Category: Uncategorized

Sink aerators introduce air, in order to:

1. Reduce splashing
2. Give a feeling of higher flow pressure
3. Greatly reduces water usage, as it increases the water’s apparent volume momentarily

NEWS   Aug 15, 2019 | Original story from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.

Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute use the board helicopter from the icebreaking research vessel Polarstern to collect snow samples. Even in the Arctic the snow is polluted with microplastics. Credit: Kajetan Deja. Read Time: 5 min

Over the past several years, microplastic particles have repeatedly been detected in seawater, drinking water, and even in animals. But these minute particles are also transported by the atmosphere and subsequently washed out of the air, especially by snow – and even in such remote regions as the Arctic and the Alps. This was demonstrated in a study conducted by experts at the Alfred Wegener Institute and at the Swiss WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, recently published in the journal Science Advances.

The fact that our oceans are full of plastic litter has by now become common knowledge: year after year, several million tonnes of plastic litter find their way into rivers, coastal waters, and even the Arctic deep sea. Thanks to the motion of waves, and even more to UV radiation from the sun, the litter is gradually broken down into smaller and smaller fragments – referred to as microplastic. This microplastic can be found in marine sediment, in seawater, and in marine organisms that inadvertently ingest it. In comparison, there has been little research to date on whether, and if so, to what extent, microplastic particles are transported by the atmosphere. Only a handful of works are available, e.g. from researchers who were able to confirm the particles’ presence in the Pyrenees and near major urban centres in France and China.

A team of experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) has now found that microplastic particles can apparently be transported over tremendous distances by the atmosphere and are later washed out of the air by precipitation, particularly snow. As the team led by Dr Melanie Bergmann and Dr Gunnar Gerdts report in the journal Science Advances, the analyses they conducted on snow samples from Helgoland, Bavaria, Bremen, the Swiss Alps and the Arctic confirm that the snow at all sites contained high concentrations of microplastic – even in remote reaches of the Arctic, on the island Svalbard, and in snow on drifting ice floes. “It’s readily apparent that the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air,” says Melanie Bergmann. Her hypothesis is supported by past research conducted on grains of pollen, in which experts confirmed that pollen from the middle latitudes is transported by the air to the Arctic. These grains are roughly the same size as the microplastic particles; similarly, dust from the Sahara can cover distances of 3,500 km or more, reaching the northeast Atlantic. 

The AWI researchers found the highest concentration in samples gathered near a rural road in Bavaria  – 154,000 particles per litre. Even the snow in the Arctic contained up to 14,400 particles per litre. The types of plastic found also varied greatly between sampling sites: in the Arctic, the researchers chiefly found nitrile rubber, acrylates and paint, which are used in a host of applications. Given its resistance to various types of fuel and broad temperature range, nitrile rubber is often used in gaskets and hoses. Paints containing plastic are used in several different areas, e.g. to coat the surfaces of buildings, ships, cars and offshore oil rigs. Near the rural road in Bavaria, the samples especially contained various types of rubber, which is used in countless applications, such as automotive tyres.

One intriguing aspect of the AWI study: the microplastic concentrations found are considerably higher than those in studies conducted by other researchers, e.g. on dust deposits. According to Gunnar Gerdts, this could be due to one of two reasons: “First of all, snow is extremely efficient when it comes to washing microplastic out of the atmosphere. Secondly, it could be due to the infrared spectroscopy we used, which allowed us to detect even the smallest particles – down to a size of only 11 micrometres.” Gerdts and his colleagues melt the snow and pour the meltwater through a filter; the residue trapped in the filter is then examined with an infrared microscope. Depending on the type of plastic, different wavelengths of the infrared light are absorbed and reflected; in this way, an optical fingerprint can be used to determine what type of plastic they’ve found.

Whereas other experts sort out microplastic from their samples by hand under the microscope, which can easily cause some particles to be overlooked, Gerdts uses his infrared microscope to test all of the residue, ensuring that he and his team hardly miss a thing. “We’ve automated and standardised the technique so as to rule out the errors that can creep in when manual analysis is used.” As such, it’s hardly surprising that the analyses conducted at the AWI yielded especially high particle concentrations.

In light of the meteorological realities, the AWI experts are convinced that a major portion of the microplastic in Europe, and even more so in the Arctic, comes from the atmosphere and snow.  According to Melanie Bergmann: “This additional transport route could also explain the high amounts of microplastic that we’ve found in the Arctic sea ice and the deep sea in previous studies.”

Lastly, there’s another key question that motivates her work. “To date there are virtually no studies investigating the extent to which human beings are subject to microplastic contamination.” In addition, most research has focused on how animals or human beings absorb microplastic from what they eat. As Bergmann explains: “But once we’ve determined that large quantities of microplastic can also be transported by the air, it naturally raises the question as to whether and how much plastic we’re inhaling. Older findings from medical research offer promising points of departure for work in this direction.” Yet another aspect that warrants a closer look in the future.

Reference
White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic. Melanie Bergmann, Sophia Mützel, Sebastian Primpke, Mine B. Tekman, Jürg Trachsel and Gunnar Gerdts. Science Advances  14 Aug 2019: Vol. 5, no. 8, eaax1157, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax1157.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

By Jon Cohen Jun. 11, 2019 , 4:50 PM

Update (12 June, 2019, 2 P.M.: The young boy has died and two of his relatives have been diagnosed with Ebola as well.)

