is really weird, because most of these are separated by hundreds or thousands of AU, so they are so far apart that, by conventional star formation theories, their masses should be random. But the data tells a different story: They know something about their companions' masses."

The implication, he said, is that they formed much closer together in a process that tended to equalize their masses and then migrated apart, perhaps because of interactions with other nearby stars.

The compilation of binary stars also allowed El-Badry to check the reported uncertainties in Gaia's measurements of stellar positions, which can assist other researchers who use the data.

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Myanmar protest call for general strike draws junta threat
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Students from the University of Medicine protest demonstrating by holding the brunches of Eugenia which is in the belief that the uprising is going to have succeeded, during an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. Police in Myanmar shot dead a few anti-coup protesters and injured several others on Saturday, as security forces increased pressure on popular revolt against the military takeover. (AP Photo)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A call for a Monday general strike by demonstrators in Myanmar protesting the military’s seizure of power has been met by the ruling junta with a thinly veiled threat to use lethal force, raising the possibility of major clashes.

The call for a general strike was made Sunday by the Civil Disobedience Movement, a loosely organized group leading resistance to the army’s Feb. 1 takeover. It asked people to gather together for the Five Twos — referring to the digits in Monday’s date — to make a “Spring Revolution.”

State television broadcaster MRTV late Sunday carried a public announcement from the junta, formally called the State Administration Council, warning against the general strike.

“It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,” it said in an English language text shown onscreen. The spoken announcement in Burmese said the same thing.

Another part of the statement blamed protesters whose numbers allegedly included criminal gangs for violence at demonstrations, with the result that “the security force members had to fire back.” Three protesters have been shot dead so far.

The protest movement has embraced nonviolence and only occasionally gotten into shoving matches with police and thrown bottles at them when provoked.

In Yangon, the country’s biggest city, trucks cruised the streets Sunday night blaring announcements that people should not attend protests Monday and must honor a ban on gatherings of five or more people. The ban was issued shortly after the coup but not enforced in Yangon, which for the past two weeks has been the scene of large daily demonstrations.

Many social media postings ahead of the scheduled nightly 1 a.m. cutoff of internet access service said security forces had set up roadblocks at strategic points in the city, including bridges and on streets leading to foreign embassies. Information on Twitter accounts that have proven reliable in the past said internet blocking, usually lasting until 9 a.m., would be extended to noon in Yangon.

The ominous signs of potential conflict drew attention outside Myanmar, with the U.S. reiterating that it stood with the people of Myanmar.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter the U.S. would take firm action “against those who perpetrate violence against the people of Burma as they demand the restoration of their democratically elected government.”

“We call on the military to stop violence, release all those unjustly detained, cease attacks on journalists and activists, and respect the will of the people,” spokesman Ned Price said on Twitter.

Earlier Sunday, crowds in Myanmar’s capital attended a funeral for the young woman who was the first person confirmed to have been killed in the protests, while demonstrators also mourned two other protesters who were shot dead on Saturday.

Mya Thwet Thwet Khine was shot in the head by police on Feb. 9, two days before her 20th birthday, at a protest in Naypyitaw, and died Friday.

Mourners lined the entrance to a cemetery in the city as the hearse carrying her body arrived and was taken to a crematorium where more people had gathered. They silently raised their hands in three-fingered salutes — a sign of defiance and resistance adopted from neighboring Thailand — as the black and gold vehicle rolled slowly past.

Inside the crematorium hall, the lid on Mya Thwet Thwet Khine’s coffin was partially removed to allow a last glimpse of her head resting on a bed of red and white roses before she was cremated. Members of the crowd outside chanted “Our uprising must succeed!”

Protests against the coup and the ousting of the nation’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, occurred elsewhere around the country Sunday.

Demonstrators turned out in force in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, where security forces shot dead two people on Saturday near a dockyard where the authorities had been trying to force workers to load a boat. The workers, like railway workers and truckers and many civil servants, have joined the civil disobedience campaign against the junta.

The shooting broke out after neighborhood residents rushed to the Yadanabon dock to try to assist the workers in their resistance. One of the victims, described as a teenage boy, was shot in the head and died immediately, while another was shot in the chest and died en route to a hospital.

The authorities have continued arrests that began on the day of the coup, when Suu Kyi and members of the government were detained. According to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 640 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced, with 593, including Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, still in detention.

The junta prevented Parliament from convening Feb. 1, claiming the elections last November, won by Suu Kyi’s party in a landslide, were tainted by fraud. The election commission that affirmed the victory has since been replaced by the junta, which says a new election will be held in a year’s time.

The coup was a major setback to Myanmar’s transition to democracy after 50 years of army rule that began with a 1962 coup. Suu Kyi came to power after her party won a 2015 election, but the generals retained substantial power under the constitution, which had been adopted under a military regime.

