Posted: 2/17/2016
- These bacteria are actually tiny eyeballs (Fascinating insights into the evolution of eyes. What took scientists so long to discover that! “The method was obvious when - staring through the lens of a microscope at a slide full of - the researchers saw that each cell contained a tiny point of light in the same location, where the bacteria were focusing the source. The researchers were even able to trick the bacteria into moving in the opposite direction by shining a laser at them, mimicking the concentrated point of light that the bacteria create themselves. The size of the point suggests that Synechocystis can see at a resolution of nearly 20° - about a hundred times less precise than a human eye, but still impressive for a single-celled organism. Scientists say this light-focusing strategy may be widespread among bacteria.”)
- Horses understand human facial expressions (Scientists are lazy and blind otherwise they would have long ago discovered there are even more animals who can do that. “The discovery that horses as well as dogs - the only two animals this has been tested in - can read our facial expressions spontaneously and without training suggests one of two things”)
- Nitrogen Supercharges Supercapacitors Quick-charging devices might finally match lead-acid batteries for energy storage (“These reactions enhanced the capacitor’s ability to store energy roughly threefold without reducing its ability to quickly charge and discharge. Their devices could store 41 watt-hours per kilogram — comparable to what lead-acid batteries can store.”)
- Computer helps researchers tackle multiple flu strains at once (“Today in PLOS Pathogens, scientists report that they’ve designed small molecules to target a particularly vulnerable region of hemagglutinin, one of the two proteins that jut from the viral surface like a flower. They home in on the stem of the flower, a portion of the protein that remains conserved between varied strains of the virus. ... The researchers began with a small protein called HB36.5, which is known to bind to influenza’s hemagglutinin. Using a combination of laboratory assays and computer algorithms, the team tested various mutations in HB36.5, looking for single amino acid changes that would increase how tightly the protein bound to a diverse group of hemagglutinins. Eventually the tests converged on a protein with nine mutations, which the researchers dubbed HB36.6. The scientists gave HB36.6 to a group of mice both before and after infecting them with a lethal dose of flu virus. When given prophylactically, all of the mice survived and lost less weight than control animals infected with the same virus. When administered after infection, the protein was less effective, but still significantly reduced death and weight loss.”)
- Human Brain's Bizarre Folding Pattern Re-Created in a Vat Scientists have discovered exactly how the human brain gets its crinkly, wrinkly appearance in utero (“The team coated the outside layer of the mock brain with a stretchy elastomer gel to mimic the cortical layer. They placed this fetal-brain replica in a vat of solvent. The brain quickly soaked up the solvent, and its outer layer ballooned outward more quickly than its inner layer. This uneven swelling caused compression and buckling, and within minutes, the team had recreated the gyri and sulci of the brain. What's more, the formation pattern was shockingly similar to that found in real brains, the researchers reported today (Feb. 1) in the journal Nature Physics.”)
- Biological Origin of Schizophrenia Excessive ‘pruning’ of connections between neurons in brain predisposes to disease (“The findings were based on genetic analysis of nearly 65,000 people. ... It also helps explain two decades-old observations: synaptic pruning is particularly active during adolescence, which is the typical period of onset for symptoms of schizophrenia, and the brains of schizophrenic patients tend to show fewer connections between neurons. The gene, complement component 4 (C4), plays a well-known role in the immune system. It has now been shown to also play a key role in brain development and schizophrenia risk.”)
- Plants with biosensors may light the way Engineered into living detectors, they can be programmed to emit fluorescence when encountering progesterone or digoxin (“... team of researchers developed a new method for engineering a broad range of biosensors to detect and signal virtually any desired molecule using living eukaryotic cells.”)
- Potential diabetes treatment advances Device shields beta cells from immune system attack (“... developed an implantable device that in mice shielded insulin-producing beta cells from immune system attack for six months — a substantial proportion of lifespan. ... rings the promise of a possible cure for type 1 diabetes within striking distance of phase 1 clinical trials, providing a way to implant in diabetics insulin-producing beta cells developed from stem cells ... ”)
- First Monkeys with Autism Created in China They spin in their cages and don’t interact. The scientists who created autistic monkeys say they’ll now try to cure them. (“The Shanghai team sought to copy a disorder that is closely related to Rett syndrome, in which a person is born with too many copies of the MECP2 gene. To do so, it used a virus to insert copies of the human gene into monkey eggs, just as they were fertilized. The eight monkeys ended up with between one and seven extra copies of the gene.”)
- Equation shows that large-scale conspiracies would quickly reveal themselves (I am not sure this study took into account distinctions between closed and open societies as I suspect that conspiracies in closed societies (e.g. former Soviet Union) have survived without detection for years if not decades. “While we can all keep a secret, a study by Dr David Robert Grimes suggests that large groups of people sharing in a conspiracy will very quickly give themselves away. ... 'It is common to dismiss conspiracy theories and their proponents out of hand but I wanted to take the opposite approach, to see how these conspiracies might be possible. To do that, I looked at the vital requirement for a viable conspiracy - secrecy.' … an equation to express the probability of a conspiracy being either deliberately uncovered by a whistle-blower or inadvertently revealed by a bungler. This factors in the number of conspirators, the length of time, and even the effects of conspirators dying, whether of old age or more nefarious means, for those conspiracies that do not require active maintenance.”)
- When chemical cues disappear, ants rely on memory (“But a new study suggests that pheromones aren’t the whole story: Ants’ individual memories of the path also encourage these repeat visits. Researchers observed captive black garden ants (pictured) as they discovered and fed on a weak sugar solution. Then they removed the ants, erased the pheromone trails, and added a second, sweeter food source. When they returned the ants to the enclosure, the insects stuck with the original sugar solution even though their previous pheromone trails leading to it had disappeared. Without a chemical map, they relied on their memory of the old route instead of scouting new food, ”)
- Can Roundworms Show the Key to Slowing the Aging Process? (“But now, a team of TSRI scientists has discovered that the antidepressant drug mianserin can increase roundworms' overall lifespan by up to 40 percent by extending the "young adult" period of their lives. … This new metric revealed that treatment with mianserin can suppress transcriptional drift, but only when administered early on. By intervening with mianserin on their first day of life, the researchers could prolong a worm's lifespan by seven to eight days. ”)
- Super-Vaccine To Eradicate The Flu, Including Bird Flu (“In contrast to current vaccines, which are strain-specific, BiondVax‘s new vaccine was designed to contain small doses of the flu virus, which are enough to teach the human immune system to recognize all flu strains, so that the body quickly stops the virus from causing illness. ”)
- Inside the Eye: Nature’s Most Exquisite Creation (Great summary article!)
- Brewer’s yeasts mate inside the guts of hibernating wasps (“Now, researchers have found that different strains of the yeast mingle and mate like crazy inside the guts of hibernating wasps. The findings suggest that wasps might help to foster yeast biodiversity, with important implications for ecology and industry. ... It’s the first evidence that shows that in the gut environment, S. cerevisiae can [produce spores], germinate, and mate ... The findings suggest that wasps may be much more important than usually thought, ... “What’s often perceived as a pest species by humans can have incredible relevance, ... but in terms of having real commercial and industrial value,” she says. ... For instance, beers and wines have regional flavor difference influenced in part by their microbes, including yeasts.”)
- To hear a pitter-patter from afar: Catching heartbeats with millimeter-wave radar (“Heartbeats can now be measured without placing sensors on the body, thanks to a new technology developed in Japan. Researchers at the Kyoto University Center of Innovation, together with Panasonic Corp, have come up with a way to measure heartbeats remotely, in real time, and under controlled conditions with as much accuracy as electrocardiographs.”)
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