Gold motifs from Tutankhamun’s tomb hint at Levantine influence

Posted on 21 Nov 2017 by Pakinam Amer

Photographer: Christian Eckmann{credit}RGZM, DAI Cairo and University of Tübingen{/credit}

Tutankhamun’s tomb is the gift that keeps on giving, it seems, as archaeologists continue to uncover new “treasures” after examining, for the first time, embossed gold applications on artifacts recovered from the famed tomb.

The objects, along with the tomb itself, were previously unearthed by English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 and, for decades, had been stowed away in the Egyptian Museum. Now, archaeologists from Tübingen University have painstakingly restored and analyzed the motifs adorning the tomb a century after the historical discovery. And according to their observations, the art on the motifs – images of battling animals and goats – is foreign to Egypt and betrays strong Middle Eastern, specifically levantine, aesthetic influence.

“Presumably these motifs, which were once developed in Mesopotamia, made their way to the Mediterranean region and Egypt via Syria,” says Peter Pfälzner, leader of the team of archaeologists and conservators. According to the lead archaeologist, the images from the Pharaoh’s tomb resemble those previously found on a tomb in the Syrian Royal city of Qatna, discovered during a dig in 2002.

“This again shows the great role that ancient Syria played in the dissemination of culture during the Bronze Age.”

The next step, says Pfälzner, lies in solving the riddle of how the foreign motifs came to be adopted in Egypt to begin with.

Cuneiform clay tablets discovered in Kurdistan

Posted on 08 Nov 2017 by Pakinam Amer

The tablets are valuable and could reveal insights into Bronze age Iraq.{credit}Peter Pfälzner, University of Tübingen{/credit}

University of Tübingen archaeologists unearthed 93 clay tablets adorned with cuneiform pictograms, an early Sumerian writing system, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The archive dates back to 1250 BCE.

The tablets were dug out of Bassetki, an ancient Bronze-age site which was only discovered in 2013, and whose location lay along busy trade routes from Mesopotamia to Anatolia and Syria.

“Bassetki was of key significance on important trade routes,” Peter Pfälzner, lead archaeologist, says of the discovery. “Our finds provide evidence that this early urban center in northern Mesopotamia was settled almost continuously from approximately 3000 to 600 BCE.”

A big chunk of tablets had been deposited in a ceramic pot, probably used for storage, in a room inside a destroyed Assyrian building.

“The vessels may have been hidden this way shortly after the surrounding building was destroyed. Perhaps the information inside it was meant to be protected and preserved for posterity,” says Pfälzner.

A fragment of the clay tablet contains mentions of a temple to the ancient goddess Gula. However, the scientists believe it might be too early to rule whether they’re looking at legal, or religious text.

The researchers will begin translating the text in Germany, which they say will be challenging, time-consuming and intense since many of the tablets are either unbaked or badly worn.

Blood on the lab bench

Posted on 13 Sep 2017 by Pakinam Amer

Scientists in Qatar have taken research into organ development one more step into the future by expanding the potential for creating personalized blood and heart tissue in the lab.

The scientists, under the lead of Arash Rafii Tabrizi at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, have postulated that endothelial cells, which line the walls of blood vessels, are a vehicle for organ development. “Different organs have different endothelial cells that express different and specific factors called angiocrine factors that lead to the development and function of the organ,” explains Tabrizi.

In order to test this, the scientists forced the expression of said transcription vectors in the lab. Twenty days later, the cells multiplied and differentiated into the building blocks of blood cells: hematopietic stem cells. These are the basis for cells such as red and white blood cells and platelets.

“If you have leukemia, for example, we would retrieve your endothelial cells and we could transform that into blood. It would be an unlimited personal source of blood for each individual,” says Tabrizi.

In addition to blood, the researchers paired endothelial cells with heart muscle cells to create more muscle cells, that beat together rhythmically, in a petri dish.

The scientists maintain, however, that it’s too early to make any sweeping assumptions about the reliability of results, not until the tests move into the animal and human trial phases.

Read more about what the scientists have termed a breakthrough discovery here.

