China global Merged Surface Temperature dataset (CMST) reveals 2023 on Track to Be Hottest Year Ever

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: OBSERVATORY WITH MACAO METEOROLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICS BUREAU view more 

CREDIT: QINGXIANG LI

The climate crisis is reaching unprecedented levels of urgency as global temperatures soar to record-breaking heights, with July 2023 marking another alarming milestone. United Nations Secretary-General  António Guterres  declared it a "disaster for the whole planet," emphasizing that the era of "global warming" has given way to an era of "global boiling." This alarming assessment is supported by recent findings from Professor Qingxiang Li 's team at the School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, based on the China global Merged Surface Temperature dataset 2.0 (CMST 2.0). Prof. Li is also a distinguished research fellow at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Unprecedented Monthly Highs since May

Professor Qingxiang Li 's team analyzed the CMST 2.0 dataset and discovered that 2023 has already experienced the third hottest first half-year since records began, narrowly trailing behind the warmest year in 2016 and the second warmest in 2020. The global mean sea surface temperatures (SSTs) surged to an all-time high in April, while global mean land surface air temperatures followed suit by reaching their second-highest monthly level in June. This combination resulted in May being crowned the hottest month ever recorded for global mean surface temperatures.

The research further reveals that global surface temperatures continue to rise into the second half of 2023, driven by factors including El Niño and widespread wildfires. Both global mean SSTs and global mean land surface air temperatures reached unprecedented highs for July, shattering previous records. Given the current trajectory and short-term forecast results of El Niño, along with the extremely positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), which strongly influences global surface temperatures, 2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record. Moreover, 2024 may witness even higher global surface temperatures.

The research is published as a News&Views article on September 19 in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

The CMST 2.0 Dataset - A Global Benchmark

The CMST 2.0 dataset, developed by Professor Li Qingxiang's team, stands as the most comprehensive global surface temperature benchmark dataset to date. It incorporates data from China, filling a critical gap in global temperature monitoring. The dataset integrates over a century's worth of global land surface air temperature data and incorporates state-of-the-art research from across the globe, resulting in an invaluable resource for climate scientists and policymakers. In 2022, the dataset was expanded to include Arctic surface temperature data, enhancing its global coverage.

Accessible to both the scientific community and the general public, the CMST 2.0 dataset is freely available on the Global Climate Change Observation and Modeling Data Platform at http://www.gwpu.net/en/.

Understanding the Complex Factors behind Global Warming

While human activities, including greenhouse gas emissions, are the primary drivers of long-term global warming, short-term variations are influenced by internal climate system changes such as El Niño and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). As global warming accelerates, the likelihood of extreme weather events and disasters increases, necessitating urgent action.

Global warming also has profound regional impacts, manifesting in extreme temperature fluctuations. For instance, in East Asia, circulation anomalies like the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) have led to frequent extreme cold events in winter, offsetting the overall rise in average temperatures. However, the rise in summer maximum temperatures and the decline in winter minimum temperatures result in larger fluctuations in extreme temperatures.

Furthermore, the pace of human discomfort due to rapid temperature increases, particularly in low-latitude regions, is a growing concern that demands our attention. The CMST 2.0 dataset and Professor Qingxiang Li's team's research underscore the urgency of addressing the climate crisis. 

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Global mean surface temperature anomalies for the whole year/first half of the year based on the CMST 2.0 (The blue line represents the GMST in the first half of the year, the gray bar represents the annual GMST (the dark gray column refers to the average predicted temperature in 2023 in the past 5 years), the black line represents the GMST, and the red line represents the regional mean ST in China)

CREDIT

Qingxiang Li

JOURNAL

Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s00376-023-3200-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Record-breaking High-temperature Outlook for 2023: An Assessment Based on the China Global Merged Temperature (CMST) Dataset

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Sep-2023

 

Yogurt may be the next go-to garlic breath remedy

Study finds proteins in particular have strong deodorizing effect

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It turns out yogurt may have a previously unknown benefit: eliminating garlic odors.

