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Lab Notes

Short stories and links shared by the scientists in our community

Scientists have restored youth to aging eyes in mice

New research suggests vision loss may be reversible via induced pluripotent stem cells

Thiago Arzua

Neuroscience

Medical College of Wisconsin

Kleptomaniacal sea slugs steal solar cells from algae

New research shows how the sea slugs get stolen chloroplasts to function in their bodies

Sruthi Sanjeev Balakrishnan

Cell Biology

National Centre for Biological Sciences

Human activity forces predators to compete with each other

Foxes, coyotes, and bobcats can normally coexist. But what happens when their hunting grounds are disrupted by humans?

Ashley Marranzino

Marine Biology

University of Rhode Island

Dozens of bird and mammal species have been saved from extinction since 1993

New research shows that conservation actions do save species

Enzo M. R. Reyes

Conservation Biology

Massey University

The US saw cleaner air during COVID-19 lockdowns, but some pollutants persisted

Nitrogen dioxide levels dropped due to a sharp decrease in passenger cars on the road

Krystal Vasquez

Atmospheric Chemistry

California Institute of Technology

Five sugar-hungry bacteria team up against a nasty stomach bug

Researchers are figuring out how to starve Clostridioides difficile infections

Madeline Barron

Microbiology

University of Michigan

Humans and chimpanzees aren’t the only primates that eat meat

Eighty-nine species of primates eat meat sporadically to get the micronutrients they need

Laura Martinez-Inigo

Animal Behavior and Primatology

Researchers made golden rice extra gold with CRISPR

Using this technique, drought- and pest-resistance genes could be inserted into food crops to make them more productive

Katy Anderson

Plant Biology

Duke University

Linking two enzymes turns plastic-eating bacteria into super-digesters

But these bacteria won’t save us: we still need to use far less plastic to save the planet

Luyi Cheng

Molecular Biology and Structural Biology

Northwestern University

Hannah Thomasy

Neuroscience

University of Washington

Tweaked version of failed Alzheimer’s disease drug restores memory in mice

The preliminary results suggest the drug may stop — and reverse — some Alzheimer’s disease

Lauren Gandy

Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Chemical Biology

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

In the future, a simple blood test could identify who will develop pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia is the second leading cause of maternal mortality, and symptoms don’t manifest until late in a pregnancy

Emily LaPlante

Computational Genomics

Baylor College of Medicine

Scientists have mapped the “in-between neurons” of our brains

They make up a part of the brain called superficial white matter, which is difficult to see under a microscope

Abdullah Asad Iqbal

Neuroscience

University of Leeds

Chronic noise exposure isn’t just bad for your hearing — it’s also bad for your heart

Living next to a busy highway could keep stress hormones chronically elevated, damaging the body

Luke Whitcomb

Physiology and Biomedical Sciences

Colorado State University

Women hunters have a long history in the Americas

New findings from a 9,000-year-old burial site in southern Peru drive this point home

Hannah Thomasy

Neuroscience

University of Washington

While many assume that early human societies had a stark division of labor — men were hunters, women were gatherers — new findings contradict this hypothesis. Researchers identified a 9,000-year-old burial site in the Andean highlands containing many tools that would have been used to hunt big game, likely Andean deer and vicuña (an animal similar to an alpaca). By analyzing peptides in the individual’s tooth enamel, researchers determined that the remains belonged to a young woman.

But was this female hunter an anomaly or was she one of many? Researchers turned to previously published studies to look for clues. They found 27 cases during a similar time period in the Americas in which individuals whose sex had been reliably determined were buried with hunting tools. Of these 27 hunters, 11 were female. Based on this, researchers estimated that women made up between 30 and 50 percent of the hunters during this time.

Monkeys and apes in Africa and Asia are also susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

New research compared the configurations of the ACE2 protein in 29 non-human primates

Brittany Kenyon-Flatt

Biological Anthropology

North Carolina State University

Antidepressant drugs suppress important gut bacteria

This finding explains why some people who take antidepressants have unpleasant gut-centered side effects

Simon Spichak

Neuroscience

Over 250 million people live with depression. Unfortunately, the drugs used to treat depression also kill beneficial gut bacteria, and this may cause unpleasant side effects, including nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. People may even stop taking their medication because of these effects.

