Science

swarm-of-dusty-young-stars-found-around-our-galaxy’s-central-black-hole

Swarm of dusty young stars found around our galaxy’s central black hole

astronomy, astrophysics, black holes, milky way, Science, Star formation / /

Hot young stars —

Stars shouldn’t form that close to the black hole, so these would need explaining.

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Image with a black background, large purple streaks, and a handful of bright blue objects.

Enlarge / The Milky Way’s central black hole is in a very crowded neighborhood.

Supermassive black holes are ravenous. Clumps of dust and gas are prone to being disrupted by the turbulence and radiation when they are pulled too close. So why are some of them orbiting on the edge of the Milky Way’s own supermassive monster, Sgr A*? Maybe these mystery blobs are hiding something.

After analyzing observations of the dusty objects, an international team of researchers, led by astrophysicist Florian Peißker of the University of Cologne, have identified these clumps as potentially harboring young stellar objects (YSOs) shrouded by a haze of gas and dust. Even stranger is that these infant stars are younger than an unusually young and bright cluster of stars that are already known to orbit Sgr A*, known as the S-stars.

Finding both of these groups orbiting so close is unusual because stars that orbit supermassive black holes are expected to be dim and much more ancient. Peißker and his colleagues “discard the en vogue idea to classify [these] objects as coreless clouds in the high energetic radiation field of the supermassive black hole Sgr A*,” as they said in a study recently published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

More than just space dust

To figure out what the objects near Sgr Amight be the, researchers needed to rule out things they weren’t. Embedded in envelopes of gas and dust, they maintain especially high temperatures, do not evaporate easily, and each orbits the supermassive black hole alone.

The researchers determined their chemical properties from the photons they emitted, and their mid- and near-infrared emissions were consistent with those of stars. They used one of them, object G2/DSO, as a case study to test their ideas about what the objects might be. The high brightness and especially strong emissions of this object make it the easiest to study. Its mass is also similar to the masses of known low-mass stars.

YSOs are low-mass stars that have outgrown the protostar phase but have not yet developed into main sequence stars, with cores that fuse hydrogen into helium. These objects like YSO candidates because they couldn’t possibly be clumps of gas and space dust. Gaseous clouds without any objects inside to hold them together via gravity could not survive so close to a supermassive black hole for long. Its intense heat causes the gas and dust to evaporate rather quickly, with heat-excited particles crashing into each other and flying off into space.

The team figured out that a cloud comparable in size to G2/DSO would evaporate in about seven years. A star orbiting at the same distance from the supermassive black hole would not be destroyed nearly as fast because of its much higher density and mass.

Another class of object that the dusty blobs could hypothetically be—but are not—is a compact planetary nebula or CPN. These nebulae are the expanding outer gas envelopes of small to medium stars in their final death throes. While CPNs have some features in common with stars, the strength of a supermassive black hole’s gravity would easily detach their gas envelopes and tear them apart.

It is also unlikely that the YSOs are binary stars, even though most stars form in binary systems. The scorching temperatures and turbulence of SGR Awould likely cause stars that were once part of binaries to migrate.

Seeing stars

Further observations determined that some of the dust-obscured objects are nascent stars, and while others are thought to be stars of some kind, but haven’t been definitively identified.

The properties that made G2/DSO an exceptional case study are also the reason it has been identified as a YSO. D2 is another high-luminosity object about as massive as a low-mass star, which is easy to observe in the near- and mid-infrared. D3 and D23 also have similar properties. These are the blobs near the black hole that the researchers think are most likely to be YSOs.

There are other candidates that need further analysis. These include additional objects that may or may not be YSOs, but still show stellar characteristics: D3.1 and D5, which are difficult to observe. The mid-infrared emissions of D9 are especially low when compared to the other candidates, but it is still thought to be some type of star, though possibly not a YSO. Objects X7 and X8 both exhibit bow shock—the shockwave that results from a star’s stellar wind pushing against other stellar winds. Whether either of these objects is actually a YSO remains unknown.

Where these dusty objects came from and how they formed is unknown for now. The researchers suggest that the objects formed together in molecular clouds that were falling toward the center of the galaxy. They also think that, no matter where they were born, they migrated towards Sgr A*, and any that were in binary systems were separated by the black hole’s immense gravity.

While it is unlikely that the YSOs and potential YSOs originated in the same cluster as the slightly older S-stars, they still might be related in some way. They might have experienced similar formation and migration journeys, and the younger stars might ultimately reach the same stage.

“Speculatively, the dusty sources will evolve into low-mass S stars,” Peißker’s team said in the same study.

Even black holes look better with a necklace of twinkling diamonds.

Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2024.  DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449729

Swarm of dusty young stars found around our galaxy’s central black hole Read More »

the-dangers-of-sneezing—from-ejected-bowels-to-torn-windpipes

The dangers of sneezing—from ejected bowels to torn windpipes

health, Science, sneeze, sneezing, syndication / /

Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioopthalmic Outburst (achoo) —

The benefits of a good sneeze can sometimes come with a greater risk of injury.

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Picture shows a woman about to sneeze holding a handkerchief in her hand.

If you were to envision the kind of accident that would cause a person’s bowels to explode out of their body, you might imagine some sort of gruesome stabbing or grisly car accident. You’d probably never imagine that something as commonplace and harmless as a sneeze would cause this kind of ghastly injury—but that’s exactly what happened to a Florida man earlier this month.

