Tag Archives: protodesi

Researchers Gear Up Galaxy-seeking Robots for a Test Run

Berkeley Lab-assembled ‘ProtoDESI’ to serve as model for planned array of 5,000 robots wielding fiber-optic cables.

A prototype system, designed as a test for a planned array of 5,000 galaxy-seeking robots, is taking shape at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). (more…)

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Mulling the marijuana munchies: How the brain flips the hunger switch

The “munchies,” or that uncontrollable urge to eat after using marijuana, appear to be driven by neurons in the brain that are normally involved in suppressing appetite, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Nature.

Lead author Tamas Horvath and his colleagues set out to monitor the brain circuitry that promotes eating by selectively manipulating the cellular pathway that mediates marijuana’s action on the brain, using transgenic mice. (more…)

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Leptin also influences brain cells that control appetite, Yale researchers find

Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite.

Published in the June 1 issue of Nature Neuroscience, the findings could lead to development of treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. (more…)

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