Fast radio bursts (in English Fast Radio Burst or FRB), mysterious signals or bursts of very high energy that are being captured by telescopes around the world since 2007, continue to intrigue astronomers, who have not yet been able to determine the origin of these cosmic phenomena that manifest themselves as very fleeting radio pulses. Now, they have just detected the most distant FRB among those discovered so far, as they calculate that it is 8,000 million light years from Earth. That is, they are so far away that their light takes 8,000 million years to reach us.

The details of this record-breaking FRB studied from Australia with the ASKAP radio telescope and from Chile with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) are described this Thursday in the journal Science.

It is one of the most powerful terrestrial telescopes in the world, and its discoverers believe that current telescopes will not be able to capture energetic bursts farther away than this one located 8 billion light years away, which they have named FRB 20220610A.

The galaxy from which this burst comes seems to be located within a small group of galaxies that interact with each other. It was detected on June 10, 2022 and in this cosmic phenomenon that lasted milliseconds, an energy equivalent to that emitted by our sun in 30 years was emitted, according to the comparison offered by the authors to show how energetic these bursts are.. That first detection with the ASKAP telescope made it possible to identify the direction from which it came, and they subsequently used the VLT to search for the galaxy in which it originated, discovering that it was the most distant and oldest fast radio burst that had been located so far.

“Although we still do not know what causes these massive bursts of energy, the article confirms that fast radio bursts are common events in the cosmos and that we will be able to use them to detect matter between galaxies and better understand the structure of galaxies in the Universe,” he said. declared Ryan Shannon, a researcher at Swinburne University of Technology, in Australia, and one of the scientists who led this research.

And in addition to the scientific interest that these fast radio bursts arouse on their own, scientists consider that they can be very useful for other astronomical research.. Thus, in this work they confirm they can be used to study the 'weight' of the universe by measuring the “lost matter” between galaxies. This idea of using these energetic phenomena to measure the weight of the universe was first demonstrated by Australian astronomer Jean-Pierre 'JP' Macquart in a study published in the journal Nature in 2020.

According to the authors of this study, current methods for estimating the mass of the Universe are giving contradictory answers and challenging the standard model of cosmology.. “If we count the amount of ordinary matter in the Universe (the atoms we are made of) we find that more than half of what should be there today is missing,” explains Shannon.. His hypothesis, he adds, is that “the missing matter is hidden in the space between galaxies, but it may be so hot and diffuse that it is impossible to see it using normal techniques. Fast radio bursts detect this ionized material. Even in a space that is almost completely empty, they can see all the electrons, and that allows us to measure how much matter there is between the galaxies.

This weekend the maximum activity of the Orionids takes place, a meteor shower created by the famous Halley's Comet. Due to the crescent moon, it will be preferable to observe shooting stars after midnight.

Few, but very bright

The Orionids take place from October 4 to November 10, approximately, reaching their maximum activity on the nights of October 20 to 21 and 21 to 22, at which time we can observe about 20 shooting stars per hour. in optimal conditions. It is therefore a much less abundant meteor shower than the Perseids or the Leonids, but the Orionids have the peculiarity that half of them are very bright (some shine brighter than the planet Venus).

And the Orionids are fast and relatively large meteors, their speeds can exceed 60 kilometers per second and they usually leave yellow or greenish trails.. In sufficiently dark skies, some of these contrails may remain visible for several seconds.

The yellow and greenish trail of an Orionid CC BY-SA 3.0

As its name indicates, the radiant of this meteor shower is located in the bright constellation of Orion and, more specifically, near the bright star Betelgeuse, but you do not need to know this star or this constellation to observe the meteors that can appear by any side of the celestial vault. Since the radiant is relatively close to the celestial equator, the Orionids can be observed from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

On the nights of this weekend, the Moon will be in its first quarter, since the full moon will take place on October 28. Orion will reach a good height above the horizon around 11:30 p.m., and the Moon will go to bed shortly after, leaving the background of the sky very dark.. For all these reasons, it will be preferable to observe the meteors after midnight. If we observed before that moment, it would be advisable to look away from the Moon's position to try to locate a bright bolide.

As the meteor activity lasts until November 10, we can try to continue observing the following nights, as the week of October 22 to 27 progresses, but the Moon will grow as the days go by, getting more and more in the way of the observation of shooting stars.

Pieces of Halley's Comet

Every year, the Earth, in its orbital movement around the Sun, twice passes through annular regions populated by the fragments left by the famous periodic comet 1P/Halley, which visits us once every 76 years.. When one of these fragments (or meteoroids) falls into the Earth's atmosphere, it burns up due to friction with the air, thus creating the luminous glow that we know as a meteor or shooting star.. Typically, the most common meteors that we observe with the naked eye are produced by particles a few millimeters to a few centimeters in size that burn up about 100 kilometers high.

Halley's Comet in its passage in 1986 NASA/W. Liller

In May, the first passage of the Earth through one of those areas in which fragments of Halley abound, thus creating the rain called 'Eta Aquarids'. Now in October, it passes through the second zone creating the Orionids.

