Декабрь 2022 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• New branch on tree of life includes "lions of the microbial world"
• Oldest known DNA offers glimpse of a once-lush Arctic
• The genesis and evolution of the genetic code - from a semiotic point of view
• Ancient Greek figurines of Demeter found in Black Sea town
• Historians and archaeologists investigate four thousand-year-old copper mines in the Urals
• Scientists see russian miner Nornickel's impact on environment less than expected
• Soyuz leak cancels space station spacewalk
• Russian scientists create technology to produce porous-controlled ceramic filters
• Earth surface pressure data will help to model dangerous meteorological storms
• Latest Soyuz capsule leak prompts Russians to plan possible rescue of space station crew
• KFU and Institute of Space Research observe new properties of galaxies

Российские биологи в сотрудничестве с канадскими, британскими и французскими коллегами открыли новую супергруппу одноклеточных микроорганизмов. Неизвестные ранее эукариоты размером в несколько микрон отличаются хищностью и чрезвычайной прожорливостью, за что получили название Provora (лат. vorare - пожирать, поглощать). В супергруппу вошли две подгруппы - Nibbleridia и Nebulidia, из которых первые способны откусывать от других организмов кусочки с помощью напоминающих зубы органелл, а вторые предпочитают глотать добычу целиком.

There's a new branch on the tree of life and it's made up of predators that nibble their prey to death.
These microbial predators fall into two groups, one of which researchers have dubbed "nibblerids" because they, well, nibble chunks off their prey using tooth-like structures. The other group, nebulids, eat their prey whole. And both constitute a new ancient branch on the tree of life called Provora, according to a paper published today in Nature.
Microbial lions
Like lions, cheetahs, and more familiar predators, these microbes are numerically rare but important to the ecosystem, says senior author Dr. Patrick Keeling, professor in the UBC department of botany. "Imagine if you were an alien and sampled the Serengeti: you would get a lot of plants and maybe a gazelle, but no lions. But lions do matter, even if they are rare. These are lions of the microbial world."
Using water samples from marine habitats around the world, including the coral reefs of Curaçao, sediment from the Black and Red seas, and water from the northeast Pacific and Arctic oceans, the researchers discovered new microbes.
"I noticed that in some water samples there were tiny organisms with two flagella, or tails, that convulsively spun in place or swam very quickly. Thus began my hunt for these microbes," said first author Dr. Denis Tikhonenkov, senior researcher at the Institute for Biology of Inland Waters of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Tikhonenkov, a long-time collaborator of the UBC co-authors, noticed that in samples where these microbes were present, almost all others disappeared after one to two days. They were being eaten. Dr. Tikhonenkov fed the voracious predators with pre-grown peaceful protozoa, cultivating the organisms in order to study their DNA.
"In the taxonomy of living organisms, we often use the gene '18S rRNA' to describe genetic difference. For example, humans differ from guinea pigs in this gene by only six nucleotides. We were surprised to find that these predatory microbes differ by 170 to 180 nucleotides in the 18S rRNA gene from every other living thing on Earth. It became clear that we had discovered something completely new and amazing," Dr. Tikhonenkov said.
New branch of life
On the tree of life, the animal kingdom would be a twig growing from one of the boughs called domains, the highest category of life. But sitting under domains, and above kingdoms, are branches of creatures that biologists have taken to calling supergroups. About five to seven have been found, with the most recent in 2018 - until now.
Understanding more about these potentially undiscovered branches of life helps us understand the foundations of the living world and just how evolution works.
"Ignoring microbial ecosystems, like we often do, is like having a house that needs repair and just redecorating the kitchen, but ignoring the roof or the foundations," said Dr. Keeling. "This is an ancient branch of the tree of life that is roughly as diverse as the animal and fungi kingdoms combined, and no one knew it was there."
The researchers plan to sequence whole genomes of the organisms, as well as build 3D reconstructions of the cells, in order to learn about their molecular organization, structure and eating habits.
International culture
Culturing the microbial predators was no mean feat, since they require a mini-ecosystem with their food and their food's food just to survive in the lab.
A difficult process in itself, the cultures were initially grown in Canada and Russia, and both COVID and Russia's invasion in Ukraine prevented Russian scientists from visiting the lab in Canada in recent years, slowing down the collaboration.

