Science & Technology

A virus-like protein is important for cognition and memory

Neuroscience News & Research
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 12:39 UTC

The protein, called Arc, has properties similar to those that viruses use for infecting host cells, and originated from a chance evolutionary event that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago.

The prospect that virus-like proteins could be the basis for a novel form of cell-to-cell communication in the brain could change our understanding of how memories are made, according to Jason Shepherd, a neuroscientist at University of Utah Health and senior author of the study publishing in the journal Cell on Jan. 11.

Shepherd first suspected that something was different about Arc when his colleagues captured an image of the protein showing that Arc was assembling into large structures. With a shape that resembles a capsule from a lunar lander, these structures looked a lot like the retrovirus, HIV.

"At the time, we didn't know much about the molecular function or evolutionary history of Arc," says Shepherd who has researched the protein for 15 years. "I had almost lost interest in the protein, to be honest. After seeing the capsids, we knew we were onto something interesting."

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Chinese scientists successfully clone genetically identical primates

Andrew Masterson
Cosmos Magazine
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 03:36 UTC

Chinese scientists have announced the successful creation of two cloned monkeys, representing a major advance in cloning practice and potentially opening the way for a revolution in animal-model lab research.

The monkeys, long-tailed macaques called Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, are described in the journal Cell by a team led by Qiang Sun, director of the Nonhuman Primate Research Facility at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience.

The animals were cloned using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This was the method used to create Dolly the sheep, the first successfully lab-cloned mammal, in 1996.

Since then, it has been successfully used to clone other species, including mice and cows, but primates have remained stubbornly resistant.

SCNT involves removing the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with another derived from differentiated body cells. The implant then determines the animal that develops. Because it is theoretically possible to implant the same genetic information infinite number of times, it is therefore possible to produce (again, theoretically) an infinite number of identical animals - providing a perfect standardised cohort for medical research.

New 3D image technique could make 'holograms' commonplace

Matthew Loffhagen
Outer Places
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 19:47 UTC

We'd all love for holograms to be a regular part of daily life. Yes, various attempts have come in the past, but they've all fallen flat, or been forced to carry caveats that make them less interesting.

Finally, though, scientists at Brigham Young University have managed to achieve the kind of genuine, nigh-tangible hologram technology that we've all been waiting for. Through a series of lasers and mirrors, they've found a way to trap a single glowing particle so that it moves constantly along a prescribed path, creating a pattern that forms a visible image that can be seen from any angle, and which genuinely exists in a physical location in three dimensional space.

Daniel Smalley, lead author on the paper in Nature detailing the discovery, describes this as "like a 3D-printed object", but that's only part of the story. In practice, the Optical Trap Display (OTD) is similar to both 3D printing and modern cinema technology: the particle is told to rapidly move along a set path that traces a shape, but the particle moves so fast that it appears to be a solid object to our slow eyes.

New population of world's rarest fish found in Tasmania

Sputnik
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 19:34 UTC

Divers in Tasmania have discovered a new population of one of the rarest species of marine life - the red handfish (Thymichthys Politus). This is a major breakthrough for the species.

According to divers from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), they found a population of red handfish at a site near the southeast of Tasmania, which only measures 50 meters in length and 20 meters wide, and contains between 20 and 40 aquatic vertebrates. It usually grows to seven to nine centimeters long, living in shallow water on the ocean floor.

Scientists find oxidized iron deep within Earth's mantle

Phys.org
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 02:06 UTC

© Jeff W. Harris, University of Glasgow
Diamonds with garnet inclusions can form at depths down to 550 kilometres below the surface.

Scientists digging deep into the Earth's mantle recently made an unexpected discovery. Five hundred and fifty kilometres below the Earth's surface, they found highly oxidized iron, similar to the rust we see on our planet's surface, within garnets found within diamonds.

The result surprised geoscientists around the globe because there is little opportunity for iron to become so highly oxidized deep below the Earth's surface.

