Turning whales into carbon-based assets won’t be easy

We have allowed the natural capital on which we all depend to be depreciated off the books

Anjana Ahuja MAY 3 2023

Whale poo is like environmental gold dust. It is rich in iron, phosphorus and nitrogen, among the nutrients that phytoplankton, the algae at the bottom of the marine food chain, need to grow.

Phytoplankton produces more than half of the world’s oxygen and sucks as much carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as four Amazon rainforests. More whales equals more phytoplankton — and therefore more carbon removal. According to Connel Fullenkamp, an economics professor at Duke University in North Carolina, that equation renders great whales, or rather their carbon capture and sequestration services, a potentially valuable and tradeable asset.

This logic underlies the Whale Carbon Plus Project, a joint effort to work out the monetary value of great whales and to create an associated financial market that rewards investors with carbon credits. Critically, a portion of investors’ money will be channelled into whale conservation and restoration. “Ultimately, we’re trying to put nature back as something that’s valued in our economy,” says Fullenkamp, whose research focuses on the development and regulation of financial markets.

It is a smart idea on paper: introducing the profit motive may succeed in protecting the world’s natural resources where governments, industry, environmentalists and philanthropists have largely failed.

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But setting up whales as a carbon-based asset entails several tricky steps. First, putting a dollar value on a great whale and its services means carefully quantifying claims for its carbon impact. Fullenkamp and fellow economist Ralph Chami, who co-founded the environmental consultancy Blue Green Future, one of the project partners, put the rough value of a great whale at about $2.5mn-$3mn over a 60-year lifespan. That estimate is based on the value of carbon absorbed by the phytoplankton that it and its descendants help to produce, plus the estimated 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide sequestered in its body (after death, whales sink to the ocean floor and keep the gas locked in for centuries), plus revenues from related tourism such as whale-watching.

Second, the project means assigning ownership to the animals, a complex matter for migratory creatures that swim past multiple countries. And third, any resulting financial product would need to be independently verified and audited.

Investors, whether individual or institutional, would then buy notes or bonds, with dividends paid out as carbon credits instead of cash. Some of the proceeds would be used to restore the total number of great whales (comprising 13 species, including the blue whale) from their current population of more than a million to the estimated 4mn-5mn that swam the oceans before industrialised whaling.

The whale-sized effort is worth it, Fullenkamp insists: if governments, economists and environmentalists can “put our heads together, there’s this new pie, this new asset class that didn’t exist before” from which revenues could flow.

While certifying that the money actually goes to saving the animals is critical, there is a growing demand for ethical investing, with sustainability bonds and green bonds gaining popularity.

There is also belated recognition that traditional economic models neglect the value of natural resources. A 2021 review by Sir Partha Dasgupta, at Cambridge university, described nature as a blind spot in economic thinking: destroying woodland to produce a shopping centre records the increase in produced capital, measured in terms of gross domestic product, but not the loss in carbon absorption nor the rise in soil erosion.

We have collectively allowed the natural assets on which we all depend to be depreciated off the books. Biodiversity is declining faster now than at any other time in history: a million animal and plant species are thought to be threatened with extinction.

Monetising whales will take years to get right, though seagrasses and mangroves, also important carbon sinks, could become an asset within two years.

“Some people have called this a Ponzi scheme and whale-whispering, airy-fairy nonsense,” Fullenkamp admits. “And if I tried to sell you this stuff today, I’d be ripping you off. What we’re trying to do is build this very carefully because, frankly, I don’t want to go to jail for fraud.”

Unlike crypto, say, there is something real — natural capital — underlying such assets. In any case, putting a dollar value on nature’s carbon sinks and other treasures, cannot be worse than not valuing them at all.

Sumber :

https://www.ft.com/content/b8ec1997-67d0-42a7-a7bb-ff8e2dd02a90

Recycling doesn’t make you eco-friendly: 10 habits that aren’t actually sustainable

Many companies are guilty of ‘greenwashing,’ the act or practice of making a product, policy, or activity appear to be more environmentally friendly than it actually is

Collage about Recycling

LETICIA GARCÍAEL PAÍS

MAY 01, 2023 - 21:50 CEST

Many companies claim to be champions of sustainability, but, in reality, they are the complete opposite. This practice is known as “greenwashing,” a term used to describe a false or misleading claim or action made by an organization about the positive impact that a company, product or service has on the environment. The European Commission wants to confront these practices and has proposed legislation to punish the deceptive eco-friendly image that hundreds of brands have adopted in recent years.

