The vegetable that grew to become a social media phenomenon
Early human civilisations, including the Olmecs and Maya, played a crucial role in the avocado's survival by cultivating and selecting for desirable fruit traits.
Initial attempts to establish avocados in the United States, particularly in Florida, were unsuccessful, but later efforts in California introduced cold-hardy varieties like the Fuerte.
The globally popular Hass avocado was developed by Rudolph Hass in the late 1920s, named after him because his children favoured its unique fruit.
Despite patenting the Hass tree in 1935, Rudolph Hass earned very little from his invention, even as his variety became the dominant avocado in the market.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Scientists identify cause of sea star epidemic along North America's Pacific coast
Scientists have identified a specific bacterium, Vibrio pectenicida, as the cause of the devastating sea star wasting disease that has killed over five billion sea stars off North America's Pacific coast since 2013. The disease, which causes lesions and arm loss, has severely impacted over 20 species, with the sunflower sea star losing approximately 90 percent of its population within five years. The breakthrough, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, involved meticulously analyzing the coelomic fluid of sea stars, overcoming previous false leads that focused on dead tissue samples. Identifying the bacterium provides a crucial step for intervention, allowing scientists to test remaining sea stars, consider relocation or captive breeding, and investigate natural immunity or probiotic treatments. The recovery of sea star populations is vital for the Pacific ecosystem, as their decline led to an explosion in sea urchins, which subsequently decimated 95 percent of Northern California 's kelp forests.
Times
a day ago
- Times
Boeing and Airbus ground green plane projects
Two years ago, Boeing pulled an airliner out of the Victorville 'boneyard' in California — one of the giant desert storage lots for unwanted aircraft — and flew it 50 miles west to a classified plant for some radical surgery. The 25-year-old MD-90, which in its former life carried passengers for Delta Air Lines and China Southern, was to be the test bed for technology that would cut the greenhouse gases emitted by future aircraft. Its existing wings were to be cut off and replaced with long, thin versions supported by struts projecting from the bottom of a new, deeper fuselage. Boeing and Nasa, which was funding the work, had high hopes for the X-66A, as the plane was renamed. Or they did until four months ago, when the project was abruptly put on ice. Two months earlier, something similar happened to one of Europe's big environmental projects. In February, Airbus said it would 'pause' development of the ZEROe hydrogen plane, an aircraft with no carbon emissions that it had planned to have in service by 2035. The two manufacturers enjoy a near-duopoly in the airliner market, and delays to their flagship green programmes have sounded an alarm on airlines' plans to get to net zero — adding no additional carbon to the atmosphere — by 2050. 'The airline industry does in my view have a serious intent to meet net-zero targets but faces increased challenges in doing so', John Strickland, an independent aviation consultant, said. 'Alternative technologies are being pushed further out, which means an increased emphasis on the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which is still in limited supply.' The delays may also create another obstacle to the planned expansion of Heathrow. The airport said on August 1 that it would 'only deliver expansion in a way that is consistent with net zero 2050'. And some analysts believe the hold-up increases the chances of a challenge to Boeing and Airbus from new entrants more eager to take up the environmental mantle. Aviation is estimated by the International Energy Agency to account for 2.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, with a slightly greater — 4 per cent — contribution to global warming thanks to the creation of vapour trails. In the UK, it has a greater share of direct emissions: 9 per cent this year, according to the Climate Change Committee, the government's independent advisers. That share is forecast to grow to 11 per cent by 2030 and 16 per cent by 2035. That global emissions share is also likely to increase. After a severe decline during the pandemic, flights are now increasing fast. Iata, the airline trade body, has said passenger numbers will grow nearly 6 per cent this year to just under 5 billion and could hit 16 billion by 2050. As other energy-intensive industries find ways to cut their carbon emissions — electricity replacing blast furnaces in steel, new technology for making cement, and electric vehicles for land transport — aviation's share of total CO₂ could, by some