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One of the most important classes of human enzymes are protein kinases — signaling molecules that regulate nearly all cellular activities, including growth, cell division, and metabolism. Dysfunction in these cellular pathways can lead to a variety of diseases, particularly cancer. Identifying the protein kinases involved in cellular dysfunction and cancer development could yield many new drug targets, but for the vast majority of these kinases, scientists don’t have a clear picture of which cellular pathways they are involved in, or what their substrates are. “We have a lot of sequencing data for cancer genomes, but what we’re missing is the large-scale study of signaling pathway and protein kinase activation states in cancer. If we had that information, we would have a much better idea of how to drug particular tumors,” says Michael Yaffe, who is a David H. Koch Professor of Science at MIT, the director of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and one of the senior authors of the new study. Yaffe and other researchers have now created a comprehensive atlas of more than 300 of the protein kinases found in human cells, and identified which proteins they likely target and control. This information could help scientists decipher many cellular signaling pathways, and help them to discover what happens to those pathways when cells become cancerous or are treated with specific drugs. Lewis Cantley, a professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Benjamin Turk, an associate professor of pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine, are also senior authors of the paper, which appears today in Nature. The paper’s lead authors are Jared Johnson, an instructor in pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Tomer Yaron, a graduate student at Weill Cornell Medical College. “A Rosetta stone” The human genome includes more than 500 protein kinases, which activate or deactivate other proteins by tagging them with a chemical modification known as a phosphate group. For most of these kinases, the proteins they target are unknown, although research into kinases such as MEK and RAF, which are both involved in cellular pathways that control growth, has led to new cancer drugs that inhibit those kinases. To identify additional pathways that are dysregulated in cancer cells, researchers rely on phosphoproteomics using mass spectrometry — a technique that separates molecules based on their mass and charge — to discover proteins that are more highly phosphorylated in cancer cells or healthy cells. However, until now, there has been no easy way to interrogate the mass spectrometry data to determine which protein kinases are responsible for phosphorylating those proteins. Because of that, it has remained unknown how those proteins are regulated or misregulated in disease. “For most of the phosphopeptides that are measured, we don’t know where they fit in a signaling pathway. We don’t have a Rosetta stone that you could use to look at these peptides and say, this is the pathway that the data is telling us about,” Yaffe says. “The reason for this is that for most protein kinases, we don't know what their substrates are.” Twenty-five years ago, while a postdoc in Cantley’s lab, Yaffe began studying the role of protein kinases in signaling pathways. Turk joined the lab shortly after, and the three have since spent decades studying these enzymes in their own research groups. “This is a collaboration that began when Ben and I were in Lew’s lab 25 years ago, and now it’s all finally really coming together, driven in large part by what the lead authors, Jared and Tomer, did,” Yaffe says. In this study, the researchers analyzed two classes of kinases — serine kinases and threonine kinases, which make up about 85 percent of the protein kinases in the human body — based on what type of structural motif they put phosphate groups onto. Working with a library of peptides that Cantley and Turk had previously created to search for motifs that kinases interact with, the researchers measured how the peptides interacted with all 303 of the known serine and threonine kinases. Using a computational model to analyze the interactions they observed, the researchers were able to identify the kinases capable of phosphorylating every one of the 90,000 known phosphorylation sites that have been reported in human cells, for those two classes of kinases. To their surprise, the researchers found that many kinases with very different amino acid sequences have evolved to bind and phosphorylate the same motifs on their substrates. They also showed that about half of the kinases they studied target one of three major classes of motifs, while the remaining half are specific to one of about a dozen smaller classes. Decoding networks This new kinase atlas can help researchers identify signaling pathways that differ between normal and cancerous cells, or between treated and untreated cancer cells, Yaffe says. “This atlas of kinase motifs now lets us decode signaling networks,” he says. “We can look at all those phosphorylated peptides, and we can map them back onto a specific kinase.” To demonstrate this approach, the researchers analyzed cells treated with an anticancer drug that inhibits a kinase called Plk1, which regulates cell division. When they analyzed the expression of phosphorylated proteins, they found that many of those affected were controlled by Plk1, as they expected. To their surprise, they also discovered that this treatment increased the activity of two kinases that are involved in the cellular response to DNA damage. Yaffe’s lab is now interested in using this atlas to try to find other dysfunctional signaling pathways that drive cancer development, particularly in certain types of cancer for which no genetic drivers have been found. “We can now use phosphoproteomics to say, maybe in this patient’s tumor, these pathways are upregulated or these pathways are downregulated,” he says. “It’s likely to identify signaling pathways that drive cancer in conditions where it isn’t obvious what the genetics that drives the cancer are.” The research was funded by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Research UK, the Brain Tumour Charity, the Charles and Marjorie Holloway foundation, the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, and the Koch Institute Support (core) grant from the National Cancer Institute. | Biology |
The aptly named resplendent quetzal is prized for its plumage. Golden poison frogs are popular creatures in the pet trade. Pangolin meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are used in traditional medicine.
Those three animals are among the third of all wild vertebrate species that people eat, trade or otherwise use, a new study reveals. Out of nearly 47,000 vertebrate species around the world, humans exploit about 14,600, researchers report June 29 in Communications Biology in a comprehensive look at humans’ impact on a vast swathe of wildlife.
Some species, like fish trawled from the sea in large quantities for food, are abundant. But human activities are helping push many others of these exploited species toward extinction, marine ecologist Boris Worm and colleagues say.
More than half of the vertebrate species that humans exploit — mostly fish and mammals — are killed for food, the team finds. Birds, reptiles and amphibians are primarily targeted for the pet trade. And about 8 percent of exploited species are recreationally hunted for sport or trophies. Other uses include medicine or clothing, and more than a quarter of the species are used for more than one purpose.
Worm, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and colleagues collated data compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, which tracks the trade, use and vulnerability of species worldwide. The team considered species from the six classes of vertebrates that contain more than 100 species each: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, ray-finned fishes (such as tuna and salmon) and cartilaginous fishes (a group that includes sharks, rays and skates).
About 13 percent of all vertebrate species facing extinction — those classified by the IUCN as either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered — are threatened at least in part due to human exploitation, the team found. That includes 5,775, or 39 percent, of the species the study identified as used by humans.
The rise of advanced hunting and fishing technology, as well as global trade and a burgeoning human population, have increasingly skewed the balance of many ecosystems in favor of people and against other species (SN: 10/5/07).
Although Worm and his colleagues, and some other scientists, think of humans as predators, that’s not quite correct, says Daniel Pauly, a fisheries biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who was not involved in the study. “Predators are regulated by natural processes, but humans are not.”
The team’s findings, Pauly says, “describe the impact of our mad consumption of the world.” | Biology |
Bridging the gap between lab and field studies in soil microbiology research
Soil microbiology research increasingly depends on big data. This means that experiments will no longer only mostly be carried out under controlled conditions in the laboratory but will instead move out into the fields.
"It will naturally present challenges when you choose to scale up your research from laboratory to field trials and beyond. There is a big difference between laboratory and field experiments, and this can lead to inconsistent and even contrasting results, so it is important to bridge the gap between laboratory, field and model-based studies of microbial ecosystem functions," explains tenure track researcher Ji Chen from the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University.
From well-controlled conditions to uncontrolled
In the laboratory, experiments can be carried out under very controlled conditions. The same is not true when you move the experiments to ecosystems in fields. Here results are influenced by variations in weather, soils and a vast number of other environmental conditions.
"You could actually say that the laboratory experiments are limited because they ignore the wide range of environmental impacts that you would encounter in situ. So, there is a risk of contradictions between laboratory and field studies, which can ultimately mislead our development of models and projections," says Ji Chen.
In other words, it is important that soil microbiology research is scaled up from laboratories to actual ecosystems in order to get the most valid results. However, according to Ji Chen, there are major challenges:
"Scaling up is not just about making the experiments bigger, it requires us as researchers to investigate and work out what microbiological processes and relationships are going on in the soil at every level when we can't control all the environmental influences."
The differences between laboratory and field results
A major difference between the different experiments is the soil. The soil used in laboratory studies is disturbed. It has been dug up and moved, in some cases also treated. This can lead to changes in microbial communities and nutrient cycles that do not necessarily reflect those found in undisturbed field soils.
"The duration of the study can also affect the results, as short-term laboratory incubations may give different predictions than long-term laboratory studies or field-based observations," says Ji Chen.
Such discrepancies in research results can have implications for the prediction of the soil's carbon and nutrient cycle, as well as in greenhouse gas emissions, according to the researchers.
"Ultimately, in other words, these discrepancies can affect the development of policies based on scientific evidence. This is a challenge we face as environmental researchers because our results can be used to inform policy makers on climate-smart and resource-efficient ecosystems," says Ji Chen, who points out that the lack of knowledge on upscaling soil microbiology from laboratory to ecosystems should motivate more interdisciplinary collaboration across experimental, observational, theoretical and modeling research.
The paper is published in the journal Global Change Biology.
More information: Ji Chen et al, Challenges in upscaling laboratory studies to ecosystems in soil microbiology research, Global Change Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16537
Journal information: Global Change Biology
Provided by Aarhus University | Biology |
The microbiologist Francis Mojica, in the Salinas de Santa Pola (Alicante), in 2017.Raúl Belinchón.For years, scientists from all over the world have been searching for microbes in the ice of Antarctica, in the deepest trenches of the oceans and in the most hostile volcanic environments on the planet. The goal is to track down new proteins that can be used to improve gene-editing techniques. This could open the door to a new era of science and medicine, in which a multitude of diseases could be cured by correcting patients’ faulty genomes with astonishing ease.Today, a study has been published by a group of Spanish scientists who haven’t just searched for new molecules in space – they have searched for them in time. The team has managed to resurrect proteins from organisms that have been extinct for billions of years.The researchers have focused on recreating Cas9 enzymes – molecules that work like scissors, capable of cutting the DNA of any living being. This is the basis of the CRISPR gene-editing system.CRISPR is the immune system of many bacteria and archaea. It allows them to embed virus genetic sequences into their own genome, so that if a virus reappears, CRISPR can identify it, while Cas9 enzymes can slash its genome.Since its development in 2012, the CRISPR gene-editing system has revolutionized biomedical research, making it possible to rewrite the instruction book of any organism. Now, it’s beginning to be utilized to treat certain diseases in humans. However, this gene-editing system isn’t perfect: it can introduce potentially dangerous errors into the genome. The search for safer alternatives is still ongoing.A pending question in the field of genetics is how the bacterial immune system – which is much older than humanity – came into existence. Searching for an answer, a team made up of some of Spain’s leading gene-editing experts used a technique to reconstruct the genome of extinct organisms. The technique is known as ancestral sequence reconstruction. It uses powerful computers to compare the complete genomes of living organisms – each made up of billions of letters of DNA – and evaluate what the genomes of their common ancestors would look like.So far, the researchers have made amazing progress to recover Cas proteins from extinct microbes. The oldest one they have discovered is from 2.6 billion years ago. They have also rescued extinct proteins from microorganisms that lived between 37 million to 1 billion years ago.Researchers have created new CRISPR systems using these ancient proteins, injecting them into human cells. The results – published in the journal Nature Microbiology – show that, despite being so primitive, all these ancient proteins are capable of editing the DNA of modern human cells.In the early 1990s, biologist Francis Mojica was studying microbes that lived in the hostile environment of the salt flats of Santa Pola, in the Valencian community of Spain. He also analyzed the DNA sequence known as PAM, which allows microbes to distinguish between their own genomes and the genomes of viruses. Without PAMs, a bacterium could easily kill itself. But the new study – of which Mojica is a co-author – indicates that some of the oldest CAS enzymes are capable of cutting DNA accurately without the need for PAM.Mojica highlights the importance of this discovery to understand the origin and evolution of CRISPR: “Thanks to this recovery, we can see how the immune system of microbes became less harmful to its carriers and increasingly specific for each virus.” In addition, ”this work is important, because it opens up a huge toolbox for creating better CRISPR systems.”Raúl Pérez-Jiménez – a co-author of the study and a researcher at the Basque Center for Cooperative Research in Nanoscience – also sees a lot of potential in the research. “These are the oldest Cas proteins that have ever been obtained. Now, we’re going to study how we can make them as efficient as the current ones, or even better!”The earlier proteins may be able to do things that the current CRISPRs cannot, such as cutting both double and single-stranded DNA and RNA sequences at the same time.“They’re like Swiss army knives. They have scissors, corkscrews, needles, screwdrivers… they’re probably not the best tools, but they have them all,” Pérez-Jiménez notes.Miguel Ángel Moreno Pelayo – head of genetics at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid and another co-author of the work – says that the reconstruction of ancient proteins opens up the possibility of designing new forms of synthetic CRISPR “that do not exist in nature.” Among other projects, he and his team are developing a method of correcting genetic defects in patients living with ALS.Co-author Lluís Montoliu – a researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid – emphasizes another advantage of the primitive Cas proteins. Unlike more modern proteins, they aren’t detected by the human immune system, which means that they’re less likely to be rejected by the immune systems of patients when utilized in future medical applications.Miguel Ángel Moreno Mateos – an expert in gene-editing at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology – celebrates the new study: “Particularly fascinating is the resurrection of ancient Cas9 [proteins] and the analysis of their activity billions of years later. These resurrected Cas9s present new possibilities with considerable potential in biotechnology.” Although, he cautions, “further study and analysis must be carried out for this to become a reality.”Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition | Biology |
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — The expression “so hungry I could eat a horse” might not be just a figure of speech — for the Burmese python, at least. It had long been thought that the size of the python’s head and body allowed it to devour such enormous prey. These massive snakes can reach about 18 feet (5.5 meters) in length and weigh up to 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) — and eyewitnesses have seen them swallowing deer, goats and even alligators. But it’s not just the size of the python that determines what’s on its menu, revealed a recent study published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology. What matters more is the size of the python’s “gape” — how widely it can open its mouth. “One common misunderstanding is that snakes dislocate their jaws to swallow prey,” Bruce Jayne, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati and lead study author, told CNN Thursday. “The key thing about snakes is that they have jaws with a great deal of mobility — but no jaws get dislocated.” Rather than dislocating its jaw before swallowing prey, the python devours animals thanks to a stretchy piece of connective tissue that connects its lower jaw to its skull. The bone structure at the front of the mouth also helps out. “The left and right bones are not fused (at the chin). That’s one profound difference between our lower jaws and a snake’s lower jaws,” Jayne said. The extremely stretchy skin around the jaw allows the python’s mouth to stretch even further around its prey. And a python’s mouth has one final trick. “They have additional bones on the roof of their mouth, unlike ours, that have teeth in them,” he added. Whereas humans have one row of lateral teeth, snakes have both this lateral row — and one that “runs lengthwise,” according to Jayne. These rows of teeth “wiggle back and forth,” dragging prey further toward the stomach. The scientists examined 43 euthanized Burmese pythons. The team measured their gape using a series of 3D-printed plastic objects of incremental sizes, measuring the widest each snake could stretch its mouth. The largest probe was 9 inches (22 centimeters) in diameter. Only one snake had a wide enough gape to swallow the object — a python measuring 14 feet (4.3 meters) and weighing 140 pounds (63.3 kilograms). Unlike cobras, vipers and rattlesnakes, a Burmese python is nonvenomous. It doesn’t kill its prey with its bite, but by suffocation, coiling around the victim and squeezing its muscles tightly to constrict blood flow before swallowing it. Pythons have recently proved to be a menace for wildlife conservationists in the United States. The Everglades National Park in South Florida once bristled with deer, racoons, possums and foxes. But in recent years, fewer and fewer of these animals have been seen in the area. The reason? Burmese pythons. This led to the return this past August of the annual conservation initiative called the Florida Python Challenge, which drew hundreds of professional snake hunters to the Everglades to hunt and kill the nonnative reptiles. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Florida Water Management District first organized the 10-day event in 2020, with support from nonprofit and private partners. “The Everglades ecosystem is changing in real time based on one species, the Burmese python,” said study coauthor Ian Bartoszek in a statement in a news release. He is an environmental science project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. For more than a decade, officials at Everglades National Park have been researching how to effectively remove the invasive species from this fragile ecosystem, according to the US National Park Service website. A 2012 study referenced by the site suggested that the growing numbers of Burmese python, which likely had initially taken hold when captive snakes from the pet trade were released, could be linked to severe declines in mammal populations in the Everglades habitat. But the latest study led by Jayne suggests it might not just be smaller mammals at risk due to the overpopulation of pythons — but far larger ones, including deer and alligators. The researchers questioned whether there is even an upper limit to the gape of some of the very biggest pythons. “You always have to be careful about extrapolating from your data, but it wouldn’t be surprising to me if a really, really large Burmese python could probably have a gape diameter of about 30 centimeters (11.8 inches),” Jayne said. Does this mean that if a large python got so hungry it would be able to eat a horse? “Perhaps they could eat a pony,” Jayne said. | Biology |
The 1918 flu was one of the deadliest pandemics in history, killing at least 50 million people worldwide. It was long believed that young, healthy adults were just as likely to die from the illness as those who were older, sick or frail — but a new study has turned this idea on its head.
Scientists examined skeletons of people who died before and during the 1918 pandemic. Signs of stress in the bones suggest that, regardless of their ages, people who were already frail or unhealthy were more likely to die during the crisis than those who weren't.
The findings, published Monday (Oct. 9) in the journal PNAS, are perhaps not surprising, but they're a reminder of how individuals' attributes can shape their susceptibility to disease, the authors said.
"Even in a novel pandemic — one to which no one is supposed to have prior immunity — certain people are at a greater risk of getting sick and dying, and this is often shaped by culture," Amanda Wissler, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of anthropology at McMaster University in Ontario, told Live Science in an email. In other words, people who are already disadvantaged in terms of their health or socioeconomic status tend to be more vulnerable to outbreaks, she said.
The 1918 flu spread so fast that doctors originally believed that healthy young adults were as likely to die as older people who were already frail and babies with immature immune systems. The pattern of flu deaths across age groups was "W-shaped," with peaks at very young and very old ages, and another peak among young adults. Most flu outbreaks have "U-shaped" death curves, with peaks on both ends of the age spectrum.
The W-shaped curve highlighted an unusual trend among young people, but it didn't take their preexisting conditions into account. Evidence of rampant death among healthy young adults was mainly anecdotal and had no concrete scientific backing, the study authors wrote in their paper. Historical documents, such as census data and life insurance records, contained scant details on the people's health conditions and socioeconomic pressures.
In the new study, scientists examined the skeletons of 81 people who died when the flu struck Cleveland between September 1918 and March 1919 and those of 288 people who died before the pandemic. They looked at the ages of death and for bumps, or "lesions," on the people's shinbones, which served as markers of physical stress and underlying health conditions. When the body is stressed as a result of physical trauma, infection or nutritional deficiencies, inflammation triggers healing and the formation of new bone.
People who had active shinbone lesions were considered the frailest, and compared with people with healed lesions, they were more likely to die before and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, their risk of death was 2.7 times greater than that of people who had healed lesions.
Young people were not an exception to this trend. Regardless of their age of death, those who had evidence of stress in their bones were more likely to have died from the flu than those who started out healthier.
The study had several limitations: It only included skeletons from Cleveland, meaning the results can't necessarily be applied to other places. And the shinbone technique is great for looking at general patterns of frailty but can't explain the exact causes of the lesions. Nevertheless, the findings may reflect how health and social disparities tend to drive death rates in pandemics — similar to trends seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, or even the Black Death.
"We saw during COVID-19 that people who were socially and economically minoritized had a greater risk of getting sick and dying, and I suspect a similar thing happened in the 1918 flu," Wissler told Live Science.
The misconception that healthy adults were equally likely to die during the 1918 pandemic as frailer people may reflect the fact that young adults, in general, were at greater risk in the 1918 flu than in previous outbreaks, the authors wrote in the paper. Scientists have since proposed theories for this — perhaps a virus similar to the pandemic flu circulated before those young adults were born, leaving them especially susceptible once the 1918 virus emerged.
It would have been surprising to see lots of young people dying, which probably made the trend stand out, the authors concluded.
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Emily is a health news writer based in London, United Kingdom. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Durham University and a master's degree in clinical and therapeutic neuroscience from Oxford University. She has worked in science communication, medical writing and as a local news reporter while undertaking journalism training. In 2018, she was named one of MHP Communications' 30 journalists to watch under 30. ([email protected]) | Biology |
Novel research takes marine conservation tools to a new dimension
In the new article "Incorporating multidimensional behavior into a risk management tool for a critically endangered and migratory species" published in Conservation Biology, researchers combined data on the diving behavior of East Pacific leatherbacks with data on fishing effort from Global Fishing Watch to enhance the South Pacific TurtleWatch (SPTW) dynamic ocean management tool.
Lead author and Upwell Researcher Nicole Barbour states, "The method we use is a novel example of how behavior and vertical movements, such as diving or flying, can be incorporated with fisheries data into risk and dynamic management tools for endangered, migratory species."
"We demonstrated this method on the critically endangered Eastern Pacific leatherback turtle but have additionally provided publicly available example code and models with our manuscript so that studies on other migratory species of conservation interest can adopt similar methods."
The critically endangered East Pacific leatherback sea turtle population is highly migratory and dives constantly (sometimes up to 1,200 meters) as it swims to forage, avoid predators, thermoregulate, and navigate.
In order to contemplate this vertical habitat use in protection strategies, researchers generated maps showing the relative risk of turtle-fisheries interactions based on data obtained from dive tags identifying three states of leatherback behavior (transiting, residential/mixed-depth diving, and residential/deep diving) and fishing effort data specific to gear type (longlines, trawl nets, gillnets, etc.) from Global Fishing Watch.
These maps were then added as new layers of information to the South Pacific TurtleWatch dynamic ocean management tool to refine its capability to provide predictions of potential high risk bycatch areas. The SPTW is a unique model created by scientists from Upwell and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and other partners to empower fishers with the knowledge of where and when they are most likely to encounter leatherbacks in the Eastern Pacific Ocean with the aim of reducing the risk of incidental capture.
The application of the new and rich dataset on fishing effort from Global Fishing Watch was especially helpful to fill information gaps about the region's fisheries in the SPTW.
The article was a collaborative effort initiated by the international non-profit sea turtle research and conservation organization Upwell with partners from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, MigraMar, SUNY College of Environmental and Forest Sciences, and Mercator Ocean International.
Upwell Executive Director Dr. George Shillinger reflected on the article's impact, saying, "We hope that our findings will spark a broader discussion about the urgency to leverage any and all credible data to better understand and mitigate the threats posed to leatherbacks by fisheries. The tool presents an opportunity to spark dialog about sea turtle conservation and to inform efforts to reduce fisheries impacts across the range, distribution, and life history of this critically endangered leatherback population."
More information: Nicole Barbour et al, Incorporating multidimensional behavior into a risk management tool for a critically endangered and migratory species, Conservation Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14114
Journal information: Conservation Biology
Provided by Upwell | Biology |
What amphibians can tell us about water quality
Whether it occurs through the discharge of nutrients from agricultural operations into local streams or the discardment of plastic into the ocean, water pollution can negatively impact both human and environmental health. In fact, diseases caused by water pollution kill more people every year than all forms of violence—including war.
Scientists can use a variety of tools and methods to protect aquatic environments from pollution. That includes monitoring animals that belong to an "indicator species." The presence or absence of these animals can tell scientists a lot about changes to the environmental conditions in which they live.
Amphibians, for example, can help scientists determine the impact of pollution on waterways. Many of these cold-blooded vertebrates—frogs, toads, salamanders and newts—begin their life in the water as larvae and eventually move onto land, though some species spend their entire lives in the water. Most amphibians also breathe through their skin to a certain degree, making them especially vulnerable to water pollution.
"Most of the problems we see in amphibians are due to their skin being more permeable than other vertebrates. Some amphibians lack lungs all together and fully depend on cutaneous respiration. So water pollution can be directly toxic to amphibians," said Ivana Mali, The Ecology Wildlife Foundation Distinguished Scholar for Conservation Biology at NC State. "This is one of the reasons we monitor them as environmental health indicators."
Mali, whose research examines how reptiles and amphibians respond to anthropogenic stressors such as climate change and habitat degradation, added that exposure to water pollution, particularly chemical contamination, can cause amphibians to experience a wide range of health problems, ranging from a shift in their skin microbiome which increases their vulnerability to disease to morphological deformities which decreases their chances of survival.
In severe cases of water pollution, mass mortality events can occur. In 2016, Peru's wildlife and forestry service Serfor reported the death of 10,000 critically endangered frogs along a 30-mile stretch of the Coata River, a tributary belonging to the Lake Titicaca basin. Previous studies found large concentrations of heavy metals such as lead and mercury throughout the basin, with researchers linking the pollution to regional mining operations.
Amphibians evolved from lobe-finned fish about 365 million years ago and have since played an integral role in ecosystem health, according to Mali. Because most amphibians spend a portion of their lives in water and on land, they represent an important connection in energy and nutrient circulation between aquatic and terrestrial environments. They also serve as important components in many food webs, acting as both predators and prey.
Unfortunately, amphibians are one of the world's most threatened vertebrate groups. A 2004 assessment found that nearly one-third of the more than 8,000 amphibian species are at risk of extinction, representing 1,856 species. Nearly 168 species are believed to have already gone extinct, while at least 2,469 species are actively declining. In the United States, amphibian populations are declining at an average rate of 3.79% per year.
Mali said these declines are occurring due to a combination of stressors, including habitat loss and conversion, environmental contamination, emerging infectious diseases, climate change and more. In the Triangle region of North Carolina, for example, urban development and agricultural operations have contributed to water pollution in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins—the home of the Neuse river waterdog. The giant salamander is now on the path to extinction, with populations decreasing by up to 50%.
"A lot of times it is multiple stressors acting synergistically," Mali said. "Understanding how these stressors interact with one another and affect populations will be crucial in developing sound management strategies."
When it comes to protecting amphibians, it's crucial that local governments protect existing habitats and conduct better clean-up operations to preserve water quality, according to Mali. The public can also help by maintaining recreational waters, picking up trash, properly disposing of pharmaceuticals and avoiding the use of fertilizers and pesticides on lawns.
Provided by North Carolina State University | Biology |
Energy production in nature is the responsibility of chloroplasts and mitochondria and is crucial for fabricating sustainable, synthetic cells in the lab. Mitochondria are not only "the powerhouses of the cell," as the middle school biology adage goes, but also one of the most complex intracellular components to replicate artificially.
In Biophysics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Sogang University in South Korea and the Harbin Institute of Technology in China identified the most promising advancements and greatest challenges of artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts.
"If scientists can create artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts, we could potentially develop synthetic cells that can generate energy and synthesize molecules autonomously. This would pave the way for the creation of entirely new organisms or biomaterials," author Kwanwoo Shin said.
In plants, chloroplasts use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into glucose. Mitochondria, found in plants and animals alike, produce energy by breaking down glucose.
Once a cell produces energy, it often uses a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to store and transfer that energy. When the cell breaks down the ATP, it releases energy that powers the cell's functions.
"In other words, ATP acts as the main energy currency of the cell, and it is vital for the cell to perform most of the cellular functions," said Shin.
The team describes the components required to construct synthetic mitochondria and chloroplasts and identifies proteins as the most important aspects for molecular rotary machinery, proton transport, and ATP production.
Previous studies have replicated components that make up the energy-producing organelles. Some of the most promising work investigates the intermediate operations involved in the complex energy-generating process. By connecting the sequence of proteins and enzymes, researchers have improved energy efficiency.
One of the most significant challenges remaining in trying to reconstruct the energy production organelles is enabling self-adaptation in changing environments to maintain a stable supply of ATP. Future studies must investigate how to improve upon this limiting feature before synthetic cells are self-sustainable.
The authors believe it is important to create artificial cells with biologically realistic energy-generation methods that mimic natural processes. Replicating the entire cell could lead to future biomaterials and lend insight into the past.
"This could be an important milestone in understanding the origin of life and the origin of cells," Shin said.
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Does this mean we can’t help kids get over their pickiness, and learn to accept unfamiliar foods? And children may notice bitter flavors that are too faint for adults to detect.Young children start life with an aversion to bitter and sour flavors…Children also show a cross-cultural tendency to shrink away from new foods. They may refuse even to taste them.At the same time, kids seem designed to seek out sweet foods.Is every child equally likely to reject food? Some children carry genes that appear to heighten sensitivity to bitterness and predispose kids to seek out sweeter foods.It’s also clear that some picker eaters are highly sensitive to the sensory properties of food — including texture, odor, and consistency.And researchers have documented individual differences in food neophobia.So – to some degree — picky eating and neophobia comes naturally to young children.But that doesn’t mean that picking eating and neophobia are inevitable.Why do kids refuse foods? Picky eaters can drive us crazy, but their quirks and preferences aren’t entirely arbitrary. Read about the biological differences that turn some kids into fussy, selective eaters.Does your child insist on eating only a few, favored foods? Does she reject vegetables? Does he refuse to try anything new? It can be maddening, but this isn’t just a battle of wills. Young children’s perceptions of sweetness and bitterness are probably quite different from ours.Moreover, some children are especially sensitive to the sensory properties of food. This increased attunement to the odor, flavor, and texture may give them more opportunity to notice things they distrust or dislike (Farrow and Coulthard 2012; Steinsbekk et al 2017; Cunliffe et al 2022).They may literally taste things that we can’t, and vice versa. It’s also likely that kids evolved to be standoffish about new foods, especially during early childhood. It would have protected our young ancestors from poisoning themselves.And all of these phenomena – taste thresholds, suspicion towards new foods, sensitivity to chemosensory cues and texture – are influenced by our genes. Some kids may inherit genotypes that put them at higher risk for rejecting foods.Photo – FreepickDoes this mean we can’t help kids get over their pickiness, and learn to accept unfamiliar foods? No! In fact, rates of picky eating may vary from society to society, and studies indicate that individual experiences and cultural practices are important factors shaping the way kids respond to food (Patel et al 2020; Taylor et al 2015).But understanding the science of picky eaters — the biology of food preferences and perceptions — is an important first step towards solving the problem. So let’s take a closer look at the biological factors that shape children’s responses.And children may notice bitter flavors that are too faint for adults to detect.For instance, consider propylthiouracil (“PROP”), a compound that may give a variety of foods — including cruciferous vegetables and some cheeses — a bitter flavor (Keller and Adise 2016). In experiments, children were more likely than their mothers to detect low concentrations of this bitter compound during a taste test (Monella et al 2005). Little wonder, then, if they crinkle their noses at foods that adults perceive as pleasant-tasting.Young children start life with an aversion to bitter and sour flavors…It looks like something we’re born with: Newborn babies react very negatively when their tongue comes into contact with a substance that is bitter or sour (Liam and Menella 2002; Forestell 2017).Children also show a cross-cultural tendency to shrink away from new foods. They may refuse even to taste them.This tendency is called “neophobia,” and, although it first emerges in infancy, studies suggest that it peaks between the ages of 2 and 6 years (Lafraire et al 2016; Hazley et al 2022). Moreover, it’s something the zoologists have observed in many species, not just humans.Photo – TubmlrAt the same time, kids seem designed to seek out sweet foods.Studies show that even newborns enjoy the taste of sugar, and it doesn’t just induce pleasure. For babies and older children alike, a sugary treat can actually reduce perceptions of pain (Menella and Bobowski 2015; Forestell 2017).It also appears that young children have a higher threshold for detecting the presence of sugar – meaning that they can’t sense sweetness unless it’s more intense (Petty et al 2002).And there’s no doubt that children tend to prefer higher concentrations of sugar than adults do. The “sweet spot” for young children is sweeter than it is for older folk (Menella and Bobowska 2015; Petty et al 2020).Is every child equally likely to reject food? Clearly not.Just as we see differences between children and adults, we also see variation among individuals.Some children carry genes that appear to heighten sensitivity to bitterness and predispose kids to seek out sweeter foods.For example, when Julie Mennella and colleagues presented kids (aged 5 to 10 years) with a series of bitter- and sweet-tasting drinks, the researchers found that children’s preferences were related to their genotypes at the TAS2R38 locus, a region that controls an individual’s sensitivity to several similar, bitter-tasting compounds, including propylthiouracil (PROP).Kids who possessed at least one copy of the bitter-sensitive allele were more likely to detect bitterness at low concentrations. In addition, these kids reported preferences for sweeter drinks and cereals with higher sugar content. They were also less likely to name milk or water as a favorite beverage.Related: Do You Know That You All Are Drinking Dinosaur Pee Every Day? Here’s WhyKids with the bitter-sensitive genotypes were rated as “more emotional” by their mothers if their mothers possessed only bitter-insensitive alleles (Mennella et al 2005). So some perhaps some of the conflicts between picky eaters and their parents are caused by a genetic mismatch: Parents who can’t taste certain bitter compounds have more difficulty relating to the way that their kids react to bitter foods.The results are supported by other studies, which found that children who could detect PROP were more likely to consume sweets (e.g., Chamoun et al 2018; Keller et al 2014). But above mentioned Menella’s study included a detail of particular interest to parents struggling with picky eaters.It’s also clear that some picker eaters are highly sensitive to the sensory properties of food — including texture, odor, and consistency.This is especially common for children on the autism spectrum (Bourne et al 2022), but it’s also a familiar story for kids who are neurotypical, and for individuals who suffer from anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Zigraf et al 2022; Cunliffe et al 2022).And researchers have documented individual differences in food neophobia.As was the case for sensitivity to bitterness, these can be explained, at least in part, by genetic factors. For instance, in studies of twins, researchers have found that variation in neophobia is highly heritable (Smith et al 2017; Knaapila et al 2007; Cooke et al 2005).So – to some degree — picky eating and neophobia comes naturally to young children.From an evolutionary point of view, this makes sense. As I mentioned in the introduction, neophobia can be beneficial. It helps prevent young children from tasting everything they see, which could result in the ingestion of something dangerous.Similarly, the ability to detect and avoid bitter flavors can be protective. Bitterness is a cue to the presence of plant secondary compounds that have an array of undesirable effects, including reduced digestibility and illness (Glenndinning 1994). And young children are more vulnerable to than adults.What about children’s heightened preference for sweet, sugary foods? Sweetness is a cue to the presence of higher caloric density, and it makes sense that young children would find that especially attractive. Relative to their body mass, children have greater need for high-energy food than adults do. Moreover, in fruits sweetness is a cue to ripeness – when fruits are less likely to contain toxins and compounds that impede digestibility (Whitehead and Bowers 2014).Thus, all of these biases – against new foods and bitter foods, and for sweet foods – can be viewed as potentially advantageous.Throughout most of human history, our ancestors were foragers who consumed a variety of plant foods. Young children were capable of getting their hands on foods that weren’t good for them, and it was important for them to seek out the highest energy foods available.Neophobia helped prevent kids from eating something toxic. Low sugar-detection thresholds – and a love of sweetness – helped kids focus their attention on the sweetest, most caloric, least toxic fruits available. And being picky – at least to the extent of avoiding bitter foods – would have acted as an additional insurance policy against consuming something bad.But that doesn’t mean that picking eating and neophobia are inevitable.On the contrary, studies reveal that a child’s tendency to reject food is also shaped by the environment. For example, prenatal and neonatal experiences might play a role in the development of food preferences. Research suggests that fetuses can taste the foods that their pregnant mothers eat. Food flavors also get transmitted through breast milk, and there is evidence that young children are more likely to accept these flavors later, when they begin consuming solid foods.Picky eaters are also influenced by parental feeding tactics, social cues, and the ways that new foods are presented.For instance, when researchers tracked more than 7800 British children over time, they uncovered links between the introduction of “lumpy solids” during infancy and subsequent feeding behavior. Compared with babies introduced to lumpy solids between 6-9 months, babies encountering these foods later had less varied diets and more feeding problems by the age of 7 years (Coulthard et al 2009).Early exposure to variety is important too. When, during weaning, parents introduce their babies to an array of fruits and vegetables, these children are more likely to accept a broader range of fruits and vegetables as they get older (Blisset and Fogel 2013; Patel et al 2020).In addition, experiments suggest that kids may increase their liking for bitter or sour foods if they first encounter them in combination with something sweet (Capaldi and Privitera 2008). And studies tell us that kids will eventually accept new foods if we are persistent about offering them — over and over again. But it’s important to present foods in a positive, social context…and to avoid pressuring children to eat.For more information about persuading children to broaden their diets, see these research-based tips on coping with picky eaters. I’ll be updating this article soon. In addition, check out this discussion about the special dietary needs of young children and their implications for choosing a healthful diet for your family.Photo – Pinterest#1 Set a good example. Kids mimic their parents. Try new foods and recipes often, and let your children see you make healthy choices in your own meals.#2 Experiment together. Let your child choose a new-to-you fruit or veggie in the produce department. Have fun tasting it for the first time as a family. If your child likes the new food, try incorporating it into more of your meals.#3 Involve your child. Have your kids help in the kitchen. Children may be more willing to try dishes they have helped prepare.#4 Give your child choices. Kids like to have control, no matter how much.When serving a meal you know your child won’t want to try, include a favorite fruit and/or veggie on her plate so she has options.While planning meals for the week, ask your kids for suggestions (feel free to overrule foods they suggest week after week, like pizza and mac-n-cheese). Point out who selected the dish when serving it and thank them for the idea.Let your child choose the way you prepare a new food. For instance, broccoli – raw or roasted. Children often prefer the subdued aroma of raw over cooked vegetables.#5 Be positive. Both in offering foods, and when talking to others about your child’s food choices in front of them. Do say, “He’s getting better about trying new foods.” Don’t say, “He’s a terrible eater!”#6 Don’t be a short-order cook. Make one meal and serve it to the entire family. If your child won’t eat, don’t make a big deal about it. Children will eat when they’re hungry. This technique will help them learn they can’t manipulate you.#7 Ask for their input. If your child sticks her nose up at a meal, try asking, “What will make it better?” You may be able to make the food more appealing based on her answer. For instance, adding ketchup or serving it at a cooler temperature.#8 Be silly. Toddlers may forget their fussiness when they find their lunch in the form of a face with strawberry eyes, a carrot mouth and shredded cheese hair. Or try cutting food into interesting shapes: cucumber stars or a heart sandwich.#9 Talk about food away from the table. Watch cooking shows and videos with your kids. Search the internet together for new recipes to try. Read picture books together that feature a certain food as a theme (this is a great way to introduce ethnic foods especially).#10 Try, try again. Kids may need 10 or more tastes of a new food before they accept it. Keep offering and remind your picky eater he may not have liked it before, but this is a new day.©Gwen Dewar, Ph.D | PremierHealth | References for The science of picky eaters are mentioned within the respective para. DM for removal please.#picky eating #Baby feeding #Behavior problems #Diet and nutrition # | Biology |
Last year a study suggested there was a hard limit to the span of human life: 150 years. At this point, the study said, the body could no longer repair itself after illness. But how can we be sure? I asked Richard Faragher, professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton and past chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing.Even back in the 1700s, scientists were thinking about how far medicine could extend lifespan. Is 150 years the final answer?Modern humans have been on Earth for at least 200,000 years. For most of that time, people have said: “No man shall ever travel faster than a horse” and been right. So to say that in 10,000 years we’ll reach no more than 150 is a big claim: it suggests that our 300 years of biology has found out everything.That makes it sound as if there could be no upper limit.I’m agnostic on that. The talk at the moment is that breakthroughs that have been made in lower-model organisms – flies, worms, mice – may be translated into humans within about 30 years. Which would mean they could be applied to you. You could live to 100. A true optimist would say: we’ve managed to increase the lifespan of mice by 25%-38%. Roll that out to humans and, OK, it’s not quite 150 yet, but the techniques could be extended. I work in cellular senescence. When senescent cells build up in my skin, they give me wrinkles. When senescent cells build up in my bones, they give me osteoporosis. And we know that if you remove senescent cells from mice, which you can do with some genetic tricks, you see this big improvement in health.What’s the pessimist’s view?Well, they’d say the rate at which breakthroughs in mice translates to humans isn’t great. I think this tells us that we need to be doing more studies.Hang on … if disease is related to senescent cells, and we can get rid of those, doesn’t it follow we could get rid of disease entirely and – ouch! My brain just exploded.Ha! Imagine the dawn of antibiotics. Maybe you’d say back then: “Antibiotics could get rid of all disease? Woah!”I would definitely say that. I’d be there by candlelight, ear against the wireless, just spinning out …And I’d have to disappoint you by saying that penicillin didn’t get rid of all diseases. But something similar is starting to happen with ageing health: the emergence of a new medical industry akin to that of antibiotics. Great news for the costs to the NHS. The question is, which countries and companies will hold the patents and manufacture the compounds?Would that mean only the wealthy will be able to extend their life?Actually, a lot of the interventions are quite cheap. One exciting drug is rapamycin. There’s good evidence that it may be an effective treatment for age-related cognitive impairment. I’d like to see a scenario where, instead of someone saying: “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I have cognitive impairment, which will transition to full-blown decline within five years,” they would say: “Sorry I snapped. I went to the doctor and now I have to take these tablets twice a day, and the queue is so long!” My goal is to convert a life-changing event into something where all we have to moan about is waiting at the pharmacy. And I think that is within reach. | Biology |
Common Blood Thinner May Double as Cancer Therapy
Warfarin, a widely used blood thinner, appears to have potent anti-cancer properties, according to a study by Columbia University researchers. The study, conducted in human cells and in mice, found that warfarin stops tumors from interfering with a self-destruct mechanism that cells initiate when they detect mutations or other abnormalities.
“Our findings suggest that warfarin, which is already approved by the FDA, could be repurposed to treat a variety of cancers, including pancreatic cancer,” says study leader Wei Gu, PhD, the Abraham and Mildred Goldstein Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The study was published online July 18 in Cell Metabolism. Postdoctoral researcher scientists Xin Yang, PhD, and Zhe Wang, PhD, contributed equally as first authors.
Death by ferroptosis
The warfarin discovery was an unexpected finding from a study designed to uncover molecular processes that regulate ferroptosis, a cell death mechanism recently discovered by Columbia chemist Brent Stockwell, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, and other scientists.
Cancer researchers are excited by the idea of harnessing ferroptosis—so-named because it requires iron to work—to kill cancer cells. Drugs that induce ferroptosis may be particularly useful for cancers that elude current treatments.
To learn more about how ferroptosis is controlled in the cell, Gu, Stockwell, and their colleagues performed genetic screens on human melanoma cells to identify genes that contribute to ferroptosis. As expected, the screens identified several previously known ferroptosis genes, but a new one stood out: VKORC1L1.
In laboratory experiments, the researchers found that VKORC1L1 is a potent inhibitor of ferroptosis, and loss of VKORC1L1 sensitizes cells to ferroptotic cell death.
VKORC1L1 levels also have clinical consequences, an analysis of human cancer data then revealed: Patients with low levels of VKORC1L1 activity generally lived longer than patients with higher levels.
Warfarin promotes ferroptosis in cancer cells
Warfarin (also known by the trade name Coumadin) was first approved for medical use in 1954. It has since become a mainstay therapy for preventing blood clots, which can cause stroke, heart attack, or pulmonary embolism.
Warfarin is also a known VKORC1L1 inhibitor, so the researchers explored its potential as a cancer drug. They found that warfarin, by reducing VKORC1L1 activity, sensitized human pancreatic cancer cells to ferroptosis and strongly repressed tumor growth in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer.
Data from other studies also support the idea that warfarin has potential against cancer. Warfarin and other anticoagulants are commonly given to cancer patients, who are at increased risk for blood clots. Recently, investigators have noticed that pancreatic, gastric, and colorectal cancer patients who received warfarin survived significantly longer than those taking other anticoagulants.
“Since warfarin has been extensively used in the clinic in cancer patients, we think warfarin could be tested soon as an anticancer drug, particularly for tumors with high levels of VKORC1L1 expression,” Gu says.
That may extend beyond pancreatic and gastric cancers to many other types, Gu adds. The researchers also found that VKORC1L1 is a direct target of p53, a well-known tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in more half of all cancers.
References
More information
The study is titled “Regulation of VKORC1L1 is critical for p53-mediated tumor suppression through vitamin K metabolism.”
All authors (from Columbia unless noted) are Xin Yang, Zhe Wang, Fereshteh Zandkarimi, Yanqing Liu, Shoufu Duan, Zhiming Li, Ning Kon, Zhiguo Zhang, Xuejun Jiang (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Brent R. Stockwell, and Wei Gu.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R35CA253059, RO1CA258390, R01CA254970, R35CA209896, R35GM118015, R01CA204232, R01CA258622, and R01CA166413).
