Frostbite can occur at temperatures just below freezing (-0.55°C)‚ though at such temperatures frostbite is typically mild and no permanent damage will result. But what happens if you live and work somewhere where it gets much colder?As a Canadian‚ I am used to seeing news reports during cold snaps warning people to avoid going outdoors due to frostbite being possible “in under a minute”.Until now‚ there have been no approved therapies for severe frostbite. But on February 14 2024‚ the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had approved the very first drug to treat frostbite.Frostbite is evolution’s response to prolonged or extreme cold‚ causing blood vessels to constrict and blood flow to slow in the extremities. This keeps blood flowing in the vital organs warm‚ increasing the chance of surviving in the extreme cold.The downside is this can result in permanent damage to the fingers‚ toes and parts of the face‚ sometimes requiring amputation of the affected body parts. (Frostbite has resulted in some odd traditions‚ such as the Sourtoe Cocktail in Dawson City where customers drink a cocktail containing an amputated frostbitten toe.)Repurposed drugThe new drug‚ called iloprost (brand name Aurlumyn)‚ is repurposed. This means that it was not originally developed to treat frostbite. In this case‚ it is used to treat high blood pressure within the lungs.Repurposed drugs have already passed important (and expensive) human safety testing and are therefore much cheaper (about US$40-80 million or £32-64 million) to develop for additional medical issues versus creating a new drug (about US$1-2 billion)‚ making drug repurposing an attractive way to find new treatments.Many drugs have been tried as potential treatments for severe frostbite. However‚ iloprost is the first to be put through a clinical trial where patients with severe frostbite were randomly allocated to receive iloprost or not.The study found that 60 percent of the patients who did not receive iloprost had injuries sufficiently severe to warrant amputation‚ versus 0 percent of the patients who received iloprost.While the total number of patients tested in this study was small at 47‚ the combined facts that there are no other approved pharmaceutical treatments for frostbite and the impressive digit-saving results found in this randomised human trial were sufficient to convince the FDA to approve this repurposed therapy for severe frostbite.How it worksIloprost works by expanding the blood vessels (called a vasodilator) of patients and stopping blood clots from forming. As frostbite causes constriction of blood vessels‚ this suggests one mechanism through which iloprost helps heal frostbitten tissue is by reversing this constriction.However‚ whenever blood flow is reintroduced in such tissue‚ it can paradoxically worsen the injury and cause more damage. This is called “reperfusion injury” and is largely caused by a sudden influx of oxygen causing oxidative stress. Interestingly‚ iloprost is not only a vasodilator but also reduces oxidative stress‚ suggesting this dual mechanism of action could help explain its impressive potential as a frostbite treatment.Frostbite is a common condition in colder parts of the world with one Finnish study finding that 1.1 percent of the Finnish population experiences severe frostbite every year and 12.9 percent suffer from mild frostbite. As the injuries from frostbite can be serious‚ the approval of a drug that significantly reduces the risk of life-altering amputations of patients’ fingers‚ toes and noses will certainly be welcome news to many.However‚ an unintended consequence may be that the Sourtoe Cocktail Club has a harder time finding new frostbitten toes to add to its collection in the coming years.Steven R. Hall‚ Lecturer in Pharmacology‚ Lancaster UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When you learn about fossils‚ you start seeing dates thrown about like “265 million years old” and “dating back to the Jurassic” like it's no big deal. Fossils can be incredibly‚ inconceivably old‚ but how do they survive so long while animal bones decay in just a few years?It all comes down to the conditions in which an animal died‚ and what happened to their remains after they’d kicked the bucket. IFLScience got to see first-hand the fossilized bones of a giant sea monster that was chomping things in half 150 million years ago. As fossil expert Steve Etches MBE told IFLScience‚ part of the reason the pliosaur – an ancient marine reptile – was preserved so well was because it rolled in death‚ preserving its smile as it lay face-down in the mud.