Международная команда ученых из 9 стран, в том числе России (Геологический институт РАН), описала самые старые на данный момент последовательности ДНК в мире - возрастом около 2 млн лет. Первые образцы с ДНК были собраны на севере Гренландии еще в 2006 г., но выделить фрагменты удалось лишь несколько лет назад. Судя по этим образцам, два миллиона лет назад Гренландия была покрыта тополями и березами и населена различной живностью - от муравьев и полевок до гусей и северных оленей. Обнаружился даже мастодонт, останков которого в Гренландии никогда не находили. Всего ученые выделили ДНК 135 видов растений и животных.

In the permafrost at the northern edge of Greenland, scientists have discovered the oldest known fragments of DNA, offering an extraordinary look at an extraordinary ancient ecosystem.
The genetic material dates back at least two million years - that’s nearly twice as old as the mammoth DNA in Siberia that held the previous record. And the samples, described on Wednesday in the journal Nature, came from more than 135 different species.
Together, they show that a region just 600 miles from the North Pole was once covered by a forest of poplar and birch trees inhabited by mastodons. The forests were also home to caribou and Arctic hares. And the warm coastal waters were filled with horseshoe crabs, a species that today cannot be found any farther north of Maine. Independent experts hailed the study as a major advance.
"It feels almost magical to be able to infer such a complete picture of an ancient ecosystem from tiny fragments of preserved DNA," said Beth Shapiro, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"I think it’s going to blow people’s minds," said Andrew Christ, a geoscientist at the University of Vermont who studies the ancient Arctic. "It certainly did so for me."
The discovery came after two decades of scientific gambles and frustrating setbacks. One of the leaders of the project, Eske Willerslev, pioneered methods for pulling DNA out of sediment while he was a graduate student at the University of Copenhagen. In 2003, studying a chunk of Siberian permafrost, he and his colleagues found DNA from plants such as willow and daisies dating 400,000 years ago.
That discovery set a record for the oldest DNA, and many scientists doubted it would be possible to find anything much older. But in 2006, Dr. Willerslev and Kurt Kjaer, a geoscientist at the University of Copenhagen, tried to defy the odds in northern Greenland. They made their way to a geological formation called Kap Kobenhavn, a series of bare hills as desolate as a moonscape. Previously, scientists had found plant fossils there that they estimated to be 2.4 million years old. Finding DNA in the sediments would have been astonishing.
"If you want to move things forward, you need to take some leaps," Dr. Kjaer said.
The researchers dug up permafrost and brought it back to Copenhagen to search for DNA. They failed to find any. In later years, Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues had more success when they examined younger sediments and bones from other parts of the world. They discovered a wealth of ancient human DNA that has helped reshape our understanding of our species’ history. Along the way, the researchers tweaked their methods for extracting DNA from ancient samples and upgraded the machines they used to sequence it. As they became better at fishing for genes, they would take out more of the Kap Kobenhavn samples for another shot. But for years they failed, again and again. From time to time they were tantalized by what looked like short bits of DNA, which are called reads. The researchers couldn’t rule out the possibility that bits of young DNA in Greenland, or even in their lab, had contaminated the reads.
Finally, after a major upgrade in their technology, they found DNA in the samples in 2017. The permafrost turned out to be loaded with genetic material. Before long they had collected millions of DNA fragments.
"It was a breakthrough," Dr. Willerslev said. "It was going from nothing or very little that you don’t know is real, to suddenly: It’s there."
The researchers lined up the fragments with DNA sequences of living species to figure out where they belonged on the evolutionary tree. They found 102 different kinds of plants - including 78 that had previously been identified from fossils and 24 new ones. The plant DNA painted a picture of forests dominated by poplar and birch trees.
Other sequences come from land animals, including caribou, hares, mastodons, geese, lemmings and ants. The researchers also found marine species, such as horseshoe crabs, corals and algae.
"It superseded everything we imagined," Dr. Kjaer said.
The researchers also searched the permafrost for new clues to the age of the fossils. They found layers in the sediment in which the minerals revealed that the Earth’s magnetic field had flipped. The age of those reversals helped the researchers determine that Kap Kobenhavn was at least two million years old, but they could not establish a clear upper limit. "My gut feeling as a geoscientist is that it’s older," Dr. Kjaer said.
The researchers ruled out the possibility that the DNA came from younger species that contaminated the older permafrost. The DNA of the birch trees lacked many of the mutations that living species have, indicating that they were ancient. The DNA also had a distinct pattern of damage that occurs only when the molecules have been sitting in sediment for geological stretches of time.
"It really helps show that this really is old DNA," said Tyler Murchie, a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University who was not involved in the new study.
The researchers were surprised by some of the species they found. Caribou live today in Greenland, as they do across much of the Arctic. But until now, their fossil record suggested they evolved a million years ago. Their DNA now doubles their evolutionary history.
Love Dalén, a paleogeneticist from Stockholm University who last year discovered mammoth DNA in Siberia that was 1.2 million years old, marveled that mastodons turned up in Greenland. "What the hell are they doing up there?" he asked.
Dr. Dalén noted that the nearest known mastodon fossils were 75,000-year-old remains in Nova Scotia - which are far younger than the Greenland DNA, and much farther south than Kap Kobenhavn. "You can’t go much further north on dry land," he said.
The Danish researchers determined that the mastodons in Greenland two million years ago belonged to a deep branch of the mastodon family tree, one that was previously unknown. "That could mean they are the ancestors of the late-Pleistocene mastodons that we know of, or that they could represent a new species," Dr. Dalén said.
Ecologically, mastodons would fit in well in a poplar-birch forest in Greenland, as they did in North American woodlands. While caribou are most common on northern tundras, a subspecies lives in Canadian forests, offering clues to how the ancient caribou might have thrived. But the presence of horseshoe crabs in the shallow coastal waters suggests that the ocean and land alike were remarkably warm.
Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues are continuing to study the DNA for clues to how all these species were able to thrive a thousand miles north of the Arctic Circle. The trees, for example, had to survive half the year in darkness. The DNA preserved for two million years may hold their secrets of adaptation.
The scientists are also interested in how the DNA fragments managed to survive so long and defy expectations. Their research indicates that the DNA molecules can cling to minerals of feldspar and clay, which protect them from further damage.
Based on that discovery, the researchers are developing new methods that they hope will let them pull even more DNA out of ancient sediments. Dr. Kjaer and his colleagues are scouting four-million-year-old sites in Canada with the hope of breaking their own record.
Dr. Dalén said they might succeed. But the damage that both he and the Danish researchers are finding in the oldest DNA suggests to him that it will be impossible to find ancient genetic material older than about five million years. "This in no way suggests that there will be any DNA coming out of dinosaur-aged fossils," he said.
Dr. Christ said that finding more DNA may help them better understand how human-driven climate change will alter the Arctic. We should not assume, he said, that the region will resemble ecosystems in places farther south. After all, the ecosystem of Kap Kobenhavn two million years ago has no analog today.
"Life will adapt, but in ways we don’t expect," Dr. Christ said.

