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Harmless bacteria become deadly

24.02.2016

For the first time, scientists have compared all known species of Leptospira bacteria: some representatives of this genus cause deadly diseases in humans and domestic animals. Microbiologists have figured out what makes bacteria harmful.

Some species of Leptospira do not cause infections and feed on the decay products of living things. In rats and mice, they live in the kidneys. In cows, sheep, pigs, and horses, leptospira sometimes causes kidney failure and cardiac arrest, as well as miscarriages. In humans, leptospirosis (a disease of swineherds) results in flu-like symptoms. In more severe cases, microbes infect the kidneys, liver, and central nervous system. Up to 60 people die from this disease every year.

Scientists have identified unique proteins characteristic of pathogenic Leptospira species. This discovery will help develop a vaccine against leptospirosis. In addition, a unique mechanism for protecting the microbe was discovered: it synthesizes sialic acid, which allows you to hide inside the body from cells of the immune system. Further, dangerous species of bacteria in the course of evolution have learned to synthesize vitamin B12 from a single precursor (amino acids).

Finally, the CRISPR-Cas genetic mechanism was found in pathogenic species, which has recently been actively used for genome editing. CRISPR-Cas gave leptospiras increased resistance to invasion by foreign genetic elements.

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Compact tokamak warmed up to a record 100 million kelvins 27.05.2023

Researchers from the British company Tokamak Energy Ltd, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA), and the Institute for Energy and Climate Research (Germany) have set a plasma temperature record for a spherical tokamak.

The ST40 is compact: the size of the working chamber is no more than 80 centimeters in diameter. The ions inside the reactor were heated to over 100 million kelvins (about 100 million degrees Celsius, or 8,6 kiloelectronvolts).

"An ion temperature of over five kiloelectronvolts has never been achieved before in any spherical tokamak. They were obtained only in much larger devices with a much higher plasma heating power," the scientists explained. Their work has been published in the journal Nuclear Fusion.

Note that for small spherical tokamaks, reaching such temperatures is a very difficult task. Therefore, the fact that this was achieved on a commercial spheromak looks like a good achievement for the British.

At the same time, against the background of the most productive modern thermonuclear reactors, this indicator is not high, and the energy efficiency of the British spheromak is quite moderate.

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