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Scientists Discover a Small Strand of RNA to Be Key to Fighting Cancer With Our Immune System

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Sangharsh Lohakare
Sangharsh Lohakare

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown how a single, small strand of microRNA, known as let-7, governs the ability of T-cells to recognize and remember tumor cells.

This cellular memory is the basis for how vaccines work. Boosting cellular memory to recognize tumors could help improve cancer therapies.

The research, supported by the National Institutes of Health and published recently in Nature Communications, suggests a new strategy for the next generation of cancer-fighting immunotherapies.

“Imagine that the human body is a fortress,” says Leonid Pobezinsky, associate professor of veterinary and animal sciences at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author, along with a research assistant professor Elena Pobezinskaya.

Our bodies have T-cells, which are white blood cells that specialize in fighting both pathogens, think of the common cold, and altered cells of the organism itself, like tumor cells. Most of the time, the T-cells are “naïve”—mustered out of duty and resting. But when they recognize foreign antigens after bumping into them, they suddenly wake up, turn into killer T-cells and attack whatever the pathogen may be, from the sniffles to COVID, or even cancer.

After the killer T-cells have won their battle, most of them die.

“But,” said Pobezinsky, “somehow a few survive, transform into memory cells and form an elite task force called the ‘memory pool’—they remember what that particular antigen looked like, so that they can be on the lookout for the next time it invades the body.”

This is one of the mechanisms behind how vaccines work: infect the body with a weakened dose of a pathogen—say, the chicken pox virus—and the memory cells will remember what that virus looks like, turn into killer T-cells, annihilate the virally infected cells and then transform back into memory cells, waiting for the next time the chicken pox virus shows up.

MORE CANCER GOOD NEWS: Bats Hold Vital Clues for Cancer Prevention as Scientists Study Their ‘Extraordinary’ Immunity

But it’s never been clearly understood just how T-cells form their memories.

Cancerous tumor cells work by tricking the killer T-cells, turning them off before they can attack and create a memory pool, leaving the cancer to metastasize unchecked.

“What we’ve discovered,” says Pobezinsky, “is that a tiny piece of miRNA, let-7, which has been handed down the evolutionary tree since the dawn of animal life, is highly expressed in memory cells, and that the more let-7 a cell has, the less chance that it will be tricked by cancerous tumor cells, and the greater chance it has of turning into a memory cell.”

If the memory cell isn’t tricked by the cancer, then it can fight and, crucially, remember what that cancerous cell looks like.

CHECK OUT: Molecule that Kills Most Solid Cancer Tumor Cells Leaving Others Unaffected Shows Promise After 20 Years’ Hard Work

“Memory cells can live for a very long time,” adds Pobezinskaya. “They possess stem-cell-like features and can live for 70 years.”

“We are very excited, not only about the fundamental insights this research has provided, but also the translational impact it could have on next generation immunotherapies,” says lead author Alexandria Wells, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Research Institute who completed the work at UMass Amherst.

“In particular, understanding how let-7 is regulated during treatment to enhance the memories and capabilities of our own immune systems is a promising avenue for further research.”

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Zoos Welcome ‘Paddington Bears’ for Breeding Programs to Help Save Species From Extinction

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10-year-old male Andean bear named Oberon – Chester Zoo / SWNS
10-year-old male Andean bear named Oberon – Chester Zoo / SWNS

Two zoos in the US and UK have welcomed their very own ‘Paddington Bear’ as part of a special breeding program to help save the rare Andean species from extinction.

The Chester Zoo in England released a new video of a ten-year-old Andean bear named Oberon that arrived as a ‘perfect match’ for the zoo’s female.

It is hoped the handsome Oberon will soon ‘hit it off’ with three-year-old Pacha so they can have cubs together and boost the population of the threatened South American species.

Andean Bears are also known as ‘spectacled’ bears due to the circular golden markings that can occur around their eyes—and were made famous by the classic children’s character Paddington Bear that was from ‘deepest, darkest Peru’ and appeared in more than 20 books written by British author Michael Bond.

Excited by the new arrival, Mike Jordan, a director at the zoo, said Oberon has “settled in nicely” since arriving in Chester, spending his time “exploring, climbing trees and checking out the sights and scents of his new home.”

“Oberon hasn’t yet fathered any cubs, so his genetics could play an important role in the future of his species—adding a key new bloodline to the breeding program.”

The Nashville Zoo in Tennessee also announced this week the arrival of a new 10-year-old male named Pinocchio, from the Salisbury Zoo in Maryland, as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Andean Bear Species Survival Plan (SSP).

Pinocchio has a unique origin story and was originally rescued as an abandoned cub from the rural countryside of Ecuador and was ultimately deemed unfit to be released back into the wild.

CUTENESS OVERLOAD: Oklahoma Zoo Forecasts ‘Cloudy with a chance of cute’ After Rare Clouded Leopard Kitten Born

He arrived at Salisbury Zoo in 2017 and successfully fathered three cubs during his time there. He will eventually be introduced to the Nashville Zoo’s female, Luka, hoping they can also help ensure genetically diverse populations.

Oberon at Chester Zoo – SWNS

Listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction, the species is estimated to contain fewer than 10,000 as a result of deforestation and conflict with humans throughout their range in Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.

GROUND-BREAKING: Tasmanian Tiger RNA Recovered from Preserved Specimen in World First

They are uniquely adapted to challenging mountainous habitats and possess a thick, shaggy coat and powerful jaws used for eating hardened vegetive matter in the harsh climates of the Andes Mountains.