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, scientists examined the antimicrobial properties of different antidepressant drugs on common gut microbes. Studies continuing from this research could enable us to minimize these unpleasant side effects. Looking at someone’s gut bacteria might also allow clinicians to select the ideal antidepressant treatment.

The scientists grew common gut bacteria on petri dishes and added varying doses of different antidepressants to measure how the drugs affected these gut bacteria. They found that different types of antidepressants inhibited the growth of common, and important, gut bacteria, and that desipramine and aripiprazole had the greatest effects on the bacteria.

There is growing recognition that future clinical trials will need to assess the effects of drugs on gut microbes. Tracking these effects in large clinical samples could help us determine why some antidepressants cause digestive problems. Long-term, these discoveries could enable the development of better treatments for depression with fewer side effects. 

An acidifying ocean spells disaster for marine and human systems

We can avert this and other effects of climate change by decreasing global carbon dioxide emissions

Keira Monuki

Marine Biology

University of California, Davis

#BlackInMarineScienceWeek increases the visibility of Black marine scientists

The week will showcase Black scientists from every imaginable marine science niche, with the goal of inspiring younger generations

Meghan Zulian

Oceanography and Marine Science

University of California, Davis

Eastern snapping turtles use culverts to hunt migratory herring

Culverts allow fish to move through human-dominated habitats, but they also serve up dinner for clever predators

Sruthi Sanjeev Balakrishnan

Cell Biology

National Centre for Biological Sciences

Are invasive insects better equipped for climate change than native species?

Separately, climate change and invasive species are two huge threats to biodiversity worldwide. What happens when they combine?

Hanusia Higgins

Forest Ecology and Invasive Species

University of Vermont

Painting the blades of wind turbines helps birds avoid them

A Norwegian study found avian fatalities fell 70 percent after painting one blade black

Rita Ponce

Evolutionary Biology

Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal

High-altitude cycling strains your heart less than running

New research explores hypoxia and exercise performance

Luke Whitcomb

Physiology and Biomedical Sciences

Colorado State University

Exercise is hard. It’s even harder if your muscles can’t get the oxygen they need. This physiologic challenge is known as hypoxia. When muscles are hypoxic, they often can’t work as hard. Atop a mountain in Colorado, atmospheric pressure is much less than it is at sea level. Even though the percent of oxygen molecules found in the air is the same, there is less driving force for that oxygen to get into the body.

If an individual has a physical condition, such as congestive heart failure or COPD, which impedes the body’s ability to capture and transport oxygen to exercising muscle, similar hypoxia could occur. Sports scientists and doctors can simulate these conditions in healthy participants by restricting the amount of oxygen they breathe through special masks or low-oxygen chambers.

New research shows that these two causes of hypoxia have different effects on exercise performance. Researchers combined 21 previously published studies which evaluated exercise capacity under the simulated normobaric hypoxia (NH) and high-altitude hypobaric hypoxia (HH) in athletic men. These studies included two different exercise methods: running and cycling.

As expected, participants’ maximal exercise capacity was impaired under both NH and HH conditions. However those in HH performed slightly better than those in NH — perhaps because of lower air resistance making it easier to breathe. And between those who ran or cycled, those who ran had lower blood-oxygen levels and lower heart rates. There was no difference between running and cycling seen in NH. 

These insights may allow athletes and doctors to better predict how they or their patients will respond to exercise in low oxygen environments.

As bee population numbers plummet with climate change, ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ emerge

Different bees cope with heat and land use changes in their own ways

Rebecca Dzombak

Biogeochemistry

University of Michigan

How did the bear cross the road? Wildlife corridor’s success caught on video

The important project allows safe movement for even some of the largest mammals in North America

Max G. Levy

Science and Health Journalism and Chemical Engineering