Whether its mocktails, alcohol-free beer or low-alcohol wines and spirits, theres no question that keeping people hangover-free is big business.

In the UK, the no- and low-alcohol beer market was worthmore than 350 million in 2021, and in China its a multibillion-pound industry. And although theres no such thing as truly no-alcohol beer alcohol-free labelled beers can contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume(ABV) removing most of the booze is down to some basic chemistry.

An alcohol molecule has at least one hydroxyl (OH) functional group bound to a carbon atom. This means even something as complicated as cholesterol is still, technically, an alcohol. But, the drinks labels dont describe the chemical definition instead, they mean ethanol (CH3CH2OH).

Ethanol isnt just for drinking: it makes a terrific fuel and is an important industrial precursor to make other molecules too. It has a lot of different effects on the body far too many to go into here but the important part comes when you consume more than your liver can metabolise, and it interferes with neurotransmission in the brain. The result is that you get drunk. However, low-alcohol beer has so little alcohol that your body can usually deal with it easily, keeping you hangover-free.

Brewers follow the same process used for thousands of years to make beer. First, they mash malted barley in hot water. Then, they extract sugars in a liquid known as wort, boil it with hops and ferment the liquid. The fermentation process involves yeast a fungus that feeds on the sugars to produce ethanol, carbon dioxide and by-products that add flavour.

No yeast, no fungus creating ethanol, no flavour

There are multiple tactics a brewer can employ to ban the booze. One is to sidestep the fermentation process altogether by not adding yeast to the wort: no yeast, no fungus creating ethanol, but also no flavour. Unless you use additives to spice up the flavour, you get a rubbish-tasting beer. Another option is equally simple: just dilute your beer. By adding water, you reduce the ABV, but also make weak beer.

This leaves the modern process of dealcoholisation: removing the alcohol after fermentation. Again, there are a range of techniques that brewers can use, but most involve either heat or a membrane-based process.

One common approach is vacuum distillation. This involves heating the beer at low pressure, which means the ethanol and water in the beer evaporate at different temperatures and separate. Brewers take the ethanol out, and reblend the remaining liquid, this time with a little carbonic acid. The downside is that they lose various flavour molecules with the alcohol. Brewers must separate the liquid once more, then reintroduce the flavours into the now (nearly) alcohol-free beer. A variation on the technique is stripping, in which water vapour or a non-reactive gas (such as nitrogen) is passed through the wort under vacuum to carry away the ethanol. You can decaffeinate coffee beans using a similar technique.

Another alternative is reverse osmosis. Rather than low pressure, the brewer uses high pressure to force the beer through a semipermeable membrane. This membrane allows water and ethanol through but leaves larger molecules (such as those that give beer its taste) behind as a concentrate. Brewers can then dilute the concentrate with fresh water to make the booze. The downside is that, although most of the flavourful stuff is in the concentrate, they lose some smaller molecules or those dissolved in the beers gases. Without care and attention, the beer loses its flavour, smell, colour and even stability meaning that your alcohol-free beer isnt as good as the real thing.

Why not watch, and share, this TikTok over a brew?

Kit Chapman

Watch, and share, this TikTok (bit.ly/47KgGCn) over a brew

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Rhodamine-based flourescent dyes developed at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus.

Credit: Jonathan Grimm/HHMI Janelia Research Campus

WhenSenior Scientist Jonathan Grimm came to Janelia 13 years ago, he didnt know much about fluorescence or fluorescent dyes. But as an organic chemist who had been working in drug discovery at Merck, he certainly knew a thing or two about medicinal chemistry.

On a whim, Grimm and Janelia Senior Group Leader Luke Lavis decided to try using a mainstay medicinal chemistry reaction Grimm had picked up in the pharmaceutical industry to improve centuries-old dye chemistry. They thought this approach could allow access to completely new, previously inaccessible rhodamines molecules Lavis had been working to make brighter and longer-lasting so they could be used to better image cells under powerful microscopes.

The result was the start of what would become the now ubiquitous and indispensable Janelia Fluor dyes, bright, photostable, cell-permeable fluorescent probes that allow biologists to see the molecules inside cells. More than a decade after they were first unveiled, these fluorescent dyes that span the color spectrum have become a staple of biology labs worldwide.

Using a similar approach, Grimm, Lavis, and their collaborators have now released the culmination of their years of work: a comprehensive collection of additional rhodamine-based fluorescent dyes a whole new set of far-red shifted dyes that can penetrate deeper into tissue and are good for in vivo imaging, making them vitally important for biologists. The team also shared their approach -- the novel chemistry they developed to synthesize the dyes and insights that provide a roadmap for designing future probes.

Along the way we applied or modified or came up with totally new ways to make rhodamines that have pretty broad scope and that enabled us to make so many dyes relatively quickly, Grimm says. This is probably the most comprehensive work weve done with rhodamines so far.

Creating a comprehensive collection

The latest project started at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The team had just released research detailing the novel chemistry they used to expand the Janelia Fluor dye palette. Next, they wanted to see if they could apply what they learned about optimizing the Janelia Fluor dyes to other types of rhodamine-based dyes, while also further improving the chemistry used to synthesize them.

As the world shut down, Grimm and Lavis planned new chemistryincluding completely novel chemical reactionsthat sought to rationally incorporate the lessons learned from the Janelia Fluor dyes into other classic but suboptimal rhodamines. A few months later, Grimm got back into the lab and began seeing if their work on paper could translate to the real and sometimes unpredictable world of organic chemistry. With COVID precautions in place, Grimm worked alone in the lab optimizing the chemistry and creating the first new dyes.

It probably would have happened anyway, but for better or for worse, when there is nothing else to focus on, or the things to focus on were badas 2020 was for everybodychemistry was a nice distraction, Grimm says.

The new research lays out the culmination of the teams work over the past three-plus years. Unlike the traditional Janelia Fluor dyes, which are characterized by an appendage called an azetidine ring, the other rhodamine-based dyes have different substituents protruding from other parts of their molecular structures. Armed with knowledge from optimizing the JF dyes, the team modified these other areas on the older rhodamine dyes to alter their color, brightness, photostability, cell permeability, and other characteristics.

The result is a whole new set of rhodamine-based dyes for imaging. The team was also able to devise several new ways to make classic rhodamine dyes, enabling them to create dozens of functional versions relatively quickly.

We had known for a long time how changing the functionality on the top of the molecule affects the colors of the fluorophores, but we also figured out that this strongly affects the chemical properties of the dye, Lavis says. We exploited that in different ways to make bright, red-shifted imaging agents.