Профессор Балтийского федерального университета имени Иммануила Канта Сурен Золян доказал, что с помощью лингвистических методов можно описать генетический код и его эволюцию. Ранее ученый описал генетический код как знаковую систему, управляемую набором правил («грамматикой»).

Professor of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University proved that it could be possible to describe genetic code and its evolution with the help of linguistic methods: its history is presented as semiosis, that is the origin of semiotic relations and the procedure of processing of linguistic information as communication. Previously the scientist described the genetic code as a semiotic system controlled by a set of rules ("grammar"), and this article continues his work. The results of the research, supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation's grant, are published in the leading semiotic magazine Semiotica.
From the very origin of genetics, scientists found a certain analogy between language and genetic information processing. Researchers began to compare the genome with texts also because the origin of the genetic code was an unsolved question in biology, as well as the origin of natural language in linguistics.
Genetic code has a double nature: it performs not only biochemical but also informative functions that can be described as a system of signs, controlled by their position, linear order, and context. Thus, genes present a program for the development of the biological structure's embryo. This program reminds the linear text, which is written by specific rules and contains information about biochemical molecular structures and their functions.
Thus, all information in genes is written through four "letters" - nucleotides G - Guanine; cytosine - C; Adenine - A; Uracil - U. They are associated as "three-letter words" - triplets (codons) in order to coding amino acids. So, one can treat genes as information units of heredity because the differences between codons consist not only in a composition of elements but also in a linear sequence of symbols.
Different combinations of three letters from the set "A, U, G, C" make it possible to compose 64 combinations. However, it’s not a random combinatorics, but the system controlled by certain rules, and it can be described by the analogy with grammar. Semiotics, a science that studies general rules of transferring information through signs, provides methodological tools for it.
Doctor of Philology, Professor Suren Zolyan, staff member of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad), The National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (Erevan) and Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) suggests the original conception of structural-semiotic analysis of the genetic code: it can be studied as a semiotic system and a process of transferring the genetic information. This meta- representation of well-known basics of the molecular genetics provides a new explanation for informational genetic processes and mechanisms based on similarity and difference with language.
The impetus of this theory comes from the following statement of the discoverer of the genetic code, Francis Crick: "The genetic code is the small dictionary, which relates the four-letter language of nucleic acids to the twenty-letter language of the proteins". The author developed this idea and presented the genetic code as a language that consisted of four blocks: alphabet, dictionary, grammar as rules of word formation, and correspondence rules correlating units of dictionary and grammar categories. Such treatment makes it possible to observe systemic and structural characteristics of various genetic processes, such as protein synthesis.
The difference between an alphabet (nucleotides), lexicon (codons), and grammar categories (empty positions within triplets) allows find out the rules of formation of significant units of genetic code (duplets and triplets) and explain their compositional semantics - rules of correspondence between codons and amino acids. These context-sensitive rules enables to describe of cases when the biochemically identical sequence of nucleotides acquires a different meaning and performs another function, depending on their position. This also helps to find out the individual profile for every nucleotide.
The researcher studied various hypotheses of the origin and evolution of the genetic code and concluded that it was based on the formation of the fundamental semiotic principle of arbitrariness of a sign, that is, an unmotivated semantic connection of signifier and signified. This also was envisaged by Crick, who saw in these unmotivated connections the main difference of the genetic code from Mendeleev’s periodic table. Besides, during the evolution, such characteristic for coding information processes as minimization of mistakes and disambiguation is also crucial.
Summing up his observations, Suren Zolyan introduces the concept of semiopoiesis, which is the final stage of the self-organization of biological systems (autopoiesis). Associations of material phenomena (in this case, nucleotides and amino acids) led to semiotic connections, and as a result, information mechanisms emerged. These processes enable to create the stable forms of life. The rising complexity of organization leads to the crystallization of informative and semiotic beginnings.
