Mystery of glacial lake floods solved

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE HOT WATER DRILL USED TO DRILL THROUGH THE GLACIER TO THE SUBGLACIAL LAKES. THE DRILL STEM IS HUNDREDS OF METERS BELOW IN THE ICE, SUSPENDED ON A RUBBER HOSE... view more 

CREDIT: ERIC GAIDOS

A long-standing mystery in the study of glaciers was recently --- and serendipitously -- solved by a team led by University of Hawai'i at Mānoa astrobiologist and earth scientist Eric Gaidos. Their findings were published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The mystery involves floods or "jokulhlaups" that emerge suddenly and unpredictably from glaciers or ice caps like those in Iceland where volcanic heat melts the ice and water accumulates in lakes underneath the glaciers. Scientists have long studied the development of these floods, which are some of the largest on Earth.

"These floods may affect the motion of some glaciers and are a significant hazard in Iceland," said Gaidos, professor at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). "But the mechanism and timing of the initiation of these floods has not been understood."

Then, in June 2015, an unexpected series of events revealed how these floods start.

That summer, Gaidos and colleagues drilled a hole to one of the Icelandic lakes to study its microbial life. While collecting samples through the borehole, the team noticed a downwards current, like a bathtub drain, in the hole.

"The flow was so strong we nearly lost our sensors and sampling equipment into the hole," said Gaidos. "We surmised that we had accidentally connected a water mass inside the glacier to the lake beneath. That water mass was rapidly draining into the lake."

A few days later, after the team had left the glacier, the lake drained in a flood. Fortunately, the flood was small and Icelanders have an elaborate early-warning system on their rivers so no people were hurt, nor infrastructure damaged in this event, Gaidos assured.

The researchers used a computer model of the draining of the flow through the hole , and its effect on the lake, to show that this could have triggered the flood.

"We discovered that the glacier can contain smaller bodies of water above the lakes fed by summer melting," said Gaidos. "If this water body is hydraulically connected to the lake then the pressure in the lake rises and that allows water to start draining out underneath the glacier."

While the team made an artificial connection to the lake in 2015, natural connections can form when water from rain or melting snow accumulates in crevasses and the pressure eventually forces a crack through the glacier to the lake. This discovery provides a new understanding of how these floods can start and how this depends on weather and the season.

Collaborators in Iceland are continuing to research this phenomenon using radio echo-sounding to search for water bodies within the ice, as well as study the larger lake below it.

CAPTION

In June 2015, a team led by Gaidos used hot water to melt a hole through 250 meters of ice to sample a lake beneath a glacier in Iceland.

CAPTION

Illustration of the water movement that may have triggered the flood of June 2015 (arrows indicate flow direction): the subglacial lake, warmed to 4?C by geothermal input, the perched reservoir fed by summer melt through the firn layer, a water-filled system of crevasses and conduits (moulins), our borehole, and the outlet under the ice dam.

Underinsurance is growing, but HSAs aren't keeping up: BU study

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

High deductible health plans (HDHPs) have become much more common among all racial/ethnic and income groups, but the health savings accounts (HSAs) that make these plans potentially workable are far less common among Black, Hispanic, and lower-income enrollees--and the gap is growing.

That's according to a new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study published in the November issue of the journal Health Affairs, the first to examine these trends.

"This is a deeply concerning inequity that is getting worse and worse with each passing year," says study senior and corresponding author Dr. Megan B. Cole, assistant professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH.

HDHPs offer lower premiums but leave patients potentially paying thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for healthcare before insurance kicks in, making it difficult or even impossible to afford needed care. So, HDHPs are often coupled with an HSA, where enrollees and their employers may contribute tax-exempt dollars to help pay for those out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

The first-of-its-kind study delves into the racial/ethnic and income-level trends in HDHP enrollment with and without HSAs, something missed by just looking at whether people have insurance or not.

"The ACA effectively reduced income and racial disparities in insurance coverage, but we don't know very much about disparities in underinsurance, or having coverage and not being able to pay for care," says study lead author Dr. Jacqueline Ellison, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University School of Public Health.