The final chapter

While this isnt the end of the story for rhodamine dyes, the work is likely moving in a different direction. Now the team is focused on designing reagents that are specifically tailored for use by their biologist collaborators, working to build the very best tools they can with the knowledge theyve gained.

We can make any rhodamine dye we would ever want with this chemistry, and so the big question is what do we make next, Lavis says. Its not what can we make but what should we make.

Grimm says developing this expansive set of rhodamines, which took over a decade, is a testament to HHMI Janelias support of long-term efforts that are beneficial to the wider scientific community. Having permanent staff scientist positions at Janelia also enables Grimm and other senior scientists to provide continuity to a large project like the Janelia Fluor dyes. Four of the researchers on the most current publication were also on the very first rhodamine dye paper the lab published, in 2011.

For Grimm, it also means he gets to do what he loves be in the lab, do chemistry, and create tools that are useful to biologists. And, more than 13 years later, hes also learned a thing or two about fluorescent dyes.

It is very satisfying to have this timeline of papers that show all that weve done over the years, and it all started with just one random reaction based on a little calculation that Luke did, which itself was enabled by a synthetic method that we just happened to pursue, on a whim, simply to make dye synthesis a little easier, Grimm says. Even if a calculation looks great, it doesnt always pan out that way. In this case, it was dead on, and it certainly paid off.

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Optimized Red-Absorbing Dyes for Imaging and Sensing

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From the left: the organizers of the competition Prof. Pavel Jungwirth (IOCB Prague) and Prof. Robert Hoyst (IChF PAS) and the winner of the 2023 Dream Chemistry Award Dr. Mark Levin (University of Chicago)

Credit: Photo: Tom Bello / IOCB Prague

The Dream Chemistry Award, a unique competition that does not count scientific articles in prestigious journals or affiliations with renowned universities, knows its winner for this year. Its contestants are young scientists within seven years of having received their doctorate. To be true to its name, it rewards ideas so novel that their realization is akin to fulfilling a bold human dream. The 2023 award has been given to Mark Levin from the University of Chicago, whose aim is to simplify the design of pharmaceutically active substances.

Co-organized by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Dream Chemistry Award reaches out to researchers that are at the beginning of their careers and are trying to solve fundamental problems in chemistry or related fields. To achieve this goal, they propose innovative solutions to problems with a global impact. It is the general benefit that can come from these projects which is crucial for success in this competition.

This year, the challenge was tackled the best by Dr Mark Levin with his dream about the targeted editing of the skeletons of aromatic molecules. His vision is that molecular designers will be better able to synthesize new functional molecules directly, preferably avoiding dead ends. This would give the world substances with properties that are perfectly suited to specific roles, which is especially important for modern medicinal chemistry. The reason is that this field is currently facing a multitude of problems, for example concerning the effectiveness of medicines.

It is a real breakthrough that can fundamentally transform the way new molecules are discovered, even though this will require a collaborative effort from many research groups around the world, says Mark Levin, adding that It can revolutionize the science of synthesis.

Contestants are nominated for the competition by their reputable senior colleagues from scientific institutions around the world. Young researchers that accept the nomination and prepare a competition submission get evaluated by an international scientific committee. One of its members as well as organizer of the Czech branch of the competition, Prof.Pavel Jungwirth from IOCB Prague, describes: This year's Dream Chemistry Award event presented five scientifically strong finalists, and the jury and audience heard five great lectures. It is difficult to choose a winner from among such brilliant candidates, but this is what the jury is for.

I enjoyed all the lectures. They were of really high quality, agrees the representative of the Polish side, Prof.Robert Hoyst, adding: These people are exceptional, and it is a great honour to be part of such a competition. Although, come to think of it, for us this is not a mere competition; we are talking about the Dream Chemistry Award a festival of science.

Also visiting Prague this year are young recipients of the award from previous years: Karl Brozek, Jessica Kramer and Yujia Qing, who shone in the competition four years ago. Since then, the postdoctoral researcher and then youngest finalist has become an associate professor in organic chemistry at Oxford (UK) and leader of her own research group. How did her success in the Dream Chemistry Award help her? Yujia answers: Receiving this award in the field of chemical biology helped me start my own research programme. I was particularly inspired by the scientific discussion that accompanied the competition. I received a lot of feedback. I also really appreciate the support given by the Dream Chemistry Awards committee. A letter of recommendation from one of its members undoubtedly helped me land my current faculty position.

She is not giving up on her dream of sequencing all life, molecule by molecule, with which she impressed the evaluators in 2019, although she admits that she will have to take a different path than she originally envisaged. I will celebrate every step forward and stay open to all the surprises that science can bring to me, Yujia Qing looks to the future.

The main accolade, the Dream Chemistry Award, comes with an original glass statuette and a prize of 10,000. The remaining finalists have received the TOP5 Prize and a financial reward of 1,000. The top five include: Aisha Bismillah from the University of York in the UK (accelerating the development of shape-shifting molecules and their use in medicine), Moran Frenkel-Pinter from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (studying primordial peptides as mixtures to find connections between today's biochemistry and the chemical principles from prebiotic times that led to the origin of life on Earth), Francesca Grisoni from the Eindhoven University of Technology (revolutionizing the next generation of artificial intelligence based on principles of chemical intuition) and Barak Hirshberg from Tel Aviv University (designing molecular crystals with customized properties using machine learning algorithms).

The Dream Chemistry Award (www.dreamchemistryaward.org) was founded ten years ago by Prof.Robert Hoyst from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (IChF PAS). In 2017, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) joined as the second organizing institution, and since then the competition has been held annually, alternating between Prague and Warsaw.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Barbara Wadsworth, center, presents a $2 million check representing a gift from the William Henry McMullen III Trust to Dr. Charles Karr, president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Also pictured are, left to right, Dr. David Puleo, UAH provost; D. Ashley Jones, a UAH alumnus serving on the Planned Giving Advisory Board; Dr. Bernhard Vogler, chair, Department of Chemistry; Dr. Rainer Steinwandt, dean, College of Science; Mallie Hale, vice president for university advancement, and Tammy Eskridge, senior planned giving officer. The portrait in the center is of William H. McMullen III, Mrs. Wadsworths father. Photo Credit: http://www.uah.edu

On Friday, theUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville(UAH) College of Science announced that it has received a $2 million gift from theWilliam Henry McMullen III Trustto fund three initiatives in the Department of Chemistry. Barbara Wadsworth, McMullens daughter, selected UAH for the donation to honor the memory of her father, an analytical chemist.

