How a ladybug warps space-time

Vienna quantum physicists measure the smallest gravitational force yet

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE GOLD BALL USED IN SIZE COMPARISON WITH A 1 CENT COIN. ACCORDING TO EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, EVERY MASS BENDS SPACE-TIME view more 

CREDIT: © TOBIAS WESTPHAL / ARKITEK SCIENTIFIC

Gravity is the weakest of all known forces in nature - and yet it is most strongly present in our everyday lives. Every ball we throw, every coin we drop - all objects are attracted by the Earth's gravity. In a vacuum, all objects near the Earth's surface fall with the same acceleration: their velocity increases by about 9.8 m/s every second. The strength of gravity is determined by the mass of the Earth and the distance from the center. On the Moon, which is about 80 times lighter and almost 4 times smaller than the Earth, all objects fall 6 times slower. And on a planet of the size of a ladybug? Objects would fall 30 billion times slower there than on Earth. Gravitational forces of this magnitude normally occur only in the most distant regions of galaxies to trap remote stars. A team of quantum physicists led by Markus Aspelmeyer and Tobias Westphal of the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences has now demonstrated these forces in the laboratory for the first time. To do so, the researchers drew on a famous experiment conducted by Henry Cavendish at the end of the 18th century.

During the time of Isaac Newton, it was believed that gravity was reserved for astronomical objects such as planets. It was not until the work of Cavendish (and Nevil Maskelyne before him) that it was possible to show that objects on Earth also generate their own gravity. Using an elegant pendulum device, Cavendish succeeded in measuring the gravitational force generated by a lead ball 30 cm tall and weighing 160 kg in 1797. A so-called torsion pendulum - two masses at the ends of a rod suspended from a thin wire and free to rotate - is measurably deflected by the gravitational force of the lead mass. Over the coming centuries, these experiments were further perfected to measure gravitational forces with increasing accuracy.

The Vienna team has picked up this idea and built a miniature version of the Cavendish experiment. A 2 mm gold sphere weighing 90 mg serves as the gravitational mass. The torsion pendulum consists of a glass rod 4 cm long and half a millimeter thick, suspended from a glass fiber a few thousandths of a millimeter in diameter. Gold spheres of similar size are attached to each end of the rod. "We move the gold sphere back and forth, creating a gravitational field that changes over time," explains Jeremias Pfaff, one of the researchers involved in the experiment. "This causes the torsion pendulum to oscillate at that particular excitation frequency." The movement, which is only a few millionths of a millimeter, can then be read out with the help of a laser and allows conclusions to be drawn about the force. The difficulty is keeping other influences on the motion as small as possible. "The largest non-gravitational effect in our experiment comes from seismic vibrations generated by pedestrians and tram traffic around our lab in Vienna," says co-author Hans Hepach: "We therefore obtained the best measurement data at night and during the Christmas holidays, when there was little traffic." Other effects such as electrostatic forces could be reduced to levels well below the gravitational force by a conductive shield between the gold masses.

This made it possible to determine the gravitational field of an object that has roughly the mass of a ladybug for the first time. As a next step, it is planned to investigate the gravity of masses thousands of times lighter.

The possibility of measuring gravitational fields of small masses and at small distances opens up new perspectives for research in gravitational physics; traces of dark matter or dark energy could be found in the behavior of gravity, which could be responsible for the formation of our present universe. Aspelmeyer's researchers are particularly interested in the interface with quantum physics: can the mass be made small enough for quantum effects to play a role? Only time will tell. For now, the fascination with Einstein's theory of gravity still prevails. "According to Einstein, the gravitational force is a consequence of the fact that masses bend spacetime in which other masses move," says first author Tobias Westphal. "So what we are actually measuring here is, how a ladybug warps space-time."

