Category: 7. Science

This week, experts in synthetic biology and microbiology, among other fields, are gathering in Manchester, UK, to explore the benefits and risks of building synthetic life. One of the topics that will be discussed is how research might be restricted to prevent the creation of organisms made of components that are the mirror image of those that make up life on Earth. Days after the Manchester meeting, the issue will be examined at a workshop organized by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. And other meetings are planned.

Mirror-image enzyme copies looking-glass DNA

Most of the biological molecules known to make up life on Earth have a specific handedness, or chirality. Amino acids have left-handed chirality, for example, whereas DNA is right-handed. Because mirror-image bacteria or other synthetic life forms would be made of molecules of opposite handedness (so with right-handed amino acids and left-handed DNA), the concern is that such organisms might represent a hazard to known life^1–3 (see also go.nature.com/3hshyst and go.nature.com/3vwuytw). For example, some of them might be capable of evading immune systems, confounding medicines, resisting predation and causing harms to humans, non-human animals, plants and ecosystems^2,3.

Prohibiting the creation of molecules or biological entities of either chirality that could endanger human health or environmental stability should be uncontroversial. And discussions early in the development of a field — as well as efforts to engage the public — can be constructive when it comes to ensuring that research is conducted responsibly and ethically.

But in the face of vast unknowns, the noble path of pre-emptively protecting humanity from potential risks in the distant future can be slippery. And we should tread cautiously.

The concept of a mirror-image biological world is not new. It was first proposed in 1860 by French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur⁴. And the potential benefits and risks of mirror-image organisms have been discussed by the research community for more than 30 years^1–3 (see also go.nature.com/3hshyst and go.nature.com/3vwuytw). However, in the past few months, the conversation has abruptly shifted to calls for hard limits on basic research and funding².

At this point, there are divergent views (see go.nature.com/46tgjvf and eLetters by R. Derda et al. and D. Perrin in ref. 2) on how soon it might be possible to create mirror-image organisms; the potential benefits and risks of generating mirror-image life and of developing precursor technologies; whether moratoria on research should be imposed; and, if so, what areas of study should be restricted.

Given the countless unanswered questions, careful consideration of the scientific facts learnt so far — regarding what it would take to create a mirror-image life form, and the pros and cons of research on mirror-image molecular biology more broadly — is crucial for bridging divergent views and fostering rational and informed debate.

On the distant horizon

In December 2024, nearly 40 experts, including in synthetic biology, ecology and immunology, co-authored a Policy Forum article in Science² and released a separate 299-page technical report³. In both, the authors argued that were mirror-image life created, it would be very likely to present unprecedented risks to humans, animals, plants and ecosystems.

Multiple meetings have followed the Science publication, including in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and the Netherlands.

But how close are scientists to being able to create a mirror-image life form?

Dozens of research groups, including those at pharmaceutical companies, have been synthesizing and investigating mirror-image proteins, DNA and RNA for the past three decades to understand fundamental biology and develop therapeutics^5–14. My colleagues and I have been exploring various mirror-image molecular processes, too. These include the replication of mirror-image DNA, the transcription of mirror-image DNA into mirror-image RNA and the translation of mirror-image RNA into mirror-image proteins — in other words, a mirror-image version of the central dogma of molecular biology^7–11.

Research in mirror-image molecular biology is still in its infancy. But scientists working in this field have been humbled by the tremendous challenges of exploring this unknown world^5–14. The creation of mirror-image organisms, if it ever became feasible, would face monumental conceptual and technical barriers.

Hundreds to thousands of cellular components — including proteins, nucleic acids, membranes, metabolites and complex carbohydrates called glycans — would need to be synthesized chemically or enzymatically in their chirally inverted forms. Some of these are encoded directly by DNA. But many are synthesized or modified by other complex biological machinery, meaning their compositions and structures cannot simply be derived from DNA sequences. And many have not yet been characterized.

It took our group nearly four years to chemically synthesize a mirror-image protein fragment of up to around 470 amino acids⁹ — the longest single-chain mirror-image polypeptide reported so far. Synthesizing longer polypeptides and membrane proteins that are rich in water-repelling (hydrophobic) domains would be even harder.