The king of comets

Halley is the most famous comet and one of the brightest.. It received its name from the astronomer Edmund Halley, although he was not its discoverer since the comet had been known since ancient times.. However, it was Edmund Halley who calculated its orbit in 1705 in accordance with Newton's theory, predicting the return of the comet for the year 1759.. Halley died in 1742 and was unable to witness the comet's arrival that year.. However, the comet was received with great expectation as it was a spectacular triumph of Newton's theory of gravitation.

The oldest records of observations of Halley's Comet date back to the 3rd century BC. when it was sighted by Chinese astronomers on one of their visits. Also in China, but many centuries later, in the s. VI d. C, a meteor shower was noted for the first time that, with great certainty, can be identified with the Orionids.

The radiant of this meteor shower was located by the British astronomer Alexander Herschel (grandson of the great William Herschel) in the 1860s.. But we still had to wait another century to relate this meteor shower with the king of comets, specifically until 1983, when the Canadian astronomer BA McIntosh and the Slovak A. Hajduk published an article in which they established unambiguously that the origin of the comets Orionidas was the famous Halley.

Rafael Bachiller is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.

Up to 5% of cancer cases currently recorded in the EU “can be attributed to the effect of pollution,” Jean-Yves Blay, director of Public Health Policies at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), told this medium. , a scientific organization that is holding its annual conference in Madrid until Tuesday the 24th.

Logically, “the most related tumors are those of the lung, others located in the airway, as well as breast cancer” – a cancer for which ESMO has published new data in this sense -, says Blay, although it is not ruled out that in other tumors , such as bladder or kidney, among others, some type of association could be established”.

A recent EU report, which analyzes the circumstances of cancer in all member countries and also compares them with each of the countries and with the average, indicates that by 2030 three million new cancer diagnoses are expected in the EU and In Spain, 11% of them, the Spanish Andrés Cervantes, president of ESMO, told this medium.

But in addition, “330,000 Spanish citizens will be diagnosed with cancer in 2023, which means that we must make a significant effort and be prepared for this other 'pandemic'.”

At the opening of the ESMO congress, in which a record number of 31,000 people registered – no other ESMO congress had exceeded 29,000 – special emphasis was placed on the effects of pollution on the risk of developing cancer..

Reveal more factors involved

While the prevalence of lung cancer, overall, has experienced a decrease in recent years, there is a group in which an increase is observed: non-smoking women over 60 years of age, according to Cervantes.. In this sense, the professionals of this scientific society have outlined lines of work to reveal what factors could be exerting a negative influence: pollution, but also other unspecified factors, such as the presence of inhaled microplastics, for example..

For Silke Gillessen, scientific director of ESMO2023, pollution, in addition to having an impact on cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, plays a role in cancer.. “We already have data on lung cancer and, more recently, on breast and lung cancer in non-smoking women over 60 years of age”. For this reason, ESMO is going to focus its strategies more on prevention, since, unlike what happens with hereditary cancer, pollution is a modulable factor.”.

In the future, and according to Blay, “the effects of pollution will show clear repercussions”. Therefore, in addition to promoting professional strategies, strengthening health systems and patients and facilitating equal access to oncological drugs, “we will work on prevention with the aim of identifying more carcinogens”.

Starting today, the professionals participating in ESMO will announce the therapeutic developments that have recently occurred.. Specifically, and according to Cervantes, there are fourteen diseases that, based on the data presented, will have a new treatment that improves the previous one.”

Fourteen new indications for medications; Some are already known, but in diseases where their usefulness had not yet been demonstrated.. “This means a change in clinical practice,” says the president of SEOM. Clear examples in different molecular groups of lung, cervical, colon, esophagogastric, prostate, bladder and medullary thyroid cancer, among others.

Gillessen has reviewed the most notable developments: selective inhibitors and new monoclonal antibodies for lung cancer in non-smokers, as well as LB12 conjugated antibodies, with clinical benefits that would also cover non-metastatic tumors..

What will be the most notable therapeutic advances?

In gynecological endometrial tumors, the presence of immunotherapeutics, as well as conjugated antibodies, has been highlighted.. In the cervix, specifically, he has pointed out the usefulness of immunotherapy plus radiotherapy; immunoradiation, a fact that “can change clinical practice”.

In colorectal, another of the large tumor groups, Cervantes has referred to specific combinations with KRAS inhibitors, mainly for lesions with KRAS12 mutations, and other conjugated antibodies, molecules that also appear positively in urological cancers such as bladder cancer, for example..

70% of emerging human diseases are of animal origin, that is, they are due to pathogens that have managed to make a 'jump' between different species. We have a very close example of this microbiological 'pirouette': SARS-CoV-2, which came from a bat and managed to quickly adapt to humans..

Unfortunately, Covid has not been and will not be the only threat of these characteristics that we will have to face.. The risk of zoonoses will not only not decrease, but will most likely increase in the future, spurred by the climate emergency, globalization and phenomena such as deforestation..

