(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday, 12/2/23 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-02 Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame, jck and jeremybloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. Deoxygenation levels similar to today's played a major role in marine extinctions during major past climate change event Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems -- and serves as a warning that marine environments are likely more fragile than apparent. New research, published today in leading international journal Nature Geosciences, suggests that oceanic anoxia played an important role in ecosystem disruption and extinctions in marine environments during the Triassic--Jurassic mass extinction, a major extinction event that occurred around 200 million years ago. Surprisingly however, the study shows that the global extent of euxinia (an extreme form of de-oxygenated conditions) was similar to the present day. 'There is a Scientific Fraud Epidemic' Rooting out manipulation should not depend on dedicated amateurs who take personal legal risks for the greater good. From a story on Financial Times: As the Oxford university psychologist Dorothy Bishop has written, we only know about the ones who get caught. In her view, our "relaxed attitude" to the scientific fraud epidemic is a "disaster-in-waiting." The microbiologist Elisabeth Bik, a data sleuth who specialises in spotting suspect images, might argue the disaster is already here: her Patreon-funded work has resulted in over a thousand retractions and almost as many corrections. That work has been mostly done in Bik's spare time, amid hostility and threats of lawsuits. Instead of this ad hoc vigilantism, Bishop argues, there should be a proper police force, with an army of scientists specifically trained, perhaps through a masters degree, to protect research integrity. It is a fine idea, if publishers and institutions can be persuaded to employ them (Spandidos, a biomedical publisher, has an in-house anti-fraud team). It could help to scupper the rise of the "paper mill," an estimated $1bn industry in which unscrupulous researchers can buy authorship on fake papers destined for peer-reviewed journals. China plays an outsize role in this nefarious practice, set up to feed a globally competitive "publish or perish" culture that rates academics according to how often they are published and cited. Peer reviewers, mostly unpaid, don't always spot the scam. And as the sheer volume of science piles up -- an estimated 3.7mn papers from China alone in 2021 -- the chances of being rumbled dwindle. Some researchers have been caught on social media asking to opportunistically add their names to existing papers, presumably in return for cash. Traffic Pollution Can Cause Rise In Blood Pressure, Study Finds An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Air pollution from traffic can cause a significant rise in blood pressure that can last up to 24 hours, according to a study via the University of Washington. The spike is comparable to the effect of a high-sodium diet and can contribute to cardiovascular problems. Long-term exposure to vehicle exhaust has been widely linked with respiratory problems such as asthma, especially in children. "Traffic air pollution increases blood pressure within an hour of being in traffic and it stays elevated a day later," said author of the study Joel Kaufman, a physician and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington. Sixteen healthy people between the ages of 22 and 45 underwent three separate drives as passengers through Seattle rush hour. Two of those drives were "unfiltered," meaning the road air was allowed to enter the car, as is the case for many drivers on the road today. On the third drive, a Hepa (high efficiency particulate absorbing) filter was installed in the car, with participants unaware which drive had filtration. The researchers measured the blood pressure of the passengers before, during and after the two-hour drive. Breathing unfiltered air resulted in blood pressure increase of more than 4.5mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) compared to filtered air. Most of the pollution came from tailpipe exhaust or the fossil fuel combustion, as well as brake and tire wear. The filters were most effective in reducing ultrafine particles (86% decrease), black carbon, which is mostly from diesel (86%), and PM2.5 (60%) while gasses like carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide were unaffected. "The clue here is that these tiniest particles are probably what's responsible for blood pressure difference," Kaufman said. "If you live in an area that has heavy traffic-related air pollution, you want to keep your windows closed and have air filtration capability in your home." A Star With Six Planets That Orbit Perfectly in Sync Astronomers have discovered six planets orbiting a bright star in perfect resonance. The star system, 100 light-years from Earth, was described on Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature. From a report: The discovery of the system could give astronomers a unique opportunity to trace the evolution of these worlds to when they first formed, and potentially offer insights into how our solar system got to be the way it is today. "It's like looking at a fossil," said Rafael Luque, an astronomer at the University of Chicago who led the study. "The orbits of the planets today are the same as they were a billion years ago." Researchers think that when planets first form, their orbits around a star are in sync. That is, the time it takes for one planet to waltz around its host star might be the same amount of time it takes for a second planet to circle exactly twice, or exactly three times. Systems that line up like this are