By Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignA team of scientists discovered a naturally occurring gene in the poplar tree that enhances photosynthetic activity and significantly boosts plant growth. The gene, Booster, contains DNA from two associated organisms found within the tree, and from a protein known as Rubisco that is essential to photosynthesis. Credit: Andy Sproles, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy
The BOOSTER gene in poplar trees boosts photosynthesis and biomass, with potential applications for improving crop yields.
Researchers from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with the Center for Bioenergy Innovation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have discovered a gene in poplar trees that improves photosynthesis and can boost tree height.
Chloroplasts are the principal cell structures that house the photosynthetic apparatus converting light energy into the chemical energy that fuels plant growth. Specifically, the Rubisco protein captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists have for years been working on ways to boost the amount of Rubisco in plants for greater crop yield and absorption of atmospheric CO2.
“Historically, a lot of studies have focused on steady-state photosynthesis where every condition is kept constant. However, this is not representative of the field environment in which light can vary all the time,” said Steven Burgess, an assistant professor of integrative biology at Illinois. “Over the last few years, these dynamic processes have been considered to be more important and are not well understood.”
From left, ORNL’s Biruk Feyissa holds a five-month-old poplar tree expressing high levels of the BOOSTER gene, while colleague Wellington Muchero holds a tree of the same age with lower expression of the gene. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Unlocking Genetic Potential in Poplar Trees
In the new study, the researchers focused on poplar since it is a fast-growing crop and a leading candidate for making biofuels and bioproducts. They sampled ~1,000 trees in outdoor research plots and analyzed their physical characteristics and genetic makeup to perform a genome-wide association study. The team used the GWAS population to look for candidate genes that had been linked to photosynthetic quenching, a process that regulates how quickly plants adjust between sun and shade and dissipate excess energy from too much sun to avoid damage.
One of the genes, which the researchers named BOOSTER, was unusual because it is unique to poplar and although it is in the nuclear genome contains a sequence which originated from the chloroplast.
The team discovered that this gene was able to increase the Rubisco content and subsequent photosynthetic activity, resulting in taller polar plants when grown in greenhouse conditions. In field conditions, scientists found that genotypes with higher expression of BOOSTER were up to 37% taller, increasing biomass per plant. The team also inserted BOOSTER in a different plant, Arabidopsis, or thale cress, resulting in an increase in biomass and seed production. This finding indicates the wider applicability of BOOSTER to potentially trigger higher yields in other plants.
“It is an exciting first step, although these are small-scale experiments, and there is a lot of work to be done, if we can reproduce the results on a large scale, this gene has the potential to increase biomass production in crops,” Burgess said.
Next steps in the research could encompass testing in other bioenergy and food plants, with researchers recording plant productivity in varying growing conditions to analyze long-term success. They will also be investigating the other genes that were identified in the GWAS study that could contribute to crop improvement.
Reference: “An orphan gene BOOSTER enhances photosynthetic efficiency and plant productivity” by Biruk A. Feyissa, Elsa M. de Becker, Coralie E. Salesse-Smith, Jin Zhang, Timothy B. Yates, Meng Xie, Kuntal De, Dhananjay Gotarkar, Margot S.S. Chen, Sara S. Jawdy, Dana L. Carper, Kerrie Barry, Jeremy Schmutz, David J. Weston, Paul E. Abraham, Chung-Jui Tsai, Jennifer L. Morrell-Falvey, Gail Taylor, Jin-Gui Chen, Gerald A. Tuskan and Wellington Muchero, 3 December 2024, Developmental Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.11.002
The research was supported by CBI and CABBI, both sponsored by the DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research Program.
The celebrity couple were married for over a decade before finalizing their divorce in 2021
Megan Fox’s ex Brian Austin Green has spoken out on the news of his pregnant ex-wife’s reported break-up from Machine Gun Kelly.
Fox recently revealed that she and Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) – real name Colson Barker – were expecting their first child together.
The baby will be the Jennifer’s Body actor’s fourth and MGK’s second.
It has since been reported that the celebrity pair have gone their separate ways once more, having called off their engagement last year.
According to reports, the reason for their split was because the singer was found to have been texting other women, as per Page Six.
In the wake of their reported split, 90210 and Desperate Housewives star Green was asked for his thoughts on the matter – and he claimed to TMZ that he had no idea that Fox and MGK had split.
Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green share three kids together (Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)
In a video, the TMZ reporter then explained that Transformers star had reportedly found inappropriate texts on MGK’s phone.
Green went on to ask: “How old is he? He’s in his 30s isn’t he?”
“In your 30s… like, grow up,” the actor continued. “You know, she’s pregnant.”
When asked if he was worried about his ex and the mother of his three kids, Green said he only wants ‘the best’ for Fox, their children and her unborn baby.
