Tons of Invisible Plastic Pieces Lurk in Ocean Water
The ocean is also polluted with plastic, and the issue may be even more extensive than previously thought. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature estimates the volume of nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics and invisible to the naked eye, to be at least 27 million metric tons in North Atlantic seas — more than the weight of all wild land mammals.
'I've analyzed plastic in Swedish lakes, in urban and very remote air, but this was different,' said Dusan Materic, head of a microplastics and nanoplastics research group at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany and one of the lead authors of the analysis. 'It's a missing part of the plastics story that we are answering here.'
Nanoplastics are microscopic fragments smaller than one micrometer — roughly the size of small bacteria.
'People were concerned about nanoplastics in ocean water, but they didn't have the technology to see what they really looked like,' said Tengfei Luo, an engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame who was not involved in the new study. Last year, Dr. Luo was an author of a separate study in the journal Science Advances that was the first to successfully find nanoplastics in ocean water and show what they looked like.
'We all expected nanoplastics, the surprising part is the amount of it,' said Sophie ten Hietbrink, a doctoral student at Stockholm University in Sweden and a lead author of the study. She spent four weeks on a boat expedition collecting samples of water across nearly 3,500 nautical miles of coastlines and open ocean near Europe, led by Helge Niemann, a professor at Utrecht University and a scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.
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Best-ever map of the human genome sheds light on 'jumping genes,' 'junk DNA' and more
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Twenty-two years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, scientists have unveiled the most expansive catalog of human genetic variation ever compiled. Across two new papers published Wednesday (July 23) in the journal Nature, scientists sequenced the DNA of 1,084 people around the world. They leveraged recent technological advancements to analyze long stretches of genetic material from each person, stitched those fragments together and compared the resulting genomes in fine detail. The results deepen our understanding of "structural variants" within the human genome. Rather than affecting a single "letter" in DNA's code, such variations affect large chunks of the code — they may be deleted from or added to the genome, or encompass places where the DNA has been flipped around or moved to a different location. The studies have revealed "hidden" features of the human genome that were previously too technologically challenging to study, said Jan Korbel, the interim head of European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg, who is a co-author of both new papers. For instance, large portions of the genome contain codes that repeat over and over, and these were thought to be nonfunctional. "Some 20 years ago, we thought about this as 'junk DNA' — we gave it a very bad term," Korbel told Live Science. "There's more and more the realization that these sequences are not junk," and the new work sheds light on these long-maligned DNA sequences. Additionally, all of the data generated in the new studies are open access, so others in the field can now take "the findings, some of the tools we've developed and use them for their purposes to understand the genetic basis of disease," Korbel told Live Science. "I thoroughly believe that the advances that we're publishing in Nature today, a subset of these will also make it into diagnostics." Related: People's racial and ethnic identities don't reflect their genetic ancestry Over 1,000 genomes When the first draft of a "complete" human genome was published in 2003, it was actually missing about 15% of its sequence due to technological limitations of the time. In 2013, scientists managed to close that gap by about half. And finally, in 2022, the first "gapless" human genome was published. In 2023, researchers published the first draft of a human pangenome, which incorporated DNA from 47 people around the world, rather than predominantly being based on one person's DNA. And that same year, researchers published the first Y chromosome that had ever been sequenced from end to end, because the previous "gapless" genome was still missing the male sex chromosome. In the past few years, the field has continued to advance, thanks to new technologies and efforts to expand DNA sampling beyond populations of mostly European descent. Those advancements heralded the two papers published in Nature this week. In the first study, researchers sequenced the DNA of 1,019 people representing 26 populations across five continents. To analyze the DNA, the researchers collected "long reads," each composed of tens of thousands of base pairs; one base pair corresponds with one rung in the spiral ladder of a DNA molecule. "With short reads of around 100 base pairs, it is difficult to distinguish between genomic regions that look alike," explained study co-author Jesus Emiliano Sotelo-Fonseca, a doctoral student at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CGR) in Barcelona, Spain. That's especially true in repetitive regions of the genome. "With longer reads, of around 20k base pairs, assigning each read to a unique position in the genome gets much easier," he told Live Science in an email. More than half of the new genomic variation uncovered in the study was found in those tricky repetitive regions, including in transposons, also known as jumping genes. Transposons can leap to different locations in the genome, copying and pasting their code. Sometimes, depending on where they land, they can destabilize the genome, introduce harmful