1 February 2020 | New Scientist | 19MicrobiologyMathematics SpaceAncient mummy
speaks againThe voice of Nesyamun, a
mummified Egyptian priest
who lived more than 3000
years ago during the reign
of Ramses XI, has been
recreated. David Howard at
Royal Holloway, University
of London, and his team
reconstructed Nesyamun’s
vocal tract and were able to
produce a sound resembling
a brief groan (Scientific
Reports, doi.org/dkbr).Severed nerves
regrown in tubesConnecting the ends of a
severed nerve to a small
tube filled with growth
protein helps it regrow.
Macaques with severed
nerves regained far more
gripping ability when the
tubes were filled with the
protein than with empty
tubes (Science Translational
Medicine, doi.org/dkbn).Antiviral skin cream
for mosquito bitesA cream containing a drug
used to treat genital warts
stopped mice succumbing
to mosquito-borne viruses.
Applied to a mosquito bite,
it boosts the skin’s immune
response at the site of the
bite. If it works in people, it
could help fight diseases
like Zika and chikungunya
(Science Translational
Medicine, doi.org/dkbm).Drug-resistance
DNA lurking in dustGENES that make bacteria
resistant to antibiotics have been
found in dust in buildings in a
form that could be passed to
disease-causing microbes.
This suggests that in buildings
with pathogenic bacteria where
people are taking antibiotics, there
could, in theory, be a higher risk of
getting a so-called “superbug”.
Antibiotic resistance is seen as
one of the biggest global threats to
public health, as growing numbersA MORE efficient way of making an
espresso could cut the amount of
coffee beans used per cup, possibly
saving billions of dollars a year.
Baristas often say a fine grind
is best for espresso machines as it
maximises the surface area of the
coffee. Jamie Foster at the University
of Portsmouth, UK, and his team
decided to see if this was true.
They created a mathematical
model of the “basket” of an
espresso machine, into which the
coffee is put. Initial calculations
were based on a single coffee
particle in this cylindrical container.
They then scaled this up for an
entire basket’s worth of coffee inorder to get an averaged description
at the level of the whole basket.
Foster and his team found their
model showed that using slightly
coarser ground coffee resulted in
better mixing. This was because
coarser coffee ensured no part of
the basket became clogged, and
this ultimately resulted in a higher
extraction of coffee compounds
for the same amount of beans
used (Matter, doi.org/ggjb4r).
A small coffee shop in Oregon
tried this method and found it saved
$0.13 per drink, or $3620 a year.
“If everyone did this, it would save
the industry billions of dollars,”
says Foster. JAMof dangerous bacteria have
evolved the ability to withstand
antibiotic treatment.
Previously, resistant bacteria
have been found in dust – but it
is unclear how dangerous this is,
as most bacteria that can survive
the dry conditions of dust are
harmless to people.
However, Erica Hartmann
at Northwestern University
in Illinois and her colleagues
wondered whether the antibiotic
resistance genes in the bacteria in
dust could get passed to microbes
that are more dangerous. Bacteria
often share genes by swappingWe may know what
led to odd star blastTHE mystery of a strange
exploding star could be solved.
When supernova SN 2006gy was
found in 2006, it was the brightest
seen, puzzling astronomers. Now,
they may have a solution.
The supernova was 100 times
brighter than any other, says
Anders Jerkstrand at the Max
Planck Institute for Astrophysics
in Germany. And its spectrum
was odd, hinting at the presence
of an unidentified substance.
By looking at how different
atoms emit light, Jerkstrand and
his team have now found that the
explosion must have contained a
lot of iron. The sort of supernova
that creates a lot of iron is a type Ia,
but they are usually 100 times
dimmer than SN 2006gy. The best
way the researchers found to make
a type Ia supernova so bright is for
it to hit a cloud of material as it
explodes, converting the blast’s
kinetic energy into light.
The scenario they determined
best matches SN 2006gy starts
with a pair of stars orbiting one
another in a shared gas cloud.
As the stars get closer, the gas is
blown off, creating a cloud around
them. When the stars collide, they
blow up and the blast crashes into
that cloud, creating extra light
(Science, doi.org/dkc5). Leah Cranesmall bits of DNA called plasmids.
The researchers looked at
dust samples from 43 public
buildings. Over a quarter of the
resistance genes they found
were on plasmids or other
transferable forms of DNA
(PLoS Pathogens, doi.org/dkcm).
If a home were contaminated
with a bacterium such as the food
poisoning microbe salmonella,
this raises the possibility that the
microorganism could become
more dangerous, says Hartmann.
“It’s possible that something that
would make you sick could pick up
an antibiotic resistance gene.” CWFormula for an optimum cup
of coffee could save billions
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