#“Leading Biosciences”

[dizzyrobinsims]

Cat Scratch fever?

From the journal of a paranormal expert:

"It is debated whether many of the personality and interests of plantsims are inherited or cultural. One expression of a Nepeta cataria simplanta I have interviewed leads us towards the latter. A student of the Foxbury Institute, Gianna Marks is a student of biology who received the gift while caring for the college community gardens.

"I was right by the Cat Nip when it happened." Marks' states. "I never liked cats, and am still allergic to them. You'd think becoming a cat magnet would come with a cure for that, but nope." She blew her nose as a stray cat rubbed against her. I inquired about why she has not sought a cure for her state. "I mean, I love everything else about being a plantsim. My master's is in plant bioscience and this has pushed my ideas way ahead. Also, do you know how much money I've saved on food? And the campus pays for the water bill for the dorms." She pauses to let out a loud sneeze as another cat rolls at her feet. "Maybe after I finish my doctorate," she concedes.

Sim #2 for the CAS Challenge: Create-A-Plant because I cannot resist plant sim shenanigans. I rolled cat nip for the second one, but originally wasn't inspired so I made my 3rd one first. (Yes I made 3 shhhh.) But then it hit me- a Cat Nip plant sim who *does not like cats, and is in fact allergic*. I then searched for cat poses as I did not have any, and to my delight @j3lly-fish actually had the PERFECT POSE PACK for this idea. Sometimes things line up way too perfectly.

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers at Rice University have uncovered a critical link between rising temperatures and declines in a species' population, shedding new light on how global warming threatens natural ecosystems. The study, published in Ecology and led by Volker Rudolf, revealed that rising temperatures exacerbate competition within populations, ultimately leading to population crashes at higher temperatures. It offers one of the first clear experimental confirmations that rising temperatures alter the forces that control population dynamics in nature. "Our research provides an essential missing piece in understanding the broader effects of warming on natural populations," said Rudolf, professor of biosciences. "Even when individual organisms seem to thrive at higher temperatures, the population as a whole may still suffer as competition for resources intensifies."

Continue Reading.

[ra1nst0rm-tmblr]

Are you serious??

This is just. Such a shitty excuse. Seriously. The first and most obvious point to me is that these aren’t actually dire wolves. They’re genetically modified Grey Wolves. To quote David Coltman, the chair of Western’s Biology department: “It’s not a dire wolf — it is almost entirely grey wolf genome with some genetic engineering to make it look like something dire wolfy.” Beth Shapiro, the chief scientist at Colossal Biosciences, also conceded that that they were not fully genetically dire wolf. Meaning that Dire Wolves have not been ‘de-extincted’ and so bringing back a fully extinct species isn’t actually something we’ve done yet.

Additionally, being able to ‘de-extinct’ the species does not at all mean that the species will be able to support itself and survive on its own once brought back. Even if the creatures are genuinely 100% the extinct species, there is no guarantee that they could learn to behave as their ancestors without a group or parents to teach them.

In this post, Burgum says “The Endangered Species List has become like the Hotel California: once a species enters, they never leave” Like. YES BRO. Maybe there’s a reason that like 97% of species on the list are still on the list. We agree that that’s not a good thing. But the way to solve the problem isn’t to come up with obscure reasons why the animal doesn’t need to be protected- the solution is to make sure the animal is no longer endangered. You could be working to actually save Red Wolves and other existing endangered species instead of hyping a basically untested and also frankly irrelevant alternative. The primary reason for failure here is late action- in the past 10 years 34 species have gone extinct while awaiting listing. How about we fund the ESA so that doesn’t have to happen and continue to focus on actually sustainable method of conservation, huh?

Julie Meachen, a Des Moines University paleontologist who helped uncover the dire wolf genomes but was not involved in Colossal’s project to birth the ‘dire’ wolves, told The Post that she worries that the Trump administration will hinge on de-extinction as a reason to delist endangered species. She states very clearly “This technology does not replace protections for endangered species”.

Should also probably mention the fact that Colossal Biosciences recently cloned 4 red wolves. Colossal discussed with Burgum the possibility of using the company’s cloned red wolves in recovery efforts. I mean. I hope it’s not too hard to understand why that is again not a sustainable method of conservation. Considering there are only around 20 red wolves left in the wild, and just a couple hundred in captivity, cloning them can’t be the solution. It would just create such a small gene pool which would lead to more problems down the line.

But of course. Trump’s administration can’t bother to read past the headlines and actually understand the facts and implications of the sources behind their decisions, and the rest of us just have to deal with it.

Sigh

Anygays, I took a photo of a wolf rb to boop him or if you want to spread information :>

[orangedodge]

A year in, and what stands out most for me about the new Ultimate Universe is how the Maker has no grand ambitions behind stealing an entire Earth and rewriting its history. It's all about revenging slights, and striking back against everyone who wounded his ego.

In the old Ultimate Universe, the Maker's story--as created by Brian Bendis and developed by Jonathan Hickman and Al Ewing--was one that offered the question of what if Reed Richards was wrong? What if Victor von Doom had been right all along? From the beginning he was a character who overestimated his own competency, desperately needing to be the smartest man in every room, needing to believe that the hard working boy genius would easily overthrow the privileged elites surrounding him and make everything his.

