Image Credit Research Articles

Targeted Therapy: Dendrimer‐Triamcinolone Acetonide Reduces Neuroinflammation, Pathological Angiogenesis, and Neuroretinal Dysfunction in Ischemic Retinopathy (Adv. Therap. 2/2021)

Specific and robust targeting of pathogenic cells would represent a major advance in treatment of eye diseases including diabetic retinopathy. In article number 2000181 Rangaramanujam M. Kannan, Elia J. Duh and co-workers use the corticosteroid triamcinolone conjugated to the surface of PAMAM-dendrimers, which are tree-like branching polymeric nanoparticles. This dendrimer-triamcinolone conjugate selectively targets activated, amoeboid microglia in diseased retina, reprogramming them to quiescent ramified microglia, with resulting neuroprotective effects and suppression of pathologic retinal angiogenesis. Dendrimer-mediated drug delivery to pathogenic microglia represents a promising therapeutic strategy with high potency and low toxicity. Image credit: Sylvia Heredia

Hydrogel‐Forming Microneedles: Current Advancements and Future Trends

Front Cover: Hydrogel-forming microneedles have been primarily utilized for the enhancement of transdermal drug delivery and extraction of interstitial fluid. Applications including treatments for skin cancer and wound healing have been reported. Current applications, hydrogel materials, and potential future directions have been reported in the review article by Joseph G. Turner, Leah R. White, Pedro Estrela, and Hannah S. Leese in the article 2000307. Image Credit: Joseph G. Turner.

Arthur Ashkin: Father of the optical tweezers

The father of the optical tweezers, Arthur Ashkin, passed away peacefully at his home in Rumson, NJ, on September 21, 2020, at the age of 98, two years after being awarded the 2018 Physics Nobel Prize. Arthur Ashkin, in his backyard, looking through a magnifying glass. Image credit: Daniel Ashkin (photographer). From right to left: Arthur Ashkin, Steven Chu, and John Bjorkholm in 1986, around the time of the first demonstration of atom trapping. Reused with permission of Nokia Corporation and AT&T Archives. Arthur Ashkin in his homemade laboratory in his basement in November 2018. Arthur Ashkin was born in Brooklyn, NY, on September 2, 1922, the son of humble eastern European Jewish immigrants. Arthur’s father, Isador, was an orphan from Odessa, then part of Russia, while his mother, Anna, was from the province of Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Isador immigrated to the United States in 1910, shortly before his nineteenth birthday. Upon his arrival at Ellis Island, his surname, Ashkenasy, was Americanized to Ashkin. Having trained as a dental technician in the orphanage where he was raised, Isador established his own dental laboratory on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, specializing in dental prostheses. Anna, who worked briefly as a secretary in Red Hook, Brooklyn, became a homemaker, raising Arthur and his siblings in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Arthur had three siblings, a younger sister, Ruth, an elder brother, Julius, and the first-born, Gertrude, who died at a young age. Ruth studied Greek and Latin at The City College of New York and became an esteemed teacher in the New York City elementary school system. Julius became a physicist. He was an exceptionally gifted student who graduated early and became a close collaborator with many leading physicists of the time, including Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, and Hans Bethe. … [↵][1]1Email: rene.essiambre{at}nokia-bell-labs.com. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Will understanding the ocean lead to “the ocean we want”?

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030, henceforth the Ocean Decade) aims to galvanize the international community to acquire and apply scientific knowledge of the ocean. The Ocean Decade is specifically intended to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including its promise to “leave no one behind,” which includes coastal Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, and will undoubtedly influence research agendas and financing well beyond 2030. This focus is captured in the phrase “the science we need for the ocean we want” (1). This first-of-its-kind UN Decade will require ambition and commitment, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Researchers hoping to help deliver the “ocean we want” as a society-first principle need to understand how science can benefit ocean-dependent people. This requires a science model that co-designs and co-delivers solutions in collaboration with people whose livelihood depends on the ocean, such as the Madagascar fishers pictured here. Image credit: ©artush/123RF.com. The current draft of the Ocean Decade Implementation Plan establishes a framework of outcomes, actions, and objectives, acknowledging the need for interdisciplinary approaches to design and deliver solution-oriented research alongside ocean-dependent people (1). Recent proposals from the academic literature for the Ocean Decade emphasize increasing our global biophysical understanding through exploration and observation of, and experimentation on, the ocean (2⇓⇓–5). But will understanding the ocean lead to “the ocean we want”? We argue that proposals for the UN Decade should consider a crucial point: To achieve the ocean we want, we must better understand the needs and priorities of ocean-dependent peoples and evaluate potential solutions for them. Advancements in marine scientific knowledge and technological innovation have brought myriad benefits to people and the planet. They include: understanding global environmental change; assessing effects of anthropogenic … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: geralds{at}mun.ca. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Charles M. Radding: A love of science and art