Probing a new algae species for clues into plant adaptation

Posted on 12 Sep 2017 by Pakinam Amer

An investigation of the genome and phenome of a green alga called Chloroidium sp. UTEX 3007 has revealed, for the first time, certain adaptive traits that help algae acclimate to desert environments.

But what sets apart this new species, which scientists at the New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have discovered and sequenced, from other types of green algae?

Nature Middle East talks to Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani, associate professor of biology and managing director at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology at NYUAD, to find out.

Nature Middle East: What does your new study add to the body of knowledge that we have of green microalgae?

Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani: Green microalgae or Chlorophyta live in myriad forms and are believed to be the progenitors of land plants. Many scientists around the globe are involved in active research programs to understand the ecological roles of these organisms as well as to utilize them for biotechnology. Despite the importance of micro-algae, relatively few species have been profiled at the genomic and phenomic levels.

These species are mostly from temperate zones, with very little information available on any alga from the subtropical geographies, such as the environment of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our study, however, sets a new standard for understanding the biology of micro-algae, and how Chloroidium has evolved to cope with the environmental challenges unique to the region.

NME: Was there anything particularly surprising about Chloroidium?

KSA: Yes. Its ability to thrive on both freshwater and high-salinity growth media and its ability to assimilate an array of uncommon carbon compounds for heterotrophic growth [which is growth through an energy pathway in which an organism that cannot manufacture its own food uses sunlight or inorganic compounds to produce carbohydrates, proteins and fats from carbon dioxide, in order to survive].

NME: Can you tell me more about your comparative study of Chloroidium and land plants?

KSA: Our phenomic and genomic data suggests that Chloroidium has a close relationship with higher plants and may live an intermittent epiphytic lifestyle, in other words, it may live on the surface of plants when such an opportunity arises. We show the Chloroidium is able to uptake many different sugars. Now, if you think where an alga is likely to find sources of sugar, plant and plant material become the most obvious candidates.

NME: In your paper you mention that Chloroidium harbors “unique protein families involved in osmotic stress tolerance and saccharide metabolism,” would you mind explaining this to our readers?

KSA: It is known that many organisms, when faced with increased osmolarity or typically high salt concentrations, they start to accumulate sugars internally. The Chloroidium’s genome contains unique genes implicated in the accumulation and breakdown of uncommon sugars. It hasn’t been previously known how organisms accumulate and break down these sugars; our study clarifies this.

NME: What are some of the future applications of your findings now that we have this new species, with a robust and flexible biology, especially with regards to conservation and understanding the effects of climate change?

KSA: In light of the environmental hazards befalling much of Southeast Asia that have been caused, at least partly, by razing high-biodiversity rainforests to cultivate oil palm, we chose to particularly emphasize Chloroidium’s ability to accumulate palm-like oil. The fatty acid profiles of oil palm or Elaies guiensis and Chloroidium are virtually identical.

NME: So this discovery may, in the future, help in providing an alternative to palm oil?

KSA: Definitely. Cultivation of oil palm has been associated with deforestation, if not devastation of rainforests in Southeast Asia. It’s why many European countries are banning the use of oil palm in their products. We think this alga may provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to cultivation of oil palms once further developed.

Cholera in Yemen: Death by numbers

Posted on 15 Aug 2017 by Pakinam Amer

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that the number of suspected cholera cases in war-battered Yemen this year hit the half a million mark.

According to the same report, released this week, around 2,000 people died since April’s outbreak. The international organisation says that the deadly waterborne disease infects an estimated 5,000 people per day, and is still spreading fast.

Yemen’s healthcare system was already acutely under-developed before the country was plunged into the current conflict, with barely enough doctors and hospital beds to meet national demand.

Now with the country’s ailing health infrastructure nearly destroyed, around 15 million people are unable to get basic healthcare, according to the new WHO report which deems Yemen’s cholera epidemic “the largest in the world”.

Compounding the problem is the country’s water shortages, which overall increased the risk of disease outbreak, especially in the countryside, and among children. Around 20 million Yemenis are struggling to get access to clean water. And diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malnutrition have become common as a result.

