It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Engineered animals show new way to fight mercury pollution
Scientists use bacterial genes to enable fish and flies to break down dangerous methylmercury into diluted gas
Australian scientists have found an effective new way to clean up methylmercury, one of the world’s most dangerous pollutants, which often builds up in our food and environment because of industrial activities such as illegal gold mining and burning coal. The discovery, published in Nature Communications on 12 February 2025, could lead to new ways of engineering animals to protect both wildlife and human health.
The research team from Macquarie University's Applied BioSciences, CSIRO, Macquarie Medical School, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, has successfully genetically modified fruit flies and zebrafish to transform methylmercury into a far less harmful gas that disperses in air.
“It still seems like magic to me that we can use synthetic biology to convert the most environmentally harmful form of mercury and evaporate it out of an animal,” says synthetic biologist Dr Kate Tepper from Macquarie University, lead author on the paper.
Methylmercury causes environmental harm due to its high bioavailability and poor excretion: it can easily cross the digestive tract, the blood-brain barrier, and the placenta and becomes increasingly concentrated as it moves up through food webs to levels that can cause harm to neural and reproductive health.
The team modified the DNA of fruit flies and zebrafish by inserting variants of genes from bacteria to make two enzymes that together can convert methylmercury to elemental mercury which evaporates from the animals as a gas.
"When we tested the modified animals, we found that not only did they have less than half as much mercury in their bodies, but the majority of the mercury was in a much less bioavailable form than methylmercury," says Dr Tepper.
"The research is still in the early stages, and extensive testing is needed to make sure it's effective and completely safe," says Associate Professor Maselko.
The researchers included safety measures to ensure the modified organisms cannot spread uncontrollably in nature, and they also highlight the need for regulatory control for any real-world use.
Methylmercury demethylation and volatilization by animals expressing microbial enzymes
Article Publication Date
12-Feb-2025
COI Statement
Aspects of this research were filed under patent application WO/2023/183984 by K.Tepper and M.Maselko. K.T., C.P., and M.Maselko are co-founders of EntoZyme PTY LTD. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
PIK PR: Little potential for “climate plantations” within planetary boundaries
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
Under the study’s assumptions regarding the productivity of the plant species – no new varieties over time, medium climate change – the potential outside of existing agricultural land is less than 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removal in 2050. This is significantly less than assumed in many climate scenarios. It means that if we want to rely on this method of carbon removal, rather than on potential alternatives such as air filter systems or enhanced rock weathering, we will need to use existing agricultural land. This is only feasible if our food system changes and, among other things, focuses less on animal products.
The research team starts from the concept of planetary boundaries, developed in 2009 under the leadership of the current PIK Director Johan Rockström. The boundaries represent the critical limits of nine processes that form the basis of human life, from the climate, to the state of forests and oceans, to biodiversity. As the first planetary health check published by PIK recently showed, six boundaries have already been breached. Four of them are land-related and thus relevant for allocation and management of climate plantations: they concern nitrogen input from fertilisation, the freshwater cycle, deforestation and the loss of biosphere integrity caused for example by a decline in biodiversity. The new study provides the first systematic, process-based modelling of how BECCS potential is constrained if these critical limits were not to be further exceeded. “Our computer simulation is one of the most sophisticated applications of the PIK-developed biosphere model to date,” explains Wolfgang Lucht, head of the Earth System Analysis research department and a co-author of the study. “It provides an important insight into the current climate debate, in view of the fact that the 1.5 degree limit is currently being exceeded: in our response to the climate crisis, we must not only look at the CO2 balance of public policies, but also keep an eye on other planetary boundaries. Ultimately, the resilience of the Earth system depends on a multitude of interrelated processes.” The study was part of the four-year EU project NEGEM on responsible negative emissions.