Green also said of it all: “I’m heartbroken about it because I know she’s been so excited and the kids are so excited for life to change, and all of that.”
He added that if it’s true about MGK’s texts, then it’s a ‘tragic situation’.
“I wouldn’t wish that on anybody,” the actor further weighed in.
Fox and MGK are said to have called things quits for good (Gotham/GC Images)
Both Fox and MGK are yet to publicly address their rumored break-up.
The two stars are thought to have started dating in June 2020, having met on the set of Midnight In The Switchgrass earlier that year.
MGK then popped the question to Fox in January 2022, but they called off their engagement a year later.
They were reported to have rekindled their romance afterwards though, but it isn’t though they were got re-engaged.
In March 2024, Fox said she couldn’t confirm the ‘status of the relationship’, though did confirm that their engagement had ended.
“I think that what I’ve learned from being in this relationship is that it’s not for public consumption, so I think as of now. I don’t have a comment on like the status of the relationship per se.” she told Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy at the time.
“What I can say is that is what I refer to as being my twin soul and there will always be a tether to [MGK] no matter what. I can’t say for sure what the capacity will be, but I will always be connected to him somehow.”
Electrodes measuring brain activity were attached to a shore crab, which was then subjected to mechanical and chemical stimuli. Credit: Eleftherios Kasiouras
University of Gothenburg researchers have provided scientific proof that shore crabs feel pain, urging a reevaluation of how shellfish are treated under EU animal welfare laws. This evidence supports the development of less painful methods for killing shellfish.
In our pursuit of improving the welfare of animals we consume, certain creatures are often overlooked. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg are now focusing on decapod crustaceans, which include shellfish delicacies such as prawns, lobsters, crabs, and crayfish. Currently, shellfish are not protected under animal welfare legislation in the EU, but this might be about to change—for a good reason, according to researchers.
Their study, recently published in the journal Biology, provides the first evidence that painful stimuli are sent to the brain of shore crabs, offering more proof that crustaceans feel pain.
Eleftherios Kasiouras, PhD student at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg. Credit: Eleftherios Kasiouras
“We need to find less painful ways to kill shellfish if we are to continue eating them. Because now we have scientific evidence that they both experience and react to pain,” said Lynne Sneddon, zoophysiologist at the University of Gothenburg.
Several research groups have previously conducted a number of observational studies on crustaceans, in which they were subjected to mechanical impact, electric shocks, or acids to soft tissues such as the antennae. These crustaceans reacted by touching the exposed area or trying to avoid the danger in repeated experiments, leading researchers to assume that they feel pain.
Pain Receptors in the Soft Tissues
The researchers at the University of Gothenburg are the first to carry out neurobiological studies by measuring the activity in the brain of a shore crab, through an EEG style measurement.
“We could see that the crab has some kind of pain receptors in its soft tissues, because we recorded an increase in brain activity when we applied a potentially painful chemical, a form of vinegar, to the crab’s soft tissues. The same happened when we applied external pressure to several of the crab’s body parts,” says Eleftherios Kasiouras, PhD student at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the study.
Lynne Sneddon, Senior Lecturer in Zoophysiology at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg. Credit: David Wolfenden
The activity of the central nervous system in the brain was measured in the crab when the soft tissues of claws, antennae, and legs were subjected to some form of stress. The responses show that shore crabs must have some form of pain signaling to the brain from these body parts. The pain response was shorter and more powerful in the case of physical stress than in the case of chemical stress, which lasted longer.
Advocating for Humane Treatment
“It is a given that all animals need some kind of pain system to cope by avoiding danger. I don’t think we need to test all species of crustaceans, as they have a similar structure and therefore similar nervous systems. We can assume that shrimps, crayfish and lobsters can also send external signals about painful stimuli to their brain which will process this information,” says Kasiouras.
The researchers point out that we need to find more humane ways to handle and even kill crustaceans. At present, it is allowed to cut up a crustacean alive, unlike the mammals we eat.
“We need more research to find less painful ways to kill shellfish,” says Sneddon.
Reference: “Putative Nociceptive Responses in a Decapod Crustacean: The Shore Crab (Carcinus maenas)” by Eleftherios Kasiouras, Peter C. Hubbard, Albin Gräns and Lynne U. Sneddon, 21 October 2024, Biology. DOI: 10.3390/biology13110851
New research shows stress accelerates the aging of the immune system and could help explain disparities in age-related health.
Traumatic life events and everyday stress prematurely weaken body’s mix of immune cells.
It is widely recognized that as people start getting up in the years, their immune system weakens. A stark example is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where the elderly face a much higher mortality rate than the young.