Brent Stockwell is an inventor on patents and patent applications involving small molecule drug discovery and ferroptosis, holds equity in Sonata Therapeutics, holds equity in and serves as a consultant to Exarta Therapeutics and ProJenX, Inc., and serves as a consultant to Weatherwax Biotechnologies Corporation and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Xuejun Jiang is an inventor on patents related to autophagy and cell death and holds equity in and consults for Exarta Therapeutics and Lime Therapeutics. | Biology |
Cameras reveal how bottlenose dolphins hunt and record their squeals of victory when they catch their prey."Dolphin S" with camera attached to the left side of her harness.Ridgway et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 Aug. 17, 2022, 6:00 PM UTCScientists trying to understand the hunting behaviors of bottlenose dolphins have come up with a unique solution: fit them with video cameras. The result is the most remarkable insight into the hunting process of dolphins seen so far, showing crucial details of their search for prey — and recording their squeals of victory when they catch some.One dolphin is even seen hunting and eating several venomous sea snakes, a surprising and dangerous choice for a meal that scientists can’t fully explain.The videos, released Wednesday, are an “incredible addition” to the scientific knowledge of dolphins hunting in the open ocean, biologist Brittany Jones of the National Marine Mammal Foundation, a nonprofit group based in San Diego, said in an email. The scientists observed “eye movements, capture strategies, and movements of the lips, tongue, muscles, and gular [lower jaw] region during prey capture events which would be very difficult to achieve with wild dolphins.”Jones worked closely with the authors of a research paper based on the video published in the journal PLOS One. The lead author is Dr. Sam Ridgway, a former foundation president and a renowned marine mammal veterinarian and scientist who died in July.Under Ridgway, the foundation partnered with the U.S. Navy on its Marine Mammal Program, which trains bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions as underwater “watch dogs” to detect explosives and other objects in harbors and at sea. About 70 dolphins and 30 sea lions are in the program, which is also based in San Diego, and the partnership has yielded more than 1,200 scientific studies of their physiology and behavior.B: "Dolphin S" drills into the seafloor to seize a fish. B & C: The white of its eye, or sclera, is rotated forwards as it catches its prey.Ridgway et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 For the latest study the researchers fitted six U.S. Navy dolphins — identified in the study only as B, K, S, Y, T and Z — with a harness and underwater video camera that could record their eyes and mouths. The cameras also made audio recordings of any noises.Study co-author Dianna Samuelson Dibble, a foundation biologist, said the video and audio give scientists unique insight into the hunting behavior of bottlenose dolphins. Although the dolphins in the study aren’t wild, they have frequent opportunities to hunt in the open ocean and the scientists expect wild dolphins hunt in much the same way.Of special note are the sounds they make while hunting. The dolphins made “clicks” every 20 to 50 milliseconds as they looked for prey, a rapid noise that only they can hear clearly and which seems to be a form of echolocation — the natural sonar sense used by dolphins, porpoises and toothed whales to detect fish by bouncing sounds off them.“It became apparent during video analyses when the dolphins had identified the next prey target,” Dibble said in an email. “The background noise would quickly intensify, masking many dolphins’ sounds as the animal picked up speed in pursuit.”The dolphins then began making a buzzing sound as they closed in, followed by a squeal of victory when they caught their prey. “The buzzing and squealing was almost constant until after the fish was swallowed,” she said.A: Dolphins track their prey with their eyes, even when it gets away. B & C: The dolphin's eye rotates backwards as the fish it was hunting escapes to the rear.Ridgway et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 The videos show that dolphins also use their eyes to track prey at close range.“As the dolphins approached prey, it was evident that the visible eye was oriented toward the fish,” Dibble said. “At times we see a ring of skin deformation surrounding the eyeball that is probably indicative of eye muscle contractions.”Fish near the surface would sometimes jump into the air in a desperate attempt to escape, but the dolphins were able to stay on target. “The dolphin would swim ventrally [almost upright] while tracking the prey visually and capture the fish as it landed back in the water,” she said.One intrepid animal, dolphin Z, was seen on video hunting and devouring eight yellow-bellied sea snakes in one day, apparently without suffering any ill effects, although they’re known to be extremely venomous and have made other marine mammals vomit. The researchers think the snakes were juveniles that had not developed strong venom, and that wild dolphins may be taught by other members of their group to avoid them.Richard Connor, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and a director of the Dolphin Decade research project, said that his research team often used handheld cameras from boats and video from aerial drones to record dolphin behavior, but not video cameras carried by the dolphins themselves.“Our cameras never granted us the remarkable perspective shown in this paper,” he said in an email, adding that it would spur his team and others to further investigate how wild dolphins feed with simultaneous video and acoustic recordings.Tom MetcalfeTom Metcalfe writes about science and space for NBC News. | Biology |
UK medtech startup Acurable has gained FDA clearance for a novel wireless diagnostic device for remote detection of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A formal launch into the US market is slated to follow this summer. Its wearable is already being used by a number of hospitals in the UK (where it launched in 2021) and in the European Union, after obtaining local regulatory clearances in the region.
The startup, which was founded back in 2016, is the brainchild of Imperial College professor Esther Rodriguez-Villegas, director of the university’s Wearable Technologies Lab, who spent some 1.5 decades conducting research into using acoustic sensing for tracking respiratory biomarkers to diagnose cardiorespiratory conditions — work that underpins the commercial hardware.
The London-based startup raised an €11 million Series A round (~$11.8M) back in October with its eye on the US launch. Prior to that it received £1.8M (~$2.2M) in across three different grants from Innovate UK, a national body which supports product commercialization. Private investors in the medtech startup include Madrid-based Alma Mundi Ventures, London’s Kindred Capital and KHP Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture fund also in the UK which is a collaboration between two NHS Hospital Trusts (King’s College and Guy’s and St Thomas’) and King’s College London.
OSA refers to a chronic respiratory condition characterized by pauses in breathing caused by the person’s upper airway being obstructed during sleep. It’s thought to affect a small percentage of adults — around 1.5 million adults in the UK; and some 25M in the US (with many more people affected across the world) — and while not immediately life-threatening it can be linked to serious health implications since it can contribute to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia and even heart attacks, making treatment or management important.
Healthcare services often struggle to manage chronic conditions, given the expense of long term monitoring. But Rodriguez-Villegas explains that in the case of sleep apnea there is even a challenge for healthcare services to diagnose the condition — since traditional polysomnography tests are inconvenient and/or costly. (The patient is either asked to sleep overnight at a special center, where they’re fitted out with a bunch of wired sensors. Or else they are trained how to fit the various electrodes themselves at home, with the associated risk that the test will have to be repeated if sensors are incorrectly fitted or get detached during sleep.)
Acurable’s tiny, self-applied wearable has been designed to offer a far more patient-friendly (and cost effective way) for diagnosis of the condition — allowing for the testing to be both remote (in patients’ homes) and super simple so patients can self-administer it.
One early adopter of Acurable’s product — Dr Michael Harrison, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at UCSF — offers strong praise, writing in a supporting statement that the device has been “game-changing for our patients, as it is a much simpler and comfortable experience”, as well as talking up how it “enables clinicians to conduct multiple night studies at a time, improving patient outcomes by giving them a much speedier diagnosis”.
For her part, Rodriguez-Villegas says she saw a role for developing technologies to solve problems with a significant social impact by addressing healthcare bottlenecks associated with chronic (and often under-diagnosed) respiratory conditions, starting with sleep apnea. So the plan is for her startup to bring more wearables to market in future, for other respiratory conditions, such as COPD and asthma — all based on the core acoustic sensing IP developed for the first device.
“What I realised early on was that [chronic cardiorespiratory conditions] will not be something that could be solved if we continue with [traditional healthcare] processes — that it’s not a matter of pumping money into the system. Because there is also human resources. So you need the clinicians, the nurses, you need to understanding. So that’s where where my journey started with tech,” she tells TechCrunch. “Deciding how do we create techs that can solve the bottlenecks and make patients’ lives better?”
While core research underpinning the product has taken well over a decade, designing, prototyping and building the actual product took around six or seven years, according to Rodriguez-Villegas — so working on things like miniaturizing the hardware and designing a UX with high accessibility so it’s easy for patients of all ages (and tech abilities) to use which she says was a huge priority for her.
“The app is designed so that there is no room for a stress or failure,” she says, explaining how she pushed her design team to avoid assuming users would know how to navigate traditional software menu structures. “I had had to have lots of conversations with my UI people in the beginning because they couldn’t understand where it was coming from.”
As for the hardware, the startup’s one-shot sensing device, which is called the AcuPebble, looks a bit like a coffee pod that’s been colored an Apple-esque shade of shiny white. So sleek and minimalist looking is it that it resembles some kind of consumer device, rather than a medical instrument, with no utility grey plastic or scary bundles of cables in sight.
This purist look is entirely by design — reflecting Acurable’s overarching mission to rethink a convoluted diagnostic bottleneck using sensor-driven automation.
Patients use the AcuPebble at home where it’s worn overnight stuck to the the skin of their neck (using a patented adhesive). It’s also a single-use medical device — gathering and uploading enough data across one night’s tracking of the sleeper’s breathing to produce a diagnosis. (So to borrow another piece of Apple lore, you could say it’s designed to ‘just work’.)
The kit works by using tiny, high performance piezoelectric MEMS microphones to — in simple terms — listen to the patients breathing as they sleep. Although Rodriguez-Villegas is guarded with the exact details of how it works, saying the product is only partially patented so protecting IP remains a concern.
Acousing sensing as a diagnostic tool in healthcare is of course nothing new — just think of the stethoscope. But what’s novel here is the understanding of the sonic landscape associated with cardiorespiratory conditions that Acurable has been able to develop through years of research to isolate relevant biomarkers.
“The hardware is designed to detect particular biomarkers we are looking for and those biomarkers are very different to the conventional ones. And how do we know this? It’s again because it’s been almost two decades in the making,” says Rodriguez-Villegas.
The data the device captures is uploaded the cloud where it’s processed by Acurable whose algorithms produce an automated diagnosis which is sent to (human) clinicians for review. So much of the research which underpins the hardware was focused on understanding the specific ‘signal in the noise’ of the human body by winnowing down noisy human biology into the respiratory biomarkers of interest for diagnosing the particular cardiorespiratory conditions it’s focusing on.
The algorithms it’s using for diagnosis of sleep apnea are not machine learning or any other form of artificial intelligence. Nor is its approach data driven, per Rodriguez-Villegas, who emphasizes it’s using algorithms that are “fully traceable”. Although she does not entirely rule out using AI in the future — but is categorical that AI is unnecessary for this product and, indeed, that explainability in healthcare is an essential component; that there must be no black boxes for medical diagnostics.
“In this product — and the product in the market now — there is no AI. This is physiological signal processing based on very unique physiological modelling that we are experts on,” she says. “Everything in the algorithms happens for a known reason so the algorithms are fully traceable… Again, this is based on the research that we did in respiration for many years. That led us to that. It is not data driven. It’s really not data driven. I cannot really tell you exactly what it is. Because that’s part of the computational IP.
“But I do understand that everybody nowadays because AI is in everybody’s mind it’s almost like that is the default thought, right, that things are AI or they are data driven. No, no. We know why every single thing is happening. So in the same way, as you might know, you know, why your heart beats and [the steps in the cardiac cycle that take place around that] this is gonna be like that.”
Demonstrating the efficacy of its diagnostic algorithms was a core part of obtaining regulatory clearance for AcuPebble. And details of one clinical trial of the device, which was carried out at the Royal Free NHS Trust with a sample size of 150 patients — comparing usage to at-home multi-channel polygraphy followed by sleep specialist manual signal interpretation — can be found here.
Acurable says it was the first wearable medical device to obtain the CE mark in Europe for the automated testing of OSA at home. So, in its home region, it has regulatory clearance for fully automated diagnoses. But, in practice, the product has been set up so that the data (and diagnosis) are sent to a clinician — which helps keep these essential users comfortable with a novel tool — so there’s still a human in the loop.
Over in the US — where Acurable’s device will be officially launching at some point this summer — it’s obtained 512K clearance from the FDA for OSA evaluation in adults for two variants of the device customised for the American healthcare market. (Rodriguez-Villegas explains it did not file for de novo clearance since there is no existing device on the market that does automated diagnosis for OSA.)
The US versions of the product send data to a clinician to review and provide a diagnosis. So, in that market, it’s being strictly positioned as a clinical support tool. But that’s down to differences in the regulatory environment, rather than any technical difference in capability in the different per-market versions of the product.
It’s still early days for Acurable — with “tens” of hospitals using the AcuPebble at this stage. But it’s expecting usage to step up as it launches in the US and predicts it will be expanding its team by around 300%.
Rodriguez-Villegas also says it intends to expand into selling consumer products too “eventually” — but not before clinicians have been able to get comfortable with using the device and the data it provides.
She’s dismissive of current-gen consumer wearables — which can pack a range of health-tracking claims and even offer sleep apnea detection style features, such as by tracking nighttime SPO2 — saying a lot of these consumer wearables generate data that’s “very, very misleading” and creates “enormous amount of stress” for consumers. And indeed for the doctors faced with patients bringing in their own unreliable, non-medical grade health data.
“So that’s a situation that we totally want to avoid,” she adds. “Anyone can check our results. Is it is very, very good. It’s very, very reliable. But there is a lot of scepticism in the medical community when it comes to wearables. And that’s why we decided to go down [this regulated medical device] route.” | Biology |
Giant viruses lurking in the soils of a New England forest sport traits never seen in other viruses of similar heft — from star-like outer shells to bizarre, tubular appendages, according to a preprint study published in bioRxiv.
"What we found is a whole new diversity of shapes that we have never seen before," study co-author Matthias Fischer, a virologist at Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Germany, told Live Science. "I would bet that many of those, if not the majority, are completely new and first sightings of viruses that we have never seen before."
Giant viruses usually range from 0.2 to 1.5 micrometers in size and have complex genomes that can carry up to 2.5 million DNA base pairs, according to the study. That's much larger than most viruses, such as influenza viruses, which range from 0.08 to 0.12 micrometers in diameter. So far, giant viruses have primarily been found to infect single-cell organisms, like amoebas, rather than animals or humans. This category of viruses has been found in ecosystems all around the world, including oceans, lakes in the Arctic and even melting permafrost.
In 2018, a separate team of scientists discovered giant viruses in the soil of Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts using a metagenomic analysis, in which they compared the genetic material found in the soil with sequences already present in global genetic databases. For the new study, researchers instead analyzed soil samples from this same forest using a transmission electron microscope, which involved blasting the soil with beams of electrons in order to see the embedded viruses in stunning detail.
"A genome can only tell you up to a certain point about an organism, so you don't know what it looks like," Fischer said in reference to the 2018 study. "Giant viruses are not only diverse based on their genomes but also based on the particles and the structures they make, and that was a completely new finding."
That said, because Fischer and his colleagues did not run their own genomic analyses, they cannot definitively call the newfound particles "viruses," he explained, and instead called them "virus-like" in their report. But in all likelihood, they are in fact viruses, he said.
The researchers' imaging revealed a virus-like particle with a double-layered shell that had a distinctive star shape, which they called the "Christmas star morphotype." The team also identified viruses with fibers of different lengths, thicknesses and densities protruding from the particles' surfaces, and they referred to these funky particles as the "haircut" morphotype.
Although Fischer and his team are not yet sure which functions these bizarre features serve, he speculated that some of the viruses' characteristics may help them better attach to their host cells. The researchers also believe that similar giant viruses could be found in the soils of other hardwood forests around the world.
"This fascinating window into the complex world of soil viruses leaves little doubt that the high genetic diversity of giant viruses is matched by diverse and previously unimaginable particle structures," the researchers wrote in the June 30 preprint, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Fischer stressed to Live Science that these types of giant viruses are likely not a threat to humans, but rather "very important players of the ecosystem." Soil viruses are key to carbon cycling — the process by which carbon moves between organisms, minerals and the atmosphere — because they help control the abundance of microbes, like bacteria, that directly influence carbon flow in the ground, research shows.
"[Viruses] are all around us, not just in soil. They're in water, they're in air, they're on your skin, they're in your guts, you just don't see them … and they have very beneficial effects not just for ecology, but on the long term for evolution," Fischer said. "That's also the reason why we did the study — to show the diversity of these wonderful little things all around us, and to inspire other people to look at the effects they have on the ecosystem."
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Kiley Price is a Live Science staff writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Slate, Mongabay and more. She holds a bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University, where she studied biology and journalism, and is pursuing a master's degree at New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. | Biology |
Humanity has etched its way into Earth’s geology, atmosphere and biology with such strength and permanence, a special team of scientists figures we have shifted into a new geologic epoch, one of our own creation. It’s called the Anthropocene.
A geologic task force is recommending to mark this new epoch’s start in the small but deep, pristine Crawford Lake outside Toronto, Canada with a 'golden spike'. The start of the human epoch is sometime around 1950 to 1954. The specific date will be determined soon, probably by levels of plutonium in new measurements from the bottom of the special lake site.
“It’s quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact,” said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters, who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group that is making the recommendations. “It’s no longer just influencing Earth’s sphere, it’s actually controlling.”
The burning of coal, oil and gas that’s changing Earth’s climate and atmosphere, nuclear bomb detonations spotted in soil around the globe, plastics and nitrogen from fertilizers added on land and dramatic changes to species that make up the rest of the Earth characterize the new epoch, scientists said.
The idea of the Anthropocene was proposed at a science conference more than 20 years ago by the late Nobel Prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen. For decades teams of scientists have debated the issue and finally set up a special committee to examine whether it was needed, when it would start and where a golden spike would be placed to commemorate the start. Those spikes commemorate new geologic time periods across the Earth.
There are distinct and multiple signals starting around 1950 in Crawford Lake showing that “the effects of humans overwhelm the Earth system,” said Francine McCarthy, a committee member who specializes in that site as an Earth sciences professor at Brock University in Canada.
Because Crawford Lake is 79-feet (24 meters) deep but only 25,800 square feet in area, the layers on the lake bottom are pristine showing what’s in air and on Earth each year, scientists said.
“The remarkably preserved annual record of deposition in Crawford Lake is truly amazing,” said U.S. National Academies of Sciences President Marcia McNutt, who wasn’t part of the committee. “It is just as important to the beginning of an era dominated by one category of Earth species as it is to mark the end.”
The Anthropocene — derived from the Greek terms for 'human’ and ‘new’ — shows the power and the hubris of humankind, several scientists told The Associated Press.
“The hubris is in imagining that we are in control," former U.S. White House science advisor John Holdren, who was not part of the working group of scientists and disagrees with its proposed start date, wanting one much earlier. “The reality is that our power to transform the environment has far exceeded our understanding of the consequences and our capacity to change course.”
Jurgen Renn, who wasn't part of the study group but directs the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, said humans also “need that power, our knowledge, our technologies, but also our capacities of making better societies” to lessen and adapt to the worst consequences of our actions.
This puts the power of humans in a somewhat similar class with the meteorite that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago to kill off dinosaurs, starting the Cenozoic Era and the what is sometimes called the age of mammals. But not quite. That meteorite started a whole new era, scientists propose humans started a new epoch which is a much smaller geologic time period.
Geologists measure time in eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. They propose we have moved from the Holocene Epoch, which started about 11,700 years ago at the end of an ice age to the Anthropocene Epoch.
It also starts a new age. It's named Crawfordian after the lake chosen as the starting point, and ends the Meghalayan Age that started 4,200 years ago, Waters said.
The proposal still needs to be approved by three different groups of geologists and will ultimately need to be signed off at a giant conference next year.
The reason geologists didn’t make it a bigger time period change is that the current Quaternary Period is based on permanent ice on Earth’s poles, which still exist. But in a few hundred years, if climate change continues and those disappear, it may be time to change that, Waters said.
"If you know your Greek tragedies you know power, hubris, and tragedy go hand in hand,” said Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes, a working group member. “If we don’t address the harmful aspects of human activities, most obviously disruptive climate change, we are headed for tragedy.”
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | Biology |
Neanderthals live on within us.
These ancient human cousins, and others called Denisovans, once lived alongside our early Homo sapiens ancestors. They mingled and had children. So some of who they were never went away — it's in our genes. And science is starting to reveal just how much that shapes us.
Using the new and rapidly improving ability to piece together fragments of ancient DNA, scientists are finding that traits inherited from our ancient cousins are still with us now, affecting our fertility, our immune systems, even how our bodies handled the COVID-19 virus.
“We’re now carrying the genetic legacies and learning about what that means for our bodies and our health,” said Mary Prendergast, a Rice University archeologist.
In the past few months alone, researchers have linked Neanderthal DNA to a serious hand disease, the shape of people's noses and various other human traits. They even inserted a gene carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans into mice to investigate its effects on biology, and found it gave them larger heads and an extra rib.
Much of the human journey remains a mystery. But Dr. Hugo Zeberg of the Karolinska Insitute in Sweden said new technologies, research and collaborations are helping scientists begin to answer the basic but cosmic questions: “Who are we? Where did we come from?”
And the answers point to a profound reality: We have far more in common with our extinct cousins than we ever thought.
Until recently, the genetic legacy from ancient humans was invisible because scientists were limited to what they could glean from the shape and size of bones. But there has been a steady stream of discoveries from ancient DNA, an area of study pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Svante Paabo who first pieced together a Neanderthal genome.
Advances in finding and interpreting ancient DNA have allowed them to see things like genetic changes over time to better adapt to environments or through random chance.
It’s even possible to figure out how much genetic material people from different regions carry from the ancient relatives our predecessors encountered.
Research shows some African populations have almost no Neanderthal DNA, while those from European or Asian backgrounds have 1% to 2%. Denisovan DNA is barely detectable in most parts of the world but makes up 4% to 6% of the DNA of people in Melanesia, which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands.
That may not sound like much, but it adds up: Even though only 100,000 Neanderthals ever lived, “half of the Neanderthal genome is still around, in small pieces scattered around modern humans,” said Zeberg, who collaborates closely with Paabo.
It's also enough to affect us in very real ways. Scientists don’t yet know the full extent, but they’re learning it can be both helpful and harmful.
For example, Neanderthal DNA has been linked to auto-immune diseases like Graves’ disease and rheumatoid arthritis. When Homo sapiens came out of Africa, they had no immunity to diseases in Europe and Asia, but Neanderthals and Denisovans already living there did.
“By interbreeding with them, we got a quick fix to our immune systems, which was good news 50,000 years ago,” said Chris Stringer, a human evolution researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. “The result today is, for some people, that our immune systems are oversensitive, and sometimes they turn on themselves.”
Similarly, a gene associated with blood clotting believed to be passed down from Neanderthals in Eurasia may have been helpful in the “rough and tumble world of the Pleistocene,” said Rick Potts, director of the human origins program at the Smithsonian Institution. But today it can raise the risk of stroke for older adults. “For every benefit,” he said, “there are costs in evolution.”
In 2020, research by Zeberg and Paabo found that a major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals. “We compared it to the Neanderthal genome and it was a perfect match,” Zeberg said. “I kind of fell off my chair.”
The next year, they found a set of DNA variants along a single chromosome inherited from Neanderthals had the opposite effect: protecting people from severe COVID.
The list goes on: Research has linked Neanderthal genetic variants to skin and hair color, behavioral traits, skull shape and Type 2 diabetes. One study found that people who report feeling more pain than others are likely to carry a Neanderthal pain receptor. Another found that a third of women in Europe inherited a Neanderthal receptor for the hormone progesterone, which is associated with increased fertility and fewer miscarriages.
Much less is known about our genetic legacy from Denisovans – although some research has linked genes from them to fat metabolism and better adaptation to high altitudes. Maanasa Raghavan, a human genetics expert at the University of Chicago, said a stretch of Denisovan DNA has been found in Tibetans, who continue to live and thrive in low-oxygen environments today.
Scientists have even found evidence of “ghost populations" — groups whose fossils have yet to be discovered — within modern humans' genetic code.
In the past, the tale of modern humans’ survival “was always told as some success story, almost like a hero’s story," in which Homo sapiens rose above the rest of the natural world and overcame the “insufficiencies” of their cousins, Potts said.
“Well, that simply is just not the correct story.”
Neanderthals and Denisovans had already existed for thousands of years by the time Homo sapiens left Africa. Scientists used to think we won out because we had more complex behavior and superior technology. But recent research shows that Neanderthals talked, cooked with fire, made art objects, had sophisticated tools and hunting behavior, and even wore makeup and jewelry.
Several theories now tie our survival to our ability to travel far and wide.
“We spread all over the world, much more than these other forms did,” Zeberg said.
While Neanderthals were specially adapted to cold climates, Potts said, Homo sapiens were able to disperse to all different kinds of climates after emerging in tropical Africa. “We are so adaptable, culturally adaptable, to so many places in the world,” he said.
Meanwhile, Neanderthals and Denisovans faced harsh conditions in the north, like repeated ice ages and ice sheets that likely trapped them in small areas, said Eleanor Scerri, an archeologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology. They lived in smaller populations with a greater risk of genetic collapse.
Plus, we had nimble, efficient bodies, Prendergast said. It takes a lot more calories to feed stocky Neanderthals than comparatively skinny Homo sapiens, so Neanderthals had more trouble getting by, and moving around, especially when food got scarce.
Janet Young, curator of physical anthropology at the Canadian Museum of History, pointed to another intriguing hypothesis – which anthropologist Pat Shipman shared in one of her books –- that dogs played a big part in our survival. Researchers found the skulls of domesticated dogs in Homo sapiens sites much further back in time than anyone had found before. Scientists believe dogs made hunting easier.
By around 30,000 years ago, all the other kinds of hominins on Earth had died off, leaving Homo sapiens as the last humans standing.
Still, every new scientific revelation points to how much we owe our ancient cousins.
Human evolution was not about “survival of the fittest and extinction,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s about “interaction and mixture.”
Researchers expect to learn more as science continues to advance, allowing them to extract information from ever-tinier traces of ancient lives. Even when fossils aren't available, scientists today can capture DNA from soil and sediment where archaic humans once lived.
And there are less-explored places in the world where they hope to learn more. Zeberg said “biobanks” that collect biological samples will likely be established in more countries.
As they delve deeper into humanity's genetic legacy, scientists expect to find even more evidence of how much we mixed with our ancient cousins and all they left us.
“Perhaps,” Zeberg said, “we should not see them as so different.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | Biology |
23-million-year-old otter-like seal may have used whiskers to forage
An ancient relative of modern seals—known as Potamotherium valletoni—that had an otter-like appearance and lived over 23 million years ago likely used its whiskers to forage for food and explore underwater environments, according to a new study in Communications Biology. The findings provide further insight into how ancient seals transitioned from life on land to life underwater.
Although modern seals live in marine environments and use their whiskers to locate food by sensing vibrations in the water, ancient seal relatives mostly lived on land or in freshwater environments. Some species used their forelimbs to explore their surroundings. Prior to this study, it was unclear when seals and their relatives began using their whiskers to forage.
Alexandra van der Geer and colleagues investigated the evolution of whisker-foraging behaviors in seals by comparing the brain structures of Potamotherium with those of six extinct and 31 living meat-eating mammals, including mustelids, bears, and seal relatives. Brain structures were inferred from casts taken from the inside of skulls.
The authors compared the size and structure of a brain region known as the coronal gyrus, which previous research has suggested is involved in processing signals from whiskers.
They found that Potamotherium had a larger coronal gyrus than ancient and living land-based mammals that use their forelimbs to forage (such as the Asian small-clawed otter), but a similar sized coronal gyrus to other ancient seal relatives and semiaquatic mammals, such as the Eurasian otter, that use their whiskers to explore their surroundings. This indicates that Potamotherium may have used its whiskers when foraging, potentially in combination with its forelimbs.
The findings suggest that whisker-based foraging was already present in ancient seal relatives before they transitioned to a fully aquatic lifestyle. The authors propose that the use of whiskers may have helped them adapt to underwater foraging.
More information: George A. Lyras et al, Fossil brains provide evidence of underwater feeding in early seals, Communications Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05135-z
Journal information: Communications Biology
Provided by Nature Publishing Group | Biology |
In recent times, the field of genetic engineering has witnessed a significant breakthrough with the development of a new CRISPR-based gene-editing tool that holds promise for better treatment options for patients with genetic disorders. This innovation revolves around a novel enzyme known as AsCas12f which has been engineered to exhibit enhanced gene-editing capabilities, showcasing the potential to transform therapeutic approaches for a myriad of genetic ailments.
The new gene-editing tool, AsCas12f, was engineered to be more compact, thus addressing the limitations of modest gene-editing activity associated with previous CRISPR-Cas systems. Remarkably, the engineered version, dubbed enAsCas12f, demonstrated up to 11.3-fold higher potency than its predecessor, AsCas12f, and one-third of the size of the commonly used SpCas9 enzyme. This compactness is particularly advantageous as it facilitates easier transportation into living cells via carrier viruses, thereby improving efficiency in gene-editing processes123.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo played a pivotal role in this development, devising a modified version of AsCas12f which exhibited enhanced gene-editing activities while retaining its compact size. This new enzyme is seen as a “better scissors” for CRISPR-based gene editing, capable of potentially paving the way for more precise and efficient therapeutic interventions in genetic disorders45.
The engineering of AsCas12f didn’t stop at just enhancing its gene-editing efficacy; a further modification led to the creation of a structure-guided single guide RNA (sgRNA), named sgRNA-v2, which is 33% shorter than the full-length sgRNA but with comparable activity. This innovation underscores the remarkable strides being made in the realm of genetic engineering, aiming at robust and faithful gene editing in mammalian cells3.
The development of AsCas12f and its engineered counterpart enAsCas12f is a testament to the evolving landscape of genetic engineering, pushing the boundaries of what’s achievable in the quest for better treatments for genetic disorders. The enhanced effectiveness, reduced size, and the ability to perform targeted gene editing with minimal off-target effects, present a promising future where the treatment of genetic disorders could become more precise, efficient, and potentially more accessible.
References:
- RealClearScience. (2023). New CRISPR Enzyme Could Improve Gene Editing. Retrieved from https://www.realclearscience.com/2023/10/02/new_crispr_enzyme_could_improve_gene_editing_983150.html1.
- ISAAA. (2023, October 4). Smaller and More Efficient CRISPR-Based Tool. Retrieved from https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=20451#:~:text=Researchers%20from%20Japan%20developed%20a,which%20makes%20it%20more%20efficient.2.
- Interesting Engineering. (2023). CRISPR-based gene editing gets smaller, better “scissors.” Retrieved from https://interestingengineering.com/science/smaller-mightier-gene-editing-tool3.
- BioTechniques. (2023, October 4). Engineered AsCas12f: A More Compact Gene-Editing Enzyme. Retrieved from https://www.biotechniques.com/crispr/more-compact-crispr-enzyme-engineered/4.
- Lifeboat Foundation. (2023). Newly engineered CRISPR enzyme for editing DNA could improve patient treatments. Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2023-09-newly-crispr-enzyme-dna-patient.html5.
- Nature Chemical Biology. (2023). An engineered hypercompact CRISPR-Cas12f system with boosted gene-editing activity. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01380-96. | Biology |
The inside of a living cell is crowded with large, complex molecules. New research on how these molecules could spontaneously organize themselves could further our understanding of how cells manage their essential biochemistry in the crowded space. This research may also shed light on how the first living systems appeared and how they evolved their complexities.
Eukaryotic cells contain organized structures, or organelles, bounded by a lipid membrane. An example is the mitochondria, which generate energy in cells. In recent years, scientists have discovered that in addition to these organelles, groups of molecules can spontaneously form into temporary organelle, without a membrane, to carry out some specific function.
"There may be simple physical mechanisms to create specialized 'designer organelles' on demand," said Atul Parikh, professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis.
Using a simplified model of a cell, Parikh's laboratory has discovered how mixtures of polymers can parse into phase-separated droplets, like oils in a lava lamp, and that these droplets interact with the cell membrane in unexpected ways, including affecting the exterior structure of the cell. The work is published July 6 in Nature Chemistry.
Wan-Chi Su, a graduate student working with Parikh, created artificial vesicles about the size of a living cell. These are essentially bubbles with a synthetic membrane, containing water with two polymers dissolved in it. Both polymers dissolve in water but repel each other, so if mixed together and left to themselves they would separate into two phases, like an unmixed salad dressing.
Su and Parikh found that when they withdrew water from the vesicles, the polymers would start to form separated droplets, as expected. But instead of progressing to larger and larger droplets, they found that growth was stopped by interactions between the polymer droplets and the inside of the vesicle membrane, creating a mosaic of droplets.
Signaling on outside of cell
These interactions also had an effect on the outside of the vesicle, causing a bubbling or 'blebbing' effect. This looks similar to an effect seen in living cells in some circumstances.
"Coupling to the cell boundary prematurely stops phase separation and creates a mosaic of droplets. These 3D droplets inside the vesicle, interestingly, reorganize molecules in the 2D membrane, thus also signaling to the outside of the vesicle," Parikh said. The researchers are confident that the phenomenon is generally applicable and not specific to this particular combination of molecules.
The work shows how purely physical interactions -- how polymers repel or attract each other -- can give rise to complex organization in a simplified cell-like system, Parikh said.
"We're elucidating the physical and chemical principles behind biology," he said. "It might say something about how life may have come about in the first place."
Parikh and colleagues plan to expand the work to more complex systems, including living cells.
Additional authors on the paper are: Douglas Gettel, UC Davis; James Ho C.S., Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Andrew Rowland and Christine Keating, The Pennsylvania State University.
The work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
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Sleeping less than six hours in the days around a vaccination could reduce the body's immune response, leaving you more vulnerable to infection, a new study has found.
The researchers estimated the effects of insufficient sleep would be would be equivalent to two months of waning COVID-19 antibodies after vaccination.
Senior study author Eve Van Cauter, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, said getting adequate sleep "may not only strengthen, but also extend, the vaccine response".
"Having an easily modifiable behaviour that you can adjust around the time of your appointment gives you something you can control that is likely to improve your body's response.
"This is something people should consider planning around, to ensure that they are getting enough sleep in the week before and after their vaccines."
However, she acknowledged getting enough sleep may not be easy for everyone.
"The link between sleep and vaccine effectiveness could be a major concern for people with irregular work schedules, especially for shift workers who typically have reduced sleep duration," she said.
Read more:
Millions of rats in New York could carry COVID, study finds
Constipation, bloating, and diarrhoea among long COVID symptoms
The link between bad sleep and a reduced immune response was particularly pronounced in men.
For women, the association was "not statistically significant" - likely down to fluctuating sex hormone levels.
The researchers hope the study will inspire more research to clarify the effects on men and women, and better understand how sleep might be optimised to promote a better vaccine response.
"We need much larger studies that control for the sex hormone environment in women in particular," lead author Karine Spiegel said.
"We also need a better definition of how many days of short sleep duration affect the antibody response, and whether it is just before the vaccine, or also during and after."
The study was published in Current Biology and led by researchers at the University of Chicago and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research who analysed seven studies looking at the impact of sleep duration on vaccine effectiveness. | Biology |
Scientists caught Saturn's icy moon Enceladus spraying a "huge plume" of watery vapor far into space — and that plume likely contains many of the chemical ingredients for life.
Scientists detailed the eruption — glimpsed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in November 2022 — at a conference at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on May 17.
"It's immense," Sara Faggi, a planetary astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said at the conference, according to Nature.com. According to Faggi, a full research paper on the massive plume is pending.
This isn't the first time scientists have seen Enceladus spout water, but the new telescope's wider perspective and higher sensitivity showed that the jets of vapor shoot much farther into space than previously realized — many times deeper, in fact, than the width of Enceladus itself. (Enceladus has a diameter of about 313 miles, or 504 kilometers.)
Scientists first learned of Enceladus' watery blasts in 2005, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft caught icy particles shooting up through large lunar cracks called "tiger stripes." The blasts are so powerful that their material forms one of Saturn's rings, according to NASA.
Analysis revealed that the jets contained methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia — organic molecules containing chemical building blocks necessary for the development of life. It's even possible that some of these gases were produced by life itself, burping out methane deep beneath the surface of Enceladus, an international team of researchers posited in research published last year in The Planetary Science Journal.
Water is another piece of evidence in the case for possible life on Enceladus. Enceladus is totally encrusted in a thick layer of water ice, but measurements of the moon's rotation suggest that a vast ocean is hidden beneath that frozen crust. Scientists think the spurts of water sensed by JWST and Cassini come from hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor — a hypothesis supported by the presence of silica, a common ingredient in planetary crusts, in the vapor plumes.
NASA scientists are discussing future return missions to seek out signs of life on Enceladus. The proposed Enceladus Orbilander would orbit the moon for about six months, flying through its watery plumes and collecting samples. Then, the spacecraft would convert into a lander, descending on the surface of the icy moon. Orbilander would carry instruments to weigh and analyze molecules, as well as a DNA sequencer and a microscope. Cameras, radio sounders and lasers would remotely scan the moon's surface, The Planetary Society reported.
Another proposed mission involves sending an autonomous "snake robot" into the watery depths below Enceladus' surface. The robot, dubbed the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor, features cameras and lidar on its head to help it navigate the unknown environment of Enceladus' ocean floor.
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Isobel Whitcomb is a contributing writer for Live Science who covers the environment, animals and health. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Fatherly, Atlas Obscura, Hakai Magazine and Scholastic's Science World Magazine. Isobel's roots are in science. She studied biology at Scripps College in Claremont, California, while working in two different labs and completing a fellowship at Crater Lake National Park. She completed her master's degree in journalism at NYU's Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon. | Biology |
Accounts that used to regularly engage and tweet about climate-related issues have been dropping like flies on Twitter, less than a year after Elon Musk’s purchase of the company. A report published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution this week found that almost 50% of over 300,000 “environmentally oriented” accounts were no longer active after the new owner took over.
The researchers, led by Charlotte Chang, a Pomona College assistant professor of biology and environmental analysis, looked at a sample of 380,000 accounts. These users were considered active if they had posted at least once in a 15-day period. They analyzed the accounts in the sample from December 2022 and May 2023, and by the end of that six-month period, only about 52% of the users were still active.
Researchers compared this data to another sample group of 458,000 users who posted about U.S. politics. From December 2022 to May 2023, 79% of users in that group were still active. Chang told Earther that she and other researchers didn’t have specific expectations when they began their analysis, so the quick rate of climate-related users leaving the platform was especially concerning.
“There is currently no platform equivalent to Twitter,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Changes in engagement by environmentally minded users raises serious questions about where to track discourse about environmental conservation and how to mobilize pro-environmental segments of the public.”
Twitter has been a tool for climate activists and science communication for years. It was used as an organizing tool for the nationwide protests against police brutality in 2020. Young climate activists spread their message to spark Fridays for Future and global youth protests on Twitter throughout a lot of 2019. The platform has also been a disaster response tool across many climate change-related natural disasters and emergencies.
“I think that really gestures to the power of Twitter, as a way for people to encounter ideas across different communities that they may not have been a part of,” Chang told Earther. “That’s why it was super powerful.”
The reign of Musk at Twitter, recently rebranded as X, has been marked by a number of bone-headed changes including the company’s ridiculous rebranding and invalidating the blue check mark verification system. Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist,” and decided to prove that to the world by cutting down on the content moderation staff from several hundred to less than 100 in only a few months while implementing selective censorship for his enemies. His takeover has led to several changes in the platform’s interface, and service outages as well. “These changes posed major hurdles to crowd-sourcing information during the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria,” the report said.
Since Musk acquired the company, hate speech has exploded on the platform alongside climate misinformation. Scientists who were once regularly posting on Twitter have fled the site in the Musk-era, leaving behind what now feel like internet mausoleums of their former tweets. Water scientist and climate activist Peter Gleick with over 90,000 followers, told Al Jazeera that the intensity of online abuse had increased significantly since Musk took over last year. “Musk & his blue-checked shock troops have completed turning Twitter into a toxic, hate-filled, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic cesspool,” the pinned tweet on his account says.
Chang told Earther that she wants future research to address where these former Twitter users have moved on, and if they’re still trying to inform the public about climate-related issues.
“If Twitter was the only platform that folks use, are they no longer active on social media at all? Are they migrating to other public-facing platforms such as Instagram or Threads or Mastodon or Bluesky,” she said. “Or are they migrating to more private channels and spaces such as Discord or Slack workspaces?”
Want more climate and environment stories? Check out Earther’s guides to decarbonizing your home, divesting from fossil fuels, packing a disaster go bag, and overcoming climate dread. And don’t miss our coverage of the latest IPCC climate report, the future of carbon dioxide removal, and the un-greenwashed facts on bioplastics and plastic recycling. | Biology |
There are many different species of kingfisher, and those that eat fish hunt by repeatedly diving head-first into the water when they spot tasty prey without suffering brain injuries like concussions. It turns out that diving kingfishers have several modified genes associated with diet and brain structure, according to a new paper published in the journal Communications Biology—notably mutations in genes related to the tau proteins that help stabilize neuron structure, although they can be harmful if too many build up.
“I learned a lot about tau proteins when I was the concussion manager of my son’s hockey team,” said co-author Shannon Hackett, associate curator of birds at the Field Museum. “I started to wonder, why don’t kingfishers die because their brains turn to mush? There’s gotta be something they're doing that protects them from the negative influences of repeatedly landing on their heads on the water’s surface.”
It's not the first time scientists have pondered this question, not just for kingfishers, but for other birds like gannets and woodpeckers. For instance, physicists at Virginia Tech studied diving gannets back in 2014 (publishing their conclusions in 2016), which fold their wings back as they dive, hitting the water with their whole body to snag underwater prey. From a physics standpoint, we're talking about an elastic body hitting the surface of water as fast as 55 MPH. The stress of moving from the medium of air to the much denser medium of water exerts a huge force on the bird's body, with an impact akin to tornadoes hitting the water. Yet despite the stress on their bodies, gannets (like the kingfisher) manage the feat again and again without injury, especially concussions.
So Sunny Jung and his team snagged a deceased gannet from the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and froze it, then dropped the bird repeatedly into tanks of water while capturing the process with high-speed cameras. (The unfrozen body was just too floppy to be used in the experiments.) They also made 3D-printed models of gannets based on CT scans of their specimen and repeated the experiments, which enabled them to vary different characteristics.
They found that the second stage of the diving trajectory was the danger zone for a diving bird—when the head is fully immersed in the water but the body is still in the air—because it produces a very strong compressive force on the neck. Gannets have very long necks (half their body length), which can buckle easily if the birds dive faster than a certain speed; gannets have figured out the speedy sweet spot for safety. They get added protection from the pointy shape of their beaks, reducing the force on the body. | Biology |
Scientists have announced the first ever recorded case of a crocodile "virgin birth" after a female that had been isolated for 16 years was discovered with a clutch of eggs. The discovery provides "tantalizing insights" into the evolutionary origins of the trait, potentially shedding light on the reproductive capabilities of dinosaurs, a new study finds.
The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) was taken into captivity in 2002 when she was 2 years old and placed in an enclosure at Parque Reptilandia in Costa Rica. She remained alone for the next 16 years. But in January 2018, a clutch of 14 eggs was found in the enclosure.
Virgin births, also known as facultative parthenogenesis (FP), is a type of asexual reproduction in species that would normally reproduce sexually. Scientists have documented it in birds, sharks, lizards and snakes in captivity, among other species. Until now, it had never been recorded among Crocodilia — the order that includes crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials.
In a study published on Wednesday (June 7) in the journal Biology Letters, researchers said seven of the 14 eggs produced by the crocodile in Costa Rica were viable. Zoo caretakers incubated these eggs, but they didn't hatch, so after three months, they opened the eggs. The contents of six of the eggs was "not discernable," but one contained a fully-formed, but non-viable fetus. Genetic analysis showed it was almost identical to the mother.
The team, led by Warren Booth, an entomologist at Virginia Tech, wrote in the study that it was "disappointing" the egg failed to hatch, but that it is not unusual for offspring born this way to suffer abnormalities and fail to thrive. FP, they added, may be more common in species on the brink of extinction, and studies investigating wild populations could reveal more cases.
They also said the discovery of a virgin birth in a crocodile means FP has now been found in both birds, which descended from dinosaurs, and a crocodilian, suggesting a common evolutionary origin. Birds and crocodilians are the remaining representatives of archosaurs — the group that also included dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
"This new evidence offers tantalizing insights into the possible reproductive capabilities of extinct archosaurian relatives of crocodilians, notably the Pterosauria and Dinosauria," they wrote.
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Hannah Osborne is the planet Earth and animals editor at Live Science. Prior to Live Science, she worked for several years at Newsweek as the science editor. Before this she was science editor at International Business Times U.K. Hannah holds a master's in journalism from Goldsmith's, University of London. | Biology |
Composite image: the International Space Station and a closeup of diffuse midline glioma cells. Credit: public domain / NASA; Elisa Izquierdo / ICR
A pioneering UK research project to study the three-dimensional spread of cancer cells in microgravity is set to take place on the International Space Station.
Researchers will send samples of a childhood cancer called diffuse midline glioma to the International Space Station to gain better understanding of the development of the disease.
The researchers hope to use this new knowledge to help discover future treatments.
Poignantly, the project will study the same cancer that caused the death of Karen Armstrong, the daughter of the famous astronaut, Neil Armstrong.
Innovative collaboration
The new study, officially named the D(MG)2 study, has come about through an innovative collaboration between childhood cancer researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and partners from the UK space sector.
While scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) will design the experiments, the UK company Kayser Space is designing and making the experimental hardware.
The UK Space Agency has provided £1.2m in funding for the project, including for a four-week phase where experiments will be hosted aboard the International Space Station.
Diffuse midline glioma – previously known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is made up of a mix of different cell types, including cancer, immune and other cells, fitted together in a dense, complex network. It often affects very young children.
Surgery is usually not a viable option for patients, because the cancer is enmeshed in crucial areas of the brain, and chemotherapy has little effect. Radiotherapy is the only current treatment, and only as a palliative treatment.
Microgravity conditions
The D(MG)2 study will take advantage of microgravity conditions on the International Space Station to create much larger 3D structures of cancer cells than can easily be created on Earth.
Subpopulations of diffuse midline glioma cancer cells will be grown within contained Kayser Space-made bioreactor experimental units on the International Space Station, and cell cultures will be fixed at various intervals to capture different stages of growth.
