Elevated CO2 degassing rates prevented the return of Snowball Earth during the Phanerozoic

The Cryogenian period (~720–635 Ma) is marked by extensive Snowball Earth glaciations. These have previously been linked to CO₂ draw-down, but the severe cold climates of the Cryogenian have never been replicated during the Phanerozoic despite similar, and sometimes more dramatic changes to carbon sinks. Here we quantify the total CO₂ input rate, both by measuring the global length of subduction zones in plate tectonic reconstructions, and by sea-level inversion. Our results indicate that degassing rates were anomalously low during the Late Neoproterozoic, roughly doubled by the Early Phanerozoic, and remained comparatively high until the Cenozoic. Our carbon cycle modelling identifies the Cryogenian as a unique period during which low surface temperature was more easily achieved, and shows that the shift towards greater CO₂ input rates after the Cryogenian helped prevent severe glaciation during the Phanerozoic. Such a shift appears essential for the development of complex animal life

Myosin binding protein C: implications for signal-transduction

Myosin binding protein C (MYBPC) is a crucial component of the sarcomere and an important regulator of muscle function. While mutations in different myosin binding protein C (MYBPC) genes are well known causes of various human diseases, such as hypertrophic (HCM) and dilated (DCM) forms of cardiomyopathy as well as skeletal muscular disorders, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain not well understood. A variety of MYBPC3 (cardiac isoform) mutations have been studied in great detail and several corresponding genetically altered mouse models have been generated. Most MYBPC3 mutations may cause haploinsufficiency and with it they may cause a primary increase in calcium sensitivity which is potentially able to explain major features observed in HCM patients such as the hypercontractile phenotype and the well known secondary effects such as myofibrillar disarray, fibrosis, myocardial hypertrophy and remodelling including arrhythmogenesis. However the presence of poison peptides in some cases cannot be fully excluded and most probably other mechanisms are also at play. Here we shall discuss MYBPC interacting proteins and possible pathways linked to cardiomyopathy and heart failure

Possible links between long-term geomagnetic variations and whole-mantle convection processes

The Earth's internal magnetic field varies on timescales of months to billions of years. The field is generated by convection in the liquid outer core, which in turn is influenced by the heat flowing from the core into the base of the overlying mantle. Much of the magnetic field's variation is thought to be stochastic, but over very long timescales, this variability may be related to changes in heat flow associated with mantle convection processes. Over the past 500 Myr, correlations between palaeomagnetic behaviour and surface processes were particularly striking during the middle to late Mesozoic era, beginning about 180 Myr ago. Simulations of the geodynamo suggest that transitions from periods of rapid polarity reversals to periods of prolonged stability — such as occurred between the Middle Jurassic and Middle Cretaceous periods — may have been triggered by a decrease in core–mantle boundary heat flow either globally or in equatorial regions. This decrease in heat flow could have been linked to reduced mantle-plume-head production at the core–mantle boundary, an episode of true polar wander, or a combination of the two