WEIRD STUFF

Pumpkins' toxic secret

Pumpkins and other gourds may be hiding a toxic secret -- they can absorb dangerous pollutants from the soil and store them in their edible parts.

Scientists at Kobe University have discovered that subtle differences in plant proteins explain why pumpkins, courgettes, and squash soak up more contaminants than other crops -- a finding that could pave the way for pollution-resistant vegetables or even plants engineered to clean up contaminated land.

Professor Hideyuki Inui, the study's lead scientist, said: "The pollutants don't easily break down and thus pose a health risk to people who eat the fruit. Interestingly, other plants don't do this, so I became interested in why this happens in gourds specifically."

The team found that a key protein binds to pollutants and transports them through the plant. In some varieties, a small molecular "tag" allows this protein to be secreted into the plant's sap, enabling contaminants to travel into the fruit.

Writing in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, the researchers reported that plants with this tag -- known as high accumulators -- are far more prone to absorbing pollutants. When the same protein was introduced into unrelated tobacco plants, they too began moving pollutants into their sap, confirming the mechanism.

Professor Inui believes the discovery could revolutionise agricultural safety. He said: "By controlling the behaviour of these proteins through genetic modification, it may be possible to grow crops that don't accumulate harmful chemicals in their edible parts."

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Noisy rooms challenge the brain

People with autism may find it harder to follow conversations in noisy environments -- not because of hearing issues, but because of how the brain processes sound.

A study by the University of Washington School of Medicine found that understanding speech in crowded places like restaurants or classrooms depends heavily on cognitive ability, rather than physical hearing.

Published in PLOS One, the findings reveal that intelligence strongly predicts how well individuals can focus on one voice while filtering out background noise.

Lead author Dr Bonnie Lau, assistant professor of otolaryngology and director of auditory brain development studies at UW, said: "The relationship between cognitive ability and speech-perception performance transcended diagnostic categories."

Researchers studied 49 participants aged 13 to 47 -- including people with autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, and neurotypical controls -- all with normal hearing. Each completed a listening test that simulated a crowded environment, asking them to follow a main speaker's commands while ignoring two competing voices.

Participants also took standardised IQ tests, revealing a strong link between intellectual ability and the capacity to understand speech amid background chatter.

Lau explained: "You have to separate streams of speech, focus attention, and process language -- all of which increase cognitive load when it's noisy."

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Home could shelter thousands of spiders

A "couple of thousand" spiders could be in a house at any one time.

Luis Villazon, a zoologist, said the big figure is if people include baby spiders.

He said: "A 2016 study of 50 houses in North Carolina, US, found cobweb spiders in 65 per cent of all rooms sampled, but this was looking at biodiversity and didn't count the number of individual spiders.

"To add some research of my own, I've just hoovered my entire house -- a rare event -- and only found 26 spiders.

"But that's just the parts of the house that we can easily scrutinise.

"If you consider under the floorboards, behind the fridge, the loft, the garage and so on, there could easily be that many more still hiding.

"Spiders lay anything from 10-250 eggs at a time, and house spiders may lay as many as five clutches per year."

He added: "Less than one per cent will reach adulthood, but if we count baby spiders in our household population census, the figure may be as many as a couple of thousand spiders at any one time."