Category Archives: Evolution

When you think about algae, you might imagine vivid green strands swaying in a stream or blue-green blooms invading lakes.

However, the vast majority of these complex aquatic creatures that exchange sunlight for energy are brown in hue, such as the vast forests of seaweeds seen in arctic areas or along California's coast.

(Photo : Mihly Kles/Unsplash)

Brown algae are brown (and hence less attractive) because they have evolved a unique collection of pigments that absorb more light for photosynthesis than green plants and algae, as per ScienceDaily.

As a result, brown algae are critical to life on Earth, generating 20% of the oxygen humans breath.

Scientists have yet to unravel the molecular pathways that enable these brown algae to turn sunlight into energy.

Colorado State University biologists, in collaboration with researchers from Germany and China, have revealed ground-breaking new insights into the evolutionary pathways these algae underwent to produce their unusual brown pigments known as fucoxanthin.

Fucoxanthin has gained popularity in nutraceutical and medicinal uses during the last decade.

The molecular structure of fucoxanthin was discovered in the 1960s after it was first reported in scholarly literature 150 years ago.

What was unknown was how the algae produced this natural substance.

This biochemical manufacturing route proved to be complicated; the researchers demonstrated in PNAS that the brown pigment fucoxanthin developed through duplication of ancient genes that produce photoprotective pigments.

Some of these gene copies evolved increasingly sophisticated roles along the route, allowing the manufacture of additional pigments that became particularly well-suited for photosynthesis.

"These algae are able to mix and match, then reprogram their cellular machinery for collecting light in ways that terrestrial plants have not," Peers explained.

The new discovery provides a rich framework for future research that might allow the brown pigment's extraordinary light-harvesting efficiency to be transferred to other creatures or purposes.

For example, understanding how brown algae originated might help scientists better understand the fucoxanthin pigment as a nutraceutical for a variety of health purposes.

In biofuels research, learning how to change the quantity of this pigment in a cell might lead to greater photosynthetic efficiency, allowing for the production of bigger amounts of biofuels with the same amount of light, land, and labor as traditional fuels.

Also Read:Algenol's Algae-Based Biofuel: The Next Generation in Renewable Energy (VIDEOS)

Carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids/natural oils are the three primary components of algal biomass.

Because the majority of the natural oil produced by microalgae is tricylglycerol, which is the correct type of oil for manufacturing biodiesel, microalgae are the exclusive emphasis in the algae-to-biodiesel arena.

Microalgae may be utilized to create energy in a variety of ways other than biodiesel.

Under particular growing circumstances, several algae species may create hydrogen gas, as per Farm Energy.

Algae biomass may also be burned like wood or anaerobically digested to produce methane biogas, which can be used to generate heat and power.

Pyrolysis may also be used to produce crude bio-oil from algae biomass.

The majority of microalgae are exclusively photosynthetic, which means they require light and carbon dioxide as energy and carbon sources.

This culture mode is commonly referred to as photoautotrophic.

Some algae species, on the other hand, can thrive in complete darkness and use organic carbons such as glucose or acetate as energy and carbon sources.

This type of cultivation is known as heterotrophic.

Heterotrophic algal culture is difficult to justify for biodiesel production due to high capital and operating expenses.

Algal biofuel production often relies on photoautotrophic growth, which uses sunshine as a free source of light to reduce expenses.

Related article:Giant Clams Help Algae Partners Harvest Light

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Evolution of Brown Algae Has a Big Help to Biofuels - Nature World News

Dystopian futures dominated by malevolent artificial intelligence have long been a mainstay in science fiction. From the coldly calculating HAL 9000 of Arthur C. Clarkes 2001: A Space Odyssey to Arnold Schwartzeneggers iconic portrayal of the Terminator to HBOs Westworld, we thrill at the prospect of being overwhelmed by our own creations.

In fact, the very first science fiction novel, Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, was born out of the fear that the then-nascent industrial revolution would unleash titanic forces beyond our control. That it hasnt happened yet has done little to diminish popular interest in the topic.

Ray Kurzweil, chief futurist at Google and the most recognizable evangelist of the Singularity, predicts that computers will overtake human intelligence by the year 2045. Only time will tell if he is right.

For now, such futures still belong to the realm of speculation, which is to say they belong to science fiction.

However, it is not AI that is the danger, but rather transhumanism. We shouldnt worry about making machines that are more like us. We should worry about making us more like machines.

Transhumanism theorizes that mankind will transcend the limitations of biology with the aid of artificial intelligence and technology, which would be integrated with the human consciousness. Proponents of transhumanism claim that it will be possible to upload human minds into machines, thereby achieving a kind of immortality. They argue that we have already entered a cybernetic era, with life extending technologies such as artificial hearts, prosthetic limbs, and various implants that regulate our bodies. Now, Elon Musk is working on brain-computer interfaces, that would allow direct communication between a human mind and an artificial one.

