Selective breeding may threaten valuable genetic diversity in cattle

The Victorian government announced the program on August 12 after vaccine doses arrived at Phillip Island. The rollout was due to begin once final regulatory approvals were in place.

Each selected penguin must be caught and identified, vaccinated, then caught again for a second dose. Little penguins return regularly to the same colonies and often to the same burrows, making this unusually large wild-bird vaccination effort possible.

Phillip Island Nature Parks said the project was believed to be the world's largest vaccination program involving wild birds. That description is the organiser's assessment, rather than a formally verified world record.

The Phillip Island colony contains about 40,000 little penguins. Their dense colonies could allow infection to spread quickly. The species is the world's smallest penguin, typically standing about 30 centimetres tall and weighing around 1.5 kilograms.

When the vaccination program was announced, the Victorian government said H5 bird flu had been detected in wild birds at several locations, including Phillip Island, but not yet in a little penguin. Subsequent reporting said a little penguin from Phillip Island had died with the virus before vaccinations began.

Vaccination cannot stop H5 bird flu from circulating among wild birds, and it will not protect every penguin. Authorities say it may reduce severe disease and deaths when used alongside surveillance, biosecurity and wildlife-response measures.

The vaccine contains inactivated virus and cannot cause bird flu. It stimulates an immune response, but protection is not guaranteed. The two-dose schedule is intended to strengthen that response. Individual birds must be monitored for adverse effects after vaccination.

Australia has also prepared vaccination programs for other priority native birds, particularly threatened species in zoos or closely managed populations. National authorities say H5 bird flu cannot feasibly be eradicated from wildlife following detections and evidence of local transmission, so the response focuses on monitoring and reducing harm.

The Australian government says the current risk to people remains low and that no H5 detections have been found in poultry or agricultural production. Members of the public should not touch sick or dead birds. Suspected cases can be reported to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

Source: theconversation.com

Radio galaxies are powered by active galactic nuclei, bright central regions associated with matter falling toward supermassive black holes. Some produce jets that feed enormous radio-emitting lobes. When the jets stop, the lobes remain visible for a time as their particles lose energy. Astronomers call these systems remnant radio galaxies.

Researchers led by Sushant Dutta of the University of Cape Town and the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy studied 14 candidate remnants in the XMM-Newton Large-Scale Structure field.

They combined observations from the MeerKAT MIGHTEE and uGMRT superMIGHTEE surveys with data from LOFAR, GMRT and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Together, the observations covered radio frequencies from 144 MHz to 1.5 GHz.

Models of the sources' radio spectra classified 12 as remnants and reclassified two as active. The result shows why observations at several frequencies are important: candidates selected from limited data can be misidentified.

The models estimated total spectral ages of about 8 million to 42 million years, with a median of roughly 12 million years. These estimates are shorter than those for many remnants examined in earlier studies. The fraction of each source's estimated lifetime spent in the remnant stage ranged from 4% to 83%, suggesting that the sample includes galaxies at very different stages after their jets switched off.

Most of the sources are at relatively high redshifts. The researchers found an association between higher redshift and younger estimated spectral age after accounting for radio luminosity. They said stronger energy losses involving the cosmic microwave background, along with rapid expansion in low-density environments, could help explain the pattern. The observational study does not establish either explanation as the sole cause.

The sample is small, and the ages depend on models of how particles and magnetic fields evolve in the radio lobes. Even so, the findings point to a faint population that previous surveys may have missed. Future surveys with the Square Kilometre Array should find many more such sources and test how common short-lived remnants are.

The study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Source: phys.org

In the film, Peter Parker asks whether the device uses target-specific short interfering RNA, usually shortened to siRNA. These small RNA molecules can be designed to recognize a particular messenger RNA, or mRNA.

Messenger RNA carries instructions copied from DNA to the cell's protein-making machinery. An siRNA guide can direct a cellular complex known as RISC to matching mRNA. The complex then cuts the target, reducing production of the corresponding protein.

This process is often called gene silencing, but the name can be misleading. The treatment does not remove or switch off the underlying DNA. It lowers the output of a selected gene, and the effect can wear off.

RNA interference is established medicine, not science fiction. Several siRNA drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for conditions including hereditary amyloidosis, acute hepatic porphyria, primary hyperoxaluria, high cholesterol, hemophilia and familial chylomicronemia syndrome.

The fictional application presents much bigger problems. Spider-Man's abilities would presumably involve many proteins, tissues and biological pathways. A single siRNA target would be unlikely to suppress strength, reflexes, senses and other traits together. Targeting several genes would also increase the challenge of predicting side effects.

