Snapshots this week (July 21 - July 27)

An exciting week has passed with a number of remarkable achievements. Many of them could not be included due to space constraints. The achievements are not in any specific order (I should say that I do not prefer any order because no achievement is more or less important than others).

A traveler to the Antarctic continent (I am not joking) cannot miss the Transantarctic Mountains - a 3,000 km long stretch. This white, snowy beauty had a mystery. Scientists could not explain how she was formed or what geological process triggered her existence? The team of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, studied this question and reports that the mountains appear to be the remnant edge of a gigantic high plateau that began stretching and thinning 105 million years ago.

When you smoke, how does the brain know that nicotine (the cause which persuades smoking) has arrived? You may tell me that it is because the neurons transmit the signal to the brain. Ok. Now let me put it like this. When a neuron finds a nicotine molecule, how does it know that it should signal the brain that "Yes man, the bull has arrived!"? A University of Southern California study has identified the key player - sugar. He is the gateman who opens the gate and announces the arrival of nicotine. Their study provides a detailed look at nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), one in a large and important group of molecules, known as ion channel proteins, which allow signals to pass between neurons. Now how did the research team come up to such a conclusion? It was by cutting the sugar chains, which stopped the gates operation.

The blood plays an important role in eliminating the bad cells - the devils from our body. UNSW researchers have uncovered a natural mechanism where the devil cells are kept under strict growth control. This mechanism in short is a molecular dictatorship with a conscience. The dictator is a specific gene suppressor called YY1, which differentiates between the devils and angels. The most effective drug consumed for restenosis (the closing or narrowing of arteries) was found to inhibit the growth of the good cells as well as the bad cells. In curing, the disease, they also do harm to us. Let us hope that the medical community, with understanding gained from this mechanism, would come up with a drug which would inhibit the growth of only the bad cells.

Is your kid spending a lot of time in the sun? Are you worried of this? Don't worry - says researchers Talat Islam and Thomas Mack with the University of Southern California. They are at a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). They found that a child more exposed to sunlight has less chance of getting MS. Exposure to ultraviolet rays induce protection against MS. But how this works is not known. The future research on this topic may provide us insights on the mechanism. If your kids do not play in the sun, persuade them to play.

Lowering cholestrol helps in preventing a heart disease. But it may also increase the risk of cancer. Statins are the most popular means of reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is the prime cause for a heart disease. But consuming statins, according to a study by researchers at the Tufts University School of Medicine, increases the risk of cancer. However the exact relationship between statins and cancer are not yet confirmed. They say that a moderate-dose therapy including statins may prove to be preferable to high-dose therapy with statins.

Are you obsessed with soft drinks? Do you drink more than one soft drink daily? Beware, says Ramachandran Vasan and Ravi Dhingra, Framingham researchers in their study - you are at an increased risk for heart disease. Drinking more than one soft drink daily increased the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including excess waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL “good” cholesterol) and high fasting glucose levels. The presence of three or more of the factors increases a person’s risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It was found that there is a 44% increase in the risk for metabolic syndrome if you drink more than one soft drink daily.

A "gene from nowhere " has appeared in a fruit fly, the Drosophila Melanogaster. It was thought that genes are derived from genes already present in the genome. But the researchers at Cornell have identified a gene called hydra in Drosophila whose origin is not from a gene already present in the genome. The research team of Hsiao-Pei Yang, at the Cornell's Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, do not know exactly how hydra was created, but they speculate that it may have developed from a piece of DNA junk called a transposable element (or "jumping gene"), which may have been inserted into the genome by a virus.

I have a bad news and good news for copper. The good news first. Iron is the workhorse of trace minerals. An essential component of red blood cells, disruption of iron levels in the body will result in a myriad of serious conditions, and life cannot be sustained without it. Researchers at the University of Buffalo have identified another key player - a helper to the workhorse. It is none other than copper. Both work hand in hand to maintain homeostasis. They have found out that when iron-absorption by cells lining the small intestine decreases during iron-deficient states, copper absorption increases. The team is now doing more investigations on the role of copper in homeostasis.

Now the bad news for copper. My dear friend, Copper, your days as the best inter-connector in computer chips, are numbered. The most unlikely friend - the pencil, is standing at your doorstep with a death warrant. Graphene, a one-atom thick sheet of carbon when piled together in countless layers gives the graphite used in pencils. This Graphene's electrical properties have been studied by Saroj Nayak and his team in Rensselaer’s Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy. They say that the length of graphene may be used to manipulate and tune the material’s energy gap. This is important because energy gaps determine if the graphene is metallic or semi conducting. This research is an important first step for developing a way to mass produce metallic graphene that could one day replace copper as the primary interconnecting material on nearly all computer chips.

