American football head impacts tied to increased brain damage and cognitive decline

Study reveals that impired brain clearance, indicated by larger perivascular space volume, may be the missing link between repetitive head impacts and cognitive decline in former American football players.

 

Study: Repetitive Head Impacts and Perivascular Space Volume in Former American Football Players

Image Credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com

Download PDF Copy

By PoojaPaharia

Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.

Sep 1 2024

In a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers investigate how repetitive head impacts (RHI) alter perivascular space (PVS) volume, cognition, and related neurodegeneration among former American football players.

RHI and the perivascular system

Exposure to RHI in contact sports increases the risk of developing dementia as tau protein accumulates in the brain. Nevertheless, the specific pathophysiological pathways contributing to neurodegeneration remain unclear; therefore, further research is needed to elucidate how protein concentrations in the brain change following RHI.

RHI-induced PVS alterations may contribute to neurodegenerative processes and future cognitive loss in affected individuals. Previous studies report that changes in PVS could increase the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

Moreover, perivascular transport supports the elimination of harmful proteins from the brain in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, there remains a lack of research on whether RHI exposure alters perivascular transport or the architecture of this system.

About the study

The current cross-sectional study was a subset of the Diagnostics, Imaging, and Genetics Network for the Objective Study and Evaluation (DIAGNOSE) of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) study, which was conducted for seven years at four locations in the United States. This study included former professional and collegiate football players, whereas similar-age males without RHI exposure served as controls.

Male individuals between 45 and 74 years of age who were 400 lbs or less, and fluent in English were invited to participate in the study. None of the study participants had any contraindications for positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or lumbar puncture.

Professional athletes played football for 12 years or more, with at least three seasons at the college level and four seasons in the National Football League. Collegiate athletes had similar guidelines, requiring six or more years of organized football play.

eBook: Using iPSCs models for human disease research and drug discovery eBook Human iPSCs models enhance drug discovery by providing more accurate, scalable, and demographically representative models, improving patient stratification and reducing late-stage drug failures.Download the latest edition

Exclusion criteria included neurologic conditions, hearing or vision impairments, comorbidities like endocrine, metabolic, or infectious diseases, liver, kidney, or pulmonary impairment, and cancer.

Data were obtained between September 2016 and February 2020 and analyzed from May 2021 to October 2023. The study exposure was repetitive head impacts while playing American football. RHI exposure was determined using indices of the cumulative count for head impacts (CHII), rotational acceleration (CHII-R), and linear acceleration (CHII-G).

Primary outcome measures included PVS volume in the white matter of the brain based on structural MRI findings. Cognitive performance evaluations included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) List Learning Test, Trail Making Tests, and the Stroop Color and Word test. MoCA assessed general cognitive function, whereas NAB assessed episodic memory,y and the remaining two tests measured executive function.

Linear regression analysis measured associations between PVS volume and neuropsychological evaluations in previous American football players. Study covariates included age, education, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, antihypertensive and antidiabetic medications, blood-brain barrier (BBB)-permeable β-blockers, imaging site, and apolipoprotein ε4 (APOE ε4) status.

Study findings

The study cohort comprised 224 individuals with a median age of 57 years, 170 of whom were former football players and 54 of whom were controls, respectively. Of the former football players, 114 were professional,l and 56 were college-level players.

Former football players had higher PVS volume than controls, with a mean difference of 0.3. Increased CHII-G and CHII-R levels were associated with increased PVS volume among previous football players. Throughout an American football career, an increase of 440,000 g in CHII-G or 35 million radians/s2 in CHII-R resulted in a one-standard-deviation increase in PVS volume.

The researchers observed a relationship between PVS volume and cumulative head impact force, whereas no association was observed with head impact frequency. Thus, the number of hits to the head may have less of an impact on PVS volume than the total force of all head impacts.

PVS volume was higher among older football players prescribed antihypertensive medicines. Comparatively, β-blocker use was significantly related to reduced PVS volume, thus indicating a potential protective effect of this class of drugs.

Increased age, positive APOE ε4 carrier status, and higher BMI significantly affected the relationship between CHII-R and PVS. Likewise, age and positive APOE ε4 carrier status significantly impacted the relationship between CHII-G and PVS.