Theoretically, if all biophysically suitable areas outside of today’s agriculture were converted, the potential for carbon removal through climate plantations would be significantly higher than assumed in most climate scenarios. These scenarios assume an average of around 7.5 billion tonnes of carbon removal in 2050 – just to limit global heating to 2 rather than 1.5 degrees – often with BECCS as the central technology. However, if the planetary boundaries are taken into account, the picture is reversed: the billions of tonnes are far from achievable with this technology.
The LPJmL global biosphere model, which simulates daily water, carbon and nitrogen flows at a resolution of half a degree latitude and longitude, shows how each of the four constraints affects the carbon removal potential: limiting nitrogen input from fertilisers reduces it by 21 percent relative to the theoretical upper limit; protection of freshwater systems reduces it by 59 percent; the limits to deforestation result in a 61 percent reduction; and avoidance of further loss of biosphere integrity by as much as 93 percent. Assuming that all four planetary boundaries are respected, with explicit protection for existing forests, the model study indicates a removal potential of less than 200 million tonnes of CO2 in 2050.
“The most important climate protection strategy of all remains to rapidly reduce emissions towards zero,” concludes Johanna Braun, PIK researcher and lead author of the study. “To increase the geographic extent, and thus the carbon removal potential, of climate plantations, the world would have to make do with less space for agriculture. For example, a more plant-based diet worldwide could theoretically free up significant pasture areas for other uses.”
The study thus points to an important connection, emphasises Braun: “Producing and consuming less animal products not only helps the climate by reducing emissions from agriculture – it also eases the struggle for scarce resources, thereby protecting the Earth system as a whole.”
Article: Braun, J., Werner, C., Gerten, D., Stenzel, F., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W. (2025): Multiple planetary boundaries preclude biomass crops for carbon capture and storage outside of agricultural areas. Nature Communications Earth & Environment. [DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02033-6]
Journal
Communications Earth & Environment
Underwater fossil bed discovered by collectors preserves rare slice of Florida’s past
About half a million years ago, several horses, sloths and armadillos fell into a sinkhole in Florida’s Big Bend region and died. The sinkhole filled in with sediment over time, preserving the animals where they lay until fossil collectors Robert Sinibaldi and Joseph Branin discovered them in 2022.
The pair had been diving for years near Sinibaldi’s property on the Steinhatchee River. Combing the riverbed for fossils isn’t easy; the water is full of tannins, which significantly reduces visibility. “It’s like diving in coffee,” Sinibaldi said.
They were on their usual fossil hunting trip in June of 2022 and weren’t having much luck. They were preparing to move on when Branin looked down and happened to see horse teeth. As they continued looking, they uncovered a hoof core, and then a tapir skull.
Their good feeling swelled to disbelief as the finds continue to rack up — many in pristine condition. “It wasn’t just quantity, it was quality,” Sinibaldi said. “We knew we had an important site, but we didn’t know how important.”
The Steinhatchee River likely followed a different course when the fossils were preserved, but as it meandered over the following millennia, the river edged closer to the sinkhole until, very recently, it eroded into the former pit and rinsed the fossils, leaving them exposed along the bed of the river.
He and Branin shared their findings with the Florida Museum of Natural History, where paleontologists determined they were preserved during an obscure period of the Pleistocene ice ages called the middle Irvingtonian.
“The fossil record everywhere, not just in Florida, is lacking the interval that the site is from — the middle Irvingtonian North American land mammal age,” said Rachel Narducci, vertebrate paleontology collections manager at the Florida Museum and coauthor of a new detailed study of the site.
Before the discovery, there had only been one other Florida site with fossils from this time period.
An evolutionary transition without a fossil record
While there are few fossils from the middle Irvingtonian, there are plenty from the periods just before and after. Paleontologists know from the record that some species from the early Pleistocene go extinct, while others appear for the first time in the late Pleistocene.
Then there are the species that, for unknown causes, go through changes in body size and shape during that gap.
One of these includes members of the now-extinct genus Holmesina, which resemble modern armadillos, only larger. When the species Holmesina floridanus first appeared in Florida two million years ago, individuals averaged 150 pounds. Over time, the creatures became larger and larger until being classified as a new species known as Holmesina septentrionalis, which grew up to around 475 pounds.
