Tag Archives: science

Researchers Force Grumpy Cats to Wear Adorable Wittle Wool Hats — for Science

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Veterinary researchers have devised a solution to head off feline resistance to brain scans: hiding the electrodes underneath crocheted hats.

Hide and Seek

Veterinary researchers have devised an ingenious solution to head off feline resistance to brain scans: hiding the electrodes underneath custom-fit crocheted caps.

In a press release about this fascinating and adorable discovery, the University of Montreal boasted that its scientists figured out the system that helps keep the brain scanners on cats who are given chronic pain tests.

When administered while felines are awake, brain scans meant to detect pain conditions like osteoarthritis are often annoying to the cats in question. The animals often end up chewing on wires and trying to shake off the sensitive electrodes of the electroencephalogram (EEGs).

Vets generally sedate cats when giving them EEGs to avoid such a scene, but in their new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, the UdeM researchers are proposing their novel knitted approach.

In interviews with the New Scientist about their methodology, the researchers said that they came up with the solution after becoming frustrated with cats they were doing brain scans on constantly throwing off their electrodes.

"When you spend more time putting electrodes back on than you do actually recording the EEGs, you get creative," explained PhD student and study coauthor Aliénor Delsart.

Getting Creative

When trying to find solutions to this feline conundrum, the researchers stumbled upon a YouTube tutorial for crocheted cat hats. The team leads had a grad student make the cats' beanies and were pleased to discover that it helped keep the electrodes in place — though there's little doubt that the cats were none too pleased by their new accessories.

With the crocheted beanies secured as a novel solution to the pissed-off cat problem, UdeM team lead Éric Troncy said in the press release that they're looking for government funding to expand their research into chronic feline pain.

"We now plan to obtain [Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Alliance] funding, in partnership with private companies, to enable us to establish a genuine EEG signature for chronic pain," Troncy said, "and many other applications that will enable us to automate chronic pain detection in the future."

Necessity is, as they say, the mother of invention — and in this case, it may end up helping all of felinekind.

More on cats: Research Finds That Cats Feel Grief When Their Fellow Pets Die... Even Dogs

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Researchers Force Grumpy Cats to Wear Adorable Wittle Wool Hats — for Science

Scientists Gene Hack Bacteria That Breaks Down Plastic Waste

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The scientists edited to the bacteria to prove which enzyme it used to degrade PET plastics into bioavailable carbon.

Bottom Feeders

We may have a way of literally eating away at our planet's pollution crisis.

As part of a new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers have shed additional light on a possibly game-changing bacteria that grows on common polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics, confirming that it can break down and eat the polymers that make up the waste.

Scientists have long been interested in the plastic-decomposing abilities of the bacteria, Comamonas testosteroni. But this is the first time that the mechanisms behind that process have been fully documented, according to study senior author Ludmilla Aristilde.

"The machinery in environmental microbes is still a largely untapped potential for uncovering sustainable solutions we can exploit," Aristilde, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois, told The Washington Post.

Enzyme or Reason

To observe its plastic-devouring ability, the researchers isolated a bacterium sample, grew it on shards of PET plastics, and then used advanced microscopic imaging to look for changes inside the microbe, in the plastic, and in the surrounding water.

Later, they identified the specific enzyme that helped break down the plastic. To prove it was the one, they edited the genes of the bacteria so that it wouldn't secrete the enzyme and found that without it, the bacteria's plastic degrading abilities were markedly diminished.

That gene-hacking trick formed a full picture of what goes on. First, the bacteria more or less chews on the plastic to break it into microscopic particles. Then, they use the enzyme to degrade the tiny pieces into their monomer building blocks, which provide a bioavailable source of carbon.

"It is amazing that this bacterium can perform that entire process, and we identified a key enzyme responsible for breaking down the plastic materials," Aristilde said in a statement about the work. "This could be optimized and exploited to help get rid of plastics in the environment."

PET Project

PET plastics, which are often used in water bottles, account for 12 percent of global solid waste, the researchers said. It also accounts for up to 50 percent of the microplastics found in wastewater.

That happens to be the environment that C. testosteroni thrives in, opening up the possibility of tailoring the bacteria to clean up our sewage before it's dumped into the ocean, for example.

But we'll need to understand more about the bacteria before that can happen.

"There's a lot of different kinds of plastic, and there are just as many potential solutions to reducing the environmental harm of plastic pollution," Timothy Hollein, a professor of biology at Loyola University Chicago who was not involved with the study, told WaPo. "We're best positioned to pursue all options at the same time."

More on pollution: A Shocking Percentage of Our Brains Are Made of Microplastics, Scientists Find

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Scientists Gene Hack Bacteria That Breaks Down Plastic Waste