Previous American football players with higher PVS volume performed worse cognitively on the MoCA and Trail Making tests. Overall, the study findings indicate that higher PVS volume was related to inferior general cognitive and executive skills.

Conclusions

Previous American football players had higher RHI exposure and PVS volume than unexposed controls. Moreover, RHI exposure positively correlated with PVS volume, which is associated with worse overall cognitive and executive performance.

The current study suggests that increased PVS may reflect reduced clearance of neurotoxic waste products, which can increase the risk of neurodegenerative processes. Interestingly, β-blocker use was related to significantly smaller PVS; therefore, future studies could investigate the effects of β-blockers for the management of RHI.

Journal reference:

• Jung, L. B., Wiegand, T. L. T., Tuz-Zahra, F., et al. (2024). Repetitive Head Impacts and Perivascular Space Volume in Former American Football Players. JAMA Network Open 7(8). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.28687

Be the first to rate this article

Posted in: Men's Health News | Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News

Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Apolipoprotein, Blood, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Brain, Cancer, Chronic, Cognitive Function, Dementia, Diabetes, Diagnostics, Drugs, Education, Encephalopathy, Endocrine, Frequency, Genetics, Hearing, Hypercholesterolemia, Imaging, Infectious Diseases, Kidney, Liver, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurodegeneration, Positron Emission Tomography, Protein, Research, Tau Protein, Tomography, Traumatic Brain Injury

Comments (0)

Written by

Pooja Toshniwal Paharia

Pooja Toshniwal Paharia is an oral and maxillofacial physician and radiologist based in Pune, India. Her academic background is in Oral Medicine and Radiology. She has extensive experience in research and evidence-based clinical-radiological diagnosis and management of oral lesions and conditions and associated maxillofacial disorders.

• Download PDF Copy

Fentanyl vaccine heads for clinical trials, with goal of saving lives

The Dallas Morning News | Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024 

AP
A homeless person prepares to smoke fentanyl in a park in downtown Portland, Ore.

A fentanyl vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Houston is expected to head to clinical trials sometime in the middle of next year, with the hope of being a groundbreaking solution to a deadly crisis.

The vaccine, which has shown success in animal studies, is designed to stop the highly addictive opioid from entering the brain and causing an overdose. Biopharmaceutical startup Ovax acquired the license to produce and test the vaccine in November 2023 and raised over $10 million toward that effort by June.

“We’re all incredibly excited,” said Collin Gage, the start-up’s co-founder and chief executive officer. He added that his company is starting at “ground zero,” but he is confident it will one day have a fentanyl vaccine available to the public.

That day may be a long time from now. While public health emergencies, like the covid-19 pandemic, can accelerate a vaccine’s development, testing a new vaccine can take anywhere from five to 10 years — sometimes longer.

Meanwhile, fentanyl overdose deaths have been on the rise in Texas, from less than 80 in 2014 to nearly 2,300 in 2023, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The synthetic opioid — made illegally but also available by prescription — is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, making it the deadliest drug in the opioid crisis.

For fentanyl vaccines, adjuvants are key

The idea of creating an opioid vaccine has drawn scientific attention since the 1970s. Unlike bacteria or viruses, opioids aren’t recognized by our immune systems as foreign invaders. But the immune system can be trained to make antibodies in response to an opioid like fentanyl through a vaccine that links bits of the drug to noninfectious bits of bacteria and uses substances called adjuvants.

Adjuvants are designed to enhance immune response, and are particularly important in vaccines targeting substance use disorders. Past attempts to make these vaccines have been unsuccessful in part because the adjuvants weren’t effective enough, said Jay Evans, director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Evans is also the chief scientific and strategy officer of Inimmune, a Montana-based biotech company developing and testing a variety of vaccines including ones targeting fentanyl and heroin addiction.

The adjuvant in the University of Houston’s fentanyl vaccine is an enterotoxin, a chemical produced by the bacteria Escherichia coli and modified to be noninfectious. It was first developed at Tulane University in Louisiana in the early 2000s and has been used in a variety of vaccines, said Colin Haile, a research associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston who led its fentanyl vaccine development. Haile is also an Ovax co-founder and adviser.

