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Lab Notes

Short stories and links shared by the scientists in our community

Do you handle stress well? Thank your dad

Research finds that mice display the same stress responses as their fathers

Dana Smith

Neuroscience

University of Pittsburgh

We all encounter stress in our daily lives, but new research is revealing that the way you respond to stress and adverse experiences may be inherited from your parents. Paternal exposure to stressors creates long-lasting changes in germ cells (sperm and eggs) that may be inherited by future generations and determine how they react to stress.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers exposed male mice to chronic stress, then measured how it affected the stress responses of their male and female offspring, produced both through natural mating and artificial insemination. They discovered that offspring displayed the same stress phenotype as their fathers. For example, a father deemed susceptible to stress had offspring that showed more anxiety- and depression-like behaviors when they were exposed to stressors in adulthood, whereas resilient fathers had resilient offspring.

Interestingly, the transmission of stress phenotype occurred in both the offspring resulting from natural mating and those from artificial insemination. This finding indicates that the stress-induced alterations in sperm directly contribute to stress phenotype transmission. The researchers also discovered that exposure to stress drastically affected sperm RNA sequences. 

This study provides new insight into how stress responses can be inherited across generations and the role sperm RNA plays in transmitting stress susceptibility or resilience. So, the next time you respond well to a stressful life challenge, you may just want to thank your dad!

Rocks on Venus’s surface are on the move

Scientists made this discovery by re-analyzing data from the 1990s

Briley Lewis

Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of California, Los Angeles

Something’s moving on Venus. Scientists know the planet doesn’t have plate tectonics like Earth, but recent research has discovered some chunks of rock that have visibly moved, hinting at something interesting going on below the planet’s surface.

By re-analyzing data from the Magellan spacecraft (which visited Venus all the way back in the 1990s!), these researchers found regions called “campi” on the surface of Venus. Like chunks of ice floating on our oceans, campi are large, flat hunks of rock atop Venus’s molten mantle. They move around, dragging through surrounding rock and scarring the landscape, making marks visible in images.

So why should you care about jiggling rocks? Paul Byrne, one of the astronomers leading this study, tweeted that that “modern Venus might also hold clues to early Earth...and Venus might also tell us what to expect on planets that are Earth-sized — which basically means Venus-sized — orbiting other stars.” Looking at our sister planet can tell us more about how planets, including our own, work. Also, these investigations can hopefully answer the question of why Venus is so unpleasant while Earth is habitable and teeming with life.

With multiple missions to Venus coming up — DAVINCI+, VERITAS, and EnVision — scientists are eager to take a closer look at the surface, including these intriguing moving rocks.

Honeybees experience withdrawal symptoms when deprived of alcohol

Scientists are turning to honeybees to understand alcohol dependence in humans

Sam Zlotnik

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

University of Florida

Modified tree resins prevent zebrafish from having seizures

Could these resins also be used to treat epilepsy in humans?

Soren Emerson

Neuroscience

Vanderbilt University

Epilepsy is a medical condition in which increased electrical activity in the brain causes seizures. There are medications available to prevent seizures for most people with epilepsy who choose to seek treatment. For about one-third of treatment-seeking people, however, there are no effective medications.

Now, scientists may have discovered a new way to prevent seizures from a surprising source: tree resin.

The results were recently reported in the journal Epilepsia by a team of researchers at Linköping University in Sweden. The team was studying a group of molecules called resin acids, which are found in the liquid that oozes out when a tree is cut or a branch falls off.

The scientists produced chemically-modified resin acids and found that some of the chemically-modified resin acids can cause a subtype of potassium channel to open. These channels, located on the surface of neurons (cells that transmit information in our brains), decrease the electrical activity in the brain when opened. When these channels are closed for too, long electrical activity in the brain can become dangerously elevated and cause a seizure.

The researchers also found that some chemically-modified resin acids prevent seizure activity in the larvae of small fish called zebrafish. The study is just the first step on the long road from testing in zebrafish to testing in humans, but the results are encouraging for the development of anti-seizure medications.

Two bacteria team up to poison their slime mold predator

Alone, these two bacteria are easy meals for the slime mold. Together, they turn the tables on it

Josseline Ramos-Figueroa

Chemical Biology

University of Saskatchewan

From salmon to snow melt, the predictions for Oregon’s climate-changed future are dire

It was hotter in the Willamette Valley this summer than in Abu Dhabi

Kristen Vogt Veggeberg

Science Education

University of Illinois at Chicago

The Pacific Northwest, especially the state of Oregon, is in the throes of a historic heat wave.  During the summer of 2021, it became hotter in the normally mild Willamette Valley than in such heat prone places as Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, at 111 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Although the heat wave has now mostly abated — though the current wild fires are so intense, they are creating their own weather systems — there are still dire predictions of the effect of the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest’s many diverse ecosystems, which range from high deserts in the central part of the state to the rainforests on the coast. 

