Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast

Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast
Every step caused the sand to light up blue. That glow was bioluminescence -- a blue radiance that also lights the surf in this surreal scene captured last month at Meyer's Creek Beach in Oregon, USA. Volcanic stacks dot the foreground sea, while a thin fog layer scatters light on the horizon.

The rays of light spreading from the left horizon were created by car headlights on the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101), while the orange light on the right horizon emanates from a fishing boat. Visible far in the distance is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy, appearing to rise from a dark rocky outcrop. Sixteen images were added together to bring up the background Milky Way and to reduce noise.

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

#space #universe #naturalphenomena #bioluminescence

Brain on a Chip” Reveals How the Brain Folds

Brain on a Chip” Reveals How the Brain Folds
Being born with a “tabula rasa” – a clean slate – in the case of the brain is something of a curse. Our brains are already wrinkled like walnuts by the time we are born. Babies born without these wrinkles – smooth brain syndrome – suffer from severe developmental deficiencies and their life expectancy is markedly reduced. The gene that causes this syndrome helped Weizmann Institute of Science researchers to probe the physical forces that cause the brain’s wrinkles to form. In their findings, reported in Nature Physics, the researchers describe a method they developed for growing tiny “brains on chips” from human cells that enabled them to track the physical and biological mechanisms underlying the wrinkling process.

Tiny brains grown in the lab from embryonic stem cells –called organoids – were pioneered in the last decade by Profs. Yoshiki Sasai in Japan and Juergen Knoblich in Austria. Prof. Orly Reiner of the Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department says that her lab, along with many others, embraced the idea of growing organoids. But Dr. Eyal Karzbrun, in her lab, had to put a bit of a damper on their enthusiasm: The sizes of the organoids they obtained were far from uniform; with no blood vessels, the insides did not have a steady supply of nutrients and started to die; and the thickness of the tissue got in the way of the optical imaging and microscope tracking.

So Karzbrun developed a new approach to growing organoids – one that would enable the group to follow their growth processes in real time: He limited their growth in the vertical axis. This gave him a “pita”-shaped organoid – round and flat with a thin space in the middle. This shape enabled the group to image the thin tissue as it developed and to supply nutrients to all the cells. And by the second week of the tiny “brain’s” growth and development, wrinkles began to appear and then to deepen. Karzbrun: “This is the first time that folding has been observed in organoids, apparently due to the architecture of our system.”

Wrinkles in time
Karzbrun is a physicist by training, and he naturally turned to physical models for the behavior of elastic materials to understand the formation of the wrinkles. Folds or wrinkles in a surface are the result of mechanical instability – compression forces applied to some part of the material. So for example, if there is uneven expansion in one part of the material, another part might be forced to fold in order to accommodate the pressure. In the organoids, the scientists found such mechanical instability in two places: The cytoskeleton – the internal skeleton – of the cells in the center of the organoid contracted; and the nuclei of the cells near the surface expanded. Or, to think of it another way, the outside of the “pita” grew faster than its inside.

While this achievement was impressive, Reiner was not convinced that the wrinkles in the organoids were really modeling the folds in a developing brain. So the group grew new organoids, this time bearing the same mutations carried by babies with smooth brain syndrome. Reiner had identified this gene – LIS1 – back in 1993, and has investigated its role in the developing brain and in the disease, which affects one in 30,000 births. Among other things, the gene is involved in the migration of nerve cells to the brain during embryonic development, and it also regulates the cytoskeleton and molecular motors in the cell.

The organoids with the mutated gene grew to the same proportions as the others, but they developed few folds and the ones they did develop were very different in shape from the normal wrinkles. Working on the assumption that differences in the physical properties of the cell were responsible for these variations, the group investigated the organoid’s cells with atomic force microscopy, with the help of Dr. Sidney Cohen of the Chemical Research Support Department. By measures of elasticity, the normal cells were about twice as stiff as the mutated ones, which were basically soft. Reiner: “We discovered a significant difference in the physical properties of cells in the two organoids, but we observed difference in their biological properties as well. For example, the nuclei in the centers of the mutant organoids moved more slowly, and we saw significant differences in gene expression.”

