There was a record-breaking increase in methane in Earth’s atmosphere last year

Findings hold potential to greatly enhance energy density of lithium batteries.

A new mechanism to stabilize the lithium metal electrode and electrolyte in lithium metal batteries has been discovered by a team of researchers. This new mechanism does not depend on the traditional kinetic approach. It has the potential to substantially improve battery energy density — the amount of energy stored relative to the weight or volume.

The team published their findings today (October 27) in the journal Nature Energy.

Lithium metal batteries are a promising technology with the potential to meet the demands for high-energy-density storage systems. However, because of the unceasing electrolyte decomposition in these batteries, their Coulombic efficiency is low.

The Coulombic efficiency, also called the current efficiency, describes the efficiency by which electrons are transferred in the battery. So a battery with a high Coulombic efficiency has a longer battery cycle life.

The enhanced Coulombic efficiency (CE, vertical axis), can be obtained with upshifted oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal (ELi/Li+, horizontal axis), which lowers thermodynamic driving force to reduce the electrolyte at the lithium metal surface. The inset represents oxidation-reduction curves of the compound ferrocene (Fc/Fc+), introduced to estimate the variation of the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal in the given electrolytes. By comparing the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal in 74 different electrolytes, researchers observed a correlation between the oxidation-reduction potential and Coulombic efficiency. Based on these findings, several electrolytes, which enable high Coulombic efficiency (as high as 99.4 %), have been easily developed. Credit: Yamada & Kitada Lab., Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo

 

“This is the first paper to propose electrode potential and related structural features as metrics for designing lithium-metal battery electrolytes, which are extracted by introducing data science combined with computational calculations. Based on our findings, several electrolytes, which enable high Coulombic efficiency, have been easily developed,” said Atsuo Yamada, a professor in the Department of Chemical System Engineering at the University of Tokyo. The team’s work has the potential to provide new opportunities in the design of next-generation electrolytes for lithium metal batteries.

In lithium-ion batteries, the lithium-ion moves from the positive electrode to the negative electrode through the electrolyte during charge and back when discharging. By introducing high-energy-density electrodes, the battery’s energy density can be improved. In this context, many studies have been conducted over the past decades to change the graphite negative electrode to lithium metal. However, lithium metal has a high reactivity, which reduces the electrolyte at its surface. Because of this, the lithium metal electrode shows a poor Coulombic efficiency.

The relative importance of descriptors for the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal was obtained from partial least square (PLS) regression analysis. The correlation between the predicted and observed true values of the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal is well-fitted, which is shown as an inset figure, along with the root mean squared error (RMSE). Numerous data related to the solution structure and physicochemical properties of electrolytes were collected by MD and DFT computational calculations, and their effect to the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal has been quantitatively analyzed with machine learning-based regression analysis. A specific factor, the coordination state of Li+ and anion FSI-, has been revealed as a most important descriptor to determining the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal. Credit: Yamada & Kitada Lab., Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo

 

To overcome this problem, scientists have developed functional electrolytes and electrolyte additives that form a surface protective film. This solid electrolyte interphase has an impact on the safety and efficiency of lithium batteries. The surface protective film prevents direct contact between the electrolyte and lithium metal electrode, thereby kinetically slowing the electrolyte reduction. Yet, until now, scientists had not fully understood the correlation between the solid electrolyte interphase and the Coulombic efficiency.

Scientists know that if they improve the stability of the solid electrolyte interphase, then they can slow the electrolyte decomposition and the battery’s Coulombic efficiency is increased. But even with advanced technologies, scientists find it difficult to analyze the solid electrolyte interphase chemistry directly. Most of the studies about the solid electrolyte interphase have been conducted with indirect methodologies. These studies provide indirect evidence, therefore making it hard to develop the electrolyte-stabilizing lithium metal that leads to a high Coulombic efficiency.

The research team determined that if they could upshift the oxidation-reduction potential of the lithium metal in a specific electrolyte system, they could decrease the thermodynamic driving force to reduce the electrolyte, and thus achieve a higher Coulombic efficiency. This strategy had rarely been applied in developing batteries with lithium metal. “The thermodynamic oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal, which varies significantly depending on the electrolytes, is a simple yet overlooked factor that influences the lithium metal battery performance,” said Atsuo Yamada.

The team studied the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal in 74 types of electrolytes. The researchers introduced a compound called ferrocene into all the electrolytes as an IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry)-recommended internal standard for electrode potentials. The team proved that there is a correlation between the oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal and the Coulombic efficiency. They obtained the high Coulombic efficiency with the upshifted oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal.

Looking ahead to future work, the research team’s goal is to unveil the rational mechanism behind the oxidation-reduction potential shift in more detail. “We will design the electrolyte guaranteeing a Coulombic efficiency of greater than 99.95%. The Coulombic efficiency of lithium metal is less than 99%, even with advanced electrolytes. However, at least 99.95% is required for the commercialization of lithium metal-based batteries,” said Atsuo Yamada.

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Werner Syndrome and Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome are two examples of the rare genetic disorders known as progeroid syndromes that cause signs of premature aging in children and young adults. Patients with progeroid syndromes have pathologies and symptoms that are often linked to aging, including osteoporosis, cataracts, heart disease, and type II diabetes.

This aging is characterized by the gradual loss of nuclear architecture and an underlying tissue-specific genetic program, but the causes are unclear. Scientists have discovered a potential new target for treating these syndromes by preventing nuclear architecture loss.

An international research team led by KAUST has identified a new target for treating syndromes that cause premature aging in children. The illustration is of the target, called long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) RNA. Credit: 2022 KAUST; Heno Hwang

 

The target is known as long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) RNA, a family of repeat sequences that accounts for about 17-20% of the mammalian genome and whose functions are largely unknown. The closely packed DNA architecture known as heterochromatin renders these sequences inactive. There is evidence that heterochromatin depletion during normal aging is linked to their activation.

“Based on theoretical considerations, we postulated that a molecular interaction between L1 RNA and a specific enzyme controlling heterochromatin stability could be the cause of premature aging in progeria syndromes,” says King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) research scientist Francesco Della Valle.

Sequencing studies performed by KAUST and US teams revealed higher expression of L1 RNA in cells collected from individuals with progeroid syndromes. Further research revealed that the increased L1 RNA expression was responsible for the deactivation of an enzyme known as SUV39H1, which resulted in heterochromatin loss and changes in gene expression that promote cell aging.

The researchers were able to block L1 RNA expression and reverse the aging process in cells taken from patients with progeroid syndromes and in mice that are genetically modified to simulate premature aging. They did this using short synthetic nucleotide chains called antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) that specifically target and lead to the degradation of L1 RNA. Their L1 ASO was modified to improve its ability to enter and stay stable within cells. Blocking L1 RNA in the cells restored heterochromatin and counteracted aging-related genes. The L1 ASOs also prolonged the life span of the progeria-like mice.

Further research will need to determine whether other mechanisms, acting in parallel with SUV39H1 inhibition, might compromise heterochromatin stability in progeria syndromes.

“Among other observations, our work establishes an important rule,” says bioscientist Valerio Orlando. “Contrary to what was previously thought, aberrant expression of L1 RNA is not a consequence of the initiation of aging but a cause of it, at least in progeria. And now, for the first time, we report a specific, rather than global, target that acts as an essential factor in aging.”

“Given the similarities between Progeroid syndromes and chronological aging-associated diseases, targeting LINE-1 RNA may be an effective way to treat progeroid syndromes, as well as other age-related diseases characterized by LINE-1 aberrant expression, such as neurodegenerative, metabolic, and cardiovascular disorders, and cancer,” says Orlando. “This study opens the way to new strategies that we think might help extend human life expectancy.”

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Getting less than five hours of sleep in mid-to-late life could be linked to an increased risk of developing at least two chronic diseases, finds a new study led by scientists from University College London (UCL).

The research analyzed the impact of sleep duration on the health of more than 7,000 men and women at the ages of 50, 60, and 70, from the Whitehall II cohort study. The study was published on October 18 in PLOS Medicine.

Scientists investigated the relationship between how long each participant slept and their mortality, as well as whether they had been diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases (multimorbidity) – such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes. This was done over the course of 25 years.

Compared to people who slept for up to seven hours, individuals who reported getting five hours of sleep or less at age 50 were 20% more likely to have been diagnosed with a chronic disease and 40% more likely to be diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases over 25 years.

Furthermore, sleeping for five hours or less at the age of 50, 60, and 70 was linked to a 30% to 40% increased risk of multimorbidity when compared with people who slept for up to seven hours.

Sleep duration of five hours or less at age 50 was associated with a 25% increased risk of mortality over the 25 years of follow-up, according to the research results. This can mainly be explained by the fact that short sleep duration increases the risk of chronic disease(s) that in turn increase the risk of death.

Lead author, Dr. Severine Sabia (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health, and Inserm, Université Paris Cité) said: “Multimorbidity is on the rise in high-income countries and more than half of older adults now have at least two chronic diseases. This is proving to be a major challenge for public health, as multimorbidity is associated with high healthcare service use, hospitalizations and disability.

“As people get older, their sleep habits and sleep structure change. However, it is recommended to sleep for 7 to 8 hours a night— as sleep durations above or below this have previously been associated with individual chronic diseases.

“Our findings show that short sleep duration is also associated with multimorbidity.