According to the study's findings, "patients who would be the most likely to benefit from the financial protection of an HSA are increasingly the least likely to have an HSA, which further exacerbates the health inequities already faced by Black, Hispanic, and low-income adults," Cole says.

In a previous study, Cole and Ellison found that Black cancer survivors on HDHPs face more cost-related barriers to care than white cancer survivors on the same plans, including needing to skip a medication or delay a refill to save money, and not being able to see a specialist. The new study suggests racial disparities in having an HSA may be a big part of the reason.

"These consumer-oriented approaches to cost containment are disproportionately impacting marginalized populations that already experience financial barriers to care," Ellison says.

For the new study, Cole, Ellison, and co-author Paul Shafer, assistant professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH, used data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2007-2018.

They found that HDHP enrollment skyrocketed during that time period, with similar rates of increase for all racial/ethnic and income groups. For example, among the lowest-income privately-insured adults, HDHP enrollment increased from 17% in 2007 to 40% by 2018.

"This means that by 2018, two in five low-income privately-insured adults often had to pay thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs before their health insurance would cover most of the cost, despite the fact that this represents a really substantial portion of their total income," Cole says. "While these lower-income patients may technically be insured, when they need any type of health care that is not otherwise exempt from cost-sharing, it is effectively like being uninsured."

HSAs were more common among high- and middle-income HDHP enrollees than low-income enrollees, and among white enrollees than Black and Hispanic enrollees--and these gaps widened between 2007 and 2018.

"In the short term, it's critical that we implement policies that not only tackle uninsurance but that also tackle underinsurance, particularly for low-income and racial/ethnic minority groups," Cole says. "This may include expanding Medicaid in current non-expansion states, expanding Marketplace cost-sharing subsidies to persons under the federal poverty line, and creating more substantial tax incentives for employers to subsidize cost-sharing for their lower-income employees."

But most importantly, Cole says, "we need policies that address the root causes of these inequities--namely, racism and structural inequalities, which lead to differential employment opportunities (meaning employers that are more versus less likely to contribute to an HSA), wealth, and abilities to save."

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About the Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, the Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally and globally.

Social distancing may have saved more than 59,000 U.S. Lives if implemented two weeks earlier

Differential effects of intervention timing on COVID-19 spread in the United States

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Research News

 

Implementing social distancing, business closures, and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in the U.S. two weeks sooner, during the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, may have prevented more than a million cases and saved more than 59,000 lives prior to May 3, 2020, when many state and local governments began relaxing restrictions, according to a new metapopulation modeling study. The results highlight the importance of quick and aggressive NPI implementation to counter transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and could help inform efforts to control new surges in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Seeking to understand the impact of timing when implementing NPIs, Sen Pei and colleagues first built a metapopulation model of COVID-19 transmission in all 3,142 U.S. counties during the period spanning February 21 through May 3, 2020. They built the model using county-level data of confirmed cases and deaths compiled by USAFacts.org and commuter mobility data from the U.S. Census, adjusting the latter for reductions in mobility due to NPIs implemented beginning around March 15. The model revealed notable yet asynchronous reductions in disease transmission rates, reflected in changes to the estimated effective basic reproduction number (Re) in most counties during this time period. They then performed counterfactual simulations with the same model, moving the timing of NPI implementation either one week or two weeks sooner. In the first model, advancing NPIs by a week, to March 8, resulted in 601,667 fewer confirmed cases and 32,335 fewer deaths nationwide as of May 3. In the second model, implementing NPIs a full two weeks earlier, on March 1, resulted in 1,041,261 fewer confirmed cases and 59,351 fewer deaths. Pei et al. acknowledge that their modeling simplifies some assumptions related to general uncertainty, economic concerns, administrative decision-making, and public adherence to social distancing rules. However, they also point to continuing successes in countries such as South Korea, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Iceland that did implement NPIs in early March, suggesting that tens of thousands of cases and deaths in the U.S. "could have been averted, not merely postponed."

