Chemists to capture atmospheric methane with sugar

Can a carbohydrate actually suck methane, a greenhouse gas, directly out of the air? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Science are in the process of finding out. Methane gas is 86 times more potent than CO2 and one of the major cont

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: METHANE CAPTURED IN CRYSTALS OF THE CARBOHYDRATE Α-CYCLODEXTRIN. PHOTO: MIKAEL BOLS view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: MIKAEL BOLS

Can a carbohydrate actually suck methane, a greenhouse gas, directly out of the air? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Science are in the process of finding out. Methane gas is 86 times more potent than CO2 and one of the major contributors to global warming.

It is estimated that methane accounts for 30 percent of all global warming from gaseous emissions. Megatons of it are released by way of agricultural animal production and many industrial processes. But imagine if we could use something as simple as sugar – or carbohydrates – to pull methane from the atmosphere, and in doing so, put the brakes on global warming and climate change.

This is exactly what researchers at the Faculty of Science’s Department of Chemistry have set out to study in a new research project being funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark. In the project, the chemists will try to make a particular carbohydrate's ability to bind methane so strong that it can capture methane from the air around us. Doing so today is impossible.  

"A carbohydrate captures methane by binding it to itself and encapsulating it in a small ring. But because methane gas is made up of very tiny and difficult to catch molecules, the carbohydrate’s binding ability must be strong, which is what we need to improve. The first step is to fully understand the process. But I think there’s a good chance for us to succeed in getting it to work relatively soon," says Department of Chemistry professor Mikael Bols, who leads the project.

Ability to capture methane known since 1957

Diving into the history books can pay off when hunting for new solutions to problems. Professor Bols scoured research literature for descriptions of methane collection before embarking on the project with his students.

Along the way, a study from 1957 appeared. In it, an experiment by German researchers demonstrated that a carbohydrate by the name α-cyclodextrin could bind methane and several other gases.

"The article is from before I was born. It shows that the ability of carbohydrates to bind with methane has been out there for quite some time. I’m just not sure whether anyone knew about it. In fact, our initial experiments demonstrate that the carbohydrate binds methane better than the German researchers observed in 1957, which bodes well," says Professor Bols. 

When the researchers get carbohydrate to capture methane in the lab today, they do so by sending methane gas through a liquid in which the sugar, carbohydrate α-cyclodextrin, is located. In the process, the methane binds to the liquid and carbohydrates. When subjected to mild heating, the liquid releases the gas, which can then be concentrated in a tank.

"Here is where we’ll need to find out what to do with the gas collected. Perhaps it can be recycled, or stored underground, or converted into another substance. Techniques to do so already exist," explains Bols.

Innovative idea in green research

The first step of the innovative idea is to understand the process by which the microscopic molecular building blocks of carbohydrates bind methane and how to improve them so they can capture the gas from the atmosphere. By way of synthetic chemistry, the chemists will change some of the molecule’s properties.

"The carbohydrate molecule is a bit like a donut – a ring with a hole in the center where the methane can settle in. But because methane is such a small molecule, it can slip through the hole without getting stuck. As such, we’ll need to make the hole smaller," explains Professor Bols.

The project will run for the next three years and has received DKK 2.8 million in funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark. The project is one of 37 research projects selected as the best and most innovative ideas among 337 applications to Independent Research Fund Denmark for green research.

"More than ever, green research is crucial for us as a society if we are to achieve our green ambitions. As such, I am both confident and proud to see so many of Denmark's talented researchers submitting relevant, potentially groundbreaking ideas," says Maja Horst, Chairman of the Board of Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read Independent Research Fund Denmark's press release

CAPTION

Methane released from crystals

CREDIT

Mikael Bols

Methane facts:

• Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is about 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2).
• Megatons of methane are produced and released into the environment by a variety of industrial and agricultural processes.
• The global oil and gas industry emitted just over 70 megatons of methane into the atmosphere in 2020.
• It is estimated that methane accounts for 30 percent of all global warming from gaseous emissions.

