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Jun 9, 2020

Appetite can be increased by cells in the brain

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

It has previously been discovered that tanycytes—cells found in part of the brain that controls —detect nutrients in and tell the brain directly about the food we have eaten.

Tanycytes do this by responding to found in foods, via the same receptors that sense the flavor of amino acids (“umami” taste), which are found in the taste buds of the tongue.

In the paper ‘Hypothalamic tanycytes generate acute hyperphagia through activation of the arcuate neuronal network.’ published today, the 8th June, in the journal PNAS, researchers from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, explain how tanycytes can increase appetite.

Jun 9, 2020

Scientists engineer one protein to fight cancer and regenerate neurons

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a host of different diseases.

Jun 9, 2020

Repetitive negative thinking is associated with amyloid, tau, and cognitive decline

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

The Cognitive Debt hypothesis proposes that repetitive negative thinking (RNT), a modifiable process common to many psychological risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may itself increase risk. We sought to empirically examine relationships between RNT and markers of AD, compared with anxiety and depression symptoms.

Jun 9, 2020

NASA astronaut Victor Glover explains why sometimes we can’t just stick to space

Posted by in category: space travel

As Americans took to the streets in protest and NASA astronauts took to the skies on a commercial spacecraft, some space fans had a question: “Can’t we just do space?”

Jun 9, 2020

Ultrathin nanosheets separate ions from water

Posted by in category: futurism

In a world-first, an international research team, led by Monash University and ANSTO, has created an ultrathin porous membrane to completely separate potentially harmful ions, such as lead and mercury, from water.

Jun 9, 2020

‘Whispering Gallery’ Effect Allows Light to Be Stored and Controls Electron Beams

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Artist’s view of individual electrons interacting with an optical whispering gallery mode as it circles a silica sphere. The matching between the velocities of the electron and the light-wave it is riding changes the quantum state of the electron, illustrated as a wider halo. Credit: Dr. Murat Sivis.

Jun 9, 2020

Lockdowns in Europe saved ‘millions of lives’

Posted by in category: futurism

The researchers say the death toll would have been “huge” without a lockdown.

Jun 9, 2020

Putin orders creation of national genetic database as Russia prioritizes genetic research

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, education, genetics, government

The president also ordered a boost in the education of specialists in genetics and genome sequencing and the domestic production of necessary laboratory equipment, as well as tax cuts for biomedical research. Russia will also open world-class genome research centers which will, among their immediate goals, work on the development of treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.


The future database will be one of the tools that Russia hopes to use to assume a leading position in the biomedical industry. The government sees it as crucial for keeping the country competitive on the world stage going forward.

The Kurchatov Institute, which is best known for nuclear research, has been tasked with laying the foundation for the database, choosing the storage format and making tools for search and analysis. The institute has experience in the secure handling of large amounts of sensitive data and operates a number of data centers across Russia which are used for scientific collaboration projects.

Jun 9, 2020

An experimental peptide could block Covid-19

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The research described in this article has been published on a preprint server but has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts.

In hopes of developing a possible treatment for Covid-19, a team of MIT chemists has designed a drug candidate that they believe may block coronaviruses’ ability to enter human cells. The potential drug is a short protein fragment, or peptide, that mimics a protein found on the surface of human cells.

The researchers have shown that their new peptide can bind to the viral protein that coronaviruses use to enter human cells, potentially disarming it.

Continue reading “An experimental peptide could block Covid-19” »

Jun 9, 2020

IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology

Posted by in categories: government, law enforcement, robotics/AI, surveillance

IBM will no longer offer general purpose facial recognition or analysis software, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a letter to Congress today. The company will also no longer develop or research the technology, IBM tells The Verge. Krishna addressed the letter to Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

“IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any [facial recognition] technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency,” Krishna said in the letter. “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.”