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Eating Plants May Change Our Cells

Jennifer Welsh
LiveScience
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:43 UTC
Carnaroli Rice
© Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons
A bag of Carnaroli, an Italian variety of rice.

How much does what we eat influence our bodies? Of course, the amount of fat, sugar or proteins we take in can influence our weight, but new research is suggesting that special compounds in plants could change how our bodies use our genes and proteins.

Called microRNAs, these compounds are the movers and shakers of our cells, as scientists have found they turn up and down levels of human proteins. However, until now scientists thought these chemicals were only made and used inside our bodies, but new research shows that microRNAs from plants can enter the human body.

Chen-Yu Zhang at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, found low levels of plant microRNAs from rice in human tissues. After testing the effects of these chemicals on mice, Zhang concluded microRNAs from plants could actually impact how the human body functions.

"These microRNAs may, therefore, represent a new class of universal modulators that mediate animal-plant interactions at the molecular level," Zhang told LiveScience in an email. "Plant microRNAs may represent essential functional molecules in food and herbal medicine, and also provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of diseases."

Not all researchers agree with the findings, though.

Petr Svoboda, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in the Czech Republic, told LiveScience that the concentrations of plant microRNA found in samples of human tissues were much lower than those in the lab experiments, and he doubts such low levels could have any physiological consequences on the human body.
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Meteor

New Video Reveals Giant Asteroid Vesta as Seen by Spacecraft


Space.com
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
A new video from a NASA spacecraft takes viewers on a flyover journey of Vesta, the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Scientists constructed the two-minute video from images taken by NASA's Dawn probe, which has been orbiting Vesta since July.

In addition to giving armchair astronomers around the world a great look at Vesta, the video should help scientists better understand the forces that shaped the massive space rock, researchers said.


In the video, the 330-mile (530-kilometer) Vesta is not entirely lit up; its northern latitudes are shrouded in darkness. That's because the giant asteroid Vesta has seasons just like Earth, researchers said.

It is currently winter in the Vestan north, and the north pole is in perpetual darkness.
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Return of a Killer Volcano

Sid Perkins
Science Now
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:00 UTC
Killer Volcano
© A. Schmidt, PNAS Early Edition (2011)
The redder, the deader. An 8-month-long eruption of an Icelandic volcano could send emissions of noxious sulfur dioxide over Europe, significantly boosting cardiopulmonary death rates during the following year in southwestern England, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

What if one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recent history happened today? A new study suggests that a blast akin to one that devastated Iceland in the 1780s would waft noxious gases southwestward and kill tens of thousands of people in Europe. And in a modern world that is intimately connected by air traffic and international trade, economic activity across much of Europe, including the production and import of food, could plummet.

From June of 1783 until February of 1784, the Laki volcano in south-central Iceland erupted. Although the event didn't produce large amounts of volcanic ash, it did spew an estimated 122 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide gas into the sky - a volume slightly higher than human industrial activity today produces in the course of a year, says Anja Schmidt, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Historical records suggest that in the 2 years after the Laki eruption, approximately 10,000 Icelanders died - about one-fifth of the population - along with nearly three-quarters of the island's livestock. Parish records in England reveal that in the summer of 1783, when the event began, death rates were between 10% and 20% above normal. The Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy reported episodes of decreased visibility, respiratory difficulties, and increased mortality associated with the eruption. According to one study, an estimated 23,000 people died from exposure to the volcanic aerosols in Britain alone. But elsewhere in Europe, it's difficult to separate deaths triggered by the air pollution from those caused by starvation or disease, which were prominent causes of death at the time.
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Death by Roller Coaster

Amy Enchelmeyer
Discovery News
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:14 UTC
Death Rollercoaster_1
© Discovery News

Want to enjoy the ride of your life along with the last ride of your life? That's what Julijonas Urbonas envisions with his Euthanasia Coaster.

The 3-minute ride involves a long, slow, climb -- nearly a third of a mile long -- that lifts one up to a height of more than 1600 feet, followed by a massive fall and seven strategically sized and placed loops. The final descent and series of loops take all of one minute. But the 10g force from the spinning loops at 223 mph in that single minute is lethal.

According to Urbonas, the "Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely -- with elegance and euphoria -- take the life of a human being."

While the thought of merging the fun (and perhaps fear) of a rollercoaster with suicide, doesn't occur to most people, but it was a no-brainer for designer Urbonas: "Briefly put, [the inspiration was] my PhD study and my long-term affair with amusement parks," he said via email to Discovery News.

Urbonas, who once worked at an amusement park in his native Lithuania, is a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art's Design Interactions department. He considers this research in "Gravitational Aesthetics."
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Genes Linked to Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder


breitbart.com
Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:15 UTC
Image
© zeenews.india.com
Genes linked to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder
Broad sweeps of the human genome have exposed genetic mutations that boost the risk of the devastating yet baffling diseases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to two studies published Sunday.

The independent studies, each conducted by a consortium of about 200 scientists, also found significant genetic overlap between the debilitating mental disorders.

Schizophrenia patients typically hear voices that are not real, tend toward paranoia and suffer from disorganized speech and thinking. The condition is thought to affect about one percent of adults worldwide.

Previously known as manic depression, bipolar disorder is characterised by hard-to-control mood swings that veer back-and-forth between depression and euphoria, and afflicts a similar percentage of the population.

The biological profile of both conditions remain almost entirely unknown. Doctors seek to hold them in check with powerful drugs.
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Laptop

Online Gamers Crack AIDS Enzyme Puzzle


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse
Youths play a computer online game at an IT fair. Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade
Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.

Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.

But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.

This is where Foldit comes in.
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Document

Scientific Evidence Appears to be Becoming Steadily More Unreliable


drbriffa.com
Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:59 UTC
Image
© overexpressed.com
I am a relative fan of science. I say 'relative' because while it can often afford considerable illumination, it's most certainly not the be-all-and-end all. For example, there are plenty of things that may have merit that have not even been subjected to proper scientific study. For example, there are no studies (in the form of 'randomized controlled trials') that conclusively prove stopping smoking is beneficial to health, but that wouldn't stop me from suggesting that someone stop smoking if they asked for my advice on the matter.

Also, even when something has been subjected to systematic scientific study, the evidence base can actually give a very skewed version of reality. One way this can happen is as a result of what is known as 'publication bias'.

Imagine there's a widely held belief that, say, saturated fat causes heart disease. Studies that support this idea are viewed as 'positive' studies, while those that don't are 'negative'. There can be a tendency for medical and scientific journals to preferentially publish positive studies. In other words, studies that are in line with current thinking are more likely to make their way into the scientific literature than negative ones. In this way, existing dogma can essentially go unchallenged - something that is inherently unscientific.

Comment: To learn more about how 'Scientific Evidence is becoming more unreliable' read the excellent article in The Dot Connector Magazine Issue 14 - 'The Corruption of Science'

The Corruption of Science in America
Truth is the pillar of civilization. The word 'truth' occurs 224 times in the King James Version of the Holy Bible; witnesses testifying in American courts and before the United States Congress must swear to tell the truth; and, laws and civil codes require truth in advertising and in business practices, to list just a few examples.

The purpose of science is to discover the true nature of Earth and Universe and to convey that knowledge truthfully to people everywhere. Science gives birth to technology that makes our lives easier and better. Science improves our health and enables us to see our world in ways never before envisioned. It uplifts spirits and engenders optimism. And, science provides a truth-standard, securely anchored in the properties of matter, a means to expose and debunk the charlatans and science-barbarians who would lie, cheat, steal, and tyrannize under the guise of science.


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Info

Earth's Ultimate Destruction - And Possible Reincarnation

Govert Schilling
Science Now
Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:00 UTC
White Dwarf
© NASA/ESA
Second life. The white dwarf star at the center of this planetary nebula may be accompanied by a second-generation world, formed from the debris of the dying star's original planets.

Jackson Lake, Wyoming - The world may not end on 21 December 2012, as predicted by some doomsayers, but one thing is certain: Earth won't be around forever. Astronomers at the Extreme Solar Systems II conference here, who study the birth and evolution of planetary systems, are also coming to grips with the ultimate fate of planets like our own. And although Earth's own future isn't too bright, it looks like our planet could possibly reincarnate as a new world.

At the end of their lives, massive stars much larger than the sun detonate as supernovae, hurling most of their planets into deep space in the process. Recently, some researchers even claimed to have detected such rogue planets. But stars like our sun swell into bloated red giants when the nuclear fuel in their cores is depleted. As a result, some 5 billion years from now, the sun will engulf the inner planets, Mercury and Venus.

According to theoretical physicist Eva Villaver of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, it's unclear whether Earth will survive this phase. "It's a tricky question," she says. If the sun loses much of its outer layers into space, Earth will end up in a wider, safer orbit. But this might be offset by tidal effects from the sun, which are more or less comparable to the tides of the moon and which would draw our planet inward, so it would get swallowed by the sun. "We don't know which effect will be strongest," Villaver says.
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Meteor

Dino-Killing Cosmic Impact Wiped Out Ancient Birds, Too

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:18 UTC
Impact Event
© Andrea Danti | Shutterstock
A cosmic impact at the end of the Cretaceous that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs seems to have decimated primitive birds as well, researchers now say.

Although birds survived the mass extinction that claimed their brethren, the rest of the dinosaurs, birds did not emerge unscathed, scientists now find.

Apparently many ancient lineages of birds died off at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, researchers added.

Nearly all the modern bird groups, from owls to penguins and so on, began to emerge within 15 million years after the rest of the dinosaurs went extinct. These birds are subtly but significantly different from many of the ancient lineages that existed before a cosmic impact at the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago wreaked havoc around the globe.

"These archaic birds superficially looked very similar to modern birds, but underneath their feathers they were completely different," researcher Nicholas Longrich, a vertebrate paleontologist at Yale University, told LiveScience. "Some of them had teeth. Some of their joints were built backward compared to modern birds, so they may have flown in a different way."
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Robot

Are Intelligent Machines Poised to Surpass Humans?


The Daily Galaxy
Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:14 UTC
Galaxy
© The Daily Galaxy
"It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future create (or become) creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension. Events beyond such an event -- such a singularity -- are as unimaginable to us as opera is to a flatworm."

Vernor Vinge -SciFi great
The Singularity is an apocalyptic idea originally proposed by John von Neumann, one of the inventors of digital computation, and elucidated by figures such as Ray Kurzweil and scifi great Vernor Vinge.

"The Singularity" is seen by some as the end point of our current culture, when the ever-accelerating evolution of technology finally overtakes us and changes everything. It's been represented as everything from the end of all life to the beginning of a utopian age, which you might recognize as the endgames of most other religious beliefs.

While the definitions of the Singularity are as varied as people's fantasies of the future, with a very obvious reason, most agree that artificial intelligence will be the turning point. Once an AI is even the tiniest bit smarter than us, it'll be able to learn faster and we'll simply never be able to keep up. This will render us utterly obsolete in evolutionary terms.
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