It was auspicious that we had come up with this at the same time that UAH had just started to develop the Ph.D. in chemistry, Wadsworth said. That was the deciding factor on my part because then it would make a difference.

The first of the three initiatives is the William Henry McMullen III Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Its goal is to attract and retain exceptional chemistry students and internationally recognized chemistry researchers.

UAH PresidentDr. Charles Karrsaid that acquiring outstanding graduate students to invigorate and attract faculty members is essential in the initial phase of building the Ph.D. program.

Barbara Wadsworths remarkable generosity will allow us to jump-start an area of great need at UAH, namely an increase in the production of Ph.D. graduates, Karr said. As a consequence of this gift, the Department of Chemistry will be able to immediately recruit high-quality Ph.D. students for their program, something that will accelerate the development of the program. Being able to do this while honoring the incredible life of her father, William Henry McMullen III, is a blessing for all of us involved. We are extremely grateful and tremendously proud to be able to utilize this gift in order to advance our university and to benefit our community.

Dr.Rainer Steinwandtis the dean of the College of Science.

This generous way of honoring the legacy of William Henry McMullen III is transformative for our Department of Chemistry, Steinwandt said. Such impactful support enables us to strengthen our graduate program well beyond our traditional abilities, and it allows us to equip our faculty and students with the chemistry laboratories they need to excel.

The fellowship will be created with a $1 million endowment. The Department of Chemistry will nominate current and prospective UAH students for this award of $40,000 to cover their tuition, single coverage health insurance, and a stipend for the academic year.

The other two initiatives will support the laboratories that are vital to the work of these students and faculty members.

The William Henry McMullen III Laboratories Fund is an endowment of $750,000, which will be used to maintain and replace instrumentation in UAHs chemistry laboratories. This will ensure continued access to state-of-the-art equipment for faculty and students.

The William Henry McMullen III Chemistry Teaching Laboratory will be funded with a $250,000 gift. It will be located in the Shelby Center for Science and Technology. This space is home to the laboratory components of the departments introduction to chemistry course as well as some general chemistry labs.

McMullen passed away in 2006 at 81 in Raleigh, N.C., where he had worked with Pfizer for much of his career. He also played a role in the creation of high-fructose corn syrup.

He worked for a company at the time called Novo Industries AS, nowNovo Nordisk AS, from Denmark, Wadsworth says. They made enzymes. The Cuban crisis was going on, which made sugar so expensive. He designed a batch system that took the most available starch, which at the time was corn, and added enzymes to it, and it made fructose. It allowed them to industrially substitute it for sugar.

High fructose corn syrup today is an ingredient in numerous foods in grocery stores today.

McMullen was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a member of one of that citys founding families. After serving in theU.S. Armyin World War II, he returned to New York to study chemistry and start a family. He had three children: Wadsworth, a daughter- Margaret McMullen, and a son Richard McMullen.

Wadsworth came to Huntsville when her husband, E.J. Butch Wadsworth, a Birmingham native, went to work for Boeing as a defense contractor. She worked as a retail store manager and training store manager with the furniture company This End Up for 19 years. After that store closed, she worked for the Bombay Company.

This was a small market, but I managed to sell a lot of furniture, Wadsworth said. A lot of it was through relationship selling. If you sold somebody a piece of furniture for their kid to get out of the crib and into the bed, eventually, you would sell them the whole bedroom and hopefully their whole house. We had some great people that you knew from the time their kids were born until their kids went off to college.

He loved being in the lab, Wadsworth said of her father. Of course, you have to have the ability to interface with others, and you have to grow in your business, so he couldnt stay in the lab. But he would have stayed there for the rest of his life if he could have.

She recalls her father taking his grandsons to his lab.

He taught them chemical experiments that completely overwhelmed them, Wadsworth reminisced. Hed turn water blue, or hed make something smoke, or hed freeze something, and it would break. He really enjoyed making an impression on young people.

UAH is a part of the University of Alabama System.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, emailbrandonmreporter@gmail.com.

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From the moment Carolyn Bertozzi learned she had won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it was a whirlwind, she said. Its a lot of attention that scientists are not generally accustomed to.

The Herald spoke with Bertozzi ahead of her Wednesday evening talk for the Lemley Family Leadership Lecture Series about her time in research and life experiences.

Working in a male-dominated field, Bertozzi was the eighth woman to earn a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the only woman awarded in the sciences in 2022.

That year, Bertozzi and another researcher became the first openly LGBTQ+ people to earn a Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before 2022, only six other openly LGBTQ+ people had ever been awarded a Nobel Prize all in literature.

When reflecting on how her identity has impacted her life experiences, she said it has in ways I wouldnt even necessarily be aware of.

Bertozzi attended Harvard as an undergraduate, switching her degree from biology to chemistry after finding a passion for the field in her organic chemistry course. During this time, she worked for a physical chemist, despite her love for organic chemistry, since a woman couldnt get a job in an organic synthesis lab, she said.

After repeatedly trying to land a position in an organic lab, she was recruited by an assistant professor who was probably going to get denied tenure. But Bertozzi quickly found that she had to take on a lot more responsibility than she would have had in a more established lab.

I was the only person on a new project and he treated me like a postdoc, she explained. This informative experience convinced Bertozzi that she wanted to attend graduate school, leading her to the West Coast, where she earned a PhD in organic chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

She arrived at Berkeley as a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, but this was unusual: In the 80s, people were afraid to be out, Bertozzi said, citing a fear associated with the AIDS epidemic and the lack of legal protections against discrimination.

Women (also) weren't taken seriously as scientists because men saw them as a dating prospect, Bertozzi added. But being queer, all these men didnt really know how to interact with me. They honestly interacted with me like I was one of the guys.

As the pioneer of bioorthogonal chemistry the study of rapid chemical reactions that can take place inside the body without disrupting biological processes Bertozzis work has been instrumental in designing therapeutics, observing living systems and creating diagnostic tools.

While introducing her at Wednesdays event, Provost Francis Doyle said that Bertozzi was integral in training the next generation of scientists in both chemistry and biology.

After graduation, Bertozzi took an interest in glycans sugars that sit on the surfaces of cells. Bertozzi hoped to uncover a way to track the movement of these sugars without interfering with the natural chemistry occurring in an organisms body.

Around that same time, the field of click chemistry which involved optimizing chemical reactions for speed and efficiency was exploding. Bertozzi applied the fields findings in bioorthogonal chemistry via attachable fluorescent alkynes, using fluorescent alkyne-glycan complexes to visualize and track glycans.