Elegant hierarchical fiber organization within the bamboo node

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: (A) DIGITAL IMAGE OF BAMBOO SHOWING SHORT NODES (YELLOW ARROWS) AND LONG INTERNODES (WHITE ARROWS). (B) MICRO-CT IMAGE OF ONE BAMBOO NODE HIGHLIGHTING POSITION-DEPENDENT COMPLICATED FIBER ARRANGEMENTS. (C) THE FIBER ARRANGEMENT WITHIN THE NODE CULM. (D) THE FIBER ARRANGEMENT WITHIN THE NODE CULM-DIAPHRAGM TRANSITION ZONE. (E) THE FIBER ARRANGEMENT WITHIN THE DIAPHRAGM. PHOTO CREDIT: SI-MING CHEN (YU GROUP FROM USTC). view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

This study is led by Prof. Shu-Hong Yu from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Researchers used multiscale imaging techniques (including optical microscope, X-ray microscope (micro-CT), scanning electron microscope, and atomic force microscope, etc.) to scientifically characterize the fiber-based microstructure of the short bamboo node. Experiment results revealed that the bamboo node can be seen as one spatially heterostructured and hierarchical fiber-reinforced composite (Fig. 1a-b).

In detail, the bamboo node is composed of three parts: bamboo node culm, diaphragm, and node culm-diaphragm transition zone. Different parts exhibit different fiber arrangements, which probably reflects the capability of biological structural materials to optimally allocate limited resources for responding to external environmental challenges. Researchers attempted to propose three kinds of characteristic fiber-reinforced structural design schemes based on the fiber-based bamboo node. They are the spatially interlocked structure at the node culm (Fig. 1c), triaxial interconnected scaffolding structure at the node culm-diaphragm transition zone (Fig. 1d), and isotropic interwoven structure at the central diaphragm (Fig. 1e).

Not limited to the structural discoveries, the researchers validated the structural effectiveness on mechanical reinforcement through multimodal mechanical experiments (such as compressing test, three-point bending test, and splitting test) and simulation (finite element modeling). Some fibers such as the transversal and bifurcated fibers (interlocked with axial ones) within the node culm and the circumferential fibers within the node culm-diaphragm transition zone are found to be key for structural stability and mechanical reinforcement, which exhibit elegant strengthening and toughening mechanisms such as fiber pull-out and bridging, crack deflection and arrest. These findings about fiber organizations have implications for engineering composite material design and heterogeneous structure connection design.

Interestingly, these multidirectional arranged fibers not only act as mechanical reinforcements but also have hierarchical pores or channels for facilitating fluid transport. The researchers skillfully understood the structural reinforcement and liquid transport properties of the bamboo node and then constructed one kind of water evaporation device with high structural stability and excellent performance using it. The designed device is promising to mitigate the severe shortage of fresh water.

In summary, this work extends public understanding of the magical natural world and biological structural materials. In addition, it has important implications for the development of advanced fiber-based structural materials and the application of biomass.

###

See the article:

Mechanically robust bamboo node and its hierarchically fibrous structural design

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwac195

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JOURNAL

National Science Review

DOI

10.1093/nsr/nwac195 

Planting trees can save lives, study shows

A 30-year tree planting campaign in Portland, Oregon, allowed researchers to show that the number of trees planted in the street is associated with reductions in mortality, and that the association grows stronger as the trees age and grow

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BARCELONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH (ISGLOBAL)

In the past 30 years, the non-profit organization Friends of Trees planted trees along the streets of Portland, Oregon. Now, a new study shows that each tree planted was associated with significant reductions in non-accidental and cardiovascular mortality (of 20% and 6%, respectively, for trees planted in the preceding 15-30 years). The researchers also estimate that the annual economic benefits of planting trees greatly exceed the cost of maintaining them. The study, co-led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by the ”la Caixa” Foundation, together with the USDA Forest Service, was published in Environment International.