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Publication in Nature:

Measurement of Gravitational Coupling between Millimeter-Sized Masses
Tobias Westphal, Hans Hepach, Jeremias Pfaff, Markus Aspelmeyer
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03250-7

Venom-extraction and exotic pet trade may hasten the extinction of scorpions

UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

Research News

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VIDEO: VENOM-EXTRACTION TRADE MAY HASTEN THE EXTINCTION OF SCORPIONS AS VAST NUMBERS ARE HARVESTED FROM NATURE TO ILLEGAL SCORPION FARMS. RESEARCH HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE CONSERVATION EFFORTS AND STOPPING... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

An article published by the researchers of the Biodiversity Unit at the University of Turku, Finland, highlights how amateur venom-extraction business is threatening scorpion species. Sustainably produced scorpion venoms are important, for example, in the pharmacological industry. However, in the recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people involved in the trade and vast numbers of scorpions are harvested from nature. This development is endangering the future of several scorpion species in a number of areas.

Scorpions have existed on Earth for over 430 million years. Currently comprising over 2,500 extant species, scorpions occur on almost all the major landmasses in a range of habitats from deserts to tropical rainforests and caves. All scorpions are predators and use their venom to subdue and paralyse prey, as well as for defence.

Scorpion venoms are very complex and they are used in biomedical research. Despite their reputation, most scorpion species are harmless to humans, and in only approximately 50 species the venom is life-threatening. Scorpion stings cause around 200 fatalities each year.

"Interest towards scorpion venom has unfortunately led to the situation where enormous amounts of scorpions are collected from nature. For example, a claim was spread in social media in Iran that scorpion venom costs ten million dollars per litre. As the situation escalated, illegal scorpion farms were established in the country and tens of thousands of scorpions were collected into these farms. Simultaneously, businesses devoted to training people in captive husbandry and rearing, marketing, and bulk distribution of live scorpions began to flourish. As a result, many species are quickly becoming endangered," says Doctoral Candidate Alireza Zamani from the Biodiversity Unit at the University of Turku, Finland.

Biodiversity loss is accelerating at an alarming rate because of population growth and the related unsustainable overexploitation of natural resources. According to the estimate of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), as many as million different species are in danger of becoming extinct in the next decades if this development is not slowed down.

"It is important to understand that long before a species disappears, the number of individuals in the populations decrease and the species becomes endangered. This means that the risk of becoming extinct has increased. With scorpions, the pressure to overharvest populations for venom-extraction and exotic pet trade threatens especially species with a small range. Scorpions also breed relatively slowly when compared with several other invertebrates. In addition to the increased pressure to harvest these animals, they are also threatened by habitat destruction," notes Professor of Biodiversity Research Ilari E. Sääksjärvi from the University of Turku.

CAPTION

Androctonus crassicauda is one of the scorpion species threatened by the escalated venom-extraction business.

CREDIT

Alireza Zamani

Scorpion species are poorly known - research helps in conservation efforts

Research has a very important role in stopping the biodiversity loss. Our understanding of biodiversity is still inadequate and as much as 80 percent of the living organisms on Earth are unknown to science. Protecting biodiversity requires more and more researched information.

"Scorpion species are still poorly known. It is vital for the protection of scorpions to produce more information about the species and get them under conservation. At the moment, only few scorpion species are protected. At the same time, we should ensure that the local communities are sufficiently informed about scorpions and their situation. With knowledge, we can help people to understand that many species are endangered and in danger of becoming extinct due to the overharvesting. It is also important to make sure that people understand that there is no market for the venom produced by amateur scorpion farms," says Zamani.

The researchers of the Biodiversity Unit at the University of Turku are specialised in mapping out species in poorly documented areas. Each year, the researchers discover and describe dozens of species new to science.

"These studies help us to better understand the biodiversity loss and its factors. Many species currently suffer from the exotic animal trade that is enormous on a global scale. Our goal is to continue to shine light also on scorpions. It is important that people understand these magnificent animals better. Their importance for humans is great as well. As species become extinct, we also lose all the possibilities that their complex venoms could offer, for example, to drug development," emphasises Professor Sääksjärvi.

CAPTION

It is easy to collect scorpions at night time. The animals glow under a UV lamp, so one person can collect thousands of scorpions in one night. In the photo, there are hundreds of Mesobuthus eupeus scorpions in the tanks of an illegal farm in Iran.

CREDIT

Alireza Shahrdari

Fishers at risk in 'perfect storm'

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

IMAGE: FISHERS IN NEWLYN, CORNWALL view more 

CREDIT: LAURENCE HARTWELL

Stormier weather will increasingly force fishers to choose between their safety and income, researchers say.