But the sustainability discourse has also changed the habits of the general population, influencing the way many of us think about what is good for the environment. The truth is that mindless recycling does not make you eco-friendly. Here are 10 habits that are not actually sustainable.

Buying organic (but pre-distressed) jeans

Fabricating a pair of jeans requires between 2,000 and 4,000 liters of water. Brands have begun marketing jeans that use little or no water. But what is rarely mentioned is the process of fading indigo, which usually requires toxic compounds that cause chronic illnesses in garment workers. For a short time, the media warned about the stone-washing technique, which causes silicosis in workers. And recently, a video went viral on Twitter showing a woman in a mask bleaching and distressing a pair of jeans, her face and arms covered with blue fiber and dye.

Not everything natural is sustainable

Natural dyes may be biodegradable, but that doesn’t mean that cultivating them is good for the planet. The Higg index, one of the most used ways of measuring products’ sustainability, considers, for example, that the production of silk is devastating for the planet, due to the quantity of water involved and the “hole” it causes in biodiversity: silkworms are killed and their cocoons saved to make the fabric. But cashmere takes the prizes. Considered one of the finest and most luxurious knits that exists, its demand has led to the mistreatment of goats. The industry also threatens biodiversity in Mongolia and some parts of China. The cheaper the cashmere, the more cruelty there tends to be in its creation.

There are no cosmetics without chemicals

The trend of organic beauty is full of shadows. The “cruelty-free” label doesn’t mean much: animal testing has been illegal in the US and EU for years, and it isn’t possible to make cosmetics without chemicals. In fact, creating a molecule in a lab causes less pollution than large-scale cultivation of ingredients that will later be mixed with chemicals in the same lab.

Out-of-control recycling

Another increasingly common practice with a shadowy side. Currently, garments that are made with a mix of materials cannot be recycled, so depositing them in their own container is a waste of time. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users, only 0.1% of clothes dropped off for recycling in Spain is recycled. “Upcycling” is done with excess fabric, not transformed garments. The best bet, in this case, is donating, not recycling.

Labels with half-truths

Greenwashing has steered the discourse about sustainability towards a focus only on raw materials. But not everything organic is eco-friendly, and recycled products aren’t necessarily completely recycled. And, of course, not everything eco-friendly uses fair labor. We have gotten used to reading labels only for the material and not the origin: “organic” garments made in Bangladesh or Cambodia, “eco-friendly” knits mass-produced in China. Even if the labor conditions in those regions were humane, which does not tend to be the case, how much pollution is caused by transporting and distributing them? It’s the same as buying sustainable agricultural products from other continents.

A plastic bag isn’t a big deal

Several studies by the European Union have concluded that making a plastic bag causes three times more pollution than making a paper one. The latter should be used three times to match the impact of the former. Though paper is biodegradable, and plastic isn’t, after the last decade of anti-plastic campaigns, almost everyone uses the material multiple times, while throwing out single-use paper bags and cups. There is no clean solution in this case, but there should be a balance between the rejection of plastic and embrace of paper.

A cloth bag doesn’t make you eco-friendly

“Do you know what it means to produce that cloth, transports it? All that cotton that we don’t know where it’s produced, we don’t know where it’s assembled, we don’t know where it’s dyed, do you think it’s more eco-friendly than plastic?” The video artist Rodrigo Cuevas explained in a video last fall why he would not include more tote bags among his merchandise. The alternative to plastic or leather isn’t so great, taking into account that they’re now passed out on every corner, we accumulate them in closets and no one asks how they’re made. Logically, producing a cotton bag uses more resources than producing a plastic one. To mitigate the impact, we should use the same cloth bag 7,000 times. Do the math.

Do we have to reject synthetics?

There aren’t answers to this question yet, but it’s true that synthetic fabrics like nylon and polyester, though they aren’t biodegradable, are the easiest to recycle. The case of so-called vegan leather, however, is more complicated: most of it is made with acrylics that are highly polluting (almost as much as the toxic mass curing of leather). The solution lies in avoiding leather, both natural and synthetic. If buying the latter, make sure that it comes from plants.

Unofficial stamps

If supposedly sustainable fashion likes one thing, it’s certifications, whether for quality, use of organic materials or the absence of pesticides. But few of these certifications are official. Many of them are made up by the brands themselves or related organizations. Only those managed by governmental organizations, like the Cradle 2 Cradle certificate — which certifies that a garment is completely recycled and recyclable — are trustworthy, but legal frameworks around the issue are still lacking.

