The theme tonight is human ingenuity in mimicking nature, our arrogance (ignorance) that leads to self-sabotage, and our ability to ponder deep essential questions. We create curtains that act like plants to purify air, synthetic DNA, and artificial leaves that remove CO2 from the air more efficiently than natural leaves. Yet we humans also promoted the use of an antibacterial product in consumer products (e.g., toothpaste, clothing, and cosmetics) that actually makes many bacteria (especially UTI pathogens) able to survive what is normally a lethal concentration of antibiotics.
While all this is going on, we’ve still managed to come up with more potential Alzheimer’s treatments and wrestle with crucial questions of our time.
- Why are zebras striped?
- Is it true that grapes explode in microwave ovens because they are energy antennae?
- Does cannabis use really give us the munchies?
Can you use textiles to clean the air? Take sunlight. Add a film coating to fabric. And you get curtains that destroy pollutants and purify the air inside your home. The recipe is being touted by Ikea. [...]
Ikea named their curtain product Gunrid. It is the result of the company's exercise into what they refer to as "air purifying textiles." What interests the team at Ikea behind this is that the technology is not limited to the output of curtains, but can be applied to any textile. The Ikea news announcement did not go into detail on the treatment components but this surface treatment causing the fabric to break down pollutants was said to be mineral-based. [...]
Gunrid can be activated by natural and artificial light. "Photo catalysts are generally only activated by sunlight, but the coating we have developed together with our partners also reacts to indoor light," said Mauricio Affonso. He is product developer, IKEA of Sweden.
The medicinal powers of aspirin, digitalis, and the anti-malarial artemisinin all come from plants. A Salk Institute discovery of a potent neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory chemical in a native California shrub may lead to a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease based on a compound found in nature. The research appears in the February 2019 issue of the journal Redox Biology.
“Alzheimer’s disease is a leading cause of death in the United States,” says Senior Staff Scientist Pamela Maher, a member of Salk’s Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, run by Professor David Schubert. “And because age is a major risk factor, researchers are looking at ways to counter aging’s effects on the brain. Our identification of sterubin as a potent neuroprotective component of a native California plant called Yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum) is a promising step in that direction.”
Scientists have proposed more than a dozen ideas to explain why zebras evolved stripes. Some say the bold patterns confuse their predators, or that they keep the animals cool. But all of these ideas have been disproved or lack strong evidence.
In 2014, researchers showed the ranges of the horsefly and tsetse fly species and the three most distinctively striped equid species (Equus burchelli, E. zebra, and E. grevyi) overlap to a remarkable degree. The scientists argued that zebras evolved the stripes to avoid these insects, which often carry fatal diseases. Now, they’re back with more proof.
Artificial leaves mimic photosynthesis -- the process whereby plants use water and carbon dioxide from the air to produce carbohydrates using energy from the sun. But even state-of-the-art artificial leaves, which hold promise in reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, only work in the laboratory because they use pure, pressurized carbon dioxide from tanks.
But now, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have proposed a design solution that could bring artificial leaves out of the lab and into the environment. Their improved leaf, which would use carbon dioxide -- a potent greenhouse gas -- from the air, would be at least 10 times more efficient than natural leaves at converting carbon dioxide to fuel.
...triclosan exposure may inadvertently drive bacteria into a state in which they are able to tolerate normally lethal concentrations of antibiotics -- including those antibiotics that are commonly used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs). [...]
"Triclosan [the active ingredient responsible for the "antibacterial" property marketed on many consumer products] increased the number of surviving bacterial cells substantially," Levin said. "Normally, one in a million cells survive antibiotics, and a functioning immune system can control them. But triclosan was shifting the number of cells. Instead of only one in a million bacteria surviving, one in 10 organisms survived after 20 hours. Now, the immune system is overwhelmed."
Triclosan exposure allowed the bacteria to escape death by antibiotics. And the protective property was not limited to any single family of antibiotics. In fact, multiple antibiotics that are considered unique in how they kill cells were less effective at killing bacteria exposed to triclosan.
The physics of light scattering off spheres helps explain why a grape heated in a microwave oven can generate a brilliant, highly charged gas. [...]
Aaron Slepkov at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada, and his colleagues found that this explanation is incorrect. Using thermal imaging and computer simulations, they showed that the grape halves form a cavity that absorbs and focuses the microwave radiation into a hotspot where the halves touch each other. This radiation ionizes potassium and sodium atoms in the grape skin.
The team microwaved twin beads — which were composed of nearly pure water, with no skin — that were in contact with each other. The resulting hotspot at the beads’ point of contact was capable of generating plasma.
...a new study found that sales of commonly munched-on products such as ice cream, cookies, and chips tend to go up after states legalize cannabis. To do so, a team of researchers developed complicated mathematical formulas like the one featured below and analyzed a trove of retail scanner data.
The study, titled “Recreational Marijuana Laws and Junk Food Consumption: Evidence Using Border Analysis and Retail Sales Data” indicates that the “widespread urban myth” that cannabis stimulates hunger and drives people to gorge on goodies is a myth no longer. Researchers Michele Baggio of the University of Connecticut and Alberto Chong of Georgia State University looked at retail scanner data in more than 2,000 counties across the U.S. from 2006 to 2016 to determine whether states that legalize marijuana for adult-use experience increases in the sale of high-calorie food items.
The study found causal evidence that legalizing cannabis was associated with higher so-called “junk food purchases. Shortly after a state's legal marijuana system became effective, average monthly sales of ice cream, cookies and chips jumped 3.1 percent, 4.1 percent, and 5.3 percent, respectively. And that was the case even after the researchers accounted for “state- and pair-specific time trends.”
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
|