Climate change is causing more extreme weather in many locations. Storms will likely increase around the UK in the future, while many fishers in the UK also face economic insecurity.

The new study - led by the University of Exeter - worked with fishers in Cornwall to understand how they balance the risks and rewards of fishing in varying conditions.

Factors that made skippers more likely to risk fishing in high wind or waves included: being the main earner in their household, poor recent fishing success, and having a crew to support.

"Climate change and economic insecurity create a 'perfect storm', putting ever-increasing pressure on skippers," said lead author Dr Nigel Sainsbury.

"Fishing is already the most dangerous peacetime profession in the UK, and the combination of more extreme weather and financial challenges will only make this worse.

"Solving this problem is difficult.

"Our suggestions include policies that improve the safety of boats and support less vulnerable fishing methods, and the creation of insurance products that pay fishers to stay in port in dangerous conditions."

The research team included scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the universities of East Anglia, Bristol and North Carolina Wilmington.

Researchers presented skippers with various scenarios with differing factors including wave height, wind speed, likely catch and price - and asked them which trip they would prefer, or whether they would stay ashore.

"Skippers working with a crew were more likely to 'push the weather'," Dr Sainsbury said.

"This could partly be explained by the fact it's safer to fish with a crew than alone, but might also be because skippers feel responsible for providing incomes for their crew - even if the conditions are risky."

Fishers were asked to score their fishing success over the previous month on a scale of one to five - and catch levels were more important to those with low scores, which would lead them to take greater risks if they expected a good catch.

Boat size and fishing method also affected decision making. Unsurprisingly, skippers of larger boats and those whose method was less risky in high winds or waves were more willing to go out in such conditions.

The study included 80 skippers at seven Cornish ports, and fishing methods included otter board trawl, purse seines, gillnets, tangle nets, trammel nets, hand lines and pots.

"By taking a human behavioural perspective, this study provides new understanding of how changing storminess can impact fisheries," Dr Sainsbury said.

"We have shown that fishers' trade-offs of physical risk and fishing rewards are influenced by technical, social and economic factors.

"This study provides insights that could be very helpful in trying to predict levels of disruption to the fishing industry in the future as a result of changing storminess and climate change."

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Funding for the study came from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Cefas and Willis Research Network.

The paper, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, is entitled: "Trade-offs between physical risk and economic reward affect fishers' vulnerability to changing storminess."

CAPTION

Fishers in Newlyn, Cornwall

CREDIT

Laurence Hartwell

Ideas for future NASA missions searching for extraterrestrial civilizations

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA DE CANARIAS (IAC)

Research News

 

IMAGE: ARTISTIC RECREATION OF A HYPOTHETICAL EXOPLANET WITH ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS ON THE NIGHT SIDE view more 

CREDIT: RAFAEL LUIS MÉNDEZ PEÑA/SCIWORTHY.COM

A researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is the lead author of a study with proposals for "technosignatures" -evidence for the use of technology or industrial activity in other parts of the Universe- for future NASA missions. The article, published in the specialized journal Acta Astronautica, contains the initial conclusions of a meeting of experts in the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, sponsored by the space agency to gather advice about this topic.

In the article, several ideas are presented to search for technosignatures that would indicate the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, from the most humdrum, such as the presence of industrial pollution in the atmosphere or large swarms of satellites, to hypothetical gigantic space engineering work, such as heat shields to fend off climate change, or Dyson spheres for optimum use of the light from the local star. Some of the proposed searches look very far in space, across our galaxy and even beyond, while others aim at scanning our own solar system in search for probes that might have been sent here in a distant past. In addition, a study is included of a new way of classifying the technosignatures as a function of their "cosmic footprint", a measure of how conspicuous they are at large distances.

"We have no idea whether intelligence is something very common in the Universe or, on the contrary, whether it is extremely rare", explains Hector Socas-Navarro, an IAC researcher, the Director of the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, of Museums of Tenerife, and the first author of the article. "For that reason we cannot know whether these searches have any chance of success. There is no choice but to search and see what we find, because the implications would be tremendous".

