thescientist--2020-09-01--Study Tracks Geographical Gene Flow and Ancestry in the US

When Chengzhen Dai set out to investigate the influence of US geography on human genetics a few years ago , the study made a somewhat unusual addition to the work of MIT ’ s SENSEable City Lab , whose projects typically focus on solar power , climate , waste streams , and other urban questions .
But Dai saw it as fitting .
Researchers at the lab , where he was doing his master ’ s , are interested in how humans move around and interact with one another , he explains .
As he and his colleagues planned the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that cities , and in a broader sense , geography has played a major role in how ancestry and admixture occurs.
” Dai , now a software engineer at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle , and his advisor , designer and engineer Carlo Ratti , teamed up with population geneticist Alicia Martin of the Broad Institute and other colleagues to test their hypothesis using data from National Geographic ’ s Genographic Project , a now-discontinued effort to sequence genomes from around the world to track migration patterns .
Focusing on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provided a postal code , the team compared single-nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs ) in those genomes with the SNPs present in reference genomes curated by the 1000 Genomes Project , a UK-based initiative that compiled genomic data on 2,504 people representing 26 populations worldwide .
Those SNP data revealed substantial diversity of ancestral origins for each demographic group .
For example , Hispanics and Latinos tended to have a mixture of African , European , and Native American ancestry , but the makeup and proportions of these ancestries varied widely among individuals .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the genome , known as haplotypes , that were shared among two or more members of the Genographic cohort .
This approach can reveal when two people share a common ancestor within the past 10 to 15 generations , says Gillian Belbin , a population geneticist at Mount Sinai Hospital ’ s Institute for Genomic Health who uses approaches that explore relat-edness based on these segments but was not involved in the new study .
It ’ s similar to what commercial testing companies use to point their customers toward distant relatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ level , discerning relatedness in this way can reveal the effects of factors such as migrations and admixture that have shaped a group over recent history , she adds .
As Dai and his colleagues had predicted , genetic relatedness turned out to correlate with geography , although the drivers of that relationship seemed to vary among demographic groups .
Among African-Americans , for example , there was broad genetic relatedness among people living along the East Coast , from Florida to Maine , indicating frequent migration within that area .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through certain regions .
Overall , the authors write , the patterns they found are consistent with movement trends during the Great Migration of the early- to mid-20th century , in which millions of African-Americans left the South for cities in other areas of the country .
Two other demographic groups the researchers analyzed—European-Americans , and Hispanics and Latinos—had their own distinctive patterns of migration .
Another geographic finding was of five distinct clusters of related people within the Hispanics/Latinos category , each of which tended to live in particular areas in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ codes they ’ d reported .
Only one of these showed strong ancestral links to a place outside the continental US : A cluster made up mostly of people living in central Florida and the New York City area reported that most of their grandparents had been born in Puerto Rico .
People in another of the clusters , who reported having grandparents born in the US , Mexico , and Cuba , among other countries , tended to live in southern Florida and parts of Texas and California .
A third , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States , lives mainly in New Mexico and Colorado , as well as parts of California .
The findings of multiple clusters within the category of Hispanics/Latinos , Belbin says , “ indicates that there ’ s some interesting gene flow and population structure perhaps .
.
.
that is not being effectively captured by the self-reporting labels [ for race or other demographic categories ] that are available.
” In her studies on Mount Sinai ’ s patient biobank , Belbin says she ’ s similarly found clusters of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ captured by existing demographic labels .
While this is far from the first study of genetic diversity in the US , it ’ s exceptionally comprehensive , says Scott Williams , a population geneticist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who was not involved in the work .
“ It ’ s quite amazing how much information was in there , and the analyses were really complete , ” he says .
For example , he notes , the researchers included people of East and South Asian descent living in the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most studies of genetic variation and distribution .
The team found that people of East and South Asian descent in the US were on the whole less admixed than other groups , likely because they or their ancestors tend to be relatively recent arrivals in the country , says Dai .
“ In the United States , immigration wasn ’ t really amenable to [ East ] Asians and South Asians ” until the mid-1960s , he explains .
As a result of that lack of mixing , the study found , people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well-defined genetic clusters that roughly correlated with their ancestral countries of origin .
“ These are very .
.
.
distinct populations , and they ’ re very diverse , ” Dai says .
“ But a lot of times , genetic studies .
.
.
group them as just like one continental ancestry , ” mainly because of small sample sizes .
This continent-level grouping is “ not a very accurate way of reflecting and capturing the genetic diversity of these individuals , ” he adds .
Better knowledge of human genetic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only for understanding individuals ’ origins , but also for harnessing genetic findings in clinical practice , Williams notes .
“ Until we know about these patterns of diversity , it becomes very difficult to translate genetic findings for risk of disease easily across populations .
”

ABOVE: © istock.com, ORBON ALIJA
When Chengzhen Dai set out to investigate the influence of US geography on human genetics a few years ago, the study made a somewhat unusual addition to the work of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, whose projects typically focus on solar power, climate, waste streams, and other urban questions. But Dai saw it as fitting. Researchers at the lab, where he was doing his master’s, are interested in how humans move around and interact with one another, he explains. As he and his colleagues planned the study, “we had the hypothesis that cities, and in a broader sense, geography has played a major role in how ancestry and admixture occurs.”
Dai, now a software engineer at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and his advisor, designer and engineer Carlo Ratti, teamed up with population geneticist Alicia Martin of the Broad Institute and other colleagues to test their hypothesis using data from National Geographic’s Genographic Project, a now-discontinued effort to sequence genomes from around the world to track migration patterns.
Better knowledge of human genetic diversity and patterns of admixture is important not only for understanding individuals’ origins, but also for harnessing genetic findings in clinical practice.
Focusing on the genomes of 32,589 participants who’d provided a postal code, the team compared single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in those genomes with the SNPs present in reference genomes curated by the 1000 Genomes Project, a UK-based initiative that compiled genomic data on 2,504 people representing 26 populations worldwide. Those SNP data revealed substantial diversity of ancestral origins for each demographic group. For example, Hispanics and Latinos tended to have a mixture of African, European, and Native American ancestry, but the makeup and proportions of these ancestries varied widely among individuals.
The researchers also looked for unbroken chunks of the genome, known as haplotypes, that were shared among two or more members of the Genographic cohort. This approach can reveal when two people share a common ancestor within the past 10 to 15 generations, says Gillian Belbin, a population geneticist at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Institute for Genomic Health who uses approaches that explore relat-edness based on these segments but was not involved in the new study. It’s similar to what commercial testing companies use to point their customers toward distant relatives in their databases. At a population level, discerning relatedness in this way can reveal the effects of factors such as migrations and admixture that have shaped a group over recent history, she adds.
STOP AND GO: Regions of higher- (blue) and lower-frequency (brown) migration, as inferred from the genomes of African-Americans (A), Hispanics and Latinos (B), and European-Americans (C). AM J HUM GENET, 106:371–88, 2020
As Dai and his colleagues had predicted, genetic relatedness turned out to correlate with geography, although the drivers of that relationship seemed to vary among demographic groups. Among African-Americans, for example, there was broad genetic relatedness among people living along the East Coast, from Florida to Maine, indicating frequent migration within that area. But the researchers also found evidence of reduced migration through certain regions. Overall, the authors write, the patterns they found are consistent with movement trends during the Great Migration of the early- to mid-20th century, in which millions of African-Americans left the South for cities in other areas of the country. Two other demographic groups the researchers analyzed—European-Americans, and Hispanics and Latinos—had their own distinctive patterns of migration.
Another geographic finding was of five distinct clusters of related people within the Hispanics/Latinos category, each of which tended to live in particular areas in the lower 48 states based on the postal codes they’d reported. Only one of these showed strong ancestral links to a place outside the continental US: A cluster made up mostly of people living in central Florida and the New York City area reported that most of their grandparents had been born in Puerto Rico. People in another of the clusters, who reported having grandparents born in the US, Mexico, and Cuba, among other countries, tended to live in southern Florida and parts of Texas and California. A third, containing people whose grandparents were predominantly born in the United States, lives mainly in New Mexico and Colorado, as well as parts of California.
The findings of multiple clusters within the category of Hispanics/Latinos, Belbin says, “indicates that there’s some interesting gene flow and population structure perhaps . . . that is not being effectively captured by the self-reporting labels [for race or other demographic categories] that are available.” In her studies on Mount Sinai’s patient biobank, Belbin says she’s similarly found clusters of genetically related people that aren’t captured by existing demographic labels.
We had the hypothesis that cities, and in a broader sense, geography has played a major role in how ancestry and admixture occurs. —Chengzhen Dai, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle
While this is far from the first study of genetic diversity in the US, it’s exceptionally comprehensive, says Scott Williams, a population geneticist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who was not involved in the work. “It’s quite amazing how much information was in there, and the analyses were really complete,” he says. For example, he notes, the researchers included people of East and South Asian descent living in the US, who have been left out of most studies of genetic variation and distribution.
The team found that people of East and South Asian descent in the US were on the whole less admixed than other groups, likely because they or their ancestors tend to be relatively recent arrivals in the country, says Dai. “In the United States, immigration wasn’t really amenable to [East] Asians and South Asians” until the mid-1960s, he explains. As a result of that lack of mixing, the study found, people of Asian descent in the study formed well-defined genetic clusters that roughly correlated with their ancestral countries of origin. “These are very . . . distinct populations, and they’re very diverse,” Dai says. “But a lot of times, genetic studies . . . group them as just like one continental ancestry,” mainly because of small sample sizes. This continent-level grouping is “not a very accurate way of reflecting and capturing the genetic diversity of these individuals,” he adds.
Better knowledge of human genetic diversity and patterns of admixture is important not only for understanding individuals’ origins, but also for harnessing genetic findings in clinical practice, Williams notes. “Until we know about these patterns of diversity, it becomes very difficult to translate genetic findings for risk of disease easily across populations.”