Transhumanist meddling in consciousness significantly increases the risk that humanity will be superseded. As a species, we havent proven to be very good at respecting boundaries. We need only look at the devastation human beings have wrought on the environment to see how our best-laid technological plans often lead to disastrous consequences for ourselves and for those with whom we share the planet.

Most of the work being done on AI and transhumanism is happening in a corporate black box. We are subjecting our very nature to the profit motive. That doesnt seem like a good idea.

I envision a world in which human minds are vulnerable to direct manipulation or control via the kind of brain-computer interface being developed by Musk, where quaint concepts of independent thought or free will no longer exist.

In many ways, we are edging closer and closer to that world. Digital media technology and social algorithms can now be used not only to predict behavior, but to direct it. Politically, Americans are dividing into self-selected digital tribes, where the only news that filters through conforms to pre-existing biases. Imagine a world where it is no longer possible simply to step away from your computer or put down your iPhone.

One of the recurring themes in my new novel, Our Lady of the Artilects, is the struggle of its characters to distinguish between authentic spiritual experiences and mere spectacle that has been implanted in their minds, a kind of hijacking of prophecy or prayer for sinister purposes.

Its no accident that that the subtitle of Frankenstein was the Modern Prometheus. Shelleys brilliant protagonist was playing with primordial forces he didnt fully understand. Given how little we know about the nature of consciousness, I worry we are doing the same as we rush towards a transhumanist future. If we do end up creating Frankensteins monster, it is likely that we will create it within ourselves.

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Will AI and Transhumanism Lead to the Next Evolution of Mankind, or Doom It? - CrimeReads

By Ben Jones, Senior Segment Manager, MediaKind

Many of live broadcastings critical requirements havent changed at all. Reliability and resiliency against disruption are a given, as is the need to continually improve quality while supporting more platforms. However, recently, flexibility and increasingly security are now edging onto the list of absolute must-haves. The latest iteration of MediaKinds edge devices delivers several new features that exemplify why flexibility is critical for the modern streaming environment. It also highlights why security needs to seamlessly extend across the entire end-to-end media delivery workflow as a core component, not just an afterthought.

Streaming workflows are not all built the same and for good reason. The historical infrastructure of the content provider, target distribution platforms, and even geographic necessity will have a major impact on media workflow design. Cost is a key factor, but issues like available connectivity, remote production, and duration of the production all have roles to play. A pop-up event or short tournament will have a distinct set of requirements compared to a recurring seasonal event like a sporting league.

This means that content producers must become more agile. And the underlying contribution and distribution technologies must be able to adapt as the circumstances require. This ethos is one of the reasons for the sharp and rapidly growing adoption of the cloud. Yet flexibility is only feasible if the technological parts of the media workflow can seamlessly integrate. This is why adding Zixi protocol support alongside our existing Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) option is a significant addition to our MK CE1 and MK RX1 appliances.

Although proprietary, the Zixi protocol has become an industry standard alongside its sibling SRT. Its ability to support multicast, bonding, and bitrate adaption are all capabilities that are incredibly useful for creating robust media workflows. When you add DTLS and AES encryption, Zixi offers a set of options to deliver secure, low latency, and reliable media operations.

Adding this support gives our customers more options around how they want to build a workflow. And the ability to quickly change direction. Another example is the recent addition to our MK CE1 media contribution encoder that now sports an enhanced user interface and automation for SMPTE ST 2110 connectivity with Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) discovery and control. The rationale is the same as our addition of Zixi support making it easier for our customers to adapt without having to rip and replace critical hardware.

Security mustnt be overlooked in an era where more organizations are utilizing the public internet and moving content through third parties with limited control. MediaKinds MK RX1 receiver and media gateway solution now includes enhanced security with 128-bit rotating keys while maintaining the technologys traditional key values. This is further enhanced by over-the-air control and lifecycle management. This ability to automatically change encryption keys adds an extra layer of protection and fits with the ongoing narrative of end-to-end security by design.

In the quest for flexibility and seamless integration, security can become a burden if its not thoughtfully built into every element along the chain.

The addition of Zixi is part of an ongoing strategy to continually enhance the MK Edge portfolio to support emerging technologies across both proprietary and open-source alternatives. We recognize that media companies want to design workflows that suit their needs and not be forced into a fixed technological path based on what suits the supplier community.

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Flexibility with security is the key to successful media evolution - MediaKind - MediaKind

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Christianity is declining. Then nones are increasing. This is how religion evolves in a world of religious liberty.

