A study in wild mice with and without the cytokine GDF15. Metformin, the most prescribed drug for treating diabetes mellitus, known as type 2 diabetes, requires the presence of the growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) —a protein whose expression increases in response to cellular stress— to present its antidiabetic effects. This is stated in a study led by the research group of the Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERDEM) of the University of Barcelona (UB) and…
Webb’s infrared camera peers through dust clouds, enabling discovery. Rice University astronomer Megan Reiter and colleagues took a “deep dive” into one of the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and were rewarded with the discovery of telltale signs from two dozen previously unseen young stars about 7,500 light years from Earth. The published research in the December issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society offers a glimpse of what astronomers will find with Webb’s…
FQXi-funded project in the Gran Sasso mountains hunts for evidence of violations of the ‘Pauli Exclusion Principle’. For decades physicists have been hunting for a quantum-gravity model that would unify quantum physics, the laws that govern the very small, and gravity. One major obstacle has been the difficulty in testing the predictions of candidate models experimentally. But some of the models predict an effect that can be probed in the lab: a very small violation of a fundamental quantum tenet…
Avoiding mosquitoes to protect against bites is always a good idea. But a new North Carolina State University study shows that the bacteria-ridden exteriors of mosquitoes may be another reason to arm yourself with a swatter. The first-of-its-kind study, published in PLOS ONE, examined both the exterior surface and interior microbiome of mosquitoes found in homes in Africa’s Cote d’Ivoire – the Ivory Coast. “When you’re exposed to mosquitoes, you worry about blood feeding,” said R. Michael Roe, William Neal…
High-resolution knowledge of structure is a key link between viral biology and potential therapeutic use of the virus to quell bacterial infections. Cryo-electron microscopy by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers has exposed the structure of a bacterial virus with unprecedented detail. This is the first structure of a virus able to infect Staphylococcus epidermidis, and high-resolution knowledge of structure is a key link between viral biology and potential therapeutic use of the virus to quell bacterial infections. Bacteriophages or…
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have made an important breakthrough in understanding how inflammation is regulated. They have just discovered that a key immune alarm protein previously believed to calm down the immune response actually does the opposite. Their work has numerous potential impacts, especially in the context of understanding and responding to autoimmune disorders and inflammation. While our immune system serves a very important function protecting us from infection and injury, when immune responses become too aggressive this can…
FDA approves new use of imaging agent to help light the way for surgeons during lung cancer surgery. Surgery, especially surgery to remove cancerous tumors, relies on a range of tools and techniques as well as on the skill of the surgeon. Now, new imaging agent Cytalux will make surgery to remove lung cancer tumors a little more exact. The inside of the human body famously looks nothing like an anatomy textbook, lacking the bright color coding to differentiate between…
Water has puzzled scientists for decades. For the last 30 years or so, they have theorized that when cooled down to a very low temperature like -100C, water might be able to separate into two liquid phases of different densities. Like oil and water, these phases don’t mix and may help explain some of water’s other strange behavior, like how it becomes less dense as it cools. It’s almost impossible to study this phenomenon in a lab, though, because water…
Latest generation smartphones feature often more than 4 microlenses. The reason for this is the desire to take snapshots of a quality that is comparable with those of much more expensive cameras. Such cameras often possess zoom lenses which allow for wide-angle as well as for telephoto images. Common smartphone allow such zooming electronically, by magnifying parts of an image using two fingers on your display. However, the maximum magnification of this electronic zoom function is limited by the coarse…
When a material with magnetic properties, constructed from appropriately selected layers, is illuminated by a pulse from an X-ray laser, it instantly demagnetises. This phenomenon, so far poorly understood, could in the future be used in nanoelectronics, to build, for example, ultrafast magnetic switches. An important step toward this goal is a new simulation tool developed by a Polish-German-Italian team of scientists as part of a joint research project between the European XFEL and IFJ PAN. No information-processing device can operate at a speed…
A team led by UdeM astronomers has found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star are “water worlds,” planets where water makes up a large fraction of the volume. These worlds, located in a planetary system 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, are unlike any planets found in our solar system. The team, led by PhD student Caroline Piaulet of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at the Université de Montréal, published a detailed study…
The nature and properties of materials depend strongly on dimension. Imagine how different life in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional world would be from the three dimensions we’re commonly accustomed to. With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that fractals – objects with fractional dimension – have garnered significant attention since their discovery. Despite their apparent strangeness, fractals arise in surprising places – from snowflakes and lightning strikes to natural coastlines. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, the Max…
A marine researcher at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science has identified a new bottlenose dolphin subspecies found only in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. “While there is a common belief that all dolphin species are already known, improvements in technologies and methodologies are helping to reveal a greater biodiversity in more recent years,” said Ana Costa, Ph.D., a Rosenstiel lecturer specializing in marine mammalogy. After examining and analyzing a series of specimens, Costa…
In many countries, the number of fig trees have been declining. While there are numerous explanations, one key problem is fig-wilting disease. A recognized cause of this disease is a fungus, Ceratocystis ficicola, which is transmitted by an ambrosia beetle, Euwallacea interjectus. Now, a group from Nagoya University in central Japan has identified another fungus, Fusarium kuroshium, which is harmless by itself, but ravages fig trees when found together with C. ficicola. Along with known agents, such as C. ficicola,…
An international research team led by the Department of Biology at the Universität Hamburg has investigated the potential impacts of climate change on non-vascular vegetation (mosses, lichens) and their functions in ecosystems worldwide. Based on this, the researchers have developed a concept paper proposing the next important steps for the research field. The results were published in the journal “New Phytologist”. The so-called non-vascular photoautotrophs (NVP), including mosses, lichens, terrestrial algae and cyanobacteria, are organisms that receive their energy from…
In the annals of shoulder surgery, NFL quarterback Drew Brees is an anomaly. In 2005, Brees was tackled and the rotator cuff tendon in his throwing shoulder was severely torn, a potentially career-ending injury. But after surgery and rehab, Brees returned the next season, led his team to the playoffs, and went on to win the 2010 Super Bowl. Unfortunately, rotator cuff repairs don’t always go so well, especially among seniors, the age group most susceptible to these injuries. The…
Feedback