He couldn't handle that his aristocratic classmate, Victor, had a better grasp of the fundamental math than he did, and out of jealousy and insecurity ignored his warnings. He spent years quietly resenting that his celebrated mentor's daughter, Sue's, accomplishments in the biosciences were spoken of in the same breath as his own. And most of all, he despised that Anthony Stark, the personification of everything he hated in the world, really was "just smarter than [him.]"

In the old Ultimate Universe, Tony Stark made Reed feel like a child. He was never able to exist out of Tony's shadow, and define himself as the unrivaled intellect he saw himself as. In the new Ultimate Universe, the Maker has altered the timeline so that Tony is the insecure young boy, and--had he not underestimated Howard Stark--he would have been the one to never step outside the overbearing father figure's shadow.

In the shared grand finale of Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four and New Avengers both, the Reed Richards of Earth-616 was indisputably the better Reed Richards than his Earth-1610 counterpart. He built the life for himself that the Maker believed should have been given to him by right, and though Mr Fantastic didn't always fully appreciate what he had, he got where he did without abandoning his empathy and compassion for the people around him.

Most of all, unlike the Maker, the Reed Richards of Earth-616 was Right, and his version of Victor was wrong. And so when the Maker built the new world, he not only obliterated the identity of the local Reed Richards, forcing him to live trapped forever within the iron mask of Dr. Doom, but he made sure that in this world, the space flight would be a failure. Just so that "Doom" would be wrong, and it would cost him everything.

In Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter Parker was the golden child of the Avengers community, warmly accepted in a way that the Maker never was, his potential for greatness constantly praised by Stark, Fury, Thor, the big men at the top whose recognition Reed always wanted. In the new Ultimate Spider-Man, more than removing a potential threat to himself in the form of Spider-Man, the Maker stole that life from him by subjecting him to a mundane existence that he (Reed) would think is worthless, while setting himself up at the very top of what was once their shared community.

We see this pattern in the supporting characters as well. The Nick Fury of Earth-1610 was always one step ahead of his Reed Richards, and held it over him. The Nick Fury of the Maker's new world is brainwashed and hypnotized, forced to live unknowingly through the same sequence of events, the same failed rebellions, all scripted by Reed himself, over and over again, allowed to realize the truth only briefly before each end.

In Ultimate Enemy, Reed Richards rebels against the world he believed was oppressing him. He was summarily rejected, exiled, and defeated, by his closest friends and family. He went on to create the City of the Children of Tomorrow, which warred with present day humanity only to be defeated again and again. At the same time, Ultimate Comics X-Men would depict Kitty Pryde leading an armed insurrection against the US government, supported by all of her friends, before going on to collectively found the mutant nation of Utopia, which endured until the end of the Ultimate Universe.

Given Jonathan Hickman's work with the X-Men, I think the image of the mutant communist-anarchist city arising spontaneously in a barren wasteland, standing opposite the Maker's carefully planned, meticulously engineered, city of post-human supermen that endlessly consume the land around them should be a resonant one. Only now in the new world, Reed's artificial civilization won out, and its the mutants who are destroyed in failed uprising. In Ultimate Wolverine, Kitty is living in exile in Russia, hunted by Logan, Piotr Rasputin, and Illyana Rasputina, the three characters she is most closely associated with among fans. It's like Reed gave his own self-inflicted downfall to someone he's met only twice (but who annoyed him profoundly enough that he couldn't help himself).

But its Bobby da Costa that suffers under the full brunt of the Maker's pettiness. Following the third Secret Wars, the Maker sets up shop on Earth-616 and tries to play at being the foe of Eternity and Galactus, only for Bobby to just dispense with him on the pages of Al Ewing's US Avengers. Like Nick, da Costa is someone who sees through Reed's schemes and plans around him with ease. Like Stark, he was simply smarter than Reed was, and didn't need to even try to get the better of him. He dismantled everything the Maker had built, and subjected him to the final indignity of throwing him in prison, never thinking about him again. Reed didn't even get to be nemesis to a new hero, he just got jumped and locked away without a care by someone that was playing on another level from him.

In the new Ultimate Universe, da Costa's father has a role in Reed's inner circle, thanks to the superhuman strength that he acquires from stealing Bobby's blood. The man that humiliated him, now depersoned and treated as a mere consumable commodity. He's forced to go everywhere with his father, never leaving his side, and Reed never has to look at him or worry about him at all.

I think its honestly great character work. Ultimate Reed really is one of the premiere villains of the shared setting in how he get to play the urbane villain--but an insecure one, and ultimately an incredibly small and petty one--in the same way that the comics used to use a Victor von Doom, or an Erik Lehnsherr, before giving them too much growth and development of character for it to work anymore.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (daily updates!)

University of Queensland-led research has found inflammatory markers in the blood of long COVID patients which could explain why many experience ongoing cardiovascular issues.

Associate Professor Kirsty Short said the team set out to investigate the cause of persistent chest pain and heart palpitations commonly reported by many long COVID sufferers.

"We discovered elevated levels of cytokines, proteins which help control inflammation in the body, in the blood samples of people at about 18 months post-infection with SARS-CoV-2," Dr Short said.

"Lab studies showed these trace-level cytokines had a direct effect on the functionality of cardiomyocytes, the cells of the heart responsible for its pump function.

