“At the University of Bonn, for example, we are investigating how zebrafish repair defective nerve tissue,” explains Prof. Dr. Benjamin Odermatt from the Institute of Anatomy at the University Hospital Bonn. “We are also interested in this because many genes involved in this process also exist in a similar form in humans.” In principle, agents that boost these repair genes in fish could thus also work in humans. However, the differences between the genetic makeup of fish and humans are often significant. The larvae are therefore sometimes of limited use in the search for new drugs.

Fish gene replaced by human gene

“We therefore took a different approach,” explains Prof. Dr. Evi Kostenis from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Bonn. ” For a human gene known to play a role in the repair of nerve cells we looked for its counterpart in zebrafish. Then we excised this counterpart in the fish and replaced it with the human version.” The new genetic material took over the function of the original zebrafish gene. “If we now find a substance that boosts the repair processes in the fish with the human gene, there is a good chance that this will also be the case in humans,” says the scientist, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Life and Health” at the University of Bonn.

The researchers demonstrated that this replacement works in their pilot study on the so-called GPR17 receptor. In humans, its overactivation can lead to diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Nerve cells communicate by means of electrical signals. Their extensions are surrounded by a kind of insulating layer, a lipid-like substance called myelin. It prevents short circuits and also significantly speeds up the transmission of stimuli. This protective sheath is produced by specialized cells named oligodendrocytes. These resemble a microscopic octopus: many long arms extend from their cell body, most of which consist of myelin. Like an insulating tape, these wrap themselves around the nerve cell processes during brain development. Normally, the protective layer lasts a lifetime.

Insulating tape dispenser remain in immature state

In multiple sclerosis, however, the body’s own immune system destroys the myelin layer. This results in neurological disorders, for example in speech, vision or walking. But normally there is a supply of immature oligodendrocytes in the brain for repair work. When damage occurs, they mature and patch up the hole. In multiple sclerosis, this mechanism is disrupted — many of the cellular insulating tape donor cells remain in their immature state. The GPR17 receptor seems to bear the main blame for this: if it is activated by a molecular signal, it slows down the maturation of the oligodendrocytes.

“Zebrafish also have a GPR17 receptor,” explains Dr. Jesus Gomeza, who led the study with Kostenis and Odermatt. “And there it also regulates how many oligodendrocytes mature.” The researchers now replaced part of the receptor gene with its human counterpart — namely, the very structure responsible for receiving molecular signals. “We were able to show that this new mosaic gene functions normally in the fish larvae,” says Gomeza. A molecule that inhibits the human GPR17 receptor in the test tube also cranked up the formation of mature oligodendrocytes in the modified fish.

In the search for new active ingredients, substances are first tested in cell cultures. Only individual, very promising candidates are then tested in mice or other animal models. But even if they work there, tests in humans still often end soberingly. “Humanized zebrafish larvae allow many substances to be screened quickly, and with a high chance of success, since the target genes originate from humans,” explains Benjamin Odermatt. “From our point of view, this is a very promising avenue for drug development.”

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Today’s inspiration is another quote from Helen Keller’s 1933 article, “Nature’s Storehouse of Health.” She wrote, “I have always the feeling that nature has the power to renew and refresh our minds, our bodies, and our spirits.”

Take some time to appreciate nature and enjoy the benefits of spending time outdoors this week. Even if you can’t leave the city, spending time in a local green space is beneficial.

Earth911 inspirations. Post them, share your desire to help people think of the planet first, every day. Click the poster to get a larger image.

This poster was originally published on October 23, 2020.

The paper counters common assumptions that collaboration with China presents substantial national security and economic risks across the board. These risks have underpinned the policies of three U.S. administrations and a majority of European governments, ranging from import tariffs to enhanced scrutiny of scientific collaboration. While some action may be justified, the study shows that for many technologies, the cure is likely worse than the disease.

