Parasite makes mice lose fear of cats permanently

A parasite that infects up to one-third of people around the world may have the ability to permanently alter a specific brain function in mice, accToxoplasma gondii is known to remove rodents’ innate fear of cats. The new research shows that even months after infection, when parasites are no longer detectable, the effect remains. This raises the possibility that the microbe causes a permanent structural change in the brain.
The microbe is a single-celled pathogen that infects most types of mammal and bird, causing a disease called toxoplasmosis. But its effects on rodents are unique; most flee cat odour, but infected ones are mildly attracted to it.ording to a study published in PLoS ONE
      his is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to help the parasite complete its life cycle: Toxoplasma can sexually reproduce only in the cat gut, and for it to get there, the pathogen's rodent host must be eaten.

In humans, studies have linked Toxoplasma infection with behavioural changes and schizophrenia. One work found an increased risk of traffic accidents in people infected with the parasite²; another found changes in responses to cat odour³. People with schizophrenia are more likely than the general population to have been infected with Toxoplasma, and medications used to treat schizophrenia may work in part by inhibiting the pathogen's replication.

Schizophrenia is thought to involve excess activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. This has bolstered one possible explanation for Toxoplasma’s behavioural effect: the parasite establishes persistent infections by means of microscopic cysts that grow slowly in brain cells. It can increase those cells’ production of dopamine, which could significantly alter their function. Most other suggested mechanisms also rely on the presence of cysts

       

Self Healing Polymer....

How frustrating is it when a pipe bursts, and you have to wait hours for a plumber to come replace or repair it? How about being stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire? Or when your toddler's plastic train breaks apart, and a tantrum ensues?

Researchers at the CIDETEC Centre for Electrochemical Technologies in San Sebastian, Spain, may have just created a quick fix for all of these headaches, and many more: You might someday be able to just hold the broken plastic pieces back together, and watch them fuse before your eyes.

Plastics are made up of polymers, a long chain of molecules that are connected through chemical bonds. Natural polymers are everywhere. They make up the shells that protect lobsters and shrimp, they're in the silk blouse your grandmother so adores and the DNA that makes you, well, you.

In nature, many polymers heal themselves when broken or sliced. Think of your skin when you have a small cut — as the two sides of the cut bind back together, you're witnessing a self-healing polymer in action.

Synthetic polymers are just as common. Scientists started creating nylon and synthetic rubber to make up for the shortage of silk and rubber during World War II. PVC, polyester and many forms of plastic soon followed.

As much as synthetic polymers mimic natural polymers, they've always lacked one important feature, the ability to heal themselves — until now.

The Spanish scientists recently created a polymer that can bind itself back together even after being sliced with a razor blade, without the help of a catalyst. This is the first man-made self-healing polymer to function without a catalyst,they report in the Sept. 13 issue of the journal Materials Horizon.

Nicknamed "Terminator" because it seems to be as resilient as the T-100 terminator robot from Terminator 2, the polymer was sliced in two in the research lab.

"First, a pristine cylinder made from [the polymer] was cut in half with a knife. Then the two halves were put in contact and allowed to stand at room-temperature, without applying any pressure," the authors explained.

"Terminator" started self-healing within an hour. It was 97 percent healed within two hours, and completely fused after 22 hours. Once it had repaired itself, the scientists were able to stretch it manually, with no ruptures or tears.

In 2011, researchers at Case Western Reserve University created a self-healing polymer that needed to be placed under a UV light in order to heal. In that case, the polymer worked as a coating that could seal surface scratches on things like cars and dining room tables.

In this study, the polymer is a type of thermoset elastometer. The scientists created it using common polymeric starter materials, just as they would in order to create other known synthetic polymers.

"The idea behind this is to reconnect the chemical crosslinks which are broken when a material fractures, restoring the integrity of the material. This is expected to provide polymers with enhanced lifetime and resistance to fatigue," the authors wrote in the study.

When the polymer was at room temperature, bis(4-aminophenyl) disulfides were exchanged between the two slices of the polymer through metathesis. The exchange facilitated the regeneration.