estimates, rise to 20 per cent by 2050. Carbon-cutting technology for aviation is proving slow to arrive. Most experts think battery-power will be limited to small commuter aircraft, but there are high hopes for hydrogen. Airbus had invested significantly, including a plan to test a hydrogen fuel-cell engine on a modified A380 superjumbo. But it paused work in February, saying progress on 'key enablers', in particular the production of large amounts of hydrogen from renewable energy, was 'slower than anticipated'. Boeing has been less interested in hydrogen, but said the X-66A could lead to a 10 per cent reduction in emissions. When it cancelled the project it said it would instead concentrate on other designs for thinner, more efficient wings. Neither manufacturer appears in any rush to bring out radical designs. Airbus's plan to replace its bestselling A320 family of aircraft envisages something familiar to passengers today, albeit with engines that can be powered by conventional fuels or 'sustainable' replacements. That plane is unlikely to enter service until 2035 at the earliest, and probably much later. Boeing, which has been beset by a series of crises in the past year, also appears to be in no hurry. At its quarterly results on July 29, chief executive Kelly Ortberg said: 'I don't think the market is ready yet for a new airplane.' • Boeing 737 Max 8: which airlines use the plane and is it safe? Slow progress on alternative technology means airlines' hopes rest on the rapid introduction of sustainable fuels — hydrocarbons not pumped from the ground, but made from plants or re-used oils, or directly synthesised. However, the current supply is tiny — a mere 0.53 per cent of total aviation fuel worldwide last year, according to Air Transport Action Group (Atag), which brings together airlines, airports and aerospace manufacturers. Atag's Waypoint 2050 report concluded that making enough sustainable fuel to hit net zero would require the construction of 5,000 refineries, costing $1.45 trillion over the next 25 years. IBA, the aviation consultancy, has forecast production of sustainable fuels will hit 18 million tonnes a year by 2035 — but that will be 23 million tonnes short of demand. Environmental campaigners are scornful. 'The only serious remedy [to increasing CO₂ emissions] is demand restraint,' Dr Douglas Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said. 'Everything else — the nonsensical offset schemes, the utopian technology forecasts and now the implausible optimism surrounding 'sustainable' aviation fuel — is primarily a collection of elaborate misdirection techniques.' If aviation's emissions do grow as a proportion of the total, Airbus and Boeing could face societal pressure to do more. Nick Cunningham, managing partner at Agency Partners, an aerospace analysis firm, recently published a note on how 'complacency' on decarbonisation posed an 'existential risk' to the companies. Cunningham said planemakers were understandably reluctant to make large investments in new technology. 'Boeing does not at the moment have the financial resources to develop an all-new aircraft. Airbus has reason to be wary because some of its development programmes — the A380 and the A400M for example — ended up way over budget.' • Net zero by 2050 struggles with reality The Chinese aerospace industry could be a potential challenger. There are now 16 Comac C919s, the first modern Chinese airliner, in service, with a second, larger aircraft, the C929, expected to begin commercial flights towards the end of the decade. Cunningham said, however, that carbon reduction is not China's main goal. 'There could be a challenge from China, but for the moment it is concentrating on replacing imports of western aerospace equipment,' he said. One potential rival to the Airbus-Boeing hegemony is JetZero, a California-based company set up in 2021. It has ambitious plans to build a radical new type of passenger aircraft: a blended wing body, where the wings and fuselage are one smooth shape. The Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber, used by the US Air Force in the recent attacks against Iran, is such a design. JetZero claims its design could cut emissions in half compared to conventional designs. It has secured backing from two big US carriers, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, including a commitment from them to buy aircraft. The USAF has awarded it a development contract for a potential new transport aircraft. 'JetZero is extremely interesting,' Cunningham said. 'The backing it has from airlines and the air force give it credibility, and it has very ambitious production plans. Its design would be more efficient than conventional aircraft, and crucially it would lend itself to a switch to hydrogen fuel when that is adopted.'
Medical News Today
2 days ago
- Medical News Today
Might a combination of 2 cancer drugs help treat Alzheimer's disease?