The decline of Christianity in the United States does not mean that religion is dead or dying. News of the death of religion may excite humanists, but it is unlikely to go extinct. Religion is an adaptable social phenomenon. Religious beliefs and behaviors have always evolved. In a free country, this evolution will continue.

The Pew Center released a recent report predicting the continuing decline of Christianity in the United States. This corresponds with a prediction about the rise of the nonesthe folks who say none of the above when asked about their religious affiliation. The rise of the nones has been widely discussed. Phil Zuckerman has been talking about it for over a decade. So have I.

The new Pew report is an important reminder of how religious liberty works, as I argued recently. In a secular society, people are free to switch religions. Our shifting religious demography is a sign of our freedom.

There is no uniform story about switching here. Some will move from one congregation to another within a given tradition. Some may change from one faith to another. But the majority of those who are switching seem to be switching out of, without switching into, another faith tradition. The nones are moving away from specific religious traditions and ending up unaffiliated. Another way of describing these folks is to speak of them as the unchurched.

The Pew Center shows that during the past 50 years, the nones grew from 5% in 1972 to around 30% today. They predict that if trends remain the same, in fifty years, 41% of the population will be nones.

The increase of the unchurched is coming at the expense of Christianity. Pew reports that in 1972, 90% of Americans identified as Christian. But today only 64% of Americans are Christian. If the rate of changes stays the same, Pew predicts that the Christian population will be 46% in 2070. That means that Christianity will no longer be the majority religion in the U.S.

Atheists and humanists may celebrate this result. But before the atheists pop the champagne, lets make sure we do not over-interpret this data. This does not mean that atheism or humanism will grow as fast as we might think.

Most of the nones are not atheists or agnostics. The recent Pew report did not predict the growth of atheism. But Pew has published information on atheism and agnostic in a related report from 2021. In 2021, 4% described themselves as atheists and 5% said they were agnostic. But another 20% said nothing in particular.

Now it might be that nothing in particular is a way station on the path to atheism. Perhaps those who say nothing in particular are afraid to admit they are atheists. I know my own journey to atheism worked that way. At one point, I stopped believing. But I was reluctant to embrace the term atheism. It took a while, and a bit of courage, to come out of the religious closet, so to speak. So, there may be some nones who keep moving along a similar trajectory and end up as atheists.

But among the nones, there are those who are called spiritual but not religious. These folks dont understand their spiritual identity in terms of any specific faith. Pew has also been tracking these kinds of people. In a 2017 report, they say that 27% of Americans identify themselves as spiritual but not religious. This category is fuzzy. So, we want to be careful about over analyzing things here.

But we can imagine what this might mean. The spiritual but not religious folks are people who believe in some higher power and some spiritual notion of the soul. They may celebrate religious holidays. They may even pray and practice some rituals. But they do it on their own, apart from any organization, authority, or set of official dogma.

I suspect that the growth of the nones will include the growth of the spiritual but not religious folks. Our culture is awash in unchurched spirituality that is idiosyncratic and syncreticand not easily categorized as part of any given tradition. As an example, we might consider the growth of yoga.

One reason to suspect the persistence of spirituality and religion broadly construed is that this is an important part of human culture and psychology. Authors such as Dan Dennett, Robert Bellah, and Nicholas Wade suggested that there were social, psychological, and evolutionary pressures at work in the creation of religion. Spirituality is psychologically satisfying. And religious organization serves social purposes.

It is likely that spirituality and religion will persist as part of a basic human need for meaning and structure. But, and here is the exciting part of the story, religion will change. The history of the evolution of religion shows that there has always been ongoing evolution. Religions are born, mature, and evolve in response to social and psychological pressures. It is likely that religion will continue to evolve in this way.

The contrarian Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong made a similar claim in a book published over 20 years ago, Why Christianity Must Change or Die. His point was that the old myths no longer make sense to the present generation. A religion that does not evolve and adapt will soon go extinct.

History shows us that religion has always adapted. Christianity developed as a response to the Judaism of the Roman empire. Islam appeared later as Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and others mingled on the periphery of the Roman and Byzantine world. In the United States, new religions appeared as Christianity evolved to become Mormonism, Christian Science, and other offshoots. A similar story can be told about the evolution of Buddhism out of Hinduism. And so on.

The rapid shift we are witnessing in terms of religious affiliation and identity is a time of foment and transformation. These are exciting times for those who study religion. And while I might prefer that more people would embrace humanism, I know this is unlikely.

For my part, I want to make sure that religious liberty remains fundamental. And so long as we are free to think, innovate, and experiment with religion and spirituality, Im content to watch the evolution of religion, as Americans use their liberty to explore what it means to be human.