Paul Bamford, a field manager for the Americas at Chester Zoo, detailed other ways they are aiding the species, working on the ground in Bolivia since 2016 to understand Andean bears in their changing landscape.

“Our extensive camera traps in the region have revealed that 30 female bears, 17 males and 13 youngsters – the southernmost population in the world – share their home with some of Bolivia’s poorest and most vulnerable rural communities.

Absolutely Epic: Watch the Release of a Wild Bison Herd onto Blackfeet Tribal Land

“When bears wander into agricultural land and damage crops or kill livestock, it can often result in conflict or retaliation from the communities, which is one of the species’ main threats.

“To help combat this, we have supported the economic wellbeing of local communities, helping them to generate income through a range of sustainable initiatives and addressing poverty as a driver for conflict with bears.

“Harvesting and selling honey, restoring forest habitat and training community members to monitor the bear population are just some of the initiatives that have resulted in a much more peaceful co-existence where both people and bears can thrive together.”

WATCH the video from Chester Zoo (NOTE: You might want to mute the music…)

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“Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they’ve been wrong.” – Enid Blyton

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Quote of the Day: “Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they’ve been wrong.” – Enid Blyton

Photo by: Jan Huber

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Balcony Tickets to the Night of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination Smashes Auction–Only One Other Known to Survive

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Front-row balcony tickets for Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated – RR Auction / SWNS
Front-row balcony tickets for Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated – RR Auction / SWNS

A rare piece of American history was auctioned last week, and it’s quite surprising they still exist 158 years after the paper was printed—a pair of tickets for Ford’s Theatre the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Even more amazing, they were front-row balcony seats, which would have provided the theater-goers with a clear view of the box where Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865.

The new owners paid more than a quarter-million dollars for the artifacts ($262,500), although Boston-based RR Auction believed the tickets would fetch less than $100,000.

The only other similarly date-stamped ticket stub is in the collection of Harvard University’s Houghton Library.

On the fateful night, Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States reportedly ignored his wife’s misgivings about the theater outing to see the play, Our American Cousin, and so met his end at the hand of stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending.

LOOK: Garden Ornament Bought for $20 at Flea Market is Actually a Medieval Hand Cannon and Sells for Thousands

‘Honest Abe’ was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. While Booth escaped the building after vaulting down onto the stage, he was killed twelve days later after being tracked to a farm.

It was near the end of the American Civil War, and Lincoln’s assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the most important officials of the federal government.

Bobby Livingston, of RR Auction, said the historic tickets belonged to The Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents.

UNCOVERED: Sealed Vial Reveals the Smell of Ancient Rome With Patchouli Scents From Time of Jesus

“We know of only one other used April 14, 1865 ticket bearing a seat assignment that exists, making these two extremely valuable.”

Yes, they may invoke America’s most tragic performance, but what a fascinating piece of Americana.

RR Auction

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After 6 Months Searching for New Doctor, Small Town’s Viral Video was ‘Just What the Doctor Ordered’

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Town of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, recruits doctor with viral video – SWNS
Town of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, recruits doctor with viral video – SWNS

For six months, the retiring small town doctor searched for his replacement, with no luck. But a new General Practitioner is now on the job thanks to a viral video featuring hundreds of people in the village.

Desperate locals in Cornwall, England created a pop video, writing their own song to the tune of Nina Simone’s hit ‘Aint Got No, I Got Life’.

Over 500 residents of Lostwithiel played a role to help recruit a replacement for their retiring medic.

The video went viral and was viewed more than two million times and now the Lostwithiel Medical Practice has hired someone.

Dr. Bethan Woodfield—originally from Lostwithiel—saw the video and applied.

“It’s a lovely place to work I really enjoy being here,” she told the BBC. “The sense of community is amazing, everyone I feel goes above and beyond for patient care.”

In the video (see below) they sing:

We’ve folks with asthma and young new mothers,
we’ve limping fathers and snot filled others.
We’ve tons of children all so infectious who need a doctor.
We’ve got the love if you’ve got the time.

ALSO WATCH: Tipsy Traveler Calls Out Crossword Clues on Stalled Train Turning a Gloomy Car into Smiling Community

Doctor recruitment video filmed by the residents of Lostwithiel – SWNS

The song goes on to highlight everything that Lostwithiel, with a population of 5,000, has to offer any potential GP.

Lostwithiel is just twenty miles from Port Isaac, where filming tales place for Doc Martin, the British series about a London medic who takes up the role of a GP in a sleepy village, reminiscent of the popular TV show Northern Exposure in the U.S.

The Lostwithiel Needs a Doctor crusade was initiated by Dr. Justin Hendriksz, the current remaining practice partner at the clinic, who says there are dozens of towns looking for a doctor, so they needed to stand out, if there was any chance of success.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO: Best Friends Win Million Dollar Lottery and Spread the Wealth in Hometown to Help Others

The video includes people from all walks of life in the Cornish village, from the church pastor to the butchers, all singing and dancing.

Watch the BBC report from earlier this year, upon launching the video…

SHARE the Idea With Other Towns By Sharing on Social Media…

Northern Lights Activity Is Sky-High and Space Conditions Could Lead to Greatest Displays in 20 Years

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Andy Corbley
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SWNS
SWNS

An international team monitoring the activity of the sun has predicted that the next two years will offer some of the most intense and frequent Northern Lights displays in a generation.

Already this year the Earth’s aurora has been seen in states like Wisconsin and Minnesota—far south of its normal showgrounds.

