Highlights
The Natural World
1. What is the source of fever?
2. The skeleton plays a new role.
3. A Jurassic Park of microbes
4. Coral reefs are declining more rapidly than previously thought
5. Age, exercise and memory
6. Why do males behave like males and females behave like females?
7. Green Tea – its medicinal uses (Think before you use an anti dandruff shampoo)
The Physical World
1. The largest extrasolar planet discovered
2. A dramatic collision of giant galaxies.
3. Sunspots and rains in East Africa.
4. New Nanoparticle technique to benefit semiconductors
5. A simple experiment throws insight into thin films.
6. A great turbulence in the Atlantic helps in studying climate dynamics
7. Know your polluting level when you drive the vehicle
The Natural World
1. What is the source of fever?
What is the source of fever? The researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have the answer to this question. They have isolated a particular site in the brain, a little bigger than the head of a pin, where the hormone called prostaglandin acts. This hormone called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) acts on a target, called the EP3 receptor on neurons, thereby causing fever. When the body is fighting an infection or illness, the body generates hormones called cytokines, which act on the blood to produce PGE2. PGE2 then enters into the hypothalamus. This causes fever, loss of appetite, fatigue and general feelings of sickness and achiness, the common symptoms of fever. This also explains why most illness have the common symptoms of fever.
2. The skeleton plays a new role.
Bones are typically thought of as calcified, inert structures, but researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have now identified a surprising and critically important novel function of the skeleton. They’ve shown for the first time that the skeleton is an endocrine organ that helps control our sugar metabolism and weight and, as such, is a major determinant of the development of type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that osteocalcin, a protein made only by bone-forming cells (osteoblasts), was not a mere structural protein, but rather a hormone with totally unanticipated and crucial functions. Osteocalcin directs the pancreas’ beta cells, which produce the body’s supply of insulin, to produce more insulin. At the same time, osteocalcin directs fat cells to release a hormone called adiponectin, which improves insulin sensitivity. This discovery showed for the first time that one hormone has a synergistic function in regulating insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity, and that this coordinating signal comes from the skeleton. Additionally, osteocalcin enhances the production of insulin-producing beta cells, which is considered one of the best, but currently unattainable, strategies to treat diabetes.
3. A Jurassic park of microbes
Jurassic Park told us the story of bringing back the ancient animals to life. We were spellbound by the fantasy of this movie. Something similar has been achieved by scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Boston University lead by Kay Bidle. They melted five samples of ice taken from the Transantarctic Mountains ranging in age from 100,000 to 8 million years old to find organisms trapped inside. They recovered the microorganisms and they tried to grow them in the media. They found that the young microorganisms grew faster than the older ones.
4. Coral reefs are declining more rapidly than previously thought
Corals in the central and western Pacific ocean are dying faster than previously thought, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found. The reefs are disappearing at a rate of one percent per year. The Indo-Pacific contains 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs and has the highest coral diversity in the world. This consistent pattern of decline across the entire Indo-Pacific indicates that coral loss is a global phenomenon, likely due in part to large-scale stressors such as climate change. Although reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean globally, they play an integral role in coastal communities. They provide economic benefits through fisheries and tourism and serve invaluable services like buffering from storms. When corals die, these benefits quickly disappear.
5. Age, exercise and memory
A curious experiment was conducted at Yale University. In the experiment a group of mice were divided into three groups. One group was put in cages where they could exercise in rotating wheels. The second group was put in cages where they could play with toys. Yet another group was put in cages where they had both - entertainment with toys and workout in rotating wheels. After living in four long weeks in this environment, the mice were put to a test - a brain test where they were put to navigate a spatial water maze. For all of the experimental mice, spatial memory worsened with age. However, the various treatments differently affected the different age groups. Exercise alone significantly improved the spatial memory of the young. Both exercise alone and complex enrichment, but not cognitive stimulation alone, significantly improved memory among the middle aged. For old mice, all enrichments (alone or combined) significantly improved their performance. The results suggest that enrichment initiated at any age can significantly improve memory function. And exercise plus mental challenge in middle age – when many people start to notice subtle memory changes – may offer the strongest, most widespread benefits for memory function.