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Physical distancing polices not enough to protect lower-income people: BU study

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

A new Boston University School of Public Health study of the first four months of America's coronavirus epidemic, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, shows that physical distancing (also called "social distancing") policies had little effect on lower income people still needing to leave their homes to go to work--but does show them staying home when they could.

"If lower-income people were simply ignoring the trend towards physical distancing, we would have expected them to continue going to places like supermarkets, liquor stores, and parks at the same rates as before. Instead, their visits dropped at almost the same rates as the very highest-income group," says study lead author Dr. Jonathan Jay, assistant professor of community health sciences at BUSPH.

"This indicates that lower income people were just as aware and motivated as higher-income people to protect themselves from COVID-19, but simply couldn't stay home as much because they needed to go to work," he says.

Jay and colleagues used anonymized mobility data from smartphones in over 210,000 neighborhoods (census block groups) across the country, each neighborhood categorized by average income. They were able to see whether people from these neighborhoods stayed home, left home and appeared to be at work--staying at another location for at least three hours during typical working hours, or making multiple stops that looked like delivery work. The researchers also tracked movement to "points of interest": beer, wine and liquor stores; carryout restaurants; convenience stores; hospitals; parks and playgrounds; places of worship; and supermarkets.

"The difference in physical distancing between low- and high-income neighborhoods during the lockdown was just staggering," says study co-author Dr. Jacob Bor, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at BUSPH.

"While people in high-income neighborhoods retreated to home offices, people in low-income neighborhoods had to continue to go to work--and their friends, family, and neighbors had to do the same," he says. "Living in a low-income neighborhood is likely a key risk factor for COVID-19 infection."

To analyze the role that policies played in these mobility patterns, the researcher used the COVID-19 U.S. State Policy Database (CUSP), a project led by study co-author Dr. Julia Raifman, assistant professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH.

They found that the huge drop in mobility early in March had little to do with state policy, following similar patterns in different states regardless of when their orders went into effect. When state policies did go into effect, they modestly decreased mobility further--but did nothing to close the gap between low- and high-income neighborhoods.

"The orders did not have the effect of making it easier for lower-income people to stay home," Jay says. But they did stay home to the degree possible, visiting non-work non-home locations less--which counters a major narrative about how different groups of people have responded to COVID, Jay says. "Early in the pandemic, there was a lot of talk about 'non-compliance,' and it was rarely directed at the people with the most power and privilege," he says.

"We found strong evidence of compliance among the people who are most economically marginalized, which because of structural racism disproportionately includes people of color. As the pandemic has played out, the evidence of poor safety practices at the very highest levels of power has become more clear.

"Still, it's deeply troubling that throughout the pandemic, staying home has been a choice for some people and not for others."

The researchers say that closures are an important tool for states and cities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but that they need to be accompanied by other policies that make it easier for frontline workers to protect themselves.

"That people living in low-income households are more likely to face exposure to COVID-19 at work increases the importance of complementary policies, such as mask requirements in indoor spaces, that protect essential workers from COVID-19," Raifman says.

"One of the most important arguments for mask mandates is that they protect the folks who are in public spaces not because they want to be, but because showing up is how they make ends meet," Jay says. He also points to "policies that make it easier to work from home, stay home sick, and not to take a risky new job just to put food on the table."

However, Jay says, policies that make it easier to stay home only help if people have homes. As a wave of evictions and foreclosures sweeps the country, he says extending moratoriums and enacting other housing policies continue to be an important part of the picture.

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About the Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, the Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally and globally.

Coming out as bisexual associated with increased risk of smoking: BU study

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

For many years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual (LGB+) folks have been known to be more likely to smoke than their straight counterparts.

But a new, first-of-its-kind Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study paints a more precise picture by looking at LGB+ identities separately and over time, finding that bisexuality is the identity most associated with smoking, especially around the time of coming out.

Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the nationally-representative cohort study followed 7,843 youth and young adults over three years, finding that those who came out as bisexual were twice as likely as consistently-heterosexual participants to start smoking. Coming out as lesbian, gay, or another non-heterosexual identity, or having a consistent LG+ identity, was not associated with being more likely to smoke.