The key clue is the number of sunspots, disturbances on the surface of the sun that have been recorded for hundreds of years, and the more sunspots there are in a year, the greater the frequency that the poles will see the Aurora Borealis.

The Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel had predicted in the early 2000s that there would be 178 sunspots per month—the highest this rate had become this century—but throughout 2024 and 2025, that’s likely to be much higher—between 220 and 227 per month.

Sunspots are dark blotches on the sun that mark areas of lower temperatures and strong magnetic distortions. These sunspots are often the future location of a coronal mass ejection, whereby the sun flings some of its material out into space. This creates what is commonly called “space weather.”

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Space Station Captures Footage of Blue Lightning Bursting Toward Space

Clashing with the Earth’s magnetosphere, most of this weather is deflected away, but some of it creeps in where the magnetic field is weakest—the polar regions—hence the “Northern Lights;” although it also happens over the southern pole as well.

The upcoming autumnal equinox is an additional distortion of the magnetic field, and could lead to even more vivid colors for enthusiastic skywatchers and stargazers in the northern and southern reaches, although NBC reports that even Arizona has been seeing glimpses of the aurora

SHARE This Great Time To Plan A Winter Holiday With Your Friends… 

Your New Horoscope From Rob Brezsny: A ‘Free Will Astrology’

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Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of September 30, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
If you have ever contemplated launching a career as a spy, the coming months will be a favorable time to do so. Likewise if you have considered getting trained as a detective, investigative journalist, scientific researcher, or private eye. Your affinity for getting to the bottom of the truth will be at a peak, and so will your discerning curiosity. You will be able to dig up secrets no one else has discovered. You will have an extraordinary knack for homing in on the heart of every matter. Start now to make maximum use of your superpowers!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Have you been sensing a phantom itch that’s impossible to scratch? Are you feeling less like your real self lately and more like an AI version of yourself? Has your heart been experiencing a prickly tickle? If so, I advise you not to worry. These phenomena have a different meaning from the implications you may fear. I suspect they are signs you will soon undertake the equivalent of what snakes do: molting their skins to make way for a fresh layer. This is a good thing! Afterward, you will feel fresh and new.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
According to legend, fifth-century Pope Leo I convinced the conquering army of Attila the Hun to refrain from launching a full-scale invasion of Italy. There may have been other reasons in addition to Leo’s persuasiveness. For example, some evidence suggests Attila’s troops were superstitious because a previous marauder died soon after attacking Rome. But historians agree that Pope Leo was a potent leader whose words carried great authority. You, Sagittarius, won’t need to be quite as fervently compelling as the ancient Pope in the coming weeks. But you will have an enhanced ability to influence and entice people. I hope you use your powers for good!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Singer-songwriter Joan Baez has the longevity and endurance typical of many Capricorns. Her last album in 2018 was released 59 years after her career began. An article in The New Yorker describes her style as “elegant and fierce, defiant and maternal.” It also noted that though she is mostly retired from music, she is “making poignant and unpredictable art,” creating weird, hilarious line drawings with her non-dominant hand. I propose we make Baez your inspirational role model. May she inspire you to be elegant and fierce, bold and compassionate, as you deepen and refine your excellence in the work you’ve been tenaciously plying for a long time. For extra credit, add some unexpected new flair to your game.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Aquarian author and activist Mary Frances Berry has won numerous awards for her service on behalf of racial justice. One accomplishment: She was instrumental in raising global awareness of South Africa’s apartheid system, helping to end its gross injustice. “The time when you need to do something,” she writes, “is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can’t be done.” You are now in a phase when that motto will serve you well, Aquarius.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I invite you to spend quality time gazing into the darkness. I mean that literally and figuratively. Get started by turning off the lights at night and staring, with your eyes open, into the space in front of you. After a while, you may see flashes of light. While these might be your optical nerves trying to fill in the blanks, they could also be bright spirit messages arriving from out of the void. Something similar could happen on a metaphorical level, too. As you explore parts of your psyche and your life that are opaque and unknown, you will be visited by luminous revelations.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Author Diane Ackerman says it’s inevitable that each of us sometimes “looks clumsy or gets dirty or asks stupid questions or reveals our ignorance or says the wrong thing.” Knowing how often I do those things, I’m *extremely* tolerant of everyone I meet. I’m compassionate, not judgmental, when I see people who “try too hard, are awkward, care for one another too deeply, or are too open to experience.” I myself commit such acts, so I’d be foolish to criticize them in others. During the coming weeks, Aries, you will generate good fortune for yourself if you suspend all disparagement. Yes, be accepting, tolerant, and forgiving—but go even further. Be downright welcoming and amiable. Love the human comedy exactly as it is.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Taurus comedian Kevin James confesses, “I discovered I scream the same way whether I’m about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.” Many of us could make a similar admission. The good news, Taurus, is that your anxieties in the coming weeks will be the “piece of seaweed” variety, not the great white shark. Go ahead and scream if you need to—hey, we all need to unleash a boisterous yelp or howl now and then—but then relax.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Here are famous people with whom I have had personal connections: actor Marisa Tomei, rockstar Courtney Love, filmmaker Miranda July, playwright David Mamet, actor William Macy, philosopher Robert Anton Wilson, rockstar Paul Kantor, rock impresario Bill Graham, and author Clare Cavanagh. What? You never heard of Clare Cavanagh? She is the brilliant and renowned translator of Nobel Prize Laureate poet Wisława Szymborska and the authorized biographer of Nobel Prize Laureate author Czesław Miłosz. As much as I appreciate the other celebrities I named, I am most enamored of Cavanagh’s work. As a Gemini, she expresses your sign’s highest potential: the ability to wield beautiful language to communicate soulful truths. I suggest you make her your inspirational role model for now. It’s time to dazzle and persuade and entertain and beguile with your words.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I cheer you on when you identify what you want. I exult when you devise smart plans to seek what you want, and I celebrate when you go off in high spirits to obtain and enjoy what you want. I am gleeful when you aggressively create the life you envision for yourself, and I do everything in my power to help you manifest it. But now and then, like now, I share Cancerian author Franz Kafka‘s perspective. He said this: “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Let’s talk about changing your mind. In some quarters, that’s seen as weak, even embarrassing. But I regard it as a noble necessity, and I recommend you consider it in the near future. Here are four guiding thoughts. 1. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” —George Bernard Shaw. 2. “Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.” —Enid Blyton. 3. “Sometimes, being true to yourself means changing your mind. Self changes, and you follow.” —Vera Nazarian. 4. “The willingness to change one’s mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality, not weakness.” ―Stuart Sutherland.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“The soul moves in circles,” psychologist James Hillman told us. “Hence our lives are not moving straight ahead; instead, hovering, wavering, returning, renewing, repeating.” In recent months, Virgo, your soul’s destiny has been intensely characterized by swerves and swoops. And I believe the rollicking motion will continue for many months. Is that bad or good? Mostly good—especially if you welcome its poetry and beauty. The more you learn to love the spiral dance, the more delightful the dance will be.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” – Norman Cousins