Evidence pointing to an association between exposure to nature and lower mortality is accumulating. “However, most studies use satellite imaging to estimate the vegetation index, which does not distinguish different types of vegetation and cannot be directly translated into tangible interventions,” says Payam Dadvand, ISGlobal researcher and senior author of the study.

Thus, the authors took advantage of a natural experiment that took place in the city of Portland: between 1990 and 2019, Friends of Trees planted 49,246 street trees (and kept records of where the trees were planted, and when). So, the research team looked at the number of trees planted in a given area (specifically, a census track, where approximately 4,000 people live) in the preceding 5, 10 or 15 years. They associated this information with mortality due to cardiovascular, respiratory or non-accidental causes in that same area, using data from the Oregon Health Authority. 

The results show that in neighbourhoods in which more trees had been planted, mortality rates (deaths per 100,000 persons) were lower. This negative association was significant for cardiovascular and non-accidental mortality (that is, all causes excluding accidents), particularly for males and people over the age of 65.

Furthermore, the association got stronger as trees aged and grew: the reduction in mortality rate associated with trees planted 11-15 years before (30%) was double that observed with trees planted in the preceding 1-5 years (15%). This means that older trees are associated with larger decreases in mortality, and that preserving existing mature trees may be particularly important for public health.

This study doesn’t provide a direct insight into how trees improve health. However, the finding that large trees have a greater health impact than smaller ones is telling, because larger trees are better at absorbing air pollution, moderating temperatures, and reducing noise (three factors linked to increased mortality).

 “We observed the effect both in green and less green neighbourhoods, which suggests that street tree planting benefits both,” says Geoffrey H. Donovan, from the USDA Forest Service and first author of the study. The analysis took into account other factors that may influence mortality, such as income, education and racial composition of the neighbourhoods.

Finally, according to the authors’ estimates, the benefits of tree planting greatly outweigh the cost: the annual cost of planting and maintaining one urban tree in each of Portland’s 140 census tract areas would range somewhere between 3,000 and 13,000 USD, while it would generate around 14.2 million USD annually in lives saved.

“Our results provide an important evidence-base for tangible interventions (e.g., planting trees) to increase the longevity of urban residents,” concludes Dadvand.

Reference

Donovan, GH, Prestemon JP, Gatziolis D, Michael YL, Kaminski AR, Dadvand P. The association between tree planting and mortality: A natural experiment and cost-benefit analysis. Environment International. 2022. doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107609

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JOURNAL

Environment International

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The association between tree planting and mortality: A natural experiment and cost-benefit analysis

Long-term exposure to air pollution puts teenagers at risk of heart disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON

Long-term exposure to air pollution can increase the risk of high blood pressure in teenagers, a new study has found.

The review, published recently in Current Problems in Cardiology, by researchers from King’s College London, looked at eight studies with 15,000 adolescents – children aged twelve and over. Five of these studies were conducted in Europe, whereas previous reviews have included many China-based studies where pollution levels are higher.

High blood pressure during childhood and adolescence is a risk factor for hypertension and heart disease in adulthood. When blood pressure gets too high, it becomes hypertension which causes heart attacks and strokes.

The review found twelve-year-olds and older adolescents have higher diastolic blood pressure when they experience long-term exposure, such as living in a highly polluted area, to fine particulate air pollution, known as PM2.5 and PM10. Particulate matter is often expelled by car exhausts, wood smoke or combustion in the construction and manufacturing industries. Pollution is a structural determinant of health. Children who live in deprived areas are more exposed to high pollution levels. Reducing pollution is key to overcome health inequalities.