“It has been in 15 human clinical trials in combination with other vaccines,” he said, referring to the adjuvant used in his team’s vaccine. “There have been studies in infants where the results have been fantastic, nearly no side effects.”

Other researchers such as David Dowling and Dr. Ofer Levy, both Ovax co-founders, are using adjuvants that haven’t been tested in humans but appear to effectively enhance the immune response to vaccines targeting substance use disorders, at least based on animal studies, Dowling said.

Clinical trials littered with challenges

Phase 1 clinical trials for the University of Houston vaccine are planned to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Ovax is also in licensing negotiations with Boston Children’s Hospital for a fentanyl vaccine developed by Dowling and Levy. If those negotiations are successful, phase 1 clinical trials could begin in early 2026.

These trials will aim to establish the vaccine’s safety level, potential side effects and optimal dosage. Finding people to take part in them will be a challenge, Evans said.

“Compared to a normal infectious disease clinical trial, it will be more difficult. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is pretty adamant that you’re not going to test this vaccine in healthy individuals that don’t already have some sort of opioid addiction,” he said. “So we need to target patients in phase 1 who have a history of opioid use disorder, and that’s a harder population to try to recruit. It’s going to take longer; the patient population will have more adverse events because they’re drug users and they will be harder to track.”

Evans added that the stigma around addiction and drug use might make people reluctant to disclose their condition and participate in a clinical trial.

Ovax has yet to decide where it plans to run its phase 1 clinical trials, Gage said, but it has been looking at sites in Australia and the Netherlands.

“We’re also looking in the United States,” he said, “but it’s difficult to find the right patient population.”

Future clinical trials would need to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine, who would benefit the most and how long immunity would last.

Vaccines as part of the solution

Some critics of fentanyl vaccines say they pull resources from existing treatments for opioid addiction such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. Some have questioned whether people would seek out the vaccine.

“People have to say they want to be injected, and they have to choose to keep coming back for each injection or infusion,” Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told The Washington Post in 2023. “The vaccines do nothing to reduce craving or withdrawal or to motivate anyone to return for more care.”

For Haile, a fentanyl vaccine is not the sole solution but another weapon in the fight against the opioid crisis. He and his colleagues at the University of Houston have conducted animal studies investigating how the vaccine affects treatment with buprenorphine, a medication commonly prescribed to manage withdrawals and drug cravings. The findings have yet to be published but are “quite impressive,” Haile said, noting fentanyl vaccines could improve the effectiveness of existing treatments.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is that we’re moving as fast as we can go. … We need to get something to market as quickly as possible to address this terrible problem,” Haile said. “The ultimate goal is to protect people and save lives.”

Great Barrier Reef hangs in the balance

September 2, 2024
Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist

Bleached corals. Credit: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)

The window to save the Great Barrier Reef is closing rapidly, according to a the most recent government report.

The Outlook report, which is released every 5 years by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), tracks the Reef’s health across 9 different areas, including biodiversity, ecosystem health, commercial use and heritage value.

The 2024 iteration of the report finds that, while there has been varied change in the overall health of the Reef – with some areas improving and others worsening – climate change is threatening its ability to recover.

The overall state of the Reef remained “poor”.

The report found that there was a “critical” need to limit global warming to 1.5°C to preserve the long-term health of the Reef.

This “requires achieving global net-zero carbon dioxide emissions in the early 2050s, followed by net-negative carbon dioxide emissions”.

Given sufficient opportunity – which includes local management as well as these emissions cuts – the report found that the Great Barrier Reef could recover.

Credit: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) / J. Sumerling

But the report points out that an increase to temperatures of 1.5°C is “expected in the near-term irrespective of cuts to greenhouse gas emissions”, which will cause “substantial change” to the Reef.

400-year-old corals reveal “tragic” temperature rise on reef

The report mostly covers data to December 2023, which means it does not include the mass bleaching event that occurred earlier this year.

“The subsequent events of early 2024 provide a stark illustration of warnings articulated since the first Outlook Report was released in 2009,” points out the executive summary.

The Biodiversity Council, a collective based at the University of Melbourne, released a statement saying the report’s key findings “glossed over the gravity of the situation”.