Yemen has already been water-stressed, with only 86 cubic metres of renewable water sources available per person per annum, according to the World Bank – far lower than the global average of 1,385 cubic metres per capita.

“Can you imagine a hospital without water? It is a desperate situation,” Marie Claire Feghali, spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen, had told Nature Middle East.

“To save lives in Yemen today we must support the health system, especially the health workers,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, says. “The people of Yemen cannot bear it much longer.”

The origins of cats

Posted on 06 Jul 2017 by Pakinam Amer

One of the cat skeletons excavated from a site in Egypt.{credit}© Hierakonpolis Expedition{/credit}

A new study reveals some fascinating insights into the origin story of the cat, arguably the internet’s most favorite creature and a cherished companion to countless humans.

Paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni and his peers from KU Leuven and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences have been collecting DNA from several archaeological sites in an attempt to track down the origins and trace the ancient journeys of the domestic cat.

The scientists unearthed over 200 cat skeletons from sites in Africa, Europe and the Near East and scrutinized DNA from feline skin, hair, bones and teeth that date back to between 100 and 9,000 years ago.

The result? A revelation about how cats dispersed in the ancient world. According to the study, the domestic cat we know today originated in ancient Egypt and the Near East.

Back then, the cats had stripes, not spots – the latter cropped up during the Middle Ages, but not before. The Middle Ages is also when the cat’s coat color had started to become variant.

The ancient felines were domesticated some 10,000 years ago, mostly by farmers wishing to chase away rodents from their fields. When the farmers moved, the cats moved with them. They also spread across the old world through trade, hopping on ships to protect stocks from vermin, and jumping from one port to the next, eventually covering long distances, and traveling far and wide. Now, the domestic cat is present on all continents except Antarctica.

The cats can all be traced back to one Felis silvestris, also known as the African wildcat, originally a feral, territorial and solitary hunter. Both the Near Eastern and Egyptian populations of Felis silvestris, according to the study, contributed to the gene pool of the domestic cat at different historical times.

Prescription drugs overused and abused in the Mideast

Posted on 06 Jul 2017 by Pakinam Amer

It turns out that, in the Middle East, getting access to prescription medications for serious ailments, in the absence of supervision, can sometimes be as easy as picking up an over-the-counter medicine for a headache or the common cold, or so claims a new review published in Pharmacology Research & Perspectives.

In theory, the regulations separating access to either brand of medication is there. In practice, the review cites a “massive problem” of self-medication misuse in the region, particularly with prescription medication, one that eventually leads to greater health risks among patients, including drug dependency and addiction.

Drugs that are used recklessly or sometimes abused by Middle Eastern patients include codeine containing products, topical anesthetics, topical corticosteroids, antimalarial, and antibiotics. According to the review, which looked at 72 papers published on the subject between 1990 and 2015, self-medication medicine misuse cannot always be exactly quantified in the region but it seems widespread.

Some of the statistics that the review highlights are quite jarring.

For instance, 73.9% of the Sudanese population have reportedly used antibiotics or antimalarials without a prescription. Equally alarming trends have been observed in Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and the UAE, with drugs such as amoxicillin or ampicillin being dispensed freely. According to the review, most patients self-medicating on antibioitcs did not even follow through the full course of the medications and took them for less than three days.

Many of the patients follow the advice of relatives, or have a drug prescribed to them by a doctor over the phone. As well, some pharmacists play a role. “People tended to select medication based mainly on advice received from community pharmacists,” says one of the studies cited.

One study said that the majority of the 200 pharmacies under scrutiny in Syria had sold antibiotics without prescription, and in Saudi Arabia, only a single pharmacy had refused to release the medication without a doctor’s prescription.

As well as stacking prescription medications for future use, Middle Eastern patients often used them inappropriately; it’s not uncommon for many to pop antibiotics to treat illnesses unrelated to bacterial infections, for instance, or with incorrect dosages for inappropriate period of time, according to the review.

