Robotic Patch Clamping Gains Eyes

Robotic Patch Clamping Gains Eyes
Patch clamping, a method that allows scientists to study the electrical activity of single cells, is one of the oldest tools in the neuroscience toolbox. Although the technique was originally developed around the late 1970s to study neurons in a dish, over the last few decades, scientists have adapted it to examine the electrophysiology of the brains of live animals. Then, they managed to automate the process—letting a robot explore the brain and attach to a neuron to record.

In a pair of papers published in Neuron, two groups of scientists advanced automated patch clamping even further, independently developing in vivo robotic systems that use two-photon microscopy to home in on specific cells, rather than just the easiest to find.

“This whole-cell patch method is really the gold standard for looking at synaptic and other events that make a neuron compute,” says Ed Boyden, a bioengineer at MIT. “We’re trying to take this art form and turn it into something that’s fully automated.”

In the early 2000s, a group led by Troy Margrie, a neuroscientist at University College London, and his colleagues pioneered a method called two-photon targeted patching (TPTP) that allowed scientists to record from specific neurons in a living brain. This was an improvement over the previously available “blind” in vivo approach, where scientists would typically pick neurons randomly from a certain area of the brain.

Patch clamping is typically conducted with a glass tube called a micropipette that sucks up a small piece of a cell’s membrane and forms a seal around the break, allowing currents flowing through the neuron to be recorded by a small electrode within the micropipette. Combining this method with a two-photon microscope gave scientists the ability to identify and target specific fluorescently labeled neurons for their recordings. However, this technique is not easy to master.

To simplify this process for researchers, two groups of scientists—Schultz’s and Boyden’s—independently developed robotic systems that could carry out these recordings.

Both groups built their robots on an automated technique reported by Boyden and colleagues in 2012. That system allowed for “blind” patch clamping, meaning it would randomly choose a neuron to record from in a living rodent brain. The team had developed an algorithm that could independently lead the pipette to a neuron.

According to Schultz, this automated system was a big advance, because “it was able to work in a live brain and it was able to work completely automatically, [taking] the human out of the loop.” The downside of this robot was that it would attach to the first cell it encountered, he adds, making it difficult to record from cells other than the large, pyramidal neurons that dominate the cortex.

By combining “blind” automated patch clamping with two-photon targeted patching, both teams were able to develop an algorithm that could target specific cells in the brains of living mice. To label the neurons of interest, the researchers used transgenic mice that only had some cells express a fluorescent protein.

While developing their automated systems, both groups encountered the same problem: as the pipette was pushed into the brain, it caused tissue to move around, meaning their targeted neuron would not stay in one place.

In order to compensate for that movement, Boyden’s team created an algorithm that could conduct something called closed loop adjustment. “That means that you continuously take pictures, and if the cell moves, you move your electrode to make up for the difference,” Boyden says. “What we found was that when we did that, we could actually record cells, even fairly rare ones.” Schultz and his team tackled this issue with an algorithm that functioned in a similar way.

In both studies, the robotic systems were able to perform at about the same level as a human experimenter.

Story via The Scientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/50227/title/Robotic-Patch-Clamping-Gains-Eyes/

Journal article:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(17)30733-X?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS089662731730733X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(17)30702-X

Image: Two new in vivo robotic systems use two-photon microscopy to home in on specific brain cells.

#robos #brain #research #patchclamping #neurons #TPTP #neuroscience

Increased acidity in the brain may be linked with certain psychiatric conditions including panic disorders

Increased acidity in the brain may be linked with certain psychiatric conditions including panic disorders
Sometimes our brains are on acid—literally. A main source of these temporary surges is the carbon dioxide that is constantly released as the brain breaks down sugar to generate energy, which subsequently turns into acid. Yet the chemistry in a healthy human brain tends to be relatively neutral, because standard processes including respiration—which expels carbon dioxide—help maintain the status quo. Any fleeting acidity spikes usually go unnoticed.

But a growing body of work has suggested that for some people, even slight changes in this balance may be linked with certain psychiatric conditions including panic disorders. New findings this month provide additional evidence that such links are real—and suggest they may extend to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

There were earlier hints that this was the case: Post-mortem studies of dozens of human brains revealed lower pH (higher acidity levels) in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Multiple studies in the past few decades have found that when people with panic disorders are exposed to air with a higher-than-normal concentration of carbon dioxide—which can combine with water in the body to form carbonic acid—they are more likely to experience panic attacks than healthy individuals are. Other research has revealed that the brains of people with panic disorders produce elevated levels of lactate—an acidic source of fuel that is constantly produced and consumed in the energy-hungry brain.

Tsuyoshi Miyakawa, a neuroscientist at Fujita Health University in Japan and his colleagues recently decided to scour the 10 existing datasets from post-mortem brains of over 400 patients with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Some prior studies did not bother to focus on acidity because researchers assumed the lower pH was the result of extraneous factors, Miyakawa says. In their new analysis, however, he and his team tried to test each of the leading theories around the disorder-acidity connection.

First, they controlled for potential confounding factors such as a history of antipsychotic medication use and age at death. As they had suspected, brain pH levels in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were significantly lower than in healthy controls. The team also examined five mouse models—rodents with mutations in genes associated with these conditions—and found similar results: The pH levels in the brains of these mice (which were free of antipsychotic drugs) were consistently lower, and their lactate levels higher, than those in comparable healthy animals. What’s more, the researchers had euthanized all the mice in the same way—which suggests the pH differences cannot be explained away by how long it takes to die.

These findings, published in Neuropsychopharmacology this month, collectively provide the most convincing evidence to date that the link between brain acidity and psychiatric disorders is real.

Story via Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-some-psychiatric-disorders-a-ph-problem/?sf110742011=1

Journal article:
http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/vaop/naam/abs/npp2017167a.html?foxtrotcallback=true

Photo credit: Tim Vernon Getty Images

#neuroscience #brainacidity #pH #psychiatricdisorders #research #mentalhealth

A First Glimpse of the Great American Eclipse

A First Glimpse of the Great American Eclipse
Making landfall in Oregon, the Moon's dark umbral shadow toured the United States on August 21. Those gathered along its coast to coast path were witness to a total eclipse of the Sun, possibly the most widely shared celestial event in history.