"These particular types of cells are fundamental building blocks for our heart, so damaging them can lead to cardiovascular symptoms."

Dr Short said until now, the role of chronic inflammation in cardiovascular symptoms hadn't been clear, particularly in individuals with symptoms persisting for over a year after infection.

The study involved analysing the blood of 50 participants across Australia who had either suffered long COVID for more than a year, had recovered from COVID, or had never had the virus.

The researchers used 'immuno-storm chip' nanotechnology developed at UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) to discover trace elevated cytokines in the long COVID cohort, along with cardiac tissue damage markers measured at single-molecule resolution in blood.

"It's only early days and these results require validation in additional patient cohorts, including those infected with more recent SARS-CoV-2 strains," Dr Short said.

"We're now curious to know whether our findings could be applied to other symptoms of long COVID such as neurological disease or respiratory disease, as this study actively recruited sufferers with chest pain and/or heart palpitations.

"Despite these limitations, this work offers some important new insights into this complex disease, and hopefully offers opportunities to improve the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of long COVID."

The research was led by UQ PhD candidates Jane Sinclair from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB), Courtney Vedelago from AIBN and Dr Feargal J. Ryan from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

The research was a collaboration involving UQ's SCMB, School of Mathematics and Physics , AIBN, Institute for Molecular Bioscience and Faculty of Medicine as well as the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University, the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University, Mater Health Queensland, Mater Research Institute - UQ and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

The samples for the research were provided by the COVID OZGenetics study, the Central Adelaide Health Network and the David Serisier Research Biobank at Mater Research.

The research paper was published in Nature Microbiology.

Study link: www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01838-z

[democracyunderground]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.���

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.

Clemency is the term for the power the president has to pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or to commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms.

Those pardoned Thursday range in age from 36 to 75. About half are men and half are women, and they had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses, fraud or theft and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.

Louisiana resident Trynitha Fulton, 46, was one of the pardons; she pleaded guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was sentenced to three years of probation in 2008.

“The pardon gives me a sense of freedom,” Fulton said in a written statement to the AP. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life.”

“The pardon gives me inspiration to make more impactful decisions personally and professionally,” she added.

After her conviction, Fulton went on to earn a master’s degree. She helps lead the nonprofit Skyliners-Youth Outreach, which supports New Orleans youth by providing hot meals, clothing, shelter and mental health referrals.

The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons. He’s also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron.

Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into office, it’s likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during the height of the pandemic.

More clemency grants are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously and has been thinking about it for as much as six months — before the presidential election — but has been concerned about the precedent it would set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who was a part of the House committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary,” and that the president shouldn’t be spending his waning days in office worrying about this.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., another target of Trump’s threats, said in a statement this week that his suggestion that she and others be jailed for the investigations “is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for everyday Americans. It wasn’t a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

[alwaysoutofpaper]

maybe i'm really misunderstanding it, but the whole colossal biosciences thing has me thinking. and not about the "dire wolves", those have been discussed extensively by people smarter than me, but about that supposed thylacine revival from the same company.

regardless of the possibility of genetically modifying any other dasyurid to look like a thylacine, can the behaviors of a thylacine be edited into it? can they guarantee that it will fulfill the niche it left behind? or is it just going to be a weird new creature that would end up causing more harm than good?

obviously if they make new "thylacines", they will be raised in captivity like their "dire wolves". and that's a good thing, of course, because just making them and releasing them into the wild would be a domestic cat situation. a creature that isn't supposed to be there, doing things it shouldn't be doing. true thylacines are gone, anything after it is just some manmade recreation, which will have the flaws of what we think a thylacine is or was or did. idk. it just seems like a bad idea to me.

i can hold out hope for colossal choosing to use any funding for conservation or restoration efforts, but i haven't found solid evidence that they have used the money they get for anything other than their strange sensationalized projects. as someone on Reddit pointed out, their projects seem like they will only lead to another an Osborne Reef scenario, where the introduction of a manmade reef in an attempt to restore the environment only destroyed it further.

we are on the brink of losing the vaquita forever. there are only around 10 left. colossal, and their investors, could be helping efforts to save them, but are instead GMO-ing wolves to look like what game of thrones thought dire wolves were. like come on.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Biologists have created small hotspot shelters that operate like little saunas to help vulnerable and endangered amphibians fight off a fast-spreading and deadly fungal disease that has been a major threat to amphibians for decades.

Researchers from Macquarie University and the University of Melbourne developed the shelters as a way to help amphibians ward off chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease of the skin. 

As explained by Amphibian Ark, a conservation group, the fungi that cause the disease can grow in the skin of an infected amphibian. The fungi inhibit the ability for water to move through the amphibian’s skin, leading to heart failure. Outbreaks of chytridiomycosis have led to major declines in some amphibian species around the world, particularly in Australia, Mexico, Central America, the Andes region of South America and the western U.S., Amphibian Ark reported.

Globally, 90% of amphibians that are threatened by chytridiomycosis have become extinct in the wild or altogether, and 124 affected species have seen population declines of 90% or higher, Macquarie University reported.

In response, researchers found a low-cost way that they determined to be effective in improving the frogs’ resiliency to the disease. They used whatever materials were already available, such as bricks or PVC, to build small shelters for the amphibians. The idea is that the shelters will become warm enough that the fungal disease will not be able to grow or spread.