mutations and contribute to diseases like cancer. "Our study reveals that some of these transposons can hijack regulatory sequences to boost their activity, contributing to understanding the biological mechanisms behind their mutagenicity," or ability to trigger mutations, study co-author Bernardo Rodríguez-Martín, an independent fellow at CGR and a former postdoc in Korbel's EMBL lab, told Live Science in an email. The jumping genes can essentially hitch a ride with certain regulatory molecules — long noncoding RNAs — and use that trick to make far more copies of themselves than they usually would. "That's a very surprising mechanism to us," Korbel said. Related: Scientists just discovered a new way cells control their genes From 95% to 99% The second study featured far fewer genomes — only 65 in total — but sequenced those genomes more comprehensively than the first study did. The first study captured about 95% of each genome analyzed, while the second study generated 99%-complete genomes. "It might sound like a small difference, but it's huge actually from the perspective of the genome scientist," Korbel said. "To get the last few percentages, it's a major achievement." That leap required different sequencing techniques, as well as new analytical approaches. "This project used cutting-edge software to assemble genomes and identify genetic variation, much of which simply did not exist a few years ago," co-author Charles Lee, a professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, told Live Science in an email. The sequencing techniques included one that generated long reads with very few errors and one that generated ultralong reads that were slightly more error-prone. At the expense of analyzing fewer genomes, this approach nonetheless enabled the second study to capture stretches of DNA that were totally missed in the first, Rodríguez-Martín said. Those "hidden" regions included the centromeres, important structures at the centers of chromosomes that are key for cell division. As a cell prepares to split, fibers attach to the centromeres and then pull the chromosome in two. The study found that, in about 7% of centromeres, there are likely two places where these fibers can attach, instead of only one. "Could that mean that those chromosomes are more unstable? Because if the spindle [fiber] attaches to two points, it might get confused," Korbel said. That's a purely speculative idea, he added, but it's one that can now be explored. The next step will be to study the effects of these centromere variations experimentally, Lee agreed. Issues with chromosome splitting can lead to various conditions. For example, "Down syndrome is the result of a mistake of chromosome segregation during cell division in meiosis," when cells split to form sperm and eggs, co-author Dr. Miriam Konkel, an assistant professor at the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, told Live Science in an email. Like the first study, the second study also provided an unprecedented look at jumping genes, cataloging more than 12,900. Beyond cancer, jumping genes can also trigger various genetic diseases by causing mutations, as well as prompt more subtle changes in how genes are switched on and off, Konkel noted. A better understanding of the diversity of jumping genes can help unpack their function in human health and disease. Looking at both studies, scientists can now compare the newly sequenced genomes to other datasets that include both genome and health data, Korbel noted. This would be the first step toward linking the newfound structural variations to tangible health outcomes and, eventually, to incorporating those insights into medical practice. RELATED STORIES —Largest human family tree ever created retraces the history of our species —More than 150 'made-from-scratch' genes are in the human genome. 2 are totally unique to us. —As little as 1.5% of our genome is 'uniquely human' "Certain clinical studies will not be able to ignore these [sequencing] techniques because they will give them higher sensitivity to identify variation," Korbel said. "You don't want to miss variants." There's still more work to be done to improve the genomic data, as well, Lee added. More DNA could be incorporated from underrepresented populations, and the sequencing techniques and software could be further refined to make the process more efficient and accurate. But in the meantime, the pair of new studies marks a major technological feat. "These advanced tools were developed recently to handle the huge amounts of long-read data we are now using for each genome," Lee said. "A few years back, assembling a complete human chromosome from end to end, especially including centromeres, was virtually unattainable because the software and algorithms were not mature yet." Solve the daily Crossword
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Why we need to talk about periods, breasts and injuries in women's sport
The Euros are reaching their conclusion in a massive summer across women's sport. But away from the drama and excitement on the pitch, there is also a scientific revolution taking place. Teams of scientists are researching the unique ways that elite sport affects the female body – how breasts alter the way you run, but the right sports bra could give you the edge; how the menstrual cycle could impact performance and what role period trackers could play; and why is there a higher risk of some injuries, and what can be done to avoid them? It's a far cry from the era when professional female athletes told me they were thought of simply as "mini-men". Breast biomechanics Cast your mind back to the iconic scene from the final of the last European Championships in 2022. It was extra time at Wembley and Lioness Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal against Germany. In the ensuing euphoria, she whipped off her England shirt showing the world her sports bra. It was fitted by Prof Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, from