The man had recently had abdominal surgery and was suffering from wound dehiscence—where his surgical scar wasn’t healing properly. While eating breakfast, the man first sneezed, then began coughing. He noticed pain and a wet sensation on his lower abdomen—only to discover several loops of his bowel had burst through his unhealed wound.

The man was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery where his bowels were returned to his abdomen.

Sneezing is normally a protective mechanism that keeps potentially harmful things—such as dust, bacteria and viruses – out of our respiratory system. The process is controlled by the so-called “sneezing center” in the brain’s medulla (which governs autonomic functions, including breathing). It’s activated by the presence of irritants in the lining of the nose and airways, which send impulses to the center.

The response is a closing of your eyes, throat and mouth while your chest muscles contract—compressing your lungs and driving air out of your respiratory system. This forces whatever triggered the response “out” of your system at an impressive speed—up to 15.9m/s (35mph) in some cases.

But despite the benefits of a good sneeze, it can sometimes come with a greater risk of injury than many might realize.

For instance, violent sneezing can cause the lung to herniate through the intercostal muscles between the ribs—usually at a point of weakness. This is typically a result of morbid obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or smoking.

There are also cases of sneezing tearing the delicate tissues of the lungs. This happens when the higher pressure air deep in the lungs escapes into the space between the chest and the lung, causing this air to compress the lung on one or both sides of the chest.

The lungs aren’t the only thing that can tear. There are reports of people tearing the delicate lining of the brain from sneezing—leading to a subarachnoid haemorrhage (a type of stroke) which can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated promptly.

Even if you don’t tear this delicate lining, a sneeze can still affect the brain—with reports of people suffering weakness on one side of the body or visual disturbances following a sneeze.

Sneezing raises blood pressure which can cause other serious injuries to the blood vessels. There are cases of aortic dissection from sneezing, where the force of the sneeze tears the layers of the aorta (the major artery that carries oxygenated blood around the body) and causes blood to burst between the layers. If not treated, it has a 50 percent mortality rate within 48 hours of happening.

While it’s pretty common to injure your back while sneezing, this isn’t the only musculoskeletal injury that can happen. There are case reports of people fracturing the bones around their eye from sneezing. This type of fracture, called a blow-out fracture, is typically caused by blunt force trauma—often from a golf, tennis or baseball to the eye.

The small bones of the ear can fracture following a sneeze, which can cause hearing loss. Dental implants have been known to dislodge themselves into other parts of the face from a forceful sneeze.

The increased pressure caused by sneezing can cause fluid to escape from the body, particularly urine from the bladder. This is typically seen in people with weak pelvic floor muscles—usually caused by pregnancy, childbirth, obesity, menopause, and physical trauma or nerve damage.

Don’t hold it in

Given all the potential injuries a sneeze can cause, you might think it’s better to hold them in.

But even that isn’t safe to do. In 2023, a Scottish man held in a sneeze by closing his mouth and holding his nose. This resulted in him tearing his windpipe. By closing off his airways, this allowed the pressure generated by the sneeze to build up inside the respiratory system—which can sometimes be up to 20 times the pressure normally seen in the respiratory system. But this energy has to go somewhere, so is typically absorbed by the tissues.

Others have fractured bones of their face holding in sneezes, damaged their larynx (voice box), and torn the tissues in their chest that protect the lungs.

Thankfully, there is one injury that would be impossible for a sneeze to cause. Ever been told that if you sneeze with your eyes open, it’ll cause them to pop out? Thankfully, that’s just a tall tale. This is because your eyes are held in place by muscles and a nerve that anchors it in place. Not to mention that the airways in our respiratory system have no connection to your eyeballs or eye sockets.

Our body is well adapted to sneeze, so you probably don’t need to worry about suffering any injuries as many of these harms only happen in very rare circumstances. Though if you’re someone like Donna Griffiths (who has the longest recorded sneezing fit, lasting a nose-clearing 976 days) or Yi Yang (who has the loudest recorded sneeze at 176 decibels, the equivalent of a rocket taking flight), you may be at greater risk of harm.The Conversation

Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, Lancaster University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The dangers of sneezing—from ejected bowels to torn windpipes Read More »

can’t-stop-your-cat-from-scratching-the-furniture?-science-has-some-tips

Can’t stop your cat from scratching the furniture? Science has some tips

animal behavior, animals, Biology, cat behavior, Cats, Science, veterinary science / /
two adorable kittens (one tabby, one tuxedo) on a little scratching post base.

Enlarge / Ariel and Caliban learned as kittens that scratching posts were fair game for their natural claw-sharpening instincts.

Sean Carroll

Ah, cats. We love our furry feline overlords despite the occasional hairball and their propensity to scratch the furniture to sharpen their claws. The latter is perfectly natural kitty behavior, but overly aggressive scratching is usually perceived as a behavioral problem. Veterinarians frown on taking extreme measures like declawing or even euthanizing such “problematic” cats. But there are alternative science-backed strategies for reducing or redirecting the scratching behavior, according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

This latest study builds on the group’s prior research investigating the effects of synthetic feline facial pheromones on undesirable scratching in cats, according to co-author Yasemin Salgirli Demirbas, a veterinary researcher at Ankara University in Turkey. “From the beginning, our research team agreed that it was essential to explore broader factors that might exacerbate this issue, such as those influencing stress and, consequently, scratching behavior in cats,” she told Ars. “What’s new in this study is our focus on the individual, environmental, and social dynamics affecting the level of scratching behavior. This perspective aims to enhance our understanding of how human and animal welfare are interconnected in different scenarios.”