"The idea of searching for technosignatures draws upon the technology we have on Earth today and possible extensions of our technology into the future", notes Jacob Haqq-Misra, a coauthor of the article and chairman of the TechnoClimes 2020 organizing committee. "This does not necessarily mean that any extraterrestrial technology must be like our own, but imagining plausible extensions of our own future is one place to begin thinking of astronomical searches we could actually do to look for possible technosignatures".

The search for technosignatures

In 1993, NASA abruptly terminated its initial SETI programme for the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, when it had hardly started. It comprised two complementary ambitious projects, one using the giant radiotelescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and the other with the antennas of the Deep Space Network in California. Now, nearly 30 years later, things have changed and the Agency wants to re-start its search effort.

In the past decade great advances in astronomical instrumentation have been made, leading to a revolution in the science of discovery and study of exoplanets. The new telescopes, and projects on future space missions will for the first time allow the search for so-called biomarkers, evidence for life on other planets. Many experts consider it plausible that in the coming years we will discover extraterrestrial life, even though it is most likely to be life in very simple form.

Given present and future technological advance there will be new opportunities to search for technosignatures. That is why NASA has decided to get involved again in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, taking advantage of the possibilities of the current and proposed future space observatories.

These subjects, among others, were on the agenda of the meeting TechnoClimes 2020 under the auspices of NASA at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (Seattle, USA). With scientists from all over the world, its aim was to propose new developments making way for future advances.

Finally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held virtually via videoconference, in which 53 researchers from various disciplines coming from 13 countries discussed a range of aspects of the search for other intelligent species.

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Article: Héctor Socas-Navarro, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Jason T. Wright et al. "Concepts for future missions to search for technosignatures", Acta Astronautica, 2021: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457652100103X.

- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.02.029

- Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.01536

Links of interest:

- TechnoClimes meeting 2020: https://technoclimes.org/

Elite women might have ruled El Argar 4,000 years ago

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

Research News

 

Women of the ruling class may have played an important role in the governance of El Argar, a society which flourished in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula between 2200 and 1550 BCE, and which in the last two centuries of its existence, developed into the first state organisation of the western Mediterranean.

These are the conclusions reached by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) who led a study analysing the contents of a princely tomb (Grave 38), containing two individuals and a large amount of valuable items. The tomb was discovered in 2014 at the archaeological site of La Almoloya in Pliego, Murcia, beneath what was later identified to be the governing hall of a palatial building.

"La Almoloya and the princely grave 38 belong to these exceptional archaeological finds, which from time to time provide a glimpse into the ruling subjects and the emblematic objects of the first state societies emerging in Europe during the Bronze Age", states Vicente Lull, one of the study's coordinators. Published in Antiquity, this research has given archaeologists an insight into the political and economic power of the ruling class in El Argar.

The burial, located in a large ceramic jar, featured two individuals: a man aged 35 to 40, and a woman aged 25 to 30. Next to them was a range of some 30 valuable and prestigious objects, many of which were made or embellished with silver and almost all belonging to the female. There was a very complete repertoire of jewels and personal objects: bracelets, earlobe plugs, necklaces, spirals and containers with animal offerings. The most outstanding item was a silver diadem found on the head of the female.

A detailed study of the diadem found in La Almoloya and its comparison to four others found in the 19th century in the tombs of rich women at the site of El Argar, which gives name to the Argaric society and culture, points to the fact that all of them, despite being remarkedly uniform, were highly exclusive pieces. They were created in a silversmith workshop such as the one recently discovered in Tira del Lienzo, another Argaric site excavated by the same UAB team a few years ago.

"The singularity of these diadems is extraordinary. They were symbolic objects made for these women, thus transforming them into emblematic subjects of the dominant ruling class", explains Cristina Rihuete, who also took part in the study. "Each piece is unique, comparable to funerary objects pertaining to the ruling class of other regions, such as Brittany, Wessex and Unetice, or in the eastern Mediterranean of the 17th century BCE, contemporary to our Grave 38".

According to researchers, the opulence of the funerary goods found in the tombs of the elite women of El Argar, in which the diadems are of particular importance, is an indication of the distinguished role played by these women in the governance of some of these settlements. This is the case in La Almoloya, birthplace of the Argar society and centre of the most relevant political and economic power within the region.