Related

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The evolution of religion and the rise of the nones - OnlySky

Bandai Namco Entertainment has just launched its first Gundam-themed competitive FPS on PC and console, Gundam Evolution. However, not all Mobile Suit pilots are happy. The majority of players seem to report that they encountered an Error Code 503 message that wont let them boot up the game. If you are one of many players affected by this issue, here is how you can fix Error Code 503 in Gundam Evolution.

There are two reasons behind Gundam Evolution Error Code 503 message, and you actually do not need to do anything to fix the issue. First, you might have encountered it before the game was officially released. Gundam Evolution launched on September 21 at 7 PM PDT or 10 PM EDT on PC, and the Xbox and PlayStation versions will follow at a later date on November 30. However, in the case of the Steam version, the game was available to be preloaded a day before, although we can assume that Bandai Namco will do the same when it releases on consoles. That means the files were able to be downloaded, but the servers are not accessible yet.

You will also see Error Code 503 when Gundam Evolution is having server maintenance. On the Steam page, in order to fix some connection issues, it says that the games server will be unavailable for a while from 22 September 2022 from 11 PM to 23 September 1 AM PDT. Be aware that the end time for this maintenance may differ depending on the severity of the issue.

Interestingly, there is a way to bypass server maintenance. All you need to do is:

Nevertheless, if you are still having problems with Error Code 503 in Gundam Evolution outside of server maintenance periods, you might want to contact the official Gundam Evolution Support forums to fix the issue.

Gundam Evolution is now available on PC via Steam. The console version will be released later for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on November 30, 2022.

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How to Fix Error Code 503 in Gundam Evolution? Answered - The Nerd Stash

Noah Frank landed his dream job with a consulting firm right after graduating in May from the University of Connecticut, and he immediately stepped into the online working world.

Working fully-remote wasnt much different from jobs Frank held down during the pandemic in college, but he soon found he craved interaction with people, though he did not want to go into the office five days a week.

So, in July, Frank moved from Connecticut where hed lived all his life to Atlanta to be closer to his employers offices with a hybrid work schedule.

Frank, 22, joined a workforce across the country that is in the midst of the most dramatic shift in working in decades, moving into working some or all of their jobs at home, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Informal, collaborative spaces at insurer Travelers Cos. in downtown Hartford provide different work options. Here, chairs with high backs afford privacy. (Douglas Hook)

Workers were abruptly sent home at the start of the pandemic. Some soon started enjoying the freedom and were mixed about coming back to the office full-time. Others like Frank wanted to see colleagues in the office but didnt need to do that Monday through Friday.

Some experts say work schedule flexibility, with hybrid options part at home, part at the office is high on the list for employees and had already been gaining popularity even before the pandemic.

Those experts also say that work flexibility in the coming years is likely to emerge as critical to both attracting top-notch employees and retaining them.

Greg Reilly, a professor of management and a department head at the UConn School of Business in Storrs, said a broad cross-section of employers didnt have a lot of choice.

Its something the top talent will look at and say, I can live with that. I want more flexibility and freedom and I dont want to waste my time commuting, " Reilly said. So, I think, thats why the strategy that companies are using for hybrid are now in place.

Chef Tim Dooley serves customers at the new 53,000 square foot cafeteria at the Travelers building. Twice a week the company offers a free lunch to draw employees back to the workplace. (Douglas Hook)

In its annual survey of college graduates, Chicago-based staffing firm LaSalle Network found a majority of 2022 graduates did not want work remote full-time. However, 60% said they preferred to work from home two or three days a week.

Frank, a strategist at BCG Brighthouse, said his decision to move to Atlanta was first tied to the job, but flexibility was a major consideration.

Ive gone in five days a week, and that has been great, but at other times, two-three days a week, Frank, who grew up in South Windsor, said. Some weeks, Ill go in and work with my teammates face-to-face. Other times, the real charm is being able to stay in the workflow, stay connected and still have time to get out to a coffee shop.

Frank said going into the office provides the camaraderie with peers, interaction, experts say, that helps build trust among members of a team.

There is something very real, just being able to have small conversations, in and outs, with your colleagues, Frank said.

The evolution of the workplace already in motion before the pandemic also is forcing employers to take another look at their space and how it can be reconfigured for a workforce that spends only part of the time in the office.

Even before the pandemic hit, property-casualty insurance giant Travelers Cos. started moving away from the traditional office-and-cubical configurations. Travelers, at its campus in downtown Hartford was well into emphasizing more informal, collaboration spaces characterized by groupings of chairs and tables.

On an average workday, Travelers has about 2,500 employees on its Hartford campus, divided between those who are working full-time in the office and those who have chosen hybrid schedules. The hybrid schedule allows up to two days a week for working at home and employees opting for that schedule represent the greatest number of Travelers workers on the downtown campus, the insurer said.