The study "highlights the importance of moving beyond static measures of sexual identity towards more dynamic measures that capture critical periods of vulnerability," says Dr. Andrew Stokes, assistant professor of global health at BUSPH and the study's corresponding author.

"This approach turned out to be really important, because it revealed disparities that would have otherwise been missed if we measured identity at one time point, or grouped all LGB+ identities together," says study lead author Alyssa Harlow, a doctoral candidate at BUSPH.

"Bisexual young people may face unique forms of discrimination and stigma that increase their risk for smoking or other substance use behaviors," she says. "For example, they may experience stigma from heterosexual individuals as well as from within the LGB+ community. There's also prior research that shows that bisexual populations have worse mental health outcomes than LG+ populations.

'The findings point to a need for public health interventions specifically designed to address the unique needs, experiences, and stressors associated with coming out and identifying as bisexual," Harlow says.

For the study, the researchers used data from the first four waves of the nationwide Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, which surveyed the same 14-29-year-olds three times between 2013 and 2018. (There were too few transgender respondents in this sample for the researchers to include gender identity in their analysis.) The researchers adjusted for other variables including sex, age, race/ethnicity, education level (for participants over 18) and parents' education level (for participants under 18), and where participants lived (urban/nonurban, and region of the U.S.).

By the third wave, 14% of the respondents had smoked at some point, and 6% were current smokers. The researchers found that the same sexual identity patterns held true both for having smoked at any point in the study period and for being a current smoker.

The researchers found that, compared to a consistent heterosexual identity, coming out as bisexual was associated with being more than twice as likely to smoke. Participants with LG+ identities in the first wave who shifted to a bisexual identity, or vice versa, were twice as likely to smoke.

On the other hand, participants with a consistent LG+ identity throughout the three waves of the study and participants who started out identifying as heterosexual and came out as LG+ were not more likely to smoke than those with a consistent heterosexual identity--while those with a consistent bisexual identity were slightly more likely to smoke.

The researchers say that the study's unique approach to LGB+ identities--separated and over time--could provide valuable insights for other issues that disproportionately affect the community, including mental health issues and substance use.

But to make that possible, more national surveys need to ask youth about their sexual orientation and gender identity, says study co-author Dielle Lundberg, a research fellow at BUSPH.

"The PATH study is unique because it asks youth about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Most national surveys do not," Lundberg says.

"We must advocate for better data. Whenever national surveys fail to ask about sexual orientation and gender identity, they are directly contributing to health inequities for LGBTQ+ populations."

###

About the Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, the Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally and globally.

 

Study suggests most humans are vulnerable to type 2 diabetes

INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE HAVE PUBLISHED A STUDY SUGGESTING MOST HUMANS ARE VULNERABLE TO TYPE 2 DIABETES. view more 

CREDIT: IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Scientists have found that insulin has met an evolutionary cul-de-sac, limiting its ability to adapt to obesity and thereby rendering most people vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.

A recent study from scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University has determined that the sequence of insulin has become entrenched at the edge of impaired production, an intrinsic vulnerability unmasked by rare mutations in the insulin gene causing diabetes in childhood. The study exploits biophysical concepts and methods to relate protein chemistry to the emerging field of evolutionary medicine.

Insulin is produced by a series of highly specific processes that occur in specialized cells, called beta cells. A key step is the folding of a biosynthetic precursor, called proinsulin, to achieve the hormone's functional three-dimensional structure. Past studies from this and other groups have suggested that impaired biosynthesis could be the result of diverse mutations that hinder the foldability of proinsulin.

This group sought to determine if the evolution of insulin in vertebrates--including humans--has encountered a roadblock. Has a complex series of steps imposed constraints that have frozen the sequence of insulin at a precipice of non-foldability? And if so, has this left humankind vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes as a pandemic disease of civilization?

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the answers are yes and yes.

"Biological processes ordinarily evolve to be robust, and this protects us in the majority of cases from birth defects and diseases," said Michael Weiss, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor at IU School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study. "Yet diabetes seems to be an exception."