“It’s good that it was upside-down because actually‚ this is the best side‚” said Etches. “When you find a fossil in a ledge or whatever‚ we always turn them upside-down because when it dies‚ the bit that goes down in the mud is undisturbed. It’s always the top side that starts to degrade more rapidly."Soft tissues typically decompose fairly quickly‚ though we do find rare examples of preserved bits of skin (even if some of them turn out to be forgeries). As for what keeps those bones seemingly so intact for millions of years‚ it all comes down to fossilization.What is fossilization?Fossilization can take many forms‚ but the best fossils are typically formed when the animal is quickly encased in sediment – like our upside-down giant sea monster – which can be in the form of mud or volcanic ash. As this sediment builds up it becomes lithified‚ meaning it turns to rock‚ locking the animal in place.Permineralization is the most common type of fossilization that happens when water from the ground‚ lakes‚ or ocean carries minerals into organic tissues. Eventually‚ enough deposits are built up to create a kind of internal cast‚ which can be made of calcite‚ iron‚ or – as in the case of this staggeringly beautiful opalized plesiosaur – silica. The minerals replace the organic materials within the bone‚ like collagen and other proteins‚ until the fossil contains more mineral crystals than the original bone. Those chalky ammonites you find along the fossil hunter's haven that is the Jurassic Coast have been filled in with calcite‚ while the astonishing fool’s gold examples are made up of pyrite.A specimen of Microraptor gui with bones and feathers‚ on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China.Image credit: Captmondo‚ own work‚ copyrighted free use‚ via WikimediaIf you want a fun way to demonstrate how minerals can create an internal cast to keen young scientists‚ the National Park Service has a great exercise you can try creating internal casts of sponges using salt water.Are all fossils bones?No. A fossil can be any trace or remains of past life‚ be that a footprint‚ burrow‚ a bit of skin‚ or a bone. As the Australian Museum explains‚ the word fossil is taken from the Latin word fossilis‚ which just means “dug up"‚ it's not specific to bone.Do animal bones decay?A little something called the decomposition ecosystem makes quick work of animal remains exposed to the elements‚ something Dr Devin Finaughty told IFLScience all about during his talk at CURIOUS Live in 2023. “Decomposition is technically defined as the consumption of organic material by other organisms‚ [and is] distinct from physical degradation of organic remains by physical‚ erosive forces‚ like water. The decomposition ecosystem pivots around the dead body as a resource and that's mainly for food‚ but many organisms will also use it as a breeding ground as a nursery‚ and as a shelter.”Once the decomposition ecosystem has had its fill‚ all that’s typically left behind is bone‚ and we can learn a surprising amount from skeletal remains that linger on longer than your typical corpse. They won’t remain forever‚ however‚ as even animal bone eventually decomposes. It can take several years‚ but the delicious collagen found in bones is a food source for bacteria and fungi that will eat away at it until the remains eventually crumble. So‚ if you want to stick around as a fossil for the next few hundred million years‚ it’s time to write up very elaborate burial wishes.