This process of gradual deterioration of the immune system brought on by natural age advancement is called immunosenescence. Yet you may know people that are quite elderly, but in great health, or vice versa, someone who is relatively young, but still prone to infections. What could account for differences in immune system strength in people that are the same age?
Stress — in the form of traumatic events, job strain, everyday stressors, and discrimination — accelerates aging of the immune system, potentially increasing a person’s risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and illness from infections such as COVID-19, according to a new University of Southern California (USC) study.
The research, published yesterday (June 13, 2022) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help explain disparities in age-related health, including the unequal toll of the pandemic, and identify possible points for intervention.
“As the world’s population of older adults increases, understanding disparities in age-related health is essential. Age-related changes in the immune system play a critical role in declining health,” said lead study author Eric Klopack, a postdoctoral scholar in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. “This study helps clarify mechanisms involved in accelerated immune aging.”
As people age, the immune system naturally begins a dramatic downgrade, a condition called immunosenescence. With advanced age, a person’s immune profile weakens, and includes too many worn-out white blood cells circulating and too few fresh, “naive” white blood cells ready to take on new invaders.
Potential Problems Relating to Stress and the Immune System
Immune aging is associated not only with cancer, but with cardiovascular disease, increased risk of pneumonia, reduced efficacy of vaccines, and organ system aging.
But what accounts for drastic health differences in same-age adults? USC researchers decided to see if they could tease out a connection between lifetime exposure to stress — a known contributor to poor health — and declining vigor in the immune system.
“Age-related changes in the immune system play a critical role in declining health.” Eric Klopack
They queried and cross-referenced enormous data sets from University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study, a national longitudinal study of the economic, health, marital, family status, and public and private support systems of older Americans.
To measure exposure to various types of social stress, the researchers analyzed responses from a national sample of 5,744 adults over the age of 50. They answered a questionnaire designed to assess respondents’ experiences with social stress, including stressful life events, chronic stress, everyday discrimination, and lifetime discrimination.
Blood samples from the participants were then analyzed through flow cytometry, a lab technique that counts and classifies blood cells as they pass one by one in a narrow stream in front of a laser.
As expected, people with higher stress scores had older-seeming immune profiles, with lower percentages of fresh disease fighters and higher percentages of worn-out white blood cells. The association between stressful life events and fewer ready-to-respond, or naive, T cells remained strong even after controlling for education, smoking, drinking, BMI, and race or ethnicity.
Some sources of stress may be impossible to control, but the researchers say there may be a workaround.
T-cells — a critical component of immunity — mature in a gland called the thymus, which sits just in front of and above the heart. As people age, the tissue in their thymus shrinks and is replaced by fatty tissue, resulting in reduced production of immune cells. Past research suggests that this process is accelerated by lifestyle factors like poor diet and low exercise, which are both associated with social stress.
“In this study, after statistically controlling for poor diet and low exercise, the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging wasn’t as strong,” said Klopack. “What this means is people who experience more stress tend to have poorer diet and exercise habits, partly explaining why they have more accelerated immune aging.”
Stress and the Immune System: Impact of Diet and Exercise
Improving diet and exercise behaviors in older adults may help offset the immune aging associated with stress.
Additionally, cytomegalovirus (CMV) may be a target for intervention. CMV is a common, usually asymptomatic virus in humans and is known to have a strong effect on accelerating immune aging. Like shingles or cold sores, CMV is dormant most of the time but can flare up, especially when a person is experiencing high stress.
In this study, statistically controlling for CMV positivity also reduced the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging. Therefore, widespread CMV vaccination could be a relatively simple and potentially powerful intervention that could reduce the immune aging effects of stress, the researchers said.
Reference: “Social stressors associated with age-related T lymphocyte percentages in older US adults: Evidence from the US Health and Retirement Study” by Eric T. Klopack, Eileen M. Crimmins, Steve W. Cole, Teresa E. Seeman and Judith E. Carroll, 13 June 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2202780119
In addition to Klopack, other authors include Eileen Crimmins, a University Professor and the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School; and Steve Cole and Teresa Seeman of UCLA.
The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (P30AG017265, U01AG009740).
A source claims Selena Gomez delayed announcing her engagement to Benny Blanco – and it’s a very sad theory but would make sense
A source claims Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco got engaged in August and the reason they held off publicly announcing the news is allegedly to do with Justin Bieber.
Selena Gomez announced her engagement to Benny Blanco in a post shared to Instagram yesterday (December 12).
However, a source has since come forward to claim the Only Murders in the Building star got engaged to the producer months prior but was worried it may clash with some other news.
Gomez took to her Instagram page yesterday to share the news, sharing four images.
The first shows her hand and ring; the second shows her sitting in a garden on a rug looking at her ring; the third a selfie with Gomez smiling down, showing her hand and ring to the camera; and the fourth and final picture of the singer in the arms of Blanco, him kissing her on the side of the head as she shows her hand to the camera beaming.