The plastic water bottle

Used plastic water bottles seem like fashion’s favorite element today. Brands advertise how many they’ve turned into fabric. But wouldn’t it be more useful to turn those used bottles into new bottles?

Sumber :

https://english.elpais.com/society/2023-05-01/recycling-doesnt-make-you-eco-friendly-10-habits-that-arent-actually-sustainable.html

Take Care Before Enlisting the Oceans in the Climate Fight

Analysis by Lara Williams | Bloomberg

May 3, 2023 at 2:45 a.m. EDT

WIGAN, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 22: The sun sets behind artist Luke Jerram’s ‘Floating Earth’ at Pennington Flash on November 22, 2021 in Wigan, England. The floating Earth will hover over Pennington Flash for 10 days from November 19, as part of a celebration of Wigan and Leigh’s watercourses and is the first time one of Jerram’s globes has been floated on an open expanse of water. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) (Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe)

To repair the damage we’ve inflicted on the planet, it’s generally agreed that as well as reducing how much carbon we emit in the future, carbon dioxide will need to be removed from the atmosphere and stored somewhere else, permanently. The ocean is a pretty attractive destination.

Already the world’s largest carbon sink, the ocean contains 50 times more CO2 than is currently in the atmosphere. And while a single wildfire could undo decades, if not centuries, of sequestration in a forest, carbon stored in the ocean is less at risk of what a rocket scientist might call a “rapid unplanned disassembly.” As we look to remove billions of tons of historic emissions from the atmosphere, the sheer size of the ocean, covering 70% of the Earth’s surface, comes in handy. 

There’s a lot of momentum behind ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR), with hundreds of startups clamoring for funding. But, as new research from climate non-profit Carbon180 lays out, the sector risks outpacing scientific knowledge and regulation. “Because there’s so much uncertainty, there’s potential for irresponsible deployment of these types of carbon removal projects,” Sifang Chen, author of the report, told me. “We need to make sure safeguards are put in place.”

The paper lays out four major challenges faced by ocean CDR: a small knowledge base, insufficient governance, uncertain environmental and social impacts, and underdeveloped monitoring and verification processes. Governments need to create policies which will help advance research into these methods and prevent further harm being done to ocean ecosystems, which are already in a fragile state as a result of human meddling.

The ocean draws down many tons of CO2 a year, having absorbed about 30% of what’s emitted by burning fossil fuels so far. We can support that natural process by restoring and protecting ocean habitats and species. But we’re also likely to need some engineered removal methods, too:

• Direct ocean capture: This is akin to direct air capture, except instead of pulling CO2 out of the air, you pull the gas out of seawater.

• Ocean fertilization and seaweed farming: These methods rely on harnessing the power of photosynthesis to increase carbon uptake in algae — seaweed or phytoplankton — before sinking the biomass and storing it on the seafloor.

• Ocean alkalinity enhancement: This uses minerals or electrochemical reactions to increase the alkalinity of the ocean, improving the ocean’s capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2.

Each technique comes with unique benefits, risks and downsides that scientists are still trying to fully understand. While it’s easy to calculate how much CO2 a direct ocean capture facility has removed and stored (via a process known as measurement, reporting and verification, or MRV), it’s also very energy intensive to pump water through a monitoring system. The MRV for alkalinity enhancement is a lot trickier, but it could help address ocean acidification — one of the damaging impacts of the climate crisis.

Getting MRV right is crucial to ensuring that these technologies have a positive climate impact. But it’s one of ocean CDR’s largest knowledge gaps. David Ho, an oceanography professor at the University of Hawaii, has set up [C]Worthy, a non-profit organization, to develop MRV methods for a range of ocean CDR techniques. It’s a complicated task. The ocean is one enormous open system and CDR can take place over long periods of time, making it hard to assess, Ho explains.

Vassilis Kitidis of PML Applications Ltd., the commercial arm of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, argues that the conversation may be too CO2-centric. Certain ocean CDR methods – particularly those relying on biomass growth – could actually increase emissions of other more potent greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. “You could end up in a perverse situation where you are storing carbon but contributing to global warming,” Kitidis says. It’s a reminder that before anything is rolled out at scale, there’s a whole world of unknowns to quantify.