“To ensure a better night’s sleep, it is important to promote good sleep hygiene, such as making sure the bedroom is quiet, dark and a comfortable temperature before sleeping. It’s also advised to remove electronic devices and avoid large meals before bedtime. Physical activity and exposure to light during the day might also promote good sleep.”

As part of the study, researchers also assessed whether sleeping for a long duration, of nine hours or more, affected health outcomes. There was no clear association between long sleep durations at age 50 and multimorbidity in healthy people.

However, if a participant had already been diagnosed with a chronic condition, then long sleep duration was associated with around a 35% increased risk of developing another illness. Researchers believe this could be due to underlying health conditions impacting sleep.

Jo Whitmore, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation said: “Getting enough sleep allows your body to rest. There are a host of other ways that poor sleep could increase the risk of heart disease or stroke, including by increasing inflammation and increasing blood pressure.

“This research adds to a growing body of research that highlights the importance of getting a good night’s sleep.”

Study limitations

Researchers used self-reported data on sleep, which is likely to be subject to reporting bias. However, the findings were confirmed using data on 4,000 participants whose sleep was measured via an electronic device.

Meanwhile, data on sleep quality was only available for those aged 60 and 70.

The Whitehall II study only involves members of the civil service, who were all employed when recruited to the study and likely to be healthier than the general population.

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Researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai conducted a new data analysis and found that deaths from heart attacks rose significantly during pandemic surges, including the COVID-19 Omicron surges, overall reversing a heart-healthier pre-pandemic trend.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, heart attacks were the leading cause of death worldwide but were steadily on the decline. However, the new study reveals that heart attack death rates took a sharp turn and increased for all age groups during the pandemic. The study was recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Virology.

Spikes in heart attack deaths have closely tracked with surges of SARS-CoV-2 infections. This was true even during the presumed less-severe Omicron phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the data showed the increase was most significant among people ages 25-44. Individuals in this age range are not usually considered at high risk for heart attacks.

“The dramatic rise in heart attacks during the pandemic has reversed what was a prior decadelong steady improvement in cardiac deaths,” said Yee Hui Yeo, MD, first author of the study and a Cedars-Sinai physician-scientist. “We are still learning the many ways by which COVID-19 affects the body, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or race.”

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System, the Cedars-Sinai researchers identified 1,522,699 deaths from heart attacks—medically called acute myocardial infarctions—between April 1, 2012, and March 31, 2022.

Investigators then compared age-related mortality rates between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, as well as demographic groups and regions.

Key findings from the study include:

• In the year before the pandemic, there were 143,787 heart attack deaths; within the first year of the pandemic, this number had increased by 14% to 164,096.
• The excess in acute myocardial infarction-associated mortality has persisted throughout the pandemic, even during the most recent period marked by a surge of the presumed less-virulent Omicron variant.
• Researchers found that although acute myocardial infarction deaths during the pandemic increased across all age groups, the relative rise was most significant for the youngest group, ages 25 to 44.
• By the second year of the pandemic, the “observed” compared to “predicted” rates of heart attack death had increased by 29.9% for adults ages 25-44, by 19.6% for adults ages 45-64, and by 13.7% for adults age 65 and older.

“There are several potential explanations for the rapid rise in cardiac deaths in patients with COVID-19, yet still many unanswered questions,” said Yeo. “Importantly, our results highlight disparities in mortality that have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and that are persisting even through the Omicron era.”

The possible explanations, Yeo said, include that COVID-19 may trigger or accelerate the presentation of preexisting coronary artery disease, even in younger adults.

Reasons for the spike in heart-related conditions could also be related to psychological and social challenges associated with the pandemic, including job loss and other financial pressures that can cause acute or chronic stress leading to cardiac disease.

The research team members say they have long known that infections such as the flu can increase the risk for heart disease and heart attack, but the sharp rise in heart attack deaths is like nothing seen before.

“There is something very different about how this virus affects the cardiac risks,” said Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute and senior and co-corresponding author of the study. “The difference is likely due to a combination of stress and inflammation, arising from predisposing factors and the way this virus biologically interacts with the cardiovascular system.”

Yeo, Cheng, and the broader Smidt Heart Institute team hope that greater awareness and more research will expand the medical community’s ability to manage and mitigate these risks.

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The U.N. issued the reports on Wednesday and Thursday providing details on the state of the planet. For years, scientists both in and outside of the organization have warned with growing urgency that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial times is critical to minimizing extreme temperatures and climate disasters.

But according to U.N. Environment Programme's Emissions Gap Report, there is now "no credible pathway" remaining to make that happen.

"Loss and damage from the climate emergency is getting worse by the day and global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said. "...Under current policies, the world is headed for 2.8 degrees of global heating by the end of the century. In other words, we are headed for a global catastrophe."

    As the latest @UNEP Emissions Gap report makes clear, we are headed for economy-destroying levels of global heating.

    We need #ClimateAction on all fronts – and we need it now.

    We must close the emissions gap before catastrophe closes in on us all.

    — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 27, 2022

The only way to change this trajectory is with "urgent system-wide transformation," the agency said — but as the U.N.'s other reports show, such transformative changes are not on track.

On Wednesday, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change issued its own report showing that countries around the world are currently on a path to increase greenhouse gas emissions by 10.6% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. While that is an improvement from last year's assessment — which projected an increase of 13.7% — it is still far more than the environment can handle.

The more greenhouse gases there are in the atmosphere —particularly carbon dioxide and methane — the more the sun's radiation is trapped in the planet and the Earth warms. The report warns that nations' efforts to reduce emissions are still "insufficient" to minimize global warming.

Even if all 193 parties who signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement fulfill their current commitments, the world is still looking at roughly 2.5 degree Celsius of temperature rise by 2100.

"This year's analysis shows that while emissions are no longer increasing after 2030, they are still not demonstrating the rapid downward trend science says is necessary this decade," the report said, adding that the agency found earlier this year that greenhouse gas emissions would need to be cut by 43% by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"Another ominous climate change warning"

The third report, published by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday, shows just how critical it is to limit those greenhouse gases. In "yet another ominous climate change warning," the agency found that the planet's three main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new highs in 2021, hitting values that amount to 149%, 262% and 124%, respectively, of pre-industrial levels.

 In yet another ominous climate change warning, atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- have reached new highs. This means our planet will continue to warm.

    🔗https://t.co/aCJ2WOsLJJ#StateOfClimate #COP27 pic.twitter.com/ywcveodD4A

    — World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) October 26, 2022

From 2020 to 2021, carbon dioxide levels saw an increase larger than the annual growth rate over the last decade, the report found. It accounted for the majority of the 50% increase in greenhouse gases that have a warming effect from 1990 to 2021.

Perhaps even more dire, however, was the finding of "the biggest year-on-year jump in methane concentrations" since the agency began taking measurements nearly 40 years ago. This is particularly troubling as methane is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 20% of global emissions, according to the EPA, and is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat.

"We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world," said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework on Climate Change. He said the agency has only received 24 new or updated climate plans since the global COP 26 climate conference last year — despite all countries agreeing to strengthen their plans.

That failure, he said, is "disappointing."

"To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years," he said. "... Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change."

The U.N. reports show that the world should prepare to see negative and severe consequences as the planet warms, according to Petteri Taalas, weather chief of the World Meteorological Organization.

"We could face ... this negative trend in weather patterns that means flooding, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms. ... But the game that we have already lost this is the melting of glaciers," Taalas told CBS News at a briefing on the report Wednesday. "We have so high concentration of carbon dioxide, that the melting of glaciers will continue for the coming hundreds of years even coming thousands of years."

"We are now at 'code red'"

Leaders stressed that we still can — and must — take action.

One of the most important issues to tackle, Taalas said, is reducing the burning of fossil fuels, which are a primary source for greenhouse gases.

"Methane has a relatively short lifetime of less than 10 years and so its impact on climate is reversible. As the top and most urgent priority, we have to slash carbon dioxide emissions which are the main driver of climate change and associated extreme weather, and which will affect climate for thousands of years through polar ice loss, ocean warming and sea level rise," Taalas said in a press release. "We need to transform our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life."

As the U.N. released its slew of reports, climate researchers from Oregon State University published their own special report in the American Institute of Biological Sciences journal BioScience, saying that "we are now at 'code red' on planet Earth."

"Humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency," they wrote. "The scale of untold human suffering, already immense, is rapidly growing with the escalating number of climate-related disasters."

While 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of when more than 1,700 scientists issued a landmark climate warning in 1992, the world continues to inch closer to temperatures that Earth "has not experienced over the past 3 million years."

At 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming, scientists have warned that we can expect to see more frequent — and more devastating — climate disasters. Already this year, an ongoing drought meant vital reservoirs and rivers across the U.S. and Europe reached unprecedented low water levels, while extreme heat brought record-breaking triple-digit temperatures. Heat waves plagued India and Pakistan while extreme flooding killed more than 400 people in South Africa and more than 1,000 in Pakistan.

"We are now in a major climate crisis and global catastrophe with far worse in store if we continue with business as usual. As such, there is more at stake today than at any time since the advent of the stable climate system that has supported us for more than 10,000 years," the researchers said.

"...The very future of humanity depends on the creativity, moral fiber, and perseverance of the 8 billion of us on the planet now."

CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk contributed to this report.