Asilomar conference took courage and foresight — today, inclusivity would also be crucial

Likewise, we have been trying to chemically synthesize a highly simplified version of a mirror-image ribosome since 2016, and are still years away from achieving it. Should we succeed, this ribosome will lack protein and RNA modifications and will not have aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (the enzymes responsible for attaching specific amino acids to their corresponding transfer RNAs during protein biosynthesis)^8,11. This means it will be able to produce only short peptides and small proteins (say, of about 300 amino acids)⁸.

Even if all the constituent molecules of the simplest bacterium could be synthesized in their mirror-image forms, these would need to be folded correctly and assembled with spatio-temporal precision to create a mirror-image bacterium that functions as a complex, autonomously replicating cell.

Many laboratories have built non-living membrane-bound compartments, in which copies of DNA and RNA molecules can be made or in which RNA molecules can be translated into proteins. Although researchers have been able to isolate biologically derived ribosomes and other cellular machinery with natural chirality for decades, no lab has been able to use this machinery to produce all the essential cellular components in vitro.

Researchers don’t yet know how to assemble a natural-chirality self-replicating cell from biologically derived building blocks — let alone how to chemically synthesize a mirror-image one from the ground up. And although other strategies for the creation of mirror-image life have been proposed (such as the stepwise conversion of a natural-chirality cell into a mirror-image cell^2,3), there is insufficient evidence to support their feasibility.

In short, it is crucial to distinguish mirror-image molecular biology from the creation of mirror-image organisms. A self-replicating cell has molecular diversity, metabolic complexity and structural intricacy that are orders of magnitude greater than what’s found in any currently synthesizable biomolecular system. And the creation of a mirror-image organism lies well beyond the reach of present-day science.

Endless possibilities

Because all biological structures, functions and even organisms could be recreated in their mirror image, the possibilities — good and bad — in a looking-glass world are endless. As well as considering the risks of hypothetical scenarios, such as the creation of mirror-image life, it is important to keep in mind the realized and potential benefits of the mirror-image molecular biology research that is already under way^5–14.

When given to animals or humans, mirror-image peptides and nucleic-acid drugs can trigger a much milder immune response compared with their natural-chirality counterparts¹³. They are also more resistant to biodegradation, which means a dose can stay in the body for much longer. The implications for drug discovery are profound.

Dozens of mirror-image peptides, DNA and RNA molecules are already being developed as drug candidates for cancer, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases and inflammatory disorders^10,13. Indeed, a synthesized mirror-image ribosome would probably drastically accelerate pharmaceutical discovery by enabling the high-throughput production of mirror-image peptides^8,11.

All sorts of other possible applications of mirror-image molecules or biological entities can be imagined, particularly in medicine and sustainability.

Mirror-image glucose tastes as sweet as its natural-chirality counterpart, but does not provide calories because it is not metabolized by the enzymes found in natural-chirality organisms¹⁵. This means that mirror-image glucose and other mirror-image sugars could serve as non-caloric sweeteners or other food additives.

Mirror-image DNA molecules have the same capacity to hold information as their natural-chirality counterparts do, but they are more resistant to biodegradation and easier to distinguish from contaminant (natural-chirality) DNA. As such, mirror-image DNA molecules can serve as robust information repositories⁹.

Nanoparticles or nanocapsules, built using mirror-image proteins, could enable the safe delivery of drugs by shielding them from the immune system. Mirror-image DNA or RNA molecules designed to detect the presence of certain human proteins and metabolites, such as thrombin¹⁰ and guanine¹¹, could be used as diagnostic biosensors in clinical settings.

Meanwhile, mirror-image versions of enzymes that are capable of degrading plastics that have no chirality could offer a solution to plastic pollution¹². Like their natural-chirality counterparts, such enzymes can break down plastics but are more resistant to biodegradation themselves. In principle, mirror-image versions of enzymes that can capture carbon might similarly be used to help address climate change.

As well as providing solutions for all sorts of practical problems, basic research on biology through the looking glass could offer insights into the structures and functions of biomolecules. It could shed light on the origin of homochirality (the dominance of one set of chiral molecules in known forms of life), and even on the origin of life¹¹. It could guide searches for new life forms, for instance, on Earth as well as on other planets.

Of course, the very properties that promise to make mirror-image proteins and nucleic acids so useful in so many contexts — their biostability and tendency to induce only a mild immune response in humans and other organisms — could also make certain mirror-image organisms harmful^1–3 (see also go.nature.com/3hshyst and go.nature.com/3vwuytw).