The Great Barrier Reef. Credit: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) / Jumbo Aerial Photography

The council said that, while the body of the report was “a major scientific effort [that] rigorously synthesises a huge amount of data”, demonstrating that the Reef was facing major long-term decline, the key findings made the situation seem less serious.

“The upbeat tone of the key findings contrast with the troubling detail held within the report,” said council member Professor Catherine Lovelock, a researcher at the University of Queensland.

“Climate change poses the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef. We must keep that front of mind and call for greater climate action.”



Originally published by Cosmos as Great Barrier Reef hangs in the balance

The Ultramarine project – focussing on research and innovation in our marine environments – is supported by Minderoo Foundation.

Titanic is COLLAPSING: 

Shocking before and after photos reveal how a section of the bow has disintegrated - as experts warn the entire ship's demise is 'inevitable'

Photos captured this June show that the Titanic's bow has collapsed into rust

Experts believe that the ship's further deterioration is now unavoidable

By Wiliam Hunter
2 September 2024

Jack and Rose stood on Titanic's bow might be one of the most recognisable shots in movie history.

But shocking new photos have revealed that this iconic structure has now crumbled into rust.

Images captured by robotic submarines this summer found that 4.5m (14.7ft) of the ship's bow has collapsed onto the sea floor.

The expedition team who made the discovery now warn that it is only a matter of time before the entire ship collapses for good.

Tomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc, which led the expedition, said: 'People ask all the time: "How long is Titanic going to be there?" We just don't know but we're watching it in real time.'

Shocking images have revealed the iconic bow of the Titanic has finally collapsed after more than 110 years beneath the waves

+14
View gallery


The wreck of Titanic now lies 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada and is only safely accessible via remote-operated vehicles (ROV)

+14
View gallery


Between July and August two ROVs descended to the Titanic and found that the bow of the ship is now beginning to collapse

Read More
EXCLUSIVE: What happened to the missing passengers of the Titanic? As eerie new photos show shoes left in the wreckage, experts reveal to MailOnline where the 1,160 are likely to be

In the early hours of April 15, 1912, the Titanic slipped beneath the waves of the North Atlantic, leading to the deaths of 1,500 passengers and crew.

The vast ocean liner sank more than 3,800 metres (12,500ft) onto a section of the sea floor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The ship was then lost to time until a team of explorers captured the first pictures of the wreckage in 1985.

These images revealed the railing, which would be immortalised by the 1998 film Titanic, was still miraculously intact more than 70 years after the crash.

However, during an expedition over July and August this year, two remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) launched by RMS Titanic Inc found that a large section of the bow railing is now missing.

+14
View gallery


An expedition conducted by RMS Titanic Inc found that a 4.5m (15ft) section of the front railing had collapsed

+14
View gallery


This railing was made famous by the scenes starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack and Rose in the 1997 film Titanic (pictured)


The expedition crew found that the railing had broken away from the bow and had fallen to the sea floor

Later, 3D scans of the area revealed that the section had fallen as a single piece onto the seafloor below.

Ms Ray told the BBC: 'The bow of Titanic is just iconic - you have all these moments in pop culture - and that's what you think of when you think of the shipwreck. And it doesn't look like that anymore.'

Images and 3D scans of the wreckage created by deep-sea mapping company Magellan and documentary makers Atlantic Productions in 2022 found that the rail was still in place.

Based on these findings, the researchers believe that the section must have collapsed sometime in the last two years.

The metal structure of the ship is being consumed by microorganisms, creating large stalactites of rust called rusticles.

Since the discovery of the wreckage, successive teams of researchers and explorers have watched as the once-grand ship gradually decays.

+14
View gallery


3D scans of the ship and surrounding area showed that the section of railing had fallen as one piece

+14
View gallery


Since the Titanic (pictured) sank into the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, its wreckage has remained more than 3,800 metres (12,500ft) below the water 

+14
View gallery


The railing has remained remarkably intact during the more than 100 years below the water, but as this picture from 1993 microorganisms are gradually converting the metal structure into stalactites of rust called 'rusticles'

Read More
See Titanic like NEVER before: First ever full-sized scans of the shipwreck could finally shed light on what happened the night the liner sank in 1912

By 2022, the bow was already beginning to buckle under the force of this erosion and it is now only a matter of time before more of the ship collapses.