The caption reads: “Forever begins now..”
However, while the announcement was shared yesterday, that doesn’t mean Blanco popped the question recently, a source has since claimed.
Selena Gomez revealed she’s engaged in a post to Instagram (Instagram/ @selenagomez)
A source – allegedly an ‘insider’ on the matter – told the Mail Online that Gomez and Blanco actually became engaged in August.
So why wait until December to tell the world? Well, first off, just because someone is in the public eye doesn’t mean they’re required to tell the world information about their life as soon as it happens.
But the insider claims Gomez also allegedly held off as a result of ex-partner Justin Bieber and partner Hailey Bieber announcing the birth of their first child in August.
The source claims Gomez ‘didn’t want her engagement to be tied to Bieber in any way’ because she ‘knew that there would be stories accusing her of getting engaged to turn attention away from Justin’s baby or that people would claim that she did this to one up him’.
While it’s not been confirmed, the idea of withholding the announcement out of fear of backlash on social media would make sense, Gomez having previously spoken out about the extremely damaging effects of internet trolls on her mental wellbeing.
Both Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez have previously spoken out against nasty comments being shared online ( Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Unable to let sleeping dogs lie and everyone get on with their lives, some social media users have long speculated about an alleged feud between Gomez and the Biebers as a result of the past relationship – it’s called moving on, everyone.
And so bad did some of the hateful comments become targeting the Biebers specifically, Gomez once took to TikTok to speak out.
The Only Murders in the Building actor wrote: “Please be kind and consider others’ mental health. My heart has been heavy, and I only want good for everyone. All my love.”
Hailey also spoke out in the days following Gomez becoming a target of severe trolling, writing: “If you’re leaving mean or rude comments on my behalf on anyone’s posts, just know that I don’t want that, nor do I ever or will I ever support or condone hateful, mean, or nasty comments. Doing that is not supporting me.
“If you are participating in that you are a part of a culture that I want no part of. Please be nice or don’t say anything.”
A new study from McMaster University suggests that living in materially and socially deprived urban areas and experiencing depressive symptoms could independently contribute to accelerated biological aging, as determined by two DNA methylation-based estimators. The research did not find that neighborhood deprivation amplified the effect of depressive symptoms on biological aging, indicating that these two factors affect aging through different mechanisms.
According to a recent study led by researchers from McMaster University, residing in economically and socially disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and feeling depressed could accelerate your aging.
The study, which was published on June 5 in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, demonstrated that both living in urban regions characterized by significant disparities in resources and social opportunities, as well as having symptoms of depression, are independently linked with early biological aging. This correlation persists even after taking into account personal health and behavior-related risk factors such as chronic illnesses and detrimental health habits.
Parminder Raina, a professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, led the research team, which included investigators from the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland.
Parminder Raina, professor, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, lead principal investigator of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging and the study’s senior author. Credit: McMaster University
“Our study used two DNA methylation-based estimators, known as epigenetic clocks, to examine aging at the cellular level and estimate the difference between chronological age and biological age,” said Divya Joshi, the study’s first author and a research associate in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster.
“Our findings showed that neighborhood deprivation and depressive symptoms were positively associated with acceleration of the epigenetic age estimated using the DNAm GrimAge clock. This adds to the growing body of evidence that living in urban areas with higher levels of neighborhood deprivation and having depression symptoms are both associated with premature biological aging.”
Depressive symptoms in the study were measured using a 10-item standardized depression scale. The researchers found an acceleration in the risk of death by one month for every point increase in the depressive symptom score. They theorized that emotional distress caused by depression may result in more biological wear and tear and dysregulation of physiological systems, which in turn could lead to premature aging.
The researchers assessed neighborhood material and social deprivation using two indices that were developed by the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) based on 2011 census.
Social deprivation reflects the presence of fewer social resources in the family and community, and material deprivation is an indicator of people’s inability to access goods and conveniences of modern life, such as adequate housing, nutritious food, a car, high-speed internet, or a neighborhood with recreational facilities.
The researchers found an increase in the risk of death by almost one year for those exposed to greater neighborhood deprivation compared to lower neighborhood deprivation.
The study did not find that neighborhood deprivation amplified the effect of depressive symptoms on epigenetic age acceleration.
“Our results showed that the effect of neighborhood deprivation on epigenetic age acceleration was similar regardless of depression symptoms, suggesting that depression influences epigenetic age acceleration through mechanisms unrelated to neighborhood deprivation,” Joshi said.
The research examined epigenetic data from 1,445 participants enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a research platform following more than 50,000 participants who were between the ages of 45 to 85 when recruited.