A new study conducted in a lab – with follow-up human breath tests being planned – showed that whole milk plain yogurt prevented almost all of the volatile compounds responsible for garlic’s pungent scent from escaping into the air.

Researchers tested the garlic deodorizing capacity of yogurt and its individual components of water, fat and protein to see how each stood up to the stink. Both fat and protein were effective at trapping garlic odors, leading the scientists to suggest high-protein foods may one day be formulated specifically to fight garlic breath.

“High protein is a very hot thing right now – generally, people want to eat more protein,” said senior study author Sheryl Barringer, professor of food science and technology at The Ohio State University.

“An unintended side benefit may be a high-protein formulation that could be advertised as a breath deodorizer in addition to its nutritional claims,” she said. “I was more excited about the protein’s effectiveness because consumer advice to eat a high-fat food is not going to go over well.”

The study was published recently in the journal Molecules.

Barringer has a history of identifying foods that can combat garlic breath, among them apples, mint and lettuce and milk, thanks to their enzymes and fat, respectively, that snuff out the sulfur-based compounds that cause garlic’s persistent smell.

After encountering speculation that yogurt might have a deodorizing effect, Barringer and first author Manpreet Kaur, a PhD student in her lab, decided to check it out.

For each treatment experiment, the researchers placed equal amounts of raw garlic in glass bottles and confirmed the cluster of offending sulfur-based volatiles were released in concentrations that would be detected by the human nose. They used mass spectrometry to measure levels of the volatile molecules in gaseous form present before and after each treatment.

Results showed that yogurt alone reduced 99% of the major odor-producing raw garlic volatiles. When introduced separately, the fat, water and protein components of yogurt also had a deodorizing effect on raw garlic, but fat and protein performed better than water.

In the case of fat, a higher quantity of butter fat was more effective at deodorization. The proteins studied included different forms of whey, casein and milk proteins, all of which were effective at deodorizing garlic – likely because of their ability to trap the volatile molecules before they were emitted into the air. A casein micelle-whey protein complex performed the best.

“We know proteins bind flavor – a lot of times that’s considered a negative, especially if a food with high protein has less flavor. In this case, it could be a positive,” Barringer said.

Additional experiments involving changing the pH of the yogurt to make it less acidic – from 4.4 pH to 7 pH – reduced the yogurt’s deodorization effect on the garlic. Changing the pH of water, on the other hand, did not make any difference in water’s deodorization effect.

“That’s telling me it goes back to those proteins, because as you change pH you change the configuration of proteins and their ability to bind. That said we definitely should be looking at these proteins,” Barringer said. “It probably depends on the protein, as well, because different proteins react differently to pH. So that may be an important thing as we look at other proteins for their garlic deodorization effect.”

Barringer and Kaur tested the deodorizing effect of yogurt and its separate components on fried garlic as well, and in the process, they discovered that frying garlic alone significantly reduces most of garlic’s odor-causing volatile compounds. Yogurt and its individual ingredients neutralized a lower percentage of volatile compounds of fried garlic compared to raw garlic, presumably because there were fewer volatiles to trap than were present in the raw cloves, the researchers theorized.

The findings are a good foundation for future studies analyzing a variety of proteins that might be formulated into the perfect garlic-breath-reducing product and seeking to verify yogurt’s ability to curb actual garlic breath in people.

In the meantime, Barringer predicts that Greek yogurt, with a higher-protein profile than the whole milk plain yogurt used in the study, may be particularly effective at getting rid of garlic breath. Fruit-flavored yogurts will probably work, too, she said – and whatever is used, it must quickly follow ingestion of raw garlic.

“With apples, we have always said to eat them immediately,” she said. “The same with yogurt is presumed to be the case – have your garlic and eat the yogurt right away.”

#

Contact: Sheryl Barringer, Barringer.11@osu.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, Caldwell.151@osu.edu; 614-292-8152

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JOURNAL

Molecules

DOI

10.3390/molecules28155714 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Effect of Yogurt and Its Components on the Deodorization of Raw and Fried Garlic Volatiles

 

New recipes for origin of life may point way to distant, inhabited planets

A team led by scientists at UW–Madison has exploited those limitations of chemical combinations to write a cookbook with hundreds of recipes that have the potential to give rise to life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

 

IMAGE: LIFE REQUIRES REPETITION OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS. DESCRIBING THE KINDS OF REACTIONS AND CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR SELF-SUSTAINING REPETITION — CALLED AUTOCATALYSIS — COULD FOCUS THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS. view more 

CREDIT: BETÜL KAÇAR

Life on a faraway planet — if it’s out there — might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe’s pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. A team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has exploited those limitations to write a cookbook of hundreds of chemical recipes with the potential to give rise to life.

Their ingredient list could focus the search for life elsewhere in the universe by pointing out the most likely conditions — planetary versions of mixing techniques, oven temperatures and baking times — for the recipes to come together.

The process of progressing from basic chemical ingredients to the complex cycles of cell metabolism and reproduction that define life, the researchers say, requires not only a simple beginning but also repetition.

“The origin of life really is a something-from-nothing process,” says Betül Kaçar, a NASA-supported astrobiologist and UW–Madison professor of bacteriology. “But that something can’t happen just once. Life comes down to chemistry and conditions that can generate a self-reproducing pattern of reactions.”

Chemical reactions that produce molecules that encourage the same reaction to happen again and again are called autocatalytic reactions. In a new study published Sept. 18 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Zhen Peng, a postdoctoral researcher in the Kaçar laboratory, and collaborators compiled 270 combinations of molecules — involving atoms from all groups and series across the periodic table — with the potential for sustained autocatalysis.

“It was thought that these sorts of reactions are very rare,” says Kaçar. “We are showing that it's actually far from rare. You just need to look in the right place.”

The researchers focused their search on what are called comproportionation reactions. In these reactions, two compounds that include the same element with different numbers of electrons, or reactive states, combine to create a new compound in which the element is in the middle of the starting reactive states.

To be autocatalytic, the outcome of the reaction also needs to provide starting materials for the reaction to occur again, so the output becomes a new input says Zach Adam, a co-author of the study and a UW–Madison geoscientist studying the origins of life on Earth. Comproportionation reactions result in multiple copies of some of the molecules involved, providing materials for the next steps in autocatalysis.

“If those conditions are right, you can start with relatively few of those outputs,” Adam says. “Every time you take a turn of the cycle you spit out at least one extra output which speeds up the reaction and makes it happen even faster.”

Autocatalysis is like a growing population of rabbits. Pairs of rabbits come together, produce litters of new rabbits, and then the new rabbits grow up to pair off themselves and make even more rabbits. It doesn’t take many rabbits to soon have many more rabbits.

Looking for floppy ears and fuzzy tails out in the universe, however, probably isn’t a winning strategy. Instead, Kaçar hopes chemists will pull ideas from the new study’s recipe list and test them out in pots and pans simulating extraterrestrial kitchens.

“We will never definitively know what exactly happened on this planet to generate life. We don't have a time machine,” Kaçar says. “But, in a test tube, we can create multiple planetary conditions to understand how the dynamics to sustain life can evolve in the first place.”

Kaçar leads a NASA-supported consortium called MUSE, for Metal Utilization & Selection Across Eons. Her lab will focus on reactions including the elements molybdenum and iron, and she is excited to see what others cook up from the most exotic and unusual parts of the new recipe book.

“Carl Sagan said if you want to bake a pie from scratch, first you must create the universe,” Kaçar says. “I think if we want to understand the universe, first we must bake a few pies.”

This research was funded in part by grants from NASA Astrobiology Program (80NSSC22K0546), the John Templeton Foundation (62578 and 61926), the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (28788) and the Australian Research Council (DP210102133 and FT220100757).