the University of Portsmouth, who proudly goes by the nickname the Bra Professor. Here are her breast facts: Breasts can bounce an average of 11,000 times in a football match An average bounce is 8cm (3in) without appropriate support They move with up to 5G of force (five times the force of gravity), comparable to the experience of a Formula 1 driver Laboratory experiments – using motion sensors on the chest – have revealed how a shifting mass of breast tissue alters the movement of the rest of the body, and in turn, sporting performance. "For some women, their breasts can be really quite heavy and if that weight moves, it can change the movement of your torso, it can even change the amount of force that you exert on the ground," Prof Wakefield-Scurr tells me. Compensating for bouncing breasts by restricting the movement of your upper body alters the positioning of the pelvis and shortens the length of each stride. That's why sports bras are not just for comfort or fashion, but a piece of performance gear. "We actually saw that low breast support meant a reduction in stride length of four centimetres," Prof Wakefield-Scurr explains. "If you lost four centimetres every step in a marathon, it adds up to a mile." Sports bras also protect the delicate structures inside the breast, "if we stretch them, that's permanent," the professor says, so "it's about prevention rather than cure". The menstrual cycle and its effect on performance The menstrual cycle has a clear impact on the body – it can affect emotions, mood and sleep as well as cause fatigue, headache and cramps. But Calli Hauger-Thackery, a distance runner who has represented Team GB at the Olympics, says talking about its sporting impact is "still so taboo and it shouldn't be, because we're struggling with it". Calli says she always notices the difference in her body in the lead up to her period. "I'm feeling really fatigued, heavy legs, I [feel like I'm] almost running through mud sometimes, everything's more strained than it should be," she says. Calli finds she "lives" by her menstruation tracker, as being on her period is a source of anxiety "especially when I've got big races coming up". One of those big races was in April – the Boston Marathon – and Calli's period was due. She finished in sixth place, and recalls that she "luckily got through" - but says she can't help wondering if she could have done even better. Can elite sport damage women's fertility? Football boot issues reported by 82% of female players The menstrual cycle is orchestrated by the rhythmic fluctuations of two hormones – oestrogen and progesterone. But how big an impact can that have on athletic performance? "It's very individual and there's a lot of nuance here, it's not quite as simple as saying the menstrual cycle affects performance," says Prof Kirsty Elliott-Sale, who specialises in female endocrinology and exercise physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University. "Competitions, personal bests, world records, everything has been set, won and lost on every day of the menstrual cycle," she says. This famously includes Paula Radcliffe, who broke the marathon world record while running through period cramps in Chicago in 2002. Working out whether the menstrual cycle affects sporting ability requires an understanding of the physiological changes that hormones have throughout the body, the challenge of performing while experiencing symptoms, the psychological impact of the anxiety of competing during your period and perceptions about all of the above. Prof Elliott-Sale says there "isn't a phase where you're stronger or weaker", or where "you're going to win or you're going to lose", but in theory the hormones oestrogen and progesterone could alter parts of the body such as bone, muscle or heart. "What we don't yet understand is: Does that have a big enough effect to really impact performance?" she says. The professor adds that it is "a very sensible conclusion" that poor sleep, fatigue and cramping would have a knock-on effect on performance, and that dread and anxiety were an "absolutely tangible thing" for athletes on their period who are performing in front of large crowds. She has spoken to athletes who "sometimes even triple up with period pants" to avoid the risk of leaking and embarrassment, and "that's a heavy mental burden". Rugby union team, Sale Sharks Women have been working with Manchester Metropolitan University. I met Katy Daley-McLean, former England rugby captain and England all-time leading point scorer. The team are having open discussions around periods to help them understand the impact that menstruation can have, and how to plan for it. This includes taking ibuprofen three days before, rather than thinking: "I can't do anything about it," Daley-McLean says. "It's through that knowledge and that information that we can talk about this, we can put plans in place, and we can change our behaviour to make you a better rugby player," she says. How to avoid injuries One issue that has emerged as women's sport has been given more attention is a difference in the susceptibility to some injuries. Most of the attention has been around the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – a part of the knee that attaches the upper and lower parts of the leg together. Injuries can be brutal and take a year to recover from. Not only is the risk three to eight times greater in women than men, depending on the sport, but they are becoming more common, says Dr Thomas Dos'Santos, a sports biomechanics researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University. However, there is "no simple answer" to explain the greater risk in women, he says. Partly it could be down to differences in anatomy. Bigger hips in women mean the top of the thigh bone starts from a wider position and this changes the angle it connects to the lower leg at the knee, potentially increasing risk. The ACL is also slightly smaller in women "so it's a little bit