“It’s essentially the same animal, but through time it got so much bigger and the bones changed enough that researchers published it as a different species,” Narducci said.
The fossils recovered from the Steinhatchee River site offer a rare look into how this process of speciation took place, with ankle and foot bones that match the size of the larger H. septentrionalis species while retaining features of the older, smaller H. floridanus species.
“This gave us more clues into the fact that the anatomy kind of trailed behind the size increase. So, they got bigger before the shape of their bones changed,” Narducci explained. Only later, it seems, would the animals evolve skeletal features to help support the heavier bodyweight.
Three-quarters of the 552 fossils recovered so far from the Steinhatchee River site belong to an early species of the subgroup of living horses that includes the domestic horse and its wild relatives, known as the caballines. “That gives us a good sample size to measure or make comparisons, and it also tells us a little bit about the environment,” said Richard Hulbert, lead author of the paper and retired Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager.
Horses are adapted for living in open habitats. Since they made up such a large share of the new Irvingtonian fossil site, scientists can conclude the area used to be fairly open, much different from the heavily wooded landscape in the region today. If it had been densely wooded back then, they would expect to find more forest-dwelling animals such as mastodons and deer.
“What was great about the horses from this site is, for the first time, we had individuals that were complete enough to show us upper teeth, lower teeth and the front incisors of the same individual,” Hulbert said. These components are often only found separately. The teeth were also unusually well-preserved.
“That was one of the first things I noticed about the site,” Hulbert said. Additionally, dental wear and tear from eating were still visible, offering a valuable chance to research the diet of these early caballine horses.
Branin also collected a puzzling tapir skull, with a mix of features that have not been seen together before. Hulbert cautioned against designating it a new species, though. “We need more of the skeleton to firmly figure out what’s going on with this tapir,” he said. “It might be a new species. Or it always could just be that you picked up the oddball individual of the population.”
Hulbert stressed that the Steinhatchee River site, like many of Florida’s great vertebrate fossil sites, was not found by professionals. Hobby fossil collectors like Sinibaldi and Branin work with experts like Hulbert and Narducci to expand our collective understanding of Florida’s natural history.
Branin called Florida a lucky state for his hobby. “We have a permit system that allows people to collect fossils on state-owned lands, unlike a lot of places where there’s more barrier to entry to doing that,” he said.
Further collection at the site will be a slow, ongoing process, given the logistical challenges of excavating an ancient sinkhole underwater. Still, the authors are hopeful about the fossils that have yet to be revealed.
The doctoral dissertation by AnalíaCapponi-Savolainen explores the singing experiences of 6–7-year-old first-grade children in a culturally diverse school in Finland’s capital region. The dissertation highlights how singing serves as a tool for children to navigate everyday life, create personal spaces of trust and freedom, and exercise their political voice.
In her study, Capponi-Savolainen examines the singing experiences of 6–7-year-old first-grade children in a culturally diverse school in Finland’s capital region. She investigated what singing means to the children, and what music education and schools can learn from them.
In her research, Capponi-Savolainen worked with 44 children and interviewed 22 of them. Seven stories of how these children approach singing in their everyday lives are presented in the dissertation. Capponi-Savolainen discovered that for these children, singing is not just a performance but a tool for navigating everyday life.
“Children use singing to create their own spaces of trust and freedom for their personal purposes: to cope with everyday struggles, to create new ways of acting and participating, and to exercise their political voice. For example, in these spaces, they can choose to sing or not sing, or to sing and dance simultaneously. They can choose their own music,” Capponi-Savolainen explains.
She noted that the relationships formed through singing are crucial. For example, one of the children said that when singing with friends, she uses all her vocal potential, singing loudly around the neighbourhood, but when alone, she sings softly. Private singing, or “singing for oneself,” is also very important to the children. They sought out private or shared singing spaces, such as the schoolyard or even hidden corners of the classroom, where they could sing or hum freely.
