Weekly Science Digest: Hatred, Holes & Biogeochemical Hotspots

Astronomers have found a new cosmic source for the same kind of water that appeared on Earth billions of years ago and created our planet’s oceans. New measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory show that comet Hartley 2, which originates in the distant Kuiper Belt, over 30 to 50 times as far away as the distance between the earth and sun, contains water with the same chemical signature as Earth’s oceans. The findings may help explain how the Earth’s surface ended up covered in water.  

A study carried out by researchers at the University of Warwick has found that depression can lead to the brain’s ‘hate circuit’ coming ‘unplugged’. The team used MRI scans to highlight the impact depression has on several areas of the brain, including those associated with risk and action responses, reward and emotion, attention and memory processing. Jianfeng Feng, a professor of computer science at the university, believes that the uncoupling of the ‘hate circuit’ could be associated with an impaired ability to control and learn from social or other situations that “provoke feelings of hate towards self or others”.

Researchers from Rutgers have identified the structure of a protein that is the first line of defence against viral infections, including influenza, hepatitis C, West Nile, rabies and measles. RIG-I is a receptor protein able to recognise differences in molecular patterns in order to differentiate between viral RNA, a double-stranded structure, and cellular RNA, a single-stranded structure. The findings could lead to new drugs to fight viruses or control inflammation.

An international team led by the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, has discovered an extremely hot ‘converter’ corona hovering above one of the brightest supermassive blackholes known to exist. The ‘monster’ hole, which is located in a distant galaxy known as Markarian 509 and boasts a mass 300 times greater than the sun also features cold gas ‘bullets’ in hotter diffuse gas, speeding away from the hole at 700 km/s. The discovery allows astronomers to locate outflowing matter, and shows that not all matter surrounding black holes is swallowed up.  

Researchers in France have documented colossal aggregations of the Wels catfish in the Rhone River. A native of Eastern Europe, the catfish is considered an alien species in this part of the world; the researchers were therefore interested in studying the impact large aggregations of alien species can have on a local ecosystem. The fish formed dense groups of 15 to 44 individuals, corresponding to a biomass density of 14 to 40 kilograms per square metre. The team calculated that the fish could excrete extremely large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen, creating the highest biogeochemical hotspots reported in freshwater ecosystems.

The 'Weekly Science Digest' is a compilation of science news from around the world. News suggestions are always welcome: mark.howardbanks (at) researchgate.net