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Quote of the Day: “Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” – Norman Cousins

Photo by: Wyatt Fisher (christiancrush.com)

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

UPDATE—World’s First Drug to Regrow Teeth Enters Clinical Trials

By
Andy Corbley
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In June, GNN reported on the first evidence of a drug that was able to regrow adult teeth in mice, after it was discovered by a dental scientist named Takahashi in Japan years ago.

Now, a pharmaceutical firm called Toregem Biopharma, funded by Kyoto University where Takahashi is based, is moving forward with clinical trials in healthy human adults.

Slated to begin in July of next year, the trials will investigate whether or not Takahashi’s antibody-based drug that targets a protein which suppresses the growth of new teeth from our “teeth buds,” is successful in adults.

If so, the next trial will include children with anodontia, a condition where they are born without some of their teeth.

In 2018, Takahashi showed that ferrets, who like humans have tooth buds, baby teeth, and permanent teeth, were able to regrow their teeth when given the drug.

“The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream. I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student. I was confident I’d be able to make it happen,” Mr. Takahashi said.

Anodontia is a congenital condition present in about 1% of the population that impedes the development of teeth. About 10% of those patients have oligodontia, in which they lack 6 or more natural teeth.

RELATED: These Micro-robots Can Clean Teeth By Shapeshifting into Toothbrush or Floss Forms

Around 2005, and upon Takahashi’s return to Japan, literature began being published that pinpointed certain genes in mice that when deleted caused them to grow fewer or more teeth.

Investigating the latter, Takahashi found that this gene synthesized its own protein called USAG-1, and that when he targeted it with a neutralizing antibody, the mouse’s teeth proceeded to grow like normal.

SHARE This Huge Dental Breakthrough With Anyone Missing Teeth…

For First Time, Seawater Made Drinkable by Sunlight to Be Even Cheaper Than Tap Water

By
Andy Corbley
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MIT solar desalination still - credit Jintong Gao and Zhenyuan Xu
MIT solar desalination still – credit Jintong Gao and Zhenyuan Xu

In a headline that’s rare to see these days, a US-China collaboration has created the cheapest and fastest way to purify seawater yet discovered by science.

The prototype of the passive solar-powered desalination tool can produce 4-6 liters of clean water per hour, and the designers believe a scaled-up version could sustain a coastal household in sunny climes year-round.

For as much as natural resource managers, city planners, and climate activists warn about droughts becoming more severe in the future, the solution has always been staring us in the face.

Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh, an amount that, along with technology, has already enabled the human race to reach nearly 8 billion members. By contrast, 68% of the Earth’s surface, and 97% of its water, is undrinkable.

Seeking to exploit that unending reservoir of potential, a team from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University developed a desalination still about the size of a briefcase that utilizes “thermohaline” circulation similar to the ocean itself.

Thermohaline circulation is described by NASA as the “Great Ocean Conveyor Belt” and occurs when water in the polar regions becomes more saline due to evaporation and sea ice melt.

After this, the denser water forces its way to the depths of the polar oceans, pushing the less-saline, colder water of the deeps out toward the tropical oceans. In essence, it’s a giant current, but one that moves much slower than the wind-driven currents.

OTHER SOLUTIONS LIKE THIS: New Zealand Designer Makes Ingenious Solar-Powered Skylight That Desalinates Water For Drinking

In the case of the still, the seawater circulates in swirling eddies that when coupled with sunlight, enables water to evaporate. The salt is left circulating inside while the water vapor is collecting at potable rates of purity

“For the first time, it is possible for water, produced by sunlight, to be even cheaper than tap water,” said Lenan Zhang, a research scientist in MIT’s Device Research Laboratory. “This opens up the possibility for solar desalination to address real-world problems.”

MORE GREAT INVENTIONS: One Cat’s Obsession With Hunting Birds Leads to Invention That Has Saved Hundreds of Thousands

For coastal communities around the world with a bit of government money and water scarcity issues, the product has the real potential to address them. All components of the still are designed for a 10-year lifespan.