The dualism of the genetic information may be explained by the fact that biochemical substance acquires a semiotic form. In general, the evolutional process is supposed to be treated as a process of semiosis in action, which leads to the formation of new, more complex semiotic structures. However, they use the same substance (the same minimal set of nucleotides).
As genes have their inner structural hierarchy, the procedure of information processing may be presented in the following way. On the first, pre-text level, nucleotides in a gene are combined in triplets; on the second level - triplets encoded amino acids. If one compares this principle to any natural language, nucleotides, triplets, and amino acids would be accordingly correlated with phonemes, morphemes (such parts of a word as prefix, root, suffix), and words. On the third level, the sequence of amino acids form information blocks for proteins), in a similar way as words form a sentence. As the biochemical regularities become more complex, genetic processing is supplemented by linguistic and semiotic principles. The meaning of such texts emerges due to biochemical differences, namely differences in the sequence of "letters" - nucleotides. At this stage, communication appears as a systemic interactive relationship that resembles characteristics of not so much biological as semiotic systems.
The genetic code is not something eternally and invariably existing but is the product of multi-stage evolution, which leads to the appearance of various synchronic and diachronic variants of the genetic code. The evolution of the genetic code can be viewed as a process of semipoiesis - semiosis in action. The genetic code was born out of the matter, just like the organic world grows out of the inorganic by introducing new organization principles of autopoiesis. Thus, the association of material phenomena (in this case, nucleotides and amino acids) led to the creation of semiotic connections. As a final result of random processes, mechanisms for storing and transmitting information emerged, providing the possibility for stable forms of life. The increasing complexity of the organization leads to the crystallization of informational and semiotic principles.
"Semiopoiesis, recursive auto-referential processing of semiotic system, becomes a form of organization of the bio-world when and while notions of meaning and aiming are introduced into it", summarizes Suren Zolyan.

О находках древнегреческих артефактов в районе Анапы, где до III в. н. э. располагался античный город Горгиппия.

Figurines representing the ancient Greek goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, were unearthed at a construction site in the Black Sea resort town of Anapa, in Russia.
The terracotta statuettes, along with a relief, were discovered in early November of 2020 by archaeologists from the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In antiquity, the region surrounding Anapa, known as Sinda, served as an important seaport. Pontic Greeks established a settlement called Gorgippia there in the sixth century BC, and it developed into a major power in the Black Sea throughout the years of antiquity. A number of kilns used for the production of pottery and ceramics, mainly dating from the 4th to the 2nd century BC, were also discovered on the outskirts of the ancient city. It is near the remains of one of the kilns that archaeologists discovered the bulk of the priceless figurines of the Greek goddesses.
Along with a number of complete figurines of Persephone, Demeter’s daughter, archaeologists found a one-sided bust figurine of Demeter herself and an array of tiles, bowls, and pottery fragments at the site.
A dedicatory relief depicting an enthroned Cybele, an Anatolian mother goddess, flanked by Hermes and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, was also discovered at the Anapa site. Archaeologists from the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that the relief would have been displayed near a temple or important public building. The finds at Anapa, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, highlight the far-reaching influence of Greece in antiquity, as well as its persistence throughout time, as Anapa is still home to a vibrant community of Pontic Greeks to this day.
This is hardly the first time that ancient Greek treasures have been discovered along the Black Sea. Greek heritage from six centuries before Christ has been uncovered by archaeologists exploring the ancient Hellenic colony of Apollonia Pontica in modern-day Bulgaria. The finds were made during high-priority excavations near the Black Sea town of Sozopol, inside the Old Town Archaeological Preserve on the Skamni Peninsula. According to the Archaeology in Bulgaria news site, the dig has uncovered the well-preserved remains of a dwelling as well as artifacts that include a special wine vessel showing the classical Greek Oedipus myth and the Sphinx. It is thought the Skamni Peninsula has been inhabited non-stop from ancient Greek times.
The town was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus as Antheia. Its name was later changed to Apollonia because of its temple dedicated to Apollo featuring a huge statue of the god.

