Category,Title,Kids Abstract,Abstract (Original academic paper),URL (Original academic paper),Reading Levels
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Are poachers rhinos only problem,"Rhinos dont have it easy these days. Usually, they roam Two rhino species live in Kruger Park - white and black large areas in Africa and Eurasia. Now they occur almost only rhino. One curious finding is that each of them suffers from in protected areas due to poaching (forbidden hunting) and the drought in a different way - due to the different food destruction of their habitats. We had a close look at Kruger they eat. So keeping the poachers away is not enough to National Park in South Africa where many rhinos live. We conserve the rhinos. We also have to understand the effect found they face two problems: illegal hunters and droughts. of the climate.","Unrelenting poaching to feed the illegal trafficking of rhinoceros (rhino) horn remains the principle threat to the persistence of south-central black and southern white rhino that live in the Kruger National Park (Kruger), South Africa. Other global environmental change drivers, such as unpredictable climatic conditions, impose additional uncertainties on the management and persistence of these species. The drought experienced in Kruger over the 2015/2016 rainy season may have affected rhino population growth and thus added an additional population pressure to the poaching pressure already occurring. Under drought conditions, reduced grass biomass predicts increased natural deaths and a subsequent decrease in birth rate for the grazing white rhino. Such variance in natural death and birth rates for the browsing black rhino are not expected under these conditions. We evaluated these predictions using rhino population survey data from 2013 to 2017. Comparisons of natural deaths and birth rates between pre- (2013/2014 and 2014/15), during- (2015/2016) and post-drought (2016/2017) periods in Kruger showed increased natural mortality and decreased births for white rhino, but no significant changes for black rhino, supporting our predictions. As a result, despite reduced poaching rates, the total mortality rate of white rhino remains significantly higher than the birth rate. Decreased poaching, decreased natural deaths and no apparent drought effects in black rhino resulted in a lower total mortality rate than the estimated birth rate in 2017. Active biological management and traditional anti-poaching initiatives together therefore represent the most likely way to buffer the impacts of decreased population growth through climate change and wildlife crime on the persistence of rhinos.",https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0209678,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,Can microbes make fruit flies stronger,"Have you ever thought of yourself as an ecosystem? Or Humans are not unique in having microbiomes! Insects - like even, a planet, hosting trillions of inhabitants! If not, get fruit flies - also host microbial communities. We examined used to the fact that you are one! Each and every one of the microbiomes of different fruit fly populations originating us provides a home for millions of microbes that live inside from six different places across Europe. We showed that our body, and on our skin. Some of these tiny creatures just their microbiomes were different, even though all flies had use us as their living space, without affecting us. Some do eaten the same food over the past four years. We also us harm. Many, however, benefit us immensely. They help examined the effect of microbes on fruit fly resistance to us digest food and fight off diseases, and might even be parasite attack. In some populations we found evidence important in keeping our brains healthy. The community of for this, but for other populations we did not find a clear microbes in our body is called our microbiome. connection.","In Drosophila, diet is considered a prominent factor shaping the associated bacterial community. However, the host population background (e.g. genotype, geographical origin and founder effects) is a factor that may also exert a significant influence and is often overlooked. To test for population background effects, we characterized the bacterial communities in larvae of six genetically differentiated and geographically distant D. melanogaster lines collected from natural populations across Europe. The diet for these six lines had been identical for ca. 50 generations, thus any differences in the composition of the microbiome originates from the host populations. We also investigated whether induced shifts in the microbiomein this case by controlled antibiotic administrationalters the hosts resistance to parasitism. Our data revealed a clear signature of population background on the diversity and composition of D. melanogaster microbiome that differed across lines, even after hosts had been maintained at the same diet and laboratory conditions for over 4 years. In particular, the number of bacterial OTUs per line ranged from 8 to 39 OTUs. Each line harboured 2 to 28 unique OTUs, and OTUs that were highly abundant in some lines were entirely missing in others. Moreover, we found that the response to antibiotic treatment differed among the lines and significantly altered the host resistance to the parasitoid Asobara tabida in one of the six lines. Wolbachia, a widespread intracellular endosymbiont associated with parasitoid resistance, was lacking in this line, suggesting that other components of the Drosophila microbiome caused a change in host resistance. Collectively, our results revealed that lines that originate from different population backgrounds show significant differences in the established Drosophila microbiome, outpacing the long-term effect of diet. Perturbations on these naturally assembled microbiomes to some degree influenced the hosts resistance against natural parasites.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167726,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Can we save rhinos from extinction,"In the past decade, poachers have increasingly hunted and this endangered species. We found that there is a way to killed South African white rhinoceroses, despite efforts to save rhinos from extinction but it requires combating the protect them. If the killing continues at this rate, these international mafias that buy and sell rhino horns as well rhinos will soon go extinct. We created a model that took as developing legal job opportunities for people currently both human actions and rhino survival in the wild into living in poverty near rhinos, so they dont have to resort to account in order to test which scenarios resulted in saving poaching for money.","The onslaught on the Worlds wildlife continues despite numerous initiatives aimed at curbing it. We build a model that integrates rhino horn trade with rhino population dynamics in order to evaluate the impact of various management policies on rhino sustainability. In our model, an agent-based sub-model of horn trade from the poaching event up through a purchase of rhino horn in Asia impacts rhino abundance. A data-validated, individual-based sub-model of the rhino population of South Africa provides these abundance values. We evaluate policies that consist of different combinations of legal trade initiatives, demand reduction marketing campaigns, increased anti-poaching measures within protected areas, and transnational policing initiatives aimed at disrupting those criminal syndicates engaged in horn trafficking. Simulation runs of our model over the next 35 years produces a sustainable rhino population under only one management policy. This policy includes both a transnational policing effort aimed at dismantling those criminal networks engaged in rhino horn traffickingcoupled with increases in legal economic opportunities for people living next to protected areas where rhinos live. This multi-faceted approach should be the focus of the international debate on strategies to combat the current slaughter of rhino rather than the binary debate about whether rhino horn trade should be legalized. This approach to the evaluation of wildlife management policies may be useful to apply to other species threatened by wildlife trafficking.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167040,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Could this be a concrete solution to biodiversity loss,"Did you know that in some parts of the world, we have for marine organisms. replaced over half of our natural shorelines with man-made We wanted to find out what effect creating artificial rock coastal defences? pools on these structures would have. Would it help to attract This is important because these structures arent usually as more species? Did the pools need to be a particular size good at supporting a wide range of different species (we call or at a particular shore height to work well? Was exposure this biodiversity) as natural rocky shores. The reason for this to wave action important? We set out to find the answers is that artificial structures lack important habitats like rock to these questions to help engineers and coastal managers pools, pits and crevices that trap water and provide shelter increase biodiversity on their man-made coastlines.","In coastal habitats artificial structures typically support lower biodiversity and can support greater numbers of non-native and opportunistic species than natural rocky reefs. Eco-engineering experiments are typically trialed to succeed; but arguably as much is learnt from failure than from success. Our goal was to trial a generic, cost effective, eco-engineering technique that could be incorporated into rock armouring anywhere in the world. Artificial rock pools were created from manipulated concrete between boulders on the exposed and sheltered sides of a causeway. Experimental treatments were installed in locations where they were expected to fail and compared to controls installed in locations in which they were expected to succeed. Control pools were created lower on the structure where they were immersed on every tidal cycle; experimental pools were created above mean high water spring tide which were only immersed on spring tides. We hypothesised that lower and exposed pools would support significantly higher taxon and functional diversity than upper and sheltered pools. The concrete pools survived the severe winter storms of 2013/14. After 12 months, non-destructive sampling revealed significantly higher mean taxon and functional richness in lower pools than upper pools on the exposed side only. After 24 months the sheltered pools had become inundated with sediments, thus failing to function as rock pools as intended. Destructive sampling on the exposed side revealed significantly higher mean functional richness in lower than upper pools. However, a surprisingly high number of taxa colonised the upper pools leading to no significant difference in mean taxon richness among shore heights. A high number of rare taxa in the lower pools led to total taxon richness being almost twice that of upper pools. These findings highlight that even when expected to fail concrete pools supported diverse assemblages, thus representing an affordable, replicable means of enhancing biodiversity on a variety of artificial structures.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094015/meta,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Counting the fish catch why dont the numbers match,"Fish and marine animals like shrimp (well call them all fish This made us realize that catches peaked at a much here), are an important food source for many people in the higher amount than the officially reported figures. It also world. They provide vital nutrients to people with poor diets. showed us that they are now declining much faster than people thought. There are various large and small-scale fisheries. Some people sell their catches, while others catch fish for their We need to check on fisheries better so that we have more families to eat. In order to know the total amount caught, accurate data. This will help us to be able to make the right we need accurate data on all fisheries catches. decisions to protect global fish stocks. We carried out a data collection project to calculate total catches from all marine fisheries in the world from to .We carried out a data collection project to calculate total catches from all marine fisheries in the world from 1950 to 2010. This made us realize that catches peaked at a much higher amount than the officially reported figures. It also showed us that they are now declining much faster than people thought. We need to check on fisheries better so that we have more accurate data. This will help us to be able to make the right decisions to protect global fish stocks.","Here we reply to a commentary by Ye et al. (Mar. Policy 2017; Ye et al.) on our article (Pauly and Zeller, 2017 [2]) commenting on FAO's interpretation of current fisheries trends in SOFIA 2016 (The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture). We show how arguments such as FAO's catch statistics being the best they can possibly be, and other manifestations of FAO's difficulties in constructively engaging with comments compromises FAO's stated goal to engage with academia and civil society. This is particularly serious in an age where the value of an open scientific discourse is increasingly under threat, as is the food security of many poor countries in which fish supplied by domestic fisheries constitutes a strong component of local diets.",https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10244,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Do bats benefit from wildfires,"Did you know that there are more than 1,000 species of bats? Theyre also the only mammals that can fly! These amazing animals are well adapted to life in the forest, but what happens when wildfires hit their homes? We wanted to find out how wildfires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California affect bats. We looked at three different areas where there have been large fires and counted how many species of bat we found in those areas. We also looked at how different levels of fire severity affected bats.Our results showed that wildfires are beneficial to bats. This is mainly because fires make forests less cluttered, which makes it easier for bats to find food and roosting spots. Instead of preventing all fires, we should manage some fires burning far from people so that there is a mix of severities and bat habitats. This would help bats and also reduce the risk of out-of-control megafires happening in the future!","Wildfire is an important ecological process that influences species occurrence and biodiversity generally. Its effect on bats is understudied, creating challenges for habitat management and species conservation as threats to the taxa worsen globally and within fire-prone ecosystems. We conducted acoustic surveys of wildfire areas during 20142017 in conifer forests of Californias Sierra Nevada Mountains. We tested effects of burn severity and its variation, or pyrodiversity, on occupancy and diversity for the 17-species bat community while accounting for imperfect detection. Occupancy rates increased with severity for at least 6 species and with pyrodiversity for at least 3. Two other species responded negatively to pyrodiversity. Individual species models predicted maximum occupancy rates across burn severity levels but only one species occurred most often in undisturbed areas. Species richness increased from approximately 8 species in unburned forests to 11 in pyrodiverse areas with moderate- to high-severity. Greater accessibility of foraging habitats, as well as increased habitat heterogeneity may explain positive responses to wildfire. Many bat species appear well adapted to wildfire, while a century of fire suppression and forest densification likely reduced habitat quality for the community generally. Relative to other taxa, bats may be somewhat resilient to increases in fire severity and size; trends which are expected to continue with accelerating climate change.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52875-2,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,Do bees get the flu,"Do bees scare you? Instead of fearing them, you should the viral load (virus concentration in the bees body) was appreciate their role in our ecosystem. In addition to low. We infected two wild bee species with high doses of providing us honey, they are responsible for pollinating viruses, and they didnt get sick immediately. This hopeful much of the food we eat. Unfortunately, wild bees and finding suggests that honey bees and wild bees can co- honey bees (Apis mellifera) are dying. Many honey bees exist even if some are infected with viruses. To be sure, die because of viruses and conservationists worry that though, we need to test if other viruses infect the many these viruses may transfer to wild bees. wild bee species that co-occur with honey bees. We tested wild bees for five common honey bee viruses. We found them in over 80% of the wild bees, yet . the viral load (virus concentration in the bees body) was  low. We infected two wild bee species with high doses of viruses, and they didnt get sick immediately. This hopeful finding suggests that honey bees and wild bees can coexist even if some are infected with viruses. To be sure, though, we need to test if other viruses infect the many  wild bee species that co-occur with honey bees","Evidence of inter-species pathogen transmission from managed to wild bees has sparked concern that emerging diseases could be causing or exacerbating wild bee declines. While some pathogens, like RNA viruses, have been found in pollen and wild bees, the threat these viruses pose to wild bees is largely unknown. Here, we tested 169 bees, representing 4 families and 8 genera, for five common honey bee (Apis mellifera) viruses, finding that more than 80% of wild bees harbored at least one virus. We also quantified virus titers in these bees, providing, for the first time, an assessment of viral load in a broad spectrum of wild bees. Although virus detection was very common, virus levels in the wild bees were minimalsimilar to or lower than foraging honey bees and substantially lower than honey bees collected from hives. Furthermore, when we experimentally inoculated adults of two different bee species (Megachile rotundata and Colletes inaequalis) with a mixture of common viruses that is lethal to honey bees, we saw no effect on short term survival. Overall, we found that honey bee RNA viruses can be commonly detected at low levels in many wild bee species, but we found no evidence that these pathogens cause elevated short-term mortality effects. However, more work on these viruses is greatly needed to assess effects on additional bee species and life stages.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166190,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Do fish have a home,"Do you have a favorite place? One that makes you feel safe fish populations from decreasing. and has everything you need to survive? Now imagine you We tracked European bass (an important fish in Europe) for are in your favorite place and a skunk wanders in. You run a year to figure out where their favorite places were. We away because you dont want to end up stinky. found that most European bass stayed close to the coastal This same thing happens to young (juvenile) fish when their sites we caught them from. Our goal is to identify more of favorite places get polluted or are not protected. Fish might these coastal sites. That way, humans can protect them, and even get caught by fishermen. A lot of fish populations are fish populations can thrive. in danger because: too many individuals are caught there arent enough safe places for juveniles to hide. If we protect their favorite places, we might be able to keep","The European bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) support high value commercial and recreational fisheries, however the Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) of the northern Atlantic stock (ICES divisions 4.bc, 7.a, and 7.dh) has rapidly declined to an unsustainable level. The decline in SSB has been attributed to high fishing pressure combined with poor recruitment. By tracking juvenile fish their spatial ecology can be identified, and appropriate fisheries management policies designed to boost recruitment can be implemented. Using acoustic telemetry 146 sub-adult European bass (25.260 cm fork length) were tracked for up to 370 d across three sites in the southwest of the UK. Tagged fish were detected 2 724 548 times (Range: 166106 393 detections per fish). Linear modelling estimated tagged fish were resident within 2.420.1 km of the site where they were first caught for 42.9-75.5% of the year. Some fish were however resident throughout summer and winter. Individual fish were also tracked moving up to 317 km to other coastal sites, 81% of which returned to their original capture site. Fisheries management should account for the high site fidelity displayed by juveniles and sub-adults of this species and coastal nursery sites should be considered essential habitat.",https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/78/9/3121/6370941,Elementary school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Do northern trees have cold feet about climate change,"Imagine living in an area where it starts getting uncomfortably hot. Would you and your family just pack up and move somewhere else to be more comfortable? Unlike people, trees cannot escape to other climates quickly when temperatures rise as a result of global climate change. Will they suffer when it gets hotter? Or would they benefit instead?We wanted to understand how trees in northern (or boreal) forests would respond to rising temperatures. We analyzed results from transplant experiments that took seeds from one area and planted them in areas with different climates. We found that where a tree is located within its geographical range determines how it will be affected: trees growing in the northern part of their range will likely benefit from rising temperatures and grow faster, but trees growing in the southern part of their range will likely grow more slowly. Keep in mind that factors other than just temperature changes also have to be considered to understand how forests will respond to climate change.","The growth response of trees to ongoing climate change has important implications for future forest dynamics, accurate carbon accounting, and sustainable forest management. We used data from black spruce (Picea mariana) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) provenance trials, along with published data for three other northern conifers, to identify a consistent growth response to climate warming in which cold-origin populations are expected to benefit and warm-origin populations are expected to decline. Specifically, populations from across the geographic range of a species appear to grow well at temperatures characteristic of the southern portion of the range, indicating significant potential for a positive growth response to climate warming in cold-origin populations. Few studies have quantified and compared this pattern across multiple species using provenance data. We present a forest regeneration strategy that incorporates these anticipated growth responses to promote populations that are both local to the planting site and expected to grow well under climate change.",http://www.nature.com/articles/srep43881,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Evolution in action Are voles shrinking,"It is not easy being small. Especially when nature seems to causes, we separated genetic and environmental influences favor larger individuals. But why dont all animals evolve to on vole body size. be bigger? Is it sometimes better to be small? Or are some We found that young voles with genes for small bodies incapable of evolving? developed faster. This allowed them to survive better when To answer these questions, we studied a wild population of environmental conditions changed (earlier arrival of winter). snow voles (a small rodent species) in their alpine habitat. As a result, the population evolved towards a smaller body Genetic analysis indicated a hidden evolutionary change: size. Our study shows that populations can evolve rapidly. But voles evolved to become smaller but the average body size without a genetic perspective and understanding the underlying of population stayed the same. To understand the underlying causes, we may not be able to detect these changes.","In natural populations, quantitative trait dynamics often do not appear to follow evolutionary predictions. Despite abundant examples of natural selection acting on heritable traits, conclusive evidence for contemporary adaptive evolution remains rare for wild vertebrate populations, and phenotypic stasis seems to be the norm. This so-called stasis paradox highlights our inability to predict evolutionary change, which is especially concerning within the context of rapid anthropogenic environmental change. While the causes underlying the stasis paradox are hotly debated, comprehensive attempts aiming at a resolution are lacking. Here, we apply a quantitative genetic framework to individual-based long-term data for a wild rodent population and show that despite a positive association between body mass and fitness, there has been a genetic change towards lower body mass. The latter represents an adaptive response to viability selection favouring juveniles growing up to become relatively small adults, i.e., with a low potential adult mass, which presumably complete their development earlier. This selection is particularly strong towards the end of the snow-free season, and it has intensified in recent years, coinciding which a change in snowfall patterns. Importantly, neither the negative evolutionary change, nor the selective pressures that drive it, are apparent on the phenotypic level, where they are masked by phenotypic plasticity and a non causal (i.e., non genetic) positive association between body mass and fitness, respectively. Estimating selection at the genetic level enabled us to uncover adaptive evolution in action and to identify the corresponding phenotypic selective pressure. We thereby demonstrate that natural populations can show a rapid and adaptive evolutionary response to a novel selective pressure, and that explicitly (quantitative) genetic models are able to provide us with an understanding of the causes and consequences of selection that is superior to purely phenotypic estimates of selection and evolutionary change.",http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002592,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How can black rats change the behavior of reef fish,"Every animal needs an environment where it can survive and thus reduce their population. So, the amount of nutrients thrive. Unfortunately, humans are having a serious impact reaching the coral reefs also decreases. on the natural world. Our behavior can harm ecosystems Coral reef fish need lots of energy from their food to be and the animals that call them home. aggressive and defend their homes from intruders. We In the 1700s, black rats arrived with humans on tropical thought there might be a connection between black rats, the islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Seabirds play an nutrients available on coral reefs, and the behavior of small important role in providing nutrients to coral reefs around reef fishes. Indeed, we discovered that invasive rats on land these islands. But the invasive rats feed on the seabirds and directly affect the behavior of fish in the sea!","Human-induced environmental changes, such as the introduction of invasive species, are driving declines in the movement of nutrients across ecosystems with negative consequences for ecosystem function. Declines in nutrient inputs could thus have knock-on effects at higher trophic levels and broader ecological scales, yet these interconnections remain relatively unknown. Here we show that a terrestrial invasive species (black rats,Rattus rattus) disrupts a nutrient pathway provided by seabirds, ultimately altering the territorial behaviour of coral reef fish. In a replicated ecosystem-scale natural experiment, we found that reef fish territories were larger and the time invested in aggression lower on reefs adjacent to rat-infested islands compared with rat-free islands. This response reflected changes in the economic defendability of lower-quality resources, with reef fish obtaining less nutritional gain per unit foraging effort adjacent to rat-infested islands with low seabird populations. These results provide a novel insight into how the disruption of nutrient flows by invasive species can affect variation in territorial behaviour. Rat eradication as a conservation strategy therefore has the potential to restore species interactions via territoriality, which can scale up to influence populations and communities at higher ecological levels.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01931-8,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How can cheetahs and farmers get along better,"Sometimes humans and animals come into conflict with each other. This can threaten peoples livelihoods and also threaten the animals lives. In central Namibia, farmers have a problem with cheetahs. The cheetahs prey on their baby cows (calves). In turn, the farmers often try to kill the wild cats in order to protect their cattle! Wouldnt it be great if we could study the situation and find a solution that suits both the farmers and the cheetahs? This is what we did. We tracked the cheetah's behavior. We figured out how farmers could manage their cattle so that cheetahs dont eat the calves. This could prevent farmers from losing their valuable livestock and stop them from trying to kill the cheetahs.","Significance The cheetah is a prominent example for humancarnivore conflicts and mitigation challenges. Its global population suffered a substantial decline throughout its range. Here, we present an in-depth and new understanding of the socio-spatial organization of the cheetah. We show that cheetahs maintain a network of communication hubs distributed in a regular pattern across the landscape, not contiguous with each other and separated by a surrounding matrix. Cheetahs spend a substantial amount of their time in these hubs, resulting in high local cheetah activity, which represents a high local predation risk for livestock. Implementing this knowledge, farmers were able to reduce livestock losses by 86%. Humanwildlife conflicts occur worldwide. Although many nonlethal mitigation solutions are available, they rarely use the behavioral ecology of the conflict species to derive effective and long-lasting solutions. Here, we use a long-term study with 106 GPS-collared free-ranging cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) to demonstrate how new insights into the socio-spatial organization of this species provide the key for such a solution. GPS-collared territory holders marked and defended communication hubs (CHs) in the core area of their territories. The CHs/territories were distributed in a regular pattern across the landscape such that they were not contiguous with each other but separated by a surrounding matrix. They were kept in this way by successive territory holders, thus maintaining this overdispersed distribution. The CHs were also visited by nonterritorial cheetah males and females for information exchange, thus forming hotspots of cheetah activity and presence. We hypothesized that the CHs pose an increased predation risk to young calves for cattle farmers in Namibia. In an experimental approach, farmers shifted cattle herds away from the CHs during the calving season. This drastically reduced their calf losses by cheetahs because cheetahs did not follow the herds but instead preyed on naturally occurring local wildlife prey in the CHs. This implies that in the cheetah system, there are problem areas, the CHs, rather than problem individuals. The incorporation of the behavioral ecology of conflict species opens promising areas to search for solutions in other conflict species with nonhomogenous space use.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002487117,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,How can leopard seals survive climate change,"Have you ever been by yourself and needed to get something at variability in the traits and behaviors of polar predators to off a high shelf, but couldnt reach? Now imagine you had assess how they will adapt to climate change. your whole class with you. Its likely that someone in your We tagged and studied a population of leopard seals in class could reach the high shelf. Antarctica. We looked at their morphology, movement Variability in traits (and behaviors) is a good thing. It means patterns, and diving behavior. We found lots of variability that groups of organisms can adjust and survive when in these traits in the leopard seal population, especially environments change. We know that animals living at the between males and females. We think this high variability North and South Poles, especially large predators, are in may help leopard seals survive better in the changing danger because of the changing climate. We wanted to look Antarctic environment.","Animals that display plasticity in behavioral, ecological, and morphological traits are better poised to cope with environmental disturbances. Here, we examined individual plasticity and intraspecific variation in the morphometrics, movement patterns, and dive behavior of an enigmatic apex predator, the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). Satellite/GPS tags and time-depth recorders were deployed on 22 leopard seals off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Adult female leopard seals were significantly larger (45459 kg) and longer (30211 cm) than adult males (30222 kg, 27611 cm). As females were 50% larger than their male counterparts, leopard seals are therefore one of the most extreme examples of female-biased sexual size dimorphism in marine mammals. Female leopard seals also spent more time hauled-out on land and ice than males. In the austral spring/summer, three adult female leopard seals hauled-out on ice for 10+ days, which likely represent the first satellite tracks of parturition and lactation for the species. While we found sex-based differences in morphometrics and haul-out durations, other variables, including maximum distance traveled and dive parameters, did not vary by sex. Regardless of sex, some leopard seals remained in near-shore habitats, traveling less than 50 kilometers, while other leopard seals traveled up to 1,700 kilometers away from the tagging location. Overall, leopard seals were short (3.00.7 min) and shallow (298 m) divers. However, within this general pattern, some individual leopard seals primarily used short, shallow dives, while others switched between short, shallow dives and long, deep dives. We also recorded the single deepest and longest dive made by any leopard seal1, 256 meters for 25 minutes. Together, our results showcased high plasticity among leopard seals tagged in a single location. These flexible behaviors and traits may offer leopard seals, an ice-associated apex predator, resilience to the rapidly changing Southern Ocean.",https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.976019/full,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How can offshore mussel farms help to repair the ocean,"Lots of people around the world love eating seafood! Unfortunately, some fishing practices harm seafloor habitats. Is there a way to enjoy resources from the ocean and help the environment at the same time? Mussels are a kind of shellfish that can be farmed at sea and collected for food. They grow in clumps, which may attract other animals looking for food and shelter. We wondered if building an offshore mussel farm could help restore ocean habitats damaged by years of harmful fishing practices. We used underwater videos to investigate how the number and type of animals found inside and outside a mussel farm changed over four years. We found that the areas inside the farm contained more mussels than areas outside. There were also more fish and seafood (such as lobster and crab) inside the farm than outside. Our findings show that offshore mussel farms may revitalize damaged ocean habitats. They also benefit humans and other marine animals.","The United Kingdom's first large-scale, offshore, long-line mussel farm deployed its first ropes in 2013 in Lyme Bay, southwest United Kingdom, located in an area of seabed that was heavily degraded due to historic bottom-towed fishing. It was hypothesised that due to the artificial structures that accumulate mussels and exclude destructive fishing practices, the seabed could be restored. To assess the restoration potential of the farm and its ecosystem interactions over time, a multi-method, annual monitoring approach was undertaken. Here, we tested the effects of the farm trial stations on the seabed habitat, epifauna and demersal species over 5 years. Responses of % mussel cover, sessile and sedentary, and mobile taxa were measured using three video methods. Within 2 years of infrastructure deployment, mussel clumps and shells were detected below the headlines, increasing the structural complexity of the seabed. After 4 years, there was a significantly greater abundance of mobile taxa compared to the Controls that remained open to trawling. Commercial European lobster and edible crab were almost exclusively recorded within the farm. We discuss whether these findings can be considered a restoration of the seabed and how these data can be used to inform the future management of offshore mariculture globally.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aff2.77,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can oyster farms create homes for fish,"Fish are fascinating animals. Individual fish have places they watch their behaviors. Environmental DNA helped us find call home as well as their own daily routines. We wanted to the species that are hard to see on camera, like very small find out whether oyster cages (gear used to farm oysters) or nocturnal fish. provide habitat for fish. Do they like to hang out there? Do We found fish species on video and species using they live there? Which species spend time there and what environmental DNA. Some species were abundant at the do they get up to? oyster cages. We even watched them getting up to behaviors We used two methods, underwater video cameras and like foraging for food and sheltering from predators and environmental DNA, to uncover the secret lives of fish. The currents. Oyster cages can act as artificial reefs, providing videos let us see which species hung out at the cages and valuable habitat for fish!","Multi-tiered oyster aquaculture cages may provide habitat for fish assemblages sim- ilar to natural structured seafloor. Methods were developed to assess fish assemblages associatedwith aquaculture gear and boulder habitat using underwater video census combined with envi-ronmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. Action cameras were mounted on 3 aquaculture cages ata commercial eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica farm (cage) and among 3 boulders on a natural rock reef (boulder) from June to August 2017 in Long Island Sound, USA. Interval and continu-ous video recording strategies were tested. During interval recording, cameras collected 8 minvideo segments hourly from 07:00 to 19:00 h on cages only. Continuous video was also collectedfor 2?3 h on oyster cages and boulders. Data loggers recorded light intensity and current speed.Seawater was collected for eDNA metabarcoding on the reef and farm. MaxN measurements offish abundance were calculated in video, and 7 fish species were observed. Black sea bass Centro - pristis striata , cunner Tautogolabrus adspersus , scup Stenotomus chrysops , and tautog Tautoga onitis were the most abundant species observed in both oyster cage and boulder videos. In contin- uous video, black sea bass, scup, and tautog were observed more frequently and at higher abun-dance on the cage farm, while cunner were observed more frequently and at higher abundanceon boulders within the rock reef. eDNA metabarcoding detected 42 fish species at the farm andreef. Six species were detected using both methods. Applied in tandem, video recording andeDNA provided a comprehensive approach for describing fish assemblages in difficult to samplestructured oyster aquaculture and boulder habitats.",https://www.int-res.com/articles/aei2021/13/q013p277.pdf,Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,How can polar bears survive longer in a changing climate,"Polar bears are decreasing in number because of climate fjords. They use ice from glaciers as well as sea ice to hunt. change. Polar bears depend on Arctic sea ice to hunt for their We conducted a study looking at their movement, genetics, food. In a warming climate, sea ice is disappearing. Because and demography. We found that Southeast Greenland polar of this, many polar bears around the Arctic are expected to bears dont travel much because of the rugged environment. disappear. Are there any places in the Arctic where polar They have been isolated from other polar bears for about bears might have a chance to survive when the sea ice years and are a genetically distinct group. Future studies disappears? What would those habitats look like? Would the of these polar bears will help with conservation efforts for polar bears that live there look or act differently? We found the species. a group of polar bears in Southeast Greenland that live in","Polar bears are susceptible to climate warming because of their dependence on sea ice, which is declining rapidly. We present the first evidence for a genetically distinct and functionally isolated group of polar bears in Southeast Greenland. These bears occupy sea-ice conditions resembling those projected for the High Arctic in the late 21st century, with an annual ice-free period that is >100 days longer than the estimated fasting threshold for the species. Whereas polar bears in most of the Arctic depend on annual sea ice to catch seals, Southeast Greenland bears have a year-round hunting platform in the form of freshwater glacial m?lange. This suggests that marine-terminating glaciers, although of limited availability, may serve as previously unrecognized climate refugia. Conservation of Southeast Greenland polar bears, which meet criteria for recognition as the worlds 20th polar bear subpopulation, is necessary to preserve the genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of the species.",https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abk2793,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can protecting lobsters be good for fishermen,"Millions of animals, plants, and other organisms live in the they will lose their jobs and cannot provide fish for people to eat. ocean. Humans rely on marine ecosystems for seafood and Our study shows this worry is not necessarily true. Protecting other resources. Fishing is important, but if fishermen are not the marine environment can actually benefit fishermen, and careful, they can overfish and damage the ocean habitats with therefore all of us. their fishing gear. So, many people are working to protect the ocean. However, sometimes people living closest to the ocean worry that protecting it might harm their jobs. Fishermen depend on the oceans resources. If they are not allowed to continue fishing,","Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designed to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services. Some MPAs are also established to benefit fisheries through increased egg and larval production, or the spillover of mobile juveniles and adults. Whether spillover influences fishery landings depend on the population status and movement patterns of target species both inside and outside of MPAs, as well as the status of the fishery and behavior of the fleet. We tested whether an increase in the lobster population inside two newly established MPAs influenced local catch, fishing effort, and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) within the sustainable California spiny lobster fishery. We found greater build-up of lobsters within MPAs relative to unprotected areas, and greater increases in fishing effort and total lobster catch, but not CPUE, in fishing zones containing MPAs vs. those without MPAs. Our results show that a 35% reduction in fishing area resulting from MPA designation was compensated for by a 225% increase in total catch after 6-years, thus indicating at a local scale that the trade-off of fishing ground for no-fishing zones benefitted the fishery.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82371-5,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,How can vultures and wind farms co-exist,"Imagine how it would feel to fly through the sky on wings so We collected data on existing and proposed wind farms in wide, when you catch some rising warm air you soar for miles! south-eastern Europe, and compared them with data on the This is how vultures fly as they look out for their next meal. areas that cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) live in. We found that if the new wind farms go where planned, this Unfortunately, places that are best for vultures can also be population of vultures could be at serious risk of extinction. good locations for wind farms because theres lots of wind to turn their turbines and make electricity. When vultures fly We suggest an approach that would allow for Greece to exceed close to these turbines, the moving blades can hit them, killing its wind power targets, while protecting these vultures. or severely wounding them.","Wind farm development can combat climate change but may also threaten bird populations persistence through collision with wind turbine blades if such development is improperly planned strategically and cumulatively. Such improper planning may often occur. Numerous wind farms are planned in a region hosting the only cinereous vulture population in south-eastern Europe. We combined range use modelling and a Collision Risk Model (CRM) to predict the cumulative collision mortality for cinereous vulture under all operating and proposed wind farms. Four different vulture avoidance rates were considered in the CRM. Cumulative collision mortality was expected to be eight to ten times greater in the future (proposed and operating wind farms) than currently (operating wind farms), equivalent to 44% of the current population (103 individuals) if all proposals are authorized (2744 MW). Even under the most optimistic scenario whereby authorized proposals will not collectively exceed the national target for wind harnessing in the study area (960 MW), cumulative collision mortality would still be high (17% of current population) and likely lead to population extinction. Under any wind farm proposal scenario, over 92% of expected deaths would occur in the core area of the population, further implying inadequate spatial planning and implementation of relevant European legislation with scant regard for governmental obligations to protect key species. On the basis of a sensitivity map we derive a spatially explicit solution that could meet the national target of wind harnessing with a minimum conservation cost of less than 1% population loss providing that the population mortality (5.2%) caused by the operating wind farms in the core area would be totally mitigated. Under other scenarios, the vulture population would probably be at serious risk of extinction. Our win-win approach is appropriate to other potential conflicts where wind farms may cumulatively threaten wildlife populations.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0172685,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How can we help improve human-elephant conflict,"When humans and wildlife share the same areas, they can To understand more about these types of conflict, we did come into conflict over resources. This is called human- interviews with rural people in Myanmar. The results of this wildlife conflict. This can be a big problem when the study will help wildlife managers find ways for elephants wildlife in question are large mammals (like tigers, lions, or and people to live side-by-side with less conflict! elephants). Can you imagine living alongside such giants?","Human-wildlife conflict has direct and indirect consequences for human communities. Understanding how both types of conflict affect communities is crucial to developing comprehensive and sustainable mitigation strategies. We conducted an interview survey of 381 participants in two rural areas in Myanmar where communities were exposed to human-elephant conflict (HEC). In addition to documenting and quantifying the types of direct and indirect impacts experienced by participants, we evaluated how HEC influences peoples attitudes towards elephant conservation. We found that 99% of participants suffered from some type of indirect impact from HEC, including fear for personal and family safety from elephants and fear that elephants will destroy their home. Despite experiencing moderate levels of indirect impacts from HEC at the community level, participants expressed attitudes consistent with supporting future elephant conservation programs.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253784,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can we keep our mountains healthy,"Mountains are places people often go to visit and enjoy themselves. But mountains are also complex ecosystems that provide diverse resources, such as food, water, and energy, for over half the population worldwide! Without mountains, our normal everyday life would not be sustainable for long. Unfortunately, there are many threats to mountain habitats around the world. We wanted to identify those threats and to find solutions to them. We found that politics pose the greatest threat to mountain ecosystems and that these ecosystems are best managed by local communities based on their own community needs.","Mountain social-ecological systems (MtSES) are vital to humanity, providing ecosystem services to over half the planet's human population. Despite their importance, there has been no global assessment of threats to MtSES, even as they face unprecedented challenges to their sustainability. With survey data from 57 MtSES sites worldwide, we test a conceptual model of the types and scales of stressors and ecosystem services in MtSES and explore their distinct configurations according to their primary economic orientation and land use. We find that MtSES worldwide are experiencing both gradual and abrupt climatic, economic, and governance changes, with policies made by outsiders as the most ubiquitous challenge. Mountains that support primarily subsistence-oriented livelihoods, especially agropastoral systems, deliver abundant services but are also most at risk. Moreover, transitions from subsistence- to market-oriented economies are often accompanied by increased physical connectedness, reduced diversity of cross-scale ecosystem services, lowered importance of local knowledge, and shifting vulnerabilities to threats. Addressing the complex challenges facing MtSES and catalyzing transformations to MtSES sustainability will require cross-scale partnerships among researchers, stakeholders, and decision makers to jointly identify desired futures and adaptation pathways, assess trade-offs in prioritizing ecosystem services, and share best practices for sustainability. These transdisciplinary approaches will allow local stakeholders, researchers, and practitioners to jointly address MtSES knowledge gaps while simultaneously focusing on critical issues of poverty and food security.",https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018EF001024,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we make sure to catch only the fish we want to eat,"How much do you think seafood is worth? Would it surprise solutions! you to know that the worlds seafood market was worth We wanted to find out whether we could use lights to over $ billion in ?! And its not just money. billion make gillnet fishing better. Could using illuminated nets people (over / of the worlds population) rely on seafood reduce the amount of bycatch? as their main source of protein. We found that illuminated gillnets reduced the amount of But the way that we fish is harming marine life. Bycatch, bycatch. Even better, fishers using the nets still caught lots where animals like sharks and turtles are accidentally of the fish that they were targeting and spent less time caught, is a big problem. We urgently need to find retrieving the nets. Its a win-win!","Small-scale fisheries are vital for food security, nutrition, and livelihoods in coastal areas throughout the worlds oceans As intricately linked social-ecological systems, small-scale fisheries require management approaches that help ensure both ecological and socioeconomic sustainability. Given their ease of use and lucrative nature, coastal gillnet fisheries are globally ubiquitous.10,15 However, these fisheries often result in high discarded capture of non-target organisms (bycatch) that can lead to significant cascading effects throughout trophic chains16, 17, 18 and costly fisheries restrictions that result in important revenue losses in coastal communities with scarce economic alternatives.19,20 Despite these challenges, few solutions have been developed and broadly adopted to decrease bycatch in coastal gillnet fisheries, particularly in developing nations.5,21 Here we used controlled experiments along Mexicos Baja California peninsula to show that illuminating gillnets with green LED lightsan emerging technology originally developed to mitigate sea turtle bycatchsignificantly reduced mean rates of total discarded bycatch biomass by 63%, which included significant decreases in elasmobranch (95%), Humboldt squid (81%), and unwanted finfish (48%). Moreover, illuminated nets significantly reduced the mean time required to retrieve and disentangle nets by 57%. In contrast, there were no significant differences in target fish catch or value. These findings advance our understanding of how artificial illumination affects operational efficiency and changes in catch rates in coastal gillnet fisheries, while illustrating the value of assessing broad-scale ecological and socioeconomic effects of species-specific conservation strategies.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982221017371,Elementary school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we protect fish better,"People love eating fish, fishing for them, and seeing them underwater while snorkeling or diving. In fact, fish provide billions of dollars to the U.S. (and world) economy each year. Unfortunately, overfishing has depleted many fish populations. How can we protect them better, to ensure sustainable fisheries that keep us fed and support our economies in the future?Protecting fish while they are reproducing is a critical part of an effective fisheries management plan. But to do this, we need to understand when and where spawning (fish mating) happens. We analyzed over 30 years of data from the southeast Atlantic coast of the US. This allowed us to create models to predict the locations of spawning grounds and other factors that are important for fish reproduction, such as time of the year and ocean characteristics (water temperature and features on the seafloor).","Managed reef fish in the Atlantic Ocean of the southeastern United States (SEUS) support a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a broad interest in locating and protecting spawning fish from harvest, to enhance productivity and reduce the potential for overfishing. We assessed spatiotemporal cues for spawning for six species from four reef fish families, using data on individual spawning condition collected by over three decades of regional fishery-independent reef fish surveys, combined with a series of predictors derived from bathymetric features. We quantified the size of spawning areas used by reef fish across many years and identified several multispecies spawning locations. We quantitatively identified cues for peak spawning and generated predictive maps for Gray Triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), White Grunt (Haemulon plumierii), Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus), Vermilion Snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens), Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata), and Scamp (Mycteroperca phenax). For example, Red Snapper peak spawning was predicted in 24.729.0C water prior to the new moon at locations with high curvature in the 2430 m depth range off northeast Florida during June and July. External validation using scientific and fishery-dependent data collections strongly supported the predictive utility of our models. We identified locations where reconfiguration or expansion of existing marine protected areas would protect spawning reef fish. We recommend increased sampling off southern Florida (south of 27 N), during winter months, and in high-relief, high current habitats to improve our understanding of timing and location of reef fish spawning off the southeastern United States.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0172968,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we protect valuable marine habitats for fisheries,"Have you ever wondered where the fish you eat comes from? Many fisheries all over the world are declining and need protection. But it is hard. Fishery species dont stay in one place. In fact, many fishery species use many habitats over their lifetime. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can help protect marine ecosystems and fisheries. They can restrict fishing or ban harmful fishing equipment. We wanted to understand the role that MPAs and different habitats have in supporting fisheries. So we looked at data from fisheries in Jersey and France. We found that subtidal sediments were the most valuable habitats. Yet they were the least protected by MPAs. We also found that different species were protected to varying degrees depending on the habitats they relied on. It will be important to consider species habitat use when designing management plans for fisheries in the future.","Fisheries are in decline worldwide, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are being advocated as tools that can not only protect and restore biodiversity but also improve fisheries sustainability and protect fisher livelihoods. To understand the role of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in underpinning commercial fisheries, this study demonstrates the economic value of Jersey's benthic substrates (habitats) for five predominant species fished by Jersey and French vessels: Homarus gammarus, Cancer pagurus, Maja brachydactyla, Pecten maximus and Buccinum undatum. Value was apportioned between habitats that support these commercial species across their essential life history stages, and the proportional economic value that was protected from bottom-towed fishing within MPAs was analysed. Multiple habitats across Jersey's territorial waters contributed a total economic value of 14,664,729, with 4,127,999 protected within MPAs. Overall, subtidal sediment was the most valuable habitat to both Jersey (2.12 million) and French (2.47 million) fisheries but was also the least protected habitat from bottom-towed fishing (2.73%). Our findings support an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management and emphasise the importance of considering species life histories, and their habitat requirements, in management plans.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/fme.12571,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How can we protect wildlife through ecotourism,"Many countries try to use ecotourism as a tool for wildlife conservation, hoping that the increased income for local people will make them value wildlife more. But this strategy is not always as successful as conservationists have hoped. This is why we wanted to test a new model: what if the amount of money local people receive depends on how many and what type of animals tourists will see? We tested this approach for four years in a protected area in Laos in Southeast Asia. Our preliminary results were promising: the illegal hunting of animals declined near the ecotourism site, and wildlife sightings by tourists increased.","Ecotourism as a strategy for achieving biodiversity conservation often results in limited conservation impact relative to its investment and revenue return. In cases where an ecotourism strategy has been used, projects are frequently criticized for not providing sufficient evidence on how the strategy has reduced threats or improved the status of the biodiversity it purports to protect. In Lao PDR, revenue from ecotourism has not been directly linked to or dependent on improvements in biodiversity and there is no evidence that ecotourism enterprises have contributed to conservation. In other developing countries, direct payments through explicit contracts in return for ecosystem services have been proposed as a more cost-effective means for achieving conservation, although further research is needed to evaluate the impact of this approach. To address this need, a new model was tested in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NPA) in Lao PDR using a direct payments approach to create ecotourism incentives for villagers to increase wildlife populations. Over a four-year period, we monitored along a theory of change to evaluate assumptions about the linkages between intermediate results and biological outcomes. Preliminary results show a negative correlation between ecotourism benefits and hunting infractions in target villages; no increase in hunting sign in the ecotourism sector of the NPA relative to a three-fold increase in hunting sign across the NPAs non-tourism sectors; and an overall increase in wildlife sightings. This case provides key lessons on the design of a direct payments approach for an ecotourism strategy, including how to combine threat monitoring and data on wildlife sightings to evaluate strategy effectiveness, on setting rates for wildlife sightings and village fees, and the utility of the approach for protecting very rare species.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0186133,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How can we quickly assess the status of eagles,"Can you predict how a movie will end by looking only at And we are glad we did, because we found that they are a couple of snapshots from some early scenes? Thats not reliable. Commonly used measures like how many what many ecologists have to do to quickly assess birds are able to breed and how young birds are when whether an animal population is at risk: they need a they begin to occupy nests do not accurately predict the method to collect data quickly to predict how animal status of an eagle population unless they are combined populations will fare in the future. This is especially with other data such as the birds survival rate or how difficult with animals that live long lives (like a really long much food and habitat is available to them. movie!), such as whales, sea turtles, and birds of prey. Here, we used a mathematical model to examine whether two commonly used snapshot metrics for assessing the health of long-lived eagle populations are reliable.","The development of snapshot metrics that can serve as reliable diagnostic tools for rapidly assessing population status has great appeal. We used stochastic simulation modeling and recursive partitioning to evaluate the reliability of two proposed snapshot metrics in territorial raptors: the floater/breeder ratio and the rate of nest occupancy by immature subadults. A demographic model, parameterized with field data from an intensively studied population of golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), showed that neither metric, alone or together, is a good indicator of population status. However, one snapshot metric, the floater/breeder ratio, can help predict the risk of population decline when considered in combination with other information about the population or environment that may be quickly appraised in the field or literature. Specifically, qualitative knowledge of adult survival and whether the population is limited by prey or habitat availability can help with rapid risk assessment of raptor populations.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717305116,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we reduce the impact of fishing,"How many times do you think you have eaten fish this year? Fish is delicious and its really good for you, but we need to make sure that we dont over-fish our seas and oceans (Fig. ). That way there are enough fish left to feed us for all the years to come. We propose three simple rules for fisheries management, which would reduce the impact of fishing on the major fish species. The rules would also help to rebalance the ecosystems and reduce the damage that fishing causes when boats scrape their nets over the seabed to catch fish. Figure : Large fishing nets allow for a ton catch of mackerel in one big sweep.","Minimizing the impact of fishing is an explicit goal in international agreements as well as in regional directives and national laws. To assist in practical implementation, three simple rules for fisheries management are proposed in this study: 1) take less than nature by ensuring that mortality caused by fishing is less than the natural rate of mortality; 2) maintain population sizes above half of natural abundance, at levels where populations are still likely to be able to fulfil their ecosystem functions as prey or predator; and 3) let fish grow and reproduce, by adjusting the size at first capture such that the mean length in the catch equals the length where the biomass of an unexploited cohort would be maximum (Lopt). For rule 3), the basic equations describing growth in age-structured populations are re-examined and a new optimum length for first capture (Lc_opt) is established. For a given rate of fishing mortality, Lc_opt keeps catch and profit near their theoretical optima while maintaining large population sizes. Application of the three rules would not only minimize the impact of fishing on commercial species, it may also achieve several goals of ecosystem-based fisheries management, such as rebuilding the biomass of prey and predator species in the system and reducing collateral impact of fishing, because with more fish in the water, shorter duration of gear deployment is needed for a given catch. The study also addresses typical criticisms of these common sense rules for fisheries management.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/faf.12146/abstract,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we track life in the ocean,"Have you ever tried to count all the different species in a pond? Its very hard, especially when you try to find all the tiny animals hiding among the weeds. Now, imagine if you wanted to count all the species in the sea! Scientists struggle to monitor life in the ocean because it is so vast and deep. Yet, we need to know exactly whats down there in order to protect it.We wanted to use the bits of DNA that organisms leave behind in their environment to work out which species were present. This is called environmental DNA (eDNA). We looked at interactions between different life forms in Monterey Bay, California. We also looked at how they responded to seasonal and environmental change. We found that different species were present throughout the year. Warmer waters changed what was there. We also found that certain species (such as humpback whales) can be especially useful for telling us about the environment. Environmental DNA proved to be an exciting new method for tracking and protecting life in the ocean!","Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis allows the simultaneous examination of organisms across multiple trophic levels and domains of life, providing critical information about the complex biotic interactions related to ecosystem change. Here we used multilocus amplicon sequencing of eDNA to survey biodiversity from an eighteen-month (20152016) time-series of seawater samples from Monterey Bay, California. The resulting dataset encompasses 663 taxonomic groups (at Family or higher taxonomic rank) ranging from microorganisms to mammals. We inferred changes in the composition of communities, revealing putative interactions among taxa and identifying correlations between these communities and environmental properties over time. Community network analysis provided evidence of expected predator-prey relationships, trophic linkages, and seasonal shifts across all domains of life. We conclude that eDNA-based analyses can provide detailed information about marine ecosystem dynamics and identify sensitive biological indicators that can suggest ecosystem changes and inform conservation strategies. Increasingly, eDNA is being used to infer ecological interactions. Here the authors sample eDNA over 18 months in a marine environment and use co-occurrence network analyses to infer potential interactions among organisms from microbes to mammals, testing how they change over time in response to oceanographic factors.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14105-1.pdf,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How do bees choose what to eat,"Hard working bees play a crucial role in our ecosystem, and fats. We tested three types of pollen to see if they help helping plants reproduce. They are also vital for us they bees grow. We then gave the bees a choice between the help produce a lot of our food! Bees have a special menu of three types of natural pollen and between modified pollen. their own: they eat pollen and drink nectar from flowers. We This allowed us to analyze the bees preferences and to wanted to know if honey bees can evaluate the quality of the conclude that honey bees either cant or dont evaluate the pollen to see if it has the right mixture of different proteins nutritional values of pollen.","Honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) consume a variety of pollens to meet the majority of their requirements for protein and lipids. Recent work indicates that honey bees prefer diets that reflect the proper ratio of nutrients necessary for optimal survival and homeostasis. This idea relies on the precept that honey bees evaluate the nutritional composition of the foods provided to them. While this has been shown in bumble bees, the data for honey bees are mixed. Further, there is controversy as to whether foragers can evaluate the nutritional value of pollens, especially if they do not consume it. Here, we focused on nurse workers, who eat most of the pollen coming into the hive. We tested the hypothesis that nurses prefer diets with higher nutritional value. We first determined the nutritional profile, number of plant taxa (richness), and degree of hypopharyngeal gland (HG) growth conferred by three honey bee collected pollens. We then presented nurses with these same three pollens in paired choice assays and measured consumption. To further test whether nutrition influenced preference, we also presented bees with natural pollens supplemented with protein or lipids and liquid diets with protein and lipid ratios equal to the natural pollens. Different pollens conferred different degrees of HG growth, but despite these differences, nurse bees did not always prefer the most nutritious pollens. Adding protein and/or lipids to less desirable pollens minimally increased pollen attractiveness, and nurses did not exhibit a strong preference for any of the three liquid diets. We conclude that different pollens provide different nutritional benefits, but that nurses either cannot or do not assess pollen nutritional value. This implies that the nurses may not be able to communicate information about pollen quality to the foragers, who regulate the pollens coming into the hive.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191050,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do corals spread in the deep sea,"Did you know that more people have been on the moon than We used clever genetic analysis to unlock information to the very bottom of the sea? Science is hard to do at such hidden in the corals DNA and found that this was true for depths, which is a problem for deep sea animals its hard to one species, but not for the other. We believe that ocean look after something if you dont know much about it! currents are also important in how corals disperse. This new information can help us to protect these important animals We wanted to know how seamounts (underwater mountains) (and others!) in the future. affect the populations of two species of deep sea coral. Can they act as stepping stones helping the corals to disperse (spread) throughout the sea? Hi, Im Diane (D. dianthus)!","Ecological processes in the deep sea are poorly understood due to the logistical constraints of sampling  thousands of metres below the oceans surface and remote from most land masses. Under such  circumstances, genetic data provides unparalleled insight into biological and ecological relationships.  We use microsatellite DNA to compare the population structure, reproductive mode and dispersal  capacity in two deep sea corals from seamounts in the Southern Ocean. The solitary coral Desmophyllum  dianthus has widespread dispersal consistent with its global distribution and resilience to disturbance.  In contrast, for the matrix-forming colonial coral Solenosmilia variabilis asexual reproduction is  important and the dispersal of sexually produced larvae is negligible, resulting in isolated populations.  Interestingly, despite the recognised impacts of fishing on seamount communities, genetic diversity  on fished and unfished seamounts was similar for both species, suggesting that evolutionary resilience  remains despite reductions in biomass. Our results provide empirical evidence that a group of  seamounts can function either as isolated islands or stepping stones for dispersal for different taxa.  Furthermore different strategies will be required to protect the two sympatric corals and consequently  the recently declared marine reserves in this region may function as a network for D. dianthus, but not  for S. variabilis.",https://www.nature.com/articles/srep46103,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do dams affect fish populations,"Hydroelectric dams look like barriers between bodies of water, where fish on one side of the dam live and breed without interacting with fish on the other side. We wanted to know how a Winnipeg River dam, the Slave Falls Generating Station (GS), had actually impacted a long-lived fish, the Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens). Do the sturgeon upstream and downstream of the dam live and interact differently since the dam was built? We caught fish and analyzed their size and genetics on both sides of the dam and compared our results to a computer simulation that modeled fish population genetics. We found that the Slave Falls GS is not that different than the waterfall that existed nearby in the recent past, in terms of preventing Lake Sturgeon from swimming upstream and mating with the fish that live in that area.","Many hydroelectric dams have been in place for 50 - >100 years, which for most fish species means that enough generations have passed for fragmentation induced divergence to have accumulated. However, for long-lived species such as Lake Sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, it should be possible to discriminate between historical population structuring and contemporary gene flow and improve the broader understanding of anthropogenic influence. On the Winnipeg River, Manitoba, two hypotheses were tested: 1) Measureable quantities of former reservoir dwelling Lake Sturgeon now reside downstream of the Slave Falls Generating Station, and 2) genetically differentiated populations of Lake Sturgeon occur upstream and downstream, a result of historical structuring. Genetic methods based on ten microsatellite markers were employed, and simulations were conducted to provide context. With regards to contemporary upstream to downstream contributions, the inclusion of length-at-age data proved informative. Both pairwise relatedness and Bayesian clustering analysis substantiated that fast-growing outliers, apparently entrained after residing in the upstream reservoir for several years, accounted for ~15% of the Lake Sturgeon 525750 mm fork length captured downstream. With regards to historical structuring, upstream and downstream populations were found to be differentiated (FST = 0.011, and 0.0130.014 when fast-growing outliers were excluded), and heterozygosity metrics were higher for downstream versus upstream juveniles. Historical asymmetric (downstream) gene flow in the vicinity of the generating station was the most logical explanation for the observed genetic structuring. In this section of the Winnipeg River, construction of a major dam does not appear to have fragmented a previously panmictic Lake Sturgeon population, but alterations to habitat may be influencing upstream to downstream contributions in unexpected ways.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174269,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do deep-sea hot spring ecosystems work,"We have all heard that living creatures need the sun to survive, either directly through photosynthesis or by consuming biomass produced by photosynthesis. But is this really true for all of them? Some organisms survive in the deep sea  where there is no sunlight  using energy from our planet instead of our sun in a process known as chemosynthesis. We wanted to know more about these microorganisms, especially the ones that live below the sea floor at deep-sea hot springs. So we examined fluids from a hot spring in the Pacific at in situ pressure and temperature and measured their productivity and rates of metabolism. Our study showed that sub-seafloor microorganisms were highly productive and fast-growing. Our estimates allow us to assess the importance of hot springs for global cycles of essential elements, such as carbon and nitrogen.","The existence of a chemosynthetic subseafloor biosphere was immediately recognized when deep-sea hot springs were discovered in 1977. However, quantifying how much new carbon is fixed in this environment has remained elusive. In this study, we incubated natural subseafloor communities under in situ pressure/temperature and measured their chemosynthetic growth efficiency and metabolic rates. Combining these data with fluid flux and in situ chemical measurements, we derived empirical constraints on chemosynthetic activity in the natural environment. Our study shows subseafloor microorganisms are highly productive (up to 1.4 Tg C produced yearly), fast-growing (turning over every 1741 hours), and physiologically diverse. These estimates place deep-sea hot springs in a quantitative framework and allow us to assess their importance for global biogeochemical cycles.",http://www.pnas.org/content/115/26/6756,Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How do dogs make trouble for wildlife in the Andes,"What do pets and wild animals have in common? Some pets  like dogs, for instance  can easily turn back into wild animals when abandoned or let loose. This is especially true for places where people lack resources or education to properly take care of their pets. Right now, we have over 1 billion feral (wild) dogs roaming our planet, often in packs. These dogs are probably impacting native wildlife. We wanted to know whether dogs were a problem for eight naturally occurring carnivores in the Andean mountains in Ecuador. We set up over 500 camera traps with motion sensors to document whether there are fewer carnivores in areas where dogs are present. We found that roaming dogs did indeed have a negative impact on four of the native carnivores we studied.","Although the Andes have long been occupied by people, habitat loss, fragmentation through deforestation, and other human activities such as introduction of invasive species have increased drastically during the past century. The Ecuadorian Andes are considered a biodiversity hotspot. However, the fauna and threats to the region are poorly studied, and understanding of factors that shape the distribution of species in habitats disturbed by human activities is needed to identify and mitigate region-wide threats to wildlife. We evaluated factors associated with patterns of occurrence of Andean carnivores in landscapes of the northern Ecuadorian Andes, particularly habitat loss, fragmentation, and occupancy of domestic dogs, and determined whether thresholds occurred for these factors beyond which carnivore occurrence declined markedly. Five study areas (each 20 x 20 km) were surveyed with a total effort of 2,800 camera trap nights. Occupancies of four of the eight carnivores known from the region were best predicted by occupancy of domestic dogs rather than measures of habitat loss and fragmentation [Andean fox (Pseudalopex culpaeus), puma (Puma concolor), striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus), and Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus)]. The two largest carnivores, puma and Andean bear, demonstrated significant threshold responses to the presence of domestic dogs at two sites. Four smaller carnivores were recorded too infrequently to model occupancy, and at least two of these species appear to be in decline. The magnitude of domestic dog impacts on native species in tropical areas like the Ecuadorian Andes currently are not recognized. Results of our study indicate that small and large carnivores are in urgent need of conservation and clearly point to dogs as a significant threat to a broad range of native species.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192346,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles,How do nutrients change flowering in prairies,"Farmers today apply more synthetic fertilizers to farm fields Do they all just grow better? Or could there be any negative than ever before but not all of these nutrients are used by side effects? To answer these questions, we systematically crops: some fertilizer escapes through the air, soil, or water. added nutrients to experimental patches of prairie. We Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium flow off farm fields found that these added nutrients (specifically nitrogen) when it rains, billow into the air when fields are plowed, and made early-season plants thrive while reducing the amount drift with the wind to other areas. Extra nutrients are also of late-season plants, but only in some prairie types. This released to the air when people burn fossil fuels. We wanted change could have serious implications for the way prairie to find out: what happens when these extra nutrients land ecosystems function. on wild prairie ecosystems? How do its wild plants respond?","The distribution of flowering across the growing season is governed by each species evolutionary history and climatic variability. However, global change factors, such as eutrophication and invasion, can alter plant community composition and thus change the distribution of flowering across the growing season. We examined three ecoregions (tall-, mixed, and short-grass prairie) across the U.S. Central Plains to determine how nutrient (nitrogen (N), phosphorus, and potassium (+micronutrient)) addition alters the temporal patterns of plant flowering traits. We calculated total community flowering potential (FP) by distributing peak-season plant cover values across the growing season, allocating each species cover to only those months in which it typically flowers. We also generated separate FP profiles for exotic and native species and functional group. We compared the ability of the added nutrients to shift the distribution of these FP profiles (total and sub-groups) across the growing season. In all ecoregions, N increased the relative cover of both exotic species and C3 graminoids that flower in May through August. The cover of C4 graminoids decreased with added N, but the response varied by ecoregion and month. However, these functional changes only aggregated to shift the entire communitys FP profile in the tall-grass prairie, where the relative cover of plants expected to flower in May and June increased and those that flower in September and October decreased with added N. The relatively low native cover in May and June may leave this ecoregion vulnerable to disturbance-induced invasion by exotic species that occupy this temporal niche. There was no change in the FP profile of the mixed and short-grass prairies with N addition as increased abundance of exotic species and C3 graminoids replaced other species that flower at the same time. In these communities a disturbance other than nutrient addition may be required to disrupt phenological patterns.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178440,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do oil spills impact fiddler crabs,"Crude oil which is used to make gasoline, fuel oils, asphalt, We analyzed data collected by five different studies over a and some plastic products can be toxic for many coastal and -year period in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon marine animals and plants when spilled in the environment. oil spill. We saw that the oil spill reduced the number of fiddler Thats why oil spills in the ocean can be a problem. We wanted crabs, likely killed many of them directly, and changed the to know what impact a large spill might have on fiddler crabs. species of fiddler crabs present in the marsh for years after the These small crabs play a big role in their coastal salt marsh spill. Changes in fiddler crab populations may have affected ecosystem, so if something harms them, other parts of the other parts of the ecosystem, including marsh plant growth, ecosystem could suffer. soils, and predators of fiddler crabs.","TheDeepwater Horizonoil spill was the largest marine oil spill in US waters to date and one of the largest worldwide. Impacts of this spill on salt marsh vegetation have been well documented, although impacts on marsh macroinvertebrates have received less attention. To examine impacts of the oil spill on an important marsh invertebrate and ecosystem engineer, we conducted a meta-analysis on fiddler crabs (Ucaspp.) using published sources and newly available Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) data. Fiddler crabs influence marsh ecosystem structure and function through their burrowing and feeding activities and are key prey for a number of marsh and estuarine predators. We tested the hypothesis that the spill affected fiddler crab burrow density (crab abundance), burrow diameter (crab size), and crab species composition. Averaged across multiple studies, sites, and years, our synthesis revealed a negative effect of oiling on all three metrics. Burrow densities were reduced by 39% in oiled sites, with impacts and incomplete recovery observed over 20102014. Burrow diameters were reduced from 2010 to 2011, but appeared to have recovered by 2012. Fiddler crab species composition was altered through at least 2013 and only returned to reference conditions where marsh vegetation recovered, via restoration planting in one case. Given the spatial and temporal extent of data analyzed, this synthesis provides compelling evidence that theDeepwater Horizonspill suppressed populations of fiddler crabs in oiled marshes, likely affecting other ecosystem attributes, including marsh productivity, marsh soil characteristics, and associated predators.",https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12237-016-0072-6,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How do our outdoor activities impact wildlife,"Do you love seeing wildlife when youre wandering around in are common, but capercaillie are on the brink of extinction in the woods? Like a majestic deer, or a beautiful bird? Well, the that area. love might not be very mutual. In fact, many animals avoid us, We found that both red deer and capercaillie avoided hiking even if we dont mean any harm. trails in our study areas. Interestingly, the extent of avoidance So, what impact do our outdoor activities have on wildlife? changed between the seasons, and, in the case of deer, even We set out to answer this question by radio tracking the between day and night! Effective natural area management whereabouts of red deer and capercaillie (also called wood plans that aim at protecting wildlife and reducing human animal grousea kind of bird) in the Black Forest in Germany. Deer conflict need to take these temporal differences into account.","The rapid spread and diversification of outdoor recreation can impact on wildlife in various ways, often leading to the avoidance of disturbed habitats. To mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, spatial zonation schemes can be implemented to separate human activities from key wildlife habitats, e.g., by designating undisturbed wildlife refuges or areas with some level of restriction to human recreation and land use. However, mitigation practice rarely considers temporal differences in human-wildlife interactions. We used GPS telemetry data from 15 red deer to study the seasonal (winter vs. summer) and diurnal (day vs. night) variation in recreation effects on habitat use in a study region in south-western Germany where a spatial zonation scheme has been established. Our study aimed to determine if recreation infrastructure and spatial zonation affected red deer habitat use and whether these effects varied daily or seasonally. Recreation infrastructure did not affect home range selection in the study area, but strongly determined habitat use within the home range. The spatial zonation scheme was reflected in both of these two levels of habitat selection, with refuges and core areas being more frequently used than the border zones. Habitat use differed significantly between day and night in both seasons. Both summer and winter recreation trails, and nearby foraging habitats, were avoided during day, whereas a positive association was found during night. We conclude that human recreation has an effect on red deer habitat use, and when designing mitigation measures daily and seasonal variation in human-wildlife interactions should be taken into account. We advocate using spatial zonation in conjunction with temporal restrictions (i.e., banning nocturnal recreation activities) and the creation of suitable foraging habitats away from recreation trails.