“The whole thing is like a mini med spa for frogs,” Anthony Waddle, lead author of the study and a Schmidt Science Fellow at Macquarie University’s Applied BioSciences, said in a statement. “In these simple little hotspots, frogs can go and heat up their bodies to a temperature that destroys the infections. As with many human diseases, such as influenza, chytridiomycosis is seasonal. Winter is a particularly vulnerable time for frogs, given there are few opportunities to heat themselves up. By making hot spots available to frogs in winter, we empower them to cure their infections, or not even get sick at all.”

[foulresteds]

ㅤ⎯⎯ ㅤㅤ 𓇻; FELIPE GONZAGA , THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE. ( based on the 2009 movie , with different lore )

⚜ felipe gonzaga is a common young man by the first glance. extremely quiet, reserved, he is seen as arrogant by most of his oxford peers and a mystery by the rest. having one friend or two, he is known for standing in the corner and making questions for the teachers and mostly avoiding everyone way. a major in bioscience, felipe holds a secret few could comprehend ; one day, merlin chose him to be his successor as a wizard. it happened as he finished his routine. called his younger sister back in uruguay and prepared himself to sleep. then, a knock on his door - a package delivered. inside, a dragon ring that stirred when felipe touched it, twisting it on his finger and awakening the sensation of dread, power, full energy that stirred and twisted until he got unconcious. when he awakened, a note laid next to him:

⚜ felipe then discovered his roots, visions clouding his eyes as truth revealed itself. his birth mother, who he'd never met, was devoted to natural magic in extremes, a descendant of one of the first apprentices of the ancient wizard. the trace of such was in his blood - enough for merlin ( or his spirit, éter... - don't ask felipe how, he wouldn't know how to explain anyway! ) to choose him as his successor. well, felipe was eighteen at the time and certainly not interested in becoming a freak, always opting to stay in quietness. but accidents kept happening. he sneezed, and a bus turned into an elephant. he waved his hand and the dragon moved just enough to nuzzle against his palm. and still, no mentor came - he, in despair, studies most magic on his own. not grasping it fully since then, only enough to live his life. becoming an apprentice with no master.

⚜ he is extremely gifted but possesses raw energy and power, uncontrolled. a danger to himself and others. reasons why he is so secluded and isolated - in fear of hurting those who wouldn't understand his existence. though the dragon ring helps him keep it mostly under control, he knows his emotions lead him astray. felipe is extremely smart and tries to unite magic with biology and science, seeing it as a gene mutation rather than something supernatural. he denies the existence of an other world, fearing he might encounter his old family : when felipe was ten years old his father, biological, died misteriously during sleep and felipe was sent to an orfanato. there, he was addopted by a lonely professor, señor francisco, who took him to love. this professor later adopted a little girl when felipe was already older, maria. who felipe adores and loves beyond words.

⚜ it is maria who gets him often into trouble. the only human who knows about his magic. at six years old, she likes to have him perform little tricks. those tricks often get out of control. felipe never regrets it, loving to make her smile. she lives still in uruguay, but felipe meets her frequently through portals he dangerously opens. TW : cancer / maria currently has leukemia and that's why felipe does anything she asks. he just wants her to enjoy every second she has, since it is unlikely she will recover.

⚜ felipe has a stray dog named darwin. he jokes the dog is his mentor and only friend. indeed, it is his best friend - and the sweetest animal.

⚜ felipe has a deep, soothing voice. he often lets spanish slip. his english is perfect, but he prefers his mother's tongue. he has to learn latin for his spells but hasn't been able to excell in it. he is extremely kind - he will help you without you asking, and will say nice things because he believes in them wholeheartedly to you, and then he will disappear but leave a mark because his eyes were soft while he said them. he isn't shy. he actually smiles a lot around his family and few friend. but he is so distant in public he feels like a shadow, an owl. he wants to make everyone around him safe. even those he doesn't know. unfortunately, he smokes a lot as well as drinks, being (tw) chronic depressed.

[plethoraworldatlas]

As U.S. conservationists continue to fight for federal protections that would cover gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, research released Wednesday highlights just how important the apex predators are to the western United States.

The study was published in the journal BioScience and led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University (OSU) and the Conservation Biology Institute known for his work on trophic cascades and carnivores as well as his demands for climate action.

The paper uses gray wolves to show the trouble with "shifting baselines," which, "in ecology encapsulate the gradual and often unnoticed alterations in ecosystems over time, leading to a redefinition of what is considered normal or baseline conditions."

As the study details:

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in North America have experienced a substantial contraction of their historical range, at one point almost disappearing from the contiguous 48 United States. However, their conservation is important in part because of the potential cascading effects wolves can have on lower trophic levels. Namely, the proliferation and changes to behavior and density of large herbivores following the extirpation or displacement of wolves can have major effects on various aspects of vegetation structure, succession, productivity, species composition, and diversity, which, in turn, can have implications for overall biodiversity and the quality of habitat for other wildlife.

"By the 1930s, wolves were largely absent from the American West, including its national parks," Ripple said in a statement. "Most published ecological research from this region occurred after the extirpation of wolves."

"This situation underscores the potential impact of shifting baselines on our understanding of plant community succession, animal community dynamics, and ecosystem functions," he continued.

