Scientists discover a natural molecule to treat type 2 diabetes

Researchers at the Université Laval Faculty of Medicine, the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute Research Center, and the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods have discovered a natural molecule that could be used to treat insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The molecule, a derivative of omega-3 fatty acids, mimics some of the effects of physical exercise on blood glucose regulation. The details of the discovery made by Professor André Marette and his team are published today in Nature Medicine.

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Plastics to dust -- a dream about to come true

Wolfgang Glasser says he was hesitant at first when a start-up company asked him to be their chief scientific officer. But then the professor emeritus of sustainable biomaterials realized that cycleWood Solutions Inc. could make his dream — biodegradable plastics from a plentiful natural resource — a reality.

During his three decades with Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, Glasser worked with many students as they advanced the field of natural polymers. But the most recent breakthroughs came in partnership with two University of Arkansas MBA graduates.

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Nanostructures to facilitate the process to eliminate organic contaminants in water

In her PhD thesis, Silvia Larumbe-Abuin has developed nanostructures that assist in the process to decontaminate water. The nanostructures (particles of a microscopic size of between 1 and 100 nanometres) are coated in titanium oxide to which nitrogen has been added. This allows sunlight, rather than ultraviolet radiation, to trigger the process involving the chemical reaction and destruction of contaminants. What is more, thanks to the magnetic nucleus of the particles, once the process has been carried out, they can be retrieved and reused. Silvia Larumbe’s thesis is entitled: “Síntesis, caracterización y aplicaciones de nanoestructuras basadas en óxidos de metales de transición” [Synthesis, characterisation and applications of nanostructures based on transition metal oxides].

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How the brain builds on prior knowledge

 

It is easier to learn something new if you can link it to something you already know. A specific part of the brain appears to be involved in this process: the medial prefrontal cortex. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience has published these findings, from research by neuroscientists at Radboud university medical center and Radboud University, as an Early Access paper. The findings further enhance our understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie effective learning.

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Artificial magnetic bacteria “turn” food into natural drugs

Scientists from the University of Granada are the first to develop magnetic bacteria that, as part of food intake, help to diagnose digestive diseases like stomach cancer

 Researchers have incorporated magnetic particles into probiotic bacteria like those found in many foodstuffs. These “magnetic probiotics” behave like some natural magnetic bacteria but are difficult to obtain in large quantities and have never been used in humans.

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Ultra-fast, the robotic arm can catch objects on the fly

With its palm open, the robot is completely motionless. A split second later, it suddenly unwinds and catches all sorts of flying objects thrown in its direction -a tennis racket, a ball, a bottle-. This arm measures about 1.5 meters long and keeps an upright position. It has three joints and a sophisticated hand with four fingers. It was programmed at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory at EPFL (LASA) and designed to test robotic solutions for capturing moving objects. It is unique, as it has the ability to catch projectiles of various irregular shapes in less than five hundredths of a second.

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New species of metal-eating plant discovered in the Philippines

Scientists from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños have discovered a new plant species with an unusual lifestyle — it eats nickel for a living — accumulating up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned, says Professor Edwino Fernando, lead author of the report. Such an amount is a hundred to a thousand times higher than in most other plants. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

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Plants' Oil-Desaturating Enzymes Pair Up to Channel Metabolites

Study raises possibility of linking up enzymes to tailor pathways for increased production of useful plant products

Plant scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that certain enzymes responsible for desaturating fatty acids, the building blocks of oils, can link up to efficiently pass intermediate products from one enzyme to another. "Engineering these enzyme interactions to channel metabolites along desired metabolic pathways could be a new approach for tailoring plants to produce useful products," said Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin, lead author on a paper reporting the results in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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Sustainability needs link between theory and practice in education

How can you ensure that people do not only spend time thinking about important global issues like climate change or world food supplies, but also roll up their sleeves and do something about them? Four researchers, including Professor Arjen Wals from Wageningen University, think that the education sector holds the key. Teaching processes around the world could be given more influence and meaning by making pure science subjects, such as biology and physics, complementary to lessons in nature, environment and sustainability. Their article on this new approach to teaching, which is based on citizen science, is published in the 9 May edition of Science.

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Cosmic Simulation: Where no Supercomputer has gone before.