The study investigated the behavior of 1,211 cats, with data collected via an online questionnaire completed by the cats’ caregivers. The first section collected information about the caregivers, while the second asked about the cats’ daily routines, social interactions, environments, behaviors, and temperaments. The third and final section gathered information about the frequency and intensity of undesirable scratching behavior in the cats based on a helpful “scratching index.”

The team concluded that there are several factors that influence the scratching behavior of cats, including environmental factors, high levels of certain kinds of play, and increased nocturnal activity. But stress seems to be the leading driver. “Cats might scratch more as a way to relieve stress or mark their territory, especially if they feel threatened or insecure,” said Demirbas. And the top source of such stress, the study found, is the presence of small children in the home.

A corrugated fiberboard scratching pad can redirect your cat's unwanted scratching away from the furniture.

Enlarge / A corrugated fiberboard scratching pad can redirect your cat’s unwanted scratching away from the furniture.

Can’t stop your cat from scratching the furniture? Science has some tips Read More »

two-of-the-german-military’s-new-spy-satellites-appear-to-have-failed-in-orbit

Two of the German military’s new spy satellites appear to have failed in orbit

germany, SARah, Science, Space / /

The peril of pointing —

Did OHB really not test the satellite antennas on the ground?

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The SARah-1 mission is seen on the launch pad in June 2022.

Enlarge / The SARah-1 mission is seen on the launch pad in June 2022.

SpaceX

On the day before Christmas last year, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from California and put two spy satellites into low-Earth orbit for the armed forces of Germany, which are collectively called the Bundeswehr.

Initially, the mission appeared successful. The German satellite manufacturer, OHB, declared that the two satellites were “safely in orbit.” The addition of the two SARah satellites completed a next-generation constellation of three reconnaissance satellites, the company said.

However, six months later, the two satellites have yet to become operational. According to the German publication Der Spiegel, the antennas on the satellites cannot be unfolded. Engineers with OHB have tried to resolve the issue by resetting the flight software, performing maneuvers to vibrate or shake the antennas loose, and more to no avail.

As a result, last week, German lawmakers were informed that the two new satellites will probably not go into operation as planned.

Saving SARah

The three-satellite constellation known as SARah—the SAR is a reference to the synthetic aperture radar capability of the satellites—was ordered in 2013 at a cost of $800 million. The first of the three satellites, SARah 1, launched in June 2022 on a Falcon 9 rocket. This satellite was built by Airbus in southern Germany, and it has since gone into operation without any problems.

The two smaller satellites built by OHB, flying with passive synthetic aperture radar reflectors, were intended to complement the SARah 1 satellite, which carries an active phased-array radar antenna.

“The new SARah satellites ensure that the Bundeswehr has the capability for worldwide imaging reconnaissance independent of the time of day or the weather,” the German military said at the time of the SARah 1 satellite launch. “At the same time, they provide support in the early detection and management of crises.”

This new constellation was intended to replace an aging fleet of similar, though less capable, satellites known as  SAR-Lupe. This five-satellite constellation launched nearly two decades ago.

OHB said to be at fault

According to the Der Spiegel report, the Bundeswehr says the two SARah satellites built by OHB remain the property of the German company and would only be turned over to the military once they were operational. As a result, the military says OHB will be responsible for building two replacement satellites.

Shockingly, the German publication says that its sources indicated OHB did not fully test the functionality and deployment of the satellite antennas on the ground. This could not be confirmed.

This setback comes as OHB is attempting to complete a deal to go private—the investment firm KKR is planning to acquire the German space company. OHB officials said they initiated the effort to go private late last year because public markets had “structurally undervalued” the company.

OHB has its hands in many different space businesses in Europe. The small launch firm Rocket Factory Augsburg was spun out of OHB in 2018 and is working toward its debut launch later this year or in 2025. The company is also a supplier for the larger Ariane 6 rocket and one of several private companies that is part of a coalition bidding to build a Starlink-like satellite constellation for the European Union known as IRIS2.

Two of the German military’s new spy satellites appear to have failed in orbit Read More »

high-altitude-cave-used-by-tibetan-buddhists-yields-a-denisovan-fossil

High-altitude cave used by Tibetan Buddhists yields a Denisovan fossil

ancient proteins, Archeology, Denisovans, human evolution, Science / /

Eating in —

Cave deposits yield bones of sheep, yaks, carnivores, and birds that were butchered.

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Image of a sheer cliff face with a narrow path leading to a cave opening.

Enlarge / The Baishiya Karst Cave, where the recently analyzed samples were obtained.

Dongju Zhang’s group (Lanzhou University)

For well over a century, we had the opportunity to study Neanderthals—their bones, the items they left behind, their distribution across Eurasia. So, when we finally obtained the sequence of their genome and discovered that we share a genetic legacy with them, it was easy to place the discoveries into context. In contrast, we had no idea Denisovans existed when sequencing DNA from a small finger bone revealed that yet another relative of modern humans had roamed Asia in the recent past.