Source:
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/%E2%80%9Cbrain-chip%E2%80%9D-reveals-how-brain-folds

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0046-7

Gif: As the organoid develops, the tissue in the outer part folds in a manner similar to those in the developing brain.

#stemcells #brainorganoids #lissencephaly #brainwrinkles #geneexpression #braindevelopment #neuroscience

Ring Out

Ring Out
Before you die, you see.

Animation via reddit.

#math #C4D #animation #science #art

Lilian Harvey in Du Sollst Nicht stehlen, (1927.)

Lilian Harvey in Du Sollst Nicht stehlen, (1927.)
Lilian Harvey was born on January 19th, 1906 in London. Her mother was English and her father was German. When she was eight her family moved to Berlin shortly before the outbreak of WW1.

Her most successful film, 1931's "Der Kongress Tanzt"/"Le congres s'amuse"/"Congress Dances" led to a contract in Hollywood with the Fox Film Company. She dissolved this contract after a few pictures, walking out on a role that was filled by then-unknown Alice Faye and returning to UFA to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved. The Nazi regime had come to power in her absence and Lilian Harvey found it difficult to work under Goebbels.

She was instrumental in helping those persecuted by the Nazis escape until her film popularity waned and she was forced to escape as well. She eventually landed in the USA and spent most of WW2 in Los Angeles working as a volunteer nurse. She did theater work and continued to work on European stages after the war. She received war reparations in the early sixties and lived on the Riviera until her death on July 27th, 1968.

Bio:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0367613/bio

#history #movies #LilianHarvey

Brain ageing may begin earlier than expected

Brain ageing may begin earlier than expected
Physicists have devised a new method of investigating brain function, opening a new frontier in the diagnoses of neurodegenerative and ageing related diseases.

This new non-invasive technique could potentially be used for any diagnosis based on cardiovascular and metabolic-related diseases of the brain.

The researchers at Lancaster University (UK) and the Medical University of Gdansk (Poland) deciphered oscillations in the cerebrospinal fluid which lies between the brain and skull.

A device for non-invasive recordings of this translucent fluid was developed by researchers at the Technical University of Gdansk (Poland), and recordings on healthy subjects were made at the Medical University of Gdansk (Poland) and the University of Regina (Canada).

Using methods developed by physicists at Lancaster, it has been shown that the circulation throughout the brain of this fluid is highly fluctuating, and that these fluctuations are slow but interconnected by the rhythms of breathing and the heart rate.

Researchers found that some of these oscillations are linked with blood pressure, but are generally slower, occurring at lower frequencies, which have been shown in previous studies to be related to oscillations in vascular motion and blood oxygenation.

Preliminary results published in Scientific Reports showed evidence of a decline in the coherence between these oscillations in participants over the age of 25, indicating that brain ageing may begin earlier than expected.

Professor Aneta Stefanovska from Lancaster University, who has been studying the physics of biological oscillations for over 20 years, said: “Combining the technique to noninvasively record the fluctuation corresponding to cerebrospinal fluid and our sophisticated methods to analyse oscillations which are not clock-like but rather vary in time around their natural values, we have come to an interesting and non-invasive method that can be used to study ageing and changes due to various neurodegenerative diseases.“

Source:
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/articles/2018/brain-ageing-may-begin-earlier-than-expected/

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21038-0

#cerebrospinalfluid #brainage #neurodegenerativediseases #subarachnoidspace #bloodpressure #oscillations #neuroscience

Glowing Elements in the Soul Nebula

Glowing Elements in the Soul Nebula
Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethopia. More specifically, a large star forming region called the Soul Nebula (IC 1898) can be found in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia, who Greek mythology credits as the vain wife of a King who long ago ruled lands surrounding the upper Nile river.