Simulating the Universe from its birth to present day – no, not on a holo-deck or in a computer game, but through a high-fidelity model on Europe’s most powerful supercomputers – is what Prof. Volker Springel and his team at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, have been using an allocation of 20 million core hours on the French Tier-0 system CURIE for.

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Molecular high-speed Origami

Max Planck Researchers elucidate important mechanism of protein folding

Proteins are responsible for nearly every essential process of life. Their form and structure (or their ”fold”) are of crucial importance for their functionality. Scientists at the Max Planck Insti-tute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried near Munich have recently discovered a so far un-known sequence of reactions which is necessary for newly generated proteins to acquire their correct structure. „In the mechanism we found, the folding is accomplished in a number of fast intermediate steps rather than in one single block“, explains Manajit Hayer-Hartl, research group leader at the MPIB. „Because this mode of action is energetically more favorable, the pro-teins are folded not only correctly, but also much faster than previously assumed.

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Back to the future to determine if sea level rise is accelerating

Scientists have developed a new method for revealing how sea levels might rise around the world throughout the 21st century to address the controversial topic of whether the rate of sea level rise is currently increasing.

The international team of researchers, led by the University of Southampton and including scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Western Australia, the University of South Florida, the Australian National University and the University of Seigen in Germany, analysed data from 10 long-term sea level monitoring stations located around the world. They looked into the future to identify the timing at which sea level accelerations might first be recognised in a significant manner.

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Can robots learn right from wrong?

The more robots are able to do, the more likely they are to face decisions that demand a moral perspective. A new grant from the Office of Naval Research supports work at Tufts University, Brown University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute aimed at giving robots “moral competence.” At Brown, Bertram Malle is developing a model of moral competence in humans — no small task, but an essential first step. Malle spoke recently with Kevin Stacey.

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Monitor for sunburn risk goes on sale

A monitor developed at the University of Strathclyde for preventing the risk of overexposure to the sun is now available for sale online.

The Smartsun device, worn as a waterproof wristband, changes colour according to the amount of exposure the wearer has to UV (ultra-violet) radiation. It starts off yellow but turns pink as exposure increases, warning users to get out of the sun.

The monitor’s sensitivity to ultraviolet light means it can alert the wearer to the danger before it is visible on the skin.

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What doesn’t kill you may make you live longer

McGill research finds unexpected link between cell suicide and longevity

What is the secret to aging more slowly and living longer? Not antioxidants, apparently.

Many people believe that free radicals, the sometimes-toxic molecules produced by our bodies as we process oxygen, are the culprit behind aging. Yet a number of studies in recent years have produced evidence that the opposite may be true.

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Scientists Find Solution to Two Long-Standing Mysteries of Cuprate High-Temperature Superconductivity

Findings unequivocally link two "personality" changes of electrons at critical point

Scientists seeking to understand the intricacies of high-temperature superconductivity—the ability of certain materials to carry electrical current with no energy loss—have been particularly puzzled by a mysterious phase that emerges as charge carriers are added that appears to compete with superconductivity. It's also been a mystery why, within this "pseudogap" phase, the movement of superconducting electrons appears to be restricted to certain directions. So exploring the pseudogap and whether and how it affects the movement of electrons has been a pivotal challenge.

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Regenerating plastic grows back after damage

Looking at a smooth sheet of plastic in one University of Illinois laboratory, no one would guess that an impact had recently blasted a hole through it.

Illinois researchers have developed materials that not only heal, but regenerate. Until now, self-repairing materials could only bond tiny microscopic cracks. The new regenerating materials fill in large cracks and holes by regrowing material.

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This FIB Doesn’t Lie: New NIST Microscope Sees What Others Can’t

Microscopes don't exactly lie, but their limitations affect the truths they can tell. For example, scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) simply can't see materials that don't conduct electricity very well, and their high energies can actually damage some types of samples.

In an effort to extract a little more truth from the world of nanomaterials and nanostructures, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built the first low-energy focused ion beam (FIB) microscope that uses a lithium ion source.

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Unlocking Global Warming Gridlock

 

Professor at School of International Relations and Pacific Studies develops strategies for policymakers to help mitigate climate change

David Victor, an internationally recognized leader in research on energy and climate change policy, has a message to policymakers around the globe: time is running out.

