ANN ARBOR — Millions of Americans hear ringing in their ears—a condition called tinnitus—and new research shows an experimental device could help quiet the phantom sounds by targeting unruly nerve activity in the brain. (more…)
Freiburger Forscher finden heraus, warum die Pflanzen Eiszeiten überlebten
Seit mehr als 400 Millionen Jahren wachsen Moose auf der Erde. In dieser Zeit haben sie viele Klimakatastrophen überstanden, die robustere Lebewesen, wie zum Beispiel die Dinosaurier, auslöschten. Kürzlich berichteten britische Forscher von einzelnen Moospflänzchen, die nach mehr als 1.500 Jahren im Eissarg der Antarktis im Labor wiederbelebt wurden. Warum sind diese zarten Pflänzchen so widerstandsfähig gegenüber Klimaveränderungen? Die Freiburger Biologieprofessoren Ralf Reski und Peter Beyer haben nun mit ihren Teams herausgefunden, dass Moose spezielle Gene haben, die bei niedrigen Temperaturen aktiv werden. Ihre Ergebnisse sind soeben online in der Fachzeitschrift „New Phytologist“ erschienen. (more…)
An evolutionarily ancient and tiny part of the brain tracks expectations about nasty events, finds new UCL research funded by the Medical Research Council.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates for the first time that the human habenula, half the size of a pea, tracks predictions about negative events, like painful electric shocks, suggesting a role in learning from bad experiences. (more…)
Rund 400 000 Kilometer hat das Signal zurückgelegt und die Erdatmosphäre durchquert, wenn es von Wissenschaftlern des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) analysiert wird. Das Ergebnis: “Der Einfluss der Atmosphäre ist weniger stark als erwartet, die Qualität des Signals ist sehr gut”, sagt Dr. Dirk Giggenbach vom DLR-Institut für Navigation und Kommunikation. Gesendet wurde das Signal vom Lunar Lasercomm Space Terminal (LLST) an Bord der NASA-Sonde LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), die seit Oktober 2013 um den Mond kreist. Damit wurde erstmals ein optischer Link nach seinem langen Weg durch den Weltraum vermessen. In Zukunft könnten beispielsweise Mond- oder planetare Missionen von dieser Art der Datenübertragung profitieren und Rover hochaufgelöste 3D-Aufnahmen in Echtzeit übermitteln. (more…)
Using molecular simulations that modeled a potassium channel and its immediate cellular environment, atom for atom, UChicago scientists have discovered that just 12 molecules of water cause the long post-activation recovery period required by such ion channels before they can function again. The research has revealed a new mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure that will have broad implications, ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals.
“Our research clarifies the nature of this previously mysterious inactivation state. This gives us better understanding of fundamental biology and should improve the rational design of drugs, which often target the inactivated state of channels,” said Benoît Roux, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, whose team’s findings were published online July 28 in Nature. (more…)
Brain shows diminished response to untrustworthiness, UCLA scientists report
Why are older people especially vulnerable to becoming victims of fraud? A new UCLA study indicates that an important clue may lie in a particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern who is honest and who is trying to deceive us.
Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults. (more…)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new way to visualize single-cell activity in living zebrafish embryos has allowed scientists to clarify how cells line up in the right place at the right time to receive signals about the next phase of their life.
Scientists developed the imaging tool in single living cells by fusing a protein defining the cells’ cyclical behavior to a yellow fluorescent protein that allows for visualization. Zebrafish embryos are already transparent, but with this closer microscopic look at the earliest stages of life, the researchers have answered two long-standing questions about how cells cooperate to form embryonic segments that later become muscle and vertebrae. (more…)
*A new study finds that low concentrations of the chemical methylisothiazolinone has subtle but measurable negative effects on the neural development of tadpoles. The chemical is found in some cosmetics, although the study does not provide any evidence that cosmetics are unsafe for humans.*
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists, health officials, and manufacturers already know that a chemical preservative found in some products, including cosmetics, is harmful to people and animals in high concentrations, but a new Brown University study in tadpoles reports that it can also interrupt neurological development even in very low concentrations.
In the cosmetics industry, the biocide methylisothiazolinone or MIT, is considered safe at concentrations of less than 100 parts per million. Lab studies, however, have found that lower concentrations affected the growth of animal neurons. Picking up from there, the Brown researchers performed a series of experiments to investigate how 10 days of exposure at concentrations as low as 1.5 ppm would affect whole, living tadpoles as they develop. Their results appear in advance online in the journal Neuroscience. (more…)