Researchers are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's diseaseOne current research avenue is to look at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach that is called drug repurposing. A new study has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease's symptoms. Researchers all over the world are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's disease — a form of dementia currently impacting about 32 million people globally. The medications used right now for Alzheimer's disease are designed to only help treat symptoms and slow disease progression. One avenue scientists are taking in an effort to find treatments for Alzheimer's disease is by looking at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach called drug repurposing. 'The idea of drug repurposing or identifying new uses for existing drugs, can speed up the drug discovery process because the compounds already have been tested for toxicity and adverse events,' Marina Sirota, PhD, professor and interim director of the University of California — San Francisco Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute explained to Medical News Today.'Alzheimer's disease is a complex disease, which is very difficult to treat so we need to use all the tools possible to speed up drug discovery and help patients,' said SirotaSirota is the co-senior author of a new study recently published in the journal Cellthat has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease's symptoms. Focusing on cancer drugs letrozole and irinotecanFor this study, researchers began by using past studies to assess how Alzheimer's disease changed gene expression in brain cells, mainly neurons and glia. 'Glia cells are non-neuronal cells that provide support and protection to neurons in the nervous system,' Sirota explained. 'By targeting both neuronal cells and non-neuronal cells (glia) we hope to be able to more comprehensively target disease pathophysiology.' From there, scientists then took the gene expression signatures they found and used a database called the ConnectivityMap, allowing them to examine thousands of drugs to find ones that reversed the Alzheimer's disease gene expression signature.'We started with a set of 1,300 drugs and narrowed it down to the combination of letrozole and irinotecan through data driven analysis using both molecular and clinical data,' Sirota said.'We first identified compounds that reversed the cell type specific disease signatures back to normal based on the gene expression profiles. We then further filtered the list to the candidates that affect several cell types,' she explained.'Then we wanted to see whether patients who are on those drugs already have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease by querying electronic medical records across the UC system,' she continued. 'This has allowed us to narrow our list down to a handful of drugs and focus on this combination.' The analysis of electronic medical records did indeed show that both drugs were associated with a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, confirming the of cancer drugs reverses brain cell damage, reduces protein build-up in mouse modelNext, researchers decided to test the combination of letrozole — used to treat breast cancer — and irinotecan — used to treat colorectal and lung cancer — in a mouse model of aggressive Alzheimer's disease. At the study's conclusion, Sirota and her team found that the drug combination overturned multiple aspects of Alzheimer's disease in the mouse model, including undoing the gene expression signature changes in the neurons and glia caused by the disease. Additionally, researchers found the combination cancer drugs helped reduce the amount of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain, which are known hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. 'This tells us that multiple levels of evidence — molecular data, clinical information and mouse model experiments are all aligning to tell us that these compounds might be helpful for Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota further noted that:'While we don't know the exact mechanism of how these drugs work to treat Alzheimer's disease, we know that irinotecan is a chemotherapy drug that works by inhibiting the enzyme DNA topoisomerase I, specifically targeting the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. Letrozole's mechanism of action involves inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which is crucial in the biosynthesis of estrogen.''However, we don't know whether it is the main aforementioned mechanisms or off-target effects of these drugs which might help Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota cautioned. 'Additional experiments need to be carried out to better understand how these two drugs might work together to combat Alzheimer's disease in patients.'Using 'big data' and inventive approaches to find potential Alzheimer's drug targetsMNT had the opportunity to speak with John Dickson, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, about this research. 'This is an interesting and innovative paper that uses 'big data' to aid in identifying potential drug targets to treat Alzheimer's disease and then tests candidates in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's disease,' Dickson, who was not involved in this research, said.'Combining the use of transcriptomic data from brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients, drug perturbation studies in cell lines, and patient data from electronic medical records was an inventive approach to identifying and narrowing down potential drug targets,' he Dickson's view, 'the decision to use a dual-therapy approach and plan to target multiple cell types with this strategy was also innovative.''The combination of drugs showed beneficial effects on the memory testing and neuropathological findings in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to identifying two potential candidate therapies for Alzheimer's disease, this paper also provides an experimental paradigm for identifying new drugs to treat a variety of conditions,' he look at repurposing existing drugs for Alzheimer's treatment? MNT also talked to Clifford Segil, DO, a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, about this study, who said it is refreshing to see data that supports improving memory loss through a novel mechanism that is not related to current therapies that work on brain acetylcholine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), or amyloid.'This study's design is smart and the data is captivating,' Segil, who likewise was not involved in the research, added. 'Repurposing medications already being used has been extremely rewarding in neurologists and I truly hope something grows out of this research.' And Peter Gliebus, MD, neurologist and director of cognitive and behavioral neurology at Marcus Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, also not involved in the research, commented to MNT that this was a promising and exciting study, and said that repurposing existing drugs offers several advantages. 'Faster development since these drugs already have established safety profiles, which reduces the time and cost required for clinical trials,' Gliebus noted.'Cost-effectiveness [is achieved] by avoiding the high expenses associated with developing new drugs from scratch. And [this approach has] a broader impact, as many existing drugs may have unexplored mechanisms that could address complex Alzheimer's disease pathologies, such as neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and metabolic deficits.''Given the high failure rate of Alzheimer's drug trials, repurposing provides a practical and efficient pathway to identify effective treatments,' the neurologist concluded.