6. Why do males behave like males and females behave like females?
Why do males behave like males and females behave like females? Don't discard this question as absurd. The researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute led by Catherine Dulac did some experiments on mice. They genetically disabled the vomeronasal organ or the Jacobson's organ which is a pocket in the nasal cavity of many animals packed with receptor cells, which detects pheromones. After disabling the organ, a curious thing happened. Lo and Behold, the females started behaving as males. This curious behaviour prompted them to study more on it and now they have come up with the findings. The study suggests that male sexual behavior is hard wired into the female mouse brain and suggests, more broadly, that male and female courtship behaviors exist in the brains of both sexes and are switched on or off by the chemical cues mice use to initiate sex.
7. Green Tea – its medicinal uses
Green tea could hold promise as a new treatment for skin disorders such as psoriasis and dandruff, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. The traditional treatment of ultraviolet light and medication, while it can control the lesions and be used long term, may cause squamous cell carcinoma – the second most common form of skin cancer. Some of the most effective anti-dandruff shampoos also have carcinogens in them. Green tea, which is plant-derived, may be an alternative. But scientists must work to overcome some barriers with the treatment. The chemicals in green tea are so active that they are oxidized too quickly when mixed with other ingredients. They also dissolve in water, which cannot penetrate the skin's barrier. If these barriers are overcome, then Green tea could be a very effective medicine.
The Physical World
1. The largest extrasolar planet discovered
An international team of astronomers with the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey announced the discovery of TrES-4, a new extrasolar planet in the constellation of Hercules. TrES-4 is the largest known exoplanet. It is about 70 percent bigger than Jupiter, the Solar System’s largest planet, but less massive, making it a planet of extremely low density. It is almost 20 times the earth. The planet was found by a team of astronomers searching for transiting planets. A transiting planet is a planet that comes in between the earth and the star and blocks some of the light coming from the star.
2. A dramatic collision of giant galaxies.
Four galaxies are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed. The clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the WIYN Telescope, will eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way. This rare sighting provides an unprecedented look at how the most massive galaxies in the universe form. Three of the galaxies are about the size of the Milky Way, while the fourth is three times as big. When the merger is complete, the resulting galaxy would be one of the biggest galaxies in the universe. Some of the stars tossed out in the monstrous merger will live in isolated areas outside the borders of any galaxies. Such abandoned stars could theoretically have planets. If so, the planets' night skies would be quite different from our own, with fewer stars and more visible galaxies.
3. Sunspots and rains in East Africa.
The sunspots - dark areas in the sun are now casting a spell on East Africa. The numbers of sunspots are periodic. They have an 11 year cycle in which there is a peak and there is a low. The peak is called the solar maxima. Increasing number of sunspots indicates a rise in the sun's energy output. A team of British and US researchers have found a correlation between the sunspot activity and heavy rains. When the sunspot activity is high, it is found that the rains were heavy in East Africa. There could be many reasons for this synchronicity. It could be that when the sunspot activity increases, then the land and water heats up more which results in more precipitation. But this fact is not yet confirmed. The next solar maxima would occur in 2011-2012. Let us wait and see whether the team’s findings are correct.
4. New Nanoparticle technique to benefit semiconductors
A new nanoparticle technique developed at the University of Texas could improve devices made from plastic semiconductors like solar cells and light emitting diodes (LED). As electrical charges travel through plastic semiconductors, they can be trapped like marbles rolling on a bumpy surface becomes trapped in a deep hole. These traps, known as the "deep traps", are not well understood. The scientists explored this phenomenon and developed a single particle technique to study small portions of semiconductor material at the nanoscale. They found that deep traps are formed by charge induced chemical reaction, which may be caused by the defects in the semiconductor material which encourage charge trapping. The study reveals how the deep traps are formed and how long they live. These findings can be used to design better semiconductors that can avoid deep traps so as to increase the efficiency of the device.