“Tackling climate change in the U.S. and especially in the developing world is heavily dependent on having affordable and available low-carbon technologies,” said the study’s lead author Michael Davidson, an assistant professor at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “A major benefit of integration is making these technologies more affordable, in addition to increased innovation. Therefore, when throwing up barriers to integration, we need to be objective about the specific policy goals and how they might influence our ability to address the threat of climate change.”

Davidson and co-authors embarked on the study to investigate assertions policymakers have made that collaboration with China on low carbon technologies could threaten U.S. economic and national security interests. Using quantitative and qualitative data, the paper provides a breakdown of the risks of collaborating on the development of five key technologies that reduceCO2 emissions: wind, solar, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), batteries and “green” steel.

“Our findings reveal national security threats are muted across the various low carbon technologies,” said Davidson. “For example, open research and development on batteries has been cited as a security concern because batteries can be used for military purposes, but these are not the same batteries that are needed to deal with climate change on a very large scale.”

The paper describes how solar PV panels and batteries present higher risks of supply chain disruption because of the high concentration of manufacturing in China. To mitigate these risks, the study provides a novel framework that calibrates responses based on circumstances specific to sectors and technologies. For example, as opposed to a binary choice between open and domestic supply chains, the study identifies a range of situations where diversification can achieve the policy goals of reducing risks.

Job creation has been used as a rationale to reduce trade with China. For example, the Biden administration decided to use the Defense Production Act to increase domestic solar manufacturing, which “will privately benefit the companies, localities, and workers tapped to produce them,” the authors write. They note that if it increases the cost of solar PV and slows deployment, the legislation could lead to limited job creation and higher emissions.

Building PV panels is usually the least labor-intensive part of the whole enterprise. There are typically a lot more people involved in project development, installation, maintenance and operations of solar. These jobs are difficult to outsource; however, they are impacted when the cost of PV increases.

To measure the levels of both economic and national security risk for a given technology, the paper assesses the current degree of reliance on China across the different technology components using industry and government data. As these risks are hard to quantify, the study provides in-depth case examples combining quantitative and subjective assessments, which are used to assign a risk level to each category, such as job losses, intellectual property violations, supply chain disruptions, critical infrastructure and more.

“For most technologies, the decoupling ‘cure’ is likely to be worse than the ‘integration’ disease,” the authors write. “There are enormous benefits to having open supply chains and research environments and policies that aim to disrupt that or decouple should be grounded on solid, objective assessment of the risks and rewards.”

The study, “Risks of decoupling from China on low-carbon technologies,” is coauthored by Valerie J. Karplus of Carnegie Mellon University, Joanna I. Lewis of Georgetown University, Jonas Nahm of Johns Hopkins University and Alex Wang of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Arizona State University. “Baby Kinda baboons become independent faster if moms are social, dominant.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 September 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220912182118.htm>.

Arizona State University. (2022, September 12). Baby Kinda baboons become independent faster if moms are social, dominant. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 12, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220912182118.htm

Arizona State University. “Baby Kinda baboons become independent faster if moms are social, dominant.” ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220912182118.htm (accessed September 12, 2022).

Surprisingly the new research, published today in the journal Science Advances, suggests a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth’s surface and deliver the devastating knock-on impacts.

Earth’s history has been marked by major volcanic events, called Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) — the largest of which have caused major increases in atmospheric carbon emissions that warmed Earth’s climate, drove unprecedented changes to ecosystems, and resulted in mass extinctions on land and in the oceans.

Using chemical data from ancient mudstone deposits obtained from a 1.5 km-deep borehole in Wales, an international team led by scientists from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences was able to link two key events from around 183 million years ago (the Toarcian period).

The team discovered that this time period, which was characterised by some of the most severe climatic and environmental changes ever, directly coincided with the occurrence of major volcanic activity and associated greenhouse gas release on the southern hemisphere, in what is nowadays known as southern Africa, Antarctica and Australia.

On further investigation — and more importantly — the team’s plate reconstruction models helped them discover the key fundamental geological process that seemed to control the timing and onset of this volcanic event and others of great magnitude.

