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A mountain rescue dog whose duties ended after her eyesight failed has helped scientists create a test that could eradicate the genetic eye condition in her breed for good.

Shola the English shepherd has an inherited eye disease called progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) that causes the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate, eventually leading to blindness.

PRA affects more than 100 dog breeds, can be caused by a number of different genetic variants and has no treatment. For some types, symptoms do not appear until the dog is several years old, by which point they may have passed their genes on to puppies.


Katherine Stanbury, the first author of the research from the University of Cambridge, said Shola was four years old when she began struggling with her vision in dim light.

“She was sent to a veterinary ophthalmologist and they confirmed that she had PRA,” said Stanbury. “And then it turned out her brother also had PRA.”

Stanbury and colleagues have not only identified the genetic variant responsible for the condition in English shepherds but developed a £48 DNA test to reveal whether dogs have none, one or two copies of the variant.

While Stanbury said variants that cause PRA were typically breed-specific, the team will now screen any dog affected by an inherited eye disease for the new variant.

“If it does pop up in another breed, we can monitor that,” she said.…….


Genetic test could eradicate a type of inherited blindness in dogs

Research inspired by a rescue dog may allow breeders to avoid using canines with progressive retinal atrophy
www.theguardian.com
 
In the total darkness of the depths of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have discovered oxygen being produced not by living organisms but by strange potato-shaped metallic lumps that give off almost as much electricity as AA batteries.

The surprise finding has many potential implications and could even require rethinking how life first began on Earth, the researchers behind a study said on Monday.

It had been thought that only living things such as plants and algae were capable of producing oxygen via photosynthesis – which requires sunlight.


But four kilometres (2.5 miles) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, where no sunlight can reach, small mineral deposits called polymetallic noduleshave been recorded making so-called dark oxygen for the first time.

The discovery was made in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an abyssal plain stretching between Hawaii and Mexico, where mining companies have plans to start harvesting the nodules.

The lumpy nodules – often called “batteries in a rock” – are rich in metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, which are all used in batteries, smartphones, wind turbines and solar panels.

The international team of scientists sent a small vessel to the floor of the CCZ aiming to find out how mining could affect the strange and little-understood animals living where no light can reach.

“We were trying to measure the rate of oxygen consumption by the seafloor,” lead study author Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) told AFP.……

‘Dark oxygen’ in depths of Pacific Ocean could force rethink about origins of life

Electrically charged metallic lumps found to produce oxygen in total darkness in process aking to how plants use photosynthesis
www.theguardian.com
 
Humans might be the masters of quick-fire banter, but it seems chimpanzees have their own rapid back-and-forths, albeit in the form of hand signals.

Researchers analysed thousands of gestures made by wild chimps in east Africa and found striking similarities with the turn-taking seen in human conversations, in particular how swiftly the apes responded to one another.

The work suggests that humans and apes share fundamental features of communication that either date back to their ancient ancestors or which developed in the species in parallel because of the benefits the behaviour brought.


“Human conversation follows very strict rules of turn-taking that are consistent across cultures and languages,” said Dr Gal Badihi, an animal behaviour expert at the University of St Andrews. “We started to wonder whether chimpanzee communication was governed by its own rules, or if the rules are similar to human conversation.”

Chimps have a rich repertoire of hand gestures, many of which amount to simple requests such as “stop it’, “follow me” or “groom me”. To learn more about the rules surrounding their use, the researchers studied more than 8,500 gestures recorded from 252 wild chimps in five wild communities in east Africa.

Most of the interactions were brief. In one, recorded at Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda, a chimp called Monica extended her hand towards another, called Ursus, after a physical altercation, prompting Ursus to respond with a reassuring tap.

But in other cases, chimps traded up to seven gestures in a row. In these exchanges, the apes typically took 120 milliseconds to respond to each other, similar to the average human conversational response time of 200 milliseconds.

“Chimpanzees use gestures in almost every aspect of their life,” said Badihi. Besides reconciling after a fight, she observed chimpanzees using gestures to avoid confrontation, to greet each other with a hug or kiss, to ask to share food and to indicate they wanted to travel together or go their separate ways. Grooming sessions were when most gestures took place.……

Chimpanzees communicate in similar quick-fire fashion to humans, study shows

Analysis of thousands of wild chimp gestures in east Africa found striking similarities to human conversations
www.theguardian.com
 
Optimus Prime said:
In the total darkness of the depths of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have discovered oxygen being produced not by living organisms but by strange potato-shaped metallic lumps that give off almost as much electricity as AA batteries.

The surprise finding has many potential implications and could even require rethinking how life first began on Earth, the researchers behind a study said on Monday.

It had been thought that only living things such as plants and algae were capable of producing oxygen via photosynthesis – which requires sunlight.


But four kilometres (2.5 miles) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, where no sunlight can reach, small mineral deposits called polymetallic noduleshave been recorded making so-called dark oxygen for the first time.

The discovery was made in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an abyssal plain stretching between Hawaii and Mexico, where mining companies have plans to start harvesting the nodules.

The lumpy nodules – often called “batteries in a rock” – are rich in metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, which are all used in batteries, smartphones, wind turbines and solar panels.

The international team of scientists sent a small vessel to the floor of the CCZ aiming to find out how mining could affect the strange and little-understood animals living where no light can reach.