The researchers say this breakthrough will allow them to create stronger sealants, paints, adhesives and more. This could eventually lead to self-repairing pipes, bicycle tires and Barbie dolls, among a million other possibilities.

"The fact that poly(urea-urethane)s with similar chemical composition and mechanical properties are already used in a wide range of commercial products makes this system very attractive for a fast and easy implementation in real industrial applications," they wrote.

Peanut Shaped Star??????

Two groups of astronomers teamed up creating the finest 3D map of the Milky Way galaxy with the help of ESO (European Southern Observatory) telescopes and discovered that its inner-region has a peanut-like shape or X-shape at the heart when viewed from some angles
                      A 2MASS infrared sky survey done previously had hinted toward the mysterious shaped structure in the galactic bulge. The two groups of astronomers utilized the data from the ESO telescopes to create the finest three-dimensional map of the central parts of the Milky Way galaxy so far.

ESO's VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) telescope, which is situated at Chile's Paranal Observatory and has a 4.1 meter mirror, formulated this odd shape in the central bulge of our galaxy. Measurements of the motions of many extremely faint stars were surveyed by the VISTA telescope, which led to this finding.

"The depth of the VISTA star catalog far exceeds previous work and we can detect the entire population of these stars in all but the most highly obscured regions," explained Christopher Wegg, lead author of the first study from MPE, in a press release.

"From this star distribution we can then make a three-dimensional map of the galactic bulge. This is the first time that such a map has been made without assuming a model for the bulge's shape," Wegg added.

The galactic bulge, stretching over thousands of light-years, is considered to be one of the most significant parts of the galaxy. The origin and the structure of this enormous central cloud consisting of 10,000 million stars were not very clearly understood by the astronomers.

The galactic bulge is located at a distance of around 27,000 light-years from our point of view. It consists of dense dust clouds and gases, which makes it hard to accumulate precise information. Hence, the first group from the MPE (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics) located in Garching, Germany, used the VVV near-infrared survey from the VISTA telescope. Examining these dust clouds with lights having longer wavelength such as the infrared radiation aided the astronomers in getting a good view through the thick dust clouds and gases.

A total of 22 million stars belonging to a class of red giants were spotted by the team.

The inner shape of our Galaxy appears like a peanut in its shell when seen from the side and it appears like an extremely elongated bar when viewed from the top, explained Ortwin Gerhard, the co-author of the first paper and leader of the Dynamics Group at MPE.

"It is the first time that we can see this clearly in our own Milky Way, and simulations in our group and by others show that this shape is characteristic of a barred galaxy that started out as a pure disc of stars," Gerhard stated.

The second international team was from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. The team was led by a Chilean PhD student Sergio Vásquez. This team compared various images taken by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope eleven years back to figure out the shape of the galactic bulge. The team noted minute alterations due to the motions of the bulge stars across the sky. These observations were merged with the measurements of the motions of the same stars heading towards or away from Earth in order to outline the motions of above 40 stars in three dimensions.

"This is the first time that a large number of velocities in three dimensions for individual stars from both sides of the bulge been obtained," Vásquez said.

"The stars we have observed seem to be streaming along the arms of the X-shaped bulge as their orbits take them up and down and out of the plane of the Milky Way. It all fits very well with predictions from state-of-the-art models!" he concluded.

The astronomers assume that billions of years ago, the Milky Way was originally a pure disc of stars that formed a flat bar. The internal part of this flat bar then buckled to create the three-dimensional peanut structure observed by the researchers.

  

Brain Eating Amoeba Found..........

The brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri has officially been found in the St. Bernard Parish, La. water supply following last week's death of 4-year-old who got the lethal infection when playing on a slip 'n slide.

"The water is safe to drink and there are basic precautions that families can take -- such as chlorinating their pools and avoiding getting water in their noses -- to protect themselves, though infection from this amoeba is very rare," Louisiana state health officer Jimmy Guidry said in a press release.

St. Bernard Parish is five miles from New Orleans.

CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans reported last week the deceased child was from Mississippi and was visiting the area when he ingested the amoeba through his nose. Nasal ingestion is the only way the resulting infection, primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), can be caused.

"They feel it was contracted in the with the slip 'n slide being out in the mud and the water for over a 12 or 14-hour period, in very hot conditions," St. Bernard Parish president David Peralta told WWL last Friday. At the time, he said the amoeba had only been found in a water tank in the toilet inside the home, and none was found in the parish's water supply.

That no longer appears to be the case, following additional testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC has now found the amoeba in four sites in the Violet and Arabi areas. These samples were taken from fire hydrants and faucets connected directly to water lines, the health department said.

The parish had started chlorinating its water supply last week following the child's death, and officials said those efforts will continue given the latest testing.

"We know that chlorine kills Naegleria fowleri, which is why it was critical that the parish proactively began flushing its water system with additional chlorine last week," said assistant secretary for public health J.T. Lane. "The parish will continue this action until it raises chlorine residuals to recommended levels, and this process will continue for several weeks."

Some water samples tested last week had showed low levels of chlorine.

The St. Bernard Parish school system said Thursday that it 'cut off water' to public school fountains, WWL reported.

The Naegleria fowleri amoeba is found in warm, fresh waters such as lakes, streams and canals that are up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit in temperature. It has to swim up the nose through the brain to cause PAM, so drinking water likely won't present a health risk.

The infection is very rare: Of the 128 infections that occurred in the U.S. from 1962 and 2012, there was only one documented case of survival.

Earlier this week, Ark. 12-year-old Kali Hardig left the hospital after surviving the amebic infection she contracted at a now-shuttered water park over lake with a sandy bottom. The amoebas can sometimes be stirred up when the sediment at the bottom of these freshwaters is disturbed.

Kali's survival was helped by experimental German drug miltefosine, which the CDC expanded access to in late August.

A 12-year-old Fla. boy who contracted the amoeba last month and was treated with the drug was taken off of life support at the end of the month when his brain activity did not return.

La. health officials want parish residents to take precautions to reduce their risk of ingesting the amoeba though the nose:

• Don't allow water to go up your nose or sniff water into your nose when bathing, showering, washing your face or swimming in small hard plastic or blow-up pools.
• Don't jump into or put your head under bathing water. Instead, walk or lower yourself in.
• Don't let kids play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers, which may accidentally squirt water up their nose. Avoid slip-n-slides and activities where it is difficult to prevent water from going up the nose.
• Run baths, shower taps and hoses for five minutes before use to flush out the pipes. This advice is most important the first time you use the tap after the water utility raises the disinfectant levels.
• Keep small pools clean by emptying, scrubbing and allowing them to dry after each use.
• Use only boiled and cooled, distilled, or sterile water for making sinus rinse solutions for Neti pots or performing ritual ablutions. In 2011, the amoeba was linked to deaths of two Louisiana residents who used contaminated water in neti pots.
• Keep your swimming pool adequately disinfected before and during use, mainting proper pH and chlorine levels.

Stem cell miracle.....

Real stem cell progress — Scientists have turned back the hands of time in cells within a living creature.
Researchers in Spain used a technique created seven years ago to force mature cells in mice to revert to an original form of stem cell with the potential to change into any type of living tissue. Previously, scientists were only been able to achieve this change in a petri dish.
The newest experiment, outlined in the journal Nature, may one day let doctors work entirely inside the body to regenerate tissue and, perhaps, more complex organs, said George Daley, director of stem cell transplantation at Boston Children’s Hospital. This could include reconnecting a severed spinal cord or generating healthy heart cells

Darwin's Dilemma Resolved..........

When creationists argue against evolution, they'll often mention "Darwin's Dilemma," the head-scratching paleontological reality that the fossil record appears to have begun all at once, about half a billion years ago. The "Cambrian explosion," as it's called, refers to the rapid appearance of most modern animal groups between 540 and 520 million years ago, during the Cambrian Era.