Уральские историки и археологи определили время начала горнодобывающей деятельности в Южном Зауралье, исследовав материалы, полученные из древних медных рудников. Радиоуглеродная датировка показала период с конца 3-го до начала 1-го тысячелетия до н. э.

The article published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (Q1) presents an analysis of the first series of radiocarbon dates associated with the beginning of copper mining in the Southern Trans-Urals and, in general, with the history of the development of deposits in the Southern Trans-Urals in the Bronze Age. The work was carried out by SUSU scientists within the Russian Science Foundation grant.
Historians and archaeologists study population mobility and migration in the Urals during the Bronze Age. One of the most important factors of the mobility of this era is the production of metal. The Urals are rich in metal deposits, but scientists still cannot say exactly when they began to be developed. To solve this multidisciplinary problem, a team of specialists in the field of archeology, geology, and radiocarbon dating from various academic institutions in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Miass worked. Andrey Epimakhov, D.Sc., Professor of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, Leading Researcher of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences took part in this study.
"In the article, for the first time, we accurately determined the time of the start of mining activities and found out that this was not just a short episode, as previously assumed. Throughout the second millennium BC, local miners mined ore and smelted metal, and we have received the first direct evidence of this. Ancient mines were widely used in the 18-19 centuries by Russian miners to search for ore resources. We are not only restoring an important episode in the region's history but also clarifying the geological map of the location of the deposits," says Andrey Epimakhov.
Scientists conducted 14 radiocarbon measurements on materials obtained from the cultural layers of four ancient mines. Dating covers the period from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. This long period of development of the mine included various stages coinciding with the regional archaeological periodization: Sintashta-Abashevsky, Srubno-Alakul, and the final Bronze Age.
"For a long time it was believed that all or almost all of the ancient mines were destroyed in the 18-19th centuries, but subsequent direct studies showed that most of the mines survived, often the miners "piled up", but did not develop the sites. There is a network of potential tourist sites that you need to be able to show. It is an important page in our history, 3,000-4,000 years ago these objects played a role in the formation of the Urals as an industrial region. The history of metallurgy cannot be limited to the history of one country or continent, so the interest in it is always huge. Now we can discuss many things, including the beginning of mining, and the mode of use of this mine. We are doing additional isotope studies that allow us to say that the mines operated seasonally, and people came from different places to work at the mine. The next stage is to find out where they came from, and how exactly the extracted raw materials were used in the Urals and beyond. This is one of the examples of why people have always been on the move, we remain homo mobilis as we were," the scientist says.
Exploration of mines is a very hard job for an archaeologist, there are no archaeological materials, and almost no finds, but scientists managed to get new information. New data testify to the existence of a complete metallurgical cycle in the Southern Trans-Urals throughout the entire Late Bronze Age and the consistent use of the local ore base by various population groups. Scientists plan to continue research work within the framework of RSF grants.
South Ural State University is a university of transformation, where innovative research is carried out in most priority areas of science and technology development. Following the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university focuses on the development of major scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of the digital industry, materials science, and ecology. In 2021, SUSU won the competition under the Priority 2030 program. The university performs the functions of a regional project office of the Ural Interregional Scientific and Educational Center of the World Level (UMNOC) designed to solve the tasks of the national project "Science and Universities".

СО РАН и металлургический концерн «Норникель» представили результаты очередного этапа Большой научной экспедиции по биоразнообразию - исследования экосистем на территориях, где расположены предприятия компании. В этом году экспедиция работала в Мурманской области. Ученые пришли к выводу, что значительное воздействие на природу почти не выходит за пределы санитарно-защитных зон и рекомендовали модернизировать производственный цикл, а при расширении производства обязательно учитывать зоны обитания реликтовых видов флоры и фауны.