Weiss and team looked at a subtle mutation in human insulin in relation to the insulins of other animals, such as cows and porcupines. The mutant human insulin functions within the range of natural variation among animal insulins, and yet this mutation has been excluded by evolution. The answer to this seeming paradox is that the forbidden mutation selectively blocks the folding of proinsulin and stresses beta cells.

The group discovered that even the slightest variation of the insulin-sequencing process not only impairs insulin folding (and eventual insulin secretion) but also induces cellular stress that leads to beta cell dysfunction and eventually permanent damage.

Weiss, who is also Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Precision Health Initiative Professor, said that the study highlights the importance of folding efficiency as a critical but hidden factor in the evolution of insulin over the past 540 million years. Humans have evolved to be vulnerable to diverse mutations in the insulin gene and that this vulnerability underlies a rare monogenic form of diabetes and provides an evolutionary backdrop to the present obesity-related diabetes pandemic.

National experts agree that this discovery provides key insight to better understanding the development of Type 2 diabetes in adults and children--which both are rising at alarming rates in Indiana and around the world.

"This study is a tour de force unraveling key elements of the structural biology of insulin that affect its synthesis and function," said Barbara Kahn, MD, George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The authors highlight the fact that the insulin gene has been susceptible throughout evolution to mutations that impair insulin's function or stress beta cells. As we approach the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, these elegant observations might lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes."

Director of the University of Chicago Kolver Diabetes Center Louis Philipson, MD, agreed, adding that findings will shape future approaches to research in this area.

"The present findings define a major question for the future: whether harmful misfolding of proinsulin seen in patients bearing INS gene variants may also occur, at lower levels perhaps, but more broadly in the population of human Type 2 diabetes patients around the world," Philipson said.

Next, the group will work to fully define the sequence determinants that make proinsulin foldable in beta cells. Their hope is that this work will eventually lead to a new category of drugs that mitigate the cellular stress caused by proinsulin's precarious foldability and target cellular stress in beta cells, thereby preserving insulin-production for high-risk patients.

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This study was led by co-first authors Nischay Rege, MD, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Ming Liu, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Medical School; and Yanwu Yang, PhD, of IU School of Medicine. Additional authors are Balamurugan Dhayalan, PhD, and Yen-Shan Chen, PhD, at IU School of Medicine; Nalinda P. Wickramasinghe, PhD, Leili Rahimi, MD, Nelson Phillips, PhD, and Faramarz Ismail-Beigi, MD, PhD at Case Western Reserve University; and Huan Guo, MS, Leena Haataja, PhD, Jinhong Sun, MD, and Peter Arvan, MD, PhD, at the University of Michigan.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health to Professors Weiss, Ismail-Beigi, Phillips and Arvan.

 

Astronomers discover clues that unveil the mystery of fast radio bursts

UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang contributes to understanding the physical mechanisms of fast radio bursts in three papers published in Nature

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE FIVE-HUNDRED-METER APERTURE SPHERICAL RADIO TELESCOPE (FAST) IN GUIZHOU, CHINA. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO CREDIT: BOJUN WANG, JINCHEN JIANG & QISHENG CUI)

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs - powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves coming from deep space outside the Milky Way Galaxy - have been among the most mysterious astronomical phenomena ever observed. Since FRBs were first discovered in 2007, astronomers from around the world have used radio telescopes to trace the bursts and look for clues on where they come from and how they're produced. 

UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang and international collaborators recently observed some of these mysterious sources, which led to a series of breakthrough discoveries reported in the journal Nature that may finally shed light into the physical mechanism of FRBs.

The first paper, for which Zhang is a corresponding author and leading theorist, was published in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature. 

"There are two main questions regarding the origin of FRBs," said Zhang, whose team made the observation using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China. "The first is what are the engines of FRBs and the second is what is the mechanism to produce FRBs. We found the answer to the second question in this paper."

Two competing theories have been proposed to interpret the mechanism of FRBs. One theory is that they're similar to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe. The other theory likens them more to radio pulsars, which are spinning neutron stars that emit bright, coherent radio pulses. The GRB-like models predict a non-varying polarization angle within each burst whereas the pulsar-like models predict variations of the polarization angle.

