Junior Digest

Reprogramming the body could extend lifespan, say scientists

Scientists say they have successfully increased the lifespan of mice by reprogramming their body’s cells using a technique that suggests the ageing process could be “reversed”.

Previous attempts to do this resulted in apparently younger cells but the mice quickly developed tumours and died.

However, the team behind the latest research, led by Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in the US, said the mice lived about 30 per cent longer than untreated animals and did not get cancer.

They also reported positive results in tests on human cells in the laboratory.

Professor Izpisua Belmonte said: “Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction.

“It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, ageing might be reversed.”

The technique involves turning cells back into stem cells, which can develop into any kind of specialist cell.

Another of the researchers, Alejandro Ocampo, said: “What we and other stem-cell labs have observed is that when you induce cellular reprogramming, cells look younger.

“The next question was whether we could induce this rejuvenation process in a live animal.”

But creating stem cells, which can divide rapidly and are important in the growth of embryos, in adults appears to increase the risk of causing tumours. Cancer causes death because the cells divide uncontrollably until they cause organs to fail.

Another problem with reprogramming cells is that they are needed for the proper functioning of the body, so turning too many into stem cells would result in death.

Professor Izpisua Belmonte said: “Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction.

“It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, ageing might be reversed.”

The technique involves turning cells back into stem cells, which can develop into any kind of specialist cell.

Another of the researchers, Alejandro Ocampo, said: “What we and other stem-cell labs have observed is that when you induce cellular reprogramming, cells look younger.

“The next question was whether we could induce this rejuvenation process in a live animal.”

Another problem with reprogramming cells is that they are needed for the proper functioning of the body, so turning too many into stem cells would result in death.

The research was reported in the journal Cell.

Nobel Physics Prize : some curious things about quantum computing

Stockholm: The Nobel Physics prize was the second of the awards to be given away, on Tuesday, to a Birtish trio — scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for revealing the secrets of exotic matter.

Thouless, 82, is professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. Haldane, 65, is a professor at Princeton University, and Kosterlitz, born in 1942, teaches at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The laureates will share the eight million Swedish kronor (around $931,000 or 834,000 euros) prize sum. Thouless won one-half of the prize, while Haldane and Hosterlitz share the other half.

“This year’s laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter,” said the Nobel jury.

They used topological Physics concepts for their research. Topology, in which the three laureates specialise, is a branch of mathematics that investigates physical properties of matter and space that remain unchanged under deforming forces, including stretching. Topology actually describes properties that only change step-wise.

Superconductivity is when electricity flows through a material without experiencing any resistance or losing energy as heat, while suprafluidity is when a fluid flows without any friction.

In the 1970s it was believed that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless invalidated this by demonstrating that superconductivity could take place at low temperatures. In the 1980s, Thouless explained a previous experiment with thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was measured as integer steps, then showing that integers were topological. And Duncan Haldane made the discovery that properties of chains of small magnets could be understood using topological concepts in some materials.

A topologist is a person who cannot tell the difference between a coffee mug and a donut — so goes a joke about a little-known scientific field crowned Tuesday with a Nobel Physics Prize. The quip describes it perfectly: topology explains how a material’s shape can be completely deformed into new one without losing its core properties. In the metaphor, the mug and the donut are one and the same. If they were made out of rubber, one could be twisted and stretched into the shape of the other without changing its essence. The two are considered topologically equivalent as each has a hole — the ear of the mug and the centre of the donut.

“You can put your finger through the hole in a teacup handle, but you can’t put it through a potato, so these are two different categories of topological objects,” explained Manuel Asorey of the University of Zaragoza’s department of theoretical physics.

A strange universe of fundamental shapes long existing only in mathematics, the field was introduced into the physics realm just a few decades ago. Indeed, in the mid-20th century theoretical physicist George Gamow said topology was one of two mathematical concepts, along with number theory, that would never apply to physics.

Gamow was wrong.

Today, topology has burgeoned into a wide range of physics sub-fields promising a host of practical applications ranging from supercomputing to superconductors.

The key virtue of topological materials is that they “remain robust regardless of the deforming forces being applied to them,” said David Carpentier, a physicist at France’s CNRS research institute. By shaping materials into “topological states,” scientists hope one day to transport energy or information farther and fastest than possible today. It is hoped that new materials emerging from this research will use much less electricity. But they pose a high risk of overheating, which is where topological insulators with an inherent stability would come in very handy.

The jury said their pioneering work “has boosted frontline research in condensed matter physics, not least because of the hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers.” It holds exceptional promise for quantum computing and tiny quantum devices as topological states can transport energy and information without overheating, unlike traditional quantum mechanics. Quantum computers, still on the drawing board, promise superfast processing speeds using the properties of subatomic particles that exist in more than one state at once.