The impact of Russian metal maker Nornickel production facilities in Murmansk region on the environment turned out to be less than expected outside the sanitary protection zones, Viktor Glupov, the head of the year-long Great Scientific Expedition said, summing up its results.
The first stage of the Great Scientific Expedition, which lasted a year, with more than 100 scientists participating in it, focused on studying areas where Nornickel's operating production facilities are located in Zapolyarny, Monchegorsk and Nikel and their impact on biodiversity in these facilities' sanitary protection zones and adjacent areas.
In the Murmansk region, the scientists worked from late February - March 2022, this was the winter stage of research. Further studies took place in June - July, after which the experts went to other regions where the company's production is present.
"In areas of significant impact, the impact is great. However, in the areas farther from the factory, depending on the type of animal and plant, everything is evened out, somewhere the influence is minimal. That is, in the sanitary protection zone within 1-2-3 kilometers, and further there is practically no impact. In some cases, I was even surprised," Glupov admitted.
Glupov, who heads the Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, however, recommended adjustments and modernizations in the company's production cycle, as well as the mandatory accounting of the zone of relict species of flora and fauna when expanding production.
"Nature is adaptive, and at the same time, high-latitude features must be taken into account. Here, natural cenoses are very fragile, they recover for a very long time, for some species it can take a hundred years," the scientist explained.
Nornickel's Irina Fitzgerald, senior manager of the environmental department and ESG environmental support, who oversees the project, in turn, said that the studies had also taken place in Transbaikalia and Taimyr.
"All results are necessary so that we can set certain indicators and track our actions against them in order to ensure that there is no loss of biodiversity as a result of the company's actions," she said.
In 2020 and 2021, the company already sponsored the Great Norilsk Expedition on Taimyr, which also aimed at studying the region's biodiversity and the impact of production facilities on it.

Диспетчеры Международной космической станции зафиксировали утечку охлаждающей жидкости из пристыкованного российского корабля «Союз МС-22». Утечка не представляет непосредственной опасности для станции и экипажа, но ставит под сомнение способность «Союза» безопасно вернуться на Землю. Сейчас на МКС находятся семь космонавтов, трое из которых должны отбыть на российском корабле в марте 2023 г.

A coolant leak in a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station Dec. 14 forced flight controllers to cancel a Russian spacewalk there and raised questions about the spacecraft’s ability to return to Earth safely.
Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin were preparing for a spacewalk when station controllers noticed a coolant leak in the service module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked there at approximately 7:45 p.m. Eastern. That spacecraft delivered Prokopyev and Petelin, along with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, to the station nearly three months ago.
The two cosmonauts continued their spacewalk preparations but remained in the airlock as engineers on the ground assessed the problem. Their seven-hour spacewalk was scheduled to begin at about 9:20 p.m. Eastern, but was delayed and ultimately canceled shortly before 10 p.m. Eastern. The leak, visible as a stream of particles from the Soyuz, was visible more than three hours after it started in NASA TV coverage.
"The best plan of action tonight was focus all of our Moscow team’s attention on sorting out what’s going on exactly with the Soyuz spacecraft and then we’ll regroup tomorrow," Emily Nelson, NASA chief flight director at the Johnson Space Center, said in comments on NASA TV around midnight Eastern.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos, in a brief statement Dec. 15, said there was "damage to the outer lining" of the service module of the Soyuz, but didn’t offer more details on the problem. Roscosmos said a third Russian cosmonaut on the station, Anna Kikina, used a robotic arm to perform a photographic inspection of the spacecraft, returning those images to Earth for analysis.
Both the cause and the severity of the leak are unclear. The leak did not pose any immediate risk to the station and its crew, but in a worst-case scenario, it would render the Soyuz spacecraft unable to return to Earth safely with its crew.
Roscosmos could launch the next Soyuz to the station without any crew on board as a replacement, but it’s uncertain when the spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, could be prepared for launch, and doing so would affect future crew rotations. Soyuz MS-23 is currently scheduled to launch to the station in March 2023 with two Roscosmos cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut.
The risk of a problem with either Soyuz or U.S. commercial crew vehicles is a major reason why NASA had, for years, sought to exchange seats between such spacecraft in a barter arrangement. That would mean there would be at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on the station at any time should either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles be out of service for an extended period.
After extensive negotiations, NASA and Roscosmos completed the seat barter agreement in July. Rubio flew to the station on Soyuz MS-22 in September and Kikina on the SpaceX Crew-5 Crew Dragon mission in October, becoming the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on a commercial crew vehicle. The current agreement includes seat barters on Soyuz and Crew Dragon missions scheduled for the spring and fall of 2023.
The leak marked the second consecutive postponement of a spacewalk by Prokopyev and Petelin, intended to move a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka module on the station. Roscosmos called off the first attempt at the spacewalk Nov. 25 because of a problem with a pump in one of the spacesuits.