thescientist--2020-09-01--Infographic: Meet Your Ancient Ancestors and Relatives in Africa

Hominin fossils that reveal clues to the emergence of Homo sapiens are rare in Africa , but in combination with @ @ @ @ @ , researchers are piecing together an ever more complex timeline of human history .
A @ @ @ @ @ Homo sapiens arose not in a single place in Africa , but across the entire @ @ @ @ @ network of interconnected hominin populations .
But for decades , archaeologists positioned East and South @ @ @ @ @ hominin evolution and the putative birthplace of our species .
That ’ s likely because @ @ @ @ @ findings that have transformed our understanding of human evolution , have been found in those @ @

ABOVE: © MODIFIED FROM ISTOCK.COM, GIORGIOMORARA
Hominin fossils that reveal clues to the emergence of Homo sapiens are rare in Africa, but in combination with studies of modern human genomes, researchers are piecing together an ever more complex timeline of human history.
© MODIFIED FROM ISTOCK.COM, GIORGIOMORARA
Genomic analyses suggest that the majority of people living outside Africa today trace most of their ancestry back to a single migration event of a small group of modern humans who left Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. Some analyses of modern human genomes hint that Homo sapiens may have interbred with other hominins in Africa. Comparing ancient DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans with modern human genomes has revealed that modern humans interbred with these other hominin groups. SAHELANTHROPUS, ORRORIN, ARDIPITHECUS SPP. Members of these relatively small-brained genera probably emerged not long after the human-chimpanzee divergence, and are the first known species of apes that habitually walked upright. AUSTRALOPITHECUS SPP. This diverse group exhibited both ape- and human-like characteristics. Some species are thought to have used stone tools and to have evolved into the genus Homo. EARLY HOMO SPECIES Hominins of the genus Homo shared distinctly small back teeth, which experts think allowed them to consume diverse diets. One species of early Homo evolved into Homo erectus. HOMO ERECTUS Homo erectus may have been the first hominin to wield fire and stone axes. The species spread across Asia, where it continued to evolve. In Africa, it gave rise to Homo heidelbergensis. HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS Named after its initial discovery near Heidelberg, Germany, fossils similar to Homo heidelbergensis were later found to also occur in Africa. It routinely hunted large animals and may have built dwellings made of wood or rock. HOMO FLORESIENSIS AND HOMO LUZONENSIS Researchers have recently discovered two small hominin species on Pacific islands, Homo floresiensis on Flores in Indonesia and Homo luzonensis in the Philippines. HOMO NALEDI Only known from skeletons found in South Africa, this species had a remarkably tiny brain but modern-human–like features such as the shape of its teeth and possibly the habit of burying its dead. HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS Compared with modern humans, Neanderthals had shorter, stockier skeletons and larger noses, but their brains were just as large, if not larger. DENISOVANS Denisovans, only known from from ancient DNA and a handful of bones and teeth, were closely related to Neanderthals. HOMO SAPIENS Eventually, the hallmarks of our own species—exceptionally large brains, flat faces, and small jaws—appear in the fossil record. Genetic studies suggest that H. sapiens started to split into several major lineages of modern humans more than 200,000 years ago.
Excavating a continent
A number of researchers suspect that Homo sapiens arose not in a single place in Africa, but across the entire continent, emerging from a network of interconnected hominin populations. But for decades, archaeologists positioned East and South Africa as important places for hominin evolution and the putative birthplace of our species. That’s likely because most fossils, including groundbreaking findings that have transformed our understanding of human evolution, have been found in those regions.
KABWE, ZAMBIA, 1921 “Kabwe skull,” 300,000 years ago Also called “Broken Hill skull,” the specimen is considered a representative of Homo heidelbergensis. NEAR SAFI, MOROCCO, 1961 Human remains at Jebel Irhoud, 315,000 years ago Flint blades and Homo sapiens–like skeletons in a Moroccan cave known as Jebel Irhoud may represent the oldest Homo sapiens artifacts. The skeletons have modern features such as round skulls and modern-human–like teeth and faces. OMO NATIONAL PARK, ETHIOPIA, 1967-1974 Omo Kibish remains, 195,000 years ago Fragments from two skulls, four jaws, a legbone, a few hundred teeth, and some other bones were found at a site in Ethiopia, and are classified as anatomically modern Homo sapiens. AFAR REGION, ETHIOPIA, 1974 “Lucy,” 3.2 million years ago Lucy—the skeletal remains of an Australopithecus afarensis female—is one of the best-known hominin fossils. Studies suggest that she was both tree-dwelling and capable of an upright gait, providing an important evolutionary stepping stone from more primitive ape species to modern humans. LAKE TURKANA, KENYA, 1984 “Turkana Boy,” 2 million years ago A nearly complete skeleton of an ancient Homo erectus child found near Kenya’s Lake Turkana provides a rare glimpse into how quickly this species reached adulthood and how similar their skeletons were to ours. RISING STAR CAVE, SOUTH AFRICA, 2013 Homo naledi, 236,000–335,000 years ago In 2013 and 2014, cavers found skeletons of two adults and one juvenile of what is believed to be a new species: Homo naledi. Its tiny brain and ape-like shoulders—indicating it was a good climber—suggest it may be an evolutionary off-shoot lineage that went extinct. AFAR REGION, ETHIOPIA, 2013 Adult jawbone, 2.8 million years ago A mandible fragment is the earliest known trace of the genus Homo, although the species it belongs to is a mystery.
Read the full story.


Coronavirus Closeup, 1964

ABOVE : An electron microscope built in the 1960s WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Dead baby chicks from farms began arriving by the dozens at the vet labs of North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo in 1930 .
Chicken farmers also brought in their sick chicks , many of which were gasping for air .
Others were listless and seemingly depressed , with drooping wings and emaciated bodies .
In 20 years of lab and field research , vets Arthur Schalk and Merle Hawn had never seen a chicken disease quite like this one .
It ripped through poultry farms in North Dakota @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of thousands of baby birds .
Based on necropsies of the dead birds , the vets ruled out laryngotracheitis , commonly called the croup , as a cause of death ( JAVMA , 78:413–22 , 1931 ) .
In that disease , lesions appear in the windpipe , but in these chicks , tissue damage was found farther down , deep in the lungs .
The illness was a new one , and Schalk and Hawn named it infectious bronchitis of baby chicks .
SAY CHEESE : In a 1964 paper containing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be known as a coronavirus , Donald Berry and his colleagues found that a pathogen that caused a deadly poultry disease ( left ) had widely spaced lollipop-shape spikes .
By contrast , a particle of influenza A ( right ) had densely packed , rod-shape spikes .
IMAGES PUBLISHED IN VIROLOGY , “ The structure of infectious bronchitis virus , ” BY D.M .
BERRY ET AL.
, © ELSEVIER , 1964 Alarmed at the impact on the poultry industry , other researchers began to investigate the disease , first identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infectious bronchitis virus ( IBV ) , and later revealing that its genetic code was RNA-based .
It wasn ’ t until the 1960s that pathologists were able to get a look at the virus by staining the background of an electron microscope slide while leaving the actual specimen untouched , a technique called negative staining electron microscopy that was just emerging .
Donald Berry of Glaxo Research , then located in a suburb of London , and his colleagues used the technique to capture fuzzy black-and-white images of an IBV particle and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bird .
As Berry and his colleagues stared at the images , the researchers could see spikes jutting out of each viral particle .
But the two types of viruses had different kinds of spikes .
Influenza A ’ s were rod-shape and densely packed , while IBV ’ s were lollipop-shape , with bulbous growths at the ends , and they were much more spread out across the virus ’ s surface .
IBV , Berry and his colleagues concluded in Virology in 1964 , was not a form of the flu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was something else entirely .
Early negative staining electron microscopy images of viruses such as those in the 1964 paper offered the “ next big breakthrough ” in virology after identifying whether families of viruses were RNA- or DNA-based , says Jeffrey Kahn , a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center pediatrician and infectious disease researcher who has written about the history of coronavirus research .
Such early images gave clues about the true nature of viruses a decade before genetic sequencing became available .
About a year after Berry ’ s publication @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Hospital Medical School in London identified another virus in the same family as IBV—one that infected humans .
Looking through an electron microscope at virus particles isolated from samples from a boy suffering flulike symptoms in Surrey , England , she too noticed the virus had lollipop-like protrusions , which she ’ d seen before on IBV and other viral particles she ’ d studied .
Drawing on the resemblance between the fringe of viral spikes and the halo of gas , or corona , surrounding the sun , Almeida and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nature in 1968 to characterize IBV and other recently discovered pathogens like it as a new viral family called coronaviruses .
See “ A Brief History of Human Coronaviruses ”