The aim is to assess spatial interactions between diffuse midline glioma subclones in the unconstrained 3D microgravity environment.
Meanwhile, experimental controls will take place using the same equipment back on Earth, and in a centrifuge about the International Space Station set up to simulate conditions in 1G of gravity.
The D(MG)2 samples are set to spend four weeks on the International Space Station before being returned to Earth.
As well as providing important experimental results, the project also represents a high-profile opportunity to raise awareness of diffuse midline glioma. There is a huge unmet clinical need for the disease, and the researchers hope that raising its profile could lead to more support and funding for their efforts to find new treatments.
The UK Space Agency has also announced £1.4 million in funding for another project called MicroAge II, led by the University of Liverpool. The project is investigating how the microgravity environment makes astronauts’ muscles weaken in space in an accelerated way, compared to how muscles get weaker as we age on Earth.
Professor Chris Jones, leader of the D(MG)2 study and Professor of Childhood Cancer Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Unfortunately, survival rates for patients with diffuse midline glioma have not changed substantially since Neil Armstrong’s daughter died of the disease in the early sixties. The last 15 years, however, have revolutionised our understanding of the biological complexity of these tumours, with exciting potential new therapies entering clinical trial at last.
“Experiments such as D(MG)2 aboard the International Space Station will improve our understanding of how cancer cells interact with each other within three-dimensional structures, and hopefully lead to new ideas for disrupting tumour growth that we can take forward back in the lab.”
Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Taking cancer research into space might sound like science fiction, but in fact this experiment could give vital new insights into how diffuse midline glioma develops. It’s a pleasure to be working in a collaboration that spans boundaries between different areas of expertise, different scientific fields – and even the boundary that separates Earth from space.”
Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman, said:
“Space is the ultimate laboratory testbed with British scientists and astronauts harnessing the International Space Station for cutting edge research in nutrition, energy and biomedicine.
“This £2.6m project funding will help UK scientists research how to prevent brain tumours in children, and understand the biomedical processes of ageing: research with huge benefits for mankind and health systems around the world.
“Another example of the way UK strengths in different sectors from space to life science and cleantech drive technology leadership.”
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:
"This ground-breaking research highlights the power of space to push through barriers, revolutionise science and enhance our lives.
“Through a combination of national funding and our vital role in the European Space Agency, we’re ensuring UK scientists have access to the unique environment of the ISS for their research, which will benefit us all.”
Managing Director at Kayser Space Ltd, David Zolesi, said:
“We are thrilled to be involved in these two new UK Space Agency funded programmes and to support scientists investigating these cutting-edge research fields.
“Our role, as experts in the design and supply of instruments and systems used in outer space and especially in crewed spaceflight, is to provide public and private research groups with the tools to conduct their research and obtain great results for the benefit and well-being of all humankind.” | Biology |
As Florida continues to recover from Hurricane Ian, state health officials are warning that the deadly storm surge that came with it has led to a spike in infections caused by potentially fatal "flesh-eating" bacteria in the floodwaters.How many cases have there been?According to the Florida Department of Public Health, there have been a record 65 infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus, a species of bacteria found in warm, brackish water, including 29 in Lee County, where Ian made landfall on Sept. 28 as a Category 4 storm. There have been 11 confirmed deaths associated with the bacterium in the state this year, including four recorded in Lee County since Ian came ashore."Sewage spills, like those caused from Hurricane Ian, may increase bacteria levels,” a warning from the state’s health department reads.How do the infections occur?People wade through floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sept. 29. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images)The infections are usually caused by eating raw or undercooked oysters and shellfish, but they may also occur when the bacteria enters the body through cuts or open wounds.“You either eat it, it gets into your ears or it gets in your blood through a wound,” Anthony Ouellette, professor of biology and chemistry at Jacksonville University, told the Fort Myers News-Press.And while most cases are mild, many people with Vibrio vulnificus infections “require intensive care or limb amputations,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “And about 1 in 5 people with this infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill.”What are the signs and symptoms of an infection?According to the CDC, common symptoms include “watery diarrhea,” often accompanied by stomach cramping, nausea, vomiting, chills and fever.Vibrio vulnificus can cause necrotizing fasciitis, a severe skin infection in which the flesh around an open wound dies, which is why it is described as “flesh-eating” bacteria. However, necrotizing fasciitis can be caused by more than one type of bacteria.People who have underlying health conditions, such as those with weakened immune systems or chronic liver disease, are more likely to get an infection and have severe complications, health officials say.Still, Vibrio vulnificus infections are rare. Of the 65 confirmed cases in Florida this year, nearly half came as a result of Ian.The Florida Department of Health said it has seen “an abnormal increase in cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections as a result of exposure to the floodwaters and standing waters following Hurricane Ian.”How can you protect yourself?A warning sign in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Sanford, Fla., on Oct. 9. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire)The health department recommends that you stay out of the water if you have open wounds, cuts, or scratches, particularly if you are immunocompromised.“Water and wounds do not mix,” a note on the health department’s website reads. “Do not enter the water if you have fresh cuts or scrapes.”If you do come in contact with floodwaters, “immediately clean wounds and cuts thoroughly with soap and clean or bottled water,” the health department adds.And individuals who are immunocompromised “should wear proper foot protection to prevent cuts and injury caused by rocks and shells on the beach.” | Biology |
Human-wildlife conflicts found to be rising worldwide with climate change
Research on the impacts of climate change often considers its effects on people separately from impacts on ecosystems. But a new study is showing just how intertwined we are with our environment by linking our warming world to a global rise in conflicts between humans and wildlife.
The research, led by scientists at the University of Washington's Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and published in Nature Climate Change, reveals that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts.
"We found evidence of conflicts between people and wildlife exacerbated by climate change on six continents, in five different oceans, in terrestrial systems, in marine systems, in freshwater systems—involving mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and even invertebrates," said lead author Briana Abrahms, a UW assistant professor of biology. "Although each individual case has its own array of different causes and effects, these climate-driven conflicts are really ubiquitous."
To identify trends, the team pored over published, peer-reviewed incidents of human-wildlife conflicts and identified cases that were linked specifically to the effects of climate change. These include both short-term climate events—such as a drought—as well as longer-term changes. Warming in the Arctic, for example, is leading to loss of sea ice which has left polar bears short of food. They increasingly travel on land, sometimes entering human settlements and attacking people, as a recent incident in Alaska illustrates.
The new study shows that climate shifts can drive conflicts by altering animal habitats—like sea ice for polar bears—as well as the timing of events, wildlife behaviors and resource availability. It also showed that people are changing their behaviors and locations in response to climate change in ways that increase conflicts. Other examples of the effects of short- and long-term climate events include:
- Torrential floods in Tanzania led to more lion attacks after their usual prey migrated away from floodplains.
- Higher air temperatures in Australia triggered more aggressive behavior in eastern brown snakes, leading to more incidents of snake bites.
- Wildfires in Sumatra, Indonesia—triggered by El Nino—drove Asian elephants and tigers out of reserves and into human-inhabited areas, leading to at least one death.
- Disruption of terrestrial food webs during La Nina events in the Americas drove black bears in New Mexico and foxes in Chile into human settlements in search of food.
- Warmer air and ocean temperatures in a severe El Nino led to an increase in shark attacks in South Africa.
Most cases of human-wildlife conflict linked to climate involve a shift in resources—not just for wildlife, but also for people.
A majority of cases on land also involved a change in precipitation, which will continue to be affected by climate change. Many resulted in human deaths or injuries, as well as property damage.
In 2009, for example, a severe drought struck the western part of Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Region. This reduced food supplies for African elephants, which in turn entered local fields to graze on crops—at times destroying 2 to 3 acres daily. Local farmers, whose livelihoods were directly threatened by the drought, at times resorted to retaliatory killings of elephants to try to mitigate these raids.
"Identifying and understanding this link between human-wildlife conflicts is not only a conservation issue," said Abrahms. "It is also a social justice and human safety issue."
These types of conflicts are likely to rise as climate change intensifies, particularly as mass migrations of people and wildlife increase and resources shift.
But, it doesn't have to be all bad news.
"One major motivation in studying the link between climate change and human-wildlife conflict is finding solutions," said Abrahms. "As we learn about specific incidents, we can identify patterns and trends—and come up with interventions to try to address or lessen these conflicts."
Some interventions may be as simple as public-awareness campaigns, such as advising residents of the American Southwest during La Nina years to carry bear spray on a hike. Governments can also plan for times when extreme climate events will bring people and wildlife into closer contact. Botswana, for example, has funds in place to compensate herders and ranchers for drought-induced attacks by wildlife on livestock, often in exchange for pledges not to engage in retaliatory killings of wildlife.
"We have effective drought forecasts now. So, governments can engage in fiscal planning for mitigating conflicts ahead of time," said Abrahms. "Instead of a 'rainy day' fund, have a 'dry day' fund."
To Abrahms, one success story of note lies in the waters of the eastern Pacific. In 2014 and 2015, a record number of humpback and blue whales became ensnared in fishing lines off the California coast. Research later showed that an extreme marine heat wave had pushed whales closer to shore, following their primary food sources. California regulators now adjust the start and end of each fishing season based on climate and ocean conditions in the Pacific—delaying the season if whales and fishing gear are likely to come into close contact.
"These examples show us that once you know the root causes of a conflict, you can design interventions to help both people and wildlife," said Abrahms. "We can change."
More information: Briana Abrahms, Climate change as a global amplifier of human–wildlife conflict, Nature Climate Change (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01608-5. www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01608-5 | Biology |
In the face of the biodiversity crisis, and alarming data showing a 69% decline in global animal populations since 1970, researchers are banking on a cool solution to help save species from extinction. Much like egg-freezing is used to preserve human fertility options for a later date, the cryo-freezing of genetic samples taken from animals may play an essential role in curbing species extinctions.
A new study published in Zoo Biology, titled 'Maximizing the potential for living cell banks to contribute to global conservation priorities,' sheds light on the immense potential of living cell banks, also known as cryobanks, to contribute to global conservation priorities.
These living cell banks preserve genetic materials from animals, such as DNA, embryos, semen, and live tissue, at ultra-low temperatures. These cells can be cultured and used for various applications, including genetic analysis, assisted reproductive techniques, ensuring genetic diversity in animal populations, and even potentially reintroducing species back into their natural habitats.
For the study, researchers analysed the contents of the Frozen Zoo® at the San Diego Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) -- the world's largest and most diverse collection of living genetic samples -- to develop a framework for the prioritization of species for future sampling. Researchers also used aggregated data from the world's largest database of knowledge on species -- the Species360 Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) -- to identify opportunities for future genetic sample collection.
The study shows that 965 different species, including 5% of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List are currently stored in the SDZWA Frozen Zoo® and that further sampling from zoos and aquariums could significantly increase that representation to 16.6%, by providing access to an additional 707 threatened species.
Additionally, genetic samples of 50% of the species currently listed as extinct in the wild are already represented within the SDZWA Frozen Zoo®, but sampling from the zoological community can increase this number to 91% -- potentially providing a critical lifeline for these species on the brink of extinction.
Lead study author, Dr Andrew Mooney, Dublin Zoo and Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences, emphasises the significance of the study, saying.
"This study not only highlights the incredible work done by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to date, but also the collective potential of the global zoo and aquarium community in further contributing to global cryobanking initiatives and conservation priorities. As wildlife populations continue to decline around the globe, there has never been a more critical time to collect and preserve genetic samples from threatened species. Cryobanked samples provide unparalleled conservation opportunities, however we must make a concerted effort to work together and collect samples now, before it is too late."
Yvonne Buckley, Professor of Zoology in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, says:
"We are in a biodiversity extinction crisis with over a million species likely to be threatened with extinction over the coming decades. While our first priority is to prevent species from declining in the wild, cryobanking provides a means to safeguard crucial genetic diversity and reintroduce it back into populations to increase their adaptability and resilience."
Co-author Johanna Staerk, Species360 Conservation Science Alliance, says:
"This study highlights the immense potential of cryobanking in safeguarding endangered species as well as the role of zoos and aquariums in conservation. Given how difficult it is to obtain genetic samples from wild species, zoos and aquariums provide the ideal resource from which to collect genetic samples to ensure the future survival of species."
Oliver A. Ryder, Kleberg Endowed Director of Conservation Genetics, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, says:
"Over forty years of cryobanking viable cells in the Frozen Zoo® has produced a substantive and impactful resource for genomics-based biodiversity discovery and demonstrated possibilities for cellular-based genetic rescue. Urgently needed are expanded efforts in nations across the globe to establish a distributed network of biobanks to make cell-based genetic resources available in an equitable manner and provide future generations with conservation options."
Marlys Houck, Curator of the Frozen Zoo®, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and co-author on the study remarked:
"Dr Kurt Benirschke started the Frozen Zoo® in 1975 and hundreds of samples continue to be added each year. Due to his foresight, we have cell lines from species and individuals banked decades ago, some that had not reproduced. Their genetic diversity is not represented in current populations but is available for future genetic rescue through the samples in the Frozen Zoo®."
In addition to the framework suggesting which species need to be prioritised for genetic sampling, the study authors also encourage the formation of a global cryobanking database, facilitating collaborative efforts in preserving genetic diversity.
The study was the result of a workshop held at the IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) meeting in 2016 held by Species360 Conservation Science Alliance in collaboration with Oliver Ryder from the Frozen Zoo®.
The Role of Cryobanking in Saving Species from Extinction -- A Case Study
The powerful role of cryobanking in conservation is exemplified through ongoing efforts to save the now functionally extinct northern white rhino. With only two surviving females, scientists are working to save the subspecies from disappearing forever through assisted reproductive techniques using samples from the Frozen Zoo®.
While the example of the northern white rhino is an eleventh-hour attempt to save the subspecies, study authors stress the importance of proactively prioritizing species and establishing a global cryobanking database to ensure conservation actions can be taken much sooner.
Cryobanking may be the only lifeline to save species on the brink of extinction, such as the northern white rhino rhino and the vaquita, due to the availability of living cell cultures for these species. Regrettably, these possibilities will never be realized for the recently extinct Yangtze river dolphin and the Christmas Island pipistrelle -- for which no living biological samples exist.
However, sampling opportunities still exist for most species. Considering that 71% of species listed as 'least concern' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are at risk of extinction due to the impacts of climate change, the storage of genetic samples taken now could help conserve those species in the future.
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Image by skylarvision from Pixabay The thrill of the unknown may be relied upon to keep us on our toes in movie theaters, living rooms, and even laboratories. However, scientists no longer have to speculate about the cells’ secret chemical landscape. Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology were motivated by this same excitement to create a novel technique that allows one to “see” the fine details and chemical make-up of a human cell with unparalleled clarity and precision. Their method, which was published in PNAS earlier this week, approaches signal identification in a unique and counterintuitive way. The study’s principal investigator, Rohit Bhargava, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, called biology one of the most intriguing disciplines of their time because there has always been a gap between what we can see and what we cannot. Since they are the smallest functioning units in our bodies, cells have long captured the curiosity of scientists who want to know what they are comprised of and where each component is located. An all-encompassing cellular blueprint that can be utilized to research biology, chemistry, materials, and more is created when the “what” and the “where” are combined. Prior to this investigation, getting a high-resolution copy of the blueprint was practically unheard of. Now more than ever, the researchers can look within cells in a lot finer resolution and with tremendous chemical detail. This finding raises a variety of possibilities, including a fresh approach to look at the combination chemical and physical factors that control human growth and disease. The researchers’ approach expands on earlier developments in chemical imaging. Chemical imaging makes use of invisible infrared light to reveal a sample’s internal workings, as opposed to optical microscopy, which illuminates surface-level aspects like color and structure using visible light. A cell’s temperature increases and it expands when it is exposed to IR light. The researchers can compare a poodle to a park seat to see that no two items absorb infrared wavelengths exactly the same way. Night vision goggles also show that warmer objects generate stronger IR signatures than cooler ones. The same is true inside a cell, where several types of molecules each release a particular chemical signature and absorb IR light at a little different wavelength. Researchers can identify each one’s location by spectroscopically analyzing the absorption patterns. The researchers do not evaluate the absorption patterns as a color spectrum, in contrast to night vision goggles. Instead, scientists use a signal detector, which is a tiny beam attached to the microscope on one end and has a microscopic tip that scrapes the surface of the cell like a record player’s nanoscale needle, to interpret the IR waves. Over the past ten years, advances in spectroscopy have concentrated on continuously boosting the intensity of the early IR wavelengths. The researchers said that it is an intuitive strategy because their conditioning tells them that bigger signals are better. A cell will be easier to observe the stronger the IR signal, the hotter it will become, the more it will grow, and so on. This method hides a significant drawback. The velocity of the signal detector increases as the cell enlarges and produces “noise” in the form of so-called static that makes precise chemical measurements more difficult. Seth Kenkel, a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Bhargava’s lab and the study’s lead author, described the situation as being similar to turning up the knob on a staticky radio station: the music grows louder, and so does the static. In other words, no matter how strong the IR signal got, chemical imaging couldn’t become any better. The researchers needed a way to stop the noise from growing along with the signal. By separating the IR signal from the detector’s movement, the researchers’ solution to noisy cellular imaging enables amplification without the introduction of more noise. The researchers experimented with the weakest IR signal they could manage to ensure they could implement their solution before increasing the strength, as opposed to concentrating their efforts on the strongest IR signal feasible. Starting small allowed the researchers to pay tribute to a decade of spectroscopic research and establish the foundation for the field’s future, though it was counterintuitive. Researchers liken the approach to a road trip gone wrong. Consider spectroscopic researchers traveling to the Grand Canyon in a car. Everyone would naturally assume that the faster the car drives, the quicker they will arrive at their destination. However, the issue is that the vehicle is traveling east from Urbana. The IR signal is equivalent to the speed increase of the imaginary car. They stopped, consulted a map, and turned the car in the appropriate way. Now, the field can be efficiently advanced thanks to the enhanced speed and signal. A scale 100,000 size smaller than a strand of hair, the researchers’ “map” permits high-resolution chemical and structural imaging of cells at the nanoscale. This method is notable for not using fluorescent tagging or coloring molecules to make them more visible under a microscope. Even though Beckman’s Microscopy Suite’s equipment was essential for the study’s experimental phase, the concept itself wasn’t the result of cutting-edge technology; rather, it sprang from a culture that encouraged inquiry, innovative problem-solving, and a diversity of viewpoints. The Beckman Institute is a fantastic location because of this. Spectroscopy, mechanical engineering, signal processing, and of course biology were all relevant fields for this study. Nowhere else can these fields be combined flawlessly like Beckman can. This research is a prime illustration of how Beckman successfully combines interdisciplinary science with cutting-edge science and technology. Sources: Seth Kenkel et al. (2022). Chemical imaging of cellular ultrastructure by null-deflection infrared spectroscopic measurements, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210516119 https://phys.org/news/2022-11-imaging-human-cells-method-enables.html Like this:Like Loading... | Biology |
Ancient pathogens that have been locked away for hundreds of thousands of years are starting to emerge from permafrost as climate change takes hold — and around 1% of these could pose a substantial risk to modern ecosystems, a study has found.
"It is the first attempt to try modeling the potential ecological effect of these kinds of time-traveling invaders from a quantitative perspective," Giovanni Strona, a professor of ecological data sciences at the University of Helsinki and co-author of the study, told Live Science.
Permafrost is a mixture of soil, gravel and sand bound together by ice. It is found either on or beneath Earth’s surface in regions of the Arctic, including parts of Alaska, Greenland, Russia, China and Northern and Eastern Europe. When permafrost forms, microbes like bacteria and viruses can get trapped inside it and can survive in a state of suspended animation for thousands or even millions of years. Warmer periods can kickstart metabolic processes that allow these dormant microbes to reactivate and reproduce.
Amid global warming, some of these microbes, including those with the potential to cause disease, are being released as the permafrost thaws. In 2016, an anthrax outbreak in Siberia killed thousands of reindeer and affected dozens of people, which scientists attributed to melting permafrost.
These pathogens pose a potential risk because humans and other living organisms alive today have not been exposed to them for so long — meaning modern ecosystems may have few defenses against them.
"If pathogens have been living alongside bacterial, human or animal communities for a long time, you can expect some co-evolution between the pathogens and the local community, which reduces the risk that pathogens pose to ecosystems," said Strona. "But when you have a time-traveling invader, you clearly have the introduction of novel elements of risk."
To estimate how re-emerging pathogens might impact modern ecosystems, Strona and his team digitally simulated the evolution of virus-like pathogens that were able to infect and cause disease in bacteria-like hosts.
In the simulation, digital microbes had to compete for resources, mimicking what happens in the real world. Some of the viruses infected and killed a fraction of the bacteria-like hosts, while other bacterial hosts developed immunity against the evolving pathogens.
By "infecting" 5% of the modern bacteria-like hosts — that had evolved in more recent generations — with ancient virus-like pathogens from much earlier generations, the team found that 1% of viral pathogens could substantially disrupt more recently evolved bacterial communities.
Some of the viral invaders caused 32% of the bacteria-like species to die out, while others caused the diversity of bacteria-like species to increase by up to 12%.
The team dubbed the 1% pathogens "black swans" — referring to a rare and unlikely, but hugely impactful event. They argued that, while the probability of them emerging and wreaking havoc is low, their impact would be catastrophic, so they should be considered in future climate scenarios.
“As a society, we need to understand the potential risk posed by these ancient microbes so we can prepare for any unintended consequences of their release into the modern world," co-author Corey Bradshaw, from Australia's Flinders University, said in a statement. "The results tell us that the risk is no longer simply a fantasy that we shouldn’t be prepared to defend against.”
The impact of these pathogens could even reach the human population, Strona said. This could occur when humans make direct contact with pathogens from the permafrost, or when people catch diseases from animals infected with ancient pathogens, he said.
However, he added that the study is entirely based on computer simulations that model how viruses infect bacteria, so further research is needed to clarify the actual risks posed to animals and humans in the real world.
The findings were published July 27 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.
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Carissa Wong is a freelance reporter who holds a PhD in cancer immunology from Cardiff University, in collaboration with the University of Bristol. She was formerly a staff writer at New Scientist magazine covering health, environment, technology, nature and ancient life, and has also written for MailOnline. | Biology |
Smithsonian National Zoo A male Cuban crocodile named Jefe in the Reptile Discovery Center at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Cuban crocodiles are green and olive black with yellow speckles and darker coloration toward the top of their bodies. Their bellies are pale, and their tails have black blotches or bands. A male Cuban crocodile, an endangered species, was found dead at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said the 10-year-old crocodile, Jefe, died from electricity exposure after it apparently attacked an electrical outlet suspended about 4.5 feet off the ground. Staff discovered Jefe in the early morning hours on Dec. 17 at the zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center, according to a press release last week. A previous inspection the day before did not reveal any areas of concern, and the enclosure Jefe lived in has been properly accredited. The Smithsonian Zoo said it was launching an investigation and will install redundant electrical breakers throughout the building to prevent a repeat incident. Cuban crocodiles are green and olive-black, with pale bellies and black blotches on their tails. The species, found only in Cuba, is critically endangered, with only around 3,000 purebred crocodiles left. Jefe hatched in 2012 as part of a breeding program for the National Zoo. Tags Cuban crocodile District of Columbia Jefe Reptile Discovery Center Smithsonian National Zoo Washington DC | Biology |
It has always been a mystery as to how dolphins, porpoises, killer whales, sperm whales and other toothed whales produce an array of sounds - until now.
Researchers have found that it's all in the nose.
The animals create loud clicking sounds for echolocation - the process of locating prey through sound waves - and also softer burst pulses and whistles for communication.
Scientists say that sound is created by an air-driven system in the nose, similar to the voice box in humans.
The study, which was published in the journal of Science, also revealed that this air-powered blast of sound is a way for the toothed whales to locate food in the deep water.
The loudest sounds in the animal kingdom
Peter Madsen, a sensory physiology professor and expert in whale biology at Aarhus University in Denmark, said: "Echolocating toothed whales make the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom by forcing highly pressurised air past structures called phonic lips in their nose".
Professor Madsen said the phonic lips open for about a millisecond and when they "slap back together they create a tissue vibration that forms a very loud click in the water in front of the whale that is used to echolocate prey down to more than 1,000 meters depth."
The phonic lips consist of connective tissue and fat.
Read more:
Killer whale mothers make 'lifelong sacrifices' while raising sons
Global map of whale migration exposes growing dangers
The study revealed that the sounds produced operated at different vocal registers like the human voice.
Scientists said it was a fry register for clicks, a chest register for burst pulses and a falsetto register for whistles.
For humans the fry register represents the lowest tones, the chest register is the normal speaking voice and the falsetto register is at a higher frequency.
The sounds are said to be created "by the same mechanism, namely air flow-induced self-sustained oscillations", said study co-leader Coen Elemans, a University of Southern Denmark bioacoustics professor.
"But the critical difference is that in humans and other land mammals, air is used both as the propellant that makes the vocal folds vibrate and as the medium in which the sounds are propagated," he added.
Whales evolved an entirely new set of sound sources
The researchers used sound-recording tags on sperm whales, false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins to study sound production in the wild.
They used video from an endoscope - a thin, tube-like instrument - to image the phonic lips in harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins in captivity. They also looked at the phonic lip operation and anatomy in dead-stranded porpoises.
"During the course of evolution, toothed whales have lost their vocal folds, but evolved an entirely new set of sound sources in the nose," Professor Madsen added. | Biology |
A protein that prepares DNA for replication also prevents the replication process from running out of control, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The work, published Jan. 5 in Molecular Cell, solves a mystery that has long puzzled biologists.The cells of humans and all other higher organisms use a complex system of checkpoints and “licensing” proteins to ensure that they replicate their genomes precisely once before dividing. In preparation for cell division, the licensing proteins attach to specific regions in the DNA, designating them as replication origins. When the DNA synthesis phase of the cell cycle begins, replication begins only at those licensed sites, and only initiates, or “fires” once, according to the current model.That model was missing a crucial point, though. “The same factor that is allowing for this licensing to happen is only degraded after these replication origins have fired,” said senior author Dr. Tobias Meyer, the Joseph Hinsey Professor in Cell and Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “In principle, the cell could load these licensing machines onto DNA that’s already replicated, so, instead of two copies, you’re getting three or four copies of that segment of the DNA, and these cells would be expected to lose genome integrity and die or become cancerous.”Figuring out how cells avoid that fate has been tricky. “We needed to be studying events in the first minutes of the DNA synthesis phase of the cell cycle, so it’s a very transient period,” said first author Nalin Ratnayeke, a graduate student who worked on this project both at Stanford University and at Weill Cornell Medicine in Dr. Meyer’s lab. The lab moved to Weill Cornell Medicine in 2020. To solve this difficult experimental problem, Ratnayeke used computer-aided microscopy to monitor thousands of growing cells simultaneously, catching the replicating cells in the act and analyzing the activities of their licensing and replication factors.The work revealed that a well-known licensing factor, CDT1, not only licenses a segment of DNA to become a replication origin, but also acts as a brake for DNA replication, preventing an essential replication enzyme called CMG helicase from functioning. To start synthesizing DNA, the cell’s enzymes must first break down CDT1. “Previously proposed mechanisms for coordinating this transition from the licensing phase of the cell cycle to the firing phase of the cell cycle have depended on inhibiting licensing factors,” said Ratnayeke, adding that “the mechanism that we identified here is actually the opposite … the licensing factor CDT1 itself is preventing the progression of DNA synthesis.”To confirm their results, the scientists collaborated with colleagues at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK, who found that the inhibitory mechanism can be recapitulated in a simplified system that reproduces the entire DNA synthesis process with purified components in a test tube. “That allowed us to reconstitute all the components for DNA synthesis, and to prove that CMG helicase is directly inhibited by CDT1,” said Dr. Meyer, who is also a professor of biochemistry and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.Because failures in replication licensing can kill cells or make them cancerous, the results provide a new understanding of cell health and disease. “Future work to identify mechanistically what’s going on with Cdt1 inhibition will give greater insight into the biophysics of how CMG helicase functions, and will pinpoint specific regions of this complex that can be targeted using drugs,” said Ratnayeke. | Biology |
Introduction
When the paleontologist Michael D’Emic cut into the bones of Majungasaurus, a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that roamed Madagascar 70 million years ago, he suspected that surprises might be hiding in them. But what he found defied all expectations.
Majungasaurus adults measured up to 7 meters from snout to tail and could weigh 1,000 kilograms. Paleontologists had thought that big dinosaurs like these massive carnivores achieved their stature through rapid growth spurts. But the fossil bones revealed a different story. “Unlike carnivorous dinosaurs that had been studied up until then,” D’Emic said, the Majungasaurus grew “really, really slowly.”
Puzzled, he sliced up a close relative of the dinosaur — a Ceratosaurus from North America, which was roughly the same length and weight — to see if it grew slowly too. This time, “we got the opposite result,” he said. “It grew just about faster than any carnivorous dinosaur I’ve ever seen.”
What followed for D’Emic was a decade-long whirlwind of peering at bones for clues to how dinosaurs grew. His analysis of 42 different dinosaur species, recently published in Science, demonstrates that the “get big fast” mode of growth was less predominant than researchers have assumed.
It’s an insight that researchers think may be relevant to modern animals of all sizes, and not just to prehistoric behemoths. “It’s just as easy for an animal to evolve larger body size by growing slower for longer than it is growing faster,” said D’Emic, an associate professor of biology at Adelphi University in New York.
Whether an animal grows quicker and faster or slower and longer might seem like a nitpicky distinction. But an animal’s growth trajectory provides insights into its life and the world it inhabited. Fast-growing animals can overpower potential predators and outcompete other species, but they need plenty of food and other resources. Growing slowly is riskier, but it allows an animal to survive on less during hard times. The bones of Majungasaurus, for example, confirm that, as the top predator in its ancient ecosystem, it had the luxury of developing at a leisurely pace.
Understanding growth strategies also helps explain why some dinosaurs got enormous while others stayed small. Body size can affect everything from how long an animal lives to how many offspring it has, explained Santiago Herrera Álvarez, an evolutionary biologist and doctoral student at the University of Chicago. Yet, “surprisingly, we don’t have a lot of information [about] the key developmental or genetic mechanisms underlying body size variation across animals,” he said. Studies like D’Emic’s start to open that black box.
Breaking Bones
Bones contain secrets about an animal’s life history. Holes left behind by long-gone blood vessels can reveal a creature’s metabolic rate. Miniature dimples in bone that form during healing hint at trauma from ancient battles. Thin lines within a bone — much like growth rings in a tree — can indicate the age of an animal by marking where the growth of the cortical bone slowed or stopped for annual dry seasons or winters.
With bones, “we can watch our dinosaurs grow,” said P. Martin Sander, a paleontologist at the University of Bonn in Germany who was not part of the research. “The only decent way of inferring or even observing how that dinosaur grew is with its own microstructure.”
To get the answers he wanted, D’Emic therefore turned to paleohistology — the study of fossil tissues under the microscope. Its techniques haven’t changed much in nearly two centuries: Cutting through ancient bones requires intensive labor, usually with a diamond blade like that of a jeweler. Museums can be reluctant to hand over their fossils for such destructive analysis but that’s started to change in recent decades. In exchange for “what is in many ways the most boring part of the bone … you’re gaining this amazing window into how the animal lived,” D’Emic said.
Over several years, D’Emic and his colleagues analyzed more than 80 bones from 42 species of theropods, the two-legged, mostly carnivorous dinosaurs that lived between 66 million and 230 million years ago and gave rise to birds. In life, those dinosaurs ranged in size from house cat to T. rex. The wafers of bone that the researchers extracted, some about as wide as a hockey puck, had to be sanded down to a thickness of one-tenth of a millimeter — thin enough to see through, but not thin enough to break. Even then, the growth rings were too narrow to be examined effectively by eye. “You’re trying to see things that are a tenth of the thickness of a hair,” D’Emic said. Only by overlaying hundreds of images at different magnifications could the researchers get the measurements they needed.
In each bone slice, the researchers looked for the biggest gap between rings to find the year when the animal grew the most. That maximum annual growth rate was compared with the dinosaur’s body mass, which they inferred from the size of the femur and shin bones. Then the team looked closely at the evolutionary trends in size versus growth rates within different lineages.
About 60% of the sampled theropod species were bigger than their ancestors. But among them, D’Emic’s bone analysis revealed a nearly even split between species that grew faster than their ancestors and species that grew for longer. The preferred strategy didn’t limit how much bigger the theropods became. Some tyrannosaurs, for example, increased their body mass by more than 200% in a single year, while others eventually achieved a similar mass by growing over more years.
The same was true among the 40% of species that shrank: About half were smaller than their ancestors because they grew more slowly and half because they grew for less time.
There was no overall trend of theropod lineages getting bigger or smaller throughout their evolution — with one exception. In the lineage that led to birds, the new analysis found a consistent decrease in the maximum annual growth rate. That tendency presumably contributed to their shrinking — a change that eventually helped some theropods get small enough to fly.
“A Tyrannosaurus is somehow ancestral to a bird,” Sander said. “You have to make it smaller.”
Paths of Least Resistance
Past studies have often suggested that a fast peak growth rate is the key to size in dinosaurs, birds and mammals. But the new analysis found that theropods were instead just as likely to control the duration of their growth — an alternative strategy previously identified in only a few groups, including crocodiles and some lizards.
What D’Emic and his colleagues found in theropods might eventually turn out to be more the rule than the exception. In their paper, they noted that previous studies of growth strategies have often been limited comparisons of a few species rather than comprehensive studies of lineages.
“My hunch would be that once other groups of animals are studied, we’re going to find the same thing,” he said. “We’re going to find that evolution just takes the path of least resistance” and uses whatever strategy is easiest.
Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed that variability in growth strategies is to be expected since the needs and environmental constraints on every animal are different. “Each species does its own thing, and its growth strategy reflects that,” he said in an email. It will be good, he added, to duplicate D’Emic’s theropod project in other vertebrate groups.
D’Emic thinks of his work as a jumping-off point for many new directions. He’s now studying pantodonts, an extinct group of hippo-like mammals that rapidly evolved to be gigantic right after the dinosaurs went extinct and right before a period of intense global warming. Figuring out how climate change affects growth rate and size could potentially have implications for modern conservation, he said.
Sander is interested in how these growth strategies relate to metabolic rate. “For me, this is also the justification for studying dinosaurs, not just because they’re cool and extinct, but because this kind of work extends the range of what we see in living animals,” he said. | Biology |
Paper cups are just as toxic as plastic cups
Replacing single use plastic cups with paper ones is problematic. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg show that a paper cup that ends up in nature can also cause damage as they also contain toxic chemicals.
Reports of plastics pollution contaminating all parts of the Earth and in all living things has accelerated a shift to alternative materials. The coffee latte you take with you from the kiosk on the corner now comes in paper cups, sometimes even with paper lids. But that cup can also harm living organisms if it ends up in nature. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg show this in a study testing the effect of disposable cups made of different materials on the larvae of the butterfly mosquito.
“We left paper cups and plastic cups in wet sediment and water for a few weeks and followed how the leached chemicals affected the larvae. All of the mugs negatively affected the growth of mosquito larvae,” says Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor of environmental science at the Department of Biology and Environmental Science at the University of Gothenburg.
A thin plastic film lines paper cups
Paper is neither fat nor water resistant, so paper that is used in food packaging material needs to be treated with a surface coating. This plastic protects the paper from the coffee in your hand. Nowadays, the plastic film is often made of polylactide, PLA, a type of bioplastic. Bioplastics are produced from renewable resources (PLA is commonly produced from corn, cassava or sugarcane) rather than fossil-fuels as is the case for 99% of plastics on the market today. PLA is often regarded as biodegradable, meaning that it can break down faster than oil-based plastics under the right conditions, but the researchers' study shows that it can still be toxic.
“Bioplastics does not break down effectively when they end up in the environment, in water. There may be a risk that the plastic remains in nature and resulting microplastics can be ingested by animals and humans, just as other plastics do. Bioplastics contain at least as many chemicals as conventional plastic,” says Bethanie Carney Almroth.
Potential health hazard of food packaging
“Some chemicals in plastics are known to be toxic, others we lack knowledge about. Paper packaging also presents a potential health hazard compared to other materials, and it’s becoming more common. We are exposed to the plastics and the associated chemicals via contact with food.”
Bethanie Carney Almroth and her research colleagues report their results in a scientific article in Environmental Pollution. In the article, they reason about the major shifts that are required to mitigate the continuing damage to the environment and threat to our health caused by the plastics pollution crisis.
“When disposable products arrived on the market after the Second World War, large campaigns were conducted to teach people to throw the products away, it was unnatural to us! Now we need to shift back and move away from disposable life styles. It is better if you bring your own mug when buying take away coffee. Or by all means, take a few minutes, sit down and drink your coffee from a porcelain mug,” says Bethanie Carney Almroth.
Binding agreements to reduce plastic use
Right now, work is underway through the UN where the world's countries are negotiating a binding agreement to end the spread of plastics in society and nature. Professor Carney Almroth is a member of a council of scientists, SCEPT – Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, which contributes scientific evidence to the negotiations. The council calls for a rapid phasing out of unnecessary and problematic plastics, as well as vigilance to avoid replacing one bad product with another.
“We at SCEPT are calling for transparency requirements within the plastics industry that forces a clear reporting of what chemicals all products contain, much like in the pharmaceutical industry. But the main goal of our work is to minimize plastic production,” says Bethanie Carney Almroth.
Scientific article in Environmental Pollution: Single-use take-away cups of paper are as toxic to aquatic midge larvae as plastic cups - ScienceDirect
Contact: Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at University of Gothenburg, telephone: +46 732-26 15 69, e-mail: [email protected] | Biology |
Scientists are starting to crack the mystery behind one woman’s pain-free life. In new research, a team in the UK dove deep into the genetic make-up of Jo Cameron, a woman in Scotland with a rare mutation that leaves her practically incapable of experiencing physical and emotional pain. Among other things, the team found that her mutation seems to turn on and off a variety of other genes, including those linked to wound healing and mood.
Researchers at University College London detailed Cameron’s story in 2019, though they had first started studying her in 2013. At the age of 66, the woman had undergone hand surgery but remarkably needed no postoperative anesthesia afterward. A year earlier, she was diagnosed with severe joint degeneration in her hip but had none of the expected pain as a result. Throughout her life, she also reportedly felt little anxiety or fear and seemed to heal especially quickly from cuts and bruises.
When UCL researchers studied her extensively, they discovered two genetic mutations that appeared to explain her resilience, both connected to a pain-related enzyme known as fatty acid amide hydrolase, or FAAH. One was a deletion in a pseudogene (a region of DNA that resembles a gene but doesn’t code for a protein) that the team would go on to name FAAH-OUT; the other was in a gene nearby to the one that actually regulates FAAH.
Other studies have found that FAAH plays an important role in controlling our sensation of pain by breaking down a neurotransmitter that binds to our cannabinoid receptors. Studies of mice bred without the FAAH gene have shown that they experience less pain, for instance. But the woman’s unique condition—and the mutations that caused it—indicated that there are other ways that pain sensitivity can be influenced by our genetics.
Now, in a study published Tuesday in the journal Brain, the same UCL team is closer to understanding the underlying mechanisms behind the woman’s mutant powers.
The researchers used a variety of methods, including the gene editing technology CRISPR, to study the effects of the woman’s mutations on human biology. As expected, they found evidence that FAAH-OUT regulates the expression of FAAH itself. Her FAAH-OUT mutation seems to directly reduce levels of the enzyme, for instance. But they also found that the mutation appears to turn off and on hundreds of other genes. Some of these genes influence how fast we heal from wounds, while others affect our mood or levels of the body’s natural opioids. The findings also are the latest to show that so-called junk DNA has plenty of importance.
“The FAAH-OUT gene is just one small corner of a vast continent, which this study has begun to map. As well as the molecular basis for painlessness, these explorations have identified molecular pathways affecting wound healing and mood, all influenced by the FAAH-OUT mutation,” said senior study author and UCL researcher Andrei Okorokov in a statement from the university.
Related story: We Spoke With the Italian Woman Who Can’t Feel Pain
Like any novel discovery, these findings will have to be validated by others. And even a pain-free life doesn’t come without struggles. People with these conditions have to be especially careful to avoid ignoring or missing serious injuries, for example. But the lessons learned from Cameron’s genetics could very well pay off in the future. Despite some early promise, pain treatments based on affecting FAAH directly haven’t panned out. But this research suggests that there are other avenues to try, and the UCL team is already planning to do so.
“As scientists it is our duty to explore and I think these findings will have important implications for areas of research such as wound healing, depression and more,” said Okorokov. | Biology |
A previously undetected Homo sapiens population inhabited what’s now southwestern China around 14,000 years ago and contributed to the ancestry of ancient Americans. This far-ranging Asian group’s evolutionary identity has been revealed thanks to ancient DNA extracted from a skullcap previously excavated at Mengzi Ren, or MZR, a site in southwestern China’s Red Deer Cave, researchers report July 14 in Current Biology. The finding offers a rare opportunity to narrow down where the ancestors of ancient Americans came from in East Asia’s vast expanse. Sign Up For the Latest from Science News Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your inbox Geneticist Bing Su of China’s Kunming Institute of Zoology and colleagues recovered nearly all the fossil individual’s mitochondrial DNA, typically inherited from the mother, and roughly 3.3 percent of the nuclear DNA, which is inherited from both parents. Hominid fossils unearthed at Red Deer Cave in 1989 look like those of people today in some ways but in others resemble Asian Neandertals and Homo erectus (SN: 12/18/19). That unusual skeletal mix inspired a debate about whether the Chinese fossils represent H. sapiens or had different origins (SN: 12/17/15). The new genetic analyses and comparisons with present-day and ancient people peg the MZR individual’s DNA as that of a female H. sapiens from southern East Asia. Much like East Asians today, the ancient female’s ancestry included small contributions from Denisovans and Neandertals. Su’s group found that the MZR woman carried genetic ties to ancient people in the Americas who date to as early as about 12,000 years ago. Some ancient southern East Asians traveled up China’s eastern coast, possibly by way of Japan, and crossed a land bridge to North America, the scientists suspect. | Biology |
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like wings, are easily distracted from their natural preoccupation with sipping on flower nectar, avoiding predatory bats, and reproducing. Small clutches of the eggs they lay hang from long stalks on the underside of leaves and sway like fairy lights in the wind.The dangling ensembles of eggs are beautiful but also practical: They keep the hatching larvae from immediately eating their unhatched siblings. With sickle-like jaws that pierce their prey and suck them dry, lacewing larvae are “vicious,” said James Truman, a professor emeritus of development, cell and molecular biology at the University of Washington. “It’s like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in one animal.”This Jekyll-and-Hyde dichotomy is made possible by metamorphosis, the phenomenon best known for transforming caterpillars into butterflies. In its most extreme version, complete metamorphosis, the juvenile and adult forms look and act like totally different species. Metamorphosis is not an exception in the animal kingdom; it’s almost a rule. More than 80 percent of the known animal species today, mainly insects, amphibians and marine invertebrates, undergo some form of metamorphosis or have complex, multistage life cycles.The process of metamorphosis presents many mysteries, but some of the most deeply puzzling ones center on the nervous system. At the center of this phenomenon is the brain, which must code for not one but multiple different identities. After all, the life of a flying, mate-seeking insect is very different from the life of a hungry caterpillar. For the past half-century, researchers have probed the question of how a network of neurons that encodes one identity—that of a hungry caterpillar or a murderous lacewing larva—shifts to encode an adult identity that encompasses a completely different set of behaviors and needs.Truman and his team have now learned how much metamorphosis reshuffles parts of the brain. In a recent study published in the journal eLife, they traced dozens of neurons in the brains of fruit flies going through metamorphosis. They found that, unlike the tormented protagonist of Franz Kafka’s short story “The Metamorphosis,” who awakes one day as a monstrous insect, adult insects likely can’t remember much of their larval life. Although many of the larval neurons in the study endured, the part of the insect brain that Truman’s group examined was dramatically rewired. That overhaul of neural connections mirrored a similarly dramatic shift in the behavior of the insects as they changed from crawling, hungry larvae to flying, mate-seeking adults.Their findings are “the most detailed example to date” of what happens to the brain of an insect undergoing metamorphosis, said Deniz Erezyilmaz, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Oxford’s Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior who used to work in Truman’s lab but wasn’t involved in this work. The results may apply to many other species on Earth, she added.Beyond detailing how a larval brain matures to an adult brain, the new study provides clues to how evolution made the development of these insects take such a wild detour. “It’s a monumental piece,” said Bertram Gerber, a behavioral neuroscientist at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology who was not involved in the study but coauthored a related commentary for eLife. “It’s really the climax of 40 years of research in the field.”“I call this ‘The Paper’ in capitals,” said Darren Williams, a researcher in developmental neurobiology at King’s College London who was not involved in the study but is a longtime collaborator of Truman’s. “It’s going to be fundamentally important … for lots of questions.”A Detour on the Way to AdulthoodThe earliest insects 480 million years ago emerged from eggs looking much like smaller versions of their adult selves, or else they continued their “direct development” to get steadily closer to their adult form, just as grasshoppers, crickets, and some other insects do today. Complete metamorphosis seems to have arisen in insects only around 350 million years ago, before the dinosaurs.Most researchers now believe that metamorphosis evolved to lessen the competition for resources between adults and their offspring: Shunting larvae into a very different form allowed them to eat very different foods than the adults did. “It was a great strategy,” Truman said. Insects that started to undergo complete metamorphosis, like beetles, flies, butterflies, bees, wasps and ants, exploded in number.The researcher James Truman of the University of Washington has spent his decades-long career trying to understand how and why metamorphosis evolved.