But first, the Moon's shadow touched the northern Pacific and raced eastward toward land. This dramatic snapshot was taken while crossing the shadow path 250 miles off the Oregon coast, 45,000 feet above the cloudy northern Pacific. Though from a shorter totality, it captures the eclipse before it could be seen from the US mainland. With the eclipsed Sun not far above, beautiful colors appear along the western horizon giving way to a clear, pitch-black, stratospheric sky in the shadow of the Moon.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photographers_about.asp?photographer=Babak%20A.%20Tafreshi

#space #universe #eclipse2017

Title

Common antibiotic may help to prevent or treat PTSD
The common antibiotic doxycycline can disrupt the formation of negative associations in the brain, according to new research from UCL and the University of Zurich.

The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, was a pre-registered, placebo-controlled, double-blind randomized controlled trial in 76 healthy volunteers.

In the first session, participants were given either doxycycline or a placebo and learnt to associate a certain color with an electric shock. A week later they were shown the colors again, accompanied by a loud sound but no shocks, and their fear responses were measured.

The fear response was 60% lower in participants who had doxycycline in the first session compared to those who had the placebo, suggesting that the fear memory was significantly suppressed by the drug. Other cognitive measures including sensory memory and attention were not affected.

“When we talk about reducing fear memory, we are not talking about deleting the memory of what actually happened,” explains lead author Professor Dominik Bach (UCL Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging, Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research and University of Zurich Division of Clinical Psychiatry Research).

“The participants may not forget that they received a shock when the screen was red, but they ‘forget’ to be instinctively scared when they next see a red screen. Learning to fear threats is an important ability for any organism, helping us to avoid dangers such as predators. Over-prediction of threat, however, can cause tremendous suffering and distress in anxiety disorders such as PTSD.”

Source & further reading:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0417/040417-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-antibiotic-ptsd

Journal article:
http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201765a.html?foxtrotcallback=true

#PTSD #doxycycline #memory #fearconditioning #anxietydisorders #neuroscience #science

Title

“There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.”
~Sarah Dessen

Work by dvdp
http://dvdp.tumblr.com/post/164808628508/170831

#animation #math #coding #processing

Sublime Dalida.

Sublime Dalida.

#Dalida #frenchmood #personalnonsense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD2zw5FWYWo

Hyperbolic dance

Hyperbolic dance
Each dot moves on a circle.

Work by Gabor Damasdi
https://twitter.com/Damasdi_math

#math #coding #processing #animation #science

Panoramic Eclipse Composite with Star Trails

Panoramic Eclipse Composite with Star Trails
What was happening in the sky during last week's total solar eclipse? This featured little-planet, all-sky, double time-lapse, digitally-fused composite captured celestial action during both night and day from a single location. In this 360x180 panorama, north and south are at the image bottom and top, while east and west are at the left and right edges, respectively.

During four hours the night before the eclipse, star trails were captured circling the north celestial pole (bottom) as the Earth spun. During the day of the total eclipse, the Sun was captured every fifteen minutes from sunrise to sunset (top), sometimes in partial eclipse. All of these images were then digitally merged onto a single image taken exactly during the total solar eclipse.

Then, the Sun's bright corona could be seen flaring around the dark new Moon (upper left), while Venus simultaneously became easily visible (top). The tree in the middle, below the camera, is a Douglas fir. The images were taken with care and planning at Magone Lake in Oregon, USA.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees, TWAN)
http://nuitsacrees.fr/
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp
http://twanight.org/newTWAN/photographers_about.asp?photographer=Stephane%20Vetter

#nasa #space #eclipse #universe

Your Brain Is a Time Machine

Your Brain Is a Time Machine
From neuroscience to language, from entropy to the Einstein's Special Relativity, this book draws us into a myriad of concepts we encounter in our everyday lives and elegantly weaves neuroscience and modern physics together, drawing similarities between these fundamentally contrasting disciplines.

The perception of time touches every aspect of the brain's function, but we still can't define how time itself works. If you're into physics and neuroscience well this is a must read.

#bookshelf #yourbrainisatimemachine #neuro #time

Hurricane Harvey's

Hurricane Harvey's
Harvey's menacing eye, as the hurricane slammed the Texas coast was captured by the GOES satellite.

Analysis of Hurricane Harvey's tremendous rainfall was created using eight days of satellite data.

The result has been widespread, massive flooding across the region and brings back memories of Tropical Storm Allison, which dropped up to 40 inches of rain in Texas back in 2001 and caused devasting flooding in the Houston area.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted at 1 p.m. CDT on Aug. 28, "Harvey is expected to produce additional rainfall accumulations of 15 to 25 inches through Friday over the upper Texas coast and into southwestern Louisiana. Isolated storm totals may reach 50 inches over the upper Texas coast, including the Houston/Galveston metropolitan area. These rains are currently producing catastrophic and life-threatening flooding over large portions of southeastern Texas."

Get informed & DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL IN THE AFFECTED AREAS IF YOU ARE IN A SAFE PLACE, AND DO NOT DRIVE INTO FLOODED ROADWAYS http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/harvey-atlantic-ocean

Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES

#naturalphenomena #hurricane #Harveys #Flood

Int-Ball is a bit larger than a softball, can float and maneuver by itself but also be controlled remotely, can take...

Int-Ball is a bit larger than a softball, can float and maneuver by itself but also be controlled remotely, can take high resolution images and videos, and is not related to Hello Kitty. Int-Ball was delivered to the ISS in early June and is designed to allow ground-control to increase the monitoring of ISS equipment and activities while decreasing time demands on human astronauts. Int-Ball moves by turning on small internal fans and sees with a camera located between its two dark eyes.

•The recorded images and videos can be checked in real time by flight controllers and researchers on the ground, and then be fed back to the onboard crew.
•The camera adopts existing drone technology and its exterior and inner structures were all manufactured by 3D-printing.