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The aim is to warn consumers of the potential effects these medicines may cause when they are administered at higher doses than recommended or for a very long period of time. These include kidney or gastrointestinal damage and metabolic disturbances, as well as codeine abuse and dependence. The EMA's warning is based on numerous cases reported to health authorities in different European countries, including some with fatal outcomes.

The announcement came as a surprise since these are commonly used analgesic drugs. Ibuprofen is an anti–inflammatory drug, while codeine is a low–potency opioid agent. They are most commonly used alone, but are also combined on occasion—for example, as part of post–surgery analgesia protocols or by chronic pain specialists.

Safety profile of ibuprofen

The analgesic and anti–inflammatory effect of ibuprofen is due to its ability to block the synthesis of molecules (prostaglandins) that are released during inflammation. By preventing the synthesis of these molecules, it eliminates pain.

But it turns out that this same mechanism is responsible for the safety problems of this type of drug, such as gastrointestinal damage (by decreasing gastric mucosal protection), renal damage (by decreasing renal blood flow) and, to a lesser extent, cardiovascular damage (by favoring platelet aggregation and thrombus formation).

This may increase the risk of secondary causes of death, including gastrointestinal bleeding or bowel perforation, coronary or renal failure, and stroke. The toxic dose of ibuprofen is 100 mg/kg, and above 400 mg/kg there is already a risk to life.

Safety profile of codeine

Codeine is an opioid drug which, among other indications, is authorized as an analgesic, either alone or in combination with other active ingredients. It stimulates a receptor in cells common to all opioids, the µ-type receptor. This is the source of both its therapeutic and toxic effects.

However, because it "binds" less tightly to this receptor than other opioids, its effects are milder than those of morphine. Therefore, it has a moderate-to-weak analgesic action. It is also indicated in the treatment of cough (antitussive) or as an antidiarrheal agent, as it reduces intestinal motility.

Variability in response

The pharmacological effect of codeine is due to its conversion to morphine by liver enzymes. This means that depending on the genetic expression of the enzymes in each person, there is great variability in the therapeutic or toxic response to this drug.

Thus, people who express a large amount of these enzymes (called "ultra-rapid metabolizers") can generate very high levels of morphine and present more intense toxic symptoms.

In fact, in 2015, the PRAC conducted a review of codeine safety, especially in children, and concluded that children under 12 years of age are at increased risk of adverse reactions following codeine administration, especially ultra-rapid metabolizers, which is estimated to include 10 % of the Caucasian population.

The dangers of codeine

The toxic effects of opioids can be very serious, even fatal. These include respiratory depression (bradypnea/apnea) and central nervous system depression (sedation or coma). In addition, prolonged use of these drugs, including codeine, although considered a weak opioid, can lead to tolerance and dependence.

Deaths related to codeine use have increased in recent decades. A significant proportion of this increase stems from accidental overdoses, particularly in patients with a history of substance abuse problems, injecting drug use and those diagnosed with chronic pain. The maximum tolerated doses of codeine are 360 mg/day (in immediate–release preparations) and 600 mg/day (in controlled–release formulations).

Is it safe to combine them?

When these two drugs are taken together, especially at high doses or for a prolonged period of time, the risk of kidney damage increases. This results in reduced kidney function (kidney failure), which makes it more difficult for acidic substances in the bloodstream to be eliminated into the urine. This kidney failure also results in very low levels of potassium in the blood (hypokalemia), which in turn can cause symptoms such as muscle weakness and dizziness.

In addition, by making renal elimination of both drugs more difficult, their concentrations in blood plasma increase, thereby increasing the already–established risk of toxicity that they had separately. This problem is more pronounced in older patients.

Overuse of analgesic agents

For all these reasons, the measure taken by the EMA seems quite appropriate and pertinent. It's important especially because analgesic agents are often overused and some of them, such as codeine and ibuprofen, are considered by many consumers to be harmless drugs that do not cause any safety problems.

This is particularly true in countries where these drugs are dispensed without a prescription, which is where most cases of toxicity from this combination have been reported.

In any case, these types of pharmacovigilance measures, without generating excessive alarm in the population, should always be welcomed, in the interests of greater safety in the consumption of medicines.

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Licensed doctors, nurses, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and social workers are eligible for the feature. YouTube will verify applicants’ licenses. They’ll have to agree to follow the best practices for health information sharing created by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the National Academy of Medicine, and the World Health Organization — which says information should be science-based, objective, transparent, and equitable. YouTube says users accepted into the program will be “periodically reassessed” to make sure they still meet the criteria.

Previously, only organizations like public health departments and hospitals were able to access these features. “This new step will allow us to expand to include high quality information from a wider group of healthcare channels,” Garth Graham, global head of healthcare and public health partnerships at YouTube, said in a blog post announcing the change.

YouTube is working to grow the volume of reliable health information on the platform, Graham told The Verge earlier this month.

“I think that we need to be tackling medical misinformation by either removing or reducing what’s seen. But people still have questions and look for answers,” he said. “So you have to make sure you have an adequate supply of information that allows people to engage appropriately.”

YouTube has struggled to manage misinformation, particularly medical misinformation — it was a major source of misinformation around covid and the covid vaccine, for example. Elevating what YouTube considers good information is one way to improve the mix of healthcare content, but it remains to be seen if it’ll be enough to counteract the bad.

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Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Multiple rescue crews in Australia responded to a report of an unusual animal needing rescue from floodwaters -- a camel.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales said the domesticated camel, named Gina, was stranded in floodwaters in Moama, near the border with Victoria.

"[Camels] can't swim and Gina was precariously close to the banks," Fire and Rescue NSW Inspector Phillip Eberle told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The Fire and Rescue NSW crew worked together with State Emergency Service, Surf Life Saving and Marine Rescue personnel to bring Gina back to safety. Rescuers used handfuls of hay to guide the camel back to dry land.

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People at risk for developing diabetes could help themselves now by eating fewer carbs, according to new research.

While low-carb diets are a common next step for someone diagnosed with the disease, people who are prediabetic or with diabetes not treated with medication don't need to wait to cut back and see benefits to their blood sugar levels.

"The key message is that a low-carbohydrate diet, if maintained, might be a useful approach for preventing and treating type 2 diabetes, though more research is needed," said lead author Kirsten Dorans. She's an assistant professor of epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.

For the study, the researchers studied two groups of 75 people each. In one, participants were assigned to a low-carb diet. The other ate as usual.

Six months later, the low-carb diet group had greater drops in hemoglobin A1C, which is a marker for blood sugar levels. That group also lost weight and had lower fasting blood sugar levels.

While the study doesn't prove that a low-carb diet prevents diabetes, it opens the door to further research on how to work through health risks of those with prediabetes and diabetes not treated by medication, Dorans said.

"We already know that a low-carbohydrate diet is one dietary approach used among people who have type 2 diabetes, but there is not as much evidence on effects of this diet on blood sugar in people with prediabetes," Dorans said in a university news release. "Future work could be done to see if this dietary approach may be an alternative approach for type 2 diabetes prevention."

Study participants' blood sugar ranged from prediabetic to diabetic levels. The low-carb group saw A1C levels drop 0.23% more than the usual diet group.

That is "modest but clinically relevant," Dorans said.

While fats comprised about half of the calories eaten by those in the low-carb group, they were mostly healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in foods like olive oil and nuts.

The findings were published Oct. 26 in JAMA Network Open.

About 37 million Americans have diabetes and 96 million have prediabetes. More than 80% of those with prediabetes don't know it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prediabetes puts someone at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, as well as heart attack or stroke.

Diabetes occurs when the body doesn't use insulin as it should and can't regulate blood sugar levels. About 90% of people who have the condition have type 2 diabetes. Symptoms can include blurred vision, numb hands and feet, and overall tiredness. It can lead to heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease.

© HealthDay

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In the Nature journal npj Mental Health Research, the research team co-led by Penn computer scientist Sharath Guntuku and psychologist Tingting Liu reports that the language associated with depression refers primarily to emotions, whereas the language of loneliness refers more to cognition. The two also share a common thread: frequent use of language referring to sickness, pain, and negative emotions.

"Mental health has this huge spectrum of varying manifestations—often with a lot of commonalities—but there are also these unique pieces," says Guntuku, a professor of computer and information science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and senior author on the study.

Because social media users freely choose which words they use to describe their thoughts and emotions, posts on platforms like Facebook offer a wealth of linguistic data, says co-author Lyle Ungar, a professor of computer and information science and psychology in the School of Arts & Sciences. "The language that people use on Facebook reveals a lot about how they feel."

To explore this regarding loneliness and depression, the researchers received permission to collect 3.4 million Facebook posts from 2,986 individuals. They then administered depression and loneliness surveys to quantify psychological state and feelings of social isolation. Lastly, they linguistically analyzed the Facebook posts to find specific words, phrases, or themes associated with loneliness and depression.

In one technique to do this, called a linguistic inquiry word count or a closed-vocabulary, dictionary-based method, the researchers used a database developed by University of Texas psychologists to categorize words based on their meaning and grammatical function. A second technique, called an open-vocabulary method, used machine learning to extract common words, phrases, and topics frequently found in posts by participants experiencing loneliness or depression.

The researchers found that both depressed and lonely people were more likely to employ language about sickness, pain, and negative emotions, including words like "crappy," "miserable," and "tired." Those who weren't depressed or lonely more commonly used language about social gatherings, relationships, and positive emotions, like "celebrated," "date," and "game."

