Un interruttore molecolare può “respirare”, cioè assorbire anidride carbonica e rilasciarla in maniera controllata, per essere riutilizzata o trasformata in prodotti di più alto valore aggiunto: è questo il risultato di un innovativo progetto internazionale realizzato dal gruppo di ricercatori guidato da Angiolina Comotti, professore ordinario presso il dipartimento di Scienza dei materiali dell’Università di Milano-Bicocca (www.mater.unimib.it), in collaborazione con il team del professor Sander Wezenberg e del Premio Nobel Ben Feringa dell’Università di Groningen.

Il progetto di ricerca, pubblicato sulla rivista Nature Chemistry (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-0493-5), nasce con l’intento di realizzare materiali che siano in grado di rispondere ad un nostro stimolo per eseguire una determinata azione. Come un comune interruttore comporta l’accensione di un apparato e permette di comandarlo, così l’interruttore molecolare (sulla scala nanometrica) deve essere sensibile al nostro comando per avviare un’azione utile.

 "Geo Ragnarr Loobrok" - Credits: Veronica Rocco and Guido Donati 

Common domestic cats, as we know them today, might have accompanied Kazakh pastoralists as pets more than 1,000 years ago. This has been indicated by new analyses done on an almost complete cat skeleton found during an excavation along the former Silk Road in southern Kazakhstan. An international research team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), Korkyt-Ata Kyzylorda State University in Kazakhstan, the University of Tübingen and the Higher School of Economics in Russia has reconstructed the cat's life, revealing astonishing insights into the relationship between humans and pets at the time. The study will appear in the journal "Scientific Reports".

The tomcat - which was examined by a team led by Dr Ashleigh Haruda from the Central Natural Science Collections at MLU - did not have an easy life. "The cat suffered several broken bones during its lifetime," says Haruda. And yet, based on a very conservative estimate, the animal had most likely made it past its first year of life. For Haruda and her colleagues, this is a clear indication that people had taken care of this cat.

Most COVID-19 lesions located in peripheral zone and close to pleura; influenza virus more prone to show mucoid impaction and pleural effusion

An open-access American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) article investigating the differences in CT findings between coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia and influenza virus pneumonia found that most lesions from COVID-19 were located in the peripheral zone and close to the pleura, whereas influenza virus was more prone to show mucoid impaction and pleural effusion.

"However," lead author Liaoyi Lin of China's First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University cautioned, "differentiating between COVID-19 pneumonia and influenza virus pneumonia in clinical practice remains difficult."

A total of 97 patients (49 women, 48 men) were enrolled in this study. Of them, 52 patients (29 men, 23 women; age range, 21-73 years) had COVID-19 pneumonia; 45 patients (26 women, 19 men; age range, 15-76 years) had influenza virus pneumonia (28, influenza A; 17, influenza B). All patients had positive nucleic acid testing results for the respective viruses, as well as complete clinical data and CT images.

While ocean acidification was initially perceived as a threat only to the marine realm, the authors of a new publication argue that it is also an emerging human health issue.

The global threats from carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulating in the world’s oceans and driving ongoing ocean acidification are becoming increasingly evident. As humans extract and burn fossil fuels and drive deforestation, CO2in the atmosphere increases, with levels now far exceeding those that occurred in preindustrial times. Of the released CO2, around 25% is taken up by the oceans where it interacts with seawater and forms carbonic acid, leading to a reduction in pH, an increase in acidification, and an alteration of carbonate chemistry. The average surface pH of the ocean has already decreased by 0.1 unit since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and a further 0.3–0.4 unit decrease is expected by the end of the century. As pH is measured on the logarithmic scale, this corresponds to a doubling in acidity by 2100. These changes are happening at an unprecedented scale and speed, rapidly exposing marine ecosystems to conditions they have not experienced over millions of years.

Con l’arrivo dell’estate può capitare di essere punti da una vespa o da un’ape, di essere morsi da un tafano o da una vipera, di imbattersi nei tentacoli di una medusa o di mettere un piede su una tracina. Cosa fare per un soccorso corretto e immediato?

Ne parliamo con Valerio Pravettoni, medico allergologo del Centro di riferimento per la prevenzione e la diagnosi dell’allergia al veleno di imenotteri del Policlinico di Milano.

√ Puntura di vespe, calabroni, api e bombi

- Cosa sapere?

La reazione alla puntura degli imenotteri, cioè vespe, calabroni, api e bombi, è molto soggettiva poiché dipende dalla risposta immunitaria della singola persona. Quando ci pungono questi insetti iniettano con il loro pungiglione una certa quantità di veleno* che il nostro organismo riconosce come estranea e cerca, per così dire, di combatterla per eliminarla.