“Longitudinal studies, like the CLSA, are important to confirm associations like those found in this study,” said Raina, the study’s senior author and lead principal investigator of the CLSA.
“By following the same group of participants for 20 years, we will be able to determine whether epigenetic changes are stable or reversible over time. We will also gain insight into the mechanisms that are leading to accelerated epigenetic aging.”
Reference: “Association of Neighborhood Deprivation and Depressive Symptoms With Epigenetic Age Acceleration: Evidence From the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging” by Divya Joshi, Ph.D., Frank J van Lenthe, Ph.D., Martijn Huisman, Ph.D., Erik R Sund, Ph.D., Steinar Krokstad, Ph.D., Mauricio Avendano, Ph.D. and Parminder Raina, Ph.D., 5 June 2023, The Journals of Gerontology Series A. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glad118
Researchers found MANF aids cellular cleanup, potentially offering new treatments for age-related diseases and healthier aging.
New research found that the protein MANF helps cells manage toxic protein clumps, improving cellular health and potentially aiding treatments for age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Researchers at McMaster University have uncovered a previously unidentified cell-protective role of a protein, potentially paving the way for new treatments for age-related diseases and promoting healthier aging.
The team has found that a class of protective proteins known as MANF plays a role in the process that keep cells efficient and working well.
The findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Our cells make proteins and discard them after they perform their jobs. This efficient, continuous maintenance process is known as cellular homeostasis. However, as we age, our cells’ ability to keep up declines.
Cells can create proteins incorrectly, and the cleanup process can become faulty or overwhelmed. As a result, proteins can clump together, leading to a harmful buildup that has been linked to such diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
“If the cells are experiencing stress because this protein aggregation has started, the endoplasmic reticulum, which is where proteins are made and then released, gets the signal to stop making these proteins,” explains biology professor Bhagwati Gupta, who supervised the research.
“If it can’t correct the problem, the cell will die, which ultimately leads to degeneration of the neurons and then neurodegenerative diseases that we see.”
MANF’s Role in Cellular Maintenance
Previous studies, including one from McMaster, had shown that MANF protects against increased cellular stress. The team set out to understand how this happens by studying microscopic worms known as C. elegans. They created a system to manipulate the amount of MANF in C. elegans.
C. elegans examined under a microscope. The yellow and purple dots are the regions where MANF protein is located. Credit: McMaster University
“We could literally see where MANF was expressed in the worms because they are translucent. We could see it in all different tissues. Within these tissues, MANF was present in structures known as lysosomes which are associated with lifespan and protein aggregation,” said Shane Taylor, now a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia who worked on the project for his PhD while at McMaster.
Activating the Natural Cellular Clean-Up System
The team discovered that MANF plays a key role in the cell’s disposal process by helping to break down the accumulated proteins, keeping cells healthier and clutter-free.
Increasing MANF levels also activates a natural clean-up system within cells, helping them function better for longer.
“Although our research focused on worms, the findings uncover universal processes. MANF is present in all animals, including humans. We are learning fundamental and mechanistic details that could then be tested in higher systems,” said Taylor.
To develop MANF as a potential therapy, researchers want to understand what other players MANF interacts with.
“Discovering MANF’s role in cellular homeostasis suggests that it could be used to develop treatments for diseases that affect the brain and other parts of the body by targeting cellular processes, clearing out these toxic clumps in cells, and maintaining their health,” said Gupta.
“The central idea of aging research is basically can we make the processes better and more efficient. By understanding how MANF works and targeting its function, we could develop new treatments for age-related diseases. We want to live longer and healthier. These kinds of players could help that.”
Reference: “The neurotrophic factor MANF regulates autophagy and lysosome function to promote proteostasis in Caenorhabditis elegans” by Shane K. B. Taylor, Jessica H. Hartman and Bhagwati P. Gupta, 17 October 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403906121
Fans have hailed the two-season show a ‘masterpiece’
A Netflix comedy-drama starring Lisa Kudrow has earned a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score – but you might never have heard of it.
The sitcom legend has starred in a number of exciting films and TV shows since Friendsended its 10-year run in 2004.
From voicing a TV executive owl in Netflix’s Bojack Horseman to appearing in fantasy-comedy The Good Place, I personally love seeing Kudrow pop up on my screen.
And Kudrow’s latest series, No Good Deed, hasdropped on Netflix today (December 12).
Directed by Dead To Me’s Liz Feldman, the eight-parter tells the story of three families vying to buy the very same 1920s Spanish style villa that they think will solve all their problems.
Lisa Kudrow stars opposite Mae Martin and Adrian Lukis (Netflix)
But fans might have let one of Kudrow’s top-rated shows slip under their radar.