'It's just another reminder of the deterioration that's happening every day,' says Ms Ray.

Before the Titanic is totally lost, explorers are making plans to preserve and salvage as much as possible.

RMS Titanic Inc even notes that new areas of deterioration could open 'unobstructed access to the interior of the ship' which would provide new opportunities for discovery.

During their expedition, the two ROVs gathered more than two million still photographs and 24 hours of HD film.

+14
View gallery


Based on scans of the wreck produced in 2022 (pictured) which showed the rail still in place, the researchers believe the bow may have collapsed at some point in the last two years

+14
View gallery


This image shows the section of the railing as it appeared in previous expeditions. Below you can see the Titanic's anchor

+14
View gallery


RMS Titanic Inc hopes the further deterioration to the ship (pictured) will open up new points of access to the interior

The company is currently reviewing this data and hopes to use it to create a detailed 3D image of the Titanic.

This summer's expedition also uncovered an artefact that was long thought to be lost to time.

When the original 1985 expedition released the first images of the wreck, they showed a bronze statue called the Diana of Versailles lying in the debris field.

However, due to the culture of secrecy around the discovery, the exact location of the statue was never recorded.

Now, the 60cm-tall figure which once adorned the mantle piece of the first-class lounge has once again been found.

+14
View gallery


The expedition also made the incredible discovery of a 60cm-tall statue called the Diana of Versailles (pictured) which had long since thought lost to time

+14
View gallery


The Diana of Versailles once decorated the Titanic's first-class lounge (pictured) but had not been seen since it was recorded by the first 1985 expedition

Read More
Return to the Titanic: Expedition to wreck sets sail just one year after the OceanGate tragedy


James Penca, a Titanic researcher and presenter of the Witness Titanic podcast, says: 'It was like finding a needle in a haystack, and to rediscover this year was momentous.

'The first-class lounge was the most beautiful, and unbelievably detailed, room on the ship. And the centrepiece of that room was the Diana of Versailles

Since 1994 RMS Titanic Inc has had the sole salvage rights to the wreck of the Titanic and is the only company legally allowed to remove items from the site.

The company has since recovered thousands of pieces from the wreckage and now plans to recover Diana of Versailles from the debris field and put it on display.

Ms Ray says: 'To bring Diana back so people can see her with their own eyes - the value in that, to spark a love of history, of diving, of conservation, of shipwrecks, of sculpture, I could never leave that on the ocean floor.'

Binoculars could have saved Titanic, lookout tells official inquiry

+14
View gallery

David Blair (pictured) was an experienced sailor

During the official US inquiry into the sinking, lookout Fred Fleet said he had previously used binoculars - known as glasses - on the RMS Oceanic, another trans-Atlantic liner.

Senator Smith, chair of the inquiry, asked Fleet: 'Suppose you had glasses ... could you have seen this black object [the iceberg] at a greater distance?'

Fleet replied: 'We could have seen it a bit sooner.'

Asked 'How much sooner?', he said: 'Well, enough to get out of the way.'

In Mr Blair's defence, Mr Aldridge added: 'Blair would have been rushing about tidying up his loose ends before then.

'In his rush it slipped his mind to hand over the key so the fate of the Titanic was in his hands in a round-about way.

'But in terms of blame then you have to look at the captain, EJ Smith. The ship was going too fast in an ice field which he had warnings about.'

He continued: 'There was a pair of binoculars on the bridge and a pair for the crows nest because Blair had them just days before.

'But the failure to provide the lookouts with them could have been down to Lightoller not knowing where they were.

'He would have found them had he been able to open the locker. So in the end all the lookouts had were their own eyes.'

Citizen scientists can help save Australia’s threatened species if we give them more direction

New research examines how citizen science data contributes to decisions by governments and conservation organisations about which species are at risk of extinction, and how they can be conserved.


BY ERIN ROGER, JASMIN G PACKER, JODI ROWLEY, RACHAEL GALLAGHER, THOMAS MESAGLIO2 SEPTEMBER 20244 MIN READ

Across Australia and around the world, citizen scientists are protecting species by recording sightings, surveying landscapes and collecting samples. No job is too big or too small. As wildlife ecologists, we are indebted to this army of volunteers.