Info via APOD & JAXA
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170725.html
http://iss.jaxa.jp/en/kiboexp/news/170714_int_ball_en.html

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojFNo19HYSo

#robos #IntBall #ISS #space #Jaxa #science #3Dprinting

Jaguarina

Jaguarina
Ella Hattan, better known by her nom-de-guerre “Jaguarina,” was Colonel Thomas Monstery's most accomplished student. Born in 1859 in Ohio, she would go on to become widely regarded as one of the greatest swordswomen of the nineteenth century, and perhaps of all time. Hattan would defeat more than sixty men in high-profile combats on both horseback and on foot; according to one major newspaper, more than half of these men were fencing masters.

Source & further reading:
https://martialartsnewyork.org/2015/03/31/colonel-thomas-monstery-and-the-training-of-jaguarina-americas-champion-swordswoman/

#history #EllaHattan #Jaguarina #swordswoman

Saturn in Blue and Gold

Saturn in Blue and Gold
Every time I see a picture of Saturn my mind stays still...it's like a balm for my fusimotors. There's something about this planet that screams "quiet".

Why is Saturn partly blue? The featured picture of Saturn approximates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in 2006 March by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Here Saturn's majestic rings appear directly only as a thin vertical line. The rings show their complex structure in the dark shadows they create on the image left. Saturn's fountain moon Enceladus, only about 500 kilometers across, is seen as the bump in the plane of the rings.

The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear partly blue for the same reason that Earth's skies can appear blue -- molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet's atmospheres are better at scattering blue light than red. When looking deep into Saturn's clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn's clouds becomes dominant. It is not known why southern Saturn does not show the same blue hue -- one hypothesis holds that clouds are higher there. It is also not known why Saturn's clouds are colored gold. Next month, Cassini will end its mission with a final dramatic dive into Saturn's atmosphere.

Source & image via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

#NASA #ESA #space #Saturn #Cassini #JPL

Carbon nanotube “yarn” generates electricity when stretched

Carbon nanotube “yarn” generates electricity when stretched
The piezoelectric and triboelectric generators that are currently used to harvest electricity from material stress and friction are both expensive and inefficient. Now, carbon nanotubes spun into yarn and then twisted into a spring-like shape have been shown to be a combination of the two types of generators.

The researchers tested the yarn in a variety of environments, including stretched between a weight and a float in the ocean, attached to a polymer that contracts when heated, and even into a shirt that produced electricity as the person wearing it breathed. While the efficiency of the electricity generation isn't particularly high, the weight to energy ratio makes it an interesting option for continued investigation for a variety of uses.

Source & further reading:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/carbon-nanotube-yarn-generates-electricity-when-stretched/

Gif: When the yarn is stretched, the LED lights up.
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt2vGlC4uRc

h/t Physics Today

#science #physics #nanotubes #electricity #research

Ummm...indeed ;)

Ummm...indeed ;)

Illustration by Lunacy Comics
https://twitter.com/lunacycomics?lang=en

#lunacyspace #lunacycomics #jokes #meme #science #astronomy

Helping the retina regenerate

Helping the retina regenerate
A new report gives recommendations for regenerating retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), crucial neurons in the back of the eye that carry visual information to the brain. Authored by Monica Vetter, Ph.D., University of Utah, and Peter Hitchcock, Ph.D., University of Michigan, the report stems from a 2016 workshop sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI) Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI).

“Replacing RGCs is a major challenge for the AGI,” said Steven Becker, Ph.D., who coordinates the initiative—a sustained effort by the NEI to catalyze research aimed at restoring vision by regenerating the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. Glaucoma and other optic neuropathies cause vision loss through the permanent destruction of RGCs. In humans, RGCs are incapable of regenerating on their own.

The report summarized two possible therapeutic strategies for RGC regeneration. The first would use stem cells to grow RGCs. These lab-grown cells would then be transplanted to a patient’s retina. While preclinical testing has shown promise, the report details challenges to this approach. For starters, producing adequate quantities for therapy remains difficult and takes many weeks. And researchers are unsure how best to store RGCs for when patients need them. Another challenge is determining the optimal stage of cellular development for transplantation. Cells that are too naïve may develop into unintended cell types, while those that are more mature might not easily integrate into the retina.

The second approach—the focus of the AGI workshop—is to recruit other cell types in a patient’s retina for reprogramming into RGCs. Amphibians do this naturally in response to RGC death from injury. Similarly, adult zebrafish regenerate RGCs by reprogramming cells in the retina called Müller glia. As outlined in the report, the workshop explored additional cell types for potential reprogramming, including retinal pigment epithelial cells, ciliary epithelial cells, amacrine cells, and astrocytes. According to the report, the key to unlocking these endogenous cell sources for RGC reprogramming is understanding the cues that direct their maturation and integration with other cells.

The report calls for research to better define the genetic factors and signaling pathways that promote endogenous cell reprogramming. Additionally, better characterization of the 30-plus types of RGCs is needed.

Source & further reading:
https://nei.nih.gov/news/briefs/helping-retina-regenerate

Journal article:
http://tvst.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2612275

Image credit - see the watermark on the photo.

#retinalganglioncells #retina #retinalregeneration #neuroscience #science

A Fleeting Double Eclipse of the Sun

A Fleeting Double Eclipse of the Sun
Last week, for a fraction of a second, the Sun was eclipsed twice. One week ago today, many people in North America were treated to a standard, single, partial solar eclipse. Fewer people, all congregated along a narrow path, experienced the eerie daytime darkness of a total solar eclipse. A dedicated few with fast enough camera equipment, however, were able to capture a double eclipse -- a simultaneous partial eclipse of the Sun by both the Moon and the International Space Station (ISS).