Charles M. Radding, a pioneer of recombination biochemistry, passed away on October 20, 2020, at the age of 90. Charles was a world-renowned scientist who made major contributions to the fields of DNA recombination and repair, in particular through his mechanistic studies of the RecA protein. He was a man of humor and warmth, and an eloquent and inspiring lecturer who had a profound influence on others in the field. Charles was married to his wife Natalie for over 65 years, and has three daughters and a grandson. Charles M. Radding at a laboratory celebration. Image credit: David Keith Gonda. The blackboard in the Radding laboratory was a ripe source of new recombination models and mechanisms for how RecA might drive recombination. Image credit: David Keith Gonda. Charles grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was the youngest boy of five, and had one younger sister. His parents, Morris and Sara Radding, came from Russia in search of a better life. Unfortunately, Charles was born and raised in the shadow of the Great Depression and his family lost their business and home. It was not an easy time. But Charles was lucky enough to receive a chemistry set when he was 10 and this encouraged his curiosity in understanding the natural world. He discovered that chemistry provided a way to describe material things, and that the chemical codes for salt and sugar opened the door to view compounds in a way that words could not. Even at that early age he was fascinated by the concept that chemical interactions underpinned the workings of the human body. Encouraged by an elder brother, Charles decided to go into medicine and enrolled in Harvard College. He was fascinated by the lectures of George Wald, who later received the Nobel Prize for discoveries … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: stephen.west{at}crick.ac.uk or sckowalczykowski{at}ucdavis.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Herbert Tabor, 1918–2020: Polyamines, NIH, and the JBC

On August 20, 2020, at the age of 101, Herbert Tabor died peacefully at his home on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Herb was best known for his elucidation of the biochemical pathways for polyamines, including characterization of the biosynthetic enzymes, their genes and regulation, and the functions of the polyamines, chiefly using Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae . He was Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Biological Chemistry ( JBC ) for nearly 40 years, overseeing its dramatic expansion and modernization, leading conversion from the traditional means of distribution of scientific information to the present web-based system. Herbert Tabor in his laboratory in 1974. Image credit: Tabor family photo collection. Herbert Tabor was born November 28, 1918, in New York City, and was graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1933 at the age of 14. At Harvard College he entered the Biochemical Sciences program headed by John Edsall. Graduating in 1937, Herb attended Harvard Medical School, where his work with A. Baird Hastings on the ionization constant of MgHPO4 was the subject of his first paper, fittingly in the JBC (1). As an intern at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1942, Herb gave a patient with streptococcal septicemia an injection of penicillin, the first dose in the first major clinical trial of the drug in the United States (it worked!). Unbeknownst to Herb at the time (until 25 years later), that dose was prepared at Merck by Gilbert Ashwell, later to be a distinguished colleague and close friend of Herb at the NIH. In … [↵][1]1Email: wickner{at}helix.nih.gov. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Tracing gold’s cosmic origin story