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California Scientists Unveil Fire-Safe Liquid Fuel That Does Not React to Flame

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Dominik Sostmann
Dominik Sostmann

Chemical engineers in California have designed a fuel that ignites only with the application of electric current.

The “safe” liquid fuel doesn’t react to flames and would not start accidental fires during either storage or transport.

“The fuel we’re normally using is not very safe. It evaporates and can ignite—and it’s difficult to stop that,” said Yujie Wang, a chemical engineering doctoral student at the University of California Riverside who co-authored a paper on the new fuel.

“It is much easier to control the flammability of our fuel and stop it from burning when we remove voltage.”

When fuel combusts, it is not the liquid itself that burns. Instead, it is the volatile fuel molecules hovering above the liquid that ignite on contact with oxygen and flame. Removing an oxygen source will extinguish the flame, but this is difficult to do outside of an engine.

“If you throw a match into a pool of gasoline on the ground, it’s the vapor of the gas that’s burning. You can smell that vapor and you instantly know it’s volatile,” said Prithwish Biswas, UCR chemical engineering doctoral student who is first author of the paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“If you can control the vapor, you can control whether the fuel burns.”

ANOTHER GREAT BURN: Clean Fuel Made by Pulling CO2 From Air and Plastic Waste–Powered Only by the Sun and Photosynthesis

The base of the new fuel is an ionic liquid, which is a form of liquified salt. “It is similar to the salt we use to flavor food, which is sodium chloride,” Wang said. “The one we used for this project has a lower melting point than table salt, low vapor pressure, and is organic.”

Once in the lab, the team modified the ionic liquid’s formula, replacing the chlorine with perchlorate. Then, they used a cigarette lighter to see if the resulting liquid would burn. “The temperature from a normal lighter is high enough, and if it was going to burn, it would have,” Wang said.

Next the team tried an application of voltage followed by a lighter flame, which did ignite. “Once we shut off the current, the flame was gone, and we were able to repeat that process over and over again — applying voltage, seeing smoke, lighting the smoke so it burned, then turning it off,” Wang said. “We were excited to find a system we could start and stop very quickly.”

FUEL FROM AIR: Tech Startup Can Now Brew Up Carbon-Negative Rocket Fuel by Capturing CO2 Emissions From the Air

Adding more voltage to the liquid resulted in larger flames with more energy output. As such, the approach could also act like a metering or throttling system in an engine.

“You can measure the combustion in this way, and cutting the voltage works like a dead man switch — a safety feature that automatically shuts down a machine if the operator becomes incapacitated,” said Michael Zachariah, a distinguished professor of chemical engineering and corresponding paper author.

Theoretically, the ionic liquid fuel could be used in any type of vehicle—and the team has filed for a U.S. patent. However, there are still questions that need to be answered before it could be commercialized. The fuel would need to be tested in various types of engines, and its efficiency would need to be determined.

An interesting property of the ionic liquid is that it can be mixed with conventional fuel and still behave the way it does on its own. “But there needs to be additional research to understand what percentage can be mixed and still have it be not flammable,” Zachariah said.

Though there are a number of areas for additional research on the liquid, the team is excited to have made a fuel that is safe from accidental, unintended fires.

AND CHECK OUT: Chemists Discover New Way to Harness Clean Energy From Ammonia

“This would definitely be more expensive than the way they currently manufacture fuels. These compounds are not normally produced in bulk, but if they were, the cost would go down,” Zachariah said.

“How competitive would it be? I don’t know. But if safety is important, that’s a major aspect of this. You make something safe, then there is a benefit that goes beyond the bottom line,” Zachariah said.

LIGHT A FIRE of Curiosity About the Safe Fuel By Sharing on Social Media…

Eating Yogurt Can Get Rid of Your Garlic Breath, Say Researchers

By
Andy Corbley
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Micheile Henderson - Unsplash
Micheile Henderson – Unsplash

Scientists say the proteins present in whole-milk plain yogurt act to neturalize the smell and snuff out the sulphur-based compounds that cause the lingering smell from eating garlic.

The researchers feel confidant in their findings, and encourage garlic lovers to wolf down a yogurt for desert after eating garlic bread or a chicken kiev.

Dr. Sheryl Barringer, senior author of the study and a professor of food science and technology at Ohio State University in the United States, has previously investigated other foods to deduce whether they too can rid odors from the breath.

Among the foods already shown to combat garlic breath are lettuce, apples, milk, and mint. It’s interesting to note that culinary styles that use a lot of garlic like those in India and the Near East typically also make use of mint and yogurt more so than do culinary styles in the West.

Dr. Barringer and Manpreet Kaur, a first author of the study and a Ph.D. student in Dr. Barringer’s lab, placed equal amounts of raw garlic in glass bottles, ensuring the cluster of offending sulphur-based volatiles were released in concentrations that would be detected by the human nose.

They used the analytical tool of mass spectrometry to measure the levels of the volatile molecules in gaseous form which were present both before and after each treatment.

The researchers found that yogurt alone reduced nearly all (99%) of the major, odor-producing raw garlic volatiles.

When tested separately, the fat, water and protein components of yogurt also had a deodorising effect on raw garlic, though fat and protein performed better than water.

The proteins studied included forms of whey, casein and milk proteins that were all effective at deodorising garlic. But a casein micelle-whey protein complex was found to perform the best.

“High protein is a very hot thing right now,” Dr. Barringer explained. “Generally, people want to eat more protein. An unintended side benefit may be a high-protein formulation that could be advertised as a breath deodoriser in addition to its nutritional claims.”