Long-term exposure to low levels of air pollution increases risk of heart and lung disease

Circulation Journal Report

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research News

 

DALLAS, Feb. 22, 2021 -- Exposure to what is considered low levels of air pollution over a long period of time can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, atrial fibrillation and pneumonia among people ages 65 and older, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

Air pollution can cause harm to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems due to its effect on inflammation in the heart and throughout the body. Newer studies on the impact of air pollution on health are focused on understanding the potential harm caused by long-term exposure and are researching the effects of multiple air pollutants simultaneously. Research on air pollution is critical to informing recommendations for national environmental and health guidelines.

"People should be conscious of the air quality in the region where they live to avoid harmful exposure over long periods of time, if possible," said Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi, Pharm.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study. "Since our study found harmful effects at levels below current U.S. standards, air pollution should be considered as a risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory disease by clinicians, and policy makers should reconsider current standards for air pollutants."

Researchers examined hospitalization records for more than 63 million Medicare enrollees in the contiguous Unites States from 2000 to 2016 to assess how long-term exposure to air pollution impacts hospital admissions for specific cardiovascular and respiratory issues. The study measured three components of air pollution: fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). Using hundreds of predictors, including meteorological values, satellite measurements and land use to estimate daily levels of pollutants, researchers calculated the study participants' exposure to the pollutants based upon their residential zip code. Additional analysis included the impact of the average yearly amounts of each of the pollutants on hospitalization rates for non-fatal heart attacks, ischemic strokes, atrial fibrillation and flutter, and pneumonia.

Statistical analyses found thousands of hospital admissions were attributable to air pollution per year. Specifically:

The risks for heart attacks, strokes, atrial fibrillation and flutter, and pneumonia were associated with long-term exposure to particulate matter.

Data also showed there were surges in hospital admissions for all of the health outcomes studied with each additional unit of increase in particulate matter. Specifically, stroke rates increased by 2,536 for each additional ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter of air) increase in fine particulate matter each year.

There was an increased risk of stroke and atrial fibrillation associated with long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

Pneumonia was the only health outcome in the study that seemed impacted by long-term exposure to ozone; however, researchers note there are currently no national guidelines denoting safe or unsafe long-term ozone levels.

"When we restricted our analyses to individuals who were only exposed to lower concentrations of air pollution, we still found increased risk of hospital admissions with all of the studied outcomes, even at concentration levels below current national standards," added Danesh Yazdi. "More than half of the study population is exposed to low levels of these pollutants, according to U.S. benchmarks, therefore, the long-term health impact of these pollutants should be a serious concern for all, including policymakers, clinicians and patients."

The researchers further stratified the analyses to calculate the cardiovascular and respiratory risks associated with each of the pollutants among patient subgroups including gender, race or ethnicity, age and socioeconomic factors, detailed in the study.

The causality in the study could only be interpreted and not proven definitively due to the limitations of the data available, which may have not included other known CVD risk factors. In addition, coding errors can occur in the Medicare database, which would impact the analyses.

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Co-authors are Yan Wang, Ph.D.; Qian Di, Ph.D.; Yaguang Wei, Ph.D.; Weeberb J. Requia, Ph.D.; Liuhua Shi, Ph.D.; Matthew Benjamin Sabath, M.A.; Francesca Dominici, Ph.D.; Brent A. Coull, Ph.D.; John S. Evans, Ph.D.; Petros Koutrakis, Ph.D.; and Joel Schwartz, Ph.D. Author disclosures are listed in the manuscript.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Additional Resources:

Available multimedia is on right column of release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/long-term-exposure-to-low-levels-of-air-pollution-increases-risk-of-heart-and-lung-disease?preview=5b7fd62f48067207703f9f57fb67aadc

Statements and conclusions of studies published in the American Heart Association's scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Association's overall financial information is available here.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org , Facebook , Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

NO NEED FOR SUPPLAMENTS

Structured exercise program, not testosterone therapy improved men's artery health

Hypertension Journal Report

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research News

 

DALLAS, Feb. 22, 2021 -- Twelve weeks of exercise training improved artery health and function in middle-aged and older men (ages 50-70 years) with low-to-normal testosterone levels, while testosterone therapy provided no benefits to the arteries, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

The natural aging process for men includes decreased testosterone and physical activity levels decline with age, leading to declines in artery health and function. Testosterone replacement therapy is often used to combat the symptoms of decreasing testosterone levels, including low energy, reduced muscle mass and reduced vigor. In the absence of any new clinical indications, testosterone sales have increased 12-fold globally in the past decades.

"The global increase in testosterone use has been very large, particularly among middle-aged and older men who might see it as a restorative hormone to increase energy and vitality," said study author Daniel J. Green, Ph.D., Winthrop Professor and cardiovascular exercise physiology researcher in the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia. "However, previous studies are mixed as to whether replacement testosterone is beneficial or not, or whether it provides additional benefit over and above the effects of an exercise program."