This pattern applied to overtly emotive words, such as "bad" or "exciting," but also to words with more implicit meanings; depressed and lonely people frequently used the singular first-person pronoun "I," for example, whereas people who weren't depressed or lonely often used the plural first-person pronoun "we," which implies a social relationship.

Despite sharing some linguistic indicators, the two also had unique components. "We use 'head versus heart' to refer to this difference," says Liu, lead paper author and a postdoctoral researcher in Ungar's lab and at NIDA.

Controlling individually for loneliness and depression, the researchers found that the language of depression involved more emotions, the "heart," and the language of loneliness involved more cognitive processes, the "head." Lonely people more frequently referred to contemplative activities like reading, writing, and observing the world, whereas depressed people referred to their apathy, pain, and confusion. These patterns also applied to common Internet acronyms and emoticons, with depressed people often using the frowning "=(" emoticon and acronyms like "idc" (short for "I don't care").

These results suggest that loneliness could stem from an internal cognitive component, not just isolation or poor social skills, says Liu.

"Loneliness could be driven by people's perception of the environment and the social threats within," she says. This view supports previous research, too, which has found that "strategies targeting people's maladaptive social cognition are more effective than studies focused purely on social skills," she says.

In addition to informing how therapists address loneliness and depression, the researchers say they hope their work can guide how social media platforms monitor for mental health risks and respond to mental health crises sooner. "You can't use social media to diagnose someone," says Guntuku. "But social media can help identify when someone might be feeling low and provide the resources that they need."

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"The moonlighting concept can cause a lot of confusion if not clarified at a granular level which is why I am writing you," he wrote in his email addressed to IBM India employees.

However, his email does not provide a granular clarification. Instead, further muddles the water by telling employees that the company values their passions, but should also keep in mind if their passions conflict interests with IBM.

At IBM, our stance has always been clear: we encourage every IBMer to bring their whole selves to work. Your passion – be it for art, dance or music – is celebrated here, and in that spirit, we'd love to see you pursue your interest.

However, if you advance a personal interest, directly or indirectly, at the expense of IBM's interests, it is treated as a serious conflict of interest and a violation of trust.

The term moonlighting essentially means the activity of an employee using their spare time to work at another place. "If it's gray, stay away or ask for clarification", Patel further added.

Moonlighting has spurred a lot of controversy in India. Last month, Wipro fired 300 employees for taking extra work after the company's chairman tweeted that moonlighting is cheating.

  There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple.

    — Rishad Premji (@RishadPremji) August 20, 2022

Tata Consultancy Services' chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam also labeled moonlighting as an ethical issue that damages the culture that gives short-term gain for long-term pain.

Source: The Register

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• Drugs such as dexmedetomidine that bind to the norepinephrine alpha-2a (α2a) adrenergic receptor are effective analgesics, but their sedative effects limit their widespread use.

• A recent study used computational methods to identify novel compounds that could activate α2a-adrenergic receptors to relieve pain in mouse models without causing sedation.

• Further research is needed to assess the side effects of these drugs and optimize the compounds for therapeutic use.

Research on non-habit-forming alternatives to opioids for pain relief is ongoing.

In a recent study, researchers used computational methods to identify novel compounds that could activate the norepinephrine α2a-adrenergic receptor involved in pain modulation.

These compounds showed analgesic effects in mouse neuropathic and inflammatory pain models without the sedative effects observed with currently available drugs that bind the α2a-adrenergic receptor.

The findings were recently published in the journal Science.

The study’s author Allan Basbaum, Ph.D., a professor at the University of California San Francisco, told Medical News Today:

 “We are interested in the use of this and related molecules to manage chronic pain in the clinic. Obviously, the interest is in using the compounds by themselves, given that they do not produce the sedation characteristic of dexmedetomidine, which is a great drug, but one that is largely limited to ICU situations where sedation is an advantage. Of particular interest is the possibility of combining the new ligands with low doses of opioids, producing at least additive, if not synergistic, analgesic effects without the adverse side effects typically associated with opioids.”

Addressing the opioid crisis

The sTrusted SourceurgeTrusted Source in the prescription of opioids for the management of chronic pain and severe acute pain during the late 1990s contributed to the widespread misuse and abuse of opioids and the subsequent rise in overdose deaths that continues even today.

Dr. Tracey Childs, chief of surgery at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, explained to MNT:

“Opioids, i.e., narcotics, are excellent for pain management but associated with numerous undesirable side effects, including hallucinations, nausea, dizziness, sedation, constipation, urinary retention, dependency, and addiction. The opioid crisis has developed because something like 25% of patients prescribed even a short course of narcotics for limited pain management of an injury or after surgery have been shown to develop some level of dependence.”

The ongoing opioid crisis underscores the need for non-opioid medications for the management of chronic pain.

One such class of non-opioid drugs includes medications that bind and activate the α2a-adrenergic receptor.

The α2a-adrenergic receptor is expressed in the central nervous system and mediates the effects of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine or noradrenaline.

Notably, the α2a-adrenergic receptor is expressed in brain regions involved in pain modulation, and α2a-adrenergic agonists (i.e., drugs that activate this receptor can alleviate chronic and acute pain).

Some examples of drugs that mediate their actions via activation of the α2a-adrenergic receptor include:

•     clonidine

•     brimonidineTrusted Source

•     dexmedetomidineTrusted Source (Precedex)

However, in addition to having analgesic properties, the drugs that activate the α2a-adrenergic receptor also have sedative effects. These sedative effects have prevented the use of drugs such as dexmedetomidine for pain management outside a hospital setting.

Moreover, drugs such as dexmedetomidine cannot be administered via the oral route.

Non-opioid alternatives to pain relief

In the present study, the researchers were interested in finding new compounds that could activate the α2a-adrenergic receptor to relieve pain without having sedative effects.

The α2a-adrenergic receptor belongsTrusted Source to a class of receptors called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)Trusted Source.

GPCRs are expressed on the cell membrane, and the binding of a ligand to the GPCR results in the activation of signaling pathways involving a class of proteins called G proteins.

GPCRs can also activate signaling pathways involving another class of proteins called β-arrestins.

Upon the activation of GPCRs, β-arrestinsTrusted Source can mediate the desensitization or internalization of GPCR.

The specific signaling pathway, i.e., the subset of G proteins and/or β-arrestins, activated inside the cell depends upon the ligand binding to the GPCR.

Thus, molecules that bind to the α2a-adrenergic receptor but activate signaling pathways that are different from those triggered by currently available drugs like dexmedetomidine could produce analgesic effects without the sedative side effects.

Hence, the study’s authors used computational methods to identify compounds structurally dissimilar to existing analgesic drugs.
Using virtual screening to study drug effectiveness

Conventional methods for drug discovery, the process of identifying new pharmaceutical drugs, have relied on physically synthesizing compounds and experimentally identifying compounds that target the receptor or protein of interest.

These methods have relied on a relatively limited number of well-characterized chemical reactions to synthesize these chemicals.

Although this method has led to the discovery of a large number of drugs, most of these compounds bind to a small class of target proteins, with few molecules targeting difficult or novel targets.

To tackle this problem, scientists have used computational methods to facilitate the screening of an even larger number of molecules in a time and cost-effective manner.

This process, called virtual screening, involves using computational methods to create a virtual library, which includes compounds that may or may not exist physically.

Computational methods are then used to simulate the interaction of these virtual compounds with the target protein and identify molecules with a high affinity for the target. The complementarity of the compounds in the virtual library and the drug target is quantified in terms of a docking score.

The chemical interactions between the target protein and the ligand tend to be very complex. Thus, after the identification of compounds with high docking scores, these compounds require further testing and optimization.

The present study screened over 300 million virtual molecules to short-list 48 molecules with a high docking score. The researchers synthesized these molecules and found 17 compounds with a high binding affinity for the α2a-adrenergic receptor.

Using laboratory cultured cells, the researchers further narrowed down four compounds that potently activated the α2a-adrenergic receptor, such as the compound named ‘9087. Upon binding to the α2a-adrenergic receptor, these compounds preferentially activated intracellular signaling pathways that were limited to a few subtypes of G proteins.

By contrast, dexmedetomidine and brimonidine activated multiple additional pathways involving other G proteins and caused greater activation of β-arrestin.

Based on the structure of these compounds and the characterization of the structural interaction between ‘9087 and the α2a-adrenergic receptor, the researchers further developed additional molecules, such as PS75, that activated the α2a-adrenergic receptor more potently than ‘9087.

Similar to ‘9087, these optimized molecules also preferentially activated a narrow subset of G proteins.

Animal studies on analgesic effects

In animal studies, the researchers found that ‘9087 and other optimized derivatives showed analgesic effects in mouse neuropathic, inflammatory, and acute pain models.

Moreover, both intravenous and oral administration of ‘9087 and PS75 produced analgesic effects in mouse models. These compounds, however, needed higher concentrations to produce these analgesic effects than dexmedetomidine.

Although the compounds were less potent than dexmedetomidine, they did not have sedative effects at high concentrations.

Blocking the α2a-adrenergic receptor reduced the analgesic effects of these compounds in the mouse models of pain. This indicates that the analgesic effects of the compounds identified via the virtual screen were largely mediated via the α2a-adrenergic receptor.

Still, the researchers cautioned that these compounds could also produce these analgesic effects by binding to other receptors.

