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Brain may play key role in blood sugar metabolism and diabetes development

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2013Healthblood sugar level, blood sugar metabolism, brain, cell, diabetes development, diabetes research lab, glucose effectiveness, glucose regulation, hyperglycemia, hypothesis, insulin dependent mechanisms, journal nature, key role, matthias tscho, michael w schwartz, pancreas, randy seeley, sensitivity to insulin, sugar level, two system model, type 2 diabetes, united states, vicious cycle

A growing body of evidence suggests that the brain plays a key role in glucose regulation and the development of type 2 diabetes, researchers write in the Nov. 7 ssue of the journal Nature. If the hypothesis is correct, it may open the door to entirely new ways to prevent and treat this disease, which is projected to affect one in three adults in the United States by 2050.

In the paper, lead author Dr. Michael W. Schwartz, UW professor of medicine and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence, and his colleagues from the universities of Cincinnati, Michigan, and Munich, note that the brain was originally thought to play an important role in maintaining normal glucose metabolism With the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, the focus of research and diabetes care shifted to almost exclusively to insulin. Today, almost all treatments for diabetes seek to either increase insulin levels or increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin. (more…)

Tropical forest carbon absorption may hinge on an odd couple

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2013Environmentabsorb, atmosphere, carbo loading bacteria, carbon absorption, carbon dioxide, carbon sink, component of biodiversity, david medvigy, dylan craven, Europe, excess nitrogen, human activities, infectious bacteria, jefferson hall, journal nature, lars hedin, legume family, michiel van breugel, models, nitrogen, nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fixing trees, non legume trees, North America, photosynthesis, princeton university, rhizobia, root nodules, sarah batterman, stri, tropical forest, united states

A unique housing arrangement between a specific group of tree species and a carbo-loading bacteria may determine how well tropical forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to a Princeton University-based study. The findings suggest that the role of tropical forests in offsetting the atmospheric buildup of carbon from fossil fuels depends on tree diversity, particularly in forests recovering from exploitation.

Tropical forests thrive on natural nitrogen fertilizer pumped into the soil by trees in the legume family, a diverse group that includes beans and peas, the researchers report in the journal Nature. The researchers studied second-growth forests in Panama that had been used for agriculture five to 300 years ago. The presence of legume trees ensured rapid forest growth in the first 12 years of recovery and thus a substantial carbon “sink,” or carbon-storage capacity. Tracts of land that were pasture only 12 years before had already accumulated as much as 40 percent of the carbon found in fully mature forests. Legumes contributed more than half of the nitrogen needed to make that happen, the researchers reported. (more…)

Astronomers Using the Hubble Space Telescope Report the Earliest Spiral Galaxy Ever Seen

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2012Sciencealice shapley, astronomer, big bang, bx442, charles steidel, david law, dawn erb, early universe, elliptical galaxy, hawaii, Hubble Space Telescope, james larkin, journal nature, keck observatory, mauna kea volcano, Milky Way, naveen reddy, osiris spectrograph, spiral galaxy, universe

Astronomers have witnessed for the first time a spiral galaxy in the early universe, billions of years before many other spiral galaxies formed. In findings reported July 19 in the journal Nature, the astronomers said they discovered it while using the Hubble Space Telescope to take pictures of about 300 very distant galaxies in the early universe and to study their properties. This distant spiral galaxy is being observed as it existed roughly three billion years after the Big Bang, and light from this part of the universe has been traveling to Earth for about 10.7 billion years.

“As you go back in time to the early universe, galaxies look really strange, clumpy and irregular, not symmetric,” said Alice Shapley, a UCLA associate professor of physics and astronomy, and co-author of the study. “The vast majority of old galaxies look like train wrecks. Our first thought was, why is this one so different, and so beautiful?” (more…)

Cassini Captures Images and Sounds of Saturn Storm

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2011Scienceandrew ingersoll, austrian academy of sciences, california institute of technology, cassini, cassini spacecraft, cloud, earth, georg fischer, graz, hemispheres, iowa city, journal nature, jupiter, NASA, northern hemisphere, pasadena, pictures from cassini, saturn storm, saturn storm watch, solar illumination, storm alley, university of iowa, weather on saturn

PASADENA, Calif. — Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.

On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It appears approximately 35 degrees north latitude of Saturn. Pictures from Cassini’s imaging cameras show the storm wrapping around the entire planet covering approximately 2 billion square miles (4 billion square kilometers). (more…)

Study Adds Clue to How Last Ice Age Ended

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 20101 commentEnvironment, Sciencebob anderson, cosmogenic isotope beryllium-10, cosmogenic isotopes, enriqueta barrera, gulf stream reconfigures, ice core records, joerg schaefer, journal nature, lamont-doherty, meltwater, michael kaplan, paleoclimatology, younger dryas

As the last ice age was ending, about 13,000 years ago, a final blast of cold hit Europe, and for a thousand years or more, it felt like the ice age had returned.

But oddly, despite bitter cold winters in the north, Antarctica was heating up.

(more…)

Tag Archives: journal nature

Brain may play key role in blood sugar metabolism and diabetes development

Tropical forest carbon absorption may hinge on an odd couple

Astronomers Using the Hubble Space Telescope Report the Earliest Spiral Galaxy Ever Seen

Cassini Captures Images and Sounds of Saturn Storm

Study Adds Clue to How Last Ice Age Ended