Were the women rulers, or were the emblems of power worn by them merely of symbolic value? This is the question the research team is interested in. And their answer is that most probably they were the rulers: "In the Argaric society, women of the dominant classes were buried with diadems, while the men were buried with a sword and dagger. The funerary goods buried with these men were of lesser quantity and quality. As swords represent the most effective instrument for reinforcing political decisions, El Argar dominant men might have played an executive role, even though the ideological legitimation as well as, perhaps, the government, had lain in some women's hands", they argue.

Biologically unrelated, but with shared offspring

According to the genetic analyses conducted at the Max Planck Institute, the individuals buried in Grave 38 were contemporaneous, and died simultaneously or close together in the mid-17th century BCE. They were unrelated, but did have a daughter, who was found buried near them. The woman had several congenital abnormalities, along with markings on the ribs that could indicate she had a pulmonary infection at the time of death. Meanwhile, the male also had wear and tear on his bones indicative of extensive physical activity, possibly horse riding.

A value of 900 daily wages

The metal objects of Grave 38 also stand out in quantitative terms. The total weight of the silver is approximately 230 gr, which is equivalent to 27.5 shekels, a currency used during the time of Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon, in the first half of the 18th century BCE (contemporaneous with El Argar), and adapted by other Near Eastern and Aegean economies. Hence, the silver found in La Almoloya would be enough to pay around 938 daily wages or buy 3350 kg of barley.

Notably, the mean weight of the three medium-sized silver spirals worn by both individuals is 8.44 g, which matches the weight of the Mesopotamian shekel (8.33 g). Furthermore, the weights of other silver spirals found in Grave 38 are practically fractions or multiplications of that figure. "This may be a random distribution or it may indicate a standardised system of weights and measures mirroring contemporaneous Eastern examples. Further research is required to determine this, but the possibility of detecting a metric system behind the silver spirals is a further indication of the extent of the economic control exercised by the dominant class in El Argar", Roberto Risch, co-author of the study, points out.

Political unity among Argaric regions

Contrary to the tombs found in El Argar, where there is no knowledge of the space in which they were placed, the funerary goods in Grave 38 and the diadem did offer the possibility of interpreting their location within an architectural setting. "The presence of emblematic objects buried in such an important place as is the "parliament" of La Almoloya could represent political unity among the Argaric regions during the last period of this society, in the 17th century BCE. The building was destroyed in a fire shortly after the burials took place", explains Rafael Micó, also co-director of the project.

The El Argar society and the importance of La Almoloya

The El Argar society flourished from 2200 to 1550 BCE in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Murcia and Almería), and represents an early Bronze Age society with urban centres and monumental constructions, a developed division of labour, intramural burials with marked asymmetries in funerary expenditure between individuals, political boundaries and institutionalized violence in the context of a class-based state society. The most important settlements are El Argar, La Bastida and La Almoloya.

The discovery of Grave 38 in La Almoloya, excavated in 2014 by researchers from the ASOME (Arqueoecologia Social Mediterrània) research group, affiliated to the UAB Department of Prehistory, pointed out the unique archaeological wealth of the site. A privileged, strategic location which helped this society thrive for over six centuries. The discoveries made, including a building with political functions and Grave 38, confirmed its importance as a centre of political and economic relevance within the political territory of El Argar. The diadem found in La Almoloya is the only one to be preserved in Spain.

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Study offers insights into management of invasive paperbark trees

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Research News

 

IMAGE:  "NEWLY RECRUITED MELALEUCA QUINQUENERVIA SEEDLINGS IN THE WESTERN EVERGLADES REGION OF FLORIDA, USA FOLLOWING A FIRE. PHOTO CREDIT: P. W. TIPPING view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: P. W. TIPPING.

WESTMINSTER, Colorado - March 10, 2021 - The paperbark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) was introduced to the U.S. from Australia in the 1900s. Unfortunately, it went on to become a weedy invader that has dominated natural landscapes across southern Florida, including the fragile wetlands of the Everglades.