The Earth-orbiting ISS crossed the Sun in less than a second, but to keep the ISS from appearing blurry, exposure times must be less than 1/1000th of a second. The featured image composite captured the ISS multiple times in succession as it zipped across the face of the Sun. The picture was taken in a specific color emitted by hydrogen which highlights the Sun's chromosphere, a layer hotter and higher up than the usually photographed photosphere.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Simon Tang

#nasa #space #universe #eclipse #ISS

The Heart Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur

The Heart Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur
What powers the Heart Nebula? The large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a heart. The nebula's glow -- as well as the shape of the gas and dust clouds -- is powered by by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster Melotte 15.

This deep telescopic image maps the pervasive light of narrow emission lines from atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur in the nebula. The field of view spans just over two degrees on the sky, so that it appears larger than four times the diameter of a full moon. The cosmic heart is found in the constellation of Cassiopeia, the boastful mythical Queen of Aethiopia .

Image and info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Jenkins
http://www.pjastro.co.uk/

#space #NASA #nebula #stelalrwinds #science

Cassini's 'Inside-Out' Rings

Cassini's 'Inside-Out' Rings
This movie sequence of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft offers a unique perspective on Saturn’s ring system. Cassini captured the images from within the gap between the planet and its rings, looking outward as the spacecraft made one of its final dives through the gap as part of the mission's Grand Finale.

Using its wide-angle camera, Cassini took the 21 images in the sequence over a span of about four minutes during its dive through the gap on Aug. 20, 2017.

The entirety of the main rings can be seen here, but due to the low viewing angle, the rings appear extremely foreshortened. The perspective shifts from the sunlit side of the rings to the unlit side, where sunlight filters through. On the sunlit side, the grayish C ring looks larger in the foreground because it is closer; beyond it is the bright B ring and slightly less-bright A ring, with the Cassini Division between them. The F ring is also fairly easy to make out.

Source:
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7751/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

#space #universe #exploration #science #NASA #Cassini

Although I understand that all days are equal with 24 hours each, most of us agree that Friday is the longest day of...

Although I understand that all days are equal with 24 hours each, most of us agree that Friday is the longest day of the week and Sunday the shortest... So, let's enjoy this Saturday 😉

#personalnonsense

It’s true – the sound of nature helps us relax

It’s true – the sound of nature helps us relax
Researchers at BSMS found that playing ‘natural sounds’ affected the bodily systems that control the flight-or-fright and rest-digest autonomic nervous systems, with associated effects in the resting activity of the brain. While naturalistic sounds and ‘green’ environments have frequently been linked with promoting relaxation and wellbeing, until now there has been no scientific consensus as to how these effects come about. The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

The lead author, Dr Cassandra Gould van Praag said: “We are all familiar with the feeling of relaxation and ‘switching-off’ which comes from a walk in the countryside, and now we have evidence from the brain and the body which helps us understand this effect. This has been an exciting collaboration between artists and scientists, and it has produced results which may have a real-world impact, particularly for people who are experiencing high levels of stress.

In collaboration with audio visual artist Mark Ware, the team at BSMS conducted an experiment where participants listened to sounds recorded from natural and artificial environments, while their brain activity was measured in an MRI scanner, and their autonomic nervous system activity was monitored via minute changes in heart rate. The team found that activity in the default mode network of the brain (a collection of areas which are active when we are resting) was different depending on the sounds playing in the background.

When listening to natural sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an outward-directed focus of attention; when listening to artificial sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an inward-directed focus of attention, similar to states observed in anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. There was also an increase in rest-digest nervous system activity (associated with relaxation of the body) when listening to natural compared with artificial sounds, and better performance in an external attentional monitoring task.

Interestingly, the amount of change in nervous system activity was dependant on the participants’ baseline state: Individuals who showed evidence of the greatest stress before starting the experiment showed the greatest bodily relaxation when listening to natural sounds, while those who were already relaxed in the brain scanner environment showed a slight increase in stress when listening to natural compared with artificial sounds.

Source & further reading:
https://www.bsms.ac.uk/about/news/2017/03-31-the-sound-of-nature-helps-us-relax.aspx

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45273

#neuroscience #functional connectivity #relaxation #nature sounds #defaultmodenetwork #science

Ant Nebula

Ant Nebula
From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3) resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety ant. This dramatic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, showing 10 times more detail, reveals the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun-like star.

The Hubble images directly challenge old ideas about the last stages in the lives of stars. By observing Sun-like stars as they approach their deaths, the Hubble Heritage image of Mz 3 - along with pictures of other planetary nebulae - shows that our Sun's fate probably will be more interesting, complex, and striking than astronomers imagined just a few years ago.

Source:
http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0101a/

Credit:
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

#space #antnebula #universe #science #NASA #ESA Hubble

Diamond Ring in a Cloudy Sky

Diamond Ring in a Cloudy Sky
As the Moon's shadow swept across the US on August 21, eclipse chasers in the narrow path of totality were treated to a diamond ring in the sky. At the beginning and end of totality, the fleeting and beautiful effect often produces audible gasps from an amazed audience. It occurs just before or after the appearance of the faint solar corona with a brief ring of light and glimpse of Sun. In this scene from the end of totality at Central, South Carolina, clouds drift near the Sun's diamond ring in the sky.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Ashley Marando
http://www.astrobin.com/users/ashley/

#naturalphenomena #suneclipse #totality #universe #nasa

What about us?

What about us?
I want to share myself with somebody who will press his hands through the surface of my skin, curl himself up inside my soul and say..."Here, this is who I am."
~B. Taplin

#entertainmyfusimotors #personalnonsense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=987xHnVfRI4

Acute kidney failure (AKI) - get informed

Acute kidney failure (AKI) - get informed
Acute kidney failure occurs when your kidneys suddenly become unable to filter waste products from your blood. When your kidneys lose their filtering ability, dangerous levels of wastes may accumulate, and your blood's chemical makeup may get out of balance.

Acute kidney failure — also called acute renal failure or acute kidney injury — develops rapidly over a few hours or a few days. Acute kidney failure is most common in people who are already hospitalized, particularly in critically ill people who need intensive care.

Acute kidney failure can be fatal and requires intensive treatment. However, acute kidney failure may be reversible. If you're otherwise in good health, you may recover normal or nearly normal kidney function.