The potential for harm needs careful consideration. But many questions remain. For example, a mirror-image bacterium would contain molecules such as glycans that, in known forms of life, exhibit less uniform chirality than do proteins, DNA and RNA. This might mean that a mirror-image bacterium could provoke a stronger immune response in humans and other organisms than do mirror-image proteins, DNA or RNA in isolation (see eLetter by R. Derda et al. in ref. 2).

15 September 2025

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released a new safety video on its investigation into the significant fire that burned for three days at the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) facility in Deer Park, Texas on 17 March 2019. The video, entitled “Terminal Failure: Fire at ITC”, includes an animation of the incident and commentary from CSB Chairperson Steve Owens and Investigator-In-Charge Crystal Thomas.

At the time of the incident, the ITC facility housed 242 aboveground storage tanks, which were used to store petrochemical products for various companies. Each tank could hold up to 80,000 barrels of flammable petrochemical liquids, including naphtha, toluene, xylene, and other gas blends. The CSB’s final investigation report into the incident was released in July 2023.

On the morning of 17 March 2019, a circulation pump on one of those tanks, known as Tank 80-8, catastrophically failed, allowing a large quantity of a flammable liquid blend of butane and naphtha to escape from the tank and accumulate on the ground around it. The release went unnoticed and continued for approximately thirty minutes before flammable vapours collecting around the tank ignited and caused a massive fire.

Once the fire erupted, ITC was unable to isolate or stop the release. The fire burned for three days, destroying 15 of the 80,000-barrel tanks and their contents, causing more than $150 million in property damage at the facility, and leading to several shelter-in-place orders that seriously disrupted the local community.

The incident also significantly impacted the environment. A containment wall around the tanks breached and released an estimated 470,000-523,000 barrels of hydrocarbon and petrochemical products, firefighting foam, and contaminated water, which entered an adjacent bayou and eventually reached the Houston Ship Channel. A seven-mile stretch of the Channel was closed, along with several waterfront parks in Harris County and the City of LaPorte, due to the contamination.

In the video, CSB Chairperson Steve Owens states: “The incident at the ITC terminal resulted from several serious failures at the facility. In particular, ITC lacked monitors to alert operators that the pump had failed. And ITC had no remotely operated emergency isolation valves that could have safely stopped the release of the flammable liquid. The tank farm’s design also meant that other tanks were highly vulnerable. Once the pump failed, it was too late to prevent a catastrophic fire from happening.”

As in the CSB’s final report, the safety video covers five key safety issues that contributed to the incident: pump mechanical integrity, flammable gas detection systems, remotely operated emergency isolation valves, tank farm design, and PSM and RMP applicability. The video also highlights safety recommendations made by the CSB to ITC, the American Petroleum Institute, OSHA, and the EPA.

Chairperson Owens concludes the video by saying: “A serious gap in federal regulations also contributed to the severity of this event.  We believe that our recommendations, particularly to OSHA and EPA, to expand regulatory oversight of these kinds of chemicals and facilities will help ensure that a similar incident does not occur in the future.”

The modern hacker and maker has an incredible array of tools at their disposal — even a modestly appointed workbench these days would have seemed like science-fiction a couple decades ago. Desktop 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, lathes, the list goes on and on. But what good is all that fancy gear if you don’t put it to work once and awhile?

If we had to guess, we’d say dust never gets a chance to accumulate on any of the tools in [Ed Nisley]’s workshop. According to his blog, the prolific hacker is either building or repairing something on a nearly basis. All of his posts are worth reading, but the multifaceted rebuilding of a Anker LC-40 flashlight from a couple months back recently caught our eye.

The problem was simple enough: the button on the back of the light went from working intermittently to failing completely. [Ed] figured there must be a drop in replacement out there, but couldn’t seem to find one in his online searches. So he took to the parts bin and found a surface-mount button that was nearly the right size. At the time, it seemed like all he had to do was print out a new flexible cover for the button out of TPU, but getting the material to cooperate took him down an unexpected rabbit hole of settings and temperatures.

With the cover finally printed, there was a new problem. It seemed that the retaining ring that held in the button PCB was damaged during disassembly, so [Ed] ended up having to design and print a new one. Unfortunately, the 0.75 mm pitch threads on the retaining ring were just a bit too small to reasonably do with an FDM printer, so he left the sides solid and took the print over to the lathe to finish it off.

Of course, the tiny printed ring was too small and fragile to put into the chuck of the lathe, so [Ed] had to design and print a fixture to hold it. Oh, and since the lathe was only designed to cut threads in inches, he had to make a new gear to convert it over to millimeters. But at least that was a project he completed previously.