The Soul Nebula houses several open clusters of stars, a large radio source known as W5, and huge evacuated bubbles formed by the winds of young massive stars. Located about 6,500 light years away, the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years and is usually imaged next to its celestial neighbor the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The featured image is a composite of three exposures in different colors: red as emitted by hydrogen gas, yellow as emitted by sulfur, and blue as emitted by oxygen.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal

#space #NASA #universe #science #nebula

How the brain responds to injustice

How the brain responds to injustice
Punishing a wrongdoer may be more rewarding to the brain than supporting a victim. That is one suggestion of new research published in JNeurosci, which measured the brain activity of young men while they played a “justice game.”

Study participants played a game in which two players – a “Taker” and a “Partner” – each start out with 200 chips. The Taker can steal up to 100 of the Partner’s chips, and then the Partner can retaliate by spending up to 100 chips to reduce the Taker’s stash by up to 300 chips. Participants played as either a Partner or an Observer, who could either punish the Taker or help the Partner by spending chips to increase the Partner’s stash.

Mirre Stallen and colleagues found that participants were more willing to punish the Taker when they experienced injustice directly as a Partner as opposed to a third-party Observer. The decision to punish was associated with activity in the ventral striatum, a brain region involved in reward processing, and distinguishable from the severity of the punishment.

Before beginning the experiment, all participants were given a nasal spray, with some randomly assigned to receive the hormone oxytocin, which has been suggested to have a role in punishing. Participants in the oxytocin group chose to give more frequent, but less intense, punishments. This finding implicates oxytocin in corrective punishments akin to a “slap on the wrist” to maintain fairness.

Source:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/sfn-htb021418.php

Journal article:
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/12/2944

#oxytocin #neuroimaging #brainactivity #punishment #socialinjustice #neuroscience

Active Prominences on a Quiet Sun

Active Prominences on a Quiet Sun
Why is the Sun so quiet? As the Sun enters into a period of time known as a Solar Minimum, it is, as expected, showing fewer sunspots and active regions than usual. The quietness is somewhat unsettling, though, as so far this year, most days show no sunspots at all. In contrast, from 2011 - 2015, during Solar Maximum, the Sun displayed spots just about every day.

Maxima and minima occur on an 11-year cycle, with the last Solar Minimum being the most quiet in a century. Will this current Solar Minimum go even deeper? Even though the Sun's activity affects the Earth and its surroundings, no one knows for sure what the Sun will do next, and the physics behind the processes remain an active topic of research. The featured image was taken three weeks ago and shows that our Sun is busy even on a quiet day. Prominences of hot plasma, some larger than the Earth, dance continually and are most easily visible over the edge.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

#NASA #space #universe #science #sun

Parker Solar Probe Marks First Mission Milestones on Voyage to Sun

Parker Solar Probe Marks First Mission Milestones on Voyage to Sun
Just two days after launch on Aug. 12, 2018, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe achieved several planned milestones toward full commissioning and operations, announced mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Maryland.

On Aug. 13, the high-gain antenna, which Parker Solar Probe uses to communicate high-rate science data to Earth, was released from locks which held it stable during launch. Controllers have also been monitoring the spacecraft as it autonomously uses its thrusters to remove (or “dump”) momentum, which is part of the flight operations of the spacecraft. Managing momentum helps the spacecraft remain in a stable and optimal flight profile.

There are four instrument suites on board Parker Solar Probe, which will each need to be powered and readied for science data collection. The FIELDS investigation, which consists of the most elements, went first. It was powered up on Aug. 13 for two activities. First was the opening of the clamps which held four of the five FIELDS antennas stowed during takeoff. These antennas will be deployed roughly 30 days after launch, and they will stick out from the corners of the spacecraft’s heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System – and be exposed to the harsh solar environment. Second, the spacecraft’s magnetometer boom was fully deployed. This boom contains three magnetometers and a fifth, smaller electric field antenna, all part of the FIELDS suite. Further instrument check-outs and deployments are scheduled in the coming days for the spacecraft.

As of 12:00 p.m. EDT on Aug. 16, Parker Solar Probe was 2.9 million miles from Earth, traveling at 39,000 mph, and heading toward its first Venus flyby scheduled for Oct. 3, 2018, at 4:44 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft will use Venus to slightly slow itself and adjust its trajectory for an optimal path toward first perihelion of the Sun on Nov. 5, 2018, at 10:27 p.m. EST (Nov. 6, 2018, at 03:27 UTC).