ABOVE: An electron microscope built in the 1960s
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Dead baby chicks from farms began arriving by the dozens at the vet labs of North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo in 1930. Chicken farmers also brought in their sick chicks, many of which were gasping for air. Others were listless and seemingly depressed, with drooping wings and emaciated bodies. In 20 years of lab and field research, vets Arthur Schalk and Merle Hawn had never seen a chicken disease quite like this one. It ripped through poultry farms in North Dakota and Minnesota that year, killing tens of thousands of baby birds. Based on necropsies of the dead birds, the vets ruled out laryngotracheitis, commonly called the croup, as a cause of death (JAVMA, 78:413–22, 1931). In that disease, lesions appear in the windpipe, but in these chicks, tissue damage was found farther down, deep in the lungs. The illness was a new one, and Schalk and Hawn named it infectious bronchitis of baby chicks.
SAY CHEESE: In a 1964 paper containing the first published images of what would come to be known as a coronavirus, Donald Berry and his colleagues found that a pathogen that caused a deadly poultry disease (left) had widely spaced lollipop-shape spikes. By contrast, a particle of influenza A (right) had densely packed, rod-shape spikes. IMAGES PUBLISHED IN VIROLOGY, “The structure of infectious bronchitis virus,” BY D.M. BERRY ET AL., © ELSEVIER, 1964
Alarmed at the impact on the poultry industry, other researchers began to investigate the disease, first identifying it as viral and naming the pathogen infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), and later revealing that its genetic code was RNA-based. It wasn’t until the 1960s that pathologists were able to get a look at the virus by staining the background of an electron microscope slide while leaving the actual specimen untouched, a technique called negative staining electron microscopy that was just emerging. Donald Berry of Glaxo Research, then located in a suburb of London, and his colleagues used the technique to capture fuzzy black-and-white images of an IBV particle and of an influenza A particle from a bird.
As Berry and his colleagues stared at the images, the researchers could see spikes jutting out of each viral particle. But the two types of viruses had different kinds of spikes. Influenza A’s were rod-shape and densely packed, while IBV’s were lollipop-shape, with bulbous growths at the ends, and they were much more spread out across the virus’s surface. IBV, Berry and his colleagues concluded in Virology in 1964, was not a form of the flu, as many had speculated. It was something else entirely.
Early negative staining electron microscopy images of viruses such as those in the 1964 paper offered the “next big breakthrough” in virology after identifying whether families of viruses were RNA- or DNA-based, says Jeffrey Kahn, a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center pediatrician and infectious disease researcher who has written about the history of coronavirus research. Such early images gave clues about the true nature of viruses a decade before genetic sequencing became available.
About a year after Berry’s publication, June Almeida of the St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London identified another virus in the same family as IBV—one that infected humans. Looking through an electron microscope at virus particles isolated from samples from a boy suffering flulike symptoms in Surrey, England, she too noticed the virus had lollipop-like protrusions, which she’d seen before on IBV and other viral particles she’d studied. Drawing on the resemblance between the fringe of viral spikes and the halo of gas, or corona, surrounding the sun, Almeida and others, including Berry, wrote to Nature in 1968 to characterize IBV and other recently discovered pathogens like it as a new viral family called coronaviruses.
See “A Brief History of Human Coronaviruses”


thescientist--2020-09-01--Ancient Grains Hint at Prehistoric Beer Brewing

ABOVE : Grains of wheat ( pictured ) and barley that underwent malting—one of the first steps in beer-making—show a clear thinning in the walls of their honeycomb-like aleurone cells ( yellow ) .
© TUM-WEIHENSTEPHAN ; J. HELBING Five thousand years ago , a pot sat burbling in the corner of a wooden hut perched above Lake Constance in Germany .
Researchers such as Marian Berihuete-Azorín , an archaeobotanist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution , aren ’ t sure exactly what was inside the pot , but they have a hunch .
At some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaving behind a scorched , bowl-shaped lump studded with the remnants of ancient malted grains—perhaps early evidence , Berihuete-Azorín says , of beer .
The study of beer has long been a focus for archaeobotanists interested in the brew ’ s cultural and historical importance .
Some scholars have argued that cereal grains such as barley and wheat may have been used in beer before they were used to make bread .
Employers in ancient Mesopotamia paid their workers at least partly in beer rations .
“ Beer and other kinds of fermented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , just like many modern ones , ” says Claudia Glatz , an archaeologist at the University of Glasgow .
The drink played an important cultural role in forming and cementing social bonds , and iconographic evidence shows that beer was also used in religious and spiritual ceremonies .
Beyond that , beer was simply nutritious , providing calories at a time when food could be scarce .
Beer , it turns out , is “ just all-around goodness , ” Glatz says .
To track beer through history , archaeobotanists often rely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that mention beer or equipment from large-scale breweries .
The organic evidence , the beer itself , just doesn ’ t survive .
But more and more , scientists are turning to modern techniques to try to recreate ancient brewing conditions , hoping to identify physical or chemical markers of the beer-making process that could aid the study of archaeological remains such as grains or microscopic residues embedded in ancient vessels .
This is exactly what Berihuete-Azorín and her colleagues were aiming to do when they came together a few years ago to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
While excavating ancient sites , members of the team sometimes came across blackened , carbonized lumps—also known as amorphous charred objects ( ACOs ) —containing cells from cereal grains .
These cells are circumstantial evidence , Berihuete-Azorín says , of food preparations that could include beer brewing , although they are rarely studied due to their rarity and the difficult nature of analyzing them .
“ You can study hundreds of these lumps and find only a few cells , ” she tells The Scientist .
Berihuete-Azorín needed to simulate archaeological preservation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of grain remained consistent .
She collected samples of modern barley grains that had been malted—soaked in water until they began sprouting—at different stages of germination .
She then dried and charred each batch of barley in an oven to simulate the processes that create the charred lumps found at archaeological sites .
After “ countless experiments , ” she was left to make sense of hundreds of photos and microscopy images of blackened grains .
The hope , she says , was that they might reveal some consistent feature that would link @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It would take a group workshop with almost two dozen collaborators to prompt the “ Eureka ” moment .
As the researchers pored over the images together , a predictable pattern finally emerged : the outer layer of plant cells , or aleurone cells , in the treated grains showed unusually thin cell walls— a result of the malting process , Berihuete-Azorín says .
The team ’ s results , published this May in PLOS ONE , offer a new way to probe the archaeological record for beer .
“ We went to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be a really promising direction to develop , ” says Elena Marinova-Wolff , an archaeobotanist at the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Cultural Heritage and a coauthor on the new study .
“ These alterations can be diagnostic , and they lead us to beer.
” Drawing on their access to archaeological sites around the world , the researchers went looking for their marker in archaeological samples .
They began with ACOs pulled from sites in Egypt that dated to the fourth millennium BCE and have a well-corroborated history of beer brewing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ el-Farkha , a site 120 kilometers northeast of Cairo , contain massive vats and other tools associated with large breweries .
ACOs retrieved from these areas contained cells with the expected thinning of the cell walls .
Seeing that , “ we were sure that people prepared the mashes and malted the grains , ” Marinova-Wolff says .
“ It was an amazing feeling.
” They next tried samples from three sites in Europe where archaeological evidence for beer-making is less clear .
The Hornstaad-Hörnle and Sipplingen-Osthafen sites were once home to Neolithic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , while a third site , excavated while building a car park for the Parkhaus Opera in Zurich , housed a similar settlement in Switzerland .
All date to around the same time as the Egyptian sites but lack the obvious brewing infrastructure .
However , several ACOs taken from these sites showed the same thinning in the cell walls that the team had seen at the other sites , offering strong circumstantial evidence for what would be the oldest known example of malting in central Europe .
Ben Schulz , a biochemist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how proteins change in beer during modern brewing , says he found the team ’ s methods “ interesting and generally quite robust , ” but urges further validation .
It ’ s possible that barley could just have gotten wet—something that would trigger spontaneous germination—without any human involvement , and that that would “ look very similar to what would happen ” during malting , Schulz says .
While Egypt is dry and arid , the European ruins were described by the authors as “ waterlogged , ” a potential source of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In addition , cell wall degradation only points to malting—a step before the final fermentation process needed to create beer .
Glatz , in her work studying beer consumption in Mesopotamia , has developed chemical markers using the residues of ancient beer drawn from ceramics .
Employing gas chromatography , she identified a set of chemicals that appear both in modern fermented beers and in those ancient residues .
A combined analysis of grain cell walls and chemical residues , she says , could form a complementary set of tools that cover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ method that adds another avenue to try and understand a particular archaeological question is a great one , ” Glatz says .
“ That ’ s exactly what this paper does , it adds something else into our toolkit .
”