Astronomers thought they had finally figured out where the gold, platinum, and other heavy elements in the universe came from. In light of recent results, they’re not so sure. Desperate phone calls made in the dead of night rarely convey good news, much less first word of a major scientific discovery. Alex Ji made such a call in 2015 from atop a mountain in Chile, where he was using one of the world’s largest telescopes. “This was actually the first time that I had taken data on a telescope ever,” says Ji, then a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “I was absolutely convinced that I had done something wrong.” How does the universe make heavy elements such as gold? It’s a question astronomers have wrestled with for more than half a century—and the answers are only starting to emerge. Image credit: Science Source/Tom McHugh. So, just after midnight, Ji called his advisor Anna Frebel to describe what he had just seen and could barely believe: A faint star in a dim nearby galaxy named Reticulum II seemed to have extraordinary amounts of europium, an element that’s even rarer in the cosmos than gold. Frebel told Ji to observe another star in the same small galaxy. That star also turned out to be rich in europium, as did a third. In the end, seven of the nine stars Ji observed had extreme levels of the rare element. It would take some time for the astronomers to interpret their surprising result, but when they did, it bore on one of the most pressing questions in astronomy: How does the universe make its heaviest elements? It’s a question astronomers have wrestled with for more than half a century. Elements such as gold, silver, and platinum don’t normally form …

At the nexus of music and medicine, some see treatments for disease

When physician Babar Khan started studying delirium seven years ago, he set out to find a drug that could sooth the agitation, inattention, and hallucinations that characterize the disorder. Delirium is common in the intensive care units (ICUs) where Khan works, most recently as an ICU physician at Indiana University School of Medicine and a researcher at Regenstrief Institute, both in Indianapolis. Some 70–80% of ventilated patients in the ICU experience episodes of delirium that not only prolong their stay in hospital but can also lead to long-term cognitive decline. Neurologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and clinicians are coming together to study the therapeutic potential of music. Image credit: Shutterstock/agsandrew. In the mid-2000s, Khan led two antipsychotic drug trials, neither of which worked for delirium. “So I started looking into more holistic interventions,” he says. He recalled seeing some evidence, drawn from assessments of anxiety and sedative exposure in hospital patients, suggesting that music can not only ease anxiety in the ICU but can help with pain management (1). The music-related findings would spur Khan to start investigating music as an alternative to pharmaceuticals. He recently co-led a 2020 pilot trial using music to alleviate delirium in mechanically ventilated ICU patients. Encouragingly, he found that relaxing, slow-tempo classical music reduced patients’ number of delirium days (2). That study is one of many new projects seeking evidence for music as a medical therapy. Cultures have used music in healing for centuries. Although the evidence is still limited, a growing body of research offers increasing promise for music’s health benefits. And the field is seeing a new injection of funding. Based on his pilot trial, Khan secured funding for a confirmatory trial through the Sound Health initiative, a partnership between the the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Washington, DC-based John F. …

Realizing the roads of the future

Researchers are seeking simple ways to make asphalt pavements safer, quieter, and more eco-friendly . Roads encircle the globe in arterial networks that seem more pervasive each year. To some, they are a sign of progress; to others, they are a growing scar on the landscape. The United States alone hosts millions of miles of asphalt pavements, materials that aren’t particularly sustainable or good for surrounding ecosystems. Yet the United States and many other nations keep building and replacing the same sorts of roads year after year, using the same basic design that’s been around for centuries. We keep building and replacing the same sorts of roads year after year, using the same basic design that’s been around for centuries. But researchers and engineers have designs on some much safer, more sustainable pavements. Image credit: Shutterstock/Keith Homan. Despite humanity’s road-making rut, asphalt pavement upgrades are certainly possible. In recent years, researchers have started to work on a range of refinements that could make highways safer, quieter, and more sustainable. Modifications could include changing the aggregates and binders in the pavement or adding recycled materials into the mix. Even altering the pavement’s stiffness could improve the efficiency of vehicles using the road. Some of these changes could offer substantial reductions in the emissions of planet-warming CO2 and other pollutants. “There are all sorts of things that can be changed,” says Jeremy Gregory, a sustainability researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. “We’re constantly looking for improvements.” Road design today is fundamentally the same as that used by the Romans. In general, a surface layer of pavement is laid atop thick layers of compacted granular materials that help transmit traffic loads to the underlying soil or bedrock. Modern pavement is typically made from either concrete, a mixture of …

