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‘Fluffy’ crab from Australia that wears sea sponge like a hat named after Darwin’s ship

ScientiFix, our weekly feature, offers you a summary of the top global science stories of the week, with links to their sources.

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New Delhi: A “fluffy” crab that uses a sea sponge like a hat to protect itself, discovered off the coast of Australia, has been named after a ship that English naturalist Charles Darwin once sailed in.

The new species has been identified as Lamarckdromia beagle, a name derived from the HMS Beagle, which Darwin travelled in between 1831 and 1836.

The Lamarckdromia beagle was described in a paper published in April in the scientific journal Zootaxa. The paper’s authors are Dr Andrew Hosie, a curator of crustacea and worms at the Western Australian Museum, and Colin McLay, a marine biologist associated with Canterbury University in New Zealand.

The crab was discovered on a beach by a family in western Australia, which sent it to the Western Australian Museum for identification.

The species belongs to the Dromiidae family, commonly known as sponge crabs, which are known to craft sea sponges using their claws and wear them as protection gear.

The sponge crabs have hind legs that are adapted to holding their protective hats.

The sponge, or ascidian — a group that includes marine invertebrates like sea squirts — keeps growing on the crab’s back, moulding to the host’s shape.

Like hermit crabs use shells for protection, the sponges help Dromiidae crabs camouflage themselves in case a predator, such as the octopus, approaches.

The researchers are yet to understand why the crab’s body is hairy, since such features do not bring any obvious evolutionary advantage to the creature.


Also read: ‘Mount Everest of bacteria’ — scientists find pathogen so large you can see it with naked eye


Scientists create new method of growing food in the dark 

Scientists have developed a hybrid photosynthesis system to grow food without sunlight, paving the way for growing food under the increasingly difficult conditions imposed by human-driven climate change.

Photosynthesis turns water, carbon dioxide, and energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. A team from the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Delaware has found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis, growing food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis.

Their findings were published in the research journal Nature Food on 23 June.

The team developed a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate — the main component of vinegar. Food-producing organisms — such as green algae, yeast, and fungal mycelium, that produces mushrooms — then consume acetate in the dark to grow.

Combined with solar panels to generate electricity to power the production of acetate, this hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods.

Using the new method, the researchers said the production of algae was about four-fold more energy-efficient than growing it photosynthetically. Yeast production was about 18-fold more energy-efficient than how it is typically cultivated using sugar extracted from corn.

The team also employed the technology to grow crop plants like tomato, rice, canola, and green pea. They were all able to utilise carbon from acetate when cultivated in the dark.

Artificial photosynthesis would allow growing of food in the future in a controlled environment, helping humans secure food in the event of climate change-driven drought, floods, and reduced land availability.

The process could also help produce safe, nutritious and palatable food for long-duration space missions.

Full-scale simulations on how to destroy Earth-bound asteroids

Scientists have simulated a full-scale planetary defence test against potential asteroid impacts on Earth, demonstrating that instead of just leaving behind a relatively small crater on an asteroid, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission would leave its target virtually unrecognisable.

DART is the world’s first full-scale planetary defence test against potential asteroid impacts on earth.

In the new study, published this week in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers from Switzerland’s University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS simulated this impact with a new method. Their results indicate that it may deform its target far more severely than previously thought.

Although there is no known asteroid that poses an immediate threat, the idea is to be prepared to be able to deflect any potential threat from its trajectory in the future to prevent a catastrophe.

The DART space probe was launched last November. Its mission is to collide with an asteroid and deflect it from its orbit.

NASA Curiosity Rover finds high organic carbon in Martian rocks 

Using data from NASA’s Curiosity Rover, scientists have measured the total organic carbon — a key component in the molecules of life — in Martian rocks for the first time.

Total organic carbon is one of several measurements that help us understand how much material is available as feedstock for prebiotic chemistry and potentially biology.

Researchers from NASA found at least 200 to 273 parts per million of organic carbon. This is comparable to the amount found in rocks in very low-life places on Earth, such as parts of the Atacama Desert in South America.

The research was published on 27 June in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Organic carbon is carbon bound to a hydrogen atom. It is the basis for organic molecules, which are created and used by all known forms of life. However, organic carbon on Mars does not prove the existence of life there because it can also come from non-living sources, such as meteorites, volcanoes, or be formed in place by surface reactions.

Although the surface of Mars is inhospitable for life now, there is evidence that billions of years ago, its climate was more earth-like, with a thicker atmosphere and liquid water that flowed into rivers and seas.

Since liquid water is necessary for life as we understand it, scientists think Martian life, if it ever evolved, could have been sustained by key ingredients such as organic carbon, if present in sufficient amounts.

Scientists find way to convert methane to methanol with just light 

Scientists, led by a team at the University of Manchester, have developed a fast and economical method of converting methane, or natural gas, into liquid methanol at ambient temperature and pressure.

The research was published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature Materials.

Producing liquid methanol at ambient temperatures is considered the “holy grail of catalysis”.

This is because while methane is an abundant and valuable fuel, the gas can also be dangerous due to the difficulty of extracting, transporting and storing it.

Methane gas is also harmful to the environment when it is released or leaks into the atmosphere, where it is a potent greenhouse gas.

However, an economical and efficient way to convert methane into methanol, which is used to make a variety of consumer and industrial products, would not only help reduce methane emissions, but also provide an economic incentive to do so.

The new method involves a continuous flow of methane/oxygen-saturated water over a novel metal-organic framework (MOF) catalyst. The MOF is porous and contains different components that each have a role in absorbing light, transferring electrons and activating and bringing together methane and oxygen. The liquid methanol is easily extracted from the water.

Methanol is a more versatile carbon source than methane and is a readily transportable liquid. It can be used to make thousands of products such as solvents, antifreeze and acrylic plastics, synthetic fabrics and fibres, adhesives, paint and plywood, and chemical agents used in pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals.

The conversion of methane into a high-value fuel such as methanol is also becoming more attractive as petroleum reserves dwindle.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)


Also read: Obese or not, Covid vaccines still protect you, says Lancet study


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