ABOVE: Grains of wheat (pictured) and barley that underwent malting—one of the first steps in beer-making—show a clear thinning in the walls of their honeycomb-like aleurone cells (yellow).
© TUM-WEIHENSTEPHAN; J. HELBING
Five thousand years ago, a pot sat burbling in the corner of a wooden hut perched above Lake Constance in Germany. Researchers such as Marian Berihuete-Azorín, an archaeobotanist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, aren’t sure exactly what was inside the pot, but they have a hunch. At some point, the contents boiled over, leaving behind a scorched, bowl-shaped lump studded with the remnants of ancient malted grains—perhaps early evidence, Berihuete-Azorín says, of beer.
Beer and other kinds of fermented beverages are important in many ancient societies, just like many modern ones. —Claudia Glatz, University of Glasgow
The study of beer has long been a focus for archaeobotanists interested in the brew’s cultural and historical importance. Some scholars have argued that cereal grains such as barley and wheat may have been used in beer before they were used to make bread. Employers in ancient Mesopotamia paid their workers at least partly in beer rations.
“Beer and other kinds of fermented beverages are important in many ancient societies, just like many modern ones,” says Claudia Glatz, an archaeologist at the University of Glasgow. The drink played an important cultural role in forming and cementing social bonds, and iconographic evidence shows that beer was also used in religious and spiritual ceremonies. Beyond that, beer was simply nutritious, providing calories at a time when food could be scarce. Beer, it turns out, is “just all-around goodness,” Glatz says.
To track beer through history, archaeobotanists often rely on contextual clues: images and writings that mention beer or equipment from large-scale breweries. The organic evidence, the beer itself, just doesn’t survive. But more and more, scientists are turning to modern techniques to try to recreate ancient brewing conditions, hoping to identify physical or chemical markers of the beer-making process that could aid the study of archaeological remains such as grains or microscopic residues embedded in ancient vessels.
This is exactly what Berihuete-Azorín and her colleagues were aiming to do when they came together a few years ago to study the culinary practices of early Europeans. While excavating ancient sites, members of the team sometimes came across blackened, carbonized lumps—also known as amorphous charred objects (ACOs)—containing cells from cereal grains. These cells are circumstantial evidence, Berihuete-Azorín says, of food preparations that could include beer brewing, although they are rarely studied due to their rarity and the difficult nature of analyzing them. “You can study hundreds of these lumps and find only a few cells,” she tells The Scientist.
ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
Berihuete-Azorín needed to simulate archaeological preservation through charring to know which morphological features of grain remained consistent. She collected samples of modern barley grains that had been malted—soaked in water until they began sprouting—at different stages of germination. She then dried and charred each batch of barley in an oven to simulate the processes that create the charred lumps found at archaeological sites. After “countless experiments,” she was left to make sense of hundreds of photos and microscopy images of blackened grains. The hope, she says, was that they might reveal some consistent feature that would link them to ACOs from the field.
It would take a group workshop with almost two dozen collaborators to prompt the “Eureka” moment. As the researchers pored over the images together, a predictable pattern finally emerged: the outer layer of plant cells, or aleurone cells, in the treated grains showed unusually thin cell walls— a result of the malting process, Berihuete-Azorín says. The team’s results, published this May in PLOS ONE, offer a new way to probe the archaeological record for beer. “We went to the microstructure, and it turned out to be a really promising direction to develop,” says Elena Marinova-Wolff, an archaeobotanist at the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Cultural Heritage and a coauthor on the new study. “These alterations can be diagnostic, and they lead us to beer.”
Drawing on their access to archaeological sites around the world, the researchers went looking for their marker in archaeological samples. They began with ACOs pulled from sites in Egypt that dated to the fourth millennium BCE and have a well-corroborated history of beer brewing. Both Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt and Tell el-Farkha, a site 120 kilometers northeast of Cairo, contain massive vats and other tools associated with large breweries. ACOs retrieved from these areas contained cells with the expected thinning of the cell walls. Seeing that, “we were sure that people prepared the mashes and malted the grains,” Marinova-Wolff says. “It was an amazing feeling.”
Researchers suspect that this amorphous charred object was formed after the contents of a pot boiled and burned from the outside in. ÖAW-ÖAI; N. GAIL
They next tried samples from three sites in Europe where archaeological evidence for beer-making is less clear. The Hornstaad-Hörnle and Sipplingen-Osthafen sites were once home to Neolithic villages on the shores of Lake Constance, while a third site, excavated while building a car park for the Parkhaus Opera in Zurich, housed a similar settlement in Switzerland. All date to around the same time as the Egyptian sites but lack the obvious brewing infrastructure. However, several ACOs taken from these sites showed the same thinning in the cell walls that the team had seen at the other sites, offering strong circumstantial evidence for what would be the oldest known example of malting in central Europe.
Ben Schulz, a biochemist at the University of Queensland who studies how proteins change in beer during modern brewing, says he found the team’s methods “interesting and generally quite robust,” but urges further validation. It’s possible that barley could just have gotten wet—something that would trigger spontaneous germination—without any human involvement, and that that would “look very similar to what would happen” during malting, Schulz says. While Egypt is dry and arid, the European ruins were described by the authors as “waterlogged,” a potential source of doubt for the team’s marker.
In addition, cell wall degradation only points to malting—a step before the final fermentation process needed to create beer. Glatz, in her work studying beer consumption in Mesopotamia, has developed chemical markers using the residues of ancient beer drawn from ceramics. Employing gas chromatography, she identified a set of chemicals that appear both in modern fermented beers and in those ancient residues. A combined analysis of grain cell walls and chemical residues, she says, could form a complementary set of tools that cover the entire beer-making process.
“Any method that adds another avenue to try and understand a particular archaeological question is a great one,” Glatz says. “That’s exactly what this paper does, it adds something else into our toolkit.”


Contributors

Michael Levin spent his childhood , first in Moscow and then in Swampscott , Massachusetts , observing and musing about the miniature world of insects .
Even then , he says , he was amazed that swarms of individuals could share common goals ; his interest would later shift to how collections of living cells coordinate the building of complex anatomical structures .
Levin enrolled at Tufts University , receiving two bachelor ’ s degrees , in computer science and biology , before completing a PhD in genetics at Harvard in 1996 .
His early work focused on how cells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a new “ bioelectric language ” used by cells to coordinate their activities .
Drawing on the parlance of computer science , Levin has been working on modifying these electrical signals—the physiological “ software ” that dictates body shape in animals—to induce cells to form new structures without making changes to a cell ’ s genome , what Levin calls the “ hardware.
” Now , as a developmental biologist at Tufts University , Levin continues to study how decision making in swarms of cells might be exploited for advances in regenerative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rebuilding of entire limbs or organs .
“ If we understand how cells cooperate in these collectives to build complex things , we can ask them to do it again , ” Levin says .
On page 38 , Levin describes recent work from his own lab and others that demonstrates the promise of harnessing biology ’ s software .
David Bainbridge admits to having been “ weirdly obsessed with how animals work and how we organize them ” from a young age , an intellectual quirk he shares with many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Bainbridge received degrees in zoology ( 1989 ) and veterinary medicine ( 1992 ) from the University of Cambridge before completing a PhD in reproductive biology at the London Zoo ’ s Institute of Zoology in 1996 .
Studying the reproduction of red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) led him to realize how “ fascinating and unusual ” human reproduction is in the animal kingdom , and his postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford focused on human pregnancy .
“ Everybody thought that was hilarious , having a vet working in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Now , as the university clinical veterinary anatomist at Cambridge , it ’ s his job to teach young veterinary students the foundations of the anatomy and reproduction of nonhuman animals .
In researching the history of his field , what struck him again and again was scientists ’ propensity to rank some living things as inherently better than others—animals above plants , for example , and mammals over reptiles and amphibians .
He also discovered how this tendency bled into categorizations of humans , with scientists sometimes putting certain racial and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were not peripheral people ; these were mainstream writers and scientists , ” Bainbridge says .
In “ Confronting Racism in Zoology ” on page 56 , Bainbridge discusses how we can learn from this shameful legacy and acknowledge our prejudices with an eye toward progressive change .
Amanda Heidt was undecided on the focus of her study when she started at MiraCosta Community College in San Diego in 2008 , so she took both creative writing and marine biology courses .
She ended up disliking her English instructor and loving the marine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ science route .
After two years , she transferred to the University of California , Santa Cruz ( UCSC ) , where she majored in marine biology and minored in chemistry .
Then , in the master ’ s program at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories on the Monterey Bay , she worked in the invertebrate molecular ecology lab as a research tech , testing samples from around the world for invasive species .
At the same time , Heidt researched meiofauna , tiny organisms that live between grains of sand .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summer and drove all up and down California , and I sampled all these different beaches , ” she says .
She brought the samples back to the lab and used metabarcoding to identify what she ’ d collected , and learned that meiofauna don ’ t adhere to a strict latitudinal gradient but are found all over .
To help support herself through school , Heidt applied for and received a scholarship from California State University , Monterey Bay , and the NPR-member radio station KQED , which happened to come with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news at the KQED headquarters in San Francisco .
“ That was the trial by fire , ” she says .
And it went well—so much so that it motivated her to wrap up her degree at Moss Landing and enroll in the UCSC science communication master ’ s program .
There , Heidt interned at Inside Science , The Monterey Herald , and Science , before graduating and accepting a position as The Scientist ’ s summer intern .
“ I set it as a personal goal .
.
.
to expand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she says .
With many of the topics she now covers , “ it ’ s not always the most comfortable thing to do , but I have enjoyed that opportunity to learn new things .
”