5. A simple experiment throws insight into thin films.
When you use talcum powder or a sunscreen lotion on your skin, it produces an ultra thin layer of material. Till date, measuring mechanical properties of thin films was a time consuming and costly business. A simple experiment on the mechanical properties of thin films that are only tens of nanometers thick, devised by scientists at the University of Massachusetts would yield important information. This could impact the cosmetics, coating and nanoelectronic industries. The experiments used a low-power optical microscope to observe what happens when they place a tiny drop of water on thin film as it floats in a Petri dish of water. The "capillary tension" of the drop of water produces a starburst of wrinkles in the film. The number and length of the wrinkles are determined by the elasticity and thickness of the film. In some of the materials studied, the wrinkles in the ultra thin polymer films vanished with time, unlike the skin of a dried fruit. This vanishing provides insight into the relaxation process of an ultra thin film by yielding information on the way polymer chains move in the highly confined geometry.
6. A great turbulence in the Atlantic helps in studying climate dynamics
More than a mile beneath the Atlantic’s surface, roughly halfway between New York and Portugal, seawater rushing through the narrow gullies of an underwater mountain range much as winds gust between a city’s tall buildings is generating one of the most turbulent areas ever observed in the deep ocean. The turbulence packs an energy wallop equal to about five million watts -- comparable to output from a small nuclear reactor. This turbulence generates much of the mixing of warm and cold waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Mixing of warm surface water with very cold deep water is one of several factors that influence the Earth's climate. The findings will result in better models for predicting how the ocean will affect the climate in the future and a better understanding of sea-level rise, weather patterns such as El Nino, and the impact of these events on fisheries.
7. Know your polluting level when you drive the vehicle
A team from The University of Manchester has constructed a laser measuring device capable of recording levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane from directly inside an exhaust of a vehicle. If this device is introduced to the roads, the drivers can measure the real-time pollution they cause. This can help the driver to change his driving style so that less pollution is created by the vehicle. A boon indeed to the earth.
The Natural World
1. What is the source of fever?
2. The skeleton plays a new role.
3. A Jurassic Park of microbes
4. Coral reefs are declining more rapidly than previously thought
5. Age, exercise and memory
6. Why do males behave like males and females behave like females?
7. Green Tea – its medicinal uses (Think before you use an anti dandruff shampoo)
The Physical World
1. The largest extrasolar planet discovered
2. A dramatic collision of giant galaxies.
3. Sunspots and rains in East Africa.
4. New Nanoparticle technique to benefit semiconductors
5. A simple experiment throws insight into thin films.
6. A great turbulence in the Atlantic helps in studying climate dynamics
7. Know your polluting level when you drive the vehicle
The Natural World
1. What is the source of fever?
What is the source of fever? The researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have the answer to this question. They have isolated a particular site in the brain, a little bigger than the head of a pin, where the hormone called prostaglandin acts. This hormone called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) acts on a target, called the EP3 receptor on neurons, thereby causing fever. When the body is fighting an infection or illness, the body generates hormones called cytokines, which act on the blood to produce PGE2. PGE2 then enters into the hypothalamus. This causes fever, loss of appetite, fatigue and general feelings of sickness and achiness, the common symptoms of fever. This also explains why most illness have the common symptoms of fever.
2. The skeleton plays a new role.
Bones are typically thought of as calcified, inert structures, but researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have now identified a surprising and critically important novel function of the skeleton. They’ve shown for the first time that the skeleton is an endocrine organ that helps control our sugar metabolism and weight and, as such, is a major determinant of the development of type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that osteocalcin, a protein made only by bone-forming cells (osteoblasts), was not a mere structural protein, but rather a hormone with totally unanticipated and crucial functions. Osteocalcin directs the pancreas’ beta cells, which produce the body’s supply of insulin, to produce more insulin. At the same time, osteocalcin directs fat cells to release a hormone called adiponectin, which improves insulin sensitivity. This discovery showed for the first time that one hormone has a synergistic function in regulating insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity, and that this coordinating signal comes from the skeleton. Additionally, osteocalcin enhances the production of insulin-producing beta cells, which is considered one of the best, but currently unattainable, strategies to treat diabetes.