Since this pivotal moment, the research has exploded in applicability. Taking root in diagnostic strategies and new medicines, Bertozzis work has assisted in the creation of new cancer treatment drugs, vaccines and degraders of extracellular waste.

With the constant revision and progression of Bertozzis research, Doyle asked her how she deals with failure and maintains patience. Her advice: Live in the moment.

If your goal every day is to try and contribute something and try to learn something new, your chances of feeling successful are high because on any given day youll learn something, she said.

In the audience question-and-answer session, Tasawwar Rahman 26, a current Herald columnist, asked what current undergraduate students should be thinking about when finding a specific niche in research.

Get The Herald delivered to your inbox daily.

Bertozzi said that the mere participation in research, regardless of the field, is beneficial for undergraduates as every research experience you have helps build your cognitive muscles.

Just the whole process of starting a project from scratch transcends any specific research problem, Bertozzi added. Over time, your specific individual interests will start to crystallize.

Owen Dahlkamp is a Senior Staff Writer covering admissions, financial Aid and science & research. Hailing from San Diego, CA he is concentrating in political science and cognitive neuroscience with an interest in data analytics. In his free time, you can find him making spreadsheets at Daves Coffee.

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Fans have been going crazy over Ahsokas Sabine Wren and Shin Hatis chemistry. Played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ivanna Sakhno, the rival characters have started to form a connection that viewers have begun to speculate could be something more.

Ahsoka premiered on Disney Plus this summer, with Rosario Dawson reprising her role as Ahsoka Tano. Bordizzo and Sakhno are franchise newcomers whose characters have now earned the ship nickname WolfWren.

RELATED: Galen Marek aka Starkiller Joining Ahsoka to Save Rosario Dawsons Star Wars Show after Fans Labeled it a Snore-fest? Sam Witwer Says: I cant say anything

During a panel interview at the Los Angeles Comic Con 2023, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ivanna Sakhno addressed the dynamics between Sabine Wren and Shin Hati. In a video captured via See Rad, Bordizzo stated:

So much left unsaid here. I think Shin and Sabine, as the fans have reacted to the shall I call it chemistry? its a good word. We felt these characters have this crazy magnetic connection to each other, and sometimes not in the best way, but it was really special, and we felt it on set, and it was just something that Dave I dont think hes even aware of what hes created.

Sakhno chimed in and noted that creator Dave Filoni, who was recently promoted to chief creative officer at Lucasfilm, probably had no intention of creating this certain chemistry, but it just sort of happened along the way. Bordizzo further explained:

I think theyre such great opponents for so many reasons, and its interesting because it isnt that feeling of, like, good versus evil or anything predictable like that. Sabines got some darkness in her, and Shin has some other interesting elements.

Sakhno added that there are a lot of lessons that both characters can learn from each other, and they are indeed a great combination.

RELATED: Craziest discovery in Star Wars history: Ahsokas Marrok is None Other Than Jedi: Survivors Cal Kestis Internet Goes Nuclear With Viral New Theory

There is no official release date for Ahsoka Season 2, and it is worth noting that the sequel is not yet confirmed. Production delays and the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have impeded the progress, but, as per actress Rosario Dawson, Dave Filoni is currently outlining ideas for the second installment via Vanity Fair:

I mean, theyve not said anything officially, but I remember when we were at Star Wars Celebration in London, and they were like, Were giving Dave a movie! And I was like, I kind of feel like that means were probably going to get a second season. For a while now, and especially now with the strike and everything, no one can say anything. But he did say he was working on an outline. So, well see.

If the second season gets the green light, it opens more opportunities to explore Sabine Wren and Shin Hatis relationship. Considering Filonis new position at Lucasfilm, he has more creative control over Star Wars projects. Ahsokas success is also a promising sign that fans could hold on to.

The cliffhanger ending saw Ahsoka, Sabine, Shin, Huyang (David Tennant), and Baylon (Ray Stevenson) stranded on Peridea. Surely, there are a lot of questions that will hopefully be answered in Ahsoka Season 2.

RELATED: Ahsoka: Sabine Wren Actor Natasha Liu Bordizzo Wants To Do Justice to the Character in Season 2: Dont want it to not be anything but awesome

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Have you seen the sausage ad? Andrew Scott asked me.

No, no, were not going to talk about that, Paul Mescal said.

It was a mid-November morning in Los Angeles, and I was having breakfast with two actors who have created some of the most indelible romantic leads of recent vintage: Scott, 47, played the Hot Priest on the second season of Fleabag, while the 27-year-old Mescal broke through and broke hearts as the conflicted jock Connell in Hulus Normal People.

Now, instead of aiming those love beams at women, theyll point them at each other in the drama All of Us Strangers, due Dec. 22 in theaters. Its like an Avengers-level team-up, if the Avengers recruited exclusively from the ranks of sad-eyed Irish heartthrobs who caused a sensation over the 2019-20 television season.

But before we could talk about their sexy, shattering new movie, Scott gently ribbed his co-star about an ad for an Irish sausage brand, Denny, that Mescal had starred in just out of drama school. (Though the rest of the world was introduced to Mescal in Normal People, Ireland already knew him from the ubiquitous sausage commercial.)

Look, I needed that job in a massive way, Mescal said. That paid my rent for the rest of the year. But if I could take it back

Ah, no, its lovely you have that! Scott said. I actually thought the character you created in the sausage ad was

career defining? Mescal offered.

It made me want a sausage! Scott said a little too eagerly, causing both men to laugh. Easy, folks, thats too easy a joke, Mescal said.

Scott and Mescals teasing, affectionate chemistry is put to excellent use in All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years). Scott stars as Adam, a lonely writer who finds that his childhood home has become a mysterious portal that allows him to reconnect with his long-dead parents (played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell). At the same time as Adam grapples with this past made manifestly present, he navigates an uncertain but tantalizing future with his neighbor Harry (Mescal), with whom he develops an intense romantic bond.

Over breakfast, we discussed the movie, which recently took the top prize at the British Independent Film Awards in addition to wins for directing, writing and Mescals supporting performance. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Andrew, you were attached to this movie first. How did you feel when Paul was cast?

SCOTT I was really thrilled because I was hoping that people would be able to see how cinematic and brilliant that role is.

MESCAL It never occurred to me that people wouldnt be interested in it.

SCOTT Well, the character is such a vessel for love. To be able to play love, its something that you have to just know how to embody, and Paul is so excellent about being able to allow the audience in. When I heard he was interested, I was saying to Andrew, Make that happen!