TUFTS PUBLICITY OFFICE
Michael Levin spent his childhood, first in Moscow and then in Swampscott, Massachusetts, observing and musing about the miniature world of insects. Even then, he says, he was amazed that swarms of individuals could share common goals; his interest would later shift to how collections of living cells coordinate the building of complex anatomical structures. Levin enrolled at Tufts University, receiving two bachelor’s degrees, in computer science and biology, before completing a PhD in genetics at Harvard in 1996. His early work focused on how cells organize embryogenesis, and included the discovery of a new “bioelectric language” used by cells to coordinate their activities. Drawing on the parlance of computer science, Levin has been working on modifying these electrical signals—the physiological “software” that dictates body shape in animals—to induce cells to form new structures without making changes to a cell’s genome, what Levin calls the “hardware.”
Now, as a developmental biologist at Tufts University, Levin continues to study how decision making in swarms of cells might be exploited for advances in regenerative medicine that could allow researchers to trigger the rebuilding of entire limbs or organs. “If we understand how cells cooperate in these collectives to build complex things, we can ask them to do it again,” Levin says. On page 38, Levin describes recent work from his own lab and others that demonstrates the promise of harnessing biology’s software.
MICHELLE BAINBRIDGE
David Bainbridge admits to having been “weirdly obsessed with how animals work and how we organize them” from a young age, an intellectual quirk he shares with many of the world’s most notable zoologists. Bainbridge received degrees in zoology (1989) and veterinary medicine (1992) from the University of Cambridge before completing a PhD in reproductive biology at the London Zoo’s Institute of Zoology in 1996. Studying the reproduction of red deer (Cervus elaphus) led him to realize how “fascinating and unusual” human reproduction is in the animal kingdom, and his postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford focused on human pregnancy. “Everybody thought that was hilarious, having a vet working in the OB/GYN department,” Bainbridge says.
Now, as the university clinical veterinary anatomist at Cambridge, it’s his job to teach young veterinary students the foundations of the anatomy and reproduction of nonhuman animals. In researching the history of his field, what struck him again and again was scientists’ propensity to rank some living things as inherently better than others—animals above plants, for example, and mammals over reptiles and amphibians. He also discovered how this tendency bled into categorizations of humans, with scientists sometimes putting certain racial and ethnic groups above others. “These were not peripheral people; these were mainstream writers and scientists,” Bainbridge says. In “Confronting Racism in Zoology” on page 56, Bainbridge discusses how we can learn from this shameful legacy and acknowledge our prejudices with an eye toward progressive change.
LINDSEY DEALEY
Amanda Heidt was undecided on the focus of her study when she started at MiraCosta Community College in San Diego in 2008, so she took both creative writing and marine biology courses. She ended up disliking her English instructor and loving the marine bio class, so she followed the science route. After two years, she transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where she majored in marine biology and minored in chemistry. Then, in the master’s program at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories on the Monterey Bay, she worked in the invertebrate molecular ecology lab as a research tech, testing samples from around the world for invasive species. At the same time, Heidt researched meiofauna, tiny organisms that live between grains of sand. “I basically lived in my car for a summer and drove all up and down California, and I sampled all these different beaches,” she says. She brought the samples back to the lab and used metabarcoding to identify what she’d collected, and learned that meiofauna don’t adhere to a strict latitudinal gradient but are found all over. To help support herself through school, Heidt applied for and received a scholarship from California State University, Monterey Bay, and the NPR-member radio station KQED, which happened to come with a summer internship reporting and writing science news at the KQED headquarters in San Francisco. “That was the trial by fire,” she says. And it went well—so much so that it motivated her to wrap up her degree at Moss Landing and enroll in the UCSC science communication master’s program. There, Heidt interned at Inside Science, The Monterey Herald, and Science, before graduating and accepting a position as The Scientist’s summer intern. “I set it as a personal goal . . . to expand the types of stories I write,” she says. With many of the topics she now covers, “it’s not always the most comfortable thing to do, but I have enjoyed that opportunity to learn new things.”


thescientist--2020-09-01--Infographic: South America's Early Prehistory

Excavations of South American sites containing traces of ancient human activity have suggested that humans reached the southern region of @ @ @ @ @ years before present ( BP ) —remarkably quickly after first entering the Americas—and that they @ @ @ @ @ different sites .
But the picture yielded by these archaeological investigations is a patchwork , @ @ @ @ @ such as whether the first humans migrated south along the Pacific coast or by some @ @ @ @ @ is further complicated by disputed claims ( examples marked by red headers with asterisks ) @ @ @ @ @ much earlier occupation of the continent beginning more than 20,000 BP .
Genetic insights about @ @ @ @ @ studies published in late 2018 , one led by David Reich of Harvard University ( @ @ @ @ @ ) and the other by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen ( results in @ @ @ @ @ ancient and modern genomes from across the Americas to infer that there were multiple waves @ @ @ @ @ continent to the southern one .

ABOVE: © JULIA GALOTTA
Excavations of South American sites containing traces of ancient human activity have suggested that humans reached the southern region of the continent at least 14,500 years before present (BP)—remarkably quickly after first entering the Americas—and that they soon developed diverse technologies across different sites. But the picture yielded by these archaeological investigations is a patchwork, leaving open key questions, such as whether the first humans migrated south along the Pacific coast or by some other route. The history is further complicated by disputed claims (examples marked by red headers with asterisks) that certain sites reflect a much earlier occupation of the continent beginning more than 20,000 BP.
© JULIA GALOTTA
Cuncaicha Site: Rock shelter at 4,480 meters in elevation dated to ~12,400 BP Contains: Remains of plants and animals consumed as food and other human-made debris; human remains; stone tools Significance: Oldest known site in high Andes; shows humans had adapted to high altitudes Quebrada Jaguay Site: Remains of a seasonally occupied fishing village dated to ~13,000–11,000 BP Contains: Seafood remnants; hearths; tools made of obsidian and other types of stone Significance: Demonstrates that people were using marine food sources and, together with Cuncaicha, that coastal people had contact with the Andean highlands Monte Verde Site: Settlement dated to ~18,500–15,000 BP Contains: Remains of plants and animals consumed as food; charcoal; wooden artifacts; stone tools Significance: Pushed back the date of earliest known human occupation of the Americas by as much as 5,000 years Lapa do Santo Site: Cave with signs of human activity dated to as early as ~12,700–11,700 BP Contains: Remains of 50 people, dating as far back as 10,600–9,700 BP, who were buried at the site; stone tools; rock art; animal remnants Significance: Yielded ancient DNA for analysis and new insight into early cultures Arroyo del Vizcaíno* Site: Assembly of more than 1,000 animal bones dated to ~30,000–27,000 BP Contains: Bones of giant sloths and other large animals, some with apparent cut marks that may indicate they were butchered by humans; purported stone tools Criticisms include: The bones could have been carried to the site by flowing water rather than human activity; the scenario the authors propose (including human transport of large, killed animals) is not consistent with the way known hunter-gatherer groups operate. Toca do Sítio do Meio* Site: Rock shelter with signs of human occupation dated to ~35,000–28,000 BP Contains: Charcoal remnants; purported stone tools Criticisms include: Rocks resembling stone tools could have come about through natural geological processes or been made by monkeys.
Genetic insights about the first South Americans
Two studies published in late 2018, one led by David Reich of Harvard University (results depicted in cool colors) and the other by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen (results in warm colors), compared ancient and modern genomes from across the Americas to infer that there were multiple waves of migration from the northern continent to the southern one.
ILLUSTRATION BY © JULIA GALOTTA; DATA TAKEN FROM CELL , 175:1185–97.E22, 2018; SCIENCE , 362:EAAV2621, 2018.
Read the full story.
Clarification (September 4): The language in this infographic has been updated to reflect the fact that Cuncaicha is the oldest known site in the high Andes, not the Andean region.
Correction (September 8, 2020): The first map has also been updated to correctly denote Monte Verde's location. The Scientist regrets the error.


Ten Minute Sabbatical

6 .
Latin for “ rainstorm ” or “ storm cloud ” 8 .
Circular sea formations studied by Darwin @ @ @ @ @ per unit area 10 .
Gear for underwater exploration 11 .
Thalassic deity 13 .
@ @ @ @ @ 15 .
Heron relatives in reeds and marshes 17 .
Midpoint between high and low @ @ @ @ @ ) 18 .
Sea on one side of the Crimean Peninsula 20 .
Aggregate of @ @ @ @ @ .
Depression over an oceanic subduction zone 1 .
Organ of respiration 2 .
Block @ @ @ @ @ 3 .
What Titan and Rhea orbit 4 .
Aquatic invertebrate with tentacles , such @ @ @ @ @ collection of algae and protozoa 7 .
Squarish cnidarian such as a sea wasp ( @ @ @ @ @ .
Like Ralph Vaughan Williams ’ s Riders to the Sea 15 .
Like a @ @ @ @ @ it 16 .
Verne ’ s __ Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 19 .
Predator @ @ @ @

6. Latin for “rainstorm” or “storm cloud” 8. Circular sea formations studied by Darwin 9. Rate of flow per unit area 10. Gear for underwater exploration 11. Thalassic deity 13. Piscatorial equipment 14. Pinniped 15. Heron relatives in reeds and marshes 17. Midpoint between high and low water (2 wds.) 18. Sea on one side of the Crimean Peninsula 20. Aggregate of cells studied in histology 21. Depression over an oceanic subduction zone
DOWN
1. Organ of respiration
2. Block, Easter, or Christmas
3. What Titan and Rhea orbit
4. Aquatic invertebrate with tentacles, such as 7-Down
5. Floating collection of algae and protozoa
7. Squarish cnidarian such as a sea wasp (2 wds.)
12. Like Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea
15. Like a hook with a nightcrawler on it
16. Verne’s __ Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
19. Predator in black and white