Additionally, ‘9087 did not produce common side effects associated with α2a-adrenergic receptor agonists, such as weight gain or constipation.
More research on non-opioid pain relief still needed

The researchers noted that additional studies are needed to comprehensively examine the safety profile of these compounds, including cardiovascular side effects.

“Next steps are to generate a more comprehensive analysis of potential side effects, including cardiovascular actions, identify the location of theα2a-adrenergic receptor where the analgesic actions are generated and extend our studies in different pain models,” Dr. Basbaum noted.

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Buerkle, professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University Medical Center Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, not involved in the study, told MNT:

“The optimized compounds were effective in the different preclinical pain models, making them promising leads for further investigations. Potentially, if the alpha2A-agonist in a key-lock-mechanism will permit the closing of the pain door in patients without any unpleasant cardiovascular side effects nor other minor problems like enhanced micturition (urination) or obstipation (severe constipation), then orally available alpha2A -medication might become a very good medication alternative for millions of patients worldwide suffering from acute or chronic pain. This perspective should promote their efforts in developing new analgesics of “old compounds” with the support of contemporary new drug design options.”

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Every October sees the awards of “scientific Oscars”—the Nobel Prizes. Outsiders might guess that in these cases objectivity should reign and the choice of winners should be as clear-cut as in athletics. But that’s not the reality. This year the Nobel Prizes went to a total of seven scientists— each rewarded for sustained efforts on a fundamental challenge. But in some years the awards trigger controversy and resentment. Unlike Oscar winners, however, the Nobel laureates generally aren’t well known personalities, and their achievements are often arcane, so debate on their worthiness takes place within the specialist community, and only rarely percolates to as wide a public as awards in the arts often do.

It’s quite easy to agree on what scientific advances in any particular field of science are important (though there may of course be dissent about the relative status of different fields). But what’s not so easy is to apportion credit for a discovery or invention. An artist’s creations may be ephemeral but they’re usually individual. If they hadn’t created a particular artwork or performance, nobody else would have done so. But in science, if “A” didn’t make a specific advance, then sooner or later (and usually sooner) “B” would have done so. Moreover, no scientist’s achievements are really solo, any more than a goal‐scorer’s triumph in soccer is independent of the other players on the field (and the manager off the field, too). Each advance builds on the work of others—and is very often a “team effort.” The Nobel Committee’s refusal to make an award to more than three people has led to manifest injustices, and given a misleading impression of how science actually advances, through the cooperation of a large group.

The 2017 Nobel for Physics recognised a genuine mega-discovery, LIGO’s detection of gravitational waves—”ripples” in space generated by colliding black holes a billion or more light years away They ‘shake’ space itself as they pass through the earth, but with an amplitude so minuscule that it’s like detecting the thickness of a human hair at the distance of Alpha Centauri. These detections are a virtuoso technical triumph, and a vindication of Einstein’s theory. The key papers reporting these results have up 1000 authors—but just three were rewarded with the prize. This decision attracted rather little flak, because there was a consensus among those who followed the subject that the chosen three (Barry Barish, Kip Thorne, and Ray Weiss) really stood out: they had offered pre-eminent sustained leadership, and had, in their careers, displayed exceptional talent and distinction.

But an earlier award triggered more unease: the 2011 Physics Prize went to astronomers who had found that the expansion of our universe was not slowing down, as would be expected because of the gravitational pull that galaxies exert on each other—but was instead accelerating. This implied that there was some mysterious force ‘pushing’ the galaxies apart that overwhelmed gravity on the cosmic scale—some “dark energy” latent in empty space. This discovery was made independently by two teams, each with around 25 members. The Nobel went to three people, two from one team and one from the other. But in this case several others in each team had track records fully as distinguished as those of the awardees.

Even if a discovery isn’t explicitly a team effort, several people may have separately researched the same topic and reached the finishing‐line almost simultaneously. For instance, a particle now called the Higgs boson was postulated in the 1960s as a ‘capstone’ of the so-called ‘standard model’ of particle physics: six people (Peter Higgs, of course, among them) were generally cited as having played key roles in predicting its existence (building on the work of still more). Of these six, the one with the strongest and most sustained lifetime achievement, the late Tom Kibble from Imperial College, London, did not receive a share of the Nobel when the particle was discovered fifty years later (nor did any of the thousand‐strong team at the CERN lab in Geneva who conducted the vast experiment that actually made the discovery).

A part of complex Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is seen underground during the Open Days at the CERN particle physics research facility on September 14, 2019 in Meyrin, Switzerland. The 27km-long Large Hadron Collider is currently shut down for maintenance, which has created an opportunity to offer access to the public. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's largest laboratory for research into particle physics.

Ronald Patrick-Getty Images

I’ve chosen these three examples from physics—the field I know best. They’re atypical in that most Nobel awards are closer to near-term applicability—but they still often involve groups. Three of the five prizes established in Nobel’s will are for science: for physics, for chemistry and for “physiology or medicine” (the other two are for Literature and for Peace). These three subjects are interpreted broadly, in a fashion that moves with the times. But the prizes nonetheless still exclude huge tracts of science. Famously, mathematics has never been included. Other vibrant new fields are left out too; the environmental sciences—oceans and ecology—aren’t covered. Nor are computing, robotics and artificial intelligence. So the Nobels, by failure adequately to acknowledge collaborative and parallel work, give a misleading impression of how science is done. And these exclusions distort the public perception of what sciences are important.

The public (and most journalists) perceive Nobel winners as ‘towering intellects’. Some are, but others, even among those who have made undeniably epochal and prize-worthy advances, have done this serendipitously: two such discoveries are neutron stars, and the cosmic microwave background—the “afterglow of creation.” Louis Pasteur famously averred that “fortune favours the prepared mind”; these scientists may claim for themselves greater luck—but not greater talent—than the average professor.

The flaws and gaps in the Nobel prizes have been partially remedied by philanthropists who have established new prizes—some promoted with a razzmatazz that matches the Nobels, and with even bigger jackpots. Among them, for instance, are the Breakthrough prizes set up by the U.S.-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner (which have been awarded to groups, such as the whole experimental team at CERN who discovered the Higgs particle); and the million‐dollar Berggruen prize for philosophy (given to three widely admired public intellectuals: Martha Nussbaum, Onora O’Neill and Ruth Bader Ginsberg). Overall, major awards now offer a better balance across the map of learning—both sciences and the humanities. Some awards offer substantial prestige but minimal prize‐money; for others, the reverse is the case.

It’s of course arguable that we should welcome the existence of mega‐awards that elevate a few intellectuals to a transient celebrity status. But there is a downside. Because of their special prominence and prestige Nobel winners’ opinions are sought by the press, and accorded disproportionate respect. Even the best scientists (and artists) generally have narrow expertise; their views on broader topics carry no special weight. Some of the greatest among then become an embarrassment if given a public platform. It’s possible to find a laureate to support almost any cause, however eccentric—and some exploit their status.

So more of us are coming to query the societal benefits of singling out, via somewhat arbitrary processes and criteria, awardees who need neither a morale boost, nor the money—and for work that was generally done many years earlier.

So we need more and better ways of encouraging discovery and innovation by the world’s scientific community. On such example is challenge prizes, which don’t reward past success, but incentivise future efforts to tackle an important problem. The most prominent present‐day exemplars of these are the X‐Prizes, inspired by the Greek/American entrepreneur Peter Diamandis and run by his California‐based foundation. Challenges are selected, and a jackpot of around 10 million dollars is offered to those who first meet each of them. A special plus of this system is that the aggregate funding expended by all the challengers for each prize far exceeds the prize money; each competition therefore offers a cost‐effective incentive toward a goal that is socially worthwhile or of genuine public interest.

Challenge prizes have a long history dating back to the famous Longitude Prize established by the U.K. government in 1714. Two century later, another prize stimulated Lindberg’s solo transatlantic flight. More recently there have been prizes for sub‐orbital space flight, driverless cars, robots that operate in hazardous environments, and so forth. (And some haven’t been won. Over a century ago a French foundation offered 100,000 francs for the first detection of extra‐terrestrial life: moreover finding it on Mars wouldn’t count as it was deemed too easy!) As compared to usual forms of funding, these prizes encourage mavericks. They can also attract public interest: those in robotics, for instance, can be a spectator sport where progress towards a target can be followed year by year.

Today’s world is dependent on the benign application of our scientific knowledge; meeting the 21st-century challenges of providing global energy, health, and a sustainable environment require future advances, too. It’s crucial to deploy resources optimally and to offer novel incentives—in money, prestige and satisfaction—to research groups and to encourage the aspiration of the younger generation to develop and apply their talents to enhance human benefit and understanding.

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New maps of ancient warming reveal strong response to carbon dioxide

About 42% of adults in the United States are obese, which increases the risk of developing chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer, and other conditions. While popular healthy diet mantras warn against midnight snacking, few studies have thoroughly studied the combined impacts of late dining on the three key factors in body weight regulation and therefore obesity risk: calorie intake regulation, calorie burn, and molecular changes in fat tissue.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding institution of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, discovered in a recent study that the timing of meals has a big impact on our energy expenditure, appetite, and molecular pathways in adipose tissue. Their findings were recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism. 

“We wanted to test the mechanisms that may explain why late eating increases obesity risk,” explained senior author Frank A. J. L. Scheer, Ph.D., Director of the Medical Chronobiology Program in the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. “Previous research by us and others had shown that late eating is associated with increased obesity risk, increased body fat, and impaired weight loss success. We wanted to understand why.”

