Siamo al paradosso: l’Unione Europea è costretta a ricordare ad amministratori locali e regionali, nonché al governo italiano che l’inquinamento dell’aria da polveri sottili (PM10) sta provocando enormi impatti sulla salute dei cittadini italiani. La UE  sottolinea che l’Italia è il Paese più colpito nella UE e l’Agenzia Europea per l’Ambiente calcola che il PM10 abbia provocato oltre 66 mila morti. Per il WWF la salvaguardia della salute dei cittadini italiani dovrebbe essere la prima preoccupazione di governi nazionali, regionali e locali, mentre mancano ancora serie politiche di sistema per affrontarne e abbatterne le cause, dal traffico all’energia e al riscaldamento. È necessario un provvedimento quadro che assegni target e compiti alle singole amministrazioni: un provvedimento concepito, da subito, in modo integrato con le politiche di decarbonizzazione che presentano un ventaglio di soluzioni che portano validi co-benefici anche per l’inquinamento (dall’uso delle fonti pulite e rinnovabili, alla elettrificazione dei trasporti, all’efficienza energetica negli edifici che diminuisce drasticamente le necessità di riscaldamento, ecc).

Phthalates, which are used as plasticizers in plastics, can considerably increase the risk of allergies among children. This was demonstrated by UFZ researchers in conjunction with scientists from the University of Leipzig and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in a current study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. According to this study, an increased risk of children developing allergic asthma exists if the mother has been particularly heavily exposed to phthalates during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The mother-child cohort from the LINA study was the starting and end point of this translational study. In our day-to-day lives, we come into contact with countless plastics containing plasticizers. These plasticizers, which also include the aforementioned phthalates, are used when processing plastics in order to make the products more flexible. Phthalates can enter our bodies through the skin, foodstuffs or respiration. "It is a well-known fact that phthalates affect our hormone system and can thereby have an adverse effect on our metabolism or fertility. But that's not the end of it," says UFZ environmental immunologist Dr Tobias Polte. "The results of our current study demonstrate that phthalates also interfere with the immune system and can significantly increase the risk of developing allergies."

Marine surveys estimating fish population density and diversity are crucial to our understanding of how human activities impact coral reef ecosystems and to our ability to make informed management plans for sustainability. KAUST researchers recently conducted the first baseline surveys of reefs in the southern Red Sea by comparing reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia with those of Sudan1. “A major issue is that there is no established historical record for Red Sea ecosystems,” said Dr. Darren Coker, who worked on the project with KAUST M.Sc. Alumnus Alexander Kattan and Professor Michael Berumen all of the University’s Red Sea Research Center. “This means we can only hypothesize what the natural reef environment would have looked like before human interference through fishing began.”

Exposure to the aroma of rosemary essential oil can significantly enhance working memory in children. This is one the findings of a study presented today, Thursday 4 May 2017, by Dr Mark Moss and Victoria Earle of Northumbria University at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton. Dr Mark Moss said: “Our previous study demonstrated the aroma of rosemary essential oil could enhance cognition in healthy adults. Knowing how important working memory is in academic achievement we wanted to see if similar effects could be found in school age children in classroom settings.” A total of 40 children aged 10 to 11 took part in a class based test on different mental tasks. Children were randomly assigned to a room that had either rosemary oil diffused in it for ten minutes or a room with no scent.

This Vouivria herd are roaming the coast of what is now Europe.

Scientists have re-examined an overlooked museum fossil and discovered that it is the earliest known member of the titanosauriform family of dinosaurs. The fossil, which the researchers from Imperial College London and their colleagues in Europe have named Vouivria damparisensis, has been identified as a brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur. The researchers suggest the age of Vouivria is around 160 million years old, making it the earliest known fossil from the titanosauriform family of dinosaurs, which includes better-known dinosaurs such as the Brachiosaurus. When the fossil was first discovered in France in the 1930s, its species was not identified, and until now it has largely been ignored in scientific literature. The new analysis of the fossil indicates that Vouivria died at an early age, weighed around 15,000 kilograms and was over 15 metres long, which is roughly 1.5 times the size of a double-decker bus in the UK.