With the fine threads cut into the printed retaining ring ready to hold in the replacement button and its printed cover, you might think the flashlight was about to be fixed. But alas, it was not to be. It seems the original button had a physical stabilizer on it to keep it from wobbling around, which wouldn’t fit now that the button had been changed. [Ed] could have printed a new part here as well, but to keep things interesting, he turned to the laser cutter and produced a replacement from a bit of scrap acrylic.

In the end, the flashlight was back in fighting form, and the story would seem to be at an end. Except for the fact that [Ed] eventually did find the proper replacement button online. So a few days later he ended up taking the flashlight apart, tossing the custom parts he made, and reassembling it with the originals.

Some might look at this whole process and see a waste of time, but we prefer to look at it as a training exercise. After all, the experienced gained is more valuable than keeping a single flashlight out of the dump. That said, should the flashlight ever take a dive in the future, we’re confident [Ed] will know how to fix it. Even better, now we do as well.

Artificial chemistry simulations produce many intriguing emergent behaviors, but they are often difficult to steer or control.

This paper proposes a method for steering the dynamics of a classic artificial chemistry model, known as AlChemy (Algorithmic Chemistry), which is based on untyped lambda calculus.

Our approach leverages features that are endogenous to AlChemy without constructing an explicit external fitness function or building learning into the dynamics. We demonstrate the approach by synthesizing non-trivial lambda functions, such as Church addition and succession, from simple primitives.

The results provide insight into the possibility of endogenous selection in diverse systems such as autocatalytic chemical networks and software systems.

Devansh Vimal, Cole Mathis, Westley Weimer, Stephanie Forrest

Subjects: Formal Languages and Automata Theory (cs.FL); Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
Cite as: arXiv:2509.03534 [cs.FL] (or arXiv:2509.03534v1 [cs.FL] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2509.03534
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Cole Mathis
[v1] Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:01:42 UTC (650 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03534

Astrobiology,

In May, the Trump administration released its fiscal 2026 budget request, which called for cutting National Science Foundation and NASA science budgets by more than half. The administration’s proposed NOAA budget, released a few weeks later, proposes eliminating the agency’s scientific research arm altogether, terminating over 1,000 additional employees and shuttering around a dozen institutes, including GFDL. It includes the line: “With this termination, NOAA will no longer support climate research grants.”

“The proposed budget is a disaster for science,” said one senior federal scientist who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation. “It’s existential for almost everything that any of the agencies are doing.” If scientists’ pleas fall short and the budget passes through Congress, the official warned, “The sky will go dark.”

Some climate researchers are pivoting to different fields, while others are seeking employment abroad. Efforts overseas will pick up some of the slack, but losing the continued observations and federal funding for the world’s leading climate research ecosystem would handicap the global collaborative effort to monitor the planet. “The United States has been very important in the past, and it’s just taking itself off the map,” Stevens said. “It’ll be a setback for everyone.” Even a course correction in the 2028 elections might not make up for the disruption of momentum. “It’s quicker to tear the building down than it is to build it up,” Randall said.

The biggest impacts will likely be felt by early-career researchers. The GFDL scientists dismissed in February re-entered the job market to find that many universities and federal labs had stopped hiring. “It’s a collapse of support for the next generation of scientists,” Labe said. Beyond the lack of employment opportunities, the blatant attack on climate science leaves some early-career researchers with “a deep existential crisis,” said one fired federal scientist who also requested anonymity. Modeling the climate “is an important thing that we do as a society,” the researcher added. “What does it mean if the country I live in no longer values that?”

In May, a handful of early-career meteorologists and climatologists organized a livestreamed virtual rally. For 100 consecutive hours, more than 200 scientists presented research and fielded questions from the public. Over those four days, viewers placed over 7,000 calls to their congressional representatives, urging them to prioritize funding for weather and climate science. The livestream closed with a message from one of the organizers, Jonah Bloch-Johnson, a climate scientist at Tufts University, who called the funding cuts “our own unnatural disaster in the making.” He encouraged listeners to continue marveling at the complexity of the Earth system — to appreciate how the clouds dance in the sky and how the waters ebb and flow. “This science belongs to you,” he said. “It’s the science of the world we all live in.”