“In this study, we asked, ‘Does the time that we eat matter when everything else is kept consistent?’” said first author Nina Vujović, Ph.D., a researcher in the Medical Chronobiology Program in the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. “And we found that eating four hours later makes a significant difference for our hunger levels, the way we burn calories after we eat, and the way we store fat.”

A total of 16 individuals with a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight or obese range were examined by Vujovi, Scheer, and their colleagues. Every participant completed two lab protocols: one with a rigidly planned early meal schedule and the other with the exact same meals, each set for around four hours later in the day.

Participants maintained set sleep and waking times for the last two to three weeks before beginning each of the in-laboratory protocols, and they closely followed similar diets and meal schedules at home for the last three days before entering the laboratory. In the lab, participants underwent regular body temperature and energy expenditure monitoring, frequent small blood sample collection throughout the day, and regularly recorded their hunger and appetite.

To measure how eating time affected molecular pathways involved in adipogenesis, or how the body stores fat, investigators collected biopsies of adipose tissue from a subset of participants during laboratory testing in both the early and late eating protocols, to enable comparison of gene expression patterns/levels between these two eating conditions.

Results revealed that eating later had profound effects on hunger and appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin, which influence our drive to eat. Specifically, levels of the hormone leptin, which signals satiety, were decreased across the 24 hours in the late eating condition compared to the early eating conditions. When participants ate later, they also burned calories at a slower rate and exhibited adipose tissue gene expression towards increased adipogenesis and decreased lipolysis, which promote fat growth. Notably, these findings convey converging physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying the correlation between late eating and increased obesity risk.

Vujović explains that these findings are not only consistent with a large body of research suggesting that eating later may increase one’s likelihood of developing obesity, but they shed new light on how this might occur. By using a randomized crossover study, and tightly controlling for behavioral and environmental factors such as physical activity, posture, sleep, and light exposure, investigators were able to detect changes in the different control systems involved in energy balance, a marker of how our bodies use the food we consume.

In future studies, Scheer’s team aims to recruit more women to increase the generalizability of their findings to a broader population. While this study cohort included only five female participants, the study was set up to control for the menstrual phase, reducing confounding but making recruiting women more difficult. Going forward, Scheer and Vujović are also interested in better understanding the effects of the relationship between meal time and bedtime on energy balance.

“This study shows the impact of late versus early eating. Here, we isolated these effects by controlling for confounding variables like caloric intake, physical activity, sleep, and light exposure, but in real life, many of these factors may themselves be influenced by meal timing,” said Scheer. “In larger scale studies, where tight control of all these factors is not feasible, we must at least consider how other behavioral and environmental variables alter these biological pathways underlying obesity risk. ”

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Leftover hardware from Mars mission to be used on the Moon

Why the US is suffering a widespread drought

SpaceX becomes NASA’s second-largest vendor, surpassing Boeing

If this sounds like an engineering challenge too far, it’s not. The Swansea Bay tidal lagoon in South Wales might have taken as little as three years to start generating power if approved. Yet it was never built. The issue? Money. The UK government turned down the £1.3 billion ($1.46 billion) project in 2018 on the grounds that it was too expensive.

Tidal power has a high price tag. But if government support got behind it, it could follow wind and solar energy to become a cheap, clean, and essential energy source. With global energy demand expected to double by 2050, consistent clean power sources like tidal will increasingly be needed to underpin renewables like wind and solar that fluctuate with the weather. It’s either that or a return to fossil fuels. “From an energy-security point of view, adding tidal stream turbines to the renewable mix is a really interesting proposition,” says Danny Coles, a research fellow at the University of Plymouth. Interesting, yes. But after decades of work, major questions remain over how best to harness the power of the waves.

In the UK, the favored way of generating electricity from the sea is to use tidal stream technology—turbines fixed to the seabed that capture energy from the fast, horizontal flow of water near the coast. But the tidal stream industry is in its infancy, and investment is high-risk.

To lure in more investors, the industry needs to show that turbines can generate power over long periods without excessive maintenance and that costs will continue to fall, says Coles. That’s easier said than done. In a review published last year, Coles and his colleagues estimated that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for UK tidal stream power—that is, the price that the energy needs to be sold at to cover the lifetime costs of producing it—is currently £240 ($271) per megawatt-hour. In comparison, the LCOE for offshore wind in the UK is estimated at £121 per MWh in 2020, and it could be half that by 2025.

Government subsidies would help. Between 2013 and 2020, subsidies for solar power in the UK helped reduce its cost by 60 percent and increase output six-fold. Since 2014, the government has auctioned off contracts where it buys green energy for a fixed price to make entering the renewables sector economically viable. But state support in tidal energy—in the UK and beyond—has been spasmodic at best. Only in the most recent auction round did the UK government offer contracts to tidal projects, and the commitment was small: £20 million for tidal power a year out of a total subsidy budget of £285 million.

The figures might not add up now, but the amount of untapped energy available ought to be hard to ignore. Coles and his colleagues found that tidal stream power has the potential to meet 11 percent of the UK’s current annual electricity demand, or 11.5 gigawatts. But according to the trade association Renewable UK, only six projects are fully or partially operational, producing a total of 10.6 megawatts—or less than 0.1 percent of what’s said to be possible. Further projects with a capacity of 370 megawatts have been approved, but even if built, the UK would still only be capturing roughly 3 percent of the energy reportedly available.

Yet the UK is ideally placed to show the world the potential of tidal energy. It also has some of the largest tidal ranges in the world, which are ripe to be exploited in a different way. “At the moment, the government is not considering tidal range. And that, in my view, is a very big mistake,” says Roger Falconer, emeritus professor of water and environmental engineering at Cardiff University in Wales.

Where the difference between high tide and low tide is great, barrages—large dam-like structures that stretch across a bay or river estuary—could capture the tide’s energy as it goes in and out. Unlike with the tidal stream approach, which places turbines in open water, with a barrage the turbines are built into the structure, which forces the water to pass through the turbines when the tide goes out. Because the turbines are protected in a sturdy concrete structure, they are easier to maintain and would only need to be replaced every 40 years or so, compared with exposed tidal stream turbines like those in the UK’s current tidal projects, which last about 20 years.

But these megastructures aren’t cheap. A power station at the mouth of the Rance River in Brittany, France, uses a barrage. Built in 1966, it’s still in operation, and for a long time it was the world’s largest tidal barrage power plant: Its 24 turbines produce enough electricity for 225,000 people. It cost $115 million (around $1 billion in today’s money). In 2011 it was surpassed by a plant on Sihwa Lake, an enclosed body of water created by a tidal barrage in South Korea, which produces 10 percent more electricity each year than La Rance. That plant cost $560 million—or $739 million in today’s money.

If the location isn’t right for a barrage, it’s also theoretically possible to build a semicircular seawall out into the sea to create a lagoon that traps water—what’s essentially a gigantic, sci-fi sea dam. As the tide recedes, a difference in water level builds between the lagoon and the surrounding water. Once the difference is large enough, sluice gates open so that the water rushes through the gaps and sets underwater turbines in motion. The proposed Swansea project would have done this, albeit on a smaller scale.

Though that lagoon failed to get funding, Falconer is helping to develop another tidal lagoon in the Bristol Channel that could generate 6.5 terawatt-hours of electricity per year. That’s a lot less than the two new nuclear reactors being built up the coast at Hinkley Point, which will generate 25 terawatt-hours a year. But the Hinkley reactors are much more expensive: They’ll cost £26 billion ($29 billion) and last 60 years, whereas the tidal lagoon would cost £8.5 billion and last at least twice as long, Falconer says. Harnessing the power of tidal ranges might be expensive, but the up-front cost could still come in well below other consistent means of energy production, like nuclear.

But tidal projects haven’t just fallen through due to lack of funding—there are environmental concerns too. The UK’s most ambitious tidal proposal—a £30 billion project harnessing the enormous tidal power of the Severn Estuary, which would link the English and Welsh coasts with a barrage—was abandoned in 2010, partly to avoid disrupting birds that feed and winter in the area. (The project has been back on the agenda since March 2022, however, when a coalition of local authorities, businesses, and scientists set up an independent commission to reconsider it.)

Fears that turbine blades can injure marine animals have also been a dampener. In 2021, a 37-year-old tidal power plant in Canada was shut down partly because the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had found that the plant’s turbine was killing fish. Turbines can also disrupt the mixing of water between the seabed and the surface, which is important for cycling nutrients in the sea and sustaining the food web.

But research suggests such environmental costs are, on balance, worth it: In a 2018 study, Michela De Dominicis and her colleagues at the UK’s National Oceanography Center showed that even if some 19,000 turbines were installed in Scottish waters and water mixing was disrupted, this would still have a net positive environmental impact because of the clean energy generated. “We are perturbing the environment by putting many turbines in the water, but at the same time, it’s something that is going to reduce climate change,” De Dominicis says.

Yes, tidal power remains expensive, but then so were solar and wind power just a few years ago. Then along came subsidies, up went investment and adoption, and the rest is history. And unlike so many other renewable energy sources, tidal has one big advantage: The sea never stops churning. “Tidal energy can complement wind and solar to provide benefits to the energy system as a whole,” says Coles.

The World Needs More Gigantic Sci-Fi Sea Dams

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He's struggling to get to work after a car accident. He's thinking of walking into traffic to kill himself.