How global warming controls plankton populations

Posted on 05 Jul 2017 by Pakinam Amer

A survey of the seas by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, has enabled scientists to come up with a predictive model of how planktonic heterotrophic prokaryotes – simple marine organisms that process most organic matter in the ocean – are affected by global warming.

Although small, plankton populations make up the largest living biomass in the ocean.

During an expedition in 2010, the scientists looked at plankton across subtropical and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. They scrutinized three factors: resource availability, mortality rates and temperature. They also looked at the viruses and microbes that either live off or kill off plankton.

Team leader Xose Anxelu G. Moran, associate professor of marine science at KAUST, and his peers from Saudi Arabia, Spain and Sweden, wanted to know what influenced plankton abundance and metabolism, and how this can help researchers predict the future role of the microbial populations in a changing ocean plagued by warmer temperatures and diminishing nutrients – thanks to climate change.

They found out that the effect of rising temperature on plankton is not uniform – populations living near the equator, for instance, are not as affected as those near the poles. The impact of global warming on marine microbes is more intense at higher latitudes, according to the study.

When there’s an abundance of viruses that eventually diminish the organism’s populations, temperature’s role becomes limited, the study adds. The same happens when there’s a decrease in nutrients; the water’s rising temperature almost becomes irrelevant. It’s why the scientists conclude that temperature only becomes a dominant factor when plankton are neither controlled by poor resources nor viral attacks.

As well, the study notes that a 1°C ocean warming will increase the biomass of plankton only in waters with more than 26°C of mean annual surface temperature.

Weird birds

Posted on 21 Jun 2017 by Pakinam Amer

Egyptian vultures exhibit strange mud-coloring rituals.{credit}Manuel de la Riva{/credit}

Scientists have discovered that Egyptian vultures engage in a peculiar “mudding” ritual that is one among a set of unique behaviors that not only distinguish the vultures from other birds of prey, but also, quite frankly, make them look a little “weird” in comparison.

In a new research paper in the journal Ecology, scientists Thijs van Overveld, Manuel de la Riva and José Antonio Donázar of the Estación Biológica de Doñana, Sevilla, Spain, describe the coloring ritual in detail, opining that the behaviour, where the birds dip their heads, necks and even chest in red soil, essentially bathing their upper bodies in mud, might represent a complex communication technique through which the birds relay social information.

Nature Middle East chats with Overveld about the intriguing mud bathing ritual, and what it tells us about the North African birds.

NME: What does knowing about this coloring ritual add to the body of knowledge we have about the bird?

Overveld: The situation of Egyptian vulture is not very good, and currently classified as critically endangered, so few birds are left and we actually know very little about their behaviour. What we do know is that the Egyptian vultures are among the most peculiar birds worldwide. The vulture has a unique behavioural reportoire, such as stone throwing to open eggs; it also eats excrement of ungulates which turns their face into yellow.

Our work adds a new, and unusual behaviour to their behavioural reportoire, which so far has only been described in its close relative, the Bearded vulture.

NME: What are some of the observations that you have made about the birds?

Overveld: These birds have a far more complex social life than previously assumed. Since these birds are non-vocal, we don’t rule out that mud bathing may be used to signal certain social information.

The most intriguing part of the painting behavior is the amount of individual variation.

I have been repeating the experiments in the last week, and the interest in the mud (and disinterest) is striking. We are just at the beginning of our work, so it is difficult to give a clear answer. We can rule out some options like social status, for instance; sanitary benefits also seem unlikely because some birds don’t use mud when it’s in front of them, but we cannot give an answer to why they do it.

NME: Is it as strange as it sounds? Is it atypical in any way?

Overveld: The bird is clearly a special case among birds generally, but most interesting, it’s a vulture that is general regarded as a filthy animal. This has been quite different in the past, given that many societies treat them as sacred animals. As you know, they have been providing essential ecosystem services by eating dead animals and thereby avoiding the spread of diseases.

The significance of our work is two-fold, we decsribe a behaviour that may tell us more about how [the birds] live and their adaptations, while meanwhile, we show that a highly threatened bird – with remarkable behaviors unique among birds worldwide – is disappearing.