In this image generated using micro-computed tomography, the blue dyed lateral lines of the ide (Leuciscus idus) are clear to see. Source: Dr. Hendrik Herzog

Fishes perceive changes in water currents caused by prey, conspecifics and predators using their lateral line. The tiny sensors of this organ also allow them to navigate reliably. However, with increasing current velocities, the background signal also increases. Scientists at the University of Bonn have now created a realistic, three-dimensional model of a fish for the first time and have simulated the precise current conditions. The virtual calculations show that particular anatomical adaptations minimize background noise. The results are now being presented in The Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The ide (Leuciscus idus) is a fish that inhabits the lower stretches of slow-flowing rivers. Like most fishes, it can perceive the current using its lateral line. The mechanoreceptors of this organ are distributed over the surface of the entire body, which is why the organ provides a three-dimensional image of the hydrodynamic conditions. Fishes can thus also find their way around themselves in the dark and identify prey, conspecifics, or predators. The recently retired zoologist Prof. Horst Bleckmann from the University of Bonn has spent many years researching the sensitive organ and has used it as inspiration for technical flow sensors in order to, for instance, identify leakages in water pipes.

An online relapse prevention tool for Bipolar Disorder offers a “cheap accessible option” for people seeking support following treatment, say researchers. Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a lifelong mental health condition characterised by depression and mania. It affects one per cent of adults worldwide and costs an estimated £5.2 billion annually in England alone. It is treated with medication, yet many people continue to experience relapses. Enhanced Relapse Prevention (ERPonline) is a psychological approach developed by the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research. It teaches people with Bipolar Disorder (BD) to recognise and respond to early warning signs of relapse. Lead researcher Professor Fiona Lobban from the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research at Lancaster University said: “The key elements are identifying your individual triggers and early warning signs for both mania and depression, and developing coping strategies to manage mood changes in everyday life.”

Interferon is a crucial component of the human immune system's response to infection by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), but how important a role it plays in determining the severity of disease and explaining why newborns are so much more susceptible to HSV-1 infection than adults remains unclear. A comprehensive review of the contribution of type I interferon (IFN) to controlling HSV-1 infection is presented in an article published in DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the DNA and Cell Biology website until May 19, 2017. In the article entitled "The Type I Interferon Response and Age-Dependent Susceptibility to Herpes Simplex Virus Infection," Daniel Giraldo, Douglas Wilcox, and Richard Longnecker, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, provide an in-depth look at the IFN response to HSV-1 infection. The authors examine the factors that may explain why newborns infected with HSV-1 are at greater risk for serious and potentially life-threatening diseases such as herpes simplex encephalitis, whereas in adults orolabial lesions are the more likely result of HSV-1 infection.

River floods are expected to become more frequent by mid-century, and rainstorms and coastal flooding by the end of the century. From storms to flash floods, extreme weather events are becoming more common in Europe, and can wreak havoc on infrastructure such as transport, telecoms and energy systems. Policy makers, infrastructure owners and local authorities need data and decision-making tools to deal with extreme weather and its effects. The European project called RAIN, which is drawing to a close after 3 years, has designed such tools by bringing together meteorologists, engineers and sociologists to tackle the problem. The consortium recently presented its findings at a public event in Dublin, Ireland. As in all battles, knowing your enemy is key to success. The European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) in Wessling, Germany, has coordinated the analysis of extreme weather events. A team of experts from the Free University of Berlin, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Technical University of Delft modelled the occurrence of extreme events such as snowstorms, high winds, coastal flooding and wildfires.

Il lavoro, condotto dall’Irgb-Cnr e Università di Sassari e cofinanziato dalla Fism, è pubblicato su New England Journal of Medicine e svela per la prima volta un importante meccanismo biologico che predispone a queste malattie, gettando le basi per nuove terapie personalizzate e per lo sviluppo di nuovi farmaci. L’individuazione di un nesso di causa-effetto diretto come quello tra una particolare forma di Tnfsf13B e il rischio di sviluppare le due patologie è un evento rarissimo in studi di questo genere. All’origine del rischio di sviluppare sclerosi multipla (Sm) e lupus eritematoso sistemico, malattie autoimmuni a carico rispettivamente della mielina del sistema nervoso centrale e di pelle, reni e altri organi, vi sarebbe anche una particolare forma di Tnfsf13B, un gene che presiede alla sintesi di una proteina con importanti funzioni immunologiche: la citochina Baff. A rivelarlo su New England Journal of Medicine, la più antica e prestigiosa rivista di medicina al mondo, uno studio di un gruppo internazionale di ricercatori cofinanziato dalla Fondazione italiana sclerosi multipla (Fism) e coordinato da Francesco Cucca, direttore dell’Istituto di ricerca genetica e biomedica del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Irgb-Cnr) e professore di genetica medica dell’Università di Sassari. Alla pubblicazione italiana la rivista americana dedica anche un editoriale.