I, the rat, want to "turn green", and my cells grow stronger to show miracles｜Expo Daily

I, the rat, want to "turn green", and my cells will grow stronger and perform miracles~

A new study abroad shows that after the chloroplasts in algae were implanted into hamster cells, the chloroplasts did not die immediately, and the hamster cells did not die either. Instead, they used these chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis.

The researchers examined the structure of the chloroplasts within the cells using a variety of imaging techniques, including confocal microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, and electron microscopy, and confirmed that the hamster cells did not actively "attack" these chloroplasts as expected.

So, are these chloroplasts in the hamster cells still biologically active, or have they become "zombies" without functions? The researchers used light pulse measurements to confirm that there is still electron transfer in the chloroplasts. Electron transfer is an important step in photosynthesis, and the confirmation of this phenomenon shows that these chloroplasts transplanted into the hamsters are still performing photosynthesis.

Finally, the team compared hamster cells that had been implanted with chloroplasts and those that had not, and found that after two days, the cells that had been implanted with chloroplasts had grown larger, providing direct evidence that photosynthesis in chloroplasts was indeed producing nutrients that enabled the cells to grow faster.

The team is continuing to study how to make chloroplasts live longer inside animal cells in order to create "planar animal" cells that would provide animals with the beneficial properties of plants.

Hamster cells implanted with chloroplasts (red) Image credit: Ryota AOKI, Yayoi INUI, Yoji OKABE, Mayuko SATO, Noriko TAKEDA-KAMIYA, Kiminori TOYOOKA, Koki SAWADA, Hayato MORITA, Baptiste GENOT, Shinichiro MARUYAMA, Tatsuya TOMO, Kintake SONOIKE, Sachihiro MATSUNAGA, Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chloroplasts in cultured mammalian cells towards photosynthesis in animals, Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, Article ID pjab.100.035, https://doi.org/10.2183/pjab.100.035

Dust-free chalk is amazing, there are tricks to using it~

The production of ordinary chalk generally uses gypsum, which is anhydrous calcium sulfate. The raw gypsum is heated to a certain temperature to dehydrate it to form gypsum, which is then mixed with pigment to form a paste and molded into shape.

In addition, dust-free chalk also adds grease or polyol substances as adhesives, and then adds relatively dense fillers such as clay and cement, etc., which can increase the density and volume of the chalk and make it less likely to scatter.

These dusts will be fixed near the surface of the blackboard, unlike traditional chalks that produce a lot of flying dust. However, this can only reduce the dust, but not completely dust-free. If the surface of the blackboard is uneven or the force is strong when using it, it is still possible to generate more dust.

In addition, when the blackboard is used for a long time, the accumulated dust may gradually increase. Therefore, even if dust-free chalk is used, the problem of dust pollution cannot be completely eliminated.

Image source: pixabay

What other time units are smaller than seconds?

Since atoms can generate periodic electromagnetic waves, the accuracy of atomic clocks developed by scientists using the principle of atomic transition far exceeds all previous means of measuring time. After the second, there are increasingly subdivided time units such as milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, picoseconds, and femtoseconds.

White nails mean bad health? Actually, there is little correlation...

There is a widely held belief that nails are a barometer of physical health, implying that nail problems can reflect the state of one's internal health.

For example, white spots on nails may be a sign of calcium deficiency. There are other versions of this saying, such as white spots on nails are caused by zinc deficiency, vitamin deficiency, roundworms...

Nails have little to do with calcium deficiency. This is easy to understand from a histological perspective, because the main component of nails is not calcium, which only accounts for 0.2% of the weight of nails, even far less than the 10% of sulfur.

In addition, calcium is not an important component in determining nail hardness, which is completely different from the "protagonist" role of calcium in bones and teeth. The so-called white spots on nails have almost nothing to do with calcium deficiency.

White spots on the nails are a very common nail abnormality, which is medically called "punctate white nails". This type of punctate white nails is a type of white nails and is also the most common type of white nails. It has nothing to do with calcium deficiency. It is mainly caused by nail changes after the nail matrix is ​​damaged, that is, it is usually caused by local trauma.

Image source: veer gallery

The content is compiled from China Science Popularization Expo Weibo, Science Rumors, Science Academy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and CCTV Records

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