What are the symptoms?
☛Decreased urine output, although occasionally urine output remains normal
☛Fluid retention, causing swelling in your legs, ankles or feet
☛Drowsiness
☛Shortness of breath
☛Fatigue
☛Confusion
☛Nausea
☛Seizures or coma in severe cases
☛Chest pain or pressure
☛Sometimes acute kidney failure causes no signs or symptoms and is detected through lab tests done for another reason.

Causes
Decreased blood flow
Some diseases and conditions can slow blood flow to your kidneys and cause AKI. These diseases and conditions include:
☛Low blood pressure (called “hypotension”) or shock
☛Blood or fluid loss (such as bleeding, severe diarrhea)
☛Heart attack, heart failure, and other conditions leading to decreased heart function
☛Organ failure (e.g., heart, liver)
☛Overuse of pain medicines called “NSAIDs”, which are used to reduce swelling or relieve pain from headaches, colds, flu, and other ailments. Examples include ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen.
☛Severe allergic reactions
☛Burns
☛Injury
☛Major surgery

Direct Damage to the Kidneys
Some disease and conditions can damage your kidneys and lead to AKI. Some examples include:
☛A type of severe, life-threatening infection called “sepsis”
☛A type of cancer called “multiple myeloma”
☛A rare condition that causes inflammation and scarring to your blood vessels, making them stiff, weak, and narrow (called “vasculitis”)
☛An allergic reaction to certain types of drugs (called “interstitial nephritis”)
☛A group of diseases (called “scleroderma”) that affect the connective tissue that supports your internal organs
☛Conditions that cause inflammation or damage to the kidney tubules, to the small blood vessels in the kidneys, or to the filtering units in the kidneys (such as “tubular necrosis,” “glomerulonephritis, “vasculitis” or “thrombotic microangiopathy”).

Blockage of the urinary tract
In some people, conditions or diseases can block the passage of urine out of the body and can lead to AKI. Blockage can be caused by:
☛Bladder, prostate, or cervical cancer
☛Enlarged prostate
☛Problems with the nervous system that affect the bladder and urination
☛Kidney stones
☛Blood clots in the urinary tract

What is the treatment for acute kidney failure?
Treatment for AKI usually requires you to stay in a hospital. Most people with acute kidney injury are already in the hospital for another reason. How long you will stay in the hospital depends on the cause of your AKI and how quickly your kidneys recover. In more serious cases, dialysis may be needed to help replace kidney function until your kidneys recover. The main goal of your healthcare provider is to treat what is causing your acute kidney injury. Your healthcare provider will work to treat all of your symptoms and complications until your kidneys recover.

Sources:
https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/AcuteKidneyInjury
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-failure/basics/definition/con-20024029

Infographic via reddit

#medicine #AKI #kidneyhealth #health #dialysis

Have we detected a new flavor of gravitational wave?

Have we detected a new flavor of gravitational wave?
Speculation based on hints from researchers on twitter is running rampant that LIGO has detected gravitational waves from a source other than colliding black holes. LIGO's current observational run ends on 25 August and any signals that were detected during the run will be announced soon thereafter.

Story via New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2144937-exclusive-we-may-have-detected-a-new-kind-of-gravitational-wave/

#physics #LIGO #neutronstars #gravitationalWaves #science

Pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata)

Pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata)
As it matures, this chromatophore-clad pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata) hatchling will learn to use the color-changing cells that adorn its body to alter its appearance.

The patterns on pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata) are made up of chromatophores—pigmented cells that can expose or hide their color as they expand and retract, respectively.

According to graduate student Brittany Grouge of George Mason University, S.lineolata hatchlings develop color-changing abilities as they grow.

Story via The Scientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/50160/title/Image-of-the-Day--Brand-New-Pyjamas/

Image: A just-hatched pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata), not yet a day old
Credit: BRITTANY GROUGE

#biodiversity #PyjamaSquid #coolcritters #embryology #marinecritters #cephalopod #camouflage

Asteroid Florence will safely sweep past Earth on Sept. 1

Asteroid Florence will safely sweep past Earth on Sept. 1
Asteroid Florence, a large near-Earth asteroid, will pass safely by Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles, (7.0 million kilometers, or about 18 Earth-Moon distances). Florence is among the largest near-Earth asteroids that are several miles in size; measurements from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and NEOWISE mission indicate it’s about 2.7 miles (4.4 kilometers) in size.

This relatively close encounter provides an opportunity for scientists to study this asteroid up close. Florence is expected to be an excellent target for ground-based radar observations. Radar imaging is planned at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California and at the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The resulting radar images will show the real size of Florence and also could reveal surface details as small as about 30 feet (10 meters).

Source & further reading:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/large-asteroid-to-safely-pass-earth-on-sept-1

#NASA #space #asteroidFlorence #universe #science

Diet Soda and Dementia

Diet Soda and Dementia
A study published last week in the journal Stroke found that drinking even one can of diet soda a day triples your risk of dementia.
This is the first study to find a link between artificial sweeteners and dementia, mostly because this seems to be the first time researchers have looked for a connection between the two. This provocative finding will now prompt more researchers to ask the same question, which will shed a lot more light on the situation.

As it stands, the evidence that drinking diet soda may contribute to dementia risk is circumstantial, at best. This study simply observed that people who drink diet soda regularly are a lot more likely to eventually be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Story via Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/diet-soda-and-dementia-what-you-need-to-know

Paper (open the PDF for full article):
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/04/20/STROKEAHA.116.016027

#neuroscience #dietsoda #dementia #stroke #medicine #health #research

The Eagle and The Swan

The Eagle and The Swan
The Eagle Nebula and the Swan Nebula span this broad starscape, a telescopic view toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Eagle, also known as M16, is at top and M17, the Swan, at bottom of the frame showing the cosmic clouds as brighter regions of active star-formation.

They lie along the spiral arm suffused with reddish emission charactistic of atomic hydrogen gas, and dusty dark nebulae. M17, also called the Omega Nebula, is about 5500 light-years away, while M16 is some 6500 light-years distant.