It is remembered by the professor of Microbiology Ignacio López-Goñi, the doctor in Veterinary Medicine Elisa Pérez-Ramírez and the professor in Pharmacy Gorka Orive in Global Health (Ediciones B), a work in which the three experts explain to what extent health is interconnected animal, human and environmental and emphasize that the way to face the challenges that zoonoses will pose in the future is to implement a global health strategy – the so-called 'one health' – that integrates the three aforementioned disciplines..

“Since the Covid pandemic there have been important advances. Above all, at the institutional level, steps have been taken to achieve what we need, that human, animal and environmental health are interconnected, but there is still a long way to go to go from theory to practice,” says Pérez-Ramírez, who gives a clear example of the benefits achieved with a 'one health' strategy.

“With the West Nile virus, surveillance is carried out on mosquitoes, birds and horses, for example in Doñana, where there is circulation of the virus. This surveillance allows for early warning because there is sufficient evidence that three weeks before outbreaks begin to appear in humans, warning signs can already be detected in animals.. “These data would allow us to implement a series of prevention measures to reduce the risks to people.”.

“Human health is still considered a closed field. We still need to do this interconnection exercise, also at an academic level, because it is not in the study plans, there is no talk of 'one health',” says Orive, with whom López-Goñi also agrees..

“It would also be essential for there to be more coordination between the Ministries involved, Health, Agriculture and Environment. An inter-ministerial office is needed to facilitate coordination,” adds the microbiologist, who considers “a mistake that veterinarians do not depend on Health today.”.

The threat of zoonotic flu

If they had to bet on which pathogen is the most adept candidate to star in the next pandemic, all three place zoonotic flu as one of the most palpable threats.

“Flu viruses meet many of the necessary requirements to be considered a pandemic risk,” summarizes Pérez-Ramírez..

The H5N1 subtype, he explains, “is breaking all the patterns that we previously knew about avian flu, affecting on a practically global scale, with mortalities never seen before in species that traditionally did not suffer from the disease and with outbreaks that last all year round.”. Fortunately, it seems that it is still not very effective in the jump to humans, but the powerful epidemiological changes that it has experienced in just over two years place us in a scenario of very great uncertainty.. And putting viruses and uncertainty together is always a little risky,” he reflects..

In this sense, the authors are in favor of closely monitoring the evolution of the virus and minimizing the risks, such as those posed by mink breeding farms, where it has already been shown that reverse zoonoses can occur, that is, contagion. mutual between animals and humans.

“Raising carnivores and, specifically, mustelids at very high densities and with low biosafety measures is a ticking bomb and in recent years we have been having many warnings,” says Pérez-Ramírez..

“With Covid it was already shown not only that humans transmitted it to minks, but that the animals replicated the virus at full speed, generated many adaptation mutations and were capable of returning the infection back to humans.. This was a warning, but we recently had another huge scare with bird flu, with a very large outbreak that occurred on a farm in Galicia. Luckily, the workers were not affected, but the risk was very high.. I don't know what else is needed for action to be taken.. “In my opinion, the risks to public health that these types of farms pose do not at all outweigh the benefits that can be obtained from them.”.

“The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet”

Although they do not occupy these first positions in the pools for a new pandemic, we must also be very attentive to pathogens transmitted by arthropods, specialists say..

“The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet. It causes more than 725,000 deaths each year as it transmits hundreds of pathogens, such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya or the aforementioned West Nile virus..

“Some of these viruses, which seemed very far away to us a few years ago, are already knocking on our door,” they point out.. In Europe, the first case of indigenous dengue was reported for the first time in 2010 and since then several local transmissions of the virus have been detected and experts are closely monitoring them..

The danger of bacterial resistance

Another microbiological threat to which we must pay more attention is that posed by bacterial resistance, says Orive.. “It is a problem that is clearly getting worse and for whose solution we do not have clear tools right now.. And it is essential because if antibiotics stop working, we will be facing a turning point,” he says..

“The proliferation of bacteria resistant to antibiotics represents a major global problem,” adds López-Goñi, who recalls that there are many surgical interventions that depend on antibiotics.. “If antibiotics stop fulfilling their function, they may cure our cancer but we could die from an infection caused by a multi-resistant bacteria”.

Today, it is estimated that around 35,000 people die each year in Spain from complications related to infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria; a problem generated by the abuse of antibiotics for decades in both humans and animals.

Both Orive, López-Goñi and Pérez-Ramírez emphasize that the focus must be placed on the possible solutions available to address the microbiological threats we face..

First of all, they emphasize, it is essential to “invest in scientific research” that allows the development of rapid diagnostic methods and new vaccines and treatments for emerging pathogens..

In addition, they also demand cooperation, both between doctors, veterinarians, biologists, environmentalists, etc., as well as between authorities involved in this area.. And, finally, they also remember that international solidarity is necessary. “It's a global health issue. No one will be safe until we all are.”