The Ebola virus that has stubbornly lingered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2018 has finally jumped the border, sickening a 5-year-old boy in Uganda. The Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe confirmed the infection, which the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this afternoon.

WHO has long feared that the lingering Ebola outbreak in the DRC, which has sickened more than 2000 people there and killed about two-thirds of the identified cases, would spread to neighboring countries. Health care workers have widely deployed an effective Ebola vaccine in the affected DRC areas and intensively worked to contain cases, but their response has repeatedly been hampered by violence from the many insurgency groups, including attacks on health care workers and facilities.

The boy and his family came to Uganda from the DRC and went to Uganda’s Kagando Hospital for care. He was then transferred to an Ebola treatment unit—where the health care workers already have been vaccinated—in nearby Bwera.

The case will likely trigger anew a discussion of whether WHO should declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) about the outbreak, the second largest one ever to occur since the disease first was recognized in 1976. An expert committee twice had decided not to declare a PHEIC, largely because the outbreak had not spread to another country. A PHEIC might allow WHO and its partners to mount a stronger attack against the disease with increased resources and larger international teams of responders helping stop the spread and treat the infected.

NEWS   Jun 13, 2019 | Original story from the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Credit: Pixabay

A China-U.S. joint research team reported the generation of germline-transmittable cynomolgus macaques with Shank3 mutations, known to cause a form of autism.

The study, published in Nature, was conducted by scientists from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University and South China Agricultural University.

Through the genome-editing system CRISPR, they engineered macaque monkeys to express a gene mutation linked to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders in humans. These monkeys showed some behavioral traits and brain connectivity patterns similar to those in humans with these conditions.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is complex developmental disorders with a strong genetic basis. Scientists have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with ASD, many of which individually confer only a small degree of risk. In this study, the researchers focused on one gene with a strong association, known as Shank3.

“The new type of model, however, could help scientists to develop better treatment options for some neurodevelopmental disorders,” said FENG Guoping, who is the James W. and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and one of the senior authors of the study.

Mouse models of ASD, due to their neural and behavioral differences from primates, haven’t worked out very well. The reported behavioral and neural traits of Shank3 mutant primates provide new insights into the circuit-based pathophysiological model of ASD.

The primate model is close to humans in evolution and has many similarities to humans in brain structure. For example, the prefrontal cortex in nonhuman primates is well developed, which plays important roles in decision-making, attention and social interactions. Deficits in these cognitive functions have been associated with brain disorders including autism. Therefore, “nonhuman primates are hopeful to become an ideal animal model for simulating some human brain diseases,” said Prof. ZHOU Huihui from SIAT.

The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment programs. SIAT received AAALAC accreditation in 2018 for its primate experiment platform, which laid a foundation for collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies to pursue new treatments of brain disorders in the future.

“We urgently need new treatment options for autism spectrum disorder, and treatments developed in mice have so far been disappointing. While the mouse research remains very important, we believe that primate genetic models will help us to develop better medicines and possibly even gene therapies for some severe forms of autism,” says Robert Desimone, the director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience, and an author of the paper.

Reference: Zhou et al. 2019. Atypical behaviour and connectivity in SHANK3-mutant macaques. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1278-0.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

The site’s torrid week shows what a challenge moderation has become for big tech firms.

The news: YouTube announced new rules around hate speech on Wednesday that prohibit videos promoting Nazi ideology or denying the existence of the Holocaust or other well-documented violent events like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Thousands of channels are expected to be shut down. But now multiple teachers are complaining that videos uploaded to educate people about Nazi history have been deleted, the Guardian reported.

The Nazi problem: Hate speech, and how to police it, isn’t a new issue for YouTube or other social platforms. But this shows just how fraught and complex the balance is, and highlights the risk of unintended consequences when policies and algorithms are tweaked. It’s also a reminder of just how much power big tech companies have as gatekeepers of the material we consume online.

No excuses: This complexity doesn’t excuse YouTube, which is owned by Google, of its responsibilities. This week the New York Times revealed that its recommendation engine (which drives 70% of all views) has made it easier for pedophiles to find videos of children. A senator has said YouTube should just outright stop recommending any videos of minors, but given that a large chunk of YouTube’s audience is kids, the company is unlikely to take that step. It also flip-flopped over whether to ban a right-wing personality for harassing a gay Latino journalist.

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It is true that in the long history of science, most were men. There are of course a great deal of past women scientists, however. Here is a tribute that was made to 250+ female professors.

In this time period, in my opinion, we need to stop saying such phrases as “the father of” or the “founding father of” (Example 1, Example 2) . The other option would be to start saying the “mother of” or the “founding mother of”. The latter has an odd tone, and that is because of the prevalent culture. It should not have an odd tone. Perhaps we should hunt for the founding mothers of technological advancements and make Wikipedia pages for them that have those phrases so that it doesn’t sound odd to later generations to hear the “mother of” or the “founding mother of” some technological advancement.

In my opinion, this should not also be a concern for the STEM field but in all aspects of life. For example, if you are fortunate enough to hire someone to clean your house, who do you call? The “cleaning lady”? We should call a “cleaning person”.

As a side note, this resource explains why there may be so few women in STEM which is a whole other issue.