The effect of air pollution on heart disease and strokes in adults is well documented, but studies in children shown inconsistent results. While the quality of these studies was low, this review shows a considerable association between air pollution and a rise in blood pressure among adolescents. It supports previous evidence of a disproportionate impact of pollution on BP of adolescents who are overweight or obese. The review also investigated short-term exposure to pollution and its impact, but no association was found.

Lead author Professor Seeromanie Harding from King’s College London said: “We observed significant associations in adolescents aged twelve for diastolic blood pressure, the part of blood pressure which rises most often in children or adolescents, and long-term exposures to pollution. Reducing environmental pollution is an urgent public health priority to protect our children’s futures. It is critical to have high quality studies which include assessments by gender, socio-economic circumstances and weight status, to track children’s exposure to pollution and prevent an adverse impact on their health.”

 

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JOURNAL

Current Problems in Cardiology

DOI

10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101460 

The body’s own cannabinoids widen the bronchial tubes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

 

IMAGE: ABOVE, THE FORCE MEASUREMENTS IN THE BRONCHI. AFTER THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANANDAMIDE, THE TENSION DECREASES. BELOW LEFT, A HISTOLOGICAL SECTION OF A MOUSE LUNG WITH CENTRAL BRONCHUS AND BELOW RIGHT, HUMAN BRONCHIAL MUSCLE CELLS WITH RED IMMUNOSTAINING AGAINST FAAH, THE CELL NUCLEI ARE STAINED BLUE. view more 

CREDIT: © ANNIKA SIMON

Bronchial tubes dilated by the body’s own cannabinoids

Obstructive lung diseases are the third most common cause of death worldwide. They include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which affects many smokers, as well as bronchial asthma. During an asthma attack, the bronchial tubes contract so violently that it is no longer possible to exhale – and this can be life-threatening. “Asthma is an inflammatory process, but what is fatal is the constriction of the bronchial tubes,” explains Annika Simon, lead author of the study. “This is why we are very much interested in the regulation of this constriction.”

In a previous study, the researchers had likewise focused on the body’s own cannabinoid system, specifically on its effect in the blood vessels of the lungs. The best known endogenous cannabinoid is anandamide. “Since our results show that anandamide dilates the bronchial tubes, we wanted to understand the exact mechanism behind it,” explains Daniela Wenzel.

Enzyme degrades cannabinoid

It quickly emerged that the two best-known receptors for anandamide (CB1 and CB2) are irrelevant for this regulation. Therefore, there must be an alternative signalling pathway through which the messenger substance anandamide acts on the bronchial tubes.

Daniela Wenzel and her team showed that this alternative pathway uses an enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). FAAH degrades anandamide, producing e.g. arachidonic acid, which in turn is converted to prostaglandin E2. “We know that prostaglandin E2 can dilate the bronchial tubes,” points out Annika Simon. Prostaglandin E2 acts via certain receptors and leads to an increase in the messenger substance cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate). “It is precisely this, the increase in cAMP, that is targeted by well-established inhalation medications against asthma,” says Daniela Wenzel. So, the goal is the same, but the path is different.

Anandamide deficiency in asthma

Wenzel and her team gradually deciphered the signalling pathway. They revealed that the enzyme FAAH is located both in the smooth muscle of the bronchial tubes and in the ciliated epithelium. The increase in cAMP after anandamide administration could be detected both in the mouse model and in human bronchial cells. In order to find out whether anandamide could also works in asthma patients, the team used a disease model in mice where certain substances can be used to create artificial asthma. In these animals, too, the administration of anandamide led to a widening of the bronchial tubes. “This means that asthma doesn’t result in resistance to anandamide,” explains Daniela Wenzel. Moreover, the researchers found that asthmatic animals have less anandamide and other endocannabinoids in their bronchial system than healthy animals. “Therefore, it’s possible that this anandamide deficiency is one of the causes of bronchial asthma,” concludes Daniela Wenzel.