“The problem of climate change is getting worse, quickly,” said Victor, a professor at the UC San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. “There are lots of reasons for this—political gridlock central among them. Luckily, new policy strategies here in the U.S. and internationally can help to fix this.”

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Beetles that taste like mustard

Flea beetles outwit their host plant’s mustard oil bomb and use it for their own purposes

Almost all herbivorous insects are specialized to feed on specific host plants and have adapted to their chemical defenses. Flea beetles are important pests of cabbage and other cruciferous plants, such as mustard, horseradish and rapeseed. These plants use a sophisticated defense system, known as the mustard oil bomb, to get rid of their enemies : If plant tissues are wounded, glucosinolates and an enzyme known as myrosinase come into contact, and, as a result, toxic metabolites are formed which deter most insects. This defensive mechanism, however, has no negative effect on flea beetles, according to scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. Flea beetles are even able to sequester glucosinolates without the mustard oil bomb being set off by the plant’s enzyme. Moreover, the insects use their own myrosinase and can utilize the plants’ defensive chemicals for their own purposes. The beetles’ mustard oil bomb is likely to fend off predators.

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STONY BROOK RESEARCHER DEVELOPS NEW TOOL TO MEASURE THE SPEED OF AGING

A physical test for measuring age shows wide differences between the rates of aging among different population groups, according to new research by demographers at Stony Brook University and the IIASA

A strong handshake can say a lot about a person—it can indicate power, confidence, health, or aggression. Now scientists at Stony Brook University and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)  say that the strength of a person’s grasp may also be one of the most useful ways to measure people’s true age. 

 

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A Lab in Your Pocket

When you get sick, your physician may take a sample of your blood, send it to the lab and wait for results. In the near future, however, doctors may be able to run those tests almost instantly on a piece of plastic about the size of credit card.

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Berkeley Lab Develops Nanoscope to Probe Chemistry on the Molecular Scale

For years, scientists have had an itch they couldn’t scratch. Even with the best microscopes and spectrometers, it’s been difficult to study and identify molecules at the so-called mesoscale, a region of matter that ranges from 10 to 1000 nanometers in size. Now, with the help of broadband infrared light from the Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), researchers have developed a broadband imaging technique that looks inside this realm with unprecedented sensitivity and range.

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Astronomers Create First Realistic Virtual Universe

Move over, Matrix - astronomers have done you one better. They have created the first realistic virtual universe using a computer simulation called "Illustris." Illustris can recreate 13 billion years of cosmic evolution in a cube 350 million light-years on a side with unprecedented resolution.

"Until now, no single simulation was able to reproduce the universe on both large and small scales simultaneously," says lead author Mark Vogelsberger (MIT/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who conducted the work in collaboration with researchers at several institutions, including the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies in Germany.

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How businesses can maximize revenue when introducing new products

Companies should use existing brand names and add new, sub-brand names to maximize revenue when introducing new products to market, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

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Spider genomes provide insight into composition and evolution of venom and silk

Spiders are ecologically important predators with complex venom and extraordinarily tough silk that enables capture of large prey. Here we present the assembled genome of the social velvet spider and a draft assembly of the tarantula genome that represent two major taxonomic groups of spiders. The spider genomes are large with short exons and long introns, reminiscent of mammalian genomes. Phylogenetic analyses place spiders and ticks as sister groups supporting polyphyly of the Acari. Complex sets of venom and silk genes/proteins are identified. We find that venom genes evolved by sequential duplication, and that the toxic effect of venom is most likely activated by proteases present in the venom.

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A hydrogel that knows when to go

Rice University bioscaffold material degrades as bone grows to replace it

Rice University bioengineers have created a hydrogel that instantly turns from liquid to semisolid at close to body temperature – and then degrades at precisely the right pace.

The gel shows potential as a bioscaffold to support the regrowth of bone and other three-dimensional tissues in a patient’s body using the patient’s own cells to seed the process.

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Biomass changes and trophic amplification of plankton in a warmer ocean

Phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass are expected to decrease by 6% and 11% respectively by the end of century due to climate change

It is estimated that ocean temperature warming will cause phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass to decrease by 6% and 11% respectively by the end of the century. A lower amount of these two main elements in the marine food web could reduce fish biomass in certain regions. These are some of the main conclusions drawn by research led by Azti-Tecnalia within the European MEECE project and recently published in the prestigious Global Change Biology Journal.