Source:
http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=95

#NASA #space #science #parkersolarprobe #universe

“Volumes” is an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov using physics-based particle animation.

“Volumes” is an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov using physics-based particle animation. Waves and unseen forces send billions of color-changing particles aloft in the film. The motions – especially the way the particles seem to tear themselves – are reminiscent of a complex fluid, like yogurt. These substances have both liquid-like (viscous) and solid-like (elastic) properties depending on the forces they experience. Zhestkov’s particles are similar; they move like a fluid but tear more like a solid.

Watch the video:
https://vimeo.com/257761811

#fluiddynamics #science #physics #granularmotion #complexfluids #nonNewtonianfluids #viscoelasticity

YOU MATTER, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared, then YOU ENERGY.

YOU MATTER, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared, then YOU ENERGY.
~Neil deGrasse Tyson

#wordsofwisdom

Can't get an image out of your head? Your eyes are helping to keep it there

Can't get an image out of your head? Your eyes are helping to keep it there
Even though you are not aware of it, your eyes play a role in searing an image into your brain, long after you have stopped looking at it.

Through brain imaging, Baycrest scientists have found evidence that the brain uses eye movements to help people recall vivid moments from the past, paving the way for the development of visual tests that could alert doctors earlier about those at risk for neurodegenerative illnesses.

The study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, found that when people create a detailed mental image in their head, not only do their eyes move in the same way as when they first saw the picture, their brains showed a similar pattern of activity.

“There’s a theory that when you remember something, it’s like the brain is putting together a puzzle and reconstructing the experience of that moment from separate parts,” says Dr. Bradley Buchsbaum, senior author on the study, scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute (RRI) and psychology professor at the University of Toronto. “The pattern of eye movements is like the blueprint that the brain uses to piece different parts of the memory together so that we experience it as a whole.”

This is the first time a direct connection has been established between a person’s eye movements and patterns of brain activity, which follows up on previous studies linking what we see to how we remember.

In the study, researchers used a mathematical algorithm to analyze the brain scans and eye movements of 16 young adults between the ages of 20 to 28. Individuals were shown a set of 14 distinct images for a few seconds each. They were asked to remember as many details of the picture as possible so they could visualize it later on. Participants were then cued to mentally visualize the images within an empty rectangular box shown on the screen. Brain imaging and eye-tracking technology simultaneously captured the brain activity and eye movements of the participants as they memorized and remembered the pictures.

The study, led by RRI graduate student Michael Bone, discovered the same pattern of eye movements and brain activation, but compressed, when the picture was memorized and then remembered.

“This is likely because when we recall a memory, it’s a condensed version of the original experience. For example, if a marriage proposal took two minutes, when we picture this memory in our head, we re-experience it in a much shorter timeframe,” says Dr. Buchsbaum. “The eye movements are like a short-hand code that your brain runs through to trigger the memory.”

By looking at the patterns of eye movement and brain activity, researchers were able to identify which image a person was remembering during the task.

As next steps, the study will explore distinguishing whether the eye movements lead the brain to reactivate the memory or vice versa. Having a greater understanding of this causal relationship could inform the creation of a diagnostic tool using the eyes to catch when a person’s memory is headed down an unhealthy path, adds Dr. Buchsbaum.

Source:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/bcfg-cga021318.php

Journal article:
https://academic.oup.com/cercor/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cercor/bhy014/4836786

#eyemovements #neuroimaging #brainactivity #memory #mentalimagery #neuroscience #research

"Philosophy is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as...

"Philosophy is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions."
~Arthur Schopenhauer - Parerga and Paralipomena

Insomnia, sometimes, makes me think at some books I've read, also brings back some Mozart sound-waves....especially the piano concert no.26 in D&A major ;)

Schopenhauer is a bold diver of deep and dark water of human condition that showed the failures of the existence manquée, whose basis is egocentrism, strong attachment for material stuff, and a shallow vision of the mysteries of life. In short, this book is a superlative tractate on moral philosophy, an essential companion for learned people.