The team used FAST to observe one repeating FRB source and discovered 11 bursts from it. Surprisingly, seven of the 11 bright bursts showed diverse polarization angle swings during each burst. The polarization angles not only varied in each burst, the variation patterns were also diverse among bursts. 

"Our observations essentially rules out the GRB-like models and offers support to the pulsar-like models," said K.-J. Lee from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, and corresponding author of the paper.

Four other papers on FRBs were published in Nature on Nov. 4. These include multiple research articles published by the FAST team led by Zhang and collaborators from the National Astronomical Observatories of China and Peking University. Researchers affiliated with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) group also partnered on the publications.

"Much like the first paper advanced our understanding of the mechanism behind FRBs, these papers solved the challenge of their mysterious origin," explained Zhang. 

Magnetars are incredibly dense, city-sized neutron stars that possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. Magnetars occasionally make short X-ray or soft gamma-ray bursts through dissipation of magnetic fields, so they have been long speculated as plausible sources to power FRBs during high-energy bursts. 

The first conclusive evidence of this came on April 28, 2020, when an extremely bright radio burst was detected from a magnetar sitting right in our backyard - at a distance of about 30,000 light years from Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. As expected, the FRB was associated with a bright X-ray burst. 

"We now know that the most magnetized objects in the universe, the so-called magnetars, can produce at least some or possibly all FRBs in the universe," said Zhang. 

The event was detected by CHIME and STARE2, two telescope arrays with many small radio telescopes that are suitable for detecting bright events from a large area of the sky. 

Zhang's team has been using FAST to observe the magnetar source for some time. Unfortunately, when the FRB occurred, FAST was not looking at the source. Nonetheless, FAST made some intriguing "non-detection" discoveries and reported them in one of the Nov. 4 Nature articles. During the FAST observational campaign, there were another 29 X-ray bursts emitted from the magnetar. However, none of these bursts were accompanied by a radio burst. 

"Our non-detections and the detections by the CHIME and STARE2 teams delineate a complete picture of FRB-magnetar associations," Zhang said. 

To put it all into perspective, Zhang also worked with Nature to publish a single-author review of the various discoveries and their implications for the field of astronomy. 

"Thanks to recent observational breakthroughs, the FRB theories can finally be reviewed critically," said Zhang. "The mechanisms of producing FRBs are greatly narrowed down. Yet, many open questions remain. This will be an exciting field in the years to come."

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Read More

"No pulsed radio emission during a bursting phase of a Galactic magnetar," published in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature.

"The physical mechanisms of fast radio bursts," published in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature. 

"Diverse polarization angle swings from a repeating fast radio burst source," published in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature. 

Cockroach mating habits and developmental features help uncover insect evolution

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that a "lost" family of cockroaches may be the missing link in the evolution of insects from prehistoric times to the present day

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

 

IMAGE: FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY OF EMBRYO OF NOCTICOLA SP. (PHOTO BY FUJITA MARI) view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Often associated with dirty living conditions and the spread of disease, cockroaches understandably have a bad reputation. But of the 4,600 cockroach species alive today, only a few are considered pests, with most choosing to live in leaf litter, rotten logs, or caves, well away from human habitation.

Despite the discovery of fossils dating to the Carboniferous period ~320 million years ago, the evolution of modern cockroaches from these prehistoric ancestors remains a little hazy. To better understand the relationships among modern cockroaches and potentially shed light on their evolutionary history, researchers led by the University of Tsukuba turned to an often-overlooked group of predominantly cave-dwelling cockroaches called the Nocticolidae.

"Previous work indicated that Nocticolidae are a sister group to Corydiidae (sand-dwelling cockroaches), and that these two families, together with Lamproblattidae, are the most basal subgroups of the order Blattodea, which comprises cockroaches and termites," explains senior author of the study Professor Ryuichiro Machida. "Interestingly, similarities in wing design suggest that Nocticolidae species may also be the closest relatives of the extinct insect order Miomoptera, which is often thought to be the common ancestor of many present-day insects."