The Carbon180 research also emphasizes the importance of engaging with coastal communities. Planetary Technologies, a Canadian CDR company, is running an ocean alkalinity enhancement test in Cornwall, England, but has faced protests and criticism from the local community. The test involves adding magnesium hydroxide to the ocean via a wastewater pipe. Neither Ho nor Kitidis (who has worked with the startup as an independent monitor) were worried about the environmental impacts of using the chemical, which is already widely used in antiperspirants and wastewater treatment, at such low doses. But it’s understandable that locals felt suspicious of the tests.

There’s an incentive for companies to scale up quickly so they can start getting carbon credits on the market and generate returns for investors. Government funding into research could help address that issue, as startups could learn without feeling the need to recoup money. The US’s Direct Air Capture Hubs scheme offers a template, with $3.5 billion of funding to develop large-scale facilities.

Everyone’s first priority should be rapid decarbonization. But implemented correctly, ocean-based carbon dioxide removal could help right some of our historical wrongs. As the Carbon180 paper says: “In order to build capacity for if and when ocean CDR deployment is needed in the future, efforts aimed at filling current knowledge gaps must start today.”

Sumber :

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/05/03/the-climate-crisis-take-care-before-enlisting-the-oceans-as-carbon-sinks/d5825a5a-e97e-11ed-869e-986dd5713bc8_story.html

Shilajit: A Natural Phytocomplex with Potential Procognitive Activity

23 Feb 2012

Abstract

Shilajit is a natural substance found mainly in the Himalayas, formed for centuries by the gradual decomposition of certain plants by the action of microorganisms. It is a potent and very safe dietary supplement, restoring the energetic balance and potentially able to prevent several diseases. Recent investigations point to an interesting medical application toward the control of cognitive disorders associated with aging, and cognitive stimulation. Thus, fulvic acid, the main active principle, blocks tau self-aggregation, opening an avenue toward the study of Alzheimer's therapy. In essence, this is a nutraceutical product of demonstrated benefits for human health. Considering the expected impact of shilajit usage in the medical field, especially in the neurological sciences, more investigations at the basic biological level as well as clinical trials are necessary, in order to understand how organic molecules of shilajit and particularly fulvic acid, one of the active principles, and oligoelements act at both the molecular and cellular levels and in the whole organism.

1. Introduction

Shilajit also known in the north of India as salajit, shilajatu, mimie, or mummiyo is a blackish-brown powder or an exudate from high mountain rocks, especially in the Himalayans mountains between India and Nepal, although it has been also found in Russia, Tibet, Afghanistan, and now in the north of Chile, named as Andean Shilajit [1]. Shilajit has been known and used for centuries by the Ayurvedic medicine, as a rejuvenator and as antiaging compound. There are two important characteristics of a rasayana compound in the ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicine: that is, to increase physical strength and to promote human health [2]. The health benefits of shilajit have been shown to differ from region to region, depending on the place from which it was extracted [3, 4].

2. Origins of Shilajit

Considering its unique composition as a phytocomplex, very rich in fulvic acid, researchers hypothesize that Shilajit is produced by the decomposition of plant material from species such as Euphorbia royleana and Trifolium repens [4, 5]. This decomposition seems to occur through centuries, and on this basis, shilajit is considered a millenary product of nature. However, further studies have identified that several other plant organisms may generate shilajit, such as molds as Barbula, Fissidens, Minium, and Thuidium and other species like Asterella, Dumortiera, Marchantia, Pellia, Plagiochasma, and Stephenrencella-Anthoceros [4].

3. Molecular Composition of Shilajit

Shilajit is composed mainly of humic substances, including fulvic acid, that account for around 60% to 80% of the total nutraceutical compound plus some oligoelements including selenium of antiaging properties [6, 7] (Figure 1). The humic substances are the results of degradation of organic matter, mainly vegetal substances, which is the result of the action of many microorganisms. Components are divided operationally in humins, humic acid, and fulvic acids according to their solubility in water at different pH levels. Humins are not soluble in water under any pH condition. Humic acid is soluble in water under alkaline conditions and has a molecular weight of 5–10 kDa. Fulvic acid is soluble in water under different pH conditions, and because of its low molecular weight (around 2 kDa), it is well absorbed in the intestinal tract and eliminated within hours from the body [8, 9]. It is likely that the curative properties attributable to shilajit are provided by the significant levels of fulvic acids that shilajit contains, considering that fulvic acid is known by its strong antioxidant actions [9] and likely has systemic effects as complement activator [10]. Recent studies on the composition of Andean Shilajit in Chile have evidenced an ORAC index between 50 and 500 Trolox units/g of material, which is substantially higher than Noni and blueberries (Quinteros et al., unpublished data). In this context, shilajit seems to be a powerful antioxidant phytocomplex.

