Danger Dust

Water purification is a big business on Earth. Companies offer everything from desalination to providing just the right pH level for drinking water. But on the Moon, there won’t be a similar technical infrastructure to support the astronauts attempting to make a permanent base there. And there’s one particular material that will make water purification even harder – Moon dust. 

We’ve reported plenty of times about the health problems caused by the lunar regolith, so it seems apparent that you don’t want to drink it. Even more so, the abrasive dust can cause issues with seals, such as those used in electrolyzers to create rocket fuel out of in-situ water resources. It can even adversely affect water purification equipment itself. 

Unfortunately, this contamination is inevitable. Lunar dust is far too adhesive and electrostatically charged to be kept completely separate from the machinery that would recycle or purify the water. So, a group of researchers from DLR in Germany decided to test what would happen if you intentionally dissolved lunar regolith.

The short answer is, unsurprisingly, nothing good. Dissolved lunar regolith causes pH, turbidity, and aluminum concentrations all exceed World Health Organization benchmarks for safe drinking water. This happened even with short exposure times (2 minutes) and static pH values, as they used a 5.5 pH buffer in part of the experiments. 

Experimental study to characterize water contaminated by lunar dust

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/space-technologies/articles/10.3389/frspt.2024.1366591/full

Occupational exposure to silica, one of the most common minerals in the earth’s crust, may lead to microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) — a type of ANCA-associated vasculitis — particularly in individuals with a genetic predisposition to autoimmune diseases, a case report suggests.

Silica, found in sand and rocks, is known to stimulate inflammatory reactions. In fact, silicosis is an occupational lung disease common among those exposed to the mineral that can cause kidney injury and lead to more autoimmune conditions.

In a recent report, a team of researchers in Turkey detailed the case of a 29-year-old man with kidney dysfunction linked to silica exposure who was diagnosed with MPA associated with silicosis.

“Considering that the use and therefore frequency of exposure to silica is increasing with industrial development, awareness should be raised of not only the pulmonary effects of silicosis but also the renal [kidney] damage,” the researchers wrote.

The world makes four billion tonnes of Portland cement, the main ingredient of concrete, every year. This has an enormous carbon footprint — up to 8% of humanity’s yearly production of CO2 comes from this process.

At the moment, low-carbon alternatives aren’t as durable as Portland cement, which hardens fast and strong. The goal of my PhD is to determine how this cement forms so that we might be able to develop materials with a lower carbon footprint.

Research on thousands of proteins measured from a drop of blood demonstrates the ability of proteins to predict the onset of many diverse diseases.

The protein data is linked to the participants' electronic health records. The authors used advanced analytical techniques to pinpoint, for each disease, a 'signature' of between the five and 20 proteins most important for prediction.

The researchers report the ability of protein 'signatures' to predict the onset of 67 diseases including multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neuron disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and dilated cardiomyopathy.

The protein prediction models out-performed models based on standard, clinically recorded information. Prediction based on blood cell counts, cholesterol, kidney function and diabetes tests (glycated hemoglobin) performed less well than the protein prediction models for most examples.

"We are therefore extremely excited about the opportunities that our protein signatures may have for earlier detection and ultimately improved prognosis for many diseases, including severe conditions such as multiple myeloma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We identified so many promising examples, the next step is to select high priority diseases and evaluate their proteomic prediction in a clinical setting."

Proteomic signatures improve risk prediction for common and rare diseases

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03142-z

Published Sep 2016

Silica exposure has been associated with several autoimmune diseases, most notably scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis. Crystalline silica is a well-known adjuvant which induces the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines, stimulates T cell responses and decreases number of regulatory T cells, increases oxidative stress, and induces apoptosis.

Particulate air pollution has been linked to the development of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD), a term which includes systemic lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, scleroderma, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, or undifferentiated connective tissue disease in an urban Canadian cohort .

Significant epidemiologic literature exists to support the association between silica, cigarette smoking, oral contraceptives, postmenopausal hormone therapy, and endometriosis with increased risk of incident SLE. Recently, moderate alcohol consumption has been demonstrated to reduce incident SLE risk

For decades, scientists warned that continued burning of oil, gas, and coal would have devastating climate impacts. Those impacts are being felt around the world.

The science of what is happening is clear. For more than 100 years, scientists have known that large quantities of greenhouse gases, released from the burning of fossil fuels, go up into the atmosphere and heat the planet. That heating leads to frequent and more extreme alterations in weather patterns. In that sense, climate change can be thought of as the Great Accelerator.

Climate impacts are felt everywhere, but not felt equally

No place on Earth is immune to the extremes of climate change, but those extremes are not experienced equally.

The overall picture is grim, but there are solutions.

SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that found its way into humans through mundane contact with infected wildlife that went on to cause the most consequential pandemic for over a century. While it is scholarly to entertain alternative hypotheses, particularly when evidence is scarce, these alternative hypotheses have been implausible for a long time and have only become more-so with increasing scrutiny. Those who eagerly peddle suggestions of laboratory involvement have consistently failed to present credible arguments to support their positions.

Take the time to reflect on the paragraph above and how many words were expended to make the simple point that COVID-19 had a natural origin. This is because there are many people, most notably in the USA, with disproportionate influence who are poised to seize on less explicit statements to undermine a simple, and pretty straightforward, truth.

Across the world, over 800 million people spend their days hungry. More than 2 billion have limited access to food. Yet today’s global food system produces enough to feed every person on the planet.

To account for these trends, we need to look at market concentration, and how a small number of very big companies have come to dominate the production and supply of the food we all eat.

For the global food system has become much more concentrated in recent years, partly through an increase in mergers and acquisitions, where large firms buy up rival companies until they completely dominate key areas.

High levels of market concentration mean less transparency, weaker competition, and more power in the hands of fewer firms. And our research reveals that a rise in the number of mergers and acquisitions is taking place at all stages of the global food system – from seeds and fertilisers to machinery and manufacturing.

This is all part of food being increasingly seen as a source not only of human sustenance, but as a profitable investment – or what is known as the “financialisation of food”.

And while people have been buying and selling food for a very long time, the global system has seen a major incursion of big finance in recent decades. Pension funds, private equity and asset management firms have invested heavily in the sector.

Conclusions

This study provides direct evidence that granite workers with long-term exposure to ≤0.10 mg/m3 respirable crystalline silica are at risk of developing silicosis, particularly if they are employed as stone cutters and carvers.

Although many of the detected cases had simple silicosis with a profusion category of 1 or 2, corresponding to low or moderate radiographic severity, they had an increased prevalence of dyspnea compared to workers with similar smoking histories and no classifiable parenchymal abnormalities.

These results reinforce the importance of regulating and monitoring occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica and justify the periodic radiographic screening of all exposed employees to identify early parenchymal changes indicative of silicosis.

China is installing the wind and solar equivalent of five large nuclear power stations per week

In short:

China is installing record amounts of solar and wind, while scaling back once-ambitious plans for nuclear.

While Australia is falling behind its renewables installation targets, China may meet its end-of-2030 target by the end of this month, according to a report.

What's next?

Energy experts are looking to China, the world's largest emitter and once a climate villain, for lessons on how to rapidly decarbonise.

Farming is a uniquely stressful vocation. Farmers work long hours performing labor-intensive, repetitive and often dangerous tasks. In fact, farming is among the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the U.S., according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In her previous work interviewing farmers about their experiences handling stress, many of them expressed a fear that seeking mental health care would be interpreted by fellow farmers or the companies paying them to produce that they can't handle their operation.

"It's much easier for them to turn inward and just consume alcohol," she said. "And it's also more acceptable in rural areas to do that than it is to go to a mental health care facility."

Knowing the stigma that exists within rural farming populations about seeking care and then looking at death by suicide numbers, it really is a public health issue because there are drastic, traumatic outcomes associated with not being able to ask for that care, using alcohol to cope and then feeling hopeless

The future of farmers' well-being—and our global food supply—depends on taking action now.

How do B cells become antibody-producing cells?

Antibodies are one of the key components of the adaptive (or acquired) immune system and target foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses. B cells play a vital role in antibody production and in immune memory that protects us from reinfection.

B cells become activated when an antigen [a substance that triggers the body's immune response] binds to its receptors. Once activated, B cells form what are called "germinal centers."

"We think of germinal centers as factories for B cells to become optimal antibody secreters and choose cell fates to support that function," says Lucas.

B cells have multiple potential fates, including becoming memory cells or antibody-secreting cells (ASC). The role of memory cells is to "remember" specific antigens so that the body can more rapidly initiate an immune response if the antigen returns.

In turn, ASCs begin releasing very large amounts of antibodies that target the intruder into the blood.

The immune system is always on alert, detecting and eliminating pathogens and cancer cells. Cellular control mechanisms cause diseased cells to present antigens on their surface like signs for the immune system.

For analysis of the necessary complex antigen processing and transport processes in real time, a German team has developed a "cage" that is opened with light to release trapped antigens at a specific place and time.

In our cells, both endogenous and foreign proteins are constantly broken into tiny pieces and transported into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a branched system of channels enclosed by a membrane, by the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP). There, the supramolecular peptide loading complex PLC controls the loading of MHC I (major histocompatibility complex class I) with antigenic peptides.

Certain peptides are preferentially loaded onto MHC I, further processed for immune surveillance (antigen processing) and presented on the cell surface. Peptides that come from normal endogenous proteins remain immunologically inconspicuous (barring misdirected autoimmune reactions).

