Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Quadrantid Meteor Shower Peaks on January 3rd


Space Weather
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:01 UTC
The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Jan. 3rd around 1900 UT (2 pm EST) when Earth passes through a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1. The timing of this northern shower favors observers in eastern Europe and Asia. Bright moonlight will interfere with the display, which can reach 100+ meteors per hour under ideal conditions.

In North America, where the peak occurs in daylight, it may be possible to hear the shower on meteor radar. Tune into Space Weather Radio for live echoes.
Read More...
Meteor

Sungrazing Comet Alert


Space Weather
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:55 UTC
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking a comet that is about to make a perilous close approach to the sun.

Image
© SOHO
Will the icy visitor survive? Click here for the latest image.

The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson in images taken by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft.
Read More...
Rocket

Russians plan asteroid diversion


SciTechStory
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00 UTC
Nazdrovia! Nothing like starting off 2010 with a little talk of Armageddon (the movie). Rumors were flying around the Internet just before the New Year that the Russians are planning a mission to divert the asteroid 99942 Apophis away from Earth collision.

Comment: 2029? How about the other NEO's that can come at any time? Sounds like they are practicing for something sooner!

Read More...
Magnify

Elusive Protein Points to Mechanism Behind Hearing Loss


ScienceDaily
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:00 UTC
Image
© Rockefeller UniversityAll ears. Electron micrographs of two hair cell bundles in the zebra fish ear show the difference between those born with (left) and without (right) the protein Tmie.
A serendipitous discovery of deaf zebra fish larvae has helped narrow down the function of an elusive protein necessary for hearing and balance. The work, led by Rockefeller University's A. James Hudspeth, suggests that hearing loss may arise from a faulty pathway that translates sound waves into electrical impulses the brain can understand.

"These zebrafish larvae were originally pegged for another study, but then we saw that one-fourth of them failed to respond to acoustic stimuli and made erratic spiraling movements,

and that suggested that they were born deaf," says first author Michelle R. Gleason, who spearheaded the project. "So we took this opportunity to examine what could be responsible for this extreme hearing loss."

At first, Gleason and Hudspeth, head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, didn't detect any structural defects in the zebra fish's inner ear, which houses sound sensors called hair cells.
Read More...
Magnify

New Molecule Identified in DNA Damage Response


ScienceDaily
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:00 UTC
In the harsh judgment of natural selection, the ultimate measure of success is reproduction. So it's no surprise that life spends lavish resources on this feat, whether in the courtship behavior of birds and bees or replicating the cells that keep them alive. Now research has identified a new piece in an elaborate system to help guarantee fidelity in the reproduction of cells, preventing potentially lethal mutations in the process.

In experiments to be published in the December 18 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers at The Rockefeller University identified the molecule SMARCAL1 as part of cells' damage control response to malfunctioning DNA replication. In typical cell division, many different molecules have roles in guaranteeing the daughter strands of DNA are as identical as possible to their parent.

Some molecules check for errors or 'proofread' the offspring for typos, for instance; others, when alerted to a problem, arrest the replication process and conduct repairs.
Read More...
Display

DirecTV Plans 3D Channel in 2010


TechTree
Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:50 UTC
Image
© DirecTV
Broadcasting of 3D HD recorded mix content may begin in March next year

Next year certainly will be big for the television and besides the huge screen HDTVs getting bit cheaper, we'll have first 3D channel. DirecTV, a U.S.-based TV service provider, is pondering to launch first 3D channel at the Consumer Electronic Show 2010 starting next week. At CES 2009, several companies like LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, TCL/RCA, and Soyo/Honeywell demonstrated next generation 3D HDTV Panels.

HDGuru reported that DirecTV is planning to launch a 3D channel that offers content mix of content recorded in 3D HD. The company expects to start broadcasting in March once their satellite launches in orbit successfully. However, consumers will have to buy 3D HD supporting to watch this 3D HD content. At this moment, the flat panel 3D HDTVs are in production for several TV manufacturers.

For the 3D experience, one would need the 3D glasses just like the ones used in Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision.
Read More...
Magnify

Why Repair of Brain's Wiring Fails


ScienceDaily
Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:00 UTC
Scientists have uncovered new evidence suggesting that damage to nerve cells in people with multiple sclerosis accumulates because the body's natural mechanism for repair of the nerve coating called "myelin" stalls out.

The study, published July 1, 2009, in the print edition of Genes & Development, was conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of Cambridge. The research was led by co-senior investigator David Rowitch, MD, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF.

The investigation, conducted in mice and in human tissue, showed that repair of nerve fibers is hampered by biochemical signals that inhibit the development of cells known as oligodendrocytes, which function as repair workers in the brain.
Read More...
Einstein

Glia: The Other Brain

R. Douglas Fields
Psychology Today
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Image
© R. Douglas Fields
Glia - brain function beyond neurons

With eager hands of a ten-year-old boy, I sliced the heart in two with a butcher knife. All was revealed-four chambers separated by moist gristly valves that suck blood into auricles and squeeze it out the aorta and pulmonary artery. Fascinated, I asked Mom, "Next time, can you get me a brain?"

When she returned from the butcher shop with a calf brain my excitement welled as I sliced, cleaving the squishy convoluted mass in two like an over-ripe mellon. But inside there was nothing. Just a hollow cavity at the core of a fleshy mush.

How did it work?
Read More...
Magnify

Glial Cells Can Cross from the Central to the Peripheral Nervous System


ScienceDaily
Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Glial cells, which help neurons communicate with each other, can leave the central nervous system and cross into the peripheral nervous system to compensate for missing cells, according to new research in the Dec. 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The animal study contributes to researchers' basic understanding of how the two nervous systems develop and are maintained, which is essential for the effective treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (sensory organs, muscles, and glands). A major difference between the systems is that each has its own type of glial cells. In a healthy body, glial cells are tightly segregated and aren't known to travel between the two systems. The peripheral nervous system also regenerates more than the central nervous system, due in part to its glial cells -- a characteristic that, if better understood, might be used to improve the regenerative capabilities of the central nervous system.

Glial cells serve nerve cells by insulating them with layers of fats and proteins called myelin. Myelin coatings are necessary for nerve signals to be transmitted normally; when the sheaths are lost, disorders involving impairment in sensation, movement and cognition such as multiple sclerosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis develop. Glial cells named oligodendrocytes produce myelin around nerves of the central nervous system, while those named Schwann cells make myelin that insulates peripheral nerves.
Read More...
Magnify

The Brain: The Dark Matter of the Human Brain

Carl Zimmer
Discover Magazine
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:00 UTC
Some of the common words we use are frozen mistakes. The term influenza comes from the Italian word meaning "influence" - an allusion to the influence the stars were once believed to have on our health. European explorers searching for an alternate route to India ended up in the New World and uncomprehendingly dubbed its inhabitants indios, or Indians.

Neuroscientists have a frozen mistake of their own, and it is a spectacular blunder. In the mid-1800s researchers discovered cells in the brain that are not like neurons (the presumed active players of the brain) and called them glia, the Greek word for "glue." Even though the brain contains about a trillion glia - 10 times as many as there are neurons - the assumption was that those cells were nothing more than a passive support system. Today we know the name could not be more wrong.

Glia, in fact, are busy multi-taskers, guiding the brain's development and sustaining it throughout our lives. Glia also listen carefully to their neighbors, and they speak in a chemical language of their own. Scientists do not yet understand that language, but experiments suggest that it is part of the neurological conversation that takes place as we learn and form new memories.
Read More...