If you're a book worm and enjoy philosophy you should not miss Parega & Paralipomena.

#personalnonsense #ArthurSchopenhauer #philiminds

Seeing Titan

Seeing Titan
Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn's largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan's surface features from prying eyes. But Titan's surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced.

Arrayed around this centered visible light image of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: VIMS Team, U. Arizona, ESA, NASA

#space #universe #Titan #ESA #NASA #science

The Nefarious Plot to Steal Lincoln’s Corpse

The Nefarious Plot to Steal Lincoln’s Corpse
In 1876 a two bit Irish gangster in Chicago named “Big Jim” Kennally was certainly in a bind. His gang’s most profitable venture was in counterfeiting, but recently their master engraver, Benjamin Boyd, had been caught and sentenced to ten years in prison. Without Boyd, his gang would be out of the counterfeiting business. To get his man back Kennally came up with a ransoming scheme that was the one of the weirdest kidnapping schemes in the history of kidnapping.

At Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois can be found the final resting place of the Lincoln family. There the corpse of Abraham Lincoln rested within the vaults of the large Lincoln family mausoleum. The cemetery had no security, no local police patrols, and the groundskeeper did not live on the premises. In fact Oak Ridge Cemetery was located two miles outside of Springfield in a very secluded area. Kennally’s scheme was to break into the Lincoln vault and steal Lincoln’s corpse. After burying the body in a secret location Kennally intended to use Lincoln as a bargaining chip for the release of Boyd, as well as a $200,000 cash ransom.

Kennally recruited two of his gang members, Terrence Mullen and Jack Hughes, as well as two outsiders, Lewis Swegels, who was a professional grave robber, and Billy Brown, who was the getaway driver. On the night of November 7th, 1876 the gang broke into the Lincoln mausoleum to steal Lincoln's corpse. The only thing locking the door to the mausoleum was a padlock, however none had any experience picking locks, so they cut open the lock with a file. Once in the tomb they pried open Lincoln’s marble sarcophagus. The thieves attached ropes to Lincoln’s coffin, but found that they could not lift the 500 pound coffin. Not only was the coffin made of cedar, but was lined with lead, a very heavy metal which was thought to preserve the corpse. As the befuddled thieves considered their options, Secret Service agents approached the tomb.

Little did the thieves realize, the outside man and graverobber, Lewis Swegels, was really a paid informant of the Secret Service. Beforehand he had notified the local Secret Service office of the planned body snatching. As the agents approached, one of the officers pistols accidentally discharged, causing the group of agents to take cover in preparation for a gun battle. This gave Jim Kennally and his gang enough time to make a getaway. The Secret Service, however, was led to their location in Chicago by Swegels, where they were all apprehended. All faced light charges, as there was few laws dealing with graverobbery at the time.

After the attempt to steal Lincoln’s corpse an organization called The Lincoln Guard of Honor was formed to protect the body. The coffin was kept in a secret location, first hidden under a pile of lumber, then buried under the mausoleum itself. Finally in 1900 the Lincoln tomb underwent a restoration and renovation project. In 1901 Lincoln and his family were re-interred in the tomb. To ensure that no one could steal his corpse again, Lincoln’s coffin was placed ten feet in the ground, surrounded by a steal cage, then encased a several tons of concrete. Today Lincoln’s corpse still rests peacefully at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.

Story via USNews:
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2007/06/24/a-plot-to-steal-lincolns-body

#history #civilwar #AbrahamLincoln

Perseid Fireball and Persistent Train

Perseid Fireball and Persistent Train
Before local midnight on August 12, this brilliant Perseid meteor flashed above the Poloniny Dark Sky Park, Slovakia, planet Earth. Streaking beside the summer Milky Way, its initial color is likely due to the shower meteor's characteristically high speed. Moving at about 60 kilometers per second, Perseid meteors can excite green emission from oxygen atoms while passing through the thin atmosphere at high altitudes.