Since then, we’ve learned little more. The frequency of their DNA in modern human populations suggest that they were likely concentrated in East Asia. But we’ve only discovered fragments of bone and a few teeth since then, so we can’t even make very informed guesses as to what they might have looked like. On Wednesday, an international group of researchers described finds from a cave on the Tibetan Plateau that had been occupied by Denisovans, which tell us a bit more about these relatives: what they ate. And that appears to be anything they could get their hands on.

The Baishiya Karst Cave

The finds come from a site called the Baishiya Karst Cave, which is perched on a cliff on the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau. It’s located at a high altitude (over 3,000 meters or nearly 11,000 feet) but borders a high open plain, as you can see in the picture below.

Oddly, it came to the attention of the paleontology community because the cave was a pilgrimage site for Tibetan monks, one of whom discovered a portion of a lower jaw that eventually was given to a university. There, people struggled to understand exactly how it fit with human populations until eventually analysis of proteins preserved within it indicated it belonged to a Denisovan. Now called the Xiahe mandible, it remains the most substantial Denisovan fossil we’ve discovered to date.

The Ganjia Basin borders the cliffs that contain the Baishiya Karst Cave.

Enlarge / The Ganjia Basin borders the cliffs that contain the Baishiya Karst Cave.

Dongju Zhang’s group (Lanzhou University)

Since then, excavations at the site had turned up a large collection of animal bones, but none that had been identified as Denisovan. Sequencing of environmental DNA preserved in the cave, however, revealed that the Denisovans had occupied the cave regularly for at least 100,000 years, meaning they were surviving at altitude during both of the last two glacial cycles.

The new work focuses in on the bones, many of which are too fragmentary to be definitively assigned to a species. To do so, the researchers purified fragments of proteins from the bones, which contain large amounts of collagen. These fragments were then separated according to their mass, a technique called mass spectrometry, which works well even with the incredibly small volumes of proteins that survive over hundreds of thousands of years.

Mass spectrometry relies on the fact that there are only a limited number of combinations of amino acids—often only one—that will produce a protein fragment of a given mass. So, if the mass spectrometry finds a signal at that mass, you can compare the possible amino acid combinations that produce it to known collagen sequences to find matches. Some of these matches will end up being in places where collagens from different species have distinct sequences of amino acids, allowing you to determine what species the bone came from.

When used this way, the technique is termed zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry, or ZooMS. And, in the case of the work described in the new paper, it identified nearly 80 percent of the bone fragments that were tested.

High-altitude cave used by Tibetan Buddhists yields a Denisovan fossil Read More »

the-hunt-for-the-most-efficient-heat-pump-in-the-world

The hunt for the most efficient heat pump in the world

heat pumps, Science, syndication / /

beat the heat —

A new generation of engineers has realized they can push heat pumps to the limit.

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Thermal imaging of two heat pumps and fan units, showing red and orange areas with elevated temperatures.

Outside a 100-year-old house on the edge of the Peak District in northern England, a heat pump’s fan blades are swiftly spinning. They’re drawing outdoor air over coils of refrigerant, harvesting warmth from that air. All air-source heat pumps do this—and they can glean heat even on cold days. But this heat pump is special. It is one of the most efficient installations of its kind in the country.

“I’m number two on there,” fizzes owner Rob Ritchie, a retired chemistry teacher, referring to the system’s position on HeatPumpMonitor.org, a kind of online leaderboard for heat pumps around the UK and beyond. “I should say it isn’t important—but it is. It’s nice being there.”

At the time of writing, real-time data suggests that for every kilowatt-hour of electricity Ritchie’s heat pump consumes, it delivers 5.5 kilowatt-hours of heat—a coefficient of performance, or COP, of 5.5. Achieving a COP of 5 or above is “absolutely incredible,” says Emma-Louise Bennett, active transition support lead at Viessmann, the company that made Ritchie’s heat pump. In the UK, average heat pump COPs tend to be between 2 and 3.

For social-media-savvy plumbers and environmentally conscious home renovators who are increasingly sharing videos of their heating systems online, heat pumps are in vogue. In the race to decarbonize and curtail the devastating effects of climate change, switching home heating systems away from fossil-fuel-burning boilers and furnaces is essential. Heat pumps will be a key weapon in that fight, says the International Energy Agency. It estimates that, globally, heat pumps could reduce CO2 emissions by 500 million metric tons—equivalent to taking every car in Europe off the road.

A new generation of heating engineers has realized that they can push heat pumps to the limit. These installers are reaching astounding levels of efficiency by taking extra care to design low-temperature heating systems that warm rooms without using excess energy.

Heat pumps can offer multiple kilowatt-hours of heat per kilowatt-hour of electricity, thanks to physics. The refrigerant sealed inside the device evaporates readily when it is warmed even slightly, say by the outdoor air, and a compressor then pressurizes the warmed gas, which has the effect of heating it further. It only takes a little electricity to power this process, which can raise the refrigerant’s temperature by many degrees Celsius.