thescientist--2020-09-01--Opinion: Zoology’s Racism Problem

Opinion: Zoology’s Racism Problem

The death of George Floyd is having wide-ranging impacts , not just in the US but around the world .
It has affected institutions and parts of society which previously believed themselves immune to , or at least removed from , racism .
In my recent work on biological classification , I have been struck by how frequently science has been misused to reinforce existing prejudice .
And alarmingly , although most overt racial science has been consigned to history , an inherent human obsession with biological classification has left a pervasive , ugly legacy : many people still believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ primitive than , or inferior to , others .
I explore zoology ’ s history , warts and all , in my latest book , How Zoologists Organize Things .
Humans seem driven to classify and organize , and the diversity of animal life around us serves as a perfect outlet for that urge .
A particularly malign influence arose with the development in the Middle Ages of the scala naturae , a seemingly innocuous attempt to classify the natural ( and theological ) world according to a simple graduated system .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ philosopher Ramon Llull wrote Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind , in which the elements of creation are allocated to steps on a staircase starting with minerals , then ascending through fire , plants , beasts , men , sky , and angels , ultimately overseen by God .
Harmless as they may seem , the scalae implied a hierarchy of inherent value among natural things .
These classifications of nature became progressively more complex , and with that complexity came a veneer of scientific authority , as in Charles Bonnet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Living Beings .
As the 19th century started , these value-laden worldviews collided with new ways of thinking in biology—especially the idea that humans could be analyzed and classified in the same way as other animals .
To be sure , there have been several species of humans in Earth ’ s history , and science does classify these hominins based in part on physical characteristics , but early researchers took this idea too far by applying it to modern humans within the species Homo sapiens .
For example , Charles White @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Account of the Regular Gradation in Man and in Different Animals and Vegetables , ranks animals and people according to the verticality of their facial profile , from snipe and crocodiles to dogs and orangutans , and from “ negroes , ” “ American savages , ” and “ Asiatics ” to Europeans .
During the first half of the 19th century , many zoologists ’ minds turned toward the idea that animal types—and by extension , human types—could change and diverge over long periods of time .
Yet this often meant the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a concept of evolutionary “ progress ” toward ever more perfect beings .
And this carried the implication that some of those beings , human and animal , had been left behind in a primitive state .
One of the strangest examples of this distortion of evolutionary theory was polygenism , an idea espoused by the pro-slavery scion of the American School of Ethnology , Josiah Nott .
Although he disliked the concept of evolution , Nott , in his 1854 Types of Mankind , cherry-picked the ideas he needed to claim that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ species with origins in different animal groups .
Nott claimed the evidence showed that white men were justified in dominating Black men , whose attributes render them the perfect slaves .
The respected German über-Darwinist Ernst Haeckel perpetuated the myth of evolutionary progress when he claimed influentially that Judaism is an evolutionary intermediate between primitive paganism and advanced Christianity , and when he asserted that non-Europeans are “ physiologically nearer to the mammals—apes and dogs—than to the civilized European .
We must , therefore , assign a totally different value to their lives.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself from the value judgments and skewed arguments of the past .
Already , we no longer speak of animals as primitive or advanced , and those concepts have become meaningless in the context of humans too .
Additionally , the human species is no longer considered to be gouped into a number of discrete races , but rather an array of populations , each adapted to its ancestral geographical environment , yet blurring genetically and culturally into its neighbors .
Humans have been the most widespread mammalian species for some time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have ended up diverse .
Yet it has taken a depressingly long time for scientists to state explicitly that this variation is messy and overlapping , and did not evolve to suit our prejudices .
David Bainbridge is a reproductive biologist and veterinary anatomist at the University of Cambridge .
Read an excerpt of How Zoologists Organize Things .

ABOVE: FRANCES LINCOLN
The death of George Floyd is having wide-ranging impacts, not just in the US but around the world. It has affected institutions and parts of society which previously believed themselves immune to, or at least removed from, racism.
In my recent work on biological classification, I have been struck by how frequently science has been misused to reinforce existing prejudice. And alarmingly, although most overt racial science has been consigned to history, an inherent human obsession with biological classification has left a pervasive, ugly legacy: many people still believe some “races” to be more primitive than, or inferior to, others. I explore zoology’s history, warts and all, in my latest book, How Zoologists Organize Things.
Humans seem driven to classify and organize, and the diversity of animal life around us serves as a perfect outlet for that urge. A particularly malign influence arose with the development in the Middle Ages of the scala naturae, a seemingly innocuous attempt to classify the natural (and theological) world according to a simple graduated system. In the early 14th century, the Majorcan philosopher Ramon Llull wrote Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, in which the elements of creation are allocated to steps on a staircase starting with minerals, then ascending through fire, plants, beasts, men, sky, and angels, ultimately overseen by God.
Harmless as they may seem, the scalae implied a hierarchy of inherent value among natural things. These classifications of nature became progressively more complex, and with that complexity came a veneer of scientific authority, as in Charles Bonnet’s 1745 Notion of a Scale of Living Beings.
As the 19th century started, these value-laden worldviews collided with new ways of thinking in biology—especially the idea that humans could be analyzed and classified in the same way as other animals. To be sure, there have been several species of humans in Earth’s history, and science does classify these hominins based in part on physical characteristics, but early researchers took this idea too far by applying it to modern humans within the species Homo sapiens. For example, Charles White, in his disturbing 1799 book An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man and in Different Animals and Vegetables, ranks animals and people according to the verticality of their facial profile, from snipe and crocodiles to dogs and orangutans, and from “negroes,” “American savages,” and “Asiatics” to Europeans.
During the first half of the 19th century, many zoologists’ minds turned toward the idea that animal types—and by extension, human types—could change and diverge over long periods of time. Yet this often meant the old hierarchy of nature simply transformed into a concept of evolutionary “progress” toward ever more perfect beings. And this carried the implication that some of those beings, human and animal, had been left behind in a primitive state.
One of the strangest examples of this distortion of evolutionary theory was polygenism, an idea espoused by the pro-slavery scion of the American School of Ethnology, Josiah Nott. Although he disliked the concept of evolution, Nott, in his 1854 Types of Mankind, cherry-picked the ideas he needed to claim that the “human races” are distinct species with origins in different animal groups. Nott claimed the evidence showed that white men were justified in dominating Black men, whose attributes render them the perfect slaves.
The respected German über-Darwinist Ernst Haeckel perpetuated the myth of evolutionary progress when he claimed influentially that Judaism is an evolutionary intermediate between primitive paganism and advanced Christianity, and when he asserted that non-Europeans are “physiologically nearer to the mammals—apes and dogs—than to the civilized European. We must, therefore, assign a totally different value to their lives.”
Zoology must fight hard to decontaminate itself from the value judgments and skewed arguments of the past. Already, we no longer speak of animals as primitive or advanced, and those concepts have become meaningless in the context of humans too. Additionally, the human species is no longer considered to be gouped into a number of discrete races, but rather an array of populations, each adapted to its ancestral geographical environment, yet blurring genetically and culturally into its neighbors.
Humans have been the most widespread mammalian species for some time, so it is no surprise that we have ended up diverse. Yet it has taken a depressingly long time for scientists to state explicitly that this variation is messy and overlapping, and did not evolve to suit our prejudices.
David Bainbridge is a reproductive biologist and veterinary anatomist at the University of Cambridge. Read an excerpt of How Zoologists Organize Things.


thescientist--2020-09-01--Ibrahim Cissé’s Tools Provide a Lens to Watch RNA Production

ABOVE : Ibrahim Cissé ( center ) and colleagues COURTESY OF DENIS PAISTE , MIT MATERIALS RESEARCH LABORATORY Ibrahim Cissé spent hours as a child taking apart and trying to rebuild electronics .
Other times , he would reenact NASA space shuttle liftoffs , tipping a chair backward onto the floor and then climbing in , his knees and face pointed skyward .
He ’ d shake the chair to simulate shooting through Earth ’ s atmosphere as he watched Hollywood movies about space exploration .
Captivated by the US space program as well as the idea of the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screen , the Niger native begged his parents to allow him to come to the US for college .
They agreed , and with the help of a host family in North Carolina , he moved across the Atlantic at age 17 .
In 2002 , Cissé transferred from community college to North Carolina Central University ( NCCU ) , where he worked with physicist Kinney Kim—on a NASA-funded project , no less .
“ It was incredible , ” Cissé says .
But he didn ’ t realize that he could do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carl Wieman and fellow physicist Sarah Gilbert , Wieman ’ s wife , visited NCCU during Cissé ’ s junior year and told him as much , Cissé recalls .
“ That was the first time someone had suggested to me the idea of doing .
.
.
laboratory research for the rest of your life.
” To prepare for graduate school , Cissé spent the summer of 2003 at Princeton University in the lab of physicist Paul Chaikin , now at New York University .
Chaikin asked Cissé a seemingly simple question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a jar , how densely would they pack ?
The question had stumped previous students and many researchers , but Cissé had an idea .
He filled a jar of M & Ms with paint , waited for it to dry , then removed the M & Ms by hand and counted the spots on each piece of candy where there was a missing circle of paint .
Each spot indicated contact with another piece of candy , revealing that each candy has , on average , about 10 neighbors , he and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant that ellipsoids packed more densely than perfect spheres , which have approximately six neighbors—a finding with implications for construction of ceramics , glass , and other materials .
“ It absolutely blew me away that this actually worked , ” says Chaikin .
“ And it really was a discovery—it really was an influential paper that he was a coauthor on.
” Cissé wrapped up his bachelor ’ s degree in 2004 , then joined the lab of biophysicist Taekjip “ TJ ” Ha at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign .
Ha @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resonance energy transfer ( FRET ) imaging that worked on the level of individual molecules .
Cissé put a twist on the technique , housing the molecules of interest inside lipid vesicles , which kept them in close proximity so that they continued to interact despite not having strong affinity for each other .
The method allowed Cissé to watch the assembly and disassembly dynamics of two mostly complementary strands of DNA with a single mismatch somewhere in the string of nine base pairs .
After completing his PhD in 2009 , Cissé @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Paris , where he developed a variation of a super-resolution microscopy technique called Photoactivated Localization Microscopy ( PALM ) to watch how molecules behaved over time in unfixed cells .
The technique revealed that molecules of RNA polymerase II , a critical enzyme for transcription , cluster around genes that are being transcribed in cultured human cells .
In 2014 , Cissé started a lab at MIT , and following up on the PALM work , he and his team reported that the length of time clusters hung around transcribed genes correlated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mouse cells .
A later study showed that other molecules that regulate transcription clustered with RNA polymerases in mouse stem cells , and that some of the clusters lasted on the order of “ tens of minutes , ” Cissé says .
“ There ’ s a nice intellectual continuity to [ his work ] , ” says Ha , now at Johns Hopkins University , noting that Cissé has continued to focus on imaging the interactions of individual molecules .
“ I ’ m really , really impressed .
”