The researchers examined journal articles, master's theses, and Ph.D. dissertations from 1955 to 2021 that involved field work in national parks in the northwestern United States for whether they included information on the removal of gray wolves.

They found that "in total, approximately 41% (39 of 96) of the publications mentioned or discussed the historical presence of wolves or large carnivores, but most (approximately 59%) did not. The results for the theses and journal articles were similar."

While the researchers focused on wolves, Robert Beschta, co-author and emeritus professor at OSU, noted that "in addition to the loss or displacement of large predators, there may be other potential anthropogenic legacies within national parks that should be considered, including fire suppression, invasion by exotic plants and animals, and overgrazing by livestock."

Ripple stressed that "studying altered ecosystems without recognizing how or why the system has changed over time since the absence of a large predator could have serious implications for wildlife management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration."

"We hope our study will be of use to both conservation organizations and government agencies in identifying ecosystem management goals," he added.

Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the study, tellingInside Climate News that "I think this is a really important paper, because sometimes science advances at a certain rate without a self-introspection."

"Nature is a really complex tapestry," she said. "It's woven together by threads that hold it together and keep it strong. When you start to pull threads out like you remove apex predators, the whole thing begins to unravel."

The paper comes amid a wolf conservation battle that involves Weiss' group. In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that Endangered Species Act protections for the wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were "not warranted."

Two coalitions of conservation organizations, including CBD, swiftly filed notices of their intent to sue over the decision if FWS didn't change course. After the legally required 60-day notice period passed, they filed the lawsuits in April.

Earlier this week, "the cases were voluntarily dismissed and immediately refiled to avoid any potential arguments from the defendants that the plaintiffs failed to give the secretary of the interior proper 60-days' notice under the Endangered Species Act," Collette Adkins, an attorney who leads CBD's Carnivore Conservation program, told Common Dreams in an email Thursday.

"Plaintiffs believe that their case was properly noticed," she said, "but we refiled to avoid any further disruption of the proceedings."

[fantasticelephants]

Woolly Mammoths: The Lady's Not for Cloning - by Barry Evans

Beth Zaiken's reconstruction of a woolly mammoth. Courtesy of the artist

When I asked self-styled "museum artist" Beth Zaiken if I could use her evocative painting of a mammoth for a story, she was quick to point out that the image I attached was not just a mammoth, it was a woolly mammoth. Turns out, mammoths came in many shapes and sizes, with woolly mammoths particularly celebrated over other species because they were the last to go extinct. Indeed, we have over 500 early depictions of woolly mammoths in dozens of caves in Spain, France and Russia, the earliest of which were painted 35,000 years ago. (Anatomically modern humans are thought to have reached Europe nearly 50,000 years ago.)

Cave paintings are just one way we know about these magnificent creatures. They are, in fact, the best studied of all extinct animals because so many frozen carcasses have been found, mostly in Siberia and Alaska. For thousands of years, they co-existed with humans, leading to speculation that our ancestors hunted them to extinction. Best bet is that it was a combination of over-hunting and climate change, the latter greatly reducing its habitat. They nearly made it to the present, though! Although most groups went extinct soon after the end of the most recent ice age, around 11,500 years ago, some isolated populations survived much longer. A herd living on Wrangel Island, the large Russian island northwest of the Bering Strait, probably survived until 4,000 years ago, meaning they were around for a good thousand years after the Nile pyramids were built. 

Mammoths are typically shown in movies and cartoons as living in a snowy wasteland, but their actual habitat was "tundra steppe," similar to today's Russian steppes. They were herbivores, spending up to an estimated 20 hours a day eating grasses and sedges to support their intake of up to 400 pounds of food a day, putting them in the same dietary class as modern elephants. Their adaptations to the cold included (of course) hairy coats — actually two coats: long "guard hairs" on the outside overlaying a short, softer undercoat, which in turn covered a 4-inch layer of fat just under the skin. Their short ears and tails helped minimize heat loss and frostbite. They lived to about 60 years old.

Most of the news about mammoths these days discusses the click-bait possibility of resurrecting the species — that is, bringing woolly mammoths back to life using DNA from soft tissue material and hair follicles in their frozen corpses. That became a talking point after the genome was completely mapped about a decade ago, when researchers showed that extinct woolly mammoths and extant African elephants share about 99 percent of their genomes. 

One promoter of this idea, aptly named Colossal Biosciences, explains on its website that it plans to: "Use gene editing tools that work like scissors to cut [African] elephant DNA and provide a mammoth sequence to incorporate into elephant cells in the same location." Reinsert the engineered egg into the uterus of the unwitting mom-to-be and 22 months later, the elephant's calf is born with woolly mammoth genes. Whether there's enough usable DNA in long-dead, frozen mammoths is debatable, as is the morality of the venture. Happily (for this writer), several prominent geneticists have come out in opposition to this kind of "if we can do it, we should do it" caprice. If the de-extinction effort is successful, a wildlife reserve in Siberia, given the hopeful name "Pleistocene Park" (shades of Jurassic Park), has been designated as a future home for the de-extincted critters.

One final tidbit: The word "mammoth" probably derives from "mehemot," Arabic for "Behemoth." In the biblical Book of Job, the Behemoth was said to be one of the two monsters created by God early in creation, the other being Leviathan, a monster whale. Which is somehow fitting for one of the most majestic creatures to have ever lived.