An organism’s genome is a set of DNA instructions needed for its development‚ function and reproduction. The genome of a present-day organism contains information from its journey on an evolutionary path that starts with the “first universal common ancestor” of all life on Earth and culminates with that organism.Encoded within itself‚ an organism’s genome contains information that can reveal connections to its ancestors and its relatives.Other dimensions of the genomeOur research explores the hypothesis that an organism’s genome could contain other types of information‚ beyond genealogy or taxonomy. We asked: Could the genome of an organism contain information that would allow us to determine the type of environment the organism lives in?Extremophiles have been found in environments such as Pitch Lake in Trinidad and Tobago‚ the largest asphalt deposit in the world.Image credit: Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock.comAs unlikely as it seems‚ our team of computer science and biology researchers at the University of Waterloo and Western University found that to be the case for extremophiles — organisms that live and thrive in extremely harsh conditions. These environmental conditions range from extreme heat (over 100°C) to extreme cold (below -12°C)‚ high radiation or extremes in acidity or pressure.DNA as a languageWe looked at genomic DNA as a text written in a “DNA language.” A DNA strand (or DNA sequence) consists of a succession of basic units called nucleotides‚ strung together by a sugar-phosphate backbone. There are four such different DNA units: adenine‚ cytosine‚ guanine and thymine (A‚C‚G‚T).Viewed abstractly‚ a DNA sequence can be thought of as a line of text‚ written with “letters” from the “DNA alphabet.” For example‚ “CAT” would be the three-letter “DNA word” corresponding to the three-unit DNA sequence cytosine-adenine-thymine.In the 1990s‚ it was discovered that by counting occurrences of such DNA words in a short DNA sequence extracted from the genome of an organism‚ one could identify the species of the organism and the degree of its relatedness to other organisms in the evolutionary “tree of life.”The mechanism of this identification or classification of an organism based on DNA word counts is similar to the process that allows us to differentiate an English book from a French book: By taking one page from each book one notices that the English text has many occurrences of the three-letter word “the‚” while the French text has many occurrences of the three-letter word “les.”Note that the word-frequency profile of each book is not dependent on the particular page we chose to read and on whether we considered multiple pages‚ a single page or an entire chapter. Similarly‚ the frequency profile of DNA words in a genome is not dependent on the location and on the length of the DNA sequence that was selected to represent that genome.A DNA strand consists of a succession of basic units: adenine‚ cytosine‚ guanine and thymine (ACGT).Image credit: ktsdesign/Shutterstock.comThat DNA word-frequency profiles can act as a “genomic signature” of an organism was a significant discovery and‚ until now‚ it was believed that the DNA word-frequency profile of a genome only contained evolutionary information pertaining to the species‚ genus‚ family‚ order‚ class‚ phylum‚ kingdom or domain that the organism belonged to.Our team set out to ask whether the DNA word-frequency profile of a genome could reveal other kinds of information – for example‚ information regarding the type of extreme environment that a microbial extremophile thrives in.Environment imprints in extremophile DNAWe used a dataset of 700 microbial extremophiles living in extreme temperatures (either extreme heat or cold) or extreme pH conditions (strongly acidic or alkaline). We used both supervised machine learning and unsupervised machine learning computational approaches to test our hypothesis.In both types of environmental conditions‚ we discovered that we could clearly detect an environmental signal indicating the type of extreme environment a particular organism inhabited.In the case of unsupervised machine learning‚ a “blind” algorithm was given a dataset of extremophile DNA sequences (and no other information about either their taxonomy or their living environment). The algorithm was then asked to group these DNA sequences in clusters‚ based on whatever similarities it could find among their DNA word-frequency profiles.The expectation was that all the clusters discovered this way would be along taxonomic lines: bacteria grouped with bacteria‚ and archaea grouped with archaea. To our great surprise‚ this was not always the case‚ and some archaea and bacteria were consistently grouped together‚ no matter what algorithms we used.The only obvious commonality that could explain their being considered similar by the multiple machine learning algorithms was that they were heat-loving extremophiles.A shocking discoveryThe tree of life‚ a conceptual framework used in biology that represents geneaological relationships between species‚ has three major limbs‚ called domains: bacteria‚ archaea and eukarya.Eukaryotes are organisms that have a membrane-bound nucleus‚ and this domain includes animals‚ plants‚ fungi and the unicellular