Figure 1

Shilajit, its main components, and potential uses based on properties of fulvic acid. This phytocomplex known as shilajit is mainly composed of humic substances. One of them, fulvic acid, is known by its properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and memory enhancer. Novel investigations indicate that fulvic acid is an antiaggregation factor of tau protein in vitro [1], which projects fulvic acid as a potential anti-Alzheimer’s disease molecule.

Other molecules present in shilajit preparations are eldagic acid, some fatty acids, resins, latex, gums, albumins, triterpenes, sterols, aromatic carboxylic acids, 3,4-benzocoumarins, amino acids, polyphenols, and phenolic lipids [3, 6, 11]. Certainly its molecular composition varies from region to region. Newer investigations based on high-performance size exclusion chromatography (HP-SEC) show that shilajit contains specific molecular species of polysaccharides and lignins [10]. As humic components, humins, humic acids, and fulvic acids are found in all shilajit preparations, being the last one, fulvic acids, the biologically active compound, along with dibenzo--pyrones, which acts as carrier of other substances [3].

4. Traditional Uses of Shilajit

Shilajit is an important, known component of the ayurvedic medicine given its characteristics as a rasayana. In this context, health benefits such as an increase in longevity, rejuvenating, and arresting aging roles have been attributed to it [3]. Traditionally, shilajit is consumed by people from Nepal and the North of India, and children usually take it with milk in their breakfast. The Sherpas claim to have shilajit as part of their diet; they constitute a population of strong men with very high levels of a healthy longevity. Our laboratory has found evidence on the high activity of the Andean form of shilajit in improving cognitive disorders and as a stimulant of cognitive activity in humans [1] (Table 1). 

Morphometric study of primary cultured rat hippocampal cells exposed to Shilajit and the Brain Up-10 formulae that contain Shilajit plus complex B vitamins (Vit B6, B9, and B12).

Considering the actions of fulvic acid in preventing tau self-aggregation into pathological filaments, this compound appears to be of interest for prevention of Alzheimer’s disease [1]. Other common traditional uses include its action in genitourinary disorders, jaundice, digestive disorders, enlarged spleen, epilepsy, nervous disorders, chronic bronchitis, and anemia [2]. Shilajit has been also useful for the treatment of kidney stones, edema, and hemorrhoids, as an internal antiseptic, and to reduce anorexia. Also, it has been claimed in India to be used as yogavaha [12, 13], that is, as synergistic enhancer of other drugs. Organic components of shilajit play also a role in transporting different mineral substances to their cellular targets.

5. Novel Investigations

Preclinical investigations about shilajit indicate its great potential uses in certain diseases, and various properties have been ascribed, including (1) antiulcerogenic properties [14]; (2) antioxidant properties [15, 16]; (3) cognitive and memory enhancer [1, 10, 17]; (4) antidiabetic properties [18]; (5) anxiolytic [12]; (6) antiallergic properties and immunomodulator [2, 19, 20]; (7) anti-inflammatory [21]; (8) analgesic [16]; antifungal properties [22]; (9) ability to interact positively with other drugs [23]; (10) protective properties in high altitudes [24]; (11) neuroprotective agent against cognitive disorders [1, and Farias et al. unpublished clinical trials]. Unfortunately shilajit lacks systematic documentation and well-established clinical trials on its antioxidative and immunomodulatory actions in humans, and it is expected that considering the reported benefits evidenced from trials will be obtained in the near future [25].

6. Patenting

A few patents already exist that protect the use of shilajit in India and Nepal, such as US Patent 5,405,613—vitamin/mineral composition [26]; US Patent application number 20030198695—Herbo-mineral composition [27]; US Patent number 6,440,436—Process for preparing purified shilajit composition from native shilajit [28]; US Patent number 6,558,712—Delivery system for pharmaceutical, nutritional and cosmetic ingredients [29]. Other recent patent about a phytocomplex with vitamins added is WO 2011/041920 [30].