[thelastranger]

Arcane au thoughts

Vi: Stig (angry, punching, co-dependent bond with Hal)

Jinx: Hal (genius inventor, co-dependent with Stig)

Mylo: Ulf

Claggor: Wulf

Ekko: Ingvar (history with Hal, probably would create a revolutionary group with a flair for dramatics)

Cait: Lydia (sharpshooting, close bond with Stig, would rock a cape while in power)

Viktor: Edvin (this feels right. Third wheeling Stefan/Jesper)

Jayce: Jesper

Mel: Stefan (charming, complicated internal thoughts and relationships, close bond with Jesper)

Vander: Thorn (I mean c'mon. Dad figure with history of violence that he had to put behind him. C'mon)

Councilor Kiramman: Tomas (you know why)

Benzo: Hannah (by dint of being an alive adult)

Silco: Mikkel or Karina (either dynamic works with Vander/Thorn and Hal/Jinx. Juicy either way.)

Sevika: Svengal (right hand person, names sound similar)

Ambessa: Zavac (initially charming, really just wants all the power, probably does look cool in a cape)

Thorn and Mikkel used to be on the same rig crew and would talk of a better life. No more daily drownings and polluted waters while the city of Limmat got rich from the pearls and oil produced, reaping the rewards and taking no risks. They spearheaded a revolution, which worked for a while until a revolt at the bridge connecting the two cities leads to heavy violence, killing Karina, a good friend, and orphaning Stig and Hal. Mikkel and Thorn have a falling out and Thorn gives up the life of a revolutionary after this, adopting Hal and Stig. The kids try to stay out of trouble, but trouble happens anyway.

Jesper is trying to unlock the secrets of science and magic after a mysterious figure saved him and dropped an amber shard in his hand as a child. After an unlikely explosion happens, he partners up with Edvin, an ailing academic who specializes in medical and bioscience, to crack the mysteries of what they call The Andomal. They're sponsored by Stefan, the hotshot young councilor who has his own secrets and reasons for wanting the Andomal.

Tensions boil over years later and it's brother versus brother. No one is safe.

[mariacallous]

De-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences wants to bring back the woolly mammoth. Well, not the woolly mammoth exactly, but an Asian elephant gene-edited to give it the fuzzy hair and layer of blubber that allowed its close relative to thrive in sub-zero environments.

To get to these so-called “functional mammoths,” Colossal’s scientists need to solve a whole bunch of challenges: making the right genetic tweaks, growing edited cells into fully formed baby functional mammoths, and finding a space where these animals can thrive. It’s a long, uncertain road, but the startup has just announced a small breakthrough that should ease some of the way forward.

Scientists at Colossal have managed to reprogram Asian elephant cells into an embryonic-like state that can give rise to every other cell type. This opens up a path to creating elephant sperm and eggs in the lab and being able to test gene edits without having to frequently take tissue samples from living elephants. The research, which hasn’t yet been released in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, will be published on the preprint server Biorxiv.

There are only around 30,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild, so access to these animals—and particularly their sperm and eggs—is extremely limited. Yet Colossal needs these cells if they’re going to figure out how to bring their functional mammoths to life. “With so few fertile female elephants, we really don’t want to interfere with their reproduction at all. We want to do it independently,” says George Church, a Harvard geneticist and Colossal cofounder.

The cells that Colossal created are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and they behave a lot like the stems cells found in an embryo. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to give rise to all kinds of different cell types that make up organisms—a quality that scientists call pluripotency. Most cells, however, lose this ability as the organism develops. Human skin, for instance, can’t spontaneously turn into muscle or cells that line the inside of the intestine.

In 2006, the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka showed it was possible to take mature cells and turn them back into a pluripotent state. Yamanaka’s research was in mice cells, but later scientists followed up by deriving iPSCs for lots of different species, including humans, horses, pigs, cattle, monkeys, and the northern white rhino—a functionally extinct subspecies with only two individuals, both females, remaining in the wild.

Reprogramming Asian elephant cells into iPSCs proved trickier than with other species, says Eriona Hysolli, head of biological sciences at Colossal. As with other species, the scientists reprogrammed the elephant cells by exposing them to a series of different chemicals and then adding proteins called transcription factors that turn on particular genes to change how the cells functions. The whole process took two months, which is much longer than the 5 to 10 days it takes to create mouse iPSCs or the three weeks for human iPSCs.

This difficulty might have to do with the unique biology of elephants, says Vincent Lynch, a developmental biologist at the University at Buffalo in New York who wasn’t involved in the Colossal study. Elephants are the classic example of Peto’s paradox—the idea that very large animals have unusually low rates of cancer given their size. Since cancer can be caused by genetic mutations that accumulate as cells divide, you’d expect that animals with 100 times more cells than humans would have a much higher risk of cancer.

But elephants have cancer rates even lower than humans—a surprising fact given their vast size. One hypothesis for elephants’ cancer-defying biology is that they carry lots of copies of a tumor-suppressing gene called P53. Humans, on the other hand, only have one copy of this gene.

P53 is good for elephant health, but it could be the reason that up until now scientists have struggled to create iPSCs from elephant cells, Lynch says. One way the gene seems to work is by stopping cells from entering a state where they can duplicate indefinitely, which is one of the key features of iPSCs.

