The Discovery of a New Species of tardigrade Under the Microscopical Exposure of Hypsibius henanensis

“It’s like when in wartime, when factories are refitted to just make munitions. It’s almost that level of retooling how gene expression is working,” says Bob Goldstein, a cell biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has been studying tardigrades for 25 years. “We’re fascinated by how an organism would change their gene expression to a point where they’re making that much transcript for specific genes.”

When the researchers exposed H. henanensis to radiation doses of 200 and 2,000 grays — far beyond what would be survivable for humans — they found that 2,801 genes involved in DNA repair, cell division and immune responses became active.

Around six years ago, Zhang and his colleagues went to Funiu Mountain to collect moss samples. They identified a previously unknown species of tardigrade under the microscope, called Hypsibius henanensis. 30% of the genes contained in the species are unique to tardigrades.

The authors hope that their knowledge could be used to improve the treatment of cancer, protect astronauts from radiation, and clean up nuclear pollution.

The mechanisms that protect water bear tardigrades from extreme temperatures, air-deprivation, dehydration, and starvation

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, have long fascinated scientists with their ability to withstand extreme conditions, including radiation at levels nearly 1,000 times higher than the lethal dose for humans. Only a few of the 1,500 known tardi grade species are well-studied.

The TRID1, one of the genes, helps to repair double-strand breaks in DNA by recruiting specializedProteins to sites of damage. “This is a new [gene] that, to my knowledge, no one was studying,” says Goldstein.

The authors found that cells treated with the tardigrades were more resistant to radiation than cells not treated.

Studying the molecular mechanisms that allow tardigrades to tolerate other harsh conditions, such as extreme temperatures, air deprivation, dehydration and starvation, could have wide applications. It could improve the shelf life of fragile substances such as vaccines, for example. “All your medicines have expiration dates — tardigrades don’t,” says Goldstein.

An animal physiologist in the University of Copenhagen says that it is important to compare the mechanisms between different tardi grades. “We are still lacking knowledge of different tardigrade species out there,” she says.

These animals have “a font of protectants that will probably keep spilling out more that will be useful and interesting to understand”, says Goldstein. We hope to understand how those work and what potential they have.

A Molecular Paleontologist in Rome to study the toxicity of a baby born by feeding a small amount of their mother’s poo

Feeding a baby born by caesarean section milk containing a tiny bit of their mother’s poo introduces beneficial microbes to their gut. The poo samples from the clinical trial showed that the babies who got 3.5 m of their mother’s poo in milk had a marked difference in the amount of bugs in their poo. While the results are positive, researchers emphasize that this method should not be replicated at home. “You have to be certain that the faecal matter you give the baby doesn’t contain pathogens that could cause a disease, that’s the reason we did the study.”

muons, heavier cousins of electrons, have been accelerated into a beam for the first time. The particles were brought to a near-standstill thanks to a laser shot at a stream of muons. The researchers applied a field to accelerate the muons to 4% of their speed of light. A smaller and cheaper muon collider is close to being a reality, thanks to the feat.

Molecular palaeontologist Alexandra Morton-Hayward investigates why a small proportion of ancient brains somehow resist the decomposition process that begins to destroy most soft tissue within hours after death. Her motivation is more than scientific curiosity. She is a former mortician, and she suffers from a rare brain abnormality and daily cluster headaches: extremely painful attacks that led her to attempt suicide. “I’m always aware of my brain,” she says. “Sometimes, it feels like it’s in worse shape than the ones I have on the bench in the lab.”

Source: Daily briefing: Specialized genes of new tardigrade species arm it with radiation shield

Democracy in the 21st Century: The Urbanization of Tugunbulak and Tashbulak with Drone-Mounted Lasers

There are five specialists who have written essential books for understanding threats to democracy past and present, including an exploration of how differing views of who should be able to vote and how technology has shaped voting rights in the United States since the colonial era.

The scale of two ancient cities buried high in the mountains of Uzbekistan has been uncovered using drone-mounted laser technology. The city was six times bigger than expected. The two cities, called Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, were nestled in the heart of Central Asia’s medieval Silk Road, suggesting that highland areas played an important role in trade of the era. Archeologist Farhod Maksudov says that it’s not a village but an urbanized citadel where the rulers lived. It was an independent mountain civilization that didn’t have to rely on the huge Empires which were down in the lowlands.

David Bedford develops new varieties of apple. Creating new types requires trial and error. You can test for firmness, texture and acidity, and analyse the tree’s DNA to ensure it won’t be vulnerable to disease, but when it comes to testing if they taste good, there’s no substitute for simply taking a bite. (Scientific American | 12 min read)