According to an article in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management (IPSM), one of the challenges in managing the paperbark species is its large seedbank. A single, large tree located within a dense stand can retain as many as 9 million viable seeds. The seeds are contained in capsules within the tree canopy and are released in response to disturbances, including wildfires and even the application of herbicides.

Researchers conducting a 13-year study of Florida paperbark populations say a biological control program launched by state and federal authorities has helped to slow the plant's invasive capacity. Now seedlings, saplings and large trees are continuously attacked by weevils, psyllids and galling flies.

After implementation of biological controls, there was a reduction of greater than 95 percent in the size of new populations of paperbark tree that emerged following wildfires. The biological controls have helped to reduce seedling and sapling density, slow their growth and inhibit surviving plants from achieving the capacity to reproduce for many years. One example: After a 1998 fire, the density of paperbark tree was reduced by 96.3 percent. By 2005, none of the remaining recruits had produced seed capsules.

Researchers say insights from Florida's experience can help other communities facing a paperbark invasion bring new focus to their control efforts.

"Our study shows biological controls help to suppress new growth, which can be left for a decade or more before any additional treatment is needed," said Philip Tipping, leader of the USDA-ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Davie, Florida. "As a result, land managers can prioritize removing large, reproductive trees instead of treating newly emerged populations."

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To learn more about effective controls for paperbark trees, you are invited to read the article "The influence of two wildfires and biological control agents on the population dynamics of Melaleuca quinquenervia in a seasonally inundated wetland", which appears in Volume 14, Issue 1 of IPSM. The article is currently available online.

About Invasive Plant Science and Management

Invasive Plant Science and Management is a journal of the Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit scientific society focused on weeds and their impact on the environment. The publication focuses on invasive plant species. To learn more, visit http://www.wssa.net.

 New study links protein causing Alzheimer's disease with common sight loss

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

Research News

 

Newly published research has revealed a close link between proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease and age-related sight loss. The findings could open the way to new treatments for patients with deteriorating vision and through this study, the scientists believe they could reduce the need for using animals in future research into blinding conditions.

Amyloid beta (AB) proteins are the primary driver of Alzheimer's disease but also begin to collect in the retina as people get older. Donor eyes from patients who suffered from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness amongst adults in the UK, have been shown to contain high levels of AB in their retinas.

This new study, published in the journal Cells, builds on previous research which shows that AB collects around a cell layer called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to establish what damage these toxic proteins cause RPE cells.

The research team exposed RPE cells of normal mouse eyes and in culture to AB. The mouse model enabled the team to look at the effect the protein has in living eye tissue, using non-invasive imaging techniques that are used in ophthalmology clinics. Their findings showed that the mouse eyes developed retinal pathology that was strikingly similar to AMD in humans.

Dr Arjuna Ratnayaka, a Lecturer in Vision Sciences at the University of Southampton, who led the study said, "This was an important study which also showed that mouse numbers used for experiments of this kind can be significantly reduced in the future. We were able to develop a robust model to study AMD-like retinal pathology driven by AB without using transgenic animals, which are often used by researchers the field. Transgenic or genetically engineered mice can take up to a year and typically longer, before AB causes pathology in the retina, which we can achieve within two weeks. This reduces the need to develop more transgenic models and improves animal welfare."

The investigators also used the cell models, which further reduced the use of mice in these experiments, to show that the toxic AB proteins entered RPE cells and rapidly collected in lysosomes, the waste disposal system for the cells. Whilst the cells performed their usual function of increasing enzymes within lysosomes to breakdown this unwanted cargo, the study found that around 85% of AB still remained within lysosomes, meaning that over time the toxic molecules would continue to accumulate inside RPE cells.

Furthermore, the researchers discovered that once lysosomes had been invaded by AB, around 20 percent fewer lysosomes were available to breakdown photoreceptor outer segments, a role they routinely perform as part of the daily visual cycle.

Dr Ratnayaka added, "This is a further indication of how cells in the eye can deteriorate over time because of these toxic molecules collecting inside RPE cells. This could be a new pathway that no-one has explored before. Our discoveries have also strengthened the link between diseases of the eye and the brain. The eye is part of the brain and we have shown how AB which is known to drive major neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease can also causes significant damage to cells in retina."