Micha Ruhl, Assistant Professor in Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, led the team. He said:

“Scientists have long thought that the onset of upwelling of molten volcanic rock, or magma, from deep in Earth’s interior, as mantle plumes, was the instigator of such volcanic activity but the new evidence shows that the normal rate of continental plate movement of several centimetres per year effectively prevents magma from penetrating Earth’s continental crust.

“It seems it is only when the speed of continental plate movement slows down to near zero that magmas from mantle plumes can effectively make their way to the surface, causing major large igneous province volcanic eruptions and their associated climatic perturbations and mass extinctions.

“Crucially, further assessment shows that a reduction in continental plate movement likely controlled the onset and duration of many of the major volcanic events throughout Earth’s history, making it a fundamental process in controlling the evolution of climate and life at Earth’s surface throughout the history of this planet.”

The study of past global change events, such as in the Toarcian, allows scientists to disentangle the different processes that control the causes and consequences of global carbon cycle change and constrain fundamental Earth system processes that control tipping points in Earth’s climate system.

The research was conducted as part of the International Continental Drilling Programme (ICDP) Early Jurassic Earth System and Timescale (JET) project, and financially supported by the SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), the Natural Environment Research Council UK (NERC), the National Science Foundation China, and the EU Horizon 2020 programme.

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A sustainable life is built on choices and trade-offs. You can reduce your environmental impact in a variety of ways, and if everyone were to reduce their footprint by half — no matter which parts of their environmental footprint — it would help push governments and companies to make significant changes for the better. In this Earth911 quiz, we challenge you to make smart choices that shape your shade of green.

Interest in climate or eco-anxiety — characterised by the American Psychological Association as the chronic fear of environmental doom that comes from observing the impacts of climate change — has risen over recent years. A high-profile University of Bath study in 2021 found it to be particularly prevalent among young people right across the world.

This latest study, led by a team from the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations, also based at the University of Bath, sought the views of 1,338 UK adults over two time points (in 2020 and 2022) to delve deeper into the prevalence of climate anxiety, factors that predict it, and whether it could predict individual behavioural changes and climate action.

Despite over three-quarters of the UK public saying they are worried about climate change, only 4.6% of the public reported experiencing climate anxiety in 2022 (only fractionally higher than in 2020, when 4% reported this). Younger people and those with higher generalised anxiety were more likely to experience eco-anxiety.

However, climate anxiety was not always a negative; for many it could be a motivating force for taking action to reduce emissions. This included saving energy, buying second-hand, borrowing, renting, or repurposing items. Lifestyle changes such as cutting down on red meat were not related to climate anxiety, despite being highly effective for reducing emissions.

Significantly, the study found that media exposure — for example TV images of raging storms or heatwaves — rather than direct, personal experiences of climate impacts predicted climate anxiety. The authors say there are important implications of these findings for organisations responsible for communicating climate change.

The study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology coincides with a new briefing paper from the Centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations focused on UK public preferences for low-carbon lifestyles. Its analysis suggests that lifestyle changes (for example, reducing car use or eating less meat), are increasingly seen as both feasible and desirable.

Environmental psychologist at the University of Bath, Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, led the study. She explained: “With increasing media coverage of climate impacts, such as droughts and fires in the UK and devastating flooding in Pakistan, climate anxiety may well increase. Our findings suggest this can spur some people to take action to help tackle the issue — but we also know there are barriers to behaviour change that need to be addressed through more government action.”

In the paper, the authors emphasise the importance of the media as a motivating force for the lifestyle changes required as we decarbonise. They suggest that the media and public discourse about climate anxiety has the power to create a positive vision for a greener, cleaner future which is significantly less dependent on fossil fuels.

Lois Player, co-author of the study also from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, explained: “Our results suggest that the media could play an important role in creating positive pro-environmental behaviour change, but only if they carefully communicate the reality of climate change without inducing a sense of hopelessness.”

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