Also characteristic of bright meteors, this Perseid left a lingering visible trail known as a persistent train, wafting in the upper atmosphere. Its development is followed in the inset frames, exposures separated by one minute and shown at the scale of the original image. Compared to the brief flash of the meteor, the wraith-like trail really is persistent. After an hour faint remnants of this one could still be traced, expanding to over 80 degrees on the sky.

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

#space #NASA #perseid #science #universe

Love and fear are visible across the brain instead of being restricted to any brain region

Love and fear are visible across the brain instead of being restricted to any brain region
In the field of affective neuroscience, rivaling theories debate whether emotional states can be regarded as an activity of only certain brain regions. According to a new doctoral dissertation at Aalto University, an emotional state affects the operation of the entire brain instead of individual emotions being localized only in specific regions in the brain.

‘From the biological point of view, an emotion is a state of the entire brain at a given moment. For example, the brain may interpret certain action models, memories and bodily changes altogether as anger,’ explains Doctoral Candidate Heini Saarimäki.

Different emotional states of the participants were evoked with films, mental imagery or guided imagery based on narratives. After that, a classifier algorithm based on machine learning was trained to connect the specific emotions and the brain data related to them. The classifier algorithm was then tested by giving it new brain data and by measuring how successfully the algorithm recognized the correct emotion solely on the basis of the brain data. The method for measuring brain activity is based on measuring the changes in the blood oxygen content in the brain and it provides information on the activation of the brain with millimeter-accuracy.

The researchers were particularly interested in emotion-specific brain maps, that is, maps on the localization of emotions in various areas across the entire brain. By analyzing the activity of the entire brain, a machine learning algorithm may be able to determine the emotional state in question.

Saarimäki and her colleagues discovered that the brain maps of basic emotions such as anger, happiness, sadness, fear, surprise and disgust were to some extent similar across people. Basic emotions seem to be at least partially biologically determined, whereas social emotions – gratitude, contempt, pride and shame – are to a greater extent built on experience. In social emotions, the differences in brain activity between people are greater than in basic emotions.

Source:
http://www.aalto.fi/en/current/news/2018-02-14/

Journal article:
https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/29707

Image: An emotional state mainly activates wide, overlapping neural networks. When comparing groups of emotions, positive emotions activate the anterior prefrontal cortex, negative basic emotions tend to activate the somatomotor and subcortical regions, and negative social emotions activate brain areas that process motor and social information.
Image credit: Heini Saarimäki.

#functionalconnectivity #emotion #neuroimaging #brainactivity #neuroscience

Five good friends

Five good friends
cca 1920.

What is the story behind this photo? Are they military doctors?
Who knows...anyways, I find the photo unusual and intriguing.

Photo via reddit.

#history #intriguingcreeps

A Tale of Two Structures

A Tale of Two Structures
Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have identified that the major cancer-related protein, Akt, can take on two separate shapes that can respond to different cancer fighting drugs each in unique ways. Akt belongs to one of the most commonly activated pathways in cancer, however trials conducted to test Akt inhibitors have had mixed results and has not led to an FDA approved drug.

“If Akt is activated by one mechanism, you might need drug A, whereas if it’s activated by the other mechanism, you might need drug B” says Philip Cole, MD, PhD, professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS and professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Part of the reason nothing has had dramatic effect could be these different mechanisms of Akt activation.”

These differences could lead to the development of new cancer drugs and treatment strategies.

Read more:
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/tale-two-structures

Journal article:
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30897-3

#research #science #medicine #cancerresearch

Running helps the brain counteract negative effect of stress

Running helps the brain counteract negative effect of stress
Most people agree that getting a little exercise helps when dealing with stress. A BYU study discovers exercise under stress also helps protect your memory.

The study, published in the journal of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, finds that running mitigates the negative impacts chronic stress has on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.

“Exercise is a simple and cost-effective way to eliminate the negative impacts on memory of chronic stress,” said study senior author Jeff Edwards, associate professor of physiology and developmental biology at BYU.