For the children in this study, singing in adult-led activities at school felt different from their personal singing experiences. “While some children were eager to share songs from their home cultures, others hesitated and preferred not to bring their songs to school,” Capponi-Savolainen explains.
A New Ecological Approach to Children’s Singing
For decades, research on children’s singing has focused on vocal development and pedagogical methods, or how song repertoires reflect children’s cultures. However, little attention has been paid to how young children themselves perceive and experience singing, particularly in today’s increasingly diverse educational environments. This is despite global and national policies, such as the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and Finland’s Child Strategy, urging societies to better consider children’s perspectives in decision-making that affects their lives.
Capponi-Savolainen’s findings challenge the conventional emphasis on singing as a performance or a skill to be measured in educational settings. Instead, her study promotes an ecological understanding of singing, where it is seen as a way for children to exist, communicate, and connect with their world in the present moment.
Her research suggests that schools could use singing as a medium to link children’s experiences in the two most impactful environments of their lives – home and school. A shift in mindset is needed to understand children better, especially in schools, and to care for each child as a unique individual and as part of society.
“Singing occurs in places and spaces where meanings are constructed. More attention should be given to singing as a powerful activity and affordance that bridges home and school experiences, and to the school’s potential as a bridging organisation through a curriculum of care that can help young children navigate their singing ecologies and lives in a meaningful way.”
Capponi-Savolainen encourages educators to rethink how they approach singing in the classroom and how they can better take into account children’s experiences and perspectives.
“We are constantly asked to find new ways to listen to our children, but the question is how to listen and how to respect what is heard. To see the ‘real child’ in front of us, awareness is needed, but in order to make a difference, we need action. Learning from children about what singing means to them and creating a curriculum of care through singing is a way to do this.”
Defence details
Analía Capponi-Savolainen will defend her doctoral dissertation, “Children’s singing ecologies in culturally diversifying Finnish schools and society”, which falls within the field of music education, at 12:00 noon on 15 February 2025 in Musiikkitalo's Camerata hall in Helsinki.
Method of Research
Case study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Children’s singing ecologies in culturally diversifying Finnish schools and society
Article Publication Date
15-Feb-2025
Masquerading moth deploys unique optical tricks to evade predators
Researchers from Murdoch University and The University of Western Australian found the forewings of the fruit-sucking moth (Eudocima aurantia) have the appearance of a crumpled leaf – but are in fact flat.
Dr Annie Jessop and Professor Gerd Schröder-Turk, from Murdoch’s School of Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry and Physics, and lead researcher Dr Jennifer Kelley, from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences, published their research (with colleagues from the University of Salzburg, Austria) in Current Biology today.
They found the moth mimics the 3D shape and coloration of a leaf using specialised nanostructures on its wings.
“These nanostructures create a shiny wing surface that mimics the highlights found on a smooth, curved leaf surface,” Dr Jessop said.
“Structural and pigmentary coloration produces a leaf-like brown colour, with the moth exploiting thin-film reflectors to produce directional reflections – producing the illusion of a 3D leaf shape.”
The fruit-sucking moth is native to north Queensland and south-eastern Asia. The researchers made their discovery while visiting the London Natural History Museum, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of this group of moths.
“It is intriguing that the nanostructures which produce shininess only occur on the parts of the wing that would be curved if the wing was a leaf,” Dr Kelley said.
“This suggests that moths are exploiting the way predators perceive 3D shapes to improve their camouflage, which is very impressive.”
Dr Kelley said there were many examples of animals and insects masquerading as uninteresting objects – from fish that resemble leaves to butterfly pupae that look like bird droppings.
“What is remarkable about this moth, however, is that it is creating the appearance of a three-dimensional object despite being almost completely flat,” she said. “This is the novel find to our study.
“This mimicry likely serves as a camouflage strategy, fooling predators into misidentifying the moth as an inedible object.”
The discovery follows the scientists’ previous research, which discovered a moth from the same group with shape-shifting patterns on its wings.