                                       When writing his "Origin of Species," Charles Darwin admitted that he couldn't explain why the fossil record began so abruptly. "The several difficulties here discussed, namely ... the sudden manner in which several whole groups of species first appear in our European formations;—the almost entire absence, as at present known, of formations rich in fossils beneath the Cambrian strata,—are all undoubtedly of the most serious nature." While acknowledging that these constituted serious holes in his theory, he trusted that later scientists would resolve them.

One group of scientists now say they've solved a big chunk of the puzzle: they've made the first-ever estimates of the rates of evolution during the Cambrian explosion – and it wasn't as fast as it sounds. While the word "explosion" implies a split-second transformation, evolution in the Cambrian was only 4 to 5 times faster than in later years, they say. That's like the difference between flying in a puddle-jumper versus a commercial jet. It's faster, to be sure, but it's not the difference between walking and the speed of light.

"Quite rapid," says lead author Michael Lee, "but perfectly consistent with Darwin's theory of evolution."

NASA launches Robotic Explorer

 NASA's newest robotic explorer rocketed into space late Friday in an unprecedented moonshot from Virginia that dazzled sky watchers along the East Coast.

But the LADEE spacecraft quickly ran into equipment trouble, and while NASA assured everyone early Saturday that the lunar probe was safe and on a perfect track for the moon, officials acknowledged the problem needs to be resolved in the next two to three weeks.

S. Peter Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California, which developed the spacecraft, told reporters he's confident everything will be working properly in the next few days.

LADEE's reaction wheels were turned on to orient and stabilize the spacecraft, which was spinning too fast after it separated from the final rocket stage, Worden said. But the computer automatically shut the wheels down, apparently because of excess current. He speculated the wheels may have been running a little fast.

Worden stressed there is no rush to "get these bugs ironed out."

The LADEE spacecraft, which is charged with studying the lunar atmosphere and dust, soared aboard an unmanned Minotaur rocket a little before midnight from Virginia's Eastern Shore.

"Godspeed on your journey to the moon, LADEE," Launch Control said. Flight controllers applauded and exchanged high-fives following the successful launch. "We are headed to the moon!" NASA said in a tweet.

It was a change of venue for NASA, which normally launches moon missions from Cape Canaveral, Fla. But it provided a rare light show along the East Coast for those blessed with clear skies.

NASA urged sky watchers to share their launch pictures through the Web site Flickr, and the photos and sighting reports quickly poured in from New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New Jersey, Rhode Island, eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia, among other places.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer or LADEE, pronounced "LA'-dee," is taking a roundabout path to the moon, making three huge laps around Earth before getting close enough to pop into lunar orbit.

Unlike the quick three-day Apollo flights to the moon, LADEE will need a full month to reach Earth's closest neighbor. An Air Force Minotaur V rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., provided the ride from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

LADEE, which is the size of a small car, is expected to reach the moon on Oct. 6.

Scientists want to learn the composition of the moon's ever-so-delicate atmosphere and how it might change over time. Another puzzle, dating back decades, is whether dust actually levitates from the lunar surface.

'Ferrari of space' set to fall to Earth

 A science satellite dubbed the "Ferrari of space" for its sleek, finned looks will shortly run out of fuel and fall to Earth after a successful mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) says.

Launched in 2009, the satellite -- a hi-tech craft designed to monitor gravity and ocean circulation -- is likely to break up in mid-October, its mission manager told AFP on Wednesday.

The Gravity Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) orbits at an extremely low altitude of just 260 kilometres (160 miles), where there are lingering molecules of atmosphere.

To reduce drag, it has an arrow-like octagonal shape and two fins to provide extra aerodynamic stability, a departure from the box-like form of satellites that operate in the complete vacuum of space.

It stays aloft thanks to an ion engine that began with a stock of 41 kilos (90.2 pounds) of fuel and is now down to about two kilos (4.4 pounds), Rune Floberghagen said from an ESA symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"We are facing the situation where the electrical propulsion system which keeps the spacecraft flying at this extremely low altitude will stop working somewhere between the end of September and the beginning of November -- the best engineering prediction is in the middle, somewhere in the 16th or 17th October," he said.

