Evolutionary biologists have tended to view each of these transitions as a contingent event. But within the functional-information framework, it seems possible that such jumps in evolutionary processes (whether biological or not) are inevitable.

In these jumps, Wong pictures the evolving objects as accessing an entirely new landscape of possibilities and ways to become organized, as if penetrating to the “next floor up.” Crucially, what matters — the criteria for selection, on which continued evolution depends — also changes, plotting a wholly novel course. On the next floor up, possibilities await that could not have been guessed before you reached

https://archive.ph/H5h3n

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20241729

Rice University researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called “forever chemicals.” A study led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and graduate student Phelecia Scotland unveils a method that not only eliminates PFAS from water systems but also transforms waste into high-value graphene, offering a cost-effective and sustainable approach to environmental remediation. This research was published March 31 in Nature Water.

The coronavirus membrane protein (M) is the main organizer of coronavirus assembly1,2,3. Here, we report on an M-targeting molecule, CIM-834, that blocks the assembly of SARS-CoV-2. CIM-834 was obtained through high-throughput phenotypic antiviral screening followed by medicinal-chemistry efforts and target elucidation. CIM-834 inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 (including a broad panel of variants) and SARS-CoV. In SCID mice and Syrian hamsters intranasally infected with SARS-CoV-2, oral treatment reduced lung viral titres to nearly undetectable levels, even (as shown in mice) when treatment was delayed until 24 h before the end point. Treatment of infected hamsters prevented transmission to untreated sentinels. Transmission electron microscopy studies show that virion assembly is completely absent in cells treated with CIM-834. Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy reveals that CIM-834 binds and stabilizes the M protein in its short form, thereby preventing the conformational switch to the long form, which is required for successful particle assembly. In conclusion, we have discovered a new druggable target in the replication cycle of coronaviruses and a small molecule that potently inhibits it.

We show that the human brain contains diverse mitochondrial phenotypes driven by both topology and cell types. Compared with white matter, grey matter contains >50% more mitochondria. Moreover, the mitochondria in grey matter are biochemically optimized for energy transformation, particularly among recently evolved cortical brain regions. Scaling these data to the whole brain, we created a backwards linear regression model that integrates several neuroimaging modalities11 to generate a brain-wide map of mitochondrial distribution and specialization.

The morning is sunny and uncharacteristically mild for mid-March as we tramp through the crunchy remains of snow, which up until a few days earlier obscured the carpet of dead leaves and was crisscrossed with coyote tracks. We stop in front of a small tree with an odd contraption strapped to its trunk. It’s made of a section of white plastic pipe anchored to a piece of lumber by a long bolt that the pipe can rotate around like a propeller blade. The pipe is sealed on the bottom end with duct tape and filled with dog treats.

It’s a puzzle of sorts, one that Raymond designed to test the coyotes’ problem-solving abilities as part of her PhD work at the University of Alberta. To solve it, coyotes need to rotate the pipe with a nose or paw until the treats spill out. She peers into the top of the pipe. “No treats!” An animal has solved the puzzle. She unlocks a motion-triggered trail camera strapped to a nearby tree and begins scanning the videos on its small screen to see who figured it out. After about a minute, she sighs: “It was probably this squirrel.” Squirrels usually get the treats by chewing through the duct tape. Mice sometimes dive into the top of the pipe, eating the treats and then exiting via small holes near the bottom—which Raymond made, presciently, as rodent escape hatches. She returns every few days to restock the treats.

In winter 2024, Raymond deployed the pipe puzzles for four weeks at a time at 26 sites across Edmonton, and 14 more at Elk Island National Park, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the city. By comparing the results from the two locations, Raymond hopes to understand if there are cognitive differences between urban coyotes and their counterparts living in more natural settings. During the first round of deployments, her cameras captured 461 videos of coyotes; 140 of those showed coyotes displaying interest in a puzzle or interacting with it in some way. The experiment is ongoing, but patterns are already emerging. “We’re finding that urban coyotes are a lot bolder,” she says. “They’re much quicker to approach puzzles. They are less fearful of them.”

In 13 of those 140 interactions, the coyotes successfully solved the puzzle. While that may sound unremarkable, Raymond wasn’t initially sure the notoriously wary canids would be willing to interact with the puzzles at all. Notably, each of the 13 instances took place in the city. “It seems that this willingness to approach and explore is critical,” says conservation behaviorist Colleen St. Clair, Raymond’s advisor at the University of Alberta. “You can’t get food from a novel source unless you’re willing to approach it.”

Raymond isn’t sure yet whether the park coyotes were unable to solve the puzzles, or if the animals were just too cautious to persist long enough. The results from this year’s puzzle deployments may answer that question, but there are already clues. Test locations in the city ranged from less developed places—like the middle of golf courses with a lot of forested cover—to areas with more roads, buildings, and people, such as the neighborhood pocket park or a thin, forested strip between industrial yards. Coyotes across the city showed similar willingness to investigate the puzzles. But, tellingly, the majority of coyotes who successfully solved puzzles did so in the most urbanized sites.

Traditionally, scientists have tried to determine what animals’ minds are capable of by devising laboratory experiments to test them in captivity. This approach has the benefit of control: Researchers can keep every aspect of the experiment consistent while testing their subject’s reaction to a single changing variable. But captivity has major, often negative, impacts on animals’ behavior, limiting the conclusions scientists can draw. And the studies provide little insight into how animals actually live their lives in the wild.

Researchers like Raymond, Thornton, and Stanton are helping pioneer a different approach: testing the cognition of wild animals on their own turf, in ways that reflect the real challenges of living in urban environments. As Stanton puts it: “How can we test them in the places that they live, with questions that matter?”

Getting to know the minds of the animals in our midst has several potential benefits. It could show us how to minimize conflict between humans and urban wildlife, and could also answer intriguing scientific questions about how animals think and use their cognitive abilities to adapt to rapidly changing environments. What scientists learn might even change the way we think about the animals sharing our space—and our relationships with them.

Nearly half (47%) of all clinical trials remain unpublished.

Whether a trial is published and how long it takes is influenced by whether there are positive results, how large the trial is and if it is single- or multi-centred, and which type of organisation has funded the trial.

Publication bias is a problem because it means that the information available to people making important health-related decisions for themselves, their relatives or their patients is not complete and may even be misleading. For example, if negative results have not been published, there is a danger that the decision-makers may not be aware of possible harms linked to the intervention.

In 1856, decades before the term “greenhouse gas” was coined, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect in her home laboratory. She placed a glass cylinder full of carbon dioxide in sunlight and found that it heated up much more than a cylinder of ordinary air. Her conclusion: more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in a warmer planet.

(Eunice was also a suffragate)

Interesting look into why we can't remember most things before about 4, but that the memories can in theory be triggered.

Perovskite LEDs are emerging as a game-changing technology, offering vibrant colors, lower costs, and easier manufacturing compared to traditional LEDs.

But for these next-generation LEDs to take over the market, researchers at Linköping University argue that technical performance alone isn’t enough—they must also be affordable and environmentally sustainable.

An Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. The device - BiVACOR - is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.

The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well, according to a statement from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where the operations were conducted.

Antonio Alcamí shuddered when he saw that a new plague — which had already caused the death of hundreds of millions of birds around the world — was leaping to the Americas and sweeping relentlessly from north to south, on its way to Antarctica, killing tens of thousands of marine mammals in its path.

Few people were as uniquely prepared as he was — a virologist specializing in lethal viruses, already hardened by the treacherous polar terrain — so he proposed setting up a laboratory at the Spanish Army’s Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic Base.

On February 24, 2024, Alcamí and his colleague Ángela Vázquez confirmed for the first time the presence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in Antarctica. He immediately had a bold idea: he would set up a floating laboratory aboard a sailboat, allowing him to navigate through penguin colonies and find out what was happening. Two journalists from EL PAÍS joined him for a day, documenting his odyssey as he followed the trail of the plague.

Misinformation is widespread, but only some people fall for the false information they encounter. This raises two questions: Who falls for misinformation, and why do they fall for misinformation? To address these questions, two studies investigated associations between 15 individual-difference dimensions and judgments of misinformation as true. Using Signal Detection Theory, the studies further investigated whether the obtained associations are driven by individual differences in truth sensitivity, acceptance threshold, or myside bias. For both political misinformation (Study 1) and misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines (Study 2), truth sensitivity was positively associated with cognitive reflection and actively open-minded thinking, and negatively associated with bullshit receptivity and conspiracy mentality. Although acceptance threshold and myside bias explained considerable variance in judgments of misinformation as true, neither showed robust associations with the measured individual-difference dimensions. The findings provide deeper insights into individual differences in misinformation susceptibility and uncover critical gaps in their scientific understanding.

The vaccine generated robust immune response in nine patients with advanced disease

Largest ever analysis of feline bones from the country suggests the animals may have been prized exotic pets