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Asbestos materials were once widely used in homes, buildings, automobile brakes, and many other construction materials due to their strength, resistance to heat and fire, and poor electrical conductivity. Unfortunately, asbestos inhalation of microscopic fibre particles has been shown to be exceedingly carcinogenic. For the first time, <keyword id="83492" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="university-of-pennsylvania" source="Orion">University of Pennsylvania</keyword> researchers have demonstrated that extremophilic bacteria from high-temperature marine settings may be employed to lessen the toxicity of asbestos. The study was published in the <keyword id="9827972" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="american-society-for-microbiology-journal" source="Orion">American Society for Microbiology journal</keyword> <keyword id="3258791" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="applied-and-environmental-microbiology" source="Orion">Applied and Environmental Microbiology</keyword>. Much of their research has focused on use of the thermophilic bacterium Deferrisoma palaeochoriense to remove iron from asbestos minerals through anaerobic respiration of that iron. "Iron has been identified as a major component driving the toxicity of asbestos minerals and its removal from asbestos minerals has been shown to decrease their toxic properties," said Ileana <keyword id="17464928" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="perez-rodriguez" source="Orion">Perez-Rodriguez</keyword>, PhD., Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania. D. palaeochoriense has also been shown to mediate transfer of electrical charge within the iron contained in asbestos, without changing its mineral structure. Doing so might enhance asbestos' electrical conductivity, said Perez-Rodriguez. Based on this observation, the bacterium could be used to treat asbestos' toxicity through iron removal. Alternatively, the new properties of electrical conductivity could enable reuse of treated asbestos for that purpose. As with iron, the fibrous silicate structures of asbestos are also carcinogenic. Removal of silicon and magnesium from asbestos has been shown to disrupt its fibrous structure. The investigators tested the ability of the thermophilic bacterium Thermovibrio ammonificans to remove these elements from asbestos minerals by accumulating silicon in its biomass in a process known as biosilicification. T. ammonificans accumulated silicon in its biomass when in the presence of "serpentine" asbestos, which has curly fibers, but not while growing in the presence of "amphibole" asbestos, which has straight fibers, said Perez-Rodriguez. This difference, along with the varying amounts and types of elements released during microbe-mineral interactions with different types of asbestos "highlights the difficulty of approaching asbestos treatments as a one-size-fits-all solution, given the unique chemical compositions and crystal structures associated with each asbestos mineral," Perez-Rodriguez said. Overall, these experiments promoted the removal of iron, silicon and/or magnesium for the detoxification of asbestos in a superior manner as compared to other biologically mediated detoxification of asbestos, such as via fungi, said Perez-Rodriguez. However, further analysis will be required to optimize asbestos treatments to determine the most practical methods for the detoxification and/or reuse of asbestos as secondary raw materials. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/zomato-net-loss-narrows-to-188-crore-in-q4-revenue-rises-70-yoy/articleshow/100358894.cms">Zomato net loss narrows to ₹188 crore in Q4, revenue rises 70% YoY</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/indigo-reports-a-net-profit-of-919-crore-in-q4-revenue-soars-76-yoy/articleshow/100331520.cms">IndiGo reports a net profit of ₹919 crore in Q4, revenue soars 76% YoY</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/sbi-q4-2022-23-results-indias-largest-lender-posts-highest-ever-quarterly-net-profit-of-16695-crore/articleshow/100327874.cms">SBI Q4 results: India’s largest lender posts record quarterly net profit of ₹16,695 crore, up 83% YoY</a>