Photograph: Lynn RiddifordWhen Truman was a child, he spent hours watching insects go through the process. With the lacewings in particular, “I was intrigued by the ferocity of the larva versus the delicate nature of the adult,” he said.His childhood passion eventually turned into a career and a family. After he married his doctoral adviser, Lynn Riddiford, who is also a professor emerita at the University of Washington, they traveled the world, collecting insects that metamorphose and others that don’t, to compare their developmental paths.While Riddiford focused her work on the effect of hormones on metamorphosis, Truman was most interested in the brain. In 1974, he published the first paper on what happens to the brain during metamorphosis, for which he tracked the number of motor neurons in hornworm larvae and adults. Since then, numerous studies have detailed different neurons and parts of the brains of larvae and adults, but they are either anecdotal or focused on very small aspects of the process. “We didn’t have much of a big picture,” Truman said.Truman knew that to really understand what’s happening to the brain, he had to be able to trace individual cells and circuits through the process. The nervous system of a fruit fly offered a practical opportunity to do that: Although most of the fruit fly larva’s body cells die as it transforms into an adult, many of the neurons in its brain don’t.“The nervous system has never been able to change the way it makes neurons,” Truman said. That’s partly because the nervous system in all insects arises from an array of stem cells called neuroblasts that mature into neurons. That process is older than metamorphosis itself and not easily modified after a certain stage of development. So even as nearly all the other cells in the fruit fly’s larval body are eliminated, most of the original neurons are recycled to function anew in the adult.The Remodeled MindMany people imagine that during metamorphosis, as the larval cells begin to die or rearrange themselves, the body of the insect inside its cocoon or exoskeletal casing turns into something like a soup, with all the remaining cells fluidly sliding around together. But that’s not quite right, Truman explained. “Everything has a position … but it’s really delicate, and if you open the animal up, everything just bursts,” he said.To map the brain changes in that gelatinous mass, Truman and his colleagues scrutinized genetically engineered fruit fly larvae that had specific neurons that shone a fluorescent green under the microscope. They found that this fluorescence often faded during metamorphosis, so they used a genetic technique they had developed in 2015 to turn on a red fluorescence in the same neurons by giving the insects a particular drug.It’s a “pretty cool method,” said Andreas Thum, a neuroscientist at Leipzig University and coauthor of the commentary with Gerber. It allows you to look at not just one, two, or three neurons but an entire network of cells.The researchers zoned in on the mushroom body, a region of the brain critical for learning and memory in fruit fly larvae and adults. The region consists of a bunch of neurons with long axonal tails that lie in parallel lines like the strings of a guitar. These neurons communicate with the rest of the brain through input and output neurons that weave in and out of the strings, creating a network of connections that allow the insect to associate odors with good or bad experiences. These networks are arranged in distinct computational compartments, like the spaces between the frets on the guitar. Each compartment has a task, such as guiding a fly toward or away from something.Truman and his team found that when the larvae undergo metamorphosis, only seven of their 10 neural compartments are incorporated into the adult mushroom body. Within those seven, some neurons die, and some are remodeled to perform new adult functions. All the connections between the neurons in the mushroom body and their input and output neurons are dissolved. At this transformation stage, “it’s kind of this ultimate Buddhistic situation where you have no inputs, you have no outputs,” Gerber said. “It’s just me, myself, and I.”The input and output neurons in the three larval compartments that don’t get incorporated into the adult mushroom body completely shed their old identities. They leave the mushroom body and integrate into new brain circuits elsewhere in the adult brain. “You wouldn’t know that they were the same neurons, except that we’ve been able to both genetically and anatomically follow them through,” Truman said.The researchers suggest that these relocating neurons are only temporary guests in the larval mushroom body, taking on necessary larval functions for a while but then returning to their ancestral tasks in the adult brain. That’s in keeping with the idea that the adult brain is the older, ancestral form within the lineage and the simpler larval brain is a derived form that came much later.Illustration: Merrill Sherman/QuantaIn addition to the remodeled larval neurons, many new neurons are born as the larva grows. These neurons are not used by the larva, but at metamorphosis they mature to become input and output neurons for nine new computational compartments that are adult-specific.The mushroom body in the larva looks very similar to the adult version, Thum said, but “the rewiring is really intense.” It’s as if the inputs and outputs of a computational machine all got disrupted but still somehow maintained their wireless functionality, Gerber said. “It’s almost as if you would deliberately unplug and replug” the machine.As a result, the adult brain’s mushroom body is “fundamentally … a completely new structure,” said K. VijayRaghavan, an emeritus professor and former director of India’s National Center for Biological Sciences who was the main editor of the paper and was not involved in the study. There is no anatomical indication that memories could have survived, he added.The Fragility of MemoryResearchers have been excited by this question of whether a larva’s memories can carry through to the adult insect, Williams said, but the answer hasn’t been clear-cut.The types of memories that live in the mushroom body of a fruit fly are associative memories, the kind that links two different things together—the type of memory that left Pavlov’s dogs salivating at the sound of a bell, for example. For the fruit fly, associative memories typically involve smells, and they guide the fly toward or away from something.However, their conclusion that associative memories can’t survive may not hold true for all species. Butterfly and beetle larvae, for example, hatch with more complex nervous systems and more neurons than fruit fly larvae have. Because their nervous systems start out more complicated, they may not have to be remolded as much.Fruit flies undergo one of the most extreme forms of complete metamorphosis. Aside from certain neurons, almost all of their larval cells are replaced with new ones when they become adults.Photograph: DR. JEREMY BURGESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYPrevious studies have found evidence that other types of memories can persist in some species. For example, Gerber explained, observations and experiments suggest that many species of insects show a preference for reproducing on the same types of plants where they matured: Larvae born and raised on apple trees later tend to lay eggs on apple trees as adults. “So one wonders how these two types of observations relate,” he said. How do these preferences carry over if memories don’t? One possibility is that associative memories don’t carry over, but other types of memories housed in other parts of the brain do, he said.The data offers opportunities to compare the development of nervous systems in animals that metamorphose and those that don’t. The nervous system of insects has been conserved enough during evolution that researchers can pinpoint equivalent neurons in direct-developing species such as crickets and grasshoppers. Comparisons between them can answer questions such as how individual cells changed from having single to multiple identities. It’s “an incredibly powerful comparative tool,” Williams said.Thum thinks it would be interesting to see whether insect species living in different environments might vary in the ways their brains get rearranged, and whether memories can survive in any of them. Gerber is curious to see whether the cellular mechanisms in insect metamorphosis are the same in other animals that undergo variations of the process, like tadpoles that become frogs or immobile hydra-like creatures that become jellyfish. “You may even be crazy enough to wonder whether we should be looking at puberty as a sort of metamorphosis,” he said.Truman and his team are now hoping to dive down to the molecular level to see which genes affect the maturation and evolution of the nervous system. In 1971, researchers hypothesized in a theoretical paper that a trio of genes directs the process of insect metamorphosis, an idea that Riddiford and Truman further confirmed in a 2022 paper. But the mechanisms behind how these genes work to remodel the body and the brain remain unclear.Truman’s ultimate goal is to coax a neuron to take on its adult form in the larval brain. Successfully hacking the process might mean that we truly understand how these insects create multiple identities through time.It’s unknown what the patterns of reorganization would be like elsewhere in the brain. But it’s likely that some aspects of the fruit fly’s mental capacities and responses to the world, conscious or not, are shaped by its larval life, Truman said. “The challenge is in trying to find out the nature and extent of these effects.”Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences. | Biology |
Scientific breakthrough: evidence that Neanderthals hunted giant elephants
Neanderthals were able to outwit straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the past few million years. Leiden professor Wil Roebroeks has published an article about this together with his German colleague Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser in the Science Advances journal.
It sounds like an archaeological discovery from an adventure book. In 2021 German archaeologist Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) started her research into the remains of dozens of elephants that had been excavated in the 1980s and 1990s from a lignite quarry near Halle in Germany. The study of these bones is part of a longer-term overarching Mainz-Leiden research project that is analysing all the finds from this quarry. The elephant remains are part of a large number of animal (and plant) remains from this quarry, which give a good insight into an ecosystem from 125,000 years ago, in which humans were also active. The elephant bones, which were previously studied by Italian palaeontologists, were something of a mystery because they are mainly from adult male elephants. This is an unusual pattern that is not known from other sites.
Painstaking work
Gaudzinski-Windheuser almost immediately saw cut marks on the bones that had unmistakably been made by stone tools during butchering. The Mainz-Leiden team set about examining the bones and scouring the crates containing thousands of elephant fossils for bones with similar marks. Based on this painstaking work, Gaudzinski-Windheuser and her colleagues now conclude that over a period of 2,000 years many generations of Neanderthals hunted in groups what are known as straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the Ice Age. The males weighed up to 13 tonnes and had a shoulder height of more than 4 metres. Never before has such clear evidence been found for these hunting activities.
Preference for males
There is an easy explanation for why the hunting activities mainly focused on adult male elephants. Adult bulls lead a predominantly solitary life, unprotected by a herd. This made them an ‘easier target’. Moreover, the yield from such a hunt was considerable: the researchers calculate that one ten-tonne male elephant – by no means the largest from the area studied – provided at least 2,500 daily portions of fat and meat for adult Neanderthals.
Larger groups
The discovery offers another important insight, namely that Neanderthals temporarily congregated in larger groups than the maximum 20 that had previously been assumed. This could also be a good explanation for their impact on their natural environment, as previously identified by the same group of researchers. The Neanderthals must also have been able to store large quantities of meat for long periods.
The researchers have already made fascinating discoveries from the finds from the lignite quarry. They concluded, for instance, that Neanderthals kept certain parts of forested areas open with their frequent use of fire. The team wrote about hunting techniques 125,000 years ago, based on deer remains from the same site, in an article published five years ago in Nature Ecology and Evolution. They continue to study the remains and hope to find out even more about human’s influence on the landscape 125,000 years ago.
The article about the research was written by Roebroeks, two German colleagues and the late Kathy MacDonald from Leiden: Gaudzinski-Windheuser S, Kindler L, MacDonald K, & Roebroeks W 2023, Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants, 125.000 years ago – implications for Neanderthal behaviour. Science Advances 9, eadd8186
Discovery for the future too
Hunting methods, a broad prey spectrum, the use of plants as food, the impact of fire use on vegetation, temporary aggregation into larger groups to fell the largest giants on earth: these data tell us a lot about how our ancestors lived 125,000 years ago. But such insights are also building blocks for our future, says Roebroeks. ‘We are finding out more and more about the habitation history of our planet, how our survival strategies (hunting, gathering, fire use and – later – agriculture) influenced and changed ecosystems, and what effect our diet has on our biology and behaviour. This knowledge offers clues for how humans can continue to live on Earth in a healthy and sustainable way.’
The research into the interaction between prehistoric humans and their environments, and what it can tell us about a sustainable lifestyle, is part of the Leiden interdisciplinary research programme Liveable Planet. | Biology |
Scientists have unearthed the remains of two never-before-seen species of saber-toothed cats that roamed Africa around 5.2 million years ago. The discoveries have changed what researchers previously knew about this group of extinct feline creatures, a new study shows.
The new findings could also shed light on the environmental changes happening at the time, which could help reveal why human ancestors started walking on two legs. researchers say.
The partial remains of the two newfound species, Dinofelis werdelini and Lokotunjailurus chimsamyae, were unearthed alongside the bones of two other known species, Adeilosmilus kabir and Yoshi obscura, near the town of Langebaanweg on the west coast of South Africa. The four species belong to the subfamily Machairodontinae — an extinct group of feline predators that included most species of saber-toothed cats. (The name Machairodontinae means "dagger-tooth.") Most members of this subfamily were equivalent in size to most big cats alive today.
In a new study, published July 20 in the journal iScience, researchers described the remains of all four species. The discovery of D. werdelini was not a surprise to the team, because species from this genus had previously been uncovered in the area and across the globe, including Europe, North America and China. However, the researchers were shocked to discover L. chimsamyae because, until now, members of this genus had only ever been found in Kenya and Chad.
The new findings suggest that a majority of saber-toothed cats may have been much more widespread than previously thought, the researchers wrote in a statement.
In the study, the researchers compared the bones of the newly uncovered species and known saber-toothed cats to create a new family tree for the group. The four species from Langebaanweg were not closely related to one another and likely occupied very different ecological niches despite living in the same area at around the same time.
For example, L. chinsamyae and A. kabir were larger and more adapted to running at high speeds, which would make them well-suited to open grassland environments. But D. werdelini and Y. obscura were smaller and more agile, which would have made them more suited to covered environments, such as forests, the researchers said.
The overlap of these species suggests that their habitat included both forests and open grasslands. The researchers think this may have been caused by a shift in Africa's climate, which was slowly turning the continent from a giant forest into open grassland, which is the dominant habitat type today.
Until rcently, researchers were unsure when the shift in ecosystem type across Africa may have occurred. Understanding this better could help reveal how human ancestors, or hominins, who first emerged in Africa around this time, became bipedal. The change in environment is thought to have been an "important trigger" that pushed hominins to walk on two legs, researchers wrote in the study.
However, recent studies looking at other ancient ecosystems across Africa have shown that grasslands may have actually started appaearing up to 21 million years ago, which suggests that changing eoccystems may not have impacted hominin bipedalism at all, according to The Conversation.
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Harry is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. When not at work he can be found watching sci-fi films, playing old Pokemon games or running (probably slower than he'd like). | Biology |
Study suggests that adhering to a Mediterranean diet may alleviate or prevent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms
The human gut microbiome has a significant impact on our health. Research has shown that it can influence the development and response of emotions, but the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the gut microbiome has been unexplored. PTSD is a fear-based mental health disorder that develops in some individuals who experience a disturbing and horrifying situation involving severe injury, actual or threat of death, or violence. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health systematically investigated the relationship between PTSD, diet, and the gut microbiome. Their study found that participants who adhered to a Mediterranean diet experienced decreased PTSD symptoms. Their results are published in Nature Mental Health.
“There is a very intriguing relationship between the human gut microbiome and the brain,” said co-corresponding author Yang-Yu Liu, PhD, of the Channing Division of Network Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Through our study, we examined how factors, like diet, are associated with PTSD symptoms. While further research is needed, we are closer to being able to provide dietary recommendations for PTSD prevention or amelioration.”
The burden of PTSD often extends beyond the individual; family members, the healthcare industry and society are also affected by the mental health disorder. In addition, individuals with PTSD have an increased risk of developing chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and premature death. Understanding the role of diet and the microbiome could improve recommendations and outcomes for patients with PTSD.
“Examining the gut-brain axis can provide insights on the interdependence of mental and physical health,” said co-corresponding author Karestan Koenen, PhD, of the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. “Our findings suggest the PTSD and human gut microbiome relationship is a promising area of research that may lead to recommendations for alleviating the down-stream negative health consequences of PTSD.”
The team collected data from 191 participants in sub-studies of the Nurses’ Health Study-II (NHS-II), which included the Mind-Body Study (MBS) and the PTSD Substudy. Participants were assigned to three groups: probable PTSD, exposed to trauma but no PTSD, and no trauma exposure. All the participants submitted two sets of four stool samples, once at the beginning of the study and again six months later. The samples were collected to provide microbial DNA information and to confirm that the participant’s gut microbiome was stable over six months.
The team evaluated the associations between overall microbiome structure and host factors, including PTSD symptoms, age, body mass index (BMI) and dietary information. From this evaluation, the researchers found several host factors (BMI, depression, and antidepressants) associated with the microbiome structure.
Next, the researchers assessed the relationship between the available dietary information and PTSD symptoms. The team found that participants who adhered to a Mediterranean diet experienced fewer PTSD symptoms. In particular, they found that the consumption of red and processed meats was positively associated with PTSD symptoms, while the consumption of plant-based foods was negatively associated with PTSD symptoms.
Lastly, the team employed the generalized microbe–phenotype triangulation (GMPT) method to examine the link between PTSD symptoms and the gut microbiome signatures, aiming to identify putative PTSD protective species. They identified Eubacterium eligens as the top PTSD putative protective species. To test the consistency of this signature over time, the team found that the inverse association of E. eligens abundance with PTSD symptoms was highly consistent across all four time points. They further demonstrated that E. eligens was positively associated with the enriched components of the Mediterranean diet (such as vegetables, fruits, and fish) and that E. eligens was negatively associated with red/processed meat, which people following a Mediterranean diet limit or avoid.
The team notes limitations to their study, including using a short screening scale for PTSD (instead of a formal clinical diagnosis of PTSD). However, the results offer insights for future studies examining other mental health disorders and dietary interventions to improve recommendations to alleviate or prevent symptoms.
“It’s exciting that our results imply that the Mediterranean diet may provide potential relief to individuals experiencing PTSD symptoms,” said Liu. “We are eager to learn more about the relationship between PTSD, diet, and the gut microbiome. In a future study, we will attempt to validate the efficacy of probiotics as a method to prevent PTSD.”
Disclosures: The authors declare no competing interests.
Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01AI141529, R01HD093761, RF1AG067744, UH3OD023268, U19AI095219, and U01HL089856, R01MH101269), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean’s Fund for Scientific Advancement Incubation Award, the Biology of Trauma Initiative (BTI) of Broad Institute, the Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program (Focused Program Award) under Award No. (w81XWH-22-S-TBIPH2) endorsed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs in the Department of Defense.
Paper cited: Ke, S. et al. “Association of probable post-traumatic stress disorder with dietary pattern and gut microbiome in a cohort of women.” Nature Mental Health. DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00145-6
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An ape fossil found in Turkey may controversially suggest that the ancestors of African apes and humans first evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa, a research team says in a new study.
The proposal breaks with the conventional view that hominines — the group that includes humans, the African apes (chimps, bonobos and gorillas) and their fossil ancestors — originated exclusively in Africa.
However, the discovery of several hominine fossils in Europe and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) has already led some researchers to argue that hominines first evolved in Europe. This view suggests that hominines later dispersed into Africa between 7 million and 9 million years ago.
Study co-senior author David Begun, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toronto, clarified that they are talking about the common ancestor of hominines, and not about the human lineage after it diverged from the ancestors of chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest living relatives.
"Since that divergence, most of human evolutionary history has occurred in Africa," Begun told Live Science. "It is also most likely that the chimpanzee and human lineages diverged from each other in Africa."
In the new study, the researchers analyzed a newly identified ape fossil from the 8.7 million-year-old site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia. They dubbed the species Anadoluvius turkae. "Anadolu" is the modern Turkish word for Anatolia, and "turk" refers to Turkey.
The fossil suggests that A. turkae likely weighed about 110 to 130 pounds (50 to 60 kilograms), or about the weight of a large male chimpanzee.
Based on the fossils of other animals found alongside it — such as giraffes, warthogs, rhinos, antelope, zebras, elephants, porcupines and hyenas — as well as other geological evidence, the researchers suggest that the newfound ape lived in a dry forest, more like where the early humans in Africa may have dwelled, rather than in the forest settings of modern great apes. A. turkae's powerful jaws and large, thickly enameled teeth suggest that it may have dined on hard or tough foods such as roots, so A. turkae likely spent a great deal of time on the ground.
In the new study, the scientists focused on a well-preserved partial skull uncovered at the site in 2015. This fossil includes most of the facial structure and the front part of the braincase, the area where the brain sat — features that helped the team calculate evolutionary relationships.
"I was able to reconstruct and see for the first time the face of an ancestor of ours no one had ever seen before," Begun said.
The researchers suggest that A. turkae and other fossil apes from nearby areas, such as Ouranopithecus in Greece and Turkey and Graecopithecus in Bulgaria, formed a group of early hominines. This may, in turn, suggest that the earliest hominines arose in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Specifically, the team contends that ancient Balkan and Anatolian apes evolved from ancestors in Western and Central Europe.
Evolutionary questions
One question these findings raise is why, if hominines arose in Europe, they are no longer there, except for recently arrived humans, and why ancient hominines did not also disperse into Asia, Begun said.
"Evolution is not very predictable," Begun said. "It happens as a series of unrelated and random events interact. We can assume that the conditions were not right for apes to move into Asia from the eastern Mediterranean in the late Miocene, but they were right for a dispersal into Africa."
As for why "we do not find African apes in Europe today, species go extinct all the time," Begun said.
Begun also cautioned that he did not want this research misinterpreted or misused to suggest that Eurasia was somehow of primary importance in human evolution. Instead, "we need to know where the common ancestor of African apes and humans evolved so that we can begin to understand the circumstances of this evolution," he said. "Between 14 million and 7 million years ago, the areas in which apes were found in Europe, Asia and Africa were different ecologically, just as many regions in these continents differ today. Knowing the ecological conditions in which our ancestors evolved is critical to understanding our origins."
A different take
This new discovery "expands our understanding of a group that appears closely related to living African apes and humans," Christopher Gilbert, a paleoanthropologist at Hunter College of City University of New York who did not participate in this study, told Live Science.
However, Gilbert noted that recent comprehensive analyses of fossil great apes and early hominins — the group that includes humans and the extinct species more closely related to humans than any other animal — do not support the argument that hominines originated in Europe.
"Many other experts investigating the evolutionary relationships of fossil and living great apes using more modern methods and including more [groups] find that many of the European apes branched off before orangutans, making them likely distant relatives of living African great apes and humans," Gilbert said.
"Furthermore, these more comprehensive analyses suggest that apes like Anadoluvius are just as likely or more likely to be recent immigrants to the Mediterranean from Africa rather than migrating back into Africa," Gilbert added.
Fossil hominines like A. turkae aren't found in Africa largely because "we have a poor African fossil record in general during this time," Gilbert said. "I am reminded of the old paleontological axiom — 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.'"
However, Begun argued that an absence of hominine fossils in Africa was telling and supported the idea that hominines originated elsewhere.
In any case, both Begun and Gilbert noted that future fieldwork in Africa and Eurasia looking for fossil apes would potentially help clarify this matter.
The scientists detailed their findings Aug. 23 in the journal Communications Biology.
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Soft and bumpy: work on soft air–water interfaces was pioneered over ten years ago. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Grayson) Scientists in the US have found evidence that the surface of liquid water, even at room temperature, has a structure that looks more and more like ice as the water–air interface is approached. Phillip Geissler and Nathan Odendahl of the University of California, Berkeley, performed computer simulations of the uneven interface between air and water and identified ordered motifs, which they argue share significant commonalities with ice.
From the atmosphere to human lungs, many of the most important processes on the planet happen at the surface of a water droplet, giving this research potential implications across physics, chemistry and biology.
“The things that we’ve worked so many decades to understand about water in its bulk environment just become wrong at interfaces,” said Geissler, who used simulations to study water on a molecular level not accessible in experiments. Spectroscopic measurements of the air–water interface have produced surprising results, suggesting ordered hydrogen bonding at the surface. Geissler and Odendahl were curious about previous simulations, which suggested ice as the reference point for interfacial water’s structure, but they did not think these results were conclusive. As a result, they devised a way to search for these patterns in greater detail.
Searching for structure in disorder
Liquid water is disordered, so the researchers knew that the structures they were looking for would be hard to find, extending over only a few molecules and buried under noise. They had the idea that previous researchers were missing details because they had treated the interface as a flat plane, when it is actually soft and bumpy. Work on soft air- water interfaces was pioneered over ten years ago and revealed layers parallel to the surface, but Geissler and Odendahl were the first to use this to look for a link with ice.
Ordered molecules: the diagram on the left shows the sublayers at the basal face of ice. L0 is the surface. The diagram on the right shows the orientations at the air–water and air–ice interfaces (Courtesy: N Odendahl and P Geissler Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 25 11178)
Geissler said he was surprised when Odendahl showed him the first results superimposing the ice and water–air interfaces. They argue that, with the extra detail of the instantaneous interface, the layers at the surface of water can be split into sublayers (see above figure). Parallel sublayers are a feature of the basal face of ice, and they present what the duo is convinced is a striking resemblance between these layers in the ice and water–air interfaces.
Using these sublayers as a reference point, Geissler and Odendahl compared the orientations of the molecules, knowing that this is well defined for tetrahedral water molecules in ice. When the researchers mapped the favoured direction of the oxygen–hydrogen bonds near the water’s surface, they observed ordering, which they again argued, seems to correspond to a face of ice. These patterns hold over a few molecular diameters, which is larger than the transient tetrahedral structures expected in bulk water.
Broken symmetry forces water to organize
Arguing for their conclusions, Odendahl said “having that flexible interface really gave us the confidence to say, it’s not just a couple of chance metrics. If you look at the density, if you look at the orientation, if you look the multiple layers just everything that we looked at, there seemed to be a match.” Read more Water proves to be electrically dead at interfaces However, interpreting research on the statistical mechanics of liquids is always contentious. The continued debate over the water–air interface will come down to the fundamental question of how ice is defined, and whether a structure that extends over only a few molecules can be said to have crystal-like properties. Reflecting on their results, Geissler said “We now have this structural reference point for thinking about these structural motifs, and I think that that will, in the end prove to be a very useful conceptual tool”
The research is described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Phillip Geissler died unexpectedly in July 2022 while hiking in Utah, he was 48. | Biology |
Think about where our energy comes from: drilling rigs and smokestacks, windmills and solar panels. Lithium-ion battery packs might even come to mind.
We probably don't think about the farms that comprise over one-third of Earth's total land area. But farms can also be an energy source. Barcelona-based battery company Bioo is generating electricity from the organic matter in soil and creating biological batteries that can power agricultural sensors, a growing 1.36 billion dollar global market.
Bioo's tech eliminates the need for single-use chemical batteries, which have to be replaced frequently. The company will work with large players such as Bayer Crop Science to pilot its sensor tech on farms, while also experimenting with using bio-batteries to power lighting installations. Eventually, Bioo envisions a future where biology may even help power our largest cities.
See how it works in this video. | Biology |
Researchers study salt tolerance of wild grapevine to make crops more resilient
Rising sea levels due to climate change and artificial irrigation cause soil salinity to increase. This has a negative impact on agriculture, including viticulture. The plants die, yields decrease.
Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have therefore studied a wild grapevine with a higher salt tolerance. Their goal is to identify the genetic factors that make the grapevine resilient. They can then be inserted into commercial varieties, thus securing viticulture. The study is published in the journal Plant Physiology.
Climate change increases the need for artificial irrigation of agricultural areas. When water evaporates, however, salts remain in the upper soil layers and increase the plant's stress. This makes the yields decrease and can lead to plant death. To protect viticulture from these impacts of climate change, KIT researchers work on identifying genetic factors that make the grapevine more resilient.
"Actually, grapevine is adapted well to drought. At first glance, irrigation-caused salt should not represent a big problem," says Professor Peter Nick from KIT's Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Institut for Plant Sciences (JKIP). "However, drier and hotter summers increase the need for additional irrigation."
Metabolism increases salt tolerance of wild grapevine
Grapevines are among the plants with a moderate salt sensitivity. When the salt concentration exceeds a certain threshold value, however, functioning of membranes and proteins is impeded and the plant stops transpiration, i.e., evaporation via the leaves. Sodium and chloride ions, i.e., salts, enrich in the leaves. A few days after the start of the stress period, the leaves die. A wild grapevine called "Tebaba" that grows in the Atlas Mountains has a much higher salt tolerance. It continues to grow, although salt from the ground enters its leaves.
To gain insight into the physiological and metabolic processes, including photosynthesis, researchers compared Tebaba with a rootstock widely used in the Mediterranean. "We slowly increased the salt stress to simulate an irrigated vineyard," Nick says. "We found that Tebaba does not sequester sodium in the root, but reorganizes its metabolic response in the presence of sodium. We assume that its salt tolerance cannot be attributed to a single genetic factor, but results from favorable metabolic fluxes that are mutually supportive."
Metabolic processes in leaves turned out to be more stable and no harmful substances form. As a result, wild grapevine can use its resources for photosynthesis and prevent the cell walls from collapsing.
Crossing with other species might increase salt tolerance
In viticulture, it is common practice to graft grapevines. This means that the shoots of highly fruit-bearing species are placed onto rootstocks of highly robust species to make them more resilient to drought or pests. According to the study, it would not be reasonable to use Tebaba as a rootstock, as salt tolerance is not caused by the root, but by the leaves.
"We therefore recommend introgression of Tebaba's genetic salt tolerance factors into commercial varieties by natural crossing. This should be accompanied by molecular biology analyses," Nick summarizes the results. "That is how we may succeed in adapting the grapevine—the fruit plant with the highest yield per area worldwide—to the impacts of climate change."
More information: Samia Daldoul et al, A Tunisian wild grape leads to metabolic fingerprints of salt tolerance, Plant Physiology (2023). DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiad304
Provided by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | Biology |
Lipid nanoparticle-based ribonucleoprotein delivery for in vivo genome editing
Gene therapy is a potential mode of treatment for a wide variety of diseases caused by genetic mutations. While it has been an area of diverse and intense research, historically, only a very few patients have been treated using gene therapy—and fewer still cured. The advent of the genetic modification technique called CRISPR-Cas9 in 2012 has revolutionized gene therapy—as well as biology as a whole—and it has recently entered clinical trials for the treatment of some diseases in humans.
Haruno Onuma, Yusuke Sato and Hideyoshi Harashima at Hokkaido University have developed a new delivery system for CRISPR-Cas9, based on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), that could greatly increases the efficiency of in vivo gene therapy. Their findings were published in the Journal of Controlled Release.
"There are broadly two ways of treating diseases with gene therapy," Sato explained, "ex vivo, where cells are subjected to the desired modifications in the laboratory and then introduced into the patient, and in vivo, where the treatment is administered to the patient to change the cells in their body. Safe and effective in vivo treatment is the ultimate aspiration of gene therapy, as it would be a straightforward process for patients and healthcare providers. LNPs can function as a vehicle for the safe and effective delivery of such therapies."
CRISPR-Cas9 consists of a large molecule composed of the Cas9 protein and guide RNA. The guide RNA binds to a specific, complementary DNA sequence, and the Cas9 protein cuts that sequence, allowing it to be modified. The guide RNA can be altered to target specific DNA sequences to be modified.
"In a previous study, we discovered that additional DNA molecules, called ssODNs, ensure that the CRISPR-Cas9 molecule is loaded into the LNPs (CRISPR-LNPs)," Harashima elucidated. "In this study, we again used ssODNs, but they were carefully designed so that they would not inhibit the function of the guide RNA."
Using a guide RNA targeting the expression of a protein called transthyretin, they evaluated the effectiveness of the CRISPR-LNPs in mice models. CRISPR-LNPs with ssODNs that dissociated from the guide RNA at room temperature were most effective at reducing serum transthyretin: two consecutive doses, one day apart, reduced it by 80%.
"We have demonstrated the optimal ssODN sequence affinity that ensures the loading and the release of CRISPR-Cas9 at the target location; and that this system can be used to edit cells in vivo," concluded Onuma. "We will continue to improve the design of ssODNs, as well as to develop optimal lipid formulations to increase the effectiveness of delivery."
More information: Haruno Onuma et al, Lipid nanoparticle-based ribonucleoprotein delivery for in vivo genome editing, Journal of Controlled Release (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.02.008
Journal information: Journal of Controlled Release
Provided by Hokkaido University | Biology |
Shining a light on tiny, solar-powered animals
Animals and plants need energy. Some animals get energy by eating other animals, and many plants harvest the energy in sunlight through photosynthesis. However, in the ocean, there exists a remarkable group of small, worm-like animals called acoels that do both; some acoels form relationships (symbiosis) with single-celled, photosynthetic microalgae.
A study by Assistant Professor Kevin Wakeman and his undergraduate student, Siratee Riewluang, at Hokkaido University, Japan, has shed some light on the biodiversity underpinning symbiotic relationships between acoels and microalgae. Their findings were published in the journal PeerJ.
Acoels are superficially simple. However, this simplicity is misleading. Due to their regenerative ability and position as one of the first animal groups on the planet, acoels interest biologists in the fields of evolutionary biology, regenerative biology, and neurobiology. Some acoels also form symbiotic relationships with microalgae. This includes green algae and other types of microalgae that also associate with coral reefs called dinoflagellates.
"These acoels engulf microalgae seemingly as 'food,' but they do not digest them. Instead, they store them below their outer surface. They create energy using sunlight—much like adding solar panels to your house," explained Siratee.
"Photosynthetic acoels are mostly found in warmer waters. Therefore, we focused our sampling in Southern Japan. We also found acoels near Kochi, a region of Japan that receives warm water from the Kuroshio Current. Photosynthetic acoels can be difficult to spot—they are microscopic. But, under a microscope they are easily recognizable, by their brightly colored algae," Siratee continued.
Throughout 2022, Wakeman and Siratee collected algae and sediment samples. The host acoel and their symbionts were identified by DNA sequencing. Symbiotic microalgae were removed from acoel hosts and put into culture. This study found that acoels contained various green algae (Tetraselmis); previously, only one species was known. Several dinoflagellate lineages were also found. Most belonged to the Symbiodiniaceae, a group famously associated with coral (and other invertebrates). Some of these Tetraselmis and dinoflagellates might be new to science.
Unexpectedly, Wakeman and Siratee came across what might turn out to be a whole new group of acoels harboring symbionts (only one group is currently known).
"We found that there was more diversity of acoels and their symbionts than we really expected," said Wakeman. "Even in this present dataset, which focuses on Japan, it's clear that there are fascinating interactions between acoels and microalgae. These results will lay the groundwork for future studies that can tease apart what are probably some interesting ecological mechanisms. I really am excited to see where this ends up."
Wakeman and Siratee will continue work on photosynthetic acoels for Siratee's Master's degree.
"It would be cool to figure out if they really are a new group of acoels with symbionts, but we need more genetic data and unambiguous morphological data to confidently assign a new name," said Siratee. "Eventually, I would like to use advanced imaging and genetics to explore these acoels at a molecular level."
More information: Biodiversity of symbiotic microalgae associated with meiofaunal marine acoels in Southern Japan, PeerJ (2023). DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16078
Journal information: PeerJ
Provided by Hokkaido University | Biology |
Unleashing the power of AI to track animal behavior
Movement offers a window into how the brain operates and controls the body. From clipboard-and-pen observation to modern artificial intelligence-based techniques, tracking human and animal movement has come a long way. Current cutting-edge methods utilize artificial intelligence to automatically track parts of the body as they move. However, training these models is still time-intensive and limited by the need for researchers to manually mark each body part hundreds to thousands of times.
Now, Associate Professor Eiman Azim and team have created GlowTrack, a non-invasive movement tracking method that uses fluorescent dye markers to train artificial intelligence. GlowTrack is robust, time-efficient, and high definition—capable of tracking a single digit on a mouse's paw or hundreds of landmarks on a human hand.
The technique, published in Nature Communications on September 26, 2023, has applications spanning from biology to robotics to medicine and beyond.
"Over the last several years, there has been a revolution in tracking behavior as powerful artificial intelligence tools have been brought into the laboratory," says Azim, senior author and holder of the William Scandling Developmental Chair. "Our approach makes these tools more versatile, improving the ways we capture diverse movements in the laboratory. Better quantification of movement gives us better insight into how the brain controls behavior and could aid in the study of movement disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease."
Current methods to capture animal movement often require researchers to manually and repeatedly mark body parts on a computer screen—a time-consuming process subject to human error and time constraints. Human annotation means that these methods can usually only be used in a narrow testing environment, since artificial intelligence models specialize to the limited amount of training data they receive. For example, if the light, orientation of the animal's body, camera angle, or any number of other factors were to change, the model would no longer recognize the tracked body part.
To address these limitations, the researchers used fluorescent dye to label parts of the animal or human body. With these "invisible" fluorescent dye markers, an enormous amount of visually diverse data can be created quickly and fed into the artificial intelligence models without the need for human annotation. Once fed this robust data, these models can be used to track movements across a much more diverse set of environments and at a resolution that would be far more difficult to achieve with manual human labeling.
This opens the door for easier comparison of movement data between studies, as different laboratories can use the same models to track body movement across a variety of situations. According to Azim, comparison and reproducibility of experiments are essential in the process of scientific discovery.
"Fluorescent dye markers were the perfect solution," says first author Daniel Butler, a Salk bioinformatics analyst. "Like the invisible ink on a dollar bill that lights up only when you want it to, our fluorescent dye markers can be turned on and off in the blink of an eye, allowing us to generate a massive amount of training data."
In the future, the team is excited to support diverse applications of GlowTrack and pair its capabilities with other tracking tools that reconstruct movements in three dimensions, and with analysis approaches that can probe these vast movement datasets for patterns.
"Our approach can benefit a host of fields that need more sensitive, reliable, and comprehensive tools to capture and quantify movement," says Azim. "I am eager to see how other scientists and non-scientists adopt these methods, and what unique, unforeseen applications might arise."
Other authors include Alexander Keim and Shantanu Ray of Salk.
More information: Large-scale capture of hidden fluorescent labels for training generalizable markerless motion capture models, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41565-3
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by Salk Institute | Biology |
Some scientists have already made the argument that octopuses might be aliens. While the claim seems a bit out of this world, new research into their brains continues to show just how alien the octopus is, even if it doesn’t end up being of extraterrestrial origins. According to a new study published in Current Biology, octopus brains create complex signals that scientists don’t yet understand.
The study was made possible thanks to a new technique discovered by the researchers behind the study. This new technique allowed the researchers to record up to 12 hours of brain activity. The experiment itself is groundbreaking, but as noted above, scientists aren’t quite sure what to make of the signals they discovered inside the octopus’ brain.
Dr. Tamar Gutnick, the study’s lead author, says that “octopuses are the perfect animal to study” if we want to understand exactly how the brain works. Not only do they have a large brain, but they also have unique bodies and advanced cognitive abilities, Gutnick explained in a statement. Imaging the brain activity of an octopus was no easy task, either, Gutnick noted.
Because octopuses don’t have skulls, their brains are wrapped in a fragile capsule of cartilage. This capsule makes it very difficult to install electrode implants like those needed to capture brain activity. And, because octopuses can easily remove things from their body with their long arms, it wasn’t possible to connect them to its body, either. So how exactly do you record an octopus’s brain?
Well, the researchers had to rely on a workaround. First, they implanted a data logger and some electrodes into the octopus. This was done by making a small incision between the eyes and inserting the devices – which had been attached to a plastic card. This allowed them to implant the device directly into the octopus’ brain lobes.
By doing this, the researchers were able to pick up clear brain signals from the octopuses. However, they have yet to decipher them. Some waves appear similar to mammalian brain activity, even somewhat similar to the human brain. Others are more alien, though. These were longer lasting and had slower oscillations than expected.
Additionally, the brain waves did not seem to adhere to the octopus’ behavior in any way, either. Its movements, tasks, and other activities did not seem to provide any direct correlation with the waves that researchers were picking up, raising even more questions about these strange creatures that call Earth’s oceans home. | Biology |
While the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, a new threat looms on the horizon: the avian influenza (more commonly known as bird flu) outbreak that is sweeping across the globe. In particular, the H5N1 strain of this virus is raising fears among scientists monitoring its spread. We must be proactive about the bird flu before this outbreak grows into a pandemic.
Back in October 2022, veterinarians noticed that minks at a farm in Galicia, Spain were dying unexpectedly. While SARS-CoV-2 was suspected to be the culprit, lab tests revealed that H5N1 was to blame. Workers were immediately quarantined, and more than 50,000 minks were killed. While none of the farm workers became infected, it was an unprecedented finding.
Though H5N1 is making headlines now, the bird flu strain is more than 25 years old. It was initially detected at a goose farm in China in 1996. The first documented human deaths resulted from a poultry outbreak occurring in Hong Kong in 1997.
In addition to devastating global bird populations and posing the risk of a pandemic, bird flu has dealt massive blows to the animal agriculture industry. Any time that the virus is detected, the entire flock must be killed to prevent the spread of the virus.
The current outbreak has cost the government $661 million and resulted in 58 million birds slaughtered, 43 million of which were egg-laying chickens. Consumers are already bearing this cost as egg prices rose to $4.82 per dozen in January compared to $1.93 just a year earlier.
The bird flu binds to specific receptors in the upper airways of birds. These receptors are less common in mammalian upper airways. This is why H5N1 has not caused much trouble to mammals in the past; however, this new wave has infected many mammalian species — such as foxes, cats, ferrets, seals, dolphins, bears and humans.
This news is incredibly concerning. While the H5N1 strain has not infected humans often, it has a troubling 53% case fatality rate when it does. As infection numbers rise, the probability of a deadly mutation occurring only increases.
Compared to the virus found in birds, the version detected in minks showed several changes, including a mutation allowing it to better replicate in mammalian tissue (T271A). Isabella Monne, a veterinary researcher at the European Union’s Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Italy, expressed concern.
“This is a clear mechanism for an H5 pandemic to start,” Monne said.
Farms pose a huge threat for viral epidemics. When we force thousands of mammals to live together in close contact with each other and humans, we create ideal conditions for pathogens to spread and adapt. What’s more, the mink’s upper respiratory tract is well suited to spread the bird flu to humans.
In 2020, Danish mink farms generated new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that infected humans. Monne advocates for increased biosafety measures at farms such as wearing masks and enforcing better sanitary conditions. Thomas Peacock, virologist and research associate at Imperial College London, adds that it may be time to think about ending mink farming in general.
“It’s a bit of an existential threat,” Peacock stated.
Many questions have been raised about the ethicality of this industry. Minks are raised for their fur, a luxury item that is “not essential to human health or well-being,” according to University of Oxford ethicist Andrew Linzey.
In the face of the H5N1 outbreak, it is essential to take proactive steps to prevent the spread of bird flu and suppress early outbreaks. Surveillance and monitoring are key. The U.S. and the World Health Organization already have influenza surveillance networks. Effective monitoring would need to prioritize those at higher risk of contracting bird flu such as poultry workers and healthcare workers.
Additionally, testing should be made widely available and easy to obtain. Those in contact with patients, poultry and wild birds should be able to test after any potential exposure.
In terms of prevention, there are several H5N1 vaccines already approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, while the U.S. government has an H5N1 vaccine stockpile, it is meager compared to the amount necessary to prevent a serious outbreak.
As a result, if an outbreak occurs, the country will have to scramble to mass-produce vaccines. Instead, we should be adequately prepared before cases rise. More must be done to prepare for outbreaks.
There is an opportunity to prevent a pandemic and protect the health of people and animals around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic did not allow us to prepare in advance, but, this time, we have an opportunity to prevent disaster.
Ritwik Raj is a sophomore from Glenville, N.Y. majoring in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Psychology. | Biology |
We all know how important sleep is for mental health, but a meta-analysis publishing in the journal Current Biology on March 13 found that getting good shut-eye also helps our immune systems respond to vaccination. The authors found that people who slept less than six hours per night produced significantly fewer antibodies than people who slept seven hours or more, and the deficit was equivalent to two months of antibody waning.
“Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine,” says senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago who, along with lead author Karine Spiegel at the French National Institute of Health and Medicine, published a landmark study on the effects of sleep on vaccination in 2002.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and mass-vaccination became an international priority, Spiegel and Van Cauter set out to summarize our current knowledge about the effect of sleep duration on vaccine response.
To do this, they combed the literature and then combined and re-analyzed the results of seven studies that vaccinated for viral infections (influenza and hepatitis A and B). In their analysis, the team compared the antibody response for individuals who slept a “normal” amount (7–9 hours, as per the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendation for healthy adults) with “short sleepers” who slept less than 6 hours per night. They compared the effect for men versus women and adults over the age of 65 years versus younger adults.
Overall, they found strong evidence that sleeping less than 6 hours per night reduces the immune response to vaccination. When they analyzed men and women separately, though, the result was only significant in men, and the effect of sleep duration on antibody production was much more variable in women. This difference is probably due to fluctuating sex hormone levels in women, the authors say.
“We know from immunology studies that sex hormones influence the immune system,” says Spiegel. “In women, immunity is influenced by the state of the menstrual cycle, the use of contraceptives, and by menopause and post-menopausal status, but unfortunately, none of the studies that we summarized had any data about sex hormone levels.”
The negative effect of insufficient sleep on antibody levels was also greater for adults aged 18–60 compared with people over the age of 65. This was not surprising because older adults tend to sleep less in general; going from seven hours of sleep per night to less than six hours is not as big of a change as going from eight hours to less than six per night.
Some of the studies measured sleep duration directly, either via motion-detecting wristwatches or in a sleep lab, while others relied on self-reported sleep duration. In both cases, short sleep duration was associated with lower levels of antibodies, but the effect was stronger for the studies that used objective measures of sleep, likely because people are notoriously bad at estimating the amount of sleep they have had.
Knowing that sleep duration impacts vaccination might give people some degree of control over their immunity, the authors say. “When you see the variability in protection provided by the COVID-19 vaccines—people who have pre-existing conditions are less protected, men are less protected than women, and obese people are less protected than people who don't have obesity. Those are all factors that an individual person has no control over, but you can modify your sleep,” says Van Cauter.
However, there’s a lot more to be known about sleep and vaccination, the authors say. “We need to understand the sex differences, which days around the time of vaccination are most important, and exactly how much sleep is needed so that we can give guidance to people,” says Spiegel. “We are going to be vaccinating millions and millions of people in the next few years, and this is an aspect that can help maximize protection.”