7. Potential Risks

Studies indicate the shilajit consumption without preliminary purification may lead to risks of intoxication given the presence of mycotoxin, heavy metal ions, polymeric quinones (oxidant agents), and free radicals, among others [3]. Therefore, a purified, ready-for-use preparation for human consumption must be used. However, recent studies indicate that several ayurvedic products including shilajit and other Indian manufactured products commercialized by the Internet may contain detectable heavy metals levels as lead, mercury, and arsenic [31]. This study showed the presence of heavy metals and other minerals, including gems, is associated with the belief that when mixed with shilajit or other herbal preparations they generate a better response from the body in a synergic manner. This is what is known as rasa-shastra in ayurvedic medicine. Rasashastra experts claim that if this is prepared, administered, and consumed properly, it is safe and has therapeutic advantages [31]. It is worth considering that recent clinical reports indicate cases of lead poisoning in patients who have used ayurvedic products against weakening [32, 33].

8. Commentary and Discussion

Shilajit has a comfortable position as the rasayana because of its excellence, well known in the Eastern culture, and now being introduced with great interest in the occidental world. The vast majority of published papers on this theme are from India, leaving this sector of the planet as an expert in their field, since this is a product that is extracted, marketed, and investigated in these latitudes. However, this generates a segmentation of shilajit, relegating it only to what has always been assumed: a natural product that is part of natural alternative medicine and not as a result of medical and biotechnology innovation worldwide. This is evidenced quite clearly by reviewing the literature today, and note that the journals where studies on shilajit are published (jobs are plentiful) are mainly reviewed in the Eastern. Given this, it is necessary that shilajit break the cultural paradigm and enter into the rest of the world by the hand of rigorous research at the molecular and cellular levels, which could elucidate the interactions of the active ingredients of the different shilajit preparations with biomolecules. This will facilitate our understanding of their mechanisms of action.

9. Conclusion

Shilajit is a potent and very safe dietary supplement, potentially able to prevent several diseases, but its main medical application now appears to come from its actions in benefit of cognition and potentially as a dietary supplement to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In essence, this is a nutraceutical product. Considering the expected impact of shilajit applications in the medical field, especially in neurological sciences, more investigations at the basic biological level are necessary, and certainly well-developed clinical trials, in order to understand how its active principles act at molecular and cellular levels.

Acknowledgments

These investigations have been supported by a CORFO Project 10ANT 8051, VRI FONDEF project, and FONDECYT 1110373 from CONICYT and a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association, USA. Authors acknowledge important collaboration of Constanza Maccioni.

Sumber :

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijad/2012/674142/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=HDW_MRKT_GBL_SUB_ADWO_PAI_DYNA_JOUR_X_PJ_GROUP5&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyeDP2JPY_gIVd5VLBR1XvAzeEAAYASAAEgIipvD_BwE

Five important findings on the road to a healthy old age

Longevity Nation speakers divulge recent lab findings about how we could turn back the clock on our aging bodies.

May 1, Updated May 3

As we age, our bodies often betray us. We start noticing little malfunctions. We may develop age-related diseases.

Can we prevent this bodily breakdown?

Everyone knows the right preventative measures – getting proper nutrition, sleep and exercise and avoiding unhealthy habits like smoking.

In addition, researchers called geroscientists are studying how to maintain or enhance the function of physical systems that fade over time.

World-leading geroscientists came to Israel recently to share their latest findings on the biology of aging at the two-day Longevity Nation conference organized by Vetek (Seniority) – the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life in Israel.

Five important findings on the road  to a healthy old age

Vetek board member Kalanit Tzur and CEO Hanan Tal at the Longevity Nation conference at Bar-Ilan University, March 2023. Photo by Daria Chekhova/Vetek

Below are summaries of five Israeli presentations at the conference.

Energizing cells

Most age-related conditions – “diabetes, kidney insufficiency, bone marrow failure, you name it” – stem from dysfunction of the mitochondria, the power station of almost every cell, said Natalie Yivgi-Ohana, founder of Minovia Therapeutics.

“Mitochondria use oxygen to generate energy and also produce hemoglobin and steroid hormones. In short, these organelles control life and death,” she said.

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Five important findings on the road  to a healthy old age

Dr. Natalie Yivgi Ohana of Minovia Therapeutics speaking at the Longevity Nation conference, March 2023. Photo by Daria Chekhova/Vetek

Yivgi-Ohana is developing mitochondria augmentation, a personalized cell therapy.

Diseased hematopoietic stem cells (immature blood cells) are taken from a patient and enriched with healthy mitochondria. They’re then injected back into the patient to restore mitochondrial function to the entire body, including the immune system.

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The company is also developing blood biomarkers to measure mitochondrial dysfunction in multiple diseases.

We’re as old as our arteries

“Past age 30 we start losing 1% of our lung capacity every year,” said Hebrew University/Hadassah Medical School vascular biology researcher Myriam Grunewald.