Study: Heat-temperature marine bacteria help detoxify asbestos

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Yucatán Peninsula's underwater caves cover over 900 miles.</li><li>Its cenotes, or sinkholes, are an important drinking water resource for the region.</li></ul>The Sac Actun cave system on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula contains many wonders, from a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nova-doc-13000-skeleton-found-in-mexico-is-critical-to-human-history-2018-2">13,000-year-old skeleton</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sac-actun-flooded-cave-under-threat-2018-2">human artifacts</a> and fossils of giant sloths.It's also part of the Yucatán Peninsula Aquifer. Its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulum-cenotes-are-polluted-as-construction-booms-for-digital-nomads-2021-7">cenotes, or water-filled sinkholes</a>, provide drinking water for millions of people in the region."Caves — and especially these caves — are really important groundwater resources for everyone that lives there," Magdalena R. Osburn, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University, told Business Insider.She and several colleagues at Northwestern University mapped communities of bacteria and other microbes that live in the aquifer's waters, from methane-producing methanogens to sunlight-loving cyanobacteria.It's an important first step to understanding how the microbes function and how to keep the crucial aquifer healthy. They published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal <a target="_blank" href="https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aem.01682-23">Applied and Environmental Microbiology</a>.<h2>The underwater cave microbial community</h2>The cave system is a network of over 900 miles of connected caves that contain a mix of freshwater and saltwater. The Yucatán Peninsula is a giant limestone platform, Osburn said. "When you have a land surface that's built of a porous and dissolvable rock, you end up with caves," she said.The system has isolated reservoirs, dark pits, and sections exposed to the sun. It took a team of scientists, including half a dozen divers, to collect the samples and sequence the microbes' DNA.<div type="image" title="A diver holds a bottle to take a water sample in the Yucatán's underwater caves" height="650" width="970" msid="105336788" hostid="261" sizebytes="39348"></div>After taking 78 samples from a dozen sites, they found different niches with different organisms. Caves flooded with coastal seawater had different microbes than The Pit, a deep cenote exposed to the surface, for example. The interesting part was that different types of organisms in different environments were all performing similar functions."We found that often the ecological roles were being performed by different organisms in different sites, but those roles were always being performed," Osburn said. These functions help balance the environment's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microbiome-based-drugs-in-development-seres-second-genome-2018-2">microbiome</a>.<h2>Preserving a critical water source for millions</h2>Osburn hopes future samples will allow them to sequence more of the microbes' genes to learn more about their specific functions within these communities.One consistent bacteria showed up all over the place. Comamonadaceae were found in several locations, playing different roles and teaming up with various microbes. "That one had different partners depending on which cave system you were in," Osburn said.That could mean Comamonadaceae bacteria function as a "keystone species" whose presence is fundamental to the health of the ecosystem, the authors wrote in the study."What happens in these underground river systems is directly important to the drinking water of the populations that live above."For example, she noted that a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-environmentalists-are-fighting-against-mexicos-new-maya-train-2023-5">planned train system</a> from Cancún to the Yucatán Peninsula could affect the cave system. One concern is that diesel could leak into cenotes, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/collapse-contamination-mexican-scientists-sound-alarm-mayan-train-2023-01-04/">Reuters reported</a>. "Groundwater contamination is always a concern," Osburn said.The introduction of any type of new substance, like diesel, or organic matter, like human waste, can influence a microbial community, Osburn said. "That organic matter is going to be oxidized, either with oxygen or with things like sulfate or nitrate," she said. "The end product of those are things like ammonia and things like sulfide or organic nitrogen compounds."All of those pollute drinking water.Chemicals from medication, drugs, shampoo, and other sources have been showing up in the aquifer, a <a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2011-02-pollutants-aquifers-threaten-future-mexico.html">2011 study</a> found. As <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/partying-yachts-drugs-remote-work-destroying-worlds-most-instagrammable-destinations-2021-7">digital nomads flock</a> to the peninsula, the contamination will likely get worse.The potential for contamination is a problem anywhere there are caves, Osburn said. In Kentucky, she said, where she's done <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cool-geography-facts-us-2019-5#located-in-kentucky-mammoth-cave-is-the-worlds-longest-known-cave-system-9">a lot of caving</a>, people once treated sinkholes like landfills — throwing in everything, even the kitchen sink.After a big storm, Osburn said, "The underground rivers flood, and then you find washing machines in caves because they don't just go away when you put them in the sinkhole."

