Knowledge Update

​New York, Oct 31 (IANS) In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the US Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory have accidentally discovered a process to turn carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, into ethanol, a renewable fuel.

The researchers used tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn CO2 into ethanol. 

"We discovered somewhat by accident that this material worked," said lead author of the study Adam Rondinone.

"We were trying to study the first step of a proposed reaction when we realised that the catalyst was doing the entire reaction on its own," Rondinone noted.

The team used a catalyst made of carbon, copper and nitrogen and applied voltage to trigger a complicated chemical reaction that essentially reverses the combustion process. 

With the help of the nanotechnology-based catalyst which contains multiple reaction sites, the solution of carbon dioxide dissolved in water turned into ethanol with a yield of 63 per cent, showed the study published in the journal ChemistrySelect. 

Typically, this type of electrochemical reaction results in a mix of several different products in small amounts.

"We're taking carbon dioxide, a waste product of combustion, and we're pushing that combustion reaction backwards with very high selectivity to a useful fuel," Rondinone said.

"Ethanol was a surprise -- it's extremely difficult to go straight from carbon dioxide to ethanol with a single catalyst," Rondinone noted.

The catalyst's novelty lies in its nanoscale structure, consisting of copper nanoparticles embedded in carbon spikes. This nano-texturing approach avoids the use of expensive or rare metals such as platinum that limit the economic viability of many catalysts.

Given the technique's reliance on low-cost materials and an ability to operate at room temperature in water, the researchers believe the approach could be scaled up for industrially relevant applications. 

"A process like this would allow you to consume extra electricity when it's available to make and store as ethanol," Rondinone said. 

"This could help to balance a grid supplied by intermittent renewable sources," Rondinone pointed out.

​New York, Oct 31 (IANS) Repeating statements regardless of whether they are true or not may present it more true, a study has found.

According to researchers, repeated lies have higher truth ratings than new statements in a phenomenon called the illusory truth effect. 

"If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth. And if you look around yourself, you may start to think that everyone from advertisers to politicians are taking advantage of this foible of human psychology," said Lisa K. Fazio, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, US.

Repetition may be one way that insidious misconceptions, such as the belief that vitamin C prevents the common cold, enter our knowledge base. 

"Repeated statements are easier to process, and subsequently perceived to be more truthful, than new statements," Fazio added.

In the study, the researchers used paired true and un-true statements, but also split their items according to how likely participants were to know the truth. 

The prevailing assumption has been that knowledge constrains this effect i.e., repeating the statement "The Atlantic Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth" will not make you believe it. 

However, contrary to this, illusory truth effects occurred even when participants knew better, Fazio said. 

The study showed that participants sometimes rely on fluency even if knowledge is also available to them.

The participants demonstrated knowledge neglect, or the failure to rely on stored knowledge, in the face of fluent processing experiences. 

​London, Oct 31 (IANS) A team of students from University of Sheffield in Britain, including one of Indian-origin, is building a device that could differentiate between bacterial and non-bacterial infections, which in turn could help to tackle antibiotic resistance by reducing the number of patients with viral infections being prescribed antibiotics.

"The main aim behind this project is to create more informed prescriptions to address the ever increasing resistance against antibiotics that we face today," said one of the researchers Saylee Jangam.

"Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem and this is why we chose to base our project on it. We may not be able to reverse it, but with our device, we could potentially slow it down," Jangam said in a university statement.

The diagnostic tool uses genetically engineered bacteria to detect the presence of a bacterial infection in a patient's blood sample.

"What's even more interesting is that we are using genetically engineered bacteria to detect the presence of bacterial infections in blood - that's right - using bacteria to detect bacteria," she noted. 

The tool can distinguish between a viral and bacterial infection by detecting a protein known as lipocalin. This protein is produced in high levels by cells of the immune system in response to bacterial infections.

The protein's function is to bind to small molecules which bacteria use to access iron in order to grow.

The Sheffield team is developing the device so that genetically modified bacteria mixes with a patient's blood sample and turn florescent when there are low levels of the lipocalin protein - indicating a viral not bacterial infection.

Toronto, Oct 31 (IANS) Reminding people of their close, caring relationships can reduce their tendency to anthropomorphise objects -- ascribing humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects -- as a way of feeling socially connected, and help people reconnect with real people, suggests new research.

"Although anthropomorphism is one of the more creative ways people try to meet belonging needs, it is nevertheless difficult to have a relationship with an inanimate object," the researchers said.

There are many ways that people who feel socially disconnected can reconnect -- they can try reinforce existing social bonds or forge new relationships, but there are other ways, too. 

An earlier study showed that one of the ways that people may try to increase their sense of connection and belonging is by anthropomorphising inanimate objects, such as a pillow or an alarm clock.

"Reliance on such a compensatory strategy could permit disconnected people to delay the riskier--but potentially more rewarding -- steps of forging new relationships with real people," the current study noted.