Crisis counselor Ariana Diaz, 24, murmurs and reassures him, gently asking about his life: "What are some things that have brought you joy?"

Diaz works at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, a nonprofit that answers calls in Hillsborough and Charlotte counties from those who contact 988, the national suicide prevention hotline.

"Have you ever attempted to end your life?" she asks. "Is there anything that eases the pain of what you're going through?"

Calls like this can last an hour or longer. And they're becoming more frequent, meaning more callers may not get an immediate answer.

Since 988 launched in mid-July, replacing the original 10-digit suicide hotline, calls have surged at the Tampa center. It used to receive an average of 80 to 100 per week. Now, it gets up to 400.

The influx has been overwhelming. Before 988, the center answered almost all suicide and mental health crisis calls. The rate has since dropped to 60%. More people are being redirected to backup call-takers, some of whom may be unfamiliar with the local health care system and what support is available for those in distress—or more callers are hanging up before they can get help.

The crisis center is racing to hire additional staff, hoping to boost its answer rate and prevent burnout among employees.

Diaz is a University of South Florida student who studies psychology. She plays The Sims to relax and keeps a pineapple-shaped stress ball on her desk at work.

"Some people's stories are really difficult," she says.

The original 24/7 suicide prevention hotline launched in 2005.

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and New York nonprofit Vibrant Emotional Health set up the number, 1-800-273-8255.

Fifteen years later, and after a steady rise in national suicide rates, a bipartisan bill in Congress sought to make it easier to reach the hundreds of crisis counselors who offer confidential support to callers. The hotline's new dialing code would be simple, memorable: 988. It rolled out July 16.

Since then, calls have inundated the more than 200 centers across the country that answer the toll-free hotline. Federal officials have yet to heavily promote 988 via a marketing campaign, but news stories, social media and celebrities have drawn attention to it.

In August, calls to the hotline spiked almost 50% in the U.S. when compared to last year. Florida also reported a nearly 50% increase in calls, with 12,300 routed to the state's 12 centers. (A thirteenth center started to answer calls earlier this month).

Local centers are struggling with the heightened interest and changes to areas they cover.

Before 988, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay was the main call center for Hillsborough County, but now it's responsible for both Hillsborough and Charlotte counties.

If the center doesn't answer a call within two minutes, it gets bumped to backup counselors.

Last year, Largo area nonprofit 211 Tampa Bay Cares was a backup call center for Pinellas County. In August, it became the primary center for nine counties, including Pinellas and Pasco.

211 Tampa Bay Cares used to receive up to 500 suicide and mental health crisis calls a month. Now, it gets as many as 1,700.

The rate of calls answered by the nonprofit has fallen from 65% to 30%. Many are being redirected to backup counselors, some of whom are outside the area, which isn't ideal.

When local call-takers pick up, they know which mental health resources are available in Tampa Bay. Counselors elsewhere might not.

The stakes are high. In 2021, there were 497 suicides reported among Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco residents—nearly triple the number of homicides, according to preliminary data from the Florida Department of Health.

Nationally, suicide was the 12th leading cause of death during the first year of the pandemic, claiming almost 46,000 lives.

Diaz sits nearly motionless at her desk in the Tampa crisis center. The first-floor room is quiet on a recent Wednesday afternoon, filled with sunshine, rows of computers and muffled conversation.

Wearing a headset, Diaz stares at her laptop and types up details about the man on the phone, who is experiencing suicidal thoughts.

He's in Southwest Florida. He has two children. He wants help.

Diaz, an intervention specialist who started at the center in February, tells him he's resilient. She directs him to Catholic Charities and a legal aid organization, where he can seek assistance after his car accident.

Mostly, she just listens.

It's important to make callers feel heard. Feel validated. Many just want a sympathetic ear.

"I'm glad that you called," Diaz says. "What do you feel like you're going to do for the rest of the day to stay safe?"

The man calms down, and the call ends after an hour and nine minutes.

"I feel like I was able to help," Diaz says.

The goal is to hire and train more people like Diaz, given the deluge of calls.

In late August, local centers received federal grant money to do so.

211 Tampa Bay Cares, which got more than $800,000, is hiring 12 people. They'll be paid $25 an hour, and many will start answering calls in the coming weeks.

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay plans to hire 10. They'll earn between $18 and $20 an hour.

It's "gut-wrenching work," and recruitment can be difficult. It'll take months to fill the open positions and train hires, says Clara Reynolds, CEO and president of the crisis center, which received over $750,000.

Turnover also is an issue. Typically, she says, call-takers burn out after six months or a year. They're prone to compassion fatigue after deescalating emotional crises again and again.

Everyone finds a way to cope with the stress for as long as possible. At the crisis center, Nijah Slaughter drinks green tea and listens to R&B. She loves Chris Brown, Brandy, Tamar Braxton.

She also checks in with her coworkers. If someone's on a long call, she'll send them a message, asking if they're OK.

"We kind of feed off each other," says Slaughter, a lead intervention specialist who has worked at the center since March.

It's a tough job. Not knowing what happens after a call ends is the hardest part, she says. But trying to help those in distress makes it worthwhile. Some callers don't feel comfortable talking with friends or family, so they turn to 988 instead.

To help counter burnout, the center has a "self-care room" where employees can watch TV or play board games.

At 211 Tampa Bay Cares, leaders are beginning to host open forums for staff to discuss challenges.

"We want to know, 'What's the trend? What're you hearing? What tools do you wish you had that you didn't get?'" says Edward Perry, vice president of programs and services. "'Is there anything y'all want to put on the table that you're concerned about?'"

At the Tampa crisis center, another 988 call comes in.

Slaughter, 32, picks up. It's a local woman. Her adult son in Southeast Florida is suicidal. He told his family he's ready to die and has prepared a bank account for his kids.

"OK, so this is happening right now, and you stated that you have an address for him, so you may have to call 911," Slaughter says.

She pauses.

"Definitely call 911."

The call ends, and Slaughter looks at a Tampa Bay Times reporter who is visiting the center. When someone calls on behalf of a family member, and the situation is dire, counselors urge them to contact first responders.

"I pray that he's still here," she says, "and they can get help to him immediately."

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or chat with someone online at 988lifeline.org.

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ANSWER: When a loved one is affected by depression, it can be difficult to understand what is happening or what you can do to help. It is OK to be confused and wonder how you can assist.

Clinical depression is an incredibly complex and individualized process. Understanding depression spans multiple levels of knowledge, from genetics and brain biology to culture and situational stress. Yet despite all the information, universal truths or simple solutions do not exist.

Downward spiral of depression

Gaining perspective on what your brother is experiencing can be critical to the support process. Visualizing depression as a downward spiral is one way to simplify and understand clinical depression.

The downward spiral may begin with the person feeling worse than usual from physical, social or psychological stressors. A worsened mood may lead to taking part in fewer meaningful day-to-day activities. Self-criticism and stress increase due to mounting responsibilities or missed opportunities. Depressive thinking may encompass guilty thoughts, pessimism and irritable behavior.

As the spiral develops, a complex dynamic emerges. Your loved one becomes increasingly stressed while simultaneously less capable of coping with this stress. The response of the brain to this dynamic is to slow, stop and depress. A person can get stuck at the bottom of the spiral for weeks, months or years.

The silver lining is that if people can spiral down, they can spiral back up. However, depression affects the motivation, energy and curiosity needed to spiral up.

It is challenging not to be able to fix a loved one's depression. But you can help them get started to move on an upward path and support them in their journey.

Here are some suggestions to offer support and understanding:

Learn the symptoms of depression

Depression signs and symptoms vary from person to person and can include:

•     Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness.

•     Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters.

•     Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities.

•     Insomnia or sleeping too much.

•     Tiredness and lack of energy. Even small tasks take extra effort.

•     Changes in appetite—reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain.

•     Anxiety, agitation or restlessness.

•     Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements.

•     Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or taking unnecessary blame for things.

•     Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things.

•     Frequent or recurrent mention of death, suicidal thoughts or attempts.

Symptoms can be severe enough to cause noticeable problems in day-to-day activities, such as work, school, social activities or relationships. Other people may generally feel miserable or unhappy without knowing why.

Children and teens may show depression by being irritable or cranky rather than sad. Clinical depression does not require profound sadness or intensely negative feelings. Rather it can be a lack of positive emotion.

Encourage treatment for symptoms

People with depression may not recognize or acknowledge their symptoms. They may have difficulty seeing the point of getting treatment. This is where you can be most helpful.

Consider the following:

•     Talk to your brother about what you've noticed and why you're concerned.

•     Explain that depression is a complex condition—not a personal flaw or weakness—and that effective treatment exists.

•     Suggest seeking help from a health care or a mental health professional, such as a licensed counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist.

•     Express your willingness to help by setting up appointments, going to them and attending family therapy sessions.

Provide support to reinforce healing

You can assist your loved one in the healing process.

Consider these ideas:

•     Encourage sticking with treatment.Help your brother to take prescribed medications and keep appointments.

•     Be willing to listen—when desired.When your brother wants to talk, listen carefully and intently. Avoid giving too much advice or too       many opinions, or making judgments. Just listening can be a powerful tool.

•     Give positive reinforcement.Remind your brother about his positive qualities and how much he means to you and others.

•     Offer assistance.Certain tasks for your brother may be hard to do. Suggest specific tasks you'd be willing to take on.