Researchers explored pitch-black pits in Yucatán's labyrinthine underwater caves to unlock the secrets of the rivers that provide drinking water to millions

Israel began human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine, Hadassah and <keyword id="10206063" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="sheba-medical-centers">Sheba Medical Centers</keyword> said. In Sheba hospital, located in central Israel, a 26-year-old business student was injected with the novel "BriLife" vaccine created by <keyword id="10205901" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-israeli-institute-of-biological-research">the Israeli Institute of Biological Research</keyword> (IIBR), Xinhua news agency reportred on Sunday. Israel's Prime Minister <keyword id="6358722" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin Netanyahu</keyword>, who visited Sheba hospital on Sunday, said that "the true exit from the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> crisis is in the development of vaccines. Therefore, this is a very important day, which gives a shot of encouragement." At the same time, another 34-year-old volunteer was vaccinated at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. This month, about 80 more volunteers will be vaccinated at the two hospitals, with half receiving a vaccine and the others receiving a placebo vaccine. Then, over a period of three weeks, the researchers will test whether the volunteers vaccinated developed antibodies. The second phase, scheduled for December, will include safety tests to be conducted on 960 volunteers. In the third and final phase, in about six months, the effectiveness of the vaccine will be tested with the participation of up to 30,000 volunteers. IIBR, a governmental institute founded in 1952 and located in the central city of Ness Ziona, deals with applied research in the fields of biology, microbiology, medical chemistry, natural sciences and environmental sciences. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/where-biden-and-trump-stand-in-the-polls-2-days-out-from-the-election/articleshow/78989788.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Where Biden and Trump stand in the polls 2 days out from the election</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/futuristic-architecture-entertainment-hubs-and-kinetic-solar-panels-this-is-what-spaceports-could-look-like-if-commercial-space-flights-become-a-reality/articleshow/78983110.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Futuristic architecture, entertainment hubs and kinetic solar panels: This is what spaceports could look like if commercial space flights become a reality</a>

