Cyanobacteria

• Water pollution is both an environmental and humanitarian issue that can affect ecosystems and human health alike.
• We’re hopeful that the materials we’re developing could be one tool available to help combat this problem.
• Engineering a living material
  The “engineered living material” our team has been working on contains programmed bacteria embedded in a soft hydrogel material.
• The hydrogel that forms the base of the material has similar properties to Jell-O – it’s soft and made mostly of water.

• In April of this year, Spanish athlete Beatriz Flamini emerged into the light after a 500-day stay in a cave.
• Her descent underground is probably the longest undertaken by a long stretch.

The tick of life’s clocks

• Quite simply, because biological rhythms are at the heart of life, regulating it all the way from the molecular level up to that of the entire body.
• These include not only our sleep/wake cycles, but also body temperature, hormones, metabolism and the cardiovascular system, to name but a few.
• It may be associated with an increased risk of cancers in workers, prompting the WHO to label it as a probable carcinogen.

Genes: the great clockmakers

• A biological clock is a mechanism internal to organisms that, in the absence of an environmental signal, operates at its own frequency.
• The regular alternation of day and night has, for example, favoured the evolution of the circadian clock (circa, meaning “approximately”, and diem, “day”).
• The circadian clock mechanism was first discovered in the fruit fly, also known as Drosophila, in the 1970s.

An internal clock synchronised by the environment

• This is the deviation of an individual’s internal rhythm from the time of the time zone they are in.
• Environmental signals in general, and light in particular, help to re-synchronise the individual: light perceived at the end of the night moves the clock forward, while light perceived at the beginning of the night delays it.
• In humans, light is not perceived directly by the molecular clock, but is captured in the retina and then transmitted via the retino-hypothalamic pathway to a central clock, where it modulates the synthesis of clock proteins.

Other times, other clocks

• This seasonality is generally dictated by several factors, including by what is known as a circannual clock in the case of many species.
• The clock mechanisms in marine species are also unknown, partly because of the oceans’ complex temporal structure.
• For example, many corals synchronise their reproduction, laying eggs once a year over a very short period of time.
• Our work underlines that the temporal coordination in physiology is likely critical, even in the most extreme life environments such as the deep ocean.

• The "Global Market for Biofuels 2023-2033" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering, highlighting the rapid expansion of renewable transportation fuels derived from organic materials.
• With mounting concerns over fossil fuel depletion and environmental impacts, the report explores the crucial role of biofuels in building sustainable and eco-friendly energy solutions.
• The research identifies biofuels as a viable substitute for traditional fossil fuels, accelerating their adoption across various industries.
• Driving Towards a Greener Future:
  The escalating demand for renewable and sustainable energy sources has paved the way for biofuels to gain significant traction in the global market.

• The Anthropocene is the proposed new geological epoch defined by humanity’s impact on the planet.
• In short, Ellis believes pinning the start of our sizeable impact on the planet to 1950 is an error, given we’ve been changing the face of the planet for much longer.
• The disagreement speaks to something vital to science – the ability to accommodate dissent through debate.

What’s the debate about?

• Since most people aren’t scientists, we rely on the scientific community to hash out debate and present the best explanations for the data.
• His resignation letter is explosive:
  It’s […] [im]possible to avoid the reality that narrowly defining the Anthropocene […] has become more than a scholarly concern.
• It’s […] [im]possible to avoid the reality that narrowly defining the Anthropocene […] has become more than a scholarly concern.
• With the people gone, the trees regrew during the 17th century and covered the villages and cities, expanding the Amazon rainforest.

Why we should welcome honest disagreement in science

• He’s not alone – other group members and experts have also worked to refute the epoch idea.
• As philosopher of science Karl Popper and others have argued, productive scientific debate can only occur if there’s space for dissent and alternative perspectives.
• Ellis clearly believes the Anthropocene group has gone from debate to group think, which, if true, would challenge the free exchange at the heart of science.
• Bad faith actors seized on perceived issues in the emails and used them to claim anthropogenic climate change was fabricated.

What does this tension mean for the Anthropocene?

• The epoch versus event debate doesn’t mean we’re off the hook in terms of our impact on the planet.
• This is a complex story and we should not expect science to simplify it for political or other reasons.