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Current Biology, Spiegel et al. ‘Impact of sleep duration on the antibody response to vaccination: A meta-analysis’, https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00156-2
Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact [email protected].
Journal
Current Biology
Method of Research
Meta-analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
A meta-analysis of the associations between insufficient sleep duration and antibody response to vaccination
Article Publication Date
13-Mar-2023 | Biology |
Researchers in Australia have discovered a new species of gecko with beautiful psychedelic eyes. The stunning lizards evaded detection for decades due to their similarities with a closely related species.
The new species, called the lesser thorn-tailed gecko (Strophurus spinula), is about 2.4 inches (6.1 centimeters) long and has a dappled pattern of white and gray scales, which is also mimicked in its eyes. The camouflaged geckos live in woodland areas across the south of Western Australia, though researchers are unsure exactly how large the newfound gecko’s population is.
S. spinula is the 21st species to be identified in the genus Strophurus, all of which are endemic to Australia. They are collectively known as spiny-tailed geckos because they have small spines on their tails and occasionally above their eyes.
S. spinula was thought to be part of the closely related species S. assimilis, also known as the Goldfields spiny-tailed gecko. But in the new study, published in the journal Records of the Western Australian Museum, researchers conducted a widescale genetic analysis of the genus and discovered the new species.
A closer examination of S. spinula showed the newfound species can be physically distinguished from S. assimilis and other spiny-tailed geckos by its unusually straight and unevenly spaced spines along its body and enlarged spines on its tail, researchers wrote in the paper.
The genetic analysis also revealed that despite looking most similar to S. assimilis, the new species is actually more closely related to the eastern spiny-tailed gecko (S. intermedius), the soft spiny-tailed gecko (S. spinigerus) and the Exmouth spiny-tailed gecko (S. rankini), the researchers wrote.
Like all other spiny-tailed geckos, S. spinula can secrete a harmless and foul-smelling chemical from glands near its tail to deter potentially predatory birds from landing in overhead shrubbery, where they normally attack from.
S. spinula appears to prefer woodlands dominated by the mulga tree (Acacia aneura), which grows in extremely arid conditions. The researchers now want to find out why the new species prefers this habitat type.
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Harry is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. When not at work he can be found watching sci-fi films, playing old Pokemon games or running (probably slower than he'd like). | Biology |
For any company, great talent is key for hitting goals and building scale successfully, but hiring the best people is by no means done cheaply or quickly. Startups have it doubly hard, though: in addition to finding great talent, they have to convince them to accept lower compensation — and sometimes more work — than they would get from working for a larger tech company.
But the current labor market puts founders in a much better position. Speaking at a panel focused on taking advantage of a softer labor market at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, Nick Cromydas, the co-founder and CEO of Hunt Club; Samara Hernandez, founding partner at Chingona Ventures; and Noah Gale, the co-founder of Tribe AI, all agreed that founders today have it better than they did a couple years ago.
According to Cromydas, the whiplash we’ve seen in the labor market over the last few years has created an environment that startups can and should take advantage of.
“There was a madness and a mania for getting the best talent the last two or three years that boosted compensation all the way up. If you were an earlier-stage company trying to hire really great talent, you were competing against growth-stage companies looking to go public. So it was really hard to hire meaningful folks, because everyone was chasing the growth-stage gold rush,” he said. “It’s a really good normalization for tech startups.”
Hernandez added that the currently less competitive hiring market also means that expectations are being reset around salary and compensation packages. Startups shouldn’t feel like they need to offer packages they can’t really afford to land the best talent.
The softer job environment means companies can hire slowly and thoughtfully, too, which wasn’t the case a few years ago. Cromydas suggested startups tap their networks and ask for referrals in order to fill roles with folks looking to buy-in to the company’s mission. He added that the layoffs have also likely turned off a lot of the “tourists” looking to work at startups thinking they’ll get rich quick. | Tech Startups |
Jay L. Zagorsky is an economist at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.
The space industry has changed dramatically since the Apollo program put men on the moon in the late 1960s.
Today, over 50 years later, private companies are sending tourists to the edge of space and building lunar landers. NASA is bringing together 27 countries to peacefully explore the moon and beyond, and it is using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time. Private companies are playing a much larger role in space than they ever have before, though NASA and other government interests continue to drive scientific advances.
I'm a macroeconomist who's interested in understanding how these space-related innovations and the growing role of private industry have affected the economy. Recently, the U.S. government started tracking the space economy's size. These data can tell us the size of the space-related industry, whether its outputs come mainly from government or private enterprise, and how they have been growing relative to the economy at large.
Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic made up over 80% of the U.S. space economy in 2021. The government held a 19% share of space spending, up from 16% in 2012 – mostly thanks to an increase in military spending.
Ways to measure the space economy
There are many ways to measure economic success in space.
One way is the economic impact. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which tracks the nation's gross domestic product and other indicators, recently began to monitor the space economy and published figures from 2012 to 2021. The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated the impact of space using both broad and narrow definitions.
The broad definition comprises four parts: Things used in space, like rocket ships; items supporting space travel, like launch pads; things getting direct input from space, like cell phone GPS chips; and space education, like planetariums and college astrophysics departments.
In 2021, the broad definition showed that total space-related sales, or what the government calls gross output, was over US$210 billion, before adjusting for inflation. That number represents about 0.5% of the whole U.S. economy’s total gross output.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis also has a narrow definition that excludes satellite television, satellite radio and space education. The difference in definitions is important because back in 2012 these three categories represented one-quarter of all space spending. However, by 2021, they only represented one-eighth of spending because many people had switched from watching satellite TV to streaming movies and shows over the internet.
Space's share of the economy
A closer look at the data shows that space's share of the U.S. economy is shrinking.
Using the broad definition and adjusting for inflation, the relative size of the space economy fell by about one-fifth from 2012 to 2021. This is because sales of space-related items – everything from rockets to satellite TV – have barely changed since 2015.
Using the narrow definition also shows the space economy is getting relatively smaller. From 2012 to 2021, the space sector’s inflation-adjusted gross output grew on average 3% a year, compared with 5% for the overall economy. This suggests space is not growing as fast as other economic sectors.
Space jobs
The number of jobs created by the space economy has also declined. In 2021, 360,000 people worked full- or part-time space-related jobs in the private sector, down from 372,000 about a decade earlier, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis could not track all space-related government jobs since spy agencies and parts of the military don't provide much information. Nevertheless, it has tracked some since 2018. The military's Space Force, which is the smallest branch, adds about 9,000 workers. NASA has about 18,000 employees, which is half of its 1960s peak.
Combining these government workers plus all private workers results in just under 400,000 people. To give some perspective, Amazon's U.S. workforce is over twice as big and Walmart's is four times bigger than reported U.S. space-related employment.
Growing competition in space
The U.S. has long dominated the space economy, especially in terms of government spending.
The U.S. government spent a little more than $40 billion in 2017, compared with about $3.5 billion spent by Japan and less than $2 billion by Russia.
Moreover, most of the top private space companies are based in the U.S., led by Boeing, SpaceX and Raytheon, which gives the U.S. a leg up in continuing to play a leading role with the rockets, satellites and other stuff needed to operate in space.
The U.S. also published more than twice the amount of space research in 2017 as its next nearest rival – China.
But China is catching up and has narrowed the gap in recent years as top Chinese officials decided success in space is a national priority. Their goal is reportedly to surpass the U.S. as the dominant space power by 2045. China recently put a large space station called the Tiangong into orbit and aims to put people on the moon.
China's not the only one joining the 21st century space race. India is expanding its space economy rapidly, with 140 space-tech startups. India launched a rocket on July 14, 2023, designed to put a lander and rover on the moon. And the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft plans to map parts of the universe to study dark matter. The ESA released the craft's first test images at the end of July 2023.
The U.S. has a strong foothold in space. But whether it can maintain its lead – as the space race moves into a new frontier of space mining and missions to Mars – remains to be seen. | Tech Startups |
Saronic, a startup developing autonomous ships for defense, has raised $55 million in a Series A round led by Caffeinated Capital with participation from 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, Silent Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Ensemble VC, Cubit Capital and the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund.
Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas, a former Navy SEAL, launched the company last year with the goal of building autonomous surface ships for the Navy and U.S.-aligned defense customers.
Autonomous seagoing vessels is a growing field, albeit one not necessarily focused on defense. Saildrone, which this spring took the wraps off its autonomous vessel for research, has raised well over $100 million in venture capital. Meanwhile, startups like Shone, backed by Y Combinator, are creating tech to retrofit existing ships with autonomous navigation capabilities.
Saronic builds autonomous boats from the ground up, Mavrookas says.
“We build our boats around the mission, not the mission around the boat,” he told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Saronic fills a gap where shipbuilders, traditionally focused on manufacturing large naval ships, lack the capacity and expertise [for autonomous ship design], while other vendors provide legacy platforms and struggle with production at scale.”
Saronic is currently prototyping two ships, the 6-foot Spyglass and 13-foot Cutlass, each outfitted with remotely updatable software and capable of carrying “diverse” payloads even in communication dead zones. Evidently, the Navy was impressed with these; Mavrookas claims that Saronic already has two R&D agreements with the maritime service branch.
My colleagues Anna Heim and Connie Loizos recently wrote about how VC firms are opening the floodgates for defense tech. Historically, defense tech hasn’t drawn in the venture capital associated with other industries. But that started to change last year, when U.S.-based defense tech startups raised a total of $2.1 billion across 53 total deals, which includes defense firm Anduril’s $1.5 billion Series E.
Momentum isn’t slowing down. In the last few months, Helsing, a “defense AI” startup backed by Spotify founder Daniel Ek, broke a record for European AI startups, raising a $223 million Series B. Castelion, which aims to mass-produce defense hardware starting with hypersonics, secured a $14.2 million initial funding round. And defense startup Mach Industries landed $79 million at a $335 million valuation.
There’s a number of geopolitical factors contributing to the boom, the ongoing war in Ukraine being one of them. Certain startup segments in China have become less attractive than they once were, given newly imposed export controls and rules restricting U.S.-based investors from backing critical tech. And the U.S. government and its allies — through laws like the CHIPS and Science Act and funds such as defense alliance’s NATO’s $1 billion startup tranche — are actively promoting investments in semiconductors and broader industrial development.
The climate’s to Saronic’s benefit. But, Mavrookas asserts, the startup’s also competing on its own merits.
“Saronic is unlike any other company in the maritime autonomy arena — our competitors are predominantly boat builders trying to be technology companies,” Mavrookas said. “Autonomy at sea has unique challenges. Constants for space, land, and air autonomy; like fixed positions and constant distances, aren’t reliable on the ever-shifting surface of the ocean … Saronic is a technology company delivering capabilities through autonomous boats.”
Saronic, which is based in Austin, Texas, has raised around $70 million in venture capital to date and has roughly 45 employees. | Tech Startups |
Largely because of their age, houses in Europe can be notoriously hard to heat. Most were built for an era when the knowledge about energy consumption just wasn’t available in the way it is today. With energy becoming more expensive, and energy security ratcheting-up as a geopolitical issue, tech startups looking at this problem have been proliferating. What’s needed is a simple way for consumers to engage with the issue around how much energy their home needs, how to manage that, and, crucially, how to finance the changes needed.
An example of this out of New York is Sealed, a climate tech company that designs, manages, and finances home weatherization and electrification projects. It also recently bought sensor startup InfiSense to fuel its energy-saving services.
In Germany, a similar startup is “Enter” (formerly named Baupal) which has now raised a €19.4 million Series A financing round. In the round were VC firms Coatue, Foundamental, Target Global, A/O Proptech, and Partech.
Home-owners complete a digital survey, then get an assessment of the energy status of their building, and suggestions on how to reduce their outgoings. It also takes care of the appropriate subsidy applications for renovations.
Justus Menten, co-founder, and managing director of Enter, says traditional energy assessments are way too slow: “Currently, around 200,000 properties are renovated in Germany every year. But to achieve our climate goals, it must be more than one million. Today’s certified energy efficiency consultants cannot achieve this goal in the traditional way. Although the training of new advisors is already running at full speed, it will take several years before sufficient capacities are available in Germany. This is where Enter comes in,” he said in a statement.
Enter claims that 75 percent of homeowners are worried they can’t afford energy-efficient renovations, hence why this is offered as part of the service.
As well as VCs, Enter also has business angels and advisers including Oliver Merkel, McMakler co-founders Hanno Heintzenberg and Lukas Pieczonka, taxfix COO Dr Daniel Kreter, Medwing founder Johannes Roggendorf and DST Global co-founder Tom Stafford.
Over a call Max Schroeren, Co-Founder and Managing Director, told me: “We end up with 250 data points and we only have to ask eight to nine questions. And that gives us 90% accuracy about the real energy-saving potential of the house. We then do a site visit with our own energy consultants to verify the data and add more and more data points. So at the end, the homeowner has a digital twin of the building and a better better understanding how to improve the house.”
Sarah Cannon, General Partner and Head of European Private Investments at Coatue said: “As the shift to energy sovereignty accelerates in Europe, consumers require tangible solutions to navigate the transition. Enter´s unique home energy intelligence platform gives consumers direct control over their energy footprint and effective steps to improve home energy efficiency, reducing climate impact.” | Tech Startups |
- VCs and an analyst told CNBC that Silicon Valley Bank's collapse is unlikely to affect fundraising for tech startups in Southeast Asia.
- "I think it's a watch out, but I don't think that contagion spreads," said David Gowdey, managing partner at Southeast Asian venture capital firm Jungle Ventures, on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia."
- Constellation Research analyst Ray Wang also told CNBC that VCs will still be able to fund tech entrepreneurs.
The collapse of U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank is unlikely to hit fundraising for tech startups in Southeast Asia, venture capitalists and an analyst told CNBC.
The bank served many venture capital firms and venture capital-backed startups. But last week, depositors rushed to withdraw their funds as panic over the bank's financial situation spread, causing it to collapse.
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"I think [the impact on fundraising is] a watch out, but I don't think that contagion spreads," said David Gowdey, managing partner at Southeast Asian venture capital firm Jungle Ventures, on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Tuesday.
"I think Secretary Yellen and the government did a fantastic job of stepping in and taking away a lot of that risk, creating a lot of stability in the markets," he said. On Sunday, U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced plans to backstop depositors of the bank.
Gowdey said SVB was the firm's primary bank, but added, "We pull a lot of that money into Southeast Asia, into Singapore banks. And so for us, the exposure to SVB was not large."
Golden Gate Ventures, which also invests in Southeast Asian startups, said the SVB fallout is an opportunity for the region.
"This has actually been helpful to Southeast Asia. It now looks like a golden child to U.S. investors. Investors are starting to say: I want to diversify to different bank accounts, different geographies, different currencies," Vinnie Lauria, managing partner at Golden Gate Ventures, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Tuesday.
"And this is where Southeast Asia has the time to shine, in light of the situation," added Lauria.
When asked if the situation makes fundraising more difficult, Gowdey said funds in Southeast Asia are well capitalized.
"I think it's being selective because of the macro environment. [Accessing] the capital will get harder, but the capital is there and it's getting deployed," said Gowdey.
VC firms previously told CNBC that economic uncertainties have made them pickier with investments in 2023.
"[In terms of] access to capital to tech entrepreneurs, the VCs will still be able to fund them," Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Tuesday.
"But it's the question about taking bank loans, having operating capital, being able to actually run operations and having a bank that understands how a technology company works or biotech company works. That's really what's being lost here," added Wang. | Tech Startups |
Tech startups Instacart and Klaviyo filed to go public, marking the return of the tech IPO.
IPOs have been near nonexistent over the last year and a half thanks to a volatile stock market.
Instacart and others going public are profitable, a bar others may have to meet to be successful.
The tech IPO is back. After a long hiatus, the IPO market is finally showing signs of life thanks to the long-awaited declaration that Instacart is planning to go public.
After SoftBank-owned chip company Arm decided to test the waters of the market earlier this week, Instacart and marketing automation company Klaviyo are now the first venture-backed tech companies to file for IPOs since December 2021. That's when software company HashiCorp and cloud tech company Samsara went public.
Here's one thing Arm, Instacart, and Klaviyo have in common: profitability. And that may be the secret sauce to a successful public debut.
Instacart revealed profits of $428 million in 2022 and $242 million for the first six months of 2023. Arm posted profits of $524 million for the fiscal year that ended in March and $105 million for the quarter that ended in June. And Klaviyo reported a $15 million profit for the first six months of this year.
That Instacart and Klaviyo are profitable could make them attractive to investors who became skittish in the downturn. The strong business fundamentals wring out some of the risk of such investments, said Tom Loverro, a general partner at IVP. Though, he says profitability isn't necessarily a requirement of going public.
"I don't think profitability is like the rule. But it's hard to be interesting. You either need to be such a rocket ship that people are like, 'You're unprofitable, but oh my god, this could change the world. Take my money.' Or, you're in the bucket of, 'I don't know if it's going to change the world but at least it's profitable. I'm less likely to lose,'" Loverro said.
IPOs have been few and far between in the past year due to market volatility. Only 149 IPOs launched in the US last year, the lowest total since 2016. That's compared to 908 companies that went public in 2021, according to S&P Global. A shaky market has also caused venture capital investors to pull back on funding, making it difficult for many startups to raise funding and grow their businesses.
Instacart, which was founded in 2012 and has grown to be a frontrunner in the grocery delivery space, has long teased plans to go public. The move has been highly anticipated by industry insiders as a sign the IPO market is on the mend. The grocery delivery company's biggest backers include Sequoia Capital and D1 Capital Partners, which each own at least a 5% stake.
And Klaviyo, also founded in 2012, has received funding from VCs and private equity firms alike. Its biggest investors include the PE firm Summit Partners, Shopify, and VC firm Accomplice.
As of late, it hasn't been good news for companies that have gone public. Better — the mortgage company whose CEO became infamous for firing 900 employees via a Zoom call —merged with a special purpose acquisition company, absolutely tanked on its first trading day to the tune of 95%.
But in recent weeks, a rally in the stock market has startup backers feeling optimistic. "We all want to see signs of life," said Joe Kaiser, a managing director at Mercato Partners. "There's absolutely pent-up institutional demand. There's a lineup of amazing companies that are ready to go public."
These companies with the patina of profitability have something else in common: name recognition.
Kaiser said institutional investors want to lead out with startups like Instacart and Cava, a Mediterranean restaurant chain that went public in June, because retail investors will know them and support them. In July, its first full month as a publicly traded company, shares of Cava jumped 39%. That same month the beauty and wellness company Oddity saw a 35% pop in its Nasdaq debut. Enterprise software startups are watching these launches closely with the hope that the consumer startups will be successful, so they can be fast followers.
"Everyone wants to be second, third in line," Kaiser said. "No one quite wants to be first."
Read the original article on Business Insider | Tech Startups |
In case one needed more evidence that there's a massive appetite for generative AI, SAP, the Germany-based consulting giant, yesterday invested in three major generative AI players: Anthropic, Cohere and Aleph Alpha.
The terms of the direct investments, which weren't disclosed, build on SAP's $1 billion-plus commitment to back AI-powered enterprise tech startups from Sapphire Ventures, the enterprise venture capital firm. SAP also recently highlighted several internal AI efforts at its annual Sapphire conference, including a digital assistant in its customer experience tooling.
"We're at a watershed moment, with generative AI poised to fundamentally change how businesses run," SAP chief strategy officer Sebastian Steinhaeuser said in a press release. "SAP is committed to creating an enterprise AI ecosystem for the future that complements our world-class business applications suite and helps our customers unlock their full potential."
All three of the investments -- Aleph Alpha, Anthropic and Cohere -- are very clearly aligned with SAP's business interests. SAP provides a range of sales-, service- and commerce-oriented products, all of which stand to benefit from text-analyzing AI.
Anthropic is building an AI system, Claude, that helps with a range of business-to-business tasks, including generating answers, coding, automating workflows and processing text within the context of natural conversations. As for Cohere, it provides a generative text platform that's accessible through an API as a managed service and can be deployed on virtual private clouds or on site to meet companies where their data resides. Aleph Alpha -- which was already a SAP Partner -- creates and hosts multimodal, multi-language models, meanwhile, with a focus on interoperability, data privacy and security.
Cohere's president and COO, Martin Kon, said that working with SAP was an "obvious fit," given their European roots and Cohere's ambitions in Europe.
"This investment builds on our existing enterprise collaborations with Oracle, McKinsey, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Sentinel One, and others, as we bring our independent, cloud-agnostic, data-secure approach to generative AI to enterprises globally," Kon told TechCrunch via email.
Aleph Alpha and Anthropic didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
SAP's announcement comes after McKinsey said that it would partner with Cohere to help enterprises adopt generative AI -- marking the firm's first partnership with a text-generating AI model provider. And it follows a raft of other announcements from big consulting firms underlining their seriousness about generative AI as a technology.
Accenture earlier this year pledged to invest $3 billion in AI over the next three years, with the bulk to be put toward staffing. The company plans to double its AI-focused army of consultants to 80,000 through a mix of hiring, acquisitions and training.
Not to be outdone, PwC said it would spend $1 billion on AI over the same time frame to expand and scale its AI offerings. As part of the push, PwC will partner with Microsoft to create offerings using OpenAI’s GPT-4 and ChatGPT alongside Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, which packages OpenAI technologies in an enterprise-friendly format.
McKinsey -- which is a tad biased, granted -- estimates that generative AI could add $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy, almost the economic equivalent of adding an entire new country the size and productivity of the U.K. ($3.1 trillion GDP in 2021) to the world.
But other strategists say that the AI boom won't lead to massive profits, warning that the hype mirrors that of the tech bubble of the 1990s. Time will tell who's right, as always. | Tech Startups |
Digantara, an Indian space tech startup that is working on space situational awareness, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia) as it plans to kick off commercial space operations and satellite traffic management. This is notably the first space-tech investment by the storied investor.
The all-equity Series A1 funding round saw participation from the startup’s existing investor Kalaari Capital. It also introduced Japan’s VC firm Global Brain, Campus Fund and the founders of IIFL Wealth to its cap table. The four-year-old startup has raised $12.5 million to date, including the seed round of $2.5 million from Kalaari Capital in 2021.
Space has evolved into a captivating realm and has gained the attention of governments, public bodies such as NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and also various private companies worldwide. But with the increasing number of players joining the space industry, there is a growing concern about potentially dangerous debris and objects that can cause damage to spacecraft. These objects are often too small to detect, posing a significant threat to successful space missions. Digantara strives to solve this problem using its infrastructure backed by a constellation of satellites and software.
Founded in December 2018 by Indian engineers Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat and Tanveer Ahmed, the Bengaluru-based startup is developing an end-to-end solution called ‘Space – Mission Assurance Platform’ or ‘Space – MAP’ to address the difficulties of space operations and situational awareness. This will use data from different sources including the startup’s own satellites and commercial satellite operators as well as government agencies and private companies.
“We do something similar to what Google does with Google Maps, which is crowdsourcing the data,” said Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Digantara, in an interview.
Once the data is collected, the startup processes it into orbital positions that are later converted into analytics to offer decision-making intelligence.
“It shouldn’t be like any software the world has used before. It’s more of an immersive experience that we’re providing with our software platform to users,” the co-founder said.
The startup will offer three modules: one for defense with functions such as volumetric screening and satellite behavior pattern analysis, the second for commercial customers with a machine design service and the third for insurance with risk reports for each orbit and risk determination.
Sharma told TechCrunch that insurance would become crucial in the space industry as the number of satellites grows. Digantara’s platform will help insurance companies better understand the risks in such cases, he believes.
Space agencies in the U.S., Europe and Russia have had their own space situational awareness programs for some time to monitor objects in orbit and forecast their movements. However, Sharma said that these programs are not enough for a satellite operator to make better decisions. In fact, he noted that Digantara’s platform would act as an “additional layer” to what these agencies have offered.
Alongside the space agencies, startups and companies including LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace and ExoAnalytic Solutions in the U.S. offer competitive solutions to track space objects. Nonetheless, Sharma said Digantara’s does it differently. He pointed out that most of these existing players use ground-based radars and telescopes to track space objects and have a standard process to offer analytics through software.
Digantara takes a different approach by incorporating sensor and data fusion. This allows to collect the data not only from a single type of sensor but also from multiple sensors and sources, enabling crowdsourcing of data, the co-founder underlined.
Since its inception, Digantara has launched two demonstration missions, including the last one with SpaceX in January. However, it has yet to kick off its commercial satellite mission, under which it will launch a batch of eight satellites in orbits between 311 and 497 miles (500–800 kilometres). This part of space, called low Earth orbit (LEO), will cover the densest trajectories in space, with huge commercial traffic and high-debris density. SpaceX’s Starlink, for example, operates in LEO.
One of these eight satellite missions will be launched this year, Sharma said, adding that depending on its result, the startup will decide to proceed with the following launches.
Digantara is looking to launch its software platform in the market in Q2 2024 as a SaaS model. It will initially be available as a beta service to government agencies in India and Singapore. The startup also plans to work with the U.K. government.
Recently, Digantara expanded its presence to Singapore and also established India’s first commercial space situational awareness optical observatory in the northern state of Uttrakhand. Sharma told TechCrunch that the startup plans to have its offices in the U.S. and Europe — in addition to working with new and existing customers in Southeast Asia and India.
The fresh funds will help expand the startup’s market presence alongside building its hardware infrastructure by launching planned satellites and scaling its software development. The startup also looks to hire more staff to widen its 30-member team.
“The team at Digantara is working towards creating the most advanced SSA data collection infrastructure. We believe that this will lead to significant capability in the life cycle of managing satellites, which is a rapidly growing market. We are thrilled to partner with Anirudh, Rahul and Tanveer on this journey,” said Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Peak XV Partners, in a prepared statement.
Overall, India has become a compelling market for investors looking to put money into emerging space tech startups. The South Asian nation already has over 100 startups covering a wide range of fields such as satellite development, launchers and hyperspectral earth imagery. The Indian government recently introduced its new space policy to establish guidelines and rules for the country’s space ecosystem and detail public and private participation. Big tech including Google and Microsoft have also started showing interest in Indian space tech startups.
According to the latest data shared by Indian Space Association (ISpA) with TechCrunch, Indian space tech startups have raised nearly $294 million, with $37.62 million infused in 2023.
That said, global investors and startups looking to raise funds from international VCs currently anticipate clear foreign direct investment guidelines for the space industry to assess their business potential more effectively. | Tech Startups |
A couple of climate tech startups plan to suck a hell of a lot of carbon dioxide out of the air and trap it underground in Wyoming. The goal of the new endeavor, called Project Bison, is to build a new facility capable of drawing down 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2030. The CO2 can then be stored deep within the Earth, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it would have continued to heat up the planet.A Los Angeles-based company called CarbonCapture is building the facility, called a direct air capture (DAC) plant, that is expected to start operations as early as next year. It’ll start small and work up to 5 million metric tons a year. If all goes smoothly by 2030, the operation will be orders of magnitude larger than existing direct air capture projects. “Project Bison would be the single largest project that has been announced to date, both domestically and internationally,” Peter Minor, director of science and innovation at the nonprofit Carbon180 that advocates for carbon removal, said in an email. Orders of magnitude largerRight now, there are just 18 DAC plants across the world. Combined, they can only capture around 0.01 million metric tons of CO2 annually. The biggest DAC and carbon storage facility yet, called Orca, just came online in Iceland in September 2021. And even that facility is relatively small. It can draw down around 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, about as much climate pollution as 790 gas-guzzling passenger vehicles create annually.CarbonCapture’s equipment is modular, which is what the company says makes the technology easy to scale up. The plant itself will be made of modules that look like stacks of shipping containers with vents that air passes through. At first, the modules used for Project Bison will be made at CarbonCapture’s headquarters in Los Angeles. In the first phase of the project, expected to be completed next year, around 25 modules will be deployed in Wyoming. Those modules will collectively have the capacity to remove about 12,000 tons of CO2 a year from the air. The plan is to deploy more modules in Wyoming over time and potentially manufacture the modules there one day, too. “It’s just this idea of being able to build something off-site, ship it easily on-site, and then assemble them kind of like a Lego system on the site itself,” says Adrian Corless, CEO and CTO of CarbonCapture.A rendering of assembly of a CarbonCapture DAC array. Image: CarbonCaptureInside each of the 40-foot modules are about 16 “reactors” with “sorbent cartridges” that essentially act as filters that attract CO2. The filters capture about 75 percent of the CO2 from the air that passes over them. Within about 30 to 40 minutes, the filters have absorbed all the CO2 they can. Once the filters are fully saturated, the reactor goes offline so that the filters can be heated up to separate out the CO2. There are many reactors within one module, each running at its own pace so that they’re constantly collecting CO2. Together, they generate concentrated streams of CO2 that can then be compressed and sent straight to underground wells for storage.The process comes with costs. DAC is still very expensive — it can cost upwards of $600 to capture a ton of carbon dioxide. That figure is expected to come down with time as the technology advances. But for now, it takes a lot of energy to run DAC plants, which contributes to the big price tag. The filters need to reach around 85 degrees Celsius (185 degrees Fahrenheit) for a few minutes, and getting to those kinds of high temperature for DAC plants can get pretty energy-intensive. Eventually, Corless says, Bison plans to get enough power from new wind and solar installations. When the project is running at its full capacity in 2030, it’s expected to use the equivalent of about 2GW of solar energy per year. For comparison, about 3 million photovoltaic panels together generate a gigawatt of solar energy, according to the Department of Energy.But initially, the energy used by Project Bison might have to come from natural gas, according to Corless. So Bison would first need to capture enough CO2 to cancel out the amount of emissions it generates by burning through that gas before it can go on to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. CarbonCapture is partnering with Dallas-based company Frontier Carbon Solutions to take care of the carbon storage side of things. If Project Bison comes to fruition, it would be the first direct air capture project in the US to use “Class VI wells” designed specifically for permanent CO2 storage. The geology in Wyoming allows Project Bison to store the captured CO2 on-site near the modules. Project Bison plans to permanently store the CO2 it captures underground. Specifically, project leaders are looking at stowing it 12,000 feet underground in “saline aquifers” — areas of rock that are saturated with salt water. “It’s protected from ever coming back up through the cap rock and the geology that sits above this,” Corless says. For now, Project Bison developers are keeping mum on where in Wyoming the project will be located. “There’s a danger that publicly talking about that could impact the actual certification process,” Corless says, referring to certifications the project would need to inject the CO2 into Class VI wells.The Biden administration and Wyoming lawmakers are encouraging the carbon removal industry to growBoth the Biden administration and Wyoming lawmakers are encouraging the carbon removal industry to grow. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that passed last year includes $3.5 billion to build up four “regional hubs” for direct air capture. And the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed this year, greatly expands tax credits for carbon removal projects. “It was hugely impactful,” Corless says of the Inflation Reduction Act. “It was an acceleration. It certainly had us really rethink the scale of the project, and how quickly we would scale this project.” In 2021, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon set a goal of making the state “carbon negative.” That means it would capture more CO2 emissions than it releases, a heavy lift since Wyoming is the biggest coal-producing state in the nation. Gordon argues that the state can continue to be a fossil fuel powerhouse while meeting its climate goal, which would make carbon capture and removal essential. Unsurprisingly, the potential for carbon removal technologies to extend the reign of fossil fuels has garnered criticism from grassroots environmental groups. To prevent catastrophic effects from climate change, the world’s leading climate scientists have found we need to prevent global warming from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than preindustrial levels. We’ve already reached 1.2 degrees of warming, and that’s driving more massive storms, devastating wildfires, and deadly heatwaves. DAC is no replacement for preventing greenhouse gas emissions in the first placeBecause human activity has already polluted the atmosphere with so much CO2, removing some of that carbon has become “unavoidable” if the world is to avoid breaching that 1.5 degree threshold, a landmark United Nations climate report says. But it also cautions that technologies like direct air capture will have a limited role to play. It can help to remove some carbon dioxide emissions or perhaps industrial pollution that’s really hard to curb; cement manufacturing, for example, also produces CO2. DAC, however, is no replacement for preventing greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. We’ll still need to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.Nevertheless, the fossil fuel industry is a major player in the carbon removal arena in the US. Texas is home to another project that’s been billed as the world’s first large-scale DAC plant, and petroleum company Occidental is one of the developers. The Texas plant is supposed to eventually have the capacity to remove 1 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere a year. It could come online as early as 2024. Like Bison, it’ll start with a lower capacity for capturing CO2 and then scale up from there.One big difference is that Occidental plans to pair the carbon removal project with its oil business in an audacious attempt to somehow sell oil as a sustainable product. For years, oil companies have used captured carbon in a process called “enhanced oil recovery” — shooting the CO2 into the ground to extract hard-to-reach reserves. Now, Occidental is attempting to brand oil produced in that process as more environmentally friendly “net-zero oil.” When it comes to using captured CO2 to produce more oil, “That’s something that as a company we have no interest in aligning ourselves with. Our company is just about carbon removal,” says Corless, who was previously the CEO of the rival DAC tech company Carbon Engineering that’s partnering with Occidental on the Texas project. Project Bison’s completion would ultimately be a major milestone for the carbon removal industry, and it has a chance to escape some of the ties to fossil fuels that its competitors hold. Even if all goes well, Bison isn’t expected to reach its full capacity until the end of the decade — when the US is supposed to have slashed its carbon dioxide emissions in half from peak levels under commitments it’s made as part of the Paris climate agreement. That target can only be reached if direct air capture projects like Bison complement, rather than derail, a transition to cleaner sources of energy. | Tech Startups |
The Indian government aims to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can add $967 billion to the economy over the next decade, but faces a tightrope walk in drafting legislation for a rapidly evolving domain. It is trying to set the guardrails for the sector in a forthcoming Bill.
Earlier this year, the government created seven committees of experts to come out with a comprehensive roadmap for a policy push to AI. Last week, the panel came out with a 180-page report.
Here are the 10 most important recommendations made in the report:
Three AI centres of excellence
In the 2023 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government will establish 3 centres of excellence on AI. Now one of the AI working groups has recommended that these centres focus on critical sectors such as governance, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and more. Their objectives include conducting foundational research, technology development, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and AI skill development. The working group has given special attention to how startups can leverage these CoEs by making applications commercially viable, developing products, organising innovation challenges and so on.
India Datasets Platform to have open-source architecture
The central government is set to bring in the India Datasets Platform, "one of the largest publicly assembled and anonymised datasets in the world". The datasets will contain non-personal data and it can be used by various stakeholders such as startups, academia and so on. One of the working groups has suggested that the platform be built on an open-source architecture and codebase. “The use of open-source codebase promotes accessibility, allowing developers to contribute, customise and enhance the platform,” the report said. The working group has also suggested that the platform feature data and an API catalogue so that users can discover such resources.
Monetising non-personal data
The working committee has recommended that the India Dataset Platform be monetised. “Data providers can set pricing models, such as one-time purchases, subscriptions, or licensing fees, based on the value and uniqueness of their datasets,” the report read. It is important to note that the idea of monetising the sharing of non-personal data was dropped by the Indian government after it received criticism over it. The government last year issued a draft policy on the India Datasets Platform which had withdrawn the monetising plans.
Non-personal data regulator in 2 months
The National Data Management Office (NDMO), the nodal body which will be responsible for the India Datasets Platform should be established within 2 months, one of the AI working groups recommended. The timeline suggested by the working group also says that the government should start hiring data management units – officials within ministries/departments who will improve the quality of data and its usage – within 2 months.
The working group also suggested that the IDP be launched within 6 months. Long-term goals include publishing data anonymisation guidelines within 1.5 years, and publishing standards for fair and ethical use of data after 1.5 years.
Rs 4,000 crore funding for 725 AI startups
In the report, one of the working groups said that MeitY Startup Hub has envisaged a Future Design IndiaAI scheme with a budget of Rs 945 crore and matching funding of Rs 3,000 crore from industry for 5 years to foster AI startups. “The program envisages impacting and consolidating 725 tech startups over the course of 5 years to pave the road for an inclusive AI startup ecosystem…” the working group said.
Unlocking early-stage funding potential for AI startups
As part of the IndiaAI, the working group has proposed an AI Ignition Grant Program to support 500 AI/deep tech startups at the product development stage with a grant of Rs 30 lakh each. At the commercialisation stage, the working group has proposed 3 challenges of Rs 3 crore each across various sectors such as agriculture, health, cybersecurity, weather forecasting and so on. "In 5 years, 15 challenges with a total budget of Rs 45 crore," the working group said.
National AI compute grid
The experts have recommended that the Indian government create a computing infrastructure of 24,500 graphics processing units (GPU) at 17 centres to enable innovation in the emerging tech area in the country by startups and academia. Under the proposal, about 14,500 GPUs have been recommended for training AI models and high-performance storage, while the rest 10,000 are for AI inferencing. A GPU centre is a group of computers with GPUs on each node to train neural networks for image and video processing.
Support for AI chips
Because of their unique features, AI chips are tens or even thousands of times faster and more efficient than central processing units (CPUs) for training and inference of AI algorithms. State-of-the-art AI chips are also dramatically more cost-effective than state-of-the-art CPUs as a result of their greater efficiency for AI algorithms. AI chips include three classes: graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
The report has suggested that the government should support the development of these AI chips through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Broad-based AI education
The report suggests funding for 1,000 AI research fellowships annually or for 100 institutions to get research grants in the field. For schools, colleges and vocational institutes, a model curriculum has been provided in the report that covers the fundamentals of AI, mathematics and statistics, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision and AI ethics.
Marketplaces and Open-source AI
To enhance AI accessibility, AI Marketplaces will be leveraged to build service models for AI as a Service (AIaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS), offering pre-trained models to users. Open-source AI frameworks and libraries, supported by diverse vendors and communities, will be utilised to promote vendor-agnostic AI development, fostering innovation and collaboration. | Tech Startups |
- Two of the most eagerly anticipated IPOs of highly valued tech startups, Instacart and Klaviyo, have upped their initial public offering valuations after chip maker Arm's big IPO last week.
- The slowest initial public offering market in a decade is coming to an end, and that means opportunity for investors, but also all the risks that come with new stocks.
- The majority (70%) of the 73 IPOs year-to-date were trading below their IPO price at the time of Arm's deal, coming from mostly smaller cap companies.
As tech startups test the IPO market again, they are pushing up their valuations.
After last week's successful market debut of chip company Arm, two of the most eagerly anticipated IPOs of former high-flying startups have upped their initial public offering valuations — online grocery firm Instacart and marketing automation company Klaviyo.
But don't be fooled. In upping IPO ranges, tech stocks are still coming out humbled by the post-2021 IPO market slump. The slate of recent and planned tech initial public offerings will test the market's appetite for new stocks, and experts say the overall IPO resurgence could be slow — and not without bumps.
Instacart and Klaviyo are both expected to make their debuts on the public market as soon as this week. Arm's jump of nearly 25% during its first trading day Thursday marked the end of a quiet two years for tech IPOs. But these companies are coming to market in a much different environment than those that went public during the IPO, SPAC and meme stock frenzies of 2020 and 2021. Since then, companies have been contending with record-high inflation, interest rate hikes, concerns for the banking sector, and volatile markets.
The majority (70%) of 73 IPOs year-to-date were trading below their IPO price at the time of Arm's deal, but most are smaller cap companies, and about half are based outside the U.S.
"We see this as a major turning point," Matt Kennedy, senior IPO market strategist for Renaissance Capital, said of the first major tech IPOs of the year. "This has been the slowest IPO market in over a decade and we seem to be finally coming out of that."
Investors are struggling to assess what companies are worth and are waiting for the IPO market to pick back up, said Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder at Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research.
"It's a valuation game and what we're all trying to figure out right now is, what are they really worth?" Wang said. Growth expectations are down, the availability of funding for these types of investments is down, and many investors are still sitting on the sidelines, he added.
Debuting in an uncertain market means companies and investors have had to say goodbye to the soaring valuations they saw when the IPO market was buzzing two years ago. But Instacart raised its valuation target on Friday to up to $10 billion from as much as $9.3 billion after Arm's successful market debut. That is still a steep decline from the grocery company's $39 billion valuation in 2021, and a 75% hit to be absorbed by venture capital investors. Klaviyo is targeting a valuation of up to $9 billion on a fully diluted basis, just slightly below its $9.5 billion valuation in 2021.
The rising cost of raising capital as a result of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes has weighed on future cash flows of companies and their overall valuations. The state of the global economy and the standstill in the IPO market since 2021 has also put a damper on valuations, Wang said.
The market product Instacart is selling
The good news: valuations look "a lot more reasonable," Kennedy said, compared to two years ago when investors were basically willing to pay anything. He said investors are more focused on profitability than they were in 2021 and companies are recognizing that. Broadly, the tech pipeline has spent the last two years attempting to improve profitability in order to come to market while maintaining their growth and trying to pitch a reasonable valuation, he added.
Instacart is a prime example of this approach to a successful IPO, looking more like a value stock today than a high-flying, money losing tech startup.
"They really need to show that they have a strong fundamental base," Kennedy said.
Instacart and Klaviyo have solid growth similar to what investors saw two years ago, and importantly, now these companies are not hemorrhaging cash, he added.
Instacart and Klaviyo's lower valuations could be indicative of the outlook for other venture capital-backed companies and tech IPOs going forward — even those that are profitable, said Kyle Stanford, lead VC analyst at PitchBook. "There's going to be a struggle for a lot of tech companies and VC-backed companies to come to the public markets and get a positive valuation jump from the get-go," he said.
He doesn't expect these highly anticipated public debuts to translate into an immediate broader resurgence of tech IPOs. The opportunity for tech debuts will likely be slower over the rest of the year than many people want to see, Kennedy said, though it can slowly gain momentum with a more typical IPO market possible by early 2024.
What to know before investing in IPO stocks
IPOs can have very volatile trading in the first weeks or even months after a listing. That may be especially true for some of the current deals since they're the first major tech IPOs of the year and have a relatively lower proportion of shares being sold relative to market cap than historical averages, Kennedy said.
"My advice would be don't feel like you need to chase the crowd," Kennedy said. "And if you do, at least be aware that that's what you're doing and have an exit strategy in mind."
There tends to be an initial excitement with IPOs during which the price gets bid up before losing momentum. Often it's better to wait until after the first major pullback, Kennedy said.
While these tech IPOs are growth companies, their recent profitability doesn't guarantee that they'll be profitable in the long term. And according to Stanford, if the market doesn't shift back to putting a premium on growth, they're going to have a difficult time in the public market.
"These companies are risky, especially in a market where your two-year bond is paying almost 5%," Stanford said. "It's still an uncertain market and if inflation were to rise back up or interest rates continue to go back up, these riskier tech stocks are going to take a hit."
Companies will need to show continued growth, profitability and a decent valuation before we see the IPO market back in full swing, Kennedy said. | Tech Startups |
As of 2023, the new millennium has proven to be way less full of flying cars than the movies promised. In today’s present, the sky isn’t dotted with compact vehicles zipping back and forth through an aerial metropolis. But maybe tomorrow could be. Or at least that’s what a handful of tech startups are angling for, Eve Air Mobility included.
The company announced on Monday that it has wrapped up wind tunnel testing for its electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL). Using a stationary, 1/3 scale model of the eight propeller craft, suspended from a rig in the air, Eve says it successfully proved that its helicopter-like design could fly—though it hasn’t yet. Completing wind tunnel tests is an “engineering milestone,” the company’s chief tech officer, Luiz Valentini, said in a press statement. “The testing allows engineers to monitor the flow of air over and around the vehicle and each of its individual parts,” the news release further noted.
In other words: getting the right results in a series of stationary wind tests should mean that Eve’s eVTOL is one step closer to actually becoming airborne. “We were able to validate vehicle characteristics and efficiency along with gathering critical data to validate our vehicle design. This is an important step before we commit to production tooling and manufacturing,” Christian Flathman, the company’s communications director, told Gizmodo in an email. The next step, according to Flathman, is prototype construction. And from there, the sky is the limit.
Eve says its eVTOL is “projected to enter service in 2026.” The company’s ultimate goal is to create a passenger vehicle that could be used for a “variety of urban air mobility missions.” According to its website, Eve’s vehicle is designed to be 100% electric and have a range of 60 miles. The plan is for it to be piloted by a person at the beginning and then shift to “autonomous operations” after that.
Though it may sound like a pie-in-the-sky sci-fi plan, the startup has attracted the support of at least one big, established name. It got a significant infusion of funds from a $15 million United Airlines investment just last year. Other airlines have also begun investing in similar “air taxi” and flying car companies. American Airlines has said it would pre-order 250 eVTOLs from Vertical Aerospace.
In total, purchasers have placed about 2,800 orders for Eve’s 4-passenger eVTOL’s, which—again—are supposed to begin shipping in three years. Though if Eve missed this deadline, it wouldn’t be the first flying car company to do so. And it’s a little hard to see how Eve could get its vehicles in the sky on that timeline. Joby—seemingly Eve’s most mature competitor—first began flight tests in 2021, but has yet to clear all of the necessary hurdles to ferry passengers around and operate in urban airspace. A 2022 remotely piloted Joby test flight ended in a crash that reportedly destroyed one of the company’s two prototypes. | Tech Startups |
- Alphabet's second-quarter results showed the company remains a strong option for advertisers and users even as artificial intelligence chatbots emerge.
- Google is also proving to investors that it has multiple ways to grow, benefiting from a boom in cloud spending by AI companies.