The center of both nebulae are locations of well-known close-up images of star formation from the Hubble Space Telescope. In this mosaic image that extends about 3 degrees across the sky, narrowband, high-resultion image data has been used to enhance the central regions of the Eagle and Swan. The extended wings of the Eagle Nebula spread almost 120 light-years. The Swan is over 30 light-years across.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis
https://astrodrudis.com/

#space #nasa #universe #nebula #science

Scientists Identify a New Way to Activate Stem Cells to Make Hair Grow

Scientists Identify a New Way to Activate Stem Cells to Make Hair Grow
UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.

In this study, Christofk and Lowry, of Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, found that hair follicle stem cell metabolism is different from other cells of the skin. Cellular metabolism involves the breakdown of the nutrients needed for cells to divide, make energy and respond to their environment. The process of metabolism uses enzymes that alter these nutrients to produce “metabolites.”

As hair follicle stem cells consume the nutrient glucose — a form of sugar — from the bloodstream, they process the glucose to eventually produce a metabolite called pyruvate. The cells then can either send pyruvate to their mitochondria — the part of the cell that creates energy — or can convert pyruvate into another metabolite called lactate.

“Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly,” said Christofk, an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology.

Source & further reading:
https://stemcell.ucla.edu/news/ucla-scientists-identify-new-way-activate-stem-cells-make-hair-grow

Image: Untreated mouse skin showing no hair growth (left) compared to mouse skin treated with the drug UK5099 (right) showing hair growth. Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center/Nature Cell Biology

#research #hairgrowth #alopecia #baldness #health #stemcells #pyruvate

What's an okapi?

What's an okapi?
Who’s this? Meet Mosi, a floppy-eared okapi calf born at the San Diego Zoo. What’s an okapi? The okapi, the only living relative of the giraffe, is a large animal that lives in the Ituri Forest—a dense rain forest in central Africa, located in the northeast region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Its zebra-like white-and-black striped hindquarters and front legs give the okapi added camouflage in the partial sunlight that filters through its rain forest habitat.

The species is very cautious, and okapis use their highly developed hearing to alert them before humans can get close. In fact, while natives of the Ituri Forest knew of okapis, scientists did not know of the animal until 1900. Today, the Okapi is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, due to hunting and continued habitat loss.

Learn more about Mosi here:
http://zoonooz.sandiegozoo.org/2017/08/17/san-diego-zoo-animal-care-staff-welcomes-mosi-first-endangered-okapi-born-at-the-zoo-in-four-years/

#coolcritters #biodiversity #okapi #Mosi

When writing interferes with hearing

When writing interferes with hearing
A cochlear implant is an electric device designed to counter the loss of hearing linked to an inner ear deficiency, either congenital or acquired. First used as experimental devices in the 1970s, they have become commonplace since the 1990s. They provide many deaf people with a significantly improved ability for oral understanding and thus a considerable boost to their quality of life. However, despite the technological advances, there are still some 5 to 10% of adult patients who have become deaf for whom this technique remains stubbornly ineffective. Why? In order to find an answer to this question crucial for clinical practice, Diane Lazard, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Institut Vernes (Paris) and Anne-Lise Giraud, neuroscientist in the UNIGE’s Faculty of Medicine, have sought to identify which brain factors might be linked to the success or failure of implants.

The two scientists have studied how the brain of a deaf person manages to represent the sound of the spoken word and its capacity of re-using these representations after a cochlear implant. Anne-Lise Giraud explained: ‘The test went like this. We presented some visual stimuli to the subjects, in the form of written word, and asked them to determine whether two words, without the same orthographic ending, rhymed or not - for instance wait and gate. Subjects would then have to recourse to their memory of sounds and, using functional neuroimaging (fMRI) techniques, we observed the neural networks in action.’ Whereas the researchers were expecting that the subjects would be slower and less accurate that those in a control group of people without any hearing difficulty, to their surprise they found that certain deaf people completed the task quicker and more accurately than their normo-hearing counterparts.

For ‘Super-readers’, who appear to be able to handle written words quicker than those with no hearing impediment, the brain has opted to replace orality by written exchanges and has restructured itself accordingly. The brain circuits used by such ‘super-readers’, and which are situated in the right hemisphere, are organized differently and thus cochlear implants give poor results. The other deaf people, those who carried out the task at the same speed as the control subjects, remain anchored to orality and therefore gain more benefit from cochlear implants. Unlike the ‘super-readers’, the latter manage to master lip-reading as deafness encroaches, and therefore maintain a central phonological organization very similar to that of normo-hearing people, which uses the left hemisphere of the brain. There are therefore two categories of subjects whose brain circuits function very differently.

This research points to the essential role played by the interactions between the auditory and visual systems in the success or failure of cochlear implants. Their outcome will indeed depend on this cortical reorganization. For ‘super-readers’, the fact of having adapted to deafness by developing certain “supra-natural” visual capabilities constitutes a handicap for the use of implants. Is it possible to go back in time? ‘It’s difficult to say at the moment,’ says Diane Lazard, ‘but the idea is also to be able to spot in advance the people who will have a propensity for the written stimulus and to offer them active means for remaining with orality, particularly with auditory prostheses and speech therapy used much earlier than is currently practiced.’

But as Anne-Lise Giraud explains, ‘Equally we do not know why certain people quite unconsciously choose one direction rather than the other, but predisposition surely plays a part, because we all learn to integrate auditory and visual information by the time we are three. Certain people manage this better than others and, with deaf people, those who integrate the audio-visual elements best will probably have a tendency to remain more aligned with orality.’ Such results also explain why it is so important to be able to equip congenitally-deaf children during their first few months, i.e. before the onset of the reorganization of the visual and auditory brain circuits, a process which may compromise their ability to access orality.

Source:
https://www.unige.ch/communication/communiques/en/2017/cdp280317/

Image:
Up, red : right occipito-temporal coupling during deafness, indicating a poor cochlear implant prognosis.
Below, blue : right occipito-tempora uncoupling after deafness, indicating a good cochlear implant outcome (adapted from Strelnikov et al. 2013). Credit: UNIGE – Institut Vernes, Paris.