The discovery of the new signalling pathway could also open up new possibilities for intervening in the disease process. “But there’s still a long way to go, and it will certainly take several years,” stresses Daniela Wenzel. She expressly warns patients not to undertake experiments with cannabis plants. “We can’t draw any direct conclusions regarding plant cannabinoids from the findings on endogenous cannabinoids. Exactly which other ingredients are found in cannabis plants besides the known cannabinoids is entirely unclear. Plus, the plants sometimes contain harmful substances.” Nevertheless, the findings of this study are already pointing towards a better understanding of the body’s own cannabinoid system, which could lead to new treatment options for lung diseases in a few years’ time.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-34327-0 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

The endocannabinoid anandamide is an airway relaxant in health and disease

Tiniest ever ancient seawater pockets revealed

Findings could open up a whole new chapter in climate science and help identify subsurface locations to safely store hydrogen for carbon-free energy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: ANCIENT SEAWATER POCKETS TRAPPED IN AN IRON PYRITE FRAMBOID, SHOWN HERE, OFFER A NEW SOURCE OF CLUES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN VANISHED OCEANS AND OUR OWN. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL GREGORY | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO; COLOR ADDED BY CORTLAND JOHNSON | PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY)

RICHLAND, Wash.—Trapped for millennia, the tiniest liquid remnants of an ancient inland sea have now been revealed. The surprising discovery of seawater sealed in what is now North America for 390 million years opens up a new avenue for understanding how oceans change and adapt with the changing climate. The method may also be useful in understanding how hydrogen can be safely stored underground and transported for use as a carbon-free fuel source.

“We discovered we can actually dig out information from these mineral features that could help inform geologic studies, such as the seawater chemistry from ancient times,” said Sandra Taylor, first author of the study and a scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Taylor worked with PNNL colleagues Daniel Perea, John Cliff, and Libor Kovarik to perform the analyses in collaboration with geochemists Daniel Gregory of the University of Toronto and Timothy Lyons of the University of California, Riverside. The research team reported their discovery in the December 2022 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Ancient seas; modern tools

Many types of minerals and gems contain small pockets of trapped liquid. Indeed, some gemstones are prized for their light-catching bubbles of liquid trapped within. What’s different in this study is that scientists were able to reveal what was inside the tiniest water pockets, using advanced microscopy and chemical analyses.

The findings of the study confirmed that the water trapped inside the rock fit the chemistry profile of the ancient inland saltwater sea that once occupied upstate New York, where the rock originated. During the Middle Devonian period, this inland sea stretched from present day Michigan to Ontario, Canada. It harbored a coral reef to rival Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Sea scorpions the size of a pickup truck patrolled waters that harbored now-extinct creatures like trilobites, and the earliest examples of horseshoe crabs.

But eventually the climate changed, and along with that change, most of the creatures and the sea itself disappeared, leaving behind only fossil remains embedded in sediments that eventually became the pyrite rock sample used in the current experiment.

Clues to an ancient climate and to climate change

Scientists use rock samples as evidence to piece together how the climate has changed over the long span of geologic time.

“We use mineral deposits to estimate the temperature of the ancient oceans,” said Gregory, a geologist at the University of Toronto, and one of the study leaders. But there are relatively few useful examples in the geological record.

“Salt deposits from trapped seawater [halite] are relatively rare in the rock record, so there are millions of years missing in the records and what we currently know is based on a few localities where there is halite found,” Gregory said. By contrast, pyrite is found everywhere. “Sampling with this technique could open up millions of years of the geologic record and lead to new understanding of changing climate.”

Seawater surprise

The research team was trying to understand another environmental issue—toxic arsenic leaching from rock—when they noticed the tiny defects. Scientists describe the appearance of these particular pyrite minerals as framboids—derived from the French word for raspberry—because they look like clusters of raspberry segments under the microscope.

“We looked at these samples through the electron microscope first, and we saw these kind of mini bubbles or mini features within the framboid and wondered what they were,” Taylor said.