Kosterlitz, speaking to reporters in Helsinki where he was working, joked: “I’ve been waiting for my desk-top quantum computer for years and it’s showing no signs of appearing…At the risk of making a bad mistake, I would say that this quantum computation stuff is a long way from being practical.”

Haldane said his prizewinning discovery had been serendipitous. “Most of the big discoveries are done that way: you stumble on it and you have the luck to recognise you have something very interesting,” he told reporters at the Nobel press conference via videolink. “It’s so surprising that it takes a while to grip, but when you see it you realise why no one had seen it before.”

“The next step will be to create these objects in the lab and try to manipulate them, performing very simple operations,” Nathan Goldman of the Free University of Brussels said.

“Two years ago, I would have said it would take at least two decades to see something on the supermarket shelf” resulting from topology research, Asorey said.

“Today, I would say one decade, maybe less.”

Scottish, French and Dutch-born scientists win Nobel chemistry prize

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for work on molecular machines that may lead to developments like new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about the world’s smallest machines,” said Goran Hansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which conferred the award.

The French, Scottish and Dutch scientists had developed molecules with controllable movements that can perform tasks when energy is added, the Academy said in a statement awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($931,000) prize.

“The molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors,” it added.

Sauvage is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Stoddart, born in Edinburgh, is professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States, while Feringa is professor in organic chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

“This is quite unexpected, although it has been in the cards for 25 years, I think. When it happens, it takes your breath away,” Stoddart said in a phone interview, as he watched the ceremony in a live broadcast from his home outside Chicago.

Feringa, when asked his reaction to learning he had won, said: “What I said when I got this message is that I don’t know what to say.”

Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel prizes after the medicine and physics laureates were announced on Monday and Tuesday.

The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.

New fish found in Kerala waters named ‘Scomber indicus’

Kochi, Oct 5 : The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has identified a new species of mackerel in Kerala waters which is expected to boost the state’s fisheries sector.

The black-spotted fish, which is round in shape, has been named ‘Scomber indicus’ by a team of CMFRI scientists led by E M Abdussamad, after their study showed that the new species is distinctly different, both taxonomically and genetically, from the other members of the mackerel family.

The fish is called ‘pulli ayala’ or ‘pulli thiriyan’ by the local fishermen.

The meat texture of the fish is soft and tastes similar to Indian mackerel, according to the fishers, a CMFRI release said here.

“The newly identified Indian chub mackerel is distinct from other members of the mackerel family found earlier in the coastal waters around the world and is expected to boost the fishery of the state,” CMFRI Director A Gopalakrishnan said.

“The species would become a potential resource to form a commercial fishery,” he added.

While a catch of 10 tonnes of the Indian chub mackerel was recorded in the state in 2015, around 25 tonnes of the species was caught from Kerala coasts this year itself, showing the growth of the fish in the state, Gopalakrishnan added.

UK varsity to celebrate work of astrophysicist Chandrasekhar

Nobel-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is among scientists from the black and minority ethnic (BME) communities whose lives and works will be celebrated at the University of Leicester throughout October, when Britain marks the Black History month.

The university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is recognising one black and minority ethnic scientist each day with a summary of their life and work. The university attracts a large number of students from India every year.

“Featured men and women, whose lives and achievements will be shown on a screen in the foyer, will include mathematics pioneer Benjamin Banneker, astronaut Mae Jemison, astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, cosmologist Hiranya Peiris, and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson who’s story is told in the forthcoming movie Hidden Figures,” the university said.

Organisers said the idea was to raise awareness about the under-representation of black and minority ethnic people in the industry, and to celebrate those who have changed the way the universe and everything in it is viewed.

One of the goals of the respected international festival is to encourage more BME students to study and remain in academia.

The Black History Month is an annual celebration and recognition event observed in America, Canada, and the UK which remembers the important people and events in the history of black and minority ethnic people around the world.

It is celebrated each year in the United States, where it was first held in 1976, and Canada (1995) in February, and in Britain (1987) in October.

No hangover,no headache , it is ‘Alcosynth’
A new type of synthetic alcohol has been discovered which could allow people to enjoy the sociable effects of a few pints, but skip the hangover that usually follows.

The new drink, known as ‘alcosynth’, is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn’t cause a dry mouth, nausea and a throbbing head, according to its creator Professor David Nutt.

The Imperial College Professor and former government drugs advisor told The Independent he has patented around 90 different alcosynth compounds.

Two of them are now being rigorously tested for widespread use, he said – and by 2050, he hopes alcosynth could completely replace normal alcohol.