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Psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the brain

When emotions are processed in a negatively biased manner in the brain, an individual is at risk to develop depression. Psilocybin, the bioactive component of the Mexican magic mushroom, seems to intervene positively in the emotion-processing mechanism. Even a small amount of the natural substance attenuates the processing of negative emotions and brightens mood as shown by UZH researchers using imaging methods.

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Math Makes Mobile Maps Meaningful

KIT in the Science Year “The Digital Society:” Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science Help Optimally Represent Information on Navigation Systems

Due to the success of navigation devices and smartphones, digital maps are used widely in everyday life. They guide us safely along motorways or to the next bakery as long as the map is good and clear. However, representation of many information items on small, mobile screens is not trivial. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), computer scientists have now developed a method to ensure mathematically optimal adaptation of the labeling to the perspective and driving direction.

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Epson Moverio BT-200 augmented reality smart glasses now available for order

Epson has announced today the availability of their second-generation Moverio BT-200 smart glasses. The connected eyewear offering from Epson sells for $699.99, making it a cheaper alternative for those not wanting to make the $1500 jump to Google Glass. The BT-200 has various sensors including a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetic compass, as well as a front-facing camera for photos, video and augmented-reality applications.

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Empa mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta space probe

    

Empa mission in space

In March 2004, the Rosetta orbiter was launched into space to analyse and observe the nucleus and environment of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Among the equipment on board were highly complex metal ceramic sensors from Empa – integrated into two mass spectrometers. The devices were specially developed for the mission to measure gas particles in the vicinity of the comet.

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Biodiversity in decline

How environmental stress endangers life in flowing waters

In the past decades, humans have been interfering with the Earth’s ecosystems more strongly than ever before and have thus triggered a new wave of mass extinction. A report published as part of the "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" in 2005 states that species have been going extinct up to one thousand times more quickly in the last 50 years, compared to the normal pace observed in the history of our planet. It's high time to do something for the preservation of biodiversity, says Dr Florian Leese, Group Leader of the "GeneStream" project (fig. 1). This is because biodiversity has more than just ethical value; it also fulfils specific functions for humans. Animals and plants are not just food; organisms in streams, rivers and lakes filter, for example, suspended sediments and pollutants from the water. "We have the technology to take care of many of those functions reasonably well – but not for free," says Florian Leese. "Why, then, should we destroy an ecosystem that provides us with drinking and non-potable water free of charge?"

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Small investors often make poor investments

Inexperienced investors often fail to make wise investments because they are too influenced by psychological and sociological “biases” rather than economic fundamentals. So called “mum and dad investors” mistakenly think they are doing the right thing by selecting a wide range of shares from famous firms and by following media tips.

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Shedding Light On Inefficiency

Berlin at night

Even if lightbulbs consume less electricity, we may not achieve energy savings or reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The reason is simple: when light becomes cheaper, many users will increase illumination, and some previously unlit areas may become lit. In a recently published article in the journal “Energy & Environmental Science”, scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin (IGB) and the Museum am Schölerberg in Osnabrück, Germany have presented three policy recommendations, which they say could greatly reduce energy consumption and light pollution – without leaving cities in the dark.

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IU computer scientists develop tool for uncovering bot-controlled Twitter accounts

NSF, Defense-funded research designed to counter misinformation campaigns

Complex networks researchers at Indiana University have developed a tool that helps anyone determine whether a Twitter account is operated by a human or an automated software application known as a social bot. The new analysis tool stems from research at the IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to counter technology-based misinformation and deception campaigns.

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Small Birds Capitalize on Weather Patterns During Epic Migrations

Concept of migration flyways gets an update for small terrestrial birds

In one of the greatest feats of endurance in the biological world, millions of tiny songbirds — many weighing less than an ounce — migrate thousands of miles to Central and South America each year. Now scientists are finding out how these featherweights do it: using elliptical routes that take advantage of prevailing wind patterns to save calories.

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Graphene for Real-World Devices

New research in phonon scattering sheds more light on graphene as a replacement for silicon

Graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the carbon material graphite, has been hailed as a wonder material — strong, light, nearly transparent, and an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. But a number of practical challenges must be overcome before it can emerge as a replacement for silicon and other materials in microprocessors and next-generation energy devices.