In an advance that could help curb global demand for oil, MIT researchers have demonstrated how ordinary spark-ignition automobile engines can, under certain driving conditions, move into a spark-free operating mode that is more fuel-efficient and just as clean. They are studying a new way of operating an internal combustion engine known as "homogeneous charge compression ignition" (HCCI). Switching a spark-ignition (SI) engine to HCCI mode pushes up its fuel efficiency. In an HCCI engine, fuel and air are mixed together and injected into the cylinder. The piston compresses the mixture until spontaneous combustion occurs. The engine thus combines fuel-and-air premixing (as in an SI engine) with spontaneous ignition (as in a diesel engine). The result is the HCCI's distinctive feature: combustion occurs simultaneously at many locations throughout the combustion chamber. The researchers developed an inexpensive technique that should enable a single engine to run in SI mode but switch to HCCI mode whenever possible.

Have you seen an insect on top of the ceiling, clinging to it but not falling? They have an ability to stick when they want to and release the adhesion when they do not want. Even though Mark Geoghegan and colleagues at the University of Sheffield do not know how the insects do it, they definitely know a way to do it themselves. They have developed an adhesive which is switchable. They achieved this by two layers of material. One layer made of a polyacid gel and the other a silicon chip. The adhesive, they say can be switched on and off - an intelligent, controllable adhesive.

Ozone may be good when it is very high - in the peaks of the troposphere, but not when they are near the surface of the earth. They have been found to reduce the plant production and crop yields. This would lead to a lower absorption of carbon dioxide and hence accelerate global warming. Stephen Sitch at the Met Office Hadley Centre says in an article in Nature that the amount of near-surface ozone has doubled since 1850 due to chemical emissions from vehicles, industrial processes and the burning of forests.

Horror movies had been a trend recently. Why do people love horror movies? Human behaviour is to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Then why is it that they love watching horror movies? There are two theories which explain this behaviour. One says that the person is not actually afraid, but excited by the movie. The second is that they enjoy the euphoric sense of relief at the end of the movie. After studying this question, Eduardo Andrade and Joel B. Cohen argue that both the theories are not correct and the correct explanation is that the horror movie viewers are happy to be unhappy.

A new chlorophyll producing bacterium called Candidatus Chloracidobacterium thermophilum, belonging to the phyla acidobacteria has been discovered by scientists at the Yellowstone National Park. The unexpectation in this new bacterium is that it has special light-harvesting antennae known as chlorosomes. No member of this phylum nor any aerobic microbe was known to make chlorosomes before this discovery.

Live Broadcasting in the gene level - that is what Weizmann Institute's researchers has come up with. They have devised a method of employing reporter genes to broadcast the happenings in a genetic setup. If you are interested in the activity of a certain gene, then the reporter gene will follow this culprit and when the culprit gene is activated, the reported gene produces certain easily detectable proteins such as the green fluorescent protein (GFP). By detecting this you can lean about what the culprit gene is upto. An amazing discovery indeed.

Snapshots this week (Jul 15 - Jul 19) -A commentary on Contemporary Science

The scorpion is a good doctor. It's venom has the peptide Chlorotoxin, which has been used by researchers at the Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center headed by James M. Olson, to develope a paint which would detect cancerous cells especially that of brain tumour. Till date the MRI scan is the most successful for brain tumours. But the cancer cells should be more than 1 million for this technique to be successful. The new tumour paint, made of Chlorotoxin:Cy5.5, a molecular beacon emitting photons in the near infrared spectrum, can identify cancer cells with a meagre number of 2000, thus making this technique 500 times better than MRI.


Scientists working in the field of Aerodynamics would have sleepless nights now. Aerodynamic scaling rules are now under dispute. Thomas Alerstam, Mikael Rosen, and colleagues from the University of Lund in Sweden analysed the flight speeds of 138 birds and has overturned the general assumption that the maximum flight speed of a species is solely determined by these rules. They say that the flight speeds not only depends on the mass and wing loading of the bird, but also reflects functional constraints and the evolutionary lineage of the species in question. It is time now to revisit the scaling rules of aerodynamics.


Our ancestors and the apes parted their ways when our ancestors started walking on two legs. This is the accepted view in anthropology - the human bipedalism. The natural question - Why did they walk in two legs when they could as well walk in four legs? David Raichlen and his colleagues have the answer for this age old question now. They used a tradmill for the study. They collected metabolic, kinematic and kenetic data from five chimpanzees and four adult humans walking on a treadmill. The chimpanzees were trained to walk quadrupedally and bipedally on the treadmill (They might have had a tough time teaching the chimps to use the treadmill). Biomechanical modeling of the study revealed that more energy is used with shorter steps or more active muscle mass. Humans walking on two legs used one-quarter of the energy that the chimps used for knuckle-walking on four legs. The hypothesis that bipedalism evolved because it used less energy than walking in four legs seems to be correct.