MORE FOOD SCIENCE RESEARCH: Tasty Burgers and Steaks Made of Mycelium Are New Healthy Food Alternative to Plant-Based Meats

“I was more excited about the protein’s effectiveness because consumer advice to eat a high-fat food is not going to go over well,” said Dr. Barringer, referring to how decades-long advice to avoid fat in various foods was simply not true, particularly in dairy where the presence of full milk fats have been found in more recent, comprehensive science to have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease and weight gain.

In the garlic study, the team carried out further experiments involving changing the pH level of the yogurt to make it less acidic, and found that doing so led to a reduced effectiveness of deodorisation of the yogurt on garlic.

“That’s telling me it goes back to those proteins, because as you change pH you change the configuration of proteins and their ability to bind,” Dr. Barringer said. “We know proteins bind flavor—a lot of times that’s considered a negative, especially if a food with high protein has less flavor.”

Yogurt and its individual ingredients neutralized a lower percentage of volatile compounds in fried garlic compared to raw garlic, and believe this is because frying reduces the presence of those volatiles by itself.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Peanut and Food Allergies May Be Reversed with Compound Produced by Healthy Gut Bacteria

Dr. Barringer and her team believe their study sets a good basis to explore different proteins which could soon be formulated to create the perfect garlic-breath eradication product.

In the meantime, Dr. Barringer suggests Greek yogurt, which has a higher protein value than the whole milk plain yogurt, may be the most effective way to rid yourself of garlic breath.

“With apples, we have always said to eat them immediately,” Dr. Barringer said. “The same with yogurt is presumed to be the case: have your garlic and eat the yogurt right away.”

SAVE Your Friends From Garlic Stink With This Cool Trick… 

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” – Paul Tournier

By
Good News Network
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By Nighthawk Shoots

Quote of the Day: “Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” – Paul Tournier

Photo by: Nighthawk Shoots

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Police, Good Samaritans Team Up to Lift Two-Ton Car Off Crushed Teen Driver and Save His Life

By
Andy Corbley
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ABC 7 screenshot - fair use.
ABC 7 screenshot – fair use.

Last week in Georgia, people power made a life-saving rescue possible after a driver was trapped under a 3,600-pound car.

A collision launched the 19-year-old motorist through the sunroof as the car flipped over on its head, pinning him underneath without space to expand his chest.

Moments before, Georgia police sergeant Michael Peterson switched on the lights and sirens after seeing a car pass by at high speeds, but after catching up he found it had overturned with three young men clambering out of the passenger doors.

With every moment counting, police body-cam footage captures Peterson speaking with the trapped driver, confirming his life was in the balance, and ordering the teens, some motorists, and other officers who stopped to help to hoist up the nearly 2-ton vehicle while another pulled the victim free.

“C’mon ya’ll, we got this,” Sgt. Peterson can be heard saying.

MORE ROADSIDE RESCUES: Determined ‘Lassie’ Dog Leads New Hampshire Police Back to Scene of Owner’s Car Crash Down a Hill

The Lawrenceville Police Department confirmed that the teen driver had suffered several injuries, but he was recovering in a medical facility. It was the Department’s opinion that without the rapid action of Peterson and the Good Samaritans, he would not have made it.

WATCH the video below… 

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Discovery of Electric Blue Tarantula Stuns Scientists Who Auction Naming Rights for Charity

By
Andy Corbley
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courtesy Narin Chomphuphuang
courtesy Narin Chomphuphuang

Even arachnophobes may have to tip their hat to this beast, who seems to bend all the rules of his race by sporting electric blue hair gel.

The story of its discovery is a fascinating one, but the exercise of plumbing the depths of a Thailand mangrove forest wasn’t merely scientific in nature, but humanitarian as well.

With the excitement in national news which the discovery of the tarantula drummed up, the team behind it, led by scientist Narin Chomphuphuang and joined by popular Thai YouTube explorer JoCho Sippawat, decided to auction off the rights to give the iridescent spider its scientific name in order to raise money and awareness for JoCho Sippawat’s people.

Sippawat is from the Lahu indigenous group of Northern Thailand and Southern China. While recognized by the latter, in Thailand their existence is denied, and they are subject to mistreatment by the government according to the International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs.

Last year, GNN reported that Sippawat had discovered a tarantula living in the hollow of a bamboo tree—not just a new species but a new genus, as none of the 1,000-strong members of the tarantula family has ever been documented living inside bamboo.

Chilobrachys natanicharum is now the spider’s official name, after two Thai businessmen who bid the highest for the honor.

C. natanicharum has a blue coloration in patches all around the front of its body, which is extremely curious.

MORE EXCITING NEW SPECIES: Tiny New Species of Chocolate Frog is Discovered After Scientists Follow its Unique ‘Beep’ Sound

“The enchanting phenomenon of blue coloration in animals arises from the fact that blue is one of the rarest colors found in nature, and it is a structural color that is produced by the arrangement of biological photonic nanostructures, rather than pigments,” Mr. Chomphuphuang writes in the introduction of a study describing the species.

“C. natanicharum has unique coloration due to the presence of two types of hair: metallic-blue and violet ones. The color depends on the ratio of the two hair colors,” they wrote in the journal ZooKeys.

courtesy Narin Chomphuphuang

Chameleons produce vivid and fascinating colors via pigments, but the tarantula’s hairs absorb some light and reflect the rest—a complex interplay that makes blue animals especially rare.