microscopic protists. In contrast‚ bacteria and archaea are single-cell organisms that do not have a membrane-bound nucleus containing the genome. What distinguishes bacteria from archaea is the composition of their cell walls.A schematic tree of life with the primary domains‚ archaea and bacteria‚ shown in purple and blue‚ respectively and the secondary domain‚ Eukaryotes‚ in green.Image credit: Tara Mahendrarajah‚ CC BYThe three domains of life are dramatically different from each other and‚ genetically‚ a bacterium is as different from an archaeon as a polar bear (eukarya) is from an E. coli (bacteria).The expectation was therefore that the genome of a bacterium and of an archaeon would be as far apart as possible in any clustering by any genomic similarity measure. Our finding of some bacteria and archaea clustered together‚ apparently just because they are both adapted to extreme heat‚ means that the extreme temperature environment they live in caused pervasive‚ genome-wide‚ systemic shifts in their genome language.This discovery is akin to finding a completely new dimension of the genome‚ an environmental one‚ existent in addition to its well-known taxonomic dimension.Genomic impact of other environmentsBesides being unexpected‚ this finding could have implications for our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth‚ as well as guide our thinking into what it would take to live in outer space.Pyrococcus furiosus‚ a thermophilic archaeon that was surprisingly grouped with thermophilic bacteria.Image credit: Michelle Kropf via Wikimedia Commons‚ CC BYIndeed‚ our ongoing research is exploring the existence of an environmental signal in the genomic signature of radiation-resistant extremophiles‚ such as Deinococcus radiodurans‚ which can survive radiation exposure‚ as well as cold‚ dehydration‚ vacuum conditions and acid‚ and was shown to be able to survive in outer space for up to three years.Kathleen A. Hill‚ Associate Professor Biology‚ Western University and Lila Kari‚ Professor‚ Computer Science‚ University of WaterlooThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

On November 24‚ 1971‚ a mysterious man named D.B. Cooper hijacked an airplane heading to Seattle‚ Washington. During the flight‚ Cooper indicated that he had a bomb on board and demanded $200‚000 cash and four parachutes in exchange for the passengers on board. When the plane landed in Seattle‚ the 36 passengers deplaned and Cooper‚ along with the flight crew‚ continued on to Mexico City. Sometime during the flight‚ Cooper did the unthinkable and parachuted out of the plane with the ransom money and disappeared forevermore. This story continues to be one of the greatest unsolved FBI mysteries of all time. Now Eric Ulis‚ documentarian and D.B. Cooper expert‚ joins Pat Gray on “Pat Gray Unleashed” to discuss who he thinks D.B. Cooper really is. “There’s been something north of a thousand suspects that the FBI has looked at” and “dozens of deathbed confessions‚” Ulis tells Pat and Jeffy. One famous deathbed confession came from Florida resident Duane Weber‚ who confessed to his wife on his deathbed in 1995 that he was in fact the D.B. Cooper of legend. But to that theory‚ Ulis says “no way in hell.” “I don’t think the real D.B. Cooper is known yet to the authorities.” To add even more mystery to the case‚ the cigarette butts found in the ashtray where Cooper was sitting on the plane were “destroyed by the FBI” after being analyzed‚ and the hair samples found in Cooper’s seat “were certifiably lost.” “It’s like they were trying to screw up this investigation‚” says Pat. To hear about Cooper’s alleged “connection to Boeing‚” potential “military experience‚” and whether or not he might’ve perished in the skydive‚ watch the clip below. Want more from Pat Gray?To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world‚ subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America‚ defend the Constitution‚ and live the American dream.

If there’s one thing missing from Starfield‚ it’s the aliens. Many sci-fi universes lean into humanoid aliens‚ and while Bethesda’s NASA-punk universe forgoes them in favor of a more grounded setting‚ I thought they were sorely missed from the game. Thanks to a new Starfield mod though‚ our prayers have been answered‚ as you’ll now find a plethora of Star Wars alien NPCs roaming the Settled Systems‚ and you can even play as one. Continue reading Starfield’s most glaring absence is fixed‚ thanks to Star Wars MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Starfield mods‚ Starfield outposts‚ Starfield traits

Last Epoch has a hidden secret right at the start of every run‚ but it’s not for the faint of heart. If you think you’re hot stuff at the Diablo 4 rival that’s already blowing up on Steam‚ the Cursed Veteran’s Boots are the way to put that confidence to the test. The ARPG from developer Eleventh Hour Games is doing incredibly well on Steam‚ and despite ‘mixed’ reviews due to server disconnects‚ it’s certainly caught the eye of many‚ myself included. Continue reading Last Epoch hides a dangerous secret right at the start of the game MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Last Epoch review‚ Last Epoch builds‚ Last Epoch tier list

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