Standardizing gene product nomenclature—a call to action

The current lack of a standardized nomenclature system for gene products (e.g., proteins) has resulted in a haphazard counterproductive system of labeling. Different names are often used for the same gene product; the same name is sometimes used for unrelated gene products. Such ambiguity causes not only potential harm to patients, whose treatments increasingly rely on laboratory tests for multiple gene products, but also miscommunication and inefficiency, both of which hinder progress of broad scientific fields. To mitigate this confusion, we recommend standardizing human protein nomenclature through the use of a Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) gene symbol accompanied by its unique HGNC ID. We call for action across all biomedical communities and scientific and medical journals to standardize nomenclature of gene products using HGNC gene symbols to enhance accuracy in scientific and public communication. We call on all biomedical communities and scientific and medical journals to standardize nomenclature of gene products to enhance accuracy in scientific and public communication. Image credit: Shutterstock/greenbutterfly. Use of gene symbols designated by the HGNC [www.genenames.org (1)] is nearly universal. DNA- and RNA-level sequence variation nomenclature has been standardized to use HGNC gene symbols, the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (dbSNP) IDs, and genetic variant nomenclature designated by the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) to unambiguously designate variants. In striking contrast to the use of universal identifiers for genes and gene variants, there are no universal identifiers for the peptides and proteins that these genes encode. Many gene products have multiple nomenclatures in widespread use, and many common nomenclatures are used for multiple gene products. For example, the symbol “PD-1” is shared by multiple unrelated gene products and is used to describe PDCD1 , SNCA , and SPATA2 gene products. The PDCD1 (PD-1) protein is a well-known target for cancer immunotherapy. … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: elspeth@ebi.ac.uk, timothy.oleary@va.gov, or sogino{at}bwh.harvard.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

How does the composition of a PAH influence its microsolvation? A rotational spectroscopy study of the phenanthrene-water and phenanthridine-water clusters.

We report on the noncovalent intermolecular interactions established between the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons phenanthrene and phenanthridine with water. Such noncovalent interactions involving extended aromatic systems and water molecules are ubiquitous in a variety of chemical and biological systems. Our study provides spectroscopic results on simple model systems to understand the impact that an extended aromatic surface and the presence of a heteroatom have on the nature of the noncovalent interactions established with the solvent. Microhydrated phenanthrene and phenanthridine clusters with up to three water molecules have been observed and unambiguously characterised by means of broadband rotational spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The presence of a nitrogen atom in the backbone of phenanthridine remarkably affects the geometries of the water clusters and the interaction networks at play, with O-HN and C-HO interactions becoming preferred in the phenanthridine-water clusters over the O-Hπ interactions seen in the phenanthrene-water clusters. The presence of this heteroatom induces nuclear quadrupole coupling, which was used to understand the cooperativity effects found with increasing cluster size. Our results provide important insight to draw a more complete picture of the noncovalent interactions involving solvent molecules and aromatic systems larger than benzene, and they can be significant to enhance our understanding of the aromatic-polar interactions at play in a myriad of chemical and biological contexts.

Front Cover: Solvent Effect on the Spin State of an Iron(II)‐Triazole Trimer (Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2/2021)

The Front Cover shows the molecular structure of an iron(II)-triazole trimer that undergoes a single-crystal to single-crystal transformation following its spin transition between low spin (LS) and high spin (HS) upon immersion in different solvents. Magnetic and spectroscopic changes are represented here as almond tree branches in bloom. The reversible structural changes responsible for this solvent-responsive behavior in the solid state were identified by comparison of the crystal structure after immersion in acetonitrile or in toluene. Image credits: Irene Sánchez-Molina, David Nieto and Andrea Moneo. More information can be found in the Full Paper by I. Sánchez-Molina, J. R. Galán-Mascarós and co-workers.

