Beauty Bloom

Beauty Bloom Health/beauty

Researchers created a genetically modified transparent squid — and this could be huge for brain research
It's the cutest octopus you'll see... if you can see it.
Historically, turning invisible was considered the stuff of wizardry and spells. More recently, physicists have also looked at invisibility, devising invisibility cloaks with some remarkable science. But when biologists take a jab at invisibility, they do it differently: they use genetic engineering.

A team of researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, have successfully engineered a squid that is transparent — and they did it for a good reason.

Cute little transparent creatures
After undergoing this genetic change, these squid become extremely difficult to see. Even the scientists who look after them in an aquarium have trouble spotting them.

“They are so strikingly see-through. It changes the way you interpret what’s going on in this animal, being able to see completely through the body,” Caroline Albertin, one of the researchers behind the project told NPR.

Albertin worked with Joshua Rosenthal on the hummingbird bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi). This is a small squid that usually measures only around 3 centimeters (1.2 in). The squid is found in the Indo-Pacific area from Indonesia to the Philippines. Researchers chose this squid for genetic editing because it’s small (and easy to manage), thrives in aquariums, and is a prodigious breeder — all traits you want in this case.

Squids commonly camouflage themselves in their environment using specialized cells called chromatophores. These chromatophores are responsible for the color of a range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, and cephalopods (the group that includes squids and octopuses). Mammals and birds don’t have chromatophores — they have cells called melanocytes for coloration.

The center of each chromatophore contains a sac full of pigment. Like a chameleon (arguably even more impressively), squids use chromatophores below the surface of the skin to change their color and mix with the surrounding environment.

Albertin and Rosenthal wanted to create a squid without any pigment — an albino.
They used a method called CRISPR to edit out a gene that was known to be linked with pigment in squids, but “nothing happened, ” Albertin told NPR. So they searched and found another gene that was related. When they knocked this one out, the resulting squids finally had no more color.

Why making transparent squids actually matters
The research opens up a completely different way to study cephalopods. Studying cephalopods is exciting because they’re very smart and their nervous systems are much more advanced than those of other invertebrates.

“There’s a whole lot of incredibly interesting biology surrounding cephalopods, unlike any other invertebrate,” says Rosenthal. “We now have a model cephalopod where we can interrogate biological function at a much higher resolution than before.”

Cephalopods can use tools and solve mazes and intricate tasks; they often learn by watching others, which hints at sophisticated intelligence. Even their instantaneous camouflage requires an advanced cognitive ability. However, studying them is difficult, and researchers haven’t really had model organisms for cephalopods.

A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied in the laboratory to understand particular biological processes. Research on model organisms often provides insights into how similar biological mechanisms work in other species, including humans. The fruit fly, zebrafish, and mouse are good examples of model organisms. This new transparent version of the bobtail squid could be just that.

Here’s why you probably shouldn’t add bananas to your smoothie
Study suggests blending certain ingredients can influence smoothies’ benefits.

Smoothies, a popular choice for a speedy breakfast or a nourishing snack, can be a convenient way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our diet. But while the individual fruits in smoothies are well-studied (and are good for you), the combination of fruits is less studied.

In a new study, scientists found that adding bananas to a berry smoothy reduces the flavanols, a group of bioactive compounds good for your health, by 84% — hinting that ideally, you wouldn’t mix the two fruits.

First of all, we should say that there’s more to healthy nutrition than flavanols. This is just one component that makes berries healthy, there are plenty of other things to consider. But if you want to optimize your nutrition, it’s something you can consider.

Researchers used smoothies to test how different levels of polyphenol oxidase (an enzyme found in many fruits and vegetables) affects the absorption of flavanols by the body. Flavanos are a natural compound commonly found in foods and drinks that can reduce inflammation and protect your vascular (blood system).

We should be consuming between 400 and 600 milligrams of flavanols per day. A diet low in flavanols has been linked by previous studies to age-related memory loss.

“If you don’t consume enough flavanols, it can negatively affect cardiovascular health. In older adults, a deficiency of flavanols is also linked to cognitive decline. So, it’s clear we need them, but the question is how best to get flavanols from the food and drinks we consume,” Gunter Kuhnle, one of the study authors, said in a news release.

The right smoothie
This is where bananas come in.