ABOVE: Ibrahim Cissé (center) and colleagues COURTESY OF DENIS PAISTE, MIT MATERIALS RESEARCH LABORATORY
Ibrahim Cissé spent hours as a child taking apart and trying to rebuild electronics. Other times, he would reenact NASA space shuttle liftoffs, tipping a chair backward onto the floor and then climbing in, his knees and face pointed skyward. He’d shake the chair to simulate shooting through Earth’s atmosphere as he watched Hollywood movies about space exploration. Captivated by the US space program as well as the idea of the American dream he saw portrayed on the big screen, the Niger native begged his parents to allow him to come to the US for college. They agreed, and with the help of a host family in North Carolina, he moved across the Atlantic at age 17.
In 2002, Cissé transferred from community college to North Carolina Central University (NCCU), where he worked with physicist Kinney Kim—on a NASA-funded project, no less. “It was incredible,” Cissé says. But he didn’t realize that he could do research as a career until Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman and fellow physicist Sarah Gilbert, Wieman’s wife, visited NCCU during Cissé’s junior year and told him as much, Cissé recalls. “That was the first time someone had suggested to me the idea of doing . . . laboratory research for the rest of your life.”
To prepare for graduate school, Cissé spent the summer of 2003 at Princeton University in the lab of physicist Paul Chaikin, now at New York University. Chaikin asked Cissé a seemingly simple question: If you poured ellipsoidal objects into a jar, how densely would they pack? The question had stumped previous students and many researchers, but Cissé had an idea. He filled a jar of M&Ms with paint, waited for it to dry, then removed the M&Ms by hand and counted the spots on each piece of candy where there was a missing circle of paint. Each spot indicated contact with another piece of candy, revealing that each candy has, on average, about 10 neighbors, he and his colleagues reported in Science. That meant that ellipsoids packed more densely than perfect spheres, which have approximately six neighbors—a finding with implications for construction of ceramics, glass, and other materials. “It absolutely blew me away that this actually worked,” says Chaikin. “And it really was a discovery—it really was an influential paper that he was a coauthor on.”
Cissé wrapped up his bachelor’s degree in 2004, then joined the lab of biophysicist Taekjip “TJ” Ha at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ha had recently developed a variation of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging that worked on the level of individual molecules. Cissé put a twist on the technique, housing the molecules of interest inside lipid vesicles, which kept them in close proximity so that they continued to interact despite not having strong affinity for each other. The method allowed Cissé to watch the assembly and disassembly dynamics of two mostly complementary strands of DNA with a single mismatch somewhere in the string of nine base pairs.
After completing his PhD in 2009, Cissé accepted a position at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he developed a variation of a super-resolution microscopy technique called Photoactivated Localization Microscopy (PALM) to watch how molecules behaved over time in unfixed cells. The technique revealed that molecules of RNA polymerase II, a critical enzyme for transcription, cluster around genes that are being transcribed in cultured human cells. In 2014, Cissé started a lab at MIT, and following up on the PALM work, he and his team reported that the length of time clusters hung around transcribed genes correlated with the number of mRNAs produced in mouse cells. A later study showed that other molecules that regulate transcription clustered with RNA polymerases in mouse stem cells, and that some of the clusters lasted on the order of “tens of minutes,” Cissé says.
“There’s a nice intellectual continuity to [his work],” says Ha, now at Johns Hopkins University, noting that Cissé has continued to focus on imaging the interactions of individual molecules. “I’m really, really impressed.”


thescientist--2020-09-01--Preventing Analyte Adsorption During Filtration

Membrane filters can bind analyte to varying degrees , depending on membrane and analyte physicochemical properties , leading to analyte @ @ @ @ @ can help !
Learn more at SigmaAldrich.com/analytebinding

Membrane filters can bind analyte to varying degrees, depending on membrane and analyte physicochemical properties, leading to analyte loss. Filter validation studies can help! Learn more at SigmaAldrich.com/analytebinding


thescientist--2020-09-01--Singing Dogs, Once Thought Extinct, Found in the Wild

The distinct , mournful howl of a highland wild dog was once a mainstay in Papua , but for the past 50 years , scientists had considered them extinct in the wild .
Fewer than 300 of their domestic counterparts , commonly called New Guinean singing dogs , are held in captivity across the globe , and their numbers are suffering from inbreeding .
A genetic analysis of wild dogs , published Monday ( August 31 ) in PNAS , confirms that these canines are still living in the wild .
There have been a few anecdotal sightings of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many conservationists assumed they were strays related to the captive singing dogs , which make a sound like a blend of wolf howls and whale calls .
The wild dogs were discovered near a gold mine in 2016 by zoologist James McIntyre , who went on to found and preside over the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation .
At the time , he captured images of 15 individual dogs .
Two years later , he obtained three genetic samples , which came from two dogs in live traps and one found deceased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Elaine Ostrander at the National Institutes of Health , compared the DNA from these wild dogs to samples from 161 dog breeds , captive singing dogs , and dingoes .
The authors determined that these wild dogs shared a strong genetic similarity to the captive singing dogs .
These are not newly feral canines , the authors concluded , but likely members of the ancestral population .
“ For decades we ’ ve [ thought ] that the New Guinea singing dog is extinct in the wild , ” coauthor Heidi Parker of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Times .
“ They are not extinct .
They actually do still exist in the wild.
” According to the Times , all domestic New Guinean singing dogs descended from only eight animals , and genetic variation is relatively low .
In their paper , the authors state that the wild dogs “ should be resourced for conservation efforts to rebuild this unique canid population.
” University of Melbourne zoologist Peter Dwyer , who was not involved in the research , tells Science that more work is needed to show that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ancestral wild New Guinean singing dogs .
However , the current analysis is “ very useful ” for teasing apart the relationship between domestic and wild canine populations .

ABOVE: Highland wild dog, © ANANG DIANTO
The distinct, mournful howl of a highland wild dog was once a mainstay in Papua, but for the past 50 years, scientists had considered them extinct in the wild. Fewer than 300 of their domestic counterparts, commonly called New Guinean singing dogs, are held in captivity across the globe, and their numbers are suffering from inbreeding. A genetic analysis of wild dogs, published Monday (August 31) in PNAS, confirms that these canines are still living in the wild.
There have been a few anecdotal sightings of these dingo-like canines over the years, though many conservationists assumed they were strays related to the captive singing dogs, which make a sound like a blend of wolf howls and whale calls.
The wild dogs were discovered near a gold mine in 2016 by zoologist James McIntyre, who went on to found and preside over the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation. At the time, he captured images of 15 individual dogs. Two years later, he obtained three genetic samples, which came from two dogs in live traps and one found deceased.
The team, led by geneticist Elaine Ostrander at the National Institutes of Health, compared the DNA from these wild dogs to samples from 161 dog breeds, captive singing dogs, and dingoes. The authors determined that these wild dogs shared a strong genetic similarity to the captive singing dogs. These are not newly feral canines, the authors concluded, but likely members of the ancestral population.
“For decades we’ve [thought] that the New Guinea singing dog is extinct in the wild,” coauthor Heidi Parker of the National Institutes of Health tells The New York Times. “They are not extinct. They actually do still exist in the wild.”
According to the Times, all domestic New Guinean singing dogs descended from only eight animals, and genetic variation is relatively low. In their paper, the authors state that the wild dogs “should be resourced for conservation efforts to rebuild this unique canid population.”
University of Melbourne zoologist Peter Dwyer, who was not involved in the research, tells Science that more work is needed to show that these aren’t mutts but true ancestral wild New Guinean singing dogs. However, the current analysis is “very useful” for teasing apart the relationship between domestic and wild canine populations.


thescientist--2020-09-01--No, the CDC Has Not "Quietly Updated" COVID-19 Death Estimates

