Today in Science: Bacteria pass down their memories

Daily science inspiration January 25, 2024: Wastewater monitoring of opioid use, bacteria pass down memories to the next generation and evolutionary cell biology can be hilarious! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES Cutting Edge Drug Tracking Scientists at a start-up company called Biobot Analytics are testing sewage samples from 70 sites across the U.S. for opioids and several other common drugs, as well as for the opioid overdose treatment naloxone. Wastewater monitoring has ramped up during the COVID pandemic–it is so effective at tracking the virus that researchers see its potential to aid other public health monitoring.  Why this matters: Data from wastewater monitoring are reported in close to real time and reflect everyone in a public sewershed. Other sources for tracking drug use often lag by months or years and are limited by how people engage with the health care system. What the experts say: Existing data sets–those gathered by doctors, nurses and clinics, or through 911 calls– only show "the tip of the iceberg" of overdoses and other health impacts of drug abuse, says Gale Burstein, commissioner of health in Erie County, New York—one county participating in the program. Cells That Remember Scientists found that Escherichia coli bacteria form memories about their environments and food availability that they pass down to future generations. Bacteria with memories! Researchers studied how E. coli form swarms, which are large colonies that move together and help the group survive and resist antibiotics. They found that certain bacterial cells were more likely to swarm if their predecessors also swarmed. Why this is cool: Swarming seems dependent on the presence of the crucial mineral iron. Bacterial cells detect iron, remember where they found it, and pass that memory to their progeny cells. What the experts say: Microbes other than E. coli probably remember iron exposure, too, says Dartmouth College microbiologist George O'Toole. "I would be really shocked if [these results] didn't hold up in other bugs as well."   SCIENCE IN COMICS From Ancient Cells to Brains How did multicellular organisms with heads, tails, neurons and complex organs arise? Enjoy this delightful explanation of the several lines of investigation into how complex neural systems evolved. Click to read the whole comic. Evolutionary cell biology was never so much fun!  TODAY'S NEWS • The male antechinus--a mouselike carnivorous mammal--has three weeks to mate during its first and only mating season. And then it drops dead. | 3 min read • A poll shows that two-thirds of Americans agree that developing clean energy should be a national priority, with majorities in both red and blue states. | 4 min read • For scientists working in the field--say, in freezing Antarctica or the dusty, barren American Southwest--finding a bathroom is sometimes impossible. What to do? | 8 min read • The world's deepest and largest underground dark matter laboratory just opened in China. | 6 min read The entrance to the sprawling China Jinping Underground Laboratory, the world's biggest and deepest subterranean science lab. Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • Powerful new telescopes capture light from exoplanets in distant galaxies, yes. But we should apply informational theory to that same data to search for the chemical signatures of life, write researchers Marcello Gleiser, Lisa Kaltenegger and Sara Vannah. "For us, an exoplanet is an 'Earth analogue' not only when it has a radius and mass close to Earth's, but also when its absorption spectrum is very close in information space to Earth's across our planet's multibillion-year history," they say. | 5 min read More Opinion Illustrator Maki Naro, who drew our cartoon on the evolution of neurons, is really onto something, I think. The complex world of science could be accessible to so many more people through his delightful (and scientifically accurate) cartoons--especially for those who learn in more diverse ways. I went down a proverbial rabbit hole exploring his other work on topics as wide-ranging as the search for alien life to forensic science to the history of forests. Here's to incorporating more comic strips into your life! Send me thoughts and feedback by emailing: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow.  —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences