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Written by | Boiled water cabbage egg fried rice kanamycin
Editor-in-charge | Yu Qi
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1
Large amounts of oxygen may enter Europa's oceans, providing the possibility for life
NASA has long theorized that the salt water inside Europa's ice shell may be transporting oxygen into liquid water's ice-cover ocean, where extraterrestrial life is sustained. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have set up computer simulations for the first time to test this process. In their experiments, oxygen traveled through Europa's ice shell and into its ocean of liquid water by catching up with the salt water beneath Europa's "chaotic terrain," potentially helping to sustain extraterrestrial life. These terrains, made up of crevasses, ridges and ice blocks, cover a quarter of this icy world. The findings suggest that not only could this transport process have occurred, but that the amount of oxygen carried into Europa's oceans could be comparable to Earth's oceans today. Article links:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL095416
2
The earliest true armor fish found in China so far resembles a meme
Ecological restoration map | Recently, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published their new findings in the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences: In the early Stratigraphy of The Silurian Landovil Lesliech in Wuning, Jiangxi (about 438 million years ago), the oldest true armor fish fossils to date were found: The Qingaspis juniqing and the hedgehog Anjiaspis ericius）。 The armorfish is a jawless fish endemic to East Asia and is currently only found in China and northern Vietnam. The geological age of the Silurian marine red layer in northwest Zhejiang and regional strata have been controversial, and the discovery of new fossil species provides more key evidence and fills an important part of the evolutionary history of vertebrates. Article links:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1367912022001109?via%3Dihub
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Chinese scientists have identified key genes for grain production, which can be significantly increased after knockout
Image credit: pixabay
In response to the world's growing population, how to increase food production on limited arable land remains a top priority in agricultural research, so it is crucial to crack the code for increasing food production.
A team of researchers from Huazhong Agricultural University and China Agricultural University unlocked one of the mysteries of increasing grain production, and the results were published in the journal Science on March 25. First, the researchers used genomics technology to identify a gene that regulates the number of rows of corn grains (ears) and named it KRN2. Coincidentally, OsKRN2, a homolog of this gene, is also present in rice, which can also affect the panicle number and yield of rice. Finally, field experiments showed that the KRN2 knockout line of maize and rice increased the yields of maize and rice by 10% and 8%, respectively, and had no obvious negative impact on other traits, showing great application prospects.
Article links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7985
4
Vitamin B3 may be used to prevent Alzheimer's disease
Image source: pixabay vitamins are a class of trace organic substances that people and animals need to obtain from food, which plays an important role in the growth and metabolism of the human body. Recently, scientists from Indiana University School of Medicine in the United States demonstrated a new way to prevent Alzheimer's disease (AD) - taking niacin (vitamin B3). They found that niacin can bind to the receptor protein HCAR2 in microglia, thereby activating microglia, engulfing β-amyloid plaques in the brain. AD model mice had fewer amyloid plaques in their brains and improved cognitive abilities after ingesting niaspan, a drug approved for clinical use by the FDA. Based on this result, the authors are applying for a clinical trial to study the effects of niacin on the human brain. Article links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abl7634
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Alopecia areata busters? Oral barrettinib can significantly restore hair volume
Image source: Pixabay Alopecia areata, commonly known as "ghost shaving", is a sudden localized patchy hair loss disease, the pathogenesis of which is related to autoimmunity and genetics. Currently, no drugs and therapies have been approved by the FDA for alopecia areata treatment, but there are reports that tyrosine protein kinase (JAK) inhibitors can cause alopecia areata patients to grow hair again. Recently, a clinical trial paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published the results of two Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of severe alopecia areata, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of the JAK inhibitor barretinib in the treatment of alopecia areata. The research team recruited 654 and 546 patients with severe alopecia areata, respectively, and found that 4 mg of barritinib was taken orally daily and treated continuously for 36 weeks, and nearly 40% of the patients could recover 80% of their hair, and the treatment effect was obvious. However, compared with the placebo experimental group, patients with oral barretinib may experience side effects such as acne, elevated creatine kinase levels, and elevated LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. Article links:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2110343?query=featured_home
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Blood tests for microplastics, which can threaten health
Image source: pixabay microplastics (Microplastic) refers to plastic particles with a diameter of less than 5mm, which have been widely found in food, water, air and people's daily necessities. At present, microplastic pollution has not only become a major global environmental problem alongside global climate change and ozone depletion, but also enters the body with our daily breathing and diet. Microplastics smaller than 10 μm can cross the cell membrane into the circulatory system and spread throughout the body. Recently, a research team from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands found microplastics in human blood for the first time. The researchers examined blood samples from 22 volunteers in good health and found that 17 people had microplastics in their blood, with an average of up to 1.6 micrograms of blood per milliliter. The plastics detected include polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 50% content) commonly used in mineral water bottles and household appliance shells, polystyrene (PS, 36% content) for food packaging materials, polyethylene (PE, 23% content) for plastic bags, polypropylene (PP) for takeaway lunch box materials, and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for electronic lighting equipment housings. The researchers suggest that whether such microplastics are carried into the bloodstream by specific cells remains to be examined, but the entry of microplastics into the body may cause inflammation and cellular damage, which is worrying.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258?via%3Dihub
Plate editor| Ginger Duck