Antigen Delivery Controlled by an On-Demand Photorelease

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202405035

Find could offer lessons for conserving key species in other places

Vultures have long been associated with death, and perhaps for good reason. With their hunched shoulders, hooked beaks, and signature bald heads, they fly around looking for dead and decaying animals to scavenge. But they also serve an important role in protecting human life, a new study finds.

The near-extinction of the birds across India in the 1990s led to the spread of disease-carrying pathogens from an excess of dead animals, killing more than a half-million people from 2000 to 2005. 

Vultures are a keystone species in India, essential to the functioning of many of the country’s ecosystems. The birds of prey don’t just clean up disease-ridden carcasses; by removing food, they reduce the populations of other scavengers, such as feral dogs that can transmit rabies. What’s more, without vultures, farmers dispose their dead livestock in waterways, further spreading disease.

And that’s exactly what happened. In 1994, farmers began giving a drug called diclofenac to cattle and other livestock for pain, inflammation, and other conditions. But it was poisonous to the vultures that fed on these animals, destroying their kidneys. In just a decade, Indian vulture populations fell dramatically, from 50 million individuals to just a couple thousand.

Anant Sudarshan saw the impacts firsthand. As an adolescent in India, Sudarshan—now an environmental economist at the University of Warwick—says the bodies of cattle accumulated outside tanneries and city limits, where fields became carcass dumps for feral dogs and other less efficient scavengers such as rats to feed on. When the remains piled up, the Indian government required tanneries to use chemicals to dispose of the waste, causing toxic substances to leech into waterways used by people.

Tragedy struck the Swiss town of Lausanne on Friday when a scaffold and transport platform/hoist collapsed, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuring nine others.

The incident occurred in Prilly, a suburb on the northwestern side of Lausanne, where a 19-story building was undergoing a major refurbishment.

The building, entirely covered with façade scaffold, had a transport platform/materials hoist installed.According to initial reports, the platform installation may have been faulty, potentially causing the collapse of the entire corner section of the scaffold. A telehandler was also buried under the debris from the fallen scaffold.

Emergency responders rushed to the scene to provide aid and investigate the cause of the collapse. The police have confirmed that three workers on the site were killed. Among the nine injured, four sustained serious injuries, while five others suffered more minor injuries.

Parkinson's disease is classically associated with the buildup of proteins called Lewy bodies in brain cells, but researchers found that 76% of individuals with CTE and Parkinsonism did not have Lewy body pathology.

CTE is a degenerative brain disease whose only known cause is repetitive head impacts, like those encountered in contact sports. A 2018 study by the same research team found that duration of contact sports play is associated with and increased odds of developing Lewy body disease. However, the present study is the first to describe a link between contact sport participation, brainstem pathology, and parkinsonism in CTE.

........

Substantia Nigra Pathology, Contact Sports Play, and Parkinsonism in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Key Points

Question  What are the key clinical and neuropathologic measures associated with parkinsonism in individuals with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?

Findings  In this cross-sectional study of 481 brain donors with neuropathologically diagnosed CTE, parkinsonism was common (24.7%). Substantia nigra Lewy bodies, neurofibrillary tangles, dopaminergic neuronal loss, and age at death were significantly associated with parkinsonism.

Meaning  The findings suggest that multiple abnormal protein accumulations and neuronal loss are associated with parkinsonism in individuals with CTE in an age-dependent manner.

Conclusions and Relevance  In this cross-sectional study of contact sports athletes with CTE, years of contact sports participation were associated with SN tau pathology and neuronal loss, and these pathologies were associated with parkinsonism. Repetitive head impacts may incite neuropathologic processes that lead to symptoms of parkinsonism in individuals with CTE.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2820667

SARS-CoV-2 has triggered a pandemic and contributes to long-lasting morbidity. Several studies have investigated immediate cellular and humoral immune responses during acute infection. However, little is known about long-term effects of COVID-19 on the immune system.

Conclusions COVID-19 causes long-term reduction of innate and adaptive immune cells which is associated with a Th2 serum cytokine profile. This may provide an immunological mechanism for long-term sequelae after COVID-19.

In a world-first discovery, Griffith University researchers have discovered that faulty cell function in veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness (GWI), also known as Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), is likely caused by intense exposure to hazardous biological and chemical agents during war service.

The findings from our research provides clear scientific evidence that the health problems experienced by Gulf War veterans can be directly linked to their exposure to specific hazardous agents during their service.

Our study reveals a crucial dysfunction in cell ion channels, specifically the transient receptor potential ion channels, in veterans with GWI.

This discovery is a significant step forward in understanding this baffling and complex illness.

.........

Novel characterization of endogenous transient receptor potential melastatin 3 ion channels from Gulf War Illness participants

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0305704

Dust can wear down equipment, harm vegetation and wildlife, and affect the quality of air, water and soil in an area. But most of all, dust affects the workers on the front lines of the mining industry.