The Dust Lingers

In 2014, a gust of wind struck the Sahara, launching a dust cloud into the atmosphere. After a few days’ travel, some of the specks landed on a buoy floating in the North Atlantic off the coast of French Guyana. When scientists collected this sample and analyzed it in the lab, they noticed that some of the grains were huge — 15 times bigger than the largest particles they thought could be swept overseas.

“We were all wondering, how can it be possible that they actually stay suspended in the air for so long?” said Klose, the Karlsruhe Institute aerosol scientist. Over the last few years, she and her colleagues have realized that these extra-coarse grains account for around 85% of the total dust mass in the atmosphere.

While they’re still not sure how these giant grains travel so far, they’re confident that they represent an overlooked climate variable. Dust was thought to mainly reflect sunlight, but larger grains primarily absorb it. In a new paper now under review, Klose and colleagues report how current models are underestimating the impact of these particles on Earth’s energy balance by a factor of two, calling into question whether dust has an overall cooling effect on the climate, as previously suspected, or whether it’s actually amplifying warming. This uncertainty is critical, as over 5 billion tons of dust — around 1,000 times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza — are lofted into the atmosphere annually. And thanks to agriculture and other land-use changes, dust emission is only rising, having roughly doubled since the Industrial Revolution.

Scientists have been working to better track the journey of dust and more realistically simulate its climatic effects. NASA’s Earth Observing System operates three satellites that track properties of dust in the atmosphere. But in Trump’s proposed budget, all three are slated for cancellation.

Still, Klose is determined to keep an eye on the dust. Every few years, she brings tiny shovels and giant air-sucking machines to deserts across the world to collect samples. Then she transports those samples back to her lab in southern Germany and other labs, where her colleagues blow them inside a metal chamber to study how they stimulate cloud formation. Those results get fed directly into climate models to better represent how variations in tiny grains influence the nature of the entire planet.

“Obviously we can never, ever represent this in all its wonderful beauty in detail,” Klose said. Nevertheless, she said, she aims to learn as much as possible about the invisible intricacy of Earth before the dust settles. “We don’t have any plans to give up any time soon.”

There’s a simple story of the greenhouse effect: A blanket of carbon dioxide envelops the planet, letting sunlight in but trapping its heat. As a result, Earth warms.

But how does this actually work? Carbon dioxide amounts to only a tiny smattering of gas molecules — 0.042%, or roughly 420 parts per million — in our thick atmosphere. And yet, we know that doubling carbon dioxide levels can change the character of life on Earth.

The answer is quantum mechanics, which determines whether a molecule can interact with the right type of radiation.

Part 1: Maintaining Energy Balance

But first, we need a basic understanding of how radiation, such as sunlight, interacts with objects, such as planets.

Everything in the universe radiates, pumping out heat. A light bulb radiates heat; so does a rock sitting on the ground. Same with your phone, your body and Earth itself.

The radiation given off by an object takes the form of light, or electromagnetic waves. These magnetic and electric fields undulate as they move through space, carrying energy with them.

Hotter objects give off more heat; their waves are more energetic, oscillating with a shorter wavelength. Objects on Earth tend to be cool (generally under 30 degrees Celsius) and radiate light with relatively long wavelengths, known as infrared radiation. The sun is much hotter, about 5,000 degrees Celsius, so it radiates visible radiation with shorter wavelengths.

A radiating object will cool off unless there’s a source of heat replenishing it. For example, Earth releases heat, but it doesn’t cool down. That’s because all the heat that it loses gets replenished by the sun’s radiation. As long as Earth absorbs the same amount of heat from the sun as the amount it gives off, it will stay the same temperature — in equilibrium.

Imagine Earth with no atmosphere. Its surface butts up right against the cold vacuum of space, with no barrier in between. Even if the Earth’s surface was extremely cold, about minus 18 degrees Celsius, it would be warm enough to radiate all the heat it’s taking in. At that low temperature, the Earth and sun would already be in a happy equilibrium.

Now add an atmosphere — a thicket of gas molecules bound to the Earth by its gravitational pull. Say some of these molecules are greenhouse gases that interact with the outgoing radiation. Some of Earth’s radiation is now redirected back to its surface. Instantly, the amount of heat escaping the planet drops. But the same amount of heat is entering from the sun as before. We are out of equilibrium.

With more heat entering than leaving, the planet’s temperature begins to rise. But remember, the hotter an object, the more it radiates. So as Earth warms up, it begins pumping out more heat. This trend continues until the same amount of heat is escaping as is entering. Balance is restored at this new, hotter equilibrium.