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0175134#pone.0175134.ref011,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Pollution Articles,How do pesticides get into honey,"Honey is natures sweetest gift. But did you know that honey Since , the European Union banned neonicotinoids may contain pesticides? Farmers use pesticides to kill pests in flowering crops that bees visit. We wanted to know that harm their crops. But pesticides also hurt honey bees how effective this policy was. Does UK honey still contain and other beneficial insects. Furthermore, when bees collect neonicotinoids? Here, we collected and tested honey samples nectar from flowers which received pesticide treatments, from beekeepers across the UK. We found that about a fifth these chemicals make their way into the honey. In the of all honey contained neonicotinoids. These chemicals are past, scientists found neonicotinoids (a class of pesticides) not at dangerous levels for human health but may harm the in about half of the honey samples collected in the United bees in the long run. Kingdom.","Due to concerns over negative impacts on insect pollinators, the European Union has implemented a moratorium on the use of three neonicotinoid pesticide seed dressings for mass-flowering crops. We assessed the effectiveness of this policy in reducing the exposure risk to honeybees by collecting 130 samples of honey from bee keepers across the UK before (2014: N = 21) and after the moratorium was in effect (2015: N = 109). Neonicotinoids were present in about half of the honey samples taken before the moratorium, and they were present in over a fifth of honey samples following the moratorium. Clothianidin was the most frequently detected neonicotinoid. Neonicotinoid concentrations declined from May to September in the year following the ban. However, the majority of post-moratorium neonicotinoid residues were from honey harvested early in the year, coinciding with oilseed rape flowering. Neonicotinoid concentrations were correlated with the area of oilseed rape surrounding the hive location. These results suggest mass flowering crops may contain neonicotinoid residues where they have been grown on soils contaminated by previously seed treated crops. This may include winter seed treatments applied to cereals that are currently exempt from EU restrictions. Although concentrations of neonicotinoids were low (<2.0 ng g-1), and posed no risk to human health, they may represent a continued risk to honeybees through long-term chronic exposure.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189681,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,How do plants keep in touch,"If someone behind you tapped you on the shoulder, your first response would probably be to turn around. All living organisms respond to stimuli, and plants are no exception to this rule. Since they cannot turn around, though, how would they respond to light contact with neighboring plants? Are plants in touch with their neighbors? We searched for the answer to this question. We applied a light touch to potato plants and measured changes in their trichomes (plants hair), biomass distribution, and the volatile compounds they released. We also analyzed changes in plant structure, physiology, and interactions with insects. Our results showed that plants do respond to light touch by their neighboring plants. This affects their structure in a way that makes them shorter and stockier compared to the untouched plants. Curiously, insects do not find the smell of touched plants very attractive and prefer their untouched counterparts.","In natural habitats plants can be exposed to brief and light contact with neighbouring plants. This mechanical stimulus may represent a cue that induces responses to nearby plants. However, little is known about the effect of touching on plant growth and interaction with insect herbivores. To simulate contact between plants, a soft brush was used to apply light and brief mechanical stimuli to terminal leaves of potato Solanum tuberosum L. The number of non-glandular trichomes on the leaf surface was counted on images made by light microscope while glandular trichomes and pavement cells were counted on images made under scanning electronic microscope. Volatile compounds were identified and quantified using coupled gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS). Treated plants changed their pattern of biomass distribution; they had lower stem mass fraction and higher branch and leaf mass fraction than untouched plants. Size, weight and number of tubers were not significantly affected. Touching did not cause trichome damage nor change their total number on touched terminal leaves. However, on primary leaves the number of glandular trichomes and pavement cells was significantly increased. Touching altered the volatile emission of treated plants; they released higher quantities of the sesquiterpenes (E)--caryophyllene, germacrene D-4-ol and (E)-nerolidol, and lower quantities of the terpenes (E)-ocimene and linalool, indicating a systemic effect of the treatment. The odour of touched plants was significantly less preferred by the aphids Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Myzus persicae compared to odour of untouched plants. The results suggest that light contact may have a potential role in the detection of neighbouring plants and may affect plant-insect interactions.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165742,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How do seabirds share,"Imagine you and your friends are working together on a project for art class. But theres a problem. You only have one pencil for each color needed to complete it. Uh-oh! Each of you wants to start with yellow, so what do you do? Argue over the yellow pencil? Or divide the pencils so one person starts with yellow, while someone else uses green, and another person starts with red? You guessed right! Arguing is not as smart as finding a way to split up the pencils. Did you know seabirds know the importance of sharing too? They live in large groups with hundreds of birds and many types of seabirds. They also have limited resources  not pencils, but their food. We wanted to know how seabirds split up their limited resources to survive together!","Sympatric species must sufficiently differentiate aspects of their ecological niche to alleviate complete interspecific competition and stably coexist within the same area. Seabirds provide a unique opportunity to understand patterns of niche segregation among coexisting species because they form large multi-species colonies of breeding aggregations with seemingly overlapping diets and foraging areas. Recent biologging tools have revealed that colonial seabirds can differentiate components of their foraging strategies. Specifically, small, diving birds with high wing-loading may have small foraging radii compared with larger or non-diving birds. In the Gulf of St-Lawrence in Canada, we investigated whether and how niche differentiation occurs in four incubating seabird species breeding sympatrically using GPS-tracking and direct field observations of prey items carried by adults to chicks: the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), razorbill (Alca torda), common murre (Uria aalge), and black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla). Although there was overlap at foraging hotspots, all species differentiated in either diet (prey species, size and number) or foraging range. Whereas puffins and razorbills consumed multiple smaller prey items that were readily available closer to the colony, murres selected larger more diverse prey that were accessible due to their deeper diving capability. Kittiwakes compensated for their surface foraging by having a large foraging range, including foraging largely at a specific distant hotspot. These foraging habitat specialisations may alleviate high interspecific competition allowing for their coexistence, providing insight on multispecies colonial living.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81583-z,Elementary school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How do woodpeckers choose where to nest,"Many human activities disturb the natural habitats of various species. This is why it is very important for wildlife managers to determine and protect high-quality habitats, which are habitats the most reproductively successful individuals choose. When it comes to breeding birds, researchers usually identify habitat by comparing the characteristics of the vegetation where pairs choose to nest to the characteristics of the other available but neglected vegetation. We suspected that this method was not reliable for identifying high-quality habitat, because it doesnt account for the preferences of early breeders, who are usually a lot more experienced and reproductively successful birds. This is why we contrasted the choices of earlier breeding yellow-bellied sapsucker pairs to those of the later ones. We then compared this method to the one usually used. We found that measuring the preferences of early breeders led to a better ability to measure the quality of the habitat.","Despite the prevalent use of nest-site selection studies to define habitat quality for birds, many studies relying on use-availability analysis have found poor correlations between selected vegetation and reproductive success. Using 3 years of data from northeastern British Columbia (20072009), we determined timing of breeding from hatching dates and contrasted the nest-site selection of earlier (n = 22) with later-nesting pairs (n = 36) of yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius), because early breeders were expected to be more reproductively successful. We then compared these choices with those identified from use-availability analysis, and determined whether reproductive performance (fledgling production) was related to selected vegetation. None of the vegetation characteristics selected for nest sites from available vegetation predicted reproductive performance. Earlier-nesting pairs fledged more young on average than later breeders (4.41, SE = 0.18 versus 3.92, SE = 0.16), and chose less decayed aspen trees for nesting, that were surrounded on average by 3 times the number of food trees (paper birch, Betula papyrifera). Potential preference for birch trees was masked in the use-availability analysis, because the selection rate was dominated by the choices of the larger number of later-nesting pairs. Similarly, the majority (69%) of nest cavity entrances faced south, but earlier breeding pairs excavated northward-oriented cavities more frequently than did later breeding pairs, which strongly predicted their higher fledgling production. To our knowledge, our study is the first to compare the choices of early versus later breeders to test the efficacy of use-availability studies in defining habitat quality. We found that use-availability analysis was inadequate for determining vegetation characteristics related to reproductive performance. In contrast, measuring the distinct preferences of earlier breeders resulted in an improved ability to measure habitat quality and explain the spatial distribution of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a keystone species of the mixedwood boreal forest.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203683,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How does climate change affect the Great Lakes,"Scientists agree that some human activities, like burning the sediments. From these samples, we could see that the fossil fuels, cause the Earths atmosphere to trap more amount of algae in Lake Superior has slowly increased over heat, leading to climate change. We wanted to find out time. However, in the past hundred years, the amount of how climate change affected large freshwater lakes, so algae and plants in the Lake has increased dramatically. we took a series of sediment cores in Lake Superior (the We think this recent drastic change happened because biggest of the Great Lakes in North America) to study human-caused climate change led to warmer temperatures samples of the mud at the lake bottom. Back in the lab, we and longer ice-free periods in the lake. This made it easier analyzed tiny bits of dead plants and algae trapped within for algae and plants to grow in the water.","Anthropogenic climate change has the potential to alter many facets of Earths freshwater resources, especially lacustrine ecosystems. The effects of anthropogenic changes in Lake Superior, which is Earths largest freshwater lake by area, are not well documented (spatially or temporally) and predicted future states in response to climate change vary. Here we show that Lake Superior experienced a slow, steady increase in production throughout the Holocene using (paleo)productivity proxies in lacustrine sediments to reconstruct past changes in primary production. Furthermore, data from the last century indicate a rapid increase in primary production, which we attribute to increasing surface water temperatures and longer seasonal stratification related to longer ice-free periods in Lake Superior due to anthropogenic climate warming. These observations demonstrate that anthropogenic effects have become a prominent influence on one of Earths largest, most pristine lacustrine ecosystems.",https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15713,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How does climate change make fish late for dinner,"Imagine you are a young and hungry fish looking for food Now imagine someone turning up the heat (like we humans in an estuary (the part of a river where it meets the ocean). are doing by changing the climate). Could the rising water You need to grow big and strong before you migrate to the temperatures mess up the timing for you, the predator, and ocean, and depend on tiny floating creatures (plankton) your prey? To answer this question we looked at climate for food. However, the occurrence of these tiny creatures related changes in the synchronization of predator and prey in the estuary varies seasonally. Lucky for you, nature has in the biggest estuary in Western Europe. And indeed, we synchronized both your time in the estuary and that of your found signs of temporal mismatches in its aquatic food web. prey, and you survive. This synchronization depends on many We fear that the observed changes can put this important different factors, among them the temperature of the water. ecosystem and its role as a big fish nursery at risk.","Alterations of species phenology in response to climate change are now unquestionable. Until now, most studies have reported precocious occurrence of life cycle events as a major phenological response. Desynchronizations of biotic interactions, in particular predator-prey relationships, are however assumed to strongly impact ecosystems functioning, as formalized by the Match-Mismatch Hypothesis (MMH). Temporal synchronicity between juvenile fish and zooplankton in estuaries is therefore of essential interest since estuaries are major nursery grounds for many commercial fish species. The Gironde estuary (SW France) has suffered significant alterations over the last three decades, including two Abrupt Ecosystem Shifts (AES), and three contrasted intershift periods. The main objective of this study was to depict modifications in fish and zooplankton phenology among inter-shift periods and discuss the potential effects of the resulting mismatches at a community scale. A flexible Bayesian method was used to estimate and compare yearly patterns of species abundance in the estuary among the three pre-defined periods. Results highlighted (1) an earlier peak of zooplankton production and entrance of fish species in the estuary and (2) a decrease in residence time of both groups in the estuary. Such species-specific phenological changes led to changes in temporal overlap between juvenile fish and their zooplanktonic prey. This situation questions the efficiency and potentially the viability of nursery function of the Gironde estuary, with potential implications for coastal marine fisheries of the Bay of Biscay.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173752,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles,How does reducing air pollution help birds,"When you think of pollution, what image comes to mind? Litter? Oil spills? We think of these types of pollution first because they are visible. But the most dangerous form is one that we cannot see: air pollution. We know that chemicals and small particles in the air can harm human health, so governments create laws and programs to reduce air pollution. We wanted to know if these same programs also positively affect birds. After all, birds are such an important part of our world! We built a mathematical model using bird population and air pollution data to see which air pollutants (tropospheric ozone and/or fine particulate matter) harm birds. Then we looked at how a United States air pollution reduction program affected the bird populations. From this analysis, we found that air pollution programs not only benefit humans, but they also protect birds.","Massive wildlife losses over the past 50 y have brought new urgency to identifying both the drivers of population decline and potential solutions. We provide large-scale evidence that air pollution, specifically ozone, is associated with declines in bird abundance in the United States. We show that an air pollution regulation limiting ozone precursors emissions has delivered substantial benefits to bird conservation. Our estimates imply that air quality improvements over the past 4 decades have stemmed the decline in bird populations, averting the loss of 1.5 billion birds, ?20% of current totals. Our results highlight that in addition to protecting human health, air pollution regulations have previously unrecognized and unquantified conservation cobenefits.",https://www.pnas.org/content/117/49/30900,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Social-Science Articles,How does rock climbing impact birds,"Do you enjoy exploring the great outdoors? Hiking and different directions (north, east, west, and south). Half of the camping are great ways to connect with nature. Lately, cliffs are visited by lots of climbers and half by very few or another outdoor activity, rock climbing, has become very no climbers. We compared the number and species of birds popular. As a result, the number of people using cliffs on these different cliffs. We found that east-facing cliffs have has increased rapidly. Cliff ecosystems are home to many the greatest number and diversity of birds. Our results show living things, including birds. Since climbing is a fairly new that north-facing cliffs are the best option for new climbing activity, we dont know its impact on cliff ecosystems. Here, routes when it comes to protecting wildlife. Our solution may we studied how climbers affect birds that nest on cliffs in help the area to handle the growing number of climbers The Flatirons area in Colorado. We selected cliffs that face while protecting cliff ecosystems.","As the sport of outdoor rock climbing rapidly grows, there is increasing pressure to understand how it can affect communities of organisms in cliff habitats. To that end, we surveyed 32 cliff sites in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and assessed the relative roles of human recreation and natural habitat features as drivers of bird diversity and activity. We detected only native avian species during our observations. Whereas avian abundance was not affected by climbing, avian species diversity and community conservation value were higher at low-use climbing formations. Models indicated that climber presence and cliff aspect were important predictors of both avian diversity and avian cliff use within our study area, while long-term climbing use frequency has a smaller, but still negative association with conservation value and cliff use by birds in the area. In contrast, the diversity of species on the cliff itself was not affected by any of our measured factors. To assess additional community dynamics, we surveyed vegetation and arthropods at ten site pairs. Climbing negatively affected lichen communities, but did not significantly affect other vegetation metrics or arthropods. We found no correlations between avian diversity and diversity of either vegetation or arthropods. Avian cliff use rate was positively correlated with arthropod biomass. We conclude that while rock climbing is associated with lower community diversity at cliffs, some common cliff-dwelling birds, arthropods and plants appear to be tolerant of climbing activity. An abiotic factor, cliff aspect strongly affected patterns of both avian diversity and cliff use, suggesting that the negative effects of rock climbing may be mitigated by informed management of cliff habitat that considers multiple site features.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209557,Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How does sunscreen make corals sick,"Picture yourself diving into a tropical ocean. The sun is bright, and the water is clear and warm. What do you see? Colorful fish, playful dolphins, waving seaweed? Maybe you even see something that looks like a beautiful underwater garden  a coral reef! Coral reefs are important habitats for a huge diversity of animals. But sadly, warming oceans and pollution threaten most coral reefs. An example of this threat is actually sunscreen! Oxybenzone is a chemical found in many sunscreens that can harm corals and other animals. But scientists didnt know exactly how oxybenzone harmed corals. We set up an experiment to find out how corals and sea anemones (which are closely related to corals) reacted to oxybenzone in the water.","The reported toxicity of oxybenzone-based sunscreens to corals has raised concerns about the impacts of ecotourist-shed sunscreens on corals already weakened by global stressors. However, oxybenzones toxicity mechanism(s) are not understood, hampering development of safer sunscreens. We found that oxybenzone caused high mortality of a sea anemone under simulated sunlight including ultraviolet (UV) radiation (290 to 370 nanometers). Although oxybenzone itself protected against UV-induced photo-oxidation, both the anemone and a mushroom coral formed oxybenzoneglucoside conjugates that were strong photo-oxidants. Algal symbionts sequestered these conjugates, and mortality correlated with conjugate concentrations in animal cytoplasm. Higher mortality in anemones that lacked symbionts suggests an enhanced risk from oxybenzone to corals bleached by rising temperatures. Because many commercial sunscreens contain structurally related chemicals, understanding metabolite phototoxicity should facilitate the development of coral-safe products.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn2600,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,How does war affect gorillas,"The Grauers gorilla is one of two subspecies of the Eastern park rangers and found that the global population had gorilla. The whole population of Grauers gorilla lives in the decreased by % since . There are now only , forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) individuals left. in Central Africa. This makes this ape Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red In a civil war started in the DRC, which killed million List of Threatened Species and now makes both gorilla people. We wanted to find out what effect the civil war species (Eastern and Western) and all four subspecies had on the population of Grauers gorillas. We carried out Critically Endangered. This is the highest category of threat field surveys and used data from local communities and before extinction.","Grauers gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), the Worlds largest primate, is confined to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is threatened by civil war and insecurity. During the war, armed groups in mining camps relied on hunting bushmeat, including gorillas. Insecurity and the presence of several militia groups across Grauers gorillas range made it very difficult to assess their population size. Here we use a novel method that enables rigorous assessment of local community and ranger-collected data on gorilla occupancy to evaluate the impacts of civil war on Grauers gorilla, which prior to the war was estimated to number 16,900 individuals. We show that gorilla numbers in their stronghold of Kahuzi-Biega National Park have declined by 87%. Encounter rate data of gorilla nests at 10 sites across its range indicate declines of 82100% at six of these sites. Spatial occupancy analysis identifies three key areas as the most critical sites for the remaining populations of this ape and that the range of this taxon is around 19,700 km2. We estimate that only 3,800 Grauers gorillas remain in the wild, a 77% decline in one generation, justifying its elevation to Critically Endangered status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162697,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How much ocean should we protect,"If you closed your eyes, spun a globe, and then randomly human-made climate change. However, we do far too little to placed your finger on the map, where do you think you protect these gifts. We wanted to know how much ocean we would land? Did you know that your finger would be much must protect in order to safeguard its immense biodiversity more likely to end up in the ocean than on land? That is and all the many valuable ecosystem services it provides. because oceans cover more than twice as much of the We found out that current protected areas cover far too little Earths surface as land does. We humans need them: oceans of the ocean. We need to set up many more protected areas and their diverse inhabitants provide us with food, water, to ensure the oceans and our own long-term well-being and fresh air, income, and recreation, and they even slow down sustainability.","We provide updated estimates of the change of oceanheat content and the thermosteric component of sea levelchange of the 0700 and 02000 m layers of the WorldOcean for 19552010. Our estimates are based on historicaldata not previously available, additional modern data, andbathythermograph data corrected for instrumental biases.We have also used Argo data corrected by the Argo DAC ifavailable and used uncorrected Argo data if no correctionswere available at the time we downloaded the Argo data.The heat content of the World Ocean for the 02000 mlayer increased by 24.0
1.91022J(
2S.E.) correspondingtoarateof0.39Wm2(per unit area of the World Ocean) and avolume mean warming of 0.09C. This warming correspondstoarateof0.27Wm2per unit area of earthssurface.Theheat content of the World Ocean for the 0700 m layerincreased by 16.7
1.61022J corresponding to a rate of0.27 W m2(per unit area of the World Ocean) and a volumemean warming of 0.18C. The World Ocean accounts forapproximately 93% of the warming of the earth system that hasoccurred since 1955. The 7002000 m ocean layer accountedfor approximately one-third of the warming of the 02000 mlayer of the World Ocean. The thermosteric component of sealevel trend was 0.54
.05 mm yr1for the 02000 m layerand 0.41
.04 mm yr1for the 0700 m layer of the WorldOcean for 19552010",https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12247,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,How special do you have to be to live in acidic soil,"While you are reading this, special alliances are being containing AM fungi along an acidity gradient in Japan. We formed underground invisible to the human eye. But also exposed fungi from two soils of different pH (acidic/ they are crucial to plants, and help them conquer extreme neutral) to changes in their soils acidity levels in the lab, environments such as acidic soil. Were talking arbuscular and observed their response. mycorrhizal (AM) fungi who help plants improve their Surprisingly, we discovered that the fungi in the acidic soils nutrient uptake. also occurred in the less acidic and neutral soils, making But how can these fungi themselves tolerate acidic soil? them generalists! We believe that being generalists opens Are they acidic soil specialists, who can thrive despite up many opportunities for AM fungi (and for their associated the acidity? We tested this hypothesis by collecting soil plants) to colonize new or quickly changing habitats.","Soil acidity is a major constraint on plant productivity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi support plant colonization in acidic soil, but soil acidity also constrains fungal growth and diversity. Fungi in extreme environments generally evolve towards specialists, suggesting that AM fungi in acidic soil are acidic-soil specialists. In our previous surveys, however, some AM fungi detected in strongly acidic soils could also be detected in a soil with moderate pH, which raised a hypothesis that the fungi in acidic soils are pH generalists. To test the hypothesis, we conducted a pH-manipulation experiment and also analyzed AM fungal distribution along a pH gradient in the field using a synthesized dataset of the previous and recent surveys. Rhizosphere soils of the generalist plant Miscanthus sinensis were collected both from a neutral soil and an acidic soil, and M. sinensis seedlings were grown at three different pH. For the analysis of field communities, rhizosphere soils of M. sinensis were collected from six field sites across Japan, which covered a soil pH range of 3.07.4, and subjected to soil trap culture. AM fungal community compositions were determined based on LSU rDNA sequences. In the pH-manipulation experiment the acidification of medium had a significant impact on the compositions of the community from the neutral soil, but the neutralization of the medium had no effect on those of the community from the acidic soil. Furthermore, the communities in lower -pH soils were subsets of (nested in) those in higher-pH soils. In the field communities a significant nestedness pattern was observed along the pH gradient. These observations suggest that the fungi in strongly acidic soils are pH generalists that occur not only in acidic soil but also in wide ranges of soil pH. Nestedness in AM fungal community along pH gradients may have important implications for plant community resilience and early primary succession after disturbance in acidic soils.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165035,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,How will climate change affect Arctic birds,"Peregrine falcons are famous for their super-fast diving summer and winter habitats to the computer prediction. flights. But thats not the only thing that theyre good at. We found that summer habitats (where the birds breed) Peregrines are also world travelers! We tracked peregrine are shrinking, while winter habitats are growing. This is falcons migrating from the Arctic to their winter habitat. due to climate change. Some went all the way from northern Russia to the We tracked migration paths for peregrines from six places tropics! in the Eurasian Arctic. We found that some peregrines We wanted to know how climate change and genetics traveled more than five times as far as other peregrines! affect the way peregrines migrate. So we used a computer When we looked at the peregrines DNA, we saw that program to predict how the Arctic would change over there were differences between the peregrines who had the next years. We compared the peregrines current short migrations and those who had long migrations.","Millions of migratory birds occupy seasonally favourable breeding grounds in the Arctic1, but we know little about the formation, maintenance and future of the migration routes of Arctic birds and the genetic determinants of migratory distance. Here we established a continental-scale migration system that used satellite tracking to follow 56peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) from 6populations that breed in the Eurasian Arctic, and resequenced 35genomes from 4of these populations. The breeding populations used five migration routes across Eurasia, which were probably formed by longitudinal and latitudinal shifts in their breeding grounds during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene epoch. Contemporary environmental divergence between the routes appears to maintain their distinctiveness. We found that the geneADCY8is associated with population-level differences in migratory distance. We investigated the regulatory mechanism of this gene, and found that long-term memory was the most likely selective agent for divergence inADCY8among the peregrine populations. Global warming is predicted to influence migration strategies and diminish the breeding ranges of peregrine populations of the Eurasian Arctic. Harnessing ecological interactions and evolutionary processes to study climate-driven changes in migration can facilitate the conservation of migratory birds.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03265-0,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,How will dragonflies adapt to a warmer Earth,"The Earth is getting warmer, and we can already see dragonflies living in warm climates to dragonflies living in problems from it. Floods, storms, and deserts are all getting cooler climates. worse. People, animals, and plants all have to make changes We found that male dragonflies living in warmer climates if we want to survive. have smaller and lighter areas of dark color on their wings. Male dragonflies use dark coloring on their wings to attract This is because the darker coloring can make the dragonfly females. It also helps them scare off other males. We too hot. (Its hard to be active when youre in a hot place wanted to know if this dark coloring might change as the with warm clothes on, right?) Less or lighter coloring is more climate gets warmer. We created a database to compare helpful for the dragonflies in warmer climates.","Adaptation to different climates fuels the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. Detailing how organisms optimize fitness for their local climates is therefore an essential goal in biology. Although we increasingly understand how survival-related traits evolve as organisms adapt to climatic conditions, it is unclear whether organisms also optimize traits that coordinate mating between the sexes. Here, we show that dragonflies consistently adapt to warmer climates across space and time by evolving less male melanin ornamentationa mating-related trait that also absorbs solar radiation and heats individuals above ambient temperatures. Continent-wide macroevolutionary analyses reveal that species inhabiting warmer climates evolve less male ornamentation. Community-science observations across 10 species indicate that populations adapt to warmer parts of species ranges through microevolution of smaller male ornaments. Observations from 2005 to 2019 detail that contemporary selective pressures oppose male ornaments in warmer years; and our climate-warming projections predict further decreases by 2070. Conversely, our analyses show that female ornamentation responds idiosyncratically to temperature across space and time, indicating the sexes evolve in different ways to meet the demands of the local climate. Overall, these macro- and microevolutionary findings demonstrate that organisms predictably optimize their mating-related traits for the climate just as they do their survival-related traits.",https://www.pnas.org/content/118/28/e2101458118,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Is Antarctica losing its penguins,"Why is Antarctica called the frozen continent? Because it populations. We monitored a colony (large group) in is ICY! The majority of the land, including the South Pole the northernmost region of the continent. For years, is covered with ice. There are even sheets of ice on the we kept track of adults and juveniles (young penguins). ocean -sea ice. Antarctic animals rely on sea ice as habitat We recorded how successful they were at surviving and for finding food. But Antarctica is warming up lately, reproducing each year. Then, we created a mathematical sea ice is melting, and the ecosystem is changing. As a model that could help us predict the size of a colony in the result, many animals are suffering and their populations future. We found out that, as climate conditions worsen, are declining rapidly. Here, we studied effects of changing this colony and many other colonies of penguins in the climate conditions on Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) northern region may disappear within the next years.","Predicting population responses in changing environments is an important task for ecologists. In polar regions, climate warming, loss of sea ice, and more frequent anomalous events suggest that further reductions in ice-dependent animal populations are likely. We assess the risk of near-term (30-year) depletion of an Ad?lie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) population with a stochastic matrix model parameterized with 30 yr (19822011) of data from the Copacabana colony on King George Island, Antarctica. The model was fitted to nest census data by estimating correction factors for survival rates estimated from a multi-state markrecapture model. We modeled future survival and fecundity scenarios during the projection period (20122041) based on a two-state Markov chain that randomly assigned survival rates and reproductive success from their respective historical distributions to represent good and poor years. Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate population trajectories across a range of progressively worse survival conditions. The results suggest that, given historical distributions of survival and reproductive success, a limited scope for recovery of the population is present, commensurate with recent stabilization in population size at the study site. However, our projections mainly suggest that the Ad?lie penguin population will decline if the frequency of years with poor survival remains at, or increases above, its 30-year mean. The risk of local depletion within 30 yr, defined according to International Union for Conservation of Nature categories for endangered and critically endangered species, was 33% for >90% declines, but near 100% for 50% declines given status-quo conditions. As survival conditions worsen, the risk of substantive depletions rose rapidly. Given expectations of further environmental and ecosystem changes in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region, continued declines in Ad?lie penguin population size at the northern extent of their range should be expected.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.1666/full,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Is climate change shrinking our fish,"Imagine you are rushing home and need to breathe harder fish also need more oxygen in warmer waters. So with the and harder, but there is less oxygen in the air around you. higher demand and the lower supply of oxygen, the growth This is the situation most marine fish are facing with warmer of the fish gills (their breathing organs), cannot keep up. ocean temperatures due to climate change. They breathe This is causing ocean fish species to grow to smaller sizes! the same oxygen we do, except that they have to get it out We created a model that can predict by how much fish are of the water, which is a much harder task. Warmer water shrinking, and also developed a theory called GOLT that holds less oxygen than cold water. To make matters worse, explains what is going on.","One of the main expected responses of marine fishes to ocean warming is decrease in body size, as supported by evidence from empirical data and theoretical modeling. The theoretical underpinning for fish shrinking is that the oxygen supply to large fish size cannot be met by their gills, whose surface area cannot keep up with the oxygen demand by their three-dimensional bodies. However, Lefevre et al. (Global Change Biology, 2017, 23, 34493459) argue against such theory. Here, we re-assert, with the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT), that gills, which must retain the properties of open surfaces because their growth, even while hyperallometric, cannot keep up with the demand of growing three-dimensional bodies. Also, we show that a wide range of biological features of fish and other water-breathing organisms can be understood when gill area limitation is used as an explanation. We also note that an alternative to GOLT, offering a more parsimonious explanation for these features of water-breathers has not been proposed. Available empirical evidence corroborates predictions of decrease in body sizes under ocean warming based on GOLT, with the magnitude of the predicted change increases when using more species-specific parameter values of metabolic scaling.",https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1691,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Is the Amazon rainforest tougher than we thought,"If the Amazon Rainforest was a country, it would be the 9th biggest in the world. The rainforest has many important functions. It is home to a huge variety of different plants and animals. It also acts like a large carbon sink (a storage place for carbon) by sucking it up from the atmosphere and storing it in plants and soil. This slows down global climate change and is another reason why it is so important to preserve our rainforests. Researchers worry that large parts of the Amazon could change from forest to savanna if put under pressure from drought or deforestation. They are concerned that it would then be very hard for the forests to recover again. We carried out a data analysis to look at the factors that can cause a shift in state from forest to savanna (or the other way around) and to look at the effect of humans. To explain our observations, we made a mathematical model that takes into account natural tree growth and deforestation. Our evidence suggests that the Amazon rainforest is not as fragile as previously thought.","A bimodal distribution of tropical tree cover at intermediate precipitation levels has been presented as evidence of fire-induced bistability. Here we subdivide satellite vegetation data into those from human-unaffected areas and those from regions close to human-cultivated zones. Bimodality is found to be almost absent in the unaffected regions, whereas it is significantly enhanced close to cultivated zones. Assuming higher logging rates closer to cultivated zones and spatial diffusion of fire, our spatiotemporal mathematical model reproduces these patterns. Given a gradient of climatic and edaphic factors, rather than bistability there is a predictable spatial boundary, a Maxwell point, that separates regions where forest and savanna states are naturally selected. While bimodality can hence be explained by anthropogenic edge effects and natural spatial heterogeneity, a narrow range of bimodality remaining in the human-unaffected data indicates that there is still bistability, although on smaller scales than claimed previously.",https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15519,Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Water-Resources Articles,More river prawns less snail fever,"Scientists have long known that in the tropics, dams increase the number of people getting a vicious disease called snail fever. But it is less clear why this happens. We identified the key players in this mystery and put together different geographical, ecological and epidemiological maps to figure it out. It turns out that dams limit the migrations of river prawns, which are important predators of the snails that host the parasites that make people sick. With fewer prawns, there are more snails, and thus more parasites infecting more people. We estimate that almost 400 million people are affected by this ecological and technological chain reaction. Our results suggest that the restoration of river prawns can be an effective tool for decreasing snail fever worldwide.","Dams have long been associated with elevated burdens of human schistosomiasis, but how dams increase disease is not always clear, in part because dams have many ecological and socio-economic effects. A recent hypothesis argues that dams block reproduction of the migratory river prawns that eat the snail hosts of schistosomiasis. In the Senegal River Basin, there is evidence that prawn populations declined and schistosomiasis increased after completion of the Diama Dam. Restoring prawns to a water-access site upstream of the dam reduced snail density and reinfection rates in people. However, whether a similar cascade of effects (from dams to prawns to snails to human schistosomiasis) occurs elsewhere is unknown. Here, we examine large dams worldwide and identify where their catchments intersect with endemic schistosomiasis and the historical habitat ranges of large, migratory Macrobrachium spp. prawns. River prawn habitats are widespread, and we estimate that 277385 million people live within schistosomiasis-endemic regions where river prawns are or were present (out of the 800 million people who are at risk of schistosomiasis). Using a published repository of schistosomiasis studies in sub-Saharan Africa, we compared infection before and after the construction of 14 large dams for people living in: (i) upstream catchments within historical habitats of native prawns, (ii) comparable undammed watersheds, and (iii) dammed catchments beyond the historical reach of migratory prawns. Damming was followed by greater increases in schistosomiasis within prawn habitats than outside prawn habitats. We estimate that one third to one half of the global population-at-risk of schistosomiasis could benefit from restoration of native prawns. Because dams block prawn migrations, our results suggest that prawn extirpation contributes to the sharp increase of schistosomiasis after damming, and points to prawn restoration as an ecological solution for reducing human disease.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5413875/,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Not just ivory another threat for Asian elephants,"For centuries, people have hunted and killed both African and Asian elephants for their ivory. Despite many efforts to protect these animals, elephant populations worldwide are still declining. The rapidly increasing human population, on the other hand, has led to elephants habitat shrinking. This further endangers elephants, leading to more frequent encounters between them and humans, which only makes things worse. When trying to find a solution to this problem, we stumbled upon some disturbing findings: poachers in Myanmar have started to kill elephants for their skin and meat instead of just their ivory. This makes all elephants a target, including females and juveniles, not only the males who have tusks. Myanmar has the largest remaining natural areas suitable for sustaining elephant populations, so a rapid decline in their populations there would pose a great risk to their global populations.","In the southern Bago Yoma mountain range in Myanmar, Asian elephants are being killed at a disturbing rate. This emerging crisis was identified initially through a telemetry study when 7 of 19 of collared elephants were poached within a year of being fitted with a satellite-GPS collar. Subsequent follow up of ground teams confirmed the human caused death or disappearance of at least 19 elephants, including the seven collared individuals, within a 35 km2 area in less than two years. The carcasses of 40 additional elephants were found in areas located across south-central Myanmar once systematic surveys began by our team and collaborators. In addition to the extreme rate of loss, this study documents the targeting of elephants for their skin instead of the more common ivory, an increasing trend in Myanmar. Intensive research programs focused on other conservation problems identified this issue and are now encouraging local authorities to prioritize anti-poaching efforts and improve conservation policies within the country. Myanmar represents one of the last remaining countries in Asia with substantial wildlands suitable for elephants. Increasing rates of human-elephant conflict and poaching events in this country pose a dire threat to the global population.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194113,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,Palm oil is everywhere but where did it come from,"What do lipstick, frozen pizza, and laundry detergent have Here, farmers have cleared the forest (an activity called in common? Palm oil. This tropical vegetable oil that most deforestation) quite recently. Similarly, palm plantations in people have never heard of is in half the packaged goods South America are also from recent deforestation. Elsewhere sold in the supermarket. Almost certainly, people are going though, the forest was cleared decades ago, often for other to continue to use it. That makes it important to know when purposes before people even thought much about palm oil. and where forests were cut down to make the palm tree Our research shows that in the future, major palm plantations plantations (from which we get the palm oil), where future are likely to emerge in Africa and South America and continue plantations might be, and how they endanger plant and to spread through Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea. animal species. Palm plantations in any of these regions though would put The largest areas of palm plantations are in Southeast Asia. at risk many plant and animal species.","Palm oil is the most widely traded vegetable oil globally, with demand projected to increase substantially in the future. Almost all oil palm grows in areas that were once tropical moist forests, some of them quite recently. The conversion to date, and future expansion, threatens biodiversity and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Today, consumer pressure is pushing companies toward deforestation-free sources of palm oil. To guide interventions aimed at reducing tropical deforestation due to oil palm, we analysed recent expansions and modelled likely future ones. We assessed sample areas to find where oil palm plantations have recently replaced forests in 20 countries, using a combination of high-resolution imagery from Google Earth and Landsat. We then compared these trends to countrywide trends in FAO data for oil palm planted area. Finally, we assessed which forests have high agricultural suitability for future oil palm development, which we refer to as vulnerable forests, and identified critical areas for biodiversity that oil palm expansion threatens. Our analysis reveals regional trends in deforestation associated with oil palm agriculture. In Southeast Asia, 45% of sampled oil palm plantations came from areas that were forests in 1989. For South America, the percentage was 31%. By contrast, in Mesoamerica and Africa, we observed only 2% and 7% of oil palm plantations coming from areas that were forest in 1989. The largest areas of vulnerable forest are in Africa and South America. Vulnerable forests in all four regions of production contain globally high concentrations of mammal and bird species at risk of extinction. However, priority areas for biodiversity conservation differ based on taxa and criteria used. Government regulation and voluntary market interventions can help incentivize the expansion of oil palm plantations in ways that protect biodiversity-rich ecosystems.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159668,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Should we let the ocean in or not,"Global sea levels are rising  there is no doubt about it. But what comes next? Some land near the coast is very likely to be flooded. Should we let it? Or should we try to build dams to keep the water out? We tried to answer this question by studying what happens when you flood uninhabited coastal land. Would it just turn into some sort of underwater wasteland, or into a functioning aquatic habitat that both animals and people can use? To find out, we followed the creation of the Gyldensteen Coastal Lagoon, an area in Denmark set aside to become a natural reserve, for two years. We conducted lab experiments and field observations to see how some marine bristle worms respond to flooding. We found that they did well, they changed the chemistry of their environment, and the newly flooded land developed into something resembling a functioning new marine ecosystem.","How will coastal soils in areas newly flooded with seawater function as habitat for benthic marine organisms? This research question is highly relevant as global sea level rise and coastal realignment will cause flooding of soils and form new marine habitats. In this study, we tested experimentally the capacity of common marine polychaetes, Marenzelleria viridis, Nereis (Hediste) diversicolor and Scoloplos armiger to colonize and modify the biogeochemistry of the newly established Gyldensteen Coastal Lagoon, Denmark. All tested polychaetes survived relatively well (2889%) and stimulated carbon dioxide release (TCO2) by 97105% when transferred to newly flooded soils, suggesting that soil characteristics are modified rapidly by colonizing fauna. A field survey showed that the pioneering benthic community inside the lagoon was structurally different from the marine area outside the lagoon, and M. viridis and S. armiger were not among the early colonizers. These were instead N. diversicolor and Polydora cornuta with an abundance of 1603 and 540 ind m-2, respectively. Considering the species-specific effects of N. diversicolor on TCO2 release and its average abundance in the lagoon, we estimate that organic carbon degradation was increased by 219% in the first year of flooding. We therefore conclude that early colonizing polychaetes modify the soils and may play an important role in the ecological and successional developments, e.g. C cycling and biodiversity, in newly flooded coastal ecosystems. Newly flooded soils have thus a strong potential to develop into well-functioning marine ecosystems.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196097,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Soil bacteria help or hindrance for moving plants,"Some plant species tend to spread easily across continents we studied the spread of legumes, a family of plants that and to islands, either because people bring them deliberately includes peas and beans (Fig. ), as well as the mutualistic or because the plants seeds hitchhike, attached to human bacteria that live amongst some of their roots. Although these travelers and their stuff. We wanted to find out why some bacteria help some legumes grow in their native ranges, plant species spread more easily than others. Once a plant is we found that the species of legumes that form mutualistic introduced (on purpose or accidentally) to a new area, what relationships with soil bacteria are less likely to colonize new allows it to establish and spread? To answer these questions, areas than species of legumes without mutualistic bacteria.","Microbial symbiosis is integral to plant growth and reproduction, but its contribution to global patterns of plant distribution is unknown. Legumes (Fabaceae) are a diverse and widely distributed plant family largely dependent on symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, which are acquired from soil after germination. This dependency is predicted to limit establishment in new geographic areas, owing to a disruption of compatible host-symbiont associations. Here we compare non-native establishment patterns of symbiotic and non-symbiotic legumes across over 3,500 species, covering multiple independent gains and losses of rhizobial symbiosis. We find that symbiotic legume species have spread to fewer non-native regions compared to non-symbiotic legumes, providing strong support for the hypothesis that lack of suitable symbionts or environmental conditions required for effective nitrogen-fixation are driving these global introduction patterns. These results highlight the importance of mutualisms in predicting non-native species establishment and the potential impacts of microbial biogeography on global plant distributions.",https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14790,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,What are the most dangerous places for sharks,"Many people are scared of sharks, but they are actually a very important part of the oceans ecosystem. Did you know that falling coconuts are actually more deadly to humans than sharks? Each year, tens of millions of sharks are caught by fishing vessels (ships). So actually, they should be afraid of us. And instead of fearing them, we should protect them  from ourselves!We wanted to find out where sharks are most at risk from fishing across all of the worlds oceans. We used tracking data from both sharks and fishing vessels to create maps of where sharks like to hang out and where ships go fishing. When they overlap, sharks are at risk of being caught! We found the areas that are most dangerous for sharks to swim. These areas are unique to different species and different oceans. We can use our findings to tell people who manage the seas how to best protect sharks and the other marine life that rely on them.","Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space-use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had the highest overlap with longlines (up to 76% and 64%, respectively), and were also associated with significant increases in fishing effort. We conclude that pelagic sharks have limited spatial refuge from current levels of fishing effort in marine areas beyond national jurisdictions (the high seas). Our results demonstrate an urgent need for conservation and management measures at high-seas hotspots of shark space use, and highlight the potential of simultaneous satellite surveillance of megafauna and fishers as a tool for near-real-time, dynamic management.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1444-4,Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,What can bat migration patterns tell us about Ebola epidemics,"What does the migration of bats have to do with Ebola fault on their own, can pass it on to humans. Here we develop a epidemics? More than you (and even a lot of Ebola researchers) mathematical model to predict how the seasonal flight patterns might think. In general, bats are very beneficial for us humans. (migrations) of bats, their food sources, as well as the way they They pollinate important food plants and also eat tons of react to Ebola infections might help spread the Ebola virus. We insects that can either hurt us (like mosquitoes) or eat our show that these and other factors, like seasonal changes and crops (like caterpillars). However, like all animals, they have the way humans change bats habitats by cutting down forests, diseases and parasites, and sometimes these affect us. For need to be considered when trying to understand diseases like example, some species of bats carry Ebola and, through little Ebola.","Understanding Ebola necessarily requires the characterization of the ecology of its main enzootic reservoir, i.e. bats, and its interplay with seasonal and enviroclimatic factors. Here we present a SIR compartmental model where we implement a bidirectional coupling between the available resources and the dynamics of the bat population in order to understand their migration patterns. Our compartmental modeling approach and simulations include transport terms to account for bats mobility and spatiotemporal climate variability. We hypothesize that environmental pressure is the main driving force for bats migration and our results reveal the appearance of sustained migratory waves of Ebola virus infected bats coupled to resources availability. Ultimately, our study can be relevant to predict hot spots of Ebola outbreaks in space and time and suggest conservation policies to mitigate the risk of spillovers.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0179559,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,What can sea lettuce tell us about coastal pollution,"Did anyone ever say you looked green when you were pollution from human activities such as agriculture, farms, sick? This can happen to oceans, too! In fact, people factories or towns enters coastal waters. sometimes observe the coastal waters of Ireland (and in We wanted to find out if one particular seaweed, the many other parts of the world) turning green. So green commonly found sea lettuce (Ulva rigida), could serve as that they call it a green tide. What is going on? a living (bio-)indicator of water quality at the coast. (It The green color comes from certain seaweed that grow can.) We also looked for a clear connection between the so much that they can change the color on the beaches. amounts of these seaweed and certain harmful metals in These seaweed blooms occur after nitrogen or phosphate the water (but did not find a significant one).","Enrichment of nutrients and metals in seawater associated with anthropogenic activities can threaten aquatic ecosystems. Consequently, nutrient and metal concentrations are parameters used to define water quality. The European Unions Water Framework Directive (WFD) goes further than a contaminant-based approach and utilises indices to assess the Ecological Status (ES) of transitional water bodies (e.g. estuaries and lagoons). One assessment is based upon the abundance of opportunistic Ulva species, as an indication of eutrophication. The objective of this study was to characterise Irelands Ulva blooms through the use of WFD assessment, metal concentrations and taxonomic identity. Furthermore, the study assessed whether the ecological assessment is related to the metal composition in the Ulva. WFD algal bloom assessment revealed that the largest surveyed blooms had an estimated biomass of 2164 metric tonnes (w/w). DNA sequences identified biomass from all locations as Ulva rigida, with the exception of New Quay, which was Ulva rotundata. Some blooms contained significant amounts of As, Cu, Cr, Pb and Sn. The results showed that all metal concentrations had a negative relationship (except Se) with the Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR). However, only in the case of Mn were these differences significant (p = 0.038). Overall, the metal composition and concentrations found in Ulva were site dependent, and not clearly related to the ES. Nevertheless, sites with a moderate or poor ES had a higher variability in the metals levels than in estuaries with a high ES.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169049,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Pollution Articles,What do baby fish make of oil spills,"Since people started drilling for oil there have been We studied the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill accidental oil spills at sea that are harmful to marine life. For (DWHOS) and found that the number of Red Snapper larvae instance, birds and other animals get covered in the thick did not change before, during, and after the spill but the oil and many die as a result. Although some of the negative health of larvae was poorer after the accident. Although impacts of oil spills are immediately noticeable, the long- we cannot conclude that the oil spill caused this decrease term effects on animals like fish are less certain. Therefore, in health, we think that some combination of factors that we wanted to determine what effect a major oil spill can coincided with the event negatively impacted larval Red have on the number and health of recently hatched fish Snapper. (larva is singular, larvae is plural) in a marine environment.","The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWHOS) spatially and temporally overlapped with the spawning of many fish species, including Red Snapper, one of the most economically important reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico. To investigate potential impacts of the DWHOS on larval Red Snapper, data from a long-term ichthyoplankton survey off the coast of Alabama were used to examine: (1) larval abundances among pre-impact (20072009), impact (2010), and post-impact (2011, 2013) periods; (2) proxies for larval condition (size-adjusted morphometric relationships and dry weight) among the same periods; and (3) the effects of background environmental variation on larval condition. We found that larval Red Snapper were in poorer body condition during 2010, 2011, and 2013 as compared to the 20072009 period, a trend that was strongly (and negatively) related to variation in Mobile Bay freshwater discharge. However, larvae collected during and after 2010 were in relatively poor condition even after accounting for variation in freshwater discharge and other environmental variables. By contrast, no differences in larval abundance were detected during these survey years. Taken together, larval supply did not change relative to the timing of the DWHOS, but larval condition was negatively impacted. Even small changes in condition can affect larval survival, so these trends may have consequences for recruitment of larvae to juvenile and adult life stages.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094019,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,What happens to sea lampreys if catfish move in,"Sea lampreys travel through many of the rivers in Europe one that would let us track their movements in the Garonne and North America as they migrate between the places and Dordogne Rivers in France and one that would tell us if where they lay eggs and the ocean. Now they face a new they were eaten by another fish. We found that many sea threat: the enormous European catfish people have brought lampreys are eaten by European catfish, and these new fish to the rivers where sea lampreys have always traveled. So pose a serious threat to the survival of sea lampreys in their what happens when sea lampreys meet these catfish? To native habitat. answer this question, we attached sensors to sea lampreys:","Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a unique jawless vertebrate among the most primitive of all living vertebrates. This migratory fish is endangered in much of its native area due to dams, overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss. An introduced predator, the European catfish (Silurus glanis), is now widespread in Western and Southern European freshwaters, adding a new threat for sea lamprey migrating into freshwater to spawn. Here, we use a new prototype predation tag coupled with RFID telemetry on 49 individuals from one of the largest sea lamprey European populations (Southwestern France) to quantify the risk of predation for adult sea lampreys during its spawning migration in rivers with large populations of European catfish. We found that at least 80% of tagged sea lampreys (39 among 49) were preyed upon within one month, and that 50% of the released lampreys were rapidly consumed on average 8 days after tagging. This very high predation rate suggests that the European catfish represents a supplementary serious threat of extirpation for the native sea lamprey population we studied. This threat is likely to happen throughout most of the native lamprey distribution area, as the European catfish is becoming established almost everywhere the sea lamprey is.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62916-w,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,What if a salmon meets a catfish,"Do you like to eat salmon? If so, youre not alone. European catfish, a large freshwater fish introduced into Europe for sport fishing, has also developed a taste for it. We wanted to know what happens when salmon and catfish meet in rivers that humans have changed (for instance: by building a power plant). We picked a big river with a power plant, the Garonne in South-West France, to address this question. With the help of video and acoustic cameras in a special waterway for fish around the power plant, as well as radio-transmitters attached to individual fish, we can confidently say that catfish prey on salmon in these altered parts of the river. In fact, they seem to even shift the time theyre active (from night time to more daylight hours) to increase their chances of catching salmon. And while salmon populations are declining in Europe, catfish seem to be doing better and better.","The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is one of the worlds most emblematic freshwater fish. Despite conservation and rehabilitation plans, populations of this species are dramatically declining due to human impacts such as habitat fragmentation, overfishing and water pollution. Owing to their large body size, anadromous adults were historically invulnerable to fish predation during their spawning period migration. This invulnerability has disappeared in Western Europe with the introduction of a new freshwater predator, the European catfish (Silurus glanis). Here we report how adults of Atlantic salmon are predated in the fishway of a large river of SW France, where the delayed and narrow passage created by the structure increases the probability of predator-prey encounter. We assessed predation risk by monitoring salmon and catfish in one fishway of the River Garonne, using video fish-counting from 1993 to 2016. We analysed the predation strategy of catfish using observations made with acoustic camera and RFID telemetry in 2016. Our results demonstrate a high predation rate (35%14/39 ind.) on salmon inside the fishway during the 2016 spawning period migration. Our results suggest that a few specialized catfish individuals adapted their hunting behaviour to such prey, including their presence synchronized with that of salmon (i.e, more occurrences by the end of the day). Such results suggest that the spread of European catfish will potentially impact migration of anadromous species through anthropized systems.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196046,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,What kinds of landscapes keep bees healthy,"Imagine a world without apples, watermelons, and sunflowers It doesnt sound very good, does it? Unfortunately, it could actually happen. Bees help these (and many other) plants grow, but they have been dying. One reason for this is that bees are suffering from more diseases. But where do these bee diseases come from? Does it have to do with our changing landscapes?To find out, we collected 890 bumble bees and screened them for three pathogens. We also looked at the types and qualities of the landscapes where we found these bees. Then we created a mathematical model to help us work out how different landscapes affect bees. We found out that landscapes with lots of food (flowers) for bees and more nesting sites led to healthier bees. Our results highlight the need to protect natural landscapes to conserve wild bees.","The pollination services provided by bees are essential for supporting natural and agricultural ecosystems. However, bee population declines have been documented across the world. Many of the factors known to undermine bee health (e.g., poor nutrition) can decrease immunocompetence and, thereby, increase bees susceptibility to diseases. Given the myriad of stressors that can exacerbate disease in wild bee populations, assessments of the relative impact of landscape habitat conditions on bee pathogen prevalence are needed to effectively conserve pollinator populations. Herein, we assess how landscape-level conditions, including various metrics of floral/nesting resources, insecticides, weather, and honey bee (Apis mellifera) abundance, drive variation in wild bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) pathogen loads. Specifically, we screened 890 bumble bee workers from varied habitats in Pennsylvania, USA for three pathogens (deformed wing virus, black queen cell virus, andVairimorpha(=Nosema)bombi),Defensinexpression, and body size. Bumble bees collected within low-quality landscapes exhibited the highest pathogen loads, with spring floral resources and nesting habitat availability serving as the main drivers. We also found higher loads of pathogens where honey bee apiaries are more abundant, a positive relationship betweenVairimorphaloads and rainfall, and differences in pathogens by geographic region. Collectively, our results highlight the need to support high-quality landscapes (i.e., those with abundant floral/nesting resources) to maintain healthy wild bee populations.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78119-2,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,What makes some species successful invaders,"Alien invaders are among us. Its true! Every day, foreign plants and animals are turning up in new places. Some of these non-native species do extremely well and out-compete native species. They can cause environmental and economic harm. If they do so, we call them invasive species. Fortunately, not all non-native species are invasive. But what makes some species successful invaders and some not? Could beneficial partners be helping out? To find the answer, we studied some invasive legumes (plants in the bean and pea family) and their rhizobial partners. Rhizobia are beneficial bacteria located in legumes roots. We found that invasive species can work with a broad variety of rhizobia under greenhouse conditions. However, native and invasive legumes in the wild hosted different types of rhizobia. To our surprise, invasive species had rhizobia similar to the ones in their native land. The question now becomes  where did they get these familiar rhizobia? Could it be a co-invasion?","Abstract Mutualistic interactions can strongly influence species invasions, as the inability to form successful mutualisms in an exotic range could hamper a host's invasion success. This barrier to invasion may be overcome if an invader either forms novel mutualistic associations or finds and associates with familiar mutualists in the exotic range. Here, we ask (1) does the community of rhizobial mutualists associated with invasive legumes in their exotic range overlap with that of local native legumes and (2) can any differences be explained by fundamental incompatibilities with particular rhizobial genotypes? To address these questions, we first characterized the rhizobial communities naturally associating with three invasive and six native legumes growing in the San Francisco Bay Area. We then conducted a greenhouse experiment to test whether the invasive legume could nodulate with any of a broad array of rhizobia found in their exotic range. There was little overlap between the Bradyrhizobium communities associated with wild?grown invasive and native legumes, yet the invasive legumes could nodulate with a broad range of rhizobial strains under greenhouse conditions. These observations suggest that under field conditions in their exotic range, these invasive legumes are not currently associating with the mutualists of local native legumes, despite their potential to form such associations. However, the promiscuity with which these invading legumes can form mutualistic associations could be an important factor early in the invasion process if mutualist scarcity limits range expansion. Overall, the observation that invasive legumes have a community of rhizobia distinct from that of native legumes, despite their ability to associate with many rhizobial strains, challenges existing assumptions about how invading species obtain their mutualists. These results can therefore inform current and future efforts to prevent and remove invasive species.",https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3310,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,What makes tree pests more successful,"Have you ever noticed tiny bumps on the branches of a tree? environment. For this reason, we investigated the combined These may have been scale insects. These small insects feed effects of urban warming and drought on trees and their on tree sap. Scale insects on urban trees are notably more insect pests. We measured drought stress in trees, counted abundant than those on rural trees. As a result, urban trees the number of insects on each tree, the embryos developing suffer from heavy infestations, and are often unhealthy or inside female insects, and measured their body sizes. die. To protect and restore urban tree health, we needed The warmer, more drought-stressed trees harboured more to determine the factors that make these tree pests more successful pests than cooler, less drought-stressed trees. Our successful in urban habitats. data suggest that as cities and natural habitats become hotter Living organisms interact closely with each other and their and drier, damaging scale insects will become more abundant.","Urban habitats are characterized by impervious surfaces, which increase temperatures and reduce water availability to plants. The effects of these conditions on herbivorous insects are not well understood, but may provide insight into future conditions. Three primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain why multiple herbivorous arthropods are more abundant and damaging in cities, and support has been found for each. First, less complex vegetation may reduce biological control of pests. Second, plant stress can increase plant quality for pests. And third, urban warming can directly increase pest fitness and abundance. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and the effects of temperature and plant stress are particularly related. Thus, we test the hypothesis that urban warming and drought stress combine to increase the fitness and abundance of the scale insect, Melanaspis tenebricosa, an urban tree pest that is more abundant in urban than rural areas of the southeastern U.S. We did this by manipulating drought stress across an existing mosaic of urban warming. We found support for the additive effect of temperature and drought stress such that female embryo production and body size increased with temperature and was greater on drought-stressed than watered trees. This study provides further evidence that drivers of pest insect outbreaks act in concert, rather than independently, and calls for more research that manipulates multiple abiotic factors related to urbanization and climate change to predict their effects on ecological interactions. As cities expand and the climate changes, warmer temperatures and drought conditions may become more widespread in the native range of this pest. These changes have direct physiological benefits for M. tenebricosa, and potentially other pests, that may increase their fitness and abundance in urban and natural forests.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173844,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Whats harming our oceans,"Earth looks like a beautiful blue marble from space. What these benefits, we need to look after ocean habitats. In this makes it so blue? The ocean! Ocean covers % of our study, we used a mathematical model to understand human planet. More than a third of the worlds population lives threats to the Atlantic coast of the United States. We looked close to the ocean. But the ocean impacts all of us! Marine at different causes of risk and their combined effects on and coastal habitats provide us with many things such as habitats. We found that rising sea surface temperatures and food, transport, protection from floods, and the chance commercial fishing are the major threats. Also, the habitats for some fun activities. Yet, these human uses can harm on the coastline and a narrow offshore (out at sea) region ocean habitats and put them at risk. To continue receiving are at greatest risk. We suggest ways to reduce these risks.","Coastal habitats provide important benefits to people, including habitat for species targeted by fisheries and opportunities for tourism and recreation. Yet, such human activities also can imperil these habitats and undermine the ecosystem services they provide to people. Cumulative risk assessment provides an analytical framework for synthesizing the influence of multiple stressors across habitats and decision-support for balancing human uses and ecosystem health. To explore cumulative risk to habitats in the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Ocean Planning regions, we apply the open-source InVEST Habitat Risk Assessment model to 13 habitats and 31 stressors in an exposure-consequence framework. In doing so, we advance the science priorities of EBM and both regional planning bodies by synthesizing the wealth of available data to improve our understanding of human uses and how they affect marine resources. We find that risk to ecosystems is greatest first, along the coast, where a large number of stressors occur in close proximity and secondly, along the continental shelf, where fewer, higher consequence activities occur. Habitats at greatest risk include soft and hard-bottom nearshore areas, tidal flats, soft-bottom shelf habitat, and rocky intertidal zoneswith the degree of risk varying spatially. Across all habitats, our results indicate that rising sea surface temperatures, commercial fishing, and shipping consistently and disproportionally contribute to risk. Further, our findings suggest that management in the nearshore will require simultaneously addressing the temporal and spatial overlap as well as intensity of multiple human activities and that management in the offshore requires more targeted efforts to reduce exposure from specific threats. We offer a transparent, generalizable approach to evaluating cumulative risk to multiple habitats and illustrate the spatially heterogeneous nature of impacts along the eastern Atlantic coast and the importance of spatial scale in estimating such impacts. These results offer a valuable decision-support tool by helping to constrain the decision space, focus attention on habitats and locations at the greatest risk, and highlight effect management strategies.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188776,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles; Paleoscience Articles,Where did flying reptiles come from,"Have you heard of flying dinosaurs named pterodactyls [terr- But here the mystery deepens. For a long time it seemed like oh-dak-tlz]? Well, you may be surprised to hear that they there was a huge evolutionary gap between pterosaurs and are not technically dinosaurs. Pterodactyls, part of the group most other animals. How did they come about? By looking pterosaurs [terr-oh-sorz], were reptiles. They were related at fossils, we found out that lagerpetids [la-jer-pe-tids] (a to dinosaurs, which are also reptiles, but do not belong to small group of non-flying reptiles) are close relatives of that group. pterosaurs. Finding out about lagerpetids told us a bit about Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates that were able to how pterosaurs started to fly. fly by flapping their wings. This makes them all the more interesting. Have you ever thought about how it is possible that some animals started to fly? How did they get their wings? The general answer is: evolution.","Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight1and comprised one of the main evolutionary radiations in terrestrial ecosystems of the Mesozoic era (approximately 25266million years ago), but their origin has remained an unresolved enigma in palaeontology since the nineteenth century2,3,4. These flying reptiles have been hypothesized to be the close relatives of a wide variety of reptilian clades, including dinosaur relatives2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and there is still a major morphological gap between those forms and the oldest, unambiguous pterosaurs from the Upper Triassic series. Here, using recent discoveries of well-preserved cranial remains, microcomputed tomography scans of fragile skull bones (jaws, skull roofs and braincases) and reliably associated postcrania, we demonstrate that lagerpetidsa group of cursorial, non-volant dinosaur precursorsare the sister group of pterosaurs, sharing numerous synapomorphies across the entire skeleton. This finding substantially shortens the temporal and morphological gap between the oldest pterosaurs and their closest relatives and simultaneously strengthens the evidence that pterosaurs belong to the avian line of archosaurs. Neuroanatomical features related to the enhanced sensory abilities of pterosaurs9are already present in lagerpetids, which indicates that these features evolved before flight. Our evidence illuminates the first steps of the assembly of the pterosaur body plan, whose conquest of aerial space represents a remarkable morphofunctional innovation in vertebrate evolution.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3011-4,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Where does Australias wildlife hide,"hide away in wild natural parks. But it turns out that many of them might be much closer than we expect right under our noses in the cities where we live. We began this scientific People often think that endangered plants and animals are research to find out exactly how many threatened species live tucked away in a protected park somewhere in the wilderness. in our cities. Yet, we know that many species, threatened with extinction, live much closer to us in our own neighborhoods. We began our research to find out exactly how much threatened wildlife lives in Australian cities. We overlapped maps of species habitats with maps of urban areas and discovered that half of the threatened animals and a quarter of the threatened plants live in cities! If we care about giving them a chance to survive, we need to learn to share our space with them.","Although urbanization impacts many species, there is little information on the patterns of occurrences of threatened species in urban relative to non-urban areas. By assessing the extent of the distribution of threatened species across all Australian cities, we aim to investigate the currently under-utilized opportunity that cities present for national biodiversity conservation. Australian mainland, Tasmania and offshore islands. Distributions of Australia's 1643 legally protected terrestrial species (hereafter threatened species) were compiled. We assessed the extent to which they overlapped with 99 cities (of?more than 10,000 people), with all non-urban areas, and with simulated dummy cities which covered the same area and bioregion as the true cities but were non-urban. We analysed differences between animals and plants, and examined variability within these groups using species accumulation modelling. Threatened species richness of true versus dummy cities was analysed using generalized linear mixed-effects models. Australian cities support substantially more nationally threatened animal and plant species than all other non-urban areas on a unit-area basis. Thirty per cent of threatened species were found to occur in cities. Distribution patterns differed between plants and animals: individual threatened plant species were generally found in fewer cities than threatened animal species, yet plants were more likely to have a greater proportion of their distribution in urban areas than animals. Individual cities tended to contain unique suites of threatened species, especially threatened plants. The analysis of true versus dummy cities demonstrated that, even after accounting for factors such as net primary productivity and distance to the coast, cities still consistently supported a greater number of threatened species. This research highlights that Australian cities are important for the conservation of threatened species, and that the species assemblages of individual cities are relatively distinct. National conservation policy should recognize that cities play an integral role when planning for and managing threatened species.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.12404,Elementary school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Where will plants migrate as it gets warmer,"We know that the climate is changing. All living things have one of three options: move, adapt or die. Migrating to a more suitable climate is a typical response from animals. But plants, which we think of as stationary organisms, can do that too. Indeed, we expect that many plant communities may shift to new territories, more suitable for their preferred lifestyle (in terms of air temperature, rainfall and amount of sunlight). Will they find such places, though? We set off to try to understand that change better.","Changes in climate projected for the 21st century are expected to trigger widespread and pervasive biotic impacts. Forecasting these changes and their implications for ecosystem services is a major research goal. Much of the research on biotic responses to climate change has focused on either projected shifts in individual species distributions or broad-scale changes in biome distributions. Here, we introduce a novel application of multinomial logistic regression as a powerful approach to model vegetation distributions and potential responses to 21st century climate change. We modeled the distribution of 22 major vegetation types, most defined by a single dominant woody species, across the San Francisco Bay Area. Predictor variables included climate and topographic variables. The novel aspect of our model is the output: a vector of relative probabilities for each vegetation type in each location within the study domain. The model was then projected for 54 future climate scenarios, spanning a representative range of temperature and precipitation projections from the CMIP3 and CMIP5 ensembles. We found that sensitivity of vegetation to climate change is highly heterogeneous across the region. Surprisingly, sensitivity to climate change is higher closer to the coast, on lower insolation, north-facing slopes and in areas of higher precipitation. While such sites may provide refugia for mesic and cool-adapted vegetation in the face of a warming climate, the model suggests they will still be highly dynamic and relatively sensitive to climate-driven vegetation transitions. The greater sensitivity of moist and low insolation sites is an unexpected outcome that challenges views on the location and stability of climate refugia. Projections provide a foundation for conservation planning and land management, and highlight the need for a greater understanding of the mechanisms and time scales of potential climate-driven vegetation transitions.