Israel begins human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Tim Boyle/Getty Images</div></div></div>Beginning July 1, 2017, the US will start <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-british-mp-bans-microbead-soap-worldwide-2016-8">phasing out soaps and cosmetics</a> that include microbeads, the tiny pieces of plastic often used in soaps to help exfoliate the skin.The ban comes after research showed the beads are often too small to get filtered by wastewater treatment plants. That means they can can end up in oceans and rivers, where marine animals wind up ingesting them, in turn causing the beads to be incorporated into our food chain. But microbeads are just one form of microplastics, a broader category that also includes tiny fibers that come off synthetic fabrics like polyester or nylon.Because these microfibers are less than a fifth of an inch long, many of them also get through the filters in treatment plants, yet so far there haven't been any governmental efforts to regulate them. A recent study commissioned by outdoor clothing company Patagonia suggests we could be sending a shocking amount of these fibers - more than 64,000 pounds - into oceans and streams each day. "Anything from plankton all the way up to whales have been found to have microfibers in their systems," says Bess Ruff, a project researcher at U.C. Santa Barbara's <a href="http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/" target="_blank">Bren School of Environmental Science and Management</a>, which published a study of microfiber pollution in <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b03045" target="_blank">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a> in September.The study was conducted by a research team of five graduate students overseen by Patricia Holden, a professor of environmental microbiology. To calculate the amount of fibers that gets released into our water system, the team tested four different types of synthetic Patagonia jackets and one budget fleece (a lower-end version that competes with Patagonia). Each was put in two kinds of washing machines - top-load and front-load - and then the runoff water from the loads was filtered through a uniquely designed column made to collect the fibers.The team weighed the fibers, calcu<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Bren School of Environmental <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> and ManagementA magnified image of microfibers</div></div></div>lated how much gets shed in an average wash, and extrapolated that data for a city of 100,000 people. The group determined that wastewater treatment plants can filter out 65-92% of the microfibers in water, which means means every 100,000 people send between 19 and 242 pounds of microfibers into the water each day. (That large range also accounts for the quality of clothing, the type of washing machine, and the age of the items.)That means the entire US population could be releasing more than 750,000 pounds of tiny fibers into the water daily. And that doesn't include the microfibers that get filtered and incorporated into solid waste that water treatment plants collect, which is sometimes repurposed as fertilizer for farms.Even the study's low estimate - 64,000 pounds of microfibers each day - is surprisingly high.According to Ruff and the Bren research team, microfiber pollution is troubling on two levels. First, it means that animals considered to be filter feeders, which eat by straining food particles out of water, are directly intaking the fibers. That category includes oysters and mussels, so the fibers could actually be in the tissue that humans eat.Second, synthetic fibers (unlike natural ones like wool or cotton) are prone to absorbing chemicals. That means microfibers could potentially pick up chemicals while they travel through wastewater treatment plants, or that they could make it into oceans or streams carrying the chemicals originally added to the clothing they came from."You have odor-resistant chemicals applied, water-resistant chemicals applied, and those are inside the fibers," Ruff says. "When they get consumed, these chemicals can be transferred to tissue of organisms that eat them."In other words, even if the fibers go into the parts of a fish that humans don't typically eat - like the stomach or intestines - those chemicals could still get into the tissue we consume.The amount that humans would ingest is tiny. But Ruff says large quantities of the most commonly found chemicals on microfibers have been shown to cause issues with the endocrine system, neurological development, and cancer. Researchers are also beginning to look into the chemicals' impacts on smaller animals."There have been some studies on filter feeders where they've been shown to produce fewer eggs, smaller eggs and slower sperm, so you're having a lower output of larvae," she says. "It's impacting the population. We don't know how drastically or if it's a longterm impact, but there have been noticeable changes in the physiology of these organisms from consuming fibers."That's especially troubling to Patagonia, since many of its jackets and fleeces are made of synthetic materials and lots of its customers care deeply about the environment.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PATAGONIA/photos_stream">Patagonia Facebook</a>A woman spills ketchup on a Patagonia fleece</div></div></div>Since the results of the study were released, Elissa Loughman, manager of product responsibility at Patagonia, has been trying to figure out the best action for the company to take. An important first step, she says is "identifying fabrics and fibers that either shed a lot or shed less, understanding that, and then make decisions internally to minimize the use of those fabrics and fibers that shed more."Patagonia is also now working with a team at North Carolina State University to devise a test that clothing companies could use in their labs to learn about microfiber shedding when trying out a new material. "The idea is that there could be another test that everyone could do in their standardized test tabs that would identify the shedding potential prior to actually choosing to put a fiber or a fabric to use in a product," she explains.Loughman adds that the problem has to be addressed at many levels - washing machine manufacturers can do their parts, too, and there are several ways eco-conscious consumers can decrease their microfiber pollution. Septic tank filters can be effective at catching microfibers when used in home washing machines, and a nonprofit called the <a href="http://rozaliaproject.org/" target="_blank">Rozalia Project</a>, which is devoted to keeping the oceans clean, is developing a ball that can catch microfibers in the wash.Those who have a choice of washing machines should also opt for front-load ones instead of top-load ones, since the Bren study found that top-load machines create 5.3 times more fiber shedding. Ruff says the researchers still aren't sure why this is the case, but think it has to do with the machines' central agitator, which creates friction by grinding against the clothes. Front-load machines, on the other hand, just move the clothes against themselves.But the easiest thing people can do, Ruff says, is just wash clothing less. Loughman says that's a message Patagonia can get behind."Patagonia is an outdoorsy company and we sort of pride ourselves on getting dirty and staying dirty sometimes," she says. "So having dirty clothes is kind of funny, and actually part of a solution to this." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defunct-oil-rig-hotel-for-divers-2016-3">This defunct oil rig in the middle of the ocean is now a cool hotel for divers</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="12Ym0yMjE6MtFwjzSFxkaTjFSTy8qdMp" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "applied and environmental microbiology" and got 4 results

Study: Heat-temperature marine bacteria help detoxify asbestos

ANI

Researchers explored pitch-black pits in Yucatán's labyrinthine underwater caves to unlock the secrets of the rivers that provide drinking water to millions

Jenny McGrath

Israel begins human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine

IANS

The US may be releasing over 64,000 pounds of tiny synthetic clothing fibers into the water every day

Dana Varinsky

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