Delivery is another major obstacle. Most approved siRNA medicines are designed to reach the liver, although one approved product uses lipid nanoparticles and researchers are testing ways to reach other organs. A whole-body treatment affecting muscles, nerves and other tissues would be far more difficult.

Real siRNA drugs also do not behave like an instant switch. They generally reduce rather than eliminate production of a protein. Their effects vary by drug and can last for weeks or months. Even after the silencing effect declines, cells may need time to rebuild the affected proteins.

The film therefore uses a genuine biological mechanism as a plausible idea, not a technology that medicine can currently reproduce. RNA interference can selectively reduce protein production, but it cannot safely fine-tune fictional superpowers on demand.

Source: sciencenews.org

The talks took place in a working group under the Eurasian Economic Commission's Advisory Committee on Customs Regulation. Kuat Rakhimov, director of the commission's Department for Customs Legislation and Law Enforcement Practice, chaired the meeting.

One proposal from Kazakhstan would add coded information about relevant prohibitions and restrictions to declarations for express cargo and e-commerce goods. Standardized codes could allow customs systems to check some information automatically. The change may eventually shorten processing times, but the commission did not announce that it had been adopted or give a date for implementation.

Participants also considered a simplified declaration for goods sold by businesses in EAEU countries to individual buyers abroad through marketplaces and other online platforms. The proposal is intended to make customs procedures easier for exporters engaged in e-commerce.

The commission said it would prepare amendments to the rules for completing the e-commerce declaration. This means the measures remain under development.

The EEC has worked on special customs forms for express cargo and online trade for several years. Its Board approved an express-cargo declaration form and completion rules in 2018. It approved the structure and format of a separate declaration for e-commerce goods in December 2024.

Source: pravo.by

Dan Farag, director of innovation and practice at the Young Foundation, argues that community organisations and trusted local networks can play an important role during floods, infrastructure failures and other emergencies.

He proposes making more underused public land available for community food growing. He points to groups such as Incredible Edible as examples of residents working together to grow and share food. Such projects may strengthen local skills and connections, although they could not replace the national food supply on their own.

David E Alexander, emeritus professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, calls for elected politicians to lead a public discussion about long-term food planning and emergency reserves.

He cites Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050, an 86-page report produced through a research programme funded by UK Research and Innovation. The roadmap proposes changes to farming, diets, business planning, data and food-system governance. It is a research-led set of recommendations, not an adopted government plan.

Antony So, a co-author of the National Preparedness Commission's 2025 report Just in Case: 7 Steps to Narrow the UK Civil Food Resilience Gap, argues that emergency stocks must form part of a wider resilience system.

He points to Switzerland, where the federal government and private companies jointly maintain compulsory stocks. The system covers essential foods and agricultural inputs including fertiliser and animal feed. The Swiss government sets the required goods and quantities, while private businesses own and manage the stocks.

So argues that reserves alone would be insufficient during a prolonged crisis if electricity, fuel, water, transport or communications failed. Food security depends on all these systems continuing to function.

Together, the letters make the case for a broader public debate. Their proposals range from neighbourhood food growing to national contingency planning, but they share the view that resilience involves people, infrastructure and institutions as well as stored food.

Source: theguardian.com

The Met Office forecast a shift to cooler, more unsettled weather after a heatwave. Some places could receive intense showers, while others may get little rain. Water running quickly from hard, very dry ground can add to local flood risk when rainfall is particularly heavy.

That does not mean the drought is ending. At the start of August, Environment Agency figures showed that seven areas of England were in drought. Reservoir storage across England had fallen to 69%, which was 11.6 percentage points below the long-term average for that time of year. Five monitored reservoirs were classed as exceptionally low.

The dry conditions were also affecting rivers, wildlife and farming. The agency reported low flows, algal blooms, fish deaths and restrictions on water abstraction. More than 25 million people were covered by temporary limits on water use in early August.

Water supply problems continued in south-east England. South East Water said thousands of customers in parts of Kent lost supplies before most connections were restored. The company asked customers to limit use while storage tanks recovered.

Wessex Water also announced a temporary-use ban covering about 1.4 million customers in parts of south-west England. It was the company's first such restriction since 1976. Thames Water, which had already imposed restrictions, asked customers to keep reducing demand.

Brief downpours can reduce immediate pressure on vegetation and lower wildfire risk, but drought recovery normally requires sustained rainfall. Rivers, reservoirs and groundwater respond over different timescales, so several wet days in one area cannot restore depleted water resources across England.

Flooding and drought can therefore occur at the same time in different places, or even in the same region. A short, intense storm can overwhelm drains and produce rapid runoff while longer-term river flows, groundwater and reservoirs remain unusually low.

Source: theguardian.com