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0130629,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Who knocks down the most trees humans or elephants,"If you push a tree really, really hard, do you think you could We wanted to find out who had the greatest effect on make it fall down? You would probably struggle, even if it treefall in African woodlands known as savannas humans, looks quite small and thin. But its easy work for an elephant! or elephants. We collected data on treefall rates and patterns and found that elephants had the greatest effect, We call elephants ecosystem engineers because they can but that humans were also responsible for high numbers of have a great effect on their landscape, pushing trees down treefall. Although this doesnt always kill the trees as they as they search for food and water. However, humans can are resilient to disturbance, but, combined with other factors also have a big impact on a landscape, cutting trees for humans and elephants can put the woodlands at risk. fuelwood for cooking or opening space for crops.","Humans have played a major role in altering savanna structure and function, and growing land-use pressure will only increase their influence on woody cover. Yet humans are often overlooked as ecological components. Both humans and the African elephant Loxodonta africana alter woody vegetation in savannas through removal of large trees and activities that may increase shrub cover. Interactive effects of both humans and elephants with fire may also alter vegetation structure and composition. Here we capitalize on a macroscale experimental opportunity  brought about by the juxtaposition of an elephant-mediated landscape, human-utilized communal harvesting lands and a nature reserve fenced off from both humans and elephants  to investigate the influence of humans and elephants on height-specific treefall dynamics. We surveyed 6812 ha using repeat, airborne high resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to track the fate of 453 685 tree canopies over two years. Human-mediated biennial treefall rates were 23.5 fold higher than the background treefall rate of 1.5% treefall ha1, while elephant-mediated treefall rates were 5 times higher at 7.6% treefall ha1 than the control site. Model predictors of treefall revealed that human or elephant presence was the most important variable, followed by the interaction between geology and fire frequency. Treefall patterns were spatially heterogeneous with elephant-driven treefall associated with geology and surface water, while human patterns were related to perceived ease of access to wood harvesting areas and settlement expansion. Our results show humans and elephants utilize all height classes of woody vegetation, and that large tree shortages in a heavily utilized communal land has transferred treefall occurrence to shorter vegetation. Elephant- and human-dominated landscapes are tied to interactive effects that may hinder tree seedling survival which, combined with tree loss in the landscape, may compromise woodland sustainability.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.02549/abstract,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,Who lives in Texas groundwater,"Did you know that some salamander species in Texas live To learn more, we collected DNA from salamanders living in in water underground and never see the light of day? the springs and caves of the Edwards-Trinity aquifer system Unfortunately, overuse of groundwater, pollution, and in Texas. Differences in DNA showed that the individual habitat loss threaten them with extinction. Before we can salamanders we collected fall into different species. Three decide how best to protect these animals, we need to know of those species were new discoveries! Then, we investigated more about them. For example, how many species are how the different species were related, providing clues to there? Where do they live? What do they need to survive? how they evolved over millions of years.","Groundwater-dependent species are among the least-known components of global biodiversity, as well as some of the most vulnerable because of rapid groundwater depletion at regional and global scales. The karstic EdwardsTrinity aquifer system of west-central Texas is one of the most species-rich groundwater systems in the world, represented by dozens of endemic groundwater-obligate species with narrow, naturally fragmented distributions. Here, we examine how geomorphological and hydrogeological processes have driven population divergence and speciation in a radiation of salamanders (Eurycea) endemic to the EdwardsTrinity system using phylogenetic and population genetic analysis of genome-wide DNA sequence data. Results revealed complex patterns of isolation and reconnection driven by surface and subsurface hydrology, resulting in both adaptive and nonadaptive population divergence and speciation. Our results uncover cryptic species diversity and refine the borders of several threatened and endangered species. The US Endangered Species Act has been used to bring state regulation to unrestricted groundwater withdrawals in the Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) Aquifer, where listed species are found. However, the Trinity and EdwardsTrinity (Plateau) aquifers harbor additional species with similarly small ranges that currently receive no protection from regulatory programs designed to prevent groundwater depletion. Based on regional climate models that predict increased air temperature, together with hydrologic models that project decreased springflow, we conclude that EdwardsTrinity salamanders and other codistributed groundwater-dependent organisms are highly vulnerable to extinction within the next century.",https://www.pnas.org/content/116/7/2624,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Whos eating all the shrimp,"Whether in prawn cocktail, shrimp gumbo, or grilled on the We studied the relationship between the abundance of barbeque, youve probably eaten shrimp lots of times. Its shrimp and the fish that eat them, and found that there the most common seafood in the US. An American eats on was a statistical link between the two. Although we cannot average pounds of it every year! conclude that this is entirely due to the abundance of shrimp, we believe that our research shows that shrimp are a really While we know that shrimp is a popular seafood, we wanted important prey for these fish species. to find out how important it was in supporting other valuable fish species in the Gulf of Mexico.","This study investigated the contribution of shrimp stocks in supporting the production of valuable predator species. Fishery-independent data on white shrimp, brown shrimp, and selected fish species (spotted seatrout, red drum, and southern flounder) were collected from 1986 to 2014 by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and converted to catch-per-unit effort (CPUE). Here, the associations between the CPUEs of fish species as predators and those of shrimp species as prey in each sampled bay and sampling season were analyzed using co-integration analysis and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). Co-integration analysis revealed significant associations between 31 of 70 possible fish/shrimp pairings. The analysis also revealed discernible seasonal and spatial patterns. White shrimp in August and brown shrimp in May were associated with fish CPUEs in bays located along the lower coast of Texas, whereas white shrimp in November was more strongly associated with fish CPUEs in bays located on the upper coast. This suggests the possible influence of latitudinal environmental gradient. The results of the PLSR, on the other hand, were not conclusive. This may reflect the high statistical error rates inherent to the analysis of short non-stationary time series. Co-integration is a robust method when analyzing non-stationary time series, and a majority of time series in this study was non-stationary. Based on our co-integration results, we conclude that the CPUE data show significant associations between shrimp abundance and the three predator fish species in the tested regions.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166479,Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Why are catfish bad neighbors for allis shad,"The allis shad is a type of migratory fish. While they typically We wanted to find out if catfish truly are a threat to the already live in the ocean, they travel to rivers during the spring months endangered allis shad. To do this, we monitored a part of the to lay eggs. Sadly, this journey can be deadly for many allis Garonne (a large river in France) where allis shad like to lay shad. This is because humans fish for them, they get blocked their eggs, and then we studied catfish hunting behavior. by dams, or the rivers are too polluted. And if these dangers werent enough, a new species called the European catfish likes to eat the allis shad.","Silurus glanisis a large non-native opportunistic predator able to develop hunting strategy in response to newly available prey where it has been introduced. Migrating spawning anadromous prey such as allis shadAlosa alosacould represent this available and energy-rich food resource. Here, we report an impressive catfish hunting behavior on shad spawning act in one of the main spawning grounds in Europe (Garonne River, Southwest France). Shad spawning act consists of at least one male and one female swimming side by side, trashing the water surface with their tail which, therefore, produces a splashing noise audible from the river bank. The catfish hunting behavior on shad spawning act was studied, at night, during spring months, using both auditory and video survey. Simultaneously, catfish individuals were fishing to analyze their stomach content. Catfish disturbed 12% of the 1024 nocturnal spawning acts we heard, and this proportion increased to 37% among the 129 spawning acts when estimated with low-light camera recording. Stomach content analyses on 251 large catfish individuals (body length?>?128cm) caught in the same river stretch revealed shad represented 88.5% of identified prey items in catfish diet. This work demonstrates that European catfish predation must be considered as a significant factor of mortality of allis shad. In a context of the extension of the European catfish range area in western and southern European freshwaters, this new trophic impact, with other ones previously described for salmon or lamprey, has to be considered in European conservation plans of anadromous species.",https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-020-09811-8,Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Why are some parasites picky eaters,"Nematodes are microscopic roundworms that live in soil, used as biological pest control in the United States. oceans, and lakes (Fig. ). Scientists estimate that there Some parasites are generalists and can infect a wide variety could be a million species of nematodes and that many of hosts while others are specialists and only infect certain of them are parasites. Sometimes farmers use parasitic hosts. We wanted to determine if S. scapterisci really is nematodes as a natural enemy to kill some pests. This is a specialist parasite and why it is a picky eater (showing one type of biological pest control. a preference for one insect over another). To do this we We studied a particular parasitic nematode called studied how these nematodes behave when given different Steinernema scapterisci. It infects insects and has been insects as food.","Entomopathogenic nematodes are a subgroup of insect-parasitic nematodes that are used in biological control as alternatives or supplements to chemical pesticides. Steinernema scapterisci is an unusual member of the entomopathogenic nematode guild for many reasons including that it is promiscuous in its association with bacteria, it can reproduce in the absence of its described bacterial symbiont, and it is known to have a narrow host range. It is a powerful comparative model within the species and could be used to elucidate parasite specialization. Here we describe a new method of efficiently producing large numbers of S. scapterisci infective juveniles (IJs) in house crickets and for quantifying parasitic activation of the IJs upon exposure to host tissue using morphological features. We found that parasite activation is a temporal process with more IJs activating over time. Furthermore, we found that activated IJs secrete a complex mixture of proteins and that S. scapterisci IJs preferentially activate upon exposure to cricket tissue, reaffirming the description of S. scapterisci as a cricket specialist.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169410,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles,Why are whales in trouble again,"Imagine you are standing on a boat. You look out, searching To find out, we analyzed data from the feeding grounds in all directions for a glimpse of a whale. But you cant find of the North Atlantic Right whale. We found that warmer any. Your excitement fades. Where are the whales? ocean temperatures made food harder to find. Without enough food, fewer whales were born. Also, whales started Many years ago, an ocean without whales was a real concern swimming north to find more food. This puts them in danger because we hunted them too much. Then we banned from getting hit by ships and tangled in fishing nets. So now whaling and their populations grew. Yet some whale species they face a new threat from humans: climate change. are declining again. Why?","Ocean warming linked to anthropogenic climate change is impacting the ecology of marine species around the world. In 2010, the Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf regions of the Northwest Atlantic underwent an unprecedented regime shift. Forced by climate-driven changes in the Gulf Stream, warm slope waters entered the region and created a less favorable foraging environment for the endangered North Atlantic right whale population. By mid-decade, right whales had shifted their late spring/summer foraging grounds from the Gulf of Maine and the western Scotian Shelf to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The population also began exhibiting unusually high mortality in 2017. Here, we report that climate-driven changes in ocean circulation have altered the foraging environment and habitat use of right whales, reducing the population’s calving rate and exposing it to greater mortality risks from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. The case of the North Atlantic right whale provides a cautionary tale for the management of protected species in a changing ocean.",https://tos.org/oceanography/article/ocean-regime-shift-is-driving-collapse-of-the-north-atlantic-right-whale-population,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,Why can some monkeys live high in the mountains,"Geladas are an unusual primate. They eat mostly grass the DNA of wild geladas. We found a surprising difference in instead of fruit or meat. They are known as bleeding heart how DNA is packaged between geladas from two different monkeys for the bright red patch of skin on their chests. regions of Ethiopia. Also, we know that some animals react to They also live high in the mountains instead of in the jungle or low oxygen by increasing the amount of hemoglobin in their the savanna. The air is thinner high in the mountains, so it is blood. But we learned that geladas dont do that. Instead, harder to get enough oxygen. How can geladas thrive in that they might have evolved to have larger lungs to help them environment? Thats what we wanted to find out. We studied get more oxygen with each breath.","Primates have adapted to numerous environments and lifestyles but very few species are native to high elevations. Here we investigated high-altitude adaptations in the gelada (Theropithecus gelada), a monkey endemic to the Ethiopian Plateau. We examined genome-wide variation in conjunction with measurements of haematological and morphological traits. Our new gelada reference genome is highly intact and assembled at chromosome-length levels. Unexpectedly, we identified a chromosomal polymorphism in geladas that could potentially contribute to reproductive barriers between populations. Compared with baboons at low altitude, we found that high-altitude geladas exhibit significantly expanded chest circumferences, potentially allowing for greater lung surface area for increased oxygen diffusion. We identified gelada-specific amino acid substitutions in the alpha-chain subunit of adult haemoglobin but found that gelada haemoglobin does not exhibit markedly altered oxygenation properties compared with lowland primates. We also found that geladas at high altitude do not exhibit elevated blood haemoglobin concentrations, in contrast to the normal acclimatization response to hypoxia in lowland primates. The absence of altitude-related polycythaemia suggests that geladas are able to sustain adequate tissue-oxygen delivery despite environmental hypoxia. Finally, we identified numerous genes and genomic regions exhibiting accelerated rates of evolution, as well as gene families exhibiting expansions in the gelada lineage, potentially reflecting altitude-related selection. Our findings lend insight into putative mechanisms of high-altitude adaptation while suggesting promising avenues for functional hypoxia research.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01703-4,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Biology Articles,Why do bats need more food to call louder,"Have you ever been somewhere noisy and had to shout to animals on earth. Being louder means they can find insects be heard? Imagine having to speak at that volume all day. more easily in the dark, but most bats don\'t ""shout"" louder Would you feel more tired if you shouted all the time or than a certain level. spoke at a normal volume? We wanted to find out if this is because bats use more Bats are very unusual animals because they can use sound energy when echolocating louder. To do this, we recorded to see at night. Bats use very loud echolocation to hear tiny and analyzed the calls of bats while they were flying. We insects that are far away, but their calls are at a frequency then studied how much energy they were using. that we cannot hear. In fact, bats are some of the loudest","Vocalizations are of pivotal importance for many animals, yet sound propagation in air is severely limited. To expand their vocalization range, animals can produce high-intensity sounds, which can come at high energetic costs. High-intensity echolocation is thought to have evolved in bats because the costs of calling are reported to be negligible during flight. By comparing the metabolic rates of flying bats calling at varying intensities, we show that this is true only for low call intensities. Our results demonstrate that above 130?dB sound pressure level (SPL, at a reference distance of 10?cm), the costs of sound production become exorbitantly expensive for small bats, placing a limitation on the intensity at which they can call.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1249-8,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Why do bees use social distancing,"Honey bees are important insects in many of the ecosystems We found that in infected colonies there was more social around us. However, they are constantly exposed to many distancing between different types of bees. We also threats. They are particularly vulnerable to disease and discovered that the infection led to higher interactions parasites because they live in colonies. Once a member of between bees of the same type. We think this helps bees the colony gets infected, it is very easy for the disease to fight the spread of the parasite. spread. This is why honey bees have some specific behaviors to help them fight infections. In this study we wanted to see how honey bee behavior changes when Varroa destructor mites come into the colony.","Social distancing in response to infectious diseases is a strategy exhibited by human and nonhuman animals to counteract the spread of pathogens and/or parasites. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are ideal models to study this behavior because of the compartmentalized structure of these societies, evolved under exposure to parasite pressure and the need to ensure efficient functioning. Here, by using a combination of spatial and behavioral approaches, we investigated whether the presence of the ectoparasite mite Varroa destructor induces changes in the social organization of A. mellifera colonies that could reduce the spread of the parasite. Our results demonstrated that honey bees react to the intrusion of V. destructor by modifying space use and social interactions to increase the social distancing between young (nurses) and old (foragers) cohorts of bees. These findings strongly suggest a behavioral strategy not previously reported in honey bees to limit the intracolony parasite transmission.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj1398,Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Why do invasive species do so well,"Did you know that several different kinds of microbes live in our bodies and that they perform lots of important functions? For example, they can help us fight harmful infections and help us to get all the goodness out of the food we eat. Plants also have special relationships with microbes, particularly those that live around their roots. These microbes can help the plant to fight disease and are important to make them fitter and stronger. We studied a species of grass to see what was affecting the makeup of the microbial communities that lived around their roots. This will help us to understand how plants and microbes interact when an invasive plant is introduced to an environment.","Plantmicrobe interactions play crucial roles in species invasions but are rarely investigated at the intraspecific level. Here, we study these interactions in three lineages of a globally distributed plant,Phragmites australis. We use field surveys and a common garden experiment to analyze bacterial communities in the rhizosphere ofP. australisstands from native, introduced, and Gulf lineages to determine lineage-specific controls on rhizosphere bacteria. We show that within-lineage bacterial communities are similar, but are distinct among lineages, which is consistent with our results in a complementary common garden experiment. IntroducedP. australisrhizosphere bacterial communities have lower abundances of pathways involved in antimicrobial biosynthesis and degradation, suggesting a lower exposure to enemy attack than native and Gulf lineages. However, lineage and not rhizosphere bacterial communities dictate individual plant growth in the common garden experiment. We conclude that lineage is crucial for determination of both rhizosphere bacterial communities and plant fitness.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00626-0,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Why do invasive species like artificial lakes,"It is gross to think about, but did you know that some worms of snails from North America that are new to the lake. The can live in your liver? Liver fluke, a type of flatworm, can infect majority of these snails were infected with a native liver fluke your liver and make you very sick. These parasites grow in parasite. We also found another non-native invasive species, freshwater snails before they invade a mammalian host. the water hyacinth, a floating water plant. The snail population Liver flukes infect millions of wild animals, farm animals, and was higher in areas where the hyacinth population was also humans worldwide. Here, we studied an invasive snail species high. Our study shows that artificial lakes are vulnerable to a and their liver fluke parasites in Lake Kariba in Africa - the chain of biological invasions. And this may promote the spread largest manmade lake in the world. We found large numbers of native parasites.","Parasite spillback, the infection of a non-indigenous organism by a native parasite, is a highly important although understudied component of ecological invasion dynamics. Here, through the first analysis of the parasite fauna of lymnaeid gastropods of Lake Kariba (Zimbabwe). We illustrate how the creation of an artificial lake may lead to a cascade of biological invasions in which an invasive aquatic plant promotes the proliferation of invasive gastropods, which in turn alters the epidemiology of trematodiases of potential medical and veterinary importance. Using a new multiplex Rapid Diagnostic PCR assay, we assessed the prevalence of Fasciola sp. infections in the gastropod populations. Both gastropod hosts and trematode parasites were identified using DNA barcoding. We provide the first record of the invasive North-American gastropod Pseudosuccinea columella in Lake Kariba. This species was found at 14 out of 16 sampled sites and its abundance was strongly positively correlated with the abundance of the invasive South-American water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). About 65% of the P. columella specimens analysed were infected with a hitherto unknown Fasciola species. Phylogenetic analyses indicate close affinity to Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica, which cause fasciolosis, an important liver disease affecting both ruminants and humans. In addition, another non-native Lymnaeid species was found: a Radix sp. that clustered closely with a Vietnamese Radix species. Radix sp. hosted both amphistome and Fasciola trematodes. By linking an invasion cascade and parasite spillback, this study shows how both processes can act in combination to lead to potentially important epidemiological changes.",https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.307,Lower high school; Middle school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,Why is the worlds most expensive fungus disappearing,"Meet the worlds most wanted parasite: a mummified caterpillar with a fungus growing right out of its face. Even stranger: it costs three times its weight in gold! This super-expensive fungus grows in the alpine regions of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau where it is cold and dry. Its promised health benefits include increased strength and cures for many diseases. Recently, it has become very popular around the world. Its price has increased and collectors have started harvesting more. But lately, some people have become concerned that the fungus populations are declining. We wanted to see if that is the case, and if so, why? So, we interviewed local harvesters and analyzed environmental models of the region. Our results showed that there is a decline in the caterpillar fungus populations, and the main causes are overharvesting and climate change.","Demand for traditional medicine ingredients is causing species declines globally. Due to this trade, Himalayan caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) has become one of the worlds most valuable biological commodities, providing a crucial source of income for hundreds of thousands of collectors. However, the resulting harvesting boom has generated widespread concern over the sustainability of its collection. We investigate whether caterpillar fungus production is decreasingand if so, whyacross its entire range. To overcome the limitations of sparse quantitative data, we use a multiple evidence base approach that makes use of complementarities between local knowledge and ecological modeling. We find that, according to collectors across four countries, caterpillar fungus production has decreased due to habitat degradation, climate change, and especially overexploitation. Our statistical models corroborate that climate change is contributing to this decline. They indicate that caterpillar fungus is more productive under colder conditions, growing in close proximity to areas likely to have permafrost. With significant warming already underway throughout much of its range, we conclude that caterpillar fungus populations have been negatively affected by a combination of overexploitation and climate change. Our results underscore that harvesting is not the sole threat to economically valuable species, and that a collapse of the caterpillar fungus system under ongoing warming and high collection pressure would have serious implications throughout the Himalayan region.",https://www.pnas.org/content/115/45/11489,Lower high school
Biodiversity-And-Conservation Articles,Would beavers make good firefighters,"We all know beavers as cute animals with flat tails. They And this actually helps the plants around beaver dams to gnaw down trees with their sharp teeth and build dams in survive during wildfires! Therefore, we can think of beavers rivers. But beavers are much more than lumberjacks. By not only as great lumberjacks, but also as effective firefighters. building those dams, they reshape the whole environment around them and provide their surroundings with more water.","Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low-tech, low-cost strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. They slow and store water that can be accessed by riparian vegetation during dry periods, effectively protecting riparian ecosystems from droughts. Whether or not this protection extends to wildfire has been discussed anecdotally but has not been examined in a scientific context. We used remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data to compare riparian vegetation greenness in areas with and without beaver damming during wildfire. We include data from five large wildfires of varying burn severity and dominant landcover settings in the western USA in our analysis. We found that beaver-dammed riparian corridors are relatively unaffected by wildfire when compared to similar riparian corridors without beaver damming. On average, the decrease in NDVI during fire in areas without beaver is 3.05 times as large as it is in areas with beaver. However, plant greenness rebounded in the year after wildfire regardless of beaver activity. Thus, we conclude that while beaver activity does not necessarily play a role in riparian vegetation post-fire resilience, it does play a significant role in riparian vegetation fire resistance and refugia creation.",https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2225,Elementary school; Middle school
Biology Articles,Bullfrogs a Trojan horse for a deadly fungus,"Did you know that amphibians have very special skin? They have helped spread Bd. Bullfrogs dont show signs of sickness use their skin to breathe and drink water. But a skin-eating when they are infected, which makes them Bd vectors. This fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is killing them. is alarming because they are traded alive globally and could Since the 1970s, over species of amphibians have declined continue spreading Bd to amphibians around the world. Here, or gone extinct. Amphibians in the eastern US seem to be we analyzed the history of bullfrogs and Bd in the western US. unaffected by Bd, but Bd outbreaks have caused mass die- We found a link between bullfrogs arrival and Bd outbreaks. offs in the western US. A frog species native to the eastern Then we predicted areas with high disease risk. These results US, American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana), may can help us control the spread of Bd and save amphibians.","Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a causal agent of the amphibian fungal skin disease chytridiomycosis, has been implicated in the decline and extinction of over 200 species worldwide since the 1970s. Despite almost two decades of research, the history of Bd and its global spread is not well understood. However, the spread of the Global Panzootic Lineage of Bd (Bd-GPL), the lineage associated with amphibian die-offs, has been linked with the American bullfrog (Rana [Aqurana] catesbeiana) and global trade. Interestingly, R. catesbeiana is native to the eastern U.S., where no Bd-related declines have been observed despite Bds presence since the late 1800s. In contrast Bd has been found to have emerged in California and Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s, after which epizootics (i.e., epidemics in wildlife) ensued. We hypothesize that Bd-GPL spread from the eastern U.S. with the introduction of R. catesbeiana into the western US, resulting in epizootics and declines of native host species. Using museum records, we investigated the historical relationship between R. catesbeiana and Bd invasion in the western US and found that R. catesbeiana arrived in the same year or prior to Bd in most western watersheds that had data for both species, suggesting that Bd-GPL may have originated in the eastern US and R. catesbeiana may have facilitated Bd invasion in the western US. To predict areas with greatest suitability for Bd, we created a suitability model by integrating habitat suitability and host availability. When we incorporated invasion history with high Bd suitability, we found that watersheds with non-native R. catesbeiana in the mountain ranges of the West Coast have the highest disease risk. These findings shed light on the invasion history and disease dynamics of Bd in North America. Targeted historical surveys using archived specimens in natural history collections and present-day field surveys along with more localized, community-level studies, monitoring, and surveillance are needed to further test this hypothesis and grow our understanding of the disease ecology and host-pathogen dynamics of Bd.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188384,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,Can a spray make our crops better,"Did you know the first genetically modified crop was what if we can change the crops without changing a tomato with delayed ripening? Genetically modified their DNA? organisms (GMOs) have been around for decades We tried using special molecules. They can change now. And they offer a lot of benefits. For example, cell activity. First, we have to insert them into plant they may grow more food or be more resistant to cells. For this, we tested sprays with nanocarriers. It diseases. But there are a few downsides as well. turned out to be a success! Many nanocarriers were Producing GMOs takes a lot of time and is often able to enter the plant cells. Then, we tried spraying expensive. Plus, many people think they are unsafe. nanocarriers with the special molecules. This was This is because they have some foreign DNA. But also a success! So, we could make the cell do what we wanted.","Genetic engineering of economically important traits in plants is an effective way to improve global welfare. However, introducing foreign DNA molecules into plant genomes to create genetically engineered plants not only requires a lengthy testing period and high developmental costs but also is not well-accepted by the public due to safety concerns about its effects on human and animal health and the environment. Here, we present a high-throughput nucleic acids delivery platform for plants using peptide nanocarriers applied to the leaf surface by spraying. The translocation of sub-micrometer-scale nucleic acid/peptide complexes upon spraying varied depending on the physicochemical characteristics of the peptides and was controlled by a stomata-dependent-uptake mechanism in plant cells. We observed efficient delivery of DNA molecules into plants using cell-penetrating peptide (CPP)-based foliar spraying. Moreover, using foliar spraying, we successfully performed gene silencing by introducing small interfering RNA molecules in plant nuclei via siRNA-CPP complexes and, more importantly, in chloroplasts via our CPP/chloroplast-targeting peptide-mediated delivery system. This technology enables effective nontransgenic engineering of economically important plant traits in agricultural systems.",https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c07723,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,Can armadillos show us how to regrow a liver,"What if we could make our bodys old or sick cells act young again? Surprisingly, the bacteria that cause leprosy may show us how. Previously, we discovered that infecting cells with leprosy bacteria in a laboratory dish reprogrammed the cells back to an immature state. The cells may then be able to produce many different types of cells in the body  and maybe even regenerate an organ.  To test this in an actual animal, we infected nine-banded armadillos with leprosy bacteria. We compared their livers to the livers of uninfected armadillos. The livers of armadillos infected with leprosy were larger than those of uninfected armadillos. Importantly, these larger livers were healthy, with no signs of damage. We performed genetic analyses on the liver cells to determine which genes were active. Our results show that leprosy infection reprograms adult liver cells to make them resemble immature liver cells. Maybe someday we can adapt this natural process to regrow aging and damaged livers in humans.","Ideal therapies for regenerative medicine or healthy aging require healthy organ growth and rejuvenation, but no organ-level approach is currently available. Using Mycobacterium leprae (ML) with natural partial cellular reprogramming capacity and its animal host nine-banded armadillos, we present an evolutionarily refined model of adult liver growth and regeneration. In infected armadillos, ML reprogram the entire liver and significantly increase total liver/body weight ratio by increasing healthy liver lobules, including hepatocyte proliferation and proportionate expansion of vasculature, and biliary systems. ML-infected livers are microarchitecturally and functionally normal without damage, fibrosis, or tumorigenesis. Bacteria-induced reprogramming reactivates liver progenitor/developmental/fetal genes and upregulates growth-, metabolism-, and anti-aging-associated markers with minimal change in senescence and tumorigenic genes, suggesting bacterial hijacking of homeostatic, regeneration pathways to promote de novo organogenesis. This may facilitate the unraveling of endogenous pathways that effectively and safely re-engage liver organ growth, with broad therapeutic implications including organ regeneration and rejuvenation.",https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00379-2,Lower high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Technology Articles,Can graphene in your clothing stop mosquito bites,"Wouldnt it be great if there was clothing out there graphene indeed kept mosquitoes from biting people. that could fully protect us from mosquito bites? This We were surprised to realize that it not only acted as could reduce itching and the spread of mosquito- a physical barrier for the insects mouthparts, but also borne diseases. To find out, we tested whether a blocked important chemical signals that mosquitoes use super thin but really strong substance, graphene, to detect humans. Under dry conditions, our graphene has the potential to make clothing mosquito proof. layer therefore showed double potential for protection. In a lab experiment, we exposed humans wearing However, sweat or water made it less mosquito-proof. a) no protection or b) cheesecloth or c) cheesecloth But we found a modified form, reduced graphene, plus graphene to mosquitoes. And we found that the that protected humans even when it was wet.","Graphene-based materials are being developed for a variety of wearable technologies to provide advanced functions that include sensing; temperature regulation; chemical, mechanical, or radiative protection; or energy storage. We hypothesized that graphene films may also offer an additional unanticipated function: mosquito bite protection for light, fiber-based fabrics. Here, we investigate the fundamental interactions between graphene-based films and the globally important mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, through a combination of live mosquito experiments, needle penetration force measurements, and mathematical modeling of mechanical puncture phenomena. The results show that graphene or graphene oxide nanosheet films in the dry state are highly effective at suppressing mosquito biting behavior on live human skin. Surprisingly, behavioral assays indicate that the primary mechanism is not mechanical puncture resistance, but rather interference with host chemosensing. This interference is proposed to be a molecular barrier effect that prevents Aedes from detecting skin-associated molecular attractants trapped beneath the graphene films and thus prevents the initiation of biting behavior. The molecular barrier effect can be circumvented by placing water or human sweat as molecular attractants on the top (external) film surface. In this scenario, pristine graphene films continue to protect through puncture resistancea mechanical barrier effectwhile graphene oxide films absorb the water and convert to mechanically soft hydrogels that become nonprotective.",https://www.pnas.org/content/116/37/18304,Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,Can viruses save lives,"Have you ever heard of bacteriophages? They are tiny protect us against bacterial diseases? Researchers have used viruses that can infect and kill bacteria, including the phage to treat disease in the past. But were they successful? harmful bacteria that make us sick! Scientists discovered We reviewed clinical reports of phage therapy for the last bacteriophages (phages) over a century ago. And they are years. Our research showed that phages can be quite actually all around us! Researchers have found phages in helpful and phage therapy was successful against bacterial sewage, soil, and even in our bodies. What if we used this infections. This is really important, because antibiotic natural enemy of bacteria to our advantage? Can phages resistance has become a major threat to our health.","Purpose Widespread antibiotic-resistant bacteria are threatening the arsenal of existing antibiotics. Not only are antibiotics less likely to be effective today, but their extensive use continues to drive the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. A new-old antibacterial strategy with bacteriophages (phages) is under development, namely, phage therapy. Phages are targeted bacterial viruses with multiple antibacterial effector functions, which can reduce multidrug-resistant infections within the human body. This review summarizes recent phage therapy clinical trials and patient cases and outlines the fundamentals behind phage treatment strategies under development, mainly through bench-to-bedside approaches. We discuss the challenges that remain in phage therapy and the role of phages when combined with antibiotic therapy. Methods This narrative review presents the current knowledge and latest findings regarding phage therapy. Relevant case reports and research articles available through the Scopus and PubMed databases are discussed. Findings Although recent clinical data suggest the tolerability and, in some cases, efficacy of phage therapy, the clinical functionality still requires careful definition. The lack of well-controlled clinical trial data and complex regulatory frameworks have driven the most recent human data generation on a single-patient compassionate use basis. These cases often include the concomitant use of antibiotics, which makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of phages alone. However, human data support using antibiotics as phage potentiators and resistance breakers; thus, phage adjuvants are a promising avenue for near-term clinical development. Current knowledge gaps exist on the appropriate routes of administration, phage selection, frequency of administration, dosage, phage resistance, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of the phages. In addition, we highlight that some phage therapies have mild adverse effects in patients. Implications Although more translational research is needed before the clinical implementation is feasible, phage therapy may well be pivotal in safeguarding humans against antibiotic-resistant infections.",https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2020.07.014,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Technology Articles,Can we write biological software updates to cure disease,"Did you know that each of the trillions of cells in your body makes decisions at every moment of the day? While cells do not have brains, they do have molecular sensors that tell them what to do if a certain molecule or signal is present around them. This makes them similar to a computer program: input  in, response  out. Unfortunately, just as a buggy software code can make a computer malfunction, sometimes bad genetic code inside our cells causes them to respond in a way that is bad for the body. A cancer cell, for example, has a broken code causing it to grow despite signals to shut down. Scientists have long sought to develop gene therapy  a way to fix or replace a damaged or missing gene within a persons genome. Our team approached this challenge in a new way: we engineered something called a protein circuit and it seemed to work!","Synthetic protein-level circuits could enable engineering of powerful new cellular behaviors. Rational protein circuit design would be facilitated by a composable protein-protein regulation system in which individual protein components can regulate one another to create a variety of different circuit architectures. In this study, we show that engineered viral proteases can function as composable protein components, which can together implement a broad variety of circuit-level functions in mammalian cells. In this system, termed CHOMP (circuits of hacked orthogonal modular proteases), input proteases dock with and cleave target proteases to inhibit their function. These components can be connected to generate regulatory cascades, binary logic gates, and dynamic analog signal-processing functions. To demonstrate the utility of this system, we rationally designed a circuit that induces cell death in response to upstream activators of the Ras oncogene. Because CHOMP circuits can perform complex functions yet be encoded as single transcripts and delivered without genomic integration, they offer a scalable platform to facilitate protein circuit engineering for biotechnological applications.",http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/1252,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How are aging and gut bacteria related,"We know that bacteria can be harmful and can cause a lot of diseases. But did you know that not all bacteria are bad? In fact, there are trillions of bacteria inside us that help us to live! These bacteria make up the gut microbiome. We wanted to understand the relationship between our gut bacteria and how we age. We found that as we get older, the different types of bacteria in our gut microbiome change. We also discovered that diseases and medication can affect this change. Knowing more about how our gut bacteria work can help us live healthier lives!","Gut microbial diversity decreases with aging, but existing studies have used stool samples, which do not represent the entire gut. We analyzed the duodenal microbiome in 251 subjects aged 18-35 (n = 32), 36-50 (n = 41), 51-65 (n = 96), and 66-80 (n = 82). Decreased duodenal microbial diversity in older subjects is associated with combinations of chronological age, number of concomitant diseases, and number of medications used, and also correlated with increasing coliform numbers (p < 0.0001). Relative abundance (RA) of phylum Proteobacteria increases in older subjects, with increased RA of family Enterobacteriaceae and coliform genera Escherichia and Klebsiella, and is associated with alterations in the RA of other duodenal microbial taxa and decreased microbial diversity. Increased RA of specific genera are associated with chronological age only (Escherichia, Lactobacillus, and Enterococcus), number of medications only (Klebsiella), or number of concomitant diseases only (Clostridium and Bilophila). These findings indicate the small intestinal microbiome changes significantly with age and the aging process.",https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34592155/,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Chemistry Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How are chemicals impacting our reproductive health,"You might have heard of a chemical called BPA. Maybe you have seen a BPA Free label on a reusable water bottle. But did you know that BPA is just one chemical that is part of a much larger group known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs? EDCs are everywhere. They are in most food packaging, cosmetics, shampoo, and even in antibacterial soap! But now scientists are starting to understand that these chemicals could be the cause of many health problems, including reproductive problems. In this study we reviewed the scientific research looking at EDCs and reproduction in both fish and mammals. We wanted to understand what the research said about how these chemicals impact reproductive systems. The studies we reviewed used laboratory animals to better understand reproduction in fish and mammals. What we found was quite worrying. There is lots of evidence to show that EDCs can cause changes in how the reproductive system develops and grows. There is also evidence that EDCs have long-term impacts including fertility problems and reduced reproductive success.","Over the past century, evidence has emerged that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have an impact on reproductive health. An increased frequency of reproductive disorders has been observed worldwide in both wildlife and humans that is correlated with accidental exposures to EDCs and their increased production. Epidemiological and experimental studies have highlighted the consequences of early exposures and the existence of key windows of sensitivity during development. Such early in life exposures can have an immediate impact on gonadal and reproductive tract development, as well as on long-term reproductive health in both males and females. Traditionally, EDCs were thought to exert their effects by modifying the endocrine pathways controlling reproduction. Advances in knowledge of the mechanisms regulating sex determination, differentiation and gonadal development in fish and rodents have led to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of early exposure to EDCs on reproduction. In this manuscript, we review the key developmental stages sensitive to EDCs and the state of knowledge on the mechanisms by which model EDCs affect these processes, based on the roadmap of gonad development specific to fish and mammals.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935121013359?via%3Dihub,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can bacteria stop dengue,Vector-borne diseases are a major threat to human health. Diseases caused by viruses and parasites carried by mosquitoes kill millions of people every year. How can we control these diseases? One of the methods scientists have tried to develop recently is biocontrol  the use of natural enemies to control mosquito populations and thus the diseases they carry. We wanted to try a slightly different approach: using bacteria that reduce the mosquitoes ability to transmit viruses. We introduced these bacteria in local Australian mosquitoes and then released them back into a town where a lot of dengue outbreaks have occurred to breed with wild mosquitoes. Soon enough the majority of the mosquitoes in the area carried the bacteria. This has led to a drastic reduction of human dengue cases.,"Background: A number of new technologies are under development for the control of mosquito transmitted viruses, such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika that all require the release of modified mosquitoes into the environment. None of these technologies has been able to demonstrate evidence that they can be implemented at a scale beyond small pilots. Here we report the first successful citywide scaled deployment of Wolbachia in the northern Australian city of Townsville. Methods: The wMel strain of Wolbachia was backcrossed into a local Aedes aegypti genotype and mass reared mosquitoes were deployed as eggs using mosquito release containers (MRCs). In initial stages these releases were undertaken by program staff but in later stages this was replaced by direct community release including the development of a school program that saw children undertake releases. Mosquito monitoring was undertaken with Biogents Sentinel (BGS) traps and individual mosquitoes were screened for the presence of Wolbachia with a Taqman qPCR or LAMP diagnostic assay. Dengue case notifications from Queensland Health Communicable Disease Branch were used to track dengue cases in the city before and after release. Results: Wolbachia was successfully established into local Ae. aegypti mosquitoes across 66 km 2 in four stages over 28 months with full community support. A feature of the program was the development of a scaled approach to community engagement. Wolbachia frequencies have remained stable since deployment and to date no local dengue transmission has been confirmed in any area of Townsville after Wolbachia has established, despite local transmission events every year for the prior 13 years and an epidemiological context of increasing imported cases. Conclusion: Deployment of Wolbachia into Ae. aegypti populations can be readily scaled to areas of ~60km 2 quickly and cost effectively and appears in this context to be effective at stopping local dengue transmission.",https://gatesopenresearch.org/articles/2-36/v2,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Technology Articles,How can gene editing cure disease,"Did you know that the cell copies nucleotides (letters of In most cases, even this is okay. The baby is a carrier of DNA code) per second when it is dividing? And it only makes a bad copy of the gene, but often the good copy from the one mistake per million nucleotides! Thats like copying other parent will work well enough. In rare cases, though, the full volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica twelve times a baby may receive a bad copy from both parents. This and only making one typo! means they will have a genetic disease. Most times even these mistakes are caught and fixed. But There are several diseases that are caused by a single sometimes a mutation (mistake in the code) gets passed nucleotide mutation. Scientists have always wanted to use on. In eggs and sperm that means an unborn baby will get genetic editing to correct the bad part of the gene. We one bad copy of that gene. found a way to do it in real, live mice!","Genetic diseases can be diagnosed early during pregnancy, but many monogenic disorders continue to cause considerable neonatal and pediatric morbidity and mortality. Early intervention through intrauterine gene editing, however, could correct the genetic defect, potentially allowing for normal organ development, functional disease improvement, or cure. Here we demonstrate safe intravenous and intra-amniotic administration of polymeric nanoparticles to fetal mouse tissues at selected gestational ages with no effect on survival or postnatal growth. In utero introduction of nanoparticles containing peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and donor DNAs corrects a disease-causing mutation in the -globin gene in a mouse model of human -thalassemia, yielding sustained postnatal elevation of blood hemoglobin levels into the normal range, reduced reticulocyte counts, reversal of splenomegaly, and improved survival, with no detected off-target mutations in partially homologous loci. This work may provide the basis for a safe and versatile method of fetal gene editing for human monogenic disorders. The correction of genetic defects in utero could allow for improved outcomes of gene therapy. Here, the authors demonstrate safe delivery of nanoparticles to fetal mouse tissues, and show that nanoparticles containing peptide nucleic acids to edit the beta-globin gene are effective in a mouse model of beta-thalassemia.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04894-2.pdf,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can GM tomatoes help fight cancer,"Did your parents ever tell you that eating your fruit and veggies is good for you? Well, theyre right! Fruits and vegetables contain powerful agents called antioxidants that can help us fight many diseases, including one of the biggest killers of all: cancer. With genetic engineering techniques, we created a new tomato that is even healthier than its traditional counterparts. In this study, we not only show that it contains more compounds that are beneficial to our health, but also that it has higher cancer-fighting powers than traditional tomatoes. We believe that our new tomato can aid in cancer prevention, either by simply eating it or by turning it into food supplements or cancer prevention medicine.","In recent years, by extensive achievements in understanding the mechanisms and the pathways affected by cancer, the focus of cancer research is shifting from developing new chemotherapy methods to using natural compounds with therapeutic properties to reduce the adverse effects of synthetic drugs on human health. We used fruit extracts from previously generated human type I InsP 5-ptase gene expressing transgenic tomato plants for assessment of the anti-cancer activity of established genetically modified tomato lines. Cellular assays (MTT, Fluorescent microscopy, Flow Cytometry analysis) were used to confirm that InsP 5-ptase fruit extract was more effective for reducing the proliferation of breast cancer cells compared to wild-type tomato fruit extract. Metabolome analysis of InsP 5-ptase expressing tomato fruits performed by LC-MS identified tomato metabolites that may play a key role in the increased anti-cancer activity observed for the transgenic fruits. Total transcriptome analysis of cancer cells (MCF-7 line) exposed to an extract of transgenic fruits revealed a number of differently regulated genes in the cells treated with transgenic extract compared to untreated cells or cells treated with wild-type tomato extract. Together, this data demonstrate the potential role of the plant derived metabolites in suppressing cell viability of cancer cells and further prove the potential application of plant genetic engineering in the cancer research and drug discovery.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175778,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we find oil-eating bacteria to clean up the sea,"Crude oil is widely used in our everyday life to produce for cleaning up. The problem is that those other methods plastics, streets, fuel and other items. Unfortunately, oil is also harm the environment just not as much as oil does. toxic to plants and animals (including humans). If it gets We wanted companies to be more willing to use the spilled, for example in a transportation accident, it needs to environmentally friendly oil-eating bacteria for clean-ups. be cleaned up to prevent damage to the environment. We developed an inexpensive test to identify these special One way to do this is to use bacteria that eat oil. But microorganisms. If companies can pay less, they are more', 'methods': 'and take time. Consequently, other methods are often used while theyre at it!","Over the past 100 years, oil spills and long-term waste deposition from oil refineries have significantly polluted the environment. These contaminants have widespread negative effects on human health and ecosystem functioning. Natural attenuation of long chain and polyaromatic hydrocarbons is slow and often incomplete. Bioaugmentation of polluted soils with indigenous bacteria that naturally consume petroleum hydrocarbons could speed up this process. However, the characterization of bacterial crude oil degradation efficiency  which often relies upon expensive, highly specialized gas-chromatography mass spectrometry analyses  can present a substantial bottleneck in developing and implementing these bioremediation strategies. Here, we develop a low-cost, rapid, high-throughput fluorescence-based assay for identifying wild-type bacteria that degrade crude oil using the dye Nile Red. We show that Nile Red fluoresces when in contact with crude oil and developed a robust linear model to calculate crude oil content in liquid cell cultures based on fluorescence intensity (FI). To test whether this assay could identify bacteria with enhanced metabolic capacities to break down crude oil, we screened bacteria isolated from a former Shell Oil refinery in Bay Point, CA, and identified one strain (Cupriavidus sp. OPK) with superior crude oil depletion efficiencies (up to 83%) in only 3 days. We further illustrate that this assay can be combined with fluorescence microscopy to study how bacteria interact with crude oil and the strategies they use to degrade this complex substance. We show for the first time that bacteria use three key strategies for degrading crude oil: biofilm formation, direct adherence to oil droplets, and vesicle encapsulation of oil. We propose that the quantitative and qualitative data from this assay can be used to develop new bioremediation strategies based on bioaugmentation and/or biomimetic materials that imitate the natural ability of bacteria to degrade crude oil.",https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01318/full,Middle school
Biology Articles; Paleoscience Articles,How can we find out about ancient Egyptian germs,"Microbes are everywhere on Earth. Theyre in the soil, the rocks, the oceans, and in your body! The organisms living on you are called your microbiome. Your microbiome is important for your health. We wanted to know if we could use DNA to learn about the microbiome of mummified ancient Egyptian people. We used a new technique that matches up broken pieces of DNA. On the mummies, we found microbes that can cause gum disease. We also found evidence of germs that cause leprosy, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.","Recent advances in sequencing have facilitated large-scale analyses of the metagenomic composition of different samples, including the environmental microbiome of air, water, and soil, as well as the microbiome of living humans and other animals. Analyses of the microbiome of ancient human samples may provide insights into human health and disease, as well as pathogen evolution, but the field is still in its very early stages and considered highly challenging.",https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00839-8,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we grow models of embryos in the lab,Studying embryos is important to understanding how stem cells can form structures that look like blastocysts. We humans develop. It can also help us understand some called these models blastoids. pregnancy complications. But access to embryos is very Blastoids grow and develop at a similar speed as blastocysts. limited. We wanted to find a way to study embryos without They also have the same size and cell composition. They actually needing any! We used stem cells to grow models of are not embryos and cannot develop into an organism. But blastocysts young embryos. Our experiments showed that blastoids are a useful way to study human development.,"Limited access to embryos has hampered the study of human embryogenesis and disorders that occur during early pregnancy. Human pluripotent stem cells provide an alternative means to study human development in a dish1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Recent advances in partial embryo models derived from human pluripotent stem cells have enabled human development to be examined at early post-implantation stages8,9,10,11,12,13,14. However, models of the pre-implantation human blastocyst are lacking. Starting from naive human pluripotent stem cells, here we developed an effective three-dimensional culture strategy with successive lineage differentiation and self-organization to generate blastocyst-like structures in vitro. These structureswhich we term human blastoidsresemble human blastocysts in terms of their morphology, size, cell number, and composition and allocation of different cell lineages. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses also reveal the transcriptomic similarity of blastoids to blastocysts. Human blastoids are amenable to embryonic and extra-embryonic stem cell derivation and can further develop into peri-implantation embryo-like structures in vitro. Using chemical perturbations, we show that specific isozymes of protein kinase C have a critical function in the formation of the blastoid cavity. Human blastoids provide a readily accessible, scalable, versatile and perturbable alternative to blastocysts for studying early human development, understanding early pregnancy loss and gaining insights into early developmental defects.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03356-y,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Chemistry Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we make antimalarial medicine faster,"For most people, getting a mosquito bite is annoying. For others, it could be life-threatening. Mosquitoes are carriers of many diseases, including malaria. According to the World Health Organization, in 2019 there were 229 million cases of malaria worldwide and about 409,000 people died from this disease. This is why scientists are trying to make the antimalarial medicine artemisinin more available.Artemisinin forms from dihydroartemisinic acid (DHAA). In this study, we collected data to see how heat and light affect how fast artemisinin forms from DHAA. We also looked at how the amount and chemical composition of DHAA affect the formation of artemisinin. Our data support the need for an optimal amount of ultraviolet light to produce artemisinin faster. We also discovered that the presence of hydrogen isotopes (deuteriums) on DHAA slows down the process of forming artemisinin. But increasing the amount of DHAA can significantly increase artemisinin production.","Artemisinin is the plant natural product used to treat malaria. The endoperoxide bridge of artemisinin confers its antiparasitic properties. Dihydroartemisinic acid is the biosynthetic precursor of artemisinin that was previously shown to nonenzymatically undergo endoperoxide formation to yield artemisinin. This report discloses the synthesis of [15,15,15-2H3]-dihydroartemisinic acid and its use to determine the mechanism of endoperoxide formation. Several new observations were made: (i) Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) radiation initially accelerates artemisinin formation and subsequently promotes homolytic cleavage of the O-O bond and rearrangement of artemisinin to a different product, and (ii) dideuterated and trideuterated dihydroartemisinic acid isotopologues at C3 and C15 converted to artemisinin at a slower rate compared to nondeuterated dihydroartemisinic acid, revealing a kinetic isotope effect in the initial ene reaction toward endoperoxide formation (kH/kD ? 2-3). (iii) The rate of conversion from dihydroartemisinic acid to artemisinin increased with the amount of dihydroartemisinic acid, suggesting an intermolecular interaction to promote endoperoxide formation, and (iv) 18O2-labeling showed incorporation of three and four oxygen atoms from molecular oxygen into the endoperoxide bridge of artemisinin. These results reveal new insights toward understanding the mechanism of endoperoxide formation in artemisinin biosynthesis.",https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c00246,Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we outsmart Zika virus,"The mosquito-transmitted Zika virus has been in the news a lot lately. Do you know what scientists are doing to protect us from it? When the virus infects pregnant women, it can cause neurological defects in their unborn children. Microcephaly (abnormally small heads) is the worst defect caused by Zika.Currently, there is no cure or vaccine preventing Zika infection. It is hard to develop a vaccine because of a special feature of this virus and its close relatives called antibody-dependent enhancement (more on that later). Thats why we decided to try a new approach against this virus. Instead of a vaccine, we wanted to introduce ready-to-go antibodies that could neutralize the infection. We first found a patient with a natural, strong immune response against Zika virus. We then identified the antibodies that were responsible for this antiviral effect and produced them in the lab. Then, we gave the purified antibodies to four macaques monkeys and injected the animals with Zika virus to see if this treatment can prevent virus replication. Our experiment showed promising results  we found no trace of the virus in the antibody-treated macaques.","Therapies to prevent maternal Zika virus (ZIKV) infection and its subsequent fetal developmental complications are urgently required. We isolated three potent ZIKV-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (nmAbs) from the plasmablasts of a ZIKV-infected patientSMZAb1, SMZAb2, and SMZAb5directed against two different domains of the virus. We engineered these nmAbs with Fc LALA mutations that abrogate Fc receptor binding, thus eliminating potential therapy-mediated antibody-dependent enhancement. We administered a cocktail of these three nmAbs to nonhuman primates 1 day before challenge with ZIKV and demonstrated that the nmAbs completely prevented viremia in serum after challenge. Given that numerous antibodies have exceptional safety profiles in humans, the cocktail described here could be rapidly developed to protect uninfected pregnant women and their fetuses.",http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/410/eaan8184,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How can we protect bananas,"A fungal disease, called Black Sigatoka, is threatening banana crops worldwide. The reason for this is the lack of genetic diversity in commercial bananas  the Cavendish  as all of these bananas are clones. So any disease that can kill one of them can kill them all. And this is the case with Black Sigatoka. Farmers can protect their crops by applying chemicals that kill fungi but this raises production costs and is bad for the environment. To better understand the problem, we explored the relationship between bananas and its pathogen. We found that due to continuous chemical spraying, most of the tested strains of the fungus that causes Black Sigatoka have developed resistance to the chemicals that are supposed to control them. We showed that wild resistant bananas carry resistance genes to Black Sigatoka that work by detecting a specific protein in the fungus. This is a very exciting discovery: disease resistance genes could be used to save the banana industry.","Black Sigatoka or black leaf streak disease, caused by the Dothideomycete fungus Pseudocercospora fijiensis (previously: Mycosphaerella fijiensis), is the most significant foliar disease of banana worldwide. Due to the lack of effective host resistance, management of this disease requires frequent fungicide applications, which greatly increase the economic and environmental costs to produce banana. Weekly applications in most banana plantations lead to rapid evolution of fungicide-resistant strains within populations causing disease-control failures throughout the world. Given its extremely high economic importance, two strains of P. fijiensis were sequenced and assembled with the aid of a new genetic linkage map. The 74-Mb genome of P. fijiensis is massively expanded by LTR retrotransposons, making it the largest genome within the Dothideomycetes. Melting-curve assays suggest that the genomes of two closely related members of the Sigatoka disease complex, P. eumusae and P. musae, also are expanded. Electrophoretic karyotyping and analyses of molecular markers in P. fijiensis field populations showed chromosome-length polymorphisms and high genetic diversity. Genetic differentiation was also detected using neutral markers, suggesting strong selection with limited gene flow at the studied geographic scale. Frequencies of fungicide resistance in fungicide-treated plantations were much higher than those in untreated wild-type P. fijiensis populations. A homologue of the Cladosporium fulvum Avr4 effector, PfAvr4, was identified in the P. fijiensis genome. Infiltration of the purified PfAVR4 protein into leaves of the resistant banana variety Calcutta 4 resulted in a hypersensitive-like response. This result suggests that Calcutta 4 could carry an unknown resistance gene recognizing PfAVR4. Besides adding to our understanding of the overall Dothideomycete genome structures, the P. fijiensis genome will aid in developing fungicide treatment schedules to combat this pathogen and in improving the efficiency of banana breeding programs.",http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005876,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How can we save bananas from a deadly disease,"Have you ever wondered why all bananas in supermarkets look This is because Cavendish bananas do not have an active gene to alike and taste exactly the same? Because almost all exported fight off TR4. However, a wild banana from Indonesia does - the bananas (Musa spp) are of a single cultivar, the Cavendish. Every RGA2 gene. single Cavendish is genetically identical; basically they are all Here, we added the RGA2 gene to Cavendish plants and tested clones! So what? them in fields infested with TR4. Three years later, some of these Cavendish bananas are under a threat from a disease called genetically modified (GM) plants resisted the fungus and stayed Panama disease, also known as Fusarium wilt Tropical Race disease free. That means we may have found a solution to control (TR4) that is caused by a fungus. It is spreading very fast and has TR4 and help millions of people who rely on bananas for food and already destroyed many plantations in Asia and Australia and has income. recently spread to the Middle East and Africa.","Banana (Musaspp.) is a staple food for more than 400 million people. Over 40% of world production and virtually all the export trade is based on Cavendish banana. However, Cavendish banana is under threat from a virulent fungus,Fusarium oxysporumf. sp.cubensetropical race 4 (TR4) for which no acceptable resistant replacement has been identified. Here we report the identification of transgenic Cavendish with resistance to TR4. In our 3-year field trial, two lines of transgenic Cavendish, one transformed withRGA2, a gene isolated from a TR4-resistant diploid banana, and the other with a nematode-derived gene,Ced9, remain disease free. Transgene expression in the RGA2 lines is strongly correlated with resistance. Endogenous RGA2 homologs are also present in Cavendish but are expressed tenfold lower than that in our most resistant transgenic line. The expression of these homologs can potentially be elevated through gene editing, to provide non-transgenic resistance.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01670-6,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Technology Articles,How can we simulate a lab-on-a-chip,"Many chemical and biomedical experiments are conducted in labs that need a lot of space, expensive machinery, and special substances. What if this process could fit onto a tiny chip? Wouldnt that save a lot of time, space and money! So-called labs-on-a-chip (also called biochips) already exist but their design is tedious. Researchers still have to manually calculate a lot of the variables, which leads to the creation of lots of different possible chips, some of which wont prove useful. This trial-and-error approach takes a lot of time and money. What if we could create a virtual biochip before we physically make one  so that we know we are always manufacturing the right one? Here we developed a computer simulation for a lab-on-a-chip and compared its predictions to existing biochips. We found out that our approach is great at its predictions, and chip designers could use it to create reliably useful biochips for lots of different experiments.","The functional performance of passively operated droplet microfluidics is sensitive with respect to the dimensions of the channel network, the fabrication precision as well as the applied pressure because the entire network is coupled together. Especially, the local and global hydrodynamic resistance changes caused by droplets make the task to develop a robust microfluidic design challenging as plenty of interdependencies which all affect the intended behavior have to be considered by the designer. After the design, its functionality is usually validated by fabricating a prototype and testing it with physical experiments. In case that the functionality is not implemented as desired, the designer has to go back, revise the design, and repeat the fabrication as well as experiments. This current design process based on multiple iterations of refining and testing the design produces high costs (financially as well as in terms of time). In this work, we show how a significant amount of those costs can be avoided when applying simulation before fabrication. To this end, we demonstrate how simulations on the 1D circuit analysis model can help in the design process by means of a case study. Therefore, we compare the design process with and without using simulation. As a case study, we use a microfluidic network which is capable of trapping and merging droplets with different content on demand. The case study demonstrates how simulation can help to validate the derived design by considering all local and global hydrodynamic resistance changes. Moreover, the simulations even allow further exploration of different designs which have not been considered before due to the high costs.",https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2018/ra/c8ra05531a,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we trace malaria mosquitoes,"Do you find mosquitoes annoying? Not only can they be quite irritating, but they also carry many deadly diseases. One method to control these diseases is to control the mosquito populations. But we have to know more about them  how many there are, where they are, their mating behavior, etc. To do this, researchers most commonly use the mark-release-recapture technique. Current mosquito markers have some downsides, because they can change the mosquitoes behavior. This is why our research attempted to mark Anopheles mosquitoes with two dyes: rhodamine B and uranine. We found that both dyes are suitable for marking and tracking mosquitos.","Marking mosquitoes is vital for mark-release-recapture and many laboratory studies, but their small size precludes the use of methods that are available for larger animals such as unique identifier tags and radio devices. Fluorescent dust is the most commonly used method to distinguish released individuals from the wild population. Numerous colours and combinations can be used, however, dust sometimes affects longevity and behaviour so alternatives that do not have these effects would contribute substantially. Rhodamine B has previously been demonstrated to be useful for marking adultAedes aegyptimales when added to the sugar meal. Unlike dust, this also marked the seminal fluid making it possible to detect matings by marked males in the spermatheca of females. Here, marking ofAnopheles gambiaesensu stricto with rhodamine B and uranine was performed to estimate their potential contribution.",https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-020-03306-5,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,How can we track mosquitoes And why,"Mosquitoes arent just annoying, they can carry deadly diseases as well. The main way to control these diseases is by controlling mosquito populations. In order to do that, we have to study the ecology of these populations; we have to track the mosquitoes. Mark-release-recapture (MRR) is a great method to estimate the populations size and other information. Mosquito MRR experiments, however, have some limitations as these insects are really small and have short lives. We present mathematical models that address these limitations. Our results indicate a good estimation of the population abundance (number of mosquitoes in a given area).","Background Experiments involving mosquito mark-release-recapture (MRR) design are helpful to determine abundance, survival and even recruitment of mosquito populations in the field. Obstacles in mosquito MRR protocols include marking limitations due to small individual size, short lifespan, low efficiency in capturing devices such as traps, and individual removal upon capture. These limitations usually make MRR analysis restricted to only abundance estimation or a combination of abundance and survivorship, and often generate a great degree of uncertainty about the estimations. Methodology/Principal findings We present a set of Bayesian biodemographic models designed to fit data from most common mosquito recapture experiments. Using both field data and simulations, we consider model features such as capture efficiency, survival rates, removal of individuals due to capturing, and collection of pupae. These models permit estimation of abundance, survivorship of both marked and unmarked mosquitoes, if different, and recruitment rate. We analyze the accuracy of estimates by varying the number of released individuals, abundance, survivorship, and capture efficiency in multiple simulations. These methods can stand capture efficiencies as low as usually reported but their accuracy depends on the number of released mosquitoes, abundance and survivorship. We also show that gathering pupal counts allows estimating differences in survivorship between released mosquitoes and the unmarked population. Conclusion/Significance These models are important both to reduce uncertainty in evaluating MMR experiments and also to help planning future MRR studies.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005682,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we use genetic engineering to get rid of malaria for good,"Nobody likes the buzzing sound or itchy bite of mosquitoes. What if we used genetic engineering? Here we modified But mosquito bites (only females bite, by the way!) are not the genetic makeup of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes (the just irritating: they can carry and spread deadly diseases main carriers of malaria). The mutation prevented females such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and many more. Every from biting and laying eggs. It spread through our caged year, millions of people die from mosquito-borne diseases and populations quickly and drove them extinct. Our results pave most of them are young children. There are ways to get rid the way for lowering mosquito populations in the wild and of mosquitoes and prevent such diseases, but they are not as getting rid of malaria in the future. effective as we would like.","In the human malaria vectorAnopheles gambiae, the genedoublesex(Agdsx) encodes two alternatively spliced transcripts,dsx-female(AgdsxF) anddsx-male(AgdsxM), that control differentiation of the two sexes. The female transcript, unlike the male, contains an exon (exon 5) whose sequence is highly conserved in allAnophelesmosquitoes so far analyzed. We found that CRISPRCas9-targeted disruption of the intron 4exon 5 boundary aimed at blocking the formation of functional AgdsxF did not affect male development or fertility, whereas females homozygous for the disrupted allele showed an intersex phenotype and complete sterility. A CRISPRCas9 gene drive construct targeting this same sequence spread rapidly in caged mosquitoes, reaching 100% prevalence within 711 generations while progressively reducing egg production to the point of total population collapse. Owing to functional constraint of the target sequence, no selection of alleles resistant to the gene drive occurred in these laboratory experiments. Cas9-resistant variants arose in each generation at the target site but did not block the spread of the drive.",https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4245,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How did organoids help scientists understand COVID-19,Have you ever wondered how scientists know how a virus affects the human body? Or how they develop medicines and vaccines to reduce the impact of viruses like the one that causes COVID-19? The answer is organoids! These miniature models of human organs are grown in the laboratory. Scientists use organoids to determine how a virus attacks the body and identify possible treatments for the virus. We conducted a literature review of the organoids used in COVID-19 research. We found that COVID-19 research used many different types of organoids. We also learned how scientists created these organoids and what they taught us about the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We identified ways to improve this new method of disease research in the future.,"Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the deadliest pandemics in history. SARS-CoV-2 not only infects the respiratory tract, but also causes damage to many organs. Organoids, which can self-renew and recapitulate the various physiology of different organs, serve as powerful platforms to model COVID-19. In this Perspective, we overview the current effort to apply both human pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids and adult organoids to study SARS-CoV-2 tropism, host response and immune cell-mediated host damage, and perform drug discovery and vaccine development. We summarize the technologies used in organoid-based COVID-19 research, discuss the remaining challenges and provide future perspectives in the application of organoid models to study SARS-CoV-2 and future emerging viruses.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-022-01453-y#,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How do bacteria help plants,"All plants need nitrogen to grow. Farmers use chemical fertilizers to add nitrogen to the soil. But this creates a lot of problems for the environment. So, scientists have been working on alternative ways to get nitrogen to their plants. We found a way to edit the DNA of rice plants so that they produce a compound that helps the formation of bacterial biofilms in the soil. These bacterial biofilms are very important to plants. They help them to absorb more nitrogen from the air. The edited rice plants in our experiment did grow better!","Improving biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in cereal crops is a long-sought objective; however, no successful modification of cereal crops showing increased BNF has been reported. Here, we described a novel approach in which rice plants were modified to increase the production of compounds that stimulated biofilm formation in soil diazotrophic bacteria, promoted bacterial colonization of plant tissues and improved BNF with increased grain yield at limiting soil nitrogen contents. We first used a chemical screening to identify plant-produced compounds that induced biofilm formation in nitrogen-fixing bacteria and demonstrated that apigenin and other flavones induced BNF. We then used CRISPR-based gene editing targeting apigenin breakdown in rice, increasing plant apigenin contents and apigenin root exudation. When grown at limiting soil nitrogen conditions, modified rice plants displayed increased grain yield. Biofilm production also modified the root microbiome structure, favouring the enrichment of diazotrophic bacteria recruitment. Our results support the manipulation of the flavone biosynthetic pathway as a feasible strategy for the induction of biological nitrogen fixation in cereals and a reduction in the use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pbi.13894,Lower high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How do bacteria in the gut control the brain,"Bacteria are everywhere including our bodies. This is not a of mice which we treated with bifidobacteria only, and bad thing as they help us in many ways. Many studies show compared it to the behavior of mice without any bacteria that gut bacteria have an impact on behavior as well. During and mice that had normal mouse gut bacteria. The germ- the first few months after birth the brain actively develops. At free mice showed many important behavioral differences the same time, bacteria enter from the diet and environment when compared to mice with normal bacteria, and the mice and multiply in the infants gut. As Bifidobacterium species that had only bifidobacteria behaved similarly to the normal (bifidobacteria) are the most common bacteria in the infants mice demonstrating how important these bacteria are. The gut, we wanted to see if these bacteria play a role in the sex of the rodents also played an important role in whether development of brain functions. We examined the behavior bifidobacteria could change their behavior.","Accumulating studies have defined a role for the intestinal microbiota in modulation of host behavior. Research using gnotobiotic mice emphasizes that early microbial colonization with a complex microbiota (conventionalization) can rescue some of the behavioral abnormalities observed in mice that grow to adulthood completely devoid of bacteria (germ-free mice). However, the human infant and adult microbiomes vary greatly, and effects of the neonatal microbiome on neurodevelopment are currently not well understood. Microbe-mediated modulation of neural circuit patterning in the brain during neurodevelopment may have significant long-term implications that we are only beginning to appreciate. Modulation of the host central nervous system by the early-life microbiota is predicted to have pervasive and lasting effects on brain function and behavior. We sought to replicate this early microbe-host interaction by colonizing gnotobiotic mice at the neonatal stage with a simplified model of the human infant gut microbiota. This model consortium consisted of four infant-type Bifidobacterium species known to be commensal members of the human infant microbiota present in high abundance during postnatal development. Germ-free mice and mice neonatally-colonized with a complex, conventional murine microbiota were used for comparison. Motor and non-motor behaviors of the mice were tested at 67 weeks of age, and colonization patterns were characterized by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Adult germ-free mice were observed to have abnormal memory, sociability, anxiety-like behaviors, and motor performance. Conventionalization at the neonatal stage rescued these behavioral abnormalities, and mice colonized with Bifidobacterium spp. also exhibited important behavioral differences relative to the germ-free controls. The ability of Bifidobacterium spp. to improve the recognition memory of both male and female germ-free mice was a prominent finding. Together, these data demonstrate that the early-life gut microbiome, and human infant-type Bifidobacterium species, affect adult behavior in a strongly sex-dependent manner, and can selectively recapitulate the results observed when mice are colonized with a complex microbiota.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196510,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Chemistry Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles,How do chemicals affect animals and their kids,"Our endocrine system is very bossy. It controls many things in our bodies, like growth or mood. Sadly, there are chemicals that interfere with this important system. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are all around us. Their negative effects can even pass on to future generations. How does this happen? We reviewed many articles on endocrine disruptors and their effects on various animals. These chemicals have negative effects on fish, frogs, birds and mammals. Sometimes the effects pass on to many generations. However, the mechanism for this transfer is not genetic but most likely epigenetic.","A wide range of chemicals have been identified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in vertebrate species. Most studies of EDCs have focused on exposure of both male and female adults to these chemicals; however, there is clear evidence that EDCs have dramatic effects when mature or developing gametes are exposed, and consequently are associated with in multigenerational and transgenerational effects. Several publications have reviewed such actions of EDCs in subgroups of species, e.g., fish or rodents. In this review, we take a holistic approach synthesizing knowledge of the effects of EDCs across vertebrate species, including fish, anurans, birds, and mammals, and discuss the potential mechanism(s) mediating such multi- and transgenerational effects. We also propose a series of recommendations aimed at moving the field forward in a structured and coherent manner.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512101358X,Middle school