First, the heatwave massively lowered the snow in the Cascades Mountains, which will deprive rivers necessary for keystone species, such as salmon, of the cool water they need. This will decrease the salmon population, which both humans and animals rely on for food. Additionally, although the heat wave has ended, the effects of the higher temperature will also increase the likelihood of more wildfires throughout the state, similar to last summer’s horrifying infernos in the McKenzie River Valley and elsewhere. This is predicted even in such places as the Oregon Coast, a temperate rainforest that was previously safe from wildfires, but was devastated by wildfires in September 2020

Though scientists and state officials are trying to find ways to keep people safe from these effects of climate change, it may be too little, too late, for much of the state’s river systems, which are projected to lose most of the snow melt by 2100. This will have widespread effects on Oregon’s wildlife and ecosystems. 

Scientists may have sequenced the missing eight percent of our genome

Most of the human genome was sequenced in 2001, but these newly sequenced pieces were missing from the picture

Mihaela Bozukova

Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology

Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

Doctors can use a person’s descriptions of a picnic scene to measure their language skills after a stroke

Language impairment, known as aphasia, is common for people who have experienced strokes

Alberto Osa García

Neuroscience and Speech Pathology

University of Montreal

Two compounds in your morning coffee could help fight renal cancer

These compounds have already shown promise against prostate cancer

Shawna Stanwood

Microbiology and Immunology

With more than 75,000 new cases of kidney and renal pelvis cancer anticipated this year, it can be reassuring to know that diverse kinds of treatment exist, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

Although great strides have been made in this field, treatment resistance is still a concern. Unfortunately, “acquired resistance” to first-line therapy is quite prevalent in patients, so more treatment options are still needed.

In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan tested whether two compounds found in coffee beans, called kahweol acetate and cafestol, could be used to treat renal cancer, after obtaining encouraging results regarding their usefulness against prostate cancer. The research group found that the two compounds together synergistically reduced cancer cell proliferation and migration. They also demonstrated that these two compounds reduced the expression of cell proteins linked to the transition from one cancer cell type to another, signaling between immune cells and cancer cells, and the prevention of programmed cell death (a process in which cells destroy themselves before they become cancerous).

These findings demonstrate that these two compounds, present in your morning coffee, have strong potential in the fight against renal cancer.

Diagnosing cystic fibrosis could soon take just a sticker and a smartphone

Measuring chloride levels in sweat is one way to diagnose the disease

Adrian Haasler

Cell Biology and Nutrition

University of British Columbia

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects multiple organs like the lungs and pancreas. It is caused by a mutation a gene called CFTR, which results in the production of a dysfunctional CFTR protein. This protein helps balance salt and water within a cell by acting as a channel for chloride. A mutation in the CFTR protein causes dehydration of mucus secretions and an excessive loss of salt in sweat (salty skin). As a result, some people with cystic fibrosis experience mucus clogs in their airways and are susceptible other complications such as respiratory failure, inflammation, and infection.

In the US and some other developed countries, the initial diagnosis for cystic fibrosis involves measuring specific protein levels from dried blood spots or DNA-based mutation testing. However, these tests are invasive and don’t always produce accurate results. Cystic fibrosis can be also diagnosed by testing a person’s sweat, to measure their chloride levels and determine whether they have the dysfunctional CFTR protein.

But, collecting enough sweat to do the tests can be a problem. To address this, the researchers behind a new study published in Science have developed a gentle “sweat sticker” that can be used to accurately assess chloride levels outside of clinical and hospital settings. It uses microfluidic technology to rapidly collect chloride levels in a person’s sweat, and chloride levels can be analyzed from images captured with a smartphone camera to provide a diagnosis. This relatively simple yet elegant system remains to be tested in a large group of people (this study only had 51 participants), but could make diagnosing cystic fibrosis much easier in the future.