“But our kidneys only start losing function after age 50. The brain doesn’t start noticeably losing function until past the age of 70,” she said.

The aging of blood vessels is key to this gradual degeneration because they bring organs nutrients and hormones, remove waste and secrete endocrine factors for functionality and healing.

“People are as old as their arteries,” said Grunewald.

“If the aging of vasculature impacts functioning of all organs, can we delay vascular aging?”

Her lab found that the tiny capillaries leading from blood vessels to cells disappear as we age, due to a decrease in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

Experiments in mice showed that increasing VEGF signaling capacity in young mice prevented age-associated capillary loss. They had improved organ function, improved immunity and longer lifespan.

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Stepping up VEGF signaling capacity also seemed to protect the mice against cancer, which Grunewald is now investigating further.

Banishing old cells

Five important findings on the road  to a healthy old age

Weizmann Institute researcher Dr. Valery Krizhanovsky at Longevity Nation. Photo by Daria Chekhova/Vetek

When cells age and stop dividing, that’s called cellular senescence. In the short term, senescence protects against DNA damage and tumor formation. Then the immune system eliminates the senescent cells.

As we age, however, senescent cells resist removal, building up and contributing to inflammation and age-related diseases.

Valery Krizhanovsky’s lab at the Weizmann Institute is studying why senescent cells accumulate in aging and how regulating that accumulation may extend lifespan.

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“In the last decade, we’ve learned that if we eliminate senescent cells in mice we can extend their lifespan and health span by about 25-30%,” Krizhanovsky said.

His lab is now researching how to activate the immune system to clear them more effectively in aging mice.

Preventing frailty

Prof. Haim Cohen from Bar-Ilan University updated attendees on his lab’s “Moses” mouse model that lives 30-50 percent longer than usual, without becoming frail.

“Not only were we able to extend life but we were able to extend healthy life,” Cohen said. “We saw delayed or blocked diseases.”

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Five important findings on the road  to a healthy old age

Bar-Ilan University Prof. Haim Cohen discussing frailty syndrome. Photo by Abigail K. Leichman

Moses mice are engineered with an overexpression of the SIRT6 enzyme, which powers cellular functions such as DNA repair, inflammation prevention and glucose metabolism. (Mice engineered without any SIRT6 age and die prematurely.)

Among other health advantages, Moses mice never develop the frailty signs — weakness, slow walking, exhaustion, and unintended weight loss — that affect up to 10% of individuals above 65 and 30% of people over 80, Cohen said.

SIRT6 seems to block frailty by increasing liver metabolism and muscle activity, blocking brain inflammation and suppressing tumor development.

Cohen is launching a startup, SirTLab, to translate the Moses findings into a SIRT6-activating drug. He’ll discuss it on May 17 at the Biomed Israel conference.

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Environment + genetics

Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Longevity Genes Project at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discussed his ongoing two-decade study of hundreds of healthy elders between the ages of 95 and 112 and their children to determine the role of genetics in exceptional longevity.

Barzilai’s colleague Prof. Gil Atzmon, now at the University of Haifa, said genetics accounts for about 10-20% of the healthy longevity of exceptionally long-lived individuals (ELIs), while environmental factors – such as smoking and stress — have a negligible effect.

“So what is the major reason they live longer? We think that epigenetics, the combination of genetics and environment, accounts for 80-90% of the phenotype variants [observable characteristics] for longevity,” he said.

Five important findings on the road  to a healthy old age

University of Haifa Prof. Gil Atzmon speaking at the Longevity Nation conference at Bar-Ilan University, March 2023. Photo by Daria Chekhova/Vetek

Atzmon’s “switch theory” may explain ELIs’ unusual genomic flexibility.

“A regular light switch can only be turned on or off. But if you replace it with a dimmer switch, you can be more flexible in the amount of light you have in the room,” he explained.

“My hypothesis is that ELIs have many more ‘dimmer switches’ than most people and therefore can adapt to any given environment.”

His lab studied the whole-genome sequence of 150 ELIs — and 150 controls 30 years younger — to look for hot spots of methylation, a natural chemical process that turns on genes that foster good health and turns off genes that foster poor health.

“If they can’t be turned on or off, they’re useless,” he pointed out.

Indeed, they found a higher methylation percentage in ELIs. “If the switches can be changed by environment, we can play with them,” he said.

“Adaptation to environmental stressors is the bottom line. Such a mechanism can provide resilience to specific diseases and not just longevity.”