Biology Articles,How do glassfrogs become transparent,"Glassfrogs earned their name not because they are fragile, but because they are see-through! These tropical frogs have transparent skin and muscles. When sleeping on green leaves, their bodies are almost impossible to see. This form of camouflage is rare. Most animals have colorful red blood cells that would be visible under transparent skin and give them away to predators. We used a special scanner to figure out how glassfrogs overcome this challenge. We discovered that these frogs are more transparent when they sleep than when they are active. They do this by hiding most of their red blood cells in their livers during sleep! This makes them nearly transparent to predators. Our results help explain how glassfrogs can manage this unusual kind of camouflage. This finding may also help doctors treat medical conditions in humans.","Transparency in animals is a complex form of camouflage involving mechanisms that reduce light scattering and absorption throughout the organism. In vertebrates, attaining transparency is difficult because their circulatory system is full of red blood cells (RBCs) that strongly attenuate light. Here, we document how glassfrogs overcome this challenge by concealing these cells from view. Using photoacoustic imaging to track RBCs in vivo, we show that resting glassfrogs increase transparency two- to threefold by removing ~89% of their RBCs from circulation and packing them within their liver. Vertebrate transparency thus requires both see-through tissues and active mechanisms that clear respiratory pigments from these tissues. Furthermore, glassfrogs ability to regulate the location, density, and packing of RBCs without clotting offers insight in metabolic, hemodynamic, and blood-clot research.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl6620,Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How do microbes shape fruit fly fitness,"Did you know that you are never alone in your own body? Like with all animals, your body provides a home for a community of microbes, making it a microbiome. Microbiomes impact their hosts ability to survive, age, and produce offspring. An important question is how each bacterial species affects our health. But with hundreds of species in our gut, it is difficult to single out any one in particular. Any species could have a direct effect on us, or the effects could be due to interactions between species. How do we unravel this complexity?  To explore how microbes impact their host, we looked at the Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly. It has only five bacterial species in its gut making it much simpler to study than a human. We examined a fly without bacteria and with every possible combination of the five bacterial species. We found that the species present in the gut and the interactions between them both affect the fly. This finding suggests that humans might also be impacted by the complex microbe interactions in their gut.","Significance All animals have associated microbial communities called microbiomes that influence the physiology and fitness of their host. It is unclear to what extent individual microbial species versus interactions between them influence the host. Here, we mapped all possible interactions between individual species of bacteria against Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly fitness traits. Our approach revealed that the same bacterial interactions that shape microbiome abundances also shape host fitness traits. The fitness traits of lifespan and fecundity showed a life history tradeoff, where equal total fitness can be gotten by either high fecundity over a short life or low fecundity over a long life. The microbiome interactions are as important as the individual species in shaping these fundamental aspects of fly physiology. Gut bacteria can affect key aspects of host fitness, such as development, fecundity, and lifespan, while the host, in turn, shapes the gut microbiome. However, it is unclear to what extent individual species versus community interactions within the microbiome are linked to host fitness. Here, we combinatorially dissect the natural microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster and reveal that interactions between bacteria shape host fitness through life history tradeoffs. Empirically, we made germ-free flies colonized with each possible combination of the five core species of fly gut bacteria. We measured the resulting bacterial community abundances and fly fitness traits, including development, reproduction, and lifespan. The fly gut promoted bacterial diversity, which, in turn, accelerated development, reproduction, and aging: Flies that reproduced more died sooner. From these measurements, we calculated the impact of bacterial interactions on fly fitness by adapting the mathematics of genetic epistasis to the microbiome. Development and fecundity converged with higher diversity, suggesting minimal dependence on interactions. However, host lifespan and microbiome abundances were highly dependent on interactions between bacterial species. Higher-order interactions (involving three, four, and five species) occurred in 1344% of possible cases depending on the trait, with the same interactions affecting multiple traits, a reflection of the life history tradeoff. Overall, we found these interactions were frequently context-dependent and often had the same magnitude as individual species themselves, indicating that the interactions can be as important as the individual species in gut microbiomes.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809349115,Lower high school
Biology Articles,How do nematodes learn to find a host,"Parasites live in, or on, other organisms. All parasites want wanted to see if past experience with some volatiles changes to find and successfully infect a host so that they can the infection behavior of nematodes. We treated the host live and reproduce. Its hard and risky for an individual environment with different concentrations of two volatiles parasite to infect a host a group attack is a safer option. known to have an influence on nematodes and observed Insect-infecting nematodes use this strategy by following the infection success. Our experiments showed us that the environmental signals, such as plant volatiles (scents). We nematodes past experience alters their infection behavior.","Nematode parasites rely on successful host infection to perpetuate their species. Infection by individual nematode parasites can be risky, however; any one individual could be killed by the hosts immune response. Here we use a model system to show that environmental cues and parasite past experience can be used by entomopathogenic nematodes to reduce individual risk of infection. Past parasite experience can more than double the infective virulence (number of host invaders) of a given cohort of entomopathogenic nematode parasites. This plasticity in individual parasite risk-taking and associated infection can be used to manage infection of parasitic nematodes: enhancing biological control with entomopathogenic nematodes and developing behavioral and chemical strategies to reduce infection by vertebrate and plant parasitic nematodes.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205804,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,How do ravens thinking skills compare with apes,"Ravens behave in ways that suggest they are really know more about ravens intelligence, and we wanted to be smart. Most scientists studying animal intelligence focus able to compare ravens and great apes. So, we changed the on monkeys and apes like macaques and chimpanzees. set of puzzles to make sure they could be solved by a bird One group of scientists made a set of puzzles that tested using a beak instead of fingers. We found that ravens did primates physical and social thinking skills. We wanted to just as well as the apes on almost all of the puzzles!","Human children show unique cognitive skills for dealing with the social world but their cognitive performance is paralleled by great apes in many tasks dealing with the physical world. Recent studies suggested that members of a songbird familycorvidsalso evolved complex cognitive skills but a detailed understanding of the full scope of their cognition was, until now, not existent. Furthermore, relatively little is known about their cognitive development. Here, we conducted the first systematic, quantitative large-scale assessment of physical and social cognitive performance of common ravens with a special focus on development. To do so, we fine-tuned one of the most comprehensive experimental test-batteries, the Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB), to raven features enabling also a direct, quantitative comparison with thecognitive performance of two great ape species. Full-blown cognitive skills were already present at the age of four months with subadult ravens cognitive performance appearing very similar to that of adult apes in tasks of physical (quantities, and causality) and social cognition (social learning, communication, and theory of mind). These unprecedented findings strengthen recent assessments of ravens general intelligence, and aid to the growing evidence that the lack of a specific cortical architecture does not hinder advanced cognitive skills. Difficulties in certain cognitive scales further emphasize the quest to develop comparative test batteries that tap into true species rather than human specific cognitive skills, and suggest that socialization of test individuals may play a crucial role. We conclude to pay more attention to the impact of personality on cognitive output, and a currently neglected topic in Animal Cognitionthe linkage between ontogeny and cognitive performance.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77060-8,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,How do some fungi turn insects into zombies,"Did you know that certain fungi can turn insects into zombies,just like in the movies? These ""zombie-making"" fungi control the insects behavior and make their hosts do strange things like walking a long way, climbing tall plants, and hanging onto high surfaces. This is so the fungi can make their infectious spores spread further. There are many types of zombie-making fungi, and most have evolved independently. Yet they change the insects behavior in a similar way. How do they do this and why is it so common? We reviewed previous studies on zombie-making fungi to search for an answer. These fungi use both mechanical and chemical processes to control their hosts. And while the changed behavior is very similar, the ways they achieve it vary greatly among the different species of zombie-making fungi. Each one has its own unique way of manipulating insects to change the same behaviors! We believe these same behaviors are changed by all these different fungal species because these manipulations are the best way to infect as many other hosts as possible.","Transmission is a crucial step in all pathogen life cycles. As such, certain species have evolved complex traits that increase their chances to find and invade new hosts. Fungal species that hijack insect behaviors are evident examples. Many of these zombie-making entomopathogens cause their hosts to exhibit heightened activity, seek out elevated positions, and display body postures that promote spore dispersal, all with specific circadian timing. Answering how fungal entomopathogens manipulate their hosts will increase our understanding of molecular aspects underlying fungus-insect interactions, pathogen-host coevolution, and the regulation of animal behavior. It may also lead to the discovery of novel bioactive compounds, given that the fungi involved have traditionally been understudied. This minireview summarizes and discusses recent work on zombie-making fungi of the orders Hypocreales and Entomophthorales that has resulted in hypotheses regarding the mechanisms that drive fungal manipulation of insect behavior. We discuss mechanical processes, host chemical signaling pathways, and fungal secreted effectors proposed to be involved in establishing pathogen-adaptive behaviors. Additionally, we touch on effectors possible modes of action and how the convergent evolution of host manipulation could have given rise to the many parallels in observed behaviors across fungus-insect systems and beyond. However, the hypothesized mechanisms of behavior manipulation have yet to be proven. We, therefore, also suggest avenues of research that would move the field toward a more quantitative future.",https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01872-21,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,How do termites divide the work,"What do you know about termites? Perhaps youve We wanted to identify the specific individuals who are heard that some termites can infest your home. But the most active during the start and expansion of tunnel there are many different species out there. For example, construction. We monitored five groups of termites for subterranean termites make tunnels in the soil to look for three days and found that it was usually three individuals food. Like other social insects, termites divide their tasks who do most of the work all the time. We believe that these by assigning them to different groups. So how do they top busy workers are also responsible for the organization organize the tunnel construction? of the tunnel network.","This study provided a detailed analysis of the tunneling behavior of 30 marked individuals by examining the role of each individual in tunnel excavation on three consecutive days. The objective of this study was to identify the specific individuals that were the most active in the initiation of a new tunnel on the first day in order to determine if these specific individuals continued to play a key role in tunnel excavation as the tunnel expanded on the second day. In addition, this study examined the behavior of the same group of individuals in the initiation of a new tunnel on the third day. Overall, there was an average of three individuals transporting > 20 loads of sand, 13 individuals transporting between 1 and 20 loads, and 14 individuals that did not transport any loads during each 2-h observation period. Top excavators during tunnel initiation were significantly more likely to continue to be top excavators during tunnel expansion than other individuals. These top excavators were also more likely to perform the most work in the excavation of a new tunnel on the third day. These results demonstrate that specific individuals remain highly active for at least 3 days which provides further evidence that top excavators act as organizers in determining the orientation and branching patterns in the tunneling networks of C. formosanus.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S122686151500093X,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,How do viruses trick their hosts into feeding them,"Scientists estimate that mammals can be infected with more than 300 thousand virus species! All organisms need energy, but simple microorganisms like viruses cannot produce their own energy. Instead, viruses survive by redirecting energy from a host organism to their own benefit. Normally, viruses survive by infecting cells and forcing them to produce more viruses. However, we have discovered a new class of viruses that redirect energy in a unique and fascinating way! These viruses are able to trick their host organism by producing their own version of insulin, called viral insulin. This viral insulin is like a wolf in sheeps clothing because the host organism cannot tell the difference between its own insulin and the viral insulin.","Lymphocystis disease virus-1 (LCDV-1) and several other Iridoviridae encode viral insulin/IGF-1 like peptides (VILPs) with high homology to human insulin and IGFs. Here we show that while single-chain (sc) and double-chain (dc) LCDV1-VILPs have very low affinity for the insulin receptor, scLCDV1-VILP has high affinity for IGF1R where it can antagonize human IGF-1 signaling, without altering insulin signaling. Consequently, scLCDV1-VILP inhibits IGF-1 induced cell proliferation and growth hormone/IGF-1 induced growth of mice in vivo. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals that scLCDV1-VILP engages IGF1R in a unique manner, inducing changes in IGF1R conformation that led to separation, rather than juxtaposition, of the transmembrane segments and hence inactivation of the receptor. Thus, scLCDV1-VILP is a natural peptide with specific antagonist properties on IGF1R signaling and may provide a new tool to guide development of hormonal analogues to treat cancers or metabolic disorders sensitive to IGF-1 without affecting glucose metabolism.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34391-6,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Chemistry Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How does a plant make an antimalarial medicine,"If you think using plants to cure disease is a thing of the converts another molecule (DHAA) into artemisinin. But past, think again! Today, many medicines in drugstores no one understood how! Here, we solved this biology contain chemicals from medicinal plants. An herb called problem using chemistry. We tagged DHAA molecules by sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) is one of them. Sweet developing a set of chemical reactions. Using technology, wormwood is a very effective medicine to treat malaria, we then monitored the conversion of DHAA to artemisinin. the worlds deadliest disease. The active ingredient, We found this conversion happens spontaneously, without artemisinin, kills malaria-causing parasites faster than any enzymes. Also, it occurs faster in the presence of light. Our other medicine. We wanted to understand exactly how this understanding of artemisinin formation can help us develop plant makes artemisinin. We knew that sweet wormwood better malaria medicines in laboratories.","Dihydroartemisinic acid is the biosynthetic precursor to artemisinin, the endoperoxide-containing natural product used to treat malaria. The conversion of dihydroartemisinic acid to artemisinin is a cascade reaction that involves CC bond cleavage, hydroperoxide incorporation, and polycyclization to form the endoperoxide. Whether or not this reaction is enzymatically controlled has been controversial. A method was developed to quantify the nonenzymatic conversion of dihydroartemisinic acid to artemisinin using LC-MS. A seven-step synthesis of 3,3-dideuterodihydroartemisinic acid (23) was accomplished beginning with dihydroartemisinic acid (1). The nonenzymatic rates of formation of 3,3-dideuteroartemisinin (24) from 3,3-dideuterodihydroartemisinic acid (23) were 1400 ng/day with light and 32 ng/day without light. Moreover, an unexpected formation of nondeuterated artemisinin (3) from 3,3-dideuterodihydroartemisinic acid (23) was detected in both the presence and absence of light. This formation of nondeuterated artemisinin (3) from its dideuterated precursor (23) suggests an alternative mechanistic pathway that operates independent of light to form artemisinin, involving the loss of the two C-3 deuterium atoms.",https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.9b00686,Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How does pregnancy change mothers behavior,"Pregnancy changes a lot of things in a mother: the body goes through many transformations trying to adapt to the needs of the baby. The mothers behavior changes as well, as she has to care for her newborn. There is some indirect evidence that the baby (through its genes) could instruct the mothers brain and alter her behavior even before it is born. But is this really true? We have previously found a gene that controls the number of hormones produced by the placenta, an organ that connects the developing embryo to the mother. To test if the embryos could affect the mothers behavior, we conducted a series of experiments on mice who were pregnant with embryos expressing different doses of this gene. Indeed, mothers exposed to higher doses of the gene preferred nest-building over baby nursing.","In mammals, mothers are the primary caregiver, programmed, in part, by hormones produced during pregnancy. High-quality maternal care is essential for the survival and lifelong health of offspring. We previously showed that the paternally silenced imprinted gene pleckstrin homology-like domain family A member 2 (Phlda2) functions to negatively regulate a single lineage in the mouse placenta called the spongiotrophoblast, a major source of hormones in pregnancy. Consequently, the offsprings Phlda2 gene dosage may influence the quality of care provided by the mother. Here, we show that wild-type (WT) female mice exposed to offspring with three different doses of the maternally expressed Phlda2 genetwo active alleles, one active allele (the extant state), and loss of functionshow changes in the maternal hypothalamus and hippocampus during pregnancy, regions important for maternal-care behaviour. After birth, WT dams exposed in utero to offspring with the highest Phlda2 dose exhibit decreased nursing and grooming of pups and increased focus on nest building. Conversely, paternalised dams, exposed to the lowest Phlda2 dose, showed increased nurturing of their pups, increased self-directed behaviour, and a decreased focus on nest building, behaviour that was robustly maintained in the absence of genetically modified pups. This work raises the intriguing possibility that imprinting of Phlda2 contributed to increased maternal care during the evolution of mammals.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006599,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How is Cannabis connected to leishmaniasis infections,"When you think about dangerous animals, what comes to term organ damage or even death. This makes preventing mind? Spiders? Killer bees? Think smaller the most deadly new infections very important. insects are mosquitoes and flies! Pathogens transmitted by This is why we wanted to know what exactly sand flies eat. mosquito bites kill half a million people every year. Sand fly females suck blood but both males and females Phlebotomine sand flies may not look very scary. Theyre also feed on plant sap. We collected five species of sand only millimeters long! But they infect more than a million flies from five different countries. We were surprised in people with Leishmania parasites every year. Early diagnosis all but one site sand flies fed on a plant which is illegal for and treatment can cure leishmaniasis infections. But it can farmers to cultivate ...Cannabis sativa!","Blood-sucking phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) transmit leishmaniasis as well as arboviral diseases and bartonellosis. Sand fly females become infected with Leishmania parasites and transmit them while imbibing vertebrates blood, required as a source of protein for maturation of eggs. In addition, both females and males consume plant-derived sugar meals as a source of energy. Plant meals may comprise sugary solutions such as nectar or honeydew (secreted by plant-sucking homopteran insects), as well as phloem sap that sand flies obtain by piercing leaves and stems with their needle-like mouthparts. Hence, the structure of plant communities can influence the distribution and epidemiology of leishmaniasis. We designed a next-generation sequencing (NGS)based assay for determining the source of sand fly plant meals, based upon the chloroplast DNA gene ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large chain (rbcL). Here, we report on the predilection of several sand fly species, vectors of leishmaniasis in different parts of the world, for feeding on Cannabis sativa. We infer this preference based on the substantial percentage of sand flies that had fed on C. sativa plants despite the apparent absence of these plants from most of the field sites. We discuss the conceivable implications of the affinity of sand flies for C. sativa on their vectorial capacity for Leishmania and the putative exploitation of their attraction to C. sativa for the control of sand fly-borne diseases.",https://www.pnas.org/content/115/46/11790,Lower high school
Biology Articles; Paleoscience Articles,What can ancient DNA tell us about Stone Age people,"Archaeologists digging in Bacho Kiro Cave in where their descendants ended up. Surprisingly, Bulgaria found bones from people who lived , even though the bones were found in Europe, their years ago. This period is known as the early Upper DNA had more in common with people from East Paleolithic. It was an exciting time for human Asia and Native Americans. We also found that all evolution as humans took a big jump forward in art the individuals whose remains were found in Bacho and technology. Its also a time when Neanderthals Kiro Cave had Neanderthal ancestors only a few were still around. generations back. That means that not only did Stone Age humans and Neanderthals know about We wanted to know what these peoples DNA could each other, they sometimes had children together. tell us about where their ancestors came from and","Modern humans appeared in Europe by at least 45,000 years ago1,2,3,4,5, but the extent of their interactions with Neanderthals, who disappeared by about 40,000 years ago6, and their relationship to the broader expansion of modern humans outside Africa are poorly understood. Here we present genome-wide data from three individuals dated to between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria1,2. They are the earliest Late Pleistocene modern humans known to have been recovered in Europe so far, and were found in association with an Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefact assemblage. Unlike two previously studied individuals of similar ages from Romania7and Siberia8who did not contribute detectably to later populations, these individuals are more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations. This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record, and provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia. Moreover, we find that all three individuals had Neanderthal ancestors a few generations back in their family history, confirming that the first European modern humans mixed with Neanderthals and suggesting that such mixing could have been common.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03335-3,Lower high school
Biology Articles; Chemistry Articles; Pollution Articles,What can tree frogs in Chernobyl tell us about radiation,"Have you ever heard of Chernobyl? It was a nuclear power plant that released large amounts of radiation into the environment after an accident. While the people nearby left the area, the wildlife remained. Many plants and animals died because of the high levels of radiation. But others, such as tree frogs, adapted. We collected tree frogs from different areas surrounding the Chernobyl power plant. We analyzed their skin coloration. We found that the frogs closer to the power plant had darker skin coloration. Thats because they have higher levels of melanin. Melanin is known to protect organisms from radiation. We think that darker colored frogs better survived the higher levels of radiation closer to the power plant.","Human actions are altering ecosystems worldwide. Among human-released pollutants, ionizing radiation arises as a rare but potentially devastating threat to natural systems. The Chornobyl accident (1986) represents the largest release of radioactive material to the environment. Our aim was to examine how exposure to radiation from the Chornobyl accident influences dorsal skin coloration of Eastern tree frog (Hyla orientalis) males sampled across a wide gradient of radioactive contamination in northern Ukraine. We assessed the relationship between skin frog coloration (which can act as a protective mechanism against ionizing radiation), radiation conditions and oxidative stress levels. Skin coloration was darker in localities closest to areas with high radiation levels at the time of the accident, whereas current radiation levels seemed not to influence skin coloration in Chornobyl tree frogs. Tree frogs living within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone had a remarkably darker dorsal skin coloration than frogs from outside the Zone. The maintenance of dark skin coloration was not linked to physiological costs in terms of frog body condition or oxidative status, and we did not detect short-term changes in frog coloration. Dark coloration is known to protect against different sources of radiation by neutralizing free radicals and reducing DNA damage, and, particularly melanin pigmentation has been proposed as a buffering mechanism against ionizing radiation. Our results suggest that exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation, likely at the time of the accident, may have been selected for darker coloration in Chornobyl tree frogs. Further studies are needed to determine the underlying mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of the patterns found here.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.13476,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,What can we learn about aging from naked mole-rats,Did you know that naked mole-rats dont age the same way humans and other mammals do? These incredible rodents dont seem to age physically and they are resistant to age-related diseases. Thats why they can live over 30 years! Scientists are trying to understand how aging works in naked mole-rats so that they can better understand aging in humans. We conducted a DNA analysis of naked mole-rat tissue to find out if their DNA shows signs of aging. We discovered that naked mole-rats do age on a molecular level like other mammals. Identifying where the DNA changed in naked mole-rats allowed us to predict what effects these changes might have on the body. We also found that members of a naked mole-rat community age faster than their queen.,"Naked mole rats (NMRs) live an exceptionally long life, appear not to exhibit age-related decline in physiological capacity and are resistant to age-related diseases. However, it has been unknown whether NMRs also evade aging according to a primary hallmark of aging: epigenetic changes. To address this question, we profiledn=?385 samples from 11 tissue types at loci that are highly conserved between mammalian species using a custom array (HorvathMammalMethylChip40). We observed strong epigenetic aging effects and developed seven highly accurate epigenetic clocks for several tissues (pan-tissue, blood, kidney, liver, skin clocks) and two dual-species (humanNMR) clocks. The skin clock correctly estimated induced pluripotent stem cells derived from NMR fibroblasts to be of prenatal age. The NMR epigenetic clocks revealed that breeding NMR queens age more slowly than nonbreeders, a feature that is also observed in some eusocial insects. Our results show that despite a phenotype of negligible senescence, the NMR ages epigenetically.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00152-1,Elementary school; Middle school
Biology Articles,What causes lizards brains to change size,"Imagine you owned a patch of land, but couldnt put up territory, he has to be able to remember what belongs to any fences. How would you remember what was yours and him and what doesnt! Otherwise he will risk getting into what belonged to your neighbor? lots of fights with other territorial male neighbors. Many animal species protect areas of land, which we call A special part of the brain processes the memory of spaces their territories. By keeping competitors off their land, and locations. We ran an experiment on lizards to see what a territorial male is able to mate with any females that caused this part of the brain to change size. The results live there. As well as being strong enough to defend his were not what we expected!","Variation in an animal's spatial environment can induce variation in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in spatial cognitive processing. Specifically, increased spatial area use is correlated with increased hippocampal attributes, such as volume and neurogenesis. In the side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana), males demonstrate alternative reproductive tactics and are either territorialdefending large, clearly defined spatial boundariesor non-territorialtraversing home ranges that are smaller than the territorial males' territories. Our previous work demonstrated cortical volume (reptilian hippocampal homolog) correlates with these spatial niches. We found that territorial holders have larger medial cortices than non-territory holders, yet these differences in the neural architecture demonstrated some degree of plasticity as well. Although we have demonstrated a link among territoriality, spatial use, and brain plasticity, the mechanisms that underlie this relationship are unclear. Previous studies found that higher testosterone levels can induce increased use of the spatial area and can cause an upregulation in hippocampal attributes. Thus, testosterone may be the mechanistic link between spatial area use and the brain. What remains unclear, however, is if testosterone can affect the cortices independent of spatial experiences and whether testosterone differentially interacts with territorial status to produce the resultant cortical phenotype. In this study, we compared neurogenesis as measured by the total number of doublecortin-positive cells and cortical volume between territorial and non-territorial males supplemented with testosterone. We found no significant differences in the number of doublecortin-positive cells or cortical volume among control territorial, control non-territorial, and testosterone-supplemented non-territorial males, while testosterone-supplemented territorial males had smaller medial cortices containing fewer doublecortin-positive cells. These results demonstrate that testosterone can modulate medial cortical attributes outside of differential spatial processing experiences but that territorial males appear to be more sensitive to alterations in testosterone levels compared with non-territorial males.",https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2017.00097,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,What does hummingbird coloration tell us about competition,"Have you ever wondered why animals look different from they are left alone to eat. We wanted to know if fancy females each other? Think of a rooster compared to a hen. Usually just look fancy. Or are they actually better competitors? theres a reason those differences have evolved. We found that fancy females were more like other females. We looked at hummingbirds to learn more about their colors. Fancy females are mimicking male color patterns. This is the Some females have a fancy color pattern like the males do. first time weve seen females mimicking males to get the The males are aggressive. Fancy females look like males, so advantages of a dominant form.","Female-limited polymorphisms, where females have multiple forms but males have only one, have been described in a variety of animals, yet are difficult to explain because selection typically is expected to decrease rather than maintain diversity. In the white-necked jacobin (Florisuga mellivora), all males and approximately 20% of females express an ornamented plumage type (androchromic), while other females are non-ornamented (heterochromic). Androchrome females benefit from reduced social harassment, but it remains unclear why both morphs persist. Female morphs may represent balanced alternative behavioural strategies, but an alternative hypothesis is that androchrome females are mimicking males. Here, we test a critical prediction of these hypotheses by measuring morphological, physiological and behavioural traits that relate to resource-holding potential (RHP), or competitive ability. In all these traits, we find little difference between female types, but higher RHP in males. These results, together with previous findings in this species, indicate that androchrome females increase access to food resources through mimicry of more aggressive males. Importantly, the mimicry hypothesis provides a clear theoretical pathway for polymorphism maintenance through frequency-dependent selection. Social dominance mimicry, long suspected to operate between species, can therefore also operate within species, leading to polymorphism and perhaps similarities between sexes more generally.",https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2022.0332,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,What happens if we take laboratory mice outside,"Do you know what a mouse model is? The bodies of humans impacts the ability of mice to fight off intestinal worms. and mice have a lot in common. So scientists often use mice We took our laboratory-born mice outdoors to dig in dirt, (Mus musculus) as a model organism (or stand-in) to mimic search for food, and live like wild mice. But when we gave human diseases and discover how the body can stay healthy. them intestinal worms, the mice that lived outdoors couldnt Scientists usually keep mice in super clean environments clear the infection as well as indoor mice. In fact, the mice and test them under constant conditions. But most humans that lived outdoors the longest developed fatter and longer dont live in labs! So how well can a mouse model represent worms in their guts. Our outdoor mouse model shows the real life? We decided to test how a realistic environment effects of the environment on experimental results.","Genetic and environmental factors shape host susceptibility to infection, but how and how rapidly environmental variation might alter the susceptibility of mammalian genotypes remains unknown. Here, we investigate the impacts of seminatural environments upon the nematode susceptibility profiles of inbred C57BL/6 mice. We hypothesized that natural exposure to microbes might directly (e.g., via trophic interactions) or indirectly (e.g., via microbe-induced immune responses) alter the hatching, growth, and survival of nematodes in mice housed outdoors. We found that while C57BL/6 mice are resistant to high doses of nematode (Trichuris muris) eggs under clean laboratory conditions, exposure to outdoor environments significantly increased their susceptibility to infection, as evidenced by increased worm burdens and worm biomass. Indeed, mice kept outdoors harbored as many worms as signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) knockout mice, which are genetically deficient in the type 2 immune response essential for clearing nematodes. Using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing of fecal samples, we discovered enhanced microbial diversity and specific bacterial taxa predictive of nematode burden in outdoor mice. We also observed decreased type 2 and increased type 1 immune responses in lamina propria and mesenteric lymph node (MLN) cells from infected mice residing outdoors. Importantly, in our experimental design, different groups of mice received nematode eggs either before or after moving outdoors. This contrasting timing of rewilding revealed that enhanced hatching of worms was not sufficient to explain the increased worm burdens; instead, microbial enhancement and type 1 immune facilitation of worm growth and survival, as hypothesized, were also necessary to explain our results. These findings demonstrate that environment can rapidly and significantly shape gut microbial communities and mucosal responses to nematode infections, leading to variation in parasite expulsion rates among genetically similar hosts.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004108,Elementary school; Middle school
Biology Articles,What happens to mother bees brains as they age,"Youre probably familiar with honeybees and bumblebees. But did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees, and most of them are solitary? In worker honeybees, certain brain areas grow larger as the insects get older and have more experiences. We wanted to know if this was also the case for solitary bees. We studied a particular type of solitary carpenter bee named Ceratina calcarata. We collected female bees of three different ages. Then we measured their brains and other body parts under a microscope. As expected, older female bees had smaller ovaries and more worn wings. But surprisingly, older bees had smaller brains than younger bees. We think that female C. calcarata bees invest their energy and resources into reproduction, rather than growing bigger brains.","Many insects show plasticity in the area of the brain called the mushroom bodies (MB) with foraging and social experience. MBs are paired neuropils associated with learning and memory. MB volume is typically greater in mature foragers relative to young and/or inexperienced individuals. Long-term studies show that extended experience may further increase MB volume, but long-term studies have only been performed on non-reproductive social insect workers. Here we use the subsocial beeCeratina calcaratato test the effect of extended foraging experience on MB volume among reproductive females.Ceratina calcaratafemales forage to provision their immature offspring in the spring, and then again to provision their adult daughters in the late summer. We measured the volume of the MB calyces and peduncle, antennal lobes (AL), optic lobes (OL), central complex (CX), and whole brains of three groups of bees: newly emerged females, reproductive females in spring (foundresses), and post-reproductive mothers feeding their adult daughters in late summer. Post-reproductive late summer mothers had smaller MB calyces and ALs than foundresses. Moreover, among late mothers (but not other bees), wing wear, which is a measure of foraging experience, negatively correlated with both MB and OL volume. This is contrary to previously studied non-reproductive social insect workers in which foraging experience correlates postiviely with MB volume, and suggests that post-reproductive bees may reduce neural investment near the end of their lives.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12281-7,Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,What happens to our immune cells as we get older,"Our immune system fights off lots of infections which could We wanted to know how T cell numbers manage to stay so harm us. T cells are an important part of the immune system. stable. We used data from experiments performed on mice They recognize different infections and protect us from them. to test a variety of potential ways they might do this, using Our body makes lots of T cells when we are young, but slows mathematical models. Our experiments and models show that down production after puberty. Nevertheless, the numbers of T cells gradually increase their ability to survive the longer these cells in our body stays the same even when we are old. they stay in the blood system.","The processes regulating peripheral naive T-cell numbers and clonal diversity remain poorly understood. Conceptually, homeostatic mechanisms must fall into the broad categories of neutral (simple random birthdeath models), competition (regulation of cell numbers through quorum-sensing, perhaps via limiting shared resources), adaptation (involving cell-intrinsic changes in homeostatic fitness, defined as net growth rate over time), or selection (involving the loss or outgrowth of cell populations deriving from intercellular variation in fitness). There may also be stably maintained heterogeneity within the naive T-cell pool. To distinguish between these mechanisms, we confront very general models of these processes with an array of experimental data, both new and published. While reduced competition for homeostatic stimuli may impact cell survival or proliferation in neonates or under moderate to severe lymphopenia, we show that the only mechanism capable of explaining multiple, independent experimental studies of naive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell homeostasis in mice from young adulthood into old age is one of adaptation, in which cells act independently and accrue a survival or proliferative advantage continuously with their post-thymic age. However, aged naive T cells may also be functionally impaired, and so the accumulation of older cells via conditioning through experience may contribute to reduced immune responsiveness in the elderly.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003949,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,What helps plants get just the right amount of iron,"Some things are crucial for life in small doses, but too much much of it they take in. How exactly do plants do this? of it can be harmful or even fatal. Take salt, for example. We looked at how the normal version and a mutant form of We cannot survive without it, but it can poison or even Thale cress regulate their iron uptake by comparing their kill us if we eat too much of it. Iron works similarly for gene products, root growth, and the amount and location many organisms, including plants. Plants cannot grow of chemical gene tags. We found that epigenetic factors or function without it, but too much iron can do a lot of are involved in controlling iron uptake. Read on to find out damage. Therefore, they need to carefully regulate how exactly what that means!","Iron is an essential micronutrient for nearly all organisms, but excessive iron can lead to the formation of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species. Therefore, iron acquisition and homeostasis must be tightly regulated. Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to optimize their use of iron, which is one of the most limiting nutrients in the soil. In particular, transcriptional regulation is vital for regulating iron in plants, and much work has revealed the role of transcription factors on this front. Our study adds novel insights to the transcriptional regulation of iron homeostasis in plants by showing that chromatin remodeling via histone 3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) modulates the expression of FIT-dependent genes under iron deficiency. We provide evidence that FIT-dependent iron acquisition genes, IRT1 and FRO2, as well as FIT itself are direct targets of PRC2-mediated H3K27me3. In the clf mutant, which lacks the predominant H3K27 tri-methyltransferase, induction of FIT, FRO2, IRT1, and other FIT-regulated genes in roots is significantly higher under iron deficient conditions than in wild type. Furthermore, we observe that clf mutants are more tolerant to iron deficiency than wild type, indicating that gene expression levels appear to be limiting the plants ability to access iron. We propose that H3K27me3 attenuates the induction of FIT-target genes under iron deficiency and hypothesize that this may serve as a mechanism to restrict the maximum level of induction of iron acquisition genes to prevent iron overload.",https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00627/full,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,What if people use too much antibiotics,"Antibiotics are miraculous drugs that help us fight off bacterial but has increased rapidly in middle and low-income countries. infections. But sometimes bacteria evolve resistance against (But per capita consumption there is still lower.) antibiotic treatment. Unnecessary use of antibiotics helps this Our analysis suggests that the main reason for this was antibiotic resistance spread faster. So it is important to study the growth in income, which made the medications more how much antibiotics people consume worldwide. accessible. But this also caused an increase in unnecessary We analyzed antibiotic-use data from countries between use. Economists predict that income will continue to grow and . We found that consumptions of these in the next years. So we need new strategies to reduce medications stayed constant in most high-income countries, unnecessary antibiotic consumption and resistance.","Tracking antibiotic consumption patterns over time and across countries could inform policies to optimize antibiotic prescribing and minimize antibiotic resistance, such as setting and enforcing per capita consumption targets or aiding investments in alternatives to antibiotics. In this study, we analyzed the trends and drivers of antibiotic consumption from 2000 to 2015 in 76 countries and projected total global antibiotic consumption through 2030. Between 2000 and 2015, antibiotic consumption, expressed in defined daily doses (DDD), increased 65% (21.134.8 billion DDDs), and the antibiotic consumption rate increased 39% (11.315.7 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day). The increase was driven by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where rising consumption was correlated with gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) growth (P = 0.004). In high-income countries (HICs), although overall consumption increased modestly, DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day fell 4%, and there was no correlation with GDPPC. Of particular concern was the rapid increase in the use of last-resort compounds, both in HICs and LMICs, such as glycylcyclines, oxazolidinones, carbapenems, and polymyxins. Projections of global antibiotic consumption in 2030, assuming no policy changes, were up to 200% higher than the 42 billion DDDs estimated in 2015. Although antibiotic consumption rates in most LMICs remain lower than in HICs despite higher bacterial disease burden, consumption in LMICs is rapidly converging to rates similar to HICs. Reducing global consumption is critical for reducing the threat of antibiotic resistance, but reduction efforts must balance access limitations in LMICs and take account of local and global resistance patterns.",https://www.pnas.org/content/115/15/E3463,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles,What kind of fungus are you,"You may think of fungus as something gross and slimy, We wanted to find a way to classify large areas of trees but its actually an important part of the forest ecosystem! as either AM or ECM using information found in satellite Nearly all tree species depend on a symbiotic relationship imagery. To see if our technique worked, we compared the with one of two types of fungus called AM or ECM (comes results of our satellite measurements with observations we from arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal). Which made by hiking through four different forest sites across fungus grows in the trees roots determines how nutrients the United States. are cycled and many other important things.","A central challenge in global ecology is the identification of key functional processes in ecosystems that scale, but do not require, data for individual species across landscapes. Given that nearly all tree species form symbiotic relationships with one of two types of mycorrhizal fungi  arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi  and that AM- and ECM-dominated forests often have distinct nutrient economies, the detection and mapping of mycorrhizae over large areas could provide valuable insights about fundamental ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, species interactions, and overall forest productivity. We explored remotely sensed tree canopy spectral properties to detect underlying mycorrhizal association across a gradient of AM- and ECM-dominated forest plots. Statistical mining of reflectance and reflectance derivatives across moderate/high-resolution Landsat data revealed distinctly unique phenological signals that differentiated AM and ECM associations. This approach was trained and validated against measurements of tree species and mycorrhizal association across ~130 000 trees throughout the temperate United States. We were able to predict 77% of the variation in mycorrhizal association distribution within the forest plots (P < 0.001). The implications for this work move us toward mapping mycorrhizal association globally and advancing our understanding of biogeochemical cycling and other ecosystem processes.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13264/full,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,What mutations does wheat hide,"Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops in the world mutations, i.e. the plants carry these mutated genes but and it provides us with % of calories and proteins. We they look the same as the original wild varieties. We wanted have farmed this plant since the dawn of agriculture many to discover the mutations hidden in wheat plants, so we thousands of years ago. Our cultivated wheat species have sequenced and cataloged more than million mutations in more than two copies of every gene, making it a polyploid mutant plants. We hope that this database of mutations plant. When there are many copies of each gene its harder in cultivated wheat will help researchers and breeders to for mutations (changes in sequence of DNA) to reveal study what different genes do and help them improve wheat themselves because the other copies hide the effects of the varieties.","Significance Pasta and bread wheat are polyploid species that carry multiple copies of each gene. Therefore, loss-of-function mutations in one gene copy are frequently masked by functional copies on other genomes. We sequenced the protein coding regions of 2,735 mutant lines and developed a public database including more than 10 million mutations. Researchers and breeders can search this database online, identify mutations in the different copies of their target gene, and request seeds to study gene function or improve wheat varieties. Mutations are being used to improve the nutritional value of wheat, increase the size of the wheat grains, and generate additional variability in flowering genes to improve wheat adaptation to new and changing environments. Comprehensive reverse genetic resources, which have been key to understanding gene function in diploid model organisms, are missing in many polyploid crops. Young polyploid species such as wheat, which was domesticated less than 10,000 y ago, have high levels of sequence identity among subgenomes that mask the effects of recessive alleles. Such redundancy reduces the probability of selection of favorable mutations during natural or human selection, but also allows wheat to tolerate high densities of induced mutations. Here we exploited this property to sequence and catalog more than 10 million mutations in the protein-coding regions of 2,735 mutant lines of tetraploid and hexaploid wheat. We detected, on average, 2,705 and 5,351 mutations per tetraploid and hexaploid line, respectively, which resulted in 3540 mutations per kb in each population. With these mutation densities, we identified an average of 2324 missense and truncation alleles per gene, with at least one truncation or deleterious missense mutation in more than 90% of the captured wheat genes per population. This public collection of mutant seed stocks and sequence data enables rapid identification of mutations in the different copies of the wheat genes, which can be combined to uncover previously hidden variation. Polyploidy is a central phenomenon in plant evolution, and many crop species have undergone recent genome duplication events. Therefore, the general strategy and methods developed herein can benefit other polyploid crops.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1619268114,Lower high school; Upper high school
Biology Articles; Paleoscience Articles; Social-Science Articles,Where did the first people in the Caribbean come from,"The first modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved in We learned that the first settlers of the Caribbean Africa around , years ago and then migrated came from Central or South America. They used (moved) to almost every corner of the globe! stone tools and probably gathered wild plants and Archaeological artifacts tell us that around , hunted animals. Another group of people moved years ago, people moved into the Caribbean for the into the Caribbean thousands of years later from first time. We wanted to use ancient DNA to find South America and brought clay pots and farming. out where these people had come from. To find this Ancient DNA can help us tell the story of people answer, we needed both archaeology and DNA. who lived thousands of years ago. And it can help us understand how they are connected to people living today!","Humans settled the Caribbean about 6,000years ago, and ceramic use and intensified agriculture mark a shift from the Archaic to the Ceramic Age at around 2,500years ago1,2,3. Here we report genome-wide data from 174ancient individuals from The Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (collectively, Hispaniola), Puerto Rico, Cura?ao and Venezuela, which we co-analysed with 89previously published ancient individuals. Stone-tool-using Caribbean people, who first entered the Caribbean during the Archaic Age, derive from a deeply divergent population that is closest to Central and northern South Americanindividuals; contrary to previous work4, we find no support for ancestry contributed by a population related to North Americanindividuals. Archaic-related lineages were >98% replaced by a genetically homogeneous ceramic-using population related to speakers of languages in the Arawak family from northeast South America; these people moved through the Lesser Antilles and into the Greater Antilles at least 1,700years ago, introducing ancestry that is still present. Ancient Caribbean people avoided close kin unions despite limited mate pools that reflect small effective population sizes, which we estimate to be a minimum of 5001,500 and a maximum of 1,5308,150 individuals on the combined islands of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola in the dozens of generations before the individuals who we analysed lived. Census sizes are unlikely to be more than tenfold larger than effective population sizes, so previous pan-Caribbean estimates of hundreds of thousands of people are too large5,6. Confirming a small and interconnected Ceramic Age population7, we detect 19pairs of cross-island cousins, close relatives buriedaround 75km apart in Hispaniola and low genetic differentiation across islands. Genetic continuity across transitions in pottery styles reveals that cultural changes during the Ceramic Age were not driven by migration of genetically differentiated groups from the mainland, but instead reflected interactions within an interconnected Caribbean world1,8.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,Which chickens are better at fighting off a virus and why,"Have you ever heard of Newcastle disease? Its a dangerous viral infection among chickens and wild birds. It rarely infects people, but it is a threat to the global poultry industry. This is especially true in low and middle-income countries where its harder for farmers to protect their chickens. One strategy to combat Newcastle disease is to select for breeds of chicken which are less likely to get the disease. But which breeds resist Newcastle disease and what enables this resistance? To find out we compared the innate immune responses of different breeds of chicken. We looked at which ones were more likely to get infected. Our results revealed the higher expression of five common genes among these breeds. We also found that some versions of the breeds (known as sublines) express some unique genes. These genes might be the key to new breeding strategies that fight Newcastle disease.","Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a threat to the global poultry industry, but particularly for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Previous reports suggest that some breeds of chickens are less susceptible to NDV infection, however, the mechanisms contributing to this are unknown. We here examined the comparative transcriptional responses of innate immune genes to NDV infection in inbred sublines of the Fayoumi and Leghorn breeds known to differ in their relative susceptibility to infection as well as at the microchromosome bearing the major histocompatability complex (MHC) locus. The analysis identified a set of five core genes,Mx1,IRF1,IRF7,STAT1, andSOCS1, that are up-regulated regardless of subline. Several genes were differentially expressed in a breed- or subline-dependent manner. The breed-dependent response involvedTLR3,NOS2,LITAF, andIFIH1in the Fayoumi versusIL8,CAMP, andCCL4in the Leghorn. Further analysis identified subline-dependent differences in the pro-inflammatory response within the Fayoumi breed that are likely influenced by the MHC. These results have identified conserved, breed-dependent, and subline-dependent innate immune responses to NDV infection in chickens, and provide a strong framework for the future characterization of the specific roles of genes and pathways that influence the susceptibility of chickens to NDV infection.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43483-1,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,Why are North American velvet ants more colorful,"What is your reaction when you see a brightly colored insect? Probably danger, stay away! And in fact, female Mutillidae, commonly known as velvet ants (but actually wasps, not ants), use their bright colors to deter predators. They also have a nasty sting. Many velvet ant species that live in the same location and environment look a lot like each other. When a predator learns that a particular species is harmful, it typically avoids all species that look similar. North American velvet ants can be placed into eight different color pattern groups. How about in Africa, where there are even more velvet ant species? Do they also mimic each other? We found four color pattern groups for African velvet ants. So its interesting that North America has far fewer velvet ant species than Africa, but more color pattern groups. Why? We think some possible reasons include fewer ecoregions and lower predator diversity in Africa.","Africa has the most tropical and subtropical land of any continent, yet has relatively low species richness in several taxa. This depauperate nature of the African tropical fauna and flora has led some to call Africa the ""odd man out."" One exception to this pattern is velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), wingless wasps that are known for M?llerian mimicry. While North American velvet ants form one of the world's largest mimicry complexes, mimicry in African species has not been investigated. Here we ask do African velvet ant M?llerian mimicry rings exist, and how do they compare to the North American complex. We then explore what factors might contribute to the differences in mimetic diversity between continents. To investigate this we compared the color patterns of 304 African velvet ant taxa using nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). We then investigated distributions of each distinct mimicry ring. Finally, we compared lizard diversity and ecoregion diversity on the two continents. We found that African female velvet ants form four M?llerian rings, which is half the number of North American rings. This lower mimetic diversity could be related to the relatively lower diversity of insectivorous lizard species or to the lower number of distinct ecoregions in Africa compared to North America.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189482,Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,Why do sharks sleep,"We all know how it feels when we have not had enough could help us figure out how sleep evolved. Only one study sleep. You might feel tired or have trouble concentrating. has looked at sleep in sharks. We wanted to change this! You might even be grumpy or irritable. Even though sleep We looked at the sleeping behaviors of draughtsboard sharks is important to our daily lives, it is still a bit of a mystery. over hours. We found out that when sharks sleep, they Why do we sleep and how did sleep evolve? Scientists have usually lie flat and have a lower metabolic rate. This means started researching sleep in other animals to find out. that sleep can be important to help conserve energy. It also Sharks are hundreds of millions of years old. They are the helps us understand the evolution of sleep. oldest living group of vertebrates with jaws! We think sharks","Sharks represent the earliest group of jawed vertebrates and as such, they may provide original insight for understanding the evolution of sleep in more derived animals. Unfortunately, beyond a single behavioural investigation, very little is known about sleep in these ancient predators. As such, recordings of physiological indicators of sleep in sharks have never been reported. Reduced energy expenditure arising from sustained restfulness and lowered metabolic rate during sleep have given rise to the hypothesis that sleep plays an important role for energy conservation. To determine whether this idea applies also to sharks, we compared metabolic rates of draughtsboard sharks (Cephaloscyllium isabellum) during periods ostensibly thought to be sleep, along with restful and actively swimming sharks across a 24 h period. We also investigated behaviours that often characterize sleep in other animals, including eye closure and postural recumbency, to establish relationships between physiology and behaviour. Overall, lower metabolic rate and a flat body posture reflect sleep in draughtsboard sharks, whereas eye closure is a poorer indication of sleep. Our results support the idea for the conservation of energy as a function of sleep in these basal vertebrates.",https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0259,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Biology Articles,Why do some clownfish not breed,"Clownfish are one of the most well-known tropical fish. But We decided to investigate the smaller clownfish. We looked even though we see them on our TV screens, what do you at the risks and rewards of moving to a different home to know about them in real life? They live in social groups in breed or of contesting to breed in their current home. We which individuals are ranked by size (size-based dominance found that its too risky for these clownfish to move to a new hierarchy). The two biggest dominant individuals breed home. Furthermore, they arent likely to contest by getting (have babies), but the smaller individuals do not. So why do bigger and potentially fight the dominants since they risk some clownfish forgo their own reproduction? being evicted from the group. So, they choose to stay put and wait in the hope that they will one day be able to breed.","Individuals that forgo their own reproduction in animal societies represent an evolutionary paradox because it is not immediately apparent how natural selection can preserve the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. Cooperative breeding theory provides a solution to the paradox: non-breeders benefit by helping relatives and/or inheriting breeding positions; non-breeders do not disperse to breed elsewhere because of ecological constraints. However, the question of why non-breeders do not contest to breed within their group has rarely been addressed. Here, we use a wild population of clownfish (Amphiprion percula), where non-breeders wait peacefully for years to inherit breeding positions, to show non-breeders will disperse when ecological constraints (risk of mortality during dispersal) are experimentally weakened. In addition, we show non-breeders will contest when social constraints (risk of eviction during contest) are experimentally relaxed. Our results show it is the combination of ecological and social constraints that promote the evolution of non-breeding strategies. The findings highlight parallels between, and potential for fruitful exchange between, cooperative breeding theory and economic bargaining theory: individuals will forgo their own reproduction and wait peacefully to inherit breeding positions (engage in cooperative options) when there are harsh ecological constraints (poor outside options) and harsh social constraints (poor inside options).",https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01380-8,Middle school
Biology Articles,Why is it so hard to bring back extinct species,"De-extinction is the science of bringing back extinct living species as a reference. By comparing DNA fragments species. But its very challenging. Scientists are testing out to the reference, you can put the pieces in the right order. lots of different ideas. One promising idea is to use genetic We used brown rats as a reference. Unfortunately, we engineering to piece together the DNA of an extinct species. found that some of the genes of the extinct species cant We analyzed old, fragmented DNA of the Christmas Island be recovered. This means that an animal brought back rat, which went extinct about years ago. For an extinct by genetic engineering wouldnt be an exact copy of the species, the only option is to use the genome of a similar, extinct species.","Three principal methods are under discussion as possible pathways to true de-extinction; i.e., back-breeding, cloning, and genetic engineering.1,2 Of these, while the latter approach is most likely to apply to the largest number of extinct species, its potential is constrained by the degree to which the extinct species genome can be reconstructed. We explore this question using the extinct Christmas Island rat (Rattus macleari) as a model, an endemic rat species that was driven extinct between 1898 and 1908.3, 4, 5 We first re-sequenced its genome to an average of >60? coverage, then mapped it to the reference genomes of different Rattus species. We then explored how evolutionary divergence from the extant reference genome affected the fraction of the Christmas Island rat genome that could be recovered. Our analyses show that even when the extremely high-quality Norway brown rat (R. norvegicus) is used as a reference, nearly 5% of the genome sequence is unrecoverable, with 1,661 genes recovered at lower than 90% completeness, and 26 completely absent. Furthermore, we find the distribution of regions affected is not random, but for example, if 90% completeness is used as the cutoff, genes related to immune response and olfaction are excessively affected. Ultimately, our approach demonstrates the importance of applying similar analyses to candidates for de-extinction through genome editing in order to provide critical baseline information about how representative the edited form would be of the extinct species.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222002494,Middle school
Chemistry Articles,Can materials made of the same elements have different properties,"Did you know that everything around you contains special molecules called polymers? These molecules form long chains that make up plastic, protein, and even your DNA! The great thing about polymers is that we can design them to have the properties we need. But the polymers we design can sometimes have a negative impact on the environment. That is why we wanted to see if we can create different polymers from the same natural product, such as sugar. We wanted to determine how the placement of atoms in the polymers affected their properties. We found that by rearranging the atoms of a monomer, we could get two different polymers. One behaved like a stiff plastic, and the other behaved like stretchy rubber. The results of our research made us realize that the placement of atoms does change a polymers properties. It also proved that we can make strong and flexible polymers from more natural materials.","Stereochemistry in polymers can be used as an effective tool to control the mechanical and physical properties of the resulting materials. Typically, though, in synthetic polymers, differences among polymer stereoisomers leads to incremental property variation, i.e., no changes to the baseline plastic or elastic behavior. Here we show that stereochemical differences in sugar-based monomers yield a family of nonsegmented, alternating polyurethanes that can be either strong amorphous thermoplastic elastomers with properties that exceed most cross-linked rubbers or robust, semicrystalline thermoplastics with properties comparable to commercial plastics. The stereochemical differences in the monomers direct distinct intra- and interchain supramolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions in the bulk materials to define their behavior. The chemical similarity among these isohexide-based polymers enables both statistical copolymerization and blending, which each afford independent control over degradability and mechanical properties. The modular molecular design of the polymers provides an opportunity to create a family of materials with divergent properties that possess inherently built degradability and outstanding mechanical performance.",https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c10278?fig=tgr1&ref=pdf,Lower high school
Chemistry Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles,How can chemicals influence your hormones,"Did you know that hormones not only influence your mood nearby. Hormones are particularly important in providing but also most of your bodys functions? They are messengers instructions for your development before you are born and involved in telling you when to feel hungry or when to get when you are a baby. tired, for example. It is very important to have the right We reviewed the scientific literature to find out how these levels of hormones in your body to stay healthy. But there chemicals get into our bodies and the environment. We are a lot of man-made chemicals that find their way into found that a lot of them get used in industrial processes or our environment. They can then disrupt those important are in pesticides. But some also turn up in food packaging biological messengers in the animals and humans living materials, cleaning products, or cosmetics.","Many classes of compounds are known or suspected to disrupt the endocrine system of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. This review of the sources and fate of selected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment includes classes of compounds that are legacy contaminants, as well as contaminants of emerging concern. EDCs included for discussion are organochlorine compounds, halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons, brominated flame retardants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, alkylphenols, phthalates, bisphenol A and analogues, pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse and steroid hormones, personal care products, and organotins. An exhaustive survey of the fate of these contaminants in all environmental media (e.g., air, water, soil, biota, foods and beverages) is beyond the scope of this review, so the priority is to highlight the fate of EDCs in environmental media for which there is a clear link between exposure and endocrine effects in humans or in biota from other taxa. Where appropriate, linkages are also made between the fate of EDCs and regulatory limits such as environmental quality guidelines for water and sediments and total daily intake values for humans.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935121019599,Middle school
Chemistry Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Technology Articles,How can nanoparticles help coral reefs,"Did you know that coral reefs are like incredible underwater cities built by corals? They protect coastlines and provide homes for many marine species, including tiny algae that live inside the coral. These algae have a special deal with the coral  they share nutrients and give the coral its colorful beauty. But theres trouble! Rising ocean temperatures from climate change stress the corals. This makes coral lose their colorful algae partners in a process called coral bleaching. Its bad news for both the corals and the reefs.We made a drug for the algae to help fight the harmful effects of stress. The algae are small, so we made ceria nanoparticles that the algae can easily absorb. This protected the algae from harm, even when seawater temperatures were warm!","The breakdown of symbiotic mutualism between cnidarian hosts and dinoflagellate algae partners (i.e., bleaching) has been linked to an immune-like response pathway brought on by a nitro-oxidative burst, a symptom of thermal stress. Stress induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS)/reactive nitrogen species is a problem common to aerobic systems. In this study, we tested the antioxidant effects of engineered poly(acrylic acid)-coated cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO2, nanoceria) on free-living Symbiodiniaceae (Breviolum minutum), a dinoflagellate alga that forms symbiotic relationships with reef-building corals and anemones. Results show that poly(acrylic acid)-coated CeO2 with hydrodynamic diameters of ~4 nm are internalized by B. minutum in under 30 min and subsequently localized in the cytosol. Nanoceria exposure does not inhibit cell growth over time, with the treated cultures showing a similar growth trend over the 25-day exposure. Aerobic activity and thermal stress when held at 34C for 1 h (+6C above control) led to increased intracellular ROS concentration with time. A clear ROS scavenging effect of the nanoceria was observed, with a 5-fold decrease in intracellular ROS levels during thermal stress. The nitric oxide (NO) concentration decreased by ~17% with thermal stress, suggesting the rapid involvement of NO scavenging enzymes or proteins within 1 h of stress onset. The presence of nanoceria did not appear to influence NO concentration. Furthermore, aposymbiotic anemones (Exaiptasia diaphana, ex Aiptasia pallida) were successfully infected with nanoceria-loaded B. minutum, demonstrating that inoculation could serve as a delivery method. The ability of nanoceria to be taken up by Symbiodiniaceae and reduce ROS production could be leveraged as a potential mitigation strategy to reduce coral bleaching.",https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.960173/full,Lower high school
Chemistry Articles; Pollution Articles,How can we recycle plastic more sustainably,"Plastic is all around us: in our toothbrushes, pens, cars, and reuse it to make new plastic. We discovered an enzyme that even clothing! It is very useful. But plastic trash ends up digests plastic in the same way that humans can digest in the environment and is bad for animals and humans. It food. Using this enzyme to break down used plastic means can take hundreds of years to break down. Recycling this we will need much less energy to recycle plastic. Plus, we plastic can take a lot of energy and often still leaves waste. can even use the products of the process to make plastics We wanted to find a better way to break plastic down and that are just as good as new ones!","Earth is flooded with plastics and the need for sustainable recycling strategies for polymers has become increasingly urgent. Enzyme-based hydrolysis of post-consumer plastic is an emerging strategy for closed-loop recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The polyester hydrolase PHL7, isolated from a compost metagenome, completely hydrolyzes amorphous PET films, releasing 91?mg of terephthalic acid per hour and mg of enzyme. Vertical scanning interferometry shows degradation rates of the PET film of 6.8?m?h?1. Structural analysis indicates the importance of leucine at position 210 for the extraordinarily high PET-hydrolyzing activity of PHL7. Within 24?h, 0.6?mgenzyme?gPET?1 completely degrades post-consumer thermoform PET packaging in an aqueous buffer at 70?C without any energy-intensive pretreatments. Terephthalic acid recovered from the enzymatic hydrolysate is then used to synthesize virgin PET, demonstrating the potential of polyester hydrolases as catalysts in sustainable PET recycling processes with a low carbon footprint.",https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cssc.202101062,Elementary school; Middle school
Chemistry Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Technology Articles,How can we store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in minerals,"Did you know that the sea level is rising and that weather patterns are changing worldwide? Because of human activities, there is extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thats why the Earth has gotten warmer. What can we do about it? We can take the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it. Current technologies transform it into a liquid and pump it back into the ground. Unfortunately, this way of doing things can be expensive and difficult to manage. Thats why we created a different method of collecting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Our process uses the natural ability of ocean water to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Then it forms minerals that we can store or use. Our observations proved that our process successfully removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Our analysis also showed that our method is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than current technologies.",This perspective proposes a potential pathway to diminish atmospheric CO2 accumulations which is distinct from traditional carbon capture and geological sequestration strategies and from existing n...,https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c08561,Lower high school; Middle school
Chemistry Articles; Energy-And-Climate Articles; Technology Articles,How can we turn ocean water into renewable energy,"Think about what life would be like without energy. No Hydrogen is a great renewable fuel that can be made refrigerators, no computers, no cars, and no cellphones! from water. Most of the water on Earth is saltwater, so we Today, most of the worlds energy comes from fossil fuels, created a device that can make hydrogen from it at a low which are nonrenewable resources (resources that take a cost. It combines the process of osmosis with the reaction long time for the Earth to make) that pollute our air and of water splitting. Our data show that this device is effective land. That is why we are trying to find cleaner, renewable and efficient, which means hydrogen could become more energy resources that can power our planet. available in the future.","Electrochemical water splitting stores energy as equivalents of hydrogen and oxygen and presents a potential route to the scalable storage of renewable energy. Widespread implementation of such energy storage, however, will be facilitated by abundant and accessible sources of water. We describe herein a means of utilizing impure water sources (e.g., saltwater) for electrochemical water splitting by leveraging forward osmosis. A concentration gradient induces the flow of water from an impure water source into a more concentrated designed electrolyte. This concentration gradient may subsequently be maintained by water splitting, where rates of water influx (i.e., forward osmosis) and effective outflux (i.e., water splitting) are balanced. This approach of coupling forward osmosis to water splitting allows for the use of impure and natural sources without pretreatment and with minimal losses in energy efficiency.",https://www.pnas.org/content/118/9/e2024855118,Lower high school; Middle school
Chemistry Articles; Paleoscience Articles,What can tusks tell us about the lives of mastodons,"Did you know that tusks are enormous teeth? Many animals have them, but the biggest ones belong to elephants and their relatives, including mastodons. Mastodons are now extinct, but paleontologists can use fossil tusks to study the lives of these ancient giants. For our study, we analyzed the right tusk of a male mastodon found in 1998. We also analyzed two chemical elements preserved in the tusks: oxygen and strontium. Using different forms of these elements (called isotopes), we tracked the season when a particular layer of tusk was grown, as well as where he grew it. We learned that he traveled long distances to mate with females. He also had fights with other mastodons and even died during his final battle!","Under harsh Pleistocene climates, migration and other forms of seasonally patterned landscape use were likely critical for reproductive success of mastodons (Mammut americanum) and other megafauna. However, little is known about how their geographic ranges and mobility fluctuated seasonally or changed with sexual maturity. We used a spatially explicit movement model that coupled strontium and oxygen isotopes from two serially sampled intervals (5+ adolescent years and 3+ adult years) in a male mastodon tusk to test for changes in landscape use associated with maturation and reproductive phenology. The mastodons early adolescent home range was geographically restricted, with no evidence of seasonal preferences. Following inferred separation from the matriarchal herd (starting age 12 y), the adolescent males mobility increased as landscape use expanded away from his natal home range (likely central Indiana). As an adult, the mastodons monthly movements increased further. Landscape use also became seasonally structured, with some areas, including northeast Indiana, used only during the inferred mastodon mating season (spring/summer). The mastodon died in this area (>150 km from his core, nonsummer range) after sustaining a craniofacial injury consistent with a fatal blow from a competing males tusk during a battle over access to mates. Northeast Indiana was likely a preferred mating area for this individual and may have been regionally significant for late Pleistocene mastodons. Similarities between mammutids and elephantids in herd structure, tusk dimorphism, tusk function, and the geographic component of male maturation indicate that these traits were likely inherited from a common ancestor.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2118329119,Middle school