When the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory goes online later this decade, it will create one of science’s biggest data challenges. The SKA Observatory is a global radio telescope project built in the Southern Hemisphere. There, views of our Milky Way are clearest and the SKA’s remote sites limit human-made radio interference.

The project spans two sites: approximately 131,000 Christmas-tree-shaped antennas in western Australia and 200 large dish antennas in the Karoo region of South Africa. As part of this international collaboration, Canada has established a data-processing centre at the University of Victoria.

Read more:
Canada’s participation in the world’s largest radio telescope means new opportunities in research and innovation

The SKA Observatory will produce around 600 petabytes of data each year. That amount would take 200 years to download using an at-home internet connection of 100 megabytes per second.

This data volume exceeds by a significant margin even what is produced by the Large Hadron Collider, often considered to be the world’s premier big data science project.

Research aims

Among its many science goals, the SKA detects faint radio signals emitted during the Cosmic Dawn, roughly 50 million to one billion years after the Big Bang, when the very first stars and galaxies lit up the universe.

The SKA will also test Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity by timing signals from pulsars (rapidly spinning neutron stars) with high accuracy.

Another goal is understanding fast radio bursts – brief, intense radio pulses from distant sources. The SKA is expected to detect fast radio bursts far more frequently than current instruments, providing a large dataset to help determine their cause, building on work done by facilities like Canada’s CHIME telescope.

Initial data from the SKA is expected in 2027, with the start of major science operations in 2029 as the array is built and commissioned in phases.

Canada’s role

Handling the large volume and complexity of SKA data requires a global network of specialized computing facilities, collectively known as SKA Regional Centres (SRCs).

Canada became a member of the SKA Observatory research project in 2024. Shortly after joining, Canada committed to establishing one such centre.

The Canadian SRC (CanSRC) will be the sole SRC in the Americas, serving as an important node for processing, storing and providing streamlined access to SKA data. It will allow researchers to focus on scientific analysis rather than data management hurdles.

Big Astronomy

The SKA is part of astronomy’s ongoing evolution toward “Big Science,” where international collaboration becomes essential for scientific breakthroughs. This large-scale approach not only changes how science is funded, but also how it is conducted.

While the SKA will still accommodate traditional investigator-led proposals — where individual scientists or small teams request specific telescope time and computational resources for more focused projects — most of its observing power will target ambitious, multi-year projects designed by large international teams.

Canadian researchers participate in all of the SKA Science Working Groups and have co-chaired four of them in recent years. Canada is recognized as a world leader in studies of pulsars, cosmic magnetism and transients, as well as in low-frequency cosmology, areas where the SKA will make some of its most transformative discoveries.

Astronomical data management

Building, developing and managing CanSRC requires collaboration among the National Research Council’s Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, with four decades of experience in astronomical data management; the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, offering high-performance computing resources; CANARIE, operating the high-speed research network for data transfer; and the University of Victoria’s Arbutus cloud platform, supplying the scalable infrastructure.

The project leverages expertise concentrated within the University of Victoria’s Astronomy Research Centre, which brings together researchers from the University of Victoria, the National Research Council Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre and TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle accelerator centre.

Importantly, CanSRC ensures that researchers have access to SKA data. The capabilities developed through CanSRC will strengthen Canada’s digital ecosystem for the future.

Digital discovery

CanSRC will serve as a gateway for developing and expanding the use of advanced data methods and algorithms, helping scientists from research and industry sectors harness massive datasets.

Applications of these techniques extend far beyond astronomy, with potential uses in medical imaging, remote sensing and artificial intelligence.

Every living thing needs nitrogen, and the world uses a significant portion of its energy making nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. Studying microorganisms that naturally capture atmospheric nitrogen – a process called nitrogen fixation – can inspire new sustainable methods to produce fertilizers, saving energy and reducing water pollution.

In a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), University of California Berkeley and Northern Arizona University investigated a California river ecosystem and found a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that acts like a proto-organelle, which could provide a roadmap for harnessing nitrogen fixation for agriculture.

“About two percent of global energy use goes toward making nitrogen fertilizer,” said LLNL scientist and author Peter Weber. “If we can mimic nature’s approach and build a nitrogen-fixing organelle, then we can potentially get nitrogen on demand.”