Surprising discovery

"On Earth's surface, where oxygen is plentiful, iron will oxidize to rust," explained Thomas Stachel, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, who co-authored the study. "In the Earth's deep mantle, we should find iron in its less oxidized form, known as ferrous iron, or in its metal form. But what we found was the exact opposite - the deeper we go, the more oxidized iron we found."

Seven new remote clusters of galaxies discovered by astrophysicists

TASS
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:53 UTC

An international team of scientists has identified seven previously unknown massive clusters of galaxies, in addition to the 12 known ones, as follows from a news release by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Space Studies, obtained by TASS.

"In high redshifts, in other words, far away from us <...> we can see only the most massive clusters of galaxies in the observable Universe, which have a mass that is approximately 30,000 times larger than the mass of our own galaxy. Such objects are extremely rare. Until just recently only 12 such objects have been known," said Rodion Burenin, a researcher at the high-energy astrophysics department of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Space Studies.

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Neuroscientists Track Thought's Trip through Brain

Sci News
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC

A team of researchers led by the University of California, Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute has tracked the progress of a thought through the brain, showing how a region called the prefrontal cortex coordinates activity to help us act in response to a perception. The team's results appear in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

© University of California, Berkeley.
Haller et al tracked the brain as it generated an antonym: the brain required 2-3 seconds to detect (yellow), interpret and search for an answer (red) and respond (blue), with sustained prefrontal lobe activity (red) to coordinate all areas of the brain involved.

Recording the electrical activity of neurons directly from the surface of the brain, lead author Dr. Avgusta Shestyuk and colleagues found that for a simple task, such as repeating a word presented visually or aurally, the visual and auditory cortexes reacted first to perceive the word.

The prefrontal cortex then kicked in to interpret the meaning, followed by activation of the motor cortex in preparation for a response.

During the half-second between stimulus and response, the prefrontal cortex remained active to coordinate all the other brain areas.

For a particularly hard task, like determining the antonym of a word, the brain required several seconds to respond, during which the prefrontal cortex recruited other areas of the brain, including presumably memory networks not actually visible.

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Practical applications for math: Students create mathematical formula for the perfect roast potato

Sabrina Barr
Independent
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 10:15 UTC

Students have created a mathematical formula that they believe can be used to cook the perfect roast potato.

Pupils from the Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex collaborated with the Samuel Whitbread School in Bedfordshire to develop what they've named the "Edge Hotel School Method".

While calculating the exact measurements needed to whip up a tasty spud may be more time-consuming than simply popping some potatoes in the oven, apparently it's all worth it for the end result.

Comment: Next time your kids tell you they don't need to study math, cook them up a batch of mathematically perfect potatoes! Argument settled!

China Has Tested CRISPR Procedures on at Least 80 People

Sputnik
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 02:12 UTC

China has tested gene editing on dozens of people according to a new report that shows Beijing is outpacing the US in applying the controversial technique to live humans.

At least 86 people in China have undergone a gene editing procedure, a Wall Street Journal examination of 11 Chinese clinical studies found. China's first experiment took place in 2015, WSJ notes, when 36 patients with kidney, lung, liver and throat cancers had cells removed that allowed researchers to selectively edit the DNA of those cells and plant them back into people's bodies in an effort to combat their cancer.

$1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies stolen by hackers over last decade

Sputnik
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 00:40 UTC

In the last 10 years, hackers have stolen $1.2 billion worth of the cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research LLP.

"It looks like crypto-hacking is a $200 million annual revenue industry," Sokolin said, adding that cybercriminals have stolen more than 14 percent of the bitcoin and ether supply over the last decade, Bloomberg reported.

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Science & Technology

A virus-like protein is important for cognition and memory

Chinese scientists successfully clone genetically identical primates

New 3D image technique could make 'holograms' commonplace

New population of world's rarest fish found in Tasmania

Scientists find oxidized iron deep within Earth's mantle

Seven new remote clusters of galaxies discovered by astrophysicists

Neuroscientists Track Thought's Trip through Brain

Practical applications for math: Students create mathematical formula for the perfect roast potato

China Has Tested CRISPR Procedures on at Least 80 People

$1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies stolen by hackers over last decade

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