Chemistry Articles,What can we learn from carbon on Mars,"Mars is dry and cold. It doesnt have much of an atmosphere. bed. We looked at the carbon to see how much there was But what was it like in the past? Did Mars ever have an and where it came from. This could give us clues about what environment that could support life? Luckily, we have rovers the environment used to be like. It could also help us figure on the surface of Mars that can help us answer these out if there used to be living things in the area. We found questions. that there was more carbon on Mars than we expected. Most of the carbon probably came from meteorites and rocks. We Carbon is a key component of living things. So, we used the cant rule out that it came from living things, but we need a Curiosity Rover on Mars to sample the surface for carbon. lot more information to help us figure it out. We sampled in an area that might have been a dried-up lake","The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument stepped combustion experiment on a Yellowknife Bay mudstone at Gale crater, Mars revealed the presence of organic carbon of Martian and meteoritic origins. The combustion experiment was designed to access refractory organic carbon in Mars surface sediments by heating samples in the presence of oxygen to combust carbon to CO2. Four steps were performed, two at low temperatures (less than ?550?C) and two at high temperatures (up to ?870?C). More than 950 g C/g was released at low temperatures (with an isotopic composition of 13C = +1.5  3.8) representing a minimum of 431 g C/g indigenous organic and inorganic Martian carbon components. Above 550?C, 273  30 g C/g was evolved as CO2 and CO (with estimated 13C = ?32.9 to ?10.1 for organic carbon). The source of high temperature organic carbon cannot be definitively confirmed by isotopic composition, which is consistent with macromolecular organic carbon of igneous origin, meteoritic infall, or diagenetically altered biomass, or a combination of these. If from allochthonous deposition, organic carbon could have supported both prebiotic organic chemistry and heterotrophic metabolism at Gale crater, Mars, at ?3.5 Ga.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/suppl/10.1073/pnas.2201139119,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,A burning question How much will climate change cost,"Earths climate is changing and summers in many places are getting gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise, then many warmer and longer. If you live in a relatively cold region, such as Canadian provinces could experience extreme fire years more Canada, warmer summers might not sound too bad. Yet a closer often than ever. Consequently, Canadians may be spending a look into the long-term effects would surely give you the chills. whopping $. billion annually (a % increase) by the end of the century to fight those fires. This does not even include human In this study, we focused on one of these effects: increases in health evacuation costs or insurance payouts. the area burned by wildfires and the cost of fighting them. We examined historical data and used models to predict future costs. Our calculations revealed some eye-opening news. If greenhouse","Climate-influenced changes in fire regimes in northern temperate and boreal regions will have both ecological and economic ramifications. We examine possible future wildfire area burned and suppression costs using a recently compiled historical (i.e., 19802009) fire management cost database for Canada and several Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate projections. Area burned was modelled as a function of a climate moisture index (CMI), and fire suppression costs then estimated as a function of area burned. Future estimates of area burned were generated from projections of the CMI under two emissions pathways for four General Circulation Models (GCMs); these estimates were constrained to ecologically reasonable values by incorporating a minimum fire return interval of 20 years. Total average annual national fire management costs are projected to increase to just under $1 billion (a 60% real increase from the 19802009 period) under the low greenhouse gas emissions pathway and $1.4 billion (119% real increase from the base period) under the high emissions pathway by the end of the century. For many provinces, annual costs that are currently considered extreme (i.e., occur once every ten years) are projected to become commonplace (i.e., occur once every two years or more often) as the century progresses. It is highly likely that evaluations of current wildland fire management paradigms will be necessary to avoid drastic and untenable cost increases as the century progresses.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157425,Lower high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,Are we powering our way into a climate crisis,"Do you own lots of things that run on electricity? Now think greenhouse gases into the atmosphere - heating it, and our about all the things for which the electricity use is hidden planet, up. We wanted to know how many current or future Clothes, food, houses (and more) dont need to be plugged power plants we could run whilst complying with the Paris in, but they still need a lot of electricity to be made. Our climate agreement, which set a worldwide goal for limiting modern world depends on electricity, so its no surprise greenhouse gases. The answer is tough: at our current that we use a lot of energy to create it. Unfortunately, most rate, were already missing our goal! And that doesnt even electricity is still made from fossil fuels, which release tons of include all the power plants planned for the future.","Over the coming decade, the power sector is expected to invest ~7.2 trillion USD in power plants and grids globally, much of it into CO2-emitting coal and gas plants. These assets typically have long lifetimes and commit large amounts of (future) CO2 emissions. Here, we analyze the historic development of emission commitments from power plants and compare the emissions committed by current and planned plants with remaining carbon budgets. Based on this comparison we derive the likely amount of stranded assets that would be required to meet the 1.5?C2?C global warming goal. We find that even though the growth of emission commitments has slowed down in recent years, currently operating generators still commit us to emissions (~300?GtCO2) above the levels compatible with the average 1.5?C2?C scenario (~240?GtCO2). Furthermore, the current pipeline of power plants would add almost the same amount of additional commitments (~270?GtCO2). Even if the entire pipeline was cancelled, therefore, ~20% of global capacity would need to be stranded to meet the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. Our results can help companies and investors re-assess their investments in fossil-fuel power plants, and policymakers strengthen their policies to avoid further carbon lock-in.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aabc5f/meta,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,Can electricity reach the billion people who live without it,"Living in the U.S., it is hard to imagine a life without reliable and unlimited access to affordable electricity. Globally, however, 1.3 billion people  four times the population of the U.S.  lack this basic resource. Simply scaling up the energy supply with conventional coal, diesel and gas plants  the mainstay of the electricity system worldwide today  would be really expensive. In addition, building enough large fossil fuel power plants or hydroelectric megadams to distribute electricity to every single one of these people would be very unhealthy for people and the environment. However, this does not mean they are doomed to houses lit by candles and smoky paraffin lamps. (Just imagine writing your homework under the light of a kerosene lamp as a poor Kenyan student might be forced to do. Our research produced a vision of the future where every person on the planet has access to at least basic electricity. What we see in the field is a revolution where small family-scale energy systems that provide lighting, cell-phone charging, televisions, and refrigerators all powered by solar cells is changing the way that energy is accessed. Electrical power can now be produced for people off the grid by rooftop or backyard solar, or by a small power station in their neighborhood, or by a large power station somewhere far away and delivered via the grid. The change is not only in the source of energy but in the business model, too. A rural family in Kenya can now pay their electrical bill using a mobile phone and an online payment system. With electric lights to study, students in rural Kenya (and elsewhere) have a better opportunity to graduate from school. Never in history have we had so many choices about where to get our electricity and how to pay for it. Solar panel prices have been rapidly declining over the past 20 years. Modern, efficient electrical appliances only require a fraction of the energy old ones did. (Ever seen those 100 W incandescent light bulbs? Yeah, nobody uses them anymore. They switched to 10 W LED light bulbs a long time ago.","In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people live without electricity. Despite ambitions of governments and donors to invest in rural electrification, decisions about how to extend electricity access are being made in the absence of rigorous evidence. In this paper, we present high-resolution spatial data on electrification rates in rural Kenya in order to quantify and visualize energy poverty in a novel way. Using our dataset of 20,000 geo-tagged structures in Western Kenya, we provide descriptive evidence that electrification rates remain very low despite significant investments in nearby grid infrastructure. This pattern holds across time and for both poor and relatively well-off households and businesses. We argue that if governments wish to leverage existing infrastructure and economies of scale, subsidies and new approaches to financing connections are necessary.",https://rael.berkeley.edu/publication/decentralized-energy-systems-for-clean-electricity-access/,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,Cold ocean hot summer,"Climate change is causing the Earth to get hotter; 2015 is the hottest year ever recorded and is on course to be surpassed by 2016. Extreme heat waves are getting more common, causing untimely deaths for vulnerable populations like elderly people, as well as increased energy requirements for air conditioning and problems for natural ecosystems.We noticed that in the months just before Central Europe experienced an especially harsh heat wave in the summer of 2015, the surface temperatures in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean were exceptionally cold. Yes, cold. Why would the ocean be extra-cold before the air over land was extra-warm? Could these unusually cool ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic ocean be a precursor to heat waves in Europe? If so, monitoring ocean temperatures could help us predict  and prepare for  heat waves in the future.","The North Atlantic and Europe experienced two extreme climate events in 2015: exceptionally cold ocean surface temperatures and a summer heat wave ranked in the top ten over the past 65 years. Here, we show that the cold ocean temperatures were the most extreme in the modern record over much of the mid-high latitude North-East Atlantic. Further, by considering surface heat loss, ocean heat content and wind driven upwelling we explain for the first time the genesis of this cold ocean anomaly. We find that it is primarily due to extreme ocean heat loss driven by atmospheric circulation changes in the preceding two winters combined with the re-emergence of cold ocean water masses. Furthermore, we reveal that a similar cold Atlantic anomaly was also present prior to the most extreme European heat waves since the 1980s indicating that it is a common factor in the development of these events. For the specific case of 2015, we show that the ocean anomaly is linked to a stationary position of the Jet Stream that favours the development of high surface temperatures over Central Europe during the heat wave. Our study calls for an urgent assessment of the impact of ocean drivers on major European summer temperature extremes in order to provide better advance warning measures of these high societal impact events.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004,Lower high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,Did atmospheric waves get wavier,"Have you ever seen those wavy lines on a weather map? than Alaska! We wanted to know how wavy those waves Those lines are called isohypses (similar to isobars) and are, and if the waviness is changing over time. To find out, those large waves have a big impact on our weather. Bigger we developed a way to count the waviest waves and then waves mean more strange temperature extremes, like long compared data for the last thirty years. Climate change might heat waves, or long periods of freezing weather. If the waves actually make the waves wavier. And that might lead to more are really large, you can have a day where Ohio is colder extreme weatherheat waves and cold snapsin the future.","Strong waves in the mid-latitude circulation have been linked to extreme surface weather and thus changes in waviness could have serious consequences for society. Several theories have been proposed which could alter waviness, including tropical sea surface temperature anomalies or rapid climate change in the Arctic. However, so far it remains unclear whether any changes in waviness have actually occurred. Here we propose a novel meandering index which captures the maximum waviness in geopotential height contours at any given day, using all information of the full spatial position of each contour. Data are analysed on different time scale (from daily to 11 day running means) and both on hemispheric and regional scales. Using quantile regressions, we analyse how seasonal distributions of this index have changed over 19792015. The most robust changes are detected for autumn which has seen a pronounced increase in strongly meandering patterns at the hemispheric level as well as over the Eurasian sector. In summer for both the hemisphere and the Eurasian sector, significant downward trends in meandering are detected on daily timescales which is consistent with the recently reported decrease in summer storm track activity. The American sector shows the strongest increase in meandering in the warm season: in particular for 11 day running mean data, indicating enhanced amplitudes of quasi-stationary waves. Our findings have implications for both the occurrence of recent cold spells and persistent heat waves in the mid-latitudes",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094028,Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,Do hot neighborhoods affect everyone equally,"Have you ever noticed how it can be really hot on the It turns out that people of color have higher exposure to sidewalk, but comfortable and cool under a tree? In a city, the urban heat island effect than white people in all but six of where there are lots of buildings and roads, it can get hotter these cities! Poor people also usually have higher exposure. than the countryside. There is a name for this: the urban climate change is going to make hot days even hotter. We heat island effect. We wanted to know whether the urban hope that city leaders use our data to help neighborhoods heat island effect affects everyone in cities equally. We prepare for climate change. looked at data about big cities in the United States.","Urban heat stress poses a major risk to public health. Case studies of individual cities suggest that heat exposure, like other environmental stressors, may be unequally distributed across income groups. There is little evidence, however, as to whether such disparities are pervasive. We combine surface urban heat island (SUHI) data, a proxy for isolating the urban contribution to additional heat exposure in built environments, with census tract-level demographic data to answer these questions for summer days, when heat exposure is likely to be at a maximum. We find that the average person of color lives in a census tract with higher SUHI intensity than non-Hispanic whites in all but 6 of the 175 largest urbanized areas in the continental United States. A similar pattern emerges for people living in households below the poverty line relative to those at more than two times the poverty line.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23972-6,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How are apple farmers adapting to climate change,"Farmers, more than anyone else in the world, depend on both types of activities could provide the best adaptation predictable and stable weather patterns to do their job. to climate change. To be sure, though, further on-farm Climate change, therefore, poses a significant threat to studies are needed to confirm this recommendation. food production worldwide. Agriculturalists have been doing their best to adapt to these changes, but we dont really know exactly what the farmers have been doing (or why).","Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Farmers have been exposed to multiple stressors including climate change, and they have managed to adapt to those risks. The adaptation actions undertaken by farmers and their decision making are, however, only poorly understood. By studying adaptation practices undertaken by apple farmers in three regions: Nagano and Kazuno in Japan and Elgin in South Africa, we categorize the adaptation actions into two types: farmer initiated bottom-up adaptation and institution led top-down adaptation. We found that the driver which differentiates the type of adaptation likely adopted was strongly related to the farmers characteristics, particularly their dependence on the institutions, e.g. the farmers cooperative, in selling their products. The farmers who rely on the farmers cooperative for their sales are likely to adopt the institution-led adaptation, whereas the farmers who have established their own sales channels tend to start innovative actions by bottom-up. We further argue that even though the two types have contrasting features, the combinations of the both types of adaptations could lead to more successful adaptation particularly in agriculture. This study also emphasizes that more farm-level studies for various crops and regions are warranted to provide substantial feedbacks to adaptation policy.",https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120563,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How can CO2 help agriculture in the face of climate change,"Humans are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air through CO2 emissions. This is changing the climate, making life harder for many plants in areas that suffer from heat and drought. However, plants need CO2 to grow, and more CO2 can make them grow better. So will plants overall benefit from increased CO2 level or suffer from it?We wanted to test if the positive effect would offset the negative ones. To do so, we used scientific models to calculate future crop production and water use of four important crops all over the world under different scenarios of CO2 emissions and climate change.Our calculations show that although there will be large reductions in crop yield due to climate change over the next century, some crops will still be able to grow well. This is also because crops can grow with less water when CO2 levels are raised.","Rising atmospheric CO2concentrations ([CO2]) are expected to enhance photosynthesis and reduce crop water use1. However, there is high uncertainty about the global implications of these effects for future crop production and agricultural water requirements under climate change. Here we combine results from networks of field experiments1,2and global crop models3to present a spatially explicit global perspective on crop water productivity (CWP, the ratio of crop yield to evapotranspiration) for wheat, maize, rice and soybean under elevated [CO2] and associated climate change projected for a high-end greenhouse gas emissions scenario. We find CO2effects increase global CWP by 10[0;47]%27[7;37]% (median[interquartile range] across the model ensemble) by the 2080s depending on crop types, with particularly large increases in arid regions (by up to 48[25;56]% for rainfed wheat). If realized in the fields, the effects of elevated [CO2] could considerably mitigate global yield losses whilst reducing agricultural consumptive water use (417%). We identify regional disparities driven by differences in growing conditions across agro-ecosystems that could have implications for increasing food production without compromising water security. Finally, our results demonstrate the need to expand field experiments and encourage greater consistency in modelling the effects of rising [CO2] across crop and hydrological modelling communities.",https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2995?proof=true&draft=journal,Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can the eruption of a volcano affect the ocean everywhere on Earth,"Did you know that a volcanic eruption can affect the entire world? When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano erupted on January 15, 2022, it affected the ocean everywhere. Thats because it created an atmospheric wave that disturbed the ocean. It also generated a tsunami. We analyzed weather station and tidal gauge data to learn more about the effects of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcanic eruption on Mexico. We learned that the atmospheric wave moved across the world many times. We also learned that the tsunami reached heights of up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) along the Pacific coast of Mexico. Our analysis of the tsunami warning system in Mexico showed that most people were not informed to stay away from the ocean. Based on our analysis, we recommend making changes to tsunami warning systems.","The massive explosion by the January 15, 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano in Tonga triggered a trans-oceanic tsunami generated by coupled ocean and atmospheric shock waves during the explosion. The tsunami reached first the coast of Tonga, and later many coasts around the world. The shock wave went around the globe, causing sea perturbations as far as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean seas. We present the effects of the January 15, 2022 Tonga tsunami on the Mexican Pacific Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Mexican Caribbean coast, and discuss the underrated hazard caused by great volcanic explosions, and the role of early tsunami warning systems, in particular in Mexico. The shock wave took about 7.5h to reach the coast of Mexico, located about 9000km away from the volcano, and the signal lasted several hours, about 133h (5.13days). The shock wave was the only cause for sea alterations on the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, while at the Mexican Pacific coast both shock wave and the triggered tsunami by the volcano eruption and collapse affected this coast. The first tsunami waves recorded on the Mexican Pacific coast arrived around 12:35 on January 15, at the L?zaro C?rdenas, Michoac?n tide gauge station. The maximum tsunami height exceeded 2m at the Ensenada, Baja California, and Manzanillo, Colima, tide gauge stations. Most tsunami warning advisories, with two exceptions, reached communities via social media (Twitter and Facebook), but did not clearly state that people must stay away from the shore. We suggest that, although no casualties were reported in Mexico, tsunami warning advisories of far-field tsunamis and those triggered non-seismic sources, such as landslides and volcanic eruptions, should be included and improved to reach coastal communities timely, explaining the associated hazards on the coast.",https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00024-022-03017-9,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Pollution Articles,How can we make biofuels more climate friendly,"Wouldnt it be great to find a fuel that powers our cars and planes without polluting the environment or warming up our planet? Fuels made from plants, like corn or sugarcane, called biofuels, appeared to be more climate-friendly than burning fossil fuels. Unfortunately, it turns out that many biofuels are no better, if not worse, than their fossil fuel counterparts in their impact on our climate. This is because they use up more fossil fuels in their production than they were meant to save! We wanted to see if we could change that and find a more climate-friendly way to produce biofuels. And we did! We found two promising candidates that we tested in field experiments in Hawaii. We showed that a conservation-oriented production method (no tillage, less water, less fertilizer) and good crop selection are crucial for producing better biofuels.","Replacing fossil fuel with biofuel is environmentally viable from a climate change perspective only if the net greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of the system is reduced. The effects of replacing annual arable crops with perennial bioenergy feedstocks on net GHG production and soil carbon (C) stock are critical to the system-level balance. Here, we compared GHG flux, crop yield, root biomass, and soil C stock under two potential tropical, perennial grass biofuel feedstocks: conventional sugarcane and ratoon-harvested, zero-tillage napiergrass. Evaluations were conducted at two irrigation levels, 100% of plantation application and at a 50% deficit. Peaks and troughs of GHG emission followed agronomic events such as ratoon harvest of napiergrass and fertilization. Yet, net GHG flux was dominated by carbon dioxide (CO2), as methane was oxidized and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission was very low even following fertilization. High N2O fluxes that frequently negate other greenhouse gas benefits that come from replacing fossil fuels with agronomic forms of bioenergy were mitigated by efficient water and fertilizer management, including direct injection of fertilizer into buried irrigation lines. From soil intensively cultivated for a century in sugarcane, soil C stock and root biomass increased rapidly following cultivation in grasses selected for robust root systems and drought tolerance. The net soil C increase over the two-year crop cycle was three-fold greater than the annualized soil surface CO2 flux. Deficit irrigation reduced yield, but increased soil C accumulation as proportionately more photosynthetic resources were allocated belowground. In the first two years of cultivation napiergrass did not increase net greenhouse warming potential (GWP) compared to sugarcane, and has the advantage of multiple ratoon harvests per year and less negative effects of deficit irrigation to yield.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168510,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we prepare for droughts,"Droughts are common in many parts of the world. Yet We analyzed drought projections for Texas a large state in climate change has made them more severe and difficult to the USA with both wet and dry regions. They show that the predict. This makes it harder for water suppliers to plan for conditions there will be even drier and hotter in the future. the future. Currently, they use data from past droughts to Water planning needs to adapt to these changes and take make these decisions. But we think its important to consider future climate change into account. Climate models would future changes as well. be very helpful for that.","Long-range water planning is complicated by factors that are rapidly changing in the 21st century, including climate, population, and water use. Here, we analyze climate factors and drought projections for Texas as an example of a diverse society straddling an aridity gradient to examine how the projections can best serve water stakeholder needs. We find that climate models are robust in projecting drying of summer-season soil moisture and decreasing reservoir supplies for both the eastern and western portions of Texas during the 21st century. Further, projections indicate drier conditions during the latter half of the 21st century than even the most arid centuries of the last 1,000 years that included megadroughts. To illustrate how accounting for drought nonstationarity may increase water resiliency, we consider generalized case studies involving four key stakeholder groups: agricultural producers, large surface water suppliers, small groundwater management districts, and regional water planning districts. We also examine an example of customized climate information being used as input to long-range water planning. We find that while stakeholders value the quantitative capability of climate model outputs, more specific climate-related information better supports resilience planning across multiple stakeholder groups. New suites of tools could provide necessary capacity for both short- and long-term, stakeholder-specific adaptive planning.",http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001552,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we protect the seabed from storms,"Have you seen any unusual weather recently? One of the a difference? Some areas of the sea are protected from changes we may see because of climate change is more destructive fishing methods. These areas are called Marine severe storms in the UK. When storms hit the coastline, they Protected Areas. We wanted to find out if the organisms in create strong waves. This really shakes up the organisms these areas are better at facing and recovering from severe living on the seabed. But do methods of fishing also make storms than fished areas.","Marine protected areas (MPAs) are employed as tools to manage human impacts, especially fishing pressure. By excluding the most destructive activities MPAs can rewild degraded areas of seabed habitat. The potential for MPAs to increase ecosystem resilience from storms is, however, not understood, nor how such events impact seabed habitats. Extreme storm disturbance impact was studied in Lyme Bay MPA, Southwest United Kingdom, where the 2008 exclusion of bottom-towed fishing from the whole site allowed recovery of degraded temperate reef assemblages to a more complex community. Severe storm impacts in 20132014 resulted in major damage to the seabed so that assemblages in the MPA were more similar to sites where fishing continued than at any point since the designation of the MPA; the communities were not dominated by species resistant to physical disturbance. Nevertheless, annual surveys since 2014 have demonstrated that the initial recovery of MPA assemblages was much quicker than that seen following the cessation of chronic towed fishing impact in 2008. Likewise, General Additive Mixed Effect Models (GAMMs) showed that inside the MPA increases in diversity metrics post-Storm were greater and more consistent over time than post-Bottom-Towed Fishing. As extreme events are likely to become more common with climate change, wave exposure observations indicated that 29% of coastal reef MPAs around the United Kingdom may be exposed to comparable wave climate extremes, and may be similarly impacted. This paper therefore provides an insight into the likely extent and magnitude of ecological responses of seabed ecosystems to future extreme disturbance events.",https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.671427/full,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How can we reduce our environmental footprint one food at a time,"Have you ever wondered what you can do to help the environment and slow climate change? What about eating certain foods because they are better for the environment? Producing the food you eat uses a lot of water and releases gases that warm the planet. If you ate foods that had a smaller impact on the environment, you could help fight climate change.But its hard for most people to change their entire diet! So we wondered if replacing just one food could reduce a persons impact on the environment. We collected diet data from a national survey in the USA. We figured out which foods produced the most carbon emissions. Then we created new potential diets where we substituted foods that had a smaller impact. We found that replacing beef products reduced carbon emissions and water use the most. That means not eating beef can lower the impact of your diet on the environment.","Background: Human food systems substantially affect the environment, but the impacts vary widely by food. Guidance to individuals to reduce their dietary impacts would benefit from easy advice, but little is known about the specific population impacts of simple changes on self-selected diets.  Objectives: The objective was to estimate the potential impact of a single dietary substitution on the carbon and water scarcity footprints of self-selected diets in the United States.  Methods: This cross-sectional modeling study used 24-h dietary recall data from the 2005-2010 waves of the NHANES. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) in the production of foods as well as irrigated water use, characterized by its relative scarcity at production locations, were matched to all foods in the recalls using previously developed databases. Impacts were summed to create carbon and water scarcity footprints for diets (n = 16,800) of adults aged >18 y. Diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Foods with the highest impact on GHGE and selected additional foods were substituted for calorically equivalent, less impactful items. Footprints were calculated before and after these hypothetical substitutions.  Results: The highest impact foods were all beef items, and 19.8% of individuals consumed them (n = 3320). After substitution of these items with poultry or pork, the mean carbon and water scarcity footprints among those with substitutions significantly decreased (P < 0.001) by 48.4  0.6% and 29.9  0.4%, respectively. Across the entire sample, these represented mean reductions of 9.6  0.3% and 5.9  0.2%, respectively. The mean HEI after substitutions was 3.6  0.1% higher than before (P < 0.001). None of the selected additional foods had population impacts as large as the beef substitutions.  Conclusions: Simple substitutions can be made in individuals' diets to substantially reduce their carbon and water scarcity footprints without sacrificing dietary quality. Such substitutions may be easier to promote than complex dietary patterns.",https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35024805/,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Social-Science Articles,How do our food choices affect the environment,"Which diets are the most healthy and environmentally sustainable? Many scientists have tried to answer this question by researching the impacts of peoples food choices on health and the environment. We compiled all this previous research to summarize how changes to what we eat would affect water use, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and human health. Overall, we found that if people shifted their diets to eat less animal-sourced food and more fruits and vegetables, it would generally reduce environmental impacts. Furthermore, there would also likely be benefits to health.","Food production is a major driver of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water and land use, and dietary risk factors are contributors to non-communicable diseases. Shifts in dietary patterns can therefore potentially provide benefits for both the environment and health. However, there is uncertainty about the magnitude of these impacts, and the dietary changes necessary to achieve them. We systematically review the evidence on changes in GHG emissions, land use, and water use, from shifting current dietary intakes to environmentally sustainable dietary patterns. We find 14 common sustainable dietary patterns across reviewed studies, with reductions as high as 7080% of GHG emissions and land use, and 50% of water use (with medians of about 2030% for these indicators across all studies) possible by adopting sustainable dietary patterns. Reductions in environmental footprints were generally proportional to the magnitude of animal-based food restriction. Dietary shifts also yielded modest benefits in all-cause mortality risk. Our review reveals that environmental and health benefits are possible by shifting current Western diets to a variety of more sustainable dietary patterns.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165797,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,How do some algae make the Earth warmer,"If you have ever visited a lake, a pond, or even the ocean, then you know about algae  not only the big ones that wash up on the beach, but also the much smaller microalgae. Responsible for the green you see on the water, these tiny organisms are not only the foundation of the aquatic food web, but they also photosynthesize. That means they take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere like plants. And we all know how important that is because of global warming! Interestingly, some algae also produce nitrous oxide  another greenhouse gas. We wanted to find out which type of algae produces it and how they create it. We tested different types of algae in both light and dark environments, which made us realize that only green algae make nitrous oxide from nitric oxide, and they have different ways of doing it based on the amount of light available. We also linked the nitric oxide production to fertilizers, implying that there may be a way to reduce the amount of nitrous oxide produced by algae in the future.","Significance Nitrous oxide (N2O), the third most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, is produced in great quantities by microalgae, but molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here we show that the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii produces N2O in the light by a reduction of NO driven by photosynthesis and catalyzed by flavodiiron proteins, the dark N2O production being catalyzed by a cytochrome p450. Both mechanisms of N2O production are present in chlorophytes, but absent from diatoms. Our study provides an unprecedented mechanistic understanding of N2O production by microalgae, allowing a better assessment of N2O-producing hot spots in aquatic environments. Nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, is produced mostly from aquatic ecosystems, to which algae substantially contribute. However, mechanisms of N2O production by photosynthetic organisms are poorly described. Here we show that the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reduces NO into N2O using the photosynthetic electron transport. Through the study of C. reinhardtii mutants deficient in flavodiiron proteins (FLVs) or in a cytochrome p450 (CYP55), we show that FLVs contribute to NO reduction in the light, while CYP55 operates in the dark. Both pathways are active when NO is produced in vivo during the reduction of nitrites and participate in NO homeostasis. Furthermore, NO reduction by both pathways is restricted to chlorophytes, organisms particularly abundant in ocean N2O-producing hot spots. Our results provide a mechanistic understanding of N2O production in eukaryotic phototrophs and represent an important step toward a comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emission by aquatic ecosystems.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915276117,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do tiny ocean critters affect the global carbon cycle,"Carbon is the elemental building block for all living things. Over time, carbon moves through the land, air, and oceans in a process called the carbon cycle. Parts of the oceanic carbon cycle are still a mystery. How do tiny photosynthetic microbes and bacteria in the ocean affect the carbon cycle? Why does some carbon stay in the ocean for thousands of years while other carbon moves from the ocean to the air in just seconds or minutes? By combining new methods from chemistry, biology, and data management, we are investigating carbon dissolved in seawater. Eventually, wed like to understand how bacteria in the ocean will react to our changing climate  will they help store more carbon safely in the ocean or will they speed climate change by adding more carbon to the atmosphere?","Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the oceans is one of the largest pools of reduced carbon on Earth, comparable in size to the atmospheric CO2 reservoir. A vast number of compounds are present in DOM, and they play important roles in all major element cycles, contribute to the storage of atmospheric CO2 in the ocean, support marine ecosystems, and facilitate interactions between organisms. At the heart of the DOM cycle lie molecular-level relationships between the individual compounds in DOM and the members of the ocean microbiome that produce and consume them. In the past, these connections have eluded clear definition because of the sheer numerical complexity of both DOM molecules and microorganisms. Emerging tools in analytical chemistry, microbiology, and informatics are breaking down the barriers to a fuller appreciation of these connections. Here we highlight questions being addressed using recent methodological and technological developments in those fields and consider how these advances are transforming our understanding of some of the most important reactions of the marine carbon cycle.",http://www.pnas.org/content/113/12/3143.full.pdf,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How does carbon cycle through the oceans,"Imagine you were a detective following a carbon dioxide (CO2) molecule, for instance, one of the millions you just exhaled. Where does it go? Up away into the atmosphere? Is it used by a plant to build a green leaf? Guess what: a lot of the carbon we (and our cars and factories) exhale actually ends up in the ocean. So get ready to get wet! Once in the ocean, the CO2 molecule might hang around in the surface for a short while before jumping back to the air above, or it might travel deep down to the bottom of the ocean where it stays trapped for hundreds of years. We created a computer model (a type of virtual ocean) to act like such a detective, tracking CO2 in the ocean to discover where it goes and how long it will stay. We found that carbon cycles very differently in different latitudes of the ocean. This was not known before and provides important clues about how the ocean will respond to, and contribute to, global climate change.","The transfer efficiency of sinking organic particles through the mesopelagic zone and into the deep ocean is a critical determinant of the atmosphere?ocean partition of carbon dioxide (CO2). Our ability to detect large-scale spatial variations in transfer efficiency is limited by the scarcity and uncertainties of particle flux data. Here we reconstruct deep ocean particle fluxes by diagnosing the rate of nutrient accumulation along transport pathways in a data-constrained ocean circulation model. Combined with estimates of organic matter export from the surface, these diagnosed fluxes reveal a global pattern of transfer efficiency to 1,000 m that is high (?25%) at high latitudes and low (?5%) in subtropical gyres, with intermediate values in the tropics. This pattern is well correlated with spatial variations in phytoplankton community structure and the export of ballast minerals, which control the size and density of sinking particles. These findings accentuate the importance of high-latitude oceans in sequestering carbon over long timescales, and highlight potential impacts on remineralization depth as phytoplankton communities respond to a warming climate.",http://www.pnas.org/content/113/31/8606.abstract,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,How does climate change affect poor people in Africa,"Our planet is warming up! That doesnt mean we will have We studied one of the poorest regions in the world, nicer weather, though. It means we have weather events sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We analyzed data from thousands that are more extreme. Floods, droughts, and heatwaves are of families living all across the continent and looked at what more powerful and are happening more often. People lose happens to them when extreme weather events occur. We their homes, jobs, and eat less food. And poor people suffer found that floods had a worse impact than heatwaves and the most! People who are very poor do not have enough droughts. Finally, we predicted that because of climate resources to handle the effects of extreme weather events. change, the number of people living in poverty there could To help them in the future, we need a good understanding increase in years. Our results could be very useful for of what is happening now. planning ways to help people in Africa.","To estimate the effects of weather conditions on welfare globally, cross-country comparisons need to rely on international poverty lines and comparable data sources at the micro-level. To this end, nationally representative household surveys can offer a useful instrument, also at the sub-national level. This study seeks to expand the existing knowledge on the determinants of poverty in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA), examining how long-term climatic conditions and year-specific weather shocks affect expenditure per capita. We take advantage of a novel and unique dataset combining consumption-based household surveys for 24 SSA countries -representative of more than half of the African population and two thirds of SSA- and geospatial information on agro-climatic conditions, market access and other spatial covariates of poverty. To our knowledge, it is the first time that a welfare-based, multidisciplinary, micro-level dataset with such wide spatial coverage has been assembled and examined. Our analysis relies on a linear and spatial model at the household- and district-level, respectively, both controlling for socio-economic, demographic, and geographic confounding factors. Results are consistent across econometric approaches, showing that living in more humid areas is positively associated with welfare, while the opposite occurs living in hotter areas, as existing literature shows. Flood shocks -defined as annual rainfall higher than one standard deviation from the 50-year average- are associated to a 35% decrease in total and food per-capita consumption and 17 percentage point increase in extreme poverty. On the other hand, extreme shortages of rain and heat shocks show an uncertain effect, even when estimates control for spatial correlation between welfare and weather conditions using the spatial error correction model. Given the heterogeneous effects of climatic events across SSA macro-regions, local-specific adaptation and mitigation strategies are suggested to help bringing households on a sustainable path.",https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104691,Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How hot can corn handle it,"Can you remember ever feeling the sun blazing down on your head so fiercely it felt like you might melt? How do you think plants cope with this heat?Scientists have previously thought that high air temperatures are limiting corn yields. They predict that as temperatures rise, this will cause significant losses. But are they right? To answer this, we looked at irrigated corn yield data from three states in the western US Corn Belt. We found that the genetics of the crop and the crop management techniques explained differences in yield more than climate. These factors really changed the corns response to the temperature. Our findings can help farmers adapt to rising temperatures. Studies predict that by the year 2050, demand for corn will grow by 50% in the developing world and that the average global temperature will increase by roughly 2C at this time.","Several recent studies have indicated that high air temperatures are limiting maize (Zea mays L.) yields in the US Corn Belt and project significant yield losses with expected increases in growing season temperatures. Further work has suggested that high air temperatures are indicative of high evaporative demand, and that decreases in maize yields which correlate to high temperatures and vapor pressure deficits (VPD) likely reflect underlying soil moisture limitations. It remains unclear whether direct high temperature impacts on yields, independent of moisture stress, can be observed under current temperature regimes. Given that projected high temperature and moisture may not co-vary the same way as they have historically, quantitative analyzes of direct temperature impacts are critical for accurate yield projections and targeted mitigation strategies under shifting temperature regimes. To evaluate yield response to above optimum temperatures independent of soil moisture stress, we analyzed climate impacts on irrigated maize yields obtained from the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) corn yield contests for Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. In irrigated maize, we found no evidence of a direct negative impact on yield by daytime air temperature, calculated canopy temperature, or VPD when analyzed seasonally. Solar radiation was the primary yield-limiting climate variable. Our analyses suggested that elevated night temperature impacted yield by increasing rates of phenological development. High temperatures during grain-fill significantly interacted with yields, but this effect was often beneficial and included evidence of acquired thermo-tolerance. Furthermore, genetics and managementinformation uniquely available in the NCGA contest dataexplained more yield variability than climate, and significantly modified crop response to climate. Thermo-acclimation, improved genetics and changes to management practices have the potential to partially or completely offset temperature-related yield losses in irrigated maize.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094012/meta,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,How is the ice in Greenland melting,"The island of Greenland is almost completely covered in ice. We needed lots of data (information) to be able to answer But since the 1990s, the sheet of ice has been melting. This these questions. So we collected data to help us model the makes the sea level rise, causing problems for people and ice sheet melt. We looked at glaciers all around the coast animals around the world who live on the coast. of Greenland. We found out most of the melt was happening with glaciers in deep, underwater valleys. Here, the warm We wanted to find out exactly how the Greenland ice sheet ocean melted the glaciers from below. Our findings are is melting. Does the ocean affect how quickly it melts? Could important for predicting the future of Greenlands ice. it be melting Greenlands ice from below?","The retreat and acceleration of Greenland glaciers since the mid-1990s have been attributed to the enhanced intrusion of warm Atlantic Waters (AW) into fjords, but this assertion has not been quantitatively tested on a Greenland-wide basis or included in models. Here, we investigate how AW influenced retreat at 226 marine-terminating glaciers using ocean modeling, remote sensing, and in situ observations. We identify 74 glaciers in deep fjords with AW controlling 49% of the mass loss that retreated when warming increased undercutting by 48%. Conversely, 27 glaciers calving on shallow ridges and 24 in cold, shallow waters retreated little, contributing 15% of the loss, while 10 glaciers retreated substantially following the collapse of several ice shelves. The retreat mechanisms remain undiagnosed at 87 glaciers without ocean and bathymetry data, which controlled 19% of the loss. Ice sheet projections that exclude ocean-induced undercutting may underestimate mass loss by at least a factor of 2.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba7282,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Food-And-Agriculture Articles,How much does it cost when cows burp,"What do cow burps have to do with climate change or the price pound of wheat. And most of this carbon comes from cow burps! of meat? Scientists say that the climate on the planet is changing Climate change is pretty expensive for us: for example, having because of an extra layer of carbon in the Earths atmosphere. to pay for houses and road reconstruction after super destructive As it happens, all our activities release carbon taking the bus to storms. As a result, some people are suggesting we should school, charging your laptop, and even eating! Especially eating charge ourselves a small fee for doing things that release a lot of beef. Scientists have calculated that producing pound of beef carbon. If this happens, both wheat and beef will become a little', 'results': 'more expensive. But the increase in beef prices will be higher.","The US food system utilizes large quantities of liquid fuels, electricity, and chemicals yielding significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are not considered in current retail prices, especially when the contribution of biogenic emissions is considered. However, because GHG emissions might be assigned a price in prospective climate policy frameworks, it would be useful to know the extent to which those policies would increase the incremental production costs to food within the US food system. This analysis uses lifecycle assessment (LCA) to (1) estimate the magnitude of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from typical US food production practices, using wheat and beef as examples, and (2) quantify the cost of those emissions in the context of a GHG-pricing regime over a range of policy constructs. Wheat and beef were chosen as benchmark staples to provide a representative range of less intensive and more intensive agricultural goods, respectively. Results suggest that 1.1  0.13 and 31  8.1 kg of lifecycle CO2e emissions are embedded in 1 kg of wheat and beef production, respectively. Consequently, the cost of lifecycle CO2e emissions for wheat (i.e. cultivation, processing, transportation, storage, and end-use preparation) over an emissions price range of $10 and $85 per tonne CO2e is estimated to be between $0.01 and $0.09 per kg of wheat, respectively, which would increase total wheat production costs by approximately 0.32% per kg. By comparison, the estimated lifecycle CO2e price of beef over the same range of CO2e prices is between $0.31 and $2.60 per kg of beef, representing a total production cost increase of approximately 540% per kg based on average 2010 food prices. This range indicates that the incremental cost to total US food production might be anywhere between $0.635.4 Billion per year for grain and $3.70 and $32 Billion per year for beef based on CO2e emissions assuming that total production volumes stay the same.",http://www.animalfeedscience.com/article/S0377-8401(11)00120-9/abstract?cc=y=,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How much money is stored under our feet,"For over 100 years, scientists and economists have struggled to figure out how much money our natural resources are worth when left untapped in Nature. We addressed this problem by creating a new formula to measure the value, in money terms, of leaving natural resources in place. We then picked a case study (a real-life example) to illustrate our formulas: we investigated an agricultural area in western Kansas that grows crops using groundwater. These underground water resources are stored in the High Plains Aquifer. We thought of the aquifer like a bank account and asked how much money Kansas pulled out of its groundwater bank account over a period of 10 years. The number turned out to be large: $110 million per year, which is more than twice the amount Kansas spent on schools in that time! Our study shows that we have to take the value of Nature into account when planning how to use its resources in order to make wise and sustainable investments for our future.","Valuing natural capital is fundamental to measuring sustainability. The United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, and other agencies have called for inclusion of the value of natural capital in sustainability metrics, such as inclusive wealth. Much has been written about the importance of natural capital, but consistent, rigorous valuation approaches compatible with the pricing of traditional forms of capital have remained elusive. We present a guiding quantitative framework enabling natural capital valuation that is fully consistent with capital theory, accounts for biophysical and economic feedbacks, and can guide interdisciplinary efforts to measure sustainability. We illustrate this framework with an application to groundwater in the Kansas High Plains Aquifer, a rapidly depleting asset supporting significant food production. We develop a 10-y time series (1996?2005) of natural capital asset prices that accounts for technological, institutional, and physical changes. Kansas lost approximately $110 million per year (2005 US dollars) of capital value through groundwater withdrawal and changes in aquifer management during the decade spanning 19962005. This annual loss in wealth is approximately equal to the states 2005 budget surplus, and is substantially more than investments in schools over this period. Furthermore, real investment in agricultural capital also declined over this period. Although Kansas depletion of water wealth is substantial, it may be tractably managed through careful groundwater management and compensating investments in other natural and traditional assets. Measurement of natural capital value is required to inform management and ongoing investments in natural assets.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1513779113,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,How well do climate laws help reduce global warming,"The worlds response to climate change has been weak, but more than nothing. There are hundreds of climate change laws in countries around the world  but how good are they at tackling the problem? We wanted to find out how well these laws are working. We used a database with information about climate laws in 133 countries across the globe. We found that each new law reduces yearly carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 0.8% in the first 3 years, and 1.8% in the longer term. Some types of laws are better than others at reducing emissions. How well a country can implement a new law is also important! Some are much better at implementing laws, which means they are more likely to reduce emissions. We need to work together to create stronger laws to solve this global problem.","The international response to climate change has been inadequate, but not zero. There are 1,800 climate change laws worldwide. We use panel data on legislative activity in 133 countries over the period 19992016 to identify statistically the short-term and long-term impact of climate legislation. Each new law reduces annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 0.78% nationally in the short term (during the first three years) and by 1.79% in the long term (beyond three years). The results are driven by parliamentary acts and by countries with a strong rule of law. In 2016, current climate laws were associated with an annual reduction in global CO2emissions of 5.9?GtCO2, more than the US CO2output that year. Cumulative CO2emissions savings from 1999 to 2016 amount to 38?GtCO2, or one years worth of global CO2output. The impact on other greenhouse gases is much lower.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0831-z,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Social-Science Articles,More stuff more climate change,"Imagine living in an area where it starts getting uncomfortably hot. Would you and your family just pack up and move somewhere else to be more comfortable? Unlike people, trees cannot escape to other climates quickly when temperatures rise as a result of global climate change. Will they suffer when it gets hotter? Or would they benefit instead? We wanted to understand how trees in northern (or boreal) forests would respond to rising temperatures. We analyzed results from transplant experiments that took seeds from one area and planted them in areas with different climates. We found that where a tree is located within its geographical range determines how it will be affected: trees growing in the northern part of their range will likely benefit from rising temperatures and grow faster, but trees growing in the southern part of their range will likely grow more slowly. Keep in mind that factors other than just temperature changes also have to be considered to understand how forests will respond to climate change.","While the EU Commission has encouraged Member States to combine national and international climate change mitigation measures with subnational environmental policies, there has been little harmonized effort towards the quantification of embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from household consumption across European regions. This study develops an inventory of carbon footprints associated with household consumption for 177 regions in 27 EU countries, thus, making a key contribution for the incorporation of consumption-based accounting into local decision-making. Footprint calculations are based on consumer expenditure surveys and environmental and trade detail from the EXIOBASE 2.3 multiregional input-output database describing the world economy in 2007 at the detail of 43 countries, 5 rest-of-the-world regions and 200 product sectors. Our analysis highlights the spatial heterogeneity of embodied GHG emissions within multiregional countries with subnational ranges varying widely between 0.6 and 6.5 tCO2e/cap. The significant differences in regional contribution in terms of total and per capita emissions suggest notable differences with regards to climate change responsibility. The study further provides a breakdown of regional emissions by consumption categories (e.g. housing, mobility, food). In addition, our region-level study evaluates driving forces of carbon footprints through a set of socio-economic, geographic and technical factors. Income is singled out as the most important driver for a region's carbon footprint, although its explanatory power varies significantly across consumption domains. Additional factors that stand out as important on the regional level include household size, urban-rural typology, level of education, expenditure patterns, temperature, resource availability and carbon intensity of the electricity mix. The lack of cross-national region-level studies has so far prevented analysts from drawing broader policy conclusions that hold beyond national and regional borders.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6da9,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Pollution Articles,Nuclear waste fuel of the future,"Nuclear power has the potential to be a climate-friendly can run on existing nuclear waste. And here is the good energy source, but also embodies great threats to humans news: our feasibility study shows that it can be done, and the environment which requires dedicated safety and that the majority of current nuclear waste does not precautions. Currently, safely handling large amounts of even have to be modified. These advanced nuclear power very long lived, dangerous radioactive waste created by stations do not yet exist. However, with a focus on the nuclear power production makes it a pretty costly and generation of sustainable and climate-friendly energy in unsustainable endeavor. In this study, we analyze if it is our research and development efforts, we believe we can possible to redesign nuclear power stations so that they make them happen in the near future.","A solution for the nuclear waste problem is the key challenge for an extensive use of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) promises a solution for improved waste management. Current strategies rely on systems designed in the 60s for the massive production of plutonium. We propose an innovative strategic development plan based on invention and innovation described with the concept of developments in s-curves identifying the current boundary conditions, and the evolvable objectives. This leads to the ultimate, universal vision for energy production characterized by minimal use of resources and production of waste, while being economically affordable and safe, secure and reliable in operation. This vision is transformed into a mission for a disruptive development of the future nuclear energy system operated by burning of existing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) without prior reprocessing. This highly innovative approach fulfils the sustainability goals and creates new options for P&T. A proof on the feasibility from neutronic point of view is given demonstrating sufficient breeding of fissile material from the inserted SNF. The system does neither require new resources nor produce additional waste, thus it provides a highly sustainable option for a future nuclear system fulfilling the requests of P&T as side effect. In addition, this nuclear system provides enhanced resistance against misuse of Pu and a significantly reduced fuel cycle. However, the new system requires a demand driven rethinking of the separation process to be efficient.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180703,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,The Arctic is melting so what,"The Arctic sea ice over the North Pole is melting  faster than humans have ever witnessed  as a result of climate change. How does this affect the weather elsewhere, though? Does it? We wanted to know if people outside the Polar Circle would experience more extreme weather as a result of the melting. We entered predictions for sea ice loss as input into a climate model. The goal was to estimate the number of warm, cold, wet, and dry days as a result of the melted ice. According to the model, in more northern locations, like Siberia, Scandinavia, and northern North America, people would experience fewer cold days and more warm days. In addition, Eastern U.S., Central Europe, Siberia, and all of Asia can expect fewer dry days while the Mediterranean, Siberia and northern North America will face more wet days. Lots of changes in store, right? And not just in the Arctic!","The decline in Arctic sea ice cover has been widely documented and it is clear that this change is having profound impacts locally. An emerging and highly uncertain area of scientific research, however, is whether such Arctic change has a tangible effect on weather and climate at lower latitudes. Of particular societal relevance is the open question: will continued Arctic sea ice loss make mid-latitude weather more extreme? Here we analyse idealized atmospheric general circulation model simulations, using two independent models, both forced by projected Arctic sea ice loss in the late twenty-first century. We identify robust projected changes in regional temperature and precipitation extremes arising solely due to Arctic sea ice loss. The likelihood and duration of cold extremes are projected to decrease over high latitudes and over central and eastern North America, but to increase over central Asia. Hot extremes are projected to increase in frequency and duration over high latitudes. The likelihood and severity of wet extremes are projected to increase over high latitudes, the Mediterranean and central Asia; and their intensity is projected to increase over high latitudes and central and eastern Asia. The number of dry days over mid-latitude Eurasia and dry spell duration over high latitudes are both projected to decrease. There is closer model agreement for projected changes in temperature extremes than for precipitation extremes. Overall, we find that extreme weather over central and eastern North America is more sensitive to Arctic sea ice loss than over other mid-latitude regions. Our results are useful for constraining the role of Arctic sea ice loss in shifting the odds of extreme weather, but must not be viewed as deterministic projections, as they do not account for drivers other than Arctic sea ice loss.",http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/08/26/a-beginners-guide-to-climate-models/,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Pollution Articles,Waste to Energy How can we get the most from our waste,"What is in your waste bin? Banana peels, used napkins, a There are four types of waste biomass. Different waste broken pencil? You may think they are useless waste. But conversion technologies turn it into energy. We wanted theyre not: they are waste biomass! They are made of once- to know which combination would give us the maximum living things and they store energy. We can convert that benefits. We found that we can gain lots of energy back energy into other forms and use it to light a reading lamp, from waste to help the environment. However, the right type cook a meal, or as fuel in our cars. Using waste instead of of waste and conversion technology could be different for fossil fuels reduces air and water pollution as well. The best each part of the USA. part is that we already produce so much waste, so why not use it?","Agricultural and forestry residues, animal manure and municipal solid waste are replenishable and widely available. However, harnessing these heterogeneous and diffuse resources for energy requires a holistic assessment of alternative conversion pathways, taking into account spatial factors. Here, we analyse, from a life-cycle assessment perspective, the potential renewable energy production, net energy gain and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction for each distinct type of waste feedstock under different conversion technology pathways. The utilization of all available wastes and residues in the contiguous United States can generate 3.13.8 exajoules (EJ) of renewable energy, but only deliver 2.43.2?EJ of net energy gain, and displace 103178 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent GHG emissions. For any given waste feedstock, looking across all US counties where it is available, except in rare instances, no single conversion pathway simultaneously maximizes renewable energy production, net energy gain and GHG mitigation.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0430-2,Lower high school; Middle school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,What do trees know about rain,"Did you know that Australia was the driest inhabited continent in the world? How ironic is it then that in the past 20 years, Aussies have been experiencing quiet a lot of rain? In fact, in some places it rained more than at any time in the past 200 hundred years! But how do we know how much it rained in the early 1800s? At that time the Brits had barely just started colonizing the continent! They definitely didnt bother setting up rain gauges! The answers come from the trees! By taking a core from old native trees and carefully studying the annual tree rings, scientists can work out how much it rained in 1802! Whats more important, though, is that the last two decades turn out to be unusually wet compared to the previous two centuries. In the one hundred and ninety years from 1800 to 1990 there were only two years when it rained more than 20 inches. By contrast, in four out of the past 20 years alone, it rained that much (and more). What is causing this?","An understanding of past hydroclimatic variability is critical to resolving the significance of recent recorded trends in Australian precipitation and informing climate models. Our aim was to reconstruct past hydroclimatic variability in semi-arid northwest Australia to provide a longer context within which to examine a recent period of unusually high summer-autumn precipitation. We developed a 210-year ring-width chronology from Callitris columellaris, which was highly correlated with summer-autumn (DecMay) precipitation (r = 0.81; 19102011; p < 0.0001) and autumn (MarMay) self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (scPDSI, r = 0.73; 19102011; p < 0.0001) across semi-arid northwest Australia. A linear regression model was used to reconstruct precipitation and explained 66% of the variance in observed summer-autumn precipitation. Our reconstruction reveals inter-annual to multi-decadal scale variation in hydroclimate of the region during the last 210 years, typically showing periods of below average precipitation extending from one to three decades and periods of above average precipitation, which were often less than a decade. Our results demonstrate that the last two decades (19952012) have been unusually wet (average summer-autumn precipitation of 310 mm) compared to the previous two centuries (average summer-autumn precipitation of 229 mm), coinciding with both an anomalously high frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones in northwest Australia and the dominance of the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode.",https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128533,Lower high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,What is going on in the tropical stratosphere,"Have you ever noticed that the clouds above you are moving westward to eastward, then back again starting from the very fast, even though you dont feel any wind where you are middle of the stratosphere, then working its way down. standing on the ground? Thats because wind blows at different Or at least thats how it usually works! This past winter, we speeds and directions at different altitudes in the atmosphere. noticed a curious change in this normal downward progression The quasi-biennial oscillation is a slow change in wind direction of the quasi-biennial oscillation. Instead of the eastward from eastward to westward that occurs high in the atmosphere blowing winds slowly moving down through the atmosphere, above the tropics (the latitudes close to the equator). Over the westward blowing winds suddenly started moving upward! about a two-year period, the wind direction switches from This has never been observed before!","The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is a tropical lower stratospheric, downward propagating zonal wind variation, with an average period of ~28?months. The QBO has been constantly documented since 1953. Here we describe the evolution of the QBO during the Northern Hemisphere winter of 20152016 using radiosonde observations and meteorological reanalyses. Normally, the QBO would show a steady downward propagation of the westerly phase. In 20152016, there was an anomalous upward displacement of this westerly phase from ~30?hPa to 15?hPa. These westerlies impinge on or cutoff the normal downward propagation of the easterly phase. In addition, easterly winds develop at 40?hPa. Comparisons to tropical wind statistics for the 1953 to present record demonstrate that this 20152016 QBO disruption is unprecedented.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL070373/abstract,Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles,Why are the Himalayas getting hotter,"Reaching almost nine kilometers (, feet) up into the rates of warming, and that the rate of warming is likely to sky, Mount Everest (Fig.) is the tallest and most famous further increase by the end of this century. This could have mountain in the world. It belongs to a mountain chain called serious consequences for people around the world. the Himalayas, which sits on the border of several countries in Southeast Asia. We carried out a study looking at the climate of the Himalayas, a neighbouring mountain range (the Karakoram), and the Figure : Tibetan Plateau. Mount Everest is so high that We used data from climate models to investigate temperature its peak is in changes, and their relationship to altitude (height above sea the Jet Stream! level). We found that higher altitudes experienced greater The wind can blow over km/h ( mph) at the summit.","We use the output of twenty-seven Global Climate Models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) to investigate the temperature changes and their dependence on the elevation in the Tibetan Plateau, Himalaya and Karakoram mountains and in the surrounding areas in historical model simulations and in future projections. The aim of this study is to explore if and to what extent the CMIP5 models show elevation-dependent warming (EDW) in this part of the globe and to investigate what are the driving factors at play and their relative importance. Our results indicate that the models show enhanced rates of warming at higher elevations in the Tibetan Plateau-Himalayan region in the twentieth century, and this phenomenon is projected to strengthen by the end of the twenty-first century under a high-emission scenario. We find a nonlinear relationship between the warming rates and the elevation, for both the minimum and the maximum temperature: regions with temperatures below the freezing level of water show more warming than the regions with temperatures above, likely suggesting a key role of mechanisms involving water phase changes, the presence/absence of snow and the snow-albedo feedback. We consider the main variables simulated by the CMIP5 models whose change may be related to temperature changes at higher elevations. We find that changes in surface albedo, atmospheric humidity and downward longwave radiation are relevant factors for EDW in the Tibetan Plateau-Himalayas, with surface albedo being the leading driver.",https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-016-3316-z,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Why is New Orleans sinking,"Imagine living in a city where the ground is slowly sinking under your feet. Now picture this city below sea level, surrounded by water, and kept dry by a system of surrounding walls (levees). This is normal life for residents of New Orleans, a city of over 350,000 people in the US state of Louisiana built on the original floodplain of the Mississippi River. Previous studies showed that New Orleans is slowly sinking into the ground, increasing an already high flood risk from storms like Hurricane Katrina. Is that really the case? And if so, at what rate is it sinking? We set out to answer these important questions by using improved radar technology. We further investigated to what extent natural or human processes contribute to the sinking of the city. Our results show that sinking is real and in some areas worse than previously measured. We also found that human actions  mainly pumping of ground and surface water  are worsening the situation.","New measurements of ongoing subsidence of land proximal to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and including areas around the communities of Norco and Lutcher upriver along the Mississippi are reported. The rates of vertical motion are derived from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) applied to Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) data acquired on 16 June 2009 and 2 July 2012. The subsidence trends are similar to those reported for 20022004 in parts of New Orleans where observations overlap, in particular in Michoud, the 9th Ward, and Chalmette, but are measured at much higher spatial resolution (6?m). The spatial associations of cumulative surface movements suggest that the most likely drivers of subsidence are groundwater withdrawal and surficial drainage/dewatering activities. High subsidence rates are observed localized around some major industrial facilities and can affect nearby flood control infrastructure. Substantial subsidence is observed to occur rapidly from shallow compaction in highly localized areas, which is why it could be missed in subsidence surveys relying on point measurements at limited locations.",http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JB012636/full,Lower high school; Upper high school
Energy-And-Climate Articles; Technology Articles,Will artificial trees be the next power plants,"Wind power is an important source of renewable energy, but some people are concerned that conventional wind turbines are too loud and too hazardous for birds and bats. We wanted to create a new kind of wind energy harvesting machine based on the jiggling motion of cottonwood tree leaves in the wind, which would be quieter and safer for wildlife. After building and testing artificial cottonwood leaves that moved and created electricity in the wind, we found that they didnt produce enough energy to feasibly use for electricity production. We also tried building a cattail-like device to generate electricity when it swayed in the wind, but it also didnt produce enough energy to make it reasonable to use. Though our research showed that artificial plants jiggling or swaying isnt likely to be a cost-effective way to produce electricity, we think it could be fruitful to look into other plant-inspired designs for harvesting wind energy. We also are testing a previously unexploited biological material known to convert mechanical to electrical energy far more effectively than the ones used today.","In 2008 the U.S. Department of Energy set a target of 20% wind energy by 2030. To date, induction-based turbines form the mainstay of this effort, but turbines are noisy, perceived as unattractive, a potential hazard to bats and birds, and their height hampers deployment in residential settings. Several groups have proposed that artificial plants containing piezoelectric elements may harvest wind energy sufficient to contribute to a carbon-neutral energy economy. Here we measured energy conversion by cottonwood-inspired piezoelectric leaves, and by a vertical flapping stalkthe most efficient piezo-leaf previously reported. We emulated cottonwood for its unusually ordered, periodic flutter, properties conducive to piezo excitation. Integrated over 090 (azimuthal) of incident airflow, cottonwood mimics outperformed the vertical flapping stalk, but they produced << daW per conceptualized tree. In contrast, a modest-sized cottonwood tree may dissipate ~ 80 W via leaf motion alone. A major limitation of piezo-transduction is charge generation, which scales with capacitance (area). We thus tested a rudimentary, cattail-inspired leaf with stacked elements wired in parallel. Power increased systematically with capacitance as expected, but extrapolation to acre-sized assemblages predicts << daW. Although our results suggest that present piezoelectric materials will not harvest mid-range power from botanic mimics of convenient size, recent developments in electrostriction and triboelectric systems may offer more fertile ground to further explore this concept.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170022,Lower high school; Middle school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Social-Science Articles,Can sub-Saharan Africa feed itself,"By the year , the worlds population will need % Figure : more food than it did in . In sub-Saharan Africa (well Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a region in the continent of Africa that lies in or below the Sahara desert. There are countries in SSA. call it SSA) (Fig. ) this problem will be even greater, with the demand for cereals increasing by more than three times as the population rises. We collected and calculated farming data for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This made us realize that countries in SSA must make many large changes to increase their yield of cereals (the amount of cereals that are grown on the current farmland each year) to meet this greater demand. If countries in SSA are unable to increase cereal yield, there are two options. Either farmland areas will have to increase drastically, at the expense of natural land, or SSA will need to buy more cereal from other countries than it does today. This may put more people in these countries at risk of not having enough food to be able to live healthily.","Although global food demand is expected to increase 60% by 2050 compared with 2005/2007, the rise will be much greater in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Indeed, SSA is the region at greatest food security risk because by 2050 its population will increase 2.5-fold and demand for cereals approximately triple, whereas current levels of cereal consumption already depend on substantial imports. At issue is whether SSA can meet this vast increase in cereal demand without greater reliance on cereal imports or major expansion of agricultural area and associated biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies indicate that the global increase in food demand by 2050 can be met through closing the gap between current farm yield and yield potential on existing cropland. Here, however, we estimate it will not be feasible to meet future SSA cereal demand on existing production area by yield gap closure alone. Our agronomically robust yield gap analysis for 10 countries in SSA using location-specific data and a spatial upscaling approach reveals that, in addition to yield gap closure, other more complex and uncertain components of intensification are also needed, i.e., increasing cropping intensity (the number of crops grown per 12 mo on the same field) and sustainable expansion of irrigated production area. If intensification is not successful and massive cropland land expansion is to be avoided, SSA will depend much more on imports of cereals than it does today.",http://www.pnas.org/content/113/52/14964.full,Lower high school; Upper high school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can sharing knowledge better explain land use changes in Ethiopia,"When you think about environmental issues, you probably think about science. How does science explain the problem? How can we use science to create a solution? Yet if we only think like scientists, we may miss important details. That is why we need to share knowledge with people who have different perspectives. We shared knowledge with local residents near the Guassa grassland in Ethiopia to discuss how land use had changed over time. They described how they use the land and the benefits it provides. Using satellite technology, we created maps of the area. We then shared these maps with the people of Guassa. Together, we found a link between soil problems and land use changes. We also determined how different management strategies affect land use. Because we shared knowledge with the local residents, we created a more complete picture of what is happening in Guassa.","Knowledge coproduction that draws on local and scientific knowledge presents opportunities for more holistic understanding of environmental change. We describe our use of a multiple-evidence based approach to investigate the causes and consequences of environmental change in a community-protected grassland and its surrounding landscape in the Ethiopian highlands. We explore the interaction of biophysical change (precipitation and vegetation) and social change (political and management institutions), and discuss potential impacts for ecosystem service provisioning. We quantified current distributions of locally defined land use/cover classes using a supervised classification, with an overall accuracy of 87.1%. Local community members then described and ranked the ecosystem services associated with each land class according to their perceived importance for society. Vegetation and precipitation changes were assessed using satellite time series beginning in the early 1980s, while local narratives describe changes back to the 1970s. The knowledge coproduction process brought together ethnographic and remote sensing approaches, revealing both complementary and contradictory findings across knowledge systems. Results with high agreement across knowledge systems clarify and reinforce understanding of certain threats and changes to the area, such as the rapidly declining native forests, the disappearing belg rainy season (p = 0.01), and the impact of insecure land tenure on natural resource extraction. Compelling areas of disagreement point to topics in need of further investigation, including increased attention to the spatial and temporal variability of change across a seemingly homogeneous cultural landscape, and the process of shrub encroachment into the protected grassland.",https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss2/art2/,Lower high school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles,How does farming impact air quality,"Farming releases small particles of pollution into the air. This lowers the quality of the surrounding air and has serious impacts on human health. In fact, air pollution caused by farming results in 17,900 deaths in the US every year! We wanted to understand more about which farming processes and foods caused the most pollution. That way we could look for ways to reduce it. We calculated the total farming-related air pollution released in the US. We broke this data down into different categories for further analysis. We found that animal waste, fertilizer, and tilling caused the vast majority of deaths. Animal-based foods caused nearly four times more deaths than plant-based foods. Finally, we looked at interventions that could decrease air pollution. We found that changes in diet were the most effective. But farming interventions alone could lower deaths considerably.","Agriculture is a major contributor to air pollution, the largest environmental risk factor for mortality in the United States and worldwide. It is largely unknown, however, how individual foods or entire diets affect human health via poor air quality. We show how food production negatively impacts human health by increasing atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and we identify ways to reduce these negative impacts of agriculture. We quantify the air qualityrelated health damages attributable to 95 agricultural commodities and 67 final food products, which encompass >99% of agricultural production in the United States. Agricultural production in the United States results in 17,900 annual air qualityrelated deaths, 15,900 of which are from food production. Of those, 80% are attributable to animal-based foods, both directly from animal production and indirectly from growing animal feed. On-farm interventions can reduce PM2.5-related mortality by 50%, including improved livestock waste management and fertilizer application practices that reduce emissions of ammonia, a secondary PM2.5 precursor, and improved crop and animal production practices that reduce primary PM2.5 emissions from tillage, field burning, livestock dust, and machinery. Dietary shifts toward more plant-based foods that maintain protein intake and other nutritional needs could reduce agricultural air qualityrelated mortality by 68 to 83%. In sum, improved livestock and fertilization practices, and dietary shifts could greatly decrease the health impacts of agriculture caused by its contribution to reduced air quality.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2013637118,Lower high school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles,How does the food you eat affect your growth and development,"Hungry? Should you eat an apple or potato chips? Does it eating the wrong foods, and eating too much food all affect really matter? It turns out that what you eat as a child and the bodys systems. But the effects are different in each case. adolescent affects your growth and development. It can also We also learned that the negative effects of poor nutrition affect your health as an adult! We wanted to understand arent permanent if theyre corrected at the right time. the link between nutrition and adolescent growth. We did a review of different scientific studies to see what is currently known about this. We found that not eating enough food,","During adolescence, growth and development are transformative and have profound consequences on an individual's health in later life, as well as the health of any potential children. The current generation of adolescents is growing up at a time of unprecedented change in food environments, whereby nutritional problems of micronutrient deficiency and food insecurity persist, and overweight and obesity are burgeoning. In a context of pervasive policy neglect, research on nutrition during adolescence specifically has been underinvested, compared with such research in other age groups, which has inhibited the development of adolescent-responsive nutritional policies. One consequence has been the absence of an integrated perspective on adolescent growth and development, and the role that nutrition plays. Through late childhood and early adolescence, nutrition has a formative role in the timing and pattern of puberty, with consequences for adult height, muscle, and fat mass accrual, as well as risk of non-communicable diseases in later life. Nutritional effects in adolescent development extend beyond musculoskeletal growth, to cardiorespiratory fitness, neurodevelopment, and immunity. High rates of early adolescent pregnancy in many countries continue to jeopardise the growth and nutrition of female adolescents, with consequences that extend to the next generation. Adolescence is a nutrition-sensitive phase for growth, in which the benefits of good nutrition extend to many other physiological systems.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01590-7/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles,What are the benefits of growing multiple crop species together,"Did you know there are different ways to grow food? One way is sole cropping, which occurs when a field only has one species of crop. Another method is intercropping, which is when many species are grown together in the same field. We wanted to compare sole cropping and intercropping. We found that intercropping produces less of each type of crop on a field than sole cropping. But intercropping produces more diverse food choices. It also can save land space and reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed to grow food. That is why intercropping is an important agricultural technique to consider for the future.","Crop diversification has been put forward as a way to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture without penalizing its productivity. In this context, intercropping, the planned combination of two or more crop species in one field, is a promising practice. On an average, intercropping saves land compared with the component sole crops, but it remains unclear whether intercropping produces a higher yield than the most productive single crop per unit area, i.e., whether intercropping achieves transgressive overyielding. Here, we quantified the performance of intercropping for the production of grain, calories, and protein in a global meta-analysis of several production indices. The results show that intercrops outperform sole crops when the objective is to achieve a diversity of crop products on a given land area. However, when intercropping is evaluated for its ability to produce raw products without concern for diversity, intercrops on average generate a small loss in grain or calorie yield compared with the most productive sole crop (?4%) but achieve similar or higher protein yield, especially with maize/legume combinations grown at moderate N supply. Overall, although intercropping does not achieve transgressive overyielding on average, our results show that intercropping performs well in producing a diverse set of crop products and performs almost similar to the most productive component sole crop to produce raw products, while improving crop resilience, enhancing ecosystem services, and improving nutrient use efficiency. Our study, therefore, confirms the great interest of intercropping for the development of a more sustainable agricultural production, supporting diversified diets.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2201886120,Lower high school; Middle school