The river ecosystem studied in this work contained three key members: (1) green macroalgae (similar to seaweed), which appear on riverbed rocks in spring and, by summer, grow long filamentous streamers that move with the flow of water, (2) diatoms, or unicellular, golden-brown microalgae, that colonize the surface of the streamers, and (3) nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live symbiotically inside the diatoms as if they were proto-organelles – the precursors to subcellular structures.

To investigate the nutrient exchanges among these ecosystem members, the scientists collected river streamer samples in water and injected heavy isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the lab. They used nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to visualize the distribution of the newly acquired carbon and nitrogen among the three members. Much like a medical PET scan illuminates organs, these techniques allowed the team to trace the allocation of these essential nutrients in the algae system down to the organelles and proto-organelles.

“Because we have this equipment that’s able to measure the concentration of the isotopes at a very high spatial resolution, you can see where they go at the subcellular level, including in the symbiotic bacteria,” said author and LLNL scientist Ty Samo.

NanoSIMS showed that nitrogen-fixing bacteria get first dibs and the largest serving of the newly acquired nitrogen. They also had some of the highest amounts of newly acquired carbon, alongside the algal chloroplasts where photosynthesis occurs. The bacteria transform atmospheric nitrogen gas into useable, organic nitrogen that is a building block for cell growth – and they likely use the carbon to power that process.

“The macroalgae in river streamers pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The diatoms that live on top of the macroalgae are doing the same thing. The unique thing is that the symbiotic bacteria – which live inside the diatoms – are also fixing nitrogen and helping to support the diatom’s needs,” said author and LLNL scientist Jennifer Pett-Ridge. “These types of bacteria are the only ones that can take nitrogen gas out of the air and turn it into organic nitrogen, a critical resource that all cells and ecosystems need. Their activity eventually supports a whole food web – from frog tadpoles, to snails, aquatic invertebrates and eventually salmon and other fish.”

These miniscule bacteria provide the nitrogen for the entire river food web, from the diatoms to caddisflies that eat the diatom-coated algae streamers to the endangered salmon that eat the caddisflies.

“The bacteria are so tiny, but in aggregate, they have this massive, massive impact,” said Samo.

By studying the symbiosis in more detail, the team hopes to be able to transfer the nitrogen-fixing abilities to other cells that are applicable to bioenergy, agriculture and biomaterials.

Over the past few thousand years, humans have concocted ways to harvest ever more energy, whether from food production or from different sources of mechanical, chemical or electrical energy. The power of humans, beasts, wind, water, wood and more transformed our environment. The aim was often to improve human lives — at least some human lives. Many of these energy systems had large impacts, but they remained mostly local, the widespread extinction of large fauna notwithstanding.

Then, in the 18th century, humans began using industrial quantities of the densely concentrated energy stored in fossil fuels, releasing organic carbon that had been locked away for millions of years. As the use of fossil fuels began to rise, the gases they produced accumulated in the atmosphere. Initially, the environmental impacts of this Industrial Revolution were, like the prior effects of human energy use, largely local: poisoned waterways and smog-filled urban areas. But that changed as humanity’s vast energetic capabilities expanded. It wasn’t just that the local impacts grew larger — the economy grew on the back of this new energy abundance and living standards improved. A truly global, distributed impact of our hunger for energy emerged.

The Extended Biosphere

No period in our history compares to the Great Acceleration that followed World War II, an explosion in globalized human activity driven by population expansion, innovations in technology and communications, and advances in agriculture and medicine. The Great Acceleration is reflected in the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, water use, manufacturing production, ozone depletion, deforestation, pollution and global GDP, which brought welcome increases in lifespan and living conditions for billions of people. Never before had our reach been truly planetary, extending far beyond local or even regional environments to dominate the entire biosphere of Earth.

We have used the biosphere as an infinitely large repository for extraction of resources and deposition of waste. In this way, we are similar to other species: We harvest resources, process them biochemically and expel the by-products. There are two primary differences. Our access to energy amplifies the scale and speed of what we do. And importantly, we are now cognizant of the planetary transformation we have initiated.

Over the past few decades, advances in Earth-system monitoring and modeling mean we understand this impact and the ways in which it threatens our survival. For more than a year, the average temperature of the planet has been more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the preindustrial average because of our activities, and it is having a noticeable impact on our lives. While it is true that no one decided to heat the planet — there was no purpose beyond the universal and innate biological drive to harness energy — the changes we make to the biosphere are now made knowingly, and thus purposefully.