Citizen scientists are everyday people, who are not necessarily experts but who conduct scientific research. There are more than 100,000 citizen scientists in Australia alone. As a nation, we’re the third-biggest contributor to the global citizen science platform iNaturalist. This is staggering considering our relatively small population.

We wanted to find out how citizen science data contributes to decisions by governments and conservation organisations about which species are at risk of extinction, and how they can be conserved.

One of the main ways to help conserve biodiversity is through species extinction risk assessments. These allow scientists and decision-makers to determine how threatened a species is and the best ways to protect it.

Because citizen scientists collect so much data on biodiversity, this information could dramatically improve our ability to accurately assess species. But how useful is citizen science data in achieving this goal? Our new research set out to answer this question.

While we found room for improvement, it’s important to recognise and celebrate the immense value of citizen science data. We would be lost without it.


Citizen science projects can connect communities to biodiversity research and create passionate environmental advocates. © Benjamin Fleming


5 types of citizen science data

Our first step was to summarise what types of data citizen scientists are collecting. We found five key types:evidence that a species occurs at a specific location (usually an image or sound recording including the date and time)
evidence that a species has not been recorded at a specific location
answers to a set of questions about a species and its environment
physical samples such as scat (poo), soil or water samples
collected stories or oral histories, including the voices of First Nations people.

We then considered each data type in terms of its use in addressing the globally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk. The criteria are set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organisation devoted to nature conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.


Searching for fungi with coauthor Jasmin Packer in the Adelaide Hills. © University of Adelaide/Nelson Da Silva


Room to improve

We found the data citizen scientists typically collect were often not what was most needed to assess extinction risk under IUCN criteria.

Meeting the criteria requires more than just a record of a species occurring at a given location. Detailed information such as geographic range, and evidence of population decline, is also required.

So simply encouraging citizen scientists to record more ad hoc observations of species is not the best way to inform threatened species listing. Unfortunately, this means the assessment process can’t always benefit from the great work being done.

People charged with assessing a species’ conservation status could make better use of citizen science data. While this wasn’t an explicit finding of the research, the IUCN recognises this. Its recent white paper examines how Indigenous and local knowledge could be better harnessed.

There are ways to ensure citizen science data is better used to inform IUCN assessments. They can include:planning projects from the outset to ensure the required data is captured
asking citizen scientists to complete structured ecological surveys or collect specific samples
integrating citizen scientist data with that collected by professional scientists.

But our research also revealed good news! We found new methods of data analysis – such as extracting population numbers – are helping scientists use citizen science more effectively.


Getting a closer look at a colourful Cortinarius sinapicolor mushroom for Fungimap. © University of Adelaide/Nelson Da Silva


Australian success stories: Fungimap and FrogID

Some citizen science projects in Australia are feeding into threatened species assessments. We described two of them in our research.

The first is Fungimap, which coauthor Jasmin Packer is involved with. Members record and map fungi through iNaturalist. These records have enabled threat assessments for at least 13 species.

In Fungimap, scientists have added extra information to the data collection fields – such as habitat and what the fungus is growing in (animal, soil or wood) – to make records more useful for assessing whether a species is threatened.

The second is FrogID, led by coauthor Jodi Rowley. It’s a free smartphone app that enables people to record frog calls. Frog experts then identify which species is making the call. More than one million frog records have been collected this way in about six years.

FrogID data helped scientists understand frog persistence after the catastrophic 2019–20 bushfires in southeast Australia. Several species, including the sphagnum frog, have now been listed as threatened using FrogID data alongside professional data.

In both projects, scientists review the images and sound recordings. This ensures their accuracy and means the data is more likely to be included in government databases. Professional scientists also tell citizen scientists what they need to help provide the knowledge needed to assess a species’ extinction risk.


New England tree frog (Litoria subglandulosa). © Jodi Rowley/Australian Museum


Here’s how to get involved

Citizen science observations are now the largest source of open-source biodiversity data in Australia. It’s important to ensure the data we’re collecting keeps growing.