The chemistry of Alzhiemer's disease has been decoded by researchers. The researchers isolated bisdemethoxycurcumin, which is the active ingredient found in turmeric root that boosts the immune system in clearing amyloid beta, a peptide that forms the plaques found in Alzeimer's disease. They also have identified the key genes involved in this process. It has been a boon to the turmeric, a common medicine in Ayurveda. Hopefully this boosts the morale of the ancient science of India.


The dreaded disease of the last century, which is caused by the deadly HIV was probably transmitted to the humans from the African green monkeys. But when did these African Green Monkeys (AGM) get affected with the virus? This is the topic of study of Joel Wertheim and team of the University of Arizona. They have moved one step ahead by coming up with a new family tree of the HIV. It was earlier thought that the ancestor of HIV, the SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) affected the monkeys before the lineage split. But the studies of the team from Arizona has evidence that the monkeys were affected with SIV after the lineage split, about 3 million years ago. The team's next steps are figuring out exactly when SIV infected African green monkeys and studying SIVs in other species of monkeys. The study of evolution of the SIV will shed light into the future of HIV.


A pump which is so tiny that it could pump fluids at the cellular level. This is precisely what the chemists at the University of Illinois has come up with. They have comeup with a blueprint of such a pump. This pump could be hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The hydrophobic pumps - those which hates water are found to pump better. In the coming ages, the researchers say, that the pump could even be attached to a biomolecule and propells only when this molecule meets another biologically compatible molecule. Small is indeed marvellous.


Are you a victim of smoking? Have you wondered why at times you get depressed if you dont smoke? Depression and smoking go hand in hand. Quiang John Fu of the Saunt Louis University School of Public Health has studied the relationship between smoking and depression. His study concludes that it is all in the genes. People with a history of depression become smokers as a way of self-medication. Some people who are smokers might become depressed when they try to give up cigarettes and cant. This behavior is because of the genes. The probability of your child to be a smoker increases if you smoke.


Alcohol and agression - are they related? What is it about the brain on alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea? Psychologists at the University of Kentucky explored these questions in their laboratory. They tested this idea on a group of young Kentucky men. Some of the men drank three to four screwdrivers before the experiment, while others stayed sober. Then they had them all compete against another person in a somewhat stressful game that required very quick responses. Every time they lost a round, they received a shock varying in intensity. Likewise, when they won a round they gave their opponent a shock. The idea was to see how alcohol affected the men’s belligerence, as measured by the kinds of shocks they chose to hand out. It appears that alcohol has the potential to both increase and decrease aggression, depending on where’s one’s attention is focused. The drunks who had nothing to distract them were predictably mean, exhibiting aggression towards their adversaries. However, the drunks whose attention was focused elsewhere were actually less aggressive than the sober non-drinkers.


Have you seen the bulky outfit of the astronauts? They are meant for protecting the astronaut in microgravity environments. They use gas pressurisation by exerting a force on the astronauts body to protect it from the vaccum of space. Dava Newman of MIT is working on a sleek suite for astronauts with a different approach of providing mechanical counter pressure by wrapping tight layers of material around the body, skintight but allowing freedom of movement. When this outfit comes into effect, then space outfits would be more fashionable. We may have even a ramp floor out there in space for catwalking.


Can you know in advance when you get a stroke? Thulasi Bai and Srivatsa of the Sathyabama university in Tamil Nadu have come up with a device - a bluetooth heart monitor that would monitor your heart and send ECG as a text message to a local hospital which in turn can warn you about the state of your heart. They may help preventing a heart attack and saving your life. This device which is wearable is a modification of the mobile phone. A very useful modification indeed.


Monkeys don’t go for easy pickings. Animals’ natural foraging decisions give an insight into their cognitive abilities, and primates do not automatically choose the easy option. Instead, they appear to decide where to feed based on the quality of the resources available and the effect on their social group, rather than simply selecting the nearest food available. Elena Cunningham and Charles Janson, respectively from the New York University College of Dentistry and the State University of New York, studied the food hunting pattern of six white-faced saki monkeys and found that they took more risks by travelling further - by expanding more energy and exposing themselves to predators for longer periods - to get the best quality food. Risks are worth taking if the taste is good.


Where did we humans come from? Do all of us have a common ancestor, or do we have multiple origins? This has been a matter of debate for decades. The research team at the University of Cambridge come up with proofs to support the single origin theory. They studied global genetic variations with skull measurements across the world examining over 6000 skulls. Their research knocks down one of the last arguments in favour of multiple origins. The new findings show that a loss in genetic diversity the further a population is from Africa is mirrored by a loss in variation in physical attributes. So Africa - that is the place where we came from - our Eden.