NME: How does the coloring happen? What do the birds do exactly?

Overveld: When birds notice red mud, something happens. Some birds can stare or gaze at the mud for 20 minutes, only to scratch the mud and leave. Others step in the bowl and start to scratch, look at it very carefully and then typically swipe both sides of the head and neck in the mud.

The most important thing of our experiment is that we show birds get dirty on purpose. Some start with a bath in clear water and then go all the way in red mud.

The questions is why do some birds want to become so dirty, and why is it as if some birds look [like they’re about] to take the most important decision in their life before swiping their head [in the mud].

Currently we are describing in more detail the behaviour during different parts of the year in combination with experimental work to figure out whether they may signal other social cues we yet don’t know. They have a more social complex life than previously acknowledged so we currently don’t rule out any option.

The world finally has recorded the strange mud bathing rituals of the Egyptian vultures.

Scientists have finally recorded the strange mud bathing rituals of Egyptian vultures.{credit}Thijs van Overveld{/credit}

If you’re curious about how Egyptian vultures bathe in mud, and would like to see the ritual in action, check out the following videos, courtesy of Overveld and colleagues: Video 1, Video 2, Video 3. According to the researchers, the videos are the first ever recordings of this specific mudding behavior.

‘Volcanic’ nanotherapy

Posted on 23 May 2017 by Pakinam Amer

The research was inspired by the dynamic resulting from deep ocean volcanic eruptions.{credit}Nature Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo{/credit}

In order to stack nanoclusters of oxygen-rich zinc peroxide in a way that allows it to be used for cancer therapy, researchers simulate a natural phenomenon, which usually results from underwater volcanic eruptions, inside the lab.

Nature Middle East sits down with Mady Elbahri, one of the authors of this new research. Elbahri, an Egyptian scientist, is a professor of nanochemistry and nanoengineering at the school of chemical engineering, Aalto University, in Finland.

NME: You’ve come up with a new nanotherapy tool for cancer by simulating a process called the “Leidenfrost dynamic”. Can you explain it to me? Where did you draw inspiration for it?

Mady Elbahri: Well, we’re all familiar with the Leidenfrost phenomenon and [we may] have observed it while cooking in the kitchen, when a water drop touches a very hot pan’s surface. Instead of the expected rapid evaporation, the drop starts to move and dance on the hot surface. I observed this phenomenon in my kitchen a few years ago and contemplated its origin and the idea of employing it for nanosynthesis. Based on the knowledge I collected about this process, I introduced the new concept of “Leidenfrost nanochemistry”, which means synthesis of nanoparticles using the Leidenfrost effect.

NME: Can you walk me through your methods of creating nanoclusters of zinc peroxide using this new method?

ElBahri: In our latest study, we extend applicability of the phenomenon by mimicking the activity of the volcanos deep in the ocean. In this version of the Leidenfrost process, synthesis of nanoparticles starts at the bottom of a hot bath in an overheated zone at the vapor-liquid interface. Subsequently, the particles erupt towards the colder region of liquid-air interface for further growth. By such type of physical separation we are able to tailor the size of the particles.

NME: You mention in your paper that tailoring the size of the nanoparticles produced can selectively kill cancer cells. Can you elaborate more on this?

Elbahri: Tailoring the size can directly affect the oxygen release. Size plays an important role in this therapeutic process; to ensure a uniform effect, such particles should be equal in size. Also, the drug should not harm healthy cells and fibroblasts and so you need to adjust the size in a way that it can selectively destroy the cancer cells without affecting the others.

NME: How do you plan on building on this research in the future?

Elbahri: Further research can help us acquire the best therapeutic response with respect to size and dose of the nanoparticles. I also aim to transfer this knowledge to Egypt. … It will be my honor to support my motherland in getting its deserved scientific position in the world.

Interested in knowing how Elbahri and his colleauges drew their inspiration for this study? Listen to the new episode of Nature Middle East Podcast for the story behind the research.

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Author Archives: Pakinam Amer