Yale Scientists Discover Alzheimer’s Missing Link

September 9, 2013 by Staff

Biology

In a newly published study, Yale researchers reveal that a protein within the cell membrane called metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 is the missing link in the complicated chain of events that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Yale School of Medicine researchers have discovered a protein that is the missing link in the complicated chain of events that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, they report in the September 4 issue of the journal Neuron. Researchers also found that blocking the protein with an existing drug can restore memory in mice with brain damage that mimics the disease.

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Better fathers have smaller testicles

Study finds evolutionary trade-off between mating prowess and parenting involvement.

• Sarah Zhang

09 September 2013

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Men with larger testes were rated lower in surveys of their parenting involvement, and brain scans showed they had lower activity in an area that is part of the brain's reward system.

SAM EDWARDS/ALAMY

Fathers with smaller testes are more involved in child care, and their brains are also more responsive when looking at photos of their own children, according to research published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹.

Evolutionary biologists have long observed a trade-off in male primates between mating efforts to produce more offspring and the time males spend caring for their progeny. For instance, male chimpanzees, which are especially promiscuous, sport testes that are twice as big as those of humans, make a lot of sperm and generally do not provide paternal care. By contrast, male gorillas have relatively small testes and protect their young. The latest study suggests that humans, whose paternal care varies widely, show evidence of both approaches.

The analysis¹ incorporates measures of testicular volume, brain activity and paternal behaviour, notes Peter Gray, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was not involved in the study. “We’ve got something that pulls those strands together, and it does so in a really interesting way.”

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Research Cites Role of Warming in Extremes

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency

A dry lake bed at Lake Arrowhead State Park near Wichita Falls, Tex. A severe drought in the Midwest was one of several extreme weather events analyzed in a new report on climate change published Thursday.

By KENNETH CHANG

Published: September 5, 2013

Scientists have long predicted that global warming will worsen heat waves and torrential rainfalls. In some parts of the world, that is exactly what happened last year, climate scientists reported Thursday.

Rising temperatures add energy to the atmosphere, and computer models warn that this will produce wider and wilder swings in temperature and rainfall and alter prevailing wind patterns. In examining a dozen extreme weather events last year, scientists found that evidence that human activity — in particular, emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels — was a partial culprit in about half of them.

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Two concerts canceled amid Molly concerns

Police worry about Mass., NY Molly drug overdoses

AP / September 4, 2013

BOSTON (AP) — Police say they’re concerned there may be a bad batch of the drug known as Molly being sold in the Northeast after multiple overdoses in Massachusetts and New York and likely at least three deaths.

Three people overdosed on Molly, a pure form of ecstasy, last week at the House of Blues club. One of them was a college student from New Hampshire who died.

Over the weekend, there were two non-fatal Molly overdoses at a concert in Boston. And in New York City, two people died and four others were hospitalized during a dance music festival. New York officials said the deaths there appeared to be linked to Molly, also known as MDMA.

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http://chartgirl.com/pdf/MOLLY.pdf

In Gut Research’s Latest Advance, Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down

By GINA KOLATA

Published: September 5, 2013

The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut — helping digest foods, making some vitamins, making amino acids — may help determine if a person is fat or thin.

The evidence is from a novel experiment involving mice and humans that is part of a growing fascination with gut bacteria and their role in health and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. In this case, the focus was on obesity. Researchers found pairs of human twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean. 

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Allo, allo    

 (article found by Rhea)      Desalination: A useful application may have been found for graphene: improving access to fresh water in the developing world

Atomic-scale chicken-wire keeps the salt penned in

ALLOTROPES of carbon—varying forms of the element in which the atoms are stuck together in different patterns—have a mixed record of practical use. Diamonds, famously, are a girl’s best friend. Graphite makes good pencil lead. But buckminsterfullerene, in which the atoms are arranged like the geodesic domes beloved of the eponymous American architect, though hailed as a wonder material, proved largely useless.

Graphene, which looks like atomic-scale chicken-wire, may be in the useful camp. At room temperature, it is the best conductor of heat yet found. It is being developed as a photoreceptor, to convert light into electricity. And now two groups of engineers, one at Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace company, the other at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are trying to use it to desalinate water. That could change the world.

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Science

The Promise of Poop

1. Jop de Vrieze*

A controlled clinical trial published in January 2013 has shown that fecal transplants can help cure recurrent infections with Clostridium difficile. Researchers think patients with other diseases, too, may benefit from the procedure, but much more study is needed. Meanwhile, scientists are trying to understand the underlying mechanisms and hoping that, in the future, they will be able to transplant selected bacterial strains instead of human stool.

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