В Пермском национальном исследовательском политехническом университете разработали способ производства керамических фильтров, позволяющий регулировать размеры пор материала.

Scientists from Perm National Research University of Technology in Russia have devised a way to produce ceramic filters whose pore opening can be controlled.
The university's media office said in a statement that ceramic filters, due to their porous structure, will be used to clean liquids and hot gases from microorganisms and soot, as well as from minerals and salts.
The method devised by the university's scientists is characterised by influencing the suspended solution using a permanently weak magnetic field during the casting process, a porous structure can be formed and the future material can be dried by additional freezing of the gel, the statement said, adding that the researchers determined the optimal conditions for this technology from the results of a series of experiments.
According to the scientists, this technology can be used to produce filters and catalysts in mechanical engineering, chemical and energy industries.

Российские исследователи продемонстрировали, что используя данные об изменении давления у поверхности Земли, можно вычислить волновые процессы в атмосфере, например, циклоны. Это позволит отслеживать их и использовать при составлении прогнозов.

Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University scientists demonstrated that atmospheric wave processes can be calculated by device registered Earth surface atmospheric pressure fluctuations. This will allow using ground data for other phenomenon waves modeling, consequently understanding and forecasting what happens in atmosphere. Research results are published in the Advances in Space Research magazine.
Most meteorological phenomenons energetic source is steam condensation (drop in liquid form) and water evaporation in troposphere - the lowest, most close to Earth surface atmospheric layer. E. g., meteorological storms and tropic cyclones subordinate to the rule which can be accompanied by dangerous strong thunderstorms, storm winds, downpours.
Meteorological phenomenons generate spreading in atmosphere infrasonic waves of such low frequency that human ear do not hear, and else, more low frequency inner gravitational waves. Seems to be, it can be tracked and used in forecasts drafting and computer modeling but complexity is lying in the tropospheric heights experimental data lack. Simultaneously, same processes cause atmospheric pressure fluctuations near to Earth surface, successfully registered by the devices.
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University scientists and colleagues found out how spreading in the atmosphere infrasonic and inner gravitational waves can be calculated by the Earth surface pressure fluctuations. Aurthors considered by isolation local tropospheric source and wave Earth surface pressure fluctuations bcreated by this source. Compared them, scientists suggested how usually unknown tropospheric waves source can be substituted by registered at the Earth surface pressure fluctuations while modeling. So, using the last, special modificated surface source is built considering two waves spreading from the tropospheric source: one is directed right up, another one to the Earth surface but reflects and goes up again. Thus, wave picture in the atmosphere is determined by mutual combination of both these waves.
"Now, experimentally registered pressure changes in the calculations, wave fluctuations in the atmosphere from meteorological storms may be predicted with greater accuracy, consequently, forecast their influence at the atmosphere", Sergey Kshevetskiy, PhD in physics and mathematics, leading researcher of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Physics Department.
Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation Russian Academy of Sciences, West department (Kaliningrad), A. M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics Russian Academy of sciences (Moscow), Saint-Petersburg State University (Saint Petersburg) scientists took part in the research.

Причина утечки охлаждающей жидкости с российского корабля «Союз МС-22», пристыкованного к МКС, остается неясной - версия о метеоритном дожде не подтвердилась. Если «Союз» будет окончательно признан негодным к использованию, на МКС останется только одна «спасательная шлюпка» - американский корабль SpaceX Crew Dragon. Он рассчитан на четырех человек, а на станции сейчас находятся семеро.