There are many ways to get involved. The Australian Citizen Science Association website hosts a helpful project finder. You can search for projects in your local area, on a particular subject or theme, or focus on projects suitable for children or beginners.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

Deep sea ‘dark oxygen’ raises questions about alien life

By

 Boston University

 -

September 2, 2024

Credit: Unsplash+.

In the depths of the Pacific Ocean, about 12,000 feet below the surface, lies a region called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).

This area is covered with million-year-old rocks known as polymetallic nodules.

At first glance, these rocks might seem lifeless, but they are actually home to tiny sea creatures and microbes that have adapted to life in the dark.

Recently, scientists made an unexpected discovery: these deep-sea rocks are producing oxygen—a phenomenon they’re calling “dark oxygen.”

Typically, we think of oxygen as something created by plants and organisms that need sunlight to photosynthesize.

About half of the oxygen we breathe is made by tiny plants called phytoplankton near the ocean’s surface.

But finding oxygen production deep in the ocean, where sunlight doesn’t reach, is completely surprising.

When the researchers first noticed this, they thought it might be a mistake. Jeffrey Marlow, a biology professor at Boston University, was one of the scientists involved in the study. Marlow, an expert on microbes that live in extreme environments, initially suspected that these tiny organisms might be responsible for the oxygen.

To test this, the team used special chambers to enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and the organisms living there. They measured how oxygen levels changed over 48 hours.

Normally, if organisms are breathing in oxygen, the levels would decrease. But instead, the oxygen levels increased. After repeated experiments, the researchers confirmed that the oxygen production was real.

The research team was on a mission to learn more about the ecology of the CCZ, a vast area that stretches between Hawaii and Mexico.

Their work was part of an environmental survey sponsored by The Metals Company, a deep-sea mining firm interested in harvesting these rocks for their valuable metals. But what the scientists found was that the oxygen wasn’t mainly due to microbial activity. Instead, it seemed to be linked to the rocks themselves.

Polymetallic nodules contain rare metals like copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, and manganese. The study suggests that these metals might be triggering a process called “seawater electrolysis,” where unevenly distributed metal ions create an electrical charge—much like a battery. This charge has enough energy to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, creating the “dark oxygen.”

The implications of this discovery are significant. It raises questions about how much oxygen these rocks produce, how it affects the surrounding ecosystem, and what might happen if deep-sea mining disturbs this delicate balance. Some countries and environmental groups are already calling for a halt to mining in the CCZ due to concerns about potential damage to this largely unexplored ecosystem.

The CCZ is also an intriguing area for scientists studying life in extreme environments, like those found on other planets and moons.

The conditions in the CCZ, with its high pressure, darkness, and metal-rich rocks, are similar to what we might find on places like Saturn’s moon Enceladus or Jupiter’s moon Europa.

This discovery could help scientists understand how life might exist in such alien environments.

Ultimately, this finding flips our understanding of the deep sea, showing that it’s not just a place where dead material sinks and gets eaten.

Instead, it’s a site of production, with potential implications for both our planet and the search for life beyond Earth.

How politicians are destigmatizing infertility this election season

Infertility is at the forefront of this election season, helping people who have gone through it feel seen

By Nicole KarlisSenior Writer
Published September 2, 2024 

SALON

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz celebrates with his daughter Hope Walz (L), son Gus Walz (2nd-L) and wife Gwen Walz (R) after accepting the Democratic vice presidential nomination on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Tim Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor vying for vice president, has become a reproductive rights champion, not only advocating against abortion bans, but he has been outspoken about the right to maintain access to fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI.) For Walz, as he’s discussed before, the issue is personal. In a couple of his speeches on the campaign trail, including at the Democratic National Convention, he’s talked about how he and his spouse, Gwen, struggled to conceive.

“Even if you've never experienced the hell of infertility, I guarantee you know somebody who has,” Walz said. “I remember praying each night for a call with good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone would ring, and the agony when we heard the treatments hadn't worked.”

Walz and Gwen used intrauterine insemination to conceive, which is the insemination of sperm cells directly into the uterus. In an interview with Glamour, Gwen said the family's "infertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience.” For a while, the family kept it "largely” to themselves.