Alphabet has faced a lot of noise this year around the health of its core search business, due to a slumping digital ad market and the longer-term potential for artificial intelligence chatbots to take traffic.
In its second-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, the company showed it has any numbers of ways to succeed despite those very real challenges.
Google's revenue rose 7% to $74.6 billion from $69.7 billion in the year-earlier period, topping analysts' estimates. Profit was also better than expected, driving the stock price up about 6% in extended trading.
Online advertising, which has been a difficult market for the past year, remains slow because of economic concerns and corporate cost cutting. Google's ad revenue only increased 3.3% from a year earlier, but that's an improvement from the first quarter, when ad revenue fell. Snap's second-quarter report was more troublesome, as the company issued a disappointing forecast, sending the stock down almost 20%.
"If you step back, you're seeing real weakness in linear TV, ad agencies, smaller digital companies," said Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Moffett Nathanson, on Alphabet's investor call following the results. "Yet you guys have accelerated your growth this quarter."
Search revenue, which makes up the majority of Google's ad business, also saw steady growth. That's a relief to investors, some of whom have grown concerned that traditional search users will be moving to generative AI chatbots from OpenAI and Microsoft, the startup's main investor, for their online queries.
Microsoft's Bing search engine integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT early this year. However, Google's search business still expanded, and CEO Sundar Pichai pointed to the company's homegrown chatbot called Bard, which has been a major focus of investment in recent months.
Executives on Tuesday sounded as if there's no where to go but up. They made dozens of references to AI on the call, trying to reassure investors that the technology is being used across the company, though Google has yet to say when its search feature, Search Generative Experience (SGE), will be widely available to the public. The company has said SGE will be able to synthesize search results from complex queries.
Overall, AI is a boon, Pichai said.
"Over time, this will just be how search works," he said, pointing to different search options the company is working on for users. "It really gives us a chance to now not always be constrained in the way search was working before. It allows us to think outside the box. We are ahead of where I thought we'd be at this point in time."
Pichai gave an example of the company's plans to automate some customer service for its products using new AI models.
But where Google can benefit no matter what happens in the ad market is on the cloud infrastructure side, where it competes with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. AI companies are flocking to Google's cloud technology so they can run the compute-heavy projects that are only available in a few places.
Google's cloud business, which turned profitable in the first quarter, saw revenue increase 28% in the second quarter to $8 billion, topping analysts' estimates. Pichai said that more than 70% of so-called unicorns (generally defined as billion-dollar tech startups) in generative AI are Google Cloud customers. They include Cohere, Japser and Typeface.
"There is definitely a lot of interest from customers on AI and they definitely are engaging on many more conversations with us," Pichai said. | Tech Startups |
Budding entrepreneurs start a tech company hoping to taste success in a short time. However, the ugly truth is that more than two-thirds of tech startups fail. But some brilliant business owners live to see their dreams turn into reality. Below are some great tips on how to start your tech business and help you build your empire and grow it without too much hassle. Organize your Finances When you’re starting a tech business and you’re low on funds, your chances of success are slim. In most cases, business owners use their funds to start their business. If possible, use your funds to run the business and avoid obtaining external financing from banks. Look for Talent Whether you’re looking for talent to create your products or additional talent when you start growing your team, you have plenty of options available to you. If you’re looking for co-founders, attend meetup events or check your networks to find those with the skills you need. Create a Product It may seem obvious, but it’s important to note that if you intend to build a successful tech business, you need to come up with an innovative product. If you can create a great product, you’ve done a third of the work needed to be successful in the tech industry. Focus on Marketing Designing a product isn’t the hardest part of building a tech business. After you finish working on your product, you are just getting started. The secret to successfully marketing your tech products is to get people to recognize you and your products. Without effective marketing strategies, it is next to impossible to succeed in technology. Create Partnerships Create alliances in the technology sector if you want to start a technology company. When you collaborate with other big tech companies, you have the opportunity to scale up or improve your position in the industry. Network and make connections if you want to become the entrepreneur you’ve always wanted. | Tech Startups |
Five things to know about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, marking the biggest bank failure since the 2008 recession and sending shockwaves across the tech world.
The Federal Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created a National Bank of Santa Clara to hold deposits and other assets of the failed Silicon Valley Bank, but the abrupt closing is impacting tech firms which are facing immediate effects like ensuring employees get paid.
More than 93 percent of the $161 billion deposited at Silicon Valley Bank is not insured by the FDIC, according to a Bloomberg News analysis.
The closure will have further reaching impacts for the tech world, and is spurring additional concerns for banks.
Here’s five things to know about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
Silicon Valley Bank was a major force in tech
Silicon Valley Bank, established four decades ago, catered to the start-up and venture capital-funded tech world. Its clients included brands such as Shopify, ZipRecruiter and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to the bank’s website.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called it a “nightmare situation.”
“This will have a massive ripple impact across the tech ecosystem and Silicon Valley private company artery. SVB is a foundational piece of the tech startup community and will have a constrained impact on funding for tech startups going forward,” Ives said in an email.
Even businesses that aren’t clients are getting impacted by the closure, especially with the most immediate impact on delaying payrolls.
Parker Conrad, CEO of Rippling, a payroll processor that used Silicon Valley Bank, said there would be payment delays of pay runs initiated earlier this week.
The company is focused on “getting these employees paid as quickly as possible,” he said in a Twitter thread. Going forward, Rippling will use JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Kevin Yun, co-founder of GrowSurf, told Semafor that he thought he had “nothing to do with SVB,” since his customer-referral software company used another bank, Mercury.
But by using Rippling, his company is getting roped into the larger impact of the shutdown, too.
The bank is the latest tech victim of high interest rates
Silicon Valley Bank was hit hard by the series of the Federal Reserve’s rising interest rates. It’s the latest way rising interest rates have hit the tech sector.
Tech companies and the ecosystem they are created in are highly sensitive to increases in interest rates because many companies, particularly startups, operate on high levels of debt.
Venture capital and other riskier forms investment also become less profitable as businesses face higher borrowing costs, and the steep decline in crypto values also sapped billions from many tech businesses.
Tech firms that had been spending high responded to the rising Fed interest rates with layoffs, including at some of the nation’s largest companies like Facebook parent company Meta, Google parent company Alphabet, and Amazon.
Those three companies alone have recently rolled out plans to lay off a combined 41,000 employees.
But now even nascent startups, already facing headwinds from the rising rates, now have another hurdle in their way.
The collapse was remarkably abrupt
It’s rare for the FDIC to take over banks as large as Silicon Valley Bank. It’s even rarer for the agency to take it over in the middle of the work day.
Traditionally, the FDIC will announce its decision to take over and liquidate a bank after the stock market has closed Friday to limit the potential damage to customers.
But the speed of Silicon Valley’s collapse prompted bank regulators to jump into action, which stunned banking experts and sector analysts.
The bank’s death spiral began Thursday, shortly after Silicon Valley executives announced plans to raise up to $1.75 billion in capital to shore up its books.
As customers sought to pull out their funds hand over fist, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation stepped in to end the bank run on Friday.
The state agency seized the bank and handed it over to the FDIC, which will take the bank apart in an attempt to make its customers and debtors whole.
Only a fraction of customer funds may be covered by regulators
Silicon Valley Bank was overseen by the FDIC, a federal agency responsible for making sure banks are sturdy and responsible enough to serve their customers.
When an FDIC-regulated bank fails, its customers are insured to up to $250,000 per account with the bank.
While some customers may get all of their money refunded by the FDIC, scores of businesses and individuals with millions of dollars in the bank may see little of it returned.
The FDIC said Friday that customers will have access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning. Uninsured depositors will receive a dividend and a certificate indicating how much money they are owed from the bank as the FDIC sells off its assets.
The collapse is spurring broader concerns for banks
Silicon Valley Bank was the largest bank collapse since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and its meltdown spurred concerns of a broader decline across the sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 index and Nasdaq composite all closed with losses of more than 1 percent Friday as shares of banks big and small took a nosedive.
Market operators froze shares of several bank stocks, including First Republic, PacWest and crypto-focused Signature bank due to high volatility, according to CNBC, and even Goldman Sachs and Bank of America shares took a hit.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened a meeting of federal banking regulators Friday, the Treasury Department announced, to discuss the ongoing damage caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Even so, she “expressed full confidence in banking regulators to take appropriate actions in response and noted that the banking system remains resilient.”
Celia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), also told reporters Friday she believed the banking forms imposed after the 2007-08 crisis will shield the economy from deeper harm.
“Our banking system is far more resilient than it was in 2008, we learned a lot, we’ve got better tools specifically so we can protect the important investments of Americans,” Rouse said.
While Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse could be devastating for scores of tech companies and thousands of industry workers, more banking experts are confident it won’t trigger a broader crisis in the industry.
The bank was uniquely dependent on the growth of major tech firms and the financial health of the industry at large, which made it highly susceptible to damage from rate hikes.
“[Silicon Valley Bank’s] balance sheet looks nothing like most US banks’,” wrote Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, in a Friday tweet.
“This isn’t systemic, but it shouldn’t have happened,” Petrou continued.
Alex Gangitano contributed.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Tech Startups |
Started as a side project, JDoodle, which lets developers practice more than six dozen programming languages on one website, hit 800,000 users while being bootstrapped. Now the Sydney, Australia-based startup has set a goal of 8 million users within the next 24 months after getting $3.2 million AUD (about $2.2 million USD) in new funding. The round was led by Main Sequence, the venture firm founded by Australia’s national science agency.
JDoodle has tools aimed at software developers of all levels, ranging from students to professionals. These include zero-set up IDEs (integrated development environments) for more than 76 coding languages, including Java CloudIDE, that lets users write and run code in their browsers without having to set up local software or libraries.
Over the past year, JDoodle hit 800,000 users, including 3,000 educational institutions. JDoodle was started by software developer Gokul Chandrasekaran, who spent seven years working on it and reached 500,000 users before quitting his job to focus on it full-time. It grew out of a side project with one page and programming language that Chandrasekaran set up for $20, before spending evenings and weekends adding new features based on user feedback.
Chandrasekaran told TechCrunch that he wanted to start JDoodle because of the inefficiencies he encountered, like expensive and complicated development tools, while working on his bachelors and masters degrees in computer science.
“Those tools force every developer to waste so much of their time just getting the software environment ready for us to do our jobs. Even running one line of program is a headache,” he said. “You need sophisticated hardware and hours to set up a development environment with libraries, compilers, editors and more,” only to risk everything breaking if there’s an update to their operating systems.
For teachers and students, this means wasting time fixing development environment issues and manually verifying programming assignments. For professionals, this means time spent away from actually developing and instead used to manage their software development environments. By using JDoodle, Chandrasekaran said, they can get inexpensive access to programming environments and practice programming in a browser even on basic smartphones.
“Software developers spend so much time setting up and managing their software development environments and focusing on small, unimportant tasks like changing the color of a button,” he said. “We need to free up developers to focus on the tasks that really matter because I’d say that organizations are currently wasting 20% of their software development budget.”
JDoodle’s growth to 800,000 users was organic, and it didn’t spend time or money on marketing until recently. “I believe the reason we’ve amassed so many users so far is because I listen to them,” said Chandrasekaran. “Over the years, I’ve taken so much feedback on board from developers and built the platform according to their needs. Every single feature in JDoodle exists as a result of a user request or feedback.”
Some examples of JDoodle’s customers include edtech Outlier, which offers accredited college courses. JDoodle’s plugins are embedded into its computer science courses, so students don’t need to switch between the class and a local practice environment. Another example is South American recruitment platform GeekHunter, which has used JDoodle since 2018 in its vetting process. Candidates pass coding exams produced by JDoodle before they are approved.
JDoodle monetizes through a freemium SaaS subscription model. Chandrasekaran said most of its revenue comes from its API and plugin solutions, which include standard and custom plans, but the startup is planning more income streams, including premium IDEs, hosting, courses, assignments and a talent marketplace.
The new funding will go toward JDoodle’s plans to scale up to 8 million users, including marketing, product development and hiring for its team in Australia.
Main Sequence met JDoodle while the startup was participating in The University of New South Wales’ 10x Accelerator Founders Program. Partner Mike Nicholls told TechCrunch about the investment that “Main Sequence has invested in more than 50 deep-tech startups and almost every one of them ends up hiring large numbers of developers and software engineers. Every startup is looking for a competitive edge and higher productivity from their software and hardware team. Essentially we want to turbocharge how companies and developers create the next generation of business systems.” | Tech Startups |
Aldagram, a startup out of Japan developing project management software for construction companies, has picked up a new strategic backer to help it build out its footprint across Asia and the Middle East.
Panasonic, the consumer electronics giant that also develops solar panels, air conditioning units and many other products for its sizable buildings and construction business, is taking an investment in Aldagram.
The amount of the investment is not being disclosed, but Aldagram said it will use the funds to sharpen its focus on India, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries in the region. Its new strategic investor may be adding another few to that list: Panasonic’s construction business is particularly active in India, Turkey and Vietnam. It has been partnering with Aldagram since 2022.
The investment comes in the wake of a bigger round that the startup raised in the summer of 2022, a $20 million Series A from MonotaRo and JAFCO. As with that earlier Series A, Aldagram is not disclosing details of its valuation. It currently employs 60 people.
Aldagram’s flagship product is a cloud-based project management platform called KANNA, designed for professionals in the construction, real estate and manufacturing industries who use it to source and record on-site data for projects, and share that data with other partners on the projects.
Aldagram’s aim is to bring a new, digital spin to what’s been traditionally as a very analogue industry, with an aging workforce and heavy — and sometimes very old — machinery, Aldagram CEO and co-founder Hikaru Nagahama said in an interview with TechCrunch.
But in reality, the construction industry has been a key focus for dozens of tech startups, tackling the tools for doing the building, the materials being used, and the many layers of software helping to design and execute those projects, with some very notable exits among them, such as Autodesk’s acquisition of YC-backed PlanGrid for $875 million (see here and here for more of our coverage of startups in the space).
KANNA enables users to store all data digitally and share on-site photos, project visualization documents, work requests, site location, insight, performance details, and more, Nagahama said.
“They can use their smartphones or tablet device to use KANNA and easily access the information they want,” Nagahama told TechCrunch.
On top of that, KANNA helps construction project managers keep connected with what’s happening on-site. “If you are a project manager, you can use the website to manage all projects as a list view or contact all project members to provide instruction,” Nagahama said.
More than 10,000 corporates in over ten countries, including the U.K., Spain, Kenya, Uganda, Dubai, India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia, have been using KANNA since its initial product launch 2020, the company said. In addition to Panasonic, other big, industrial-level users include MITSUI Designtec, Nissan Trading and Tokyu Redesign, according to the company.
The global construction management software market is expected to reach $23.9 billion in 2031, up from $9.3 billion in 2021, per a recent report.
In addition to a wide swathe of startups, there are also a host of larger IT players worldwide in the construction tech sector, including Oracle’s Primavera, Procore Technologies and Asana, Nagahama noted.
Oracle recently acquired Aconex, a cloud-based software platform; and Textura, a cloud-based contract and payment management provider, to expand its Primavera construction management platform. Another company, Procore, went public in 2021 after raising $75 million at a $3 billion valuation in 2018. | Tech Startups |
California regulators on Friday abruptly shuttered Silicon Valley Bank, closing a 40-year-old financial institution that catered to the tech industry and that was the 16th largest U.S. bank before its sudden collapse. The company's stock tumbled 60% on Thursday and had plunged another 70% on Friday before trading of its shares was halted.
The nosedive reflected fears of a bank run, with mounting concerns that customers were on the verge of pulling their money from the bank. Instead, regulators stepped in to take control, with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closing the bank and appointing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.
Typically, bank stocks are staid affairs, which makes Silicon Valley Bank's failure and its regulator-ordered closure all the more noteworthy. Here's what to know about the bank's startling downfall.
What is Silicon Valley Bank?
Silicon Valley Bank, founded in 1983, grew rapidly with the explosion of businesses in the tech-focused region, eventually expanding to more than a dozen states and countries including Israel, Ireland and Germany. It now ranks as the 16th largest bank in the country, holding $210 billion in assets.
Silicon Valley Bank offers business lending products such as loans to help finance acquisitions or projects, touting on its website that it "helps businesses at every stage." The bank also provides private banking services and other financial products.
Why was it closed by regulators?
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation on Friday said it has taken possession of Silicon Valley Bank. The reason, it said, was "inadequate liquidity and insolvency."
What happens to depositors and clients?
The FDIC said it created a new institution, the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB), and that it had immediately transferred all insured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank to the new bank. All insured depositors will have access to their insured deposits by Monday morning, March 13, the FDIC said in a statement.
Meanwhile, uninsured depositors will receive "an advance dividend within the next week," as well as a receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds.
The main office and its 17 branches will reopen for business on March 13, the FDIC said.
"Banking activities will resume no later than Monday, March 13, including on-line banking and other services," the agency said. "Silicon Valley Bank's official checks will continue to clear."
Why did the bank collapse?
On March 8, Silicon Valley Bank parent SVB Financial Group said that it was taking "strategic actions," including selling almost all of its available-for-sale securities — $21 billion in bonds. It also said it planned to issue stock as part of the plan to raise capital and strengthen its finances.
SVB, which noted that it would take a $1.8 billion loss on the bond sales, said it needed to take the steps because of higher interest rates and "elevated cash burn levels" by customers. The company also pointed to "pressured public and private markets."
The announcement spooked investors, sparking concerns that clients would yank funds due to the bank's financial uncertainty, which in turn would limit the bank's ability to tap other liquidity sources, said Brandon King, an analyst at Truist, in a note to investors.
"The stock reaction today is evident of concerns around the bank's liquidity," King said.
As of Friday morning, it was unclear what is happening with the company's stock sale, which would help the bank raise more capital. CNBC reported that attempts to raise capital failed, with the bank now looking instead to sell itself.
What are tech investors saying?
Prior to California's decision to shutter the bank, the reaction within Silicon Valley ranged the gamut, with Founders Fund, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, advising companies to take their money out of the bank, Bloomberg News reported.
But others had urged companies and clients to stay put, such as Two Sigma Ventures investor Villi Iltchev, an investor, who wrote on Twitter that Silicon Valley Bank deserved support. "SVB is the most important capital provider to tech startups and the biggest supporter of the community. Now is the time to support them," tweeted Villi.
The question was whether clients would opt to remain with the bank or trigger a classic bank run. Fears about an institution's possible insolvency can become self-fulfilling if enough customers pull their money out of the bank.
"Banks are not like normal companies, and one in crisis can't wait to run a normal auction process — they depend on the confidence of depositors and even an inkling of doubt can snowball faster than nearly anyone imagines, impairing the value of the franchise," wrote Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge in a report.
How is this impacting Wall Street and other banks?
Other bank stocks fell Thursday as Silicon Valley Bank shares swooned. Still, analysts said that Silicon Valley Bank's woes are unlikely to ripple through the banking industry as a whole.
"Current pressures facing SIVB are highly idiosyncratic and should not be viewed as a read-across to other banks," Morgan Stanley analysts Manan Gosalia and Betsy Graseck wrote in a note Friday, according to CNBC.
Silicon Valley Bank could yet impact a major part of the U.S. economy in that tech companies could lose a valuable source of financing, noted Bill Ackman, CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square, on Twitter.
"The failure of [Silicon Valley Bank] could destroy an important long-term driver of the economy as VC-backed companies rely on SVB for loans and holding their operating cash," he noted.
On Friday, large, diversified banks such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase pulled out of an early slump due to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
Regional banks, particularly those with heavy exposure to the tech industry, were in decline. Yet it has been a bruising week, with shares of major banks are down this week between 7% and 12%.
With reporting by the Associated Press.
for more features. | Tech Startups |
Imagine a journalist writing as succinctly as Michael Lewis and six times as fast.Imagine a video editor extracting the best short clips from five hours of video content in just 15 minutes. Imagine software programmers using an AI assistant to write code in their company’s style to four times their output.This is beginning to happen today. Enhanced productivity is now possible with generative tech, where artificial intelligences work alongside people, like having a team of four helping you out—but in seconds and for pennies. What would you do if you could clone yourself? That’s essentially what generative tech is doing. All of us should take advantage of it. While increasing someone’s productivity by 20% is called “progress,” increasing someone’s productivity tenfold—as generative tech can—is more of a revolution. Generative tech will transform most industries you can think of, including education, marketing, media, software coding, and design. Generative tech products you might have already heard of include ChatGPT for text and search, CodeT5 for software programming, and Midjourney for art. And within the next 12 months, this tech will be everywhere. We’re tracking more than 500 generative tech startups, and have met with more than 100 founding teams building in this space. And, of course, Big Tech is working on generative tech too. As we learn more about the generative tech ecosystem, here’s what to expect in the coming months.A boom in user-friendly applicationsI say “generative tech,” not generative AI, because the AI is just one piece of the puzzle—the bottom layer of the tech stack. Really, the application layer on top is where we’ll see the human-AI collaboration. These are the workflow tools that lead to supercharged output, and there will be tens of thousands of these applications built in the next two years across every industry. In our portfolio alone, we’ve already made investments in AI-driven tools for industries like legal (Darrow, TermScout) and coding (The.com). And there are potentially endless possibilities.A consumer tech resurgenceWe’ll see a consumer tech resurgence over the next decade with a wave of new decacorn companies born from generative tech applications. B2B companies have stolen a lot of the spotlight and returns over the past decade, but the shift to generative tech will start to swing the pendulum back. Part of the reason this space is so interesting is because it stands to benefit individuals in a way we haven’t seen since the dawn of the smartphone. The online buzz generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Descript’s video editing tool and others like it, shows just how much consumers can benefit from the generative tech revolution. A turn to curation over creationWith generative tech, we will finally have tools that will take us from zero to one, making creation easier than ever. As a result, as we lean on the AI for creation, I expect to see more—of everything. More text. More video. More audio. More imagery. Then, the way users edit, tweak, curate, and master these tools will become increasingly important. The unique eye of the artist will still be valuable. Writers can still edit and refine the AI’s draft copy into their individual voice. They’ll just be better, faster, and more efficient at their jobs, leaving more room for curation.Of course, this is a revolution, and revolutions are destabilizing. Many will worry that AI might take their jobs, shift their identities, and alter their social status. Skilled workers have spent years learning to do what ChatGPT, CodeT5, and Midjourney can do in a few seconds, so apprehension is natural when new technology shows up. I’ve been in the tech ecosystem since the 1990s, and I’ve seen multiple waves of fear arise during frenzies of newness. I call this the “life cycle of uncomfortable tech.” First, people treat the new tech as a silly toy and make fun of it. Second, people decry it. Third, they fear it. And ultimately, they join in and embrace it. It just takes time. The uncomfortable news about generative tech? It’s going to change the nature of work and creation. The good news? It won’t eliminate many jobs; it will simply evolve them. Further, it will create new jobs and fields we haven’t thought of yet. Further still, the overall quality of the writing and design we see will improve in those places where in the past a business couldn’t afford great writers or designers. My sentiment here is simple: There’s no reason to fight generative tech. It’s already here and it’s happening. You can, however, get ahead of the curve and learn to use new technology to benefit you and enhance your work. Those who embrace generative tech will see remarkable increases in their productivity in the next 36 months. These people will be operating in nearly every industry: marketing, sales, writing, education, finance, law, investment banking, data science, art, video, game development, TV and film, book publishing, magazines, news, real estate, software programming, and recruiting. Unfortunately, there is no doubt that we will also see an increase in volume and sophistication of online spam and disinformation. This is something companies and users will have to work together to combat.We will achieve these productivity explosions by having generative tech software, which makes our access to underlying AI models easy to use and easy to integrate into our workflows. We will need software that lets us collaborate with other people in our work lives, much as we use Slack, Salesforce, or HubSpot today with our teams.It’s going to be an exciting three years.James Currier is a general partner at NFX, and was an angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, Poshmark, and Patreon. | Tech Startups |
Silicon Valley Bank failure sparks startup concerns, ‘bailout’ pushback
The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank late last week is creating significant challenges for the tech industry, which is interwoven with the bank through multiple companies and connected venture capital firms.
The failure, the first major bank collapse in 15 years, spurred immediate concerns Friday by impacting companies’ day-to-day operations like making payroll. Government action to protect uninsured deposits mitigated some of those risks, but the collapse — coupled with the fall of Signature Bank over the weekend — is still posing concerns for the industry.
The impact could be felt most aggressively by startups, which have already faced headwinds over rising interest rates and now may face a more hostile front from banks hesitant to take their business.
The issues are underscored by the fact that Silicon Valley may receive little empathy over the failure of the bank, with critics already sounding the alarm over the aid for Silicon Valley Bank.
Silicon Valley Bank collapse could shake the startup world
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is likely to shake up the startup ecosystem that was rooted in the bank.
“The fear is that this will stymie startup activity, innovation, entrepreneurship for a bit longer than we would like. And that’s not good,” said Shyam Kumar, a professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Silicon Valley Bank was “viewed as a key artery for the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem and played an integral role in the surge of successful tech startups in the post doc.com bubble,” Wedbush analysts Dan Ives, Taz Koujalgi, John Katsingris, and Steven Wahrhaftig said in a report.
The Wedbush analysts said that while the government action “backstops the SVB funds and takes uncertainty off the table, the impact from this past week will have major ripple impacts across the tech landscape and Silicon Valley for years to come in our opinion.”
The near-term impact should be minimal, but “the hurdle for bank loans and other forms of debt financing will be a different world going forward,” they said.
“With a tighter overall funding environment this will increase pressure on many start-ups to cut costs with a brighter spotlight on various credit lines for unproven tech start-ups with high cash burn from a banking sector post SVB collapse,” they said.
Ilya Volkov, CEO of YouHodler, a Swiss-based fintech platform, said that the tech sector will face “challenges in the next days, weeks and maybe even years.”
“Short term challenges are mainly related to funds locked on accounts and issues with operational payments,” Volkov said. “Mid-term challenges are mostly about limited access to funding,” he said, adding that California-based startups will be mostly affected by the crash.
Where will startups go to bank now?
Even as the government action mitigated some of the short-term concerns, like payrolls delays, there are a “number of messy things to work out,” said Kumar, the management professor.
“Things are still in flux. Things are still definitely very much uncertain. But at least there is relief that the money is there,” he said.
Kumar said questions remain, such as: what banks companies should go to, how quickly the transition can happen, and how comfortable they’ll feel with a new institution.
Another question posed by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is whether other banks will be more wary of accepting startups going forward, said Patricia A. McCoy, a professor at Boston College Law. She previously worked at the Department of Treasury and helped form the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
“Between their cash needs and the possibility that their venture capital financing spigots may be turned off, startup customers are in a position where they may need to suddenly yank all their money out of their bank, or a great deal of it. And that is a volatile business model for a bank to run,” McCoy said.
“We saw that with SVB, so banks may be a little more cautious about accepting startup companies as customers and may be putting in certain safeguards to protect themselves against a future bank run by startups in the future,” she added.
Pushback over government aid
The tech industry’s woes over the collapse may not be saved by a government bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, akin to the financial support to rescue companies in 2008 after the Great Recession hit.
So far action taken by the government has sought to rescue uninsured depositors but has not helped the banks’ shareholders or directors, McCoy said.
“We saw coming out of 2008, a Main Street versus Wall Street narrative, and that likely will rear its head again now,” McCoy said.
Even that decision to protect the uninsured depositors is getting slammed by some critics.
Matt Stoller, research director at the left-leaning American Economic Liberties Project, said there is “no need to bail out the bank or the uninsured depositors due to SVB’s unnecessary risk-taking and self-dealing, as well as the wealthy venture capitalists who were complicit.”
“Without clear evidence that there is contagion, there are no legal grounds for a systematic risk determination for SVB. SVB is a uniquely unhedged and badly run institution; most other banks have higher capital levels and more insured deposits,” Stoller said in a statement.
There’s also plenty of finger pointing that will go around Washington. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) penned an op-ed published Monday in The New York Times that blamed Congress for passing a law to ease bank regulations in 2018.
Collapse caused immediate issues
The quick collapse of Silicon Valley Bank shook the tech world Friday, leading companies to have impacts even on general day-to-day operations like making payroll.
Those concerns have been mitigated by the actions taken by the government in the days since, but several companies, including Etsy and Roblox, have publicly stated how the bank’s collapse has impacted their businesses.
Roblox, an online game platform, said in a securities filing on Friday that about 5 percent of its $3 billion in cash and securities was held at the bank as of Feb. 28.
Roblox’s chief financial officer said in the filing that regardless of the outcome, the crash “will have no impact on the day to day operations of the company.”
An Etsy spokesperson told The Hill in an email that the company “experienced a delay in issuing payments to a small group of sellers related to the unexpected collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”
The spokesperson added that as of Monday morning the company started processing payments using their other payment partners.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Tech Startups |
Sophie Alcorn, attorney, author and founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley, California, is an award-winning Certified Specialist Attorney in Immigration and Nationality Law by the State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. Sophie is passionate about transcending borders, expanding opportunity, and connecting the world by practicing compassionate, visionary, and expert immigration law. Connect with Sophie on LinkedIn and Twitter.
TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Ask Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.
Dear Sophie,
I’m working in the U.S. in the aerospace industry on a J-1 research visa. I want to pursue my own space tech startup, but people have mentioned I will have to get an export control license because of my immigration status. Could you explain what I need to be aware of? Any advice?
— Fastidious (Soon-to-Be) Founder
Hey there, Fastidious!
Thanks for reaching out to me with your timely questions! U.S. export control laws have been in the news recently, and the U.S. Department of Justice released an employer fact sheet on complying with export control laws. While the fact sheet focuses on how employers can avoid violating immigration laws and discriminatory employment practices, it provides a good background on export control.
In addition, listen to my chat with Chris Hearsey, an expert in space law and founder and CEO of OSA Consulting (OSA stands for Outer Space Activities). We talked about space law and what space tech startups should keep in mind. The startup and investor market for commercial space technologies is growing rapidly, so it’s important for international founders to be aware of the requirements.
Before I dive into your questions, let me provide a little context on export control, the J-1 educational and cultural exchange visa, and employment authorization. Remember: If you need personal legal advice, you should always hire an expert attorney.
What is export control licensing?
U.S. export control laws govern how technology, software, technical data and other materials are physically or electronically exported or shared with foreign countries or foreign-born individuals, including those working in the U.S. on valid work visas. | Tech Startups |
As part of France’s budget for 2024, which was passed last week by the French government without a vote, France plans to create a new tax relief system for angel investments in tech startups. In many ways, France is drawing inspiration from the British tech ecosystem for this change.
If you’re an angel investor in the U.K., chances are you’re already quite familiar with the acronyms SEIS and EIS, which mean Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Investment Scheme. These two tax relief schemes have fostered angel investments in small private companies — generally tech startups — since 1994.
In the U.K., if you invest in an early stage startup, your investment is eligible to a 50% tax break on your income tax, with a limit of £200,000 in investments per year. You may wonder, but what is an early stage startup after all? Criteria change every now and then, but right now, an SEIS-compatible company is a British company that is less than three years old, has less than 25 employees and less than £350,000 in gross assets.
“I benefitted from SEIS both as a founder and an investor. SEIS funding de-risks angel investing, and allows startups to close their rounds much faster,” Reedsy co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Nataf told me. “The fact that any tax payer — and not just the wealthiest — can benefit from the tax breaks makes it a real enabler for the tech ecosystem in the U.K.”
As for the Enterprise Investment Scheme and as the name suggests, more companies are eligible. But, in that case, individual investors only get a 30% tax break on their income tax. EIS-compatible companies are less than seven years old, have less than 250 employees — and their gross assets should remain below £15 million.
Interestingly, deep tech companies have a bit more leeway as they are still eligible if they have been around for up to 10 years. Individuals can invest as much as £1 million per year to get the tax credit (or £2 million for deep tech investments).
And it’s been working incredible well. In 2021, according to a report from Paul Midy, a member of the National Assembly representing Emmanuel Macron’s party that has been working on that topic, a total of £175 million and £1.6 billion have been invested in private companies via the SEIS and EIS respectively (that’s $213 million and $1.95 billion at today’s exchange rate respectively).
“Angel investors taking advantage of the schemes also bring significant support to the founders, which might be harder to get from institutional funds,” Nataf added.
Importing the SEIS and EIS schemes
Now that you understand how it works, France is basically copying these schemes with a different set of criteria. Starting in 2024, individuals who invest in companies with the JEI label (jeunes entreprises innovantes) will get a 30% income tax break.
Starting in 2025, there will be two new categories, JEIC and JEIR — C for croissance and R for rupture. These acronyms are a bit jargony, but the bottom line is that investors in deep tech startups will get a 50% tax break for investments up to €100,000 per year. Investors in other startups will get a 30% tax break for investments up to €150,000 per year.
“This scheme for so-called ‘young companies’ is designed to help thousands of young innovative companies to hire, to raise capital, to improve cash flow and to gain access to public contracts,” Paul Midy said in a video on X (formerly Twitter). “It should enable half a billion euros in additional fundraising every year for our startups, specifically at the early stage.”
It’s going to take a bit of time before the French tech ecosystem can feel the effects of this regulatory change. But it’s a welcome change as France — like many tech ecosystems around the world — is experiencing a slowdown in traditional VC investment. | Tech Startups |
Here’s a public service announcement from Captain Obvious: It takes a lot of money to build a startup. At a time when every dollar counts, this is a reminder that you have only 5 days left to save on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking place September 19–21.
How to save up to $600 on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
It’s simple, really.
Buy your Disrupt pass before Friday, August 11 at 11:59 p.m. PDT, and you’ll pay less for the full Disrupt experience.
Engage, connect and network with more than 10,000 attendees. Explore the expo floor and meet the Startup Battlefield 200 companies. Check out the Builder Stage and our seven new industry-specific stages:
Need more convincing? Listen to what your contemporaries have to say about going to Disrupt.
“Disrupt is a great sweet spot, and highly valuable, for anyone in the idea stage all the way through to having raised some angel money. Soak up the pitch feedback sessions and the VC presentations. They’re telling you what they’re looking for, what motivates them, what pushes them to contact you for a meeting. And that’s exactly what every startup raising capital needs to know.” — Michael McCarthy, CEO, Repositax
“Disrupt was a great place to look for potential partners beyond our blockchain world. We got to meet and collaborate with founders in complementary technologies like IoT and AI. Building those relationships will help all of us provide customers with better solutions. It’s a win-win.” — Joel Neidig, founder of SIMBA Chain
“Tech startups go to Disrupt to show off their stuff. It’s the perfect place to scope out the competition, network with potential investors, get a feel for how other companies position themselves and to see what’s trending.” — Jessica McLean, director of Marketing and Communications, Infinite-Compute.
There’s so much opportunity waiting for you at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco, taking place September 19–21. Don’t miss this one — save up to $600. You have just five days left to buy your pass before prices go up on August 11. We can’t wait to see you in September!
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form. | Tech Startups |
One builds weapons in order that they are not used. Thus goes the central premise of deterrence theory, which says it is the credible threat of aggression – not the use of aggression – that will ensure states avoid war.
This theory has dominated much of America’s strategic thinking over the past fifty-plus years, but new technologies and new adversaries threaten to upend the status quo. For the first time, China has started to outpace the U.S. in critical weapons programs – the country developed a new type of weapon called a hypersonic glide vehicle as early as 2014, which can strike Taipei and the Taiwan Strait in about twenty minutes from the country’s strategic bases in the South China Sea. America’s comparative sluggishness to develop such tech could result in the U.S. falling catastrophically behind its adversaries.
The founders of Castelion, a startup that emerged from stealth this week, cut straight to the point: “Simply put – this cannot be allowed to happen.”
The 11-month-old defense startup wants to completely rethink defense hardware development for complex systems, starting with long-range strike hypersonic weapons, a capability that Castelion co-founder and CEO Bryon Hargis called “a national, strategic-level non-nuclear deterrent.”
“China is going faster than us in basically every area,” he said. “They pass the U.S. in some areas, but if you give them enough time, they’re going to pass us in all areas if we don’t do something different. It’s, in my opinion, existential. We grew up in an era of fairly good security and I don’t know necessarily that our children are to have that opportunity if somebody doesn’t do something about it.”
Making American deterrence credible again
Castelion was founded by a trio of ex-SpaceXers, Bryon Hargis, Sean Pitt and Andrew Kreitz, in November 2022. The company is part of a wave of new defense tech startups that have little faith in large American primes and their ability to ensure the country retains its dominant position in the global asymmetry of military power.
In a blog post announcing Castelion, the trio say as much, writing that conditions in the defense industrial base, like consolidation, production delays and ballooning program costs, “have left our nation in a worse position to protect democracy and confront our adversaries around the world.”
The startup wants to do things differently: move faster, design hardware to be produced at scale, and vertically integrate to cut costs. Pitt said that long-range strike weapons were a clear opportunity for an agile hardware development approach.
Its thesis has caught investor support, with the company closing a $14.2M initial funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lavrock Ventures, with participation from First In, BlueYard Capital and Champion Hill Labs.
Castelion’s founding team is notable for their individual success in the aerospace industry. Hargis, a mechanical engineer by training, joined SpaceX in 2017 and eventually became a senior director of government sales, essentially building out an entire government sales team and that enormous line of business for the company; Pitt was the original salesperson for SpaceX’s hugely successful ride-share program and eventually became director of launch and human spaceflight sales for the European continent; and Kreitz was a senior investment banker at Goldman Sachs before joining SpaceX as senior finance manager.
Hargis and Pitt worked alongside each other at SpaceX’s D.C. office, and Hargis and Kreitz worked directly together regarding finance matters. The three would talk on the afternoons and weekends, Pitt said, and the thesis for the company started forming. It was clear that they would have to leave SpaceX if they wanted to focus on defense hardware: SpaceX is not a defense company, even if its technologies do much to serve the national interest.
“SpaceX is fundamentally a Mars company,” Kreitz said. “It will do great defense work if it’s along that development path, but [it] isn’t core, and that’s what precipitated us leaving.”
Hargis echoed these comments: “I think we did some amazing work at SpaceX for national security that will continue to pay dividends for the country for probably multiple decades to come. But I really I wanted to be more focused on defense than SpaceX wanted to be.”
Castelion is kicking off its focus on hypersonic missile systems. The U.S. wants to procure these capabilities for a handful of reasons, many of which have to do with the particulars of the Western Pacific theater. These systems offer a big boost in range without a commensurate energy costs, which is critical for safely covering the roughly 1,800 miles between the U.S. territory of Guam and the coast of China. As two officials from the U.S. Department of Defense put it in a recent op-ed, all of the missiles in America’s arsenal “appropriate for the Western Pacific theater” will need to fly at Mach speeds.
Hypersonic missiles are also highly maneuverable, which makes it difficult to predict where they will strike. But perhaps most importantly, they offer a non-nuclear deterrence option – a way for both the United States and China to avoid a severely catastrophic outcome that both countries have vowed to avoid via the adoption of no-first use policies.
Of course, Castelion can’t simply turn up on Uncle Sam’s doorstep one day with a fully finished hypersonic weapon and a bill. Instead, the El Segundo, California-based startup is taking time to build its credibility with missile subsystems: solid rocket motors, low-cost avionics and ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials. The idea is to first become a supplier to a prime working on an existing hypersonic missile program, before eventually building complete missile systems all in-house.
Because rapid design-build-test cycles are built into the company’s strategic mission, the company is also focused on building a hypersonic test platform both for customers looking to test and for in-house testing.
Castelion’s primary engineering efforts, which include developing the avionics and manufacturing the high-temperature CMCs, are taking place in El Segundo. Castelion also has a special use permit for outside of Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada to do rocket motor production and testing. Looking ahead, the company plans on conducting its first full flight test of its solid motors using a single-stage rocket later this year, and the company plans on scaling its materials testing, starting with a subscale hypersonic glide vehicle shell to demonstrate that it can make complex shapes using the CMC material.
Next year, the 15-person company is planning on making a two-stage test vehicle. It also plans on executing out its three government contracts (the details of which the company couldn’t disclose) and to continue building out its team. It’s more than a little ambitious.
“We’re fairly used to being called crazy,” Hargis joked. “I could see it from the outside, being slightly skeptical, but I think that after you’ve done several crazy things successfully, you realize it’s not crazy to dream big.” | Tech Startups |
- The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was "a little bit like the Lehman moment for technology," Cliff Marriott, co-head of tech, media and telecoms in Europe for Goldman Sach's investment banking division, told CNBC Tuesday.
- SVB, a vital source of funding for tech startups and venture capital firms, was shut down and taken over by the U.S. government after its clientele withdrew billions out of their accounts.
- Marriott said that there was still a "big question mark" surrounding what company or companies might replace SVB as the go-to bank for the tech industry.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was a "Lehman moment" for the technology industry, according to a top Goldman Sachs dealmaker.
Cliff Marriott, co-head of technology, media and telecoms in Europe for the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, said that the March 10 shutdown of SVB was "pretty stressful," as the lender's clientele scrambled to figure out how they would make payroll.
related investing news
"That first weekend was a little bit like the Lehman moment for technology and it was really more operational for those companies," Marriott told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal.
"They needed access to capital. A lot of their balances were on SVB. And, secondly, SVB was propelling and making a lot of their payments for payroll to pay their employees."
Founded in 1983, SVB was considered a reliable source of funding for tech startups and venture capital firms. A subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, the California-based commercial lender was, at one point, the 16th biggest bank in the U.S. and the largest in Silicon Valley by deposits.
SVB was taken over by the U.S. government after its clientele of venture capitalists and tech startups withdrew billions from their accounts. Many VCs had advised portfolio companies to pull funds on the back of fears that the lender may crumble.
SVB Financial Group's holdings — assets such as U.S. Treasury bills and government-backed mortgage securities that were viewed as safe — were hit by the Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes, and their value dropped dramatically.
Earlier this month, the firm revealed it had sold $21 billion worth of its securities at a roughly $1.8 billion loss and said it needed to raise $2.25 billion to meet clients' withdrawal needs and fund new lending.
The future of SVB remains uncertain, even though deposits were ultimately backstopped by the government and SVB's government-appointed CEO attempted to reassure clients that the bank remained open for business.
Marriott said that there is "still a big question mark regarding what bank or firm or set of firms is going to replace SVB in terms of providing those utility-like services for technology, giving them bank accounts, allowing them to make payroll, holding their cash balances."
The SVB collapse has also raised questions over the potential consequences for other banks, with SVB being far from the only lender that has come under strain. Swiss investment banking titan Credit Suisse was rescued by its main rival UBS in a government-backed, cut-price deal last week.
Marriott also addressed tech IPOs and their outlook for 2023. Europe's tech IPO market has been largely closed due to a confluence of market pressures, including higher interest rates, which make the future cashflows of high-growth tech companies less attractive.
Marriott said that he would have been more optimistic about a recovery in tech IPO activity two weeks ago.
"I'm still hopeful that we'll see tech IPO activity in 2023. And if we don't, I think 2024 will be a big year for tech IPOs," Marriott said.
"I think what we'll see is the more established profitable companies come first, so the easier to understand business models, profitable companies, before we see the really highly valued profit or negative profit companies that we saw in 2021." | Tech Startups |
- Tech companies that held deposits at SVB are wondering when they're going to be able to pay employees and their bills after the bank's collapsed.
- The FDIC was named the receiver of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after the bank was closed by California regulators.
- "The number one question is, 'How do you make payroll in the next couple days?'" said Ryan Gilbert, founder of venture firm Launchpad Capital.
Most importantly, they're trying to figure how to pay their employees.
related investing news
"The number one question is, 'How do you make payroll in the next couple days,'" said Ryan Gilbert, founder of venture firm Launchpad Capital. "No one has the answer."
SVB, a 40-year-old bank that's known for handling deposits and loans for thousands of tech startups in Silicon Valley and beyond, fell apart this week and was shut down by regulators in the largest bank failure since the financial crisis. The demise began late Wednesday, when SVB said it was selling $21 billion of securities at a loss and trying to raise money. It turned into an all-out panic by late Thursday, with the stock down 60% and tech executives racing to pull their funds.
While bank failures aren't entirely uncommon, SVB is a unique beast. It was the 16th biggest bank by assets at the end of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve, with $209 billion in assets and over $175 billion in deposits.
However, unlike a typical brick-and-mortar bank — Chase, Bank of America or Wells Fargo — SVB is designed to serve businesses, with over half its loans to venture funds and private equity firms and 9% to early and growth-stage companies. Clients that turn to SVB for loans also tend to store their deposits with the bank.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which became the receiver of SVB, insures $250,000 of deposits per client. Because SVB serves mostly businesses, those limits don't mean much. As of December, roughly 95% of SVB's deposits were uninsured, according to filings with the SEC.
The FDIC said in a press release that insured depositors will have access to their money by Monday morning.
But the process is much more convoluted for uninsured depositors. They'll receive a dividend within a week covering an undetermined amount of their money and a "receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds."
"As the FDIC sells the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, future dividend payments may be made to uninsured depositors," the regulator said. Typically, the FDIC would put the assets and liabilities in the hands of another bank, but in this case it created a separate institution, the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB), to take care of insured deposits.
Clients with uninsured funds — anything over $250,000 — don't know what to do. Gilbert said he's advising portfolio companies individually, instead of sending out a mass email, because every situation is different. He said the universal concern is meeting payroll for March 15.