Food-And-Agriculture Articles; Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,What makes you choose the food you eat,"Have you ever thought about why you eat what you eat? Is it because its tasty? Healthy? Trendy? There are many factors that influence what an adolescent eats. But health is not always the most important one. We wanted to better understand these factors. So we did a scientific review of surveys and studies to see what adolescents eat worldwide. We also explored how economic status and food environment affect food choices. We learned that many adolescents value food as a way to express their individuality. It also gives them a sense of belonging with their peers. We also discovered that limited access to healthy food is a problem in many areas. So are advertisements promoting unhealthy food. That is why countries all over the world need nutrition programs that make healthy food more available, affordable, and appealing to adolescents.","Dietary intake during adolescence sets the foundation for a healthy life, but adolescents are diverse in their dietary patterns and in factors that influence food choice. More evidence to understand the key diet-related issues and the meaning and context of food choices for adolescents is needed to increase the potential for impactful actions. The aim of this second Series paper is to elevate the importance given to adolescent dietary intake and food choice, bringing a developmental perspective to inform policy and programmatic actions to improve diets. We describe patterns of dietary intake, then draw on existing literature to map how food choice can be influenced by unique features of adolescent development. Pooled qualitative data is then combined with evidence from the literature to explore ways in which adolescent development can interact with sociocultural context and the food environment to influence food choice. Irrespective of context, adolescents have a lot to say about why they eat what they eat, and insights into factors that might motivate them to change. Adolescents must be active partners in shaping local and global actions that support healthy eating patterns. Efforts to improve food environments and ultimately adolescent food choice should harness widely shared adolescent values beyond nutrition or health.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2821%2901687-1/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Can HIV drugs help COVID-19 patients,"Since its emergence in December , the new coronavirus We chose an anti-HIV treatment because it showed positive has killed tens of thousands of people. While social distancing results against other coronaviruses. A total of adults limits the spread of the disease, its not enough to end the with confirmed severe coronavirus infection participated in epidemic. Both vaccines and drugs are a great weapon our trial. Half of them received the anti-HIV treatment while against viruses, but they take a long time to create. This is the others served as a control group. We found that these why we turned to existing antiviral drugs. drugs werent particularly useful in patients with severe coronavirus infection. The treatment failed to speed up the patients improvement. It didnt reduce the viral load, either.","BACKGROUND No therapeutics have yet been proven effective for the treatment of severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. METHODS We conducted a randomized, controlled, open-label trial involving hospitalized adult patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, which causes the respiratory illness Covid-19, and an oxygen saturation (Sao2) of 94% or less while they were breathing ambient air or a ratio of the partial pressure of oxygen (Pao2) to the fraction of inspired oxygen (Fio2) of less than 300 mm Hg. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either lopinavirritonavir (400 mg and 100 mg, respectively) twice a day for 14 days, in addition to standard care, or standard care alone. The primary end point was the time to clinical improvement, defined as the time from randomization to either an improvement of two points on a seven-category ordinal scale or discharge from the hospital, whichever came first. RESULTS A total of 199 patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection underwent randomization; 99 were assigned to the lopinavirritonavir group, and 100 to the standard-care group. Treatment with lopinavirritonavir was not associated with a difference from standard care in the time to clinical improvement (hazard ratio for clinical improvement, 1.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.95 to 1.80). Mortality at 28 days was similar in the lopinavirritonavir group and the standard-care group (19.2% vs. 25.0%; difference, ?5.8 percentage points; 95% CI, ?17.3 to 5.7). The percentages of patients with detectable viral RNA at various time points were similar. In a modified intention-to-treat analysis, lopinavirritonavir led to a median time to clinical improvement that was shorter by 1 day than that observed with standard care (hazard ratio, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.91). Gastrointestinal adverse events were more common in the lopinavirritonavir group, but serious adverse events were more common in the standard-care group. Lopinavirritonavir treatment was stopped early in 13 patients (13.8%) because of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS In hospitalized adult patients with severe Covid-19, no benefit was observed with lopinavirritonavir treatment beyond standard care. Future trials in patients with severe illness may help to confirm or exclude the possibility of a treatment benefit. (Funded by Major Projects of National Science and Technology on New Drug Creation and Development and others;",https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001282,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Can medicine stop malaria,"What comes to mind when you think of the most dangerous animals? Sharks? Tigers? How about mosquitoes? Mosquito bites are responsible for the deaths of around 400,000 people every year. The largest single cause of these deaths is malaria  which can be a severe disease, caused by a tiny parasite carried by some mosquitoes. The current vaccine against malaria is only partially effective and not yet widely used so prevention mainly comes down to mosquito control (getting rid of mosquitoes from populated areas or preventing them from biting people). Another method for prevention being tried out in some places is to give drugs that kill the malaria parasite to large numbers of people. This technique is known as mass drug administration, shortened to MDA. Using mathematical models we wanted to find out when and where MDA works well. Our four models each predicted different levels of effectiveness for MDA, but overall we discovered the important factors that made MDA work better. Although MDA can be useful in malaria control programmes it still needs to be combined with good mosquito control.","Background Mass drug administration for elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria is recommended by WHO in some settings. We used consensus modelling to understand how to optimise the effects of mass drug administration in areas with low malaria transmission. Methods We collaborated with researchers doing field trials to establish a standard intervention scenario and standard transmission setting, and we input these parameters into four previously published models. We then varied the number of rounds of mass drug administration, coverage, duration, timing, importation of infection, and pre-administration transmission levels. The outcome of interest was the percentage reduction in annual mean prevalence of P falciparum parasite rate as measured by PCR in the third year after the final round of mass drug administration. Findings The models predicted differing magnitude of the effects of mass drug administration, but consensus answers were reached for several factors. Mass drug administration was predicted to reduce transmission over a longer timescale than accounted for by the prophylactic effect alone. Percentage reduction in transmission was predicted to be higher and last longer at lower baseline transmission levels. Reduction in transmission resulting from mass drug administration was predicted to be temporary, and in the absence of scale-up of other interventions, such as vector control, transmission would return to pre-administration levels. The proportion of the population treated in a year was a key determinant of simulated effectiveness, irrespective of whether people are treated through high coverage in a single round or new individuals are reached by implementation of several rounds. Mass drug administration was predicted to be more effective if continued over 2 years rather than 1 year, and if done at the time of year when transmission is lowest. Interpretation Mass drug administration has the potential to reduce transmission for a limited time, but is not an effective replacement for existing vector control. Unless elimination is achieved, mass drug administration has to be repeated regularly for sustained effect.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30220-6/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Technology Articles,Can we detect HIV quickly and accurately from a drop of blood,"HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus a virus that This is why we wanted to create a cheap, portable, and makes your immune system weak so that it cannot fight off reliable method to detect HIV in the early stages of infection. infection. Its not easy to detect HIV in the first few weeks We were able to develop a small device that can rapidly detect after infection, but its actually very important so the person the virus from blood. This low-power, automated device can begin treatment and prevent transmission to another could be easily used by healthcare workers especially in person. areas with limited resources.","While identifying acute HIV infection is critical to providing prompt treatment to HIV-positive individuals and preventing transmission, existing laboratory-based testing methods are too complex to perform at the point of care. Specifically, molecular techniques can detect HIV RNA within 810 days of transmission but require laboratory infrastructure for cold-chain reagent storage and extensive sample preparation performed by trained personnel. Here, we demonstrate our point-of-care microfluidic rapid and autonomous analysis device (microRAAD) that automatically detects HIV RNA from whole blood. Inside microRAAD, we incorporate vitrified amplification reagents, thermally-actuated valves for fluidic control, and a temperature control circuit for low-power heating. Reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) products are visualized using a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), resulting in an assay limit of detection of 100 HIV-1 RNA copies when performed as a standard tube reaction. Even after three weeks of room-temperature reagent storage, microRAAD automatically isolates the virus from whole blood, amplifies HIV-1 RNA, and transports amplification products to the internal LFIA, detecting as few as 3 ? 105HIV-1 viral particles, or 2.3 ? 107virus copies per mL of whole blood, within 90 minutes. This integrated microRAAD is a low-cost and portable platform to enable automated detection of HIV and other pathogens at the point of care.",https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/lc/c9lc00506d,Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Can we smell malaria,"Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. People get infected through a mosquito bite after which the symptoms can vary from a mild feverish disease to a deadly one. There are some people though who dont develop any symptoms  but they can still transmit malaria. This makes it more difficult to control the disease as there are more infected people out there than it appears. Other researchers have discovered that malaria can change peoples odor in order to attract mosquitoes. We wanted to see if we could use these changes to identify malaria cases.We collected odor and blood samples from approximately 400 children from Kenya. We observed different odor patterns in children who were infected with malaria and showed symptoms, those who were infected but did not have symptoms, and uninfected children. Using these patterns we were able to predict who has malaria and who does not, regardless of whether they showed symptoms.","Significance Malaria elimination efforts are hindered by the prevalence of asymptomatic infections, which frequently go undetected and untreated. Consequently, there is a pressing need for improved diagnostic screening methods. Based on extensive collections of skin odors from human populations in Kenya, we report broad and consistent effects of malaria infection on human volatile emissions. Furthermore, we found that predictive models based on machine learning algorithms reliably determined infection status based on volatile biomarkers and, critically, identified asymptomatic infections with 100% sensitivity, even in the case of low-level infections not detectable by microscopy. These findings suggest that volatile biomarkers have significant potential for the development of robust, noninvasive screening methods for detecting symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria infections under field conditions. Malaria remains among the worlds deadliest diseases, and control efforts depend critically on the availability of effective diagnostic tools, particularly for the identification of asymptomatic infections, which play a key role in disease persistence and may account for most instances of transmission but often evade detection by current screening methods. Research on humans and in animal models has shown that infection by malaria parasites elicits changes in host odors that influence vector attraction, suggesting that such changes might yield robust biomarkers of infection status. Here we present findings based on extensive collections of skin volatiles from human populations with high rates of malaria infection in Kenya. We report broad and consistent effects of malaria infection on human volatile profiles, as well as significant divergence in the effects of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections. Furthermore, predictive models based on machine learning algorithms reliably determined infection status based on volatile biomarkers. Critically, our models identified asymptomatic infections with 100% sensitivity, even in the case of low-level infections not detectable by microscopy, far exceeding the performance of currently available rapid diagnostic tests in this regard. We also identified a set of individual compounds that emerged as consistently important predictors of infection status. These findings suggest that volatile biomarkers may have significant potential for the development of a robust, noninvasive screening method for detecting malaria infections under field conditions.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1801512115,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Can you get vaccinated without a needle,"Vaccines are an important tool to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19. Despite their importance, it can be difficult to get such important medicine to everybody who needs it. We developed a painless vaccine patch that can make vaccines easier to transport. It could also increase access for everyone, especially those who are scared of needles! In this study, we wanted to determine if our vaccine patch could produce an immune response, increasing our bodies protection. We measured the amount of antibodies produced by the immune systems in mice who received the vaccine patch and showed that this vaccine tool is just as effective as traditional needle vaccinations. We also found that the vaccine patch protected the mice from COVID-19 after a single application. These discoveries proved that the vaccine patch can be a safe and effective form of delivering vaccinations.","Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 160 million people and resulted in more than 3.3 million deaths, and despite the availability of multiple vaccines, the world still faces many challenges with their rollout. Here, we use the high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) to deliver a SARS-CoV-2 spike subunit vaccine directly to the skin. We show that the vaccine is thermostable on the patches, with patch delivery enhancing both cellular and antibody immune responses. Elicited antibodies potently neutralize clinically relevant isolates including the Alpha and Beta variants. Last, a single dose of HD-MAPdelivered spike provided complete protection from a lethal virus challenge in an ACE2-transgenic mouse model. Collectively, these data show that HD-MAP delivery of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine was superior to traditional needle-and-syringe vaccination and may be a significant addition to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj8065,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,Could higher junk food taxes reduce obesity,"Do you like eating junk food? While it might taste great, its highly processed food which can lead to obesity. Obesity is a problem not only in richer countries, where people have higher incomes but also in poorer countries, where at the same time many people are underweight. We wanted to see if a tax on highly processed foods could have an effect on obesity rates. To evaluate that we used import tariffs as a measurement tool and created a statistical model. We found out that increasing the price difference between healthier foods and highly processed foods could be a useful step toward reducing obesity in some countries, but could also worsen the issue with underweight, sometimes even within the same country.","The consumption of highly processed food has been singled out as one of the factors responsible for the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and its associated non-communicable diseases and costs. While obesity prevalence is still comparatively low in lower-income sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), development prospects in this region render markets especially attractive for these foods, whose consumption is already growing at higher rates than in developed countries. This might be reflected in the massive rise in obesity prevalence growth rates in SSA over the past decade, while many of these countries are simultaneously struggling with high undernutrition prevalence.  Using a newly constructed cross-country panel dataset, this study econometrically investigates the effect of higher import tariffs on highly processed vis-?-vis less-processed foods with respect to their impacts on obesity and underweight prevalence in the adult population. While the analysis is global, the discussion focuses primarily on SSA. The effects of the tariff differences are found to be significant and substantial and to differ by income level of the country as well as by gender. More generally, the results show that policies affecting the consumer price differential between the two food groups are effective in influencing obesity and underweight prevalence and that these two issues cannot be treated separately.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X19300506,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How accurately can molecular tests diagnose TB in China,"Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health concern, especially in China where about 1 million people are diagnosed with TB each year. Early treatment is key to combating the spread of the disease, so the faster it is diagnosed, the better. Many of the traditional tests for TB take a long time to yield results. A new method, called molecular diagnosis, produces results more quickly, but is it as accurate as traditional methods in diagnosing TB? To find out, we conducted a literature review and a meta-analysis of relevant Chinese studies looking at the accuracy of six molecular diagnostic TB tests that the Chinese Food and Drug Administration has approved. We found that molecular diagnostic TB tests are simple, fast, and accurate.","This systematic review assesses the accuracy of molecular diagnostic methods for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis in studies performed in China, published in Chinese and English. We searched for studies that assessed the accuracy of molecular diagnostics for pulmonary TB in China in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Wanfang Database, SinoMed, VIP Information, Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. For each index test, a summary estimation for sensitivity and specifcity was calculated using the bivariate random-efects model. A total of 59 studies were included in our analysis. Loop-mediated isothermal amplifcation (LAMP) assay (six studies; pooled sensitivity 90%, 95% CI 7895%; specifcity 93%, 8597%), line probe assay (LPA) (one study; 87%, 8490%; 94%, 9295%) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (FQ-PCR and RT-PCR) (four studies; 90%, 5599%; 93%, 7199%) showed good diagnostic performance in the meta-analysis. The highest pooled sensitivity was from Xpert MTB/RIF (20 studies; pooled sensitivity 91%, 95% CI 8794%). The highest pooled specifcity was from cross-priming amplifcation (CPA) (six studies; pooled specifcity 97%, 9599%). The lowest pooled sensitivity and specifcity were from simultaneous amplifcation and testing (SAT)-TB (three studies; 79%, 6688%; 72%, 4888%). In subgroup analysis, molecular diagnostics demonstrated higher sensitivity for pulmonary TB detection in smear-positive specimens. Xpert MTB/RIF, LAMP, LPA, CPA and PCR demonstrated high accuracy overall for pulmonary tuberculosis detection, while SAT-TB had poor performance.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41074-8,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can a community protect everyone from disease,"Did you know that you protect yourself and those around you by getting vaccinated? Diseases cant spread easily when enough people in a population get vaccinated. This effect is called herd immunity. Cholera is a big threat in countries that dont have safe water and toilets for everyone. These countries sometimes vaccinate large numbers of people (mass vaccination). This creates herd immunity and prevents disease outbreaks. But it is hard to know how long herd immunity will last. In one camp in South Sudan, people who had fled their homes during a war received mass vaccination. However, there was a cholera outbreak the following year. We developed a mathematical model to find out what affects how long herd immunity lasts. We found that (a) it lasts for a shorter time when a lot of people move into and out of an area, and (b) the vaccine gets less effective for each person over time. Our results suggest that herd immunity lasts longer if authorities do two things: 1. vaccinate everyone and 2. always give vaccines to new arrivals to the camp and to those who were vaccinated a long time ago.","Background Oral cholera vaccination is an approach to preventing outbreaks in at-risk settings and controlling cholera in endemic settings. However, vaccine-derived herd immunity may be short-lived due to interactions between human mobility and imperfect or waning vaccine efficacy. As the supply and utilization of oral cholera vaccines grows, critical questions related to herd immunity are emerging, including: who should be targeted; when should revaccination be performed; and why have cholera outbreaks occurred in recently vaccinated populations? Methods and findings We use mathematical models to simulate routine and mass oral cholera vaccination in populations with varying degrees of migration, transmission intensity, and vaccine coverage. We show that migration and waning vaccine efficacy strongly influence the duration of herd immunity while birth and death rates have relatively minimal impacts. As compared to either periodic mass vaccination or routine vaccination alone, a community could be protected longer by a blended Mass and Maintain strategy. We show that vaccination may be best targeted at populations with intermediate degrees of mobility as compared to communities with very high or very low population turnover. Using a case study of an internally displaced person camp in South Sudan which underwent high-coverage mass vaccination in 2014 and 2015, we show that waning vaccine direct effects and high population turnover rendered the camp over 80% susceptible at the time of the cholera outbreak beginning in October 2016. Conclusions Oral cholera vaccines can be powerful tools for quickly protecting a population for a period of time that depends critically on vaccine coverage, vaccine efficacy over time, and the rate of population turnover through human mobility. Due to waning herd immunity, epidemics in vaccinated communities are possible but become less likely through complementary interventions or data-driven revaccination strategies.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006257,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can a tiny particle reduce peanut allergies,Did you know that food can be harmful to certain people? protein. It would also tell the body to make protective cells Thats because they have food allergies. Food allergies can to decrease the allergic reaction. be dangerous if they cause anaphylaxis. This is the bodys The researchers designed a very tiny particle to take mRNA reaction to the food. It can be so bad that it may become to the liver. They designed the mRNA to switch off allergic difficult to breathe. It can also cause a person to faint. responses. They then collected data to determine if there Scientists wanted to figure out if they could use a special were fewer symptoms of anaphylaxis. The tests showed that particle called messenger RNA (mRNA) to help. They hoped particles carrying mRNA could reduce the impact of peanut it could reduce the symptoms of anaphylaxis caused by allergies. That means that mRNA could be an effective this food. This mRNA would tell the body to make peanut solution to allergies in the future.,"While oral desensitization is capable of alleviating peanut allergen anaphylaxis, long-term immune tolerance is the sought-after goal. We developed a liver-targeting lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platform to deliver mRNA-encoded peanut allergen epitopes to liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), which function as robust tolerogenic antigen-presenting cells that induce FoxP3+ regulatory T-cells (Tregs). The mRNA strand was constructed by including nucleotide sequences encoding for nonallergenic MHC-II binding T-cell epitopes, identified in the dominant peanut allergen, Ara h2. These epitopes were inserted in the mRNA strand downstream of an MHC-II targeting sequence, further endowed in vitro with 5' and 3' capping sequences, a PolyA tail, and uridine substitution. Codon-optimized mRNA was used for microfluidics synthesis of LNPs with an ionizable cationic lipid, also decorated with a lipid-anchored mannose ligand for LSEC targeting. Biodistribution to the liver was confirmed by in vivo imaging, while ELISpot assays demonstrated an increase in IL-10-producing Tregs in the spleen. Prophylactic administration of tandem-repeat or a combination of encapsulated Ara h2 epitopes induced robust tolerogenic effects in C3H/HeJ mice, sensitized to and subsequently challenged with crude peanut allergen extract. In addition to alleviating physical manifestations of anaphylaxis, there was suppression of Th2-mediated cytokine production, IgE synthesis, and mast cell release, accompanied by increased IL-10 and TGF- production in the peritoneum. Similar efficacy was demonstrated during LNP administration postsensitization. While nondecorated particles had lesser but significant effects, PolyA/LNP-Man lacked protective effects. These results demonstrate an exciting application of mRNA/LNP for treatment of food allergen anaphylaxis, with the promise to be widely applicable to the allergy field.",https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.2c12420,Lower high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can being sick with COVID-19 in the past protect you in the future,"Did you have COVID-19? Maybe you are better protected than you think! COVID-19 has changed a lot during the past three years. This makes it harder to fight. To try to stop the virus from spreading, scientists created vaccines. And many people got vaccinated! But some people who had COVID-19 might not need a vaccine because they are already protected. We wanted to know if this is true. We looked at 65 studies and found out that a past infection offers good protection. This is especially true for older variants of the virus. The protection against the newest variant, Omicron, is weaker. It also declines faster with time. But the good news is that a past infection will still protect you from getting really sick!","Summary Background Understanding the level and characteristics of protection from past SARS-CoV-2 infection against subsequent re-infection, symptomatic COVID-19 disease, and severe disease is essential for predicting future potential disease burden, for designing policies that restrict travel or access to venues where there is a high risk of transmission, and for informing choices about when to receive vaccine doses. We aimed to systematically synthesise studies to estimate protection from past infection by variant, and where data allow, by time since infection. Methods In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we identified, reviewed, and extracted from the scientific literature retrospective and prospective cohort studies and test-negative case-control studies published from inception up to Sept 31, 2022, that estimated the reduction in risk of COVID-19 among individuals with a past SARS-CoV-2 infection in comparison to those without a previous infection. We meta-analysed the effectiveness of past infection by outcome (infection, symptomatic disease, and severe disease), variant, and time since infection. We ran a Bayesian meta-regression to estimate the pooled estimates of protection. Risk-of-bias assessment was evaluated using the National Institutes of Health quality-assessment tools. The systematic review was PRISMA compliant and was registered with PROSPERO (number CRD42022303850). Findings We identified a total of 65 studies from 19 different countries. Our meta-analyses showed that protection from past infection and any symptomatic disease was high for ancestral, alpha, beta, and delta variants, but was substantially lower for the omicron BA.1 variant. Pooled effectiveness against re-infection by the omicron BA.1 variant was 453% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 173761) and 440% (265650) against omicron BA.1 symptomatic disease. Mean pooled effectiveness was greater than 78% against severe disease (hospitalisation and death) for all variants, including omicron BA.1. Protection from re-infection from ancestral, alpha, and delta variants declined over time but remained at 786% (498936) at 40 weeks. Protection against re-infection by the omicron BA.1 variant declined more rapidly and was estimated at 361% (244513) at 40 weeks. On the other hand, protection against severe disease remained high for all variants, with 902% (697975) for ancestral, alpha, and delta variants, and 889% (847909) for omicron BA.1 at 40 weeks. Interpretation Protection from past infection against re-infection from pre-omicron variants was very high and remained high even after 40 weeks. Protection was substantially lower for the omicron BA.1 variant and declined more rapidly over time than protection against previous variants. Protection from severe disease was high for all variants. The immunity conferred by past infection should be weighed alongside protection from vaccination when assessing future disease burden from COVID-19, providing guidance on when individuals should be vaccinated, and designing policies that mandate vaccination for workers or restrict access, on the basis of immune status, to settings where the risk of transmission is high, such as travel and high-occupancy indoor settings.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)02465-5/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can synthetic proteins help premature babies,"Sometimes babies are born premature three weeks its expensive and sometimes dangerous. This is why we or more before they are due. Premature babies often wanted to test a new possible way: letting the baby inhale have health problems. One of the most common issues synthetic lung surfactant. We developed dry powders is breathing problems, because the lungs havent fully containing synthetic surfactant and tried them both in the developed yet. The immature lungs lack a specific mixture lab and on animal models rabbits and lambs lacking lung of lipids and proteins, called surfactant, which allows the surfactant. Our results show that the delivery of a surfactant lungs to expand. The current treatment for this condition powder through the windpipe gives better results, but that is the introduction of animal surfactant through a tube in two inhalation doses of the synthetic surfactant are a safe the babys windpipe. This method is often successful, but and effective method to improve lung function.","Background: The development of synthetic lung surfactant for preterm infants has focused on peptide analogues of native surfactant proteins B and C (SP-B and SP-C). Non-invasive respiratory support with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) may benefit from synthetic surfactant for aerosol delivery. Methods: A total of three dry powder (DP) surfactants, consisting of phospholipids and the SP-B analogue Super Mini-B (SMB), and one negative control DP surfactant without SMB, were produced with the Acorda Therapeutics ARCUS Pulmonary Dry Powder Technology. Structure of the DP surfactants was compared with FTIR spectroscopy, in vitro surface activity with captive bubble surfactometry, and in vivo activity in surfactant-deficient adult rabbits and preterm lambs. In the animal experiments, intratracheal (IT) aerosol delivery was compared with surfactant aerosolization during nCPAP support. Surfactant dosage was 100 mg/kg of lipids and aerosolization was performed using a low flow inhaler. Results: FTIR spectra of the three DP surfactants each showed secondary structures compatible with peptide folding as an -helix hairpin, similar to that previously noted for surface-active SMB in other lipids. The DP surfactants with SMB demonstrated in vitro surface activity <1 mN/m. Oxygenation and lung function increased quickly after IT aerosolization of DP surfactant in both surfactant-deficient rabbits and preterm lambs, similar to improvements seen with clinical surfactant. The response to nCPAP aerosol delivery of DP surfactant was about 50% of IT aerosol delivery, but could be boosted with a second dose in the preterm lambs. Conclusions: Aerosol delivery of DP synthetic surfactant during non-invasive respiratory support with nCPAP significantly improved oxygenation and lung function in surfactant-deficient animals and this response could be enhanced by giving a second dose. Aerosol delivery of DP synthetic lung surfactant has potential for clinical applications.",https://gatesopenresearch.org/articles/3-6/v2,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can we better prevent polio,"Polio is a potentially deadly and yet preventable disease. A vaccine is available but in order to get rid of the disease, this vaccine needs to have larger coverage. Unfortunately, this is not an easy goal in poorer countries. A single shot of polio vaccine is not enough to prevent the disease, and in developing countries, healthcare workers have difficulties reaching their patients more than once. This is why we wanted to develop a vaccine that requires only one injection. We used safe compounds to mimic the current 2-shot schedule and to stabilize the vaccine. Our tests showed promising results, and hopefully, this approach will help with the development of vaccines against other infectious diseases as well.","Vaccination in the developing world is hampered by limited patient access, which prevents individuals from receiving the multiple injections necessary for protective immunity. Here, we developed an injectable microparticle formulation of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) that releases multiple pulses of stable antigen over time. To accomplish this, we established an IPV stabilization strategy using cationic polymers for pH modulation to enhance traditional small-moleculebased stabilization methods. We investigated the mechanism of this strategy and showed that it was broadly applicable to all three antigens in IPV. Our lead formulations released two bursts of IPV 1 month apart, mimicking a typical vaccination schedule in the developing world. One injection of the controlled-release formulations elicited a similar or better neutralizing response in rats, considered the correlate of protection in humans, than multiple injections of liquid vaccine. This single-administration vaccine strategy has the potential to improve vaccine coverage in the developing world.",https://www.pnas.org/content/115/23/e5269,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we control HIV worldwide,"HIV is a virus that weakens a persons immune system. If the Researchers are developing a vaccine that can stop people from immune system is weak, it cant defend against diseases getting infected with HIV in the first place. In this study, we making something as simple as a cold life-threatening. Did found that providing treatment to more people living with HIV you know that about half of the people living with HIV are not will save a lot of lives. However, if we also gave people a vaccine getting the treatment they need? As a result, millions of people that protects them from getting HIV, we could lead the world die from HIV worldwide every year. But what if we provided HIV towards getting rid of HIV forever. treatment to more people? What if people could get vaccinated?","The HIV pandemic continues to impose enormous morbidity, mortality, and economic burdens across the globe. Simultaneously, innovations in antiretroviral therapy, diagnostic approaches, and vaccine development are providing novel tools for treatment-as-prevention and prophylaxis. We developed a mathematical model to evaluate the added benefit of an HIV vaccine in the context of goals to increase rates of diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression in 127 countries. Under status quo interventions, we predict a median of 49 million [first and third quartiles 44M, 58M] incident cases globally from 2015 to 2035. Achieving the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS 959595 target was estimated to avert 25 million [20M, 33M] of these new infections, and an additional 6.3 million [4.8M, 8.7M] reduction was projected with the 2020 introduction of a 50%-efficacy vaccine gradually scaled up to 70% coverage. This added benefit of prevention through vaccination motivates imminent and ongoing clinical trials of viable candidates to realize the goal of HIV control.",http://www.pnas.org/content/114/15/4017,Lower high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can we eliminate malaria in Haiti,"Malaria kills over , people every year, making it the We learned that many people havent heard of malaria or deadliest mosquito-borne infection in the world. Haiti and dont perceive it as dangerous or as a disease at all. Most the Dominican Republic are the only two Caribbean countries participants thought that increasing the access to mosquito where malaria is present - and they are committed to nets would be the most accepted strategy, as many locals eliminating it by . dont trust pills and refuse to be tested. Our results showed us that increasing malaria awareness is very important. However, we know little about how local people perceive Its also essential to include the collaboration of traditional malaria. Would they accept the interventions the government healers as many sick people seek their help instead of going has planned to eliminate the disease? To find out, we to a health clinic for treatment. performed interviews with health workers, traditional healers, priests, teachers, public officials, and community members.","Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the only two Caribbean countries with endemic malaria transmission, are committed to eliminating malaria. With aPlasmodium falciparumprevalence under 1% and a highly focal transmission, the efforts towards elimination in Haiti will include several community-based interventions that must be tailored to the local sociocultural context to increase their uptake. However, little is known about local community perceptions regarding malaria and the planned elimination interventions. The aim of this study is to develop a robust understanding of how to tailor, implement and promote malaria elimination strategies in Haiti.",https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2553-5,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we help stop the COVID-19 pandemic,"The new coronavirus has already claimed the lives of impact on peoples health and the state of the healthcare hundreds of thousands of people. Different countries are systems in two countries: the UK and the US. We found that taking different measures in the fight against this new social distancing of the whole population, not just the elderly, threat. Many people are staying at home. But is it worth it? would have the most beneficial effect. The combination of Thats what we wanted to find out. this measure with others would be even better. We created a computer model that helps us assess the effect of different measures against COVID-. We checked for the","The global impact of COVID-19 has been profound, and the public health threat it represents is the most serious seen in a respiratory virus since the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Here we present the results of epidemiological modelling which has informed policymaking in the UK and other countries in recent weeks. In the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine, we assess the potential role of a number of public health measures  so-called non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)  aimed at reducing contact rates in the population and thereby reducing transmission of the virus. In the results presented here, we apply a previously published microsimulation model to two countries: the UK (Great Britain specifically) and the US. We conclude that the effectiveness of any one intervention in isolation is likely to be limited, requiring multiple interventions to be combined to have a substantial impact on transmission. Two fundamental strategies are possible: (a) mitigation, which focuses on slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread  reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection, and (b) suppression, which aims to reverse epidemic growth, reducing case numbers to low levels and maintaining that situation indefinitely. Each policy has major challenges. We find that that optimal mitigation policies (combining home isolation of suspect cases, home quarantine of those living in the same household as suspect cases, and social distancing of the elderly and others at most risk of severe disease) might reduce peak healthcare demand by 2/3 and deaths by half. However, the resulting mitigated epidemic would still likely result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and health systems (most notably intensive care units) being overwhelmed many times over. For countries able to achieve it, this leaves suppression as the preferred policy option. We show that in the UK and US context, suppression will minimally require a combination of social distancing of the entire population, home isolation of cases and household quarantine of their family members. This may need to be supplemented by school and university closures, though it should be recognised that such closures may have negative impacts on health systems due to increased absenteeism. The major challenge of suppression is that this type of intensive intervention package  or something equivalently effective at reducing transmission  will need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more)  given that we predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed. We show that intermittent social distancing  triggered by trends in disease surveillance  may allow interventions to be relaxed temporarily in relative short time windows, but measures will need to be reintroduced if or when case numbers rebound. Last, while experience in China and now South Korea show that suppression is possible in the short term, it remains to be seen whether it is possible long-term, and whether the social and economic costs of the interventions adopted thus far can be reduced.",https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk:8443/handle/10044/1/77482,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we keep kids from dying from diarrhea,"Many different bacteria, viruses, and parasites can cause diarrhea. Sometimes diarrhea is just uncomfortable, sometimes its deadly. In fact, in many countries in Africa and Asia, diarrhea is a major cause of death in children. If a childs diarrhea is caused by some types of bacteria, Shigella, for instance, things can get pretty bad. Shigella is a leading cause of morbidity (the rate of disease in a population) and mortality (the number of deaths due to a disease) among children worldwide. Some countries dont have the ability to test for Shigella, so doctors rely only on symptoms to diagnose it and to see if antibiotic treatment is needed. We wanted to check if the method recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)  looking for blood in childrens stool  really identifies Shigella-infected children. We found that it doesnt  only a small proportion of children with Shigella had blood in their stool. We, therefore, recommend using a different method to determine which children with diarrhea need antibiotic treatment","Background Shigella is a leading cause of childhood diarrhea mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Current World Health Organization guidelines recommend antibiotics for children in non cholera-endemic areas only in the presence of dysentery, a proxy for suspected Shigella infection.  Methods To assess the sensitivity and specificity of the syndromic diagnosis of Shigella-associated diarrhea, we enrolled children aged 6 months to 5 years presenting to 1 of 3 Western Kenya hospitals between November 2011 and July 2014 with acute diarrhea. Stool samples were tested using standard methods for bacterial culture and multiplex polymerase chain reaction for pathogenic Escherichia coli. Stepwise multivariable logit models identified factors to increase the sensitivity of syndromic diagnosis.  Results Among 1360 enrolled children, median age was 21 months (interquartile range, 1137), 3.4% were infected with human immunodeficiency virus, and 16.5% were stunted (height-for-age z-score less than ?2). Shigella was identified in 63 children (4.6%), with the most common species being Shigella sonnei (53.8%) and Shigella flexneri (40.4%). Dysentery correctly classified 7 of 63 Shigella cases (sensitivity, 11.1%). Seventy-eight of 1297 children without Shigella had dysentery (specificity, 94.0%). The combination of fecal mucous, age over 23 months, and absence of excessive vomiting identified more children with Shigella-infection (sensitivity, 39.7%) but also indicated antibiotics in more children without microbiologically confirmed Shigella (specificity, 82.7%).  Conclusions Reliance on dysentery as a proxy for Shigella results in the majority of Shigella-infected children not being identified for antibiotics. Field-ready rapid diagnostics or updated evidence-based algorithms are urgently needed to identify children with diarrhea most likely to benefit from antibiotic therapy.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5181358/,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we keep the world free of measles,"Have you had chickenpox? Do you remember how ill it made countries have good health care. In these countries measles you feel? Add a fever and aching bones, and youre close to how still kills tens of thousands of children every year. Vaccination youd feel if you had measles (Figure )... programs have reduced the number of cases, but its very hard Chickenpox and measles are caused by viruses, and both are to completely eliminate it and stop it from coming back. very contagious. This means they can spread very easily from In this study, we created mathematical models to study how one person to another. Measles can make you very sick, and well different vaccination programs could work at preventing people can even die from it. the disease from spreading through a country. We learned that Luckily for us, measles is now very uncommon in countries under the right conditions, it can be possible to keep measles with strong health care, because most people get vaccinated away for good. by doctors or nurses when they are young. However, not all Figure : The measles virus causes an infection","All six WHO regions currently have goals for measles elimination by 2020. Measles vaccination is delivered via routine immunization programmes, which in most sub-Saharan African countries reach children around 9 months of age, and supplementary immunization activities (SIAs), which target a wider age range at multi-annual intervals. In the absence of endemic measles circulation, the proportion of individuals susceptible to measles will gradually increase through accumulation of new unvaccinated individuals in each birth cohort, increasing the risk of an epidemic. The impact of SIAs and the financial investment they require, depend on coverage and target age range.We evaluated the impact of target population age range for periodic SIAs, evaluating outcomes for two different levels of coverage, using a demographic and epidemiological model adapted to reflect populations in 4 sub-Saharan African countries.We found that a single SIA can maintain elimination over short time-scales, even with low routine coverage. However, maintaining elimination for more than a few years is difficult, even with large (high coverage/wide age range) recurrent SIAs, due to the build-up of susceptible individuals. Across the demographic and vaccination contexts investigated, expanding SIAs to target individuals over 10 years did not significantly reduce outbreak risk.  Conclusions Elimination was not maintained in the contexts we evaluated without a second opportunity for vaccination. In the absence of an expanded routine program, SIAs provide a powerful option for providing this second dose. We show that a single high coverage SIA can deliver most key benefits in terms of maintaining elimination, with follow-up campaigns potentially requiring smaller investments. This makes post-campaign evaluation of coverage increasingly relevant to correctly assess future outbreak risk.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X1730172X,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,How can we manage Hendra virus in Australia,"Bats are very important for the environment, but they can virus management, since the underlying cause of Hendra transmit several dangerous viruses, including not only the virus emergence seems to be habitat loss. To find out what dreaded Ebola but also Hendra virus. Hendra virus affects Australian citizens think about it, we asked three community both horses and people and can be lethal. The measures juries whether they think such a strategy is appropriate. Even Australia (where the virus is present) has so far taken include though they all agree the government should implement horse vaccination and safer practice promotion among ecological approaches to manage Hendra, the juries prioritize horse owners. Additional ecological approaches such as increasing resources for the current measures: horse bat habitat protection and creation could enhance Hendra vaccination and safer practices among horse owners.","Background Hendra virus (HeV) infection is endemic in Australian flying-fox populations. Habitat loss has increased the peri-urban presence of flying-foxes, increasing the risk of contact and therefore viral spillovers into horse and human populations. An equine vaccine is available and horse-husbandry practices that minimize HeV exposure are encouraged, but their adoption is suboptimal. Ecological approachessuch as habitat creation and conservationcould complement vaccination and behavioural strategies by reducing spillover risks, but these are controversial. Methods We convened three community juries (two regional; one metropolitan) to elicit the views of well-informed citizens on the acceptability of adding ecological approaches to current interventions for HeV risk. Thirty-one participants of diverse backgrounds, mixed genders and ages were recruited using random-digit-dialling. Each jury was presented with balanced factual evidence, given time to ask questions of expert presenters and, after deliberation, come to well-reasoned conclusions. Results All juries voted unanimously that ecological strategies should be included in HeV risk management strategies but concluded that current interventionsincluding vaccination and changing horse-husbandry practicesmust remain the priority. The key reasons given for adopting ecological approaches were: (i) they address underlying drivers of disease emergence, (ii) the potential to prevent spillover of other bat-borne pathogens, and (iii) there would be broader community benefits. Juries differed regarding the best mechanism to create/conserve flying-fox habitat: participants in regional centres favoured direct government action, whereas the metropolitan jury preferred to place the burden on landholders. Conclusions Informed citizens acknowledge the value of addressing the drivers of bat-borne infectious risks but differ substantially as to the best implementation strategies. Ecological approaches to securing bat habitat could find broad social support in Australia, but disagreement about how best to achieve them indicates the need for negotiation with affected communities to co-develop fair, effective and locally appropriate policies.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209798,Lower high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we predict bone loss in astronauts,"Have you ever dreamed of being an astronaut? Exploring way to predict bone loss in astronauts before spaceflight. outer space sounds exciting, and astronauts get to do that. We analyzed the leg and arm bones of astronauts before However, going into space can lead to health problems. The and after a space mission. We also looked for markers of lack of gravity has a negative impact on bones, called bone bone change in their blood and urine. loss. We found out that bone loss happens quickly in space. The Astronauts try to compensate for bone loss with a lot of longer the space mission, the bigger the problem. More exercise both in space and on Earth. But even exercising exercise before spaceflight predicted greater bone loss! doesnt prevent bone loss in some cases. We wanted to find Elevated markers of bone metabolism before flight also out what factors affect bone loss. We also wanted to find a predicted greater bone loss.","Objectives Bone loss remains a primary health concern for astronauts, despite in-flight exercise. We examined changes in bone microarchitecture, density and strength before and after long-duration spaceflight in relation to biochemical markers of bone turnover and exercise. Methods Seventeen astronauts had their distal tibiae and radii imaged before and after space missions to the International Space Station using high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT. We estimated bone strength using finite element analysis and acquired blood and urine biochemical markers of bone turnover before, during and after spaceflight. Pre-flight exercise history and in-flight exercise logs were obtained. Mixed effects models examined changes in bone and biochemical variables and their relationship with mission duration and exercise. Results At the distal tibia, median cumulative losses after spaceflight were ?2.9% to ?4.3% for bone strength and total volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and ?0.8% to ?2.6% for trabecular vBMD, bone volume fraction, thickness and cortical vBMD. Mission duration (range 3.57 months) significantly predicted bone loss and crewmembers with higher concentrations of biomarkers of bone turnover before spaceflight experienced greater losses in tibia bone strength and density. Lower body resistance training volume (repetitions per week) increased 36 times in-flight compared with pre-spaceflight. Increases in training volume predicted preservation of tibia bone strength and trabecular vBMD and thickness. Conclusions Findings highlight the fundamental relationship between mission duration and bone loss. Pre-flight markers of bone turnover and exercise history may identify crewmembers at greatest risk of bone loss due to unloading and may focus preventative measures.",https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/4/196,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we prevent cervical cancer in Mongolia,"Have you ever heard of cervical cancer? Its one of the most common forms of cancer among women. Most of the cases occur in countries with lower incomes and fewer resources. The leading cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus (HPV). There are several effective vaccines against HPV. But introducing them in the vaccination calendar could cost a lot. Would it be worth it? We used a mathematical model to see if HPV vaccination would be cost effective in Mongolia. It helped us estimate the benefits and costs of introducing an HPV vaccine there. We found out that it would cost between $2.4 and $3.1 million (USD) but could save nearly 4,000 lives! We believe that introducing HPV vaccines in Mongolia would be cost effective.","Abstract Introduction Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer among women in Mongolia with an age-standardized incidence rate of 23.5 per 100,000. HPV vaccination has not been introduced nationally and Gavi co-financing support is not available in Mongolia. Extended Gavi pricing for HPV vaccine may be available from vaccine manufacturers for a number of years. To inform introduction decision-making, we evaluated the potential cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination among girls and young women in Mongolia.  Methods We used UNIVAC (version 1.4), a static decision model, to evaluate the health and economic outcomes of single-cohort vaccination among females from the government perspective compared to no vaccination. We modeled vaccine introduction over 10 birth cohorts starting in 2022 comparing quadrivalent or bivalent vaccine selection and vaccine pricing variations. We used locally-specific data for cancer incidence, mortality, treatment and costs. Model outcomes included cancer cases, hospitalizations, deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALY), and costs presented in 2018 USD. Incremental costs and health outcomes were discounted at 3% and aggregated into an Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER).  Results The base-case scenario of HPV vaccination among 9 year-old girls was projected to avert 5,692 cervical cancer cases, 3,240 deaths, and 11,886 DALYs and incur $2.43.1M more costs compared to no vaccination. At prices of ($4.50-$4.60/dose), we estimated an ICER of $166-$265/DALY averted among 9-year-olds. When price per dose was increased to reported mean vaccine purchase price for non-Gavi LMICs ($14.17/dose), the ICER ranged from $556820/DALY averted.  Conclusion HPV vaccination among girls is highly likely to be a cost-effective investment in Mongolia compared to no vaccination with projected ICERs less than 20% of the 2018 GDP per capita of $3,735.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590136222000213,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How can we relax COVID-19 restrictions,"COVID-19 has changed everyones lives. At one time or another, most of us have had to stay at home and socially distance ourselves from others. But in some countries, people are starting to get out of lockdowns. The last lockdown in England started in January 2021. Relaxing the restrictions afterwards happened gradually. It depended mainly on the number of immune people. Was this a good strategy? We created a mathematical model to see if lifting the restrictions was well timed. The strategy was successful at first. But the emergence of the Delta variant changed things. Our model shows that vaccination alone may not be enough to stop another peak of hospitalisations and deaths.","Background England's COVID-19 roadmap out of lockdown policy set out the timeline and conditions for the stepwise lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) as vaccination roll-out continued, with step one starting on March 8, 2021. In this study, we assess the roadmap, the impact of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant of SARS-CoV-2, and potential future epidemic trajectories. Methods This mathematical modelling study was done to assess the UK Government's four-step process to easing lockdown restrictions in England, UK. We extended a previously described model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to incorporate vaccination and multi-strain dynamics to explicitly capture the emergence of the delta variant. We calibrated the model to English surveillance data, including hospital admissions, hospital occupancy, seroprevalence data, and population-level PCR testing data using a Bayesian evidence synthesis framework, then modelled the potential trajectory of the epidemic for a range of different schedules for relaxing NPIs. We estimated the resulting number of daily infections and hospital admissions, and daily and cumulative deaths. Three scenarios spanning a range of optimistic to pessimistic vaccine effectiveness, waning natural immunity, and cross-protection from previous infections were investigated. We also considered three levels of mixing after the lifting of restrictions. Findings The roadmap policy was successful in offsetting the increased transmission resulting from lifting NPIs starting on March 8, 2021, with increasing population immunity through vaccination. However, because of the emergence of the delta variant, with an estimated transmission advantage of 76% (95% credible interval [95% CrI] 6983) over alpha, fully lifting NPIs on June 21, 2021, as originally planned might have led to 3900 (95% CrI 15005700) peak daily hospital admissions under our central parameter scenario. Delaying until July 19, 2021, reduced peak hospital admissions by three fold to 1400 (95% CrI 7001700) per day. There was substantial uncertainty in the epidemic trajectory, with particular sensitivity to the transmissibility of delta, level of mixing, and estimates of vaccine effectiveness. Interpretation Our findings show that the risk of a large wave of COVID-19 hospital admissions resulting from lifting NPIs can be substantially mitigated if the timing of NPI relaxation is carefully balanced against vaccination coverage. However, with the delta variant, it might not be possible to fully lift NPIs without a third wave of hospital admissions and deaths, even if vaccination coverage is high. Variants of concern, their transmissibility, vaccine uptake, and vaccine effectiveness must be carefully monitored as countries relax pandemic control measures. Funding National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02276-5,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How common are superbugs in US hospitals,"Do your parents and teachers bug you about washing your severe infections that can kill. In fact, MRSA is the leading cause hands? They probably have, and its good advice because of death due to antibiotic-resistant infections in the US. We cleaning your hands is a great way to prevent infection with wanted to see how the number of hospitalizations due to this bacteria and viruses. One of the bacteria that can live on superbug changed over time. We analyzed records of patients in the skin, called Staphylococcus aureus, can cause infections the hospital with this infection in the US from to , and in healthy people. When this bacteria becomes resistant to found out that hospitalization rates decreased for mild infections common antibiotics, it is called methicillin-resistant S. aureus caused by MRSA, while rates for more severe MRSA infections (MRSA). MRSA can cause minor skin infections but also more remained constant.",Data from the National Inpatient Sample show that the decrease in hospitalizations related to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections between 2010 and 2014 primarily reflected declines in skin and soft tissue infections. Hospitalizations related to invasive MRSA remained largely unchanged.,https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix640,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How deadly is Ebola,"Have you ever heard of Ebola? Of course you have. Its one to know what factors helped some of the patients survive. of the scariest diseases out there. And one of the deadliest. We found that age is a really important factor determining It kills between and percent of the people it infects. if the patient survived or not. That is because young adults Why is there such a big range? What makes some Ebola are more likely to survive than others. We also analyzed the infections deadlier than others? To answer these questions, proportion of patients who survived by district and by hospital we analyzed thousands of Ebola cases reported during and found that these proportions did not always match our the - Ebola outbreak in West Africa. We wanted expectations: they were either a lot higher or a lot lower.","The 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest on record with 28 616 confirmed, probable and suspected cases and 11 310 deaths officially recorded by 10 June 2016, the true burden probably considerably higher. The case fatality ratio (CFR: proportion of cases that are fatal) is a key indicator of disease severity useful for gauging the appropriate public health response and for evaluating treatment benefits, if estimated accurately. We analysed individual-level clinical outcome data from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone officially reported to the World Health Organization. The overall mean CFR was 62.9% (95% CI: 61.9% to 64.0%) among confirmed cases with recorded clinical outcomes. Age was the most important modifier of survival probabilities, but country, stage of the epidemic and whether patients were hospitalized also played roles. We developed a statistical analysis to detect outliers in CFR between districts of residence and treatment centres (TCs), adjusting for known factors influencing survival and identified eight districts and three TCs with a CFR significantly different from the average. From the current dataset, we cannot determine whether the observed variation in CFR seen by district or treatment centre reflects real differences in survival, related to the quality of care or other factors or was caused by differences in reporting practices or case ascertainment.",http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0308,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles,How did COVID lockdowns affect air pollution,"Air pollution harms peoples health. During the first few months of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many countries went into lockdown. Many adults worked from home, children went to school online, and families limited their trips outside of the home. Fewer trips outside meant fewer cars on the road and planes in the air. We wanted to know whether the change in peoples driving and flying habits resulted in better air quality. Using satellites, weather stations, and traffic data, we found out that it did!","The lockdown response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented reduction in global economic and transport activity. We test the hypothesis that this has reduced tropospheric and ground-level air pollution concentrations, using satellite data and a network of >10,000 air quality stations. After accounting for the effects of meteorological variability, we find declines in the population-weighted concentration of ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO2: 60% with 95% CI 48 to 72%), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5: 31%; 95% CI: 17 to 45%), with marginal increases in ozone (O3: 4%; 95% CI: ?2 to 10%) in 34 countries during lockdown dates up until 15 May. Except for ozone, satellite measurements of the troposphere indicate much smaller reductions, highlighting the spatial variability of pollutant anomalies attributable to complex NOx chemistry and long-distance transport of fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 m (PM2.5). By leveraging Google and Apple mobility data, we find empirical evidence for a link between global vehicle transportation declines and the reduction of ambient NO2 exposure. While the state of global lockdown is not sustainable, these findings allude to the potential for mitigating public health risk by reducing business as usual air pollutant emissions from economic activities.",https://www.pnas.org/content/117/32/18984,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles; Social-Science Articles,How is asthma related to the neighborhood you live in,"Do you have asthma? In the US, asthma is more common We found that asthma emergencies are more common in in communities of color. But why is that? People of color are those neighborhoods that were once labeled low grade. So more likely to live in neighborhoods with worse air quality was air pollution, the percentage of people living in poverty, and more poverty. But this is only the start of the answer. and the percentage of people of color. A discriminatory plan Why are those neighborhoods like that? from many years ago may be one of the underlying causes of asthma emergencies among people of color today. A discriminatory system from years ago labeled Black and Hispanic neighborhoods as worse (""lower grade"") than white To fight asthma, we need to uplift all communities, especially neighborhoods. This meant these neighborhoods received those harmed by the low grade label. We also need to ensure less investment (money) than white neighborhoods. We that outlawed and outdated policies are not still harming wanted to find out if this grading system from the past might people living in these places. relate to asthma rates in these neighborhoods today.","Summary Background Asthma disproportionately affects communities of colour in the USA, but the underlying factors for this remain poorly understood. In this study, we assess the role of historical redlining as outlined in security maps created by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), the discriminatory practice of categorising neighbourhoods on the basis of perceived mortgage investment risk, on the burden of asthma in these neighbourhoods. Methods We did an ecological study of HOLC risk grades and asthma exacerbations in California using the security maps available for the following eight cities: Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Stockton. Each census tract was categorised into one of four risk levels (A, B, C, or D) on the basis of the location of population-weighted centroids on security maps, with the worst risk level (D) indicating historical redlining. We obtained census tract-level rates of emergency department visits due to asthma from CalEnviroScreen 3.0. We assessed the relationship between risk grade and log-transformed asthma visit rates between 2011 and 2013 using ordinary least squares regression. We included potential confounding variables from the 2010 Census and CalEnviroScreen 3.0: diesel exhaust particle emissions, PM25, and percent of the population living below 2 times the federal poverty level. We also built random intercept and slope models to assess city-level variation in the relationship between redlining and asthma. Findings In the 1431 census tracts assessed (64 [45%] grade A, 241 [168%] grade B, 719 [502%] grade C, and 407 [284%] grade D), the proportion of the population that was non-Hispanic black and Hispanic, the percentage of the population living in poverty, and diesel exhaust particle emissions all significantly increased as security map risk grade worsened (p<00001). The median age-adjusted rates of emergency department visits due to asthma were 24 times higher in census tracts that were previously redlined (median 635 [IQR 343] visits per 10?000 residents per year [201113]) than in tracts at the lowest risk level (265 [184]). In adjusted models, redlined census tracts were associated with a relative risk of 139 (95% CI 121157) in rates of emergency department visits due to asthma compared with that of lowest-risk census tracts. Interpretation Historically redlined census tracts have significantly higher rates of emergency department visits due to asthma, suggesting that this discriminatory practice might be contributing to racial and ethnic asthma health disparities.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(19)30241-4,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How is heart disease different for women and men,"Did you know that your sex can change the way your body they did. We think this could be because a higher percentage responds to disease? We wanted to know how the female of female patients had the most serious condition, heart body responds to serious heart problems. To do this, we failure, after a heart attack. Heart failure means your heart looked through previous studies on heart disease. We isnt pumping enough blood. However, we dont understand tracked how many people died in the days after we exactly why theres a difference between the sexes. If we knew their heart wasnt working well. Did female patients can work this out, then doctors may be able to provide die more than male patients? Unfortunately, we found that better treatment for their patients.","The association between sex and outcomes after myocardial infarction has been extensively studied1; however, the reasons for these disparities are still not completely understood.2 Previous studies yielded mixed results.1,3-7 Some reports have suggested that older age and lower rate of coronary interventions in women might explain the disparity in outcomes. Others have shown that differences may be due to the pathophysiology of coronary heart disease in women.7 Some studies have shown that the higher mortality in women is restricted to patients with persistent ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), with no sex differences in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS).4,6-8 Finally, acute heart failure (HF), a common complication of ACS, can result in a several-fold increase in mortality and this may explain sex differences in mortality8-11; prior studies did not control for acute HF on hospital admission, and specifically lacked information on HF phenotyping. Left ventricular (LV) function is a strong predictor of mortality and is known to differ between men and women. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze a large European cohort to assess sex differences in the acute HF presentation complicating ACS and 30-day mortality using propensity score-based analytic methods in groups of patients with comparable severity of disease and therapeutic targets, specifically with STEMI and NSTE-ACS.",https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacadv.2023.100294,Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How many lives do vaccines save,"Ever since their creation, vaccines have saved countless lives diseases. We wanted to measure the benefits of vaccination for all over the world! Still, people in many countries suffer from them. Using mathematical models, we found that vaccination diseases that could be prevented by vaccination. We looked saved million lives between and ! We project at countries where a lot of people are infected with such that it could save million more by 2030.","Background The past two decades have seen expansion of childhood vaccination programmes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We quantify the health impact of these programmes by estimating the deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) averted by vaccination against ten pathogens in 98 LMICs between 2000 and 2030. Methods 16 independent research groups provided model-based disease burden estimates under a range of vaccination coverage scenarios for ten pathogens: hepatitis B virus, Haemophilus influenzae type B, human papillomavirus, Japanese encephalitis, measles, Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A, Streptococcus pneumoniae, rotavirus, rubella, and yellow fever. Using standardised demographic data and vaccine coverage, the impact of vaccination programmes was determined by comparing model estimates from a no-vaccination counterfactual scenario with those from a reported and projected vaccination scenario. We present deaths and DALYs averted between 2000 and 2030 by calendar year and by annual birth cohort. Findings We estimate that vaccination of the ten selected pathogens will have averted 69 million (95% credible interval 5288) deaths between 2000 and 2030, of which 37 million (3048) were averted between 2000 and 2019. From 2000 to 2019, this represents a 45% (3658) reduction in deaths compared with the counterfactual scenario of no vaccination. Most of this impact is concentrated in a reduction in mortality among children younger than 5 years (57% reduction [5266]), most notably from measles. Over the lifetime of birth cohorts born between 2000 and 2030, we predict that 120 million (93150) deaths will be averted by vaccination, of which 58 million (3976) are due to measles vaccination and 38 million (2552) are due to hepatitis B vaccination. We estimate that increases in vaccine coverage and introductions of additional vaccines will result in a 72% (5981) reduction in lifetime mortality in the 2019 birth cohort. Interpretation Increases in vaccine coverage and the introduction of new vaccines into LMICs have had a major impact in reducing mortality. These public health gains are predicted to increase in coming decades if progress in increasing coverage is sustained.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32657-X,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How skilled are skilled birth attendants around the world,"Despite medical improvements, hundreds of thousands of women and millions of newborns die each year from childbirth-related complications. The United Nations has set goals to reduce the number of these deaths by the year 2030. The chances of survival go up when skilled medical helpers are there to assist with pregnancy and childbirth care, but what does it mean to be skilled? We decided to review the scientific literature to see if there was a clear definition of a skilled birth attendant (SBA) in low-and-middle-income countries. We discovered that there are a lot of differences between and within countries on the definition of skilled birth attendants, including requirements for education and training and the tasks they are qualified or able to perform.","Introduction The percentage of births attended by a skilled birth attendant"" (SBA) is an indicator that has been adopted by several global monitoring frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda for regular monitoring as part of target 3.1 for reducing maternal mortality by 2030. However, accurate and consistent measurement is challenged by contextual differences between and within countries on the definition of SBA, including the education, training, competencies, and functions they are qualified to perform. This scoping review identifies and maps the health personnel considered SBA in low-to-middle-income-countries (LMIC). Methods and analysis A search was conducted inclusive to the years 2000 to 2015 in PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL Complete, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, POPLINE and the World Health Organization Global Index Medicus. Original primary source research conducted in LMIC that evaluated the skilled health personnel providing interventions during labour and childbirth were considered for inclusion. All studies reported disaggregated data of SBA cadres and were disaggregated by country. Results The search of electronic databases identified a total of 23,743 articles. Overall, 70 articles were included in the narrative synthesis. A total of 102 unique cadres names were identified from 36 LMIC countries. Of the cadres included, 16% represented doctors, 16% were nurses, and 15% were midwives. We found substantial heterogeneity between and within countries on the reported definition of SBA and the education, training, skills and competencies that they were able to perform. Conclusion The uncertainty and diversity of reported qualifications and competency of SBA within and between countries requires attention in order to better ascertain strategic priorities for future health system planning, including training and education. These results can inform recommendations around improved coverage measurement and monitoring of SBA moving forward, allowing for more accurate, consistent, and timely data able to guide decisions and action around planning and implementation of maternal and newborn health programmes.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211576,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How to prevent rabies in India,"Do you know any people who got infected with rabies? If In this study we focus on the vaccination of dogs in India. We you live in North America or Europe, the answer most likely created a computer model which showed that by vaccinating is no. However many countries in Asia and Africa are still dogs against rabies, we can control the disease in both struggling to prevent this deadly disease. Rabies usually gets dogs and humans. We also found that spending money transmitted to humans when they are bitten by a rabid dog. on vaccinating dogs is a worthwhile way to control rabies Therefore, controlling rabies in dogs would make it easier to compared to the ways it is currently prevented and treated. prevent humans from getting sick.","Over 20,000 rabies deaths occur annually in India, representing one-third of global human rabies. The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has pioneered a One Health committee to address the challenge of rabies in dogs and humans. Currently, rabies control in Tamil Nadu involves postexposure vaccination of humans after dog bites, whereas potential supplemental approaches include canine vaccination and sterilization. We developed a data-driven rabies transmission model fit to human rabies autopsy data and human rabies surveillance data from Tamil Nadu. Integrating local estimates for canine demography and costs, we predicted the impact of canine vaccination and sterilization on human health outcomes and evaluated cost-effectiveness according to the WHO criteria for India, which correspond to thresholds of $1,582 and $4,746 per disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for very cost-effective and cost-effective strategies, respectively. We found that highly feasible strategies focused on stray dogs, vaccinating as few as 7% of dogs annually, could very cost-effectively reduce human rabies deaths by 70% within 5 y, and a modest expansion to vaccinating 13% of stray dogs could cost-effectively reduce human rabies by almost 90%. Through integration over parameter uncertainty, we find that, for a cost-effectiveness threshold above $1,400 per DALY, canine interventions are at least 95% likely to be optimal. If owners are willing to bring dogs to central point campaigns at double the rate that campaign teams can capture strays, expanded annual targets become cost-effective. This case study of cost-effective canine interventions in Tamil Nadu may have applicability to other settings in India and beyond.",https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604975113,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,How well do masks protect against COVID-19,"COVID-19 has changed our lives. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many countries have introduced various restrictions. Most of us had to stay at home, distance ourselves from others, and wear face masks in public spaces for some period of time. Two years in, COVID-19 is still affecting us. Many people still have to keep their physical distance and wear masks. So are these measures effective? We tested what would happen if a sick person and a healthy one got together and talked for some time. We found out that social distancing alone isnt effective. There is a 90% chance that a healthy person 3m (10ft) away will get infected in less than 5 minutes. However, if both wear a protective mask, this risk goes down considerably  even if they are standing quite close together!","There is ample evidence that masking and social distancing are effective in reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. However, due to the complexity of airborne disease transmission, it is difficult to quantify their effectiveness, especially in the case of one-to-one exposure. Here, we introduce the concept of an upper bound for one-to-one exposure to infectious human respiratory particles and apply it to SARS-CoV-2. To calculate exposure and infection risk, we use a comprehensive database on respiratory particle size distribution; exhalation flow physics; leakage from face masks of various types and fits measured on human subjects; consideration of ambient particle shrinkage due to evaporation; and rehydration, inhalability, and deposition in the susceptible airways. We find, for a typical SARS-CoV-2 viral load and infectious dose, that social distancing alone, even at 3.0 m between two speaking individuals, leads to an upper bound of 90% for risk of infection after a few minutes. If only the susceptible wears a face mask with infectious speaking at a distance of 1.5 m, the upper bound drops very significantly; that is, with a surgical mask, the upper bound reaches 90% after 30 min, and, with an FFP2 mask, it remains at about 20% even after 1 h. When both wear a surgical mask, while the infectious is speaking, the very conservative upper bound remains below 30% after 1 h, but, when both wear a well-fitting FFP2 mask, it is 0.4%. We conclude that wearing appropriate masks in the community provides excellent protection for others and oneself, and makes social distancing less important.",https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2110117118,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,More vitamins for moms are they worth it,"Deficiencies in some vital nutrients during pregnancy are To find the answer, we created a mathematical model, which very common in women in low-income countries and can helped us estimate the benefits and costs of replacing iron lead to birth complications such as preterm births, low birth and folic acid tablets with multiple micronutrient tablets in weight, and infant mortality. This is why governments provide two countries Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. Our results pregnant women with two important micronutrients iron showed that such a switch could cost-effectively reduce birth and folic acid. But there are other vital micronutrients as well. complications and life-long disabilities and save more than If pregnant women consume not only iron and folic acid but , lives in Bangladesh and more than , lives in also other micronutrients in a supplement, it would improve Burkina Faso each year if all pregnant women were to take womens health and birth outcomes. But these tablets cost the recommended number of tablets. more, so are they worth it?","Consumption of multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) during pregnancy offers additional benefits compared with iron?folic acid (IFA) supplementation, but the tablets are more expensive. We estimated the effects, costs, and cost?effectiveness of hypothetically replacing IFA supplements with MMS for 1 year in Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. Using baseline demographic characteristics from LiST and effect sizes from a meta?analysis, we estimated the marginal effects of replacing IFA with MMS on mortality, adverse birth outcomes, and disability?adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. We calculated the marginal tablet costs of completely replacing MMS with IFA (assuming 180 tablets per covered pregnancy). Replacing IFA with MMS could avert over 15,000 deaths and 30,000 cases of preterm birth annually in Bangladesh and over 5000 deaths and 5000 cases of preterm birth in Burkina Faso, assuming 100% coverage and adherence. We estimated the cost per death averted to be US$175185 in Bangladesh and $112125 in Burkina Faso. Cost per DALY averted ranged from $3 to $15, depending on the country and consideration of subgroup effects. Our estimates suggest that this policy change would cost?effectively save lives and reduce life?long disabilities. Improvements in program delivery and supplement adherence would be expected to improve the cost?effectiveness of replacing IFA with MMS.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6771790/,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Routine vaccinations during a pandemic benefit or risk,"Did you have your routine vaccinations as a kid? Vaccines usual vaccinations? To find out, we used a mathematical help prevent millions of deaths each year. But now that the model. We worked out the risks and benefits if health new coronavirus is here, some countries may stop their systems in Africa continue with their vaccination programs vaccination programs for a while. The idea is to reduce as usual. We found that if African countries give vaccinations the risk of spreading the SARS-CoV- coronavirus, which as usual, they will prevent many children from dying. The causes the COVID- disease. But which is better: fewer benefits are far greater than the risk of extra deaths due to coronavirus infections or making sure children get all their COVID-.","Background National immunisation programmes globally are at risk of suspension due to the severe health system constraints and physical distancing measures in place to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to compare the health benefits of sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa with the risk of acquiring severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection through visiting routine vaccination service delivery points. Methods We considered a high-impact scenario and a low-impact scenario to approximate the child deaths that could be caused by immunisation coverage reductions during COVID-19 outbreaks. In the high-impact scenario, we used previously reported country-specific child mortality impact estimates of childhood immunisation for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, Streptococcus pneumoniae, rotavirus, measles, meningitis A, rubella, and yellow fever to approximate the future deaths averted before 5 years of age by routine childhood vaccination during a 6-month COVID-19 risk period without catch-up campaigns. In the low-impact scenario, we approximated the health benefits of sustaining routine childhood immunisation on only the child deaths averted from measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 risk period. We assumed that contact-reducing interventions flattened the outbreak curve during the COVID-19 risk period, that 60% of the population will have been infected by the end of that period, that children can be infected by either vaccinators or during transport, and that upon child infection the whole household will be infected. Country-specific household age structure estimates and age-dependent infection-fatality rates were applied to calculate the number of deaths attributable to the vaccination clinic visits. We present benefitrisk ratios for routine childhood immunisation, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) from a probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Findings In the high-impact scenario, for every one excess COVID-19 death attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections acquired during routine vaccination clinic visits, 84 (95% UI 14267) deaths in children could be prevented by sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa. The benefitrisk ratio for the vaccinated children is 85 000 (4900546 000), for their siblings (<20 years) is 75 000 (4400483 000), for their parents or adult carers (aged 2060 years) is 769 (1482700), and for older adults (>60 years) is 96 (14307). In the low-impact scenario that approximates the health benefits to only the child deaths averted from measles outbreaks, the benefitrisk ratio to the households of vaccinated children is 3 (0510); if the risk to only the vaccinated children is considered, the benefitrisk ratio is 3000 (18221 000). Interpretation The deaths prevented by sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa outweigh the excess risk of COVID-19 deaths associated with vaccination clinic visits, especially for the vaccinated children. Routine childhood immunisation should be sustained in Africa as much as possible, while considering other factors such as logistical constraints, staff shortages, and reallocation of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30308-9,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Should you worry about mosquitoes on planes,"Imagine you are traveling home from a holiday in the tropics but mosquitoes really pose to us humans? We made some calculations a mosquito sneaks onto your plane... Could it spread some nasty to find out. Prepare to be surprised: Human travelers are much more disease, or even start an epidemic in your home country? Airplanes likely to spread certain diseases than the occasional hitchhiking are routinely sprayed with insecticides (insect poison) to kill these mosquito (about times more likely for malaria and times pesky invaders, but how much of a health risk do these sneaky more likely for dengue fever).","Mosquito-borne diseases are increasingly being recognized as global threats, with increased air travel accelerating their occurrence in travelers and their spread to new locations. Since the early days of aviation, concern over the possible transportation of infected mosquitoes has led to recommendations to disinsect aircraft. Despite rare reports of mosquitoes, most likely transported on aircraft, infecting people far from endemics areas, it is unclear how important the role of incidentally transported mosquitoes is compared to the role of traveling humans. We used data for Plasmodium falciparum and dengue viruses to estimate the probability of introduction of these pathogens by mosquitoes and by humans via aircraft under ideal conditions. The probability of introduction of either pathogen by mosquitoes is low due to few mosquitoes being found on aircraft, low infection prevalence among mosquitoes, and high mortality. Even without disinsection, introduction via infected human travelers was far more likely than introduction by infected mosquitoes; more than 1000 times more likely for P. falciparum and more than 200 times more likely for dengue viruses. Even in the absence of disinsection and under the most favorable conditions, introduction of mosquito-borne pathogens via air travel is far more likely to occur as a result of an infected human travelling rather than the incidental transportation of infected mosquitoes. Thus, while disinsection may serve a role in preventing the spread of vector species and other invasive insects, it is unlikely to impact the spread of mosquito-borne pathogens.",http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0005683,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Pollution Articles,What can trees tell us about the air we breathe at home,"The air in houses can be affected by bad stuff, called contaminants. Sometimes harmful chemicals enter the air in buildings from nearby contaminated soil and groundwater through cracks or gaps in the foundation  a process known as vapor intrusion. This poses some risk to our health because we spend so much of our time indoors. Currently, its difficult and expensive to figure out if vapor intrusion is happening. Thats why we wanted to see if trees can serve as indicators for vapor intrusion. We collected samples from 109 trees in a contaminated area in a Nebraska town and analyzed them for tetrachloroethene (PCE), a chemical used mostly as a cleaner and to make other chemicals. When comparing our results with the data the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had collected, we found that trees are good indicators of vapor intrusion.","Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. Existing VI assessment methods are time- and resource-intensive, invasive, and require access into residential and commercial buildings to drill holes through basement slabs to install sampling ports or require substantial equipment to install groundwater or soil vapor sampling outside the home. Tree-core samples collected in 2 days at the PCE Southeast Contamination Site in York, Nebraska were analyzed for tetrachloroethene (PCE) and results demonstrated positive correlations with groundwater, soil, soil-gas, sub-slab, and indoor-air samples collected over a 2-year period. Because tree-core samples were not collocated with other samples, interpolated surfaces of PCE concentrations were estimated so that comparisons could be made between pairs of data. Results indicate moderate to high correlation with average indoor-air and sub-slab PCE concentrations over long periods of time (months to years) to an interpolated tree-core PCE concentration surface, with Spearmans correlation coefficients () ranging from 0.31 to 0.53 that are comparable to the pairwise correlation between sub-slab and indoor-air PCE concentrations ( = 0.55, n = 89). Strong correlations between soil-gas, sub-slab, and indoor-air PCE concentrations and an interpolated tree-core PCE concentration surface indicate that trees are valid indicators of potential VI and human exposure to subsurface environment pollutants. The rapid and non-invasive nature of tree sampling are notable advantages: even with less than 60 trees in the vicinity of the source area, roughly 12 hours of tree-core sampling with minimal equipment at the PCE Southeast Contamination Site was sufficient to delineate vapor intrusion potential in the study area and offered comparable delineation to traditional sub-slab sampling performed at 140 properties over a period of approximately 2 years.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193247,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,What difference do cleaner burning cookstoves make,"In Malawi, a country in sub-Saharan Africa, pneumonia is one of the main causes of death in children under 5 years of age. Pneumonia is a lung infection, which makes it hard for you to get enough oxygen into your bloodstream (i.e. you have low oxygen saturation).Pneumonia in kids has been linked to exposure to smoke from open fires as their mothers cook family meals on them. We predicted that replacing open fires with cleaner-burning cookstoves would reduce the number of cases of pneumonia in young children. To find out if this was true, we ran a two-year trial in Malawi, comparing the effects of using a cleaner-burning cookstove with continuation of open-fire cooking on childhood pneumonia rates. After two years, we found no evidence that using cleaner-burning cookstoves reduced the risk of pneumonia in young children. But the improved cookstoves were beneficial for other important reasons (e.g. avoiding cooking-related injuries such as burns).","Summary Background WHO estimates exposure to air pollution from cooking with solid fuels is associated with over 4 million premature deaths worldwide every year including half a million children under the age of 5 years from pneumonia. We hypothesised that replacing open fires with cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves would reduce pneumonia incidence in young children. Methods We did a community-level open cluster randomised controlled trial to compare the effects of a cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstove intervention to continuation of open fire cooking on pneumonia in children living in two rural districts, Chikhwawa and Karonga, of Malawi. Clusters were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups using a computer-generated randomisation schedule with stratification by site, distance from health centre, and size of cluster. Within clusters, households with a child under the age of 45 years were eligible. Intervention households received two biomass-fuelled cookstoves and a solar panel. The primary outcome was WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)-defined pneumonia episodes in children under 5 years of age. Efficacy and safety analyses were by intention to treat. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN59448623. Findings We enrolled 10?750 children from 8626 households across 150 clusters between Dec 9, 2013, and Feb 28, 2016. 10?543 children from 8470 households contributed 15?991 child-years of follow-up data to the intention-to-treat analysis. The IMCI pneumonia incidence rate in the intervention group was 1576 (95% CI 14891663) per 100 child-years and in the control group 1558 (95% CI 14721645) per 100 child-years, with an intervention versus control incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 101 (95% CI 091113; p=080). Cooking-related serious adverse events (burns) were seen in 19 children; nine in the intervention and ten (one death) in the control group (IRR 091 [95% CI 037223]; p=083). Interpretation We found no evidence that an intervention comprising cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves reduced the risk of pneumonia in young children in rural Malawi. Effective strategies to reduce the adverse health effects of household air pollution are needed.",http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)32507-7/abstract,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,What does war have to do with malaria,"Malaria has been a big problem in Pakistan for a long time now, especially near the border with Afghanistan, where many refugees come from. Because of nearby war, its really hard to collect any data regarding this problem. We managed to examine blood samples from febrile patients from this area (these are people who showed up at the hospital with fever). Through genetic analysis, we found out that 86% of the blood samples were infected with Plasmodium vivax and 12% with P. falciparum  the parasites which cause malaria. Public health in this region is worse than in any other area in the country. Many of the cases of malaria are severe. Mostly, children get sick. This study is hopefully the first step in taking control of the situation in the area.","Background Military conflict has been a major challenge in the detection and control of emerging infectious diseases such as malaria. It poses issues associated with enhancing emergence and transmission of infectious diseases by destroying infrastructure and collapsing healthcare systems. The Orakzai agency in Pakistan has witnessed a series of intense violence and destruction. Military conflicts and instability in Afghanistan have resulted in the migration of refugees into the area and possible introduction of many infectious disease epidemics. Due to the ongoing violence and Talibanization, it has been a challenge to conduct an epidemiological study. Methodology/Principal Findings All patients were sampled within the transmission season. After a detailed clinical investigation of patients, data were recorded. Baseline venous blood samples were taken for microscopy and nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) analysis. Plasmodium species were detected using nested PCR (nPCR) and amplification of the small subunit ribosomal ribonucleic acid (ssrRNA) genes using the primer pairs. We report a clinical assessment of the epidemic situation of malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax (86.5%) and Plasmodium falciparum (11.79%) infections with analysis of complications in patients such as decompensated shock (41%), anemia (8.98%), hypoglycaemia (7.3%), multiple convulsions (6.7%), hyperpyrexia (6.17%), jaundice (5%), and hyperparasitaemia (4.49%). Conclusions/Significance This overlooked distribution of P. vivax should be considered by malaria control strategy makers in the world and by the Government of Pakistan. In our study, children were the most susceptible population to malaria infection while they were the least expected to use satisfactory prevention strategies in such a war-torn deprived region. Local health authorities should initiate malaria awareness programs in schools and malaria-related education should be further promoted at the local level reaching out to both children and parents.",http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0004399#,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,What if women didnt have to pay for giving birth,"What do you think was one of the most dangerous moments survival, the Kenyan government got rid of the fee for giving in your mothers life? Most likely when she gave birth to births at public health facilities in . We conducted a you! This is shockingly true even in some rich and developed survey of women of childbearing ages in five cities in Kenya nations, but especially so for countries in the developing before and after the fee stopped being charged. Among world, such as Kenya, where many women are poor and lack poor women we found that they were more likely to deliver access to adequate medical facilities. These women often their baby at a public facility than at home after the delivery give birth at home, where no trained medical staff is on fee was removed, but we did not have the same findings hand when complications occur. To improve their chances at among all women.","Objectives In 2013, Kenya removed delivery fees at public health facilities in an effort to promote equity in access to health services and address high maternal mortality. This study determines the effect of the policy to remove user fees on institutional delivery in a population-based sample of women from urban Kenya. Methods Longitudinal data were collected from a representative sample of 8500 women from five cities in Kenya in 2010 with a follow-up interview in 2014 (response rate 58.9%). Respondents were asked about their most recent birth since 2008 at baseline and 2012 at endline, including the delivery location. Multinomial logistic regression is used, controlling for the temporal time trend and background characteristics, to determine if births which occurred after the national policy change were more likely to occur at a public facility than at home or a private facility. Results Multivariate findings show that women were significantly more likely to deliver at a public facility as compared to a private facility after the policy. Among the poor, the results show that poor women were significantly more likely to deliver in a public facility compared to home or a private facility after policy change. Conclusions for Practice These findings show Kenyas progress towards achieving universal access to delivery services and meeting its national development targets. The removal of delivery fees in the public sector is leading to increased use of facilities for delivery among the urban poor; this is an important first step in reducing maternal death.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5845052/,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,What if you share a drink with a bat,"Bats transmit several different viruses, including the Nipah We found that eight of them drank fermented palm sap - virus, which scientists discovered recently. (See the fascinating the local palm wine. We believe that drinking this liquor is story of its discovery in References!) We studied cases of a potential way to get infected with Nipah virus. Palm wine people in Bangladesh who got sick with the virus between producers should probably take measures to prevent contact and . The source of their infection was unknown. between bats and the sap.","Nipah virus (NiV) is a paramyxovirus, and Pteropus spp. bats are the natural reservoir. From December 2010 through March 2014, hospital-based encephalitis surveillance in Bangladesh identified 18 clusters of NiV infection. The source of infection for case-patients in 3 clusters in 2 districts was unknown. A team of epidemiologists and anthropologists investigated these 3 clusters comprising 14 case-patients, 8 of whom died. Among the 14 case-patients, 8 drank fermented date palm sap (tari) regularly before their illness, and 6 provided care to a person infected with NiV. The process of preparing date palm trees for tari production was similar to the process of collecting date palm sap for fresh consumption. Bat excreta was reportedly found inside pots used to make tari. These findings suggest that drinking tari is a potential pathway of NiV transmission. Interventions that prevent bat access to date palm sap might prevent tariassociated NiV infection.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4806957/pdf/15-1747.pdf,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,What is the connection between Zika virus and microcephaly,"Zika is a mosquito-borne virus which usually causes no why we gathered information on every birth in Brazil since symptoms. Yet for some time now, scientists have believed the beginning of the Zika outbreak. Using statistics we then Zika infection during pregnancy can lead to birth defects in tested different hypotheses about the cause of the increased the babies. One reason is that the Zika outbreak in Brazil rate of microcephaly cases. We found a strong connection coincided with a microcephaly outbreak. We wanted to see between Zika infection early in the pregnancy and this birth whether there really is a connection between the virus and defect. The risk is highest during the first two trimesters this and other birth defects or whether there were other of the pregnancy. Although Zika virus turned out to cause factors responsible for the microcephaly outbreak. That is other birth defects as well, they are a lot rarer as outcomes.","Background In 2015, high rates of microcephaly were reported in Northeast Brazil following the first South American Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak. Reported microcephaly rates in other Zika-affected areas were significantly lower, suggesting alternate causes or the involvement of arboviral cofactors in exacerbating microcephaly rates. Methods and findings We merged data from multiple national reporting databases in Brazil to estimate exposure to 9 known or hypothesized causes of microcephaly for every pregnancy nationwide since the beginning of the ZIKV outbreak; this generated between 3.6 and 5.4 million cases (depending on analysis) over the time period 1 January 201523 May 2017. The association between ZIKV and microcephaly was statistically tested against models with alternative causes or with effect modifiers. We found no evidence for alternative non-ZIKV causes of the 20152017 microcephaly outbreak, nor that concurrent exposure to arbovirus infection or vaccination modified risk. We estimate an absolute risk of microcephaly of 40.8 (95% CI 34.249.3) per 10,000 births and a relative risk of 16.8 (95% CI 3.2369.1) given ZIKV infection in the first or second trimester of pregnancy; however, because ZIKV infection rates were highly variable, most pregnant women in Brazil during the ZIKV outbreak will have been subject to lower risk levels. Statistically significant associations of ZIKV with other birth defects were also detected, but at lower relative risks than that of microcephaly (relative risk < 1.5). Our analysis was limited by missing data prior to the establishment of nationwide ZIKV surveillance, and its findings may be affected by unmeasured confounding causes of microcephaly not available in routinely collected surveillance data. Conclusions This study strengthens the evidence that congenital ZIKV infection, particularly in the first 2 trimesters of pregnancy, is associated with microcephaly and less frequently with other birth defects. The finding of no alternative causes for geographic differences in microcephaly rate leads us to hypothesize that the Northeast region was disproportionately affected by this Zika outbreak, with 94% of an estimated 8.5 million total cases occurring in this region, suggesting a need for seroprevalence surveys to determine the underlying reason.",https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1002755,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,What is the impact of COVID-19 on other diseases,"The new coronavirus has spread almost everywhere on our We created mathematical models to estimate how the planet. Governments have taken various measures to try and measures against COVID- are impacting people with control the disease many of us are in lockdown, and lots of these other diseases. Unfortunately, we found that deaths schools and businesses are closed. Some people have lost could increase by % for HIV, % for TB and % for their jobs. These (and other) measures have consequences malaria. for other diseases as well. We wanted to assess what impact Our results show that governments should continue with the the coronavirus epidemic would have on three other current most important actions that help prevent and treat these epidemics: HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. These three three diseases. diseases are a major threat, especially in poorer countries.","Background COVID-19 has the potential to cause substantial disruptions to health services, due to cases overburdening the health system or response measures limiting usual programmatic activities. We aimed to quantify the extent to which disruptions to services for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in low-income and middle-income countries with high burdens of these diseases could lead to additional loss of life over the next 5 years. Methods Assuming a basic reproduction number of 30, we constructed four scenarios for possible responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: no action, mitigation for 6 months, suppression for 2 months, or suppression for 1 year. We used established transmission models of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria to estimate the additional impact on health that could be caused in selected settings, either due to COVID-19 interventions limiting activities, or due to the high demand on the health system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings In high-burden settings, deaths due to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria over 5 years could increase by up to 10%, 20%, and 36%, respectively, compared with if there was no COVID-19 pandemic. The greatest impact on HIV was estimated to be from interruption to antiretroviral therapy, which could occur during a period of high health system demand. For tuberculosis, the greatest impact would be from reductions in timely diagnosis and treatment of new cases, which could result from any prolonged period of COVID-19 suppression interventions. The greatest impact on malaria burden could be as a result of interruption of planned net campaigns. These disruptions could lead to a loss of life-years over 5 years that is of the same order of magnitude as the direct impact from COVID-19 in places with a high burden of malaria and large HIV and tuberculosis epidemics. Interpretation Maintaining the most critical prevention activities and health-care services for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria could substantially reduce the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30288-6,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,What role do rodents have in human snail fever,"Schistosomiasis, or snail fever, is a parasitic disease, caused by We trapped small mammals in Senegal, West Africa schistosomes, which leads to long-term ill-health and affects and tested them for the presence of the parasite. We found millions of people, predominantly across Africa and Asia. In that mice and rats were carrying two separate species of order to reduce the impact of this disease, we have to better Schistosoma, as well as a hybrid form - the offspring of understand the complicated life cycle of the parasite and all the different types of schistosomes, some affecting humans and creatures that carry and transmit it. This is why we wanted to some affecting animals. Our data suggest that rodents play see whether small small mammals (like rats, mice, and shrews) an important role in spreading schistosomes in West Africa. spread the form of schistosomiasis that affects humans.","The complex multi-host disease dynamics of schistosomiasis and Schistosoma spp., including the emergence of zoonotic parasite hybrids, remain largely unexplored in West Africa. We elucidated the role of wild small mammals as reservoir for zoonotic Schistosoma species and hybrids in endemic areas of Senegal. We identified Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosoma bovis, and a Schistosoma haematobium/S. bovis hybrid, with local prevalence in wild rodents ranging from 1.9% to 28.6%. Our findings indicate that rodents may be an important local reservoir for zoonotic schistosomiasis in endemic areas of West Africa, amplifying transmission to humans and acting as natural definitive hosts of schistosome hybrids.",https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/218/3/429/4819098,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,What was the impact of a delayed second COVID-19 vaccine,"Do you remember the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic? It got quite scary at times. There were many unknowns and governments had to make hard decisions. At first, there were lockdowns. Then, less than a year later, scientists developed vaccines. The UK was the first country to start national vaccination. A full vaccination course required 2 doses for each person. But some evidence suggested that even one dose could provide decent protection for some time. So the UK government decided to delay the second dose and have more people receive the first dose as fast as possible. What was the impact of this decision? We used a mathematical model to find out. It turned out that delaying the second dose prevented around 58,000 hospitalizations. It has saved more than 10,000 lives!","Summary Background The UK was the first country to start national COVID-19 vaccination programmes, initially administering doses 3 weeks apart. However, early evidence of high vaccine effectiveness after the first dose and the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant prompted the UK to extend the interval between doses to 12 weeks. In this study, we aimed to quantify the effect of delaying the second vaccine dose in England. Methods We used a previously described model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, calibrated to COVID-19 surveillance data from England, including hospital admissions, hospital occupancy, seroprevalence data, and population-level PCR testing data, using a Bayesian evidence-synthesis framework. We modelled and compared the epidemic trajectory in the counterfactual scenario in which vaccine doses were administered 3 weeks apart against the real reported vaccine roll-out schedule of 12 weeks. We estimated and compared the resulting numbers of daily infections, hospital admissions, and deaths. In sensitivity analyses, we investigated scenarios spanning a range of vaccine effectiveness and waning assumptions. Findings In the period from Dec 8, 2020, to Sept 13, 2021, the number of individuals who received a first vaccine dose was higher under the 12-week strategy than the 3-week strategy. For this period, we estimated that delaying the interval between the first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses from 3 to 12 weeks averted a median (calculated as the median of the posterior sample) of 58?000 COVID-19 hospital admissions (291?000 cumulative hospitalisations [95% credible interval 275?000319?000] under the 3-week strategy vs 233?000 [229?000238?000] under the 12-week strategy) and 10?100 deaths (64?800 deaths [60?20068?900] vs 54?700 [52?80055?600]). Similarly, we estimated that the 3-week strategy would have resulted in more infections compared with the 12-week strategy. Across all sensitivity analyses the 3-week strategy resulted in a greater number of hospital admissions. In results by age group, the 12-week strategy led to more hospitalisations and deaths in older people in spring 2021, but fewer following the emergence of the delta variant during summer 2021. Interpretation England's delayed-second-dose vaccination strategy was informed by early real-world data on vaccine effectiveness in the context of limited vaccine supplies in a growing epidemic. Our study shows that rapidly providing partial (single-dose) vaccine-induced protection to a larger proportion of the population was successful in reducing the burden of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths overall.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00337-1/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Where does malaria lurk in Bangladesh,"Malaria is the deadliest parasitic and mosquito-borne infection on the planet. Its a big public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries. In Bangladesh, over 17 million people are at risk of malaria. Data on its distribution in the country, however, are limited. We wanted to track malaria hotspots through both space and time. To find these hotspots we used data on malaria cases, collected from non-governmental organizations in Bangladesh. We generated maps of these regions for four years and analyzed their stability through time. We mapped several stable hotspots, most of them located in the southeast, and found out that only a small proportion of the population accounted for most malaria cases. Moreover, stable hotspots from one year can be used to predict future hotspots. This may help locate the best areas to target for elimination efforts.","Malaria claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year, most of them children. A malaria-free world is the World Health Organizations vision, but elimination from the southeast Asian Region is hampered by factors including anti-malarial resistance and systematic underreporting. Malaria is a significant public health problem in Bangladesh and while there have been recent gains in control, there is large spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the disease burden. This study aims to determine the pattern and stability of malaria hotspots in Bangladesh with the end goal of informing intervention planning for elimination.",https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2405-3,Lower high school; Upper high school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Who is at risk for cholera in Africa,"Can you believe that one of the oldest infectious diseases is We wanted to figure out where most cases of cholera occurred still one of the deadliest? People have tried for a very long in sub-Saharan Africa, to see where people were at the highest time to get rid of cholera, a dangerous bacterial infection, but risk. We saw that the disease does not affect people equally it always manages to return somewhere. Even though it has in all countries; instead, cholera epidemics occur most often been largely eliminated in more developed countries, it still in limited areas. If we focus our efforts on these high-risk threatens millions (and kills hundreds of thousands) of people areas, we could prevent cholera much more efficiently. In fact, each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. we could get rid of half of all cholera cases by targeting only % of the population!"," Summary Background Cholera remains a persistent health problem in sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide. Cholera can be controlled through appropriate water and sanitation, or by oral cholera vaccination, which provides transient (?3 years) protection, although vaccine supplies remain scarce. We aimed to map cholera burden in sub-Saharan Africa and assess how geographical targeting could lead to more efficient interventions. Methods We combined information on cholera incidence in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Djibouti and Eritrea) from 2010 to 2016 from datasets from WHO, M?decins Sans Fronti?res, ProMED, ReliefWeb, ministries of health, and the scientific literature. We divided the study region into 20 km???20 km grid cells and modelled annual cholera incidence in each grid cell assuming a Poisson process adjusted for covariates and spatially correlated random effects. We combined these findings with data on population distribution to estimate the number of people living in areas of high cholera incidence (>1 case per 1000 people per year). We further estimated the reduction in cholera incidence that could be achieved by targeting cholera prevention and control interventions at areas of high cholera incidence. Findings We included 279 datasets covering 2283 locations in our analyses. In sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Djibouti and Eritrea), a mean of 141?918 cholera cases (95% credible interval [CrI] 141?538146?505) were reported per year. 40% (95% CrI 17168) of districts, home to 872 million people (95% CrI 603 million to 1189 million), have high cholera incidence. By focusing on the highest incidence districts first, effective targeted interventions could eliminate 50% of the region's cholera by covering 353 million people (95% CrI 263 million to 620 million), which is less than 4% of the total population. Interpretation Although cholera occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, its highest incidence is concentrated in a small proportion of the continent. Prioritising high-risk areas could substantially increase the efficiency of cholera control programmes.",https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)33050-7/fulltext,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Why are people more likely to get sick when it is cold,"Did you know that your nose protects you from germs? The nose makes small sacs called extracellular vesicles. These sacs prevent bacteria from causing infections. In this study, we investigated how the nose uses extracellular vesicles to fight viruses. We hypothesized that cold weather decreases the noses ability to prevent viruses from infecting cells. Our findings confirmed that the nose does make extracellular vesicles when exposed to a virus. They contain molecules that attach to and kill the viruses. But the amount of extracellular vesicles decreases in colder weather. Furthermore, when its cold, the extracellular vesicles do not contain as many molecules that can kill the virus. That means that we are more likely to get sick when it is chilly outside!","Background The human upper respiratory tract is the first site of contact for inhaled respiratory viruses and elaborates an array of innate immune responses. Seasonal variation in respiratory viral infections and the importance of ambient temperature in modulating immune responses to infections have been well recognized; however, the underlying biological mechanisms remain understudied. Objective We investigated the role of nasal epithelium-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in innate Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)-dependent antiviral immunity. Methods We evaluated the secretion and composition of nasal epithelial EVs after TLR3 stimulation in human autologous cells and fresh human nasal mucosal surgical specimens. We also explored the antiviral activity and mechanisms of TLR3-stimulated EVs against respiratory viruses as well as the effect of cool ambient temperature on TLR3-dependent antiviral immunity. Results We found that polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid, aka poly(I:C), exposure induced a swarm-like increase in the secretion of nasal epithelial EVs via the TLR3 signaling. EVs participated in TLR3-dependent antiviral immunity, protecting the host from viral infections through both EV-mediated functional delivery of miR-17 and direct virion neutralization after binding to virus ligands via surface receptors, including LDLR and ICAM-1. These potent antiviral immune defense functions mediated by TLR3-stimulated EVs were impaired by cold exposure via a decrease in total EV secretion as well as diminished microRNA packaging and antiviral binding affinity of individual EV. Conclusion TLR3-dependent nasal epithelial EVs exhibit multiple innate antiviral mechanisms to suppress respiratory viral infections. Furthermore, our study provides a direct quantitative mechanistic explanation for seasonal variation in upper respiratory tract infection prevalence.",https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(22)01423-3/fulltext,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles,Why do measles survivors get sicker,"Measles is one of the major causes of death among children, even though there is a safe and effective vaccine against it. In fact, because fewer people have been getting vaccinated, the number of people dying from measles is increasing. Even if those who catch it survive, they tend to get sick more often than those who have never had the virus. Why is that? We wanted to find out about the long-term effects of measles on the immune system  perhaps they would hold the answer. We collected blood samples from 77 unvaccinated children before and after they got infected with the virus during an outbreak in the Netherlands. We tracked the changes in antibodies (the particles that fight off pathogens) in the childrens bloodstream. We found that measles wipes out up to 73% of these antibodies, leaving the children unprotected against other diseases for months, and sometimes years. These findings further show the importance of vaccination.","Measles virus is directly responsible for more than 100,000 deaths yearly. Epidemiological studies have associated measles with increased morbidity and mortality for years after infection, but the reasons why are poorly understood. Measles virus infects immune cells, causing acute immune suppression. To identify and quantify long-term effects of measles on the immune system, we used VirScan, an assay that tracks antibodies to thousands of pathogen epitopes in blood. We studied 77 unvaccinated children before and 2 months after natural measles virus infection. Measles caused elimination of 11 to 73% of the antibody repertoire across individuals. Recovery of antibodies was detected after natural reexposure to pathogens. Notably, these immune system effects were not observed in infants vaccinated against MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), but were confirmed in measles-infected macaques. The reduction in humoral immune memory after measles infection generates potential vulnerability to future infections, underscoring the need for widespread vaccination.",https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6465/599,Lower high school; Middle school
Health-And-Medicine Articles; Social-Science Articles,Why get vaccinated when the flu vaccine doesnt work well,"Have you ever had the flu? Most people recover from it We wanted to study the impact of less effective vaccines in pretty fast. However, the flu still kills thousands of children preventing flu-related infections, hospitalizations and deaths. and adults each year. This makes it a big health problem We found that even when the flu vaccines dont work well, across the world. The best way we can prevent flu infection they prevent a large number of people from getting infected is by getting vaccinated. The problem with the flu vaccine or hospitalized and save thousands of lives. We also learned is that in some years it doesnt work as well as others. For that when vaccines are less effective, it is most important example, in - the flu vaccine was less effective in for school-age children, young adults, and the elderly to be preventing infection among vaccinated people compared to vaccinated. previous years.","The efficacy of influenza vaccines varies from one year to the next, with efficacy during the 20172018 season anticipated to be lower than usual. However, the impact of low-efficacy vaccines at the population level and their optimal age-specific distribution have yet to be ascertained. Applying an optimization algorithm to a mathematical model of influenza transmission and vaccination in the United States, we determined the optimal age-specific uptake of low-efficacy vaccine that would minimize incidence, hospitalization, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), respectively. We found that even relatively low-efficacy influenza vaccines can be highly impactful, particularly when vaccine uptake is optimally distributed across age groups. As vaccine efficacy declines, the optimal distribution of vaccine uptake shifts toward the elderly to minimize mortality and DALYs. Health practitioner encouragement and concerted recruitment efforts are required to achieve optimal coverage among target age groups, thereby minimizing influenza morbidity and mortality for the population overall.",http://www.pnas.org/content/115/20/5151.short,Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,How can we know about dinosaurs social lives,"Fossils tell us a lot about how dinosaur shapes changed over time. But learning how dinosaur behavior changed over time is a lot harder to do! Thats why we were so excited to find a treasure trove of Mussaurus patagonicus fossils in Patagonia in southern Argentina. We found fossils of eggs, hatchlings, juveniles, and adults. Mussaurus lived in the early Jurassic, about 193 million years ago. It is an early cousin of the giant sauropods like Diplodocus. Clues from our fossil find tell us about Mussaurus social lives. They lived in herds, nested in colonies, and spent time in age-separated groups. This is the oldest fossil evidence of dinosaur social behavior ever found!","Sauropodomorph dinosaurs dominated the herbivorous niches during the first 40 million years of dinosaur history (Late TriassicEarly Jurassic), yet palaeobiological factors that influenced their evolutionary success are not fully understood. For instance, knowledge on their behaviour is limited, although herding in sauropodomorphs has been well documented in derived sauropods from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous. Here we report an exceptional fossil occurrence from Patagonia that includes over 100 eggs and skeletal specimens of 80 individuals of the early sauropodomorphMussaurus patagonicus, ranging from embryos to fully-grown adults, with an Early Jurassic age as determined by high-precision UPb zircon geochronology. Most specimens were found in a restricted area and stratigraphic interval, with some articulated skeletons grouped in clusters of individuals of approximately the same age. Our new discoveries indicate the presence of social cohesion throughout life and age-segregation within a herd structure, in addition to colonial nesting behaviour. These findings provide the earliest evidence of complex social behaviour in Dinosauria, predating previous records by at least 40 My. The presence of sociality in different sauropodomorph lineages suggests a possible Triassic origin of this behaviour, which may have influenced their early success as large terrestrial herbivores.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99176-1,Lower high school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,How did the warrah cross the ocean to the Falkland Islands,"When Charles Darwin visited the Falkland Islands, he was puzzled to find only one species of land-dwelling mammal  a fox-like animal called the warrah [WAH-rah]. How could the warrah have reached the Falkland Islands? Until now, scientists have assumed humans werent responsible for bringing the warrah to the islands. However, we showed that it is very likely that Indigenous people from the Tierra del Fuego visited the islands centuries before the first European explorers arrived. The Yaghan people are traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers and often traveled with domesticated foxes. We believe that the Yaghan people probably brought the warrah to the islands centuries ago.","When Darwin visited the Falkland Islands in 1833, he noted the puzzling occurrence of the islands sole terrestrial mammal, Dusicyon australis (or warrah). The warrahs origins have been debated, and prehistoric human transport was previously rejected because of a lack of evidence of pre-European human activity in the Falkland Islands. We report several lines of evidence indicating that humans were present in the Falkland Islands centuries before Europeans, including (i) an abrupt increase in fire activity, (ii) deposits of mixed marine vertebrates that predate European exploration by centuries, and (iii) a surface-find projectile point made of local quartzite. Dietary evidence from D. australis remains further supports a potential mutualism with humans. The findings from our study are consistent with the culture of the Yaghan (Y?mana) people from Tierra del Fuego. If people reached the Falkland Islands centuries before European colonization, this reopens the possibility of human introduction of the warrah.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abh3803,Lower high school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,What can fossils tell us about the nervous systems evolution,"What can we learn from fossils? We can estimate the shape and size of an extinct animal. Anything else? Well, if soft tissues (like the brain or muscles) fossilize, it could tell us how the animal functioned or behaved. Unfortunately, soft tissue decomposes quickly after an animal dies. They arent preserved as fossils very often. Thats why we felt really lucky when we came across a fossil of an extinct horseshoe crab with a preserved central nervous system (CNS). We discovered that the organization of the CNS in our fossil is the same as in horseshoe crabs living today. It hasnt changed in over 300 million years! We also figured out how our unique fossil might have formed. This could help others discover similar fossils in the future.","The central nervous system (CNS) presents unique insight into the behaviors and ecology of extant and extinct animal groups. However, neurological tissues are delicate and prone to rapid decay, and thus their occurrence as fossils is mostly confined to Cambrian Burgess Shaletype deposits and Cenozoic amber inclusions. We describe an exceptionally preserved CNS in the horseshoe crab Euproops danae from the late Carboniferous (Moscovian) Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerst?tte in Illinois, USA. The E. danae CNS demonstrates that the general prosomal synganglion organization has remained essentially unchanged in horseshoe crabs for >300 m.y., despite substantial morphological and ecological diversification in that time. Furthermore, it reveals that the euarthropod CNS can be preserved by molding in siderite and suggests that further examples may be present in the Mazon Creek fauna. This discovery fills a significant temporal gap in the fossil record of euarthropod CNSs and expands the taphonomic scope for preservation of detailed paleoneuroanatomical data in the Paleozoic to siderite concretion Lagerst?tten of marginal marine deposits.",https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/49/11/1381/606398/Central-nervous-system-of-a-310-m-y-old-horseshoe,Lower high school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles; Social-Science Articles,What can graves tell us about gender identity,"How do we find out about people who lived hundreds could be the grave of a powerful woman a woman and even thousands of years ago? Often we look at with a sword! their graves. What were they buried with? What does This is surprising because usually swords are associated this tell us about who they were? with men. But its not so straightforward. We wanted to An early medieval grave in Finland has been puzzling find out who the person really was. We looked carefully archaeologists for a while. The person was buried with at what they were buried with, and worked out their a sword, but also jewelry and other objects thought of biological sex using ancient DNA. The results made us as feminine. So, for a long time weve thought that it think that maybe medieval society had different ideas about sex and gender than what we thought.","Abstract In 1968, a weapon grave with brooches was found at Suontaka Vesitorninm?ki, Hattula, Finland. Since then, the grave has been interpreted as evidence of powerful women, even female warriors and leaders in early medieval Finland. Others have denied the possibility of a woman buried with a sword and tried to explain it as a double burial. We present the first modern analysis of the grave, including an examination of its context, a soil sample analysis for microremains, and an aDNA analysis. Based on these analyses, we suggest a new interpretation: the Suontaka grave possibly belonged to an individual with sex-chromosomal aneuploidy XXY. The overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person whose gender identity may well have been non-binary.  Une s?pulture contenant des fibules et des armes fut d?couverte en 1968 ? Suontaka Vesitorninm?ki, Hattula, en Finlande. Depuis, on l'a interpr?t?e comme preuve qu'il existait des femmes au pouvoir, voire des femmes-guerri?res, au d?but du Moyen ?ge en Finlande. D'autres ont ni? la possibilit? d'une s?pulture de femme accompagn?e d'une ?p?e et ont tent? d'attribuer la pr?sence d'armes ? une s?pulture double. Les auteurs de cet article pr?sentent la premi?re ?tude moderne qui examin?t le contexte de cette s?pulture, les micro-restes conserv?s dans le sol et l'ADN ancien (aDNA) du squelette. Ces analyses sugg?rent une nouvelle interpr?tation : la s?pulture de Suontaka aurait pu appartenir ? un individu ? chromosomes sexuels XXY aneuplo?des. Le contexte de la s?pulture indique qu'il s'agissait d'une personne respect?e de genre non-binaire. Translation by Madeleine Hummler  In 1968 wurde ein Waffengrab mit Fibeln in Suontaka Vesitorninm?ki in Hattula (Finnland) entdeckt. Seitdem hat man das Grab als Beweis angesehen, dass es Frauen, die Macht aus?bten, oder sogar Kriegerinnen im fr?hmittelalterlichen Finnland gab. Andere haben es ausgeschlossen, dass man eine Frau mit einem Schwert bestattet h?tte, und haben versucht, den Befund als Doppelbestattung zu erkl?ren. Die Autoren dieses Artikels legen die erste moderne Untersuchung des Befundes vor, in welcher sie den Kontext der Bestattung in Betracht ziehen und Micro-Resten im Boden und die aDNA des Skeletts analysieren. Diese Untersuchungen lassen eine neue Deutung zu: Bei der Bestattung von Suontaka handelte es sich vielleicht um ein Individuum mit chromosomaler Aneuploidie XXY. Der allgemeine Kontext des Grabes weist auf eine angesehene Person nicht-bin?ren Geschlechtes hin. Translation by Madeleine Hummler",https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/woman-with-a-sword-weapon-grave-at-suontaka-vesitorninmaki-finland/33A89DB1D7E4900F017833D87C997D3D,Elementary school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,What can we learn about dinosaur skin using a laser,"Have you ever wondered how we know what dinosaurs looked like millions of years ago? We analyze fossils! When you think about dinosaur fossils, you might think about bones and footprints. But sometimes fossils contain pieces of skin. One example is the Psittacosaurus fossil located in a German museum. Many scientists examined the scaly skin of this specimen. We then re-examined this fossil using a technique called laser-stimulated fluorescence. This technique helped us gather information that was not visible under normal light. We found that the shape and size of the scales of the Psittacosaurus are not the same everywhere. We also learned that there are patterns in the scales. These patterns are unique to the family of dinosaurs to which the Psittacosaurus belongs.","The Frankfurt specimen of the early-branching ceratopsian dinosaurPsittacosaurusis remarkable for the exquisite preservation of squamous (scaly) skin and other soft tissues that cover almost its entire body. New observations under Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF) reveal the complexity of the squamous skin ofPsittacosaurus, including several unique features and details of newly detected and previously-described integumentary structures. Variations in the scaly skin are found to be strongly regionalized inPsittacosaurus. For example, feature scales consist of truncated cone-shaped scales on the shoulder, but form a longitudinal row of quadrangular scales on the tail. Re-examined through LSF, the cloaca ofPsittacosaurushas a longitudinal opening, or vent; a condition that it shares only with crocodylians. This implies that the cloaca may have had crocodylian-like internal anatomy, including a single, ventrally-positioned copulatory organ. Combined with these new integumentary data, a comprehensive review of integument in ceratopsian dinosaurs reveals that scalation was generally conservative in ceratopsians and typically consisted of large subcircular-to-polygonal feature scales surrounded by a network of smaller non-overlapping polygonal basement scales. This study highlights the importance of combining exceptional specimens with modern imaging techniques, which are helping to redefine the perceived complexity of squamation in ceratopsians and other dinosaurs.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03749-3,Lower high school
Paleoscience Articles,What kinds of foods did Neanderthals eat,"Have you ever wondered what people in the Stone Age had for dinner? Food back then was very different from today! People gathered wild foods and hunted animals to eat. Scientists want to know what people ate long ago because it helps explain how people survived in difficult conditions. In the Stone Age, Neanderthals and modern humans (our species!) both lived in Europe. We dont know why Neanderthals went extinct and why modern humans survived. Learning about what Neanderthals ate can help us answer this question. We tested a new method where we measured isotope ratios in tooth enamel. We learned that meat was a big part of Neanderthals diet!","The characterization of Neandertals diets has mostly relied on nitrogen isotope analyses of bone and tooth collagen. However, few nitrogen isotope data have been recovered from bones or teeth from Iberia due to poor collagen preservation at Paleolithic sites in the region. Zinc isotopes have been shown to be a reliable method for reconstructing trophic levels in the absence of organic matter preservation. Here, we present the results of zinc (Zn), strontium (Sr), carbon (C), and oxygen (O) isotope and trace element ratio analysis measured in dental enamel on a Pleistocene food web in Gabasa, Spain, to characterize the diet and ecology of a Middle Paleolithic Neandertal individual. Based on the extremely low 66Zn value observed in the Neandertals tooth enamel, our results support the interpretation of Neandertals as carnivores as already suggested by 15N isotope values of specimens from other regions. Further work could help identify if such isotopic peculiarities (lowest 66Zn and highest 15N of the food web) are due to a metabolic and/or dietary specificity of the Neandertals.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2109315119,Lower high school
Paleoscience Articles,What made woolly mammoths Ice Age icons,"What does it take to survive an ice age? Woolly and looked for unique mutations in woolly mammoth mammoths are extinct today, but they thrived during genes. We found that woolly mammoths had changes the Late Pleistocene era. But what genetic adaptations in genes linked to hair growth and fat storage. These separate woolly mammoths from their modern-day may have helped the woolly mammoth survive in its elephant relatives? To discover this, we analyzed cold environment. The earliest woolly mammoths the genomes of woolly mammoths. This included already had thick fur coats and large fat deposits. But one of the oldest woolly mammoth specimens ever these and other traits, like small ears, continued to discovered , years old! We compared these evolve over time. to the genomes of living Asian and African elephants","Ancient genomes provide a tool to investigate the genetic basis of adaptations in extinct organisms. However, the identification of species-specific fixed genetic variants requires the analysis of genomes from multiple individuals. Moreover, the long-term scale of adaptive evolution coupled with the short-term nature of traditional time series data has made it difficult to assess when different adaptations evolved. Here, we analyze 23 woolly mammoth genomes, including one of the oldest known specimens at 700,000 years old, to identify fixed derived non-synonymous mutations unique to the species and to obtain estimates of when these mutations evolved. We find that at the time of its origin, the woolly mammoth had already acquired a broad spectrum of positively selected genes, including ones associated with hair and skin development, fat storage and metabolism, and immune system function. Our results also suggest that these phenotypes continued to evolve during the last 700,000 years, but through positive selection on different sets of genes. Finally, we also identify additional genes that underwent comparatively recent positive selection, including multiple genes related to skeletal morphology and body size, as well as one gene that may have contributed to the small ear size in Late Quaternary woolly mammoths.",https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00404-9,Lower high school
Paleoscience Articles,What was life like in medieval England,"We looked for signs of parasitic worm infection in people and better toilets. Surprisingly, the friars had a higher worm who lived in Cambridge, England during the Middle Ages. infection rate! We think the reason might be that the friars We compared two groups of people who had very different used human poop to fertilize their vegetable gardens. lifestyles: Augustinian friars and common laborers. The friars had better food and lived longer than the common people. They also were more likely to have access to running water","Abstract Objective To investigate how lifestyle may have impacted the risk of contracting intestinal parasites in medieval England . Regular clergy (such as those living in monasteries) and the lay population form interesting groups for comparison as diet and lifestyle varied significantly. Monasteries were built with latrine blocks and hand washing facilities, unlike houses of the poor.  Materials Sediment samples from the pelvis, along with control samples from feet and skull, of 19 burials of Augustinian Friars (13th-16th century), and 25 burials from All Saints by the Castle parish cemetery (10th-14th century), Cambridge.  Methods We analysed the sediment using micro-sieving and digital light microscopy to identify the eggs of intestinal parasites.  Results Parasite prevalence (roundworm and whipworm) in the Augustinian friars was 58%, and in the All Saints by the Castle parishioners just 32% (Barnards Test score statistic 1.7176, p-value 0.092).  Conclusions It is interesting that the friars had nearly double the infection rate of parasites spread by poor hygiene, compared with the general population. We consider options that might explain this difference, and discuss descriptions and treatment of intestinal worms in medical texts circulating in Cambridge during the medieval period.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981722000316,Elementary school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,When and where did humans domesticate wolves,"Scientists recently discovered an 18,000-year-old preserved canine puppy. Could this incredible discovery be the earliest dog ever uncovered? And could he help us understand more about the origins of dogs and wolves? We studied 70 ancient wolf specimens and found some possible answers. Dogs appear to have come from two separate ancient wolf populations. We believe that there are two possibilities for how this could have happened. By analyzing the DNA of ancient wolves, we can better understand wolves and dogs who live today!","The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and theyremained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the geneIFT8840,00030,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04824-9,Lower high school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,When did bison arrive in North America,"Did you know that the North American bison (aka American could use their DNA to reveal the evolutionary history of buffalo) was once an immigrant? Its ancestors migrated bison in North America. from Asia. But when? We recovered and dated new fossils Our study suggests that the first bison arrived in North and extracted their ancient DNA to find out. America - thousand years ago over a land bridge We analyzed ancient DNA from the two oldest bison fossils between Asia and Alaska. They quickly spread and evolved known in North America: a foot bone about , years (changed) into different forms to adapt to their new old that we found in northern Canada and an arm bone environments. Their invasion was so successful that they about , years old from Colorado. We also analyzed became the dominant mammal herbivore in North America younger bison fossils from Alaska and northern Canada. and even changed entire ecosystems. Millions of these large, We compared their DNA, which showed they were closely powerful mammals lived in many parts of North America related and had a common ancestor. This meant that we until their near extinction in the late 1800s.","The arrival of bison in North America marks one of the most successful large-mammal dispersals from Asia within the last million years, yet the timing and nature of this event remain poorly determined. Here, we used a combined paleontological and paleogenomic approach to provide a robust timeline for the entry and subsequent evolution of bison within North America. We characterized two fossil-rich localities in Canadas Yukon and identified the oldest well-constrained bison fossil in North America, a 130,000-y-old steppe bison, Bison cf. priscus. We extracted and sequenced mitochondrial genomes from both this bison and from the remains of a recently discovered, ?120,000-y-old giant longhorned bison, Bison latifrons, from Snowmass, Colorado. We analyzed these and 44 other bison mitogenomes with ages that span the Late Pleistocene, and identified two waves of bison dispersal into North America from Asia, the earliest of which occurred ?195 135 thousand y ago and preceded the morphological diversification of North American bison, and the second of which occurred during the Late Pleistocene, ?4521 thousand y ago. This chronological arc establishes that bison first entered North America during the sea level lowstand accompanying marine isotope stage 6, rejecting earlier records of bison in North America. After their invasion, bison rapidly colonized North America during the last interglaciation, spreading from Alaska through continental North America; they have been continuously resident since then.",http://www.pnas.org/content/114/13/3457.full.pdf,Lower high school; Middle school
Paleoscience Articles,Where did South American wild canids come from,"South America has the most diverse group of wild canids species evolved from a single ancestor that came from North in the world. There are different species! But where did America using the newly formed Panama land bridge around they come from? And how did they become so diverse? Also, . million years ago. As the ancestor spread through South why are some species really different from the others? We America, it evolved into different species. This only took took DNA from canids and sequenced their genomes. million years a blink of an eye for evolution! We were also We also downloaded the genomes of other wild canids excited to find the genes responsible for some of the wild that were already sequenced. Using computer software, we canids unique adaptations. then looked through their genes. We discovered that all","The remarkable radiation of South American (SA) canids produced 10 extant species distributed across diverse habitats, including disparate forms such as the short-legged, hypercarnivorous bush dog and the long-legged, largely frugivorous maned wolf. Despite considerable research spanning nearly two centuries, many aspects of their evolutionary history remain unknown. Here, we analyzed 31 whole genomes encompassing all extant SA canid species to assess phylogenetic relationships, interspecific hybridization, historical demography, current genetic diversity, and the molecular bases of adaptations in the bush dog and maned wolf. We found that SA canids originated from a single ancestor that colonized South America 3.9 to 3.5 Mya, followed by diversification east of the Andes and then a single colonization event and radiation of Lycalopex species west of the Andes. We detected extensive historical gene flow between recently diverged lineages and observed distinct patterns of genomic diversity and demographic history in SA canids, likely induced by past climatic cycles compounded by human-induced population declines. Genome-wide scans of selection showed that disparate limb proportions in the bush dog and maned wolf may derive from mutations in genes regulating chondrocyte proliferation and enlargement. Further, frugivory in the maned wolf may have been enabled by variants in genes associated with energy intake from short-chain fatty acids. In contrast, unique genetic variants detected in the bush dog may underlie interdigital webbing and dental adaptations for hypercarnivory. Our analyses shed light on the evolution of a unique carnivoran radiation and how it was shaped by South American topography and climate change.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2205986119,Middle school
Pollution Articles; Technology Articles,Can computers help us recycle more plastic,"Plastic pollution is a big environmental challenge facing us today. We use a huge amount of plastic in our daily lives but recycle very little. In fact, the average person living in North America consumes around 230lbs (104kg) of plastic each year! When a problem is this big, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But if everybody makes small changes, it soon adds up to something big! Recycling old plastic helps to reduce the amount of new plastic we make. However, it is difficult to identify and separate all the different types of plastic by simply looking at them. We wanted to find a solution to this. Our study shows that computers with cameras can learn to recognize 12 types of plastic. They can then use this knowledge to identify plastics as they move along a conveyor belt. Our findings could revolutionize plastic recycling and bring us one step closer to solving the global plastic challenge.","An increase in the quality of recycled plastic is paramount to address the global plastic challenge and applicability of recycled plastics. A potent approach is mechanical plastic sorting but sufficient analytical techniques are needed. This study applies unsupervised machine learning on short wave infrared hyperspectral data to build a model for classification of plastics. The model can successfully distinguish between twelve plastics (PE, PP, PET, PS, PVC, PVDF, POM, PEEK, ABS, PMMA, PC, and PA12) and the utility is further proven by recognizing three unknown samples (PS, PMMA, PC). The experimental setup is constructed similar to an in-line industrial setup, and the machine learning is optimized for minimal data processing. This ensures the industrial relevance and is a stepping-stone to solve the global plastic challenge.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924203121001247,Lower high school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Heavy metal pollution How can we make water safe to drink,"When you think of a glass of water, what words come to Copper is a contaminant that makes water unsafe to drink. mind? Clean? Safe? Refreshing? Unfortunately, those words We created a new material ZIOS that can take copper dont describe most of the drinking water in the world. out of the water and use it in other industries. We tested According to the World Health Organization, in people ZIOS to see how much it reduced copper levels in water. We on Earth dont have access to safe drinking water. Children also tested how quickly it does that, and if it would work in in some parts of Africa, for example, may need to walk for acidic environments. Our data support that ZIOS is a good miles to get access to a bottle of drinking water. No matter solution to cleaning up copper pollution. where you live, people need clean water. Think about it. We need water for drinking, cooking, bathing, handwashing, and growing food. We need water to survive.","Herein, we present a scalable approach for the synthesis of a hydrogen-bonded organicinorganic framework via coordination-driven supramolecular chemistry, for efficient remediation of trace heavy metal ions from water. In particular, using copper as our model ion of interest and inspired by natures use of histidine residues within the active sites of various copper binding proteins, we design a framework featuring pendant imidazole rings and copper-chelating salicylaldoxime, known as zinc imidazole salicylaldoxime supramolecule. This material is water-stable and exhibits unprecedented adsorption kinetics, up to 50 times faster than state-of-the-art materials for selective copper ion capture from water. Furthermore, selective copper removal is achieved using this material in a pH range that was proven ineffective with previously reported metalorganic frameworks. Molecular dynamics simulations show that this supramolecule can reversibly breathe water through lattice expansion and contraction, and that water is initially transported into the lattice through hopping between hydrogen-bond sites.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17757-6,Upper high school
Pollution Articles; Technology Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can poop be cleaned and reused,"Everybody poops. Its the natural cycle of digestion. We dine, we digest, and we defecate. But what happens to our poop after we flush? Does it sit there in the pipes and rot? The process is actually very complex. We have sanitation facilities to thank for that. In cities of developed countries, its pretty normal for toilets to be hooked up to the sewage treatment facilities nearby. These facilities work to slurp up any essential nutrients from the wastewater and break down any harmful chemicals. When we remove things like nitrogen and phosphorus from the waste, we can help clean the water to return it to our rivers. Miniature versions of these facilities can also be found in suburban or rural areas in developed countries. However, in developing countries (and even some rural areas in the United States) toilets may not be connected to sewage treatment facilities because of cost, social, or environmental reasons. That means that about 2.5 billion people worldwide dont have access to proper sanitation facilities. We wanted to find out if we could build a low-cost treatment option using only materials found locally to help solve this problem.","There is a great need for simple methods for digestate management for potential household sanitation systems based on anaerobic digestion of minimally diluted fecal waste in countries that lack safe sanitation. Herein, a full-scale three-stage filter for nitrogen and phosphorus removal from anaerobic digester effluent was implemented in Madagascar. It included a trickling filter with crushed charcoal (for aerobic nitrification), a submerged anaerobic filter with bamboo chips (for denitrification), and a submerged filter with scrap iron (for phosphorus removal). All filter materials were sourced locally. Three parallel replicate systems were operated in two sequential 8-week phases for a total of 16 continuous weeks. Though the influent feed was not as expected, with much of nitrogen in the feed coming in as organic N and not as NH3N, the filters still removed 3849% of total incoming nitrogen. The filters achieved high rates of nitrogen transformation along with removing solids (7382% turbidity removal), chemical oxygen demand (6775% removal), and phosphorus (3150% removal). Overall, the reaction rates from this full-scale study were in line with previous lab-scale investigations with scaled-down systems, supporting their application in real-world scenarios. Based on this study, simple effluent filters can support nutrient removal for small-scale and onsite fecal sludge treatment systems.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653520314120,Lower high school; Middle school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can we clean up plastic in the ocean,"Trillions of pieces of plastic currently pollute the ocean, harm- Once in the ocean, plastic items dont disappear. Instead, the ing sea life, contaminating ecosystems and making a mess on action of the wind, waves, and sun slowly shred them into beaches. Its important to clean up the plastic in the ocean, but smaller and smaller pieces. The resulting tiny pieces of plas- nobody knows how best to do so yet. tic, called microplastics, float along the surface and are car- ried by ocean currents to massive swirling gyres out in the Some people suggest deploying giant plastic-removing devic- middle of each ocean basin. There are five gyres in total, and es to clean up the plastic mess. We set out to find where in the the ones with the most plastic are in the North Pacific be- ocean would be the most effective places to put these devices. tween Hawaii and California, and in the North Atlantic just To do so, we made a computerized simulation of plastics en- off Bermuda. tering the ocean, ocean currents, and hypothetical plastic-re- moving devices to take the litter out of the water. We found that if we take plastic out of the ocean very close to the shore, particularly off the coast of East Asia, it would remove the most plastic and be most beneficial for ocean creatures.","Marine plastic pollution is an ever-increasing problem that demands immediate mitigation and reduction plans. Here, a model based on satellite-tracked buoy observations and scaled to a large data set of observations on microplastic from surface trawls was used to simulate the transport of plastics floating on the ocean surface from 2015 to 2025, with the goal to assess the optimal marine microplastic removal locations for two scenarios: removing the most surface microplastic and reducing the impact on ecosystems, using plankton growth as a proxy. The simulations show that the optimal removal locations are primarily located off the coast of China and in the Indonesian Archipelago for both scenarios. Our estimates show that 31% of the modeled microplastic mass can be removed by 2025 using 29 plastic collectors operating at a 45% capture efficiency from these locations, compared to only 17% when the 29 plastic collectors are moored in the North Pacific garbage patch, between Hawaii and California. The overlap of ocean surface microplastics and phytoplankton growth can be reduced by 46% at our proposed locations, while sinks in the North Pacific can only reduce the overlap by 14%. These results are an indication that oceanic plastic removal might be more effective in removing a greater microplastic mass and in reducing potential harm to marine life when closer to shore than inside the plastic accumulation zones in the centers of the gyres.",http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/014006,Lower high school; Middle school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How do estuaries improve water quality,"Estuaries are very special. They act like a natural filter that brackish water. We analyzed them for several nutrients. We helps clean the water before it enters the ocean. But we wanted to check how the concentration of nutrients changes dont fully understand how this works and how the processes in different seasons. Thankfully, our results show that the change throughout the year. So, for a whole year we took Western Scheldt estuary is healthy! We discovered that each samples from various sites along the Western Scheldt section of water works differently as a filter. We also found estuary. Its a restored estuary that used to be very polluted. out that temperature is a very important factor in how they The samples were taken from freshwater, marine water, and work.","Estuarine intertidal sediments are important centres for organic matter remineralization and nutrients recycling. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding regarding how these processes occur along the salinity gradient and their seasonality. Here, we report on the seasonal biogeochemical cycles from three types of intertidal sedimentary habitats (freshwater, brackish and marine) located in the Western Scheldt estuary (The Netherlands and Belgium). A full year of solute fluxes, porewater nutrient and sediment pigment concentrations at a monthly resolution revealed clear differences in the biogeochemistry of the three sites, indicating that environmental conditions determined the local nutrient dynamics. Temperature controlled sediment oxygen consumption rates and nutrient fluxes, but also affected pore water nutrient concentrations up to 14 cm deep. Fresh and brackish sediments had a net influx of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) (?1.62 mmol m?2 d?1 and -2.84 mmol m?2 d?1, respectively), while only the freshwater sediments showed a net influx of phosphate (?0.07 mmol m?2 d?1). We estimated that intertidal sediments remineralized a total of 10,000 t C y?1, with 97% of mineralization occurring in the brackish and marine parts. Overall, sediments removed 11% (1500 t N y?1) and 15% (?200 t P y?1) of the total nitrogen and phosphorus entering the estuary from riverine input. Moreover, observations revealed the historical improvement of water quality resulting from water treatment policies. This spatiotemporal study of OM remineralization and early diagenesis in estuarine systems highlights the importance of intertidal sediments for estuarine systems. Our observations can be used in models to predict estuarine biogeochemistry or assess climate change scenarios.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771423000173,Middle school
Pollution Articles; Social-Science Articles,How does air pollution affect people differently,"Bad air quality is a problem all over the world. In the U.S., air quality is often worse in places where people of color live. There are many different sources of air pollution, like fireplaces, factories, cars, and power plants. We wanted to know how much different pollution sources added to inequality. We found out that people of color are exposed to more air pollution from almost every type of pollution source.","Racial-ethnic minorities in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5), the largest environmental cause of human mortality. However, it is unknown which emission sources drive this disparity and whether differences exist by emission sector, geography, or demographics. Quantifying the PM2.5 exposure caused by each emitter type, we show that nearly all major emission categoriesconsistently across states, urban and rural areas, income levels, and exposure levelscontribute to the systemic PM2.5 exposure disparity experienced by people of color. We identify the most inequitable emission source types by state and city, thereby highlighting potential opportunities for addressing this persistent environmental inequity.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491,Lower high school; Middle school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How much plastic from the pandemic ends up in the ocean,"Have you ever noticed facemasks littering the streets? enters the ocean, and where it eventually ends up. Theyve become a part of day-to-day life, but where do they We used data from lots of different sources to work out how end up? Its estimated that around . billion facemasks much extra plastic has been made for the pandemic. We entered the oceans in ! And its not just masks. During then used scientific models to work out how much of this the COVID- pandemic, we have made a lot more plastic plastic ended up in rivers and then the ocean. We found out for different uses. that over million tons of extra plastic waste has been made We wanted to find out how much extra plastic waste there is globally due to the pandemic. Over , tons of this has due to the pandemic. We also wanted to find out how much entered the ocean, where it can harm marine wildlife.","The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics that intensifies pressure on an already out-of-control global plastic waste problem. While it is suspected to be large, the magnitude and fate of this pandemic-associated mismanaged plastic waste are unknown. Here, we use our MITgcm ocean plastic model to quantify the impact of the pandemic on plastic discharge. We show that 8.4  1.4 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated from 193 countries as of August 23, 2021, with 25.9  3.8 thousand tons released into the global ocean representing 1.5  0.2% of the global total riverine plastic discharge. The model projects that the spatial distribution of the discharge changes rapidly in the global ocean within 3 y, with a significant portion of plastic debris landing on the beach and seabed later and a circumpolar plastic accumulation zone will be formed in the Arctic. We find hospital waste represents the bulk of the global discharge (73%), and most of the global discharge is from Asia (72%), which calls for better management of medical waste in developing countries.",https://www.pnas.org/content/118/47/e2111530118,Elementary school; Middle school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Medicine in our waters so what,"Drugs that we take for common diseases might have more Betta fish) is exposed to a very common drug named metformin side effects than doctors realize. And not just for us for the in its water. This drug is commonly given to people with diabetes environment, too! Because the medicine we take is not completely and is also used for many other illnesses. And it did have an effect used up in our bodies, it ultimately ends up in sewage systems. on our fish. We found that even low levels of the drug (as they are From there, it enters rivers and oceans, where it might impact fish currently found in nature) change the behavior of the Betta fish: and other living things. We set out to examine what happens when it makes males less aggressive, which can impact their chances of a certain type of fish (the Siamese fighting fish, also called the reproducing.","Metformin, the medicine most commonly prescribed for treatment of Type II diabetes, is among the most abundant pharmaceuticals being introduced into the environment. Pharmaceuticals are increasingly found in wastewater and surface waters around the world, often due to incomplete metabolism in humans and subsequent excretion in human waste. Risk analyses and exposure studies have raised concerns about potential negative impacts of pharmaceuticals at current environmental levels. Results of the present study indicate that metformin at concentrations in the range of what has been documented in freshwater systems and waste-water effluent (40 g/L) affects aggressive behavior in adult male Betta splendens. Subjects exhibited less aggression toward a male dummy stimulus after four weeks exposure to metformin-treated water when compared to behavior measured immediately prior to their exposure, and in comparison to a separate cohort of un-exposed control fish. This effect persisted after 20 weeks exposure as well. Subjects exposed to metformin at a concentration twice that currently observed in nature (80 g/L) exhibited an even more substantial reduction in aggressive behaviors compared to controls and pre-exposure measurements than those observed in the low-dose treatment group. Such changes in behavior have the potential to affect male fitness and possibly impact the health of natural populations of aquatic organisms exposed to the drug.",https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197259,Lower high school; Middle school