The 61-year-old starred in a British drama series that was adored by fans and scored a perfect 100 percent from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Called Feel Good, the show debutedin 2020 and ran for two rollercoaster seasons.
You can watch the trailer below.
Created by non-binary comedian Mae Martin and writer Joe Hampson, it sees Martin play a fictionalised version of themself.
Set in London, Martin navigates their comedy career, a new relationship and the pendulum swing of addiction and sobriety.
Kudrow plays Martin’s mom Linda, while You’s Charlotte Ritchie is Martin’s girlfriend George.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus read, for season one: “An intimate portrait of addiction and love, Feel Good is at once sweetly charming, uncomfortably complicated, and completely worth falling for.”
A similarly glowing review for season two was given, which read: “Feel Good’s second season is at once sharp and soft, a bittersweet examination of love and life that will leave viewers wanting more from Mae Martin ASAP.”
Meanwhile, fans hailed the series ‘refreshingly funny,’ as one admitted: “I didn’t want this show to end.”
Mae Martin in Feel Good (Netflix)
A second summed up: “A cleverly and beautiful written series. Funny, sad, stressful and captivating all at the same time.”
A third wrote: “Such an honest, hilarious, and yet painfully real depiction of trauma, PTSD, addiction, abuse, love, and relationships.
“Mae Martin has truly created a masterpiece with this series.”
Both seasons of Feel Good are available to stream now on Netflix.
A footprint hypothesized to have been created by a Paranthropus boisei individual. Credit: Kevin Hatala/Chatham University
Footprints from two hominin species found in Kenya suggest they lived and interacted together over a million years ago.
Over a million years ago, two different species of hominins may have crossed paths as they walked along the shore of what is now Lake Turkana in Kenya.
Researchers reached this conclusion after examining 1.5-million-year-old fossils they unearthed, which may represent the first instance of two sets of hominin footprints made about the same time on an ancient lake shore. This discovery will provide more insight into human evolution and how species cooperated and competed, the researchers said.
A footprint hypothesized to have been created by a Homo erectus individual. Credit: Kevin Hatala/Chatham University
Hominin Footprints: A Window into the Past
“Hominin” is a newer term that describes a subdivision of the larger category known as hominids. Hominins includes all organisms, extinct and alive, considered to be within the human lineage that emerged after the split from the ancestors of the great apes. This is believed to have occurred about 6 million to 7 million years ago.
The discovery, published recently in Science, provides direct proof that different hominin species lived contemporaneously in time and space, overlapping as they evaded predators and weathered the challenges of safely securing food in the ancient African landscape. Hominins belonging to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, the two most common living human species of the Pleistocene Epoch, made the tracks, the researchers said.
A 3D computerized model of the surface of the area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprints) with separate footprints of Homo erectus forming a perpendicular path. Credit: Kevin Hatala/Chatham University
“Their presence on the same surface, made closely together in time, places the two species at the lake margin, using the same habitat,” said Craig Feibel, an author of the study and a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Department of Anthropology in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.
Feibel, who has conducted research since 1981 in that area of northern Kenya, a rich fossil site, applied his expertise in stratigraphy and dating to demonstrate the geological antiquity of the fossils at 1.5 million years ago. He also interpreted the depositional setting of the footprint surface, narrowing down the passage of the track makers to a few hours and showing they were formed at the very spot of soft sediments where they were found.
If the hominins didn’t cross paths, they traversed the shore within hours of each other, Feibel said.
A trackway of footprints hypothesized to have been created by a Paranthropus boisei individual. Credit: Neil Roach
Discovering Ancient Locomotion and Interaction
While skeletal fossils have long provided the primary evidence for studying human evolution, new data from fossil footprints are revealing fascinating details about the evolution of human anatomy and locomotion and giving further clues about ancient human behaviors and environments, according to Kevin Hatala, the study’s first author, and an associate professor of biology at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pa.
“Fossil footprints are exciting because they provide vivid snapshots that bring our fossil relatives to life,” said Hatala, who has been investigating hominin footprints since 2012. “With these kinds of data, we can see how living individuals, millions of years ago, were moving around their environments and potentially interacting with each other, or even with other animals. That’s something that we can’t really get from bones or stone tools.”
A site in northern Kenya has yielded 1.5-million-year-old fossils. Credit: Louise N. Leakey
Advanced Techniques Unveil Hominin Behaviors
Hatala, an expert in foot anatomy, found the species’ footprints reflected different patterns of anatomy and locomotion. He and several co-authors distinguished one set of footprints from another using new methods they recently developed to enable them to conduct a 3D analysis.
“In biological anthropology, we’re always interested in finding new ways to extract behavior from the fossil record, and this is a great example,” said Rebecca Ferrell, a program director at the National Science Foundation who helped fund this portion of the research. “The team used cutting-edge 3D imaging technologies to create an entirely new way to look at footprints, which helps us understand human evolution and the roles of cooperation and competition in shaping our evolutionary journey.”