MESCAL Even if I didnt like the script or Andrew Haigh as much as I do, and I knew Andrew [Scott] was going to be doing the film, I still would have done the film.

SCOTT Would you?

MESCAL A hundred percent. And I know that probably sounds sycophantic, but when I was reading it and imagining youd do it, I thought, This is built for an actor of your caliber. Theres lots of brilliant dramatic actors in the world, but what I think separates Andrew is his capacity to understand the dramatic requirements of a scene but also to play utterly against it. He finds humor in subject matter like this, which is really quite heavy, and if you can make an audience laugh, youre halfway to making them cry.

This is a very tactile movie, too.

SCOTT Theres so much touching, whether thats familial touching or a more sensual thing. People have talked an awful lot about the chemistry and the sex between our characters, but actually what I think is really radical and affecting about the relationship is how affectionate and tender they are with each other. Its such a beautiful thing to play, isnt it? Just real care.

MESCAL I find it healing to watch that kind of emotional intimacy. I remember being surprised when we watched it for the first time, because I didnt remember being so close to your face when we were talking, how we were totally taking each other in. Theres a weird thing that I dont think you can cheat: You know how when somebody you love is talking to you, and you look at their lips? Its like, Jesus, I cant remember doing that.

Andrew, youve said before that acting is a matter of revealing. Whats being revealed about you by taking on this role?

SCOTT I think an awful lot, if Im honest. Im happy to be able to say that to be emancipated from shame has been genuinely the biggest achievement of my life. For a long time, I have felt very comfortable with myself, but it doesnt take much to go back there something a taxi driver can say can still wound you. If he might say, Youve got a wife? You could go, No, I dont, or is that sort of a lie by omission? I think the challenge was to undo the work and go to that place where you feel frightened.

How were you able to emancipate yourself from shame?

SCOTT I genuinely think that acting helped me. When I was a kid, I started doing elocution lessons because I had a really bad lisp. She sells seashells, I had to say that 17 times a day. So they sent me to elocution, which was boring, but eventually it was speech and drama classes. I was so shy and terrified, but then someone would say, Get up and do an improvisation, and some part of me felt

MESCAL free?

SCOTT Free, and I loved it. And then I practiced it a little bit more and then started doing it as a job. When I was 18 or 19, I was playing gay parts but I wasnt out. A lot of people within the industry were queer, so I was surrounded by them and then, bit by bit, started to feel confident. To make something like [All of Us Strangers], it moves me, because I never thought that Id get a chance to expose myself so much in a film like this or for it to be in such a trusting environment with such brilliant colleagues.

And do you rush headlong into the chance to expose yourself like that?

SCOTT I do. Its my responsibility. The further I go into acting, I think thats all it is, actually.

In the first scene you share, Pauls character is boldly trying to flirt his way into Andrews apartment. Paul, its a kick to see you play a man so assertive and sure of what he wants.

MESCAL I was just so giddy because I dont think Ive got many opportunities to play somebody like that. It reminded me of characters I would have played in drama school a lot more front-footed, a little bit bolder. Part of it was surprising an audience that might associate me with more interior, back-footed characters that Ive played.

SCOTT I remember so clearly you saying the line, Theres vampires at my door. That line could seem completely preposterous and its a hard sell, but its unique, right? Im obsessed with writing that has a real autograph about it.

MESCAL ChatGPT wouldnt come up with that.

SCOTT Exactly. And human beings have an extraordinary
way of expressing themselves. I feel the same way when people talk about big acting.

MESCAL I love big acting.

SCOTT Some people do that kind of polite, nobody-will-notice-me acting, and sometimes it can be a little dull.

MESCAL Youre looking for an opportunity to play something truthfully, but also if that truth can be a bigger, more fractious choice, maybe that could be fun.

Whats the biggest acting youve ever done?

SCOTT Oh my God. Pick a card, any card. I did a play called Present Laughter by Nol Coward, about a guy whos an over-the-top actor. It was kind of a farce, and Im obsessed with farce.

MESCAL I am so jealous of people who can do farce, I dont know where I would start.

SCOTT Its all about timing the slam of the door, and theres no greater feeling than when youre talking to the other actor and you are waiting for the audience to stop laughing. Youd love it because its so physical as well.

MESCAL Im just a bit scared of comedy because I didnt do a lot of it in drama school. Dont think [Ive got] a particularly funny disposition.

SCOTT Are you out of your mind? Im going to have a little think now.

MESCAL Id love to do a rom-com.

SCOTT I think youd be very good at playing some sort of neurotic.

MESCAL Really?

SCOTT Yeah. I love those kinds of characters that dont have a sense of humor.

MESCAL No sense of humor. Great. I can do that, I can do that easily. [Laughs.]

With Normal People and Fleabag, where you played romantic leads, how did you handle the intensity of the audience imprinting on you?

MESCAL I remember the first couple of months of that happening, I was like, Jesus, what can I do? And the answer is actually nothing. Theres nothing you can do about it if somebody wants to imprint or project onto you.

SCOTT That was all during the pandemic, wasnt it?

MESCAL Yeah, yeah.

Was it better or worse that you were in your house for most of it?

MESCAL Much, much better. Even doing junkets when Normal People came out, I was really glad to do it within the confines of my own home. I could put the laptop down and nobody knew where I was.

Andrew, you werent trapped at home when Fleabag came out. Could you tell something had changed in the way people perceived you?

SCOTT It already happened a little bit when I did Sherlock [playing Moriarty] because that really does have a fandom. There were like a thousand people that would come to set, it was absolutely insane.

MESCAL Jesus.

SCOTT So Fleabag" was completely different in that sense. It didnt have the same frenzy.

Maybe not as you were filming it, but there was definitely a passionate fandom once it was released.

SCOTT There was, but I really enjoyed that because I love the show. Im so proud of it and I loved that part, so I liked that it really affected people so much.

MESCAL Still! I watch it once a year.

Paul, you even dressed as the hot priest for Halloween.

MESCAL I did. That went down a bit of a storm.

When you have a breakthrough project like those two series, and youre seen differently in this business afterward, is it hard not to get swept up by all the offers that come your way?

MESCAL I know what I like. I dont have the confidence in myself as an actor to do something that isnt good. I dont think I can pull the wool over peoples eyes with bells and whistles in terms of performance, and Im actually glad I cant do that.

SCOTT But is it weird when you are in L.A. now? I opened up my curtains this morning, and there you are.

MESCAL Yeah, my Gucci billboard.

SCOTT Thats insane.

