mindblowingscience

[mindblowingscience]

The lung-cell type that’s most susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is not the one previously assumed to be most vulnerable. What’s more, the virus enters this susceptible cell via an unexpected route. The medical consequences may be significant. Stanford Medicine investigators have implicated a type of immune cell known as an interstitial macrophage in the critical transition from a merely bothersome COVID-19 case to a potentially deadly one. Interstitial macrophages are situated deep in the lungs, ordinarily protecting that precious organby, among other things, engorging viruses, bacteria, fungi and dust particles that make their way down our airways. But it’s these very cells, the researchers have shown in a study published online April 10 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, that of all known types of cells composing lung tissue are most susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2-infected interstitial macrophages, the scientists have learned, morph into virus producers and squirt out inflammatory and scar-tissue-inducing chemical signals, potentially paving the road to pneumonia and damaging the lungs to the point where the virus, along with those potent secreted substances, can break out of the lungs and wreak havoc throughout the body.

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#Covid 19 #Macrophages #interstitial macrophages #Lungs #Biology #Medicine #stem

[mindblowingscience]

Hi,

I don’t follow you but I saw your recent post. I ran a blog that posted news articles for almost 9 years that got deleted last week. I’ve been keep sending Tumblr messages/emails and they aren’t responding. How did you get yours back

What probably got it restored was posting about my experience on this subreddit, then shortly afterwords I got an email restoring it:

[mindblowingscience]

It'll take a little while for my queue to fill up will posts, but probably by tomorrow you'll see more Science.

This blog is now back online

I have no idea what happened but this blog, and one other that I run, were both mysteriously deleted by Tumblr in the past week.

They did not say why it happened, but I assume they thought the blogs were run by bots due to the nature of how I run these blogs (queuing linked posts).

Hopefully this won't happen again.

[mindblowingscience]

This blog is now back online

I have no idea what happened but this blog, and one other that I run, were both mysteriously deleted by Tumblr in the past week.

They did not say why it happened, but I assume they thought the blogs were run by bots due to the nature of how I run these blogs (queuing linked posts).

Hopefully this won't happen again.

[mindblowingscience]

Dolphins and whales use sound to communicate, navigate and hunt. New research suggests that the collections of fatty tissue that enable toothed whales to do so may have evolved from their skull muscles and bone marrow. Scientists at Hokkaido University determined DNA sequences of genes which were expressed in acoustic fat bodies—collections of fat around the head that toothed whales use for echolocation. They measured gene expression in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). Their findings were published in the journal Gene.

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#Science #Animals #Biology #Evolution #Echolocation #Whales

[mindblowingscience]

Substituting plastics with alternative materials is likely to result in increased GHG emissions, according to research from the University of Sheffield. The study by Dr. Fanran Meng from Sheffield's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cambridge and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, has revealed the emissions associated with plastic products compared to their alternatives. Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the study looked at plastics and their replacements across various applications, including packaging, construction, automotive, textiles and consumer durables. These sectors collectively represent a significant portion of global plastic usage. Findings from the study have revealed that in 15 out of the 16 applications examined, plastic products actually result in lower GHG emissions compared to their alternatives. The reduction in emissions spans from 10 percent to as high as 90 percent across the product life cycle.

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#Science #Climate Change #Plastic Pollution #stem #tech

[mindblowingscience]

This deeper understanding of the ovary means researchers could potentially create artificial ovaries in the lab using tissues that were stored and frozen before exposure to toxic medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. Currently, surgeons can implant previously frozen ovarian tissue to temporarily restore hormone and egg production. However, this does not work for long because so few follicles—the structures that produce hormones and carry eggs—survive through reimplantation, the researchers say.

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#Science #Health #Biology #Reproduction #Cells #Ovaries #Children

[mindblowingscience]

I have long accepted the weird fact that sea spiders's digestive systems extend into their legs, but did not know that this also applies to their gonads..

[mindblowingscience]

The Arctic is often cited for a plethora of impacts resulting from anthropogenic climate change, including glacier retreat and reductions in floating sea ice, meltwater incursions changing ocean salinity, as well as sea level rise to name but a few. As the region is warming three times faster than the global average annually, ice-albedo feedbacks will only exacerbate the issue further. This mechanism focuses on melting ice exposing more "dark" surface ocean and land to absorb heat to cause further melting, compared to the reflective nature of ice that would otherwise encourage cooling. Precipitation on this icy continent predominantly falls in the form of snow, both in winter and summer, but occasional rain can occur with the transport of warmer air. While it is universally acknowledged that current low precipitation patterns are likely to change with global warming, the extent of the rate of increase is continuously being defined and is the focus of a new publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

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#Science #Enviroment #Climate Change #Global Warming #Water #Artic

[mindblowingscience]

Changes to the microbiome, the community of microorganisms inside the body, were correlated with future neurodevelopmental disorder diagnoses, as well as environmental factors and even common treatments for young childhood ear infections. The researchers conducted the study using data collected over 20 years from 16,440 Swedish children participating in the All Babies in Southeast Sweden (ABIS) cohort. Of these children, 1,197, or 7.28%, developed a neurodevelopmental disorder.