Space futurism is stupid

There is no reason to think that billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk know what’s best for humanity

Dan Samorodnitsky

Senior Editor

Mutations in white blood cells weaken immunity to infectious diseases

Scientists uncover a genetic cause behind age-related risk for a variety of infections, including COVID-19

Jayati Sharma

Genetics and Epidemiology

Johns Hopkins University

A sweeping study shows that “brain training” games are not effective

These games are popular and fun, but there is no evidence that they improve cognitive function

Kelly Cotton

Cognitive Psychology

City University of New York

Floods in Germany are the latest wake-up call in the climate crisis

Germany has experienced nine flood-rich periods in the past 500 years, but this one is different

Cassie Freund

Ecology

Wake Forest University

A new device stops hiccups without silly home remedies

The device consists of a drinking tube with a mouthpiece and a pressurized valve at the bottom

Madeline Barron

Microbiology

University of Michigan

Hiccups are annoying. To get rid of them, we rely on remedies that often feel more silly than effective, like breathing into a paper bag, holding our breath, and pulling on our tongue. Now, scientists have developed a device called the “forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool” (FISST) that stops hiccups, sans paper bags and tongue-pulling.

Hiccups are triggered when something irritates the nerves controlling your diaphragm, a large muscle nestled beneath your lungs that regulates respiration, causing it to spasm. Air rushes into your lungs as a result of these spasms, which causes your epiglottis, a flap of cartilage that covers your windpipe during swallowing, to quickly close. This produces the audible “hic” that accompanies a hiccup.

The FISST consists of a drinking tube with a mouthpiece and a pressurized valve at the bottom — essentially a glorified straw. Users place the FISST into a glass of water, drink, and swallow. This suction and swallow sequence stimulates diaphragmatic contraction and epiglottis closure to end an hiccup episode. When researchers gave 249 people who reported having hiccups at least once a month a FISST and asked them to rank its effectiveness compared to home hiccup remedies, they found that the FISST stopped hiccups in nearly 92 percent of cases. People were also happier with the FISST than their go-to home techniques. 

While these results are subjective, they provide encouraging evidence that the FISST relieves hiccups, and form a basis for assessing its efficacy in clinical trials down the line. If the FISST works as well as this study suggests, it could be a game-changer for folks experiencing transient and chronic hiccups alike.

Dust is the surprisingly ordinary culprit behind a supergiant star’s unusual dimming

When astronomers observed Betelguese last year, they saw it as far fainter than it should have been

Briley Lewis

Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of California, Los Angeles

If you look up in the sky, you might be able to find Orion, one of the most recognizable constellations. There’s been an ongoing mystery in that patch of space involving Betelgeuse, one of Orion’s “shoulders”, and a humongous, bright red star nearing the end of its life. For some inexplicable reason, when astronomers observed it in February 2020, it was far fainter than it should have been.

Known as Betelgeuse’s Great Dimming, the star appeared only ¼ to ½ as bright as usual, a much bigger change than usually observed in any normal star. For an old supergiant star like Betelgeuse, this is suspicious — astronomers first thought that this change could be a harbinger of the star’s death, an indicator that it might explode into a supernova soon. But new research published in Nature just uncovered the true culprit behind the dimming: dust.

Although this is less dramatic than stellar death, dust is an important and sometimes pesky part of astronomy. The whole universe is filled with it, it’s key to so many processes in space, and it often gets in the way of astronomical observations. Old supergiant stars like Betelgeuse are known to eject gas as they pulsate, which can form dust clouds around them. The new observations of Betelgeuse show that dust ejected from a cooler patch of the star shrouded the star’s southern hemisphere, producing the dimming scientists observed last year. This whole ordeal has provided great insight into how the biggest stars age and die.

So while the Great Dimming was not, in fact, a signal of the star’s imminent death, that doesn’t mean Betelgeuse is guaranteed not to explode anytime soon. And when it does, it’ll surely be a grand show in the night sky.

What if an RNA molecule could do it all over again?

A new research project is letting RNA take the reins of life back from DNA

Mycorrhizal fungi helped plants make the transition from water to land

These fungi attach to plant roots, helping them absorb nutrients and water

Derek Smith

University of Michigan

Laughing gas could be the next tool against treatment-resistant depression

A small clinical trial shows promise for people who don’t find relief from antidepressants

Soren Emerson

Neuroscience

Vanderbilt University

Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders; researchers estimate over 264 million people worldwide have the disease. And, between 10-30 percent of people diagnosed with clinical depression are unable to find relief even after multiple rounds of treatment with antidepressants. 

To find a therapy for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression, researchers have been testing some unconventional drugs. These include the clinical anesthetic ketamine, as well as the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin. Now, we can add laughing gas to the list.

A paper recently published in Science Translational Medicine reports results from a small, early-stage clinical trial conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and Washington University School of Medicine. They found that inhaling a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide, the active chemical in laughing gas, significantly improved depression symptoms compared to inhaling oxygen alone in people diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.