Since moving to his detached house near Sheffield about 10 years ago, Ritchie has installed loft insulation and solar panels, but the fabric of the building is not necessarily ideal for keeping the place toasty in an efficient way. The property has thin-cavity walls without much insulation in them, and Ritchie lives at 800 feet above sea level, meaning outdoor temperatures are generally relatively low. Thanks to his heat pump and solar panels, though, he estimates he’s now saving 2,700 pounds ($3,420) on his utility bills annually. It goes to show that heat pumps can work well in older properties in challenging locations, he says.

The system was designed by local installer Damon Blakemore, who also checks HeatPumpMonitor.org regularly to see how his work stands up against that of his competitors. Ritchie’s heat pump is not quite in pole position at present, but it is noteworthy, emphasizes Blakemore, because once a year’s worth of data has accumulated this September, it could be the first air-source device on the leaderboard to achieve a 365-day seasonal COP, or SCOP, of 5. This is an average that reveals how well a heat pump has performed over an entire year. Weather changes between summer and winter, which shift demand for heating, tend to affect overall system efficiency, among other factors.

Blakemore is one of the “SCOP-chasers,” as Bennett puts it, driven to maximize the efficiency of the systems he installs. There is a small but highly visible group of such people in the UK who follow each other on Facebook and X, drop in on each other’s podcasts, and jostle for high rankings on HeatPumpMonitor.org. Among the stakeholders in this race for efficiency is Heat Geek, an organization that has trained multiple high-performing installers—including Blakemore.

“It’s not really something we particularly anticipated,” says Glyn Hudson, cofounder of Open Energy Monitor (OEM), which runs HeatPumpMonitor.org, referring to the casual competition emerging in the heating industry. “But installers are proud of their work. They do enjoy showing off photos of their installations on social media. The pipework layout is very important to them.”

The hunt for the most efficient heat pump in the world Read More »

soda-additive-“no-longer-considered-safe,”-gets-long-awaited-fda-ban

Soda additive “no longer considered safe,” gets long-awaited FDA ban

brominated vegetable oil, BVO, fda, food additives, health, Mountain Dew, Science, Sun drop / /

Decades coming —

Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is used in citrus sodas but has largely been phased out.

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Tops of citrus sodas at a manufacturing plant.

Enlarge / Tops of citrus sodas at a manufacturing plant.

After more than five decades of limbo, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday revoked the authorization of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food, banning an additive long known to have toxic effects that is already banned in Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and California.

BVO—simply vegetable oil that is modified with bromine—has been used in foods since the 1920s. It has often been used as a stabilizer for fruit flavorings, particularly in citrusy beverages, including sodas, to keep the citrus flavoring from separating and floating to the top. The FDA authorized the use of BVO just after gaining the authority to regulate food additives in 1958. By the early 1960s, the FDA had put BVO on its first inventory of food additives it deemed generally safe—designated “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS. But safety concerns quickly surfaced, and by the late 1960s, the FDA had already limited its use to a flavoring stabilizer and capped the amount that could be used to 15 parts per million.

That 15-ppm limit was authorized on an “interim basis,” pending more safety studies. In 1970, the FDA revoked the GRAS designation for BVO, but continued to allow the 15-ppm limit—on an interim basis—given that safety studies “did not indicate an immediate health threat from the limited use.”

“Disgraceful”

The interim safety limit stayed in place until now, as the FDA was waiting for more safety data. In the mid-2010s, following bans in Europe and Japan, the agency began to review BVO and commissioned its own studies. A resulting rat study, which the agency published in 2022, found that when rats were fed BVO at levels that mimicked humans’ exposure at the 15-ppm limit, the animals developed abnormalities in their thyroids, alterations in their hormone signaling, and accumulation of brominated fatty acids in their hearts, livers, and fat.

The FDA proposed its ban in November 2023. At the time, the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, James Jones, hinted at the agency’s inactions by noting that the proposed restructuring at the agency was intended to “develop a faster and more nimble process for evaluating chemicals in the food supply.”

By then, most major soda makers had already phased BVO out of their citrusy sodas and other drinks amid public pressure. Coca-Cola pledged to remove BVO from its drinks in 2014, and PepsiCo confirmed in 2020 that it had removed it from its drinks, including Mountain Dew and Gatorade. The FDA reports that only a few beverages in the US still use the additive. Among the lingering users is Sun Drop, according to its product page.

Manufacturers have one year to reformulate their products, the FDA notes.

Consumer advocates chided the FDA while celebrating the ban. “The FDA’s decision to ban brominated vegetable oil in food is a victory for public health,” Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. “But it’s disgraceful that it took decades of regulatory inaction to protect consumers from this dangerous chemical.”

Soda additive “no longer considered safe,” gets long-awaited FDA ban Read More »

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NASA selects SpaceX to launch a gamma-ray telescope into an unusual orbit

antimatter, cosi, falcon 9, gamma ray, launch, NASA, Science, Space, spacex / /

Plane change —

The Falcon 9 rocket is pretty much the only rocket available to launch this mission.

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Artist's illustration of the COSI spacecraft.

Enlarge / Artist’s illustration of the COSI spacecraft.

A small research satellite designed to study the violent processes behind the creation and destruction of chemical elements will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2027, NASA announced Tuesday.

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) mission features a gamma-ray telescope that will scan the sky to study gamma-rays emitted by the explosions of massive stars and the end of their lives. These supernova explosions generate reactions that fuse new atomic nuclei, a process called nucleosynthesis, of heavier elements.