#neuroscience #research #deafness #cochlearimplant #brain #health #science

Stunning Europa in front of the Great Red Spot

Stunning Europa in front of the Great Red Spot
Mosaic composed of several images taken by Voyager 1 in 1979

Copyright/Owner: Michael Benson
Source: NASA; JPL; Kinetikon Pictures

Source 2:
https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/web11413-2010pjpg

#space #NASA #universe #Europa #GreatRedSpot #science

NASA's EPIC View of 2017 Eclipse Across America

NASA's EPIC View of 2017 Eclipse Across America
From a million miles out in space, NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) captured 12 natural color images of the moon’s shadow crossing over North America on Aug. 21, 2017. EPIC is aboard NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), where it photographs the full sunlit side of Earth every day, giving it a unique view of total solar eclipses.
EPIC normally takes about 20 to 22 images of Earth per day, so this animation appears to speed up the progression of the eclipse.

Source:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/nasas-epic-view-of-2017-eclipse-across-america
Credit: NASA EPIC Team

#universe #NASA #EPIC #space #eclipse2017 #science

SDO Views 2017 Solar Eclipse

SDO Views 2017 Solar Eclipse
Image of the Moon transiting across the Sun, taken by SDO in 171 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light on Aug. 21, 2017

Credit: NASA/SDO
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/sdo-views-2017-solar-eclipse-171-angstrom

#space #SDO #NASA #universe #Eclipse2017

Title

Can you develop a STD/STI without “catching” it, or having it passed down?
No, you can’t get an STD without catching it from someone. STDs are communicable infections. That’s a fancy way of saying they’re spread from one person to another, kind of like a cold.

Sex — including vaginal, anal, and oral sex — is the main way STDs travel from one person to another. That’s why using condoms and dental dams every time you have sex is a good idea. These barriers literally block germs from getting through.

But some STDs can be spread other ways, too. For example, HIV and Hepatitis B can both be spread from one person to another by sharing needles. HIV can also be spread to a baby during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. Scabies and public lice can be passed from one person to another from non-sexual behavior too, like sharing a towel or bed sheets with someone who has it.

Sex isn’t the only way STDs happen, but all STDs are passed from one person to another somehow. They don’t just pop up out of nowhere.

Learn more about STD & safer sex:
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/stds-hiv-safer-sex
Photo via Reddit

#medicine #STD #sex #STI

Supermassive black holes feed on cosmic jellyfish

Supermassive black holes feed on cosmic jellyfish
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole that lurks in each of them and causing it to shine brilliantly.

This picture of one of the galaxies, nicknamed JO204, from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows clearly how material is streaming out of the galaxy in long tendrils to the lower-left. Red shows the glow from ionised hydrogen gas and the whiter regions are where most of the stars in the galaxy are located. Some more distant galaxies are also visible.

Story via ESO
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1725/

Paper:
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1725/poggianti_final_bis_withfigs.pdf

Image Credit:
ESO/GASP collaboration

#science #astrophysics #blackholes #jellyfishgalaxy #research

Milky Way over Chilean Volcanoes

Milky Way over Chilean Volcanoes
Sometimes, the sky mimics the ground. Taken in 2017 May from the Atacama Desert in Chile, the foreground of the featured image encompasses the dipping edge of the caldera of an extinct volcano. Poetically echoing the dip below is the arch of our Milky Way Galaxy above.

Many famous icons dot this southern nighttime vista, including the center of our Milky Way Galaxy on the far left, the bright orange star Antares also on the left, the constellation of the Southern Cross near the top of the arch, and the red-glowing Gum Nebula on the far right.

Just above the horizon and splitting two distant volcanic peaks near the image center is the Large Magellanic Cloud -- the largest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Eduardo Fairbairn
http://www.astrobin.com/users/kiko.fairbairn/

#space #nasa #MilkyWay #GumNebula #universe #science

Cos Roll

Cos Roll
Rolling a circle in a circle to draw a cosine wave

Work by Matthew Henderson
Code: https://pastebin.com/w1GuX3XC

#math #science #cosine #coding

21st Century Solar Eclipse Locations

21st Century Solar Eclipse Locations

More info:
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com

#universe #space #eclipse2017 #science

Jupiter Side Eye

Jupiter Side Eye
This striking Jovian vista was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

The tumultuous Great Red Spot is fading from Juno's view while the dynamic bands of the southern region of Jupiter come into focus. North is to the left of the image, and south is on the right.

The image was taken on July 10, 2017 at 7:12 p.m. PDT (10:12 p.m. EDT), as the Juno spacecraft performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 10,274 miles (16,535 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of -36.9 degrees.

Source:
https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/a-new-point-of-view

#space #Juno #Jupiter #science #exploration

NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans

NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans
Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar have a hook-like appearance in wide-field images.

But this mosaicked close-up, constructed from Hubble Space Telescope and European Southern Observatory data, follows the galaxy's structure in amazing detail. Obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surround a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars.

The sharp image data also reveal more distant background galaxies seen right through NGC 2442's star clusters and nebulae. The image spans about 75,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari
Data - Hubble Legacy Archive, European Southern Observatory

#nasa #space #universe #NGC2442 #galaxy #science

Scientists identify brain cells involved in Pavlovian response

Scientists identify brain cells involved in Pavlovian response
In his famous experiment, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov rang a bell each time he fed his dogs. Soon, the dogs began drooling in anticipation when they heard the bell, even before food appeared.

A UCLA study has traced the Pavlovian response to a small cluster of brain cells — the same neurons that go awry during Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Tourette’s syndrome. Published March 22 in the journal Neuron, the research could eventually help scientists identify new approaches to diagnosing and treating these neurological disorders.

“Species survive because they’ve learned how to link sensory cues like specific sounds, smells and sights to rewards like food and water,” said Sotiris Masmanidis, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “We wanted to uncover the brain circuitry that encodes reward-based learning and behavior.”