Hysolli says that she’d like to reduce the time it takes to create elephant iPSCs, and refine the process so the Colossal team can produce them at a greater scale. The iPSCs will be particularly useful if Colossal’s scientists can turn them into sperm and egg cells, something that Hysolli’s team is already working on. Since there is a relatively limited supply of elephant eggs and sperm, one problem facing the de-extinction project is getting enough genetic diversity to support a population of functional mammoths—develop them from too few individuals, and you risk the negative effects of inbreeding. Being able to create sperm and egg cells in the lab should help with that, Church says.

These cells could also be useful for conservation work, Hysolli says. Colossal has partnered with researchers working on elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV), a leading cause of death for young Asian elephants. The iPSCs could be a good way to figure out how the virus infects different cell types. The cells will also be useful for testing whether Colossal’s edits to produce mammoth-like fur and fat layers are working as scientists hope.

“I have no doubt that given enough time and money they will overcome the technical challenges of making a woolly-mammoth-looking elephant,” says Lynch. But he’s less convinced of the ecological benefits of de-extinction. The startup intends to introduce the elephant-mammoth hybrids into the wild to re-create the role once played by the mammoth in the Arctic ecosystem, grazing the land and trampling snow cover, potentially decelerating the melting of permafrost.

“How many hairy Asian elephants do you need to make that work?” Lynch asks. Whether there really is a niche for edited elephants in the Arctic 4,000 years after mammoths last roamed the area is a question that conservationists are still grappling with. Sure, scientists might be able to create mammoth-like Asian elephants, but whether we should is open to much debate.

Colossal’s scientists will be glad if they get to that point. Although they have elephant iPSCs, much of the work of creating elephant-mammoth hybrids is ahead of them. They must figure out how to create elephant sperm and egg cells, master the right edits to tweak their elephants, and take their creation through the 22-month Asian elephant gestation period. And then they have to do it enough times to build a population that can actually deliver on some of their ecological aims.

“It feels very significant,” Church says of the iPSC breakthrough. “This is a very big deal.” If Colossal is going to deliver on its de-extinction mission, then there will be many other moments like this ahead.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)

By Rodielon Putol

For countless individuals worldwide, grappling with the lingering impacts of COVID-19 months after their initial recovery has become a puzzling reality.

Often referred to as “long COVID,” the condition is marked by an array of recurring symptoms, including chest pain and heart palpitations.

But why do these symptoms persist? Recent research by the University of Queensland (UQ) offers profound insights.

Cardiovascular impact of long COVID Getting to the root of the matter, the University of Queensland-led investigation focused on post-COVID cardiovascular issues. The goal was to understand why chest pain and heart palpitations persist among long COVID sufferers.

“We discovered elevated levels of cytokines, proteins which help control inflammation in the body, in the blood samples of people at about 18 months post-infection with SARS-CoV-2,” said Professor Kirsty Short.

“Lab studies showed these trace-level cytokines had a direct effect on the functionality of cardiomyocytes, the cells of the heart responsible for its pump function.”

Professor Short noted that these particular types of cells are fundamental building blocks for our heart, so damaging them can lead to cardiovascular symptoms.

Until now, the role of chronic inflammation in cardiovascular symptoms had been unclear, particularly in cases where symptoms persisted for over a year after infection.

These findings bring the medical community one step closer to understanding the full extent of COVID-19’s long-term impact on heart health.

Studying long COVID through blood samples To explore the mysteries of long COVID, the team analyzed the blood of 50 participants from across Australia.

This cohort included individuals who had been living with long COVID for over a year, those who had recovered from COVID-19, and individuals who had never been infected by the virus.

A unique technology developed at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) called “immuno-storm chip” nanotechnology, was the tool of choice to investigate trace elevated cytokines. The experts also examined markers linked with cardiac tissue damage.

Although excited about the findings, Professor Short remains cautious. “It’s only early days and these results require validation in additional patient cohorts, including those infected with more recent SARS-CoV-2 strains.”

Professor Short also noted that the study’s focus was primarily on people with cardiovascular symptoms.

Despite the limitations, the research paves the path toward a better understanding of long COVID. It presents comprehensive insights into this complex disease and could potentially enhance diagnosis and treatment options.

A collaborative scientific endeavor The research team included Jane Sinclair, a Ph.D. candidate from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Courtney Vedelago from AIBN, and Dr. Feargal J. Ryan of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

The study represents a collaborative effort by multiple institutes, including UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Faculty of Medicine, Mater Health Queensland, Mater Research Institute-UQ, and several other institutions.

COVID’s lasting impact on heart health The findings from the study highlight the importance of understanding the long-term cardiovascular effects of COVID-19, particularly for individuals grappling with symptoms over a year post-infection.

By identifying elevated cytokine levels and their impact on cardiomyocytes, the research opens doors for targeted treatments focused on reducing inflammation to protect heart health in long COVID patients.

“An estimated 65 million people globally suffer from post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), with many experiencing cardiovascular symptoms like chest pain and heart palpitations,” noted the study authors.

Guiding future research While the research team remains cautious about drawing broad conclusions, they acknowledge the study’s potential in guiding future research.

This initial study suggests a need for expanded research across larger and more diverse populations to confirm the findings.

Additionally, future investigations could explore whether specific anti-inflammatory therapies might mitigate the persistent cardiovascular symptoms observed in long COVID patients.