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.3c07041 

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessment of Stoichiometric Autocatalysis across Element Groups

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Sep-2023

How does smoking tobacco and cannabis affect depression risk?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

People who use both cannabis and tobacco have significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety than those who use either substance alone or not at all, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers.

The study, published Sept. 13, 2023 in the online journal PLOS ONE, comes amid expanding legalization of cannabis products, resulting in more dual use with tobacco nationwide. Earlier studies relied on data collected before the legalization trend, prompting the need for a new analysis.

Understanding the association between the use of both drugs and mental health could lead to more effective prevention and treatment options, the paper’s authors said.

“We provide mental health treatment, but it’s not linked with support for cannabis and tobacco cessation,” said the paper's lead author, Nhung Nguyen, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and a researcher with UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “We cannot provide tobacco cessation without addressing mental health or without considering cannabis use. These comorbidities are closely linked to tobacco use.”

A harmful combination

In conducting this study, the researchers were able to tap into an existing data source: the COVID-19 Citizen Science Study – a mobile app developed by UCSF researchers that contained a wealth of data, including mental health status and substance use, collected from participants around the country through online surveys.

They analyzed responses from 53,843 Americans from March 2020 to April 2022 who answered questions about tobacco and cannabis use over a 30-day period, and paired this with monthly assessments of the participants’ mental health status 

Among people who used both substances, 26.5% reported anxiety and 28.3% reported depression. Percentages of anxiety and depression were only 10.6% and 11.2% in people who used neither substance. Those who only used tobacco had higher rates of anxiety and depression than those who did not.

The study did not delve into whether mental health conditions are exacerbated or triggered by tobacco or cannabis use or vice versa.

"Some believe that cannabis might mitigate against the ill effects of tobacco,” said the paper’s senior author, Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, professor of medicine and associate chief of research for the Division of Cardiology, “But, these data suggest the combination is particularly harmful to mental health.”

Authors: Additional UCSF authors include Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, Noah Peyser, PhD, Jeffrey Olgin, MD, Mark Pletcher, MD, MPH, Alexis Beatty, MD, MAS, and Madelaine Modrow, MPH.

Funding and disclosures: The research is supported by the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (grants T31FT1564 and T32KT5071) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (grant UL1 TR001872-06). The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

 

About UCSF: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF School of Medicine also has a regional campus in Fresno. Learn more at https://ucsf.edu, or see our Fact Sheet.

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Follow UCSF
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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2023

 

Stigmatization of smoking-related diseases is a barrier to care and the problem may be on the rise

Researchers begin to embrace language guidance to reduce stigma in lung cancer research

Reports and Proceedings

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LUNG CANCER

 

IMAGE: NATHAN HARRISON, FLINDERS UNIVERSITY, IN AUSTRALIA view more 

CREDIT: NATHAN HARRISON, FLINDERS UNIVERSITY, IN AUSTRALIA

[Singapore -- 10:35 a.m. SGT--September 10, 2023) –The stigma that patients face when diagnosed with lung cancer is associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes, including distress and isolation, delayed help-seeking, and concerns about the quality of care, according to research presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Nathan Harrison, a behavioral scientist and PhD student from Flinders University, in Australia, aimed to identify and synthesize existing interventions to combat stigma associated with lung cancer and smoking-related respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Meanwhile, IASLC Patient Advocate Jill Feldman presented data at the same press briefing that showed a significant percentage of lung cancer researchers have embraced the IASLC Language Guide. The lung cancer community recognizes that some commonly used words and phrases used in medicine may be contributing to the lung cancer stigma problem. As a result, advocates are working collaboratively with clinicians and scientists toward changing the language used when discussing topics regarding smoking, tobacco use, and related topics.

In 2021, IASLC published the IASLC Language Guide detailing preferred language and phrasing for all oral and written communications, including presentations at IASLC conferences. Feldman’s analysis of 519 presentations at the IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer 2022 in Vienna found that 177 presentations discussed smoking status, 77 presenters used non-stigmatizing language, while 100 presenters used the stigmatizing term "smoker." Thus, in only one year of implementation, a significant number of presenters had already adopted the recommended changes that play an important role in creating a patient and advocate-friendly environment at IASLC meetings and activities.