3. A Jurassic park of microbes
Jurassic Park told us the story of bringing back the ancient animals to life. We were spellbound by the fantasy of this movie. Something similar has been achieved by scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Boston University lead by Kay Bidle. They melted five samples of ice taken from the Transantarctic Mountains ranging in age from 100,000 to 8 million years old to find organisms trapped inside. They recovered the microorganisms and they tried to grow them in the media. They found that the young microorganisms grew faster than the older ones.
4. Coral reefs are declining more rapidly than previously thought
Corals in the central and western Pacific ocean are dying faster than previously thought, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found. The reefs are disappearing at a rate of one percent per year. The Indo-Pacific contains 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs and has the highest coral diversity in the world. This consistent pattern of decline across the entire Indo-Pacific indicates that coral loss is a global phenomenon, likely due in part to large-scale stressors such as climate change. Although reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean globally, they play an integral role in coastal communities. They provide economic benefits through fisheries and tourism and serve invaluable services like buffering from storms. When corals die, these benefits quickly disappear.
5. Age, exercise and memory
A curious experiment was conducted at Yale University. In the experiment a group of mice were divided into three groups. One group was put in cages where they could exercise in rotating wheels. The second group was put in cages where they could play with toys. Yet another group was put in cages where they had both - entertainment with toys and workout in rotating wheels. After living in four long weeks in this environment, the mice were put to a test - a brain test where they were put to navigate a spatial water maze. For all of the experimental mice, spatial memory worsened with age. However, the various treatments differently affected the different age groups. Exercise alone significantly improved the spatial memory of the young. Both exercise alone and complex enrichment, but not cognitive stimulation alone, significantly improved memory among the middle aged. For old mice, all enrichments (alone or combined) significantly improved their performance. The results suggest that enrichment initiated at any age can significantly improve memory function. And exercise plus mental challenge in middle age – when many people start to notice subtle memory changes – may offer the strongest, most widespread benefits for memory function.
6. Why do males behave like males and females behave like females?
Why do males behave like males and females behave like females? Don't discard this question as absurd. The researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute led by Catherine Dulac did some experiments on mice. They genetically disabled the vomeronasal organ or the Jacobson's organ which is a pocket in the nasal cavity of many animals packed with receptor cells, which detects pheromones. After disabling the organ, a curious thing happened. Lo and Behold, the females started behaving as males. This curious behaviour prompted them to study more on it and now they have come up with the findings. The study suggests that male sexual behavior is hard wired into the female mouse brain and suggests, more broadly, that male and female courtship behaviors exist in the brains of both sexes and are switched on or off by the chemical cues mice use to initiate sex.
7. Green Tea – its medicinal uses
Green tea could hold promise as a new treatment for skin disorders such as psoriasis and dandruff, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. The traditional treatment of ultraviolet light and medication, while it can control the lesions and be used long term, may cause squamous cell carcinoma – the second most common form of skin cancer. Some of the most effective anti-dandruff shampoos also have carcinogens in them. Green tea, which is plant-derived, may be an alternative. But scientists must work to overcome some barriers with the treatment. The chemicals in green tea are so active that they are oxidized too quickly when mixed with other ingredients. They also dissolve in water, which cannot penetrate the skin's barrier. If these barriers are overcome, then Green tea could be a very effective medicine.
The Physical World
1. The largest extrasolar planet discovered
An international team of astronomers with the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey announced the discovery of TrES-4, a new extrasolar planet in the constellation of Hercules. TrES-4 is the largest known exoplanet. It is about 70 percent bigger than Jupiter, the Solar System’s largest planet, but less massive, making it a planet of extremely low density. It is almost 20 times the earth. The planet was found by a team of astronomers searching for transiting planets. A transiting planet is a planet that comes in between the earth and the star and blocks some of the light coming from the star.