Using the precise and sensitive detection techniques of atom probe tomography and mass spectrometry—which can detect minuscule amounts of elements or impurities in minerals—the team worked out that the bubbles indeed contained water and their salt chemistry matched that of ancient seas.

From ancient sea to modern energy storage

These types of studies also have the potential to provide interesting insights into how to safely store hydrogen or other gases underground.

“Hydrogen is being explored as a low-carbon fuel source for various energy applications. This requires being able to safely retrieve and store large-amounts of hydrogen in underground geologic reservoirs. So it’s important to understand how hydrogen interacts with rocks,” said Taylor. “Atom probe tomography is one of the few techniques where you can not only measure atoms of hydrogen, but you can actually see where it goes in the mineral. This study suggests that tiny defects in minerals might be potential traps for hydrogen. So by using this technique we could figure out what’s going on at the atomic level, which would then help in evaluating and optimizing strategies for hydrogen storage in the subsurface.”

This research was conducted at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility at PNNL. Lyons and Gregory applied to use the facility through a competitive application process. The research was also supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

VIDEO

Ancient seawater pockets offer a new source of clues that could help us better understand how oceans are affected by climate change. A collaborative research team discovered nanoscale seawater pockets hidden in iron pyrite from upstate New York. This technique could open up a whole new chapter in climate science and potentially help identify subsurface locations to safely store hydrogen for carbon-free energy.

CREDIT

(Video by Sara Levine | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

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JOURNAL

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117859 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Pushing the limits: Resolving paleoseawater signatures in nanoscale fluid inclusions by atom probe tomography

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Dec-2022

Study: Violent sexual predators use dating apps as hunting grounds

The first large-scale study of the relationship between dating apps and sexual assault shows how violent predators target vulnerable victims

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Dating apps are now an entrenched part of American social life, but there’s work to do to ensure users’ safety. New research suggests that violent sexual predators are using dating apps as hunting grounds for vulnerable victims.

In the largest study of its kind, a Brigham Young University nursing team analyzed Utah sexual assault victims’ medical exam charts from 2017 to 2020. They found that 14% of the 1,968 rapes committed by acquaintances occurred during an initial meetup arranged through a dating app. Those cases stood out in disturbing ways: victims with mental illnesses and other vulnerabilities were targeted, and the attacks were significantly more violent.

“What we found is incredibly concerning,” said BYU nursing professor Julie Valentine. “We’d started to see an increase of victims reporting being raped after meeting someone on a dating app, and we wanted to know if rapes facilitated through dating apps differed from other acquaintance rapes. They are indeed very different.”

Prior research shows that individuals with a mental illness are already more likely to be sexually assaulted. In the study, 47% of the victims of acquaintance rape that was unrelated to dating apps disclosed a mental illness. Among those assaulted during a first meeting set up through an app, the number was much higher still, with 60% disclosing a mental illness.

“In a dating app, people can shape themselves however they want to appeal to vulnerable victims. Those with mental illnesses like depression may be more susceptible to a predator who might, for example, flatter them profusely and persuade them to meet in person,” Valentine said.

College students were also more likely to be victims of dating-app-facilitated assaults, and male victims were nearly twice as common among app-related assaults as among other acquaintance assaults.

Troublingly, the perpetrators in dating-app-facilitated rapes seemed to be unusually violent. The attacks produced more victim injuries than other acquaintance rapes; one quarter of the victims had breast injuries, for example. Additionally, about 33% of the victims reported being strangled during the assault, while 22% of victims who were not meeting perpetrators for the first time through an app reported strangulation.

Dating apps are fertile ground for predators in part because there are few means for potential victims to screen possible partners.

“It used to be that people would meet through mutual friends or at work or school, and there was a degree of vetting that went in place before dating. Dating apps have completely taken away that process,” Valentine said.