Stigma linked to smoking-related respiratory diseases often leads to externalized devaluation, such as discrimination or judgmental comments, and internalized self-blame or shame.  

As denormalization strategies have been central to population-level tobacco control responses that discourage smoking, evidence suggests that stigma around lung cancer and respiratory diseases may be on the rise. To address this issue, developing stigma-reducing interventions for affected individuals has been identified as a priority.

Harrison and his colleagues conducted a systematic review that identified 10 studies, describing nine distinct interventions from 427 records, aimed at reducing stigma related to lung cancer and smoking-related respiratory diseases. Most interventions focused on guiding behavior change through group programs, providing formal psychotherapeutic intervention, or offering information/instruction and reference materials to individuals. These interventions primarily targeted symptomatic individuals or higher-risk groups in high-income countries.

The researchers searched four electronic databases (PsycINFO, CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus), focusing on lung cancer, COPD, and stigma-related terms, for relevant records published up to December 2022. Eligible studies described an intervention designed to reduce externalized or internalized stigma associated with smoking-related respiratory disease and were assessed using JBI critical appraisal tools as appropriate for the varied (case report, qualitative, quasi-experimental, and randomized controlled trial) study designs.

Notably, the study revealed that most of the identified interventions reported achieving reductions in stigma. Both remote and digital intervention delivery showed similar effects to traditional in-person modes, indicating promise in increasing accessibility for individuals with comorbidities or respiratory disease-related functional impairments.

“We need to further develop and evaluate stigma-reducing interventions with larger samples in diverse socio-cultural contexts,” Harrison said.  “Additionally, including validated stigma assessments in a wider variety of interventional studies could help identify more effective techniques for targeted stigma reduction.”

About the IASLC:

The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is the only global organization dedicated solely to the study of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Founded in 1974, the association's membership includes more than 8,000 lung cancer specialists across all disciplines in over 100 countries, forming a global network working together to conquer lung and thoracic cancers worldwide. The association also publishes the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the primary educational and informational publication for topics relevant to the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of all thoracic malignancies. Visit www.iaslc.org for more information.

About the WCLC:

The WCLC is the world’s largest meeting dedicated to lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, attracting more than 7,000 researchers, physicians, and specialists from more than 100 countries. The goal is to increase awareness, collaboration, and understanding of lung cancer, and to help participants implement the latest developments across the globe. The conference will cover a wide range of disciplines and unveil several research studies and clinical trial results. For more information, visit https://wclc2023.iaslc.org.

 

Tiny sea creatures reveal the ancient origins of neurons

Our brain cell components were forming in shallow seas around 800 million years ago

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CENTER FOR GENOMIC REGULATION

 

IMAGE: CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY IMAGE OF NUCLEI, COLOURED BY DEPTH, OF TRICHOPLAX SP. H2, ONE OF THE FOUR SPECIES OF PLACOZOAN FOR WHICH THE AUTHORS OF THE STUDY CREATED A CELL ATLAS FOR. view more 

CREDIT: SEBASTIAN R. NAJLE/CENTRO DE REGULACIÓN GENÓMICA

A study in the journal Cell sheds new light on the evolution of neurons, focusing on the placozoans, a millimetre-sized marine animal. Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in these unique and ancient creatures may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals. 

Placozoans are tiny animals, around the size of a large grain of sand, which graze on algae and microbes living on the surface of rocks and other substrates found in shallow, warm seas. The blob-like and pancake-shaped creatures are so simple that they live without any body parts or organs. These animals, thought to have first appeared on Earth around 800 million years ago, are one of the five main lineages of animals alongside Ctenophora (comb jellies), Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones and jellyfish) and Bilateria (all other animals). 

The sea creatures coordinate their behaviour thanks to peptidergic cells, special types of cells that release small peptides which can direct the animal’s movement or feeding. Driven by the intrigue of the origin of these cells, the authors of the study employed an array of molecular techniques and computational models to understand how placozoan cell types evolved and piece together how our ancient ancestors might have looked and functioned. 