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#Science #Health #Biology #Microbiology #Neurology #Children #Neurodevelopment #Gut Microbiome #ADHD #Autism

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers using Murriyang, CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope, have detected unusual radio pulses from a previously dormant star with a powerful magnetic field. The paper, "Linear to circular conversion in the polarized radio emission of a magnetar," published in Nature Astronomy describe radio signals from magnetar XTE J1810-197 behaving in complex ways. Magnetars are a type of neutron star and the strongest magnets in the universe. At roughly 8,000 light years away, this magnetar is also the closest known to Earth.

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#Science #Space #Astronomy #Physics #Stars #Magnetar

[mindblowingscience]

The universe is still expanding at an accelerating rate, but it may have slowed down recently compared to a few billion years ago, early results from the most precise measurement of its evolution yet suggested Thursday. While the preliminary findings are far from confirmed, if they hold up it would further deepen the mystery of dark energy—and likely mean there is something important missing in our understanding of the cosmos. These signals of our universe's changing speeds were spotted by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is perched atop a telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the US state of Arizona.

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#Science #Space #Astronomy #Dark Energy #cosmology

[mindblowingscience]

Just 57 companies and nation states were responsible for generating 80% of the world's CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and cement over the last seven years, according to a new report released by the thinktank InfluenceMap. This finding suggests that net zero targets set by the Paris climate change agreement in 2015 are yet to make a significant impact on fossil fuel production. The report uses the Carbon Majors database, established in 2013 by Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute, to provide fossil fuel production data from 122 of the world's largest oil, gas, coal and cement producers.

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#Science #Enviroment #Ecology #Global Warming #Climate Change #Pollution #Fossil Fuels #Regulation

[mindblowingscience]

More than 150 years ago, a San Francisco whaler noticed something about killer whales that scientists may be about to formally recognize—at least in name. Charles Melville Scammon submitted a manuscript to the Smithsonian in 1869 describing two species of killer whales inhabiting West Coast waters. Now a new paper published in Royal Society Open Science uses genetic, behavioral, morphological and acoustic data to argue that the orcas in the North Pacific known as residents and transients are different enough to be distinct species. They propose using the same scientific names Scammon is believed to have coined in the 19th century.

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#Killer Whales #Orcas #cetacean #Zoology #Biology #Oceans #science #stem

[mindblowingscience]

The Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) protein mediates signaling from several cytokine receptors in the regulation of hematopoiesis and immune responses. Somatic mutations in human JAK2 lead to constitutive activation and cytokine-independent signaling and underlie several hematological malignancies from myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) to acute leukemia and lymphomas. JAK2 contains an active kinase domain and an inactive pseudokinase domain. Interestingly, pathogenic mutations mainly occur in the regulatory pseudokinase domain. Due to its critical pathogenic role, JAK2 has become an important therapeutic target. The four currently approved JAK2 inhibitors relieve symptoms but do not heal the patient or affect survival. These drugs target the highly conserved kinase domain and affect both normal and mutated JAK2 and, due to side effects, carry a black box warning that limits their use in elderly, cardiac and cancer patients. The selective inhibition of pathogenic JAK2 is a key pending goal in drug discovery that requires a precise mechanistic understanding of the regulation of JAK2 activation.

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#Science #Health #Biology #Molecular Biology #Medicine #Cancer #Blood Cancer

[mindblowingscience]

Just one in three people live a nation that guarantees the independence of universities and research, according to an annual index warning that academic freedom is declining worldwide, particularly in Russia, China and India. Attacks on freedom of expression, interference at universities and the imprisonment of researchers are just some ways that "academic freedom globally is under threat," the index said. The Academic Freedom Index—based on input from more than 2,300 experts in 179 countries—was published last month as part of a report on democracy by the V-Dem Institute at Sweden's University of Gothenburg.

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[mindblowingscience]

Can you imagine that you can design proteins that have a particular function, and they are like small robots working inside our cells? This may be the reality pretty soon. Researchers from the University of California and Yale University came up with an innovative way of creating transmembrane proteins from scratch, thus leading to targeted treatment and a better understanding of cell biology. However, before we dive into this thrilling research, let us first look at what proteins and membranes are.

Picture your cells as something like busy factories. Proteins make sure these little factories keep running smoothly the entire time. They exist in a multitude of forms and sizes, each having its own work. Some function as enzymes, which are catalysts for chemical reactions, while others transport molecules across membranes, which enclose every cell as protective barriers.

There is a special kind of protein called Transmembrane proteins; it has a unique structure. It has got a hydrophobic section embedded within the cellular membrane, just like the screw goes into a cork bottle stopper. This part is known as transmembrane domain (TM domain). Depending on its purpose, the other part of the protein can stay in or outside the cell. These domains act as channels for molecule exchange between cells.

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#bioinformatics #membrane protein #protein design #computational model #science news