•     Help establish a routine.Someone who's depressed can benefit from having a routine or increased structure. This is because it can be difficult for a person with depression to make spontaneous healthy choices, so advance plans or everyday habits become crucial. Offer to make a schedule for meals, medication, physical activity, sleep, outside time or time in nature, and household chores.

•     Locate helpful local organizations.Access and affordability for mental health treatment can be burdensome. You may be able to use help from resources such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, employee assistance programs, or other community-based groups or programs.

•     Make plans together.Ask your brother to join you on a walk, see a movie, or work together on a hobby or other activity. But don't try to force him into doing something.

•     Be patient.For some people, symptoms can quickly improve after starting treatment. For others, it will take much longer.

Be aware of suicide risk

People with depression are at an increased risk of suicide. If you believe your brother's illness is severe or in a potentially life-threatening emergency, you may need to:

•     Contact a health care professional or hospital.

•     Call 911.

•     Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. To reach the Veterans Crisis Line, use the same number and press "1."

What you can do for yourself

Supporting someone with depression is challenging. Part of the challenge is witnessing a loved one's struggle and knowing you cannot complete the path for that person. Understand that emotions such as frustration, helplessness or anger may be natural responses to a loved one having depression.

Practice acceptance and coping with difficult emotions by permitting yourself to prioritize your mental health. Devote time for hobbies, meaningful experiences, physical activity and other valued relationships. —Dr. Erik Wing, Psychology, Mayo Clinic Health System, La Crosse, Wisconsin

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Between working, taking care of her children, caring for relatives and shuttling her kids to activities, she didn't work out much. That changed, however, last month when the Niles woman and her 13-year-old daughter joined a Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine clinical trial focused on getting South Asian women—who have high rates of diabetes and other ailments—to exercise more.

Now Patel and her daughter participate in weekly Zoom workout classes and discussions about culture, exercise and health with other Chicago-area South Asian mothers and daughters.

"I wanted to make sure that I'm healthy so it helps me throughout my whole life, and I can also teach my kids, as they are growing up, to understand," said Patel, who moved to the U.S. from India about 15 years ago.

Patel and her daughter are among 60 mother and daughter pairs who are part of the ongoing, community-based clinical trial, which Dr. Namratha Kandula started about three years ago. She and other researchers embarked on the project in hopes of finding a way to address high rates of diabetes, gestational diabetes and cardiovascular issues among South Asian women in the U.S.

About 23.3% of South Asian people in a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults had diabetes between 2011 and 2016, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. By comparison, 12.1% of white people, 20.4% of Black people and 22.1% of Hispanic people surveyed had diabetes during that same time.

Researchers don't fully understand why South Asian people get diabetes at such high rates, but say a number of factors may be to blame.

South Asian people carry weight differently than other groups, more often around their abdomens rather than in their legs or hips, said Kandula, who is a professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Feinberg. It may also be because of the foods popular among South Asian cultures. They also may not exercise much.

The reasons for not exercising vary, especially by South Asian culture, Kandula said. South Asian people are a diverse group who hail from countries including Bangledesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

"Women and girls of South Asian backgrounds face some really distinct barriers to being able to exercise and be physically active," Kandula said.

Depending on the culture, some South Asian women may not want to wear immodest workout gear in public, or may feel self-conscious going to a gym in traditional clothes.

Some may not want to go to a class that resembles dancing. In the study, one group of Muslim South Indian women chose not to have music during their workout classes, Kandula said.

There's also a belief in some South Asian cultures that the only reason to exercise is to lose weight, so thin people don't need to hit the gym, Kandula said.

Still, there's perhaps an even more common reason many South Asian women don't exercise more: a lack of time.

Shazia Fazal, of Rogers Park, said she didn't think much about her health before joining the study. She was too busy taking care of her kids, her husband and her home, she said. She eventually was told she had prediabetes.

She learned through the study's exercise classes and discussions that it's important to take time for her own health, she said.

"We spend all day with those things and we have no time for ourselves," said Fazal, who moved to the U.S. from Pakistan about 20 years ago. "We should have time for ourselves too. We just do those things and we forget."

Exercise may not be a priority for many South Asian people, especially those who were immigrants, because they're so focused on education and on providing for their families, to ensure their kids get the kinds of lives that prompted their moves to the U.S. in the first place, Kandula said.

"I think South Asian people, they work hard," said Shabana Saleem, of Skokie, who is participating in the study. "They don't take time for themselves. They think they can make money here and they work hard because they are making money for their kids."

The study aims to see if offering workout classes and discussions for South Asian women and their daughters increases physical activity over the long-term, increases the women's confidence to exercise, and increases communication between mothers and daughters about health and physical activity.

For the study, half the participants are put into an intervention group, in which the mothers participate in exercise classes twice a week and the daughters, ages 11 to 16, once a week, and they also take part in group Zoom discussions. The classes and discussions last for 18 weeks. The other mother-daughter pairs are put into a control group, in which they get only pamphlets about the importance of exercise.

Researchers measure the mothers' and daughters' physical activity levels through wearable monitors, and take their blood pressure and weight before they start the classes, after the classes end and then again a year after they first joined the study.

The Skokie Park District, the Skokie health department, Metropolitan Asian Family Services and Skokie-Morton Grove School District 69 are partnering with Northwestern on the study, helping to recruit participants and providing input on the research design.

"Our health is the least priority, is the last thing we think about," said Subia Javed, a family liaison for District 69, who's been helping to recruit study participants and coordinate activities. "This is really important to encourage them and make them physically active, otherwise we have diabetes and heart issues at an early age."

Study participant Saleem said since she started taking the classes, she's lost weight and her health has improved. She's also enjoyed doing the exercise classes with her 13-year-old daughter—her youngest child who is otherwise often busy.

"We get the bonding," Saleem said. "I can spend my time with her."

Fazal's daughter, 15-year-old Rania Zubair, said she's enjoying spending time with her mom and being physically active, especially after getting "lazy" during the height of COVID-19.

"It's really fun," Zubair said. Exercising is important for physical and mental health, she said.

Fazal said since starting the classes her cholesterol level has gone down. The study gave her and her daughter a reason to exercise, knowing that they were expected in the class each week. It held them accountable and helped them think about the importance of staying physically active, she said.

"Before, I didn't think much about my health," Fazal said. "Through this class, we were much more active than before."

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FULL STORY:

An international coalition of researchers says in a report published today that the Earth's vital signs have worsened to the point that "humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency."

The report, "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022," published in the journal BioScience, notes that 16 of 35 planetary vital signs the authors use to track climate change are at record extremes.

The report's authors share new data illustrating increasing frequency of extreme heat events, rising global tree cover loss because of fires, and a greater prevalence of the mosquito-borne dengue virus.

They also note large increases in fossil fuel energy consumption following COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns -- despite an upswing in commitments for fossil fuel divestment -- and a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to 418 parts per million, the highest on record.

William Ripple, a distinguished professor in the OSU College of Forestry, and postdoctoral researcher Christopher Wolf are the lead authors of the report, and 10 other U.S. and global scientists are co-authors. The report follows by five years the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" published by Ripple in in BioScience and co-signed by more than 15,000 scientists in 184 countries.

"As we can see by the annual surges in climate disasters, we are now in the midst of a major climate crisis, with far worse to come if we keep doing things the way we've been doing them," Wolf said. "We implore our fellow scientists to join us in advocating for research-based approaches to climate and environmental decision-making."

Other co-authors of the report are from UCLA, the University of Sydney, Independent University Bangladesh, the University of Cambridge, the University of Exeter, Bezos Earth Fund and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

"Climate change is not a standalone issue," said Saleemul Huq of Independent University Bangladesh. "It is part of a larger systemic problem of ecological overshoot where human demand is exceeding the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. To avoid more untold human suffering, we need to protect nature, eliminate most fossil fuel emissions and support socially just climate adaptations with a focus on low-income areas that are most vulnerable."

The report points out that in the three decades since more than 1,700 scientists signed the original "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" in 1992, global greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 40%.

"As Earth's temperatures are creeping up, the frequency or magnitude of some types of climate disasters may actually be leaping up," said the University of Sydney's Thomas Newsome. "We urge our fellow scientists around the world to speak out on climate change."

In addition to Wolf and Ripple, three other OSU scientists are co-authors of the paper: Jillian Gregg, Matthew Betts and Beverly Law.

"World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022" is an update of a paper published in BioScience three years ago. The Alliance of World Scientists, an independent organization formed to be a collective voice on environmental sustainability and human well-being, continues to collect co-signers on the 2019 paper. To date more than 14,000 scientists from 158 countries have signed.

Ongoing work to spur climate change action by scientists around the world is chronicled in a new 35-minute documentary film "The Scientist's Warning." The film, by Oregon State Productions, is now available for free online viewing (see: https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/) following its Oct. 14 premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California.

"The Scientist's Warning" also chronicles Ripple's personal journey: from a rural, low-income childhood in South Dakota in the 1950s to becoming an ecologist in Yellowstone to assuming a role as a global advocate for using science to make informed policy decisions.

"Look at all of these fires, floods and massive storms," Ripple said. "The specter of climate change is at the door and pounding hard."

Oregon State Productions makes films as part of the university's mission to educate the public about critical issues facing our planet and highlight those working to make a difference. Its portfolio includes the feature-length documentary "Saving Atlantis," which tells the story of the world's declining coral reefs and some of the people working to save them.

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