MESCAL It is bananas. Yeah, Im really proud of that, but Im also acutely aware the only reason thats happening is because people are enjoying the work that Im doing. It can all disappear, like that.

Paul, youre currently working on Ridley Scotts sequel to Gladiator. Im sure youve been pursued for a lot of blockbusters, so what made you choose this one?

MESCAL I love the first film and I think Ridley is an all-time great, so that was a no-brainer to me. I dont really have a desire to make lots of big films in my life, but if this was the only big film I was ever to make, I would put my name into the mix anywhere for that. Im having a great time doing it, but I also think theres an obligation to understand that I dont want an audience to get bored of me, or expect me to do the big indie film every year or two, because theyre really hard to get right.

Which is hard to get right, the big film or the indie?

MESCAL A film like All of Us Strangers or Aftersun. Ive been incredibly lucky that those scripts came across my desk because theres lots of other indies that are really well intentioned that dont reach an audience. Also, its hard to go to the emotional well year after year with stuff like this, so I dont want an audience to get bored of my choices or expect that Im going to do that.

SCOTT Do you remember you got the Gladiator call when we were on the set of All of Us Strangers? You were so excited. I think I was even more excited, but you were so lit up about it. I think one of the fun things about being an actor thats open to you is that you can do whatever you really want.

MESCAL Thats what makes you tick, to go from scenes like we get to play in All of Us Strangers to then doing stuff where youre running around in an arena. If I was to boil down why I love this job, its that you get to go to work and pretend all day long but the thing that you would imagine as a child is actually actualized.

SCOTT Have there been any moments in Gladiator where youre like, This is amazing?

MESCAL The first day was just bananas. There was camels and thousands of extras. Two close-ups on me. A close-up on the action. And youre just like, Ive got to fake this till I make it. Wild. Wild. Wild.

SCOTT Yeah, its playing. It really is. Youre required to play a part, youre not required to work a part.

Its heartening to hear you both describe acting as play or pretend. You talk about it in such joyful terms, but some of the other leading men Ive spoken to will

MESCAL fetishize the pain.

SCOTT It embarrasses them.

MESCAL Its important to say that pretend doesnt make it any less emotional or difficult to do, but I think it actually gives you a greater range of possibility in a scene. Thats not to say there werent days on [All of Us Strangers] that felt like some sort of psychological torture.

SCOTT Absolutely.

MESCAL But the act of making it? It cant be that, because then it just becomes about How hard can I grip this table? How much pain can I put myself through in order to talk about it to the press?

SCOTT I think of it sometimes like you invited somebody around for dinner and you said, I could not find any organic chicken in the market, it was an absolute nightmare. Then I had to ho
over the place from top to bottom. And theyre just like, Give me a glass of wine. I dont want to hear about what you did, Im just here for dinner.

MESCAL Yeah, thats spot on.

SCOTT What you need to do is have the generosity to get the chicken out.

MESCAL Organic or not.

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Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott on All of Us Strangers - The New York Times

The first biocatalytic route to produce a broad range of lactams highly sought-after building blocks for drugs, including penicillin antibiotics has been discovered. The work, which created an enzyme from an iron-containing muscle protein to catalyse lactam synthesis, could offer a simpler, cheaper and more efficient way to make them.

Lactams are ring-shaped amides, derived from amino alkanoic acids, that come in different forms depending on the number of atoms in their rings. Although a few organic synthesis strategies to make lactams already exist, a route via direct CH amidation, which functionalises unreactive CH bonds, could offer a more convenient and efficient alternative.

Such a route, however, has remained elusive. Only -lactams, which have five-membered rings, had been made via CH amidation, but it required expensive, rare metal catalysts that were inefficient, used harsh oxidising reagents and produced chemical waste. Now, researchers in the US and China have found a new approach using an iron-based enzyme derived from the haem-complex in myoglobin, a protein found in muscles.

Our methodology significantly improves upon previous methods in that it enables the cyclisation of dioxazolone substrates by means of an inexpensive, renewable and non-toxic iron-based enzyme, says Rudi Fasan, who led the work, formerly at the University of Rochester, now at the University of Texas at Dallas, US. This method offers excellent stereoselectivity, it is scalable and it has a particularly broad substrate scope, allowing for the synthesis of lactams of varying ring size.

The team were inspired by previous work that had shown iron-based enzymes could catalyse reactions and introduce nitrogen into substrates. Wondering if this could work in lactam synthesis using dioxazolone reagents as nitrene precursors, the researchers set about testing various iron-containing enzymes and proteins for their activity producing -lactams via CH amidation.

They arrived at an engineered myoglobin mutant, which the team had previously found had enhanced activity for nitrene transfer. Tests showed it reacted with dioxazolones to yield tiny yet detectable amounts of -lactam. Further mutations were then engineered in the active site of the mutant myoglobin to improve its performance.

Identifying an engineered variant and reaction conditions that maximise the productive reaction while minimising side reactions was critical, says Fasan. While we have previously found that engineered myoglobin features an unusually broad substrate scope, its applicability across different lactam ring sizes was particularly remarkable.

Results showed that the myoglobin catalyst could make a broad range of lactams including , and varieties in good yields. -lactams are particularly important for antibiotics. Whats more, the researchers demonstrated the simplicity and efficiency of the approach by producing two drug molecules one an alkaloid natural product, the other a synthetic drug in almost half the number of steps and in higher yields than other methods to make the same molecules.

The authors use stable, non-hazardous nitrene precursors derived from cheap and abundant carboxylic acids, so there is more chance that their method could find practical applications for scalable enzymatic synthesis of pharmaceuticals, says Jason Micklefield, a biocatalyst expert at the University of Manchester, UK. They also show that their new enzymes are amenable to engineering, broadening the substrate scope and even switching the enantioselectivity.

A key goal of our work is to make available to the synthetic community novel biocatalytic methods for stereoselective synthesis that are both enabling and practical, says Fasan. Because of the technical simplicity of the present method, its high stereoselectivity and scalability, we expect it will represent an attractive method for lactam synthesis in both academic settings and in industry.

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Biocatalysis breakthrough enables synthesis of lactam building blocks for drugs - Chemistry World

While most wrestling fans think of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels from the famous in and out-of-the-ring battles they had during the mid-90s, hardcore wrestling fans will know that Hart and Michaels had been battling each other long before that. The initial matches between the duobegan in the WWE Tag Team division, when Hart and Hart Foundation partner Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart battled Michaels and partner Marty Jannetty in the late '80s and early '90s, both for pride and the WWE Tag Team Championships.