weaker, potentially", Dr Dos'Santos explains. ACL injuries can happen at all stages of the menstrual cycle, but hormonal changes are also being investigated, including a study sponsored by Fifa, the governing body for world football. High levels of oestrogen prior to ovulation could alter the properties of ligaments, making them a bit more stretchy so "there could be an increased risk of injury, theoretically," he says. But Dr Dos'Santos argues it's important to think beyond pure anatomy as women still do not get the same quality of support and strength training as men. He compares it to ballet, where dancers do receive good quality training. "The [difference in] incidence rates is basically trivial between men and women," Dr Dos'Santos says. There is research into whether it is possible to minimise the risk of ACL injuries, by training female athletes to move in subtly different ways. But there is a risk of lessening performance, and some techniques that put strain on the ACL – like dropping the shoulder to deceive a defender before bursting off in another direction – are the necessary moves in sports like football. "We can't wrap them up in cotton wool and say you should avoid playing sport," Dr Dos'Santos says. "What we need to do is make sure that they're strong enough to tolerate those loads, but it isn't just as simple as some people saying we can 100% eradicate ACL injuries, we can't." No longer 'mini-men' Even though there are still many unanswered question, it is still a world of difference for Katy Daley-McLean at Sale Sharks Women. When she got her first cap in 2007, she remembers that all the assumptions around how her body would perform were based on the data from male rugby players. "We were literally treated as mini-men," Daley-McLean recalls. And now, she says, girls and women don't feel like the outsiders in sport, which is not only improving performance at the elite level but helping to keep more women in sport. "It's awesome, it's something to be celebrated because if you look at the stats, one of the biggest reasons young girls drop out of sport is body image, it's around periods and not having a correct sports bra, which is so easily sorted." 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Neither Scales Nor Feathers: Bizarre Appendage Discovered on Reptile Fossil
A bizarre reptile once scurried through the Triassic treetops with an extravagant crest on its back, one made from neither scale, nor bone, nor feather. The extinct creature's 247-million-year-old fossils immediately stood out to paleontologists. The impressive appendage on its back looks like a frill of overlapping feathers at first glance, but it's much older than the earliest fossilized feather, and there's no branching to indicate a plume. The elaborate structure also lacks bony spines, such as those seen in later dinosaurs, like Spinosaurus. Related: "This had to be something new," Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History paleontologist Stephan Spiekman told ScienceAlert. "Prior to our discovery, complex outgrowths from the skin were restricted to mammals and birds and their closest relatives, predominantly in the form of feathers and hair. "We now have another, different type of complex appendage, in a very early reptile." Long before dinosaurs evolved plumage, it appears that some early reptiles were already putting together a genetic toolkit for complex appendages. The dorsal crests discovered by Spiekman and his colleagues are "basically novel to science", so they don't yet have a name. In their study, the researchers essentially refer to them as skin outgrowths, but they aren't actually similar to reptile skin. Spiekman thinks the outgrowths may be made of keratin, similar to nails, hairs, scales, or claws. Confirming that suspicion will require further analysis. Altogether, Spiekman and his colleagues studied more than 80 fossils of the outgrowths, recently donated to the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany. The vast majority had lost their corresponding skeletons; only one of the fossils featured the bird-like skull of a small, ancient reptile. The extinct animal has been named Mirasaura grauvogeli, the first part of which means 'wonderous reptile'. Technically, the species is a drepanosaur – a small, early reptile that lived in the trees, hunting insects with its velociraptor-like claws. But its crest is the real stand-out feature. "Mirasaura developed an alternative to feathers very early in Earth's history, long before the dinosaurs, which we did not expect and which will stimulate discussion and research," says reptile paleontologist Rainer Schoch, from the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart. The exact function of the Mirasaura's dorsal appendage is unknown, but based on the physics, it probably wasn't used for flight or insulation. A role in visual communication, such as predator deterrence or intraspecies signaling, is more likely. The best preserved Mirasaura fossils were found to contain traces of melanosomes, which are organelles within pigment cells. Interestingly, their geometry is consistent with the melanosomes that color feathers, but not those found in reptile skin or mammal hair. "Mirasaura really shows how surprising evolution can be, and how much we can still learn from palaeontology," Spiekman told ScienceAlert. "We already knew from genetics and developmental biology that much of the pathway to form feathers, hairs, and scales, is shared between mammals, reptiles, and birds. Now, with Mirasaura, we can say that such complex structures did indeed grow in other animals, too." Turns out, reptiles aren't the scaly, simple animals we often paint them out to be. They deserve more credit. The study was published in Nature. Related News America's Largest Crater Has Surprise Link to Grand Canyon, Study Finds 500-Million-Year-Old Fossil Suggests Ocean Origin For Spiders Secret Bone Armor Discovered Beneath Skins of Australian Lizards Solve the daily Crossword