Travelers Cos. was moving to emphasize informal, collaborative spaces over traditional cubicles even before the pandemic, the insurer said. (Douglas Hook)

Travelers Chief Administrative Officer Andy F. Bessette said the push into hybrid dovetailed with how the insurer was transforming its own campus in Hartford before the pandemic, one that is dominated by the iconic, 1919 Travelers Tower.

The business world is adapting to this new world, too, and were all just trying to figure it out, Bessette, who is based in Hartford, said.

The centerpiece of the campus renovations is the year-old, 53,000-square-foot food market, with 10 restaurants stations, offering everything from salads to sushi. The food market is an amenity for making the return to the office more attractive.

There are 700 seats in different groupings and designed for more than dining, one even with a gas fireplace. Lingering and collaborating with colleagues is encouraged some of groupings are secluded, quiet, nooks and crannies, as Travelers describes them. The environment is far from the days of buying lunch and eating it at a desk.

So we are bridging something here, said Edward J. Howard, a Travelers second vice president of administrative services, who headed up the food market project. We move from the pandemic. Now you can come back and you know what? This doesnt feel exactly the same as when I left.

So we are bridging something here, said Edward J. Howard, a Travelers second vice president of administrative services, who headed up the insurer's new, 53,000-square-foot food market in downtown Hartford. We move from the pandemic. Now you can come back and you know what? This doesnt feel exactly the same as when I left." (Douglas Hook)

Howard said he had to give employees a good reason to come back to the office. Free lunch twice a week is a potent draw, given the culinary options.

Youve proven you can work from home, so if youre going to come to the office, youre going to come to collaborate, youre going to come to mentor, Howard said. Some people like being at home, but some people there was a little bit of isolation occurring. So what this space does, you get out of your home office. When you want that quiet time, there are all those nooks and crannies.

Hybrid work schedules are forcing employers to take a hard look at the space and how much they are going to need with fewer employees in office five days a week.

In downtown Hartford, those decisions are already sending shockwaves through the city, as office building landlords scramble to line up tenants for space that will be vacated. Tenants are responsible for paying rent until their leases expire, but they can sublease space, often at discounted rates.

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UnitedHealthcare, a major tenant at downtown Hartfords marquee CityPlace I office tower, is downsizing to about one-tenth of its current 350,000 square feet. Other tenants elsewhere in the city are pursing significantly less space as they renew space.

Those decisions will have major implications for restaurants and other businesses that have long depended on office workers. The conversion of former, vacant commercial buildings into 2,800 apartments in and around downtown is helping to build a downtown residential base, but more units are needed, city leaders say.

United Healthcare is dramatically downsizing its space in CityPlace I, at left, in downtown Hartford. (Rick Hartford | The Hartford Courant)

Strides are being made to develop Hartfords potential as an entertainment destination. One focus is using pandemic relief funds to fill long vacant storefronts along Pratt Street, in the heart of downtown, pairing it with residential conversion on the upper floors of buildings on the north side of the historic street.

Not all employers are downsizing. For instance, Hartford HealthCare, the parent of Hartford Hospital, is establishing its headquarters and other operations at 100 Pearl St., diagonally across from CityPlace I.

Companies are doing the balancing act of square footage under management, Daniel Newman, founding partner and principal analyst at Futurum Research, said. Getting the right size inside of different markets is going to be scrutinized heavily over the next few years.

Newman said employers are going to have to weigh " Do we want to continue to pay this huge, expensive cost of having these beautiful offices with juice bars, snacks and smoothies, if no one is going to come to work. "

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.

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Top Workplaces 2022: The evolution of the office in Connecticut - Hartford Courant

In 2016, LSD was reported from Russia and South-East European nations. In the Indian subcontinent, it was initially observed in Bangladesh in 2019, followed by China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar

In 2016, LSD was reported from Russia and South-East European nations. In the Indian subcontinent, it was initially observed in Bangladesh in 2019, followed by China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar

Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a viral disease that predominantly affects cattle. First identified in an outbreak in Zambia in 1929, the disease is caused by the LSD virus (LSDV), a poxvirus of the genus capripoxvirus. Until the 1980s. multiple outbreaks of LSD were confined to the African continent. The first reports of infections outside Africa were in 1989 from Israel. In 2016, LSD was reported from Russia and South-East European nations. In the Indian subcontinent, the disease was initially observed in Bangladesh in 2019, followed by China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

The first complete genome sequence of LSDV (Neethling strain) was available in 2001 and suggested a large DNA genome. This strain was originally isolated in Kenya in 1958. Adaptation of poxviruses are dominated by genomic mutations, deletions and recombinations. Subsequent genomes from major outbreaks have provided quite interesting insights into the virus and its evolution.