Green and colleagues evaluated men ages 50 to 70 years old, with no history of cardiovascular disease, higher than normal waist circumferences and testosterone levels that were in the low to normal range. The researchers also excluded current smokers, men currently on testosterone treatment or men on medications that would alter testosterone concentrations. At the beginning and end of the study, researchers measured artery function using a method that increases blood flow inside an artery. This assesses whether the inner lining of the artery is healthy and can help the artery to increase in size or dilate.

The 12-week study included 78 men randomized into four groups: 21 men received topical testosterone and completed a supervised exercise program including aerobic and strength exercises two to three times a week; 18 men received testosterone with no exercise; 20 men received a placebo and no exercise; and 19 men received a placebo with exercise. The exercise training was supervised in a research gymnasium at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, and the program was overseen by an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP).

The researchers found:

Testosterone treatment increased the levels of the hormone to above average levels in 62% of men in the groups that received the treatment.

Exercise training also increased testosterone level; however, the levels were highest among the men in the groups who received the testosterone supplement.

Artery function and health improved in the groups who received exercise training; but no improvement was found in those who received testosterone without exercise training.

Artery function in response to testing improved by 28% in the group who received exercise without testosterone, and by 19% in the group who received a combination of testosterone and exercise.

The researchers did not see changes in other tests that stimulated muscle cells in the middle of the artery wall, following exercise training, testosterone treatment or the combination of the two.

"The results of our study suggest that if you are a healthy but relatively inactive middle-aged or older man with increased abdominal girth, and you are worried about your risk of heart attack, stroke or diabetes, then an exercise program with some support and supervision can help to improve the function and health of your arteries," Green said. "Testosterone therapy may have some benefits, for example in increasing muscle mass in the legs, however, we didn't find any benefits in terms of artery function, which is a determinant of future cardiovascular risk."

Green noted that the study's small size is a limitation, and this research lays the foundation for larger studies that could lead to health recommendations for men.

###

Co-authors are Lauren C. Chasland, B.Sc. (Hons); Louise H. Naylor, Ph.D.; Bu B. Yeap, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.; and Andrew J. Maiorana, Ph.D. The authors' disclosures are listed in the manuscript.

The study was funded by the Heart Foundation of Australia and Lawley Pharmaceuticals in Western Australia.

Additional Resources:

Available multimedia is on right column of release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/structured-exercise-program-not-testosterone-therapy-improved-mens-artery-health?preview=3801432097671f0f0a2cf854d07dbfea

Statements and conclusions of studies published in the American Heart Association's scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Association's overall financial information is available here.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

WE NEED THESE IN ALBERTA

Drones used to locate dangerous, unplugged oil wells

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: NATALIA ROMANZO, A MASTER'S STUDENT IN SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AT BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, WEARS A GEOMETRICS G-858 CESIUM VAPOR MAGNETOMETER AND BATTERY PACK ON AUGUST 8, 2019. THE SENSING EQUIPMENT, WHICH WEIGHS... view more 

CREDIT: BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

BINGHAMTON, NY -- There are millions of unplugged oil wells in the United States, which pose a serious threat to the environment. Using drones, researchers from Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a new method to locate these hard-to-locate and dangerous wells.

New York State has an estimated 35,000 abandoned oil or gas wells, while Pennsylvania has more than 600,000 dating back to the early days of drilling. Overall, the United States has an estimated 2 million orphaned wells. These wells pose multiple risks. They release methane into the atmosphere, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, along with chemicals such as benzene, carbon tetrachloride and chloroform. Through sunlight-driven chemical reactions, methane also increases tropospheric ozone, which is considered a pollutant connected with respiratory distress.

"If all the orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in New York State were plugged, the equivalent of nearly 750,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide could be removed from the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of removing the cars of Buffalo for one year," said Timothy de Smet, Geophysics and Remote Sensing Laboratory Director at Binghamton University.

There are economic reasons to plug gas wells, too; left uncapped, these wells make it difficult to re-stimulate older oil fields with newer technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, according to the article.

Plugging the wells is the right thing to do -- but first you need to find them.

In 1879, New York State became the second state in the country to require plugging wells after their useful life has ended. But that plugging requirement was poorly enforced until modern regulations came to the state in 1963, and what constituted "plugging" in those early days was crude by modern standards.

The greatest concentration of unplugged wells lies in the western part of the state, especially near the border with Pennsylvania and in southwestern counties such as Cattaraugus. Currently, state Department of Conversation staff must go out on foot to identify and plug these wells, an incredibly slow and inefficient process for even a small area.

Long before the invention of satellites and global positioning systems (GPS), locations were recorded on crude hand-drawn maps, which are often inaccurate, de Smet said. Sometimes these maps under-report well sites, or record wells that ended up never being drilled. That is, where the maps exist at all.