2. A dramatic collision of giant galaxies.
Four galaxies are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed. The clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the WIYN Telescope, will eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way. This rare sighting provides an unprecedented look at how the most massive galaxies in the universe form. Three of the galaxies are about the size of the Milky Way, while the fourth is three times as big. When the merger is complete, the resulting galaxy would be one of the biggest galaxies in the universe. Some of the stars tossed out in the monstrous merger will live in isolated areas outside the borders of any galaxies. Such abandoned stars could theoretically have planets. If so, the planets' night skies would be quite different from our own, with fewer stars and more visible galaxies.
3. Sunspots and rains in East Africa.
The sunspots - dark areas in the sun are now casting a spell on East Africa. The numbers of sunspots are periodic. They have an 11 year cycle in which there is a peak and there is a low. The peak is called the solar maxima. Increasing number of sunspots indicates a rise in the sun's energy output. A team of British and US researchers have found a correlation between the sunspot activity and heavy rains. When the sunspot activity is high, it is found that the rains were heavy in East Africa. There could be many reasons for this synchronicity. It could be that when the sunspot activity increases, then the land and water heats up more which results in more precipitation. But this fact is not yet confirmed. The next solar maxima would occur in 2011-2012. Let us wait and see whether the team’s findings are correct.
4. New Nanoparticle technique to benefit semiconductors
A new nanoparticle technique developed at the University of Texas could improve devices made from plastic semiconductors like solar cells and light emitting diodes (LED). As electrical charges travel through plastic semiconductors, they can be trapped like marbles rolling on a bumpy surface becomes trapped in a deep hole. These traps, known as the "deep traps", are not well understood. The scientists explored this phenomenon and developed a single particle technique to study small portions of semiconductor material at the nanoscale. They found that deep traps are formed by charge induced chemical reaction, which may be caused by the defects in the semiconductor material which encourage charge trapping. The study reveals how the deep traps are formed and how long they live. These findings can be used to design better semiconductors that can avoid deep traps so as to increase the efficiency of the device.
5. A simple experiment throws insight into thin films.
When you use talcum powder or a sunscreen lotion on your skin, it produces an ultra thin layer of material. Till date, measuring mechanical properties of thin films was a time consuming and costly business. A simple experiment on the mechanical properties of thin films that are only tens of nanometers thick, devised by scientists at the University of Massachusetts would yield important information. This could impact the cosmetics, coating and nanoelectronic industries. The experiments used a low-power optical microscope to observe what happens when they place a tiny drop of water on thin film as it floats in a Petri dish of water. The "capillary tension" of the drop of water produces a starburst of wrinkles in the film. The number and length of the wrinkles are determined by the elasticity and thickness of the film. In some of the materials studied, the wrinkles in the ultra thin polymer films vanished with time, unlike the skin of a dried fruit. This vanishing provides insight into the relaxation process of an ultra thin film by yielding information on the way polymer chains move in the highly confined geometry.
6. A great turbulence in the Atlantic helps in studying climate dynamics
More than a mile beneath the Atlantic’s surface, roughly halfway between New York and Portugal, seawater rushing through the narrow gullies of an underwater mountain range much as winds gust between a city’s tall buildings is generating one of the most turbulent areas ever observed in the deep ocean. The turbulence packs an energy wallop equal to about five million watts -- comparable to output from a small nuclear reactor. This turbulence generates much of the mixing of warm and cold waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Mixing of warm surface water with very cold deep water is one of several factors that influence the Earth's climate. The findings will result in better models for predicting how the ocean will affect the climate in the future and a better understanding of sea-level rise, weather patterns such as El Nino, and the impact of these events on fisheries.
7. Know your polluting level when you drive the vehicle
A team from The University of Manchester has constructed a laser measuring device capable of recording levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane from directly inside an exhaust of a vehicle. If this device is introduced to the roads, the drivers can measure the real-time pollution they cause. This can help the driver to change his driving style so that less pollution is created by the vehicle. A boon indeed to the earth.
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