Rutgers Professor Craig Feibel has been studying fossils in Kenya since the 1980s. Credit: Craig Feibel/Rutgers University
Feibel described the discovery as “a bit of serendipity.” The researchers uncovered the fossil footprints in 2021 when a team organized by Louise Leakey, a third-generation paleontologist who is the granddaughter of Louis Leakey and daughter of Richard Leakey, discovered fossil bones at the site.
The field team, led by Cyprian Nyete, mainly consists of a group of highly trained Kenyans who live locally and scour the landscape after heavy rains. They noticed fossils on the surface and were excavating to try and find the source. While cleaning the top layer of a bed, Richard Loki, one of the excavators, noticed some giant bird tracks and then spotted the first hominin footprint. Leakey coordinated a team in response that excavated the footprint surface in July 2022.
Feibel noted it has long been hypothesized that these fossil human species coexisted. According to fossil records, Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of humans, persisted for 1 million years more. Paranthropus boisei, however, went extinct within the next few hundred thousand years. Scientists don’t know why.
Both species possessed upright postures and bipedalism, and they were highly agile. Little is yet known about how these coexisting species interacted, both culturally and reproductively.
The footprints are significant, Feibel said, because they fall into the category of “trace fossils” – which can include footprints, nests, and burrows. Trace fossils are not part of an organism but offer evidence of behavior. Body fossils, such as bones and teeth, are evidence of past life but are easily moved by water or a predator.
Trace fossils cannot be moved, Feibel said.
“This proves beyond any question that not only one, but two different hominins were walking on the same surface, literally within hours of each other,” Feibel said. “The idea that they lived contemporaneously may not be a surprise. But this is the first time demonstrating it. I think that’s really huge.”
Reference: “Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins” by Kevin G. Hatala, Neil T. Roach, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Peter L. Falkingham, Stephen M. Gatesy, Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, Craig S. Feibel, Ibrae Dalacha, Martin Kirinya, Ezekiel Linga, Richard Loki, Apolo Alkoro, Longaye, Malmalo Longaye, Emmanuel Lonyericho, Iyole Loyapan, Nyiber Nakudo, Cyprian Nyete and Louise N. Leakey, 28 November 2024, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.ado5275
An illustration from the paper, depicting Ninumbeehan digging a burrow in a riverbed for the dry season and then re-emerging when the monsoon returned. Credit: Copyright: Gabriel N. Ugueto
Ancient amphibians in Wyoming adapted to extreme weather by burrowing, offering insights into current amphibian survival strategies amid climate change.
Two hundred and thirty million years ago, in what is now Wyoming, the seasons were extreme. Torrential rain would batter the region for months, and once the mega-monsoon ended, the area would become extremely dry. Such drastic conditions would have posed a significant challenge to amphibians, which need moist skin to survive. However, one group of salamander-like creatures developed a remarkable adaptation to the extreme seasonal changes, as demonstrated by their unusual fossils.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers described a new species of fossil amphibian preserved in torpedo-shaped burrows. These ancient amphibians likely waited out the dry season in these burrows, then re-emerged once the monsoon returned.
“Based on how the rocks in the area formed and what they’re made of, we can tell that Wyoming experienced some of the most drastic seasonal effects of the mega-monsoon that affected the whole supercontinent of Pangea,” says Cal So, the study’s lead author and an incoming postdoctoral scientist at the Field Museum in Chicago. “So how did these animals stay moist and prevent themselves from drying out during the hot and dry season that lasted several months? This is the cool thing. We find these fossils inside these cylindrical structures up to 12 inches long, which we’ve interpreted as burrows.”
Fossil skull of the newly described amphibian. Credit: David Lovelace
Early Research and Discovery of Burrows
So, who recently obtained their PhD from George Washington University, first encountered the strange fossil burrows when they were an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, working with Research Scientist David Lovelace of the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.
In 2014, Lovelace was searching for fossils in Wyoming, in an area stewarded by the Bureau of Land Management in a rock layer he would eventually call the Serendipity Beds. “One of my passions is ichnology– the hidden biodiversity that can be shown through tracks of animals or traces of other living organisms,” says Lovelace. He spotted a small cylindrical structure and several larger ones that looked “like a Pringle can” made of rock. Lovelace recognized the structures as in-filled burrows made by an animal long ago, but a small one stood out. “It was tiny, it was so cute,” he says. He collected several of the cylinders for his research.