Using data from COSI, scientists will map where these elements are forming in the Milky Way galaxy. COSI’s observations will also yield new insights into the annihilation of positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons, which appear to be originating from the center of the galaxy. Another goal for COSI will be to rapidly report the location of short gamma-ray bursts, unimaginably violent explosions that flash and then fade in just a couple of seconds. These bursts are likely caused by merging neutron stars.

The COSI mission will be sensitive to so-called soft gamma rays, a relatively unexplored segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. The telescope is based on a design scientists have flown on research balloon flights.

NASA selected COSI in a competition for funding to become the next mission in the agency’s Explorers program in 2021. Earlier this year, NASA formally approved the mission to proceed into development for launch in August 2027, with an overall budget in the range of $267 million to $294 million, according to NASA budget documents.

From Florida to the equator

COSI is a relatively small spacecraft, built by Northrop Grumman and weighing less than a ton, but it will ride alone into orbit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. That’s because COSI will operate in an unusual orbit about 340 miles (550 kilometers) over the equator, an orbit chosen to avoid interference from radiation over the South Atlantic Anomaly, the region where the inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth’s surface.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will deliver COSI directly into its operational orbit after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, then will fire its upper stage in a sideways maneuver to make a turn at the equator. This type of maneuver, called a plane change, takes a lot of energy, or delta-V, on par with the delta-V required to put a heavier satellite into a much higher orbit.

File photo of a Falcon 9 launch on May 6 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Enlarge / File photo of a Falcon 9 launch on May 6 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

SpaceX

NASA awarded SpaceX a firm-fixed-price contract valued at $69 million to launch the COSI mission. This is about a 37 percent increase in the price NASA paid SpaceX in a 2019 contract for launch of the similarly sized IXPE X-ray telescope into a similar orbit as COSI. The higher price is at least partially explained by inflation.

The space agency didn’t have much of a decision to make in the COSI launch contract. The Falcon 9 is the only rocket certified by NASA that can launch a satellite with the mass of COSI into its equatorial orbit.

In the next couple of years, NASA hopes United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s New Glenn launcher will be in the mix to compete for launch contracts for missions like COSI. All of ULA’s remaining Atlas V rockets are already booked by other customers.

NASA selects SpaceX to launch a gamma-ray telescope into an unusual orbit Read More »

the-earth-heated-up-when-its-day-was-22-hours-long

The Earth heated up when its day was 22 hours long

atmospheric science, climate models, Climatology, Earth science, geology, geoscience, Science / /
The Earth heated up when its day was 22 hours long

Because most things about Earth change so slowly, it’s difficult to imagine them being any different in the past. But Earth’s rotation has been slowing due to tidal interactions with the Moon, meaning that days were considerably shorter in the past. It’s easy to think that a 22-hour day wouldn’t be all that different, but that turns out not to be entirely true.

For example, some modeling has indicated that certain day lengths will be in resonance with other effects caused by the planet’s rotation, which can potentially offset the drag caused by the tides. Now, a new paper looks at how these resonances could affect the climate. The results suggest that it would shift rain to occurring in the morning and evening while leaving midday skies largely cloud-free. The resulting Earth would be considerably warmer.

On the Lamb

We’re all pretty familiar with the fact that the daytime Sun warms up the air. And those of us who remember high school chemistry will recall that a gas that is warmed will expand. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that the Earth’s atmosphere expands due to warming on its day side and contracts back again as it cools (these lag the daytime peak in sunlight). These differences provide something a bit like a handle that the gravitational pulls of the Sun and Moon can grab onto, exerting additional forces on the atmosphere. This complicated network of forces churns our atmosphere, helping shape the planet’s weather.

Two researchers, Russell Deitrick and Colin Goldblatt at Canada’s University of Victoria, were curious as to what would happen to these forces as the day length got shorter. Specifically, they were interested in a period where the day’s length would be at resonance with phenomena called Lamb waves.

Lamb waves aren’t specific to the atmosphere. Rather, they’re a specific manner in which a disturbance can travel through a medium, from vibrations in a solid to sound through the air.

Although various forces can create Lamb waves in the atmosphere, they’ll travel with a set of characteristic frequencies. One of those is roughly 10.5 to 11 hours. As you go back in time to shorter days, you’ll reach a point where the Earth’s day was a bit shorter than 22 hours, or twice the period of the Lamb waves. At this point, any disturbances in the atmosphere related to day length would have the ability to interact with the Lamb waves that were set off the day prior. This resonance could potentially strengthen the impact of any atmospheric phenomena related to day length.

Figuring out whether they do turned out to be a bit of a challenge. There are plenty of climate models to let researchers explore what’s going on in the modern atmosphere. But a lot of these have key features, like day length and solar output, hard coded into them. Others don’t let you do things like rearrange the Earth’s continents or change some atmospheric components.

The researchers did find a model that would allow them to change day length, solar intensity, and carbon dioxide concentrations to those present when Earth’s day length was 22 hours (which was likely to be in the pre-Cambrian). But it wasn’t able to reset the ozone concentrations, and ozone is also a greenhouse gas. So, they ran simulations without ozone, which are expected to be an under-estimate, and one where they elevated methane concentrations in order to mimic ozone’s greenhouse effect.