Somewhat unusually, mating habits and embryonic development can be used to classify and distinguish the various cockroach families. The researchers therefore examined the mating behavior, ootheca (egg sac) handling, and embryonic development of Nocticola sp. cockroaches, which belong to the family Nocticolidae.

Publishing their findings in a recent issue of Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, the researchers observed that short-winged male Nocticola sp. cockroaches rapidly flapped their wings near females before entering into end-to-end copulation. After copulation, females produced an ootheca, which they carried for several days before depositing on the ground. Although such a unique wing-flapping behavior has not previously been observed in cockroaches, the other observed behaviors are consistent with the mating and ootheca handling of Corydiidae species, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship.

Notably though, symbiotic bacteria, which are common to other cockroach families, were not observed in Nocticola sp. However, the egg shape and embryonic development, with the embryo's orientation remaining unchanged, in Nocticola sp. were again consistent with Corydiidae.

"Given the consistencies in mating behavior, egg structure, ootheca handing, and embryonic development between Nocticola sp. and Corydiidae, we predict that there is a close association between Nocticolidae and Corydiidae, supporting a shared common ancestor," says Professor Machida. "Furthering our understanding of the phylogenetic position of Nocticolidae within Blattodea is essential for inferring the higher phylogeny and evolution of insects."

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The article, "Reproductive biology and embryonic development of Nocticola sp. (Blattodea: Nocticolidae)," was published in Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny at DOI: 10.26049/ASP78-3-2020-03.

 

Game 'pre-bunks' political misinformation by letting players undermine democracy

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE TITLE SCREEN OF ONLINE BROWSER GAME HARMONY SQUARE. view more 

CREDIT: GUSMANSON

A short online game in which players are recruited as a "Chief Disinformation Officer", using tactics such as trolling to sabotage elections in a peaceful town, has been shown to reduce susceptibility to political misinformation in its users.

The free-to-play Harmony Square is released to the public today, along with a study on its effectiveness published in the Harvard Misinformation Review.

It has been created by University of Cambridge psychologists with support from the US Department of State's Global Engagement Center and Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The gameplay is based on "inoculation theory": that exposing people to a weak "dose" of common techniques used to spread fake news allows them to better identify and disregard misinformation when they encounter it in future.

In this case, by understanding how to incite political division in the game using everything from bots and conspiracies to fake experts, players get a form of "psychological vaccine" against the product of these techniques in the real world.

"Trying to debunk misinformation after it has spread is like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. By pre-bunking, we aim to stop the spread of fake news in the first place," said Dr Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making lab and senior author of the new study.

Twitter has started using a "pre-bunk" approach: highlighting types of fake news likely to be encountered in feeds during the US election. However, researchers argue that familiarising people with techniques behind misinformation builds a "general inoculation", reducing the need to rebut each individual conspiracy.

In the 10-minute game Harmony Square, a small town neighbourhood "obsessed with democracy" comes under fire as players bait the square's "living statute", spread falsehoods about its candidate for "bear controller", and set up a disreputable online news site to attack the local TV anchor.

"The game itself is quick, easy and tongue-in-cheek, but the experiential learning that underpins it means that people are more likely to spot misinformation, and less likely to share it, next time they log on to Facebook or YouTube," said Dr Jon Roozenbeek, a Cambridge psychologist and lead author of the study.

Over the course of four short levels, users learn about five manipulation techniques: trolling to provoke outrage; exploiting emotional language to create anger and fear; artificially amplifying reach through bots and fake followers; creating and spreading conspiracy theories; polarizing audiences.

In a randomized controlled trial, researchers took 681 people and asked them to rate the reliability of a series of news and social media posts: some real, some misinformation, and even some faked misinformation created for the study, in case participants had already come across real-world examples.

They gave roughly half the sample Harmony Square to play, while the other half played Tetris, and then asked them to rate another series of news posts.

The perceived reliability of misinformation dropped an average of 16% in those who completed Harmony Square compared to their assessment prior to playing. The game also reduced willingness to share fake news with others by 11%. Importantly, the players' own politics - whether they leaned left or right - made no difference.