Most of the 5.3-metre (17.2-foot) spacecraft will break up and burn when it tumbles to an altitude of 75 to 80 kilometres, he said.

According to re-entry analysis, about 250 kilos of its one-tonne mass will survive, hitting the surface in a trail of "between 40 and 50 fragments" extending over 900 kilometres, he said.

It was impossible right now to say where the trail would be, as the re-entry is uncontrolled, Floberghagen said.

He explained that it was only in 2008, after GOCE was designed and built, that an international agreement required research satellites to have propulsion enabling a targeted re-entry that leads to a breakup over the ocean, thus reducing the risk of impacting inhabited areas.

"It is much less than other (uncontrolled) re-entries, it is a very small aircraft in fact. We should put this into perspective and not over-dramatise what is happening here," he said, adding that ESA was advising national authorities on the upcoming event.

Floberghagen said the fuel was supposed to last 20 months.

But the mission has been hugely helped by extremely low solar activity, which also reduces the density of air molecules at this height.

As a result, the 350-million-euro ($465-million) mission, after teething problems, has lasted twice has long as scheduled.

"Everyone is extremely happy with this mission, both in our ability to monitor Earth's gravity field, and also the spinoff achievements, our ability to understand and use the payload onboard," said Floberghagen.

"The science achievements have been rather remarkable and we have demonstrated a lot of new technologies," he said.

Life found beneath ice-covered Antarctic lake

Researchers have found signs of life in mud pulled from the bottom of an ice-covered lake in Antarctica.

Studying microbes in such extreme and closed-off environments could help scientists understand how life may thrive in the harshest places on Earth and potentially other planets.

Scientists with the British Antarctic Survey and other institutions drilled through the ice sheet to dig up clean sediment samples from the bottom of Lake Hodgson, which is on the Antarctic Peninsula and 305 feet deep.

'It's the first time any subglacial lake sediment has been studied.'

- Author David Pearce, who is now at the University of Northumbria

Today the lake has a thin covering of just 10 to 13 feet of ice, but thousands of years ago, it was entombed under more than 1,600 feet of ice. The sediments the scientists studied were deposited when the lake was sealed under the thick ice.

"It's the first time any subglacial lake sediment has been studied," study author David Pearce, who is now at the University of Northumbria, told LiveScience. And in that sediment sample, researchers found a time capsule of life, dating back nearly a hundred thousand years.

In the journal Diversity, Pearce and his colleagues reported that they grew 20 cultures of microbes found in the uppermost layer of the sediment core, proving that there are viable extremophiles, or life that thrives in extreme environments, currently living in Lake Hodgson. They also found fossilized fragments of DNA from many different types of microbes that seem to have adapted to Antarctica's extremes over the eons. [Gallery: Finding Life in a Buried Antarctic Lake]

Understanding how microbes and other forms of life are thriving in the cold, dark, isolated and nutrient-poor places under the frozen continent's thick ice could help researchers learn about the origins of life on Earth and the possibilities of life on other worlds, such as Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Several teams are racing to obtain pristine samples from Antarctica's nearly 380 subglacial lakes.

Scientists recently found indications that bacteria live in Lake Whillans, which is buried 2,625 feet below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Russian scientists are currently analyzing water samples collected in early 2013 from Lake Vostok, which is buried under more than 2 miles of Antarctic ice and had not been touched for some 14 million years.

"What would actually be surprising would be if we looked in these places and they were completely sterile," Pearce told LiveScience.

But the diversity of the life forms in Lake Hodgson was still surprising.

Nearly a quarter of the genetic sequences identified in the study did not match with any known sequence, the researchers reported, suggesting a diversity of never-before-seen life forms may lurk beneath Antarctic lakes.

Further investigation is needed, but the researchers say many of the species in this isolated ecosystem are likely to be new to science.

With continued research, Pearce said, "We can start to build a picture of what limits life in extreme conditions and then start thinking about what might limit life on other planet.