“We were trying to measure the rate of oxygen consumption by the seafloor,” lead study author Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) told AFP.……

‘Dark oxygen’ in depths of Pacific Ocean could force rethink about origins of life

Electrically charged metallic lumps found to produce oxygen in total darkness in process aking to how plants use photosynthesis
www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
Why would they mine the oxygen supply for the deep parts of the ocean? They run the risk of ruining that habitat.
 
Not science yet, but it’s an problem that will need to be solved

And a problem I didn’t think about
=========================

When it comes to crewed missions to Mars there is no shortage of hazards, from space radiation to a hostile environment. Now researchers have found another snag: many of the medicines astronauts may take with them are likely to expire before they return to Earth.

Researchers say they have discovered a host of medications used in space have a shelf life of three years or less – a problem given Nasa expects a mission to Mars to take roughly 36 months.

Dr Dan Buckland, the senior study author from Duke University School of Medicine, said that on Earth, expired medication was usually less effective, although by how much is unpredictable.


“The risk is that an illness later in a Mars mission would end up with a greater severity than had it occurred earlier in the mission before the medication has expired,” he said.

Buckland and colleagues used a Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request to gather a list of the medications onboard the International Space Station (ISS). While the exact medications that would be taken to Mars are not yet known, Buckland said those on the ISS were likely to make up the bulk of a medical kit for such a mission.

Writing in the journal npj Microgravity, the team revealed how they found terrestrial shelf-life data for 91 of the 106 medications on the 2023 ISS list, with their maximum shelf life dates suggesting 54 of the medications would expire by 36 months, including certain painkillers.

Fourteen of the medications would expire by 24 months, including one advanced life support medication, one anaphylaxis treatment medication, two antibiotics and one antipsychotic.

When each medication’s minimum shelf life was considered, 89 of the 106 medications were found to expire by 36 months.…….

Expiring medications could pose problem for Mars astronauts

Researchers say many drugs have shelf life of three years or less, with a mission expected to take about 36 months
www.theguardian.com
 
With their huge size, venomous bite and the fantastical connotations of their name, Komodo dragons seem like the stuff of legend.

Now, that status has been elevated further: scientists have discovered that their teeth are coated with a layer of iron that helps keep their serrated edges razor sharp.

It is the first time such a coating has been seen in any animal, and one the researchers describe as “a striking and previously overlooked predatory adaptation in the Komodo dragon”.

The coating was discovered when researchers noticed that the tips and serrated edges of Komodo dragons’ teeth were covered in a layer of orange pigment.

On closer inspection, the enamel was found to contain concentrated iron that makes the teeth extra hard and resistant to wear, helping the dragons rip and tear their prey apart.…….

Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth, scientists find

Reptile’s teeth found to have covering that helps keep serrated edges razor sharp and resistant to wear
www.theguardian.com
 
Optimus Prime said:
On closer inspection, the enamel was found to contain concentrated iron that makes the teeth extra hard and resistant to wear, helping the dragons rip and tear their prey apart.…….
Click to expand...
If they can make a toothpaste version of this stuff, I'm all over it.
I have chalk for teeth. :covri: :cry:
 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit.

The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter’s.

One big difference: It takes this planet more than a century, possibly as long as 250 years, to go around its star. It’s 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is to the sun.

Scientists had long suspected a big planet circled this star 12 light-years away, but not this massive or far from its star. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations show the planet orbits the star Epsilon Indi A, part of a three-star system.……

NASA telescope spots a super Jupiter that takes more than a century to go around its star

Astronomers have directly observed a super Jupiter around a nearby star. And they say it takes more than a century for the giant planet to orbit it.
apnews.com
 
Optimus Prime said:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit.

The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter’s.

One big difference: It takes this planet more than a century, possibly as long as 250 years, to go around its star. It’s 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is to the sun.

Scientists had long suspected a big planet circled this star 12 light-years away, but not this massive or far from its star. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations show the planet orbits the star Epsilon Indi A, part of a three-star system.……

NASA telescope spots a super Jupiter that takes more than a century to go around its star

Astronomers have directly observed a super Jupiter around a nearby star. And they say it takes more than a century for the giant planet to orbit it.
apnews.com
Click to expand...
That would be a long winter.
 
A layer of diamond beneath the crust of Mercury could be up to 10 miles (18km) thick, new research suggests.

Scientists from China and Belgium used data collected by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft between 2004 and 2015 to inform their theories about the structure of the planet's interior.

The researchers think two processes could have resulted in the diamond layer.

"First is the crystallisation of the magma ocean, but this process likely contributed to forming only a very thin diamond layer at the core/mantle interface," Olivier Namur, a member of the research team and an associate professor at KU Leuven, told Space.com.

"Secondly, and most importantly, the crystallisation of the metal core of Mercury."

When the planet was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, the metal core was entirely liquid which progressively crystallised over time, according to Mr Namur.

The new research - published on 14 June - suggests that under extreme pressure, the carbon present in the mantle turned into diamond.

This diamond then floated to the top of the core - creating a layer between it and the mantle.…….

Mercury has a layer of diamond up to 10 miles thick, scientists suggest

Scientists from China and Belgium think two processes could have resulted in the thick diamond crust.
news.sky.com
 

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