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US prepares for bird flu pandemic with $176M Moderna vaccine deal

barda, bird flu, dairy cows, dairy farms, H5N1, HHS, influenza, moderna, pandemic, pandemic preparedness, Science, USDA, virus / /

Pandemic fears —

Phase 3 trial is expected to begin next year.

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US prepares for bird flu pandemic with $176M Moderna vaccine deal

The US government will pay Moderna $176 million to develop an mRNA vaccine against a pandemic influenza—an award given as the highly pathogenic bird flu virus H5N1 continues to spread widely among US dairy cattle.

The funding flows through BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, as part of a new Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) Consortium. The program is intended to set up partnerships with industry to help the country better prepare for pandemic threats and develop medical countermeasures, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a press announcement Tuesday.

In an announcement of its own Tuesday, Moderna noted that it began a Phase 1/2 trial of a pandemic influenza virus vaccine last year, which included versions targeting H5 and H7 varieties of bird flu viruses. The company said it expects to release the results of that trial this year and that those results will direct the design of a Phase 3 trial, anticipated to begin in 2025.

The funding deal will support late-stage development of a “pre-pandemic vaccine against H5 influenza virus,” Moderna said. But, the deal also includes options for additional vaccine development in case other public health threats arise.

“mRNA vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, speed of development, and production scalability and reliability in addressing infectious disease outbreaks, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the announcement. “We are pleased to continue our collaboration with BARDA to expedite our development efforts for mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines and support the global public health community in preparedness against potential outbreaks.”

US health officials have said previously that they were in talks with Moderna and Pfizer about the development of a pandemic bird flu vaccine. The future vaccine will be in addition to standard protein-based bird flu vaccines that are already developed. In recent weeks, the health department has said it is working to manufacture 4.8 million vials of H5 influenza vaccine in the coming months. The plans come three months into the H5N1 dairy outbreak, which is very far from the initial hopes of containment.

Botched response

The US is badly fumbling its response to the unprecedented outbreak, drawing criticism from US-based and international experts alike. Genetic analyses suggest that the virus has been spreading among the country’s dairy cattle since late last year. But, it wasn’t until months later, on March 25, that the US Department of Agriculture confirmed the first four infected herds in two states (Texas and Kansas). Since then, the outbreak has spread to around 140 herds in 12 states—at least.

Some farms are refusing to test, and experts expect that there is a significant number of undocumented herd infections, particularly given the widespread detection of inactivated H5N1 in the commercial milk supply. Further, of the 140 herds with documented infections, federal officials do not know how many are still actively infected rather than recovered. It is unclear if infected cows can become reinfected, and if so, how quickly after an infection.

While the risk to the general public is considered to be low currently, farm workers are at higher risk of contracting the infection. To date, there have been three confirmed infections among dairy farm workers—one in Texas and two in Michigan, which has had a uniquely robust response to the outbreak. Still, with hundreds to thousands of farm workers at risk of contracting the virus, only 53 people in the country to date have been tested for H5 influenza.

In a presentation in London last month, global health leader Seth Berkley said it was “shocking to watch the ineptitude” of the US response to the H5N1 outbreak. He, like other experts, questioned whether the US public health community has learned or improved from the failures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similar to problems during the pandemic, a key barrier to the H5N1 response is resistance from farmers and farm workers to partner with state and federal health officials. Federal agencies have limited authority within states, but they have announced an array of assistance programs for dairy farms, including compensatory funding and access to personal protective equipment for farm workers. They have also issued guidance and restrictions to tighten biosecurity measures. But there has been little voluntary participation on both fronts.

For instance, officials figured out early in the outbreak that movement of cattle, workers, and equipment between farms is the main way H5N1 is spreading among dairies. In April, the USDA required testing of a portion of cows prior to their movement across state lines. But movement within states is governed by states. In a survey last month, which captured data from 54 percent of affected farms at the time, more than 60 percent of farmers said they continued to move cattle off their infected farms after the onset of clinical signs of infection in their animals.

The more the virus expands its footprint across US dairy farms, adapts to its newfound mammalian host, and comes in contact with humans, the more and more chances it has to leap to humans and gain the ability to spread among us.

In HHS’s Tuesday announcement of the Moderna award, Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response, spoke to the growing concern that the H5N1 outbreak could spark another pandemic. “The award made today is part of our longstanding commitment to strengthen our preparedness for pandemic influenza,” O’Connell said. “Adding this technology to our pandemic flu toolkit enhances our ability to be nimble and quick against the circulating strains and their potential variants.”

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Call the ant doctor: Amputation gives injured ants a leg up on infections

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video still image showing woundcare and amputation in C. maculatus

Enlarge / Scientists have observed wound care and selective amputation in Florida carpenter ants.

Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) selectively treat the wounded limbs of their fellow ants, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. Depending on the location of the injury, the ants either lick the wounds to clean them or chew off the affected limb to keep infection from spreading. The treatment is surprisingly effective, with survival rates of around 90–95 percent for amputee ants.

“When we’re talking about amputation behavior, this is literally the only case in which a sophisticated and systematic amputation of an individual by another member of its species occurs in the animal kingdom,” said co-author Erik Frank, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany. “The fact that the ants are able to diagnose a wound, see if it’s infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly over long periods of time by other individuals—the only medical system that can rival that would be the human one.”