"We think this work really highlights how important feeling socially connected is to people and the lengths people will go to 'reconnect' when they feel disconnected, and it reminds us of the value of our close relationships," lead researcher Jennifer Bartz of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The researchers wondered whether boosting people's feelings of social connection might make them less likely to anthropomorphise.

They also explored whether attachment anxiety -- marked by a preoccupation with closeness and intimacy and heightened sensitivity to social cues of rejection -- might be one individual characteristic associated with this tendency to anthropomorphise.

To find out, the researchers conducted an online experiment with a total of 178 participants, who completed a variety of established survey measures aimed at assessing their feelings of attachment anxiety and avoidance, loneliness, self-esteem, and need to belong.

Some of the participants were then asked to think about someone who was important to them and whom they could trust.

Other participants completed the same tasks but were told to think about an acquaintance, instead of someone they were close to, serving as a comparison group.

The results, published in the journal Psychological Science, showed that thinking about a close relationship can make a difference.

Participants who thought and wrote about someone they were close to were less likely to anthropomorphise objects compared with participants who thought about an acquaintance.

In addition, the researchers found that attachment anxiety was associated with a tendency to anthropomorphise, and was actually a stronger predictor than loneliness was.

​London, Oct 30 (IANS) Researchers have developed a new lab technique that is a safe way for using drug-eluting polymer beads to treat cancer.

Used particularly in cases of liver cancer, polymer beads are injected into arteries that feed a tumour, where they block the blood flow, cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients.

The beads then also release an anti-cancer drug directly into the tumour, reducing the systemic side effects.

The new research, conducted by the University of Huddersfield has provided with a method of finding a safe way of predicting what would happen in a patient's body if the beads and the drug they contain are modified. 

"There was no lab mimic that was able to adequately predict how the drug was released from these drug-eluting beads once they were in the body," said Laura Waters, lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, London.

"The article describes a way of doing it in the lab. We compared our results with in vivo data and proved that the method worked," Waters added in the study published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

The researchers were able to carry out lab experiments in which a buffer -- a liquid that mimics blood -- was pumped at different rates through the beads. 

They also modified the quantities of drug contained in the beads. By comparing their laboratory observations with in vivo data, the research team was able to establish the validity of their simulation technique.

"It's important from a product development perspective that if we wanted to put other drugs into the beads, or change anything about their chemistry, we could use this system to predict product behaviour before it is given to people," said Andy Lewis, professor at the University of Huddersfield.

New York, Oct 30 (IANS) Supplements of a natural compound can compensate the human body for the loss of energy production, and reduce the typical signs of ageing, a study has found.

With age, the body structure loses its capacity to make a key element of energy production called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). This results in gradual weight gain, loss of insulin sensitivity and decline in physical activity.

A team of researchers at Washington University - St. Louis, has found a natural compound called NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide)with potential anti-ageing remedies. NMN naturally occurs in a number of foods, including broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, edamame and avocado.

The research, conducted on ageing mice, showed a way to slow the physiologic decline in them, which means older mice can have metabolism and energy levels resembling that of younger mice. 

"Since human cells rely on this same energy production process, we are hopeful this will translate into a method to help people remain healthier as they age," said Shin-ichiro Imai, Professor at Washington University - St. Louis.

The study showed that NMN supplementation has long-term benefits in skeletal muscle, liver function, bone density, eye function, insulin sensitivity, immune function, body weight and physical activity levels.

Administering NMN was found to help energy metabolism by improving the function of mitochondria, powerhouse of cells.

Further, the mice given NMN gained less weight with ageing even as they consumed more food, likely because their boosted metabolism generated more energy for physical activity.

In addition, NMN supplementation led to improved insulin sensitivity in the older mice, better functioning of the mouse retina as well as increased tear production, which is often lost with ageing.

On the other hand, these NMN supplementation had no effect in the young mice because they are still making plenty of their own NMN, the researchers said.

NMN, when dissolved in drinking water and given to mice, appeared in its bloodstream in less than three minutes. This NMN in the blood could then quickly convert to NAD in multiple tissues, reducing the signs of ageing.

"We wanted to make sure that when we give NMN through drinking water, it actually goes into the blood circulation and into tissues," Imai said.

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

​New York, Oct 30 (IANS) What would it be like to be a pedestrian in an urban neighbourhood where most of the cars are self-driving? Actually, pretty good, suggests new research.

Self-driving cars are by design risk-averse and they are programmed to obey the rules of the road, including waiting for pedestrians to cross, the researchers said.

"Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform travel behaviour," said study author Adam Millard-Ball, Assistant Professor at University of California - Santa Cruz, US.

Secure in the knowledge that a car will yield, pedestrians merely need to act unpredictably or step into the street to force the risk-averse car to stop, said the study that looked at the prospect of urban areas where a majority of vehicles are "autonomous" or self-driving.

The research, published online in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, uses game theory to analyse the interactions between pedestrians and self-driving vehicles, with a focus on yielding at crosswalks.