Reconstructing ancient cell types 

The researchers first made a map of all the different placozoan cell types, annotating their characteristics across four different species. Each cell type has a specialised role which comes from certain sets of genes. The maps or ‘cell atlases’ allowed researchers to chart clusters or ‘modules’ of these genes. They then created a map of the regulatory regions in DNA that control these gene modules, revealing a clear picture about what each cell does and how they work together. Finally, they carried out cross-species comparisons to reconstruct how the cell types evolved. 

The research showed that the main nine cell types in placozoans appear to be connected by many "in-between" cell types which change from one type to another. The cells grow and divide, maintaining the delicate balance of cell types required for the animal to move and eat. The researchers also found fourteen different types of peptidergic cells, but these were different to all other cells, showing no in-between types or any signs of growth or division. 

Surprisingly, the peptidergic cells shared many similarities to neurons – a cell type which didn’t appear until many millions of years later in more advanced animals such as and bilateria. Cross-species analyses revealed these similarities are unique to placozoans and do not appear in other early-branching animals such as sponges or comb jellies (ctenophores). 

Evolutionary stepping stones 

The similarities between peptidergic cells and neurons were threefold. First, the researchers found that these placozoan cells differentiate from a population of progenitor epithelial cells via developmental signals that resemble neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are formed, in cnidaria and bilateria. 

Second, they found that peptidergic cells have many gene modules required to build the part of a neuron which can send out a message (the pre-synaptic scaffold). However, these cells are far from being a true neuron, as they lack the components for the receiving end of a neuronal message (post-synaptic) or the components required for conducting electrical signals.  

Finally, the authors used deep learning techniques to show that placozoan cell types communicate with each other using a system in cells where specific proteins, called GPCRs (G-protein coupled receptors), detect outside signals and start a series of reactions inside the cell. These outside signals are mediated by neuropeptides, chemical messengers used by neurons in many different physiological processes. 

“We were astounded by the parallels," says Dr. Sebastián R. Najle, co-first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation. "The placozoan peptidergic cells have many similarities to primitive neuronal cells, even if they aren't quite there yet. It's like looking at an evolutionary stepping stone." 

The dawn of the neuron 

The study demonstrates that the building blocks of the neuron were forming 800 million years ago in ancestral animals grazing inconspicuously in the shallow seas of ancient Earth. From an evolutionary point of view, early neurons might have started as something like the peptidergic secretory cells of today’s placozoans. These cells communicated using neuropeptides, but eventually gained new gene modules which enabled cells to create post-synaptic scaffolds, form axons and dendrites and create ion channels that generate fast electrical signals – innovations which were critical for the dawn of the neuron around one hundred million years after the ancestors of placozoans first appeared on Earth. 

However, the complete evolutionary story of nerve systems is still to be told. The first modern neuron is thought to have originated in the common ancestor of cnidarians and bilaterians around 650 million years ago. And yet, neuronal-like cells exist in ctenophores, although they have important structural differences and lack the expression of most genes found in modern neurons. The presence of some of these neuronal genes in the cells of placozoans and their absence in ctenophores raises fresh questions about the evolutionary trajectory of neurons. 

“Placozoans lack neurons, but we’ve now found striking molecular similarities with our neural cells. Ctenophores have neural nets, with key differences and similarities with our own. Did neurons evolve once and then diverge, or more than once, in parallel? Are they a mosaic, where each piece has a different origin? These are open questions that remain to be addressed”, says Dr. Xavier Grau-Bové, co-first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation. 

The authors of the study believe that, as researchers around the world continue to sequence high-quality genomes from diverse species, the origins of neurons and the evolution of other cell types will become increasingly clear. “Cells are the fundamental units of life, so understanding how they come into being or change over time is key to explain the evolutionary story of life. Placozoans, ctenophores, sponges and other non-traditional model animals harbour secrets that we are only just beginning to unlock,” concludes ICREA Research Professor Arnau Sebé-Pedros, corresponding author of the study and Junior Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation.