Coal dust is second only to crystalline silica dust in the dangers posed to workers, but a combination of the two can be deadly.

Silicosis caused by silica exposure is estimated to currently affect around 100,000 people in Australia. Left untreated there is very real risk of those affected developing incurable lung diseases.

New Zealand’s largest and only national stone benchtop fabricator, AGB, is continuing its fight against silicosis with the announcement that it will be the first in the country to supply zero-silica engineered stone.

“If low-silica was the revolution, zero is the evolution. It’s actually not that big of a step to make. This is the next advancement of us being at the forefront of health and safety of workers – and our customers,”

Occupational exposure to inhaled crystalline silica dust (cSiO2) is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody vasculitis. 

Taken together, diverse disease-relevant autoreactive B cells, including cells specific for DNA, MPO, and basement membrane, are recruited to lung ectopic lymphoid aggregates in response to cSiO2 instillation. B cells that escape tolerance can contribute to local autoantibody production. Our demonstration of significantly enhanced autoantibody induction by TLR ligands further suggests that a coordinated environmental co-exposure can magnify autoimmune vulnerability.

Understanding the Sand Shortage: Why We're Running Out of Sand

The world uses 50 billion metric tons of sand annually.

Sand is a key ingredient in all concrete and glass production.

There are already ongoing reports of a mafia-style black market for sand.

The world is in crisis yet again. This time around, it’s a sand shortage.

The most-extracted solid material in the world, and second-most used global resource behind water, sand is an unregulated material used extensively in nearly every construction project on Earth. And with 50 billion metric tons consumed annually—enough to build an 88-foot-tall, 88-foot-wide wall around the world—our sand depletion is on the rise, and a completely unregulated rise at that.

Naturally occurring over thousands of years—if not hundreds of thousands of years, most sand originates in the mountains and forms as rivers bring it downstream toward oceans. Sure, head to beaches across the world to feel the sand between your toes, but sand does more than delight beachgoers and build cities. Sand also performs key environmental roles; it is a major factor in protecting from storm surges, ensuring healthy natural habitats for a variety of species, and protecting against erosion.

Infections and neurodegenerative diseases cause inflammation in the brain. But for unknown reasons, patients with brain inflammation often develop muscle problems that seem to be independent of the central nervous system. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have revealed how brain inflammation releases a specific protein that travels from the brain to the muscles and causes a loss of muscle function.

The study, in fruit flies and mice, also identified ways to block this process, which could have implications for treating or preventing the muscle wasting sometimes associated with inflammatory diseases, including bacterial infections, Alzheimer's disease and long COVID.

When the brain is exposed to inflammatory proteins characteristic of these diseases, damaging chemicals called reactive oxygen species build up. The reactive oxygen species cause brain cells to produce an immune-related molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which travels throughout the body via the bloodstream.

The study pinpoints potential targets for preventing or treating muscle weakness related to brain inflammation. The researchers found that IL-6 activates what is called the JAK-STAT pathway in muscle, and this is what causes the reduced energy production of mitochondria.

We're not sure why the brain produces a protein signal that is so damaging to muscle function across so many different disease categories

You can think of our atmosphere as a big chemistry set, a global churn of gaseous molecules and particles that constantly bounce off and change each other in complicated ways. While the particles are very small, often less than 1% of the thickness of human hair, they have outsized impacts. For example, particles are the seeds of cloud droplets, and the abundance of the particles changes the reflectivity and the amount of clouds, rainfall and climate.

The conventional thinking was that most particle formation occurs in cloud outflow regions, where clouds float into the upper troposphere and eventually evaporate. In that process, clouds are getting wrung out and most particles are removed by rain. As a result, the air in the outflow regions is clear and clean, leaving some gaseous molecules with nowhere to go but form new particles.

However, using the data collected from NASA's global-scale aircraft measurements, we found that most of the new particles are not formed in the outflow regions as previously thought.

Stratosphere air often dips in troposphere due to meandering jet stream. As the ozone-rich stratospheric air and more moist tropospheric air mix, it leads to a high concentration of hydroxyl radical (OH), an important oxidant that helps produce the type of molecules that nucleate and form new particles.

We found this phenomenon is widespread around the globe and likely occurs more frequently than the particle formation in the cloud outflows.

There’s more to beach sand than meets the eye. It has stories to tell about the land, and an epic journey to the sea. That’s because mountains end their lives as sand on beaches.

Over time, mountains erode. The mud, sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders they shed are washed into streams, which come together to form rivers. As they flow down to the sea, all this sediment is ground up and worn down in nature’s version of a rock tumbler.

Big rocks break down into smaller pieces, so most of what reaches the sea is mud. These silt and clay particles are too small to perceive with the naked eye. But you can see individual grains of sand, which are just bigger bits of rock.