When we peel a banana or cut an apple, the fruit turns brown very fast. This happens because of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), an enzyme naturally present in those foods. In their study, the researchers wanted to know whether drinking a smoothie made with different fruits containing PPO affected the amount of flavanols available to the body.

To find out, they gave volunteers a smoothie with banana and berries, a smoothie just with berries, or just a flavanol capsule by itself (the control group). The researchers then took blood and urine samples to measure how many flavanols were present after taking the smoothie or capsule. They found flavanol levels were reduced when bananas were included.

“We were really surprised to see how quickly adding a single banana decreased the level of flavanols in the smoothie and the levels of flavanol absorbed in the body,” Javier Ottaviani, study author, said in a news release. “This highlights how food preparation and combinations can affect the absorption of dietary compounds in foods.”

The researchers said that people who are trying to consume flavanols should consider making smoothies by combining flavanol-rich fruits such as berries, pineapple, and oranges. The findings don’t mean bananas are not a good fruit to eat alone or in smoothies, they clarified, but bananas may affect flavanol update very significantly. It is further worth noting that the study was conducted among a relatively small sample of people, and only men, so effects may be different depending on the person.

Next, they hope their study can lead others to look at how other foods are prepared and the effect of flavanols. For example, Ottaviani said tea is a big source of flavanols, and depending on how it’s prepared, a different amount of flavanols would be available for absorption. “This is certainly an area that deserves more attention,” he added.

The bottom line: if you really want to optimize your smoothie, put the berries in and save the banana for later. It’ll increase your flavanol intake.

The study was published in the journal Food & Function.

Healthcare on the brink — what the world can learn from the medical strikes in the UK
Healthcare systems all around the world are increasingly pressured.
It’s “strike season” for health workers in the UK. First, junior doctors staged a five-day walkout. Then, after it ended, thousands of senior doctors (around half of the country’s senior doctors) went on strike — the first one in a decade. Now, specialist doctors are also considering action, and more follow-up strikes are likely to come. Oh, and nurses were already on strike at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

So what gives?

Less money, more work
In July, doctors in England staged a 48-hour strike on Thursday and Friday, marking the first strike over pay by consultants in nearly 50 years. Over 20,000 consultants (86%) voted in favor of the strike in the British Medical Association’s ballot. This led to severe disruption in the NHS, with hospitals operating at a reduced level of service, though areas of urgent and emergency care like A&E, intensive care, emergency surgery, and maternity services continue to function.

The grievances that doctors mentioned ranged from being overworked to being underappreciated and underpaid. Money seems to be a particular problem. Most doctors are saying that the government has steadily squeezed their salaries in the past decade. According to a BBC analysis, medical consultants have had their real wages adjusted for inflation drop by 17%, while nurses and junior doctors have both had 10% salary cuts.

Most hospitals and medical practices are also understaffed. There’s a whopping backlog of 7.5 million patients — which means that 1 in 10 people in the UK are currently on a hospital waiting list. The strikes accentuated this issue, leading to thousands of postponed treatments and costing over $1.2 billion. Since the start of the year, nearly 1 million appointments have been delayed because of strike action.

Most doctors said they took the decision to strike with a heavy heart, but they just reached a mental tipping point where they couldn’t take anymore.

A 2022 survey of 4,553 junior doctors found that 40% of them plan to leave the National Health Service as soon as they can find another job. Around a third of respondents said they planned to work as doctors in another country in the next 12 months. This is all the more problematic because since Brexit, the country’s departure from the EU, there’s been a shortage of both specialized doctors and nurses, which means more work and more shifts for existing doctors.

The situation has created a paradoxical scenario: while the medical workforce has been repeatedly on strike, demanding better pay and working conditions, the demand for healthcare professionals is higher than ever. If you search for doctor jobs on any platform, you’ll find a lot of hospitals and clinics struggling to fill their workforce. But striking doctors are firm in their position.

“I never thought I would ever vote to strike,” one doctors told The Guardian. “However, this government has incrementally, over the last 13 years, starved the NHS of money. We’re paid a good wage but it’s fallen significantly in the last 10 to 15 years – we’re just not valued and it’s reached a point where we just can’t stand there and take it.”

“I didn’t become a doctor for the money, I’ve never done private practice as a matter of principle, but I’m no longer willing to stand by and do nothing while this government try and effectively destroy the NHS via their refusal to appropriately value its staff. So with a heavy heart I voted to strike.”

All this is brewing into an extremely unstable pot that the British population is not very used to.