This study marks a pivotal step in understanding long COVID, but it’s only the beginning. By continuing to investigate the role of chronic inflammation, scientists hope to develop clearer diagnostic tools and treatments, ultimately improving the quality of life for those affected by this complex condition.

The study is published in the journal Nature Microbiology. www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01838-z

[peptech123]

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[ramayantika]

Reflections

If you all read my previous post about loneliness, FOMO, feeling lost and alone as young teens and questioning if it's all gonna be worth it in the end or if you are actually in the right place now especially while preparing for entrances or just navigating through life as a high schooler and getting overwhelmed about life and the sudden changes it's throwing at you, this post is not going to be any gyan dena moment rather my own reflection over certain things.

I stay less online nowadays or even when I am using social media, it's to watch classical dance related posts or things related to women scientists, pharmacy and other bioscience subjects that I have interest in. No more random scrolling or reading two people debate in the comments be it on any xyz topic.

I began meditating again. I wish I would have actually done it before in my drop year. Perhaps I would have produced a better result due to a calm state of mind. Anyway, at least I started now. Each time I have meditated, I have found many answers to different things, be it about spirituality or questions related to my future. I have found the answers in those small moments of silence. I am no master at meditation, but somehow I have had many intense experiences which I don't post much often about because I myself doubt over it, but I can never forget those visions.

Let's talk about simple plain hate. I remember feeling rage over watching people hating on each other because the other person is from a different sex, religion, country, race and caste. Online or offline it happens everywhere.

Men hate women, women hate on other women, men hate other men and all of it pits one against the other. Hindus hate Muslims and Muslims hate hindus. The upper caste still looks at the lower with disdain especially some of our elders. Straights hate lgbtq and really want them to not exist. A colleague hates another one who got a promotion and inside the family someone hates the hater and literally prays for their downfall.

So?

This was from one of my early morning meditations. My mind drifted to news articles, podcasts by men saying demeaning things about women, and religious hate about both Hindus and Muslims where I saw some Muslims making fun of Hindus and Hindus taking pride in not having a single Muslim friend putting a jai shri ram status. It then moved to how people living in a single country, eating the produce of the farmers and being protected by the army still wrote things like what has been really given to us? Why to be proud of the Indian scientists (the chandrayan fiasco here on tumblr) and then to foreigners hating on India etc.

I remember the disturbance in my body, the blinding rage over how we humans have a problem with any person being different from us, and sometimes that problem leads to such anger and such hatred in us that we want them to remove them from existence or worse have them die a very bad painful death.

Some blogs write about oh how Indian culture sucks and how bad everything all is etc etc. I am not going to delve deeper into it and tbh I am not even worried if this falls into the feed of those same types of blogs. While meditating I found out how they themselves hated simple people who just had fun with their gods goddesses and spirituality. They were right to put awareness but wrong to make a assumption about oh yes they are too the same, they will hate and abuse other religions and stuff like that.

I have received hate anons which I always deleted but somewhere it used to be in the back of the mind making me fear about am I really wrong why would they write that for me?

And when i meditated that day it all became clear. Everyone, all of us, as we grow up, we are conditioned by the society, our family, school and media. Sometimes the influence is good and sometimes bad. Hate has existed in humanity since the start.

It only takes one single difference, be it ideology, caste, sex, and religion to trigger the hate button. And there you go we hate and hurt our own fellow beings.

We all have had various prejudices about various things. Maybe yes some weren't as vile as wanting tje other person off from earth but yes we all have had confused looks and questions thinking that what we believe and we say is right. The other person is always wrong in front of me.

And then vishnu gave me the answer. Detachment. Haan bhai ab kya moh maya se durr hone vala concept idhar bhi?

One has to know what is going on around the world. You will encounter articles, dramatic debates, blogs and people having their varied viewpoints. You can argue as long as you want and all those seemingly civil debates turn to abusive words, and hate messages.

The people online, those articles etc are just a fraction of people. Shit exists, bad things happen and ALL OF US ARE WRONG in many ways for many things. The simple lone knowledge of our dark thoughts for another person being different than us is enough to actually pull the reigns of the mind and to not give in to hate and ill will.

Now I still read news about how one community fought the other, look at the Twitter hashtags and just let it be. And for online apps, i scroll away from posts that talk about their own thoughts about the happenings in the country because it will be tempting to know what others think and ofc I will have problem in my head with another person if they go against than my belief. It literally happens to everyone sabko sabse dikkat hoti hai bas tum uspe kaam na karke usko buri baatein na suna dena na. Na uska soch badlega na tumhara.

And then at one point, the rage cooled down with a simple thought: I can't change anything. I am not perfect in thoughts and so does the other person.

Discrimination, war, poverty exists and we can never completely remove it. The least we can do is not hurt the other person if we don't like them.

I haven't seen a lot of life. I am still young but from my experience living in cities and amongst different sections of the society, this is what I learnt and the lesson got deeply engraved into me.

None of us are perfect. Let's try to learn to listen to one another and not go into blind anger. All those twitter tags, hate filled posts and articles are worthless.

100 baat ki ek baat. Sab badme marrne vale hai aur tum jisko hate karte ho agle janam usi community ya religion mein paida hoge just so you learn especially the damn soul to love everyone.