LSD outbreaks were reported in Russia during 2015-2019. The virus isolated from 2015 and 2016 was similar to the earlier genomes. However, the use of homologous (attenuated) LSDV vaccine in 2016 did not end theoutbreak and subsequently vaccine-like isolates were obtained from affected cattle in 2017. By 2018, all field isolates of LSDV in Russia were replaced by viruses bearing genetic signatures of the LSDV vaccine, suggesting that the outbreak of LSD in Russia during 2017-2019 was due to a novel LSDV recombinant variant.

LSDV infections in China were first reported following outbreaks in several regions in 2019. Whole-genome sequencing revealed another vaccine-recombinant strain with 25 recombination events between a field strain and a vaccine strain. However, the strain from China was distinctly different from the vaccine-recombinants detected from Russia, implying that a virulent recombinant of LSDV with unknown origin was the cause of LSD outbreaks in China in 2019 and subsequently in 2020.

Recombination events are now well catalogued in poxviruses and mediated by the poxvirus DNA polymerases in cells being co-infected by viruses of same or different genus. Recombination of pathogenic and vaccine strains are, therefore, likely when an infected animal is immunised or infection occurs in the pre-immune phase after vaccination. Utmost caution and followup genomic studies are therefore essential before full rollout of homologous attenuated vaccines.

In August 2019, suspected cases of LSD were observed in Odisha. The first laboratory-confirmed outbreak of LSD was subsequently reported in November 2019. The overall infection rate was estimated to be 7%, with little mortality. Sequences of particular genes of the isolated virus from the 2019 outbreak were genetically similar to strains from Kenya.

In July 2022, large outbreak of LSD was reported from Gujarat and Rajasthan, which subsequently spread to 11 other States in a short span affecting Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Andaman & Nicobar with over 80,000 cattle deaths.

In collaboration with the Department of Animal Husbandry in Rajasthan, CSIR-IGIB reported the whole genome sequences of six isolates of LSDV collected from five affected animals. A total of 177 unique mutations were found compared to the Neethling strain from Kenya. Out of these, 47 were not present in any other global genome sequences of LSDV, implying that the mutations are unique to the 2022 outbreak of LSDV infections in India.

Phylogenetic analysis of the isolates showed that the current virus strain is unrelated to the virus found in India as well as other global genomes of LSDV. The closest genomes to the viral isolates from the current outbreak comprise 12 sequences belonging to other Asian and European countries that were collected from 2012-2022. Further, the presence of an additional mutation in two samples from the same animal and the large number of mutations potentially suggests that LSDV may be able to evolve fast within the host.

COVID-19 pandemic underlined the importance of continuous genomic surveillance for evidence-based public health strategies to combat the disease, and development of diagnostic tools and vaccines. Establishing genomic surveillance of transboundary and emerging infectious agents of high consequence is thereforeessential for early detection as well as devising evidence based interventions for limiting their spread and minimising economic and strategic losses.

We need to accept that animal and plant health are key to human health and well-being, and forms the basis of One Health. As we move towards industrialised agriculture and animal husbandry in the era of climate change, the need has never been acutefor preparedness with newer and better tools like genomics, molecular surveillance and digital technologies to warn, inform, identify and stop emerging pathogens in their tracks.

(The authors are researchers at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), Delhi. Views expressed are personal)

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The evolution of lumpy skin disease virus - The Hindu

Image: RNA, via Illustra Medias documentary Origin.

Editors note: We are delighted to present a series by Walter Bradley and Casey Luskin on the question, Did Life First Arise by Purely Natural Means? This is the sixth entry in the series, a modified excerpt from the recent bookThe Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos.Find the full series so far here.

In an undergraduate seminar taught by Stanley Miller that I (Casey Luskin) took as a student at the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Miller taught us that making compounds and making life are two different things.1Many variants of Stanley Millers experimental setup have been used in attempting to demonstrate the conversion of energy-rich, gaseous-phase chemicals into amino acids and other biomolecular monomers. But this is not nearly sufficient to generate life. Any origin-of-life explanation must include plausible biochemical paths from individual bio-building blocks like amino acids or nucleic acids to functional polymers such as proteins and DNA. The origin-of-life explanation must also include ways to speed up chemical reactions that are naturally slow. In living cells, long chains of amino acids fold up into 3-D structures that allow them to function as enzymes that greatly accelerate chemical reactions, as seen in the figure below. How could these arise before life existed? More importantly, any origin-of-life model must account for the very particular sequencing of the molecules i.e., the ordering of amino acids in proteins and nucleotide bases in RNA and DNA that allows them to function properly. This means explaining a crucial aspect of life: the origin of its information, or what proponents of intelligent design (ID) call the information sequence problem.