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Astronomers harness the galaxy’s biggest telescope to make most precise measurement of spinning star

An international team of astronomers has made a measurement of a distant neutron star that is one million times more precise than the previous world’s best.

The researchers were able to use the interstellar medium, the ‘empty’ space between stars and galaxies that is made up of sparsely spread charged particles, as a giant lens to magnify and look closely at the radio wave emission from a small rotating neutron star.

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Tufts University Licenses Silk Biomaterials Technology to Akeso Biomedical

Tufts University today announced that it has licensed a novel silk technology for the treatment of chronic skin wounds to Akeso Biomedical, Inc., an early stage medical device company. The technology was invented by David L. Kaplan, Ph.D., Stern Family Professor of Engineering at Tufts University, and his team of researchers at Tufts’ School of Engineering.

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Evolution in Species May Reverse Predator-Prey Population Cycles

Populations of predators and their prey usually follow predictable cycles. When the number of prey increases, perhaps as their food supply becomes more abundant, predator populations also grow.

When the predator population becomes too large, however, the prey population often plummets, leaving too little food for the predators, whose population also then crashes. This canonical view of predator-prey relationships was first identified by mathematical biologists Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Researchers Develop New Mathematical Framework to Characterize Shape of Graphene

Interdisciplinary team uses discrete differential geometry

Scientists studying graphene’s properties are using a new mathematical framework to make extremely accurate characterizations of the two-dimensional material’s shape.

Graphene, discovered in 2004, is a one-atom-thick sheet of graphite.

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Is Self-Fumigation for the Birds?

SAVE THREATENED SPECIES BY GIVING THEM TREATED COTTON FOR NESTS

When University of Utah biologists set out cotton balls treated with a mild pesticide, wild finches in the Galapagos Islands used the cotton to help build their nests, killing parasitic fly maggots to protect baby birds. The researchers say the self-fumigation method may help endangered birds and even some mammals.

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Terahertz imaging on the cheap

New theory could reduce number of sensors required for high-resolution imaging systems.

Terahertz imaging, which is already familiar from airport security checkpoints, has a number of other promising applications — from explosives detection to collision avoidance in cars. Like sonar or radar, terahertz imaging produces an image by comparing measurements across an array of sensors. Those arrays have to be very dense, since the distance between sensors is proportional to wavelength.

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ORNL paper examines clues for superconductivity in an iron-based material

For the first time, scientists have a clearer understanding of how to control the appearance of a superconducting phase in a material, adding crucial fundamental knowledge and perhaps setting the stage for advances in the field of superconductivity.

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New technique tracks proteins in single HIV particle

An interdisciplinary team of scientists from KU Leuven in Belgium has developed a new technique to examine how proteins interact with each other at the level of a single HIV viral particle. The technique allows scientists to study the life-threatening virus in detail and makes screening potential anti-HIV drugs quicker and more efficient. The technique can also be used to study other diseases.

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Three Trends That Are Changing the Internet

The digital revolution has profoundly impacted nearly every aspect of our lives.  Despite the enormity of these changes, the Internet continues to grow and develop. Three trends are transforming the Net and challenging the digital infrastructure that supports it.

One- The Explosive Growth of Video

The biggest growth area is video streaming. People now watch movies on-demand and view video content on every platform:  television, desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

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New atom-scale knowledge on the function of biological photosensors

The research groups of Janne Ihalainen (University of Jyväskylä) and Sebastian Westenhoff (University of Gothenburg) have clarified how the atom structure of bacterial red light photosensors changes when sensing light. The research reveals structural changes in phytochrome protein when illuminated.

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Stem cells from teeth can make brain-like cells

University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that stem cells taken from teeth can grow to resemble brain cells, suggesting they could one day be used in the brain as a therapy for stroke.

In the University's Centre for Stem Cell Research, laboratory studies have shown that stem cells from teeth can develop and form complex networks of brain-like cells. Although these cells haven't developed into fully fledged neurons, researchers believe it's just a matter of time and the right conditions for it to happen.

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Crocodile tears have a butterfly all a-flutter

 

Humans might not like the shedding of crocodile tears. Butterflies, it seems, aren’t so choosy. Because a scientific journal has recorded lachryphagous behaviour, or tear drinking, between insects and a crocodile.

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