Related
Alabama's targeting of IVF is the Christian right's attempt to control motherhood

It’s unusual for a man in politics to talk openly about infertility. Only recently has it become a more discussed topic, in part because it’s difficult to separate from other discussions on reproductive rights, including abortion. As the nation witnessed in February of this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children” sending devastating ripple effects across the state halting IVF treatments. But experts and people who have experienced infertility directly tell Salon that one silver lining of IVF being in the limelight is that it continues to normalize and destigmatize infertility treatments.

Danette Kubanda, a mother of three who has undergone IVF, said that hearing Walz talk about his family’s experience with infertility had her “bawling like a baby.”

“Even though my little IVF miracles are now 11, 9 and 9, I am instantly transported back to those overwhelming feelings of despair, desperation and isolation that so many of us experience upon hearing our diagnosis,” Kubanda told Salon via email. “Seeing the emotion on his [Walz] and his son’s faces reminded me how much these children are wanted and loved as we fought so hard to bring them into the world.”

Kubanda added it comforts her to know that she isn’t alone.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of and we are not broken, even though those feelings often creep up during the journey,” Kubanda said. “Having politicians, celebrities and public figures share their stories encourages me in so many ways, but especially in being more open with my own story.”

One in six people will experience infertility. More than 2 percent of infants in the U.S. are born through assisted reproductive technology. As public figures continue to normalize conversations around fertility treatments and alternative paths to parenthood, it gives people more opportunities to feel less alone.

"Politicians’ discussions about fertility treatments in the U.S. have helped further eliminate any stigma by putting it center stage."

“It’s important for public figures to continue to normalize conversations around fertility treatments and alternative paths to parenthood,” Dr. Roger Shedlin, CEO and Founder of WIN (formerly WINFertility), a leading specialty benefit management company that is focused on fertility, family building and family well-being, told Salon. “While many don’t see any stigma tied to infertility treatments, but rather as a way to build their families, politicians’ discussions about fertility treatments in the U.S. have helped further eliminate any stigma by putting it center stage.”

Shedlin added infertility is not something to be ashamed of, and that over the last few years, there has been an increase in openness from celebrities and public figures with their own fertility stories — which has made a huge impact on families going through the same experience. Michelle Obama and former Vice President Mike Pence have also shared their family’s experiences with infertility.

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes.

“Tim Walz has also helped normalize the conversation by bringing it to a national stage in a new way,” Shedlin said. “Despite infertility impacting millions, undergoing any fertility treatment – whether it’s IUI, IVF or another route – can be a lonely journey and takes a toll on families.”

Shedlin added it can be a “significant emotional, physical and financial investment and has also recently been a hot political debate topic.” Indeed, many people struggling with infertility experience anxiety and depressive symptoms.

“With Tim Walz sharing his experiences and with Gwen Walz addressing the loneliness she felt, it makes the topic and treatment more relatable as we are seeing public figures share their journeys,” Shedlin added.

Lauren Freeman, who went through IVF in 2020, now has a three-year-old son, told Salon via email she has always “felt a pull” to share her story.

“It’s a monumental thing I went through and I have found comfort when speaking with other women who share similar experiences,” Freeman said. “Hearing someone like Tim Walz be so open and vulnerable about him and his wife's infertility journey in such a public way is very validating and comforting.”

Barbara Collura, President and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said in a media statement that Walz’s story helps “would-be parents across the country feel seen.” But it’s also beneficial to have politicians who have personally experienced infertility to advocate for policies that make treatments easier for parents, which is most needed in this moment.

“We need our elected representatives at the state and federal level, and government officials to do everything in their power to make it easier, not harder, for people to build their families,” Collura said. “This year has seen an increase in the number of bills and court rulings that threaten to restrict access to medically necessary care for people who struggle to build a family.”

Read more

about reproductive rights

Will Roe v. Wade ever be restored? How certain legal challenges could reinstate abortion protections
How the Texas trial changed the story of abortion rights in America
In Wisconsin, women’s health care is constricted by an 1849 law. These doctors are aghast


By Nicole Karlis
Nicole Karlis is a senior writer at Salon, specializing in health and science. Tweet her @nicolekarlis.