For some theorists, the origin of life is defined as the natural origin of a self-replicating system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.2The most popular proposal for the first self-replicating molecule is RNA where life was first based upon RNA carrying both genetic information (akin to modern DNA) and performing catalytic functions (akin to modern enyzmes), in what is termed theRNA world. Before we delve deeply into that, it is instructive to use the proceedings of a conference organized by the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986 to measure the progress that has been made in origin-of-life research from 1952-1986.

I (Walter Bradley) attended this conference and watched one of the plenary sessions devoted to a spirited debate between scientists who believed that the first life was made of DNA (DNA-first) and those who believed that the first biomolecules were proteins (protein-first). Neither group had yet been able to synthesize under plausible conditions either protein or DNA. Proteins can act as a chemical catalyst. DNA is the repository of information that is used to make functional protein. One of the outcomes from the conference was the sense that neither protein-first nor DNA-first were promising pathways to explaining the origin of life. But the difficulty demonstrating a plausible biochemical pathway for the origin of life that went through DNA-first or protein-first created an openness to new alternative possibilities. In 1986, the RNA world was just emerging as a popular alternative to protein-first or DNA-first models.

At the concluding plenary session, leading origin-of-life researcher Robert Shapiro addressed the RNA world and traced citations in the biochemical literature of the synthesis of RNA molecules under conditions thought to represent the early Earth conditions. The results were shocking. He cited a 1986 paper indicating RNA synthesis under prebiotic conditions had been demonstrated repeatedly, citing a 1985 paper and alluding to others. But that 1985 paper did not present original work rather, it cited a 1984 paper and went all the way back to 1968 without any original work cited. A close reading of the 1968 paper indicated that the authors thought that they might have synthesized RNA molecules under prebiotic conditions but had not actually found any.

Shapiros talk subsequently presented five huge barriers to this biochemical pathway from prebiotic chemistry to the first living systems. At the end of his dramatic presentation, the room of most of the worlds most active origin-of-life researchers fell silent. The chair of the session, who was also the editor of the premiere journalOrigins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, repeatedly invited questions from the stunned audience. It was the only time in my (Walter Bradley) professional lifetime that I attended a plenary session of scientists and engineers where there were no questions. The chair closed the session without any questions offered, and he closed with the comment, Robert, do you have to be so pessimistic? Robert did not reply, but might have said he was letting the data do the talking, and the data told a very pessimistic story.

History has confirmed Shapiros pessimism. Despite these difficulties, to this day, the RNA world remains the most popular model for the origin of life. But there are major problems with the RNA world hypothesis and claims that a self-replicating RNA molecule appeared by pure chance.

First, RNA has not been shown to assemble in a laboratory without the help of a skilled chemist intelligently guiding the process. Origin-of-life theorist Steven Benner explained that a major obstacle to the natural production of RNA is that RNA requires water to function, but RNA cannot emerge in water, and does not persist in water without repair due to waters rapid and irreversible corrosive effects upon RNA.3In this water paradox, Benner explains that life seems to need a substance (water) that is inherently toxic to polymers (e.g., RNA) necessary for life.4

To overcome such difficulties, Benner and other chemists carefully designed experimental conditions that are favorable to the production of RNA. But Robert Shapiro explains that these experiments do not simulate natural conditions: The flaw is in the logic that this experimental control by researchers in a modern laboratory could have been available on the early Earth.5Reviewing attempts to construct RNA in the lab, James Tour likewise found that [t]he conditions they used were cleverly selected, but in the natural world, the controlled conditions required to generate RNA are painfully improbable.6Origin-of-life theorists Michael Robertson and Gerald Joyce even called the natural origin of RNA a Prebiotic Chemists Nightmare because of the intractable mixtures that are obtained in experiments designed to simulate the chemistry of the primitive Earth.7In the end, these experiments demonstrate one thing: RNA can only form by intelligent design.

Today, RNA is capable of carrying genetic information, but RNA world advocates claim that in the past, it also fulfilled the kinds of catalytic roles that enzymes perform today. A second problem with the RNA world is that RNA molecules do not exhibit many of the properties that allow proteins to serve as worker molecules in the cell. While RNA has been shown to perform a few roles, there is no evidence that it could perform all necessary cellular functions.8As one paper put it, proteins are one million times fitter than RNA as catalysts and [t]he catalytic repertoire of RNA is too limited.9

The most fundamental problem with the RNA world hypothesis is its inability to explain the origin of information in the first self-replicating RNA molecule which experts suggest would have had to be at least 100 nucleotides long, if not between 200 and 300 nucleotides in length.10How did the nucleotide bases in RNA become properly ordered to produce life? There are no known chemical or physical laws that can do this. To explain the ordering of nucleotides in the first self-replicating RNA molecule, origin-of-life theorists have no explanation other than blind chance. As noted, ID theorists call this obstacle the information sequence problem, but multiple mainstream theorists have also observed the great unlikelihood of naturally producing a precise RNA sequence required for replication. Shapiro puts the problem this way:

A profound difficulty exists, however, with the idea of RNA, or any other replicator, at the start of life. Existing replicators can serve as templates for the synthesis of additional copies of themselves, but this device cannot be used for the preparation of the very first such molecule, which must arise spontaneously from an unorganized mixture. The formation of an information-bearing homo-polymer through undirected chemical synthesis appears very improbable.11

Elsewhere, Shapiro notes, The sudden appearance of a large self-copying molecule such as RNA was exceedingly improbable with a probability that is so vanishingly small that its happening even once anywhere in the visible universe would count as a piece of exceptional good luck.12A 2020 paper inScientific Reportssimilarly notes, Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life because the formation of such a long polymer having a correct nucleotide sequence by random reactions seems statistically unlikely.13Steven Benner refers to the Information-Need Paradox, where self-replicating RNA molecules would be too long to have arisen spontaneously from available building blocks.14Benner raises an additional logical difficulty in that generating an RNA molecule capable of catalyzing its own replication ismuch less likelythan generating RNA molecules that catalyze the destruction of RNA. This suggest a grave theoretical difficulty where RNA world theorists are faced with a chemical theory that makes destruction, not biology, the natural outcome.15

The paper inScientific Reportsproposed a solution to these quandaries that showed just how intractable this problem is: It concluded that because the formation of a single self-replicating RNA molecule is prohibitively unlikely in the observable universe, and therefore the universe must be far larger than we observe an inflationary universe that increases the probabilistic resources until such an unlikely event becomes likely. This is just like the materialist response to the fine-tuning of physics: When the observed specificity of nature appears to indicate design, they invent multiverses to overcome probabilistic difficulties. When RNA world theorists are appealing to the origin-of-lifes version of the multiverse to avoid falsification, its clear that their project has fatal problems.

Next, Still Unexplained: The First Living Cell.

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Origin of the First Self-Replicating Molecules - Discovery Institute

Intranasal vaccination is an interesting and increasingly attractive alternative to improving the delivery of therapeutic vaccines. It comes with the promise of better efficacy by stimulating local mucosal response, needle-free delivery and could be self-administrable. These qualities present several opportunities for future immunizations but there are still several challenges to overcome in their development and future commercialization.

In this webinar, we will review and share insights on success factors in developing an intranasal vaccine, and provide an overview of intranasal formulations and formulation strategies for both liquid and powder administration. We will also assess the available options for intranasal device platforms, review nasal deposition models and discuss the latest intranasal vaccine manufacturing needs from development to commercial scale.

Register for 9am London Session

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Aptar Pharma Webinar: Understanding the Evolution of Intranasal Vaccines - Aptar

This means operators will need to invest in the payment methods they offer if they are to meet their customers' expectations, thinking beyond cards to wearables and even just walk out technology.

Advances in technology and growing trends mean there are more methods available to consumers than ever before when it comes to settling the bill, with newer tech such as digital wallets and wearables gaining popularity amongst younger consumers in particular.

This generational shift towards more digital payments can be seen in the rise in popularity of digital wallets. In fact, in our most recent piece of research undertaken with CGA by NielsenIQ, nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents surveyed by us say they now frequently use mobile wallets like Apple or Google Pay while out, and nearly as many (18%) do this via payment apps provided by venues.

This, in turn, has contributed to the rise of wearable payments, with 13% of consumers telling us they use a device like a smart watch every time or most times they pay a bill at a restaurant or pub. Operators should therefore look to promoting this method of payment where it is on offer, especially as such technology becomes more affordable and accessible for consumers in the coming years.

Pay-with-your-face is paving the way in recognition software, with nearly a third of respondents saying they find this appealing. Favourable options across other new technologies, includes digital IDs at 33% and invisible payments or just walk-out technology at 31%.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the numbers of 18 to 34-year-olds finding such tech appealing are at least twice as high as those in the 55+ bracket. The pace of innovation and more crucially - adoption in this area is swift, however that means operators wanting to future proof their business need to keep up to date with payment technologies as they develop.

Despite this openness to new payment tech, the days of notes and coins are far from over. In fact, recent reports have suggested cash may have a mini revival as people look to manage their money as the cost-of-living soars, according to research by the Post Office. Nonetheless, our research clearly demonstrates that cash is now used much less frequently in pubs and bars, with consumers telling us that they are withdrawing cash less often, with 69% indicating they take out cash less than weekly.

The key, as ever, then is giving consumers flexibility in payment options now and to ensure venues keep pace with new tech as it develops.

For more information on how Zonals systems can help streamline your business take a look at https://www.zonal.co.uk.

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Zonal looks at the evolution of payment from cash to digital - MorningAdvertiser.co.uk