The UCLA team focused on cellular activity in the striatum, a part of the brain associated with reward, movement and decision-making.

In a modern version of Pavlov’s experiment, Masmanidis and colleagues repeatedly exposed mice to the unfamiliar scent of banana or lemon, followed by a drop of condensed milk. Eventually, the mice learned that the fragrances predicted the arrival of a sweet reward and began fervently licking the air in anticipation.

“The mice learned to associate the new scent with food, just like Pavlov’s dogs,” said Masmanidis, who is also a member of UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute and Brain Research Institute. “Our next step was to uncover what happens to the Pavlovian response when we silence different groups of cells in the striatum.”

“When we switched off the support cells, the mice licked the air in anticipation of the milk only half as often as normal,” Masmanidis said. “We suspect that the support cells enhance the brain circuits that encode Pavlovian response.”

The findings suggest that neurological disorders could be caused in part by malfunctioning support cells, and that restoring the cells’ function may eventually help people with these diseases.

Source & further reading:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/study-identifies-brain-cells-involved-in-pavlovian-response

Journal article:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(17)30141-1?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627317301411%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

#neuroscience #striatum #associativelearning #neurologicaldisorders #interneurons #research #brain

Scientists used data from 10 NASA & ESA spacecraft to track a coronal mass ejection (CME) through the solar system

Scientists used data from 10 NASA & ESA spacecraft to track a coronal mass ejection (CME) through the solar system
On Oct. 14, 2014, a CME left the Sun, as measured by spacecraft that watch for CMEs from afar using an instrument called a coronagraph. From there, the CME washed over spacecraft throughout the inner solar system – including by Curiosity on Mars, near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and out to Saturn.

This wealth of data is a boon for scientists working on space science simulations. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, scientists work to validate, host, and improve such simulations, and this new information provides the most comprehensive look to date at how the speed of a CME evolves over time.

Source & further reading:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12687
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

#nasa #CME #ESA #science #universe #sun #space

Alzheimer's Disease linked to the metabolism of unsaturated fats

Alzheimer's Disease linked to the metabolism of unsaturated fats
A study published in PLOS Medicine’s Special Issue on Dementia has found that the metabolism of omega-3 and omega-6 unsaturated fatty
acids in the brain are associated with the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which causes impaired memory, executive function and language. It accounts for 60 - 80% of total dementia cases worldwide, with over 46 million people suffering from the disease worldwide. The number of patients is estimated to rise to 131.5 million by 2050.

Currently it is thought that the main reason for developing memory problems in dementia is the presence of two big molecules in the brain called tau and amyloid proteins. These proteins have been extensively studied and have been shown to start accumulating in the brain up to 20 years prior to the onset of the disease. However, there is limited information on how small molecule metabolism in the brain is associated with the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, researchers from King’s College London and the National Institute on Aging in the United States looked at brain tissue samples from 43 people ranging in age from 57 to 95 years old. They compared the differences in hundreds of small molecules in three groups: 14 people with healthy brains, 15 that had high levels of tau and amyloid but didn’t show memory problems and 14 clinically diagnosed Alzheimer’s patients.

They also looked at three different areas in the brain, one that usually shows little tau and amyloid, one that shows more tau and another that shows more amyloid. The main molecules that were different were six small fats, including omegas, which changed in abundance in different regions of the brain.

They found that unsaturated fatty acids were significantly decreased in Alzheimer’s brains when compared to brains from healthy patients.

Co-lead author of the study, Dr Cristina Legido Quigley from King’s College London said: “While this was a small study, our results show a potentially crucial and unexpected role for fats in the onset of dementia. Most surprisingly we found that a supposedly beneficial omega3, DHA, actually increased with the progression of the disease.

“It is now important for us to build on and replicate these findings in a larger study and see whether it corroborates our initial findings.”

Source:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrecords/2017/03-March/Alzheimer's-Disease-linked-to-the-metabolism-of-unsaturated-fats-new-research-finds.aspx

Paper:
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002266

#neuroscience #Alzheimer's #fattyacids #research #health #science

These arachnids make dinner out of their potential predators in a startling role reversal

These arachnids make dinner out of their potential predators in a startling role reversal
At less than a tenth of an ounce, the regal jumping spider can prey on frogs and lizards two to three times its own weight, according to a new study in the Journal of Arachnology.

It's the first time scientists have published observations of jumping spiders—the biggest family of spiders—eating vertebrates.

Source & further reading:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/jumping-spiders-lizards-frogs-predators/

Journal article:
http://americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v45_n2/arac-45-2-238.pdf

Photograph by Martin Fisher

#biodiversity #spiders #coolcritters #science

Day to night and back again: #Eclipse2017 will help us study the charged particles in Earth's upper atmosphere

Day to night and back again: #Eclipse2017 will help us study the charged particles in Earth's upper atmosphere
The total solar eclipse will have imperceptible effects, such as the sudden loss of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, which generates the ionized layer of Earth’s atmosphere, called the ionosphere. This ever-changing region grows and shrinks based on solar conditions, and is the focus of several NASA-funded science teams that will use the eclipse as a ready-made experiment, courtesy of nature.

Source & further reading:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/day-to-night-and-back-again-earth-s-ionosphere-during-the-total-solar-eclipse

#nasa #space #Eclipse2017 #science #ionosphere #universe

* A visual proof that ¼ + 1/16 + 1/64 + … = 1/3*

* A visual proof that ¼ + 1/16 + 1/64 + … = 1/3*

Work by Matthew Henderson
http://blog.matthen.com/

#math #animation #science #coding

Researchers Identify Biomarkers Associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Severity

Researchers Identify Biomarkers Associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Severity
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report that 17 cytokines, the proteins that signal immune system action, are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome. The severity of the disease is tied to the levels of these various proteins in the blood.

The findings, described in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to further understanding of this condition and be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder, which has been notably difficult.

Source:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/07/researchers-id-biomarkers-associated-with-chronic-fatigue-syndrome.html

#research #chronicfatigue #cytokines #medicine #health