Gilbert is also a limited partner in over 50 venture funds. On Thursday, he received several messages from firms regarding capital calls, or the money that investors in the funds send in as transactions take place.
"I got emails saying saying don't send money to SVB, and if you have let us know," Gilbert said.
The concerns regarding payroll are more complex than just getting access to frozen funds, because many of those services are handled by third parties that were working with SVB.
Rippling, a back office-focused startup, handles payroll services for many tech companies. On Friday morning, the company sent a note to clients telling them that, because of the SVB news, it was moving "key elements of our payments infrastructure" to JPMorgan Chase.
"You need to inform your bank immediately about an important change to the way Rippling debits your account," the memo said. "If you do not make this update, your payments, including payroll, will fail."
Rippling CEO Parker Conrad said in a series of tweets on Friday that some payments are getting delayed amid the FDIC process.
"Our top priority is to get our customers' employees paid as soon as we possibly can, and we're working diligently toward that on all available channels, and trying to learn what the FDIC takeover means for today's payments," Conrad wrote.
One founder, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNBC that everyone is scrambling. He said he's spoken with more than 30 other founders, and talked to a finance chief from a billion-dollar startup who has tried to move more than $45 million out of SVB to no avail. Another company with 250 employees told him that SVB has "all our cash."
For the FDIC, the immediate goal is to quell fears of systemic risk to the banking system, said Mark Wiliams, who teaches finance at Boston University. Williams is quite familiar with the topic as well as the history of SVB. He used to work as a bank regulator in San Francisco.
Williams said the FDIC has always tried to work swiftly and to make depositors whole, even if when the money is uninsured. And according to SVB's audited financials, the bank has the cash available — its assets are greater than its liabilities — so there's no apparent reason why clients shouldn't be able to retrieve the bulk of their funds, he said.
"Bank regulators understand not moving quickly to make SVB's uninsured depositors whole would unleash significant contagion risk to the broader banking system," Williams said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday met with leaders from the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regarding the SVB meltdown. The Treasury Department said in a readout that Yellen "expressed full confidence in banking regulators to take appropriate actions in response and noted that the banking system remains resilient and regulators have effective tools to address this type of event."
On the ground in Silicon Valley, the process has been far from smooth. Some execs told CNBC that, by sending in their wire transfer early on Thursday, they were able to successfully move their money. Others who took action later in the day are still waiting — in some cases, for millions of dollars — and are uncertain if they'll be able to meet their near-term obligations.
Regardless of if and how quickly they're able to get back up and running, companies are going to change how they think about their banking partners, said Matt Brezina, a partner at Ford Street Ventures and investor in startup bank Mercury.
Brezina said that after payroll, the biggest issue his companies face is accessing their debt facilities, particularly for those in financial technology and labor marketplaces.
"Companies are going to end up diversifying their bank accounts much more coming out of this," Brezina said. "This is causing a lot of pain and headaches for lots of founders right now. And it's going to hit their employees and customers too."
SVB's rapid failure could also serve as a wakeup call to regulators when it comes to dealing with banks that are heavily concentrated in a particular industry, Williams said. He said that SVB has always been overexposed to tech even though it managed to survive the dot-com crash and financial crisis.
In its mid-quarter update, which began the downward spiral on Wednesday, SVB said it was selling securities at a loss and raising capital because startup clients were continuing to burn cash at a rapid clip despite the ongoing slump in fundraising. That meant SVB was struggling to maintain the necessary level of deposits.
Rather than sticking with SVB, startups saw the news as troublesome and decided to rush for the exits, a swarm that gained strength as VCs instructed portfolio companies to get their money out. Williams said SVB's risk profile was always a concern.
"It's a concentrated bet on an industry that it's going to do well," Williams said. "The liquidity event would not have occurred if they weren't so concentrated in their deposit base."
SVB was started in 1983 and, according to its written history, was conceived by co-founders Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis over a poker game. Williams said that story is now more appropriate than ever.
"It started as the result of a poker game," Williams said. "And that's kind of how it ended."
— CNBC's Lora Kolodny, Ashley Capoot and Rohan Goswami contributed to this report. | Tech Startups |
You’re just a couple weeks away from meeting the Startup Battlefield 200 companies in person at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023! We’re incredibly proud of — and impressed by — this year’s hand-picked cohort. To avoid utter overwhelm, we’re announcing them in groups, broken out by industry tracks. Note that the track fit may be a bit more creative for some startups than others.
Today, we’re sharing the health tech and sustainability startups that are determined to radically improve the health of humanity and the world. While early in their company life span, these companies are tackling some of the biggest problems across biotech, medtech and climate. Hard problems need tough founders to solve them! Check them out, and start networking with them today!
Tick tock: Buy your Disrupt pass today, and save up to $400. Tickets cost more at the door. Then download the event app and start networking with the SB 200 companies today!
Startup Battlefield 200 health tech startups at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
- Afya Bora BV
- Alvee Health
- Artivatic.ai
- Aspect Health
- AuraSense Tech Corporation
- AvantGuard
- Balm.ai
- Being Cares
- BetterMedics
- BioticsAI
- Cappella
- Carrots & Cake
- CellChorus
- CerebraAI
- DeepDee BV
- Duly
- Famasi
- GoDocta
- HME Square
- Illumicell.ai
- ImmunitoAI
- In Diagnostics
- Medarta
- Melio
- MiiCare
- Mizaru
- MyLÚA Health
- Narval
- NeuroReach
- Niura
- Parrots
- Portable Diagnostic Systems
- Radiolife
- Revolve Mobility
- Stat Health Informatics
- Stimvia
- Strong Haulers
- Thyroscope
- Toi Labs
- Untap Health
- Uray.ai
- Yuimedi
Startup Battlefield 200 sustainability startups at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
- AC3D
- Agri-Trak
- Aintech
- AppCyclers
- AquaLith Advanced Materials
- Avalo
- Beyond Aero
- BlockCarbon
- ByteNite
- Capra Biosciences
- Cogo
- Electrified Thermal Solutions
- Flint
- Fluix
- Hyfé
- Kyuka Ventures Innovation Hub
- Lillianah Technologies
- Lima
- LimeLoop
- Mimicrete
- Pastoral
- Positive Carbon
- PureSpace
- Sóliome
Can’t get enough? Take a look at the Startup Battlefield 200 AI and security startups! TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 takes place September 19–21. Take advantage of your last ticket sale opportunity. Buy your pass by September 15 at 11:59 p.m. PDT and save up to $400.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form. | Tech Startups |
Sony Group announced today that it has established Sony Innovation Fund: Africa (SIF: AF), a program that will support the growth of entertainment businesses in Africa. The Tokyo multinational conglomerate, through Sony Ventures Corporation, has earmarked $10 million for early-stage gaming, music, film and content distribution companies.
Sony Ventures Corporation’s (SVC) latest endeavor to support technology businesses across markets and stages is this fund focused on African entertainment startups. Last year, SVC completed the first closing of Sony Innovation Fund 3 at $215 million to back all stages of emerging technology companies. The subsidiary manages all of Sony’s venture investment activities through SIF3, Sony Innovation Fund (SIF); Sony Innovation Growth Fund by IGV, a joint venture with Daiwa Capital Holdings; and Sony Innovation Fund: Environment.
The Japanese tech giant’s venture arm has made more than 100 investments in consumer and enterprise-facing businesses across various sectors like entertainment, robotics, AI, mobility, fintech, healthcare, logistics and SaaS from all these funds.
In Africa, fintech remains the most funded sector, attracting half of the venture capital coming into the continent. And though other sectors such as logistics, healthcare and mobility are top of mind for local and global investors keen on African tech, it’s entertainment, which is often overlooked, that Sony Ventures is choosing to start with for its first foray into Africa.
Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Ventures, told TechCrunch that although the Japanese behemoth established the Sony Innovation Fund in 2016 to invest in ventures in various business fields, it remains a creative entertainment and technology company whose mission is to fill the world with sentiment through the power of creativity and technology.
“The entertainment field has been a key area of focus for Sony Innovation Fund since the beginning and will continue to be. Africa, in particular, has a vibrant community of creators and entrepreneurs looking to invent new ways to enhance entertainment experiences for audiences and that propelled Sony to establish SIF: AF,” he added.
Sony’s Africa-focused fund will serve as a much-needed boost to the continent’s entertainment tech startups, which have struggled to receive consistent venture capital over the years. According to Partech Africa, in 2022, these startups received $42 million, representing 0.9% of Africa’s total venture capital investments despite the enormous potential to be unlocked in gaming, music, movie and content distributions, critical areas within the industry that Sony is particular about.
Take gaming, for instance. Per data from games market data providers Newzoo and Carry1st, a South African publisher of games and digital content, the gaming market in Sub-Saharan Africa is set to surpass $1 billion by 2024.
Similarly, video-on-demand subscriptions in Africa are projected to hit 13.7 million in 2027, up from 4.89 million at the end of 2021, with revenues tripling from $623 million in 2021 to $2 billion in 2027. Netflix, which this April said it had invested €160 million in film content production in Africa since 2016, and Amazon Prime face competition from other streaming platforms customizing for African audiences such as Showmax, Canal+, Disney+ and ROK in the race to capture market share in the video streaming market. On the other hand, the music industry is bolstered by the widespread streaming of indigenous genres such as Afrobeats and has expanded to the point where it’s attracting global record labels to sign its local artists.
“We are exploring investments in these areas because we see great potential and exciting creativity from the creators, entrepreneurs and teams in Africa, and we want to support that. There is also growing adoption of technology overall in these areas, which we are excited about,” Tsuchikawa commented.
“Since Sony’s entertainment business group is exploring and supporting young talented creators in Africa, this fund will also try to support those creators and the growth of entertainment business in Africa in various ways such as providing technologies, collaborating with creators, intellectual property, and contents, marketing support, and others which Sony can contribute.”
Tsuchikawa stated that in addition to the fund’s seed and early-stage investment strategy, it will offer follow-on investments to its portfolio companies. There’s no set time frame to deploy the $10 million or a set number of startups the fund plans to invest in; however, SIF: AF expects its ticket sizes to range from $250,000 to $1 million. “We have initiated due diligence on a few startups, but I can’t share any details at this time,” answered Tsuchikawa when asked if SIF: AF has made some investments yet and if startups like a16z-backed Carry1st and Tencent-backed Kukua are on its radar. “We plan to start our work with South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, but there is a possibility of expanding the scope of the project in the future.”
Sony Ventures has an office in all markets where it has invested through its funds: Japan, India, Israel, Europe and the U.S. In Africa’s case, it’ll take a less direct approach. According to Tsuchikawa, the fund will initially be supported by the Sony Ventures team in Europe; however, the company is currently working to hire a full-time member on the continent who can take on the venture capital sourcing function.
As with most corporate venture capital structures, Sony Innovation Fund, over the years, has supported the growth of its portfolio companies by providing opportunities for collaboration, ranging from the provision of Sony-owned technologies to joint development and business alliances. Approximately 40% of Sony Innovation Funds portfolio companies have strategically partnered with Sony. Similarly, Tsuchikawa said the fund will promote the possibility of its African portfolio companies collaborating with the entertainment business group of the Sony Group depending on the stage and timing of the business, connecting them with its extensive network of resources, technical expertise and industry insights.
Meanwhile, Sony has concluded a collaboration agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest global development institution focused on the private sector actively investing in emerging markets, including Africa. In addition to financial investment, this collaboration will support the growth of the African entertainment industry by leveraging both parties’ strengths, according to Toshimoto Mitomo, the executive vice president of Sony Group Corporation.
“Sony Group has been fostering next-generation technologies and startups and promoting open innovation through its corporate venture capital activities. Through the activities of Sony Innovation Fund: Africa, we hope to accelerate the growth of the African entertainment industry and contribute to the progress and development of the region by providing opportunities for collaboration with the entertainment businesses within the Group,” Mitomo added. | Tech Startups |
Alexej Savreux, a 34-year-old in Kansas City, says he’s done all kinds of work over the years. He’s made fast-food sandwiches. He’s been a custodian and a junk-hauler. And he’s done technical sound work for live theater.
These days, though, his work is less hands-on: He’s an artificial intelligence trainer.
Savreux is part of a hidden army of contract workers who have been doing the behind-the-scenes labor of teaching AI systems how to analyze data so they can generate the kinds of text and images that have wowed the people using newly popular products like ChatGPT. To improve the accuracy of AI, he has labeled photos and made predictions about what text the apps should generate next.
The pay: $15 an hour and up, with no benefits.
Out of the limelight, Savreux and other contractors have spent countless hours in the past few years teaching OpenAI’s systems to give better responses in ChatGPT. Their feedback fills an urgent and endless need for the company and its AI competitors: providing streams of sentences, labels and other information that serve as training data.
“We are grunt workers, but there would be no AI language systems without it,” said Savreux, who’s done work for tech startups including OpenAI, the San Francisco company that released ChatGPT in November and set off a wave of hype around generative AI.
“You can design all the neural networks you want, you can get all the researchers involved you want, but without labelers, you have no ChatGPT. You have nothing,” Savreux said.
It’s not a job that will give Savreux fame or riches, but it’s an essential and often overlooked one in the field of AI, where the seeming magic of a new technological frontier can overshadow the labor of contract workers.
“A lot of the discourse around AI is very congratulatory,” said Sonam Jindal, the program lead for AI, labor and the economy at the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit based in San Francisco that promotes research and education around artificial intelligence.
“But we’re missing a big part of the story: that this is still hugely reliant on a large human workforce,” she said.
The tech industry has for decades relied on the labor of thousands of lower-skilled, lower-paid workers to build its computer empires: from punch-card operators in the 1950s to more recent Google contractors who’ve complained about second-class status, including yellow badges that set them apart from full-time employees. Online gig work through sites like Amazon Mechanical Turk grew even more popular early in the pandemic.
Now, the burgeoning AI industry is following a similar playbook.
The work is defined by its unsteady, on-demand nature, with people employed by written contracts either directly by a company or through a third-party vendor that specializes in temp work or outsourcing. Benefits such as health insurance are rare or nonexistent — which translates to lower costs for tech companies — and the work is usually anonymous, with all the credit going to tech startup executives and researchers.
The Partnership on AI warned in a 2021 report that a spike in demand was coming for what it called “data enrichment work.” It recommended that the industry commit to fair compensation and other improved practices, and last year it published voluntary guidelines for companies to follow.
DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Google, is so far the only tech company to publicly commit to those guidelines.
“A lot of people have recognized that this is important to do. The challenge now is to get companies to do it,” Jindal said.
“This is a new job that’s being created by AI,” she added. “We have the potential for this to be a high-quality job and for workers who are doing this work to be respected and valued for their contributions to enabling this advancement.”
A spike in demand has arrived, and some AI contract workers are asking for more. In Nairobi, Kenya, more than 150 people who’ve worked on AI for Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT voted Monday to form a union, citing low pay and the mental toll of the work, Time magazine reported. Facebook and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the vote. OpenAI declined to comment.
So far, AI contract work hasn’t inspired a similar movement in the U.S. among the Americans quietly building AI systems word-by-word.
Savreux, who works from home on a laptop, got into AI contracting after seeing an online job posting. He credits the AI gig work — along with a previous job at the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s — with helping to pull him out of homelessness.
“People sometimes minimize these necessary, laborious jobs,” he said. “It’s the necessary, entry-level area of machine learning.” The $15 an hour is more than the minimum wage in Kansas City.
Job postings for AI contractors refer to both the allure of working in a cutting-edge industry as well as the sometimes-grinding nature of the work. An advertisement from Invisible Technologies, a temp agency, for an “Advanced AI Data Trainer” notes that the job would be entry level with pay starting at $15 an hour, but also that it could be “beneficial to humanity.”
“Think of it like being a language arts teacher or a personal tutor for some of the world’s most influential technology,” the job posting says. It doesn’t name Invisible’s client, but it says the new hire would work “within protocols developed by the world’s leading AI researchers.” Invisible did not immediately respond to a request for more information on its listings.
There’s no definitive tally of how many contractors work for AI companies, but it’s an increasingly common form of work around the world. Time magazine reported in January that OpenAI relied on low-wage Kenyan laborers to label text that included hate speech or sexually abusive language so that its apps could do better at recognizing toxic content on their own.
OpenAI has hired about 1,000 remote contractors in places such as Eastern Europe and Latin America to label data or train company software on computer engineering tasks, the online news outlet Semafor reported in January.
OpenAI is still a small company, with some 375 employees as of January, CEO Sam Altman said on Twitter, but that number doesn’t include contractors and doesn’t reflect the full scale of the operation or its ambitions. A spokesperson for OpenAI said no one was available to answer questions about its use of AI contractors.
The work of creating data to train AI models isn’t always simple to do, and sometimes it’s complex enough to attract would-be AI entrepreneurs.
Jatin Kumar, a 22-year-old in Austin, Texas, said he’s been doing AI work on contract for a year since he graduated college with a degree in computer science, and he said it gives him a sneak peak into where generative AI technology is headed in the near-term.
“What it allows you to do is start thinking about ways to use this technology before it hits public markets,” Kumar said. He’s also working on his own tech startup, Bonsai, which is making software to help with hospital billing.
A conversational trainer, Kumar said his main work has been generating prompts: participating in a back-and-forth conversation with chatbot technology that’s part of the long process of training AI systems. The tasks have grown more complex with experience, he said, but they started off very simple.
“Every 45 or 30 minutes, you’d get a new task, generating new prompts,” he said. The prompts might be as simple as, “What is the capital of France?” he said.
Kumar said he worked with about 100 other contractors on tasks to generate training data, correct answers and fine-tune the model by giving feedback on answers.
He said other workers handled “flagged” conversations: reading over examples submitted by ChatGPT users who, for one reason or another, reported the chatbot’s answer back to the company for review. When a flagged conversation comes in, he said, it’s sorted based on the type of error involved and then used in further training of the AI models.
“Initially, it started off as a way for me to help out at OpenAI and learn about existing technologies,” Kumar said. “But now, I can’t see myself stepping away from this role.” | Tech Startups |
Hexa, the Paris-based startup studio that started its life as eFounders, just shared a list of the six next companies that will emerge from the studio. It’s an interesting mix of enterprise SaaS startups with a blockchain data startup thrown into the mix.
And given eFounders’ track record, it’s always interesting to see the ideas and trends that appear from these new batches. As a reminder, eFounders was created in 2011 with a focus on SaaS startups working on tools and services that define the future of work.
Some of eFounders’ portfolio companies include Front, Spendesk and Aircall. More recently, eFounders broadened its scope and rebranded itself into Hexa. Hexa is now an umbrella company of multiple startup studios, including eFounders on the future of work (still), 3founders on web3 startups, and Logic Founders for fintech topics.
Hexa has launched over 40 startups over the past decade. Some of them have worked remarkably well, others never really took off. Last year, Hexa portfolio companies reached a total valuation of $5 billion.
Hexa and its startup studios come up with the ideas behind these startups. They then try to find the right founding team to iterate on those ideas day in, day out. For the first year or so, the startup studio brings its expertise when it comes to product design, go-to-market strategy, hiring, fundraising and more.
When a startup raises its seed round, it becomes a proper independent company and the startup studio team can move on to other projects. When asked about Hexa’s stake in its startup, Hexa co-founder and CEO Thibaud Elziere told me “nothing is changing with Hexa, we still keep 30% in equity post-seed, except that now 7.5% of this 30% stake is allocated to the studio founder.”
So here are the next Hexa startups.
Riverflow
Riverflow is a startup that was created by Hexa’s web3 startup studio called 3founders. It’s a data orchestration startup focused on blockchain data.
You will be able to use Riverflow to fetch information from smart contracts, blockchain transactions, wallet addresses and more. That data can then be manipulated and transferred to a data warehouse, an analytics or a BI tool.
At first, I thought Riverflow would work a bit like Zapier, but with blockchain data. “It’s exactly like that, but it’s a tool for data analysts. So it works more like Segment than Zapier, allowing users to put blockchain data into data warehouses and SaaS tools,” said Florent Quinti, the head of 3founders.
Okko
Okko is a startup that streamlines procurement processes. Who would have thought that procurement would become an important vertical for tech startups?
But, in 2023, as many tech founders are trying to find ways to cut costs and extend their runway, Okko isn’t the first company working on overhauling procurement tools.
Many employees try to bypass the procurement platform because it’s too complex. But procurement is only effective if you can see the full picture and use it as a spend management system.
Unlike Pivot, Okko doesn’t want to build a modern procurement system from scratch. Okko wants to integrate with existing systems, such as Oracle NetSuite, and modernize the vendor portal or the interface to create a purchase order.
Catalog
Catalog is a new SaaS tool for B2B wholesale orders. Think about a clothing brand selling clothes to independent stores, for instance.
The name here is quite transparent as Catalog wants to overhaul the catalog that companies use for their B2B clients. Instead of sharing an Excel file with a bunch of obscure reference numbers, Catalog centralizes all product information on a website.
Online orders are then directly integrated in the company’s ERP and it opens up new possibilities when it comes to recurring orders, promotions, new product launches, etc.
RingX
RingX is still a codename for this startup focused on corporate knowledge. As many jobs are becoming more and more technical, it can be hard to find the right resources to learn how to do something the right way.
Instead of sharing the right resources with you, this startup wants to connect you with professionals working for other companies who have already encountered the same issue. People will be able to take advantage of this peer-to-peer platform to connect with professionals and learn new things.
Kiosk
Kiosk is a SaaS startup built on top of WhatsApp Business. It could be defined as a way to extend WhatsApp with more features so that companies can use the messaging platform more efficiently to talk with their customers.
For instance, Kiosk could be used as a way to get new customers with a simple chatbot-like funnel. Potential customers start a WhatsApp conversation and answer some simple questions, such as “when would you like to start your home renovation project?”, “how big is your home”, etc.
Kiosk could also help you handle support requests thanks to integration with other SaaS tools, such as your help desk, your CRM or your e-commerce platform.
Tengo
And finally, Tengo centralizes all French public tenders so that companies don’t miss a potential bid. This tool could be particularly useful for companies that rely heavily on public tenders to generate revenue.
“We detect all public tenders (we’ve built a ‘Google Alert’ for public tenders) and we also help to respond to private tenders using AI/LLM technology,” said Matthieu Vaxelaire, the head of eFounders.
Tengo could be defined as Govly, but for the French market.
Two unnamed projects
Hexa is already thinking about the projects after those ones. It still has two more startup ideas under the codenames TopiX and GPTX, but it has yet to find the founders that will work on these ideas.
TopiX will be a mobile-first communication tool with some AI element. GPTX will be a generative AI-based tool for internal use cases in companies that value privacy and security. | Tech Startups |
SoftBank Vision Fund lost $32 billion in the financial year ending March as the Japanese investment giant, the most prolific global investor in tech startups, suffers from the valuation corrections across its private and public tech backings amid weakening global economy.
The loss surged 68% from the same period a year prior, when SoftBank had reported $19 billion in losses at the Vision Fund unit. The losses come even as SoftBank has grown very cautious about deploying new capital to startups in recent quarters.
The Japanese conglomerate said its Vision Fund 1 made an unrealized loss of $1.6 billion each in SenseTime Group and GoTo and nearly $800 million in DoorDash.
“For private portfolio companies, the fair value decreased in a wide range of investments, mainly reflecting markdowns of weaker-performing companies and share price declines among market comparable companies,” SoftBank Group said in earnings report Thursday.
SoftBank chief finance officer Yoshimitsu Goto said the earlier this year that the firm had entered the “defence mode” and was preparing for three different scenarios. SoftBank anticipates that the market may start to show recovery linearly this year, or by second half of this year, or stumble through until early 2024.
The tremulous times at SoftBank Vision Fund means a tough time for many of its portfolio startups. SoftBank has served as a high-conviction growth investor for its portfolio startups, often leading or co-leading their later financing rounds.
SoftBank Vision Fund and Tiger Global escalated the pace of their deal making in 2021 as many investors believed that the rally in public stock markets would continue for the foreseeable future. But an immediate sharp decline in the markets, as the Fed increased interest rates and geopolitical events such as Russia invading Ukraine unfolded, many investors were left scrambling to find ways to cut losses.
More to follow. | Tech Startups |
When Jeremy Schneider graduated from college in 2002, the FIRE movement — short for financial independence, retire early — wasn't really a thing.But the computer engineering student, who went on to get his master's in computer science the following year, couldn't help but notice that his peers were finding ways to retire well before turning 65.During the dotcom boom, "I would see these young people just a few years older than me who were making millions with tech startups," Schneider tells CNBC Make It. Though he hadn't heard of financial independence, "I definitely heard of selling an internet company for a lot of money and being financially set."Jeremy Schneider, now 41, retired at 36 with a net worth of $3 million.Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make ItThat's exactly what he ended up doing. In 2004, he founded RentLinx, an advertising network for rental properties. He'd sell the firm 11 years later — a transaction that netted him about $2 million.Schneider quit his 9-to-5 job not long after, but found that while he had the financial flexibility to retire, he enjoyed the fulfillment of working on projects he was passionate about. Today, the 41-year-old lives in San Diego, has a net worth of $4.4 million and runs a small business selling financial literacy courses online.Here's how he did it.Budgeting while building his business: 'I was living on credit cards'When he graduated from college, Schneider decided to bet on himself. Instead of taking a $74,000-a-year gig with Microsoft, where he'd interned as a software developer, he started his firm. "I preferred to start my own company where if I worked 10 times harder, maybe I would get 10 or 100 times more money," he says.Between a track scholarship and help from his parents, Schneider graduated with no student debt, and had about $6,000 in savings from summer jobs. But that, combined with the $14,000 in revenue his website brought in during its first year, wasn't enough to pay the bills."I was living on credit cards," he says. "I accrued about $10,000 of credit card debt in my first year. And the second year that $10,000 became $12,000."But things turned a corner in year three, and profits began taking off.Today, 41-year-old Jeremy Schneider lives in San Diego, has a net worth of $4.4 million and runs a small business selling financial literacy courses online.Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make ItFor the next eight years, even as the company continued to grow, Schneider kept his salary at $36,000 per year. "For basically the entire time I was running my company, I was as frugal as possible. I wasn't even really budgeting because I had no money to budget," he says.That meant driving a paid off 1999 Ford SUV, spending as little as he could on food and living in a converted garage to keep his rent low.Even with his restricted income, Schneider still managed to stash some money away, contributing $5,000 to $6,000 per year to his Roth IRA. By 32, he says, he had about $120,000 in his account, a mix of contributions and investment gains.In 2015, Schneider fulfilled his goal of selling a company when a competitor offered to buy his business for just over $5 million. Because he owned about 70% of the firm at the time, his take after taxes was about $2 million.Retiring early: 'It started to feel a little bit empty'Schneider worked for another two years for the company that acquired his, pulling in a six-figure salary and helping integrate his former employees at the new firm.But he noticed that the profits in his portfolio, composed almost entirely of index funds, were outpacing his salary. "My $2 million had grown to $3 million just from the growth of the market," he says. "It dawned on me that I don't need to work anymore."Following the so-called "4% rule," which says that retirees can withdraw 4% of the value of their portfolio per year in perpetuity without running out of money, Schneider could live on $120,000 annually — "twice as much as I'd ever spend in a year."So, did Schneider, then 36, take his money and ride off into the sunset? For the first year after he quit in 2017, he tried, splitting his time between playing video games and going on trips. But the novelty wore off quickly."As the year dragged on, I found that, there's something missing in my life. There's no tension," he says. "I wasn't working towards a goal or any progress. And it started to feel a little bit empty."In 2019, Schneider started an Instagram account where he shared daily personal finance and money tips. Soon, the excitement was back."Some people like kite surfing or paragliding or skydiving, and I like Roth IRAs and index funds," he says. "If I can talk to someone for 30 minutes and change their financial future, it's still pumps me up every single day.""I don't really see retirement as the goal. I think financial independence is the goal," Jeremy Schneider says. "I want to be able to direct my time as I see fit and do the things that I feel passionate about."Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make ItBy mid-2020, the account had grown to 90,000 followers, and Schneider found many of them were sending in the same basic finance questions. In response, he made a video course, which he began selling later that year for $79. Within a week of launching, he'd made $110,000."It took me four years of my first company to make $110,000," he remembers thinking. "So this might actually be a real business."That business, The Personal Finance Club, has brought in about $1 million in sales since it began generating revenue in October 2020. Schneider and his two full-time employees on the project each bring in $70,000 per year, plus additional payouts in the form of bonuses and profit sharing.For Schneider, continuing to work despite having reached financial independence beats laying on a beach somewhere. "I don't really see retirement as the goal. I think financial independence is the goal," he says. "I want to be able to direct my time as I see fit and do the things that I feel passionate about."Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletterDon't miss: Self-made millionaire who retired early: ‘Do these 5 things now or you’ll regret it later in life’ | Tech Startups |
No longer suffering in silence: Asian Americans denied tech leadership roles go to court
After stints at Disney, Google and Twitter, Vaishnavi Jayakumar joined Facebook and Instagram owner Meta in January 2020.
Her job on the youth policy team was to protect children and teens from bullying, harassment and other forms of abuse. But Jayakumar – an Asian American originally from Singapore – says she couldn’t shield herself from racial bias on the job.
Soon after inquiring how she could move up at Meta, Jayakumar says her supervisor began leaving her out of opportunities and initiatives that used to be in her scope and “layering” her under less experienced employees.
Despite years of experience and positive feedback as a team player, Jayakumar says her supervisor told her she was not senior or collaborative enough to be promoted, according to a complaint Jayakumar filed with California’s Civil Rights Department.
While her workload and responsibilities increased, Jayakumar says her performance ratings began to slip.
“I've never felt more keenly that as an Asian woman, I'm destined to be a worker, I'm not destined to be a leader,” she said in an interview. “And that's an awful feeling.”
Jayakumar is one of a growing number of Asian Americans in the tech industry breaking their silence and going public with charges of discrimination and retaliation.
In a series of recently filed lawsuits, they say that racial biases spanning decades in Silicon Valley that typecast Asian Americans as worker bees have shut them out of management and executive positions with greater power, profile and pay.
"The pattern of discrimination experienced by Ms. Jayakumar mirrors that faced by the broader Asian American community: others make assumptions about what work Asian Americans are suited for," Jayakumar's complaint said. "Asian Americans are unsupported in the workplace in taking on leadership opportunities."
Through her lawyer, Jayakumar is demanding that Meta make policy changes, from tracking the rates of promotion for Asian Americans to training managers in tropes and stereotypes about Asian American employees. Meta declined to comment.
“These conversations have happened in private rooms, living rooms and in personal spaces for long enough,” Jayakumar said. “The generations of men and women before us had to suffer in silence. I don't think any one of us wants this to continue for a minute longer than it already has.”
The generations of men and women before us had to suffer in silence. I don't think any one of us wants this to continue for a minute longer than it already has.
Vaishnavi Jayakumar
Tech ‘has made virtually no progress in becoming more racially equitable’
Ever since changes in immigration law lifted restrictions on people of Asian descent, especially those who are highly educated and skilled, Asians and Asian Americans have made up a significant portion of engineers and other professionals in the tech industry – but not managers and executives.
Though three of the nation’s most valuable tech companies are run by Asian American CEOs, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang are the exception, not the rule.
Research shows that Asian Americans are the most likely to be hired in professional roles yet the least likely of all racial groups to break into tech company leadership.
In fact, in some companies like Meta, people of Asian descent outnumber white employees. But their numbers fall off sharply in leadership roles, a USA TODAY analysis found.
At Meta, 46% of employees were Asian American in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, but just 27% of executives. White employees, on the other hand, accounted for 39% of Meta's workforce but 58% of its executives.
“The tech industry has made progress in becoming more racially diverse in its workforce but has made virtually no progress in becoming more racially equitable in its leadership pipeline,” said Buck Gee, an executive adviser to Ascend Foundation, the nation’s largest network of Asian American professionals.
When he worked for Cisco, Gee asked for the racial breakdown of those employees identified as having high leadership potential and found that just 15% were Asian and Pacific Islanders despite comprising 60% of the workforce.
Until he raised the issue, no one noticed, he said. “People falsely assumed the problem would fix itself,” Gee said.
Gee blames “benign neglect,” a pattern of systemic bias that rewards leadership traits typically associated with white men but not women and minorities.
Asian Americans are left out of diversity discussions and initiatives because there is a perception that they don’t face adversity in the workplace when, in fact, the economic realities for Asians and Asian Americans vary greatly, particularly for those in low-wage and low-opportunity jobs on H-1B visas, said Pawan Dhingra, president of the Association for Asian American Studies president and a professor at Amherst College.
“Asians are seen as an immigrant group that in many ways is doing pretty well," Dhingra said. "There is not a major movement to worry about the plight of Asian Americans outside of hate crimes on the street.”
Anti-Asian hate and violence in the streets prompt activism at work
That began to change with the groundswell of anti-Asian hate and violence during the COVID pandemic. Participation in employee resource groups and workplace activism surged. More Asian Americans began calling out workplace bias, even in the insular tech industry.
“The pandemic really galvanized the community, especially those of us in tech, because I think we all saw that what was happening in the streets was happening in the workplace,” said Jack Song, who advises tech startups on their communications and branding.
In 2019 Song left Lime, which rents electric bikes and scooters, to pursue new projects and put the experience behind him. But, he says, it gnawed at him.
The pandemic really galvanized the community, especially those of us in tech.
Jack Song
The former deputy political director for the California Democratic Party and spokesperson for the San Francisco City Attorney's Office says he went from being named the company MVP in 2018 to being stripped of most of his duties the following year. Song − who was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child − says he was told he lacked a strong command of the English language, among other criticisms.
In a statement, Lime said it was surprised "to learn of Jack's recollection of the circumstances surrounding his departure." The Lime founders and the company's current CEO identify as Asian American and "diverse perspectives" drive all aspects of the business, according to Lime.
Song says he was inspired to share his story publicly by Justin Zhu, the ex-CEO of tech startup Iterable who is suing his former company and co-founded the nonprofit organization Stand with Asian Americans to help others in a similar situation.
Zhu says he filed a lawsuit alleging retaliation after he says he was fired for raising complaints about anti-Asian discrimination. Investors on the Iterable board of directors told Zhu he didn’t look like a CEO and wanted Zhu's white chief operating officer to take his place, according to Zhu, and one investor suggested he become the chief technology officer instead.
Iterable denies the allegations, saying its current CEO and co-founder is an Asian American entrepreneur and that Zhu was terminated for “multiple instances of violating the company’s policies and values.”
Not everyone has the resources to fight back, Zhu says. So Stand with Asian Americans is launching a workplace justice initiative.
"A core purpose of the workplace justice initiative is to show that you are not alone in fighting racism in the workplace. We connect people with survivors who have faced discrimination, give moral support, give legal support and we help them tell their story so they can get the support they need in this David vs. Goliath fight," he told USA TODAY.
‘If we want to see something change, we have to do something about it’
Ben Huynh says his troubles began in May 2022 when he was promoted into the management ranks at software company Coda.
Huynh says he didn’t get a pay increase with the promotion unlike his peers and believed he was earning less than his peers. So he complained to human resources.
“Despite the quality of my work, once I had spoken out, the gates began closing around me,” said Huynh, who is Vietnamese American. “I felt iced out and like a pariah.”
Huynh had trouble sleeping. He started grinding his teeth and having panic attacks.
In August 2022, he was told the company was disbanding his team and he was being demoted. When asked why, his supervisor made vague criticisms, saying Huynh had “weak leadership skills,” Huynh says. Huynh says he went to human resources.
The following November, he was laid off. Huynh says he was told that it was not performance related, that the company was reorganizing. But Huynh and another person who worked for him were the only two employees let go, according to Huynh.
Coda did not respond to requests for comment.
“There's a shift because people are seeing that they have to take action or things will not change,” said Huynh, who filed a lawsuit against Coda in June, alleging discrimination and retaliation based on race. “If we want to see something change, we have to do something about it.”
‘Asian Americans are the engine behind all these tech companies’
But with the industry roiled by large-scale layoffs that are disproportionately affecting people of color, the decision to act can be fraught, said attorney Charles Jung.
Asian Americans often worry that no one will have their back if they come forward, said Jung, a name partner with Nassiri & Jung. The few Asians who make it to the top seem hesitant to rock the boat or bring up diversity issues, he said.
Jung’s client Andre Wong, who is Chinese American, says he found out firsthand the consequences of speaking out in an industry where anti-Asian bias is rarely acknowledged.
Wong, who worked at Lumentum for more than 20 years, says he led the development of the company’s most profitable product line and helped the company expand into new markets.
After the killing of George Floyd and the Atlanta spa shootings, Wong was asked to participate in the company’s "Courageous Conversation" about race. In preparing for the program, Wong reached out to fellow Asian American employees who shared their frustrations that they were not seen as leaders in the company and were routinely passed over for promotions.
In 2021, Wong says he helped start the Asian Employee Resource group which obtained demographic data showing that while 60% of Lumentum’s U.S. workforce is Asian, senior executives were mostly white, with less than 15% of them Asian.
The discussions around the data seemed to move the company forward. But Wong says anti-Asian incidents continued.
The Asian ERG organized a “coming out” party during which Wong spoke. ERG leaders were later chided that Wong's presentation "made white people feel bad," Wong said.
Wong says a senior white manager banned Chinese engineers from conversing in Mandarin then upper management ignored their protests.
When a product from a section of a Chinese factory failed, Wong says a senior white executive asked: "Are they steaming rice in that section of the production floor?"
Before Wong, a native English speaker, made a presentation to the board, he said a senior white executive ridiculed his pronunciation of “program,” telling him to enunciate his "Rs."
In May 2022, Wong said he was given a “glass cliff” assignment – a role that women and minorities are handed with little chance of success – as the only non-white employee on a team. He says he accepted the assignment with assurances he would soon be considered for a promotion to senior vice president. Instead, he was terminated in December.
Wong is suing Lumentum for $20 million in damages. He says he would donate a big chunk of any award he receives to the cause of fighting anti-Asian discrimination.
Lumentum did not respond to requests for comment.
“Asian Americans are the engine behind all these tech companies. Many of these technical teams are almost exclusively Asian American employees. But the leadership in strategic or business positions are not minorities," Wong said. "When you finally step back and see it, it’s so stark.” | Tech Startups |
Agnikul, an Indian space tech startup developing small-lift launch vehicles, has raised $26.7 million in fresh investment as it looks to begin commercial launches using its customizable satellite rocket.
Companies — from big tech giants to startups — are looking to launch their small satellites (up to 500 kg in weight) to space to improve their existing technologies and bring new experiences, such as precise location tracking and internet connectivity for remote areas. As underlined by the European Commission, this has ramped up the demand for smaller rockets.
Small satellites have typically been launched as secondary payloads on larger launch vehicles. Existing players including Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been conducting rideshare missions for small satellite launches. However, their growing demand has encouraged space companies to seek specific solutions. Astra, Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are some U.S. space companies that have introduced small satellite launch vehicles to cater to the growing demand. Nevertheless, the gap between the demand and supply of small launch vehicles is still quite significant by most accounts, leaving enough room for new entrants.
Agnikul is one such entrant, via its ‘Agnibann’ small satellite rocket. It will use a single-piece engine with no assembly or conventional manufacturing process to offer a faster production timeline and tailor-made launches. It’ll instead use additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing – the same approach being taken by US-based Relativity Space. The Chennai-based startup has showcased some glimpses of its plan by launching a 3D-printed engine called Agnilet, which was successfully test-fired in early 2021.
Last year, Agnikul secured a patent for the engine and established its facility to build many such engines using end-to-end 3D printing. It also launched India’s first private launchpad and mission control center at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, located in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in November and started the integration process of its launch vehicle Agnibaan SOrTeD (Suborbital Technological Demonstrator) in August.
Srinath Ravichandran, co-founder and CEO of Agnikul, told TechCrunch that the startup looks to complement India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and is targeting to handle launches in the less than 300 kg payloads segment.
“When the customer looks at India for a solution, we are filling the gap not directly addressed by ISRO today,” he said in an interview.
ISRO currently has its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to launch satellites weighing up to 500 kilograms in a low-Earth orbit. However, the space agency intends to fully transfer the vehicle to the private sector through bidding.
Ravichandran founded Agnikul along with Moin SPM and IIT Madras professor SR Chakravarthy in 2017. In December 2020, it became the first Indian private space company to sign an agreement with ISRO. Subsequently, the startup began developing its launch service for satellites weighing up to 100 kgs using the Agnibaan rocket into a 700-kilometer (about 435 miles) Earth orbit.
“We have not yet done commercial launches; we have not entered the commercialization phase. But at the same time, today, people are able to look at what we have done with the money we have received, how efficient we have been on capital, and what technology we have been able to build,” Ravichandran asserted.
Without disclosing specifics, he added that the startup has received some inbound interest from potential launch customers, mainly from companies in Europe and Japan, and also signed memorandums of understanding with a few. India also has some satellite tech startups that could become Agnikul’s customers after it starts commercialization following its first test flight, which is expected sometime before the end of 2023.
The space of small satellite launch vehicles where Agnikul operates already has Indian startup Skyroot Aerospace backed by GIC, Sherpalo Ventures and Graph Ventures, among other investors. The latter has Vikram S to take 80 kg payloads to 100-kilometer altitude. Similarly, there is global competition from players including Rocket Lab, which also has the Electron rocket for small satellite launches. However, Ravichandran said the ability to customize the vehicle depending on payload requirements helps bring a cost-effective advantage to Agnikul.
“The vehicle can be tailored to whatever payload is being asked or to whatever orbit it is being asked to go to, without compromising on the cost itself,” he said. “So just because you have only 30–40 kg to launch, we don’t believe in pricing at a very high dollar per kg. We say between 30 to 300 kgs, anyone in that range, the dollar per kg would be still the same.”
He continued that the vehicle is also being designed to be launched using mobile launchpads, and that they can be reused.
Agnikul currently has a headcount of around 225 people, predominantly in manufacturing and launch operations. It operates from four facilities and the mission control center.
With the capital infusion, the startup is looking to go beyond its first few launches and hire talent to help realize and manufacture multiple launch vehicles.
“It’s about getting out of a very design-focused phase into a phase of design+production+manufacturing, with quality as a prime focus, wherein we’ll be able to actually tell our customers that okay, your assets are safe with us,” Ravichandran stated.
“Agnikul’s pursuit of innovative space solutions aligns with our investment focus on India’s leading-edge deep tech sectors,” said Arun Kumar, Managing Partner at Agnikul investor Celesta Capital, in a prepared statement. “We are excited to support their pioneering vision and innovative approach to modernizing and democratizing the space industry. Their mission underscores the spirit of collaboration amongst the Indian Space Research Organization, space regulators, and entrepreneurs in driving advancements within India’s vibrant space-tech ecosystem.”
Agnikul sees an annual demand for about 50 tons in the less than 300 kgs satellite launch segment. Therefore, it plans to develop multiple variants of its Agnibaan rocket and increase launches from one or two per year to one or two per month over time.
“As India’s answer to SpaceX, Agnikul is poised to revolutionize the space industry not just domestically but globally. Led by Srinath, Moin and Prof. Satya, the team is super passionate, and we wish them all the success in their first mission,” said Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc, which also participated in the round.
Agnikul is one of the examples of how India’s space tech industry has emerged in the last few years. The country opened its space sector for private companies in June 2020, and created the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) as a nodal agency to collaborate with startups. Since then, it has seen significant growth in space activities.
The South Asian nation, which currently has over 150 space tech startups, introduced its anticipated space policy in April, detailing public and private cooperation guidelines. The country also saw successful launches of missions, including its highly acclaimed moon lander mission Chandrayaan-3 and solar probe Aditya-L1. Additionally, India’s growing space activities gained attention — and attracted investments — from big tech companies including Google and Microsoft.
Foreign satellite launches helped India generate $174 million, with $157 million coming in the last nine years, the government recently said in the parliament. However, the industry demands clarity on foreign direct investments in Indian space tech startups and the recently released guidelines for the private sector as it moves forward.
Equity investments in the Indian space tech startup ecosystem soared nearly 312% to $114.9 million in 2022 from $27.9 million in 2020, according to the data shared by analyst firm Tracxn. As much as $65.5 million was invested in 2023 alone.
“From our early days with Agnikul, it’s been a thrilling journey,” said Anirudh A Damani, Fund Manager at Artha Venture Fund. “Now, seeing them draw such esteemed investors showcases not just their current achievements but hints at the groundbreaking feats on the horizon in the space tech sector. Doubling our investment isn’t merely a financial move—it’s a ringing endorsement of our faith in Agnikul’s prowess. We’re all in, eager to see—and support—every giant leap they make in reshaping space exploration.”
The all-equity Series B funding round saw participation from Celesta Capital, Rocketship.vc and Artha Select Fund. Agnikul’s existing investors Artha Venture Fund, Pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and Mayfield India also participated in the round. The six-year-old startup has raised $40 million in capital to date, including the $11 million Series A round in May 2021. | Tech Startups |
Venture capital activity around climate tech has been heating up in Africa despite the global VC funding cooldown.
The continent’s climate tech startups secured over $860 million in equity funding, largely driven by clean energy technologies, representing 3.5x growth amid macroeconomic headwinds last year, data shows, making climate Africa’s most funded sector after fintech.
This seems to be just the beginning: The past few months have seen a slew of new funds dedicated to investing in the space, indicating that funding for climate tech startups will persist for a while.