Bomb detecting laser to make security checks more practical and quick

 A Michigan State University (MSU) researcher has developed a laser that can detect micro traces of explosive chemicals on clothing and luggage, making the process quicker and more practical. 

Marcos Dantus, an MSU chemistry professor and founder of BioPhotonic Solutions, published his new research in the current issue of Applied Physics Letters, which has put the possibility of bomb-detecting lasers at security checkpoints within reach. 

Dantus said this method uses a single beam and requires no bulky spectrometers making it possible to scan many people and their belongings quickly. 

He further added that the laser not only detects the explosive material, but it also provides an image of the chemical’s exact location, even if it’s merely a minute trace on a zipper. 

This laser would more likely be in a conveyor belt, like the X-ray scanners already used for airport security. 

The low-energy laser is safe to use on luggage as well as passengers, he added. 

Dantus’ bomb-detecting laser works as a single beam, but uses two pulses. The first resonates with certain chemical frequencies found in explosives. The second, a shadow pulse, serves as a reference. 

A discrepancy between the two pulses indicates the presence of explosive materials. 

Dantus said the laser is not affected by the color or surface of clothes or luggage. 

The method has Raman chemical specificity, excellent sensitivity and robust performance on virtually all surfaces, he added. 

Largest Volcano discovered under Pacific.....

A team writing in the journal Nature Geoscience says the 310,000 sq km (119,000 sq mi) Tamu Massif is comparable in size to Mars' vast Olympus Mons volcano - the largest in the Solar System.

The structure topples the previous largest on Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

The massif lies some 2km below the sea.

It is located on an underwater plateau known as the Shatsky Rise, about 1,600km east of Japan.

It was formed about 145 million years ago when massive lava flows erupted from the centre of the volcano to form a broad, shield-like feature.

The researchers doubted the submerged volcano's peak ever rose above sea level during its lifetime and say it is unlikely to erupt again.

"The bottom line is that we think that Tamu Massif was built in a short (geologically speaking) time of one to several million years and it has been extinct since," co-author William Sager, from the University of Houston, US, told the AFP news agency.

"One interesting angle is that there were lots of oceanic plateaus (that) erupted during the Cretaceous Period (145-65 million years ago) but we don't see them since. Scientists would like to know why."

Prof Sager began studying the structure two decades ago, but it had been unclear whether the massif was one single volcano or many - a kind that exists in dozens of locations around the planet.

While Olympus Mons on Mars has relatively shallow roots, the Tamu Massif extends some 30 km (18 miles) into the Earth's crust.

And other volcanic behemoths could be lurking among the dozen or so large oceanic plateaux around the world, he thought.

"We don't have the data to see inside them and know their structure, but it would not surprise me to find out that there are more like Tamu out there," said Dr Sager.

"Indeed, the biggest oceanic plateau is Ontong Java plateau, near the equator in the Pacific, east of the Solomon Islands. It is much bigger than Tamu - it's the size of France."

The name Tamu comes from Texas A&M University, where Prof Sager previously taught before moving to the University of Houston.

Sixth Sense in Human Brain Mapped by Scientists

We may just have a sixth sense. No, it's not the ability to see dead people, but it does relate to the ability to work with numbers. Scientists have discovered that numerosity is associated with the part of the brain that is organized topographically, putting it on the same level as the other five primary sense of sight, hearing, touch smell and taste.
                      Scientists have suspected before that numerosity might be characterized by a topographical map. Until now, though, they haven't been able to find where it exists in the brain. Now scientists have sussed out the signals that reveal that the numerosity map is, in fact, real.

Numerosity is distinct from symbolic numbers. While we use symbolic numbers to represent numerosity and other aspects of magnitude, it's still only a representation. Instead, numerosity is derived from visual processing of image features.

In order to better understand what controls the brain's processing of numerosity, the researchers conducted a study on eight adults. They asked the participants to look at patterns of dots that varied in number over time, all the while analyzing the neural response properties in a numerosity-linked part of the brain used high-field fMRI. This allowed the scientists to scan the subjects for far fewer hours per sitting than with less powerful scanning technology.