The current safety measure in dating apps — a written set of guidelines for safe dating — is inadequate because it places the burden of safety on potential victims, the researchers argue. Victims might blame themselves for being swayed by a predator to not follow the guidelines to the letter, and their self-blame could dissuade them from reporting the assault. Instead, the authors recommend that dating app companies improve their safety standards.

“Dating app companies can increase artificial intelligence to identify perpetrators, have stricter identification requirements for users, run criminal history searches at no extra charge and connect with other companies to ensure that perpetrators aren’t just jumping from one app to another. They can also improve ways for victims to report assaults and provide more support services for victims,” Valentine suggested.

These changes may be on the horizon. The BYU team has collaborated with dating app companies and legislators to draft a Utah House bill sponsored by Representative Angela Romero, “Online Dating Safety Requirements,” to improve safety in dating apps. They believe the bill has a good chance of passing during the next legislative session and hope other states will follow their example.

“What I don’t want people to take from the study is that we shouldn’t use dating apps — they’re the number-one way that happy couples meet. We want to preserve that but increase the safety,” Valentine concluded.

The paper was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and co-authored by BYU professor Leslie Miles, graduate student Kristen Hamblin and undergraduate student Aubrey Worthen.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Interpersonal Violence

DOI

10.1177/08862605221130390 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Dating App Facilitated Sexual Assault: A Retrospective Review of Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examination Charts

Study uncovers new threat to security and privacy of Bluetooth devices

Researchers also develop countermeasure to prevent tracking

Reports and Proceedings

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Mobile devices that use Bluetooth are vulnerable to a glitch that could allow attackers to track a user’s location, a new study has found. 

The research revolves around Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a type of Bluetooth that uses less energy when compared to Bluetooth Classic (an earlier generation of Bluetooth). On smartwatches and smartphones, billions of people rely on this type of wireless communication for all types of activities, ranging from entertainment and sports to retail and health care.  

Yet due to a design flaw in Bluetooth’s protocol, users’ privacy could be at risk, said Yue Zhang, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in computer science and engineering at The Ohio State University. Zhang recently presented the findings at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2022). The study also received a “best paper” honorable mention at the conference. 

Zhang and his adviser, Zhiqiang Lin, professor of computer science and engineering at Ohio State, proved the threat by testing over 50 market-available Bluetooth devices as well as four BLE development boards. They reported the flaw to major stakeholders in the Bluetooth industry, including Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) (the organization that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards), hardware vendors such as Texas Instruments and Nordic, and operating systems providers such as Google, Apple and Microsoft. Google rated their findings as a high-severity design flaw and gave the researchers a bug bounty award. 

But the good news is that Zhang and Lin also developed a potential solution to the problem that they successfully tested.

Bluetooth devices have what are called MAC addresses – a string of random numbers that uniquely identify them on a network. About once every 20 milliseconds an idle BLE device sends out a signal advertising its MAC address to other nearby devices that it could connect with. 

The study identifies a flaw that could allow attackers to observe how these devices interact with the network, and then either passively or actively collect and analyze the data to break a user’s privacy.  

“This is a new finding that nobody has ever noticed before,” said Zhang. “We show that by broadcasting a MAC address to the device’s location, an attacker may not physically be able to see you, but they would know that you’re in the area.”

One of the reasons researchers are concerned about such a scenario is because a captured MAC address could be deployed in what is called a replay attack, which may allow the attacker to monitor the user’s behaviors, track where the user has been in the past or even figure out the real-time location of the user.  

“Bluetooth SIG was certainly made aware of the MAC address tracking threat, and to protect devices from being tracked by bad actors, a solution called MAC address randomization has been used since 2010,” said Lin.

Later in 2014, Bluetooth introduced a new feature called the “allowlist” which only allows approved devices to be connected, and prevents private devices from accessing unknown ones. But according to the study, this allowlist feature actually introduces a side channel for device tracking. 