Pollution Articles,What happens to plastic in the soil,Can you think of life without plastic? Plastic is currently one of the most common materials. Its used for most containers and its even in your clothes! But what happens to this plastic? Some gets recycled but a lot of it gets thrown away. That means it often ends up in the environment where it can break down and change. We wanted to see what happens to different types of plastic when we exposed them to different types of soil. We put small disks of plastic in different environments for 32 days. We then compared the plastics exposed to soil to plastic that was not exposed to soil to see how the surface and other properties changed. We also wanted to see whether any bacteria grew on the plastic. Our data proved that all plastics change when exposed to soil. But they experience different changes because they have different properties.,"There is concern about the buildup of plastic waste in soil, their degradation into microplastics, and their potential to interfere with the natural processing of soil organic carbon and other nutrient cycling processes. Here we used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 13C isotope ratio mass spectrometry to determine if precut consumer plastics comprised of either high density polyethylene (HDPE), a blend of linear low density polyethylene and low density polyethylene (L/LDPE), or polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) would degrade or transform during a short-term, 32 day, exposure to soil or sludge in laboratory microcosms. SEM confirmed morphological changes occurred to all plastics, but the attachment of biofilm and presence of microorganisms mostly favored PETE and HDPE surfaces. These observations support the idea that abiotic and/or biotic processes may degrade plastics in soil; however distinguishable and significant changes in mean stable isotopic values (13C) of ~0.20.7 were only observed for exposed PETE and HDPE. This indicates that each plastic's degradation in soil may be dependent on their physical and chemical properties, with L/LDPE being more resistant and less prone to degradation compared to the others, and less dependent on the environmental conditions or properties of the soil or sludge. Our experiments were short-term and while the mechanisms of degradation are not clear, the results provide strong motivation for further studies of plastic fate and processing in soil systems. Direct mechanistic studies using stable isotopic approaches in combination with other characterizations and techniques are clearly warranted and may lead to a significant enhancement in our present understanding of the interactions and dynamics of plastics in the soil environment.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722004673?via%3Dihub,Lower high school; Middle school
Pollution Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Where did my plastic go,"Try to spend a day not touching plastic and you find that plastic is everywhere: in cups, plates, packaging, toys, computers, phones, clothes, cars, bikes  the list goes on and on. So where does the plastic go when we are done with it? Some gets recycled, some goes to dumps, and some, unfortunately, ends up as litter on land and in the ocean. How much plastic trash is in the ocean? The short answer is: a lot. Tons, in fact. But there are very few scientific estimates of plastic waste. Further, not every piece of plastic is the same: some pieces are big and some are too small to see. It is important to determine the different kinds of plastic, as they can have very different impacts on wildlife and ocean health.","Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics have lacked data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions. Here we report an estimate of the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans from 24 expeditions (20072013) across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows (N?=?680) and visual survey transects of large plastic debris (N?=?891). Using an oceanographic model of floating debris dispersal calibrated by our data, and correcting for wind-driven vertical mixing, we estimate a minimum of 5.25 trillion particles weighing 268,940 tons. When comparing between four size classes, two microplastic <4.75 mm and meso- and macroplastic >4.75 mm, a tremendous loss of microplastics is observed from the sea surface compared to expected rates of fragmentation, suggesting there are mechanisms at play that remove <4.75 mm plastic particles from the ocean surface.",https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,Can peer pressure help teens make safer decisions,"Most people act differently with their friends than they do when they are alone. Teens who see their friends make risky choices are more likely to make risky decisions themselves. We wanted to learn how the brain processes information about other peoples actions. In our experiment, teens played a game where they chose between a safe gamble and a risky gamble. We separated teens into two groups based on whether they had ever used alcohol, tobacco or other drugs. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity in some participants. We found that teens who had never used drugs had a stronger response to seeing their peers choose safe gambles. This result shows that positive peer influence can make a difference!","Social influences on decision-making are particularly pronounced during adolescence and have both protective and detrimental effects. To evaluate how responsiveness to social signals may be linked to substance use in adolescents, we used functional neuroimaging and a gambling task in which adolescents who have and have not used substances (substance-exposed and substancena?ve, respectively) made choices alone and after observing peers decisions. Using quantitative model-based analyses, we identify behavioral and neural evidence that observing others safe choices increases the subjective value and selection of safe options for substance-na?ve relative to substance-exposed adolescents. Moreover, the effects of observing others risky choices do not vary by substance exposure. These results provide neurobehavioral evidence for a role of positive peers (here, those who make safer choices) in guiding adolescent real-world risky decision-making.",https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2020/11/25/1919111117.full.pdf,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles; Water-Resources Articles,Can science and business work together to save the ocean,"Do you like to eat fish? Our ocean provides the growing human population with valuable food. Seafood like fish and shellfish is an important business for some companies. A healthy ocean is essential if we are to keep eating seafood - and if companies are to keep making money from marine ecosystems. However, our ocean is in danger. Overfishing and unsustainable fish farming (known as aquaculture) pose threats to the long-term health of the ocean and the creatures in it. We wanted to explore how scientists and big companies could work together to benefit ocean life and the seafood trade. We shared our scientific knowledge with powerful companies and they then acted to protect the ocean. This approach allowed us to challenge the threats facing our ocean on an international level. We think that our science-business partnership could be a useful example of how to protect the environment where businesses operate. Figure : Previously at SJK, we have referred to several oceans. However, One Ocean. there has been a recent push towards recognizing the ocean as a singular entity: the one ocean that unites us all (Figure ). UNESCOs Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has embraced it with their One Planet, One Ocean tagline.","The ocean represents a fundamental source of micronutrients and protein for a growing world population. Seafood is a highly traded and sought after commodity on international markets, and is critically dependent on healthy marine ecosystems. A global trend of wild stocks being overfished and in decline, as well as multiple sustainability challenges associated with a rapid growth of aquaculture, represent key concerns in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Existing efforts aimed to improve the sustainability of seafood production have generated important progress, primarily at the local and national levels, but have yet to effectively address the global challenges associated with the ocean. This study highlights the importance of transnational corporations in enabling transformative change, and thereby contributes to advancing the limited understanding of large-scale private actors within the sustainability science literature. We describe how we engaged with large seafood producers to coproduce a global sciencebusiness initiative for ocean stewardship. We suggest that this initiative is improving the prospects for transformative change by providing novel links between science and business, between wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture, and across geographical space. We argue that scientists can play an important role in facilitating change by connecting knowledge to action among global actors, while recognizing risks associated with such engagement. The methods developed through this case study contribute to identifying key competences in sustainability science and hold promises for other sectors as well.",https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5576798/,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,Can you help stop online racism,"Imagine you read a comment on a school social media site We wanted to find out more about the impacts of online that made a negative statement about your race. How would racism. We also wanted to discover what makes students that make you feel? Angry? Frustrated? Now imagine that more likely to stand up to online racism, and if this helps to nobody stood up to the person that made the comment. reduce its negative impact. Our study showed that online Would that make you feel worse? You might think other racism negatively affects how Black students feel. But when people agree with them, or you may feel disconnected from they see White students standing up to the post, they feel the school. Unfortunately, this is how many Black students better. We found that White students are more likely to feel because of the online racism they face today. stand up to online racism if they understand how it impacts Black students, and if they know what to say.","Black college students attending historically and predominantly White institutions are increasingly encountering online racial discrimination. This exposure may increase psychological distress and undermine academic performance. Although White bystanders may be well-positioned to challenge racist posts, limited research has examined interventions to increase White students willingness to confront online racial discrimination. The present study used multiple methodologies to characterize the nature and frequency of online racial discrimination college students face, understand its impact on Black students, and increase challenges to online discrimination among White bystanders. Study data include content scraped from campus-related social media platforms over a 3-month period, transcripts from 8 focus groups conducted separately with Black (n = 35) and White (n = 33) college students, and data from an online experiment with 402 White college students. Taken together, study findings indicated that Black students encounter online racial discrimination with nontrivial frequency and are harmed by this exposure. Black students noted, however, that harm is mitigated when online racial discrimination is challenged by their White peers. Further, findings indicated that White students may be more likely to publicly confront racist posts if they (a) are aware of the harm it causes their Black peers; (b) perceive social norms that support confronting discrimination; and (c) receive guidance on what to say. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)",https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-58178-001,Lower high school; Middle school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,Do fathers treat sons and daughters differently,"Have you ever wondered why little boys seem to like trucks and daughters were more likely to sing to them, to respond to them little girls seem to like dolls? It may have to do with the way if they cried out, and to talk with them about sad feelings and they are at birth. However, it may also have to do with how their about the body. Dads with sons were more likely to do rough- parents treat them. To see if fathers interact differently with and-tumble play and to talk about achievements. We also found their sons than with their daughters, we recorded and studied that the brains of men with sons and the brains of men with the way dads spoke to and played with their kids. We also looked daughters reacted differently when looking at pictures of their at how fathers reacted to their childs different facial expressions children making different emotional facial expressions. Our by studying their brains in a scanner called a functional magnetic findings are important because the ways parents interact with resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. We found that dads with their children can have lifelong effects.","Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged, however, is obscured by methodological challenges inherent to the study of parental caregiving, and no studies to date have examined the possibility that gender differences in observed real-world paternal behavior are related to differential paternal brain responses to male and female children. Here we compare fathers of daughters and fathers of sons in terms of naturalistically observed everyday caregiving behavior and neural responses to child picture stimuli. Compared with fathers of sons, fathers of daughters were more attentively engaged with their daughters, sang more to their daughters, used more analytical language and language related to sadness and the body with their daughters, and had a stronger neural response to their daughters happy facial expressions in areas of the brain important for reward and emotion regulation (medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]). In contrast, fathers of sons engaged in more rough and tumble play (RTP), used more achievement language with their sons, and had a stronger neural response to their sons neutral facial expressions in the medial OFC (mOFC). Whereas the mOFC response to happy faces was negatively related to RTP, the mOFC response to neutral faces was positively related to RTP, specifically for fathers of boys. These results indicate that real-world paternal behavior and brain function differ as a function of child gender.",https://doi.org/10.1037/bne0000199,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,How can caring grown-ups help children overcome adversities,"Many children live in homes where they dont have what We did a study on the lives of hundreds of children who they need to do well in life. These children who face a lot grew up in Brazil and South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s. of difficult things might not grow up to be all that they We found that when children had parents or caregivers who could be. Studies show that a hard life can slow down brain listened and talked with them in a loving way and helped development. We wanted to know how parents and other them learn things when they were years old or younger, caregivers could protect childrens brain development, even they grew up to be smarter teenagers and able to care for in tough conditions. themselves.","Background Millions of children globally are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential because of early adversities. We hypothesised that responsive caregiving and learning opportunities, components of nurturing care, at pre-school ages might mitigate the effects of adversities. Methods We analysed longitudinal birth cohort data from Brazil (1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort, n=632) and South Africa (Birth to Twenty Plus [Bt20+] Birth Cohort, n=1130) to assess whether responsive caregiving and learning opportunities at pre-school ages (24 years) modified associations between cumulative early adversities and adolescent human capital. The cumulative adversities score (range 09) included household wealth and crowding; mothers' schooling, height, age, and mental health; and children's birthweight, gestational age, and length at age 12 months. We extracted data on responsive caregiving and learning opportunities from the Early Childhood Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment inventory, assessed at age 4 years (1993 Pelotas cohort) and 2 years (Bt20+ cohort). We examined three human capital indicators: intelligence quotient (IQ) assessed at age 18 years (1993 Pelotas cohort) and 16 years (Bt20+ cohort); psychosocial adjustment assessed at age 15 years and 14 years, respectively; and height assessed at age 18 years and 16 years, respectively. We used linear models with interaction terms between cumulative adversities, and responsive caregiving and learning opportunities, to predict adolescent human capital. Findings For each additional Z score of total cumulative adversity, adolescent IQ decreased by 589 (95% CI ?729 to ?450) points in the 1993 Pelotas cohort (p<00001) and 269 (452 to ?086) points in the Bt20+ cohort (p=00039). After adjusting for total cumulative adversities, adolescent IQ points increased by 547 (95% CI 420 to 674) with each additional Z score of learning opportunities and by 226 (093 to 359) with each additional Z score of responsive caregiving in the 1993 Pelotas cohort, but not in the Bt20+ cohort (086 [012 to 183] and 065 [032 to 161], respectively). Associations between early adversities and IQ were modified by learning opportunities in the 1993 Pelotas cohort (beta coefficient for interaction 174, 95% CI 043 to 304; p=00092) and by responsive caregiving in the Bt20+ cohort (224, 094 to 354; p=00075). High nurturing environment attenuated the negative effects of early cumulative adversities on IQ. Interpretation Early nurturing home environments protect young children against effects of early adversities on adolescent IQ, with long-term positive associations on adolescent cognition in two middle-income countries. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30309-6,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How can gratitude help healthcare workers,"Have you ever felt stressed? Its not very pleasant. Most healthcare workers feel stress every day. Often that prolonged stress leads to emotional exhaustion. There are different ways to deal with this, but they can take too long or are expensive. What if there was a simpler way to reduce emotional exhaustion? Many studies show that gratitude can increase happiness. We asked healthcare workers to write a letter of gratitude. We assessed their levels of emotional exhaustion before and after this assignment. After using our method, healthcare workers had lower levels of emotional exhaustion. They also said they were happier.","Background Emotional exhaustion (EE) in health care workers is common and consequentially linked to lower quality of care. Effective interventions to address EE are urgently needed. Objective This randomized single-exposure trial examined the efficacy of a gratitude letterwriting intervention for improving health care workers well-being. Methods A total of 1575 health care workers were randomly assigned to one of two gratitude letterwriting prompts (self- vs other focused) to assess differential efficacy. Assessments of EE, subjective happiness, work-life balance, and tool engagement were collected at baseline and 1-week post intervention. Participants received their EE score at baseline and quartile benchmarking scores. Paired-samples t tests, independent t tests, and correlations explored the efficacy of the intervention. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software assessed the linguistic content of the gratitude letters and associations with well-being. Results Participants in both conditions showed significant improvements in EE, happiness, and work-life balance between the intervention and 1-week follow-up (P<.001). The self-focused (vs other) instruction conditions did not differentially predict improvement in any of the measures (P=.91). Tool engagement was high, and participants reporting higher motivation to improve their EE had higher EE at baseline (P<.001) and were more likely to improve EE a week later (P=.03). Linguistic analyses revealed that participants high on EE at baseline used more negative emotion words in their letters (P=.005). Reduction in EE at the 1-week follow-up was predicted at the level of a trend by using fewer first-person (P=.06) and positive emotion words (P=.09). No baseline differences were found between those who completed the follow-up assessment and those who did not (Ps>.05). Conclusions This single-exposure gratitude letterwriting intervention appears to be a promising low-cost, brief, and meaningful tool to improve the well-being of health care workers.",https://www.jmir.org/2020/5/e15562,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How can philosophy help kids mental health,"Just as its important for you to have a healthy body, its also important to have a healthy mind. For a healthy body, you need to eat healthy food and do some exercise. But how do you keep your mind healthy? Perhaps exploring the meaning of things around us and thinking about how we should act in the world might help. Thats called philosophy! We wanted to know if doing philosophy with children had a positive impact on their mental health. We conducted a 5-week experiment  two elementary school classes took part in philosophy activities for children and we compared the results to another class which didnt. We found out that philosophy increases kids sense of autonomy (the ability to choose things for yourself) and decreases their anxiety. It didnt make them feel more capable or give them a greater sense of belonging, though.","Philosophy for children (P4C) was initially developed in the 1970s, and served as an educational program to promote critical thinking, caring and creative reasoning and inquiry in the educational environment. Quasi-experimental research on P4C, a school-based approach that aims to develop childrens capacity to think by and for themselves, has suggested it could be an interesting intervention to foster greater basic psychological need satisfaction in children in school settings. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the impact of P4C on basic psychological need satisfaction and mental health in elementary school students. To do so, a randomized cluster trial with a wait-list control group was implemented. Students from grades one to three (N?=?57) took part in this study and completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. ANCOVAs revealed a significant effect of group condition on levels of autonomy and anxiety, after controlling for baseline levels. Participants in the experimental group showed higher scores in autonomy, when compared to participants in the control group, whereas for anxiety, participants in the experimental group showed lower scores in anxiety, when compared to participants in the control group. Overall, results from this study show that P4C may be a promising intervention to foster greater autonomy in elementary school children, while also improving mental health.",https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-44367/v1,Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How can super-recognizers help police investigations,Did you know that some people are really good at remembering and matching faces? They are called super-recognizers. Police want to use super-recognizers to help with their cases. They could sort through camera recordings of crimes and identify criminals. But their abilities have never been tested using real police material. First we used tests to identify super-recognizers. Then we used real police material to see if super-recognizers could identify criminals. We found that the tests could indeed identify super-recognizers. Super-recognizers did a good job at finding criminals. Much better than regular people! We can use this information to help solve crimes and keep people safe.,"About a decade ago, Super-Recognizers (SRs) were first described as individuals with exceptional face identity processing abilities. Since then, various tests have been developed or adapted to assess individuals abilities and identify SRs. The extant literature suggests that SRs may be beneficial in police tasks requiring individual identification. However, in reality, the performance of SRs has never been examined using authentic forensic material. This not only limits the external validity of test procedures used to identify SRs, but also claims concerning their deployment in policing. Here, we report the first-ever investigation of SRs ability to identify perpetrators using authentic case material. We report the data of 73 SRs and 45 control participants. These include (a) performance on three challenging tests of face identity processing recommended by Ramon (2021) for SR identification; (b) performance for perpetrator identification using four CCTV sequences depicting five perpetrators and police line-ups created for criminal investigation purposes. Our findings demonstrate that the face identity processing tests used here are valid in measuring such abilities and identifying SRs. Moreover, SRs excel at perpetrator identification relative to control participants, with more correct perpetrator identifications, the better their performance across lab tests. These results provide external validity for the recently proposed diagnostic framework and its tests used for SR identification (Ramon, 2021). This study provides the first empirical evidence that SRs identified using these measures can be beneficial for forensic perpetrator identification. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for law enforcement, whose procedures can be improved via a human-centric approach centered around individuals with superior abilities.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2220580120,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,How can we empower girls to end poverty,"Not having enough money to buy everything we want can be disappointing. But true poverty is not having enough money for basic human needs like food, clothing, or a place to live. Governments and organizations are looking for effective ways to help people escape poverty. Some programs give people cash unconditionally  meaning it is given with no strings attached. Others give them conditional cash  for example, only if their children attend school. So which approach is more effective? We compared the impacts of unconditional and conditional cash for schoolgirls in Malawi, Africa. Unconditional cash improved girls wellbeing and reduced teen marriage and pregnancy rates. But the positive effects disappeared when the money stopped. Conditional cash led to the girls achieving more at school. Each approach has its unique benefits. We think implementing them together would be a more effective tool to fight poverty than either approach alone.","This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Cash or condition evidence from a cash transfer experiment, conducted from 2008 to the end of 2009 in Malawi. The study observed the impact of conditionality in cash transfer programs with two distinct interventions: unconditional transfers (UCT arm) and transfers conditional on school attendance (CCT arm) targeted at adolescent girls in Malawi on individual level. Dropout rates declined in both treatment arms, however the UCT arm is 43 percent as large as the CCT arm. The fraction of days attended in the CCT arm is significantly higher than the UCT. Cognitive ability, math and English scores significantly improve for the CCT but not for the UCT. Probability of pregnancy and marriage were much lower in the UCT arm. The delays in marriage and fertility in the UCT arm are found entirely among adolescent girls who dropped out of school after the start of the intervention. Improvements in human capital for the recipients of the CCT are achieved at the cost of worse outcomes for people who drop out of school. Funding for the study derived from the Global Development Network, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Africa Project, World Bank Research Support Budget Grant, World Bank Knowledge for Change Trust Fund, World Development Report 2007 Small Grants Fund, Spanish Impact Evaluation Fund, and Gender Action Plan Trust Fund.",https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr032,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,How can we help extremely poor people earn more money,"How much money do you think youd need to cover the essentials for one day? It is difficult to imagine how a family lives on less than $1.25 a day, but one-fifth of the worlds population does exactly that. How does your daily living cost compare? Its likely to be a lot more than $1.25! We conducted a study in six different countries to find out if providing extremely poor people with livelihoods (sources of income), training and food support could enable them to escape extreme poverty. We tested if such an intervention had made sustainable (longlasting) improvements in the lives of these people by collecting results after the support had ended and comparing their results to others who did not receive the intervention. We found that on average households had indeed improved. This shows that giving the poorest of the poor a way to make a living, as well as the support to keep that going, is an effective way to reduce extreme poverty.  ","INTRODUCTION: Working in six countries with an international consortium, we investigate whether a multifaceted Graduation program can help the extreme poor establish sustainable self-employment activities and generate lasting improvements in their well-being. The program targets the poorest members in a village and provides a productive asset grant, training and support, life skills coaching, temporary cash consumption support, and typically access to savings accounts and health information or services. In each country, the program was adjusted to suit different contexts and cultures, while staying true to the same overall principles. This multipronged approach is relatively expensive, but the theory of change is that the combination of these activities is necessary and sufficient to obtain a persistent impact. We do not test whether each of the program dimensions is individually necessary.",http://deankarlan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/science-2015-banerjee-.pdf,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,How can we make mountain disasters less disastrous,"Have you ever considered what makes a natural event, like an mountain management methods one that focuses on the earthquake, become a disaster? Earthquakes dont always cause ecosystem, and one that focuses on the community of people problems. But when they happen in areas where many people living near mountains. We used the Nepal earthquakes as live (if they arent prepared), or in vulnerable environments (like an example. mountains), they can cause disasters. We came up with different principles (guidelines) that Through a system of mountain management, scientists and combine varying forms of mountain management. These can governments aim to reduce the costs of disasters, such as be used to address the challenges facing mountains and make loss of life or ecosystem destruction. However, not everyone them a safer place to live. We can prevent natural events like agrees on the best way to do this. We investigated two different earthquakes from becoming disasters.","The devastating 2015 earthquakes in Nepal highlighted the need for effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) in mountains, which are inherently subject to hazards and increasingly vulnerable to extreme events. As multiple UN policy frameworks stress, DRR is crucial to mitigate the mounting environmental and socioeconomic costs of disasters globally. However, specialized DRR guidelines are needed for biodiverse, multi-hazard regions like mountains. Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) emphasizes ecosystem conservation, restoration, and sustainable management as key elements for DRR. We propose that integrating the emerging field of Eco-DRR with community-based DRR (CB-DRR) will help address the increasing vulnerabilities of mountain people and ecosystems. Drawing on a global mountain synthesis, we present paradoxes that create challenges for DRR in mountains and examine these paradoxes through examples from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. We propose four principles for integrated CB- and Eco-DRR that address these challenges: (1) governance and institutional arrangements that fit local needs; (2) empowerment and capacity-building to strengthen community resilience; (3) discovery and sharing of constructive practices that combine local and scientific knowledge; and (4) approaches focused on well-being and equity. We illustrate the reinforcing relationship between integrated CB- and Eco-DRR principles with examples from other mountain systems worldwide. Coordinated community and ecosystem-based actions offer a potential path to achieve DRR, climate adaptation, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation for vulnerable ecosystems and communities worldwide.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901118311602,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,How do bed bugs affect landlords and tenants,"Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are annoying pests whose bites cause various medical and economic problems. In recent decades they have reappeared in the US and worldwide. In some states, this has led to the implementation of control measures such as disclosure policies in which landlords must notify potential tenants of current or past bed bug infestations in their property. It may seem that this would be detrimental to landlords, but is this really the case? To find out we developed a mathematical model to estimate the financial impact of bed bug disclosure policies on landlords over time. We determined that the cost of disclosure is high at first, but after a few years, landlords experience savings, as the prevalence of bed bugs decreases.","Bed bugs have reemerged in the United States and worldwide over recent decades, presenting a major challenge to both public health practitioners and housing authorities. A number of municipalities have proposed or initiated policies to stem the bed bug epidemic, but little guidance is available to evaluate them. One contentious policy is disclosure, whereby landlords are obligated to notify potential tenants of current or prior bed bug infestations. Aimed to protect tenants from leasing an infested rental unit, disclosure also creates a kind of quarantine, partially and temporarily removing infested units from the market. Here, we develop a mathematical model for the spread of bed bugs in a generalized rental market, calibrate it to parameters of bed bug dispersion and housing turnover, and use it to evaluate the costs and benefits of disclosure policies to landlords. We find disclosure to be an effective control policy to curb infestation prevalence. Over the short term (within 5 years), disclosure policies result in modest increases in cost to landlords, while over the long term, reductions of infestation prevalence lead, on average, to savings. These results are insensitive to different assumptions regarding the prevalence of infestation, rate of introduction of bed bugs from other municipalities, and the strength of the quarantine effect created by disclosure. Beyond its application to bed bugs, our model offers a framework to evaluate policies to curtail the spread of household pests and is appropriate for systems in which spillover effects result in highly nonlinear costbenefit relationships.",https://www.pnas.org/content/116/13/6473,Lower high school; Upper high school
Social-Science Articles,How do gender stereotypes impact girls interest in science,"Has anyone ever said that you couldnt or shouldnt do something because of one of your traits? If so, youve probably been the victim of a stereotype. A stereotype is a set of shared beliefs based on a trait or the identity of a group. A common stereotype is that women are not as good at or interested in science as men. This can result in fewer women participating in the sciences.We wanted to know if and when these gender stereotypes about science affect children and adolescents. We also wanted to know if stereotypes cause girls to be less interested in and take part less in these fields. To find out, we conducted surveys and laboratory experiments.We found that very young students believed these gender stereotypes. Girls were less interested in participating in computer science and engineering if they believed the stereotypes. So, teachers and schools should try to generate interest in these fields at an early age.","Societal stereotypes depict girls as less interested than boys in computer science and engineering. We demonstrate the existence of these stereotypes among children and adolescents from first to 12th grade and their potential negative consequences for girls subsequent participation in these fields. Studies 1 and 2 (n = 2,277; one preregistered) reveal that children as young as age six (first grade) and adolescents across multiple racial/ethnic and gender intersections (Black, Latinx, Asian, and White girls and boys) endorse stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering. The more that individual girls endorse gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys in computer science and engineering, the lower their own interest and sense of belonging in these fields. These gender-interest stereotypes are endorsed even more strongly than gender stereotypes about computer science and engineering abilities. Studies 3 and 4 (n = 172; both preregistered) experimentally demonstrate that 8- to 9-y-old girls are significantly less interested in an activity marked with a gender stereotype (girls are less interested in this activity than boys) compared to an activity with no such stereotype (girls and boys are equally interested in this activity). Taken together, both ecologically valid real-world studies (Studies 1 and 2) and controlled preregistered laboratory experiments (Studies 3 and 4) reveal that stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering emerge early and may contribute to gender disparities.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2100030118,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How do school shootings affect students mental health,"Over the past two decades, there have been more than 250 school shootings in the United States. Sadly, many students and teachers have died in these tragic events. Although the number of shootings seems high, a school shooting is actually a very low-probability event. But how do school shootings affect those who survived? We wanted to see the effects of school shootings on students mental health. We examined the effects of 44 school shootings on an important measure of youth mental health: the number of prescriptions for antidepressants. We found out that school shootings lead to a significant increase in antidepressant use among children. Moreover, the effects on mental health can be long term. However, the effects on mental health are smaller in areas where there are more psychologists and social workers.","While over 240,000 American students experienced a school shooting in the last two decades, little is known about the impacts of these events on the mental health of surviving youth. Using large-scale prescription data from 2006 to 2015, we examine the effects of 44 school shootings on youth antidepressant use. Our empirical strategy compares the number of antidepressant prescriptions written by providers practicing 0 to 5 miles from a school that experienced a shooting (treatment areas) to the number of prescriptions written by providers practicing 10 to 15 miles away (reference areas), both before and after the shooting. We include month-by-year and school-by-area fixed effects in all specifications, thereby controlling for overall trends in antidepressant use and all time-invariant differences across locations. We find that local exposure to fatal school shootings increases youth antidepressant use by 21.4% in the following 2 y. These effects are smaller in areas with a higher density of mental health providers who focus on behavioral, rather than pharmacological, interventions.",https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/jr000248c.pdf,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How do smartphones affect our sleep,"Do you own a smartphone? They are very useful and often To find out, we asked , students to complete two we cant imagine life without them. But they could be questionnaires. This helped us determine how many of harmful as well. For example, people can get addicted to the students suffer from smartphone addiction. It also smartphones. As with any other addiction, this can lead to showed how many suffer from poor sleep. We found out various problems. So does it affect our sleep? that smartphone addiction is pretty common among young students. We also found a strong connection between smartphone addiction and poor sleep.","Background: In a large UK study we investigated the relationship between smartphone addiction and sleep quality in a young adult population. Methods: We undertook a large UK cross-sectional observational study of 1,043 participants aged 18 to 30 between January 21st and February 30th 2019. Participants completed the Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version, an adapted Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Score Index and reported smartphone use reduction strategies using both in-person (n = 968) and online (n = 75) questionnaires. A crude and adjusted logistic regression was fitted to assess risk factors for smartphone addiction, and the association between smartphone addiction and poor sleep. Results: One thousand seventy one questionnaires were returned, of which 1,043 participants were included, with median age 21.1 [interquartile range (IQR) 1922]. Seven hundred and sixty three (73.2%) were female, and 406 reported smartphone addiction (38.9%). A large proportion of participants disclosed poor sleep (61.6%), and in those with smartphone addiction, 68.7% had poor sleep quality, compared to 57.1% of those without. Smartphone addiction was associated with poor sleep (aOR = 1.41, 95%CI: 1.061.87, p = 0.018). Conclusions: Using a validated instrument, 39% young adults reported smartphone addiction. Smartphone addiction was associated with poor sleep, independent of duration of usage, indicating that length of time should not be used as a proxy for harmful usage.",https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.629407,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,How does your address affect your chances of being evicted,"The idea of losing your home is scary. If a renter struggles to their probability of receiving a default judgment? We studied pay their landlord, the landlord may start the legal process , eviction cases across fifteen years in Philadelphia, of eviction. The renter has the opportunity to present their PA. We found that renters with longer travel times to the case in court, but they typically must show up in person courthouse are more likely to receive a default judgment and on time. And if they dont? In some places, the landlord in favor of their landlord. But this effect was not present will receive a default judgment. This allows them to move during the COVID- pandemic. This is because renters forward with the eviction. could attend their court hearing virtually, via video call. Our findings show that the location and accessibility of a We wondered about renters traveling to the courthouse courthouse can affect the outcomes of individual cases. using public transportation. Does their travel time affect their probability of receiving a default judgment? We studied 200,000 eviction cases across fifteen years in Philadelphia, PA. We found that renters with longer travel times to the courthouse are more likely to receive a default judgment in favor of their landlord. But this effect was not present during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because renters could attend their court hearing virtually, via video call. Our findings show that the location and accessibility of a courthouse can affect the outcomes of individual cases.","Studying ?200,000 evictions filed against ?300,000 Philadelphians from 2005 to 2021, we focus on the role of transit to court in preventing tenants from asserting their rights. In this period, nearly 40% of tenants facing eviction were ordered to leave their residences because they did not show up to contest cases against them and received a default judgment. Controlling for a variety of potential confounds at the tenant and landlord level, we find that residents of private tenancies with longer transit travel time to the courthouse were more likely to default. A 1-h increase in estimated travel time increases the probability of default by between 3.8% and 8.6% points across different model specifications. The effect holds after adjusting for direct distance to the court, unobserved landlord characteristics, and even baseline weekend travel time. However, it is absent in public housing evictions, where timing rules are significantly laxer, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when tenants had the opportunity to be present virtually. We estimate that had all tenants been equally able to get to the court in 10 min, there would have been 4,000 to 9,000 fewer default evictions over the sample period. We replicate this commuting effect in another dataset of over 800,000 evictions from Harris County, Texas. These results open up a new way to study the physical determinants of access to justice, illustrating that the location and accessibility of a courthouse can affect individual case outcomes. We suggest that increased use of video technology in court may reduce barriers to justice.",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2210467120,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,To be vaccinated or not how does the Internet influence a pregnant womans decision,"Do you go online for your health-related questions? You are cough (pertussis), and the flu (influenza). The majority of not alone! More and more people are using the Internet to the articles supported both vaccines. Most pertussis articles gather medical information. Lately, there has been debate used real-life cases and focused on protecting the baby. about the safety of vaccines in online media. Vaccines protect The influenza articles focused on protecting the mother, or us from infectious diseases and save millions of lives every both the mother and the baby. Then, we surveyed pregnant year. Vaccination during pregnancy protects newborn babies women and health care providers. Their opinions were as well. But how does online media influence a pregnant similar to those expressed in the articles. Our results may womans opinion about vaccination? Here, we examined the explain why more women are receiving pertussis vaccine online media about two maternal vaccinations: whooping compared to influenza.","Introduction Online media may influence womens decision to undergo vaccination during pregnancy. The aims of this mixed-methods study were to: (1) examine the portrayal of maternal vaccination in online media and (2) establish the perceived target of vaccine protection as viewed by pregnant women and maternity healthcare professionals (HCPs). Methods Online media articles on maternal vaccination (published July-December 2012 or November 2015-April 2016) were identified through the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicines Vaccine Confidence Database and thematically analysed. Questionnaires for pregnant women and HCPs were distributed within four English hospitals (July 2017-January 2018). Results Of 203 articles identified, 60% related to pertussis vaccination, 33% to influenza and 6% both. The majority positively portrayed vaccination in pregnancy (97%), but inaccurate, negative articles persist which criticize pertussis vaccinations safety and efficacy. Positively-worded articles about pertussis tended to focus on infant protection and highlight examples of recent cases, whereas positively-worded articles about influenza focused on maternal protection. These themes were reflected in questionnaire responses from 314 pregnant women and 204 HCPs, who perceived pertussis vaccination as protecting the baby, and influenza vaccination as protecting the mother, or mother and baby equally. A minority of the pregnant women surveyed intended to decline influenza (22%) or pertussis (8%) vaccination. Conclusions The majority of online articles support pertussis and influenza vaccination during pregnancy. The portrayal of pertussis vaccination as primarily benefiting the child, using real-examples, may influence its higher uptake compared with influenza. This approach should be considered by HCPs when recommending vaccination. HCPs should be prepared to provide advice to women hesitant about vaccination, including addressing any negative media, and consider educational strategies to counteract inaccurate information. Future studies should directly assess the influence of media on vaccine decision-making and establish which media platforms are typically used by pregnant women to gather information.",https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.10.092,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,What can school anti-bullying programs do,"Do you feel safe at school? Schools should be a safe place Many schools run anti-bullying programs. We wanted to where you can learn, grow, and have fun. Yet bullying is find out how effective these interventions are and what a common problem that happens in schools all across the impact they have on students. We found that anti-bullying world. Being bullied can make you feel alone and scared. It interventions not only reduce bullying but also improve is a tough situation to go through, and it can affect your self- mental health problems! Our results show that interventions esteem and increase your risk of developing mental health help in a very important way to reduce bullying and its issues. So what can be done to reduce bullying in schools? negative consequences.","Importance: Bullying is a prevalent and modifiable risk factor for mental health disorders. Although previous studies have supported the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs; their population impact and the association of specific moderators with outcomes are still unclear.  Objective: To assess the effectiveness of school anti-bullying interventions, their population impact, and the association between moderator variables and outcomes.  Data sources: A search of Ovid MEDLINE, ERIC, and PsycInfo databases was conducted using 3 sets of search terms to identify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) assessing anti-bullying interventions published from database inception through February 2020. A manual search of reference lists of articles included in previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses was also performed.  Study selection: The initial literature search yielded 34 798 studies. Included in the study were articles that (1) assessed bullying at school; (2) assessed the effectiveness of an anti-bullying program; (3) had an RCT design; (4) reported results; and (5) were published in English. Of 16 707 studies identified, 371 met the criteria for review of full-text articles; 77 RCTs were identified that reported data allowing calculation of effect sizes (ESs). Of these, 69 independent trials were included in the final meta-analysis database.  Data extraction and synthesis: Random-effects and meta-regression models were used to derive Cohen d values with pooled 95% CIs as estimates of ES and to test associations between moderator variables and ES estimates. Population impact number (PIN), defined as the number of children in the total population for whom 1 event may be prevented by an intervention, was used as an estimate of the population impact of universal interventions targeting all students, regardless of individual risk.  Main outcomes and measures: The main outcomes are the effectiveness (measured by ES) and the population impact (measured by the PIN) of anti-bullying interventions on the following 8 variable categories: overall bullying, bullying perpetration, bullying exposure, cyberbullying, attitudes that discourage bullying, attitudes that encourage bullying, mental health problems (eg, anxiety and depression), and school climate as well as the assessment of potential assocations between trial or intervention characteristics and outcomes.  Results: This study included 77 samples from 69 RCTs (111 659 participants [56 511 in the intervention group and 55 148 in the control group]). The weighted mean (range) age of participants in the intervention group was 11.1 (4-17) years and 10.8 (4-17) years in the control group. The weighted mean (range) proportion of female participants in the intervention group was 49.9% (0%-100%) and 50.5% (0%-100%) in the control group. Anti-bullying interventions were efficacious in reducing bullying (ES, -0.150; 95% CI, -0.191 to -0.109) and improving mental health problems (ES, -0.205; 95% CI, -0.277 to -0.133) at study end point, with PINs for universal interventions that target the total student population of 147 (95% CI, 113-213) and 107 (95% CI, 73-173), respectively. Duration of intervention was not statistically significantly associated with intervention effectiveness (mean [range] duration of interventions, 29.4 [1 to 144] weeks). The effectiveness of anti-bullying programs did not diminish over time during follow-up (mean [range] follow-up, 30.9 [2-104] weeks).  Conclusions and relevance: Despite the small ESs and some regional differences in effectiveness, the population impact of school anti-bullying interventions appeared to be substantial. Better designed trials that assess optimal intervention timing and duration are warranted.",https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33136156/,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,Whats the connection between poverty and race in US schools,"Have your parents ever told you that you should especially likely to go to very poor schools which offer be glad you can go to school that kids in some lower quality education than richer schools. These other countries are not so lucky? Well, this is true, students often achieve less during their school years but it leaves out the fact that even in the U.S. not than their peers in richer schools, without it being all children have the same opportunities in the their fault. educational system. Black and Hispanic students are especially likely to go to very poor schools which offer lower quality education than richer schools. These students often achieve less during their school years than their peers in richer schools, without it being their fault.","Research over the past decade suggests that racial segregation appears to have the largest implications for students achievement when linked to racial differences in exposure to school poverty. This paper provides a summary and update to prior literature describing patterns and trends of racial differences in school poverty rates from the 19981999 through 20152016 school years. We describe black-white and Hispanic-white differences in school poverty rates within U.S. school districts, metropolitan areas, states, and the nation over this nearly 20-year period. We find that while exposure to poverty in schools has risen dramatically, racial differences in exposure to school povertyhave been relatively stable during this time. These average trends, however, belie meaningful variabilityamong places. Places serving large proportions of minority students have larger but declining averageracial differences in exposure to school poverty. Large school districts also have larger average racial differences in exposure and have been experiencing increases in this measure over time.",https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12552-019-09277-w,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,Which type of people tend to help others,"Have you ever helped a friend find a lost item? Or donated behaviors. We also found a relationship between positive old clothes or toys to a charity? When you help someone, emotions and prosocial behaviors. We learned that negative you are taking part in prosocial behaviors. In our study, we emotions are more difficult to use as a predictor for prosocial analyzed data to determine which factors relate to prosocial behaviors. Negative emotions often relate to less prosocial behavior. We explored life satisfaction, positive emotions, behaviors. But the relationship between negative emotions and negative emotions. We found that people who are and prosocial behavior was less consistent. more satisfied with their life take part in more prosocial . But the relationship between negative emotions and prosocial behavior was less consistent.","Subjective well-being (SWB) is positively related to prosocial giving and helping others, but so far, research has not explored the association of individual aspects of well-being with prosocial behavior across the world. We used a representative sample from the Gallup World Poll across 163 countries from 2006 to 2017 to explore the relationship between each aspect of well-being and prosocial behavior (N = 1,797,630). We found that different aspects of SWB are not equally associated with prosocial behavior: While life satisfaction and positive affect consistently predicted being more prosocial across the globe, negative affect did not consistently predict being more or less prosocial. We further explore economic and cultural moderators of these relationships. Our findings underline the importance of studying the effects of the different components of SWB separately, indicating that life satisfaction and positive emotionsmore so than negative emotionsconsistently predict being more prosocial across the globe.",https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/19485506211043379,Lower high school
Social-Science Articles,Why do some women deny gender discrimination,"Women face discrimination across the world. They have We carried out three studies, involving , participants fewer rights and opportunities (like education) than men, all from countries altogether. We tested the hypothesis that because of their gender. And the COVID- pandemic has denial of gender discrimination is related to better well- made this worse. being in women. But despite this, many people (including women) deny We found this to be true across the United States and that gender discrimination exists. Even people who have worldwide. In fact, in countries where gender discrimination experienced it personally! We wanted to find out why this is. is worse, women were even more likely to deny it! Denial of We thought that perhaps its because denying discrimination discrimination helps women to cope, but it makes gender makes the world seem fairer. This makes women happier. inequality worse.","Despite the fact that women face socially and politically sanctioned disadvantages every day, a large percentage of women and men report that gender discrimination is no longer a problem. Across three studies, which together include over 20,000 participants from 23 countries, we test the hypothesis that denial (vs. acknowledgement) of gender discrimination is associated with higher subjective well-being among women (Studies 13), and this is because denying gender discrimination promotes the view that the system is fair (Study 1). We further show that this happens above and beyond personal experiences with sexism (Study 1) and that the association is stronger in countries where sexism is relatively high (vs. low; Study 3). We argue that denial of discrimination is an individual-level coping mechanism and that, like other self-group distancing strategies, it may perpetuate gender inequality.",https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2702,Lower high school; Middle school
Social-Science Articles,Your house is cold so what,"Have you ever felt cold at home? Shivered in your room? for example, how many rooms they use in the house. We knew New Zealand had a big problem with cold housing New Zealands government is looking for ways to solve the but we wanted evidence especially on youth experiences. problem of energy poverty. We wanted to present ideas We surveyed - year old students in multiple schools for solutions from youth. Therefore, young people were in different climate zones around the country. Overall we involved at all stages of this research: from questionnaire found % felt cold in their homes during the winter at design to research reporting. some point. This resulted in many restrictions in their lives, for example, how many rooms they use in the house.","Abstract Background Living in cold housing conditions and risk of fuel poverty presents a range of physiological and psychosocial health risks. Limited research has specifically investigated the effects of fuel poverty on children and young people, and even less has been conducted with youth input into the research process.  Methods The Cool? Study used mixed methods, participatory action research carried out with youth researchers involved at all stages through questionnaire design, analysis, qualitative design, e-interviewing and dissemination of results. This article reports on results of an online survey of 656 adolescents aged 1416 years completed at 17 schools in New Zealand. Sampling was based on selecting schools for invitation, with the probability of selection weighted proportional to school size, within strata defined by climate zone. Results from a small e-mail interview study of survey respondents who consented to follow-up are also reported.  Results The study found that almost half of the survey respondents (47%) felt their home was sometimes cold during the winter; a further 40% felt their home was often or always cold. More than two thirds of respondents (70%) had shivered inside at least once during winter. Respondents were more likely to report key indicators of fuel poverty depending on their self-reported ethnicity, with M?ori at increased risk. Living in private rental housing or state-owned housing also increased risk of fuel poverty compared to those in owner-occupied dwellings. Participants of email interviews expressed concern about the widespread problem of cold housing for youth and a desire for Government intervention.  Conclusion The integrated results confirm that cold housing and risk of fuel poverty are important problems for young people in New Zealand. Results contribute to the evidence-base for policy targeting of schemes such as the Government-sponsored retrofitting of insulation to households with dependent children.",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827316301720,Lower high school; Middle school
Technology Articles,Can a robotic arm be controlled by the brain,"Pick up a nearby object. Easy, right? Not for many people set of implants. We placed them in the part of the brain that with tetraplegia. They have an injury that prevents their senses touch from the hand. That meant the person could brain from communicating with their hands. That means they feel when the arm touched an object. cannot move or feel objects. We found that this touch information improved a persons We want to make a robotic arm that people with tetraplegia ability to complete a set of tasks with the robotic arm. It can control with their brain. In a previous study, we put small cut the time it took to complete these tasks in half! This is implants in a persons brain. They used their sense of sight because the study participant could grasp the object faster to guide the arm to an object. Then they picked it up and using both senses. placed it in a new location. In this study, we added a second set of implants. We placed them in the part of the brain that senses touch from the hand. That meant the person could feel when the arm touched an object. We found that this touch information improved a persons ability to complete a set of tasks with the robotic arm. It cut the time it took to complete these tasks in half! This is because the study participant could grasp the object faster using both senses.","Prosthetic arms controlled by a brain-computer interface can enable people with tetraplegia to perform functional movements. However, vision provides limited feedback because information about grasping objects is best relayed through tactile feedback. We supplemented vision with tactile percepts evoked using a bidirectional brain-computer interface that records neural activity from the motor cortex and generates tactile sensations through intracortical microstimulation of the somatosensory cortex. This enabled a person with tetraplegia to substantially improve performance with a robotic limb; trial times on a clinical upper-limb assessment were reduced by half, from a median time of 20.9 to 10.2 seconds. Faster times were primarily due to less time spent attempting to grasp objects, revealing that mimicking known biological control principles results in task performance that is closer to able-bodied human abilities.",https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd0380,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Technology Articles,Can we use bacteria to make renewable rocket fuel,"NASAs space shuttle has to go really fast to reach outer change. It would be nice if we could make high-energy space. In fact, it has to go about times faster than fuels more sustainable. a car going mph ( km/h)! Rockets need fuel with Some bacteria make molecules that have lots of energy. lots of energy to go that fast. We call these high-energy We wanted to know if we could use these molecules to fuels. Airplanes and cargo ships use the same type of make more sustainable high-energy fuels. We looked at fuel. DNA from bacteria. We also used some clever chemistry. Right now, these high-energy fuels are made using And we made a new biofuel. It seems to have even more fossil fuels. When we burn fossil fuels, it causes climate energy than the high-energy fossil fuels we have now!","Cyclopropane-functionalized hydrocarbons are excellent fuels due their high energy density. However, the organic synthesis of these molecules is challenging. In this work, we produced polycyclopropanated fatty acids in bacteria. These molecules can be converted into renewable fuels for energy-demanding applications such as shipping, long-haul transport, aviation, and rocketry. We explored the chemical diversity encoded in thousands of bacterial genomes to identify and repurpose naturally occurring cyclopropanated molecules. We identified a set of candidate iterative polyketide synthases (iPKSs) predicted to produce polycyclopropanated fatty acids (POP-FAs), expressed them in Streptomyces coelicolor, and produced POP-FAs. We determined the structure of the molecules and increased their production 22-fold. Finally, we produced polycyclopropanated fatty acid methyl esters (POP-FAMEs). Our POP fuel candidates can have net heating values of more than 50 MJ/L. Our research shows that the POP-FAMEs and other POPs have the energetic properties for energy-demanding applications for which sustainable alternatives are scarce.",https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(22)00238-0,Elementary school; Lower high school; Middle school
Technology Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can rescuers quickly find people lost at sea,"Every year the U.S. Coast Guard spends over , hours on objects towards them. These attractors can be identified in search and rescue at sea, saving thousands and thousands of real time and turned into maps. We used manikins and buoys lives. Both planes and boats are used to look for lost people. to test how well these maps could predict where objects will But what is the best way to predict where people might be? drift. We came up with a new method of using information about We found that our new method could quickly and accurately the ocean to help rescuers find missing people. We found help to find people lost at sea! regions of the sea that act like attracting magnets, pulling objects towards them. These attractors can be identified in real time and turned into maps. We used manikins and buoys to test how well these maps could predict where objects will drift. We found that our new method could quickly and accurately help to find people lost at sea!","Every year, hundreds of people die at sea because of vessel and airplane accidents. A key challenge in reducing the number of these fatalities is to make Search and Rescue (SAR) algorithms more efficient. Here, we address this challenge by uncovering hidden TRansient Attracting Profiles (TRAPs) in ocean-surface velocity data. Computable from a single velocity-field snapshot, TRAPs act as short-term attractors for all floating objects. In three different ocean field experiments, we show that TRAPs computed from measured as well as modeled velocities attract deployed drifters and manikins emulating people fallen in the water. TRAPs, which remain hidden to prior flow diagnostics, thus provide critical information for hazard responses, such as SAR and oil spill containment, and hence have the potential to save lives and limit environmental disasters.",https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16281-x,Middle school
Technology Articles,How can virtual reality help construction engineers,"With virtual reality (VR), you can look and move around dimensions (3D). We found out that VR goggles made in a digital world. We wanted to know if VR could help it easier for engineers to spot problems in construction construction engineers plan their projects. To find out, plans. VR also helped engineers work out the order we set up an experiment where expert and novice in which a project should be built. But VR has some engineers used either VR goggles or a normal desktop limitations and should only be used for appropriate computer to review engineering designs in three tasks and scenarios.","Head-mounted display (HMD)based virtual reality (VR) applications can potentially facilitate various visualization-intensive tasks in the construction industry, such as design and constructability review. However, the lack of quantitative validation on the theoretical benefits of VR has impeded its industry implementation. This paper designed four construction design review-related tasks and performed user tests with 24 construction engineering novices and 24 industry experts. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, performing four tasks via HMD-based VR or desktop-based VR, respectively. Experimental results and statistical analysis show that users performance was significantly enhanced by the HMD in detecting design errors and planning for construction sequence. The scale of performance improvement varied from 18.22% to 59.01%. The implementation of HMD-based VR applications should be intentional because its benefits are only significant in specific use cases. The intellectual contribution of this paper includes quantifying the impact of HMD to the tested VR applications and developing the technology assessment framework. Meanwhile, the findings from this paper can facilitate the implementation of effective VR applications in the construction industry.",https://rb.gy/coautc,Lower high school; Middle school
Technology Articles,How can we work with quantum computers today,"Quantum computers are a new, promising technology still very complex if it were easy, we would not need a quantum in its infancy. Our conventional computers are already quite computer in the first place. Here we propose a method that powerful. But this new technology could speed things up a tackles this complexity using so-called decision diagrams. We lot! Because of this, many computer companies have already tested our method by attempting several different quantum started building quantum computers. Unfortunately, they are computations. Then we compared it to the other existing still rather small compared to what we expect in the future. simulators. Our approach outperforms the other solutions So how can we prepare programmers and users for this in many cases. This allows everyone to simulate quantum new technology? One way to do so: simulate the quantum computations today even before the really powerful computer on our conventional machines. Of course, this is quantum computers are available.","Quantum computation is a promising emerging technology which, compared to conventional computation, allows for substantial speed-ups, e.g., for integer factorization or database search. However, since physical realizations of quantum computers are in their infancy, a significant amount of research in this domain still relies on simulations of quantum computations on conventional machines. This causes a significant complexity which current state-of-the-art simulators try to tackle with a rather straight forward array-based representation and by applying massive hardware power. There also exist solutions based on decision diagrams (i.e., graph-based approaches) that try to tackle the exponential complexity by exploiting redundancies in quantum states and operations. However, these existing approaches do not fully exploit redundancies that are actually present. In this paper, we revisit the basics of quantum computation, investigate how corresponding quantum states and quantum operations can be represented even more compactly, and, eventually, simulated in a more efficient fashion. This leads to a new graph-based simulation approach which outperforms state-of-the-art simulators (array-based as well as graph-based). Experimental evaluations show that the proposed solution is capable of simulating quantum computations for more qubits than before, and in significantly less run-time (several magnitudes faster compared to previously proposed simulators). An implementation of the proposed simulator is publicly available online at http://iic.jku.at/eda/research/quantum_simulation.",https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2018.2834427,Upper high school
Technology Articles; Water-Resources Articles,How can your smartphone make water safe to drink,"Clean drinking water is essential for our health. Water we developed a small device and an app which can containing bacteria or viruses can make us very sick. be used with a smartphone to kill harmful bacteria in Unfortunately, not everybody has access to clean water. It could mean that people without a clean water water from centralized water plants. However, nearly supply can easily disinfect their drinking water and everybody nowadays has a smartphone! Thats why avoid getting sick.","Clean water free of bacteria is a precious resource in areas where no centralized water facilities are available. Conventional chlorine disinfection is limited by chemical transportation, storage, and the production of carcinogenic by-products. Here, a smartphone-powered disinfection system is developed for point-of-use (POU) bacterial inactivation. The integrated system uses the smartphone battery as a power source, and a customized on-the-go (OTG) hardware connected to the phone to realize the desired electrical output. Through a downloadable mobile application, the electrical output, either constant current (201000?A) or voltage (0.72.1?V), can be configured easily through a user-friendly graphical interface on the screen. The disinfection device, a coaxial-electrode copper ionization cell (CECIC), inactivates bacteria by low levels of electrochemically generated copper with low energy consumption. The strategy of constant current control is applied in this study to solve the problem of uncontrollable copper release by previous constant voltage control. With the current control, a high inactivation efficiency ofE. coli(~6 logs) is achieved with a low level of effluent Cu (~200?g?L?1) in the water samples within a range of salt concentration (0.21?mmol?L?1). The smartphone-based power workstation provides a versatile and accurate electrical output with a simple graphical user interface. The disinfection device is robust, highly efficient, and does not require complex equipment. As smartphones are pervasive in modern life, the smartphone-powered CECIC system could provide an alternative decentralized water disinfection approach like rural areas and outdoor activities.",https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-020-00089-9,Elementary school; Middle school
Technology Articles,How well can a computer think,"What do chatbots, voice assistants, and predictive text have in common? They all use computer programs called language models. Large language models are new kinds of models that can only be built using supercomputers. They work so well that it can be hard to tell if something was written by a person or by a computer! We wanted to understand how a large language model called GPT-3 worked. But we wanted to know more than whether GPT-3 could answer questions correctly. We wanted to know how and why. We treated GPT-3 like a participant in a psychology experiment. Our results showed that GPT-3 gets a lot of questions right. But we also learned that GPT-3 gets confused very easily. And it doesnt search for new information as well as people do. Knowing how and why large language models come up with wrong answers helps us figure out how to make even better versions in the future","We study GPT-3, a recent large language model, using tools from cognitive psychology. More specifically, we assess GPT-3s decision-making, information search, deliberation, and causal reasoning abilities on a battery of canonical experiments from the literature. We find that much of GPT-3s behavior is impressive: It solves vignette-based tasks similarly or better than human subjects, is able to make decent decisions from descriptions, outperforms humans in a multiarmed bandit task, and shows signatures of model-based reinforcement learning. Yet, we also find that small perturbations to vignette-based tasks can lead GPT-3 vastly astray, that it shows no signatures of directed exploration, and that it fails miserably in a causal reasoning task. Taken together, these results enrich our understanding of current large language models and pave the way for future investigations using tools from cognitive psychology to study increasingly capable and opaque artificial agents.  ",https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218523120,Middle school
Technology Articles,What can termites teach us about better building materials,"There is a global need for more sustainable and environmentally friendly construction materials. The large, stable mounds that termites build for their homes are inspirational! Termite mounds form when the termites mix soil with their saliva. This mixture contains simple sugars that act like glue and give it stability. Cassava is a starchy root vegetable that also contains simple sugars. To mimic termite mounds, we mixed soil with hot paste made from cassava flour. Then, we made bricks containing different amounts of cassava flour paste, from 0% to 6%. We tested the physical properties of these different bricks. Our aim was to see how suitable they would be in building construction. Bricks made with 1.5% cassava flour paste performed best in tests of strength, durability, shrinkage, and water absorption. They were even better than traditional clay bricks with no cassava flour! Our termite mound-inspired bricks provide an inexpensive, accessible, and safe alternative to current building materials.","As the world is witnessing vast pollution during material production, construction and demolition processes of buildings there is a need to seek for alternative materials that will reduce the environmental impact. The present study borrows inspirations from termites technique to create a material for constructing a naturally cemented mound structure. The studied termite mound was built from a mix of soil particles and termites saliva containing mucopolysaccharides and cellulase enzyme that digests cellulose into beta-glucose or shorter polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. These polysaccharides are found to be a source of soil stabilization and gluing property. In the process to mimic termites activities clay bricks were produced from a mix of clay soil and cassava flour in a form of hot cassava paste as a source of polysaccharides at 1.5%, 3%, 4.5% and 6% weight of soil. Brick samples created presented an optimal value at 1.5% cassava flour with compressive strength higher than that of burnt clay bricks at 4.28 MPa. ",https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509522001097,Lower high school; Middle school
Technology Articles,Why are flights getting bumpier,"Have you ever ridden on an airplane? If so, was there a increased over the past years. We analyzed data from moment when it suddenly started to shake? That unpleasant to and found a big increase over the midlatitudes. and sometimes scary shaking is called turbulence. If there The skies that most planes fly through are bumpier now than is no storm, or even clouds, it can seem to come out of four decades ago. In fact, over the North Atlantic, severe nowhere! turbulence increased by %. Our findings are important because they show that we are already seeing the impacts We wanted to find out whether clear-air turbulence has of climate change in unexpected ways.","Clear-air turbulence (CAT) is hazardous to aircraft and is projected to intensify in response to future climate change. However, our understanding of past CAT trends is currently limited, being derived largely from outdated reanalysis data. Here we analyze CAT trends globally during 19792020 in a modern reanalysis data set using 21 diagnostics. We find clear evidence of large increases around the midlatitudes at aircraft cruising altitudes. For example, at an average point over the North Atlantic, the total annual duration of light-or-greater CAT increased by 17% from 466.5 hr in 1979 to 546.8 hr in 2020, with even larger relative changes for moderate-or greater CAT (increasing by 37% from 70.0 to 96.1 hr) and severe-or-greater CAT (increasing by 55% from 17.7 to 27.4 hr). Similar increases are also found over the continental USA. Our study represents the best evidence yet that CAT has increased over the past four decades.Not Found",https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL103814,Lower high school
Water-Resources Articles,How do fish like their water,"Fishermen on the east coast of the United States depend on catching black sea bass in the Atlantic Ocean, but first, they have to find them! We set out to understand why these fish migrate with changes in the seasons and where they hang out at different times of the year. Do the conditions in the ocean, like how cold or salty it is, determine where the fish go? Do the younger fish and adult fish go to the same places?  To answer these questions, we sent research boats out to catch black sea bass and measure water temperature and salt levels in different parts of the ocean off the eastern coast of North America. This information can help us understand what environmental conditions lead to young black sea bass survival, and estimate how many of these fish are in the ocean each year.","Black sea bass (Centropristis striata) migrations are believed to play a role in overwinter survival and connectivity between juvenile and adult populations. This study investigated oceanographic drivers of winter habitat choice and regional differences between populations of juvenile and adult black sea bass. Trends in cohort strength, as a result of juvenile survival, were also identified. Oceanographic and fisheries survey data were analyzed using generalized additive models. Among the oceanographic variables investigated, salinity was the main driver in habitat selection with an optimal range of 3335 practical salinity units (PSU) for both juveniles and adults. Preferred temperature ranges varied between juveniles and adults, but held a similar minimum preference of >8C. Salinity and temperature ranges also differed by regions north and south of Hudson Canyon. Shelf water volume had less of an effect than temperature or salinity, but showed an overall negative relationship with survey catch. The effect of winter conditions on juvenile abundance was also observed across state and federal survey index trends. A lack of correlation observed among surveys in the fall paired with a strong correlation in the spring identifies the winter period as a factor determining year-class strength of new recruits to the population. A rank order analysis of spring indices identified three of the largest year classes occurring during years with reduced shelf water volumes, warmer winter shelf waters, and a 34 PSU isohaline aligned farther inshore. While greater catches of black sea bass in the northwest Atlantic Ocean remain south of Hudson Canyon, the species range has expanded north in recent years.",http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147627,Lower high school
Water-Resources Articles,How much do we really know about river flooding,"Have you ever experienced rain where it rained so hard or map flood prone areas. Decision makers use the results for so long that you feared you may soon be up to your from those computer models to plan for future flooding eyeballs in water? Sadly, many people in the world have events to limit destruction and save lives. But are they witnessed this firsthand, and this is likely to increase due accurate enough considering human lives may depend on to climate change unless we do something to prepare for them? To answer this question we compared the results flooding disasters. Some areas are more prone to floods from six computer models which simulate flood risk in than others, and the people living there are more at risk. Africa. The models agreed in less than % of the cases about where exactly it would flood and how much damage Scientists have developed computer models in an effort to there might be.","Quantifying flood hazard is an essential component of resilience planning, emergency response, and mitigation, including insurance. Traditionally undertaken at catchment and national scales, recently, efforts have intensified to estimate flood risk globally to better allow consistent and equitable decision making. Global flood hazard models are now a practical reality, thanks to improvements in numerical algorithms, global datasets, computing power, and coupled modelling frameworks. Outputs of these models are vital for consistent quantification of global flood risk and in projecting the impacts of climate change. However, the urgency of these tasks means that outputs are being used as soon as they are made available and before such methods have been adequately tested. To address this, we compare multi-probability flood hazard maps for Africa from six global models and show wide variation in their flood hazard, economic loss and exposed population estimates, which has serious implications for model credibility. While there is around 30%40% agreement in flood extent, our results show that even at continental scales, there are significant differences in hazard magnitude and spatial pattern between models, notably in deltas, arid/semi-arid zones and wetlands. This study is an important step towards a better understanding of modelling global flood hazard, which is urgently required for both current risk and climate change projections.An error occurred: EOF marker not found",http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2015/en/gar-pdf/GAR2015_EN.pdf,Lower high school; Upper high school