“To appear blue, an object needs to absorb very small amounts of energy while reflecting high-energy blue light,” which is challenging, Chomphuphuang told CNN.

While their study is about getting into the nitty-gritty details of the spider and proving exactly why it belongs to which genus and what makes it different from other species, the study lacks any indication of why an ambush hunter that typically relies on camouflage and hiding would sport iridescent blue as its camouflage in a jungle environment.

SIPPAWAT’S OTHER SPIDER: New Species of Tarantula That Lives in Bamboo is Discovered by Wildlife YouTuber

Bright colors are utilized in many species as a mating tool (think male peacocks compared to female ones), but the brightest tarantulas observed were juvenile males and females.

Typically, tarantulas are arboreal or terrestrial, but this one was found by the team in the hollow of a mangrove tree in a mangrove swamp at low tide, potentially indicating an aquatic aspect to its life.

Based on the conservation status of southern Thailand’s mangroves, the electric blue tarantula is likely one of the rarest of its kind.

SHARE This Stunning Hunter All Bad In Blue With Your Friends… 

Dad Honors Career by Recreating Adorable Photo With Son Who is Now a Pilot at Same Airline–LOOK

By
Andy Corbley
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Ruben Flowers Jr. and son in 1994 - Southwest Airlines
Ruben Flowers Jr. and son in 1994 – Southwest Airlines.

From a Chicago airport comes the beautiful story of a father and son who were able to recreate a special moment to celebrate an even more special one.

Newly-fledged pilot for Southwest Airlines Ruben Flowers III got to ride shotgun on his father’s final flight before retiring, which they memorialized by taking a photo in the same position as one nearly 30 years earlier.

Ruben Flowers Jr. was getting ready for take-off back in 1994 when his son, Flowers III, got to visit the captain. Sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, they snapped a nice photo.

Flowers Jr. flew for Southwest for 30 years, all the while inspiring his three children to take to the skies as well, with Flowers III telling People Magazine it’s the “best office view in the world.

Flowers III was coming to the end of his flight school just as his father was nearing the end of his career, and it was that time when he stumbled across that old family photo and got him thinking of doing something special for his dad.

“It was a dream of mine to make this happen,” Flowers III says. “It was my number one goal to fly with my dad.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Mother and Daughter Become Co-pilots on Southwest Flight: ‘It’s been a dream come true’

He wasn’t sure whether or not he would complete his flight school before his father’s March 3rd retirement. But fate was on the young man’s side, and on March 3rd as part of a flight from Omaha to Chicago, Flowers II and III sat side by side, pilot and co-pilot, father and son, and snapped the last picture of his dad’s long career.

credit Southwest Airlines

“I really enjoyed flying with my son,” Flowers Jr. told People. “It was truly a blessing for me. It was just awesome.”

PILOTS ARE AWESOME: Airline Pilot Reunites 9-Year-Old with Her Beloved Doll Lost Half a World Away

After they landed in Chicago, Flowers III kept on going while his dad went to a retirement reception at the airport to celebrate a beautiful career and a beautiful legacy that continues flying after him.

SHARE This Beautiful Father And Son Moment… 

Real World Test Shows All-Electric Big Rigs Can Go Farther and Charge Faster

By
Andy Corbley
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Freightliner new Cascadia, January 2019. Technical Data: Exterior, black, 126BBC w/72Ó Raised Roof Sleeper, DD15 w/ 400HP & 1,750 lb/ft torque, DT12 Direct Drive, AeroX Package, Professional Exterior Finish Appearance Package with additional black powder-coated items, Detroit Connect Virtual Technician Freightliner new Cascadia, January 2019. Technical Data: Exterior, black, 126BBC w/72Ó Raised Roof Sleeper, DD15 w/ 400HP & 1,750 lb/ft torque, DT12 Direct Drive, AeroX Package, Professional Exterior Finish Appearance Package with additional black powder-coated items, Detroit Connect Virtual Technician
A Daimler eCascadia electric truck © Daimler not for reuse

An industry research non-profit has found that battery-electric big rigs have doubled their range and charging speed numbers in just 2 years of operation.

In conducting a real-world test on 21 freight trucks for three weeks, North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) found this lighting-fast innovation occurring across the market for battery-electric big rigs

This includes models from Ford, Daimler, Tesla, Volvo, and General Motors.

“This gives us real data, real-world experience to look into the future a bit — and I think the future of battery electric commercial trucks is bright,” said Mike Roeth, NACFE’s executive director.

While the NACFE’s 2023 report didn’t contain weight details for the trucks involved, which Roeth admits was frustrating since weight affects range, he confirmed that each of the 21 vehicles was hauling average freight for the shipping company who owned it, and included trailers full of produce or bottled water, and international freight on shipping containers.

The exciting part of the data is the range and charging times were bang in the zone of what Roeth told Canary Media is known as the “sweet spot in… medium regional haul return-to-base,” and represents the largest part of trucking routes within states and encompasses around 300 miles of movement.

The Daimler eCascadia electric tractor-trailer, for example, averaged 322 miles per day which consisted of 26 deliveries.

MORE EVOLUTION IN TRUCKING: 24 Million Miles Ahead of Tesla, Autonomous Semi Truck Logs Accident-Free Milestone on Delivery Routes

For those who live inside built-up or urban areas, the idea of silent, emission-free freight trucks passing through town is a tantalizing prospect. Depending on the size, freight trucks, and big rigs can have between 10 to 18 gears, meaning their 0-35 time is extremely smog-filled, slow, and noisy.