Pan-African venture firm Novastar was last week reported to be raising over $200 million for its third fund, Africa People + Planet Fund, which will invest in startups developing agriculture and climate solutions on the continent. Around the same time, climate tech venture capital firm Equator announced the initial close of its fund to back seed and Series A startups in the energy, agriculture and mobility sectors. Catalyst Fund’s new climate-focused $30 million kitty has also hit the ground running and is now investing in its first cohort of startups.
Satgana, a new climate tech firm launched late last year, plans to allocate up to 40% of its funds in “planet-positive” startups in Africa. Other African climate-focused investment vehicles that have raised capital recently include the $250 million AfricaGoGreen Fund (AAGF), which closed the second tranche of its fundraise in February, and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF), which raised over $110 million last year.
The AAGF finances “climate-friendly” projects and counts pay-as-you-go solar providers BBOXX and Solarise as part of its portfolio. Similarly, the Shell-backed EEGF fund invests in startups that increase access to clean and reliable energy to households and businesses on the continent. Oxfam Novib and Goodwell have also launched a new fund to provide venture debt to startups in this space.
The rise of so many new funds shows that even amid the capital crunch, there will be some dedicated pools for founders building startups that can lead energy transition efforts and offer solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. The timing of the funding couldn’t be better. | Tech Startups |
Edward Maslaveckas Bud It’s a classic startup story. A young founder has a great idea for a business and gives up a successful corporate job to pursue it, investing his life savings and employing his closest friends. They work around the clock, building incredible tech, putting 100% into sales and marketing, but it doesn’t quite work. That is the story of Bud, an app designed to help consumers make better financial decisions based on personalized financial insights that help them manage their money, or at least that was the first version of it. As CEO Edward Maslaveckas explains: “We created an amazing consumer business, but the technology we needed to scale the business was impossible to build in 2017, and we were running out of cash, fast.” Undeterred, Maslaveckas decided to bet everything on making a fundamental change. “Instead of trying to get consumers on board, we needed to get other businesses to take our tech,” he says. “And instead of fighting it out with other financial tech startups for new customers, we needed to work with companies that already had millions of them.” The team took the underlying tech that they’d built for the app and turned it into a B2B proposition. It was a gamble that paid off. Just months after changing focus, Bud received £1.5 million ($2 million) in seed funding from Banco Sabadell and Outward VC, followed by a Series A round in 2019 that raised £15 million ($20 million) from the likes of HSBC and Goldman Sachs. The original model had been based on recommending the right financial products at the right time to customers, saving them time and money when they were shopping around for the best deal, but getting access to customer data early had proved difficult. “We had to rely on screen scrapers which can be unstable and need a lot of attention to keep them running well,” explains Maslaveckas. “They’re also inherently less secure than where we are now, as customers had to share their bank logins with us to use the service.” Getting other businesses to take their technology was never going to be easy. In 2017 Open Banking was still unproven at scale and no-one wanted to be the first to take the plunge. Banks move slowly in tech and the first Open Banking APIs had a lot of technical problems, so the challenges were all about iterating through small scale proofs of concept and helping banks and the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) to get the APIs into a good state.
HSBC was the first bank to take the plunge with a high-profile app for First Direct customers. “We won the pitch to provide the underlying tech for that app and things started to pick up speed from there,” says Maslaveckas. “A couple of years ago we raised a Series A round with Goldman Sachs, HSBC and a few other big names, and that definitely helped with the momentum. The rest has been driven by a combination of the market becoming more mature and our tech becoming more powerful.”
Open Banking took effect in January 2018, compelling all U.K.-regulated banks to allow customers to share their financial data with authorized providers or other banks, with the customer’s permission. The global Open Banking market generated $7.29 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $43.15 billion by 2026. One of the main areas of impact from open banking has been on businesses that have seen an opportunity to improve business processes or customer experiences directly using the data.
“The way people earn and spend money is changing really fast and we’ve seen exponential growth in socio-economic factors like the gig economy,” says Maslaveckas. “This leaves people who have this new relationship with money at a huge disadvantage because the system isn’t set up to give them a fair assessment. Open Banking is having and will continue to have a huge effect on that.”
Another area of impact is more of a cultural one. Wider access to data has changed the way that institutions think about the data they already have. Bud can accept data from any source, not just Open Banking, and of the billions of transactions that run through its systems every year around half are from organizations that just want to better understand the data that they already have. “They send us the data, we enrich it, clean it up and put it in context, create some really powerful customer insights off the back of it and send it back,” says Maslaveckas.
Bud’s clients currently include HSBC, ANZ, Credit Karma and Dozens. They work with 1.5 million consumers, process 75 million transactions a day, have 80 staff and have just opened an office in Australia.
Maslaveckas adds: “This is just the start and 2022 will see us looking at new markets; we’ve already incorporated in Australia with several others on the roadmap, and we are doubling down on the capabilities of our intelligence product so that we can create even more powerful insights out of the mess that is transaction data.” | Tech Startups |
Consider it a case of David versus Goliath. Like the biblical shepherd, smaller privacy-focused companies and nonprofits are out to give internet users an alternative to the services of the handful of internet giants collectively known as "Big Tech." Their products range from encrypted messaging apps and email services to private web browsers. They have different business models. But they pursue the same goal: To give individuals better control over what is done with their data. As Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter has brought new attention to how the internet's architecture is increasingly owned by a powerful few, executives told DW that they hope that the reaction against Musk will help their companies gain momentum. "The question now is: How do we ensure that those alternatives get the attention they need, given that the tech companies' monopolies are so powerful?" said Meredith Whittaker, the president of the nonprofit Signal Foundation, which oversees the development of the encrypted messaging app Signal. Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, which makes the encrypted email service "Proton Mail," likened the situation to that of the early environmental movement, which went through decades of advocacy work before awareness for its cause went mainstream.Why Big Tech is under fire around the worldTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "Now we've suddenly hit a point where it's socially unacceptable not to care about the environment," he said, arguing that awareness of online privacy will one day reach a similar tipping point. "It might take 20 or 30 years, but the change is inevitable." That assessment was echoed by Mitchell Baker, CEO of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation and its for-profit subsidiary, which develops the Firefox web browser. "We are in the early phases of a big change, and these changes take a long time," Baker said. "But we are building towards something." Looking like Big Tech, collecting less data But how do you convince people to ditch the convenient, mostly free services of Big Tech for privacy-focused alternatives? Signal's strategy includes making its messenger look and feel like its big competitors such as market leader WhatsApp. That's one reason why the Silicon Valley-based nonprofit recently rolled out a feature that lets users post videos, pictures, or text that disappear after 24 hours. Below the surface, however, the app collects as little data as possible, President Whittaker stressed. In addition to encrypting communication — something services like WhatsApp do as well — the messenger does not track metadata about who is communicating with whom and when, and it does not keep a record of the names or images people choose for their profiles.Whittaker used to work for Google before organizing staff protests and, eventually, resigning in 2019 Image: Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo/picture alliance Against a "surveillance business model" And yet, like in the story of David and Goliath, it is an uneven battle. Not only does Signal operate with a fraction of the staff working at WhatsApp, which was bought in 2014 by Meta, known at the time as Facebook. The nonprofit also has to find alternative sources to finance its free service, which Whittaker said costs "tens of millions of dollars" per year to maintain. WhatsApp creates most of its revenue with paid business accounts and in-app payments. But the company also shares some data about its users with Meta, depending on where in the world they are — and Meta makes the lion's share of its profits by selling targeted advertising based on customer data. That would be out of the question for Signal, Whittaker said. Instead, the messenger relies mostly on donations. But as awareness of what she called Big Tech's "surveillance business model" is growing, Whittaker is convinced that "among the many people using Signal, there are enough who are willing to make donations." The role of regulators Andy Yen, CEO of Geneva-based software company Proton, said the problem with Big Tech isn't that it's big. "The problem is that Big Tech is using its size to entrench a status quo that's bad for the average user, and bad for the world." As companies like Meta or Google grew over the last two decades from scrappy startups into the world's most powerful corporations, they have come to dominate their respective segments of the internet market. This, Yen said, has made it ever-more difficult for internet users to choose alternatives over their services. The hurdles many phone users have to take before they can download his company's encrypted email program are a case in point, he argued.Within the tech industry, Andy Yen has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Big TechImage: Janosch Delcker/DW "Proton Mail" aims to be an alternative to email providers such as Google's "Gmail," which makes money by, among other things, displaying targeted ads to its users based on their online activity. To install "Proton Mail" on cell phones with Google's Android operating system, however, users need to download the app from the tech giant's own "Google Play" app store. "And to use 'Google Play,' you practically have to use 'Gmail,' so we're in the absurd situation where to get 'Proton Mail,' you have to get 'Gmail,'” he said. "This is not fair competition." In a request for comment, a Google spokesperson told DW that while users do need a Google account to use the "Google Play" app store, they can create such an account without using "Gmail." But Yan insisted that "this is a monopoly," which, he added, could "quite easily be broken with common-sense regulation." That is why he is lobbying lawmakers from Washington DC to Brussels to pass laws that would make it easier for internet users to switch to alternatives and curb the market power of Big Tech. Supporting "responsible" tech startups Across the Atlantic, the San Francisco-based Mozilla Foundation is pushing into the world of venture capital. The nonprofit became known in the early 2000s when, together with an online community of volunteers, it built the open-source Firefox web browser. Within less than a decade, the browser rose to take about 30% of the market share. But in 2022, that number has fallen back to around an estimated 4%, with Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers now dominating the market. "Open-source won on many things and is now embedded in many things," Mozilla's founder and CEO Mitchell Baker acknowledged. "But where we didn't win is in the power of what we've created."Baker, a trained lawyer, is the CEO of the Mozilla Foundation and its for-profit subsidiary Mozilla CorporationImage: PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA AFP via Getty Images That's why the Mozilla Foundation, as its nonprofit model continues, is launching an investment fund for early-stage tech startups worth $35 million (€34 million). The plan is to help a new generation of "responsible" tech entrepreneurs develop technology that adheres to Mozilla's privacy standards, among other things. Mozilla's hope is that, as the regulatory landscape is expected to become tougher in the coming years, that focus will become a competitive advantage. Whether the plan will work out remains unclear, as does whether the growth of services such as Signal or ProtonMail will continue. Signal's Meredith Whittaker said it was fair to compare the efforts of privacy-focused tech firms like hers to a David versus Goliath battle. "But we have the force of public opinion behind us," she said. "There is an increasing understanding throughout popular culture and institutions outside of tech that there's a real problem with a business model that places intimate dossiers about everyone in the hands of a handful of corporations." In the biblical story, at least, underdog David defeats his giant opponent. Edited by Ben Knight | Tech Startups |
How to Think Outside Your Industry and Revolutionize the Customer Journey
Follow these four lessons from travel tech startups on revolutionizing the customer journey.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Traditional industries often change slowly, but they have a considerable market share and continue to succeed despite this because they are what customers are used to. They may hope for a more innovative product, but they have been content to settle for what the industry giants offer.
However, in a post-Covid world, consumers are interested in something other than the same old tired products and services they've always dealt with. Instead, they're demanding newer, better solutions. To stay alive, companies must rethink the customer experience and offer the public something fresh.
Well-established industries can be slow to adopt new solutions, but there are a few ways to build a disruptive tech product and shake things up.
1. Build detailed customer profiles from scratch
It's time to toss out everything you think you know about your customers and start with a clean slate. A recent report from WeTravel found that travelers are increasingly looking for more personalized experiences, but how and why they travel has shifted in a post-Covid world.
So, the best way to get to know your customers again is to throw away your notes, roll up your sleeves and figure out who they are and what they want. McKinsey recently found that there are more nuanced customer segments post-pandemic, so you might discover new categories of travelers with unique pain points and preferences.
For instance, premium travelers are now more interested than ever in feeling like they're part of an exclusive community. Meanwhile, boomers are looking for more hands-on human assistance when booking trips.
The things that are most popular with your audience outside of your industry are the same things that will draw them to your product.
As an example, millennials are a "subscription lifestyle" generation. They like products and services that allow access with a simple subscription fee. That's why brands like Dollar Shave Club and Hello Fresh remain popular with that age bracket. Travel brands like Inspirato and Bidroom use this subscription-style model to provide better, customer-focused service.
Gen Z, on the other hand, is more interested in the YOLO (you only live once) lifestyle and gamification. They're spontaneous, experience-driven and attracted to things with fun game mechanics like the ability to unlock achievements or "level up."
Travel booking app Hopper has leaned into this, creating daily login streak bonuses, dropping surprise destination deals and offering "loot crate"-style rewards to use in-app.
2. Look to other industries to find ways to disrupt your own
Remember that you're not the first to try to win against big players. Thousands of startups in dozens of industries are playing the same underdog game. Many are succeeding, so it's worth considering what they're doing right.
Always monitor new emerging products and business models in related industries. The most popular models with different demographics in other areas, such as dating, dining or entertainment, can give you insights about what to incorporate into your disruptive product.
This strategy is already working for companies like Turo, which utilizes an Airbnb-style model of peer-to-peer car sharing for short-term and long-term rentals. This was a truly disruptive idea. It opened up the car rental industry, allowing owners to earn money and renters to access vehicles at lower prices.
Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have long been popular with Gen Z, so travel app OfftheGrid decided to capitalize on that trend to create a brand-new travel experience for the younger generation of travelers.
The brand allows users to "swipe on" and chat with travelers who share their interests while discovering new destinations. The result is a unique travel product that breaks away from the traditional model of sites like Expedia.
3. Follow the tech trends
It's important to follow where technology leads you to maintain a competitive advantage. If your company can get ahead of the curve, it sets you up to control a huge market share once the tech you've already adopted starts trickling down to your competitors.
For instance, once the internet became widespread, online travel agencies suddenly became popular. The logical progression that followed was moving from web browsers to phones as mobile internet overtook the telecom industry.
We're now in the early days of the era of big data and generative AI, so it's natural for innovations like ChatGPT to start changing everything we know about travel. Big names like Expedia and Kayak have already begun leveraging ChatGPT to allow customers to build trips through natural conversations with their chatbots.
By keeping abreast of technology trends, you can ensure the product you build is cutting-edge and can catch travelers' attention.
4. Think beyond your product
Disruption won't happen overnight. It usually has to be incremental because customers and competitors have to get used to the idea of being outside of what they already know.
Because of this, you need to think about more than just the disruptive product you're creating. Remember, if you succeed, you're essentially turning your sector upside-down. Other brands will want to follow in your footsteps.
So, ask the big-picture questions while you create: How will this change the market in the long term? What will the ripple effects be?
For example, AI and ChatGPT are taking over nearly every industry (including travel!), even though they started as tech industry ideas. Now, we're seeing companies that aren't willing to jump on board with AI get left behind while the ones that dive in are finding success in unprecedented ways.
We've figured out that a total overhaul of the customer journey is the key to successfully disrupting a traditional sector. If you're looking to start a revolution in a well-established industry, you have to be willing to admit what you don't know, get down in the trenches and figure out ways to make every customer segment feel like they can't live without your product. | Tech Startups |
You have just mere hours left to save a bundle on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking place September 19–21 in San Francisco. At this point, perhaps you need the help of Saint Expeditus, the patron saint of procrastinators. Hey, whatever it takes to keep money in your wallet, amirite?
Buy a pass and save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
Consider your cash flow, and expedite yourself into action. The deadline looms, so buy your pass before 11:59 p.m. PDT tonight, and save up to $600.
What founders say about TechCrunch Disrupt
Here’s what your colleagues have to say about their Disrupt experiences.
“The top three benefits of going to Disrupt were introducing my product to people who would not have seen it otherwise; networking with investors, mentors, advisors and potential customers and, finally, talking to other entrepreneurs and founders and learning what it took to get their companies off the ground.” — Felicia Jackson, inventor and founder of CPR Wrap.
“Disrupt was a great place to look for potential partners beyond our blockchain world. We got to meet and collaborate with founders in complementary technologies like IoT and AI. Building those relationships will help all of us provide customers with better solutions. It’s a win-win.” — Joel Neidig, founder of SIMBA Chain.
“Tech startups go to Disrupt to show off their stuff. It’s the perfect place to scope out the competition, network with potential investors, get a feel for how other companies position themselves and to see what’s trending.” — Jessica McLean, director of Marketing and Communications, Infinite-Compute.
There’s so much opportunity waiting for you at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco on September 19–21. You have until 11:59 p.m. PDT tonight to buy your pass and save up to $600. Expedite your success!
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form. | Tech Startups |
- A survey from Proud Ventures, a network of LGBTQ+ venture capitalists and angel investors, found that 75% of LGBTQ+ startup founders and 79% of investors conceal their sexual orientation or gender identity.
- A number of startup founders reported facing discrimination as a result of their LGBTQ+ identity.
- The report encouraged tech investors to openly show their support for LGBTQ+ founders.
Most founders of tech startups who identify as LGBTQ+ in the U.K. find themselves unable to share their sexual orientation or gender identity with their professional peers, according to research published Tuesday.
A survey from Proud Ventures, a network of LGBTQ+ venture capitalists and angel investors, found that 75% of LGBTQ+ startup founders and 79% of investors conceal their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Proud Ventures, with the backing of Founders Factory and Investec Wealth, surveyed 118 founders and 61 investors based in the U.K. for the research. It is the first report of its kind in the U.K. startup community, according to Proud Ventures.
Of the founders who conceal their identities from investors, 45% said they felt it wasn't relevant to the situation. Some 27% said they didn't feel comfortable sharing that information with investors, while 18% feared it may harm fundraising efforts.
A number of startup founders reported facing discrimination as a result of their LGBTQ+ identity. One anonymous founder cited in the research detailed how a cisgender bisexual founder was the target of a drunken slur from an investor on their sexual identity after coming out.
The investor subsequently "sent an email saying he was passing on investing because there wasn't a very good, quote 'cultural fit' with the fund he represented," this founder said, according to the Proud Ventures report.
"Whilst much progress has been made in the last decade on diversity in tech, the Proud Ventures report shows that LGBTQ+ founders and operators are a minority group which has been overlooked," Asher Ismail, co-founder of revenue-based financing startup Uncapped, told CNBC via email.
"We have much further to go for the LGBTQ+ community to feel comfortable to be open and show up as their full selves at work."
The report encouraged tech investors to openly show their support for LGBTQ+ founders, add pronouns to their email signatures, Zoom and LinkedIn profiles, and track diversity in their portfolio companies.
Diversity has historically been an issue in the tech community. The nature of venture capital, in particular, is such that it often benefits those with existing relationships and contacts, potentially putting founders from underrepresented groups at a disadvantage.
It is feared the contraction in startup funding, declining technology valuations and a worsening macroeconomic backdrop could worsen the situation for LGBTQ+ founders.
"The macroeconomic downturn and slump in startup funding have made it harder for all founders, but especially for diverse founders," Ismail told CNBC.
"There are no clear reasons behind this but it could be due to VCs playing it safe with their existing networks or repeat founders which may not be as diverse." | Tech Startups |
From managing energy with innovative power solutions to decreasing the CO2 impact from food waste, impact-driven tech startups are actively decreasing our carbon footprint. So why isn’t there more coverage of these companies driving change?
Where many go wrong when approaching the media is by thinking “the more the merrier.” In fact, overwhelming journalists with information in your pitches signals to them that you don’t understand the hook of your story or what’s important to their audience. So, before communicating your green initiative in your next pitch, consider this six-point checklist to get your eco-conscious startup noticed and make the headlines.
1. Give journalists no choice but to be enticed by your subject line
Journalists get hundreds of emails daily, and even if they wanted to, they couldn’t possibly answer each one. You need to grab their attention from their first glance, showing that you’ve got something that’s immediately attractive to their audience. In order to provide the perfect teaser of what’s to come in the full pitch, start by putting the most outstanding facts, names, and brands at the beginning of the subject line. For example, if your startup just completed a Series C funding with Greenpeace or the World Wide Fund for Nature, don’t be modest — put it front and center.
Show journalists and their readers that sustainability is no longer a side issue or just a worthy cause. It’s our duty to help Mother Earth.
Your first idea is never the strongest, so craft at least five different versions of your subject line and eliminate one at a time, depending on how clear, customized, controversial, and catchy each one is. However, keep in mind that many journalists are multitasking and skimming emails on their smartphones, so shoot for between 41 and 50 characters, or 6 to 8 words. That way the full subject line is visible on a mobile device.
You can cut down on your title by removing adjectives and sentence etiquette. In other words, channel your newsroom voice when writing the subject line, which typically uses active verbs.
Example of a mediocre subject line:
- Expire proves that perishables are the prime contributors to greenhouse emissions
Example of a good subject line:
- Meat is the carbon culprit behind food waste
Customization is also as important here as it is within your actual pitch. For example, if you have an AI-driven solution like Wasteless that helps solve the third biggest contributor to climate change — food waste — here’s how you could adjust your angle for different journalists. A retail writer may be more concerned with how your AI cuts food waste by 50% and increases revenue by 110% in 12 weeks. An environmental writer covering climate change may be interested in how you’re reconditioning consumer behavior and reverting food insecurity.
On the other hand, a journalist writing for a mainstream outlet in the United States might be concerned with food causing 25% of all carbon emissions and how you’re preventing Americans from paying a premium for steaks with a longer shelf life.
Ultimately, every pitch you send out should have a different, captivating subject line and body of text that will connect with the recipient. If you’re finding this to be an uphill battle, work in reverse and write your subject line after you’ve nailed the most newsworthy details in the pitch itself. | Tech Startups |
Key Points:
- Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) and its parent company collapsed, leading to a serious risk to the technology and life sciences sectors, which many of SVB UK’s customers belong to.
- The UK government is drawing up plans for an emergency cash lifeline to help startups affected by the bank’s collapse. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has called the issue a “high priority” and has been holding late-night meetings to avoid further fallout.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) and its parent company has sent shockwaves throughout the UK tech industry, prompting the government to draw up plans for an emergency cash lifeline to help startups affected by the bank’s collapse, as per The Guardian.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has called the issue a “high priority” and has been holding late-night meetings with the prime minister and the Bank of England governor to avoid further fallout. While there is no systemic risk to the UK financial system, there is a “serious risk” to the technology and life sciences sectors, which many of SVB UK’s customers belong to.
The government has asked affected startups to disclose their cash on deposit at SVB UK, their monthly burn rate, and whether they have access to other bank accounts. Tech industry representatives have been summoned for an emergency meeting with Treasury officials, and there are hopes that the government will consider either reviving SVB UK through a state bailout or private takeover or offering specialized loans for startups at risk of going bust.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank – the 16th largest lender in the US – has left many businesses at risk of losing almost all their cash, with only £85,000 of clients’ deposits protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
This has the potential to cripple the UK tech industry, with many businesses at risk of falling into insolvency overnight. Britain’s biggest high street banks have been given a 24-hour deadline to rescue SVB UK from collapse, with lenders including Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group among those to have been approached by the board of SVB UK over the weekend.
While there is little chance of contagion across the banking sector, tech startups and investors are worried about the ripple effects for the sector.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has called for immediate action from the government to protect the UK’s startup sector, which drives growth and innovation across the economy. This is a crucial moment for the UK tech industry, and it remains to be seen what steps the government will take to prevent further damage.
DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.
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The technology industry at large might not be in the best of health at the moment, but health and fitness startups appear to be alive and well. EGYM, the Munich-based “smart workout solution” business, has agreed a monster equity investment of €207 million ($225 million), on the back of a very strong year of growth, led by the investment firm started by Jared Kushner.
The company’s business includes both a line of connected hardware (its own gym equipment); software (apps and diagnostics to measure and optimise how people work out on EGYM’s and other connected fitness equipment); a corporate health network operation called Wellpass with more than 2.5 million users; and a mission: to improve healthcare outcomes by focusing on “the shared economy of a gym,” in the words of CEO and co-founder Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer.
“Ninety-nine percent of the market is repair versus prevention,” he said of the approach to healthcare and its focus on chronic conditions treated with medicine and related therapies, an approach that he believes would be less likely, and less expensive, if people exercised and treated their bodies better. “We want to shift that.”
You can argue that this is a gross over-simplification of the state of global healthcare market today, but you might argue less with EGYM’s numbers.
The business brought in $130 million in revenues in 2022, growing 70% year-over-year. Wellpass, a big focus for the company going forward, grew 100% in the same period. En route to a future IPO, it expects to double down on newer markets like the U.S. and become profitable while doubling overall revenues to $260 million in 2023.
And in a difficult year for fundraising when investors’ attention seems mostly focused on AI startups, EGYM’s round is one of the biggest to come out of Europe.
All the more interesting, then, when you consider the lead investor. Affinity Partners — the Saudi-backed, Florida-based investment firm founded by the son-in-law and close confidante of former U.S. President Donald Trump — is leading the round, with previous backers Mayfair Equity Partners and Bayern Kapital also participating. This is a Series F, and EGYM said that roughly half of it, €107 million, will “flow immediately” with the remaining €100 million on the table for future use.
Roesch-Schlanderer confirmed that the first tranche is coming at a post-money valuation of €600 million. Based on the company’s growth rate — which is currently at a rate of 70% year-over-year for the full business — he said that when the second tranche is drawn down, it will likely be at a higher valuation.
EGYM’s current flush period comes after nearly 14 years in business — it was founded in 2010 — and nearly going bust during Covid when all gym activity grounded to a halt. And the idea had very classic beginning: it came to Roesch-Schlanderer to solve his own problem; specifically, his own failings when it came to exercise.
“It all started with me being an unsuccessful gym goer,” he said in an interview, explaining that typically while people are shown how to use the array of machines at their gyms, they’re largely left to their own devices after that. “I tried to understand why I and so many others fail to work well there.”
Roesch-Schlanderer, who studied tech entrepreneurship and management at university, predictably saw a business opportunity in that question — one that could be answered with technology.
“I realised that those who work well either have trainers or themselves backgrounds in exercise science,” he said. “So we decided that we could make the gym work if we provided an AI-based trainer to every user.”
And that is, in effect, what the company’s longer-term goal has been.
The business started very much focused around its own hardware coupled with basic usage measurements based on people exercising on EGYM’s own equipment. Over time, the company has been slowly incorporating more sophisticated tech into the mix, and making the software work with other equipment. The AI-based personal trainer he speaks of has yet to be rolled out, although there has been more machine learning incorporated into the product on the road to more personalization.
“We think in the next two years we will perfect this,” Roesch-Schlanderer said of the AI service.
That has also changed the makeup of the business: these days the hardware/gym equipment part of the business “remains an incredibly important piece” of the EGYM business, but it also now accounts for only 25% of the company’s revenues.
At a time when consumer-focused fitness businesses have hit a number of bumps — Peloton and its 2 million bike recall in May being the most recent hiccup — EGYM interestingly has been set up as a B2B operation: gyms of all sizes, rather than individual users, have always been its target customers and as of today, there are some 16,000 using EGYM’s products.
In recent years, with the launch and growth of Wellpass, that has extended to building business relationships with corporates and others that offer their employees health and wellness benefits, with some 11,500 of those using EGYM products also part of the Wellpass network. (On that note, Roesch-Schlanderer said that it’s not looking at Affinity as a strategic investor: there have been no conversations so far to bring on the Trump Organisation or its various resort properties as customers.)
While fundraising has been on the rocks overall in the tech sector in the last year, one of the bright spots it seems has been health, and specifically companies building services on the theme of preventative care, using technology to improve on the traditional way of doing things.
Just earlier today, Neko Health — co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek — announced a $65M round for its full-body AI scan with a promise/amibiton of finding issues and optimising care before potential issues become health problems. Last week, Augmedics raised more than $80 million for a new take on spinal surgery that aims to be less invasive and more accurate thanks to AR and AI. We’ve also seen a wave of insure-tech startups that are trying to tap into this concept by providing corporate customers wellness and fitness services to help people get healthy and avoid the more costly medical routes they end up taking when they are not.
“EGYM serves the large and rapidly growing global fitness and healthcare markets with a differentiated technology-centric model,” said
Asad Naqvi, a partner at Affinity Partners, in a statement. “We don’t often come across companies with revenues in the triple-digit millions that are close to doubling in size year-over-year. In EGYM, we are backing an incredible team with a long track record of execution and success, and we look forward to supporting the company on its path to an IPO.” | Tech Startups |
Part of Kathy Caprino’s series “Today’s True Leadership” Stimulating creative breakthroughs in business Getty Images According to recent data and research, creativity has been ranked as a top skill for business success today. In a 2020 World Economic Forum “Future of Jobs Report,” creativity was rated highly as an important emerging skill across numerous countries. But very often, seasoned CEOs and leaders can rely too heavily on what they’ve done in the past that has been successful, when in fact, something brand new is called for. As an example, research has shown that novice CEOs consistently outperform more experienced leaders, in part because the more experienced CEOs “fall back on the playbook from their last job, become overly concerned with cost-cutting, and are less adaptable than rookies…” To learn more about how CEOs and startup founders can achieve creative breakthroughs for their businesses, I caught up this month with Joey Boukadakis, founder of the advisory firm General Specific. He works with CEOs of new media, tech, and web3 companies with a focus on creative strategy advisory. Boukadakis previously cofounded Wheel, a mobile video technology startup acquired by Tinder in 2017, and worked in creative development roles at MTV, Warner Brothers, Disney, MGM, Paramount, HBO and Comedy Central. General Specific is a strategy advisory firm working with leaders to execute on business opportunities through a creative prism, offering a suite of integrated services including CEO advisory, storytelling and content strategy, entertainment and media partnerships, strategic fundraising, growth and special initiatives. Here’s what Boukadakis shares about how leaders can achieve creative breakthrough:
Kathy Caprino: Joey, as a creative strategy advisor to some of tech’s top CEOs, what does your work focus on? Joey Boukadakis: I help CEOs solve complex creative challenges and scale creative tech businesses. That work looks different for each CEO, but the role is a perfect combination of my experience as a creative and executive in Hollywood, and as an entrepreneur, building and selling my own media tech startup to Tinder and IAC. Originally focused on entertainment, I graduated from USC film school and started my career as a music video director, working with artists like Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park, Lil Jon, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Liz Phair, Marc Broussard and more (back in the day when MTV actually played music videos). From there, I transitioned into screenwriting and wrote and sold a good number of movies and TV shows to studios and networks like MGM, Comedy Central, CBS, Disney, and HBO (where I worked on the “Entourage” franchise).
As I was writing, I also grew interested in gaming and went on to run a digital gaming group inside Warner Brothers, producing properties around global IP like Batman and Harry Potter. As media continued to evolve with the inflection of smartphones and consumer apps, I began to feel more and more drawn to technology and entrepreneurship, eventually raising VC money and starting a tech company with my brother—a mobile video collaboration app called Wheel, which we ended up selling to Tinder and IAC a few years ago.
Going from fledgling startup to acquisition by a Fortune 500 company was exhilarating; we learned a lot of lessons along the way. Coming out of the sale, I recognized how valuable an entertainment and content background could be for the right kind of tech organization, and identified a white space opportunity from the advisory side. Growing our startup, we utilized the help of all kinds of incredible advisors—financial advisors, legal advisors, and IT advisors—but no one was really doing what I today call “creative strategy advisory,” and it would have been extremely meaningful for us.
I ran with this insight and started helping out CEO friends with their businesses—companies with some kind of content, original IP, creative tools, media tech, web3, gaming, or platform component to them. It unearthed a real demand for the work, leading me to launch my own strategy advisory firm called General Specific, which I run today.
I’ve fused my experience, relationships, expertise, and intangibles across entertainment and the startup community to advise, work with, and invest in many incredible businesses. Focusing on early and growth-stage new media, tech and web3 companies, since inception, I’ve been fortunate to advise businesses like Tinder, Masterclass, Citizen, GoPuff, Raya, Green Dot, Artie, Invisible Universe, Masters, Popchew, Joyride and more. What I spend a lot of my time on falls into a handful of advisory buckets. I work directly with CEOs to architect and implement a creative vision for their company, then execute on it. I develop original IP and content strategies using Hollywood storytelling talent to cut through the fray and facilitate entertainment and media partnerships across talent agencies, studios, networks, and brands. I help drive inventive growth and scale initiatives and bring in strategic investment capital from different ecosystems. Ultimately, I find ways to provide innovative and disruptive companies with equally innovative and disruptive creative solutions. Working across a diverse kaleidoscope of CEOs, creative challenges, and industries means my days are uncommonly dynamic, colorful, and, dare I say, fun. Most of the CEOs I work with express they want to come join me after we properly scale or sell their company. An advisory firm comprised of all former creative tech CEOs? Yes, please.
Caprino: So how does your background as a Hollywood creative shape the work you do for tech companies?
Boukadakis: It informs almost everything. Success in Hollywood depends on multiple factors including original idea generation, storytelling, and collaboration. I work with CEOs to help them build strategies for implementing this mindset within their organizations. Tactically, this can present itself in a variety of ways.
For example, when companies like Tinder, Masterclass, and Invisible Universe need help with original IP and content development, I bring in a brain trust of exclusive Hollywood screenwriters from TV shows like Happy Endings, Family Guy, The Office, Big Mouth, Breaking Bad, Veep, Entourage, WeCrashed, and more, using a “writer’s room” style approach to brainstorm and “crack creative” in a unique, nontraditional way.
Hollywood has the highest concentration of artistic brainpower in the world; by refocusing it through a business prism, we help companies foster new ways of solving creative problems, be they content initiatives, brand campaigns, or AR experiences.
Many of the companies we work with also require access to or relationships with Hollywood institutions such as talent agencies, management companies, movie studios, networks, and entertainment brands in order to drive partnerships and growth. So, be it an experiential marketing stunt for mobile gaming company Joyride with Paramount Pictures—or tapping into talent collaborations via Hollywood agencies like CAA and UTA for Popchew, a virtual food brand platform—by facilitating entertainment partnerships opportunities for clients, I’m able to generate value on both sides of the equation, as entities in Hollywood also want to work with compelling Silicon Valley tech startups.
As an advisor, I also use my entertainment background to bring strategic investment capital from the Hollywood ecosystem into startups, adding star power and high-profile names to boards and cap tables. Over the past several years successful athletes, musicians, celebrities, influencers, and executives such as The Chainsmokers, Kygo, Kevin Durant, Serena Williams, Kevin Hart, Snoop Dog, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kevin Mayer and more have become more involved in the investment space, many raising their own designated VC funds or SPACs, leveraging their social footprint and marketing reach to participate in and add value to equity funding rounds.
For a tech company, having a differentiated investor base with deep entertainment roots outside Silicon Valley can be a powerful advantage.
Ultimately, I’ve found that Hollywood creatives and tech company innovators have a lot in common: they’re bold thinkers, unafraid to disrupt the status quo, and they understand what emotionally resonates with people. But it’s quite uncommon for people to jump between the two industries. I have the benefit of years of experience in both—so I’m able to make connections and bridge the gap for truly impactful and asymmetric results.
Caprino: What are your top strategies for helping often left-brain CEOs unlock their inner creative/artist and tap into their right brains?
Boukadakis: Creativity is about connecting disparate concepts until you’ve come up with something entirely new. Making connections is almost mathematical—an act of analysis, or logic. So, it’s not necessarily a battle between left-brain/right-brain, but figuring out how to harness a CEO’s specific strengths as a wedge into creativity. Breakthroughs often come from combining elements that may not ordinarily belong together. One of my tried and true strategies is to encourage “associative thinking” for CEOs and help them connect the unconnected.
Caprino: Why do you think many founders who had immense creativity when they first started their companies ultimately stagnate?
Boukadakis: It often comes back to the old adage: “what got you here, won’t get you there.” If you stop taking creative risks and searching for new wellsprings of inspiration, an organization can shrivel and die. It can be daunting, but CEOs should be willing to cannibalize their own initial creativity and constantly reinvent. The challenge rests not so much in manifesting new ideas as in escaping from old ones.
Caprino: What can small business owners learn from your work with CEOs and highly recognizable businesses and brands? What can they do to expand their creativity and innovation?
Boukadakis: Great CEOs and businesses are willing to experiment and take risks to find breakthroughs. It’s easy to do what everyone else is doing. Anyone can buy performance marketing ads across social media—there’s little innovation or leverage there. Viewing your business through a creative prism, or asking the question “how do we do something the world has never seen before?” or “how do we attempt to make something undeniably great?” isn’t delusional—it’s an antidote to atrophy. The safe competitor can always be taken down by someone willing to take risks and be noisier. In a crowded marketplace, success favors the bold.
Caprino: What are your three best tips for CEOs and founders, and other leaders, to innovate at the highest level?
Boukadakis: Here are my top tips:
Think and execute creatively
In the future, anything that can be automated eventually will be. But creative work is its own form of leverage and very hard to teach. The ability to think and execute creatively is a tremendous competitive advantage. It pays to have a differentiated point of view.
Throw yourself into change
Embrace change because it’s coming. The goal is to be on the right side of technological disruption and creative innovation. To do so, it pays to be perpetually curious. In business you have to divine the zeitgeist a few years ahead—where do people's needs, desires, and frustrations lie? Inculcate a culture of curiosity and actively take risks to disrupt yourself in order to invent the future, rather than get steamrolled by it. Remember, your job as CEO is not to protect your current business but to build newer businesses faster than the old ones decay.
Fuse data with intuition
Lastly, I think making room for both data and intuition, science and art, the quantitative and the qualitative in business is paramount to building inspired companies that last.
The Italian entrepreneur, Brunello Cucinelli, has said that he wants his company to be a place where both “the Enlightenment and Romanticism, reason and beauty, blend together. A great idea that is born out of the mind and then goes through the soul—there is no doubt that will lead to something special, a marvelous outcome.”
I’ve always responded to that sentiment; it’s indicative of the creative spirit and attitude we help CEOs and companies strive for every day.
For more information, visit General Specific and Joey Boukadakis.
Kathy Caprino is a leadership and career coach, author and speaker helping high-potential women achieve greater success and impact. | Tech Startups |
After much anticipation and a series of consultations and feedback from various stakeholders, India has finally released its much-awaited policy establishing guidelines and rules for the country’s space ecosystem.
On Thursday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the final version (PDF) of its “Indian Space Policy 2023,” received approval from the country’s supreme decision-making body earlier this month.
The policy emphasizes the Indian government’s aim to “augment space capabilities” and brings “regulatory certainty” to the space sector reforms that were announced in 2020. It also sketches out the role and responsibilities of the newly-formed Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), which works with private players including space tech startups in the country to develop solutions and services for the space sector.
“IN-SPACe shall function as an autonomous government organization, mandated to promote, hand-hold, guide and authorize space activities in the country. For this purpose, IN-SPACe shall periodically issue guidelines and procedures, that would, among other things, promote ease of doing business,” the policy states.
In addition to private participants, IN-SPACe will collaborate with academia and national as well as global industry players to boost space developments in the country. The policy also defines that the center should “issue guidelines for meeting safety and security requirements for space objects.”
The policy allows startups to “undertake end-to-end activities in space sector through establishment and operations of space objects, ground-based assets and related services, such as communication, remote sensing, navigation, etc” subject to the guidelines issued by IN-SPACe.
Separately, ISRO has defined its role to focus “primarily on research and development of new space technologies and applications, and for expanding the human understanding of outer space.” The space agency will enable “free and open” data access from its remote sensing satellites of ground sample distance of 5 meters and higher to private and public participants in the space sector. Additionally, it will make archived satellite data and satellite derived thematic data from remote sensing satellites available on a “free and open” basis for research and development purposes.
The space agency will also transition from manufacturing operational space systems, and will collaborate and partner with national and global industry and academia to focus on R&D in space science, technology and applications, per the framework.
Alongside ISRO, the framework defines the responsibilities of NewSpace India Limited and the Department of Space.
NewSpace India Limited is tasked with commercializing space technologies and managing the production, leasing, and procurement of space assets from both private and public players. Meanwhile, the Department of Space will lead implementation of the space policy, and ensure that responsibilities are properly distributed among the different stakeholders.
Indian Space Association (ISpA) Director General Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt said the policy provided much-needed clarity on all space activities and would help create opportunities for private players.
“It also clearly defines the role of IN-SPACe, as a single-window agency for the authorization of Space activities by government entities as well as NGEs (non-government entities). With this policy clarity, we are confident that IN-SPACe and DoT will work speedily to ensure necessary clearances for private players in India,” he added.
The association counts space tech startups including Mayfield-backed AgniKul and Singapore’s SIG-invested Skyroot Aerospace as members, as well as private companies such as Bharti Airtel and OneWeb.
Private participants including startups in the country’s space sector have also asked the government to introduce a foreign direct investment policy to help attract global investors. Details on that front are yet to be announced, though.
The new policy comes months after the government released its draft for consultations last year as a significant update to the initial set of rules released in 2017.
In the last few months, the Indian government has been working toward bolstering space activities in the country to make it an attractive market for customers around the globe.
Among other developments, the government’s recent data shared in the parliament shows that as many as 388 foreign satellites were launched by ISRO’s launch vehicles in the last eight years, including 37 until March. Microsoft also recently partnered with the space agency to work with local space tech startups. | Tech Startups |
Wait, is this even physically possible?”
Fundraising is hard for every startup, but only deep tech startups face questions like this from VCs. Innovation often does not come without issues, and there are problems regardless of how good your concept is, or how superior your technology is.
Your pitch may well be the first time a VC has even heard of a concept, so how can they possibly work out how to invest in your idea when it sounds like sci-fi?
No one wants to invest in the next Theranos
A VC’s job is to find the next biggest company. To do this, they need to understand what the company does and how it makes money. VCs hear big claims every day and don’t want to be taken for fools.
As a result, they usually treat new ideas with skepticism and tend to avoid investing when they don’t understand something. This disadvantages deep tech and those working on something that’s truly cutting-edge.
As with any other fundraising challenge, the key is to put yourself in the investor’s shoes and build your pitch around that.
Before you start fundraising, it’s worth asking yourself: How likely is it that a VC will truly understand my tech or even have heard of it before? How much does the public know about this area? Is it being reported in the general media, or is it still only being discussed in specialist journals?
Would a VC need to be very familiar with the latest research in your area or have attended a specialist conference? Think about how your claims will sound if your pitch is the first time someone has heard of this idea.
The thing is, even if an investor doesn’t think your claims are fraudulent — as was the case for years with Theranos — you probably won’t seem credible if you’re the first person making this claim. How can you deal with this skepticism and help VCs go from thinking, “This is sci-fi,” to “This is the next big thing”? | Tech Startups |
Early this year, Nigerian health-tech startup Remedial Health announced plans to scale within the West African country digitizing pharmacies and bringing efficiency in the pharmaceutical supply chain after raising seed funding.
The YC-backed startup has since February grown its reach from six to 16 states within the populous nation, and plans to cover the remaining 20 as it embarks on a path to deepen its operations across the country. Buoyed by a new $4.4 million equity seed round, Remedial Health is also looking for growth opportunities in East and West Africa.
The latest round was led by Global Ventures, the VC firm that co-led its pre-seed round, with participation from Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures and True Capital Management, and a number of angel investors including Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda. Founded by Samuel Okwuada (CEO) and Victor Benjamin (COO) in 2020, Remedial Health makes it easy for pharmacies to source pharmaceutical products from major manufacturers and distributors, including GSK, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, as well as Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor and Fidson Healthcare.
By enabling neighborhood pharmacies and hospitals to source from certified merchants, the startup brings in new efficiencies to the pharmaceutical value chains and stems the supply of fake and substandard products. Its inventory financing and loans features helps its clients to increase their basket sizes, and improve their operating efficiencies.
Okwuada said that since the beginning of the year, the startup has grown in leaps owing to the uptake of its digital offering, buy-now-pay-later product, and expansion activities.
“We have seen more than 6x growth in the number of customers on our platform since January. The feedback we constantly receive about what they like the most about our platform is around the ease and efficiency of our inventory finance offering, the variety of products they can access on our platform and the effectiveness of our procurement process – wherever our customers are based in Nigeria, they typically receive their orders within 24 hours,” Okwuada, told TechCrunch, adding that last-mile delivery, backed by its distribution hubs, is done in-house or through its partners.
Remedial Health Founders – Samuel Okwuada and Victor Benjamin. Image Credits: Remedial Health
“The launch of our inventory finance product has also attracted more customers to our platform, as they have been able to take advantage of it to grow their businesses and navigate the challenge of rising prices. More than 60 percent of our customers use the inventory finance product and we have seen more than 50 percent growth in their average basket size since we launched the product,” said Okwuada.
The startup’s digital offering includes a digital procurement platform that enables pharmacies to manage their operations by facilitating the making and tracking of orders. It also supports financial reporting and accounting, while providing real-time market intelligence that improves manufacturers’ decision-making on forecasting, production and distribution.
Its patient medication records (PMR) system gives pharmacies access to client data making their ordering clear-cut and operations more efficient, in the push towards the delivery of more targeted and better healthcare services in their regions of operations.
Like Nigeria’s Drugstoc, Remedial Health is among the increasing health tech startups that are streamlining the pharmaceutical sector across Africa, an industry that has for decades remained fragmented – leading to stock unavailability, quality concerns and erratic pricing.
Global Ventures Principal, Sacha Haider said, “The market opportunity to serve community pharmacies across Africa is significant. In Nigeria alone, 500,000 community pharmacies drive over 80% of a 70-billion-dollar market in annual pharmaceutical sales. The team at Remedial Health is proactively addressing challenges including price opacity, poor drug quality control and a very fragmented supply chain though a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centered healthcare network that has allowed over 25% in cost reductions at the point of care.” | Tech Startups |
Subsets and Splits