The phrase “ only 6 % ” trended on Twitter over the weekend after a series of posts accused the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of quietly reducing the number of deaths due to COVID-19 from nearly 154,000 to a little more than 9,200 , or 6 percent of that initial total .
Several of the posts , which were widely shared across social media networks before being taken down for violating platform policies , were linked to followers of the QAnon conspiracy group .
President Donald Trump retweeted at least two , and his senior legal adviser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fringe site Gateway Pundit that remains live , The Hill reports .
The first mentions seem to have come from an August 29 Facebook post , according to VineSight , an organization that uses artificial intelligence to identify misinformation on the web .
That post claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) had “ quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6 % of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid , ” while another post stated more bluntly that the update proved “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are off by a whopping 94 % .
” The data being discussed were originally shared on August 26 by the National Center for Health Statistics ( NCHS ) , which is run by the CDC .
On that day , the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US was listed as 164,280 , although the widely circulated posts included an older estimate of 153,504 deaths .
That total has since increased to 182,622 as of August 31 .
Under a subheading labeled “ comorbidities ” —additional conditions people experienced in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19—the NCHS shared that “ for 6 % of the deaths , COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned ” on a death certificate , meaning that only 6 percent of individuals had no underlying health complications other than COVID-19 reported when they died .
The statement continued , “ for deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19 , on average , there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.
” When a person dies , there can be multiple reasons listed on their death certificate , and in fact , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to have more than one cause , the Associated Press reports .
This tracks with what is known about the virus , that people with certain conditions such as cancer , diabetes , or asthma are at a higher risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 , as are older individuals , who are also more likely to have other health problems .
“ A small number of people have COVID ascribed as the sole cause of death .
It may be they had no comorbidities or they were just not noted , ” Myron Cohen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , tells PolitiFact .
“ However , it is also clear that advanced age and several other underlying diseases lead to bad outcomes with COVID infections .
The people dying were not going to die but for the acquisition of COVID.
” Mark Halstead , a sports team physician at Washington University , described a hypothetical scenario in a Facebook post on August 30 .
Someone coming to the hospital with COVID-19 would certainly have the virus listed as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ required a ventilator , respiratory failure would also be listed as a cause of death .
If a person were to decline to such an extent that they went into cardiac arrest and died , that too would be listed on a death certificate .
“ The COVID infection started the process but that led to the heart and lungs failing , which killed that person , ” Halstead says .
The misleading tweets and Facebook posts come at a time when the CDC is being criticized for what some perceive as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The New York Times reports .
Last week , the agency released a revised set of testing recommendations stating that people who had been in close contact with someone confirmed to have COVID-19 did not necessarily need to be tested themselves .
The resulting backlash caused CDC Director Robert Redfield to walk back the change , saying such individuals “ may be considered ” for testing , an ambiguity that has left medical professionals unsure of how best to advise their patients .
When asked at a press briefing on Monday , August @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to downplay the death toll with the retweets , White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said , “ No , he was highlighting new CDC information that came out that was worth noting .
”

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, JOHNROB
The phrase “only 6%” trended on Twitter over the weekend after a series of posts accused the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of quietly reducing the number of deaths due to COVID-19 from nearly 154,000 to a little more than 9,200, or 6 percent of that initial total.
Several of the posts, which were widely shared across social media networks before being taken down for violating platform policies, were linked to followers of the QAnon conspiracy group. President Donald Trump retweeted at least two, and his senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis linked to an article from the fringe site Gateway Pundit that remains live, The Hill reports.
The first mentions seem to have come from an August 29 Facebook post, according to VineSight, an organization that uses artificial intelligence to identify misinformation on the web. That post claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had “quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid,” while another post stated more bluntly that the update proved “their numbers are so fucked that they are off by a whopping 94%.”
The data being discussed were originally shared on August 26 by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is run by the CDC. On that day, the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US was listed as 164,280, although the widely circulated posts included an older estimate of 153,504 deaths. That total has since increased to 182,622 as of August 31.
Under a subheading labeled “comorbidities”—additional conditions people experienced in addition to a primary diagnosis such as COVID-19—the NCHS shared that “for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned” on a death certificate, meaning that only 6 percent of individuals had no underlying health complications other than COVID-19 reported when they died. The statement continued, “for deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”
When a person dies, there can be multiple reasons listed on their death certificate, and in fact, it’s rare for people not to have more than one cause, the Associated Press reports.
This tracks with what is known about the virus, that people with certain conditions such as cancer, diabetes, or asthma are at a higher risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2, as are older individuals, who are also more likely to have other health problems.
“A small number of people have COVID ascribed as the sole cause of death. It may be they had no comorbidities or they were just not noted,” Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tells PolitiFact. “However, it is also clear that advanced age and several other underlying diseases lead to bad outcomes with COVID infections. The people dying were not going to die but for the acquisition of COVID.”
Mark Halstead, a sports team physician at Washington University, described a hypothetical scenario in a Facebook post on August 30. Someone coming to the hospital with COVID-19 would certainly have the virus listed as a primary diagnosis, but if they then required a ventilator, respiratory failure would also be listed as a cause of death. If a person were to decline to such an extent that they went into cardiac arrest and died, that too would be listed on a death certificate. “The COVID infection started the process but that led to the heart and lungs failing, which killed that person,” Halstead says.
The misleading tweets and Facebook posts come at a time when the CDC is being criticized for what some perceive as a tendency to bend to political pressure, The New York Times reports. Last week, the agency released a revised set of testing recommendations stating that people who had been in close contact with someone confirmed to have COVID-19 did not necessarily need to be tested themselves. The resulting backlash caused CDC Director Robert Redfield to walk back the change, saying such individuals “may be considered” for testing, an ambiguity that has left medical professionals unsure of how best to advise their patients.
When asked at a press briefing on Monday, August 31, if the President was trying to downplay the death toll with the retweets, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “No, he was highlighting new CDC information that came out that was worth noting.”


thescientist--2020-08-31--How Cancer Evades the Immune System

How Cancer Evades the Immune System

The body ’ s first line of defense against cancer is the immune system .
Yet many tumors evade the @ @ @ @ @ key immune cells to aid in tumor development .
In this webinar brought to you @ @ @ @ @ by 10x Genomics , Chuanhui Han will discuss how cancer avoids immune system attack after @ @ @ @ @ Gupta will explore how cancer tricks immune myeloid cells into promoting tumor growth .
The @ @ @ @ @ approaches for preventing cancer ’ s manipulation of the immune system .
• Integrin activation @ @ @ @ @ against cancer Vineet Gupta , PhD The Charles Arthur Weaver Chair of Cancer Research Vice @ @ @ @ @ of Internal Medicine Director , Drug Discovery Center Rush University Medical Center

FREE Webinar
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
2:30 - 4:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time
Register Now
The body’s first line of defense against cancer is the immune system. Yet many tumors evade the immune system and even recruit key immune cells to aid in tumor development. In this webinar brought to you by The Scientist and sponsored by 10x Genomics, Chuanhui Han will discuss how cancer avoids immune system attack after radiation treatment, and Vineet Gupta will explore how cancer tricks immune myeloid cells into promoting tumor growth. The speakers will also review therapeutic approaches for preventing cancer’s manipulation of the immune system.
Topics to be covered
Caspases: The mystery of radiation
Integrin activation as a novel therapeutic strategy against cancer
Register Now
Meet the Speakers:
Chuanhui Han, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laboratory of Yang-Xin Fu, MD, PhD
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Vineet Gupta, PhD
The Charles Arthur Weaver Chair of Cancer Research
Vice Chair for Innovation, Department of Internal Medicine
Director, Drug Discovery Center
Rush University Medical Center


thescientist--2020-09-02--DeNovix launches 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance Ready Software for CellDrop™ Automated Cell Counter

DeNovix launches 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance Ready Software for CellDrop™ Automated Cell Counters

DeNovix Inc. announces the launch of EasyApps Secure , a 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance Ready software option for CellDrop Automated Cell Counters .
The new suite of controls for EasyApps software enables regulated labs to securely generate compliant results within their cell counting workflow .
EasyApps Secure is fully integrated within the on-board operating system , No additional PCs or laptops are required in the lab .
Regulated GxP facilities in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors can easily add CellDrop ’ s DirectPipette™ Technology to their cell counting workflow , eliminating the need for disposable plastic slides .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system access , integrated electronic signature controls , comprehensive user account management , secure audit trail recording and advanced data handling and export tools .
DeNovix Business Director Kevin Kelley discussed the new software .
“ Since we launched CellDrop , the top request from customers has been to add 21 CFR Part 11 software .
I ’ m pleased to say that our team has delivered a very comprehensive , yet intuitive , software package to enable compliance .
Easy Apps Secure is simple to configure to meet an organization ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remove the need for expensive , environmentally damaging plastic slides .
The instrument is the first cell counter to incorporate DeNovix patented DirectPipette™ Technology bringing the simple Load , Measure & Wipe Clean functionality of nano volume spectrophotometers to cell counting .
Dual fluorescence and brightfield optics combine with powerful on-board EasyApps® software to enable a range of cell counting , viability and transfection efficiency assays .

DeNovix Inc. announces the launch of EasyApps Secure, a 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance Ready software option for CellDrop Automated Cell Counters. The new suite of controls for EasyApps software enables regulated labs to securely generate compliant results within their cell counting workflow. EasyApps Secure is fully integrated within the on-board operating system, No additional PCs or laptops are required in the lab.
Regulated GxP facilities in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors can easily add CellDrop’s DirectPipette™ Technology to their cell counting workflow, eliminating the need for disposable plastic slides. The software includes features such as password protected system access, integrated electronic signature controls, comprehensive user account management, secure audit trail recording and advanced data handling and export tools.
DeNovix Business Director Kevin Kelley discussed the new software. “Since we launched CellDrop, the top request from customers has been to add 21 CFR Part 11 software. I’m pleased to say that our team has delivered a very comprehensive, yet intuitive, software package to enable compliance. Easy Apps Secure is simple to configure to meet an organization’s compliance needs.”
CellDrop Automated Cell Counters remove the need for expensive, environmentally damaging plastic slides. The instrument is the first cell counter to incorporate DeNovix patented DirectPipette™ Technology bringing the simple Load, Measure & Wipe Clean functionality of nano volume spectrophotometers to cell counting. Dual fluorescence and brightfield optics combine with powerful on-board EasyApps® software to enable a range of cell counting, viability and transfection efficiency assays.