Frank has been studying various species of ants for many years. Late last year, he co-authored a paper detailing how Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) south of the Sahara can tell if an injured comrade’s wound is infected or not, thanks to chemical changes in the hydrocarbon profile of the ant cuticle when a wound gets infected. These ants only eat termites, but termites have powerful jaws and use them to defend against predators, so there is a high risk of injury to hunting ants.

If an infected wound is identified, the ants then treat said wound with antibiotics produced by a special gland on the side of the thorax (the metapleural gland). Those secretions are made of some 112 components, half of which have antimicrobial properties. Frank et al.’s experiments showed that applying these secretions reduced the mortality rate of injured ants by 90 percent, and future research could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics suitable for treating humans. (This work was featured in an episode of a recent Netflix nature documentary, Life on Our Planet.)

Amputation in Camponotus maculatus. Credit: Danny Buffat.

Those findings caused Frank to ponder if the Matabele ant is unique in its ability to detect and treat infected wounds, so he turned his attention to the Florida carpenter ant. These reddish-brown ants nest in rotting wood and can be fiercely territorial, defending their homes from rival ant colonies. That combat comes with a high risk of injury. Florida carpenter ants lack a metapleural gland, however, so Frank et al. wondered how this species treats injured comrades. They conducted a series of experiments to find out.

Frank et al. drew their subjects from colonies of lab-raised ants (produced by queens collected during 2017 fieldwork in Florida), and ants targeted for injury were color-tagged with acrylic paint two days before each experiment. Selective injuries to tiny (ankle-like) tibias and femurs (thighs) were made with sterile Dowel-scissors, and cultivated strains of P. aeruginosa were used to infect some of those wounds, while others were left uninfected as a control. The team captured the subsequent treatment behavior of the other ants on video and subsequently analyzed that footage. They also took CT scans of the ants’ legs to learn more about the anatomical structure.

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Alzheimer’s scientist indicted for allegedly falsifying data in $16M scheme

Alzheimer's, Cassava, CUNY, fraud, health, Hoau-Yan Wang, NIH, NIH grant, research, research funding, research misconduct, Science, Simufilam, Western blots / /

Funding Scheme —

The work underpinned an Alzheimer’s drug by Cassava, now in a Phase III trial.

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Alzheimer’s scientist indicted for allegedly falsifying data in $16M scheme

A federal grand jury has indicted an embattled Alzheimer’s researcher for allegedly falsifying data to fraudulently obtain $16 million in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health for the development of a controversial Alzheimer’s drug and diagnostic test.

Hoau-Yan Wang, 67, a medical professor at the City University of New York, was a paid collaborator with the Austin, Texas-based pharmaceutical company Cassava Sciences. Wang’s research and publications provided scientific underpinnings for Cassava’s Alzheimer’s treatment, Simufilam, which is now in Phase III trials.

Simufilam is a small-molecule drug that Cassava claims can restore the structure and function of a scaffolding protein in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s, leading to slowed cognitive decline. But outside researchers have long expressed doubts and concerns about the research.

In 2023, Science magazine obtained a 50-page report from an internal investigation at CUNY that looked into 31 misconduct allegations made against Wang in 2021. According to the report, the investigating committee “found evidence highly suggestive of deliberate scientific misconduct by Wang for 14 of the 31 allegations,” the report states. The allegations largely centered around doctored and fabricated images from Western blotting, an analytical technique used to separate and detect proteins. However, the committee couldn’t conclusively prove the images were falsified “due to the failure of Dr. Wang to provide underlying, original data or research records and the low quality of the published images that had to be examined in their place.”

In all, the investigation “revealed long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping by Dr. Wang,” and concluded that “the integrity of Dr. Wang’s work remains highly questionable.” The committee also concluded that Cassava’s lead scientist on its Alzheimer’s disease program, Lindsay Burns, who was a frequent co-author with Wang, also likely bears some responsibility for the misconduct.

In March 2022, five of Wang’s articles published in the journal PLOS One were retracted over integrity concerns with images in the papers. Other papers by Wang have also been retracted or had statements of concern attached to them. Further, in September 2022, the Food and Drug Administration conducted an inspection of the analytical work and techniques used by Wang to analyze blood and cerebrospinal fluid from patients in a simufilam trial. The investigation found a slew of egregious problems, which were laid out in a “damning” report obtained by Science.

In the indictment last week, federal authorities were explicit about the allegations, claiming that Wang falsified the results of his scientific research to NIH “by, among other things, manipulating data and images of Western blots to artificially add bands [which represent proteins], subtract bands, and change their relative thickness and/or darkness, and then drawing conclusions” based on those false results.

Wang is charged with one count of major fraud against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of false statements. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the major fraud charge, 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, and five years in prison for the count of false statements, the Department of Justice said in an announcement.

In a statement posted to its website, Cassava acknowledged Wang’s indictment, calling him a “former” scientific adviser. The company also said that the grants central to the indictment were “related to the early development phases of the Company’s drug candidate and diagnostic test and how these were intended to work.” However, Cassava said that Wang “had no involvement in the Company’s Phase 3 clinical trials of simufilam.”

Those ongoing trials, which some have called to be halted, are estimated to include over 1,800 patients across several countries.

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