Having the "control group" who played Tetris allowed the scientists to determine an "effect size" of 0.54 for the study, said Van der Linden.

"The effect size suggests that if the population was split equally like the study sample, 63% of the half that played the game would go on to find misinformation significantly less reliable, compared to just 37% of the half left to navigate online information without the inoculation of Harmony Square," he said.

The project follows other playful attempts by CISA to illustrate how "foreign influencers" use disinformation to target "hot button" issues. A previous demonstration took the example of whether pineapple belongs on pizza.

However, Harmony Square is based on the findings of a number of studies from the Cambridge team showing how similar gamified approaches to digital literacy significantly reduce susceptibility to fake news and online conspiracies.

The team behind the game, which includes the Dutch media agency DROG and designers Gusmanson, have recently worked with the UK Cabinet Office on Go Viral!, an intervention that specifically tackles conspiracies around COVID-19.

Harmony Square is geared towards the politically charged misinformation that has plagued many democracies over the last decade. "The aftermath of this week's election day is likely to see an explosion of dangerous online falsehoods as tensions reach fever pitch," said Van der Linden.

"Fake news and online conspiracies will continue to chip away at the democratic process until we take seriously the need to improve digital media literacy across populations. The effectiveness of interventions such as Harmony Square are a promising start," he said.

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Scientists and students publish blueprints for a cheaper single-molecule microscope

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Research News

 

Scientists and students publish blueprints for a cheaper single-molecule microscope to make the specialist technique more widely available

• A team of scientists and students from the University of Sheffield has published the blueprints for a specialist single-molecule microscope they built for a tenth of the cost of commercially available equipment
• Their paper in Nature Communications provides labs with the build instructions and software needed to run the microscope
• The single-molecule method this microscope is capable of is currently only available in a few specialist labs throughout the world

A team of scientists and students from the University of Sheffield has designed and built a specialist microscope, and shared the build instructions to help make this equipment available to many labs across the world.

The microscope, called the smfBox, is capable of single-molecule measurements allowing scientists to look at one molecule at a time rather than generating an average result from bulk samples and works just as well as commercially available instruments.

This single-molecule method is currently only available at a few specialist labs throughout the world due to the cost of commercially available microscopes.

Today (6 November 2020), the team has published a paper in the journal Nature Communications which provides all the build instructions and software needed to run the microscope, to help make this single-molecule method accessible to labs across the world.

The interdisciplinary team spanning the University of Sheffield's Departments of Chemistry and Physics, and the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, spent a relatively modest £40,000 to build a piece of kit that would normally cost around £400,000 to buy.

The microscope was built with simplicity in mind so that researchers interested in biological problems can use it with little training, and the lasers have been shielded in such a way that it can be used in normal lighting conditions, and is no more dangerous than a CD player.

Dr Tim Craggs, the lead academic on the project from the University of Sheffield, said: "We wanted to democratise single-use molecule measurements to make this method available for many labs, not just a few labs throughout the world. This work takes what was a very expensive, specialist piece of kit, and gives every lab the blueprint and software to build it for themselves, at a fraction of the cost.

"Many medical diagnostics are moving towards increased sensitivity, and there is nothing more sensitive than detecting single molecules. In fact, many new COVID tests currently under development work at this level. This instrument is a good starting point for further development towards new medical diagnostics."

The original smfBox was built by a team of academics and undergraduate students at the University of Sheffield.

Ben Ambrose, the PhD lead on the project, said: "This project was an excellent opportunity to work with researchers at all levels, from undergraduates to scientists in national facilities. Between biophysicists and engineers, we have created a new and accessible platform to do some cutting edge science without breaking the bank. We are already starting to do some great work with this microscope ourselves, but I am excited to see what it will do in the hands of other labs who have already begun to build their own."

The Craggs Lab at the University of Sheffield has already used the smfBox in its research to investigate fundamental biological processes, such as DNA damage detection, where improved understanding in this field could lead to better therapies for diseases including cancer.

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