However, there’s another aspect to stop-and-go city traffic that makes electric big rigs ideal—regenerative braking systems. This clever bit of tech can recharge the battery pack by utilizing the braking force of the huge heavy vehicle, and NACFE found that the Daimler eCascadia was able to recover a quarter of its charge simply in the course of braking during a 13-hour haul day.

There are big hurdles to overcome before electric trucking is adopted widely. At the moment, without state and federal government support, no trucking company could afford the upfront price tag of the electric trucks over diesel ones, even if they represent savings over time due to reduced maintenance costs. For this reason, outside of EV-friendly states, e-trucking would be very difficult.

MORE EMISSIONS FREE TRANSPORT: Sweden’s First EV-Charging Road Will Power Electric Vehicles as They Drive

More than necessarily the upfront cost impediment is the necessity for and cost of a reorganization of short-term and long-term trucking schedules, employee shifts, employee hours, depot infrastructure, and marketing and business information.

It’s an effort that’s worth making, though, as climate change aside, the truckers love electric rigs since they are far smoother to brake and accelerate, and much less noisy. It’s also worth considering the heavy particulate matter coming out of the exhaust of these big rigs that mildly poisons the driver and pedestrians.

SHARE This Industry Report Promising Big Change In The Right Direction…

“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” – Samuel Johnson

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” – Samuel Johnson

(It’s a poetic way of advising, ‘live in the present rather than clinging to the past’.)

Photo by: Joseph Gonzalez

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Peanut and Food Allergies May Be Reversed with Compound Produced by Healthy Gut Bacteria

By
Andy Corbley
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Why do we need fiber? it feeds the bacteria in our gut, which in turn produces something that could prevent food allergies and irritations such as those triggered by peanuts, a study this year showed.

A short-chain fatty acid called butyrate is produced by Clostridium bacteria in our stomach as they ferment fiber that reinforces the walls of the GI tract and protects against colon cancer, among other things.

In a mouse model, researchers at the University of Chicago used an oral solution of butyrate to stymie a life-threatening anaphylactic response in the allergic animals when they were exposed to peanuts.

Without enough fiber in the diet, humans can experience die-offs of these beneficial, butyrate-producing gut microbes. Too much eating of simple sugars and carbs instead makes room for harmful species, resulting in a condition known as “gut dysbiosis.”

Without butyrate, the gut lining can become permeable, and bits of food leak out of the GI tract and into circulation, triggering an anaphylactic response in one pattern of allergic reactions.

One of the ways to rapidly treat this has been a microbiome transplant, also known unpleasantly as a fecal biota transplant. But this has had mixed results in the lab, said Dr. Jeffery Hubbell, Ph.D., one of the project’s principal investigators.

“So we thought, why don’t we just deliver the metabolites like butyrate that a healthy microbiome produces?” he said in a news release.

Hubbell and his colleagues at the University of Chicago did just that in a mouse model in early 2023, but the solution is vile to taste and smell, so a new configuration of polymers that cloak the butyrate has been developed by him and his team.

The researchers administered these “polymer micelles” to the digestive systems of mice lacking either healthy gut bacteria or a properly functioning gut lining.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: 16% Drop in Peanut Allergies Among Children As Parents Follow Guidelines And Introduce Peanuts Earlier

The treatment restored the gut’s protective barrier and microbiome, in part by increasing the production of peptides that kill off harmful bacteria, which made room for butyrate-producing bacteria.

“We were delighted to see that our drug both replenished the levels of butyrate present in the gut and helped the population of butyrate-producing bacteria to expand,” said Cathryn Nagler, Ph.D., a senior author of the study.

MORE WORK ON ALLERGIES: Researchers Find the Key to Fixing Human Allergies to Dogs

“That will likely have implications not only for food allergy and inflammatory bowel disease, but also for the whole set of non-communicable chronic diseases that have been rising over the last 30 years, in response to lifestyle changes and overuse of antibiotics in our society.”

Nagler and Hubbell co-founded a company called ClostraBio to further develop the butyrate micelles into a commercially available treatment for peanut allergies, reports Univ. of Chicago press. They are working with the FDA on an investigational new drug application and hope to begin clinical trials in patients with moderate ulcerative colitis within the next 18 months.

SHARE This Simple Yet Potentially Huge Drug Target On Social Media… 

Strike Finally Ends: Your Favorite Shows Are Returning Now That Writers Are Getting Paid Fairer Share

By
Andy Corbley
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WGA Strike in June - CC 3.0. ufcw770
WGA Strike in June – CC 3.0. ufcw770

After 146 days of picketing, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement to end the strike that has paralyzed Hollywood TV.

Along with raising base pay, the agreement, released as a 7-page document from the WGA negotiating team, includes a system of bonuses based on the success or failure of the streaming numbers of the shows a writer works on.

Some protections against artificial intelligence of also been agreed on, as well as minimum staff requirements for writing rooms.

LA Times reports that in the age of streaming, writers’ rooms have shrunk, freezing out writers who are just launching their careers and making it hard to gain experience.

“This contract—won with the power of member solidarity and our union siblings over a 148-day strike—incorporates meaningful gains and protections for writers in every segment of the membership,” the union said in the document.

RELATED STORIES: 12-Year-Old Saves Man Who Passed Out Underwater, Credits CPR Learned from ‘Stranger Things’

For TV viewers, many entertainment shows that had been halted could be back in production as soon as next week, as many are made mere hours in advance of recording time.

This includes NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

SHARE This Good News For Writers With Social Media…

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