Because autonomous vehicles are by design risk-averse, Millard-Ball's model suggests that pedestrians will be able to act with impunity, and he thinks autonomous vehicles may facilitate a shift towards pedestrian-oriented urban neighbourhoods.

However, the study also suggests that the potential benefits of self-driving cars -- avoiding tedium of traffic and trauma of collisions -- may be outweighed by the drawbacks of an always play-it-safe vehicle that slows traffic for everybody.

"From the point of view of a passenger in an automated car, it would be like driving down a street filled with unaccompanied five-year-old children," Millard-Ball wrote.

​New York, Oct 30 (IANS) US scientists have developed a non-toxic strain of Salmonella to penetrate and target cancer cells which may lead to promising new treatments that actively target and control the spread of cancer.

Salmonella -- bacterium that causes food borne diseases -- has a unique characteristic that allows the bacteria to penetrate through cell barriers and replicate inside its host.

"Salmonella strains have a natural preference for infiltrating and replicating within the cancer cells of a tumour, making the bacteria an ideal candidate for bacteriotherapy," said Robert Kazmierczak, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, the US.

Bacteriotherapy is the use of live bacteria as therapy to treat a medical condition, like cancer.

For the study, the team developed CRC2631 -- a Salmonella strain derived from a Salmonella sample that was stored in a test tube at room temperature for more than 50 years.

The Salmonella strain was genetically modified to render the bacteria non-toxic and enhance its natural ability to target and kill cancer cells -- without harming normal, healthy cells and was then administered directly into the circulatory system of mice with prostate cancer.

"We found that the mice tolerated the treatment well and when examined, their prostate tumours decreased by about 20 per cent compared to the control group," Kazmierczak said.

"One of the most remarkable aspects of Salmonella is its ability to target, spread and persist inside the tumour. We are taking advantage of this ability by using Salmonella to carry or generate effective chemotherapeutic drugs, concentrating them at and throughout the tumour," he added.

Kazmierczak said the goal of this treatment is to develop a bacterial vector that can destroy the tumour from the inside out and reduce the amount of side effects endured by patients with cancer.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

​London, Oct 30 (IANS) Oceans may be responsible for making the Earth move in and out of ice ages every 100,000 years, finds a study.

According to the study published in the journal Geology, oceans sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere may have triggered this phenomena. 

Dubbed the "100,000-year problem", this phenomena has been occurring for the past million years or so and leads to vast ice sheets covering North America, Europe and Asia.

By studying the chemical make-up of tiny fossils on the ocean floor, the team discovered that there was more CO2 stored in the deep ocean during the ice age periods at regular intervals every 100,000 years.

This suggested that extra carbon dioxide was being pulled from the atmosphere and into the oceans at this time, subsequently lowering the temperature on the Earth and enabling vast ice sheets to engulf the Northern Hemisphere.

"We can think of the oceans as inhaling and exhaling carbon dioxide, so when the ice sheets are larger, the oceans have inhaled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the planet colder. When the ice sheets are small, the oceans have exhaled carbon dioxide, so there is more in the atmosphere which makes the planet warmer," said Carrie Lear, researcher at the Cardiff University, Britain. 

"By looking at the fossils of tiny creatures on the ocean floor, we showed that when ice sheets were advancing and retreating every 100,000 years, the oceans were inhaling more carbon dioxide in the cold periods, suggesting that there was less left in the atmosphere," Lear added.

Marine algae play a key role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere as it is an essential ingredient of photosynthesis.

CO2 is put back into the atmosphere when deep ocean water rises to the surface through a process called upwelling. But when a vast quantity of sea ice is present, this prevents the CO2 from being exhaled, which could make the ice sheets bigger and prolong the ice age.

The last ice age ended about 11,500 years ago, and began 21,000 years ago, according to earlier study reports.

​London, Oct 28 (IANS) Researchers have confirmed an unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur.

The tissues resemble those seen in modern crocodiles and birds, said the study reported in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London.

The fossilised brain, found by fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks near Bexhill in Sussex in 2004, is most likely from a species similar to Iguanodon - a large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, about 133 million years ago, according to the study.

"The chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing," said study co-author Alex Liu from the University of Cambridge.

According to the researchers, the reason this particular piece of brain tissue has been so well preserved is that the dinosaur's brain was essentially 'pickled' in a highly acidic and low-oxygen body of water -- similar to a bog or swamp -- shortly after its death. 

"What we think happened is that this particular dinosaur died in or near a body of water, and its head ended up partially buried in the sediment at the bottom," David Norman from the University of Cambridge, noted.

"Since the water had little oxygen and was very acidic, the soft tissues of the brain were likely preserved and cast before the rest of its body was buried in the sediment," Norman noted.

Working with colleagues from the University of Western Australia, the researchers used scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques in order to identify the tough membranes, or meninges, that surrounded the brain itself, as well as strands of collagen and blood vessels.

The structure of the fossilised brain, and in particular that of the meninges, shows similarities with the brains of modern-day descendants of dinosaurs, namely birds and crocodiles, the study said.