Video of placozoan moving unde [VIDEO] | 

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JOURNAL

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.027 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Stepwise emergence of the neuronal gene expression program in early animal evolution

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Sep-2023

 

Glacier Loss Day indi­cates record break­ing glacier melt

In the summer of 2022, one of Tyrol's largest glaciers experienced its most significant loss of mass on record. Last year, the Hintereisferner in Tyrol, Austria, reached its Glacier Loss Day (GLD) earlier than ever before

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK

 

IMAGE: VIEW OF HINTEREISFERNER ON 23 JUNE 2018 (LEFT) AND 23 JUNE 2022 (RIGHT). 2018 IS CONSIDERED A BAD YEAR FOR THE MASS BALANCE OF THE GLACIER. IN 2022, HOWEVER, THE SITUATION WAS EVEN DRAMATICALLY WORSE, AS THERE WAS HARDLY ANY PROTECTIVE SNOW COVER LEFT ALREADY IN JUNE. view more 

CREDIT: WWW.FOTO-WEBCAM.EU

The Hintereisferner, located at the back of the Tyrolean Ötztal, has been closely monitored for more than 100 years, and there have been continuous records of its mass balance since 1952. This makes it one of the best-studied glaciers in the Alps and has been key to glacier and climate research at the University of Innsbruck for decades. Since 2016, the researchers have also been surveying the glacier with a worldwide unique system: the surface of the glacier is scanned daily with a terrestrial laser scanner returning the glacier surface elevation changes. This way, the change in the volume of the Hintereisferner is monitored in real time. Innsbruck glaciologist Annelies Voordendag led the measurement on site at the Hintereisferner, the results of the researchers’ investigations have now been published as highlighted article in the journal The Cryosphere.

“Already in the early summer of 2022, it became clear that the day when the ice the glacier gained during the winter starts melting away would be reached very soon. We call this day the ‘Glacier Loss Day’ or GLD for short. It can be compared to the Earth Overshoot Day, which marks the date when we use up more natural resources than the Earth can renew in a year”, explains Annelies Voordendag. Monitoring a glacier's volume and mass alterations on a daily basis provides a quick assessment of its condition in a given year.

Observing glaciers’ health

When the GLD arrives, it means the glacier is no longer in balance with the natural conditions for that year. The earlier the GLD happens, the more time is left in the remaining summer that the glacier likely will lose volume and thus, mass. “We track the daily volume changes with the automated terrestrial laser scanninng setup overlooking the glacier and derive the day that the mass gained during winter has been lost”, says Voordendag. In 2022 the GLD was measured on the 23rd of June. In the two previous years, Glacier Loss Day was reached only in the middle of August. Also in years with negative balance extremes - such as 2003 and 2018 - this day was not reached until the end of July. Even if not every summer in the future will necessarily be like the one in 2022, the trend is clear for the glaciologists, because the developments lie outside normal fluctuation ranges: "These are clear signals of anthropogenic climate change. The consequences of our greenhouse gas emissions are already hitting us hard today," adds glaciologist Rainer Prinz from the “Ice and Climate” working group in Innsbruck. The future projections of development do not present an encouraging outlook either. Only half of the Hintereisferner will be left in 10 to 20 years,” the team summarizes in their study. These are clear climate change signals that are due to anthropogenic global warming and the consequences of our greenhouse gas emissions, which are already fully affecting us today.”

The terrestrial laser scanner's container housing at Hintereisferner in October 2022.

CREDIT

Eva Fessler

The "Ice and Climate" group has been working for many years in the "outdoor laboratory" on the Hintereisferner in the Ötztal.

CREDIT

Rainer Prinz

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JOURNAL

The Cryosphere

DOI

10.5194/tc-17-3661-2023 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Brief communication: The Glacier Loss Day as an indicator of a record-breaking negative glacier mass balance in 2022