Larger studies will be necessary to validate these results. Nonetheless, early indications are that laughing gas may offer new hope for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.

Your dog’s chewing behavior might be a sign of their intelligence

New research asks whether we should add dogs to the list of animals that use tools

Nechama F. Sammet Moring

Science Journalism

Richard Branson is officially the first billionaire to take off for space

Branson’s Unity-22 flight ushers in an era of space tourism

Briley Lewis

Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of California, Los Angeles

Artificial light at night is dangerous for coral reef fish

A new study examined the effects of light pollution on juvenile orange-fin anemonefish

Alyssa Paparella

Biomedical Sciences

Baylor College of Medicine

One of the perks of having a window seat in an airplane at night is looking out at the lights below. All that bright light underneath is actually a form of light pollution, or excessive artificial light. Like other forms of pollution, light pollution impacts both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In fact, as of 2010, over 20 percent of Earth’s coastlines were lit up artificially at night. As the human footprint on the planet continues to increase, the impact of light pollution on ecosystems remains a concern. 

A recent study sought to understand the impact of artificial light at night by studying long-term effects of light pollution on juvenile orange-fin anemonefish, Amphiprion chrysopterus, within coral reefs of French Polynesia. They raised wild-spawned fish in the lab, and released them either artificially lit coral reefs, or reefs under natural conditions, then monitored their survival for nearly two years. 

The researchers found that exposure to artificial light caused a 36 percent decrease in fish survival and growth, due to the increase of predators due to artificial light and its impact on fish physiology. This study highlights the need to further understand the impacts of light pollution on ecosystems, with the hope that solutions can be proposed in order to limit the impact of human activities on the natural ecosystems around us. 

Worker ants traded their wings for immense strength

A new study uses high resolution X-rays to study ant morphology

Rita Ponce

Evolutionary Biology

Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal

Ants are a particularly numerous group of animals — there are approximately 13,000 named species of ants in the world — and they can be found almost everywhere. 

Their evolutionary success is frequently attributed to their division of labor and cooperation during foraging. Ant queens and males are mainly involved in reproduction and have wings, while ant workers are generally wingless and are adapted to ground labor. Ant workers show an almost Herculean strength; the Asian weaver ant can lift up to 100 times its body weight. 

A team of researchers wanted to understand the morphological reason for this strength. A previous study on the anatomy of queens and workers from different species of ants found that worker ants’ thoraxes (the part of their bodies between the neck and abdomen) have larger muscles on the first thoracic segment than queens, making their necks stronger and more mobile. 

Now, their new study using high resolution X-ray analysis discovered specific changes in their thorax that are different from other flightless insects. The muscles involved in the movement of worker ants’ necks, legs, and abdomens are stronger and have more support points — allowing them to carry heavy weights on their head while walking and running and to move their sting with precision. Such enormous strength may help explain their ecological success, despite the fact that they can’t fly. 

NASA releases the most detailed photo of Jupiter’s largest moon to date

The image of Ganymede was taken by the Juno spacecraft

Briley Lewis

Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of California, Los Angeles

In early June, NASA released new images from the Juno spacecraft, showing the first close-up of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, since the Galileo spacecraft visited two decades ago. 

The Juno mission to Jupiter has been circling our solar system’s largest planet since 2016, taking images of the planet’s magnificent swirls. It’s already observed so much about Jupiter: lightning in the clouds, movement deep in the atmosphere, and giant aurorae similar to the famous Aurora Borealis here on Earth. Next, it’s setting its sights on Ganymede.

Although Mars may seem like the most popular target to search for life, outer solar system moons like Ganymede have quite a bit of potential, too. These icy moons (including Ganymede, Europa, and Enceladus) likely have oceans of water underneath an icy outer shell. Ganymede in particular has a thick ice shell with chunks of rock embedded in it and bright streaks across the surface, making it an interesting and active place for astronomers to study. Ganymede is also the only moon that we know has a magnetic field — an important protective shield for life.

These new images of Ganymede show the most detailed view of the moon’s surface yet. Scientists hope that information from Juno will tell us more about how thick the ice shell is, what it’s made of, and how much radiation is hitting the surface—all important things for understanding the moon’s habitability, and for planning future missions.

An opioid made in the brain is crucial for remembering other people

Without enkephalin, a neuropeptide, mice were unable to recognize other mice they’d already met

Czarina Ramos

Neuroscience

Albert Einstein College of Medicine