Russia is considering a "rescue" plan to send an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring home three stranded crew members after their Soyuz crew capsule sprang a leak while docked to the orbiting outpost.
Roscosmos and Nasa officials said at a news conference on Thursday they were continuing to investigate how the coolant line of the capsule’s external radiator sustained a tiny puncture last week, just as two cosmonauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk.
The vehicle, known as MS-22, began spraying its coolant into space on 14 December, with dramatic Nasa TV images showing white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear.
Sergei Krikalev, who leads human spaceflight programs at Russia’s Roscosmos, said the damage was being assessed.
No final decision has been made about the precise means of flying the capsule’s crew members back to Earth - whether by launching another Soyuz to retrieve them or by the seemingly less likely option of sending them home in the leaky capsule without most of its coolant.
If a thermal analysis - which assesses how hot it will get inside the cabin - concludes MS-22 is unfit for crewed flight, then a scheduled launch of another Soyuz capsule in mid-March from Baikonur Cosmodrome could be moved up and it would launch un-crewed, Krikalev said.
"They’re looking at late February to send up the next Soyuz vehicle," added Joel Montalbano, Nasa’s ISS program manager, who was also on the call.
If that were the case, the damaged spaceship would return to Earth without crew.
It is not the first leak on the Soyuz. In 2018 the module sprang an air leak, which Roscosmos said might have been sabotage. Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.
MS-22 flew Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio, to the ISS in September.
There are currently seven people aboard the orbital outpost, but if MS-22 were deemed unfit, it would also mean the ISS has just one "lifeboat" capable of carrying four people, in case it needs to be evacuated.
Americans Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russia’s Anna Kikina arrived on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in October.
The cause of the damage still remained unclear, said Montalbano. But it did not appear as though the Geminid meteor shower - an annual phenomenon - was to blame, since the hull was penetrated from a different direction.
"Both the trajectory team in Houston and the trajectory team in Moscow confirmed it was not from the meteor showers," Montalbano said.
More work was still needed to determine if it was caused by naturally occurring micrometeoroids, man-made debris in orbit, or a hardware failure, he added.
The Roscosmos chief, Yury Borisov, maintained that officials held no fears for the safety of the crew in a live broadcast on the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Wednesday.
"The temperature [on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft] has stabilised and has not exceeded 30C lately. Today, we have no fears, primarily about the life of the crew on the ISS," he said. "The temperature has stabilised after we brought in air ducts there from the Russian segment and are maintaining the temperature regime by ventilators."
A spacewalk to upgrade the station’s solar arrays that was postponed on Wednesday took place on Thursday.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Астрономы Казанского федерального университета и Института космических исследований РАН проанализировали более 500 галактик с активными ядрами, обнаружив у них необычные свойства, а именно - неожиданно большие собственные движения, что более характерно для внегалактических источников.

Over 500 galaxies with active cores have been analysed by KFU's Department of Astronomy and Space Geodesy and their colleagues from the Russian Academy of Sciences during studies of X-ray data.
The catalog comprises 173,000 starts and is based on data obtained by eROSITA X-ray telescope, part of the Spektr-RG orbital observatory. The results were publicized during a conference at the Institute of Space Research and saw light in Pisma v astronomicheskiy zhurnal ("Letter to the Astronomical Journal").
The described galaxies have unexpectedly significant proper motions. As co-author, Chair of the Department of Astronomy and Space Geodesy Ilfan Bikmaev explains, proper motion is is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky and is typically measured in milliarcseconds per year. Galaxies and quasars are expected to have extremely small proper motion speeds because of their distance from our galaxy.
"Visual inspection of these unusual space objects (based on optical images available in the public domain in the electronic astronomical databases of the PANSTARRS project) indicated their extended morphology, characteristic of extragalactic sources. For the spectral identification of the first group of these unique sources, an observational program was organized in autumn 2022 at the Russian-Turkish telescope RTT-150 at KFU. The results of the observations were stunning-18 out of 19 studied sources demonstrated an extragalactic nature and turned out to be active galactic nuclei, located on average at redshifts z = 0.05-0.25. This corresponds to distances of 1-3 billion light years from us," explains Bikmaev. "The presence of a significant proper motion for extragalactic sources can be a manifestation of a change in the object's photocenter if there are several variable sources inside the scanning window of the GAIA radiation detectors. Back in 1999, American scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope measured the shift of superluminal details in a relativistic jet in the active core of the M87 galaxy for about 5 years, and some details showed a visible shift of up to 6 speeds of light. This is a well-known effect of special relativity, which manifests itself in the case of ultra-relativistic velocities of particles or bodies when they move at speeds extremely close to the speed of light."
In 2022, the GAIA team confirmed that such quasars and active galactic cores with anomalous proper motions indeed do exist and are not just instrumental errors in GAIA equipment.
"The original spectral observations of such sources on RTT-150, discovered primarily on the basis of X-ray data from the eROSITA, should draw the attention of observers to the problem of the internal variability of galactic nuclei and the presence in them (along with the central source) of variable radiation sources of comparable brightness at appreciable distances exceeding light years. Such phenomena are no exception: there are already more than 500 such objects in the catalog," opines the interviewee.
Observations of such sources will continue in 2023.

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