The researchers then incorporated the data into a model, which aimed to measure neural response as directly and quantitatively as possible. This allowed them to model the human fMRI response properties that they observed. In the end, they saw a topographical layout of numerosity in the human brain. The small quantities of dots that the participants observed were encoded by neurons in one part of the brain, and the larger quantities, in another.

Atlast a way to cure the Parkinson's............

A recent study looks at detailed images and measurements regarding the morphing structure of a brain protein that could play an important role in aiding the development of new treatments for Parkinson's disease
                                  The protein, known as alpha synuclein, has the power to morlph into a harmful structure that creates amyloid fibrils. These structures are linked to protein molecules that can form neurodegenerative diseases in the brain and cause inflammation. 

"The abnormal protein formation characterizes a considerable number of human diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases and type II diabetes," Lia Stanciu said, via a press release, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue University.

Until now, the transition from globular to fibrils had not been captured and measured.

In order to create this, researchers used the protein to transform into fibrils by exposing them to copper and mimicking what typically happens when people are exposed to heavy metals, which creates an oxidation state of ions in the structure. 

They then incubated the protein in a labortory over a 24-hour-period and used an electron microscope to capture data of its changing shape. The protein was frozen during specific time intervals with liquid nitrogen. 

This protein morphs into "protofibril" strands that often assemble into pore-like rings that can assemble into fibrils via hydrogen bonds, according to background information from the study. 

"We found a correlation between protofibrils in these rings and the fibrils, for the first time to our knowledge, by measuring their true sizes and visualizing the aggregation steps," Stanciu said, via the release. "A better understanding of the mechanism yields fresh insight into the pathogenesis of amyloid-related diseases and may provide us the opportunity to develop additional therapeutic strategies."

More information regarding the study can be found via the Biophysical Journal.

Parkinson's disease is a prorgressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement. As it develops gradually, symptoms worsen over time causing stiffness, slowness of movement, tremors and uncontrolled motion, according to the Mayo Clinic.

How soot killed the Little Ice Age

Rising air pollution in the wake of the Industrial Revolution seems to be the explanation for a long-standing enigma in glaciology. The emission of soot from Europe’s proliferating factory smokestacks and steam locomotives explains why glaciers in the Alps began their retreat long before the climate warming caused by human activities kicked in, a study suggests.

The 4,000 or so large and small Alpine glaciers — which today are acutely threatened by rising air temperatures — did well throughout the relatively cool 500-year period known as the Little Ice Age, which began around the end of the thirteenth century. At its maximum in the middle of the nineteenth century, the extent and volume of Alpine glaciers was at least twice what it is now.

   But then these glaciers suddenly began to retreat. Other regions of the world may also have been affected — the decline was only well documented in the Alps — and, conventionally, climate scientists consider the Little Ice Age to have ended soon after 1850.

However, despite the glaciers' shrinking, average global temperatures did not rise significantly until the end of the century. In fact, Alpine climate records — among the most abundant and reliable in the world — suggest that glaciers should have continued to grow for more than a half century, until around 1910.

“Something gnawed on the glaciers that climate records don’t capture,” says Georg Kaser, a glaciologist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and a member of the team that built the case against black carbon, or soot, this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹. “A strong decline in winter snowfall was often assumed to be the culprit,” he says. “But from all that we know, no such decline occurred.”

Scientists find a water rich planet out side solar system

Japanese scientists have determined that a planet outside our solar system that most likely has a water-rich atmosphere. The planet, Gliese 1214b, is only 40 light years from Earth.

Discovered in 2009, Gliese 1214b is what’s known as a “super-Earth” – bigger than Earth but smaller than a gas giant. In this case, it’s about 2.7 times bigger than Earth.

Based on the original research after the discovery of Gliese 1214b, scientists were able to determine its mass, radius and density. But what still wasn’t known was the composition of the planet. Given the data, there were two major possibilities: first, that the planet was rocky, with a hydrogen atmosphere. The alternative is that the planet might be an “ocean world” comprised mostly of water.