Zhang and Lin proved the new tracking threat is real by creating a novel attack strategy they called Bluetooth Address Tracking (BAT). The researchers used a customized smartphone to hack into more than 50 Bluetooth gadgets – most of them their own devices – and showed that by using BAT attacks, an attacker could still link and replay a victim’s data, even with frequent MAC randomization. 

As of yet, BAT attacks are undefeated, but the team did create a prototype of a defensive countermeasure. Called Securing Address for BLE (SABLE), their solution involves adding an unpredictable sequence number, essentially a timestamp, to the randomized address to ensure that each MAC address can only be used once to prevent the replay attack. The study noted it was successfully able to stop attackers from linking up to the victim’s devices. 

The results of their experiment showed that SABLE only slightly affects battery consumption and overall device performance, but Lin hopes to use the new attack and its countermeasure to raise awareness in the community. “The lesson learned from this study is that when you add new features to existing designs, you should revisit previous assumptions to check whether they still hold.”

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation. 

#

Contact: Zhiqiang Lin, Zlin@cse.ohio-state.edu

Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.edu.

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DOI

10.1145/3548606.3559372 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

When Good Becomes Evil: Tracking Bluetooth Low Energy Devices via Allowlist-based Side Channel and Its Countermeasure

Mars was covered by 300 meter deep oceans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: IN ADDITION TO WATER, THE ICY ASTEROIDS ALSO BROUGHT BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT MOLECULES SUCH AS AMINO ACIDS TO THE RED PLANET. AMINO ACIDS ARE USED WHEN DNA AND RNA FORM BASES THAT CONTAIN EVERYTHING A CELL NEEDS. view more 

CREDIT: NASA

Mars is called the red planet. But once, it was actually blue and covered in water, bringing us closer to finding out if Mars had ever harboured life.

Most researchers agree that there has been water on Mars, but just how much water is still debated.

Now a study from the University of Copenhagen shows that some 4.5 billion years ago, there was enough water for the entire planet to be covered in a 300-metre-deep ocean.

“At this time, Mars was bombarded with asteroids filled with ice. It happened in the first 100 million years of the planet's evolution. Another interesting angle is that the asteroids also carried organic molecules that are biologically important for life,” says Professor Martin Bizzarro from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation.

In addition to water, the icy asteroids also brought biologically relevant molecules such as amino acids to the Red Planet. Amino acids are used when DNA and RNA form bases that contain everything a cell needs.

The study was published in the renowned journal Science Advances.

Mars may have had the conditions for life before Earth

The new study indicates that the oceans that covered the entire planet in water were at least 300 metres deep. They may have been up to one kilometre deep. In comparison, there is actually very little water on Earth, explains Martin Bizzarro.

“This happened within Mars’s first 100 million years. After this period, something catastrophic happened for potential life on Earth. It is believed that there was a gigantic collision between the Earth and another Mars-sized planet. It was an energetic collision that formed the Earth-Moon system and, as the same time, wiped out all potential life on Earth,” says Martin Bizzarro.

Therefore, the researchers have really strong evidence that conditions allowing the emergence of life were present on Mars long before Earth.

Billion-year-old meteorite

It was by means of a meteorite that is billions of years old that the researchers have been able to look into Mars’s past history. The meteorite was once part of Mars’s original crust and offers a unique insight into what happened at the time when the solar system was formed.

The whole secret is hiding in the way Mars’s surface has been created – and of which the meteorite was once a part – because it is a surface that does not move. On Earth it is opposite. The tectonic plates are in perpetual motion and recycled in the planet’s interior.

“Plate tectonics on Earth erased all evidence of what happened in the first 500 million years of our planet’s history. The plates constantly move and are recycled back and destroyed into the interior of our planet. In contrast, Mars does not have plate tectonics such that planet’s surface preserves a record of the earliest history of the planet,” explains Martin Bizzarro.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abp8415 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Late delivery of exotic chromium to the crust of Mars by water-rich carbonaceous asteroids

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Nov-2022