It's those matches between The Hart Foundation and The Rockers that long-time WWE executive Bruce Prichard recalls with fondness of the time Michaels and Hart worked together. During the most recent episode of "Something to Wrestle," he revealed just why the two teams worked so well together.

"I think the chemistry that Shawn and Marty had with Bret and Anvil was gold," Prichard said. "It was instant. Sometimes it takes a while for guys' styles to mesh and really have that chemistry. In my opinion, from day one when they met, they had that chemistry. It was instantaneous, and it was enjoyable to watch.You got lost in the match versus a heel and a babyface. It was spectacular, and it wasn't a hokey babyface match. It was two exciting teams going out there and having a hell of a match. Two different styles, and I thought they gelled awesome together. It was some of the greatest matches."

The two iconic tag teams wrestled each other numerous times inWWE in the '80s and '90s, before they parted ways, following which Hart and Michaels achieved superstardom as singles stars.

If you use any quotes in this article, please credit "Something To Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription

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WWE Exec Bruce Prichard Discusses Chemistry Between The Hart Foundation & The Rockers - Wrestling Inc.

As much as bookworms want to hold onto their beloved original stories, bringing books to life visually on-screen is bound to bring about some changes. Bonnie Garmus's debut novel,

Now, the wildly popular New York Times bestseller is also a hit Apple TV+ miniseries starring (and co-produced by) the Brie Larson. And, yes, the show absolutely, 100%, without-a-doubt, does the book justice...and more! Even with all the changes in the storyline, it still exudes the same heart and great storytelling that Garmus was able to pull off with her written words. The TV adaptation also adds even more layers and nuance to the story by tweaking certain details, both big and small.

Warning! Spoilers ahead.

1. In the book: Elizabeth Zott is a chemist at the Hastings Research Institute, with her own lab technicians and a whole team working under her supervision. However, she is underestimated, mocked, and disrespected by her colleagues. This is because they see her as an overly-ambitious scientist, especially since she only has a Master's in Chemistry and not a PhD.

On the show: Though Elizabeth is clearly qualified to be a chemist, she is underemployed as a lab tech. Many of her male colleagues perceived her just as a pretty face and as a glorified secretary.

2. In the book: Calvin and Elizabeth have a fateful encounter, outside of work while outside a theatre. He got food poisoning after a date and accidentally throws up on her, and she winds up taking him home and caring for him.

On the show: This whole scene takes place at a Little Miss Hastings pageant held by their employer. Elizabeth is forced to participate in the pageant, which highlights the sexist demands of her job. But it also allows Calvin to take notice of her as the only unhappy contestant. As Elizabeth grabs her coat to make an early exit, she encounters Calvin, who then vomits on her due to an allergic reaction to Mrs. Donatti's perfume.

3. In the book: Readers meet Harriet Sloane much later in the book, as Elizabeth and Calvin's neighbour. She is an older white woman whose four grown children have already flown the coop, and is left at home with her sexist, abusive, alcoholic husband whom she doesn't love.

On the show: Harriet, played by none other than Aja Naomi King, is introduced early on in the series as a young Black woman whose husband is serving overseas in the Korean War. Aside from being a mother to two young kids, she also works as a legal aide, an environmentalist, and a civil rights activist. Her role in the series is much larger, and an important addition to the plot as it brings more diversity and injects a much-needed social commentary on race during that time.

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4. In the book: In her university days, Elizabeth was sexually assaulted by an old, sleazy professor named Dr. Meyers. He brutally attacks her one night when he finds her still working and running tests for his latest research project. She's able to stop her assailant by stabbing him with a pencil, but this leads to her losing her place in her programme after she refuses to offer a statement of regret.

On the show: Young Elizabeth was able to stop her assailant in the exact same way, with the same consequences. The difference is that in the series, it's someone she considers a friend and mentor who sexually assaults her. Dr. Bates a character invented for the show's purposes pushes himself on her despite her telling him that she doesn't see him that way.

5. In the book: Calvin proposes to Elizabeth at the Hastings cafeteria in front of all their colleagues. He does this, despite the fact that Elizabeth has expressed that she doesn't see herself getting married. She says no, and this leads to a big fight, which they eventually settle when they agree to move in together.

On the show: As their relationship progresses, Elizabeth makes it very clear to Calvin that she has no intention to get married or have kids. She explains that she wants to put her career first, and achieve all her ambitions. He accepts all of this without question.

6. In the book: Though Elizabeth doesn't want to have children, that doesn't mean she doesn't want to be a dog mum! After moving in together, she and Calvin agree that they want a dog in their lives. As it so happens, a dog follows Elizabeth home from a nearby deli. They wind up keeping him, and he gets a funny name after Elizabeth mishears Calvin. When he asks her what the pup's name is, she mishears him and reads the time: Six-Thirty.

On the show: Six-Thirty appears much earlier in the series. In the second episode, Elizabeth finds him sniffing around in her backyard by the trash cans. She takes pity on the poor pup and feeds him. It becomes clear that she's adopted her new furry friend when she brings him to Calvin's house. When he asks her what the dog's name is, she says it's Six-Thirty because of the time he wakes her up in the morning just like clockwork.

7. In the book: Elizabeth blames herself for Calvin's untimely death. She was the one who insisted that he be vigilant about keeping Six-Thirty on a leash whenever they went on runs together. Calvin took this seriously. But one night, during their walk, Six-Thirty gets frightened by a loud noise in front of a parking lot. He tries to run away from Calvin. Calvin then trips and hits his head. He then gets run over by a police car.

On the show: Six-Thirty hates his new leash, and is stubborn about running with it. It's the dog's behaviour that leads Calvin to be run over by a bus.

8. In the book: Another character who is majorly different in the books is Fran Frask, the head of personnel at Hastings. Fran is much more jealous and cruel in the novel, as she seems almost happy because of Elizabeth's misery. She delights in seeing her torn apart by grief. And when Fran finds out that Elizabeth is pregnant (before Elizabeth even realises it herself), she uses this to get her fired from Hastings.

But Fran gets a great character development arc, and eventually works for Calvin's friend, Reverend Wakely, as his secretary.

On the show: After Calvin's death, Fran is shown as someone who is much more sympathetic. From the very beginning, she is portrayed as much more caring than the character in the book. She doesn't get fired because Fran tells on her, but rather once it became apparent to her boss that she was unmarried and pregnant.