known as orbital resonances. But, despite the theory, finding resonances in the Milky Way is rare. Only 1 percent of planetary systems still preserve this symmetry. Most of the time, planetary orbits get knocked out of sync by an event that upsets the gravitational balance of the system. That could be a close encounter with another star, the formation of a massive planet like Jupiter, or a giant impact from space on one planet that causes a ripple effect in other orbits. When this happens, Dr. Luque said, planetary orbits become too chaotic to mathematically describe, and knowledge of their evolution is indecipherable. Astronomers are lucky to find even one pair of exoplanets in resonance. But in the newly discovered star system, there are a whopping five pairs, because all six planets have orbits that are in sync with one another. Dr. Luque described it as "the 1 percent of the 1 percent." x Astronomers have found a system of six exoplanets orbiting a central star with a precise rhythm. This phenomenon, known as orbital resonance, is common during the starting phase of planet formation, ... 1/ 👉 https://t.co/33vZxBlny3 pic.twitter.com/894JbpeyUr — Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) November 29, 2023 Discovery of planet too big for its sun throws off solar system formation models The discovery of a planet that is far too massive for its sun is calling into question what was previously understood about the formation of planets and their solar systems, according to Penn State researchers. In a paper published online today (Nov. 30) in the journal Science, researchers report the discovery of a planet more than 13 times as massive as Earth orbiting the "ultracool" star LHS 3154, which itself is nine times less massive than the sun. The mass ratio of the newly found planet with its host star is more than 100 times higher than that of Earth and the sun. Astronomers discover disc around star in another galaxy In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have found a disc around a young star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy neighbouring ours. It's the first time such a disc, identical to those forming planets in our own Milky Way, has ever been found outside our galaxy. The new observations reveal a massive young star, growing and accreting matter from its surroundings and forming a rotating disc. The detection was made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. Rocky planets can form in extreme environments Astronomers have provided the first observation of water and other molecules in the highly irradiated inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disk in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for terrestrial planet formation can occur in a possible broader range of environments than previously thought. Building blocks for life could have formed near new stars and planets While life on Earth is relatively new, geologically speaking, the ingredients that combined to form it might be much older than once thought. According to research published in ACS Central Science, the simplest amino acid, carbamic acid, could have formed alongside stars or planets within interstellar ices. The findings could be used to train deep space instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope to search for prebiotic molecules in distant, star-forming regions of the universe. It has long been hypothesized that one of the building blocks for life, amino acids, could have formed during reactions in the "primordial soup" of the early, prebiotic Earth. However, another theory suggests that amino acids could have been carried to the Earth's surface by meteorites. Landscape dynamics determine the evolution of biodiversity on Earth Movement of rivers, mountains, oceans and sediment nutrients at the geological timescale are the central drivers of Earth's biodiversity, new research published today in Nature has revealed. The research also shows that biodiversity evolves at similar rates to the pace of plate tectonics, the slow geological processes that drive the shape of continents, mountains and oceans. "That is a rate incomparably slower than the current rates of extinction caused by human activity," said lead author Dr Tristan Salles from the School of Geosciences. 600 years of tree rings reveal climate risks in California The San Joaquin Valley in California has experienced vast variability in climate extremes, with droughts and floods that were more severe and lasted longer than what has been seen in the modern record, according to a new study of 600 years of tree rings from the valley. The researchers used the tree rings to reconstruct plausible daily records of weather and streamflow scenarios during the 600-year period. This new approach, combining paleo information with synthetic weather generation, may help policymakers and scientists better understand -- and anticipate -- California's flood and drought risks and how they will be compounded by climate change. Study identifies key algae species helping soft corals survive warming oceans Scleractinian corals, or hard corals, have been disappearing globally over the past four decades, a result of climate change, pollution, unsustainable coastal development and overfishing. However, some Caribbean octocorals, or soft corals, are not meeting the same fate. During a two-year survey of soft corals in the Florida Keys, Mary Alice Coffroth, professor emerita of geology at the University at Buffalo, along with a small team of UB researchers, identified three species of octocorals that have survived heat waves. While the coral animal itself may be heat tolerant, Coffroth said that her team concluded that the symbiotic algae inside the coral serve as a protector of sorts. x Study identifies key algae species helping soft corals survive warming oceans @ScienceAdvances https://t.co/d7TdPGa6AF https://t.co/i6t781i6DU — Phys.org (@physorg_com) November 24, 2023 Brittle stars can learn just fine -- even without a brain We humans are fixated on big brains as a proxy for smarts. But headless animals called brittle stars have no brains at all and still manage to learn through experience, new research reveals. Relatives of starfish, brittle stars spend most of their time hiding under rocks and crevices in the ocean or burrowing in the sand. These shy marine creatures have no brain to speak of -- just nerve cords running down each of their five wiggly arms, which join to form a nerve ring near their mouth. Inoculation against diseased fields Intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides on fields reduces biodiversity and pollutes the environment. There is therefore great interest in finding sustainable ways to protect yields without the use of agricultural chemicals. One example of alternative biologicals is mycorrhizal fungi, which are beneficial organisms that help plants acquire nutrients. Yields improved by up to 40 percent A team of researchers from the universities of Zurich and Basel, Agroscope and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) has now shown for the first time on a large scale that the application of mycorrhizal fungi in the field works. Genomic study sheds light on how carnivorous Asian pitcher plants acquired signature insect trap Possessing more than two complete sets of chromosomes can be a hindrance to long-term survival of a plant lineage, yet scientists are also finding evidence it's likely behind some evolutionary innovation. Sudden inheritance of whole suites of extra gene copies can add redundancy to an organism's regular sets of functions, actually permitting some of those copies to evolve and express in entirely new ways. In the case of the East Asian pitcher plant, this mutational freedom may have even fine-turned its ability to capture prey and satisfy its appetite for "meat." A mixed origin made maize successful Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research, published Dec. 1 in Science, shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated. The work has implications both for improving one of the world's most important crops and for understanding how the histories of people and their crops influence each other. "It's a new model for the origins and spread of maize, and how it became a staple across the Americas," said Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis and senior author on the paper. 'Bone biographies' reveal lives of medieval England's common people -- and illuminate early benefits system A series of 'bone biographies' created by a major research project tell the stories of medieval Cambridge residents as recorded on their skeletons, illuminating everyday lives during the era of Black Death and its aftermath. The work is published alongside a new study investigating medieval poverty by examining remains from the cemetery of a former hospital that housed the poor and infirm. University of Cambridge archaeologists analysed close to 500 skeletal remains excavated from burial grounds across the city, dating between the 11th and 15th centuries. Samples came from a range of digs dating back to the 1970s. x 💀 Biographies in bone reveal the life and times of medieval Cambridge residents. Find out how @UCamArchaeology researchers analysed hundreds of remains from the Black Death era. https://t.co/xwoucsj3YX — Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) December 1, 2023 Pathogens use force to breach immune defenses, study finds Similar to a burglar breaking a window to get into a house, Indiana University researchers have discovered a previously unknown process by which pathogens enter a cell with physical force, breaching the body's immune defenses that prevent infection. The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, introduces a potential game-changer in the fight against intracellular pathogens responsible for causing devastating infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria and chlamydia. What makes sustainable consumption so difficult While many people want to achieve major long-term goals -- such as improving their diet, quitting smoking or adopting a more sustainable lifestyle -- they often find it difficult to do so. Is it all down to a lack of self-discipline? No, it's not, according to social psychologist Professor Wilhelm Hofmann from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. For a review article in Nature Reviews Psychology, Hofmann has analyzed numerous research studies and highlighted the extent to which the physical and social environment influence individual behavior. He criticizes the fact that many psychological studies still tend to focus on the individual while ignoring crucial structural factors. The article was published online on November 20, 2023. Climate: Why disinformation is so persistent Melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme heat waves: the consequences of climate change are more visible than ever, and the scientific community has confirmed that humans are responsible. Yet studies show that a third of the population still doubts or disputes these facts. The cause is disinformation spread by certain vested interests. To try and prevent this phenomenon, a team has developed and tested six psychological interventions on nearly 7,000 participants from twelve countries. The research highlights the extremely persuasive nature of disinformation and the need to strengthen our efforts to combat it. Money to burn: Wealthy, white neighborhoods losing their heat shields [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/2/2207963/-Overnight-News-Digest-Science-Saturday-12-2-23?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/