José Mario Molina: Life and legacy of a man who helped to save Earth’s ozone layer

On October 7, 2020, history entrusted us with a moment of profound significance where we rejoiced to see two distinguished women—Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna—be honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, while we also reckoned with the shattering loss of a much respected and honored academic, a humble and generous man dedicated to the understanding of how our planet functions, and to the virtues and values of striving toward a better world for all to live and thrive in: Dr. Mario Molina, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. José Mario Molina at MIT in 2002. Image credit: L. T. Molina (photographer). José Mario Molina was born in Mexico City on March 19, 1943. Enjoying the benefit of role models, like his father, a lawyer and professor at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), and the Mexican Ambassador to Australia, Ethiopia, and the Philippines, Mario was raised within the atmosphere of an educated and supportive family. From an interview with Mario’s brother, Roberto, we can glimpse the early life of Mario, who already showed a clear interest for science (telephone interview with Roberto Molina on October 29, 2020). Mario enjoyed looking at microorganisms through a toy microscope and transformed a home bathroom into his first chemistry laboratory, where he enjoyed investigating, using toy chemistry sets. His aunt, Esther Molina—also a chemist—stimulated that interest by helping him undertake more sophisticated experiments in that “bathroom lab.” Noticing Mario’s scientific potential, his parents sent him, at age 11, to Switzerland for 2 years to learn German, a language then deemed critical to pursue a scientific path. Back in Mexico, after high school, Mario enrolled in UNAM’s School of Chemistry in 1960, where he graduated as a chemical engineer. It is from this period that Mario’s life-long friend, Dr. Francisco Barnés, also a chemistry major … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: rdirzo{at}stanford.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

We need to improve the welfare of life science trainees

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the globe, the media and the general public are turning to biomedical scientists in hopes of quick remedies. And while terms such as “contact tracing,” “convalescent plasma,” and “PCR testing” become part of our daily vocabulary, a new spotlight has been shone on the importance of academic scientists in the fight for human healthcare and well-being. Yet, for years, few have acknowledged the lack of appreciation experienced by science’s primary workforce: graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Many scientist trainees in academia strive in vain for a sustainable career path. Their plight is well known, and yet trainees still struggle with poor living and working conditions. It's a plight made worse by the pandemic and recently implemented immigration restrictions. Image credit: Dave Cutler (artist). Indeed, to anticipate and prevent the next pandemic, biomedical science must provide its labor force with the backing and respect it deserves. More vigorous aid of academic science would infuse trainees with much needed assistance that could lead to novel ideas and solutions for the fight against human diseases, including COVID-19. In light of this devastating health crisis as well as some very unfavorable recent changes in immigration policies, we must address the persistent challenges across academia and envision a future in which institutions and governments fully recognize the value of a life science trainee. In 2009, I moved to the United States as a young and perhaps naive Italian undergraduate student looking for an excellent education and a better future. When I enrolled in a Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences, little did I know just how undervalued a graduate student would be—and how much self-sacrifice would be required. On realizing that most of the fellows in training shared my same tormented condition, reality soon crushed my dreams. I … [↵][1]Email: daniele.simoneschi{at}nyulangone.org. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Astronomer-turned-filmmaker strives to ignite an interest in space

For scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, the night of January 3, 2004 entailed six minutes of nerve-wracking terror. Around 8:30 PM Pacific Time, the Spirit rover began its plunge to the Martian surface, as an audience of engineers and others—temporarily unable to receive any communication from the craft—waited anxiously to get confirmation of its success. Aided by a heat shield, a giant parachute, airbags, and reverse-firing rockets, the rolling robotic laboratory had to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to zero miles per hour, with no input from its human designers, who were nervously drumming on their desks in Pasadena. Spirit’s successful landing was a defining moment in the human exploration of Mars. As part of projects he calls science-driven art, Jose Francisco Salgado created a mini-movie for each of the seven parts of Holst’s suite, which Holst had based on astrological characteristics of each world. Image credit: Jose Francisco Salgado (artist). But how might one capture the gravity of that moment, the tension among observers, the majesty of the feat, and its implications for researchers and the public? Astronomer-turned-filmmaker Jose Francisco Salgado had some ideas. A few years ago, he put together a film in which that landing event unfolds as a suspenseful, and ultimately heroic, scene. Audiences who attend presentations of the film—one of many in his “Science and Symphony” series—watch a reconstruction of Spirit’s journey on a giant screen while a live orchestra plays “Mars, The Bringer of War” from The Planets , Gustav Holst’s most famous contribution to classical music. In Salgado’s telling, the visuals and music line up exactly, so that the rover’s stressful fall occurs during a long and building crescendo in Holst’s piece (see https://vimeo.com/46390508). The treads of a rover sigh and settle into the alien soil at the …