“It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they’ll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you’ll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart,” he said.

“They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste.”By researching substances that work on the brain in a similar way to alcohol, Professor Nutt and his team have been able to design a drug which they say is non-toxic and replicates the positive effects of alcohol.“We know a lot about the brain science of alcohol; it’s become very well understood in the last 30 years,” said Professor Nutt.

“So we know where the good effects of alcohol are mediated in the brain, and can mimic them. And by not touching the bad areas, we don’t have the bad effects.”

Advocates of alcosynth believe it could revolutionise public health by relieving the burden of alcohol on the health service.

According to Alcohol Concern, drinking is the third biggest risk factor for disease and death in the UK, after smoking and obesity.”People want healthier drinks,” said Professor Nutt. “The drinks industry knows that by 2050 alcohol will be gone.””They know that and have been planning for this for at least 10 years. But they don’t want to rush into it, because they’re making so much money from conventional alcohol.”

Early experiments into alcosynth, such as those reported on by BBC’s Horizon in 2011, used a derivative of benzodiazepine – the same class of drugs as Valium.

Mr Nutt said his new drinks did not contain benzodiazepine, and their formulas would remain a closely guarded, patented secret.

Based on The Independent report.

Scientists use stem cells to grow 3D lung-in-a-dish

Los Angeles: Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have successfully grown three-dimensional (3D) lungs in the lab, using stem cells, which can be used to study diseases that are difficult to understand with conventional methods.

By coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the air sacs found in human lungs, researchers created 3D “organoids”. The laboratory-grown tissue can be used to study diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has been difficult to study using conventional methods, researchers said.

“While we haven’t built a fully functional lung, we’ve been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung,” said Brigitte Gomperts, an associate professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disease characterised by scarring of the lungs. The scarring makes the lungs thick and stiff, which over time results in progressively worsening shortness of breath and lack of oxygen to the brain and vital organs.

After diagnosis, most people with the disease live about three to five years. Though researchers do not know what causes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in all cases, for a small percentage of people it runs in their families.

Additionally, cigarette smoking and exposure to certain types of dust can increase the risk of developing the disease. To study the effect of genetic mutations or drugs on lung cells, researchers have previously relied on 2D cultures of the cells.

However when they take cells from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and grow them on these flat cultures, the cells appear healthy. The inability to model idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the laboratory makes it difficult to study the biology of the disease and design possible treatments. Researchers, including Manash Paul, Saravanan Karumbayaram
and Preethi Vijayaraj from UCLA, started with stem cells created using cells from adult lungs.

They used those cells to coat sticky hydrogel beads, and then they partitioned these beads into small wells, each only seven millimetres across. Inside each well, the lung cells grew around the beads, which linked them and formed an evenly distributed three-dimensional pattern.

To show that these tiny organoids mimicked the structure of actual lungs, the researchers compared the lab-grown tissues with real sections of human lung. When researchers added certain molecular factors to the 3D cultures, the lungs developed scars similar to those seen in people who have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, something that could not be accomplished using 2D cultures of these cells.

Using the new lung organoids, researchers will be able to study the biological underpinnings of lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and also test possible treatments for the diseases.

Speaking at the launch of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), Hawking said the rise of AI would transform every aspect of our lives and amounted to a global event at a par with the industrial revolution.

CFI brings together four of the world’s leading universities – Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley and Imperial College, London – to explore the implications of AI for human civilisation.

Hawking said: “Success in creating AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. But it could also be the last – unless we learn how to avoid the risks. Alongside the benefits, AI will also bring dangers like powerful autonomous weapons or new ways for the few to oppress the many.

“We cannot predict what we might achieve when our own minds are amplified by AI. Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one – industrialisation.

Among the initial research topics of CFI are science, value and the future of intelligence, policy and responsible innovation, autonomous weapons – prospects for regulation, and trust and transparency.

Hawking said: “Intelligence is central to what it means to be human. Everything that our civilisation has achieved is a product of human intelligence, from learning to master fire, to learning to grow food, to understanding the cosmos.

“I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer. It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence – and exceed it.”

Hawking said AI research was progressing rapidly. Recent landmarks such as self-driving cars, or a computer winning at the game of Go are signs of what is to come, he said. “Enormous levels of investment are pouring into the technology. The achievements we have seen so far will surely pale against what the coming decades will bring,” he added.

CFI director Huw Price, the Bertrand Russell professor of philosophy at Cambridge, said: “The creation of machine intelligence is likely to be a once-in-a-planet’s-lifetime event. It is a future we humans face together. Our aim is to build a broad community with the expertise and sense of common purpose to make this future the best it can be.”