Inside the hippocampus, memory formation and recall occur optimally when the synapses or connections between neurons are strengthened over time. That process of synaptic strengthening is called long-term potentiation (LTP). Chronic or prolonged stress weakens the synapses, which decreases LTP and ultimately impacts memory. Edwards’ study found that when exercise co-occurs with stress, LTP levels are not decreased, but remain normal.

To learn this, Edwards carried out experiments with mice. One group of mice used running wheels over a 4-week period (averaging 5 km ran per day) while another set of mice was left sedentary. Half of each group was then exposed to stress-inducing situations, such as walking on an elevated platform or swimming in cold water. One hour after stress induction researchers carried out electrophysiology experiments on the animals’ brains to measure the LTP.

Stressed mice who had exercised had significantly greater LTP than the stressed mice who did not run. Edwards and his colleagues also found that stressed mice who exercised performed just as well as non-stressed mice who exercised on a maze-running experiment testing their memory. Additionally, Edwards found exercising mice made significantly fewer memory errors in the maze than the sedentary mice.

The findings reveal exercise is a viable method to protect learning and memory mechanisms from the negative cognitive impacts of chronic stress on the brain.

Source:
https://news.byu.edu/news/running-helps-brain-counteract-negative-effect-stress-study-finds

Journal article (under paywall):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074742718300042

#hippocampus #running #chronicstress #LTP #learning #memory #neuroscience

Magnetic Field Portrayed

Magnetic Field Portrayed
Every day scientists use their computer models to generate a view of the sun's magnetic field (Aug. 10, 2018). The bright active region right at the central area of the sun clearly shows a concentration of field lines, as well as the small active region at the sun's right edge, but to a lesser extent. Magnetism drives the dynamic activity near the sun's surface.

Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/potw/item/922

#universe #space #science #aia #193 #magneticfield #fieldlines #SDO

Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder share molecular traits

Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder share molecular traits
Most medical disorders have well-defined physical characteristics seen in tissues, organs and bodily fluids. Psychiatric disorders, in contrast, are not defined by such pathology, but rather by behavior.

A UCLA-led study, published in Science, has found that autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share some physical characteristics — and important differences — at the molecular level, specifically, patterns of gene expression in the brain. Gene expression is the process by which instructions in DNA are converted into a product, such as a protein.

“These findings provide a molecular, pathological signature of these disorders, which is a large step forward,” said senior author Daniel Geschwind, a distinguished professor of neurology, psychiatry and human genetics and director of the UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment. “The major challenge now is to understand how these changes arose.”

Researchers know that certain variations in genetic material put people at risk for psychiatric disorders, but DNA alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Every cell in the body contains the same DNA; RNA molecules, on the other hand, play a role in gene expression in different parts of the body, by “reading” the instructions contained within DNA.

Geschwind and the study’s lead author, Michael Gandal, reasoned that taking a close look at the RNA in human brain tissue would provide a molecular profile of these psychiatric disorders. Gandal is an assistant professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA.

Researchers analyzed the RNA in 700 tissue samples from the brains of deceased subjects who had autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder or alcohol abuse disorder, comparing them to samples from brains without psychiatric disorders.

The molecular pathology showed significant overlap between distinct disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, but also specificity, with major depression showing molecular changes not seen in the other disorders.

“We show that these molecular changes in the brain are connected to underlying genetic causes, but we don’t yet understand the mechanisms by which these genetic factors would lead to these changes,” Geschwind said. “So, although now we have some understanding of causes, and this new work shows the consequences, we now have to understand the mechanisms by which this comes about, so as to develop the ability to change these outcomes.”

Source:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/autism-schizophrenia-bipolar-disorder-share-molecular-traits-study-finds

Journal article:
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6376/693

#autism #schizophrenia #bipolardisorder #geneexpression #neuroscience

The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue

The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue
This shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Near the top and moving up in this sharply detailed color composite, thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula.

The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the featured narrow-band, wide field image, red and blue colors track the characteristic glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: José Joaquín Perez

#universe #space #science #NASA #nebula