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Recently in a number of studies, it has been demonstrated that the innate immune system doesn't merely acts as the first line of defense but provides critical signals for the development of specific adaptive immune response. Innate immune system employs a set of receptors called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize evolutionarily conserved patterns from pathogens called pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs).
How can we tell who's lying, who's not? New research out of Stephen Porter's Forensic Psychology Lab at Dalhousie University determines the face will betray the deceiver's true emotion, but not in the stereotypical ways we think.
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| ©Danny Abriel |
| Graduate student, Leanne ten Brinke presents two faces to the world. |
Score one for the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate, as North Carolina State University geneticists have shown that environmental factors such as lifestyle and geography play a large role in whether certain genes are turned on or off.
By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, or Berbers - including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers - the NC State researchers and collaborators in Morocco and the United States showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live.
The NC State researchers, Youssef Idaghdour, an NC State graduate student in genetics and a Fulbright scholar, and Dr. Greg Gibson, formerly William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics at NC State and currently a faculty member at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to study the impact of the transition from traditional to urbanized lifestyles on the human immune system.
By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, or Berbers - including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers - the NC State researchers and collaborators in Morocco and the United States showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live.
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| ©North Carolina State University |
| By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, or Berbers -- including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers -- the researchers showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live. |
The NC State researchers, Youssef Idaghdour, an NC State graduate student in genetics and a Fulbright scholar, and Dr. Greg Gibson, formerly William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics at NC State and currently a faculty member at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to study the impact of the transition from traditional to urbanized lifestyles on the human immune system.
Roelof Bruintjes dismisses the old saw that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.
The Boulder scientist has made it rain in Australia, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and Wyoming.
Even the Chinese asked Bruintjes - one of the world's leading experts on weather modification - whether he could advise them on how to make it not rain for the Beijing Olympics.
Bruintjes (pronounced broon-chess), who was in China about a month ago, had to tell the Games' organizers there are no guarantees for a dry 100-meter dash.
The Boulder scientist has made it rain in Australia, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and Wyoming.
Even the Chinese asked Bruintjes - one of the world's leading experts on weather modification - whether he could advise them on how to make it not rain for the Beijing Olympics.
Bruintjes (pronounced broon-chess), who was in China about a month ago, had to tell the Games' organizers there are no guarantees for a dry 100-meter dash.
The winter sun sets in mid-afternoon in Kolobrzeg, Poland, but the early twilight does not deter people from taking their regular outdoor promenade. Bundled up in parkas with fur-trimmed hoods, strolling hand in mittened hand along the edge of the Baltic Sea, off-season tourists from Germany stop openmouthed when they see a tall, well-built, nearly naked man running up and down the sand.
"Kalt? Kalt?" one of them calls out. The man gives a polite but vague answer, then turns and dives into the waves. After swimming back and forth in the 40-degree water for a few minutes, he emerges from the surf and jogs briefly along the shore. The wind is strong, but the man makes no move to get dressed. Passersby continue to comment and stare. "This is one of the reasons I prefer anonymity," he tells me in English. "You do something even slightly out of the ordinary and it causes a sensation."
"Kalt? Kalt?" one of them calls out. The man gives a polite but vague answer, then turns and dives into the waves. After swimming back and forth in the 40-degree water for a few minutes, he emerges from the surf and jogs briefly along the shore. The wind is strong, but the man makes no move to get dressed. Passersby continue to comment and stare. "This is one of the reasons I prefer anonymity," he tells me in English. "You do something even slightly out of the ordinary and it causes a sensation."
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| ©Wired |
Vietnam blasted into the satellite age on Saturday when a rocket launch from South America propelled its first orbiter into space, allowing it to beam home telecoms data and television signals.
From a command centre set amid lush rice fields outside the capital Hanoi, scientists tracked the Arianespace rocket as it propelled the Vinasat-1 on its path to hover 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) above the equator.
From a command centre set amid lush rice fields outside the capital Hanoi, scientists tracked the Arianespace rocket as it propelled the Vinasat-1 on its path to hover 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) above the equator.
Full moons are said to be behind many strange things, but here's one you didn't know about: At full moon, our favorite satellite is whipped by Earth's magnetotail, causing lunar dust storms and discharges of static electricity.
This new finding, announced this week by NASA, is important to future lunar explorers: Astronauts may find themselves "crackling with electricity like a sock pulled out of a hot dryer," according to an agency statement.
This new finding, announced this week by NASA, is important to future lunar explorers: Astronauts may find themselves "crackling with electricity like a sock pulled out of a hot dryer," according to an agency statement.
Data Transfer In The Brain: Newfound Mechanism Enables Reliable Transmission Of Neuronal Information
The receptors of neurotransmitters move very rapidly. This mobility plays an essential, and hitherto unsuspected, role in the passage of nerve impulses from one neuron to another, thus controlling the reliability of data transfer. This has recently been demonstrated by scientists in the "Physiologie cellulaire de la synapse" Laboratory (CNRS/Université Bordeaux 2) coordinated by Daniel Choquet, senior researcher at CNRS.
By enabling a clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved in neuronal transmissions, this work opens the way to new therapeutic targets for the neurological and psychiatric disorders that depend on poor neuronal communication (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, OCD, etc.). Fruit of a collaboration with physicists in the Centre de physique moléculaire optique et hertzienne (CPMOH, CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1) and German and American research teams(1), these findings were published on April 11, 2008 in Science.
By enabling a clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved in neuronal transmissions, this work opens the way to new therapeutic targets for the neurological and psychiatric disorders that depend on poor neuronal communication (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, OCD, etc.). Fruit of a collaboration with physicists in the Centre de physique moléculaire optique et hertzienne (CPMOH, CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1) and German and American research teams(1), these findings were published on April 11, 2008 in Science.
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| ©Magali Mondin and Daniel Choquet / CNRS |
| Fluorescence image of a neuron labeled with three colors: a pre-synaptic marker (blue), a post-synaptic marker (red) and glutamate receptors (green). The white color at the tip of the dendritic spines indicates an accumulation of receptors. |
A new approach to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to a revolution in the field by shifting the focus from what a thing is to how it can be used.
Identifying what a robot is looking at is a key approach of AI and machine cognition. So far ambitious researchers have managed to teach a computer's vision system to recognise up to 100 objects. Granted, this is a huge achievement, yet far short of an "I, Robot" scenario.
Identifying what a robot is looking at is a key approach of AI and machine cognition. So far ambitious researchers have managed to teach a computer's vision system to recognise up to 100 objects. Granted, this is a huge achievement, yet far short of an "I, Robot" scenario.
The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was "invented" in Europe.
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| ©National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo |
| A detail of a painting in the cave. |