François N. Diederich: Pioneer of carbon allotropes and molecular recognition

Francois Nico Diederich, an iconic organic chemist who innovated and created in the fields of molecular recognition and host–guest chemistry, new allotropes of carbon and novel carbon-rich molecules, and drug activity and design, passed away on September 23, 2020 in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 68, after battling an aggressive cancer. Francois N. Diederich. Reproduced with permission from ref. 1. Francois Diederich in the Chemistry Library at UCLA, 1980. Image credit: Marion C. Peters (Librarian Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles, CA). Francois and Georgine Diederich at UCLA in 2019. Image credit: Penny Jennings (University of California, Los Angeles, CA). A proud native of Luxembourg, Diederich became known the world over both for his chemical discoveries and for his warm, lively, and interactive personality. Educated first in Luxembourg and then earning his diploma and doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, Germany with Heinz Staab, Diederich gained early fame for the first synthesis in 1978 of a hydrocarbon that Staab had named “Kekulene” to honor the discoverer of the structure of benzene. Kekulene, containing 12 fused benzene rings in a planar circular structure, was resynthesized and studied by single-molecule imaging in 2019, and found to have the structural details predicted by Diederich and Staab. By conquering the synthesis of this molecule, Diederich became enamored of carbon-rich molecules that he studied throughout his career. Diederich was a postdoctoral fellow with Orville L. Chapman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1979 to 1981, and had fruitful interactions with Donald Cram, UCLA professor, who was on his way to the Nobel Prize in 1987 for host–guest chemistry. This field was another one in which Diederich became a world leader. Both of us (K.N.H. and J.F.S.) had similarly memorable educational interactions with Cram (and with Diederich!) at various times in … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: houk{at}chem.ucla.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Profile of Raúl Padrón

Over the past four decades, structural biologist Raul Padron has elucidated muscle contraction at the molecular and atomic level using a model system that he and his colleague Roger Craig developed: tarantula skeletal muscle. Padron’s research on how skeletal muscle thick filaments relax and become activated is helping to inform the molecular pathogenesis of human muscle diseases. For such advances, Padron was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2018; later, he emigrated to the United States due to his native Venezuela’s ongoing political crisis. Now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Padron answers longstanding questions in his Inaugural Article (1) concerning striated muscle contraction that shed light on its underlying mechanisms in invertebrates and vertebrates. Raul Padron. Image credit: Marie Craig (photographer). Padron was born in Caracas to a concert pianist mother and pharmacologist and microbiologist father. Through his mother he gained a strong work ethic. He was also greatly influenced by his father, who maintained a home laboratory. “I still remember my surprise when he showed me paramecia swimming under a microscope,” Padron says. “Soon, I started raising yeast on chicken soup to see them under magnification.” When he was 11 years old, Padron was permitted to have a separate laboratory, where he did chemistry and biology experiments and built electronic equipment. He attended San Ignacio High School in Caracas, where mathematician Angel Urmeneta and biologist Raphael Bredy reinforced his academic interests. In 1966, Bredy suggested that Padron visit the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). During the visit, he met biochemist Karl Gaede, whose laboratory he joined at age 16. Padron says, “Under Gaede’s advice, I decided to study electrical engineering at the Central University of Venezuela, as he thought this would provide a good background for a …