Cal So and Adam Fitch using a rock saw to excavate fossil burrows. Credit: Hannah Miller
Uncovering Fossil Secrets and Their Implications
Back in the lab, Lovelace took a hammer to one of the preserved burrows to see if there were any fossils inside, and he found a tiny, toothy skull. “I saw sharp, pointy teeth, and my first thought was that it was a baby crocodile,” Lovelace says. “But when we put it all together and prepared it, we realized it was some sort of amphibian.”
Lovelace reached out to Jason Pardo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum who specializes in fossil amphibians, who created high-resolution CT scans of another of the fossil burrows and revealed a tiny skeleton inside. “At this point, we were like, ‘Oh my god, we have something really cool,’” says Lovelace. “I went back to put together the geological story of the site, and then we were just finding these burrows everywhere. We couldn’t not find them, the site was ridiculously loaded.”
On one of his return trips, he dispatched So, who was then an undergraduate, to collect more of the burrows. Ultimately, the team gathered around 80 fossil burrows, most of which contained skulls and bones of the ancient amphibians. These bones contained clues to the animals’ lifestyles. No complete skeletons have been found, but based on the partial remains, they were probably about a foot long. They had tiny, underdeveloped arms, but the researchers think they had another way to dig their burrows.
“Their skulls have kind of a scoop shape, so we think they used the head to scoop their way underground at the bottom of a riverbed and go through a period of having a lower metabolic rate so that they could survive the dry season. That’s similar to what some modern-day salamanders and fish do,” says So. Essentially, the ancient, aquatic amphibians spent the rainy part of the year swimming in rivers, but when those rivers dried up, they dug head-first into the muddy riverbed. They spent the dry season underground, in a state somewhat similar to hibernation, until the monsoon returned a few months later, and the rainwater replenished the rivers. The fossils found by So and Lovelace just happened to be unlucky in that the rivers’ paths changed from year to year. The spots where these animals buried themselves were no longer kept moist, so the animals never emerged and instead died in their burrows.
Intercultural Collaboration and Naming the Discovery
The ancient amphibians lived in what’s now the ancestral lands of the Eastern Shoshone people, with whom the researchers have an ongoing collaborative relationship. “Our interest is in education, so we met with the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Eastern Shoshone, and he connected us with the schools,” says Lovelace. “It was a great multi-generational collaboration. We invited seventh-grade students from Fort Washakie School, their teachers, and elders into the field with us. The elders told us about their understanding of the rock and their history on the land, and the students got to find burrows and bones.”
The middle school students are learning the Shoshone language, and they worked with Elders to create a name for the fossil amphibian in Shoshone: Ninumbeehan dookoodukah. In their paper, the researchers explained, “Ninumbee is the name for the mountain-dwelling Little People who hold an important place in Shoshone culture (among others), –han is the possessive affix indicating an affiliation with the Ninumbee, dookoo means ‘flesh’ and dukah means ‘eater.’ Altogether, Ninumbeehan dookoodukah means ‘Little People’s flesh eater,’ honoring the Little People and referencing the sharp teeth of the fossil. Our intent is to pay tribute to the Eastern Shoshone people, their language and the land to which they belong.”
“The collaboration between our school district (Fremont County School District # 21) and Dr. Lovelace and his team illustrates reciprocity in action and the long-term, transformational impacts that can occur through authentic relationship building between researchers and communities,” says Amanda LeClair-Diaz, Office of Indian Education Coordinator and a co-author of the paper. “This process of scientists, community members, educators, middle school students, and Eastern Shoshone elders coming together to learn about these fossils and choosing a Shoshone name for the fossil, Ninumbeehan dookoodukah, solidifies the intergenerational connection we as Shoshone people have to our homeland and the beings that exist within this environment.”
Ninumbeehan offers scientists a tantalizing clue about what life was like in Wyoming 230 million years ago. “Small amphibians are really rare in the Triassic, and we don’t know why that is,” says Pardo. “We find some big ones, but these small ones are really quite challenging to find.”
The newly described amphibians also could shed some light on how modern amphibians might fare in the extreme weather conditions brought on by the climate crisis. “Modern amphibian diversity is under substantial threat, and climate change is a huge part of that,” says Pardo. “But the way that Ninumbeehan could slow down its metabolism to wait out the dry weather indicates that some lineages of modern amphibians that have similar seasonal behavior might allow for greater survivorship than some of the models suggest. It’s a little glimmer of hope.”
Reference: “Fossil amphibian offers insights into the interplay between monsoons and amphibian evolution in palaeoequatorial Late Triassic systems” by Calvin So, Aaron M. Kufner, Jason D. Pardo, Caian L. Edwards, Brandon R. Price, Joseph J. Bevitt, Amanda LeClair-Diaz, Lynette St. Clair, Josh Mann, Reba Teran and David M. Lovelace, 30 September 2024, Proceedings B.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1041