This makes us something very different from the cyanobacteria that once remade the biosphere. We are planetary actors with purpose. That means we must bear responsibility. Thrillingly, it also means we have the potential to effect positive change.

In the wild mountain ranges of Morocco and northeast Algeria, there’s a small, shimmering butterfly that most people have never heard of. It flutters through cedar forests and scrubby hillsides, unnoticed by nearly everyone. But deep inside its cells, this insect is doing something no other animal has ever been seen to do.

This butterfly, called the Atlas blue, just set a world record. And scientists are paying attention – not just because it’s rare, but because its strange biology could help us understand one of the most complex problems in science: how species evolve, and even how cancer works.

Butterfly with chopped up chromosomes

Inside every living thing, from a mushroom to a whale, there’s DNA – the instruction manual of life. That DNA is packaged into structures called chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs, and most butterflies have 23 or 24 pairs.

The Atlas blue butterfly carries 229 pairs of chromosomes – more than any other multicellular animal. Scientists had long suspected it held the record, and new genome sequencing has now confirmed it.

And here’s what’s even more surprising: the butterfly’s DNA hasn’t been duplicated. Instead, the chromosomes have been chopped up into smaller pieces – like taking 24 books and ripping them into 229 booklets.

The researchers behind the new study came from the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona. They produced the first-ever high-quality genome for the Atlas blue and discovered that its extra chromosomes were not caused by copying, but by splitting.

This process happened fast in evolutionary terms. In about three million years, the butterfly went from 24 to 229 chromosomes. That’s like a blink of an eye for species development.

The cuts happened in parts of the DNA that were loosely packed. That means the total genetic information didn’t really change, it was just reorganized. All of the chromosomes, except for sex chromosomes, were broken up.

A rapidly evolving butterfly

Changes in chromosome number are one way that species evolve. They can affect how genes are turned on or off, how traits are passed down, and how well an animal adapts to its environment. The Atlas blue butterfly belongs to a group that evolved rapidly, creating lots of closely related species.

This new research helps explain how that might have happened. The split chromosomes may have allowed more mixing and matching of DNA, possibly helping the species survive in tough environments.

But that same complexity could also come with risks. Too many chromosomes might make a species more vulnerable over time. And unfortunately, the Atlas blue is already in trouble. Climate change, overgrazing, and destruction of cedar forests are putting pressure on its populations.

Butterfly chromosomes and cancer

The implications go far beyond butterflies. Professor Mark Blaxter noted that genomes hold the key to how a creature came to be, but also, where it might go in the future.

“To be able to tell the story of our planet, we must have the story of each species and see where they overlap and interact with each other. It also allows us to apply learnings from one genome to another.”

“For example, rearranging chromosomes is also seen in human cancer cells, and understanding this process in the Atlas blue butterfly could help find ways to limit or stop this in cancer cells in the future.”

That might seem like a stretch – a tiny insect helping us battle a major disease – but it’s happened before. From bacteria to mice and worms, scientists have used all kinds of living things to understand human health.

The extreme Atlas blue butterfly

There are still big questions to answer. What benefits, if any, come from having so many chromosomes? Are there specific genes that make this butterfly more adaptable? Could this give clues about how life responds to a changing planet?

“When we set out to start to understand evolution in butterflies, we knew we had to sequence the most extreme, and somewhat mysterious, Atlas blue butterfly,” said Dr. Charlotte Wright, first author of the study.

She noted that it was thanks to Dr. Roger Vila, who had previously worked with his colleague to find and identify this elusive butterfly, that the team was able to sequence this species.

“Being able to see, in detail, how the Atlas blue butterfly chromosomes have been split over time in specific places, we can start to investigate what benefits this might have, how it impacts their ability to adapt to their environment, and whether there are any lessons we can learn from their DNA that might aid conservation in the future.”

Understanding species evolution

This kind of research is just the beginning. The team now has a “gold-standard” genome to compare with other butterflies and moths, opening the door to understanding more about how species split, adapt, or vanish.

“Breaking down chromosomes has been seen in other species of butterflies, but not on this level, suggesting that there are important reasons for this process which we can now start to explore,” said Dr. Vila, senior author of the study.

“Additionally, as chromosomes hold all the secrets of a species, investigating whether these changes impact a butterfly’s behavior could help form a full picture of how and why new species occur.”

The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Image Credit: Roger Vila

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