News in Brief by Sanjay Salgado ‘10
The Feel Good Treatment for Addiction:
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that in rats, increasing the level of D2 receptors in the brain can reduce cocaine use by 75%. The D2 receptors are activated by dopamine, a neurotransmitter that, among other things, is part of the reward system, the collection of brain structures that regulate behavior through pleasurable effects. Drugs such as cocaine affect these receptors as well, but as a result also decrease the number of the D2 receptors and therefore the pleasure sensation. By increasing the amount of receptors, the scientists saw a dramatic decrease in usage of the drug.
Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Promise:
The second trial analysis of the experimental Alzheimer’s drug Dimebon has shown positive results. In patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, Dimebon helped boost memory and clinical function as well as ability to think and engage in daily activities – all without any major side effects. The second trial specifically observed that patients taking Dimebon were better able to take care of themselves in basic ways, showing improvements in abilities such as eating, using the phone, using the bathroom, reading, and holding a conversation.
Building the Bionic Man:
The Pentagon has launched the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which will focus on creating man-made and biologically grown materials to aid in body repair and replace damaged body tissues. According to the Army’s surgeon general, the purpose of the institute is to find ways to use the soldiers’ own stem cells to repair nerve damage, to regrow muscles and tendons, to repair burn wounds, and to help them heal without scarring.
Special Relativity on the Atomic Level:
Recent tests on the man-made super-heavy element 114 shows that its chemistry is similar to that of a noble gas. This is odd, since according to the periodic table, it should be like lead. What gives? As the number of protons in the nucleus increase, their pull on the electrons increases as well. These elections orbit faster and, according to Special Relativity, experience time dilation effects. As a result, some of the electron orbits are tighter than those in lighter elements, affecting the atom’s chemistry. If these results on element 114 are confirmed, this will be the first element to behave so differently from what the periodic table would predict.
Herpetologists Find Frog without Lungs:
Herpetologists (for those non-linguists out there: they study reptiles and amphibians, not herpes) have found the first frog without lungs. Dubbed Barbourula kalimantanensis, it is so rare that until last year no herpetologist had seen it alive and only two specimens were known to exist.
Kissing Cousins:
Ecologists from Cornell University studying the mating behavior of salamanders found that females prefer to fertilize their eggs with the sperm of close kin. Spotted salamanders do not copulate; rather the males lay scores of sperm-filled pouches called spermatophores, which the females then pick up and use to fertilize their eggs. Through DNA analysis, the researchers concluded that females not only have a mechanism for identifying which spermatophore came from which male, but that they prefer those coming from first cousins.
A Star is Born:
Out of the relatively desolate outskirts of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83), NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer picked up an image of the formation of new stars. Scientists speculate the new stars 140,000 light years from the center of M83 could have formed under conditions similar to those of the early universe –without space dust or heavy elements.
The Flu Voyage:
A study by a team of researchers from Europe, Australia, Japan and the United States have collected and analyzed 13,000 samples of influenza A (H3N2) virus from six continents over a five year period (2002-2007). By specifically focusing on the physical difference of a surface protein called hemagglutinin, the researchers have been able to identify the different strains of the virus as they arrived at new locations. The results suggest that the strains emerge in East and Southeast Asia and about six to nine months later reach Europe and North America; months later, the strains reach South America. The hope is that this study will demonstrate how the virus evolves.
Update: Americans Carrying Residues of Kitchen Plastics:
Last issue, we noted that bisphenol-A, an ingredient used in many bottles and cans, is getting into our systems via ingestion. The bottle company Nalgene recently announced that due to the health concerns, it will no longer use the polycarbonate in its bottles.