The researchers hope that one of the next steps could be for anti-amyloid beta drugs, previously trialled in Alzheimer's patients, to be re-purposed and trialled as a possible treatment for age-related macular degeneration. As the regulators in the USA and the European Union have already given approval for many of these drugs, this is an area that could be explored relatively quickly.

The study may also help wider efforts to largely by-pass the use of animal experimentation where possible, so some aspects of testing new clinical treatments can transition directly from cell models to patients.

This research was funded by the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of animals in research (NC3Rs). Dr Katie Bates, Head of Research Funding at the NC3Rs said:

"This is an impactful study that demonstrates the scientific, practical and 3Rs benefits to studying AMD-like retinal pathology in vitro."

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Animal studies were overseen by the institutions' Ethical Research Committee and carried out in accordance with the UK Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986. Experiments also conformed to the ARVO statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research. The experimental protocol was approved by the University of Southampton Research Ethics Committee and work carried out under the UK Home Office project licence #P395C9E5F (licence approval date: 4 July 2016).

 

Are 'bacterial probiotics' a game-changer for the biofuels industry?

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK

Research News

 

IMAGE: BRAZIL'S TOTAL ETHANOL PRODUCTION IN 2019 WAS 34.5 BILLION LITERS WITH DOMESTIC DEMAND FOR 34 BILLION LITERS MAKING THE COUNTRY THE HOME TO THE LARGEST FLEET OF CARS THAT... view more 

CREDIT: THE NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BIOSUSTAINABILITY

In a study recently published in Nature Communications, scientists from The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU) and Yale University have investigated how bacteria that are commonly found in sugarcane ethanol fermentation affect the industrial process. By closely studying the interactions between yeast and bacteria, it is suggested that the industry could improve both its total yield and the cost of the fermentation processes by paying more attention to the diversity of the microbial communities and choosing between good and bad bacteria.

The scientists dissected yeast-bacteria interactions in sugarcane ethanol fermentation by reconstituting every possible combination of the microbial community structure, covering approximately 80% of the biodiversity found in industrial processes, and especially one bacterium deserves extra attention: Lactobacillus amylovorus. But how come exactly this one doesn't fall into the category of "the bad guys"? The main reason is that it produces a lot of the molecule acetaldehyde, which is used to feed yeast and thus helps it to grow. You could say that Lactobacillus amylovorus is more generous by nature and shares the meal, whereas many other bacteria involved in these processes prefer simply to steal the food.

"It works almost in the same way as a probiotic that shields the bad bacteria from entering into the system. And when this bacterium grows, it will grow in a way that is almost symbiotic with the yeast which is very beneficial for the industrial process", says Felipe Lino, former PhD Student at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability and Global R & D Manager at Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Significant improvement of yield

Thus, companies could take advantage of selecting not only for an ideal yeast strain for production, as they started doing already in the 90's, but to select for the best-suited bacteria as well, since it is completely impossible to get rid of bacteria that are hanging around no matter what. An effort that could turn out to pay dividends already in a short-term perspective.

By using this probiotic in a sugarcane ethanol fermentation, it is estimated that the fermentation yield could increase by three percent. While three percent can sound like a rather low number this is definitely not the case. According to Brazil's Biofuels Annual 2019, Brazil's total ethanol production in 2019 was 34.5 billion liters with domestic demand for 34 billion liters making the country the home to the largest fleet of cars that use ethanol derived from sugarcane as an alternative fuel to fossil fuel-based petroleum.

These numbers indicate that optimised fermentation processes hold great potential. One way to start ensuring more efficient industrial production of ethanol would be to apply more targeted approaches and shift away from a "one-size fits all" strategy where sulfuric acid treatment is used without further consideration to lower the pH and kill the bacteria to keep the population under a certain threshold. This would be beneficial both economically and environmentally, says Morten Sommer, Professor and Group Leader at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability.

"Instead of using a broad range of antibiotics, one should go for a more specific solution where you keep the good bacteria inside the fermenter. This is definitely a paradigm shift because you are not per definition fighting against all bacteria, since some of the bacteria are actually good and improve your final output significantly while also having a positive effect on production costs and the environmental footprint."

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