Adolescents see a greater remission of type 2 diabetes compared to adults.
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Young people with severe obesity who underwent weight-loss surgery at age 19 or younger continued to see sustained weight loss and resolution of common obesity-related comorbidities 10 years later, according to results from a large clinical study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Deep sleep could be key to forestalling slow declines in brain health that may one day lead to Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.
In their 2023 study of 62 older, cognitively healthy adults, researchers from the University of California (UC) Berkeley, Stanford University, and UC Irvine in the US found individuals with brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s performed better on memory function tests as they got more deep sleep.
This was irrespective of education and physical activity, two factors along with social connection known to contribute to cognitive resilience in older age.
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the University of California at Berkeley, and Aarhus University have taken an intriguing step forward by fabricating “PortaChrome,” a portable light system and design tool that can change the color and textures…
The portable light system and design tool “PortaChrome” uses UV and RGB LEDs to activate photochromic dye, reprogramming everyday objects like shirts. The MIT CSAIL researchers’ software can help users turn items into multicolor displays of fashion designs and health data.
Health Innovation For Prevention And Precision At Scale — Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, MD, Ph.D. — Special Envoy, Health & Wellbeing, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Finland.
Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, MD, Ph.D. is Special Envoy for Health and Wellbeing, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Finland (https://stm.fi/en/rdi-growth-programm…).
Dr. Sillanaukee has over 20 years of experience at highest civil servant administrative positions, both from government, including roles as Director General at Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ambassador for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as well as various additional roles in the public sector at the Municipalities and Special Health care district levels.
Actively participating also in Global Health, Dr. Sillanaukee has chaired and facilitated global multisectoral, multi-partner Health Security collaborations, facilitating capacity building at the country level. She served as Vice chair and member of WHO Executive Board, as Executive President for WHO/Europe Regional Committee, Member of Women in Global Health advocating for Gender Equity in Health, a member of Global Pulse Finland’s health sector advisory board, as Member of Board of Directors, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Member of the Inaugural Board of Digital Health \& AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR).
Dr. Sillanaukee has also served as the co-chair of the Alliance for Health Security Cooperation (AHSC) and a member of the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda.
A study led by Umeå University, Sweden, presents new insights into how stem cells develop and transition into specialized cells. The discovery can provide increased understanding of how cells divide and grow uncontrollably so that cancer develops.
“The discovery opens a new track for future research into developing new and more effective treatments for certain cancers,” says Francesca Aguilo, associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University and leader of the study in collaboration with various institutions including the University of Pavia, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Universidad de Extremadura, and others.
All cells in the body arise from a single fertilized egg. From this single origin, various specialized cells with widely differing tasks evolve through a process called cellular differentiation. Although all cells share the same origin and share the same genetic information, specialized cells use the information in different ways to perform different functions. This process is regulated by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms.
On this episode, neuroscientist and author Robert Sapolsky joins Nate to discuss the structure of the human brain and its implication on behavior and our ability to change. Dr. Sapolsky also unpacks how the innate quality of a biological organism shaped by evolution and the surrounding environment — meaning all animals, including humans — leads him to believe that there is no such thing as free will, at least how we think about it today. How do our past and present hormone levels, hunger, stress, and more affect the way we make decisions? What implications does this have in a future headed towards lower energy and resource availability? How can our species manage the mismatch of our evolutionary biology with our modern day challenges — and navigate through a ‘determined’ future?
About Robert Sapolsky:
Robert Sapolsky is professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. Over the past thirty years, he has divided his time between the lab, where he studies how stress hormones can damage the brain, and in East Africa, where he studies the impact of chronic stress on the health of baboons. Sapolsky is author of several books, including Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, A Primate’s Memoir, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, and his newest book coming out in October, Determined: Life Without Free Will. He lives with his family in San Francisco.
For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.co…
00:00 — Episode highlight.
00:15 — Guest introduction.
03:10 — When did Robert know he wanted to study animal behavior?
04:40 — When was his last research trip?
05:46 — Challenges that come from differences from modern and ancestral environments.
07:20 — Physiology and our emotions.
09:37 — Divide in evolutionary beliefs.
12:13 — Behavioral science and religion.
14:40 — Past students’ impacted by Robert.
16:48 — Testosterone.
21:07 — Dopamine.
29:02 — Oxytocin.
32:19 — Hormones affecting social behavior.
38:21 — Changing the environmental stimuli of pregnant people to positively impact fetus’ development.
41:55 — Free will.
57:24 — Science of attractiveness.
58:55 — Do people have free will?
1:13:12 — Emergence.
1:18:17 — Quantum and indeterminacy.
1:19:18 — Complexity of free will.
1:23:46 — Difference between free will and agency.
1:26:43 — How to use Robert’s work to change policies around the world in a positive way.
1:29:15 — What’s the difference between a deterministic world and a fatalistic one?
1:34:39 — Robert’s thoughts on his newest book, Determined: Life Without Free Will.
1:40:48 — Key components in a new systems society understanding this science.
1:45:30 — What should listeners take away from this podcast?
1:47:32 — Robert’s recommendations for the polycrisis.
1:52:20 — What Robert cares most about in the world.
1:53:00 — Robert’s magic wand.
1:54:36 — Future topics of conversations.
#natehagens #thegreatsimplification #neuroscience #dopamine #freewill #testosterone
Researchers connecting pieces of the massive Alzheimer’s puzzle are closer to slotting the next one in place, with yet another link between our guts and brain.
Animal studies have demonstrated Alzheimer’s can be passed on to young mice through a transfer of gut microbes, confirming a link between the digestive system and the health of the brain.
A 2023 study adds further support to the theory that inflammation could be the mechanism through which this occurs.
At some point in your life, you must’ve experienced a lightbulb moment when an amazing idea just popped into your head out of nowhere. But what is your brain doing during these brief periods of creativity?
Researchers from the University of Utah Health and Baylor College of Medicine looked into the origin of creative thinking in the brain. They found that different parts of the brain work together to produce creative ideas, not just one particular area.
“Unlike motor function or vision, they’re not dependent on one specific location in the brain,” Ben Shofty, the senior author of the study and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, said. “There’s not a creativity cortex.”
Bioengineered bacteria to eat plastic in seawater:3 Which in large quantities can eat all the plastic in the ocean:3 Yay face_with_colon_three
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a highly recyclable plastic that has been extensively used and manufactured. Like other plastics, PET resists natural degradation, thus accumulating in the environment. Several recycling strategies have been applied to PET, but these tend to result in downcycled products that eventually end up in landfills. This accumulation of landfilled PET waste contributes to the formation of microplastics, which pose a serious threat to marine life and ecosystems, and potentially to human health. To address this issue, our project leveraged synthetic biology to develop a whole-cell biocatalyst capable of depolymerizing PET in seawater environments by using the fast-growing, nonpathogenic, moderate halophile Vibrio natriegens. By leveraging a two-enzyme system—comprising a chimera of IsPETase and IsMHETase from Ideonella sakaiensis —displayed on V. natriegens, we constructed whole-cell catalysts that depolymerize PET and convert it into its monomers in salt-containing media and at a temperature of 30°C.