In base alla sensibilità individuale i sintomi possono essere diversi: si va da normali manifestazioni locali (reazione cutanea) al coinvolgimento di tutto l’organismo (reazione sistemica). Questo spiega il motivo per cui in alcune persone la puntura di una vespa provoca solo un po’ di dolore e un leggero fastidio nella sede di puntura che passa nel giro di poche ore; mentre in altre, la stessa puntura può causare reazioni più gravi che in alcuni casi possono portare anche a morte.

A new study from McGill University shows that increases in the concentrations of blood sodium can have an influence on the biological clock of mice, opening new research avenues for potentially treating the negative effects associated with long distance travel or shift work.

The findings, published in Nature by former McGill PhD student Claire Gizowski and Charles Bourque, a professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology-Neurosurgery, are the first to show that injecting mice with a salt solution leads to the activation of neurons associated with the brain’s master circadian clock – the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).

Our biological clock – or circadian rhythm - adapts our body’s cells and organs to changing requirements at different times of day. Prolonged disruption of these rhythms because of jetlag or shift work can lead to adverse health effects.

Un estudio español publicado hoy en la revista Nature Ecology and Evolution, ha revelado que Homo erectus, el primer ancestro humano que se extendió por el Viejo Mundo, desde África hasta el sureste asiático, y al que hasta ahora se consideraba esbelto y estilizado, en realidad era compacto, achaparrado y robusto.

En este estudio coliderado por los paleoantropólogos Daniel Garcia Martínez, del Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), y Markus Bastir, del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), han reconstruido en tres dimensiones la forma de la caja torácica del ejemplar de H. erectus conocido como el niño de Turkana, un esqueleto juvenil de 1,5 millones de años hallado en Kenia en 1984.

“Sorprendentemente, el niño de Turkana tenía un tórax más profundo, más ancho y más corto que el de los humanos modernos”, indica el investigador Markus Bastir. “Esto sugiere que el H. erectus tenía una construcción corporal más robusta de lo que se suponía, ya que hasta ahora se contemplaba la forma corporal de esta especie como esbelta o estilizada, lo que se asociaba con su habilidad para recorrer largas distancias”, añade.

Intanto da Policoro avvistata la tartaruga Alessandra, liberata il 18 maggio con tag satellitare

 Qui per seguire il viaggio della tartaruga Alessandra >>

Non c’era miglior modo per celebrare, oggi 8 luglio, la Giornata Internazionale del Mar Mediterraneo: quattro nuovi nidi di tartaruga marina sono stati scoperti nella notte e nella mattinata di oggi in Sicilia e Calabria, e messi in sicurezza e dai volontari del WWF. Il primo grazie a un gruppo di amici e da un “cerca oggetti” impegnato con il metal detector che hanno visto la tartaruga uscire più volte nel lido san Lorenzo (probabilmente all’inizio disturbata) fino alla deposizione. I ragazzi si sono immediatamente messi in contatto con la biologa marina, volontaria WWF e operatrice Euroturtles Oleana Prato, che, giunta sul posto , ha verificato la presenza delle uova e messo in sicurezza il nido.

On a gram for gram basis, animal proteins are more effective than plant proteins in supporting the maintenance of skeletal muscle mass with advancing age, shows research presented this week at The Physiological Society’s virtual early career conference Future Physiology 2020.

The number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled since 2006, meaning that there are around 600,000 vegans in Great Britain (1). While we know plant-based diets are beneficial for the environment, we don’t actually know how healthy these diets are for keeping muscles strong in elderly people.

Scientists generally agree that the primary driver of muscle loss with age — at least in healthy individuals — is a reduction of muscle proteins being built from amino acids. These amino acids come from protein that we eat and are also formed when we exercise. Oliver Witard of King’s College London is presenting research at The Physiological Society’s Future Physiology 2020 conference about soy and wheat proteins showing that a larger dose of these plant proteins is required to achieve a comparable response of building muscles.

A cellular therapy tested on 13 intubated patients with mechanical ventilation has shown to be efficient for the clinical improvement of critical cases of COVID-19.

The study, the broadest published to date in these conditions, has been published in The Lancet’s EClinical Medicine, after proving that the advanced treatment decreases mortality rates of critical patients with coronavirus from 85% to 15%. These are the first results of the BALMYS-19 project, co-led by professor from the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) and researcher at the Health Research Institute of Alicante (ISABIAL) Bernat Soria, together with professor Damián García-Olmo from the Jiménez Díaz foundation (Autonomous University of Madrid). Another six Spanish universities and six hospitals have taken part in the study.