Sumber :

https://www.israel21c.org/the-scientists-seeking-secrets-to-longer-healthier-lives/

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Researchers pull back the quantum curtain on 'Weyl fermions'

MAY 1, 2023

by Tanner Stening, Northeastern University

Causal structure in energy-momentum space and its applications. 

• a In analogy with the theory of relativity, we define the region in energy-momentum space within/outside the Weyl cone as the energy-like/momentum-like region. 
• b In the left panel, two Weyl nodes are energy-like in the reduced BZ. In the right panel, including interaction, the system undergoes a semimetal-insulator phase transition. 
• c In the left panel, two Weyl nodes are momentum-like in the reduced BZ. In the right panel, including interaction, the system remains in a semimetal phase. a–c The red/blue structures represent the conduction/valence dispersion cones. 

The black dashed lines in (b, c) represent the position of Fermi energy. d Schematic picture of critical length KC in the reduced BZ. δk and δE represent the momentum and energy differences, respectively, between two Weyl nodes after band-folding without the CDW (δ = 0). e Band structure of (TaSe4)2I from the tight-binding model. 

A pair of Weyl nodes, W1 and W2, cross the Fermi energy. f The DFT band structure of Mo3Al2C shows two bands (represented by the red curves) with a pair of Weyl nodes, W− and W+ (highlighted in the blue circles), crossing the Fermi level along the Γ-M direction. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37931-w

Northeastern researchers have made what they describe as a groundbreaking discovery in the field of quantum mechanics.

Wei-Chi Chiu, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern reporting to Arun Bansil, university distinguished professor of physics at Northeastern, tells Northeastern Global News that his team has published a novel study examining the nature of a specific class of subatomic particles, whose very existence has eluded quantum physicists for nearly a century.

Chiu and his colleagues propose a new theoretical framework to explain how these particles, called Weyl fermions, interact with each other in certain materials. The findings, published in Nature Communications earlier this month, look beyond the framework of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to probe these mysterious particles, Chiu says.

Weyl fermions were first discovered in 2015 by a group of physicists at Northeastern and Princeton universities. The discovery capped off an 85-year search for the massless particle, considered a basic building block of other subatomic particles, since its existence was first theorized by physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929.

In June of 2015, Bansil and the team of researchers predicted that a specific crystalline material, called Tantalum arsenide (TaAs), would host Weyl fermions. Soon after, the researchers demonstrated in an experimental paper the presence of the particles in TaAs through photoemission spectroscopy.

The discovery prompted a surge of experimental and theoretical explorations of Weyl fermions in different materials for want of a mechanical explanation of how they actually behave in real-time.

"Weyl fermions are relativistic particles that had actually never been seen, or observed, until 2015," Chiu says. "Our main focus in this work is understanding how these kinds of quasiparticles are interacting, and what the mechanisms are behind these interactions."

The most significant part of the researchers' findings, he says, is that the new framework for these quantum-level interactions challenges the longstanding view of "causality" as existing in spacetime. In Einstein's theory of relativity, the traditional view of causality—or mere cause-and-effect—is that it is "time-ordered," meaning it is established in relation to chronological time. Under this view, causality refers to the principle that an event can only be influenced by other events that occur within its past light cone, Chiu says.

"This means that if 'A' causes event 'B,' then event 'A' must occur before event 'B' in both space and time," he says. "The light cone forms the event horizon or the boundary in spacetime which distinguishes between events that are and are not causally connected."

In other words, no object or signal can travel faster than the speed of light. This principle is sometimes referred to as the causality principle in relativity. The concept of causality in relativity is important, Chiu says, because it sets fundamental limits on what can be observed and measured in the universe.

Instead of thinking about the behavior of Weyl fermions in terms of spacetime, Chiu and his associates say these causal interactions are better understood as a result of measurable changes in the "energy-momentum" space.

"Our study, for the first time, shows how key concepts of causality and the associated event horizon in spacetime can be carried over into the field of correlated Weyl materials, and thus unveils fundamental connections between condensed matter and high-energy physics," Chiu says.

The work, he says, "opens up opportunities for exploring new connections between the world of particles and the larger world we experience every day."

"This study reveals for the first time how the ideas of causality that are enshrined in Einstein's theory of relativity—and lead to the concepts of 'light cones' and 'event horizons' that have become the stuff of movies and common sci-fi works—can be generalized and expanded into the world of quantum materials," Bansil says,

Sumber :

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-quantum-curtain-weyl-fermions.html