9. In the book: Elizabeth names her daughter Mad in a similar way as Six-Thirty. It was an accident! Elizabeth was exhausted, frustrated, and still grieving. With all the emotions running through her, she thought the nurse had asked her how she was feeling after labour. The nurse was actually asking for the baby's name. And, thus, Mad Zott it was.

On the show: After giving birth, the nurse told Elizabeth to name the baby after how she was feeling in the moment.

10. In the book: At a young age, it becomes clear that Mad is a brilliant kid who gets her smarts from her genius parents. But instead of encouraging her, Mad's teacher treats her awfully because of how smart she is.

On the show: Mad's teacher acknowledges that she doesn't belong at the school, and instead recommends her to a private school where she can truly thrive as a student.

11. In the book: Elizabeth takes the job for the cooking show Supper at Six after she felt she had no other great options financially. She had just quit Hastings (after she returned post-firing due to pregnancy) following an incident wherein Donatti stole her research. And she als
o felt guilty because one of Mad's classmates had told her they were poor.

On the show: Elizabeth needed the Supper at Six gig in order to pay for Mad's private school tuition.

12. In the book: Elizabeth refuses to endorse sponsorin a product she sees as vile and immoral for Supper at Six. She even goes as far as discouraging her audience from buying anything from the brand. Elizabeth's boss Phil intended to punish her for this, and attempts to sexually assault her. But she was prepared, threatening him by pulling out a kitchen knife from her bag. He suffers a heart attack and faints on the spot.

On the show: Elizabeth doesn't react as dramatically to the proposed sponsorship as she did in the book. Her refusal to endorse the product results in a three-day suspension during which Supper at Six plays reruns instead.

13. In the book: Reverend Wakely and Calvin became friends after a lecture Calvin gave at his university. They hit it off and became pen pals, talking about everything from the existence of God to their mundane lives. But their friendship ended abruptly when Calvin wrote that he wished his own father was dead. He was unaware that Reverend Wakely's father was critically ill at the time. But when Wakely learned of Calvin's death, he feels guilty, and decides to preach at his old friend's funeral.

On the show: Wakely and Calvin remained friends, and wrote to each other until the day he died.

14. In the book: Walter is the single father of Amanda, Mad's elementary school friend. His wife had left him, but he finds love once more with Harriet who ends up divorcing her husband.

On the show: The miniseries's version of Harriet is in a loving relationship with her soldier husband. It didn't make sense to give her and Walter, the TV producer who pitched Supper at Six, a love connection. But he does find love with Fran. The two confess their feelings for one another in the show's finale.

15. In the book: Elizabeth's happy ending is that she becomes the Head of Chemistry at Hastings replacing Donatti.

On the show: Elizabeth finds joy in her new role as a chemistry teacher.

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Lessons in Chemistry book and TV show differences - Cosmopolitan UK

A new machine learning tool can analyse wines chemical profiles and use this to accurately predict where they were produced. The system could aid the wine industrys efforts to authenticate the origins of its products.

Each wine has a complex chemical profile, which is shaped by things like the soil and climate of the area where the grapes were grown its terroir as well as the individual practices of the wine producer. While individual molecules can have a big impact on a wines flavour and can provide key insights as to where the wine was produced, the vast array of compounds within any wine makes analysing it a difficult task.

A research team led by Stphanie Marchand from the University of Bordeaux, France, and Alexandre Pouget from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, developed a machine learning system to analyse the full chemical profiles of various wines. The machine learning algorithms analysed unprocessed gas chromatograms of 80 different wines produced across 12 harvest years at seven wine estates in Frances Bordeaux region. From this information, the system could deduce which wines were produced on the same estates with 100% accuracy. The system deduced the wines vintage with 50% accuracy.

The researchers note that it remains to be seen how their GC-based classifier would perform when provided with the chemical profiles of wines from beyond the Bordeaux region. They also state that it would be interesting to compare the performance of their system with an expert human wine taster in a blind taste test.

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Machine learning tool fed red wines' chemical profiles can deduce where they're from - Chemistry World

Trauma from experiencing extreme weather events and other climate disasters can change the way your brain works, making it harder to process information, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of California and California State University analyzed existing electroencephalography (EEG) scans taken from survivors of Californias 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history.

They then compared the group to a control population that had never been exposed to the fire, finding that those who had survived the fire showed significant differences in brain activity and cognitive function.

These findings are worthy of note, as much of the previous research related to climate change-caused disasters focused on more subjective, self-reported impacts like mood and stress disorders. Co-author Jyoti Mishra told The Hill that this study aimed to identify more objective changes to the brain.

And we find that indeed, there are specific cognitive differences relative to a control population that was never exposed to the fires, she told the outlet.

For instance, fire survivors were more prone to distractibility. They also appeared to have higher frontal lobe activity, which indicates they were putting in more effort to process information.

Over the last 50 years, the frequency of weather disasters has increased by five times, according to the World Meteorological Organization. These catastrophes kill an average of 115 people and cause an estimated $202 million in losses every day, WHO reports.

The new findings add to a body of research that explores how trauma affects the brain. For instance, researchers from the University of Rochester found that trauma can be life-changing for an individual, physically altering the brain, which appears to re-wire itself after these experiences.

We are learning more about how people exposed to trauma learn to distinguish between what is safe and what is not, Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, one of the studys authors, told Neuroscience News. Their brain is giving us insight into what might be going awry in specific mechanisms that are impacted by trauma exposure, especially when emotion is involved.

Mishra says that the new study is important in understanding how natural disasters can affect mental wellness.

I think mental health has been overlooked for a long time in this context, Mishra told The Hill. The objective findings that we have, in terms of the cognitive and brain function changes, they are striking in that they appear even six months to a year after the first disaster actually hit. So the communities are living, in this case, with changes in their physiology that are long-lasting and coping with that stress on a daily basis.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.

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Research shows how a common form of trauma can seriously alter your brain chemistry: '[The findings] are striking' - Yahoo News

During a recent edition of Something to Wrestle, WWE executive Bruce Prichard compared the chemistry of The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) when they first started working together. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

I think the chemistry that Shawn and Marty had with Bret and Anvil was gold. It was instant. Sometimes it takes a while for guys styles to mesh and really have that chemistry. In my opinion, from day one when they met, they had that chemistry. It was instantaneous, and it was enjoyable to watch.You got lost in the match versus a heel and a babyface. It was spectacular, and it wasnt a hokey babyface match. It was two exciting teams going out there and having a hell of a match. Two different styles, and I thought they gelled awesome together. It was some of the greatest matches.

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Bruce Prichard on Chemistry With Hart Foundation & The Rockers - 411mania.com