"Some areas are completely undocumented," de Smet said.

To find abandoned wells, researchers outfitted a drone with a magnetometer that can detect magnetic anomalies in the wells' metal casings, pinpointing their location.

But before the technology could be deployed in the larger field, they first needed to do multiple smaller test trials to ensure that the process works as intended. For example, every drone has a unique magnetic and electromagnetic interference signal that needs to be compensated for, de Smet explained.

Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies Alex Nikulin and de Smet have been testing the technology as a way to detect unexploded ordnance in Ukraine, and used advanced signal processing methods to determine the optimal parameters necessary to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. In previous experiments, they also tested flight elevations over the tree canopy.

They finally tried out the well-detecting drone at a Cattaraugus County site where 11 wells had previously been mapped on foot. It worked: In just over three hours, they located 72 wells.

"We could actually have flown the drone faster and for longer missions, but this was actually the first time we'd tested this, so we were pretty conservative with mission planning," de Smet said.

Long-term, the DEC plans to adopt this strategy to locate abandoned wells, which the agency will then plug.

"Our method is pretty much the most reliable method to find them," de Smet said.

Also contributing to this research were then-graduate student Natalia Romanzo, as well as Nathan Graber and Charles Dietrich from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Andrii Puliaiev of the drone company UMT.

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The paper, "Successful application of drone-based aeromagnetic surveys to locate legacy oil and gas wells in Cattaraugus County, New York," was published in the Journal of Applied Geophysics.

Life from Earth could temporarily survive on Mars

Study shows sending microbes to Earth's stratosphere, to test their endurance to Martian conditions, can reveal their potential use and threats to space travel

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

IMAGE: MARSBOX PAYLOAD IN THE EARTH'S MIDDLE STRATOSPHERE (38 KM ALTITUDE). THE SHUTTER IS OPEN EXPOSING THE TOP LAYER SAMPLES TO UV RADIATION. view more 

CREDIT: NASA

Some microbes on Earth could temporarily survive on the surface of Mars, finds a new study by NASA and German Aerospace Center scientists. The researchers tested the endurance of microorganisms to Martian conditions by launching them into the Earth's stratosphere, as it closely represents key conditions on the Red Planet. Published in Frontiers in Microbiology, this work paves the way for understanding not only the threat of microbes to space missions, but also the opportunities for resource independence from Earth.

"We successfully tested a new way of exposing bacteria and fungi to Mars-like conditions by using a scientific balloon to fly our experimental equipment up to Earth's stratosphere," reports Marta Filipa Cortesão, joint first author of this study from the German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany. "Some microbes, in particular spores from the black mold fungus, were able to survive the trip, even when exposed to very high UV radiation."

Microbial hitchhikers

Understanding the endurance of microbes to space travel is vital for the success of future missions. When searching for extra-terrestrial life, we need to be sure that anything we discover has not just travelled with us from Earth.

"With crewed long-term missions to Mars, we need to know how human-associated microorganisms would survive on the Red Planet, as some may pose a health risk to astronauts," says joint first author Katharina Siems, also based at the German Aerospace Center. "In addition, some microbes could be invaluable for space exploration. They could help us produce food and material supplies independently from Earth, which will be crucial when far away from home."

CAPTION

Quartz disc with dried Aspergillus niger spores, before being placed in the aluminum sample carriers that went on the Trex-box

CREDIT

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Mars in a box

Many key characteristics of the environment at the Martian surface cannot be found or easily replicated at the surface of our planet, however, above the ozone layer in Earth's middle stratosphere the conditions are remarkably similar.

"We launched the microbes into the stratosphere inside the MARSBOx (Microbes in Atmosphere for Radiation, Survival and Biological Outcomes experiment) payload, which was kept at Martian pressure and filled with artificial Martian atmosphere throughout the mission," explains Cortesão. "The box carried two sample layers, with the bottom layer shielded from radiation. This allowed us to separate the effects of radiation from the other tested conditions: desiccation, atmosphere, and temperature fluctuation during the flight. The top layer samples were exposed to more than a thousand times more UV radiation than levels that can cause sunburn on our skin."

"While not all the microbes survived the trip, one previously detected on the International Space Station, the black mold Aspergillus niger, could be revived after it returned home," explains Siems, who highlights the importance of this ongoing research.

"Microorganisms are closely-connected to us; our body, our food, our environment, so it is impossible to rule them out of space travel. Using good analogies for the Martian environment, such as the MARSBOx balloon mission to the stratosphere, is a really important way to help us explore all the implications of space travel on microbial life and how we can drive this knowledge towards amazing space discoveries."

CAPTION

Trex-box being sealed after sample preparation at DLR. You can see the top layer harboring the quartz disc that carry the dried microbial samples

CREDIT

German Aerospace Center (DLR)