To understand the plight of insects, entomologists look to the past

Plumbing a variety of historical data could offer important insights into trends in insect declines. When avian ecologist Nicholas Rodenhouse moved offices a few years ago, he found a potential treasure trove of data buried in some old file cabinets. Piles of forgotten spreadsheets catalogued taxonomic records of beetles collected in the hardwood forests of Hubbard Brook, NH, between 1973 and 1977. The research was originally meant to speak to the diets of local birds. Convinced that the spreadsheets could serve anther purpose, Rodenhouse, now emeritus at Wellesley College in MA, decided to ask his undergraduate mentee, Jennifer Harris, to resample the old research sites. Her work, conducted between 2015 and 2017, would tease a new story from the old data, one that could inform ongoing mysteries about how and why some insects seem to be disappearing (1). Some insect populations are declining—even ostensibly versatile species such as Central California’s large marble butterfly, Euchloe ausonides. Researchers are tracking trends through long-term insect count data and using historical data. Image credit: Joyce Gross (University of California, Berkeley). Harris collected beetles the same way the seventies-era researchers had done, using window traps: clear pieces of glass above a small trough of water. Beetles flying low to the forest floor hit the glass and fell into the water, drowned, and were later retrieved. Between 2015 and 2017, the researchers checked window traps at three different elevations twice a week from mid-May through early August and identified beetles to the family level. The mean number of individuals captured between trap checks declined by 83% between the 1970s and 2010s, and the number of beetle families fell by 39%. Nineteen families had disappeared entirely. Although insect populations normally expand and contract over time, disappearances across whole families are much more unusual. That so many …

RNA-based pesticides aim to get around resistance problems

The half-inch-long corn rootworm larva packs a surprising punch. It feasts on the root system of corn before pupating into a black and yellow beetle that does further damage to the plant’s leaves. Before the advent of genetically modified (GM) crops that produce insecticidal proteins to fight rootworm, these insects cost US farmers an estimated $1 billion annually in damage and control measures. As destructive agricultural pests such as the corn rootworm evolve resistance to conventional pesticides, researchers and farmers are looking to RNAi-based treatments as a promising possible alternative. Image credit: Science Source/USDA/Nature Source. But as insects such as the corn rootworm evolve resistance to the suite of traits baked into commodity crops, scientists are queuing up a new application for a biotech tool that targets the protein-making machinery of insects. First identified in 1990, RNA interference (RNAi) entails using double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to block messenger RNA from its usual function (i.e., sending out instructions to make proteins). With impressive specificity, RNAi can potentially block nucleotide sequences that are only found in a target pest and not in friendly insects or humans. As a result, some scientists are keen on making RNAi the next big tool in agricultural science. The EPA first approved an RNAi pesticide in 2017. That product, called SmartStax Pro, is a GM corn seed that will deploy both transgenic insecticidal proteins and RNAi to fight western and northern corn rootworm. It’s expected to be released in the United States in the next few years (1), according to its maker, Bayer AG, which is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. But GM crops are just one of many agriculture-related applications for RNAi. As the cost of producing dsRNA has dropped precipitously, biotech companies are developing dsRNA formulations that could also serve as spray pesticides, making the technology more …

Early Mars may have boasted a large ocean and cool climate

When Mariner 4 buzzed Mars in 1965, it revealed a dry, desiccated world that stood in stark contrast to the habitable planet dreamed of by decades of science fiction writers. Subsequent observations revealed the apparent scars of rivers and deltas, and even potential sea shorelines. The revelations brought hope that the planet had once been wetter. For years, researchers have suggested that Mars once had an ocean, as depicted in this concept illustration. But the details about that ocean’s formation, disappearance, and impact on the Martian landscape remain hotly debated. Image credit: NASA/GSFC. But the implications of these findings have remained unclear, with theories of potential climates falling into two camps. In the “warm and wet” camp, rainfall excavated Mars’ river-like features, and a large ocean stretched across its northern hemisphere. The “cold and frozen” camp credits melting ice with scooping out the valleys. Now, new research (1) suggests that a large ocean was indeed required to form the features across the planet's surface. But rather than warm and wet, the planet would have been cool and semi-arid. This intriguing third hypothesis has started to garner attention as researchers continue to debate the particulars of the red planet’s early climate. The first hint of an ocean on Mars came in the late 1980s, when researchers identified an apparent shoreline from satellite imagery (2). Then, as snapshots of the regions became more detailed, they quickly realized that the supposed shoreline sat at various different elevations. In contrast, water within an ocean sits at the same level—sea level—leading some researchers to suggest that the features may have a volcanic origin rather than being indicative of a shoreline. Others argue that the difference could have come from changes in the planet’s rotational pole (3). But more recent evidence suggests that a third …